Built during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, thousands of gabled, turreted, gingerbread-trimmed Victorian mansions are the “Painted Ladies” of San Francisco, lovingly restored, in hilly Pacific Heights and along the streets of the Fillmore District. The 4-block-square green aerie of Alta Plaza Park rises in terraces to a ridge surrounded by hundreds of vintage mansions designed by such renowned architects as Bernard Maybeck and Willis Polk.
Across from the Spreckels Mansion, a French limestone palace built for a Gold Rush magnate, residents, their dogs and children love the lawns, the pines and eucalyptus in Layfayette Park. Cottage Row on Baker Street is a sweet circa-1890 streetscape in lower Pacific Heights, nearby the Ortman-Schumate house at 1901 Scott, an ornate Italianate landmark from the 1870s.
About
200 shops between Jackson and Bush streets are chic boutiques selling
pricey antiques, French birdcages, elegant housewares, and vintage
and designer apparel. In this city of more than 3,000 restaurants,
the Fillmore District offers a New Orleans-style oyster bar; the “gastronomia”
and trattoria Vivande Porta Via; patisseries, Italian coffee houses,
and cafes on every block.
The Fillmore Auditorium is remembered by Baby Boomers for its hard-rock heyday of the 1960s when the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were headliners. Today’s hall presents such bands as the Jefferson Starship and local stars Boz Scaggs and Santana. The best of Bay Area talent is presented on three outdoor stages before huge crowds at the Fillmore Jazz Festival in June.
| The article on this page is adapted from guidebooks written by Karen Misuraca, the author of Our San Francisco, Fun With the Family in Northern California, and other travel books. Available for purchase on Amazon. |  |