The Sunset District is a neighborhood located in the southwest quadrant 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 ...
,
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 ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Location
The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco.
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development ...
forms the neighborhood's northern border, and the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
(or, more specifically, the long, flat strand of beach known as
Ocean Beach) forms its western border. A section of the Sunset District towards its southeastern end is known as the
Parkside neighborhood.
Prior to the residential and commercial development of the Sunset District, much of the area was covered by
sand dunes
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...
and was originally referred to by 19th century San Franciscans as the "
Outside Lands
Outside Lands was the name used in the 19th century for the present-day Richmond District, San Francisco, California, Richmond District and Sunset District, San Francisco, California, Sunset District in San Francisco, California. With few roads an ...
."
The Sunset District and the neighboring
Richmond District (on the north side of Golden Gate Park) are often collectively known as The Avenues, because the majority of both neighborhoods are spanned by numbered north-south avenues. When the city was originally laid out, the avenues were numbered from 1st to 49th, and the east-west streets were lettered A to X. In 1909, to reduce confusion for mail carriers, the east-west streets and 1st Avenue and 49th Avenue were renamed. The east-west streets were named in ascending alphabetical order in a southward direction after prominent 19th-century American politicians, military leaders, or explorers; 19th-century
Mexican landowners; and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
conquistadors
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...
. 1st Avenue was renamed Arguello Boulevard, and 49th Avenue was renamed La Playa Street (Spanish for "the beach").
Today, the first numbered avenue is 2nd Avenue, starting one block west of Arguello Boulevard, and the last is 48th Avenue near Ocean Beach. The avenue numbers increase incrementally, with one exception: what would be 13th Avenue is known as Funston Avenue, named after
Frederick Funston
Frederick Funston (November 9, 1865 – February 19, 1917), also known as Fighting Fred Funston, was a general in the United States Army, best known for his roles in the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. He received ...
, a U.S. Army general known for his exploits during the
Spanish–American War
, partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence
, image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg
, image_size = 300px
, caption = (clock ...
and
Philippine–American War
The Philippine–American War or Filipino–American War ( es, Guerra filipina-estadounidense, tl, Digmaang Pilipino–Amerikano), previously referred to as the Philippine Insurrection or the Tagalog Insurgency by the United States, was an arm ...
, and for directing the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
response to the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
.
The east-west streets in the Sunset appear mostly in alphabetical order. These streets are:
Lincoln Way
The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 191 ...
(bordering the south side of Golden Gate Park), Hugo (from Arguello to 7th Avenue only), Irving,
Judah, Kirkham,
Lawton,
Moraga
Moraga is a List of municipalities in California, town in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As ...
,
Noriega,
Ortega,
Pacheco
Pacheco is a Portuguese and Spanish name which may refer to:
General
* Alex Pacheco (born 1958), animal rights activist, co-founder of PETA.
*Ángel Pacheco (general) (1793-1869), was an Argentine military officer trained by José de San Martín ...
, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago,
Taraval,
Ulloa,
Vicente,
Wawona,
Yorba, and
Sloat Boulevard. "X" was originally proposed to be Xavier, but was changed to Yorba due to a pronunciation controversy.
History
The origin of the "Sunset" name is not entirely clear. One claim indicates that Aurelius Buckingham, a developer who owned property in the area, coined the term in 1886. Another claim comes from the
California Midwinter Exposition, held in Golden Gate Park in 1894 and also known as "The Sunset City."
Before construction of the
Twin Peaks Tunnel
The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The tunnel runs under Twin Peaks and is used by the K Ingleside/T Third Street, M Ocean View and S Shuttle lines of the Muni Metro system.
The eastern entra ...
in 1917, the Sunset was a vast, sparsely inhabited area of large
sand dunes
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...
and coastal scrub land known as the "Outside Lands." Development was initiated in the 1870s and 1880s with construction of Golden Gate Park, but it did not reach a full scale until after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when small lots of
tract homes
Tract housing is a type of housing development in which multiple similar houses are built on a tract (area) of land that is subdivided into smaller lots. Tract housing developments are found in suburb developments that were modeled on the "Levit ...
and
row homes now characteristic of the neighborhood were built into the sand dunes.
These tract homes would displace a smaller original settlement built into the dunes called
Carville, which was so named for
squatters
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...
that lived in abandoned
horsecar
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar.
Summary
The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...
s (horse-drawn trolleys) and
cable cars that were dumped in the sand dunes.
Development increased by the 1930s, as the Sunset was built and developed into a
streetcar suburb. The
post–World War II baby boom
The middle of the 20th century was marked by a significant and persistent increase in fertility rates in many countries of the world, especially in the Western world. The term ''baby boom'' is often used to refer to this particular boom, generall ...
in the 1950s saw the last of the sand dunes leveled down and replaced with more single- and multifamily homes. In these developments, built mostly by
Henry Doelger, entire blocks consist mainly of houses of the same general character, differentiated by variations in their stucco facades and mirrored floorplans, with most built upon lots with no free space between houses. Later,
Oliver Rousseau built more individualistic homes in the district.
Historically, the Sunset has been an Irish and Italian
ethnic enclave
In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...
.
Beginning in the late 1960s the neighborhood saw a steady influx of Asian (mostly Chinese) immigrants following the
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, is a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The l ...
which lifted racial quotas allowing for more non-European nationals to immigrate to the United States. Additionally, the
Handover of Hong Kong
Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the British Hong Kong, former colony. Hong Kong was establ ...
motivated many Chinese to immigrate to the U.S. due to the political and economic uncertainties. In 1999, around 60% of the homeowners in the Sunset and Richmond districts were Chinese.
Sub-neighborhoods
Inner Sunset
The Inner Sunset is bordered by Lincoln Way to the north, 2nd Ave to the east, Quintara Street to the south, and 19th Avenue to the west. This far-east section of the Sunset is located just west 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 ...
. The main commercial area is along Irving Street from 5th Avenue to 12th Avenue, and along 9th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Judah Street, much of which is dotted with a variety of restaurants and shops.
The Inner Sunset hosts a variety of local businesses, including restaurants, bars, breweries, book stores, bakeries, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, clothes and shoe stores, a tattoo parlor, and a wine bar. Many of these establishments are clustered around the intersection of 9th Avenue and Irving Street. Food offered by the restaurants located in the Inner Sunset includes pizza, Mexican, Thai, Persian, Korean, Malaysian, Hawaiian, Greek, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Cajun/Creole, Dim Sum, Turkish, Peruvian, Chinese, Vietnamese, California Cuisine, Mediterranean, Indian, Japanese, Vegetarian.
The Inner Sunset is the 12th wealthiest neighborhood in San Francisco with a median income of $112,050.
The median sale price of homes in the Sunset District is $1.5M.
Central Sunset
The Central Sunset is bounded by Lincoln Way to the north, 19th Avenue to the east, Quintara Street to the south, and Sunset Boulevard to the west. This area is mostly
residential with cookie-cutter homes and large lots and a commercial strip along Irving Street from 19th Avenue to 24th Avenue and on Noriega Street from 19th Avenue to 27th Avenue and 30th Avenue to 33rd Avenue. Features of the area include the
Sunset Reservoir (which takes up eight square blocks between Ortega and Quintara streets and 24th and 28th avenues), which has a small park surrounding its outer rim; Golden Gate Park; the Sunset Recreation Center; and
Abraham Lincoln High School.
Outer Sunset
The Outer Sunset is bordered by Lincoln Way to the north, Sunset Boulevard (between 36th and 37th avenues) to the east, Sloat Boulevard to the south, and Ocean Beach to the west. The primary commercial avenues are Judah, Noriega, and Taraval. The Outer Sunset is the foggiest section in San Francisco due to its close proximity to
Ocean Beach. The area's main attractions include the
San Francisco Zoo
The San Francisco Zoo is a zoo located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco, California, between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean along the Great Highway. The SF Zoo is a public institution, managed by the non-profit San Francisco Zoologi ...
, Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, 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 ...
.
Attractions and characteristics
The western part of the Sunset borders the cold northern California Pacific Ocean coastline, so it tends to get much of the
fog
Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...
San Francisco is famous for. The Sunset can be foggy and chilly for some days during summer. The Sunset's finest weather is usually from August through December, when regional air patterns transition from onshore to offshore weather and the area is free of fog. Sand carried by Pacific Ocean winds can be found on roadways and driveways within the first five to ten blocks east of Ocean Beach.
The Sunset District contains several large park and recreation areas. The
San Francisco Zoo
The San Francisco Zoo is a zoo located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco, California, between Lake Merced and the Pacific Ocean along the Great Highway. The SF Zoo is a public institution, managed by the non-profit San Francisco Zoologi ...
is located in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood by
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 ...
, the largest lake within San Francisco. Also within the Lake Merced area are several
golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
s: the private
Olympic Club
The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...
and
San Francisco Golf Club, and the public
TPC Harding Park
TPC Harding Park, formerly Harding Park Golf Club and commonly known as Harding Park, is a municipal golf course on the West Coast of the United States, located in western San Francisco, California. It is owned by the city and county of
It is ...
. Across from Lake Merced is
Fort Funston
Fort Funston is a former harbor defense installation located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco. Formerly known as the Lake Merced Military Reservation, the fort is now a protected area within the Golden Gate National Recreation Are ...
, an old
coastal battery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of c ...
, now part of the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United ...
. Fort Funston notably has some of the last remnants of the sand dune ecosystem that once covered the entire Sunset District.
There is a year-round, Sunday morning farmers' market which is located at 1315 8th Avenue (the parking lot between 8th and 9th Avenues). The market is operated by the
Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
and is sponsored by the Inner Sunset Park Neighbors. The Inner Sunset Farmers' Market offers California-grown produce, fish, eggs, and meat, as well as local food vendors and artisans.
Stern Grove, a heavily wooded park and
amphitheater
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
located on Sloat Boulevard between 19th and 34th avenues, is known for its annual
summer festival
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
.
Three parks lie on the far east border of the district: the northernmost is
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.
...
(also referred to as Turtle Hill) a small, elevated
park
A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...
surrounded by 14th and 15th Avenues, as well as Noriega Street; moving south, next is Golden Gate Heights Park, just east of 14th Avenue north of Quintara; and Hawk Hill Park, also east of 14th Avenue at Santiago. These natural areas belong to a remnant ridge-top system and include some of the last-remaining sand-dune communities in the city.
Education
The
San Francisco Unified School District
San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), established in 1851, is the only public school district within the City and County of San Francisco, and the first in the state of California. Under the management of the San Francisco Board of Educa ...
operates public K–12 schools.
Educational institutions include the Parnassus campus and medical center of the
University of California, San Francisco
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 cond ...
, located in Inner Sunset; the main campus of
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 ...
, located in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood across from Lake Merced;
Abraham Lincoln High School, located in the center of the Sunset District;
St. Ignatius College Preparatory (a private, coeducational school operating in San Francisco since 1855) located since 1969 adjacent to Sunset Boulevard; and
Lowell High School, the oldest
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
west of the
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
and one of the top performing ones in the United States.
Beach culture
The strip near the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
has a notable
[
*
*
] population of surfers who take advantage of the sometimes excellent surf conditions of
Ocean Beach.
Because of the cold Pacific current that brings ocean water from
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, it is usually necessary to wear a
wetsuit
A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfing, surfers, Underwater diving, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activit ...
when surfing at Ocean Beach. Several surf shops can be found near the beach in the Outer Sunset.
Several playgrounds are located in the Sunset, including Sunset Playground and Recreation Center, Blue Boat Playground, West Sunset, McCoppin Square, and South Sunset.
Climate
Like much of the coast of Northern California, Sunset district has a cool summer mediterranean climate, albeit with an unusual annual temperature distribution. The warmest days of the year occur in October and then the coldest nights of the year occur just two months later in December. Its climate is strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean and therefore has even cooler summers and milder winters than downtown San Francisco. Rainfall follows a seasonal pattern with plentiful precipitation in the winter (almost all of this falling as rain) and extremely dry albeit foggy summers.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Articles related to the Sunset Districtat FoundSF.org
*http://outsidelands.org/sunset.php Information from the Western Neighborhoods Project
Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center youth and family community center
{{authority control
Neighborhoods in San Francisco
History of San Francisco
Chinatowns in the United States
Chinese-American culture in San Francisco
Populated coastal places in California
Irish-American neighborhoods