With a gothic presence we’d expect from a converted church, 220 Danvers St. in San Francisco’s Eureka Valley is for sale for $4.7 million.
The historic and rather famous property is perched on a corner lot, with history dating back to 1906, when it was designed in the Arts and Crafts style to serve as a Mormon church. In the 1940s, the floor plan was considerably expanded to include an additional two stories in the back of the original structure. This new addition included a cafeteria, which was later converted into the kitchen of the residential home, while the church kitchen was converted into a bedroom in the current residence.
Eventually, the church sold to Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco’s first gay and lesbian synagogue. In the mid-1990s, Sha’ar Zahav outgrew the building and moved to Dolores Street. At that point, 220 Danvers was purchased for the purpose of conversion to a residential home.
The building caught the attention of PBS’ “This Old House,” and in 1997, the TV show visited and remodeled the home, marveling at the unorthodox architecture of the formerly holy structure. “Details like a rolling ladder and commercial hardware in the kitchen or the marble walls in the bath salvaged from the Chevron Building really threw them,” according to CurbedSF.
Once it became a private home, 220 Danvers continued to enjoy celebrity. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom, 3,713-square-foot abode, with its dramatic two-story tower entry, exposed trusses, multiple fireplaces, gourmet kitchen and vintage fixtures, was then featured on HGTV’s “You Live in What?”
The home’s interiors have also provided the setting for several website and catalog shoots, including Pottery Barn.
One of the most church-like remaining features of the home are the ceiling heights, soaring toward the heavens. The office, kitchen and main level ceilings are all over 13 feet high, while in the primary bedroom, they’re over 15 feet high. Most impressively, the great room has ceilings over 21 feet high.
The home’s sellers, Joe Marko and Rafael Acevedo, are both real estate agents with Compass. According to Marko, their purchase of the former church seemed fated. “I saw the home on the TV show ‘This Old House’ when it originally aired and thought ‘if only,’” Marko said. “In 2007, while driving, I noticed an estate sale sign was outside the property and couldn’t wait to see the interior. When I realized the home was for sale, I called my partner and told him to get over here right away. Although buying was not something we were entertaining, the opportunity to call a converted church home was too hard to pass up.”
Marko and Acevedo have lived in this unique property since 2007, after purchasing it for $2 million.
