COUPAR Out and About: Ortman-Shumate House

Ortman-Shumate House 1880’s

COUPAR recently enjoyed our first in-person event since Lockdown! The team gathered en masse wearing masks at the San Francisco landmark, Ortman-Shumate House, where realtors Stacey Caen and Joseph Lucier of CAENLUCIER  graciously gave us a tour of the estate and gardens. The Italianate Victorian was constructed in 1870 and located in lower Pacific Heights on one of the city's largest remaining residential lots. Its main residence and carriage house retain their original architecture while being updated for today's homeowners. CAENLUCIER staged the interiors with modern art from Berggruen Gallery and contemporary furnishings while Scott Lewis Landscape Architects designed the enchanting gardens.  It's not surprising that this home with a storied past priced at $12,800,000 is now under contract.

COUPAR team in front of Ortman-Shumate House 2021

The property harkens back to a pastoral time in San Francisco's history. John Frederick Ortman, a grocer and liquor dealer originally from Hanover, purchased the 137.5 x 137.5 feet scrub-filled lot for $5,000, where he built a home for his family, complete with a windmill, cow, and chickens. It was the first large house in the area. When Ortman passed away in 1914, his daughter Freda and son-in-law Dr. Thomas Shumate inherited the estate. Shumate hired the architect William Gladstone Merchant (a relative of his wife's), who trained in the offices of John Galen Howard and Bernard Maybeck to add hardscape and make some interior upgrades. The busy doctor owned 28 pharmacies, a wholesale pharmaceutical business, and a real estate company. What stories will the new owners of Ortman-Shumate House create?

Living room of Ortman-Shumate House