Alfred E. Clarke Mansion, Historic mansion in Eureka Valley, San Francisco, United States
The Alfred E. Clarke Mansion is a four-story building at 250 Douglass Street in the Eureka Valley neighborhood of San Francisco. Its exterior is covered with alternating scalloped and plain shingles, and several towers rise above the roofline, giving the house a shape typical of Victorian architecture.
The house was built in 1891 by Alfred Clarke, an Irish immigrant who had worked for the San Francisco Police Department for around three decades. It survived the 1906 earthquake and the fires that followed, when much of the surrounding area was destroyed.
The name comes from Alfred Clarke, an Irish immigrant who had the house built in the late 19th century. In its neighborhood, such grand residences were a visible sign of social success at a time when San Francisco was growing fast.
The building is used today as a residential complex and is not open to the public. The detailed wooden facade with its towers and patterned shingles is best seen from the sidewalk, where you can take your time looking at the exterior.
For a short time around 1900, the building served as the California Medical College, where Law Keem earned one of the first medical degrees awarded to a person of Chinese origin in San Francisco. This little-known chapter connects the house to an early moment in Asian American medical history.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
