Spreckels mansion

You are standing before one of the most recognizable private residences in San Francisco, a grand French Baroque chateau built between nineteen twelve and nineteen thirteen for sugar magnate Adolph Spreckels and his wife, Alma. To secure the sweeping, unobstructed views of the San Francisco Bay that he desired, Adolph purchased several adjacent lots in this elevated neighborhood. At Alma’s firm insistence, the eight Victorian-style houses standing on those properties were not demolished, but instead carefully disassembled, moved, and reconstructed elsewhere in the city.