Bernard Maybeck’s Erlanger House in Forest Hill asks $4.25M

From the mind of the man who built the Roos House and the Palace of Fine Arts, Bernard Maybeck, comes this little known treasure atop Forest Hill, the Erlanger House. And if it looks like a home better suited to an English countryside rather than the heart of San Francisco, that’s because it was designed with that in mind, using an English medieval manor, Samlesbury Hall, as a prototype.

According to the architect himself, as noted in Bernard Maybeck: Architect of Elegance:

The house is our attempt to suggest the idea of an English character in California. Although this house would never happen in England, it yet has an English feeling. The lower wing is a chapel form living room greatly used in an early period, the ceiling of this room is very similar to one in Sainesbury Hill Lancashire. The second story windows are of iron like their English prototypes. The building and its setting among the trees loudly proclaims the good taste of Mrs. and Mr. Erlanger from whom the suggestions came.

Featuring four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and 3,620 square feet, 270 Castenada Avenue comes with interiors made up of warm redwood, heavy beams, a grand hall, a castle turret, a huge fireplace, cathedral ceilings rising to 20 feet, and hand-hewn and hand-crafted details galore.

Today the home lands on the market for a cool $4,250,000; it’s listed through Kirk and Peggy Economos of Compass.

Photo courtesy of Compass