Historic S.F. building — and former Grateful Dead hangout — is seeking a takeover

San Francisco Chronicle​

02-07-2025

Seven years after it inherited the historic Doolan-Larson Building that was central to the Haight-Ashbury counterculture scene in the 1960s, San Francisco Heritage has finally figured out what to do with the three-story cornerstone: turn it over to someone else.
On Aug. 1, the preservationist nonprofit that owns the Haight Street building will take the first step toward leasing it out or forming some other partnership arrangement to create a 'public-serving cultural facility,' according to a website launched for this project.
Called a 'request for concept proposals,' this phase will invite ideas for how best to use all or portions of the 7,500-square-foot property, which consists of six ground-level storefronts with two floors above.
'At this point we want someone who can preserve the building while offering dynamic programming, and being a model of good governance,' said co-project manager Tia Lombardi, who saved the toughest ask on her wish list for last. 'Someone has to have the financial wherewithal to do it.'
That means around $14 million, which was the last estimate for bringing the 1903 building to code for public use.
S.F. Heritage's call for help or, better yet, a full takeover, is an acknowledgement that its own ambitious plans to program the building, announced to great neighborhood fanfare in 2019, have not panned out.
'This will be ground zero for the whole experience of Haight-Ashbury as a neighborhood,' Nancy B. Gille, past president of S.F. Heritage, said at the time. But due to building code and access limitations, it never got past an artist residency program and weekly open houses, which still happen on Thursday afternoons, by reservation.
'We have failed everyone if you can't walk in here and have the experience of what a crash pad looked like in the 1950s and '60s,' Gille said in 2019. 'Or have the experience of just hanging out and listening to Janis (Joplin) or Jimi (Hendrix).'
Located on the northwest corner of Haight and Ashbury, the former rooming house is marked by a giant jewelry store clock that hangs on the corner with its hands frozen on the stoner time of 4:20. This was a favorite backdrop for band photos, particularly the Grateful Dead, who lived just up Ashbury Street and often hung out in the storefront occupied by Peggy Caserta's boutique Mnasidika, where Joplin got her stage threads on the cheap.
Doolan-Larson was already a city landmark when Norm Larson left it to S.F. Heritage upon his death in 2018. Currently assessed at $5.4 million for tax purposes, it became the second property in the S.F. Heritage portfolio, after the Victorian Haas-Lilienthal House in Pacific Heights, gifted to it in 1973.
Now Haas-Lilienthal is a house museum in a quiet neighborhood that attracts more than 10,000 paid visitors a year. The hope of storefront operators is that Doolan-Larson can attract that same foot traffic to the corner of Haight and Ashbury.
'I hope it (Doolan-Larson) activates the neighborhood and provides opportunities for collaborations with us,' said Jerry Cimino, who opened the Counterculture Museum on the opposite corner last May. 'There is a hell of a story to tell about this neighborhood.'
That story will continue the weekend of Aug. 1-3 when Dead & Co., featuring surviving Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, will play three afternoon shows at the Polo Field in honor of the band's 60th anniversary. All three days are sold out. The call for proposals is timed to those shows, in hopes of creating an ancillary buzz about Doolan-Larson.
'They need someone to finance it,' said music historian and writer Ben Fong-Torres, who was part of the opening press conference in 2019. 'It comes down to the bread. It always does.'
The major expense is installing an elevator, which is a code requirement. The residential portion of the building is accessed by a narrow door on Ashbury Street and a narrower staircase to the parlor floor.
'It's impossible to imagine anybody being able to run a public-serving facility without an elevator,' said Lombardi. S.F. Heritage has explored this option and estimates ran to $14 million.
'Hence the call for ideas,' Lombardi said. 'It will take a big-hearted effort to do something really good at this corner.'
There could be a small scale lodging or food component, even a bar as part of a larger concept, Lombardi said.
Proposals are due Oct. 31, and the board of San Francisco Heritage has employed consultant Brent Glass, former director of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian to sort through the candidates. Matchmaking might be involved to secure the most viable final proposal. Finalists will advance to a formal proposal stage starting in December.
The six storefronts will be part of the deal, depending upon the terms of their individual leases.
S.F. Heritage is not anticipating a direct role in the future plan, whatever it may be. If none of the proposals embrace the historical and cultural significance of the corner of Haight and Ashbury, the nonprofit will wait and try again. It owns the house outright and collects rent on the storefronts, so the building has positive cash flow.
In the meantime, the neighborhood story is being told by artist-in-residence Linda Kelly, editor of the Haight Street Voice, a community magazine. She is streaming 'Haight Ashbury Radio' from the front parlor, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, through the end of the year.
She'll interview guests about the future possibilities for Doolan-Larson.
'It's a tricky one,' said Kelly, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1982. 'Without sounding too hippy dippy, occupying the Doolan-Larson Building to keep the ethos of Haight-Ashbury going means the world to me.'