Live Like Royalty in a Ballroom Apartment for $3,590/Month

There's a little bit of Versailles hiding in a apartment located in the Spanish Craftsman-style building at 96 Delmar St. near Buena Vista Park. The unit contains a ballroom that was built as an event space more than 100 years ago. Today, it's an apartment that is surely unlike any other in the Bay Area. Could there be another rental that offers a large room with French Romanesque Beaux Arts plasterwork, a coffered ceiling, a chandelier, and an elevated corner fireplace? Holy shades of Cinderella.

Here's the thing: At first, just like Cinderella before the ball, it's a princess masquerading as something else all together. As the listing says, you enter from a "discreet, private street entrance" on "steep, narrow Delmar Street." From the front door, it seems as if you are going into a regular apartment. But you aren't.
It appears to be a four-room apartment that's described as "pleasant enough before the big surprise." There's an entry, a dining room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and what is called (oddly) a "carpeted sleeping alcove." The picture of that feature could be mistaken for a closet.

But down the hall, you descend polished stairs into the star: the highly ornamented ballroom. Before you start thinking of the event opportunities, check yourself. The listing says: "Though it would be tempting to use it for all kinds of specialty purposes, experience (as well as city/county zoning regs and neighborhood respect) has shown we need to limit it to strictly residential use only."

When she was living in service to her stepmother, the Disney Cinderella had mice and birds to keep her company. In these digs, you can have a cat. Laundry is in the building, parking is on the street.

This place becomes available November 15. Put a slipper on it, because we don't expect it to be unoccupied long.

· 69 Delmar St. [Craigslist]