San Francisco Neighborhoods · Lone Mountain
Lone Mountain
Fog zoneA quiet hilltop crown above the city's north-central neighborhoods, where steep streets of Edwardian flats climb toward the University of San Francisco's dramatic Gothic campus and the views open up in every direction.
- Among the city's best skyline and Golden Gate views
- Calm streets of historic Edwardian homes
- Steps from USF's landmark hilltop campus
- Walkable to Clement Street and Divisadero
On the map
Open Lone Mountain on the map →The story
Lone Mountain takes its name from a prominent hill that, beginning in the 1850s, anchored a cluster of grand Victorian-era cemeteries — Laurel Hill (1854), Calvary (1860), and the Masonic and Odd Fellows grounds. After the city banned burials, the dead were removed to Colma and the land was redeveloped through the early 1940s. The Religious of the Sacred Heart built a Spanish-Gothic main building atop the hill in 1932 for the San Francisco College for Women, reached by a grand garden staircase. The college went co-ed as Lone Mountain College in 1969 and was acquired by the University of San Francisco in 1978, which still operates it as the Lone Mountain campus next to St. Ignatius Church.
Things most people don’t know
Cemetery hill
The neighborhood sits atop the former Laurel Hill, Calvary, Masonic, and Odd Fellows cemeteries; burials were relocated to Colma by the early 1940s.
College for women
The 1932 Spanish-Gothic building atop the hill housed the San Francisco College for Women until it became co-ed Lone Mountain College in 1969.
USF's hilltop campus
The University of San Francisco acquired the site in 1978 and runs it today as its Lone Mountain campus.
The grand staircase
A garden stairway nicknamed the Spanish Steps climbs the hillside to the landmark Gothic main building.
Big views
The hilltop offers panoramic vistas across the city, out to the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean.
Eating and drinking near Lone Mountain
Lone Mountain is primarily residential — these sit in Inner Richmond, NoPa, Laurel Heights.
Bars
- Madrone Art Bar · 500 Divisadero St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. Muni buses 31-Balboa, 33-Ashbury/18th St, 38-Geary, 43-Masonic and 5-Fulton serve the neighborhood's edges.
Nearest hospital. UCSF Health Stanyan Hospital (formerly St. Mary's), 450 Stanyan St (about 0.8 mi)
Thinking about Lone Mountain?
Send me an address and I will come back with its sun, wind and fog, what is under it, and what has closed on the block.