A San Francisco duplex featured on an episode of the A&E series “Hoarders” recently received 12 offers and sold for $500,000 over the asking price, according to listing agent Craig Ackerman at Proof Real Estate.

The episode aired in early 2020 and was memorable because hoarder Ray Silmon endured the difficult cleanout of the top floor of his NOPA Victorian at the same time that he also had to contend with the death of his brother, who died during the filming and had also lived in the home but did not contribute to the floor-to-ceiling clutter. The brothers had inherited the property from their parents and had lived there for more than 50 years, Ackerman said.

In the years since the episode was filmed, Silmon had completely refilled the cleaned out spaces, Ackerman said. He died last year and the probate court and city attorney “demanded immediate action” on the dilapidated home, he said in an emailed statement.

Ackerman’s crew removed eight 20-foot containers filled with trash. The haul included “decomposing animals,” and the crew had to contend with a collapsing rear porch, a roof with a four-foot-by-four-foot hole, “unworkable plumbing” and an “overwhelming odor.”

“We had to have cleaners mop the floor with full strength ammonia to remove or subside the odors,” said Ackerman, who specializes in trust and probate sales and ranked this among his most difficult properties to prepare for market.

After the cleanout, Ackerman held four back-to-back open houses just before the Christmas holiday. He received 12 offers and the winning bid on 756-758 Lyon Street was all cash at $1.2 million, or 70 percent over the $700,000 ask. At 2,800 square feet, that works out to $429 per square foot.

Each unit has two bedrooms, a bathroom, a family room, dining room and office. The ground floor is a common area, according to listing notes.

Kenix Zhong, a Fremont-based RE/MAX agent, represented the buyers, Lyon Partners LLC, and could not comment on their plans for the property.

The high level of interest in what will be, at a minimum, a down-to-the-studs renovation, is an indication that, even with the market down, the most expensive construction costs in the world, and development at a standstill, builder buyers still think investing in San Francisco is worth it — at the right price.

“The appetite for development is still high,” Ackerman said.

Contact Emily Landes

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A pair of work trousers recovered from an 1857 shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina and described as the oldest known pair of jeans in the world have sold for 114,000 dollars (£93,000).

The white, heavy-duty miner’s trousers with a five-button fly were among 270 Gold Rush-era artifacts that sold for a total of nearly one million dollars (£800,000) in Nevada, according to Holabird Western American Collections.

The trousers predate by 16 years the first pair officially manufactured by San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Co in 1873. Some say historical evidence suggests there are links to Strauss, who was a wealthy wholesaler of dry goods at the time, and the trousers could be a very early version of what would become the iconic jeans.

But the company’s historian and archive director, Tracey Panek, says any claims about their origin are “speculation”.

Fred Holabird, left, and Bob Evans with artifacts including a Wells Fargo treasure box lid from the SS Central America in a warehouse in Nevada (Jason Bean/The Reno Gazette-Journal via AP/PA)

“The pants are not Levi’s nor do I believe they are miner’s work plans,” she wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

The SS Central America sank in a hurricane on September 12, 1857, packed with passengers who began their journey in San Francisco and were on their way to New York via Panama. And there is no indication older work trousers dating to the Gold Rush era exist.

“Those miner’s jeans are like the first flag on the moon, a historic moment in history,” said Dwight Manley, managing partner of the California Gold Marketing Group, who owns the artifacts and put them up for auction.

Other auction items that had been entombed for more than a century in the ship’s wreckage 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) below the surface of the Atlantic included the purser’s keys to the treasure room where tons of Gold Rush coins and ingots were stored. It sold for 103,200 dollars (£84,000).

Tens of millions of dollars worth of gold has been sold since shipwreck recovery began in 1988. But this sale marked the first time any artifacts were up for auction. Another auction is planned in February.

“There has never been anything like the scope of these recovered artifacts, which represented a time capsule of daily life during the Gold Rush,” said Fred Holabird, president of the auction company.

The lid of a Wells Fargo & Co treasure box believed to be the oldest of its kind went for 99,600 dollars (£81,000). An 1849 Colt pocket pistol sold for 30,000 dollars (£24,400). A 20 dollar gold coin minted in San Francisco in 1856 sold for 43,200 dollars (£35,000).

Most of the passengers aboard the SS Central America left San Francisco on another ship — the SS Sonora — and sailed to Panama, where they crossed the Isthmus by train before boarding the doomed ship.

Of those on board when the SS Central America went down, 425 died and 153 were saved.

The unique mix of artefacts from high society San Franciscans to blue-collar workers piqued the interest of historians and collectors alike. The trousers came from the trunk of an Oregon man, John Dement, who served in the Mexican-American War.

“At the end of the day, nobody can say these are or are not Levi’s with 100% certainty,” Mr Manley said. But “these are the only known Gold Rush jean … not present in any collection in the world.”

Mr Holabird, considered a Gold Rush-era expert in his over 50 years as a scientist and historian, agreed: “So far, no museum has come forward with another.”

Ms Panek said Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis, a Reno tailor, received a US Patent in May 1873 for “An Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.” Months later, she said, the company began manufacturing the famous riveted jeans — “Levi’s 501 jeans, the first modern blue jean”.

She said before the auction that the shipwreck trousers have no company branding — no “patches, buttons or even rivets, the innovation patented in 1873”.

Ms Panek added that the trousers “are not typical of miner’s work pants in our archives”. She cited the color, “unusual fly design with extra side buttonholes” and the non-denim fabric that’s lighter weight “than cloth used for its earliest riveted clothing”.

Levi Strauss & Co has long maintained that up until 1873, the company was strictly a wholesaler and did no manufacturing of clothing.

Mr Holabird believes the trousers were made by a subcontractor for Strauss. He decided to “follow the money — follow the gold” and discovered Strauss’ had a market reach and sales “on a level never seen before”.

“Strauss was the largest single merchant to ship gold out of California in the 1857-1858 period,” Mr Holabird said.

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James T. Kirk boldly went where he’d gone many times before – and walked out of probate court with an agreement to sell San Francisco’s beloved “Starship House.”

Kirk – yes, that’s his given name – had been fighting for years to hang onto his family home, a two-bedroom, one-bath a few blocks from Ocean Beach in the Sunset. Born just before “Star Trek” premiered on television, he’s lived there for decades with homemade creations including a replica of the bridge from the Starship Enterprise. A car dressed up to resemble a Batmobile is parked in front and visitors are welcome.

The home is a beacon for the “wonderfully weird” and a “resource for thousands of people every year,” according to Supervisor Gordan Mar, who represents the Western San Francisco neighborhood.

The wonderfully weird Starshiphouse on 46th near Taraval is a landmark and resource for thousands of people every year. James T Kirk (yes, that’s his real name) is in a battle in probate court to purchase the house from his mother’s estate. pic.twitter.com/4ygDAcrsOx

— Gordon Mar (@D4GordonMar) December 5, 2021

At a probate hearing this week, Kirk and neighborhood friend Jason Hodge were prepared to outbid a $1 million offer. Instead, the prospective buyers “turned out to be pretty cool and like what Kirk does,” said Hodge, a firefighter who is married to California State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

Once Hodge was sure Kirk wouldn’t be summarily evicted, they made a handshake deal with the buyers that will allow Kirk and any tenants to stay on at market-rate rents for one to two years while “the Captain” figures out “the next option for his universe,” Hodge said. The buyers live in San Jose and plan to eventually make the Outer Sunset home their primary residence.

While the lease terms must still be put in writing, and the probate proceedings left Kirk “a little numb,” he said the time has come to move on. “It’s going to open up a new chapter in my life,” he said.

Kirk has been battling his two sisters to keep the house since their mother died about three years ago. The artist and handyman hasn’t ever had a bank account or credit card, which made it difficult to secure a loan.

Photos via Jesse Chandler

Hodge was so committed to the cause that he put his Southern California beachfront bar up as collateral. He also organized a GoFundMe that raised more than $22,000 to help Kirk keep the property.

“The house is such a community resource,” Hodge said. “Kirk never turns people away when folks need a place to stay.”

Kirk thanked his supporters, some of whom had never seen the tinfoil stalactites in the garage or jammed in the band space. Some donors said the house represented the stranger days of San Francisco’s past, before people needed an income of $350,000 to afford a median-priced home and properties sold for millions over the asking price.

“This is the San Francisco weirdness that makes the city great and has been slowly dying out,” wrote one $20 donor. “We need to support folks like this to stay here.”

Hodge said the GoFundMe money that hasn’t already been spent on legal fees will help Kirk craft a lease agreement with the new owners. After the property closes, he will get a third of the proceeds to help find a new home for his treasures, including an enormous ping-pong table that takes up much of the yard and oversized hieroglyphics-inspired paintings.

Hodge is also trying to find Kirk a more enduring form of income. He was recently approved to captain Batmobile tours of San Francisco on Airbnb, and already has people signed up.

Kirk hopes he can find another place in the neighborhood to recreate his weird yet welcoming home. “What I do is not going to stop,” he said.

Contact Emily Landes

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A one-of-a-kind midcentury modern home in San Francisco designed for famed furniture designer Jules Heumann was sold after just 10 days on the market.

The prized property perched above the city with astonishing views was snapped up at full price for $3,750,000 in a cash deal.

The spectacular, trilevel beauty was custom-designed in 1965 by the San Francisco architecture firm Marquis & Stoller.

The space features vaulted ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows to take in the views that span from the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Bridge to Marin and the East Bay.

‘amazing home’

“This is one of the most amazing homes I have ever sold,” says listing agent Trecia Knapp, of Sotheby’s International Realty. “It is encased in original redwood in the main living room and has these sweeping views that are just stunning.”

Beautiful views

Realtor.com

Living area

Realtor.com

From the interior walls of windows to the exterior decks, you can take in views from nearly every room in the 3,258-square-foot house.

The modern kitchen features a spacious dining area which opens to an outdoor courtyard. The cozy den comes with a fireplace and a deck just off the main living and dining rooms.

Upstairs, you will find a primary suite complete with a fireplace, office, sitting room, and dressing rooms. Two additional bedrooms share a bath, and there’s an exercise room that could be turned into a fourth bedroom.

Kitchen

Realtor.com

Bedroom

Realtor.com

In addition to being a famous furniture designer, Heumann also had a thing for cars. He served as chairman of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, a renowned car show.

“There is a three-car garage here, and one has a double bay,” Knapp says. “He put air conditioning in the garage! When you walk in, you can almost feel him tinkering. He also had a bay built under the garage so you can tinker on your cars. He even put an elevator in the home; that’s how forward – thinking hey what.”

The car collector died in 2017 at the age of 93. The sellers bought the home from Heumann’s estate in 2018.

“During COVID, their lives changed and they had to move out of town for work,” Knapp says. “They would not have left if they didn’t have to relocate for their jobs.”

Bar area

Realtor.com

elevator

Realtor.com

The property is a standalone house in San Francisco, which makes it a coveted rarity. Plus, the locale is off the beaten path.

“It’s located in Clarendon Heights, which I would call the ‘undiscovered Gold Coast of San Francisco,'” Knapp says. “It’s a vertical house, so it captures all of the views. One of the founders of Instagram also lives on St. Germain Avenue.”

San Francisco is known for its fog, and when it rolls in, Knapp says, “The home is like being in a beautiful cocoon to keep you warm and cozy.”

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A four-bedroom home in a quiet San Francisco neighborhood shocked real estate agents Richard Woo and Holly Phan when it sold for $1 million over its asking price three days after it was listed, KPIX reported Friday.

The home, reportedly located west of Twin Peaks near Mount Davidson, was originally listed for just under $2.5 million but ended up selling for $3.5 million, the agents told KPIX.

“We were all very surprised, because they weren’t just over – they were way over,” Woo said of the offers.

The 2,400 square-foot home is newly updated and boasts a two-car garage, stunning views and close proximity to hiking trails. But Patrick Carlisle, the chief market analyst for Compass, told KPIX the overbid might be part of a growing trend in not only San Francisco but also the Bay Area region at large.

“It’s been one of the most ferocious markets in history this past year,” Carlisle told the outlet, explaining that “limited housing inventory” has resulted in more competition among buyers, which in turn can cause prices to skyrocket. “Though a fair number of new listings have come on the market, they’ve been snatched up faster than ever – maybe at the fastest rate in history. Virtually every segment in the Bay Area has gone bananas.”

While high prices and overbidding have become the norm in the Bay Area real estate market, a home that sold for $1 million above asking in San Francisco is raising eyebrows. https://t.co/GEAzIv7lYG

— KPIX 5 (@KPIXtv) December 11, 2021

And the size of the abode apparently doesn’t matter. Last month, a 328 square-foot cottage in the Seabright neighborhood of Santa Cruz was listed for $988,000 and ultimately swiped up for an all-cash offer of $1 million after multiple bids. The home has just one bedroom and one bathroom — with a converted living space in the garage — but listing agent Walter Stauss said its prime location close to the beach was likely what led to so many offers.

He added that the housing market hasn’t slowed down at all; he’s noticed many Bay Area buyers are keen on coming down to buy primary or secondary homes in Santa Cruz County.

“The work-from-home thing has a bigger effect than anyone anticipated,” Stauss told SFGATE. “Silicon Valley is a huge job market. The fact that people don’t have to commute anymore and can enjoy the Santa Cruz lifestyle is a big deal. I don’t see that changing at all.”

Earlier this year, dozens of people camped overnight on the sidewalk to purchase newly-built townhouses in Santa Clara costing $1.2 million. Vanguard agent Alan Thuma told SFGATE “the market was hot going into spring,” and the trend has been ongoing as many companies delay their plans to return to the office.

According to the most recent data from the California Association of Realtors, sales of homes in San Francisco County have increased by 27.5%, while median home prices have risen by $72,000 in the last month.

SFGATE Local Editor Tessa McLean contributed to this report.

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The largest owner of hotel properties in San Francisco is close to finalizing the sale of a 99-year-old boutique hotel near Union Square.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is selling the 236-room Hotel Spero to an affiliate of Memphis-based real estate management firm Fairwood Capital LLC, the San Francisco Business Times reported. News of the sale was found through a liquor license application.

The price of the sale is not yet public. Pebblebrook acquired Hotel Spero with its 2018 purchase of LaSalle Hotel Properties for $5.2 billion. LaSalle bought the hotel, then called the Hotel Californian, in 2013 for $69 million.

Including Hotel Spero, Pebblebrook owns nine hotels in the city. This is the company’s second recent sale in San Francisco — more specifically, on the same block. The Marker hotel at 501 Geary St. was sold by Pebblebrook for $77 million to a Los Angeles real estate investment firm last month, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Hotel Spero opened as the Hotel Californian in 1923. The Spanish Colonial style building was renovated in 2018 and boasts a historic lobby with hand-painted wooden ceiling beams, as well as a chic diner-style restaurant.

Along with Hotel Spero and The Marker, Pebblebrook has sold two other San Francisco hotels over the last two years: the Sir Francis Drake hotel, now called Beacon Grand, and the Villa Florence. Both hotels are also located near Union Square.

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Mark Zuckerberg has a robust real estate portfolio across the West Coast, but could he be saying goodbye to San Francisco?

The Facebook co-founder and his wife, the philanthropist and former pediatrician Priscilla Chan, quietly sold their Golden City pad in an off-market deal worth $31 million, The Post has confirmed.

This marks the largest residential deal in San Francisco this year, beating a pair of penthouses that once belonged to the late Secretary of State George Shultz for a combined $29 million, the real deal first reported.

Zuckerberg, 38, purchased the home in 2012 for $10 million, records show.

Located in the Dolores Heights neighborhood, the home has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, spanning over 7,300 square feet.

The new deed filed on the home was signed by the vice president of operations for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, according to TRD.

Mark Zuckerberg purchased the brick and stucco home back in 2012 for $10 million. Google Maps

Located at 3450 21st St., Zuckerberg purchased the home through SFRP LLC.

While there is no clear reason for Zuckerberg’s move to sell the home, back in 2016, SFist first reported that disgruntled neighbors were up in arms over the parking spaces that his security detail permanently occupied.

This, combined with two years of construction, when they first moved into the brick and stucco home, did not bode well for nearby residents. The work reportedly cost an additional $1.8 million.

“Hi Neighbors,” a January 2016 letter from an anonymous neighbor said. “I’m sure you all agree that it can be cumbersome living next to Zuck. I think we’ve all tried to be as patient and civil as possible during the very long construction, the noise, the trash, the blocking of streets, etc. Now that all that circus is done, we are left with 2 silver SUVs permanently occupying desirable parking spots.”

The post has reached out for comment.

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg still has a four-bedroom, five-bathroom estate in Palo Alto.

The Meta CEO also owns 1,400 acres on the Isle of Kauai, Hawaii after expanding his acreage there last year. In 2019, he purchased two adjacent Lake Tahoe homes.

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Private equity firm Huron Capital Partners LLC has added to its string of investment exits.

The Detroit-based firm on Wednesday announced the sale of Phoenix-based Pueblo Mechanical and Controls to OMERS Private Equity, a Toronto and New York investment fund with nearly $20 billion in assets under management, according to its website.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the exit marked Huron’s fourth exit over the past 12 months, according to a news release.

“We acquired Pueblo because we believed demand for HVAC repair and installation services would increase and the sector was ripe for consolidation,” Scott Hauncher, a Huron Capital partner, said in a news release. “Since then, regional population growth, aging infrastructure, energy efficiency and sustainability have driven demand for Pueblo’s services.”

A 20-year-old company, Pueblo was acquired by Huron Capital in 2017.

“We have a clear focus to become one of the largest independent technical services operators in the US by leveraging a scalable platform with an experienced and aligned management team,” stated Dan Bueschel, Pueblo CEO. “Due in large part to the investments we made in the systems and team, in addition to leveraging Huron’s demonstrated M&A playbook, we executed and integrated numerous acquisitions including six in 2022 alone.”

Moelis & Co. served as financial adviser for the deal, and Perkins Coie LLP served as legal advisor to Huron and Pueblo.

Huron Capital, which has managed as much as $1.8 billion since its founding in 1999, lists three core areas of focus on its website: commercial and industrial services, professional services and consumer services, primarily focused around residential services.

A news release from Huron Capital late last year said the PE firm completed eight exits in 2021, which included the majority sale of San Francisco-based Sciens Building Solutions to funds managed by global investment firm Carlyle.

Amid increasing uncertainty in economy — driven primarily by inflation, rising interest rates and other factors — private equity executives have said they’ve become more cautious in recent months. James Mahoney, Huron Capital’s managing partner, last month described the feeling to Crain’s as sleeping “with one eye open.”

That sense of hesitation on the part of private equity firms has shown shown up in recent data. Citing numbers from data service Prequin, a new report from PwC says PE deal volumes fell by 26 percent in the first half of 2022 when compared with the same time period last year.

“However, we expect activity to recover given record-high levels of dry powder (US PE totals $975 billion),” reads the PwC report. “Due diligence will be a key safeguard against volatility and possible regulatory action.”

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Tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has sold his sprawling San Francisco home for $31 million, more than tripling his money since reportedly buying the home for around $10 million a decade ago.

The sale was confirmed by a deed filed with the city earlier this month, which was signed by an executive of the Facebook co-founder’s eponymous Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The off-market sale of Zuckerberg’s 21st Street home, situated on Liberty Hill near Dolores Park, was first reported by real estate news site The Real Deal. The $31 million price tag, calculated based on tax assessments cited in the deed, appears to be the most expensive home sale in San Francisco this year, edging out the $29 million sale last week of two penthouse condos once owned by the late former Secretary of State George Shultz and his late wife, former San Francisco and state of California Chief of Protocol Charlotte Mailliard Shultz.

It’s also the latest example of how tech magnates are growing their influence in global real estate, and how high San Francisco celebrity home prices can go. All told, Forbes reported that as of earlier this spring, the Bay Area was home to 116 of California’s highest-in-the-nation 189 billionaire residents.

“Why does California reign supreme?” Forbes wrote in its April billionaire update. “Thank the booming technology industry.”

The Shultz sale broke city records as the highest-priced condo sale in San Francisco history. Past industry reports note that at least one other San Francisco home, a house in tony Pacific Heights, previously traded for closer to $40 million.

Despite the eye-popping sales figures, details about Zuckerberg’s now-former house remain relatively scarce. The Dolores Heights house was purchased and sold by an entity listed as “SFRP LLC,” which The Real Deal notes is also connected to a property owned by Zuckerberg in Palo Alto. The San Francisco house was purchased by an also-opaque Delaware LLC.

It was initially listed as a 7,200-square-foot, four-bedroom home, but famously underwent a renovation that attracted the ire of neighbors not so thrilled with the tech mogul’s presence and construction noise. In 2016, some complained that Zuckerberg’s security detail was hogging “desirable parking spots.”

Fellow Silicon Valley magnates, including entrepreneur and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, have courted controversy by buying up and attempting to privatize areas around Bay Area compounds. Others are also looking to cash out: Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy recently dropped the price on his Peninsula mansion to just under $54 million.

In addition to his pricey Bay Area homes, Zuckerberg reportedly owns side-by-side $59 million mansions on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, plus some 1,500 acres on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Roland Li contributed to this report.

Lauren Hepler (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hepler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LAHepler

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A small storefront on Grant Avenue is bringing a taste of Amsterdam — and ancient Egypt — to San Francisco. Professor Seagull’s Smartshop, which opened in North Beach this April, is a cross between an art gallery, a witchy herb shop and a modern cannabis dispensary (except you can touch the products).

Psychedelic art covers the walls and sleek Scandinavian-inspired shelves hold a tightly curated selection of loosely controlled herbs. But instead of the typical variations of cannabis, the shop is devoted to lesser known psychoactive and psychedelic sacred plants from all over the world. 

While the first of its kind in San Francisco — and according to the owners, the entire country — “smart shops” are ubiquitous in Europe, especially Amsterdam, and refer to stores that sell herbal remedies, hangover cures, botanical samples and “nootropics,” or brain-enhancing substances. Although there are other stores selling herbal supplements such as kratom, owner Benjamin Manton says his store is different since the focus is solely on the use of plants and products with psychoactive properties.

The chalkboard sign in the shop window advertises items such as San Pedro and Peruvian torch cacti, which you might be familiar with if you’ve ever embarked on a vision quest in the desert. But the first product to catch my eye is a bag of brilliant blue and yellow petals, which I’d soon try myself, in addition to experimenting with damiana, wild dagga and Mexican dream herb tea.

The exterior of Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Benjamin Manton is the owner of Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop, works on a display inside his store in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Professor Seagull’s Smartshop. Credit: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Manton, who owns the shop with his wife and looks a tad like a younger version of the store’s namesake/logo (if you squint and are on psychedelics), tells me the petals are from an Egyptian blue lotus. 

“The ancient Egyptians would steep it in wine and drink it during religious ceremonies and parties,” Manton says. “But you can also make it into a relaxing tea.” 

The flower, which some call the sacred blue lily of the Nile, is depicted in countless ancient temples and writings throughout Egypt, Greece and parts of Asia. Its ubiquitous depictions suggest that the lotus helped the ancients connect with the divine through its hallucinatory effects and was an important part of ceremonies around sexuality. Given that it increases circulation, the petals are thought to be powerful aphrodisiacs. It also has reported health and psychological benefits, thanks primarily to the apomorphine compound found in the plant that stimulates the body’s dopamine receptors. Historians believe the ancient Egyptians used the flower as traditional medicine, and in more modern times, its active compounds have been utilized to treat anxiety and even Parkinson’s disease. 

Benjamin Manton is the owner of Professor Seagull’s Smartshop in San Francisco on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Plant medicine for the psychedelic-curious

In the U.S., blue lotus has not received FDA approval, but it’s also not a controlled substance, so it is legal to grow and sell. The same goes for the rest of Professor Seagull’s inventory: Everything is legal in California and most other states — at least in the form it’s displayed and sold in the store and online shop. 

The mescaline that can be extracted from San Pedro and Peruvian torch cacti is illegal, but in their cactus form, they’re just attractive house plants. There’s also Mimosa Hostilis root bark, a major ingredient of ayahuasca, which doubles as a popular natural dye for soaps and fabric. 

“We are providing these products in the form they are legally allowed to be presented,” Manton tells me over email. “Some items we can talk openly about in terms of historical use and dosage. And some things are sold explicitly for growth as a houseplant or for arts and crafts supply.”

Of course, what you choose to do with your house plants and art supplies is your own business.

“It is our hope that the city or the state will decriminalize psychedelic plants soon so that we can begin to have more open and honest discussions with our clients about the history and potentials of these plants,” Manton writes. 

Benjamin Manton, the owner of Professor Seagull’s Smartshop, shows off some recent cuttings of San Pedro cactus in San Francisco on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Manton sees potential in the store to serve as part of the solution to San Francisco’s (and the country’s) mental health and addiction crises. 

“In the future we hope to be a place where therapists can send their clients for information and access, and where practitioners can come for local access to sustainably sourced plant medicine.”

For now, the Mantons are focused on providing transformational experience through plant medicine and art, as well as being a resource for harm reduction. In addition to providing safer alternatives to party drugs, such as Kanna, which Manton says is being used in place of cocaine and MDMA, the shop offers test kits from DanceSafe to test recreational drugs for adulterants, such as fentanyl. 

Manton gave me a tour of the shop with a matter-of-fact, professorial air that is so knowledgeable and nonjudgmental, and I end up leaving with four bags (and more than 100 grams) of various teas and smokeables that promise to ease anxiety, aid sleep and dream recall and invoke euphoria. At just $40, a similar haul at a cannabis dispensary would cost at least three times that, yet many of the items I purchased boast similar effects and benefits. 

Some of the herbs that can be consumed in a tea or smoked at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark available at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Several different Yerba Matte products available at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Some mushroom infused coffee available at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

A selection of products at Professor Seagull’s Smartshop. Credit: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

My week of plant discovery

Back at home, I begin a week of plant- and self-discovery. The first order of business is making blue lotus wine, which just requires adding 15 to 20 grams of petals to a bottle of wine (after you pour a little out or have a glass to make room), setting it in the refrigerator and giving it a shake every day until you’re ready to drink it (anywhere between two days and two weeks). I used half a bottle of grocery store cabernet that I had lying around, but any kind will work. Manton suggests not using anything special, since the lotus will alter the taste.  

Then I roll up joints of damiana, which is native to parts of the U.S., Mexico and Central America, and wild dagga, which grows abundantly in southern Africa. Both are said to produce a light, cannabis-like high. Wild dagga can enhance color perception, so tonight I turn to these while I paint instead of my usual sativa. 

As I prep the canvas and the light floral-smelling smoke fills the space, I feel a familiar buoyancy, like I’ve taken a baby hit of weed. The taste is reminiscent of black tea and the psychoactive effects are decidedly subtle. It’s really all I need though — just a slight nudge into flow state. It’s nice to avoid some of the side effects of cannabis, such as misplacing the paintbrush I’m holding or randomly obsessing over something embarrassing that happened seven years ago. 

Next I light up the wild dagga. The bright orange dried petals don’t grind that well, so it makes for a looser joint. The spicy smoke burns the back of my throat slightly, but I’m too lost in mixing satisfying globs of paint to care much. I’m a little bit more excited by the way the paint drips down the canvas and my strokes seem a bit bolder and more confident. The day’s worries wash off my brush in vibrant swirls.

Then it’s time for a cup of Mexican dream herb tea and bed. The mixture is unpleasantly bitter on the back of my tongue, so I add honey. A few minutes later I feel deeply relaxed, like I’m hovering at the doorway of sleep with none of my usual effort to get there. Soon I easily drift off into a land of chaotic dreams. 

A display shows some of the obscure and legal psychedelics available at Professor Seagull’s Smartshop in San Francisco on May 19, 2022.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

I drank the tea before bed a few more nights this week, and each time my sleep was filled with cinematic dreams, some of which took on the quality of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. Dreaming of surfing atop trash cans and other oddities was an interesting journey, but I was ready for a vibe change. And a glass of wine. So on the sixth day, I decide the blue lotus wine is ready. Internet searches tell me two weeks produce the most potent effects, but I figure one week is the correct level for a Thursday evening of horoscope writing (and my personal emotional state). 

I’ve done enough plant medicine to know that set and setting are major components. So as I run the seductive purple liquid through a strainer, I regret not making plans to take the concoction to a party, or at least share it with a close friend. 

But Mercury is retrograding hard, I’m riding a grief wave, and deadlines are looming, so the best I can do is spend a night in with a blank Google doc and my feelings. 

Taking cues from the ancient Egyptians, I say a meditative prayer to the blue flower, asking it to lift my spirits enough to let me write what I need to, or at least just enjoy my own company, achy heart and all. 

The wine tastes extra floral, but I don’t mind it. With a few summer fruits added in, it’d make a good sangria.

Half a glass and 20 minutes later, I’m crying over nothing and everything. The ancient Egyptians used this concoction for sex rituals, and crying is its own kind of release, so maybe it’s working. Then for a reason I can’t pinpoint, my tears just as quickly turn to belly laughs. 

Maybe it’s the moon, the wine or the lotus, but suddenly I’m buzzy with phrases and so many nonlinear thoughts that I write rough drafts for two separate articles almost simultaneously. Something like euphoria, or just momentary relief from heartache, moves me to dance. Alone in my home studio, I’m filled with love for myself and the plants that are there for us through all of life’s chapters. 

Amy Copperman is a writer and artist based in Oakland, Calif. Find her on Instagram.

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