3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
There aren’t many good reasons to leave a seven-bedroom San Francisco house empty; in 2026, the idea seems almost perverse. The city’s median rent has risen 25% in the last year, and Mayor Daniel Lurie has declared what he calls a “rent emergency.”
And yet, on one of the grandest blocks in the city, up on Presidio Heights, a house big enough for a large family and its help has seemingly sat empty since the year “The Simpsons” first aired.
The home at 3247 Jackson St. was built in 1910. It rises four levels above the sidewalk, with seven bedrooms, four bathrooms and about 4,250 square feet of space. Its broad gable, bay windows, fluted columns, brick staircases and deep covered entry give it the stately proportions of an old diplomatic residence, which it once was.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
The property is worth around $6.4 million, according to Redfin. Another century-old mansion on the next block sold for $9.6 million earlier this year. Notable neighbors in Presidio Heights, where tall homes look over the park’s eucalyptus canopy toward the Pacific and Golden Gate, include Steve Kerr and A’s owner John Fisher.
In 1981, the Federal Republic of Nigeria acquired the seven-bedroom house at 3247 Jackson St. for $55,000 — that’s $13 per square foot. For 8 years, it was used as a consular residence.
By 1989, Nigeria was in economic crisis and the country owed foreign creditors approximately $33 billion. The government decided to shutter its San Francisco diplomatic mission, but for some reason didn’t sell its San Francisco house. The home soon fell into disrepair and into the hands of squatters.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
City records show numerous building complaints over the years. The first cluster concerned water emerging from the sidewalk, a sump pump flooding the neighboring property, garbage accumulating outside and an allegation that individual rooms in the single-family home were being rented. One complaint to the city in 1998 read, “Garbage thrown outside all over the place. Neighbors are fed up.”
By 2006, the reported problems had become more serious. An inspector cited a decayed rear porch and stairs, deteriorated structural elements, evidence of roof leaks, a missing second-floor bathroom ceiling that exposed lath and plaster, a broken window on the west side of the building and structural problems involving the garage roof.
In 2011, neighbor Serena Ventura told the San Francisco Examiner that she had spent years trying to persuade someone — Nigeria, the city of San Francisco and, eventually, the U.S. State Department — to maintain and secure the building. She described squatters moving in from time to time. After the story drew attention, a private security guard appeared outside.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
The police had noticed, too. A 2012 Richmond station SFPD blotter described the former consulate as abandoned since 1989 and said it had generated numerous calls for service. In August 2011, police found a lone squatter inside who “boldly resisted our officers.” That summer, the city assessed $1,192.40 against the Republic of Nigeria for delinquent code-enforcement costs.
In July 2021, 32 years after abandoning the property, the Nigerian government came up with a plan. The country’s secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said reopening the San Francisco consulate was at an “advanced stage” and predicted it would be running before the end of that year. Nigerian government officials had visited San Francisco the previous month. The reopening was pitched as relief for Nigerians across the West Coast, who otherwise had to travel to Washington, New York or Atlanta for in-person consular services.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
It did not happen. In April 2022, the U.S. State Department said it had received no formal request to reestablish the consulate.
Two years later, President Bola Tinubu approved converting 3247 Jackson into something called the Nigeria Startup House, a digital-technology exchange hub intended to connect Nigerian companies with Bay Area investment and expertise. The Nigerian government said it would retain ownership while an unnamed consortium of Nigerian technology companies financed and managed the operation.
More than two years later, SFGATE could find no public announcement that the hub had opened at 3247 Jackson.
SFGATE attempted to get some answers from the Nigerian embassy and the president’s office but got no response. The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission — a Nigerian federal agency under the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs — said that they weren’t in a position to comment on the house. We also reached out to someone whose name has been connected with the property; he told us he had no idea what we were talking about and to go away.
When SFGATE visited the house last week, it remained impressive from across the street. Walk closer, though, and the small signs of abandonment began to pile up. Dirty curtains or sheets covered nearly every window. The white trim was streaked gray and green. Paint peeled from a side door. Moss darkened the brick steps, tall grass and weeds crowded the lower windows, and an old security company sign was almost swallowed by plants. The garage door was grimy and buckled at one bottom corner.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
3247 Jackson St., San Francisco.
A faded notice sat behind a dirty ground-floor window. “This Building is Occupied,” it declared. The sign identified the owner as the Federal Republic of Nigeria and warned visitors not to trespass. San Francisco Planning told SFGATE that the building was registered as a vacant building in 2012, but couldn’t confirm whether it still has that designation today.
From the sidewalk, there is no obvious sign that anyone lives inside, and nobody answered the door. The broken garage door had clearly not been raised for months. After nearly four decades of complaints, squatters, diplomatic assurances and unrealized plans, the grand house on Jackson Street remains in a peculiar limbo: officially occupied, according to the sign, but otherwise eerily empty.