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.

Alfred Clarke bought the lot in 1890 and completed the house in 1892 for a reputed $100,000. He lost it in 1896 after defaulting on the mortgage, following a costly legal feud with a neighbor over water sales and the loss of his fortune in a national depression. The building later served as a teaching hospital and became the Victor Apartments in 1909, the neighborhood's first apartment building.

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.

Law Keem earned his medical degree at the Maclean Hospital and Sanitarium, headed by Donald Maclean, which taught eclectic medicine; the source calls it the first medical degree awarded to a Chinese person in San Francisco. The building later housed the California General Hospital in 1904.