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A shot of the Phelps House, a historic San Francisco home built in 1850 that is being rented as office space.

The Stanyan House was a prefab house before prefab houses became the icon of the American suburbs. SF Supervisor Charles Stanyan ordered the house in New England and had it shipped around the Horn where it was constructed in Lower Pacific Heights in 1854.

The historic Abner Phelps home on Oak St. is up for rent — but if you were hoping to live there, you're out of luck at the moment.

The 1850 home, thought to be the oldest residence in San Francisco, just hit the market as an office rental for $12,000 a month. The three-story property is currently partitioned into eight offices with a dining room, conference room, lounge and showroom. There is also a kitchen and storage space on the ground floor.

The Phelps House has a wonderfully romantic backstory. The home was built in 1850 by lawyer Abner Phelps. Family legend has it that Phelps purchased the entire home in New Orleans to help ease his Southern wife's homesickness. The home was taken apart and shipped in pieces around Cape Horn to be reassembled in San Francisco.

When the home was built, it stood on a 160-acre lot outside of the San Francisco city limits. Phelps rode a horse to his law office every day; the Transamerica Pyramid currently stands on the site of his former office.

According to managing broker Gary Belk, the current tenant has used the home as office space for the last 20 years. The staging photos are decidedly office-y, but the bones of the house are obviously lovely.

The Phelps House is located on 1111 Oak St. For more information about the property, check out the leasing site here or contact Gary Belk at garybelk@gmail.com.

Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor.