For $4,400 a month, you can sleep in a “magical hideaway” that overlooks North Beach.
San Francisco has no shortage of strange, peculiar, history-rich structures. But there are few you can spend more than a few hours inside of, let alone live in. This isn’t the case with a two-bedroom apartment now up to rent inside Pasquale’s Tower — the terracotta-colored residential building in Telegraph Hill, domed with a mesmeric, blue roof that tickles curiosities.
I want to live in Pasquale's Tower. pic.twitter.com/1iC7aKJxbi
— Lisa Church 🗽 (@lmc) July 4, 2021
Described as a “once in a lifetime” opportunity, the apartment is represented by licensed agent professional Melody Simpson, who has been working in San Francisco real estate since 1998.
The interior of the apartment, itself, isn’t anything to write home about.
The gas range sits next to countertops and a faucet that looks decades old; the walls are clinically white; hardwood and tiles — maybe ceramic? — line the floors; there’s a fairly tall step into one of the pictured bathrooms.
What the apartment at 4 Dunnes Alley lacks in creature comforts, it more than makes up for in historical appeal — which includes three balconies that rim the property.
Built in 1933, Pasquale’s Tower is tucked down an alley right off a steep block of Kearny Street. The Quixotic-style structure stands four stories tall in Telegraph Hill. Earlier images of the structure shared by the San Francisco Chronicle show it with a white exterior; more recent images on social media show it was painted with a clay color sometime over the past ten years.
Thankfully, the captivating blue dome that crowns the tower has remained intact over decades.
Neighbors have referred to towers as a “secondary icon” — a structure that has a similar mysticism to nearby Coit Tower. Pasquale Gogna, the tower’s namesake, was a baker… who had the apartment structure built; Gogna resided there until 1956.
It’s a triumph of residential construction in San Francisco that seems like an albatross when compared to this current moment in time. Like, an impossible feat of housing. (And that’s because a building like this would, in fact, be impossible to erect in San Francisco, due to zoning laws and available acreage in the area.)
The aqua dome demands the gaze of passersby and drivers who catch glimpses of it passing over the Bay bridge.
SFGate published a classified ad found in the SF Examiner’s paper published on March 20th, 1960 that called for a new tenant — “Ideal for bachelor. For young in heart.” It’s a description that rings salient, given why Gogna moved to a North Beach domicile: It was easier to access, due to his arthritis. The four-story climb every day proved too taxing and difficult in Gogna’s older age.
If you’re looking for a rent-controlled residence to watch your body turn to dust in, take Gogna’s move as a cautionary tale. But, hey: You’d be hard-pressed to find a more picturesque spot to watch the sands of time fall and mound.
To view the entire apartment listing, click here.
Feature Image: Courtesy of Redfin
Thanks,Very cool.