Postcard ready: Another Alamo Square “Painted Lady” hits the market

One of San Francisco’s historic “Painted Ladies” of Alamo Square has hit the market after an attempt to renovate it was stalled by the pandemic.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the home on Steiner Street was purchased in January of 2020 for $3.55 million by Leah Culver, a software engineer at Twitter. But her plans to fix up the five-bedroom home — one of seven Victorian “sisters” of “Postcard Row” made famous via popular 20th-century mailers, being featured on the opening credits of the sitcom “Full House,” and, more recently, as a backdrop for many an Instagram photo — were put on hold because of the difficulty in getting the necessary permits during the Covid-19 crisis. She told the paper she has since acquired the permits, is asking for the same price she originally paid for the home, and will include the licenses with the purchase.

The 3,000 square-foot home has three stories plus a garage and has views of Alamo Square, downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Before Cluver purchased it, it had been owned by the same family for about 60 years — which is typical of the hard-to-come-by homes — and was in need of renovation. At one point it had been painted a vivid pink.

The seven homes in the group date to the late-1800s, and they, along with other Victorian homes in the City by the Bay earned the nickname “Painted Ladies” thanks to the publication of a book giving them the moniker in 1978.

It’s not the first Steiner Street Victorian to hit the market recently. In March, the largest of the batch, a six-bedroom, six-bath home at the corner of Steiner and Grove streets, went into contract for $5.75 million.

Fans of “Full House” correctly identify the row of houses from one of their favorite shows, but the homes do not, as some believe, appear in the opening of another popular 1980s sitcom set in San Francisco. The Ted Knight and Jm J. Bullock vehicle “Too Close for Comfort” did feature a somewhat similar house, but it is located about a mile away on Buena Vista Avenue East.

[Wall Street Journal] — Vince DiMiceli