540 Darien way, Balboa Terrace

Harold Stoner designed 3,565 square foot Storybook Tudor built in 1928. Last sold for $590K in 1995. Current estimates value the property at about $3.2 million.

260 San Leandro Way, Balboa Terrace

Now using the hashtag #fridaysfrontporch!!!! Built in 1922, this lovely Balboa Terrace abode sports a very playful eyebrow'd entry.

125 San Rafael Way, Balboa Terrace

c. 2010

1,455 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bath Period Revival-Storybook style residence built in 1924. Last sold for $1.05 million in 2010. Current estimates value the property at about $1.3 million.

Broker Babble: Designed by celebrated San Francisco architect, Harold G. Stoner, 3 plus BD & 2.5 bath 1924 home is perched on an extraordinary tree-lined block in Balboa Terrace. Unique peaked roofline & storybook facade, exquisite sunken living room + step up gracious dng room. Large Family/Media room located on the main floor off of the kitchen +brkfst room with french doors onto lvly garden and two car garage. Bonus room in basement.

Interior Photos HERE

141 Junipero Serra Blvd, Balboa Terrace

Built in 1935 this 4,138 square foot Period Revival home was designed by Architect Harold Stoner. Last sold for $2.45 million in 2013. Current estimates value the property at $3.7 million.

Why does this house make me think of Disneyland?

c. 1975

241 San Fernando Way, Balboa Terrace

2,640 square foot 3 bedroom 2.5 bath Harold Stoner Storybook home built in 1922. Last sold for $1.505 million in 2011 (94K under asking). Stoner designed more than 60% of the homes in the Balboa Terrace neighborhood.

About Storybook Style — 1920 to 1930s
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Storybook or fairytale style often has much in common with the bungalow, English Cottage, Tudor Revival, or Norman/French Revival styles and is often subsumed in those definitions. Its defining characteristic might best be described at the kind of house you'd imagine Seven Dwarves or some happy Hobbits heading home to at the end of a hard day of work.

Whimsical with towers, turrets, columns, and colonnades, the Storybook house often has mullioned casement windows, arched or half-round doors, stucco siding, half-timbering, and ornate hardware or lighting fixtures. This is a style that makes an extremely charming small house, though replicating such unique hand-crafted and irregular spaces today would be very expensive per square foot.

Design elements might be taken from a variety of folkloric sources, not just English fairytales. Moorish tile and arches from the Arabian Nights, or intricately carved woodwork straight out of the Russian fairy tales about Baba Yaga, would not be out of place.

As with the bungalow and ranch, the Storybook style originated in California. It was the child of the returning WWI veteran, who had discovered the charms of French and English residential architecture, and the Hollywood starlet who contributed her imagination and optimism with childlike enthusiasm.

SALES HISTORY
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1998 $445K
2004 $1.401 million

Interior Photos HERE

More about Harold G. Stoner HERE

245 San Leandro Way, Balboa Terrace

2,182 square foot Spanish Revival style home built in 1933. Current estimates value the property at $1.4 million.

2015-2016 ASSESSMENT AND TAXES
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Assessed at $122,407 Property Taxes $1,437.43