Archive for May, 2009
Featured property: 924 Grove St., Alamo Square
Posted by Bonnie in Uncategorized on May 15th, 2009
Restoring a grand old home is always fraught with difficulties – not the least of which is dealing with all the neighbors, city officials and even perfect strangers who inevitably will weigh in on how the refurbishment should be approached.
But when Alan Sagatelyan and his wife, Maryam Monsef, first set eyes on 924 Grove St. in San Francisco’s Alamo Square neighborhood, one thing was clear: If the facade bore testimony to the embellishments popular with Richardsonian architects at the turn of the century, there wouldn’t be much left to preserve inside the 5,100-square-foot house.
“An elderly lady lived here with six cats and five dogs,” Sagatelyan says, describing the state of the stately home when they discovered it in 2005. “There were a number of illegal apartments, five kitchens, a strange platform stage in one area and lots of staircases. The one thing the interiors lacked completely was architectural details.”