With an asking price of 18 million dollars, you’d expect to be impressed—even in San Francisco, where a mediocre 1,100 square-foot row house goes for over a million bucks. Fortunately, this listing does indeed impress.
From the description:
Originally constructed in 1902 as a stunning replica of the Le Petit Trianon in Versailles France, 3800 Washington Street is San Francisco Landmark 95 and one of the City’s most grand estates.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the original Petit Trianon:
Upon his accession to the throne in 1774, the 20-year-old Louis XVI gave the château and its surrounding park to his 19-year-old Queen Marie Antoinette for her exclusive use and enjoyment. Marie longed to escape Louis and his court, and he gave her just the place… Marie Antoinette thought of the Petit Trianon as a ‘sacred place’, so she never had visitors. Swiss guards, gardeners, and maids never followed her there.
It doesn’t seem like this version would be much of an “escape,” given its placement on just over half an acre smack in the middle of Presidio Heights. Although Presidio Heights is “San Francisco’s most exclusive neighborhood” according to the listing agent, so there is that.
Most listings where the listing agent uses terms like “grand,” “soaring,” “copious,” “stunning,” and “irreplaceable” are barely even worth one such superlative.
I don’t think it’s going out on much of a limb to say that this listing is an exception to that rule.
Does anyone know what “Trianon” means in French?
On account of, if this is a little one, I wouldn’t want to be run over by a big one, ne cest pas. [<Ignorfrench for "No sirree."]
@Anodean: Ah, just in case of any possible misunderstanding, the term “ignorfrench” for my stilted attempts at the most beautiful of languages was meant as a self-deprecating shorthand for “my ignorance of French.”
@Anodean: According to answers.com…
Q: “What is the meaning of the word ‘Trianon’?”
A: “It doesn’t really have a meaning, it is an actual name, though in either French or Spanish, “Trianon” suggests a special place with pleasant surroundings, beauty and balance.”
http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_the_word_Trianon
According to the specialty site Tea at Trianon, The Trianon was a pre-existing tea house built by Louis XIV for his mistress, which was redecorated in the porcelain-clad style of a famous tea house reported on by some of the first official visitors to return from China. The idea caught on and soon everyone wanted one, even if they didn’t have the means. The Mercure Galant, the first periodical geared towards women’s interests, noted that even those much further down the social ladder (burghers) tried their hand. The MG article used the faddish term “Trianon” in jest to refer to these inferior attempts. It then became synonymous with “Hermitage” which in actuality referred to a rustic retreat used for contemplation, a la hermits. – http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2008/02/trianon-de-porcelaine.html
We still don’t have a derivation for the term, but we do now know why it may sometimes be used to label something different than that for which it was originally intended. But then again, The Hermitage in St. Petersburg ain’t too shabby itself.
Remember the mansion that looked like a museum on the outside? (https://looneylisting.com/2014/09/05/live-in-a-desert-museum-for-8m/) I think we’ve just met its interior cousin. With the marble-clad everything, the center court skylights, and the “X” over “+” style metal railings (Pics 4-9), we could be in any number of museums and the rooms beyond the atrium are appropriate for the staff of some high profile “Society” or even a top level charity.
What it doesn’t look like, inside or out, is a home. (For that we need to look at the “guest house.” Better size, better day-to-day amenities, etc.) Sadly, the main house (if the floor plans are to be trusted) has abysmal kitchen and bath facilities, with but ONE bathtub in the entire place! All that marble, and only one bathtub… (O_o) Retrofitting anything inside such a pile of rock (maybe even structural masonry?) would not be easy or cheap.
Another oddity – the google streetview, with a 2014 copyright watermark, shows nasty looking weeds on the public sidewalks. Other lawns in the area are well kept, so I don’t think it’s the city dropping the ball. Also, the large amount of ivy on the facade seems dead. It’s obviously not winter in the pics so, again, what gives? If they can’t be bothered to mow the weeds, what else has fallen into (perhaps much more expensive) disrepair?
Not an easy place to live in, let alone feel at home in, and possibly not well kept. No thanks. I’ll wait to enjoy it for just a few hours (and just a few dollars) until it opens as a museum.
@Emerald63: Thank you! I keenly enjoy the education I receive here. :D