Tours of the Tales

The Duck House

The Duck House, 60 Alta Street

This is another one of Armistead Maupin’s former residences on Telegraph Hill.  Look at the building.  It’s a no-brainer why it was dubbed “The Duck House”.  Maupin’s apartment was the one at street level.  With the success of “Tales of the City” in The San Francisco Chronicle, Armistead decided he needed digs that were a bit more “adult” than the Pentshack he had atop 1138 ½ Union, so he moved here to the Duck House.  

Here at the Duck House Armistead Maupin developed close friendships and formed what he considered his first logical family.  He later dedicated the omnibus collection of his first three books, 28 Barbary Lane, to his family – the residents of the Duck House.  

Maupin once stated that Eleanor Roosevelt had previously lived his apartment with a lady “friend” of hers during WWII. 

There are photos of the interior of the Duck House at MisterSF’s website.