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Wild history and wild parrots at Frida Kahlo’s former Telegraph Hill home, asking $8M

Famous former residents are only part of the story behind this irreplaceable cliffside apartment building

Frida Kahlo lived at 42 Calhoun, about midway down the 1938-built hillside complex, while reconciling with Diego Rivera in 1940. | Source: Thomas Sawano

Visuals by Thomas Sawano

Published Jul. 9, 2026 at 6:00am

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This only-in-San-Francisco story started with the illegal explosions of politically connected quarrymen, who unintentionally carved the perfect perch for an 11-unit apartment building that once housed Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, provided the backdrop to a classic piece of film noir, and offers a resting place for a famously colorful squawking flock.

Now, amid the hottest real estate market in years, this slice of San Francisco history is for sale for the first time in decades, asking $8 million.

From the street, 36-52 Calhoun Terrace doesn’t look remarkable. The only signs of its art moderne vintage are the porthole windows. But from the rear, the building is a showstopper, built into a sheer cliff of bedrock in 1938. It’s an impressive feat of engineering that would be nearly impossible to replace given the massive costs of building an Alps-style village off a dead-end, one-way street and complying with modern seismic, building, and workplace safety requirements.

The cliffside location off a one-way, dead-end street would likely make it prohibitively expensive were it built to today’s building and safety requirements.

“They literally don’t build things like they used to,” San Francisco Planning Chief of Staff Dan Sider said of the “remarkable” building. “But also, people don’t die on construction sites nearly as often as they used to.”

Author Gary Kamiya moved into the building in 2023 after seeing the “floating in air” views from the deck of the top-floor one-bedroom apartment. It felt like kismet, since he had put the street on the cover of his 2020 book “Spirits of San Francisco.” He’s so devoted to this corner of the city that he dedicated a chapter in his book to George and Harry Gray, the devious quarrymen who illegally bombed the hillside, causing boulders to rain down onto homes and knocking some off their foundations.

“They were the most reprehensible, criminal businessmen in the history of the city, which is a large claim,” Kamiya said. “It’s amazing nobody was ever killed.”

Nobody except George Gray, who paid the ultimate price in 1914. He was shot by a desperate quarry worker who was starving, facing eviction, and was owed weeks of back wages. The brothers were so hated that the shooter was acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity and cheered on by 100 supporters outside the courtroom.

Architecture buffs are familiar with the four-story single-family home next door, designed in 1939 by famed modernist Richard Neutra. | Source: Thomas Sawano

The apartments have small interiors but expansive decks. | Source: Thomas Sawano

The Grays’ firm went bankrupt soon after but had already made an indelible mark on the city, and beyond. Many of the boulders the brothers blasted were turned into ballast that went into ships that sailed off after stocking up in SF; at the final destinations, the rocks were unloaded and became streetscapes.

“It’s said you can find Telegraph Hill in cities all over the world,” Kamiya said.

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Not much is known about Ian and Rose Hoeffler, who created the Calhoun complex in 1938 and are referred to as “builders of compounds” in historic preservation documents (opens in new tab) on the neighborhood. Yet, somehow, among their first tenants were the 20th century art power couple Rivera and Kahlo.

Rivera was in San Francisco to paint a mural on Treasure Island for the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition; visitors would watch as he worked on the large-scale frescos. (The 10-panel result, “Pan American Unity,” is at City College of San Francisco after a three-year stint at SF MoMa.) At the time, Rivera and Kahlo were divorced, and he was living with another woman at 42 Calhoun Terrace, about midway down the hillside complex. But Kahlo’s doctor insisted she would be better off forgiving her famously philandering ex and making amends. The other woman left, and Kahlo moved in. Life on Telegraph Hill seems to have suited them. Kahlo spent time convalescing from the chronic pain that plagued her most of her life at St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission, where in 1940 she created one of her most famous works, “Self Portrait, Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser.” She and Rivera remarried at San Francisco City Hall in December 1940 and moved from the apartment shortly after he completed the mural commission.

Rivera and Kahlo divorced in 1939 and remarried Dec. 8, 1940, at San Francisco City Hall. | Source: Bettmann Archive

The apartment building had another shot at fame when it served as a set for the 1952 film noir “The Sniper,” in which a deranged delivery driver kills women in San Francisco. It was nominated for an Academy Award for writing and was one of the first films to feature a serial killer. Kamiya’s apartment appears in several scenes, including one in which cops use the bedroom as a command post. Real-life pedestrians on the street can be seen peering in.

“The cops are having all their coppy talk there as gawkers stare at them from upper Calhoun,” Kamiya said. “It’s all in the movie and pretty amusing.”

A bedroom window at street level wouldn’t appeal to everyone, nor would the fact that the bathroom is accessible only through the bedroom, but that’s what you’ll find in the quirky floor plan. The kitchen of the 600-square-foot apartment is so narrow that Kamiya and his girlfriend can barely fit in it at the same time. Yet it has two ovens.

The bay views keep the apartments filled with tenants, despite the small spaces and quirky layouts. | Source: Thomas Sawano

There are other drawbacks. There is no guest room for his adult children when they visit, and no unit in the building has more than 950 square feet, though some have substantial decks. Most of the apartments have one bedroom, according to a marketing site (opens in new tab) for the property. The building has no parking, and residents of the lower units have to go up several flights of staircases to reach the street. But the views, location, and city’s super-hot rental market seem to have done the trick. The building is fully rented, with no tenant pre-dating 2020.

Listing agent Jean-Paul Samaha of Vanguard declined to comment.

Kamiya said he understands why the younger tenants who make up the bulk of his neighbors tend to move on when starting families, given the small spaces and sheer drops from the decks, but he can’t imagine living anywhere else.

From his apartment, he is reminded of the city’s history, that the bay is still a working port, and that the urban landscape is home to a variety of wild animals. Coyotes climb the cliffs like mountain goats, and the famed parrots, who beat out the sea lions to become the city’s official animal in 2023, peck at the couple’s Christmas lights and fight with crows over territory in the redwood trees on either side of the building.

“I think it is extremely unlikely that we will ever leave this apartment by choice, unless by some horrific chance of fate the new owner decides they want to move into our apartment,” he said. “Most people that have $8 million don’t choose to move into apartments that don’t have any parking, and where you have to go through the bedroom to go to the bathroom, despite the incredible view. But it’s absolutely perfect for us.”

The asking price is $8 million for 11 apartments, a total of 7,500 square feet. A single-family home with 2,260 square feet just behind the retaining wall sold last month for $6.5 million. | Source: Thomas Sawano

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