Jack London's House

Built in 1897 for Richard Spreckels, a scion of San Francisco's sugar dynasty, this Colonial Revival mansion was considered strikingly simple and modern for its time. It became a magnet for creative legend: Jack London owned and lived here, writing White Fang on the premises in 1906, and the sharp-tongued journalist and satirist Ambrose Bierce was also among its early residents.

By the 1960s the ballroom had been converted into Buena Vista Studios, one of the first genuinely hippie-friendly recording spaces in the city. The Grateful Dead laid down their first demos here in June 1966 — tracks now preserved on the Birth of the Dead compilation. No one enjoyed the session much, but it mattered for more than one reason: it was the first time the Grateful Dead recorded under that name, and it was the catalyst for recording engineer Bob Matthews realizing his destiny. As he put it: "That was when I became enamored with recording as a function and a process in the legacy of any given live performance of the Grateful Dead."

Tenor Wayne Clark — a member of The Lamplighters, San Francisco's resident Gilbert and Sullivan company — was living in the mansion in the mid-1960s when he was cast in the first national tour of Hello, Dolly! via an unusually direct route. A fellow resident, dancer Jud Stoddard, mentioned him to producer Terry DeMari after two scheduled tenors failed to appear at the Curran Theater. Invited onstage from the dark of the audience and asked if he could read music, Clark performed the score and was measured for costumes the same afternoon. He played Louie the head waiter for roughly two and a half years, starting alongside Carol Channing and continuing under Eve Arden.

Actor and producer Danny Glover — known for the Lethal Weapon series, The Color Purple, and as co-founder of Louverture Films — purchased the property in 1990. The house sits beside Buena Vista Park, the city's oldest official park, laid out in 1867.