Theodore F. Payne House

This article is about the house in San Francisco. For the Payne Mansion in New York State, see Col. Oliver Hazard Payne Estate. For other uses, see Payne House.
Theodore F. Payne House
Theodore F. Payne House is located in San Francisco County
Theodore F. Payne House
Theodore F. Payne House is located in California
Theodore F. Payne House
Location1409 Sutter St., San Francisco, California
Coordinates37°47′14″N 122°25′26″W / 37.78722°N 122.42389°W / 37.78722; -122.42389
Built1881
ArchitectWilliam F. Curlett
Architectural styleStick style / Eastlake; Queen Anne
NRHP reference No.80000847
Added to NRHPJune 11, 1980

The Theodore F. Payne House, also known as the Payne Mansion, is a Victorian house in the Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. Built in 1881 and designed by William Curlett in a mix of Stick, Eastlake, and Queen Anne styles, it survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has been adapted to house a hotel and a restaurant.

House

The Theodore Payne House was designed by William Curlett and his brother-in-law Theodore Eisen[1][2] in a blended Victorian style, with Stick, Eastlake, and Queen Anne elements.[3] It is the last of several mansions along its section of Sutter Street, and one of the few surviving upper-class houses from before the 1906 earthquake and the ensuing fire.[3] It was built with modern conveniences including heating, hot and cold running water, and indoor toilets,[1][3][4] and had a porte cochère (now removed), many bay windows, and an open octagonal candle-snuffer turret.[1][2] The interiors include Tiffany stained-glass windows.[5]

History

The mansion was built in 1881 for Theodore Fryatt Payne, whose father, also called Theodore Payne, had become wealthy in the Gold Rush and who made his own fortune manufacturing nuts and bolts, and his wife Mary Pauline O'Brien, who inherited the largest share of her uncle William S. O'Brien's silver fortune from the Comstock Lode.[1][3][4][6] A March 1882 article in a builders' magazine projected the cost of construction at $16,500; both the lot and the building contract were in Mrs. Payne's name.[1]

The Paynes moved out of the city after the 1906 earthquake to Menlo Park, where they had a house built out of reinforced concrete;[7] Theodore Payne died in 1907 and his widow sold the San Francisco house in approximately 1909, after which it was owned by Edgar and Ida Anderson and by 1933 had become a Japanese YMCA.[1] In about 1940 it became Karl Lengfeld's antiques store, a use that continued into the late 1960s and involved some alterations to the interior.[1] It has also been the headquarters of the San Francisco Medical Society[1] and an alcoholism treatment center;[4] in the 1990s it was available for rent as a wedding venue.[8][9] Its exterior having been little altered, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[4]

In 2011 it was purchased by Jing Yao and her husband, Chinese hotel entrepreneurs who converted it into their first venture in the United States, a ten-room hotel oriented toward Chinese business travelers called Leader House.[4][5] Leader House and a Chinese restaurant on two floors within the building received the necessary city permissions in late 2013 but never opened;[4] instead it was operated as the Payne Mansion Hotel, the most expensive Airbnb rental in San Francisco at $10,000 a night for the entire building.[10][11][12] It was bought in 2018 by Bernard Rosenson, a Southern California hotelier, and late that year the Mansion on Sutter hotel opened there, with a French restaurant named 1881.[11][12][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Bridget Maley (December 2, 2015). "Grand in a very Victorian way". The New Fillmore.
  2. ^ a b David Gebhard; Eric Sandweiss; Robert Winter (1985) [1973]. The Guide to Architecture in San Francisco and Northern California. Salt Lake City, Utah: Peregrine Smith. p. 84. ISBN 9780879052027. The authors give the date of completion as 1882.
  3. ^ a b c d "National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco: Theodore F. Payne Residence". Noe Hill.com (based on the NRHP nomination).
  4. ^ a b c d e f Adam Weintraub (May 8, 2014). "Historic Payne Mansion in S.F. on market for $13.9 million — twice price sought in 2011". San Francisco Business Times (Real Estate Inc. blog).
  5. ^ a b Paolo Lucchesi (October 17, 2013) [October 16, 2013]. "Luxurious Chinese restaurant in the works". San Francisco Chronicle.
  6. ^ Adam Brinklow (June 29, 2017). "Landmark Payne Mansion seeking buyer again without asking price". Curbed SF.
  7. ^ Margaret Feuer (March 14, 2014). "Payne Douglass Mansion, Part I — circa 1909–14". Past – via Palo Alto Stanford Heritage.
  8. ^ Alex Bevk (November 6, 2013). "The Payne Mansion at 1409 Sutter Wants to Go Tourist Hotel". Curbed SF.
  9. ^ Reena Jana (1999). Where to Get Married: San Francisco Bay Area: A Photographic Guide to the 100 Best Sites. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 15. ISBN 9780811820790.
  10. ^ Melia Robinson (October 28, 2017). "The most expensive Airbnb in San Francisco is this 10-bedroom Victorian mansion that costs $10,000 a night". Business Insider (Tech Insider blog).
  11. ^ a b Justin Phillips (April 18, 2018). "San Francisco's historic Payne Mansion to become hotel and restaurant". San Francisco Chronicle.
  12. ^ a b Justin Phillips (September 2, 2018). "SF's most expensive Airbnb listing is becoming a hotel and French restaurant". San Francisco Chronicle.
  13. ^ Caleb Pershan (December 3, 2018). "Historic Victorian Mansion Reopens as Striking Hotel and Restaurant". SF Eater.