Pacific Heights and the Marina District

Pacific Heights

Pacific Heights isn’t just San Francisco’s richest neighborhood. It’s also one of the richest neighborhoods in the US. There are fancy homes. And there are also beautiful views. It’s just north of the Western Addition, where I spent the latter part of Day 5.

Alta Plaza

Alta Vista is a park at one of the highest points of Pacific Heights.

This Renaissance-style mansion directly opposite Alta Plaza was built in 1895 by Willis Polk, an important San Francisco architect, for a local iron and steel magnate. Movie director Chris Columbus sold it in 2013 for $13.3 million.

Speaking of movie directors, Peter Bogdanovich got into trouble when he filmed part of the car chase scene in *What’s Up, Doc?* on the Alta Plaza steps without obtaining permission. The stairs still bear damage incurred from the several cars that drove down the steps in the scene.

You can see I got blue skies back after the overcast grays of Day 5!

Just down the slope from Alta Plaza is Fillmore Street, the main commercial drag of Pacific Heights. I thought the Preston Apartments building was particularly cool. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information about the building.

Lafayette Park

Like Alta Plaza, Lafayette Park is a park on a Pacific Heights highpoint. In this case, on the eastern edge of Pacific Heights.

Does anyone remember the Richard Spreckels Mansion on Buena Vista Heights above Haight-Ashbury? The Spreckels Mansion on Pacific Heights only needs one name because it is THE Spreckels Mansion. It was built in 1913 for another member of the Spreckels sugar dynasty. By comparing the mansions, I’m guessing that Adodoph, who built this one, had a lot more money than Richard. Author Danielle Steel bought the mansion decades ago. Sadly, she put up a hedge that blocks the view of the mansion. Neighbors were not happy about it.

Detail on the Baroque Spreckels Mansion.

Down the slope from Lafayette Park is Trinity Episcopal Church. Built in 1893, it survived the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Unfortunately, it was under renovation when I stopped by so I didn’t get to see the interior.

Looking down California Street from Pacific Heights and up and over Nob Hill, with a peek of the Bay Bridge off in the distance.

The C. A. Belden House, directly opposite Lafayette Park, is a Queen Anne built in 1889. That is one cool decorative feature on its façade!

The Haas–Lilienthal House is a Queen Anne that was built in 1886. It survived the 1906 earthquake, but by 2017 it needed a renovation. (Thus the lovely bright orange portable toilet out front.) I returned with friends later in the year, after the renovations were complete, for a tour of the interior.

Down the northern slope of Pacific Heights from Lafayette Park is the McElroy Octagon House. It was built by William C. McElroy, a wood miller, in 1861. (Who remembers the Feusier Octagon House on Russian Hill from 2016?)

Okay, I’m cheating a little here. The Octagon House is in Cow Hollow, a neighborhood within the Marina District. We’ll spend more time there later in the day. And technically, Trinity Episcopal Church is in the Western Addition. So let’s just keep this all quiet.

Another view of San Francisco Bay from the north slope of Pacific Heights.

Convent of the Sacred Heart

Convent of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic high school housed in a number of Pacific Heights mansions.

Next door to the Flood Mansion is the Hammond House was built in 1905 for a lumber and railroad magnate. The Convent of the Sacred Heart bought the building in 1956 for its new boys’ grade school program.

Cow Hollow

Cow Hollow is a neighborhood in the southern part of the Marina District, just down hill from Pacific Heights. We got a sneak preview of it when we checked out the McElroy Octagon House. In earlier times, Cow Hollow was a grazing spot for, you guessed it, cows.

The Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin

A mural in the courtyard at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin was built in 1891 when Cow Hollow was still rural.

The shingled Church of St. Mary the Virgin reminds me more of Cape Cod than San Francisco.

A figure of St. Francis hidden in the greenery at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

Vedanta Temple

The Vedanta Society is a Hindu institution. The building pictured was built in 1905-1908. Having outgrown its space in the mid-20th century, the Society built a new, modern temple nearby, completed in 1959. Hence, the “Old Temple”.

Fort Mason

Fort Mason is in the northeast corner of the Marina District. Like the Presidio, Fort Mason is a former military base that is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. During World War II, 2/3 of all troops sent to the War in the Pacific embarked from Fort Mason. Now it’s a cultural and arts center. Touring Fort Mason on Day 6, I had fond memories. Earlier in the year, I had wrapped up a temp job there I had really enjoyed with the Golden Gate Parks Conservancy, the organization that manages the National Recreation Area. In 2015, I took a photography class there.

Museo Italo Americano

A bronze sculpture of an elephant by Beniamino Bufano. Bufano is San Francisco’s favorite Italian-American artist. We saw his works in 2016 at Grace Cathedral in Nob Hill and St. Mary’s Square in Chinatown.

One of the cultural institutions at Fort Mason is Museo Italo Americano. It was the 1st museum in the United States celebrating Italian and Italian-American culture.

Italian-born North Beach artist Alessandro Baccari, Sr., took this photograph of his wife and son on the day of his son’s first communion, circa 1935. It looks like a painting!

*Saturnalia*, a 1958 sculpture in magnesite by Elio Benvenuto. Like Bufano and Baccari, Benvenuto was an artist who was born in Italy and flourished in San Francisco.

The Mexican Museum

The Mexican Museum contains art by artists of Mexican heritage and of Latin-American heritage in general. Its new, permanent home is being built in South of Market, as we saw on Day 4.

*Warrior on Horseback, El Libertador* by José Clemente Orozco, 1st half of the 20th century. I always find depictions of the Mexican Revolution fascinating. We had already seen one of his depictions of the Mexican Revolution in the de Young Museum on Day 1.

Another fascinating piece by Orozco, *Dance of Quetzalcoatl*, 1934.

One more by Diego Rivera, *Sleeping Children*, 1932.

Out and About at Fort Mason

Museo Italo Americano and the Mexican Museum were both how I like my museums to be–interesting and small! But it was a beautiful day, so it was time to get back outside and enjoy.

And what do we see outside? Another work by Beniamino Bufano! It’s his *Madonna*, with a mosaic child representing the world’s races.

Fort Mason’s Great Meadow, with none other than the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Sculpture of Congressman Phillip Burton by Wendy M. Ross. Burton was instrumental in the creation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Fort Mason Chapel, built in 1942 in the familiar Mission Revival style.

McDowell Hall, aka the General’s Residence, was built in 1877 for Major General Irvin McDowell. It’s now an event venue.

View of Alcatraz Island from Fort Mason.

View of Fort Mason’s port area (where the museums are located) and in the background, well, you know.

The Marina (Proper)

Cow Hollow and Fort Mason are both located in the Marina District. But the main neighborhood of the Marina is north of Cow Hollow, along San Francisco Bay. The Marina is San Francisco’s youngest and whitest district. It definitely has that vibe.

The Marina is mostly built on landfill. It suffered severe liquification during the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, resulting in the Marina having the worst losses in San Francisco from the quake.

We had actually spent a bit of time in the Marina in 2016 when we stopped by the Palace of Fine Arts. You remember, right? Of course you do!

The Actual Marina

So as you could imagine, there’s actually a marina on the Marina District’s shoreline.

And I love pictures of boats!

The marina in the Marina, just off Fort Mason, to the right.

View of downtown San Francisco from the Marina.

The Wave Organ

The Wave Organ is one of San Francisco’s strangest attractions. And that’s saying a lot!

The Wave Organ is actually part of the Exploratium, the crazy science museum we visited in 2016. It is a wave-activated acoustic sculpture. The installation includes 25 organ pipes made of PVC and concrete located at various elevations within the site, allowing for the rise and fall of the tides. Sound is created by the impact of waves against the pipe ends and the subsequent movement of the water in and out of the pipes. (The past few sentences are from the Exploratorium’s website.)

The design of the *Wave Organ* reminded me of “Yellow Submarine”.

I’ll be honest. I found the site strange and boring. But as it’s at the end of a jetty, it does boast fabulous views.

View of the Golden Gate Bridge (of course!) from the *Wave Organ*.

Evening in the Marina

After the day’s sightseeing was done, it was time for dinner and ice cream in the Marina. But that doesn’t mean it was time to stop taking pictures!

Lips in the Marina! This is a mural by local artist fnnch, who is known for his murals of lips and other objects around San Francisco.

Well, that was the last regularly scheduled ever of San Francisco sightseeing season. But just as I refered to the last regularly scheduled sightseeing day of the 2016 sightseeing season, there’s still some unscheduled San Francisco sightseeing to come. But before that, San Jose is coming on Day 7. It’s my first sightseeing excursion in the Bay Area beyond San Francisco. But it won’t be my last.

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]