San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, in the US state of
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, has both major, well-known neighborhoods and districts as well as smaller, specific subsections and developments. While there is considerable fluidity among the sources, one guidebook identifies five major districts, corresponding to the four quadrants plus a south central district. These five broad districts, counterclockwise are: Central/downtown, Richmond, Sunset, Upper Market and beyond (south central) and Bernal Heights/Bayview and beyond (southeast). Within each of these five districts are located major neighborhoods, and again there is considerable fluidity seen in the sources. The San Francisco Planning Department officially identifies 36 neighborhoods. Within these 36 official neighborhoods are a large number of minor districts, some of which are historical, and some of which are overlapping.
Some of San Francisco's neighborhoods are also officially designated as "
cultural districts."
Alamo Square
Alamo Square is a subset of the Western Addition neighborhood. Its boundaries are not well-defined, but are generally considered to be Webster Street on the east, Golden Gate Avenue on the north, Divisadero Street on the west, and Oak Street on the south. It is characterized by Victorian architecture that was left largely untouched by the urban renewal projects in other parts of the Western Addition. On a clear day, the
Transamerica Pyramid
The Transamerica Pyramid is a 48-story futurist skyscraper in San Francisco, California, United States, and the second tallest building in the San Francisco skyline. Located at 600 Montgomery Street between Clay and Washington Streets in the c ...
building and the tops of the
Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge can be seen from the park's center. San Francisco's City Hall can be seen directly down Fulton Street. A row of Victorian houses facing the park on Steiner Street, known as the
painted ladies
In American architecture, painted ladies are Victorian and Edwardian houses and buildings repainted, starting in the 1960s, in three or more colors that embellish or enhance their architectural details. The term was first used for San Francisco ...
, are often shown in the foreground of panoramic pictures of the city's downtown area.
Anza Vista
Ashbury Heights
Ashbury Heights is a neighborhood on the hill to the south of the
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
neighborhood. It is at the base of
Tank Hill and neighboring
Cole Valley
Cole Valley is a small neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It borders Golden Gate Park to the north, Haight-Ashbury to the northeast, The Castro to the east. and Twin Peaks to the south. Near Kezar Stadium, Cole Valley is the smallest ne ...
.
Balboa Hollow
Balboa Hollow is a neighborhood within the
Inner Richmond District of San Francisco, centered around the City recognized
Inner Balboa Street Neighborhood Commercial District. West of Park-Presidio Boulevard and bordering
Golden Gate Park’s northeast corner, Balboa Hollow is the gateway to the main park attractions, including the
de Young Museum
The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the California Pala ...
,
California Academy of Science
The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...
,
Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers is a greenhouse and botanical garden that houses a collection of rare and exotic plants in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. With construction having been completed in 1879, it is the oldest building in the ...
,
Music Concourse
The Music Concourse is an open-air plaza within Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Flanking the oval-shaped concourse are the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and the California Academy of Sciences.
History
Originally excavated for the Californ ...
, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
Balboa Terrace
Balboa Terrace is a small residential neighborhood in southwestern San Francisco bounded by
Junipero Serra Boulevard
Junipero Serra Boulevard is a major boulevard in and south of San Francisco named after Franciscan friar Junipero Serra. Within the city, it forms part of the route of State Route 1, the shortest connection between Interstate 280 and the Golden ...
, Monterey Boulevard, Aptos Avenue and Ocean Avenue along the southern edge of the exclusive
St. Francis Wood development.
The Bayview
The Bayview stretches along
Third Street south of Evans Avenue, west of the
Hunters Point neighborhood. The neighborhood library was recently renamed the Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library after a new and larger building was constructed at the same location on Third Street and Revere. Within a block or two of the library are three urban gardens and public art projects, developed entirely by residents, known as the Quesada Gardens Initiative (the Quesada Garden, Bridgeview Garden, and Latona Garden). The Bayview is known for its friendly and diverse residents, warm weather and inviting vistas, community gardens, independent businesses, artists' community, and rich history as an African American and working-class neighborhood. During the 1950s it was largely an
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
,
Maltese and French
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
neighborhood, centered on St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church and the Maltese American Social Club, both on Oakdale Avenue. The Bayview district was known as “Butcher Town” because of the slaughterhouse on Third Street. The area is served by the
T-Third light rail line, and is home to the
Bayview Opera House
The Bayview Opera House, formerly known as South San Francisco Opera House, is a theatre at 4705 3rd Street in Bayview-Hunters Point district, San Francisco. Founded in 1888, it is reputed to be the oldest existing theatre in the city. From 2014 ...
and
City College Evans and Southeast Campus. The area is undergoing rapid development as the City tries to meet the demands of population growth and corporate investors have revalued the relatively large amount of buildable land.
Hunters Point Shipyard
The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city.
Originally, Hunters Point was a commercial shipyard established ...
and
Candlestick Park
Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Francisco's Bayview Heights area. The stadium was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 ...
areas are primary centers of development in the neighborhood. Despite its diversity, residents have a long history of coming together to create change and protect neighborhood assets. The Bayview Footprints Network maintains the neighborhood's longest-running blog, and the ''
San Francisco Bay View
The ''San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper'' is an online and print newspaper, published in San Francisco, California. It covers events from an African-American perspective, with a focus on Black liberation and coverage of worldwide r ...
'' is the local newspaper. Hunters Point Shipyard, a former
Superfund site, and a polluting power plant have been focal points for environmental activists. The neighborhood was highly organized during the
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
, led by social justice advocates such as Julia Commer, Osceola Washington, Ruth Williams, Rosie Williams,
Elouise Westbrook
Elouise Westbrook (1915-2011) was an American housing rights and health activist in San Francisco. She was one of five activists that made up the Big Five of Bayview.
Life and career
Westbrook was born in Gatesville, Texas in 1915. She moved to S ...
, Essie Webb, Espanola Jackson, Shirley Jones, and Alex Pitcher. Sam Jordan, boxing champion and tavern owner, was the first African American to run for Mayor of San Francisco.
Belden Place
A small neighborhood near the Financial District, being the historical location of the French Quarter in San Francisco.
Bernal Heights
Bernal Heights is a neighborhood perched on a hill in between the Mission district, Bayview, and the Portola district. The neighborhood is known for its community feeling and progressive vibe. The majority of the neighborhood is white, but there are significant Southern Italian, Latino and African American populations in the area as well. The main shopping area in Bernal Heights is Cortland Avenue, with a variety of storefronts that include a
health food store
A health food store (or health food shop) is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of fo ...
, a community center, a yoga studio, bars, bakeries, and restaurants. Many of the quaint, hilly streets in the neighborhood are so narrow that two cars cannot pass in opposite directions without one car pulling over to the side of the road.
Buena Vista
The Buena Vista neighborhood surrounds
Buena Vista Park, south of the
Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
neighborhood.
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
is to the south, and Corona Heights Park and neighborhood is to the east.
Butchertown (old and new)
![China Basin and Old Butchertown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/China_Basin_and_Old_Butchertown.jpg)
Butchertown (new) (see
Islais Creek) is an industrial neighborhood in San Francisco that historically housed the city's slaughterhouses. It is one of the few remaining industrial sectors of San Francisco.
Originally, Butchertown extended into the neighborhood now known as
Dogpatch
Dogpatch was the fictional setting of cartoonist Al Capp's classic comic strip ''Li'l Abner'' (1934–1977).
''Li'l Abner'' comic strip
The inhabitants of Dogpatch were mostly lazy hillbillies, who usually wanted nothing to do with progress. ...
. Today's street borders are Cesar Chavez to the north,
Interstate 280 to the west, Industrial Street and Oakdale Avenue to the south, and
3rd Street to the east. There are still two meat rendering plants in the neighborhood, and until pollution control measures were taken in 1995 the stench was still quite apparent. Butchertown is also headquarters to San Francisco's only active freight railroad, the San Francisco Bay Railroad, a Class 3 short-line carrier.
Old Butchertown was along the shores of
Mission Creek
Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since bee ...
on Mission Bay. Mission Bay, was subsequently to become the land-filled
Mission Bay neighborhood.
The Castro
Cathedral Hill
Cathedral Hill is a small area in the
Western Addition
The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States.
Location
The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights.
...
neighborhood surrounding
Saint Mary's Cathedral on
Geary Boulevard
Geary Boulevard (designated as Geary Street east of Van Ness Avenue) is a major east–west thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, United States, beginning downtown at Market Street near Market Street's intersection with Kearny Street, an ...
near Gough Street. The
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco
The Archdiocese of San Francisco (Latin: ''Archdiœcesis Sancti Francisci''; Spanish: ''Archidiócesis de San Francisco'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the Unite ...
and
Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, commonly known as SHC or SH, is a Catholic school located in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Founded in 1852, Sacred Heart Cathedral is the oldest Catholic secondary school and wa ...
are located in Cathedral Hill.
The Cathedral Hill Hotel, a historic building previously named the
Jack Tar Hotel, was closed on October 30, 2009 and was demolished in 2014 to make room for an expansion of the
California Pacific Medical Center
Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) is a general medical/surgical and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California. It was created by a merger of some of the city's longest established hospitals and currently operates three a ...
.
China Basin
![MissionCreekMarsh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/MissionCreekMarsh.jpg)
China Basin is a neighborhood built on
landfill along the
San Francisco Bay. It lies north of
Mission Creek
Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since bee ...
and the
Mission Bay neighborhood, and includes
Oracle Park, home of the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
, numerous restaurants, and the
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...
railroad station. It borders on the South-of-Market (SOMA) neighborhood to the northwest and the
South Beach neighborhood to the north. The term China Basin also refers to the body of water from which the neighborhood takes its name. This inlet where Mission Creek flows into the bay, home to a number of houseboats, was once an active
industrial waterfront, though in recent decades the shore has been developed with residential condominiums. The portion of the waterway adjacent to the ballpark is often referred to as
McCovey Cove
McCovey Cove is the unofficial name of a section of San Francisco Bay beyond the right field wall of Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, named after famed Giants first baseman Willie McCovey. The proper name for the cove is China Bas ...
, named after
Willie McCovey
Willie Lee McCovey (January 10, 1938 – October 31, 2018), nicknamed "Stretch", "Mac" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980, most notably as a mem ...
of the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
. The China Basin Heliport (
IATA code
IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respect ...
JCC), used by the
SFPD Aero Division until the division was disbanded, was located near the waterfront in the neighborhood.
Chinatown
Civic Center
Clarendon Heights
The Clarendon Heights neighborhood is in the central part of San Francisco, to the north of
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...
and east of
Mount Sutro
Mount Sutro is a hill in central San Francisco, California. It was originally named Mount Parnassus.
Geography
The low mountain is in elevation. Mount Sutro is one of the many named hills within San Francisco, and among its original "Seven Hill ...
. It stretches down to Corbett Avenue or
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
, and Clarendon Avenue borders the north and west side.
Cole Valley
Cole Valley is a small neighborhood tucked into a u-shaped valley. Frederick Street is the northern boundary, Stanyan Street on the west, Clayton Street on the east, and the foothill (Belgrave Street) of Twin Peaks on the south.
Sometimes referred to as a subsection of the Haight district, Cole Valley's main street is at Cole and Carl streets, where Cole Hardware, Luke's Local and La Boulangerie cafe anchor the neighborhood, with Tank Hill in the southeast corner with views toward the ocean, Marin and the eastern half of the city.
Corona Heights
The Corona Heights neighborhood is a small affluent district in San Francisco that surrounds the
Corona Heights hill and park, south of
Buena Vista Park and west of the
Duboce Triangle
The Duboce Triangle is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, located below Buena Vista Park and between the neighborhoods of the Castro/Eureka Valley, the Mission District, and the Lower Haight.
According to the 2010 neighborhoods map of ...
. The
Randall Museum is located at the end of Museum Way, in Corona Heights Park. It is roughly bordered by Museum Way to the north, Castro to the east, Clayton to the west, and Market to the south. Corona Heights is officially designated as part of District 5 (Central), subdistrict G, also known as neighborhood 5g, by the San Francisco Association of Realtors. The community is in close proximity to
The Castro
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood through ...
neighborhood.
Cow Hollow
Cow Hollow is a generally affluent neighborhood located between
Russian Hill
Russian Hill is a Neighborhoods in San Francisco, California, neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is named after one of List of San Francisco, California Hills, San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills".
Location ...
and the
Presidio
A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...
and bordering the
Marina District on one side and Pacific Heights on the other. The land was used for cow grazing (as its name would imply) and a settlement for fishermen (the coastline was much closer to this area than it is now). The main shopping thoroughfare is Union Street, known for its restaurants, boutique shopping, health spas, and wellness centers.
Crocker-Amazon
Design District
The Design District is located in the low-lying area between Townsend Street and 16th Street, west of Mission Bay. It is a mixed industrial-office-retail area, with a concentration of showrooms and upscale shops, as well as the San Francisco campus of the
California College of the Arts
California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in Sa ...
.
Diamond Heights
Dogpatch
The "Dogpatch" is a neighborhood in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, roughly half industrial and half residential. It was initially a working-class neighborhood, but has experienced rapid gentrification since the 1990s. Now it boasts similar demographics to its western neighbor
Potrero Hill
Potrero Hill is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is known for its views of the San Francisco Bay and city skyline, its proximity to many destination spots, its sunny weather, and having two freeways and a Caltrain stat ...
– an upper middle-class working professional neighborhood.
Dogpatch was originally part of Potrero Nuevo and its history is closely tied to Potrero Hill. Dogpatch has its own neighborhood association but shares a merchant association, Democratic caucuses, and general neighborhood matters with Potrero Hill.
Dolores Heights
Dolores Heights is a hilly neighborhood named after the eponymous hill within the neighborhood. It borders the
Castro
Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''.
...
to the north,
Dolores Park
Mission Dolores Park, often abbreviated to Dolores Park, is a city park in San Francisco, California. It is located two blocks south of Mission Dolores at the western edge of the Mission District.
Dolores Park is bounded by 18th Street on the nort ...
to the east,
Noe Valley to the south, and
Upper Market to the west. Parts of it are so steep that the
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...
J Church line has to be routed through Dolores Park and into the Liberty Hill area before rejoining Church Street in Noe Valley at 22nd street.
Many streets within Dolores Heights are dead-end
cul de sac
A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet.
The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...
s connected by steep staircases with beautiful views. It is an affluent and quiet neighborhood with a mixture of
Victorians, apartment buildings, and detached houses. In part due to its elevation, Dolores Heights does not have a visible homeless population as much as the Castro and the
Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
. Benefiting from
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company, ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cance ...
blocking the strong winds and fog found almost year-round in San Francisco, Dolores Heights remains relatively warm, sunny, and fog-free.
Duboce Triangle
The Embarcadero
Eureka Valley
The neighborhood known as "Eureka Heights" refers to the hill streets above Eureka Valley to the west, bounded by Market Street to the north and west, Douglas Street to the east, and 22nd Street to the south. Kite Hill park falls within the boundary of the Eureka Heights neighborhood and has beautiful views of San Francisco. It's also the geographic "center" of the city.
The Excelsior
The Fillmore
The Financial District
The Financial District South
This new neighborhood stretches from Market to Brannan and Main to 3rd Streets, and will be anchored by the new
Transbay Transit Center
The Transbay Transit Center (officially the Salesforce Transit Center for sponsorship purposes) is a transit station in downtown San Francisco. It serves as the primary bus terminal — and potentially as a future rail terminal — for the San ...
. This neighborhood is adjacent to
Yerba Buena
Yerba buena or hierba buena is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family. ''Yerba buena'' translates as "good herb". The specific plant species regarded as ''yerba buena'' varies from region to regi ...
.
Fisherman's Wharf
Forest Hill
Forest Knolls
Forest Knolls is a neighborhood within the Inner Sunset built on the southwestern side of
Mount Sutro
Mount Sutro is a hill in central San Francisco, California. It was originally named Mount Parnassus.
Geography
The low mountain is in elevation. Mount Sutro is one of the many named hills within San Francisco, and among its original "Seven Hill ...
, near the main
UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...
campus. Warren Drive is the southern and western border, Mount Sutro is the northern border and the Midtown Terrace neighborhood is to the east. Homes are mostly fully detached and many have views of the San Francisco Bay or Pacific Ocean.
Glen Park
Golden Gate Heights
Golden Gate Heights is a hilly neighborhood south of the Inner Sunset and northwest of
Forest Hill. It is roughly bordered by Kirkham Street to the north, Rivera Street to the south, 8th Avenue to the east and 17th Avenue to the west.
Grand View Park
Grandview Park, also referred to as Turtle Hill by local residents, is a small, elevated park in the Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset District, San Francisco, California. It is surrounded by 14th and 15th Avenues, as well as Noriega Street.
...
is a park on a hill on the northern side of the neighborhood; Golden Gate Heights Park and Hawk Hill Park are on hills on the southern side of the neighborhood. The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps are a local attraction near
Grand View Park
Grandview Park, also referred to as Turtle Hill by local residents, is a small, elevated park in the Sunset District, San Francisco, Sunset District, San Francisco, California. It is surrounded by 14th and 15th Avenues, as well as Noriega Street.
...
. Golden Gate Heights has 14 blocks of stairways and more than 2,500 stair
The Haight
Hayes Valley
Hunters Point
India Basin
Ingleside
The Ingleside neighborhood is located in the southwestern part of San Francisco, near
City College of San Francisco, City College. It is bordered by Ocean Avenue to the north, Ashton Avenue to the west, Lakeview Avenue to the south and
Interstate 280 to the east. The Ingleside Library is located on Ocean Avenue at Plymouth, and the
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes on of rapid transit lines, including a spur line in eastern Contra Costa County which uses ...
Balboa Park Station is at the edge of the neighborhood on Geneva Avenue at I-280 toward San Jose Ave. The neighborhood is served by three Muni rail lines and several bus lines. The commercial center of the neighborhood runs along Ocean Avenue, which offers a range of shopping and dining institutions. The Lakeview and Ashton Mini Park is capped by a rocky outcropping providing views of the ocean and all directions.
Ingleside Terraces
Ingleside Terraces is an affluent neighborhood of approximately 750 homes built at the former location of the Ingleside Racetrack in the southwestern part of San Francisco. It is adjacent to the Ingleside neighborhood, and is bordered by Ocean Avenue to the north, Ashton Avenue to the east, Holloway Avenue to the south and
Junipero Serra Boulevard
Junipero Serra Boulevard is a major boulevard in and south of San Francisco named after Franciscan friar Junipero Serra. Within the city, it forms part of the route of State Route 1, the shortest connection between Interstate 280 and the Golden ...
to the west. The main local event that occurs is the Annual Sundial Park Picnic, in which the local residents host bicycle, chariot, and wagon racing. There is a large
sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
located on Entrada Court, surrounded by
oval
An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...
-shaped Urbano Drive, which was once a horse race track.
The Inner Sunset
The Inner Sunset is the northeasternmost corner of the
Sunset District
The Sunset District is a neighborhood located in the southwest quadrant of San Francisco, California, United States.
Location
The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park forms the ...
. The commercial district around 9th Avenue and Irving Street is its general center. The neighborhood features the historic Catholic church, St. Anne of the Sunset, which was the original Catholic parish for the Sunset District and has stood at 14th and Judah for more than 100 years. The Inner Sunset is west of Stanyan Street, south of
Golden Gate Park, and north of Kirkham Street (the northern border for Golden Gate Heights) but may encompass some parts south all the way to Ortega (at 8th and 9th Avenues). Today, most would place the Inner Sunset's western border at 19th Avenue. However, historically, the Inner Sunset's borders extend out to 20th Avenue where the former Market Street Railway Company's #17 line used to run.
Irish Hill
Islais Creek
Also called Islais Landing, see
Butchertown (Old and New))
Jackson Square
A six-block neighborhood, adjacent to the North Beach and Chinatown located immediately north of the Transamerica Pyramid.
Japantown
Jordan Park
Jordan Park is a small neighborhood in the northern portion of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, bordered by Arguello Boulevard to the west, Geary Boulevard to the south, California Street to the north and Parker Avenue to the east. It is sometimes included as part of the Laurel Heights neighborhood or the Inner Richmond.
Laguna Honda
Laguna Honda (or Forest Hill Extension) is a small neighborhood between
Forest Hill and
Mount Davidson. Laguna Honda Hospital and the
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...
Forest Hill Station are both located at the neighborhood's northeast corner near the intersection of Laguna Honda Boulevard and Dewey Boulevard.
Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts
The Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, is a public alternative high school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1982 and is part of the San Francisco Unified School District.
History
For many years, Rut ...
high school, (SOTA) is in the southeast corner of the neighborhood on Portola Drive.
Lake Street
The Lake Street neighborhood is bounded by the Presidio of San Francisco to the north (including Mountain Lake Park and the Presidio Golf Course), Presidio Heights to the east (Arguello Boulevard), the Inner Richmond to the south (California Street), and Sea Cliff to the west (27th Avenue). It offers large and traditional San Franciscan homes including many grand Edwardians, Victorians, and Queen Annes. The Lake Street neighborhood provides ease of access to commercial strips on Geary, Clement and California streets in the Richmond, points north and south via Route 1, the Golden Gate Bridge, biking and hiking trails in the Presidio and Lincoln Park, and the Legion of Honor Museum.
Its name is derived from its proximity to Mountain Lake, one of the few remaining natural lakes in San Francisco, and Lake Street, the neighborhood's northernmost east-west artery. Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza ended his second northward expedition at the lake, stopping for two days in 1776. While here he located a site for the Spanish presidio that was later built. A plaque was placed in September 1957 near the point where he stayed.
Lakeside
Lakeside is a long, narrow neighborhood between 19th Avenue located in San Francisco. (
Highway 1) and
Junipero Serra Boulevard
Junipero Serra Boulevard is a major boulevard in and south of San Francisco named after Franciscan friar Junipero Serra. Within the city, it forms part of the route of State Route 1, the shortest connection between Interstate 280 and the Golden ...
to the south of Sloat Boulevard.
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
and the
Stonestown Galleria shopping mall are both located opposite the neighborhood on 19th Avenue, and the Merced Library is located in the Lakeside on Stonecrest Drive at Winston Drive.
Lakeshore
The Lakeshore district is bounded by Sloat Blvd, 26th Avenue, Gellert Drive and Lake Merced. Lakeshore is west of Stonestown, south of Parkside, west of Lakeside, and east of the Zoo. Lowell High School and Lakeshore Elementary are located in Lakeshore. Lakeshore Plaza is also located here.
Laurel Heights
Laurel Heights is a neighborhood to the south of the
Presidio
A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...
and the Presidio Heights neighborhood, the east of the
Richmond District, and the west of the Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood. It is bordered by
Geary Boulevard
Geary Boulevard (designated as Geary Street east of Van Ness Avenue) is a major east–west thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, United States, beginning downtown at Market Street near Market Street's intersection with Kearny Street, an ...
or the
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...
campus to the south, Arguello Boulevard to the west, California Street to the north and Presidio Avenue to the east. The Laurel Village shopping center is located on California between Laurel and Spruce, the
California Pacific Medical Center
Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) is a general medical/surgical and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California. It was created by a merger of some of the city's longest established hospitals and currently operates three a ...
is on California between Arguello and Maple, and a
UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...
campus is located in the northeastern corner of the neighborhood.
Lincoln Manor
Little Hollywood
Little Hollywood is a small neighborhood in the southeastern edge of San Francisco. It is centered around Blanken Avenue between Bayshore Boulevard and
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
. Little Hollywood Park is located on Lathrop Avenue, and the Bayshore
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...
station is just south of the neighborhood, on Tunnel Avenue.
Little Russia
Little Russia is a concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants along Geary Boulevard between the Russian Cathedral of the Holy Virgin at 27th Avenue and the Russian Renaissance restaurant at 17th Avenue, in the Richmond District, both established in the 1920s. The term is in local unofficial use. It is the heart of San Francisco's 80,000 Russian-Americans. The neighborhood was established in the 1920s, with subsequent arrivals in the 1940s, 1950s (from China and the Philippines) and the "Third Wave" in the 1970s and 1980s. Additional limited immigration took place after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and 2000s.
Little Saigon
Lone Mountain
The Lower Haight
Lower Pacific Heights
Lower Pacific Heights is located between Pine Street on the north and Geary Boulevard on the south. The area borders Japantown to the east, the Western Addition to the south, Pacific Heights to the north and Laurel Heights to the west.
Lower Nob Hill
Lower Nob Hill is the southern side of
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...
, and generally bounded by Geary Street to the south, California Street to the north, Larkin Street to the west, and Powell Street to the east. This area of Nob Hill was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake as a fireproof multi-story walk-to-work residential area
and is considered to be part of Nob Hill. Lower Nob Hill is also home to the first high-rise condominium in California. A region of the neighborhood is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as the
Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District.
The successful nomination was written by architectural historian Anne Buenger Bloomfield in 1991.
The Marina
Merced Heights
Merced Heights, also known as Lakeview, is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the city, west of the Ingleside and Oceanview neighborhoods. It is bordered to the south by Brotherhood Way, to the west by
Junipero Serra Boulevard
Junipero Serra Boulevard is a major boulevard in and south of San Francisco named after Franciscan friar Junipero Serra. Within the city, it forms part of the route of State Route 1, the shortest connection between Interstate 280 and the Golden ...
, to the north by Holloway Avenue, and to the east by Orizaba Avenue. The Oceanview Library is located on Randolph Street at Ramsell Street, and there are two public parks on Shields Street. Brooks Park is at Arch Street, and Merced Heights Playground is at Byxbee Street. There is also a "mini-park" at Randolph and Bright. At an elevation of , the Shields Orizaba Rocky Outcrop is the highest point in Merced Heights.
Merced Manor
Merced Manor is a neighborhood in southwestern San Francisco, between
Stern Grove and
Lake Merced
Lake Merced ( es, Laguna de Merced) is a freshwater lake in the southwest corner of San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California. It is surrounded by three golf courses (the private Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club, and the public TPC Har ...
. It is bordered by 19th Avenue (
State Route 1) to the east, Sloat Boulevard to the north, 26th Avenue to the west and Eucalyptus Drive to the south.
Lowell High School is located on Eucalyptus Drive, and the Merced Manor reservoir is on Sloat between 22nd and 23rd Avenues. The
Stonestown Galleria shopping mall and
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
are both on 19th Avenue to the south of Merced Manor.
Midtown Terrace
Midtown Terrace is a neighborhood in central San Francisco, on the western slope of
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...
. Created as a single housing development in the late 1950s. Clarendon Avenue where it joins Twin Peaks Boulevard borders the neighborhood on the north and west. Panorama Drive winds through the neighborhood. Portola Drive borders the neighborhood's southern edge.
Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower is a unique three-legged tall TV and radio lattice tower located in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro near Clarendon Heights, it is a prominent feature of the city skyline and a landma ...
is on the northern side of Midtown Terrace, and the winding portion of Twin Peaks Boulevard that takes viewers to the Twin Peaks lookout forms the neighborhood's eastern edge. The Midtown Terrace Recreation Center is on Olympia Way at Clarendon. Views include the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco, Mount Davidson and Twin Peaks.
Mid-Market
Miraloma Park
The Miraloma Park neighborhood is in the central part of San Francisco, between
Glen Canyon Park
Glen Canyon Park is a city park in San Francisco, California. It occupies about along a deep canyon adjacent to the Glen Park, Diamond Heights, and Miraloma Park neighborhoods. O'Shaughnessy Hollow is a rugged, undeveloped tract of parklan ...
and
Mount Davidson. Portola Drive borders Miraloma Park to the north, and the neighborhood of Sunnyside is to the south. Miraloma Playground is located on Omar Way at Rockdale, and Sunnyside Playground is south of Teresita Boulevard near Foerster Street.
Mission Bay
The Mission Bay neighborhood is built on
landfill located on San Francisco Bay south of Townsend Street, east of Interstate 280 and north of Mariposa Street. The new
UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...
research campus at Mission Bay is part of the rapid growth of a new neighborhood of office buildings and luxury condominiums being built in an area that was formerly an industrial area dominated by rail yards. The
Dogpatch
Dogpatch was the fictional setting of cartoonist Al Capp's classic comic strip ''Li'l Abner'' (1934–1977).
''Li'l Abner'' comic strip
The inhabitants of Dogpatch were mostly lazy hillbillies, who usually wanted nothing to do with progress. ...
neighborhood lies to the south of it.
The Mission
Mission Dolores
Mission Dolores, bounded by Market Street, the
Central Freeway
The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile (1.5 km) elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway (US 101 and I-80) with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is part ...
, Valencia Street, Twentieth Street, and Church/Sanchez streets (transitioning at Eighteenth Street), is the oldest neighborhood in San Francisco and therefore its birthplace. It is named after the Spanish
Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to:
* Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores
* Dolores (given name)
Dolores may also refer to:
Film
* ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt
* ' ...
settlement of 1776, and is a sub-area of the much larger
Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
. The location of the Mission Dolores was chosen because of proximity to the Yelamu grouping of the
Ramaytush
The Ramaytush or Rammay-tuš people are a linguistic subdivision of the Ohlone people of Northern California. The term Ramaytush was first applied to them in the 1970s, but the modern Ohlone people of the peninsula have claimed it as their ethn ...
band of
Ohlone
The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...
-speaking peoples living in the villages of Chutchui and Sitlintac on
Mission Creek
Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since bee ...
which date to approximately A.D. 500. The Ohlone people together with the
Coast Miwok
Coast Miwok are an indigenous people that was the second-largest group of Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Poi ...
served as laborers to build the
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís ( es, Misión San Francisco de Asís), commonly known as Mission Dolores (as it was founded near the Dolores creek), is a Spanish Californian mission and the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. Located i ...
as part of the
Spanish colonization
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
. On March 17, 2010, the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) unanimously adopted the final Mission Dolores Neighborhood Historic Context Statement and Survey. That document outlines the historic importance of the neighborhood. It can be found on the Planning Department's web site.
Mission Terrace
Mission Terrace is a neighborhood in the south-central part of San Francisco. It is bounded on the north and west by
Interstate 280, to the east by Mission St. and to the south by Geneva Ave. Mission Terrace borders
Glen Park and
Bernal Heights
Bernal Heights ( ) is a residential neighborhood in southeastern San Francisco, California. The prominent Bernal Heights hill overlooks the San Francisco skyline and features a microwave transmission tower. The nearby Sutro Tower can be seen from ...
to the north,
Excelsior
Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry
* "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...
to the east,
Outer Mission
Outer Mission is a small residential neighborhood on the south edge of San Francisco, bounded by Geneva Avenue (on the northeast), Interstate 280 (on the northwest), Mission Street (on the southwest), and the city of Daly City (on the south). ...
to the south, and
Sunnyside,
City College of San Francisco, City College, and
Ingleside to the west.
Balboa Park and the
Balboa Park Station are located in its southwest corner.
Monterey Heights
Monterey Heights is a small neighborhood on the western slope of
Mount Davidson. It is bounded on the south by Monterey Boulevard and to the east by Yerba Buena Avenue.
Mount Davidson
Mount Davidson is not a neighborhood per se, but rather is encircled by the
Miraloma Park neighborhood. Other nearby neighborhoods often associated with Mount Davidson include
Monterey Heights,
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood.
The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cor ...
, and
Westwood Highlands.
Nob Hill
Noe Valley
North Beach
North of Panhandle
NoPA is a sub-neighborhood carved out of the Western Addition bounded by Divisadero, Fell, Turk, and Stanyan Streets. Longitudinally, it is located between
The Richmond and
Alamo Square
Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood and park in San Francisco, California, in the Western Addition. Its boundaries are Buchanan Street on the east, Turk Street on the north, Baker Street on the west, and Page Street Street on the south.
...
.
Oceanview
The Oceanview neighborhood is located in southern San Francisco, south of the Ingleside neighborhood and the Ocean Avenue campus of
City College of San Francisco, City College. It is bordered by
Interstate 280 to the south and east, Lakeview Avenue to the north and Orizaba Avenue to the west. Oceanview Playground and Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center is located in the middle of the neighborhood, between Plymouth, Capitol, Lobos and Montana. Ocean View Branch Library is located at 345 Randolph St. Oceanview is served by MUNI Routes M and 54. Oceanview, also referred to as Lakeview by the natives of the community, has a rich history.
Particularly noteworthy is its African American community, who migrated there in the 1960s from the
Western Addition
The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States.
Location
The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights.
...
and
Bayview neighborhoods. Until the mid-1990s African Americans accounted for over 50% of its residents, many of whom were forced out due to the rising cost of living in San Francisco. Approximately 45,000 people live in the OMI (Oceanview-Merced-Ingleside),
and, as of the 2000 United States Census, 45% of the population identifies itself as Asian-American, 25% as African-American, 14% as Latino and 13% as white.
The demographic character of the OMI neighborhoods began to change after World War II. Many African-Americans, who had migrated to the Bay Area for work during the war, secured good-paying jobs and settled permanently in new homes in Ingleside, Merced Heights and Oceanview when the war ended. In 1950, African-Americans made up 5% of the population in the Ingleside, Merced Heights and Oceanview census tracts, and by 1970 the percentage had increased to 62%.
Fueled by vacant land in Merced Heights and Oceanview, the post-war housing boom, the desire to own their own homes, and the already significant presence of African-Americans in the neighborhoods, the black population exploded from 1950 to 1960. By 1960, African-Americans made up 40% of Merced Heights, 32% of Ingleside and 59% of Oceanview. While some whites moved out, generally to suburban tracts heavily marketed to them, the number of blacks living in OMI increased twelvefold (from 602 in 1950 to 7,273 in 1960), while the citywide black population less than doubled (43,000 in 1950 to 74,000 in 1960).
There is anecdotal evidence that African-Americans moved to the OMI after being displaced by the first phase of urban renewal in the Western Addition (the A-1 Project) in the late 1950s. Relocation records, while incomplete, show that the vast majority of displaced residents of the Western Addition found nearby accommodations. Of the 3,700 households of all races (family and single households) living in the project area in 1957, about 2,010 moved without relocation assistance and to unknown whereabouts. Of the remaining 1,602, 67% moved to other parts of the Western Addition and only 2.6%, or 34 households, moved to the West of Twin Peaks area.
By 1970, the OMI had matured into a middle-class district of single-family, owner-occupied homes. Seventy-six percent of the land area in the Ingleside, Oceanview, and Merced Heights
neighborhoods was residential (100% was residential in Ingleside Terraces), compared with 39% citywide. The housing stock was overwhelming single family (95% vs. 68% citywide) and owner- occupied (72% vs. 31% citywide), while the population was mostly African American (63% compared with 13% citywide). In recent years, the OMI has witnessed an influx of Asian-American and other ethnic groups, making it one of San Francisco's most diverse neighborhoods. The OMI is more
Hispanic, Black, and Asian than San Francisco as a whole.
The Outer Mission
The Outer Mission neighborhood is bounded by Geneva Avenue, San Jose Avenue, and Mission Street. It is bordered by the
Excelsior
Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry
* "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...
,
Outer Mission
Outer Mission is a small residential neighborhood on the south edge of San Francisco, bounded by Geneva Avenue (on the northeast), Interstate 280 (on the northwest), Mission Street (on the southwest), and the city of Daly City (on the south). ...
, and
Ingleside. The
Muni streetcar historic "car barn" is at one corner of this neighborhood. Cayuga Park is located in this neighborhood. The Cayuga Improvement Association (CIA) covers the area bounded by
Interstate 280, Mission Street, Sickles and Onondaga. Some folks have attempted to define "Cayuga Terrace" as a subset neighborhood of the larger
Mission Terrace neighborhood, but maps show Geneva Avenue as the cutoff.
The Outer Sunset
Pacific Heights
Parkmerced
The Parkside
Parkside is to the south of the
Sunset District
The Sunset District is a neighborhood located in the southwest quadrant of San Francisco, California, United States.
Location
The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park forms the ...
, mainly south of Quintara Street between 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.
Abraham Lincoln High School is located on 24th Avenue, and the Parkside Library is located on Taraval Street at 23rd Avenue.
Stern Grove borders the neighborhood to the south.
"The Parkside as a neighborhood started in July 1905 when a syndicate led by William Crocker announced they had quietly bought land from the estate of Adolph Sutro and others to create a new million-dollar development. The "park" of Parkside was not Golden Gate Park, but rather the stand of trees and plants around Laguna Puerca (now called Pine Lake, and often called "Mud Lake" or "Crawdad Lake" by old-timers)"
west of Sigmund Stern Grove.
Parnassus
South of Cole Valley and Ashbury Heights; north of Claredon Heights and Forest Knolls; east of Inner Sunset; west of Corona Heights.
Polk Gulch
Polk Gulch, a section of
Polk Street
Polk Street (also sometimes referred to by its German name, ''Polkstrasse'') is a street in San Francisco, California, that travels northward from Market Street to Beach Street and is one of the main thoroughfares of the Polk Gulch neighborhood ...
is sometimes defined as the commercial section of Polk Street, roughly between Eddy Street to the south and California Street to the north. The Polk Corridor Business Association has announced in June 2006 the local business owners intend to publicize the neighborhood as "Polk Village"
Portola
![Retrat_Gaspar_de_Portolà_(Lleida)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Retrat_Gaspar_de_Portol%C3%A0_%28Lleida%29.jpg)
Portola
is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of San Francisco, northeast of
McLaren Park. It is roughly bordered by San Bruno Avenue and the James Lick Freeway (
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
) to the east, Mansell Street to the south, University Street to the west and the Southern Freeway (
Interstate 280) to the north. The adjacent Portola Heights extension lies west uphill from University Street to the
Excelsior District
The Excelsior District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California.
Location
The Excelsior District is located along Mission Street, east of San Jose Ave, south of Interstate 280 Southern Fwy, west of John McLaren Park, and somewhat north of ...
, bordering McLaren Park to the south.
Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School
Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School is an American secondary school in San Francisco, California. The founding of the school is a result of a consent decree ruling in 1984 between the City of San Francisco and the National Association f ...
(formerly Wilson High School) is located on Mansell Street, and the Portola Library is at Bacon and Goettingen streets (380 Bacon Street), between Edward Robeson Taylor Elementary School and Martin Luther King Middle School (which replaced the former Portola Junior High School). The large University Mound Reservoir is located along University Street, between Felton and Woolsey streets.
Portola (pronounced PORE-toe-luh, by denizens) was named after the old Portola School, which in turn was named after the Spanish explorer
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar is a given and/or surname of French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish origin, cognate to Casper (given name) or Casper (surname).
It is a name of biblical origin, per Saint Gaspar, one of the wise men mentioned in the Bible.
Notable peo ...
(credited by some as the discoverer of San Francisco Bay). Originally settled after the 1906 earthquake by Jewish and Italian immigrants, the area evolved into a community populated by nurserymen and their families who grew much of the city's flower crop there and uphill to the west in the Portola Heights extension. "The Road," as San Bruno Avenue was affectionately referred to by the locals, still hosts businesses that include bakeries, grocery stores, pharmacies, and in earlier times the Avenue Theater, now a church. The Portola was also once home to a significant population of Maltese immigrants and settlers
and at one time the Maltese Consulate. According to the
U.S. Census, the Asian population in the Portola has been steadily increasing since the 1990s. The Portola is marked by Census Tract 257.
Portola Place
Portola Place is a new development located in the Bayview district, and used to be a brewery. Portola Place is bounded by Williams Avenue to the north, Egbert Avenue to the south, Kalmanovitz Street and the CalTrain railroad tracks to the east, and Newhall Street to the west.
Potrero Hill
The Presidio
Presidio Heights
Presidio Heights is a small, affluent neighborhood located between the
Presidio
A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...
and the Laurel Heights neighborhood. It is bordered by Pacific Avenue and the Presidio parklands to the north, Arguello Boulevard and the
Richmond District to the west, California Street (Laurel Village shopping center, previously the Laurel Hills Cemetery) and Laurel Heights to the south, and Presidio Avenue and
Pacific Heights
Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio.
The Pacific Heights Residents Association defines the neig ...
to the east.
The neighborhood's name predates the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It is often listed together with Pacific Heights, its neighbor to the east, in real estate listings. The homes were mostly built in the early 1900s, many of which are of the Edwardian style.
There are shopping districts on Sacramento Street and on
California Street in the neighborhood. The
Consulate-General of South Korea in San Francisco is located at 3500 Clay Street. The Consul General of India's residence is 3435 Jackson Street.
The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco is on California Street at Presidio Avenue in Presidio Heights. The 1933 building was designed in the
Mediterranean Revival Style
Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonial ...
with
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
details by
Arthur Brown Jr.
The neighborhood was the site of the murder of Paul Stine by the
Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history. It became a fixture of popular c ...
near the corner of Washington and Cherry.
The Richmond
Rincon Hill
Rincon Hill, one of the hills of San Francisco, was a former industrial, and now a developing highrise neighborhood located south of the Financial District, in the South of Market area, as it also serves as an anchor to the Bay Bridge. Due to its proximity to downtown, following the Gold Rush this was San Francisco's first affluent neighborhood, but later became mostly industrial. Most of the natural landscape was demolished in the 1930s to make way for the Bay Bridge. After several iterations of comprehensive planning, the hill is transitioning into a pedestrian oriented, high density, mixed use neighborhood. The neighborhood is again becoming one of the premier residential spots in San Francisco with the addition of many luxury buildings, the close proximity to the water, and the increase in green space and public parks.
A marketing effort, started in 2017, attempts to give Rincon Hill and parts of South Beach / SOMA a new neighborhood name:
The East Cut.
Russian Hill
Saint Francis Wood
Sea Cliff
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a small neighborhood on the south western slope of
Mount Davidson, with Dalewood Way to the north and east and Lansdale Avenue to the south and west.
Silver Terrace
Silver Terrace is a neighborhood in the south eastern corner of San Francisco, between the Bayview and Portola neighborhoods. It is roughly bordered by Third Street to the east, Palou Avenue and Silver Avenue to the north, Williams Avenue to the south and Bayshore Boulevard and
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
to the west. A tunnel used by
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...
runs under Silver Terrace.
South Beach
![ATT Park in South Beach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/ATT_Park_in_South_Beach.jpg)
The South Beach neighborhood encompasses the moderately affluent, medium-density mixed-use blocks which border
The Embarcadero and King Street from south of the
Bay Bridge down to 3rd Street. From two blocks inland westward is the
South of Market
South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, situated just south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill.
SoMa is home to many of the city's museums ...
neighborhood, and from south of Townsend Street and west of 3rd Street begins
China Basin
San Francisco, in the US state of California, has both major, well-known neighborhoods and districts as well as smaller, specific subsections and developments. While there is considerable fluidity among the sources, one guidebook identifies five m ...
. The most notable feature of South Beach is
Oracle Park in its south-east corner.
In addition, the main buildings for the local
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...
are found in South Beach.
South End
South End Historic District, San Francisco, California
South of Market
South Park
Dating to 1852, South Park is a small neighborhood South of Market. It centers on the small, oval-shaped park of the same name, and South Park Street, which encircles the park.
Sunnydale
Sunnydale is a small neighborhood in
Visitacion Valley
Visitacion Valley (; Spanish: ''Valle de la Visitación''), colloquially referred to as Viz Valley, is a neighborhood located in the southeastern quadrant of San Francisco, California.
Visitacion Valley is roughly defined by McLaren Park and Gle ...
located between
McLaren Park and the
Cow Palace
The Cow Palace (originally the California State Livestock Pavilion) is an indoor arena located in Daly City, California, situated on the city's northern border with neighboring San Francisco. Because the border passes through the property, a por ...
. Bordered by Geneva Avenue to the south, Sawyer Street to the east, Sunnydale Avenue to the north and geographically isolated McLaren Park to the west. Known for its notoriously high crime rate and housing projects on Sunnydale Avenue, also known as "the Swamp" or "the Dale". It is the center of Visitacion Valley's African American community.
Sunnyside
![Safeway Sunnyside](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Safeway_Sunnyside.jpeg)
Sunnyside is a medium-sized neighborhood to the north of Highway 280, bordered by the neighborhoods of Glen Park to the east, Miraloma Park to the north, and Westwood Park/Highlands to the west. In addition,
City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco (CCSF or City College) is a State school#United States, public community college in San Francisco, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1935, the college plays an important local ...
(CCSF) has its main campus on the border of Sunnyside to the south. CCSF was built on a hillside formerly occupied by the city jail until 1934. CCSF has been extensively remodeled and modernized since 2000 and offers superior sports facilities, modern buildings, BART and MUNI access, and is the largest city community college in the United States. The primary shopping street is Monterey Boulevard, from Acadia Street to Ridgewood Avenue, with small businesses, restaurants, cafes, and a Safeway.
The neighborhood was developed in 1891 as land lots for single-family houses and sold through the Sunnyside Land Development Company. This company installed an electric streetcar line to access the new neighborhood from downtown San Francisco. This allowed expansion and created "suburbs" of the day. Houses were built as individual, custom homes. Developers purchased multiple lots and usually built three to ten houses of similar look and size. The neighborhood was 75% built by 1941 when World War II began. Construction resumed in 1946 and was completed in the 1980s.
The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association is the "voice" of Sunnyside and incorporated in 1975.
The residents are very diverse and from all walks of life. It is primarily a middle- to upper-middle-class neighborhood with 75% of residents owning their home. Sunnyside Park was remodeled in 2009 by the city and offers a recreation center, a children's play area and dog park.
The Sunnyside Conservatory (at Monterey Boulevard and Congo Street), built in 1902, is a botanical garden and restored hot house. It was completely restored in 2006, and now serves as a meeting and events room for community groups.
The Sunset
The Outer Sunset district, including the corridor from 46th Avenue to Ocean Beach, is increasingly referred to as Beachtown due to the surf culture. Some definitions also include everything west of Sunset Boulevard from Lincoln Boulevard south to Vicente Street.
Everything east of 19th Avenue is thought of as the Inner Sunset. 19th Avenue is a six-lane thoroughfare that is designated as part of
California State Route 1
State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. At , it is the longest state route in California, and the second-longest in the US after Monta ...
, as it connects the
Golden Gate Bridge to
San Mateo County
San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...
and points south. Within the Inner Sunset is a sub-district called Sunset Heights.
The current efforts to develop a comprehensive plan for this neighborhood of San Francisco is the
Ocean Beach Master Plan (OBMP). The OBMP is an interagency effort to develop a long-term vision for Ocean Beach that will address a multitude of issues.
Telegraph Hill
The Tenderloin
Treasure Island
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company, ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cance ...
refers to the hill summits near the center of San Francisco, south of
Mount Sutro
Mount Sutro is a hill in central San Francisco, California. It was originally named Mount Parnassus.
Geography
The low mountain is in elevation. Mount Sutro is one of the many named hills within San Francisco, and among its original "Seven Hill ...
. For the neighborhood immediately to the west of Twin Peaks, see
Midtown Terrace.
Union Square
University Mound
University Mound is a neighborhood to the north of
McLaren Park, and is part of the Portola district. It is roughly bordered by Silver Avenue to the north, University Street to the east, McLaren Park to the south and the
Excelsior District
The Excelsior District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California.
Location
The Excelsior District is located along Mission Street, east of San Jose Ave, south of Interstate 280 Southern Fwy, west of John McLaren Park, and somewhat north of ...
to the west. Once considered as a location for a university campus, many of the streets running north–south in University Mound are named after universities, while those running east and west are named for famous educators. University Mound is a primarily residential neighborhood; however it contains a large
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...
Portola Gardens assisted living community (formerly the University Mound Ladies Home) and
Phillip & Sala Burton High School. The neighborhood is significantly diverse in its population it and has a varying landscape.
Upper Market
Upper Market is the area between the southern end of
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
and
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...
mainly spanning Corbett Avenue and Burnett Avenue. Clayton Street is on the north side of Upper Market, and Portola Drive is to the south.
Visitacion Valley
Vista del Mar
Vista del Mar is a small neighborhood of the Outer Richmond. It is bordered by 45th and 48th avenues, and Seal Rock Drive and Balboa Street. It is also referred to as Sutro Heights.
West Portal
The Western Addition
Westwood Highlands
Westwood Highlands is a small neighborhood northeast of the intersection of Monterey Boulevard and Plymouth Avenue. The
Westwood Park neighborhood is to the south,
Saint Francis Wood
St. Francis Wood is a residential neighborhood located in southwestern San Francisco, California, south of the West Portal neighborhood and west of Mount Davidson.
St. Francis Wood had a population of 1,229 and a median household income of $179, ...
is to the west, Sherwood Forest is to the north and
Sunnyside is to the east.
Westwood Park
Yerba Buena
This new neighborhood, anchored by the
Yerba Buena Gardens
Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened on October 11, 1 ...
, stretches from 2nd to 5th and Market to Harrison Streets. It is enhanced through the work of the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (YBCBD
). This east boundary of this neighborhood is adjacent to the
Financial District South.
See also
*
49-Mile Scenic Drive
References
External links
San Francisco Planning Department : Map LibrarySan Francisco Planning Department mapSan Francisco neighborhood names''Curbed''
San Francisco neighborhood names''San Francisco Travel Association''
The Neighborhood ProjectMap – San Francisco – LocalWikiSF Gate San Francisco Neighborhood guide.Not For Tourists, Inc. San Francisco neighborhood guideJustinsomnia SF neighborhood map SF Realtors
Burrito Justice's: The Islands of San FranciscoBadger Maps San Francisco Neighborhood
Specific neighborhoods
San Francisco Neighborhoods (Cole Valley)Ingleside Terraces Homes AssociationMidtown Terrace Home Owners AssociationMission Dolores Neighborhood AssociationMission Terrace NeighborhoodMiraloma Park Improvement ClubMonterey Heights Homes AssociationSunnyside Neighborhood Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neighborhoods In San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
neighborhoods
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...
Hills of San Francisco