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Creative buyers will love this home for its studio and art gallery.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - By 1917, wildlife sculptor Arthur Putnam had unfortunately already produced his best work. A brain tumor had left his skills and health diminished. So he was unable to take advantage of his new “house at the beach” in San Francisco’s outer Richmond. In 1921, Putnam and his second wife, Marion Pearson, moved to Europe, where they stayed until Putnam’s death, at age 57, in 1930.
Putnam sold the home to an archeologist named Bell, who stayed until 1957. He then sold it to Elio and Lydia Benvenuto, a pair of artists themselves. They have owned the home since.
Elio Benvenuto died in 1991. Now, with Lydia, 91, and the couple’s grandson living in the home, the family has decided to sell.
“We were going to try to put paint on it, stage it, but we decided that’s not right,” says Paragon agent Wendy Storch, who is listing 870 45th Ave. Storch is correct; staging this home would be the worst kind of square peg treatment. Better that potential buyers should see the building as Arthur Putnam and the Benvenutos intended it: as a large, open, raw gallery space with adjacent living areas.
With Elio’s sculptures and drawings hung throughout, it is easy to imagine this as a working space. The center gallery, two stories in height with a surrounding mezzanine and huge skylight, all but requires that visitors don a pair of paint-
splattered Carhartts when they enter. As does the enormous studio behind the house, accessible by two huge sliding doors.
“At our first open house, the people who were here, waiting for us to open, they knew they were looking at something special,” says Storch. “I knew they were looking to use it for themselves, teachers, artists, designers.”
Elio Benvenuto didn’t come to San Francisco until 1948. By then he’d been a working artist for over a decade. He’d also been elected mayor of Pietrasanta, Italy. In 1950, Benvenuto was commissioned to sculpt the stations of the cross at the Corpus Christi Church, in the Outer Mission. By 1967, he’d become the director of the San Francisco Art Commission.
And all the while, he was raising his family, holding art openings and doing his work in his remarkable home at 870 45th Ave.
Where: San Francisco
Asking Price: $899,000
Property Tax: $11,687*
The Property: Beach house with three bedrooms, 2.25 baths (the 0.25 is a toilet in a closet), artist’s studio, atrium/gallery.
Notable: One-of-a-kind home doubles as an art gallery; same owners since 1957.
Agent: Wendy Storch, Paragon Realty, (415) 738-7031. www.870-45thAve.com.
*Estimate based on 1.3% of asking price.
Comments from Examiner Readers
4:23 PM MST on Fri., Aug. 15, 2008 re: "Hot Property: A home suitable for a lifetime of memories"
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2:37 PM MST on Sat., Oct. 27, 2007
re: "Hot property: Built for a family that never came"
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Examiner Reader said:
it's good for someone to have lifetime memories in glen park but like anything else in life, things may not continue to be as rosy. instead of waking up to the smell of a good breakfast and a quiet neighborhood, you smell the smoke of gunfire or voices screaming for murder. such is life in the big city of s.f. humanity character changes and some turn into monsters. and they live right door to you now.
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Examiner Reader said:
for health conscious..seniors..childern , the foggy mist of cool sodium chloride..perhaps laced with some windblown pesticides..offers san francicans..and those with respiratory problems better breathing..outside hyberparic systems..the eco climte flora and fauna are magnificent.breathtaking colors and creative in the match of flowers and vegetables on the wharf..the bay and its sea life and napa valley..are interesting for scientists ..and the hilly of san fran..are aeco walk for health hearts..or jogs.but you must work on frondlier bike reception for all those.great athletes..knowing how to use the gears on some of those spectacular inclines..it's not easy to leavesan francisco one you have been there..and the regions close buy are very magnetic in their appeal..
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