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A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n
The antique green facade and rooftop garden of 15-17 Macondray Lane\u00a0seem lifted from the pages of Arimstead <\/a>Maupin<\/a>\u2019s \u201cTales of the City.\u201d Perfectly preserved, this property is over a century old and captures the timeless romance of San Francisco. It\u2019s 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,\u00a0asking $1.9 million<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Given the nostalgic charm of the home, listing agent Rena Provencio didn\u2019t want to stage it. \u201cThe second I walked into this house for my listing interview, I could feel the history,\u201d she said in a phone interview. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n Provencio\u2019s\u00a0instincts 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\u00a0report prepared by the United States Department of the Interior<\/a> describes the Macondray Lane District poetically as a \u201cwoodsy enclave on the steep North slope of Russian Hill, surrounded by the dense and treeless urban fabric of San Francisco.\u201d Among the \u201cdensley packed\u201d buildings here, where space between them is \u201cmostly an illusion created by differences in elevation,\u201d only four buildings survived the earthquake and fire of 1906, according to the DOI report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Possibly, 15-17 Macondray is among those buildings. \u201cBuilding records created before 1906 burned in the fire, so it\u2019s hard to be sure,\u201d Provencio said. But certainly, the duplex is well over 100 years old and, according to Provencio\u2019s historical research, most likely dates back to the 1850s.\u00a0<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n Regardless of when it was built, the property has always attracted creative owners. From 1905 to 1918, the Italian painter Giuseppe Cadenasso<\/a> owned 15-17 Macondray Lane,\u00a0living in one unit and using the other as his studio. After the Great Quake, Cadenasso took in California\u2019s first Poet Laureate, Ina Coolbrith<\/a> (for whom Ina Coolbrith Park in Russian Hill is named), whose home had been destroyed in the subsequent fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Fast-forward to the 1970s, when Armistead\u00a0Maupin penned his famous novels (later adapted for television) set in San Francisco. \u201cThough 28 Barbary Lane is a fictitious address, it\u2019s based on the real-life Macondray Lane in Russian Hill,\u201d wrote KQED<\/a>. According to the property\u2019s official listing page<\/a>, Mrs. Madrigal (Maupin\u2019s fictional grand dame of Barbary Lane) would have lived in the building directly across from 15-17 Macondray \u201cin the visual geography of the series.\u201d<\/p>\n 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).\u00a0<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n Oakley Hall was a prolific and influential California writer. His 2008 obituary<\/a> recounted his achievements: \u201cthe 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\u2019s \u2018Angle of Repose.\u2019\u201d Oakley Hall also received \u201clifetime achievement awards from the PEN Center USA and the Cowboy Hall of Fame\u201d and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for the novel \u201cWarlock.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He was also known for his contributions to and mentoring of other writers. The University of California<\/a> wrote that \u201cOakley Hall directed the Programs In Writing at the University of California at Irvine for over 20 years.\u201d There, he mentored writers such as Richard Ford,\u00a0Kem Nunn, Whitney Otto, James Brown and Michael Chabon.<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n In the late 1960s, Oakley and Barbara Hall co-founded the Squaw Valley Community of Writers<\/a>, a summer writers\u2019 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\u2019s death in 2008 and until her own death in 2018, Barbara continued to be active in the community, capturing authors like \u201cRudolfo Anaya, Olga & Henry Carlisle, Rita Dove, Brenda Hillman, Galway Kinnell, Peter Matthiessen, Michael McCLure, Anne Rice and Al Young,\u201d to quote a memorial tribute<\/a> published by the Community of Writers on Instagram.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While the Halls lived at 15-17 Macondray\u00a0Lane, 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\u2019 tenant in No. 15 \u201cfor a period in the 1980s,\u201d\u00a0Rena Provencio said over the phone. \u201cHe was living there while he edited the film \u2018True Stories,\u2019 which became part of the Criterion Collection<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n After hearing the (incredible but true!) stories of this home recounted by her clients \u2014 Oakley and Barbara\u2019s four adult children: Brett Hall Jones, Louis B. Jones, Sands Hall, and Tracy Hall \u2014 Provencio decided to treat the home as an artists\u2019 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\u2019s.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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. \u201cThis is not an everyday property,\u201d Provencio said. \u201cI wanted to celebrate the artistic spirit that has always lived here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak A historic San Francisco duplex at 15-17\u00a0Macondray Lane, long home to artists like Oakley Hall and David Byrne, just hit the market for $1.9M \u2014 and quickly went pending.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Greg Divjak<\/p>\n The Hall family also hosted a private goodbye party for the home, a literary salon that would honor Barbara and Oakley\u2019s legacy. In attendance were such luminaries as San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik, Amy Tan and Michael Chabon, \u201ctelling stories and paying tribute\u201d to the Halls and their historic home. \u201cIt was pretty incredible,\u201d Provencio said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This historic property hit the market on March 17, 2026. And \u2014 just like magic \u2014 it went pending 10 days later.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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