San Francisco Grandeur

What: Seven bedrooms, eight full baths in 11,500 square feet

Where: San Francisco

Amenities: Four-level home with marble floors, crystal chandeliers, stained-glass windows, split staircase, elevator, study with hand-painted barrel ceiling, his and hers master-suite baths, marble and granite fireplaces, safe room, wet bar, media room, koi pond and views of Alcatraz, Angel Island, and Russian and Nob hills.

Asking Price: $15.5 million

Opening Bid*: $14 million

Agent: Louis Silcox, Sotheby's International Realty, 415-296-2229

Due Diligence: Commissioned in 1902 by bank president Isaias Warren Hellman as a wedding gift for his daughter, this home designed by well-known area architect Julius Krafft survived both the 1906 earthquake that ravaged San Francisco and the three-day fire that followed. Set on a hill in Pacific Heights with wide vistas of the Bay, the Classical Revival-style mansion has been the site of many of the city's important social events, including the main reception for the 1945 International Conference that created the United Nations. It also served as the city's designer's showcase in 1991, catching the eye of luxury yacht-builder John M. Roth. He bought the mansion five years later for $5 million, paid $500,000 for its furnishings and paid $4 million to renovate and expand it. But four years ago, business interests took Mr. Roth to Texas and then the East Coast; he now lives in New York. "I rarely visit this house anymore," he says. Although the house is one of most expensive in the area, it's not the priciest; brokers say others are being quietly offered for as much as $29 million.

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*The opening bid is Weekend Journal's estimate of a reasonable starting point for negotiations to buy the property, based on past sales, prevailing market conditions and interviews with local real-estate experts.

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