Where To Stay In The Area
Finding accommodations near the Painted Ladies may be recommended for those who want to feel like a San Francisco resident for a few days. However, accommodations in the immediate vicinity of Alamo Square are scarce, while there is a greater selection in the rest of Haight-Ashbury.
To find accommodations in the Alamo Square area, I recommend these 2 links:
If you want to search in the neighborhood of the Summer of Love, I suggest you read my tips for finding accommodations in Haight-Ashbury.
However, it is likely that you will not find many rooms available if you limit your search to Haight-Ashbury, so I also recommend you look at our overview of the best neighborhoods to find accommodation in San Francisco.
Which One Of The Painted Ladies Is The Full House
The 2,588-square-foot house is located on one of the citys most-photographed blocks, called Postcard Row, which is in the opening credits of the ABC sitcom Full House. Dubbed the Pink Painted Lady, the home is one of seven Victorians located in downtown San Francisco across the street from Alamo Square.
More History Cost And Size
How big are the Painted Ladies along Alamo Square, and how much do they cost?
According to public records, the biggest one, 722 Steiner Street, was built first in 1892. Its around 4,700 square feet and is estimated at around $4.5 to $5 million.
I think this estimate is incredibly low since it’s the biggest, but it sold in 2014 for $3.1 million. At the time, it sold for under asking. Im guessing it needed some work.
The original builder and owner of 722 Steiner Street also built all the other six similar houses along Postcard Row.
The next one built was 710 Steiner, which is on the south side. It was built in 1894. It’s around 2,500 square feet.
Next was 712 Steiner Street, which is around 2,600 square feet.
The other four were all built around the same time, with the final one completed around 1896. They vary in size from 2,400 to 2,900 square feet. They are estimated at around $3.5 to $4.5 million each.
Even though they look the same from across the street, each is unique!
The most famous owner over the years lived at 720 Steiner. It was the home to Alice Walker, who wrote The Color Purple. She lived here in the mid-1990s. She was very social and would host famous people at her parties. However, her neighbors were not fans of her late-night concerts in her garden.
Now for the best part: For years, no one could get a peek inside, but lately, the owners of these homes have started to open their doors to the public.
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The Tanner Victorian Isnt One Of The Painted Ladies Of Alamo Square:
The house used for exterior shots is not one of the seven Painted Ladies that make up the colorful row of Victorian houses shown behind them when the Tanner family picnics at Alamo Square Park.
A lot of fans go looking for it in the Western Addition neighborhood, but its actually more than 12 blocks away on Broderick Street.
The establishing shots for the opening credits were taped in one day in San Francisco. After that, I believe the only time they were actually filming on location was for an episode in the final season when Michelle tries to walk Comet by herself and he gets away from her.
San Francisco Home Seen On Full House Is For Sale
Most notably viewed in the opening credits of the 80s sitcom Full House, one of San Franciscos famed Painted Ladies is up for sale for $3.5 million. The house, which is located at 714 Steiner Street, is one of seven Victorian-style homes that make up a picturesque block, also referred to as Postcard Row, across from Alamo Square Park in the citys Western Addition.
714 Steiner Street is a wood-frame, two-story-over-garage residential property.
The property is back on the market only two years after Leah Culver, a software developer and angel investor, bought the home in 2020 with plans to renovate the interior. She began documenting the progress on social media, giving her more than 20,000 followers an inside look into an iconic piece of Bay Area history.
She announced her plans to sell the home via and in late May, explaining that the decision came not from a lack of passion, but from insufficient time to give the home the attention it deserved. I would love to transition to a new owner who cares as much as I do about this special home, she wrote. Thats why I am listing it for sale for the same price I purchased it for.
The house needs work, but the new owner will be well prepared with approved building plans and permits.
Bay windows overlook historic Alamo Square Park.
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Coming To Netflix In 201: Fuller House
Were you a Full House fan? Fuller House promises to reunite most of the castmates except the Olsen twins. Candace Cameron Bures D.J. is now a young widow who calls on her best-friend Kimmy and sister Stephanie to help raise her children.
They rebuilt the house on the back lot to film new episodes.
Update: The Full House Victorian at 1709 Broderick Street in San Francisco is on the market!
Visit my Houses Onscreen page to see the others Ive featured, listed A-Z.
Where Did The Term Painted Ladies Come From
While the term is now famous, it’s more of a recent term used to describe these historic gems. It was first used to describe these beauties in the 1970s.
This was when the book Painted Ladies: San Franciscos Resplendent Victorians by Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen was written, and they coined the term .
It seemed to fit them perfectly and it quickly became popular.
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One Of The Painted Ladies That Changed Hands Two Years Ago Is Back On The Market
One of San Franciscos famous Seven Sisters is back on the market. Leah Culver, the current owner, bought the Victorian house in 2020 for $3.55 million and shes now listing it for the same price.
It is with a heavy heart that I’ve decided to sell the Pink Painted Lady. This was an extremely difficult decision that I have been considering for several months, Culver on an account she runs for the home. Please feel free to share with anyone you know who might be interested in this beautiful home. Thank you for your support and understanding.
You may recall when this serious fixer-upper at 714 Steiner Street last hit the market just prior to the pandemic, and then sold for $750K over asking, to Culver, in January 2020.
This particular Painted Lady overlooks downtown, Alamo Square, the Golden Gate Bridge. Its three stories tall and also includes a garage level. It has five bedrooms and was built in the late 1800s.
Since buying the property, Culver had posted a sign on the steps showing tourists that this home had and while she called it, hopefully, The Pink Painted Lady, she still had not gotten around to repainting it pink.
Culver told the Wall Street Journal the pandemic delayed her renovation plans. She says it had been owned by the same family for six decades, which isnt uncommon for those homes.
Since the coronavirus prohibited her from getting the permits she needed in a timely manner, she was never able to start the work.
Other Movies And Tv Shows Featuring The Painted Ladies
Although most people know them from the Full House openingcredits, these Painted Ladies in San Francisco have been featured in severalTVs and movies.
Here are just a few.
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- The Woman in Red
- So, I Married an Axe Murderer
- Murder in the First
> > Learn more about visiting these famed ladies inAlamo Square
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Four Seasons Painted Ladies
Another set of San Franciscos Painted Ladies that are starting to get noticed is the Four Seasons. This set is in the Haight Ashbury District.
Its four Victorian houses along Waller Street. Their addresses are 1315, 1321/1323, 1327, and 1333 Waller Street.
These four similar-looking, colorful Victorian houses all have ornate details. Each one is considered a “season” based on its colors and a square with art inside it, which is located outside the house on its second floor.
This group of homes was also built in the 1890s.
“Winter,” the one at 1315 Waller, was the first to be built. The man who built it was John A. Whelan, a shipwright, and real estate developer. Its a Queen Anne style Victorian painted in blues and greens with a snowflake on it, which is why its dubbed “Winter.”
It sits on the eastern end of these four houses.
The one on the western end is “Fall” due to its bright red colors.
This set is a little more challenging to photograph, but they are a brilliant display of colors for Painted Ladies in San Francisco.
These four aren’t the only beauties on this block. Its neighbors also feature beautiful colors and details, so you’ll have plenty of pictures to take as you walk by them.
> > More about visiting the Haight
The Interior Sets Were Created At The Warner Bros Burbank Studio
The inside of the house looks a lot more spacious on TV than the exterior suggests.
In the final episode they poke fun at this by having Michelle, who has temporarily lost her memory, say, You all live here? I hope the inside is a lot bigger than it looks on the outside!
The Living Room in the Pilot Episode of Full House:
John Posey as the Original Danny Tanner in the Unaired Pilot:
Can you imagine being the guy who was almost famous as the Tanner dad, only to get a call saying your role had been recast after the pilot was taped and picked up by the network?
They have the original pilot on the Season One DVD, and its fun to watch both versions with the original Danny, played by John Posey, and then with Bob Saget, who was hired at the last minute to replace him. Posey did a good job, but its just not the same. Im not sure Full House wouldve have become such a cult favorite without Saget.
Look at all those silk plants they decorated the upstairs landing with. Takes me back to the 90s when we were all putting fake ivy everywhere!
The Upstairs Hallway in the Original Pilot:
Michelles Nursery in the Pilot:
DJ & Stephanie Share a Room in the Beginning:
And then Stephanie and Michelle do:
The Bathroom:
As the site WTFFH points out, the main bathroom in the house changes from Season 2 to Season 5.
At first it has a tile floor, green tiled walls, and a sink on the same wall as the tub.
Jesses Magic Attic Apartment:
Jesse & Beckys Twin Boys Got Race Car Beds:
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The Full House Family Never Lived On Postcard Row
The house shown in the opening credits of Full House, which features a red door and markably different facade than any of the painted ladies on Postcard Row.
Okay, so of course the Tanners didn’t actually live on because they were just characters on a TV show, but within the universe of the the television show the Tanner family was never intended to have lived on Postcard Row. The house shown in the opening sequence, with a red door, is actually located a mile north of Postcard Row at 1709 Broderick Street.
The opening credits of Full House, for the first several seasons, showed the Tanner family running around in various parks, etc. The sequence ends with a zoomed-out shot of their home, which featured a white facade and a red door, and showed the surrounding homes. The house shown is located at 1709 Broderick Street, not one of the on Postcard Row.
The Tanner family home, zoomed out. From the opening credits of Full House, season one.
Beginning in Season Four of Full House, the Tanners were shown having a picnic in with Postcard Row in the background, leading to the widespread belief that the Tanners lived on Postcard Row.
The iconic scene, which was included in Season Four, where the Tanners picnic in Alamo Square Park.
As the almost creeplily-detailed full-house.org explains, the Tanner family, when asked on the show where they live, would sometimes say they were at 1882 Gerard Street, an address in the .
San Francisco’s Painted Ladies
About 48,000 houses in the Victorian and Edwardian styles were built in San Francisco between 1849 and 1915 , and many were painted in bright colors. As one newspaper critic noted in 1885, “⦠red, yellow, chocolate, orange, everything that is loud is in fashion ⦠if the upper stories are not of red or blue ⦠they are painted up into uncouth panels of yellow and brown ⦔ While many of the mansions of Nob Hill were destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, thousands of the mass-produced, more modest houses survived in the western and southern neighborhoods of the city.
During World War I and World War II, many of these houses were painted battleship gray with war-surplus Navy paint. Another sixteen thousand were demolished, and many others had the Victorian decor stripped off or covered with tarpaper, brick, stucco, or aluminum siding.
In 1963, San Francisco artist Butch Kardum began combining intense blues and greens on the exterior of his Italianate-style Victorian house. His house was criticized by some, but other neighbors began to copy the bright colors on their own houses. Kardum became a color designer, and he and other artists / colorists such as Tony Canaletich, Bob Buckter, and Jazon Wonders began to transform dozens of gray houses into Painted Ladies. By the 1970s, the colorist movement, as it was called, had changed entire streets and neighborhoods. This process continues to this day.
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The Other San Francisco Victorian Houses
The ones Ive told you about so far are the most famous Painted Ladies, but actually, every Victorian house with 3 or more colors is considered a Painted Lady, and San Francisco is full of these fine examples of Victorian architecture. If youre curious, you can go in search of these homes that also deserve to be photographed.
What Are Painted Ladies
Many people interchange the term painted ladies with the set of Victorians along Steiner Street near Alamo Square Park. However, they have a broader definition.
The term painted ladies refers to any historic house built in the late 1800s or early 1900s with three or more paint colors. You will see historic houses all around San Francisco, but the only true SF Painted Ladies are those with various colors on them.
In addition to SF, you can also see painted ladies in other famous cities such as Cincinnati, Baltimore, and St. Louis.
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Give The Walls Character
Waterfield says shed go with a warm white hue with a Portola plaster finish to give the walls a beautiful weathered look. But she wouldnt stop there. The designer is also itching to replace the floors with natural white oak and cover them with a super-matte, water-based color. Yep, this Painted Lady is in for a fresh coat.
Which House Is The Full House
Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, people are talking about the iconic San Francisco home made famous by the hit show Full House. The 3,125-square-foot Victorian, located at 1709 Broderick Street in the trendy Pacific Heights neighborhood, went on the market last week and the internet has been buzzing ever since.
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More Around The San Francisco Haight Ashbury District
You will also find several others in and around the HaightAshbury District. I also like to explore the area just to the west of the FourSeasons Painted Ladies. You will find several beautiful houses in this area.
There is also an exciting row called the Haight AshburyPainted Ladies on Central Avenue at Haight Street . They are brightlycolored and are an excellent set to photograph.
Take Walks Is Currently The Only Company To Offer This Service
In addition to getting access to one of the Painted Ladies, you’ll also enjoy a tour of the area providing details about the history of the Victorian houses.
- $39/Adults, Students | $34/Children
- Spring Availability: Sundays at 10 am
- Summer/Fall Availability: Sun & Fri at 10 am
- Duration: 3 hours
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Will Steve Marry Dj In Fuller House
D.J. marries Steve and welcomes Kimmy and Stephanie to continue living with her. If you thought the show may go back and forth between #TeamMatt and #TeamSteve some more on the final episodes, it didnt. Steve and D.J. were completely committed to one another by the time the mid-season premiere of season five began.
The Best Spot To Photograph The Painted Ladies
A good place to take great photos of the Painted Ladies is the side of the park overlooking Hayes Street. Since the park sits on a hill, if you climb a little bit, you can take a picture of the famous Victorian houses with the skyline in the background, one of the panoramic views most featured on postcards of the city . Some say that midday is the best time of day to take a picture, because it seems that the lighting is ideal.
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