Noe Valley firehouse returns to market for $5.7 million

Ring the alarm!

By Brock Keeling@BrockKeeling Mar 16, 2017, 1:42pm PDT

Exterior of historic firehouse turned contemporary home.

The saga of the firehouse 44 conversion is a frustrating one. Let’s go back a bit: In 2008, the former Noe Valley station turned lavish home at 3816 22nd Street landed on the market for $6.3 million. It languished for three years before finding a buyer for $4.05 million.

In 2015, it went up for sale again for $6.898 million but was pulled. Why was it yanked? Because the owners wanted to Airbnb to guests for a hefty $1,500 per night.

Yikes.

Neighbors, frustrated at what amounted to a new boutique hotel opening up in the bucolic neighborhood, reported the property to the city for unlawful short-term rental abuse. So now the property it’s back. And this time it’s asking $5,750,000.

Disruption drama aside, the house holds a lot of rich history. At the turn of the 20th century, it housed horse-drawn fire wagon before getting its first motorized truck (a six-cylinder vehicle with a 35-gallon chemical tank) in 1916.

It was later sold at public auction for less than $15,000 (!) to Mark and Beth Adams, who lived in the large house for 40 years.

Featuring four beds, five baths, and a whopping 6,045 square feet, the two-story home comes replete with newfangled architectural details including a glass atrium with open-tread stairs, a glass catwalk, and even an observation deck with views of Noe Valley and Bernal Hill.