The ornate Victorian and Edwardian homes that are so representative of San Francisco, California, are usually prohibitively expensive to buy – but that needn’t stop visitors from spending the night there, as many of these classic houses have been converted into inns, reports La Presse.
The Inn on Castro, for example, is housed in a restored Edwardian building and decorated with contemporary furnishings. Located at the corner of Castro and Market Streets in the heart of San Francisco’s gay district, the inn is close to dining, shopping and nightlife. Despite the central location, the rooms are affordable, ranging between $115 to $250 a night.
For those looking for something even more opulent, the Chateau Tivoli offers nine lavishly appointed rooms and suites in a restored Victorian mansion located in San Francisco’s historic Alamo Square district. Rooms cost about $110 to $325 a night.
True Victorian houses are rare in this area, as many of them were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Edwardian homes – built between 1901 and 1910 – were built in their place, but even these were not safe from demolition. Until a preservation act was passed in the ’70s, it was thought easier and more affordable to simply knock down the old homes and rebuild rather than trying to remodel.