St. Francis Wood is a residential neighborhood located in southwestern

San Francisco 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 ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, 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 $179,244 in 2019. Characterized by family homes on spacious lots (by San Francisco standards), St. Francis Wood has no visible businesses and has a correspondingly low profile compared to similar wealthy neighborhoods such as the Marina District 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 ...

. St. Francis Wood is one of eight master-planned residence parks in San Francisco. = History = St. Francis Wood was established in 1912 as a neighborhood for upper-middle class residents with convenient

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

access to jobs downtown. The residence park was inspired by the

City Beautiful movement The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...

. The neighborhood's street layout was designed by the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law O ...

and characterized by "standalone houses, curvilinear streets, extensive landscaping and decorative monuments" that evoked the feeling of living in a park. Like other residence parks, the neighborhood used racial covenants to block

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

and

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

people from moving in. The neighborhood was an early adopter of

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

restrictions, including

single-family zoning Single-family zoning is a type of planning restriction applied to certain residential zones in the United States and Canada in order to restrict development to only allow single-family detached homes. It disallows townhomes, duplexes, and multi-f ...

to ban apartment buildings and commercial development, because they were thought to attract racial minorities.

Historic Designation

On June 30, 2022, St. Francis Wood was added to 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 ...

after a yearslong campaign by residents who quoted its architectural history as a residence park. The historic designation will require all construction projects in the neighborhood to undertake a review under the

California Environmental Quality Act The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a California statute passed in 1970 and signed in to law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan, shortly after the United States federal government passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), t ...

, adding about $10,000 in fees and 4 months in project approvals. The historic designation will also require new projects to be compatible with the neighborhood's historic character, which is typically two-story

single family homes A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...

with large yards. The designation was criticized by

YIMBY The YIMBY movement (short for "yes, in my back yard") is a pro-housing movement in contrast and opposition to the NIMBY ("''not'' in my back yard") phenomenon. The YIMBY position supports increasing the supply of housing within cities where hous ...

activists who said that the historic designation would make it much harder for people to add housing to the neighborhood, and cement the neighborhood's status as a wealthy neighborhood that excludes Black and

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

people. Places with historic resources are often exempted from state bills that encourage the construction of new homes. State Senator

Scott Wiener Scott Wiener (born May 11, 1970) is an American politician and a member of the California State Senate. A Democrat, he represents the 11th Senate District, encompassing San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County. Prior to his election to th ...

expressed concern that St. Francis Wood's historic designation creates a model for other wealthy neighborhoods to evade the intent of state housing law to build more homes in all neighborhoods. The St. Francis Homes Association said that the historic designation was about the architectural history and said that they were an inclusive community open to the public. St. Francis Wood's amenities are not open to the public. = Demographics = In the two 2020 census tracts that contain St. Francis Wood 2020 census, at least 80% of the residents are

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

. The median household income is $188,400.

References

External links

A short history of St. Francis WoodTraffic solution for St. Francis Circle
{{Authority control Neighborhoods in San Francisco Streetcar suburbs