Get to Know: Alamo Square
Photo by Robert Forcadilla on Unsplash
There is arguably no more iconic image of San Francisco than the view overlooking the famous Painted Ladies from the vantage point of Alamo Square. This postcard-perfect vista famously was the setting for the TV show Full House, and has appeared in numerous films. In the context of real estate, Alamo Square is subdistrict 6e of District 6 (Central North), encompassing adjacent neighborhoods including Western Addition, Hayes Valley, North Panhandle, Lower Pacific Heights, and Anza Vista. The area is bounded by Fell Street to the south, Divisadero Street to the west, and zigzagging along Golden Gate Avenue, Steiner Street, Fulton Street, and Webster Street to the north and east.
The Painted Ladies are not the only grand dames of Victorian architecture in the area. As part of the greater area known as the Western Addition (of which the SFAR subdistrict of the same name is now a subset), Alamo Square was developed starting in the 1850s as part of the Van Ness Ordinance, which platted a grid of streets west of Larkin Street, then the western boundary of the city, to Divisadero Street. The area was spared in the 1906 earthquake and fire, as mansions along Van Ness Avenue were dynamited to create a firebreak to prevent the fire from blazing westward, and Alamo Square also evaded the rash of urban renewal and redevelopment in the mid-20th century that transformed the current-day Western Addition. Consequently, the Alamo Square district still retains some of the city’s most exuberant Victorian structures. The area is also designated as a historic district.
Alamo Square enjoys proximity to some of the city’s most vibrant areas, including the Divisadero Street corridor, the Fillmore, and the Lower Haight, making it a very walkable neighborhood. Some of the city’s best dining and shopping options are within easy reach. Because of its preservation and desirability, real estate in the area does tend to trend higher than even immediately adjacent subdistricts.