San Francisco Neighborhoods · Union Street
Union Street
Sun zoneEight sunny blocks of Victorian storefronts from Van Ness to Steiner — boutiques, brunch patios, and a buzzing Fillmore Street bar corner, on what was once dairy pasture.
- Union St boutiques & brunch
- Lively bar scene
- Sunny & walkable
- Condos & classic flats
On the map
Open Union Street on the map →The story
Named for the shopping street at its heart, this is the eastern end of greater Cow Hollow — the marshy valley where dozens of dairies supplied the young city's milk in the mid-1800s. Here lay Washerwoman's Lagoon, the freshwater pond where Gold Rush–era laundries washed the city's clothes, until dairies and tanneries fouled it; late in the century the dairies were pushed out and the pond was filled. Victorian and Edwardian homes and storefronts rose on the new lots, and in the 1950s–60s Union Street's blocks between Van Ness and Steiner reinvented themselves as a boutique-and-dining strip.
Things most people don’t know
An eight-sided survivor
The Octagon House on Gough St at Union dates to 1861, when eight-sided homes were a national fad. One of only two left in the city, it is now a small museum run by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
A temple of many towers
The Vedanta Society's Old Temple at Webster and Filbert, built in 1905, is often called the first Hindu temple in the Western world. Its rooftop mixes domes and towers from several traditions — a nod to the Vedanta teaching that all religions lead to the same truth.
An early boutique row
In the 1950s–60s, shopkeepers converted Union Street's old Victorians into shops and cafés, making it one of San Francisco's first boutique shopping strips.
A 1913 power saloon
The Balboa Cafe (1913), at Fillmore and Greenwich, is one of the city's oldest saloons and a longtime see-and-be-seen hangout for San Francisco's political set.
Eating and drinking
Restaurants
- Flores · 2030 Union St
- Roaming Goat · 1830 Union St
- Atelier Crenn · 3127 Fillmore St
- Rooster & Rice · 2211 Filbert St
Bars
- Balboa Cafe · 3199 Fillmore St
- Palm House · 2032 Union St
- Bar Crenn · 3131 Fillmore St
Getting around and getting care
Transit. The 45 Union–Stockton bus runs the length of Union Street toward downtown, with the 22 Fillmore crossing at Fillmore St, the 49 Van Ness along the eastern edge, and the 28 and 43 on Lombard St at the northern edge. There's no Muni Metro or BART nearby — it's a bus-and-walk neighborhood.
Nearest hospital. CPMC Van Ness Campus, 1101 Van Ness Ave (about 1.4 mi)
Thinking about Union Street?
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.