Here's the Smallest House on the Smallest Lot in San Francisco

This 830-square-foot cottage sits on a 644-square-foot lot, and it takes up 100 percent of the space. According to listing agent Heather Stoltz, that makes it the smallest single-family house on the smallest lot in San Francisco. It was built in 1910 and belonged to Adolph Sutro, the one-time mayor of SF who used the fortune he found in a silver mine to develop the area around the cottage—including the Cliff House, Sutro Baths, and Sutro Heights Park. Today, he would likely be surprised by the $599,000 asking price.

Sutro owned this cottage and the two that are right in front of it (you access the home by a long cobblestone path that runs beside the cottages, and that's where you get the best views). What he used the trio of homes for has been lost to time, but Stoltz speculates they could have been occupied by groundskeepers for the nearby Sutro Heights Park. (Sutro designed the area as an eye-popping public garden studded with sculptures, elaborate flower beds, a hedge maze, and a platform designed to take in views of the Pacific Ocean, and the Cliff House.)

The two-story cottage has the original floors and some period detailing downstairs, but the rest is simple, clean, and modern. Like many older homes, it has some quirks (we are thinking of the wall oven at the end of the kitchen countertop), but it more than makes up for them in charm. There are two bedrooms and one bath. As we mentioned, it takes up the entirety of it's lot, but the sweet entry porch provides fresh air access.

"It has a storybook quality," says Stoltz. "I do expect there will be a lot of interest in it, as there's a large, pent-up market for homes in this price point."

· 554 46th Ave. [Official Site]
· Adolph Sutro [National Park Service]
· Sutro Heights [Official Site]