S.F. priest’s home for sale like ‘a museum’
One-of-a-kind homes usually have unconventional owners, and such is the case with a house that just went up for sale on Portola Drive in San Francisco.
From the outside, it looks like one of those 1930s Spanish-Mediterranean stucco numbers you see strewn across the city, but the inside is filled with custom stained glass, religious art, and reproductions of medieval- and Gothic-style artifacts.
There’s a crossbow and mace, coats of arms and suits of armor — including one holding a roll of toilet paper. There are large decorative urns in the tub, throne-like chairs and a golden, velvety couch that brings to mind the 1970s and cathedral choir stalls.
The walls are adorned with tapestries, including some made by the owner, a Cuban-born Roman Catholic priest and artist who died in his sleep in the home at age 93 in April.
The Rev. Guillermo Rodriguez served the Archdiocese of San Francisco 1955-83, including at St. Patrick’s Parish in San Jose and St. Philip the Apostle in San Francisco, according to a death notice. After retirement, he remained active at the Monastery of the Perpetual Adoration, as a chaplain at St. Mary’s Medical Center and at St. Brendan Catholic Church, which is a block away from his house. One of his tapestries, of the Last Supper, hangs in St. Brendan.
Rodriguez could say Mass in English, Spanish or Latin and often filled in at St. Brendan, said its pastor, the Rev. Mike Quinn, who met Rodriguez in 2009.
“I was stunned when I walked into his house for the first time, I thought, ‘Holy moly,’ ” Quinn said. “I would describe it as a museum. He was proud of his Spanish heritage, so he had knights and swords, and beautiful chalices and religious artifacts.”
He added that Rodriguez, like his house, was a little eccentric. “He had a beret, a cloak, a walking stick” and drove a little black Mazda Miata convertible, mainly because “he wanted something that was easy to get in and out of the garage.”
If he was having dinner with a
bereaved husband who had lost his wife, Rodriguez might pour a glass of wine for her since she was still with him. “He was just a very generous guy. He was unique. He had many gifts and put them all to the service of humankind,” Quinn said.
Daniel James, a friend of Rodriguez and co-trustee of his trust, said he was “very witty” and had a nickname for everyone. “He was a Renaissance man” who spoke six languages, painted in oil and water colors, and later took up intricate needlepoint tapestry.
James said the house is “quite remarkable. I call it the medieval castle. It’s like ‘Harry Potter.’ ”
According to James and a 2016 article in Aleteia, an online Christian publication, Rodriguez was born in Cuba of Spanish parents.
After attending seminary in Spain, he returned to Cuba, where he was ordained in 1956. With some medical training, he tended guerilla fighters trying to overthrow Fulgencio Batista. “He ministered to them physically and spiritually; he was a jack of all trades,” James said.
After rebel leader Fidel Castro came to power and disclosed his belief in communism, Rodriguez spoke out against the ideology, the article said. To escape possible arrest, Rodriguez fled to Miami in 1960, then moved to South Carolina and San Jose before settling in San Francisco.
Diocesan priests, like Rodriguez, do not take a vow of poverty and therefore can own and inherit money and property, according to a spokesperson for the Archdiocese. Most diocesan priests, however, live in parish rectories.
It’s unclear whether Rodriguez helped pay for the home, inherited it or perhaps both.
The last time 999 Portola Drive was sold was in 1974 to Oscar O. Bosley for $53,000, according to public records. When Bosley died in 1995, the property was inherited by “Guillermo Rodriguez Bosley.”
James said Rodriguez told him that Bosley and his now-deceased wife adopted Rodriguez as an adult and that the priest changed his name to Guillermo Rodriguez Bosley, but usually went by Father Guillermo or Father Rodriguez.
In a 2012 article in Catholic San
Francisco, Rodriguez said he bought the home with money he earned selling his paintings.
It is now owned by the Father Guillermo Rodriguez Revocable Trust.
The Miraloma Park home, which has three bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms and nearly 1,500 square feet, is listed at $1,195,000.
“It’s probably the most interesting house I have ever sold. And I used to work in Palm Springs,” said Charles Mader, an agent with Park North Real Estate who listed the house.
The home has not been updated and is being sold “as is,” Mader said.
A house around the corner on Juanita Way — similar but with no suits of armor — sold in June for $1.56 million.
The Rodriguez trust stated that all of his property should remain in the home until it’s sold after his death. James said he believed that Rodriguez wanted his collection to be seen and appreciated.
James said there are 12 beneficiaries of the trust that owns the home, including relatives, longtime friends, and Catholic orders or churches.
The house does not come with the artifacts or furnishings, but anyone interested in items that have not been bequeathed can submit offers of interest, Mader said.