A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
The antique green facade and rooftop garden of 15-17 Macondray Lane seem lifted from the pages of Arimstead Maupin’s “Tales of the City.” Perfectly preserved, this property is over a century old and captures the timeless romance of San Francisco. It’s the perfect house for an artist; in fact, it always has been home and inspiration to creative (not to mention famous) people. Now, after more than 40 years in the hands of one artistic family, this historic duplex is on the market, asking $1.9 million.
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
The 1,376-square-foot building is nestled on Russian Hill, with views that sweep over North Beach, Telegraph Hill and San Francisco Bay. A true duplex, the property offers two homes: 15 Macondray, on the lower floor, is a one-bedroom, one-bathroom that opens to the backyard; on the upper level, 17 Macondray features two bedrooms, one bathroom and a deck, as well as access to the rooftop garden. Tucked near the back of the building is a studio space that has most recently served as a darkroom.
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Given the nostalgic charm of the home, listing agent Rena Provencio didn’t want to stage it. “The second I walked into this house for my listing interview, I could feel the history,” she said in a phone interview. “I told my future clients that if I had the listing, I would keep it as it was. Before I even knew how magical this property was, I could feel magic coming through the walls. I wanted to preserve that legacy to let that magic speak.”
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
Provencio’s instincts proved right, as the history of 15-17 Macondray is indeed magical. The duplex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the Macondray Lane Historic District itself. This neighborhood has always been a special place, a quiet, lush Shangri-La tucked up on bustling Russian Hill. A 1987 report prepared by the United States Department of the Interior describes the Macondray Lane District poetically as a “woodsy enclave on the steep North slope of Russian Hill, surrounded by the dense and treeless urban fabric of San Francisco.” Among the “densley packed” buildings here, where space between them is “mostly an illusion created by differences in elevation,” only four buildings survived the earthquake and fire of 1906, according to the DOI report.
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Possibly, 15-17 Macondray is among those buildings. “Building records created before 1906 burned in the fire, so it’s hard to be sure,” Provencio said. But certainly, the duplex is well over 100 years old and, according to Provencio’s historical research, most likely dates back to the 1850s.
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
Regardless of when it was built, the property has always attracted creative owners. From 1905 to 1918, the Italian painter Giuseppe Cadenasso owned 15-17 Macondray Lane, living in one unit and using the other as his studio. After the Great Quake, Cadenasso took in California’s first Poet Laureate, Ina Coolbrith (for whom Ina Coolbrith Park in Russian Hill is named), whose home had been destroyed in the subsequent fire.
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Fast-forward to the 1970s, when Armistead Maupin penned his famous novels (later adapted for television) set in San Francisco. “Though 28 Barbary Lane is a fictitious address, it’s based on the real-life Macondray Lane in Russian Hill,” wrote KQED. According to the property’s official listing page, Mrs. Madrigal (Maupin’s fictional grand dame of Barbary Lane) would have lived in the building directly across from 15-17 Macondray “in the visual geography of the series.”
In the 1980s, the house passed to two more artists: novelist Oakley Hall and his wife, professional photographer Barbara Hall (it was Barbara who used the darkroom on the lower backside of the duplex).
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
Oakley Hall was a prolific and influential California writer. His 2008 obituary recounted his achievements: “the author of more than 20 works of fiction and nonfiction, including two books on the art of fiction writing and the libretto for an opera based on Wallace Stegner’s ‘Angle of Repose.’” Oakley Hall also received “lifetime achievement awards from the PEN Center USA and the Cowboy Hall of Fame” and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the novel “Warlock.”
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He was also known for his contributions to and mentoring of other writers. The University of California wrote that “Oakley Hall directed the Programs In Writing at the University of California at Irvine for over 20 years.” There, he mentored writers such as Richard Ford, Kem Nunn, Whitney Otto, James Brown and Michael Chabon.
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
In the late 1960s, Oakley and Barbara Hall co-founded the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, a summer writers’ conference that Amy Tan credits as one of the shaping forces of her career. Barbara was the official photographer for the Community of Writers and shot portraits of participants for many years. After her husband’s death in 2008 and until her own death in 2018, Barbara continued to be active in the community, capturing authors like “Rudolfo Anaya, Olga & Henry Carlisle, Rita Dove, Brenda Hillman, Galway Kinnell, Peter Matthiessen, Michael McCLure, Anne Rice and Al Young,” to quote a memorial tribute published by the Community of Writers on Instagram.
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While the Halls lived at 15-17 Macondray Lane, the home nurtured not just their family of four children but also the careers of their fellow artists. One standout example: former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. Byrne was the Halls’ tenant in No. 15 “for a period in the 1980s,” Rena Provencio said over the phone. “He was living there while he edited the film ‘True Stories,’ which became part of the Criterion Collection.”
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
After hearing the (incredible but true!) stories of this home recounted by her clients — Oakley and Barbara’s four adult children: Brett Hall Jones, Louis B. Jones, Sands Hall, and Tracy Hall — Provencio decided to treat the home as an artists’ showcase. She made good on her promise not to stage the property, instead leaving it largely as the Halls had envisioned it. The paintings on the walls were painted by Oakley. The photos were Barbara’s.
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Provencio also decided to treat the open house like an art show, choosing to host it on a Friday night, hiring a caterer and even commissioning a saxophonist to serenade the neighborhood from the rooftop garden. “This is not an everyday property,” Provencio said. “I wanted to celebrate the artistic spirit that has always lived here.”
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17 Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M — and quickly went pending.
Courtesy of Greg Divjak
The Hall family also hosted a private goodbye party for the home, a literary salon that would honor Barbara and Oakley’s legacy. In attendance were such luminaries as San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik, Amy Tan and Michael Chabon, “telling stories and paying tribute” to the Halls and their historic home. “It was pretty incredible,” Provencio said.
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This historic property hit the market on March 17, 2026. And — just like magic — it went pending 10 days later.