Mary Balmana
San Francisco resident who submitted the question that prompted the episode and appears on the show describing her curiosity about the Sunnyside Conservatory.
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Mar 2, 2026 • 16min
The Eccentric Personalities Behind Sunnyside Conservatory
Mary Balmana, a longtime San Francisco neighbor curious about a grand hidden Victorian. Katrina Schwartz, journalist who researched and narrated the conservatory’s history. They explore the conservatory’s unusual octagonal redwood structure, its inventor William Merrills and financial drama, secretive later owners, neighborhood rescue efforts, and the long restoration that revived the garden.
