Ansel Adams, a longtime San Francisco resident, hit the market yesterday for $5.45 million.
The original four-bedroom residence is located in the West Clay Park neighborhood, a small area of the city nestled between Lake Street and the Presidio of San Francisco park.
The home was built in 1902 as an arts and crafts chalet-style home on what was then remote sand dunes on the outskirts of the city, and it was eventually transformed into its current form when the 'grand salon annex' was built in 1929 under the direction of Adams and his wife Virginia, who would call it home until 1957, according to a listing with Joseph Lucier and Stacey Caen of Sotheby's International Realty - San Francisco Brokerage.
Adams, who died in 1984, was a pioneer in his early photographic work as a member of the Sierra Club and later worked with the U.S. Department of the Interior to document national parks. The photos often sell for tens of thousands of dollars at auction, with a mural-sized image of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming setting a record for the photographer in 2020 at nearly $1 million.
Caen said she was enraged by the situation and said she was not able to continue working with the government. She added: As will its coveted location.
Front stairs, made of repurposed San Francisco sidewalk curbs, lead up to the home, which is entered through a quaint vestibule into a skylit foyer, the listing said.
The original home is located in the northern section of the residence, with a dining room with a wood-burning fireplace and views of the Golden Gate Bridge; a kitchen with a seating area with built-in bookshelves on one end and a glass atrium dining area overlooking the garden on the other; three bedrooms with views out over the neighborhood, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge; and a terrace.
The second owners added the glass atrium, but the overall layout remains'very close to what it looked like when Ansel owned the home,' Caen said.
The property's newer, light-filled grand salon, situated on the south side of the property, boasts a towering vaulted ceiling, walls of windows, a fireplace, and hardwood floors. The property also has a loft-like art studio with a sitting room as well as the primary bedroom suite.
The home, in the same family, had been in the same family for at least the last 20 years, according to records with PropertyShark. It's not clear how much the company has been acquired for, or how long it has been in operation.