Theodore F. Payne House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Theodore F. Payne House
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| Location | 1409 Sutter St., San Francisco, California |
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| Built | 1881 |
| Architect | William F. Curlett |
| Architectural style | Stick style / Eastlake; Queen Anne |
| NRHP reference No. | 80000847 |
| Added to NRHP | June 11, 1980 |
The Theodore F. Payne House, also known as the Payne Mansion, is a beautiful old house in San Francisco, California. It was built way back in 1881. This house is special because it survived the big 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is designed in a mix of old styles called Victorian, Stick, Eastlake, and Queen Anne. Today, it is used as a hotel and has a restaurant inside.
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What Makes the Payne House Special?
The Payne House was designed by an architect named William Curlett and his brother-in-law, Theodore Eisen. They mixed several Victorian styles to create its unique look. It is one of the last big houses from that time period left on Sutter Street. It is also one of the few fancy homes that survived the 1906 earthquake and the fires that followed.
When it was built, the house had many modern features. It had heating, hot and cold running water, and indoor toilets. It also featured many bay windows, which are windows that stick out from the house. There was even a cool, round tower on top. Inside, you could find beautiful Tiffany stained-glass windows.
Who Built and Lived in the House?
The mansion was built for Theodore Fryatt Payne and his wife, Mary Pauline O'Brien. Theodore's father became rich during the California Gold Rush. Theodore himself made a lot of money making nuts and bolts. Mary inherited a large fortune from her uncle, William S. O'Brien. He had made his money from silver mines in a place called the Comstock Lode.
Building the house was quite expensive for its time. In 1882, it was expected to cost about $16,500. The land and the building contract were both in Mary Payne's name.
A House with Many Lives
After the 1906 earthquake, the Payne family moved out of San Francisco. They built a new house in Menlo Park. Theodore Payne passed away in 1907. His wife sold the San Francisco house around 1909.
Over the years, the house had many different owners and uses. It was owned by Edgar and Ida Anderson. By 1933, it became a Japanese YMCA, which is a community center. Around 1940, it turned into an antiques store owned by Karl Lengfeld. This store stayed there until the late 1960s. The house also served as the main office for the San Francisco Medical Society and a health center. In the 1990s, people could even rent it for weddings!
Because its outside look had not changed much, the house was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. This means it is a very important historical building.
The Payne House Today
In 2011, a couple named Jing Yao and her husband bought the house. They were hotel owners from China. They wanted to turn it into their first hotel in the United States. They planned for it to be a ten-room hotel called Leader House, mainly for Chinese business travelers. They also planned a Chinese restaurant inside.
Even though they got permission in 2013, Leader House and the restaurant never opened. Instead, it became the Payne Mansion Hotel. For a while, it was the most expensive Airbnb rental in San Francisco, costing $10,000 a night to rent the whole building!
In 2018, Bernard Rosenson, another hotel owner, bought the house. Later that year, a new hotel called the Mansion on Sutter opened there. It also has a French restaurant named 1881, named after the year the house was built.
