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Russian Hill, San Francisco: Lombard Street's crooked block, three National Register districts and the hilltop parks

Russian Hill, California

Russian Hill is a residential hill on the north side of San Francisco, climbed by the Powell-Hyde cable car and crossed by Polk, Hyde, Green and Broadway. Almost everything a visitor comes for is outdoors. The crooked block of Lombard Street, eight hairpin turns of red brick between Hyde and Leavenworth, is here. So are three districts on the National Register of Historic Places, none of which contains the others; a pedestrian lane a novelist named as the model for a fictional one; an art school that closed in 2022 with a Diego Rivera fresco inside it; two old fire houses and a Moorish Revival cinema now used as a gym; a garden by Thomas Church open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; hilltop tennis courts laid over a covered reservoir; and a road tunnel driven under the hill in 1952. The shops and restaurants sit on Polk Street and on the Hyde Street cable car blocks.

  1. Eight hairpin turns of red brick built in 1922 between Hyde and Leavenworth, one way downhill, with a sign at the top recommending 5 miles per hour.

  2. A pedestrian lane between Leavenworth and Taylor with a view to Alcatraz, which Armistead Maupin named in 2017 as the model for Barbary Lane.

  3. The crest that escaped the 1906 fire, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, reference number 87002289, on grades of 16, 23 and 40 percent.

  4. Bakewell & Brown's 1926 campus, San Francisco Landmark No. 85, designated in 1977; the school closed in July 2022 and the campus sold in 2024.

  5. An eight-sided house of about 1857, San Francisco Landmark No. 36, designated in 1970; one of three octagon houses in San Francisco, and privately occupied.

  6. A fire house of 1908 on Green Street, San Francisco Landmark No. 220, designated in 1998, and listed on the National Register in 1988, reference number 87002290.

  7. Miller & Pflueger's Moorish Revival cinema of 1926, with 1,625 seats and a domed ceiling, now a gym behind the restored marquee.

  8. An intercultural, interracial and interfaith congregation on Larkin Street whose October Convocation is open to the public.

  9. The Robert C. Levy Tunnel, 1,616 feet in two bores, opened on 21 December 1952 on a 5 million dollar bond that voters approved in 1948.

  10. Four and a half acres opened in April 2022 on the site of the 1859 Francisco Reservoir, open 5 a.m. to midnight, with a dog run and a community garden.

  11. A terraced garden designed by Thomas Church in 1957 and open to the public since 2006, but only from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so plan the day around it.

  12. A steep 0.87-acre park at Vallejo and Taylor, named for the writer and librarian Ina Coolbrith, open 5 a.m. to midnight.

  13. A restaurant at Hyde and Green Streets, on the block the Powell-Hyde cable car runs along.

  14. Cheese, charcuterie, sandwiches and wine at Polk Street and Pacific Avenue, open from 10 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. at weekends.

Three districts on one hill

The federal register carries three separate districts here, and their names all begin with Russian Hill. They do not nest inside one another and they are not the same kind of place.

The Russian Hill-Vallejo Street Crest District, National Register reference number 87002289, was listed on 22 January 1988. It covers roughly 1020-1032 Broadway, 1-49 Florence Street, 1728-1742 Jones Street, 1-7 Russian Hill Place, 1629-1715 Taylor Street and 1000-1085 Vallejo Street: the crest of the hill, whose streets are engineered against grades of 16, 23 and 40 percent with retaining walls, ramps and walkways. The enclave escaped the 1906 fire, which is why houses of the 1850s still stand in it.

The Russian Hill-Paris Block Architectural District, reference number 87002288, was listed on 7 January 1988 and is one block of Green Street, roughly 1017-1067, on 1.5 acres: eleven dwellings in eleven architectural styles, all set back behind front yards. The houses on the north side back onto Macondray Lane.

The Russian Hill-Macondray Lane District, reference number 87002286, was listed the same day and covers 1.6 acres around the lane, with twelve contributing buildings and one contributing site. Four houses inside it survived the 1906 earthquake and fire.

What is not here is a city historic district. San Francisco's Article 10 register of historic districts includes none of the three, so a Russian Hill address may carry an individual city landmark number without standing inside a city district.

Getting there

The Powell-Hyde cable car runs the length of the hill on Hyde Street and stops at Hyde and Lombard Streets, at the top of the crooked block. The Muni stop page prints it as Hyde St & Lombard St, number 15078, with service from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The cable car climbs; the hill it climbs is steep everywhere, and the Vallejo Street crest reaches grades of 40 percent, so steer by addresses and cross streets rather than by lines on a map.

Broadway passes beneath the hill instead of over it, through the Robert C. Levy Tunnel, 1,616 feet of two bores with two lanes each. The west portal is just east of the Hyde Street overpass and the east portal just east of the Mason Street overpass.

Useful addresses for orientation: 800 Chestnut Street for the art institute campus, 1088 Green Street for Engine Company No. 31, 1067 Green Street for the Feusier Octagon House, 801 Bay Street for Francisco Park, 2366 Leavenworth Street for Fay Park, 1200 Greenwich Street for the Alice Marble Courts, and 2320-2336 Polk Street for the Alhambra. Macondray Lane runs between Leavenworth and Taylor Streets, parallel to Union and Green, and a set of wooden steps descends from the lane down to Taylor Street.

Parks, and what time they open

Eight of the neighbourhood's parks and playgrounds are Recreation and Parks property, and most of them keep the department's standard hours of 5 a.m. to midnight. One does not, and it is the one to plan a day around.

Fay Park, at Leavenworth and Chestnut Streets, opens 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is a garden of about a third of an acre on three terraces, designed by Thomas Church, with stone balustrades, boxwood hedges, two latticed wooden gazebos and an overlook onto San Francisco Bay. The house beside it is not open to the public.

Francisco Park, at 801 Bay Street, opened in April 2022 on the site of the 1859 Francisco Reservoir. It runs 5 a.m. to midnight across 4.5 acres bordered by Francisco, Larkin, Bay and Hyde streets, with a community garden, a children's playground and nature exploration area, a fenced dog run, accessible pathways and a rainwater catchment system. Ina Coolbrith Park at Vallejo and Taylor Streets and Michelangelo Playground at Greenwich and Jones Streets both keep their restrooms on shorter hours than the parks themselves: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Ina Coolbrith, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in spring and summer at Michelangelo, closing at 5.30 p.m. in autumn and winter.

The hilltop courts are the other habit of the neighbourhood. The Alice Marble Courts at Greenwich and Hyde, laid over the covered Lombard Reservoir, hold four tennis courts, a basketball court and a practice wall; Helen Wills Playground at Broadway and Larkin holds tennis and basketball courts, paved playfields and a clubhouse.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the crooked block of Lombard Street, and can you drive it?
It is the block of Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets. Eight hairpin turns of red brick descend about 600 feet of roadway across 412.5 feet in a straight line, working around a hillside grade of 27 percent. Traffic is one way, downhill only, and a sign at the top of the block recommends 5 miles per hour. The block normally carries around 250 vehicles an hour, and average daily traffic on it was 2,630 vehicles in 2013. The Powell-Hyde cable car stops at Hyde and Lombard Streets, at the top of the block.
Was Macondray Lane really the model for Barbary Lane?
Armistead Maupin said so himself. In the 2017 documentary The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin he confirmed Macondray Lane as the model for Barbary Lane in Tales of the City. The lane runs two blocks between Leavenworth and Taylor Streets, parallel to Union and Green, with a view north to Alcatraz Island and San Francisco Bay, and a set of wooden steps descending to Taylor Street. It is a contributing site of the Russian Hill-Macondray Lane District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, reference number 87002286.
Can you go inside the San Francisco Art Institute at 800 Chestnut Street?
The school closed in July 2022 and filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on 26 April 2023; in late February 2024 a nonprofit backed by Laurene Powell Jobs bought the campus for about 30 million dollars. The Diego Rivera Gallery, which housed Rivera's 1931 fresco The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City, closed when the school did. No source states opening hours for the campus. The buildings can be seen from Chestnut Street.
Are the historic houses open to visitors?
No. The Feusier Octagon House at 1067 Green Street, the Atkinson-Escher House at 1032 Broadway and the House of the Flag at 1652-1656 Taylor Street are private residences with no public access. Each carries a city designation: San Francisco Landmark No. 36, No. 97 and No. 46 respectively. No source states opening hours for Engine Company No. 31 at 1088 Green Street. The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples at 2041 Larkin Street holds a Convocation each October that is open to the public.
Which streets carry the shops and restaurants?
Two: Polk Street and the Hyde Street cable car blocks. Polk Street carries Cheese Plus at 2001 Polk Street, at Pacific Avenue, and the Russian Hill Bookstore at 2162 Polk Street; the Alhambra of 1926 stands at 2320-2336 Polk Street and now houses a Crunch Fitness gym behind its restored marquee. The Hyde Street cable car blocks carry Frascati at 1901 Hyde Street and Za Pizza at 1919 Hyde Street, both at Green Street.

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