Elegant Victorian apartment in Alamo Square Park.

It has been said of this building that it is 'one of three of the most significant architectural dwellings in San Francisco'. 'If San Francisco is the Rome of the colorist Movement, Alamo Square is the Vatican. The Square is the heart of the greatest collection of Painted Ladies and one of the most important collections of Victorian buildings in the world. Although it doesn't have a Saint Peter's, it does have an Archbishop Mansion.'

This Mansion is located a block away from the 'Belle' facing Alamo Square park and just up 1/2 a block are the famous 'Seven Sisters' seen in every collection of photos depicting San Francisco. 1347-45 McAllister Street was designed by James Francis Dunn, started in early 1898 and completed at the end of 1900. It was built in the French neo-Baroque style as a tribute to the owner's great love, an opera diva from Paris. He had 2 'Juliet'(as in Shakespeare's Juliet) balconies constructed that are similar to the Paris Opera House boxes even today. The front of the building has 4 winged mermaids and Grecian urns of mythological significance surrounding the 2 huge oval windows at the very top of the building, behind which is a grand ballroom with a panoramic view of downtown San Francisco all the way to Mt. Diablo across the Bay Bridge, as well as weary gods holding up the eves, and finally museum worthy stained glass sea shell windows with gems spilling out over the balconies.

The entry way is a huge tortoise shell with a ruby heart above it said to be 'like the piece that frames m'lady-in-waiting at the French court'. The building is a feature on the Double Decker bus tourists route, as well as walking tours of S.F., and is to be found in coffee table books on San Francisco architecture, magazines, and newspaper articles. The 'Belle' survived the great 1906 quake as it is built on bed rock. Look up James Francis Dunn for more photos and other unique buildings he erected in San Francisco during his career.