This Victorian Baroque residence was built for the founder of Sherman, Clay & Company, a San Francisco piano store which continues to operate in the western states.

"A huge, three-story music and reception room forms the entire west wing of the house. In this skylighted room is a platform on which such music greats as Paderewski performed; from a balcony in the corner of the room, singers like Madame Schumann-Heink and, earlier, Lotta Crabtree (who lived next door to the west), entertained."....Here Today: San Francisco's Architectural Heritage by Roger Olmsted and T.H. Watkins, Chronicle Books, 1968.