San Francisco Neighborhoods · Mission Terrace
Mission Terrace
Fog zoneA quiet, sunny pocket of 1920s bungalows tucked between the Excelsior and Balboa Park, in the shadow of City College.
- Single-family bungalow streets
- Steps from Balboa Park BART
- City College next door
- Easy Mission St dining
On the map
Open Mission Terrace on the map →The story
The land was surveyed for residential development by the Baldwin & Howell Company in 1911, on former farmland once worked by Italian and French truck gardeners. Most of the homes went up in the 1920s and 1930s, when streetcar lines along the Mission corridor let working families commute without a car. The neighborhood sits just east of Balboa Park, and City College of San Francisco opened its permanent Ocean Campus on adjacent parkland on August 27, 1940. Decades later, the construction of Interstate 280 and BART's Balboa Park station reshaped the neighborhood's southern and western edges. Many of the original 1920s bungalows still stand today, largely unchanged.
Things most people don’t know
Bungalow subdivision
Surveyed by Baldwin & Howell in 1911 and built out mostly in the 1920s–30s as modest single-family bungalows.
City College next door
CCSF's Ocean Campus opened on adjacent land on August 27, 1940, after a land swap with Balboa Park.
Balboa Park BART
The Balboa Park hub at 401 Geneva Ave sits at the neighborhood's edge, served by four BART lines and three Muni Metro lines.
Truck-garden farmland
Before development, the area was truck-garden farmland; early streetcars literally ran through the fields.
Reshaped by I-280
Interstate 280 and BART construction in the 1960s–70s redrew the neighborhood's southern and western edges.
Eating and drinking near Mission Terrace
Mission Terrace is primarily residential — these sit in the Excelsior, Balboa Park.
Restaurants
- El Farolito · 4817 Mission St
- Pho Golden · 4683 Mission St
- Ocean Subs · 18 Ocean Ave
Bars
- The Halfway Club · 1166 Geneva Ave
- Tala Wine · 4625 Mission St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. Balboa Park BART station (401 Geneva Ave) sits in the neighborhood, served by BART plus Muni Metro J, K and M lines. Muni buses include the 8, 29, 43 and 49; the 14-Mission and 14R run nearby along Mission Street in the Excelsior.
Nearest hospital. CPMC Mission Bernal Campus, 3555 Cesar Chavez St (about 2.5 mi)
Thinking about Mission Terrace?
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.