A soupçon of San Francisco.
By Colin W. Sargent
If there’s sweet structure in the Forest City that seems to channel the posh dwellings of San Francisco’s Nob Hill, it’s 25 Vaughan Street. John Calvin Stevens designed this pocket mansion in 1896 for Lyman H. Nelson, a writer and publisher of souvenir volumes featuring scenes from cities across the country. Though Stevens’s inspiration predates the San Francisco Earthquake by a decade, the resonance in styles is still seismic. A Nob Hill residence like this will set you back $8M. Here in Portland, it’s yours for $1.275M.
Listing agent Erin Oldham loves this jewel box, and not just because her parents are the sellers! (See our story “Modern Family,” October 2012, on the ‘follow your grandchildren’ real estate trend.) “I love the sun room just because it’s a spot where you can get washed in sunlight throughout the year—a beautiful bright room. You can see the water. I love to read out there,” no matter what the thermometer says.
She loves the Stevens touch, too, because it’s singular among his designs. In fact, JCS took such a fancy to this project that—like a painter returning to touch up a masterwork—he revisited 25 Vaughan “in 1903 and 1906 to add the Arts & Crafts touches,” Oldham says. “He changed the entrance to the second floor, added the wainscoting in the fireplace.”
What he was chasing here, and what he captured, was high style and a sense of adventure. Original plans (see previous page) show a fabulous balustrade that crowned the roof like a tiara.
Other goodies include incredible stonework, pocket doors, stained glass, bay windows, sensuous quarter-sawn oak floors, dreamy artisan tiles, four bedrooms, and three baths. “I’m told the oval room may be the only oval dining room in the West End,” Oldham says. Like a flash from a prism, there’s an exquisite secret garden with patio out back.
The hill may not be so steep, but there’s full-scale Frisco luxury here if you let yourself dream. Taxes are $13,096.85.
0 Comments