San Francisco - Pacific Heights
 

Pacific Heights is a neighborhood within San Francisco's 7-mile by 7-mile city limits. It is named after Pacific Street, which is the street with the highest elevation for part of its length. The neighborhood is located along a ridge (highest elevation is 370 feet above sea level) that runs East-West and rises above the surrounding neighborhoods in the Northern part of the city, offering great views. The terrain is traversed with a grid of streets about 13 blocks long and 9 blocks wide, covered with an eclectic mix of mostly historic residential buildings; some are detached large homes, others are connected lowrise and midrise blocks, while a scattering of highrises from the 1920's to the 1970's completes the variety. There are also numerous small schools (mostly private), churches, and even some foreign consulates. In general, the density of development and highrises is greater toward the Eastern side of this high-end area. I consider the boundaries of the neighborhood to be Green Street on the North; Lyon Street on the West; Pine Street on the South; and Franklin Street on the East. Three of the boundary sides are highly debatable, especially with the interfaces with sub-neighborhoods known as Cow Hollow and Lower Pacific Heights. By my definition, there are 117 city blocks within the boundaries, only 8 of which lack buildings and are park space. However, part of the Western boundary adjoins another neighborhood, the Presidio, which is essentially a massive park. Also on the Western boundary is Presidio Heights, a neighborhood that continues the impressive high-end detached home assortment of the Western side of Pacific Heights. To the South is Japantown and the Western Addition, to the East is the busy Van Ness/Polk corridor, and to the North is the Marina.

Alta Plaza:
One of two parks in the neighborhood that each occupy a space of 4 city blocks, this one features formal stepped terraces with views across the Southern part of the city as well as a playground and tennis courts.

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Lafayette Park:
The other park is the same size but less formal in its arrangement.

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View of Gough Street, from Lafayette Park:

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Views of Broadway Street:
This stretch of the East-West street is towards the higher density Eastern side.

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Views of Vallejo Street:
Another high density block on an East-West street.

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Views North of Laguna Street:
The North-South streets are mostly very steep, especially on the Northern face of the ridge as it descends down to the Marina and San Francisco Bay.

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View North of Pierce Street:

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View North of Lyon Steps:
This street on the Western edge of the neighborhood is pedestrian-only for a few blocks due to its steep grade.

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Views from the North:
These are from the Marina looking toward the Northern face of the ridge of Pacific Heights.

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Western Edge:
The large detached homes in this area are certainly close together as each block looms over the next. The eucalyptus trees of the Presidio in the distance form a definite boundary to the neighborhood.

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Green Street:

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Octavia Street:

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Victorian Houses:
Pacific Heights was developed starting in the 1870's, and there are many houses of various Victorian styles from the early decades.

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Arts and Crafts and Various English Revival Styled Houses:
Most of the neighborhood's structures date from after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, including these.

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Churches:
Most date from the early 20th century in emulation of European historical styles.

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St. Brigid Catholic School, 1928:

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More Buildings:
The houses, apartments, schools, and consulates that follow are indicative of the overall neighborhood: historic and well-tended and predominently pre-WWII. Very few modern buildings exist. Major styles represented include Mediterranean Revival, Beaux-Arts, Art Deco Spanish, and Art Deco Zigzag, but there are plenty of exceptions.

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All photographs taken in 2011 (except a few from 2010) by geomorph.

As beautiful as it can get, I believe.

My old neighborhood! It's my favorite part of the City. "Cow Hollow" (north of Vallejo St.; so-named because that's where the people in the big houses used to keep their livestock) is also a fairly fashionable neighborhood and Union Street can be interesting, but there's too much traffic. When I lived there, the area south of California Street was referred to as "Pacific Lowers". My understanding is, the neighborhood began to be developed as soon as the cable car lines got out that far. There used to be a line that ran along Jackson all the way to Fillmore, but unfortunately, it was taken out sometime in the 1950s.

Oh yes, I think the primo residential building in the neighborhood is that pink one just to the east of the Spreckels mansion. It's a co-op and VERY exclusive. I understand some of the apartments take up an entire floor and the views from the bay side are breathtaking.

I've only visited this neighborhood once briefly, but the beauty of the neighborhood will stand out no matter how short the visit. I captured this house:

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when I was there. This thread is breathtakingly beautiful to the point of being overwhelming though, and I've actually been there... you showed that there's a TON of that neighborhood I didn't get to see. Hopefully I'll get to see the rest of it in person at some point in the near future... in the mean time, this thread'll certainly do lol. Thanks again for doing these extremely comprehensive, informative and well-shot tours of the city... they offer a level of depth into the City that one would need to live there to get so its nice for us non-San Franciscans to get this good of a glimpse. :yes:

so grand, so elegant. san fran's pre-war high-rise nabes are straight delicious. and it is always amazing to see such density on the west coast.

It's photo threads like these and neighborhoods like those that motivate me to work my a$$ off to try to become wealthy :) That is truly something special...I believe Diane Feinstein lives or lived on Presidio Terrace behind the temple there.

simms3 redux, yes I think Fienstein still has the home in Presidio Terrace but I'm not positive. It's actually almost a mile West of Pacific Heights, in an area called Presidio Heights (which begins right next to Pacific Heights and is quite similar to the Western side of Pacific Heights). The temple that the Presidio Terrace sits behind is actually not the one pictured in this thread, but they both have domes crowning them so they are easy to confuse!

I don't have any pictures of Presidio Terrace, but here is a picture I took in 2007 of the temple next to Presidio Terrace:

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Nice pictures. Judging from the pictures at the end of your tour, it seems like San Francisco has a distinct style of apartment buildings.

we went through this incredible area yesterday and it's even more beautiful in the flesh if that's possible. thanks for all of these threads, it's been great to be here and see your threads at the same time, great timing! I was lucky to be "stranded " in SF for two extra days while Irene worked her way up the East Coast and into New England. I cant think of a better place to get stuck in than this city. I want to thank Irene from the bottom of my heart;)............ and San Francisco? you have stolen that same heart again:worship:

sterlippo1, did you finally get back or are you still stranded here? I hope you were able to walk all over the city during your stay!

giovanni_sasso, those two pics are the same building, the white paint scheme is from 2010 and the darker warmer one is from 2011...the trick was to crop one to try to match the other pic's original composition!

Wowwee!!! I've only visited Downtown SF, but maybe I should stroll around Pacific Heights more, at least from what I see in your photographs. What amazing architecture, and what great skill you have with your camera!

You don't want to rent out a room in your house there or else Michael Keaton will move in and make your life a living hell! ;)

i got out monday to Manchester NH as Boston would have been tuesday. If i didnt have to get to work i would have loved even another day. Yes, i walked all over the northeast quandrant of the city, all very familiar places but enduring none the less. Our walks stretched from alamo sq to at@t park (best park i've ever been to)to aquatic park , the entire waterfront in between, walked up telegraph hill a couple times and found great stairways to the waterfront, etc, etc, etc. i think one of the days we walked about 8-9 miles, no easy chore in that area of the city. I am at the point in my life that everytime time i go away i am looking to go home at the 4th or 5th day yet everytime i go to SF i dont want to leave................ever. I absolutely loved getting up early and walking through Chinatown, the part the locals live in, NOT Grant Ave. I loved being amongst these amazing people and watching their work ethic in getting the area ready for the day's business. Loved Stockton St going thru Chinatown. oh, and did i mention North Beach? :worship:

thank you for asking, BTW;)

Sterlippo, you were fortunate to be stuck in SF. A beautiful place to sit out Irene. But, glad we have you back east!

could you be the most beautiful neighborhood in the world?

Yeah that particular building has some extremely opulent full floor units.:yes:

jg and dimondpark, is this the fancy building you are talking about? I had these two photos of it but did not include them in this thread:

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