San Francisco Neighborhoods · Outer Richmond
Outer Richmond
also The AvenuesFog zoneSan Francisco's foggy edge of the continent — a calm, residential grid of avenues running west to Ocean Beach, Lands End, and the ruins of Sutro Baths.
- Near Lands End & Ocean Beach
- Clement St food scene
- Calm, residential
- 38-Geary buses downtown
On the map
Open Outer Richmond on the map →The story
At the turn of the 20th century the area west of Arguello was windswept sand dunes and potato fields, lumped with the rest of the western city as the “Outside Lands.” New cable and electric streetcar lines opened it to the public, carrying San Franciscans out to Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, and Adolph Sutro's Cliff House and Sutro Baths. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, displaced residents settled the avenues in large numbers. Waves of Russian refugees arrived after the Russian Revolution, and from the 1950s onward — especially after 1965 — Chinese immigrants made the district home, giving Geary Boulevard and Clement Street their distinctive Russian and Cantonese character.
Things most people don’t know
Sutro Baths ruins
The 1894 Sutro Baths, once the world's largest indoor saltwater swimming complex, survive as dramatic oceanfront ruins at Lands End.
Legion of Honor
The Legion of Honor fine-arts museum, a replica of Paris's Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, sits on a bluff above Lands End.
Holy Virgin Cathedral
The gold-domed Holy Virgin Cathedral (6210 Geary), completed in 1965, is the largest cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Lands End
Lands End offers cliffside coastal trails with Golden Gate Bridge views, plus Mile Rock Beach and the old Fort Miley.
Oldest U.S. tiki bar
Trad'r Sam on Geary, opened in 1937, bills itself as the oldest continuously operating tiki bar in the United States.
Eating and drinking
Restaurants
- Pearl 6101 · 6101 California St
- Violet's Tavern · 2301 Clement St
- Pacific Cafe · 7000 Geary Blvd
- Hong Kong Lounge · 5322 Geary Blvd
Bars
- Trad'r Sam · 6150 Geary Blvd
- The Blarney Stone · 5625 Geary Blvd
- Ireland's 32 · 3920 Geary Blvd
- Simple Pleasures Cafe · 3434 Balboa St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. 38-Geary and 38R-Geary Rapid run the length of Geary Blvd to downtown; 1-California to the north; 5-Fulton and 5R-Fulton Rapid along Fulton; 31-Balboa and 29-Sunset also serve the avenues.
Nearest hospital. UCSF Health Stanyan Hospital (formerly St. Mary's), 450 Stanyan St (about 3 mi)
Thinking about Outer Richmond?
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.