Condemned Victorian Is Now One of San Diego’s Extraordinary Historic Homes

By Kimberly Ridley

Most people would have seen a condemned wreck. Karen Groebli saw a masterpiece waiting to be resurrected. When she purchased the Broderick-Kenny House in 1997, the 1888 Victorian was boarded up and abandoned, its plaster torn from the walls, gas pipes dangling from the ceilings, and its rooms buried beneath debris. But beneath the decay, Groebli recognized the original craftsmanship: ornate millwork, beautiful newel posts, and the engineering of one of San Diego’s earliest residential elevators. She also knew the house had an extraordinary history. Built during San Diego’s late-19th-century boom, the Broderick-Kenny House was the city’s first school of music. What followed was an eight-year labor of preservation, as Groebli, an artist, designer, and preservationist, stripped the house to its studs and painstakingly brought it back to life. The 4,502-square-foot mansion has now been listed for $4.7 million.

Inside, the restoration reveals itself in layers of original architecture and collected history. More than 30 chandeliers and custom sconces illuminate rooms filled with period antiques and unique artifacts, including four decorative columns salvaged from the set of Titanic, exact replicas of columns from the doomed ship’s first-class dining room. Another particularly evocative find is a set of antique stained-glass French doors leading to the hidden saloon and speakeasy. The doors are purported to have come from the Tivoli, one of the oldest bars in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter and a favorite haunt of Wyatt Earp. A dramatic freestanding steel spiral staircase designed by Groebli provides a striking contemporary counterpoint, while the reimagined vintage elevator, complete with its antique cab and scissor gates, recalls the ingenuity of the original water-pressure elevator.

The accommodations are equally distinctive. Two guest suites and a secondary en suite bedroom provide generous space for visitors, while the entire third floor is devoted to the primary suite. Triangulated steel trusses, once concealed behind a drop ceiling, are now exposed, revealing the unusual engineering that supports the upper level. Multiple private decks offer unobstructed views from the San Diego skyline across the harbor to Point Loma and the Pacific, as well as the Coronado Bridge. From here, residents can watch cruise ships leave the harbor and disappear around Point Loma. Outdoors, ornate wrought-iron fencing and gates enclose a secluded backyard. The home is historically designated under the Mills Act, offering potential property tax benefits. Buyers may purchase it furnished or inquire about the adjacent three-unit building.

Historic Bankers Hill, one of San Diego’s earliest upscale neighborhoods, sits immediately beside Balboa Park and north of downtown, placing the home minutes from Little Italy, Petco Park, and San Diego International Airport, with Coronado and La Jolla also within easy reach. The neighborhood’s celebrity connections include Theodore Roosevelt, who visited a Bankers Hill home during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, as well as Muhammad Ali and Sammy Davis Jr., who stayed at the nearby Hawthorne Historic Inn.

The listing is held by Lindsay Dunlap at Compass.

Photo credit: Sam Chen, Aloha Photovideo.

Source: www.compass.com