Black House (Church of Satan)

For other uses, see Black House.

Black House
File:TheBlackHouseCoS.jpg
Basic information
Location	San Francisco, California, United States
Geographic coordinates
Affiliation	Church of Satan
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	church
Architectural description
Specifications

The Black House is a building that formerly stood at 6114 California St. in San Francisco, California, in the United States. The house was used by Anton LaVey as the headquarters of his Church of Satan from 1966 until his death in 1997. LaVey conducted Satanic seminars and rituals at the house; one of the most notorious such rituals was the Satanic baptism of his daughter Zeena Schreck in 1967, punctuated by LaVey speaking the words "Hail Zeena! Hail Satan!" over the nude body of a female acting as the 'Satanic Altar'.

Public ceremonies were performed at the house until 1972. LaVey lost ownership of the house in 1991 as the result of a court settlement resulting from his separation from Diane Hegarty, but LaVey was allowed to reside at the Black House until his death.

Following LaVey's death, members of the Church of Satan unsuccessfully attempted to raise funds to repurchase the house, and it was demolished on October 17, 2001. A duplex now stands in its place.

Though the building is sometimes referred to as a mansion, photographs of the building taken just before its destruction show that it was a moderately sized single family home, considerably smaller than the two small apartment buildings on either side of the property. According to public records, it was listed at 2,205 square feet (204.9 m²) and constructed in the year 1905.

External links

• A letter penned by Blanche Barton in 1999 soliciting donations from Satanists to save the house
• A 1999 article describing the legal battles over the house between LaVey's survivors.