A 138-year-old Victorian mansion in San Diego's Bankers Hill neighborhood, once condemned and boarded up, has hit the market for $4.5 million after an eight-year restoration that packed it with more than 30 chandeliers, a hidden speakeasy, and kitchen columns salvaged from the set of James Cameron's Titanic. The Broderick-Kenny House at 2133 2nd Ave. spans 4,500 square feet with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, blending its 1888 bones with modern updates throughout.
The home's dramatic turnaround traces back to artist and preservationist Karen Groebli, who bought the abandoned property for $188,500 on August 28, 1997, according to Zillow property records. Before Groebli stepped in, the house had been declared condemned, boarded up, repeatedly vandalized, and stripped of plaster down to its studs, with dangling gas pipes and debris filling the interior, according to Top Ten Real Estate Deals. Groebli spent eight years renovating the property, as reported by Fox 5 San Diego and KUSI News.
From Condemned Shell to Landmark Status
The house wasn't always in such rough shape. Built during San Diego's late-19th-century real estate boom, it once housed the city's first music school and was equipped with one of the city's earliest residential water-pressure elevators — a feature Groebli restored and reimagined using an antique cab and scissor gates, per the same Top Ten Real Estate Deals account. The City of San Diego Historical Resources Board designated the property as San Diego Historic Landmark #136 back on May 4, 1979, according to city records, cementing its protected status roughly two decades before Groebli's restoration began.
That landmark designation also comes with a financial perk for whoever buys the home next. The property benefits from California's Mills Act historic preservation program, which offers local tax reductions ranging from 20% to 70% in exchange for maintaining the home's historic architectural integrity, according to Save Our Heritage Organisation. The Mills Act tax contract automatically transfers to new buyers, meaning whoever closes on the Broderick-Kenny House inherits the savings along with the address.
Titanic Columns and a Wyatt Earp-Linked Speakeasy
Among the home's most talked-about features are four decorative columns in the kitchen, salvaged from the set of Titanic, where they were built as exact replicas of the ocean liner's actual first-class dining room columns, the Top Ten Real Estate Deals report notes. The house also hides a speakeasy behind antique stained-glass French doors that once hung inside the Tivoli Bar and Grill, a Gaslamp Quarter establishment founded in 1885 and famously frequented by frontier lawman Wyatt Earp, according to the same listing coverage.
Groebli's renovation also added a custom freestanding steel spiral staircase and converted the entire third floor into a primary suite with private observation decks overlooking San Diego Bay, the downtown skyline, and the Coronado Bridge. Compass agent Lindsay Dunlap, who has the listing, told Fox 5 San Diego and KUSI News that buyers can purchase the home furnished or bundled with an adjacent three-unit building. The house includes more than 30 chandeliers, custom sconces, multiple decks, and panoramic skyline views, according to the outlet's report.
How the Price Stacks Up in Bankers Hill
At $4.5 million, the Broderick-Kenny House sits well above typical Bankers Hill home values. Single-family homes in the neighborhood posted a year-to-date median sale price of $1,751,069 in early 2026, according to San Diego Association of REALTORS market statistics, making the listing a significant outlier even in a neighborhood known for its historic housing stock.
It isn't the only high-end historic property on the block, though. A neighboring 8-bedroom estate at 2115 2nd Avenue was listed for $6.5 million in August, according to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, pointing to a growing cluster of multimillion-dollar historic homes along the 2nd Avenue corridor. Between the Mills Act savings, the Titanic-linked décor, and the neighborhood's deepening luxury footprint, the Broderick-Kenny House stands as one of the more unusual entries in San Diego's current historic home market.
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