ANNE AND VINCENT CORBIÈRE IN A SAN FRANSISCO HOME DESIGNED BY NICOLE HOLLIS

Don’t get mad, get even - especially in matters of houses and ex-spouses. That seems to have been the message Mary Alice Huntington hoped to send when, in 1910, fresh off her divorce from her railroad-heir ex-husband, the San Fransisco socialite built the architectural equivalent of a revenge dress. The mansion was one of the grandest the city had ever seen, with nine bedrooms over nearly 12,000 square feet.