San Francisco Neighborhoods · Russian Hill
Russian Hill
Sun zoneSteep, secret-stairway hills crowned by the crookedest street in the world — leafy and quiet above the buzz of Polk Street.
- Iconic Lombard St & stair-walks
- Polk St dining & bars
- Bay & bridge views
- Quiet, leafy hilltop living
On the map
Open Russian Hill on the map →The story
Russian Hill is named for a small Russian Orthodox cemetery early settlers found at its summit — graves of sailors and fur traders, later removed. Its steep grade kept it semi-rural until cable cars arrived, after which it became an early-1900s colony of writers and artists. It remains a quiet, affluent hill famous for Lombard Street's switchbacks and its hidden pedestrian stairways.
Things most people don’t know
Named for a lost cemetery
Settlers found a small plot of Russian graves atop the hill in the 1850s. The bodies were eventually moved, but the name “Russian Hill” stuck.
The crookedest street
Lombard Street's one block of eight tight switchbacks was built in 1922 to tame a slope too steep for cars — now one of the most-visited sights in the city.
Secret stairway streets
Car-free garden stairways lace the hill — Vallejo, Filbert, and Macondray Lane, the last said to be the model for Armistead Maupin's fictional Barbary Lane.
A bohemian summit
In the early 1900s cheap rents and big views drew a colony of writers and artists, including California's first poet laureate, Ina Coolbrith, who lived on the hill.
Some of the best views in the city
The crest looks out over the bay, Alcatraz, and both bridges — the Willis Polk-designed Vallejo Street stairway gardens (1914) frame one of the finest vantage points.
Eating and drinking
Getting around and getting care
Transit. The Powell-Hyde cable car climbs right over the hill past Lombard Street. Buses: the 19 Polk and 41/45 Union serve the slopes, with the 49 Van Ness rapid a short walk east toward downtown.
Nearest hospital. CPMC Van Ness Campus, 1101 Van Ness Ave (about 0.9 mi)
Thinking about Russian Hill?
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.