Crafty architects are always trying to cut corners on clients, and architect William C McElroy has done so splendidly with this house. This is among the last examples of a brief San Franciscan vogue for octagonal houses in the 1860s, when some believed that catching direct sunlight from eight angles was healthful. Three afternoons monthly, you can peruse collections of colonial antiques and peek inside a time capsule that McElroy hid under the stairs.
Octagon House
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
3.54 MILES
When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…
2.23 MILES
Was it the fall of 1966 or the winter of ’67? As the Haight saying goes, if you can remember the Summer of Love, you probably weren’t here. The fog was…
1.12 MILES
If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…
1.14 MILES
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
1.67 MILES
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1.22 MILES
If you want to really see San Francisco, head to Coit Tower, a 1933 art deco beaut designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard that sits high up on…
2.92 MILES
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2.63 MILES
Welcome to San Francisco's sunny side, the land of street ball and Mayan-pyramid playgrounds, semiprofessional tanning and taco picnics. Although the…
Nearby The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers attractions
1. Lombard Financial Center Mosaics
0.28 MILES
A couple years ago, blighted trees in front of this bank were cut down and a treasure hidden for almost half a century was revealed: mosaics by California…
0.35 MILES
If these red-velvet parlor walls could talk this 1886 Queen Anne–style Victorian could tell you about earthquakes, booms, busts and untimely deaths. This…
0.37 MILES
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0.44 MILES
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0.44 MILES
'Homeward into the sunset/Still unwearied we go/Till the northern hills are misty/With the amber of afterglow.' Poet George Sterling's poem 'City by the…
0.51 MILES
With a 31.5% grade, the honor of steepest street in San Francisco is shared by Filbert St and 22nd St in the Castro. Filbert is shorter, but wins top…
7. Church of St Mary the Virgin
0.55 MILES
You'd expect to see this rustic Arts and Crafts–style building on the slopes of Tahoe, not Pacific Heights, but this Episcopal church is full of surprises…
0.56 MILES
You’ve seen the eight switchbacks of Lombard St's 900 block in a thousand photographs. The tourist board has dubbed it ‘the world’s crookedest street,’…