San Francisco Off the Beaten Path Tips by atufft

At 566 Bush Street, between Stockton and Grant, is the venerable Marist church and school, Notre Dame des Victoires. The institution dates back to 1856, and recently celebrated its 150th anniversary of service to the French-American community. The church building itself dates back to 1915, being a replacement for the structure that was consumed by the great fire after the 1906 earthquake. The City of San Francisco declared the church building a historical landmark in 1984, and since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the church has undergone seismic retrofit at the expense of the parishoners. The building and it's location just below our hotel made the church of particular architectural interest during a recent weekend in the city, and so I took a number of photos of the exterior. Then, I out of curiosity visited inside the church, and found that it has many stained glass windows and a pipe organ. One review of the mass, recommended this church as a less crowded friendly alternative to Old St. Mary's with good music. Within the same city block, but at 569 Pine Street is the school that teaches elementary school students in French and English. The French and Ukrainian Consulates are located in the same block on the Bush Street side, as is the German cultural center. The ornate entrance gate to Chinatown is at one end of the same block, while at the other end on is the former French style Hotel Juliana building and the Stockton Avenue Tunnel.

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Website: http://www.ndvsf.org/church/

Along with Lafayette Park, Alta Plaza park in the Pacific Heights neighborhood provides pet owners a chance to unwind and have a stunning view of the city at the same time. Of the two though, Alta Plaza is the more famous because of Pug Sunday, which is the first Sunday of every month when pug owners around the bay area come to the park to let their pet off leash. Located between Scott and Jackson streets, at Steiner, the park has play equipment for children and a couple of very popularly used tennis courts. The park is also a good starting point for a neighborhood walk of mansions in this part of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. Within a block or two away are Calvary Presbyterian Church and the residential apartment building (shown here) where two 128 pound dogs, owned by attorneys Noel and Knoeller, mauled to death 33 year old Diane Whipple, such that she was rendered unrecognizable by paramedics. Later, the attorneys were found guilty of manslaughter.

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Website: http://www.yelp.com/biz/alta-plaza-park-san-francisco
Other Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar

Dolores Park, which is bounded by 18th Street on the north, 20th Street to the south, Dolores Street to the east and Church Street to the west, just uphill from Mission Dolores, is a favorite summer sunbathing spot with a great view of the San Francisco skyline. From the flat tennis and basketball courts, soccer fields, and dog run areas on the north end of the park, just across the street from architecturally distinctive Mission High School, the park's large open grass area sweeps uphill nearly two blocks to a shelf of sorts known to locals as Dolores "Beach". It's a great place to sunbath on a warm summer day within the city. Near to the Golden Fire Hydrant, within the historic pre-1906 earthquake Liberty Hill District the park had a sleezy reputation until recent gentrification of the area. The park hosts live music on summer days, particularly on Cinco de Mayo. About halfway up the hill on the Church street side, near the pedestrian bridge over the MUNI rail tracks, there is a fine larger-than-life-size bronze statue of Mexican patriot Hidalgo. To get there from the Civic Center, take the MUNI J Line.

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At 2222 Broadway within the Pacific Heights District is the James Flood Mansion and the other buildings of the Schools of the Sacred Heart. These schools are clearly for the children of the upper tier of society. The James Flood Mansion was built after the 1906 Earthquake and donated to the school in 1939. It has a marvelous carriage entrance and the front door has a cast bronze door screen. Very nearby is the Italian Consulate and another old brick mansion of architectural interest. Naturally, this entire hill in the Pacific Heights neighborhood is chalk full of magnificent residences of San Francisco elite.

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Website: http://www.sacredsf.org/flood_mansion/index.aspx

Along the ridgeline of the Pacific Heights Neighborhood are two neighborhood parks, Lafayette and Alta Plaza, both of which are popular places for residents to walk their dogs and for homeless to sleep. Lafayette Park is at a peak, with a view over the Marina District and San Francisco Bay. Having pets is more popular in the Pacific Heights neighborhood than is having children; as a result, the grassy hill areas of the park are scattered with dog ***. Although owners are legally required to pick up after their pets, dogs are also often off-leash, and when I last visited a friendly boxer jumped on me, soiling my pants with mud from recent rains. Unfortunately, despite being located within perhaps the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, concrete steps, the children's play equipment, and the two tennis courts are poorly maintained. Apparently, residents are concerned about this dire situation and have been efforts to improve the landscaping, particularly at some entrances (see link below). For example, there is a small bronze plaque memorial dedicated to novelist, biographer, and historian, Gertrude Franklin Atherton around which petunias and other flowers have been planted. Gertrude Atherton was married into the wealthy Atherton family and played a part in making haunted the mansion at Octavia and California, location for another worthy story for local history buffs. In any case, in addition to the views, Lafayette Park is also a good starting point for a walking tour of the large and historic mansions of the Pacific Heights neighborhood. Samuel Holloday is another infamous character who supposedly was a squatter who had once built a mansion on the park's hilltop (see podcast link below).

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Website: http://www.sfnpc.org/successlafayettepark
Other Contact: http://www.sparkletack.com/2007/

Just southeast of the Hwy 101/Hwy 80 Junction, and above San Francisco's Interior Design galleria, is Potrero Hill, a knoll that has a great view of downtown, the bay, and Twin Peaks to the west. Named after an 1835 Mexican land grant for grazing on "potrero nuevo", many of the homes survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, and today there is also quite a bit gentrification progressing. On the west side of the hill, Vermont Street, just south of McKinley park has been argued by some to be more "crooked" than world famous Lombard Street.

According to an online neighborhood profile, only O.J. Simpson was listed as a "well-known" resident here, but that was when he was still a football player at San Francisco City College. Simpson was a neighborhood star and his image is on area murals, the most notable still surviving at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center near the peak of the hill.

By comparison to Twin Peaks, Mt. Davidson, and certainly Russian, Nob, and Telegraph Hills, for example, Potrero Hill is vacant tourist traffic. On reason is that the neighborhood is wedged between the James Lick (I-80/US 101) and the Southern Embarcadero (I-280) freeways, with the crime infamous Bayview-Hunter's point neighborhood to the south, the seedy low-rent Mission District to the west, and toxic waste contaminated bayside industry to the east. Also, while there are some renovated and reconstructed residences of worthy of admiration, particularly north of the Potrero Hill park, the homes here never were housing of the affluent, and many are still wanting for some TLC. For those house hunting for a spectacular view, Potrero Hill may indeed provide something of a bargain in what is otherwise a wildly expensive market.

In any case, Potrero Hill is an excellent place to view over the city, with plenty of low rent appearing homes--a great set for a police detective film or television show. When we were driving around looking for vista, we found the film crew shown in these images. Below is a link for finding Potrero Hill.

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Website: http://www.sfarmls.com/docs/central%20east.htm
Other Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/traveler/g

Named after a prominent San Francisco businessman and cultural leader, this small park is in the townhouse neighborhood between the Embarcadero and Jackson Square Districts of the city. Specifically, the park is located between Front and Davis streets, near Jackson and Pacific Avenues. The square is overlooked by both tourists and locals, as it is mainly used by those who reside in the upscale townhouses and apartment in this area, but this public park has ivy covered arbor entrance, tall pine trees, meditative lawns, and an unusual circle of tall poplar trees. Most noteworthy though are the fountain and collection of outdoor sculptural and kinetic art that would otherwise be the pride of most any other city. At the center of the park is Francois Stahly's bronze "Fountain of the Four Seasons". Joan Brown's mosaic "Pine Tree Obelisk" stands in one corner of the small park, George Rickey's "Two Open Rectangles", a stainless steel kinetic sculpture stands in another, both along the Front Street side of the park. On the Davis side of the central fountain is the small but interesting bronze work by Marisol, "Portrait of Georgia O'Keefe". In addition to these that I have images for here, there is also Jim Dine's 1984 Big Heart on the Rock, and just outside the park at Jackson and Davis is local prodigy Beniamino Bufano's "The Penguins".

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Just Southeast of Stern Grove and the West Portal neighborhood, and west of Mount Davidson is the low profile and affluent neighborhood of St. Francis Wood. Property sizes for the individual homes here are ample relative to the other affluent neighborhoods in the city (such as Marina District and Pacific Heights). Homes here include a variety of architectural styles, but the most common includes mission revival theme. The garden neighborhood is clearly planned with two huge fountains, and easy access to the trolley lines without being subject to through traffic. One fountain slows traffic into a circle at the intersection of St. Francis Boulevard and Santa Ana Avenue while the other is lodged into the dead-end of St. Francis Boulevard. There's enough space in this neighborhood to have a wide landscaped median strip between the directional traffic of this otherwise quiet neighborhood.

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Here are some more images of the homes and landscaping of St. Francis Wood. The description of the neighborhood is provided in Part 1 of this series.

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The crumbling ruins of sea water filled concrete tanks, stairways that lead to cliffs, and bent rebar are gradually being returned to a natural state of preservation with the reintroduction of native plants. San Franciscans hollow the Sutro Baths not only for the spectacular views of Seal Rock and Point Lobos, but because when they opened in 1896, it was hailed as the world's largest indoor swimming establishment. There were 6 salt water and 1 fresh water pools that were heated and controlled by an elaborate system of pumps and tidal assist in water circulation, for a total tank capacity of nearly 2 million gallons. Pool equipment included not only diving boards, but also 30 swinging rings and 7 slides. There were 517 private dressing rooms, and a promenade above the pools capable of allowing thousands of onlookers to watch the action. The complex also included a concert hall seating 8,000 people, and Adolph Sutro included a museum that displayed his collection of art from around the world. The roof over this complex included 600 tons of iron and 100,000 square feet of glass. Later, a pool was converted to an ice rink, and in 1966, many years of losing money, the baths burned during the process of demolition.

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Website: http://www.sutrobaths.com/