{"id":3795,"date":"2025-10-14T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/3795\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T12:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:00:09","slug":"this-1904-sf-home-starred-in-an-80s-sitcom-its-listed-for-3-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/3795\/","title":{"rendered":"This 1904 SF home starred in an ’80s sitcom. It’s listed for $3.5M."},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the tree-lined hem of Buena Vista Park<\/a>, a string of historic mansions stand tall, each with its own story to tell. In the case of 171 Buena Vista Ave. East<\/a>, the story is one of television fame, as this two-unit building was once the setting of a popular American sitcom, in part because of the incredible bay views afforded by its many windows. Today, this property is for sale, asking $3.5 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The building is actually multi-family, consisting of two units. We only see the empty unit in the listing photos. This upper flat is a sunny three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit warmed by a wood burning stove, its top-most level converted into a primary suite featuring romantic peaked ceilings and skylights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The home seems to offer more windows than walls \u2014 all of them looking out on a famous view. It is from these windows that audiences across the nation glimpsed San Francisco\u2019s majestic beauty: From 1980 to 1987, exterior shots for \u201cToo Close for Comfort,\u201d a popular TV sitcom starring Ted Knight and Nancy\u00a0Dussault playing the roles of married couple Henry and Muriel Rush, were filmed here. In a scene from the show set in the house<\/a>, the Rushes wake reluctantly to a glorious SF morning, and while Henry assaults an alarm clock, the bedroom window acts as the perfect frame for a breathtaking view of the Golden Gate Bridge.<\/p>\n

In the show, the building\u2019s two-unit configuration was part of the plot, as Henry Rush was portrayed as a \u201cconservative cartoonist living in liberal San Francisco\u201d to quote\u00a0IMDb<\/a>, who had to keep his two daughters \u2014 who lived in the apartment below the one he shared with his wife \u2014 \u201csafe\u201d (safe from what, IMDb\u00a0doesn\u2019t specify).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In reality, the daughters would have been the ones living \u201ctoo close for comfort,\u201d since the lower unit, according to the official listing<\/a>, is a one-bedroom (currently, that unit \u2014 173 Buena Vista Ave. East \u2014 is tenant occupied, so not pictured in the listing).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The building is historic on its own, erected in 1904, a survivor of the Great Earthquake of 1906. Listing agent John\u00a0DiDomenico of Compass speculated that originally, this structure was a grand single-family home. \u201cThe floor plan reflects that,\u201d DiDomenico wrote in an email. \u201cThere is only one exterior door and the one bedroom apartment appears to be the original living room, parlour, kitchen, and rear\u00a0sunroom (now a bedroom) from the original floor plan.\u201d All total, the building offers just under 3,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

The home joins a group of similarly stately abodes, most notably the former Hormel Mansion, once famously owned by James Hormel, a philanthropist and heir to the Hormel meat packing fortune, and the first openly gay U.S. ambassador<\/a> (he was appointed to this role by President Bill Clinton in 1999, after a discriminatory battle against Hormel failed to derail his nomination in the Senate). In Hormel\u2019s hands, 181 Buena Vista Ave. East was painted pink; in 2012<\/a>, Hormel sold the mansion<\/a>, and new owners renovated it, a fresh coat of white exterior paint among their changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with its illustrious neighbors, 171 Buena Vista Ave. East is also in close proximity to some of the city\u2019s most treasured amenities: its parks. \u201cThere are three amazing parks nearby,\u201d DiDomenico said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuena Vista Park and its secret tennis court,\u00a0Duboce Park with its Doggie Carnival and Parade (Dogfest), and Corona Heights Park with its hidden rock climbing wall,\u201d are all within a short distance from this property, said DiDomenico in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along the tree-lined hem of Buena Vista Park, a string of historic mansions stand tall, each with its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105,925,1693,2787],"class_list":{"0":"post-3795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news","14":"tag-sfgfreelance","15":"tag-sfglocal","16":"tag-sfgrealestate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}