San Francisco’s famed eight-sided house takes an $800K price cut

Eight isn’t a lucky number for the Feusier Octagon Home, one of the city’s two remaining eight-sided houses and the only one that’s still a private residence.

After coming on the market in May with a $8.6 million price tag, it recently took an $800,000 price cut to $7.8 million, according to its listing.
The 5,000-square-foot home was part of a nationwide fad in the 1850s for building octagonal homes. It was probably built in 1857 or 1858 and is among the oldest homes in Russian Hill, according to the city’s landmarking documents. A similar home, the McElroy Octagon house in Cow Hollow, has been a museum for decades.

The Feusier home was built for George L. Kenny, an agent for a prominent historian of the time. It’s most associated with Louis Feusier, a businessman who hobnobbed with the likes of Leland Stanford and Mark Twain. He bought the home from Kenny in 1875 and added its octagonal cupola in the 1880s. The four-bedroom home remained in his family for about eight decades.

Iran and Howard Billman bought the property for $2.8 million in 1998 after “the earth literally swallow[ed]” their Seacliff home due to a 16-foot-diameter sewer collapse in the Presidio, according to Iran’s 2015 obituary. She lived there “until it became impractical” and the family first tried listing the home for sale in 2012 for $5.2 million.

When it failed to sell at that price, they rented it out for $10,500 a month, according to SFist. Only the upper two levels of the three-level home, which includes two bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a small kitchen, the cupola and four salons, are currently “vacant for the new owner” according to the listing notes.