The Pacific Heights estate of late executive David Chamberlain is among the city's priciest homes on the public market
By E.B. Solomont
One of Kathryn Hope's favorite parts of growing up in a house on San Francisco's Gold Coast wasn't its proximity to the famed Presidio park or the Golden Gate Bridge.
"It was a hide-and-seek kind of house," said Hope, whose parents, business executive David Chamberlain and his wife, Karin Chamberlain, purchased the Pacific Heights house for $3.95 million in 1989. Spanning about 9,000 square feet with seven bedrooms, the circa-1890s house has a bookshelf in the foyer that conceals a hidden door into the kitchen.
"It's the first thing my kids show their friends," said Hope, a life coach.
After David and Karin died earlier this year, Hope and her sister, Pamela Kringel, are listing the house for $34.95 million, making it one of the city's priciest public listings.
David was a former CEO of health-supplement maker Shaklee and footwear companies Stride Rite and Genesco.
They did minimal work before moving in, Hope said. Around 2000, the family relocated to Boston for her dad's work, but kept the San Francisco house. "They knew they wanted to come back," she said.
After returning in 2007, the Chamberlains completed a major renovation that involved opening up the kitchen to make a living and dining space with a walkout terrace and adding an elevator that connects all four floors.
Having lived through San Francisco's 1989 earthquake, they shored up the foundation to make the house "impenetrable" and added a two-car garage, Hope said. She said her father was proud of the workmanship in the house and its historic details, such as curved metal balusters.
The sisters are selling because Hope has her own home in San Francisco and Kringel now lives in South Dakota. The Chamberlain house is located on Broadway, a prestigious street where billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs paid around $70 million for a mansion in 2024.
San Francisco's housing market, known for extreme booms and busts, has been on a tear. Fourteen homes have sold for $20 million or more this year, compared with eight last year, said listing agent Neal Ward of Compass. The paucity of available homes is driving prices in the market, and the artificial-intelligence boom is very real, he said.