You’ve heard of midcentury modern, but how about “modern midcentury”?
That’s how Vanguard agent Dan Slaughter describes his 1957 listing at 918 Kansas St. in Potrero Hill, complete with the original mint-green-and-peach bathroom, accessible via a secret back hallway between two bedrooms. The groovy energy goes further, sinking into the living-room conversation pit with built-in couch.
But the nearly 70-year-old property isn’t stuck with square features like peeling laminate cabinets or a rusting vinyl dinette set. A 2012 down-to-the-studs renovation opened up the main entertaining areas, created a palatial primary suite (with a spacious bathroom in a more muted grey-and-white palette) and added a west-facing wall of thick glass that both cuts down the sound from the nearby 101 Freeway and enables panoramic views of Twin Peaks, including a dead-on view of Sutro Tower. There are more windows in the remodeled kitchen, which allows for a peekaboo view of the flying-monkey mural the previous owners added to the neighboring wall outside.
It’s an unexpected property for Potrero Hill, where the vintage of most homes ranges from the Victorian era to the 1930s. As a completely detached house on a double-wide lot with a four-car garage, Slaughter said it’s also a rarity for the city, period.
“It is not like any other property anywhere in San Francisco,” he said during his first broker open house for the nearly $3.5 million listing, where 30 agents and several potential buyers walked through. “Some people said it feels a little bit like L.A., up in the hills.”
It seems San Franciscans have an appetite for Hollywood glamour. The first open houses last weekend brought about 80 people through. An offer date for the 3,200-square-foot property will likely come after another weekend of public showings. The 3-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home includes an additional one-bedroom, one-bath apartment on the lower level, which the sellers used to host friends and family.
The sellers bought the home in 2021 for $3.2 million before deciding to move back to Chicago this year. They redid the floors, painted and reupholstered the formerly white leather couch in the sunken living room, but otherwise, it’s largely in the same condition as when they bought it. A similarly sized newly built single-family home at the end of the same dead-end street went for $3.65 million in June 2024, even without the grand city views.
While some San Francisco buyers may like a new build, and others prefer Victorians or Edwardians, the clean lines and mod vibes of the midcentury style remain an attractive proposition a decade after “Mad Men” went off the air, Slaughter said. The architectural style more common in Los Angeles is scarce in San Francisco, except in enclaves like Diamond Heights, which was developed during the Don Draper era. Slaughter should know; he lives in one of the few midcentury homes in Ashbury Heights.
Most who have toured the home are in tech or doctors drawn by the proximity to Zuckerberg General Hospital and Mission Bay. The 101-adjacent address has its pros and cons, and buyers could consider the “white noise” from the traffic below to be one of the latter, Slaughter said. But having the highway right down the hill also means little risk that anything will be erected to block the views, and the nearby Vermont Street exit provides easy access for those commuting south.
“It’s close enough, but not too close,” he said.