San Francisco Neighborhoods · Pacific Heights
Pacific Heights
also Pac HeightsSun zoneMansion-lined hills with knockout bay views and a polished Fillmore Street — old-money San Francisco at its most genteel.
- Grand Victorian & Edwardian mansions
- Upscale Fillmore St shopping
- Bay & Golden Gate views
- Quiet, leafy streets
On the map
Open Pacific Heights on the map →The story
Pacific Heights rose as a wealthy enclave once cable cars made its steep hills reachable in the 1870s–80s. The high ground escaped the 1906 fire, so block after block of grand Victorian and Edwardian mansions survive. Today it holds some of the city's priciest real estate, with upper Fillmore Street as its refined shopping-and-dining spine.
Things most people don’t know
Billionaires' Row
The stretch of Broadway between Divisadero and Lyon is among the most expensive residential blocks in the U.S., home to tech moguls and old San Francisco fortunes.
A Victorian open to all
The Haas-Lilienthal House (1886) on Franklin St is the only intact Queen Anne Victorian mansion in the city operated as a public museum.
Above the 1906 fire
Because the hilltop escaped the post-earthquake fires, Pacific Heights preserves one of the densest collections of pre-1906 mansions in San Francisco.
Author of the Spreckels Mansion
Novelist Danielle Steel owns the landmark Spreckels Mansion on Washington St — one of several grand homes that have drawn famous residents to the neighborhood.
Upper Fillmore's rise
What began as a post-1906 commercial strip is now one of the city's most upscale shopping streets, lined with boutiques and sidewalk cafés.
Eating and drinking
Restaurants
- SPQR · 1911 Fillmore St
- The Snug · 2301 Fillmore St
- Jackson Fillmore Trattoria · 2506 Fillmore St
- Pizzeria Delfina · 2406 California St
Bars
- Harry's Bar · 2020 Fillmore St
- Scopo Divino · 2800 California St
- Vic's Winehouse · 1870 Fillmore St
- Verve Wine · 2358 Fillmore St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. A bus neighborhood: the 1 California and 2 Clement run east–west to downtown, while the 22 Fillmore and 24 Divisadero cross north–south. The nearest rail is the Van Ness Muni Metro station, a ride downhill.
Nearest hospital. CPMC Van Ness Campus, 1101 Van Ness Ave (about 1.2 mi)
Thinking about Pacific Heights?
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.