Abandon your old furniture outside of Danielle Steel's house

You've got to get rid of that beer-stained couch before you move out.



The bestselling romance novelist Danielle Steel lives in a 55-room Beaux Arts-style mansion on Washington, at Octavia, in Pacific Heights.



Mere coincidence? Or a cosmic sign that the meeting of your sofa and her sidewalk was written into Destiny's pages by the pen of Fate? You decide.

(If you consult Google's Street View, you'll see that Octavia, being the more minor of the two streets, is probably the better on which to dump the offensive love seat.)


The Spreckels Mansion, as Ms. Steel's residence is known, was built in 1913 by the sugar heir and racehorse owner Adolph Spreckels for his wife, Alma. If you've been to Union Square (or seen the movie The Conversation), it is likely you've seen the likeness of Alma, as she served as the model for this statue. Adolph and Alma also donated the money, and much art, to found the Legion of Honor museum in the Outer Richmond. For more information about Danielle Steel, see this article and interview. (In case you do, and then wonder where else you might have heard the name Tom Perkins, see here for an answer.) . For more information about Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, see this short biography. And for more information on the history of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, see here.