A San Francisco Shoe Mogul Gave This $15.5 Million 1908 Mansion a Sophisticated Makeover
Around five years ago, William Roth Martin doled out nearly $8.8 million for a 117-year-old mansion in San Francisco’s affluent Pacific Heights neighborhood, just minutes from Lafayette Park and bustling Fillmore Street. Now the co-founder of Rothy’s—a popular and stylish eco-friendly shoe brand favored by celebs like Meghan Markle, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Emma Roberts—has put his revamped residence back up for sale with Neal Ward of Compass.
The asking price is a dash under $15.5 million, which is a whopping $6.7 million more than he paid in mid-2020. But Martin, who’s also an heir to the wealthy de Young family behind the San Francisco Chronicle and de Young Museum, did spend two years and millions of dollars gut-renovating the handsome circa 1908 abode in collaboration with architect Houman Sharif and builder Clayton Timbrell.
A mostly blue media room topped by a huge skylight comes complete with a library nook and wet bar.
Brian Kitts
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Encompassing four levels serviced by an elevator, the red brick structure features a total of five bedrooms and an equal number of baths. More than 7,200 square feet of Steven Volpe-designed living space boasts bold, colorful rooms, white oak floors, 11-foot ceilings, and five fireplaces. There are also all-new windows, doors, and lighting, along with mechanical, automation, and security systems.
An entrance gallery displaying an eye-catching tree branch chandelier and a curving iron-railed staircase opens into the main level, which is spotlighted by a south-facing living room donning picture windows enhanced with custom Italian silk drapery. From there, an elegant dining room sports a herringbone brick fireplace with an 18th-century surround, a built-in bar with an antique mirror backsplash, and two sets of French doors spilling out to a terrace and a maple-laced garden down below, while the gourmet kitchen is outfitted with Calacatta countertops, rift white oak cabinetry in an ebonized finish, an eat-in island, and top-tier appliances.
The garden was designed by landscape architect Erica Trimbell.
Brian Kitts
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Holding court upstairs is a lounge/office and an en-suite guest bedroom, plus a primary suite that comes with a fireside seating area, dual walk-in closets, and a luxe limestone-clad bath. The topmost floor holds two more bedrooms and a bath, a blue-hued media room with a library nook and a wet bar, and an all-pink solarium that has French-paned windows and a wraparound balcony; and the lower level hosts an additional guest suite, a gym, a laundry room, and an attached three-car garage.
Though Martin stepped down as president of Rothy’s last year, he still helps to create shoes and handbags largely out of plastic water bottles as the chief creative and innovation officer. He and his wife Emily have decided to sell because their four teenage children are now away at boarding school, and the couple has relocated to Texas, where they are renovating a 100-year-old home in the suburbs of San Antonio that was built by Emily’s great-grandfather. “It was the next chapter,” Martin said in a statement, “and something that will be fun for the two of us.”
Click here for more photos of the Pacific Heights residence.
Brian Kitts
Authors
Wendy Bowman
Wendy Bowman is a real estate writer at Robb Report. Before that, she was a freelancer for Modern Luxury and several other media outlets, where she primarily covered luxury properties for…
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