Château Tivoli

Well, Victorian style doesn’t apply only to houses – some people think big and build themselves a castle! Take a look at this sumptuous mansion that takes up the entire street corner! It’s Chateau Tivoli, now a luxury bed & breakfast. This mansion was built in 1892 by William Armitage, considered one of the city’s main architects, for a wealthy shipping magnate. He combined three adjacent blocks of buildings known as the Seattle block. If you look closely, you can still see the inscription with the original name painted on the top of the roof. From 1898 to 1917, the house was owned by Mrs. Ernestine Kreling, who was the owner of West Coast’s first operahouse, the Tivoli Opera House, hence the name of the hotel today. Later, the mansion became a home for unmarried girls, and thereafter, as it was a Jewish neighborhood, was home to several Jewish institutions, including the Yiddish Literary and Dramatic Society made out of Jewish intelligentsia who fled from Russia after the 1917 Revolution. In 1975, a new page was turned in the history of this great house as it became an important site for the New-Age movement. The New-Age spiritual movement was born in the USA in the 1960s, and predicted humanity’s entry into the Age of Aquarius, and I quote: “the appearance of a new cultural paradigm, foreshadowing a new era in which humanity will succeed in realizing a significant part of its potential, both psychic and spiritual.” At that time, the walls were painted with flowers and unicorns, and the house rang to the sounds of Tibetan bells, drums and peace songs. It was here that the New Age newspaper “Common Ground” was born, eventually the building fell into abondonment before being bought back, extensively renovated and turned into a Bed & Breakfast. In any case, it’s good news that if your heart’s set on it and your wallet follows, you can even spend the night and see what it’s like to live in a Victorian house in San Francisco!