San Francisco’s Feusier Octagon Home, designed by phrenologists, to hit market

June 20, 2021

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San Francisco’s Feusier Octagon Home, designed by phrenologists, to hit market

One of the few octagonal houses in San Francisco, a short fad spurred on by phrenology enthusiasts, hits the market.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Feusier Octagon House at 1067 Green St. in Russian Hill is listed for $ 8.6 million. As recently as 2018, it was being offered for a cool $ 10,500 per month.

The Feusier Octagon House has an unusual reason for its shape: the phrenology. When it was built in the late 1850s, phrenologist Orson Squire Fowler’s book on octagonal houses took over the nation. Fowler argued that eight-sided houses were better for wellbeing, in part because it meant that every room in the house would get sunlight at some point during the day.

The Feusier Octagon House in San Francisco hits the market.

Open Homes Photography for Sotheby’s International Realty / Handout

Louis Feusier and his wife Louise Guerne (the daughter of the man Guerneville was named after) were the most famous residents of the house. Feusier was a prominent businessman who allegedly ran in the same circles as Leland Stanford and Mark Twain. There are only three octagonal houses in the Bay Area – the others are in Lands End and Gough Street – and only about a hundred in the country.

The Feusier Octagon House is also one of San Francisco’s oldest homes. Before the city was filled with towers and skyscrapers, it was one of the most notable landmarks on the skyline and must have offered incredible views from its many windows. Several outbuildings were blown up as firebreaks during the fiery aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, but the house was saved.

The Feusier Octagon House in San Francisco hits the market.

Open Homes Photography for Sotheby’s International Realty / Handout

The home has four bedrooms, a formal dining room, 14 foot ceilings, and an outdoor deck and garden.

It was last sold to the Billman family in 1998 for $ 2.8 million and unsuccessfully listed for $ 5.2 million in 2012. After several years of falling prices, it was offered for rent. Attorney Sheila Billman Nahi, who shares the house with her siblings, told the Wall Street Journal, “Now is the time to pass the torch on to a new family.”

Sotheby’s International Realty in San Francisco will conduct the listing.

The Feusier Octagon House in San Francisco hits the market. 1of12th