Nob Hill | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 37°47′36″N122°24′52″W / 37.79323°N 122.41448°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
City-county | San Francisco |
Government | |
• Supervisor | Aaron Peskin |
• Assemblymember | Matt Haney (D) [1] |
• State senator | Scott Wiener (D) [1] |
• U. S. rep. | Nancy Pelosi (D) [2] |
Area | |
• Total | 0.313 sq mi (0.81 km2) |
Population | |
• Total | 20,388 |
• Density | 65,000/sq mi (25,000/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−8 (Pacific) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−7 (PDT) |
ZIP codes | 94108, 94109, 94133 |
Area codes | 415/628 |
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States [4] [5] that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highest-income neighborhoods in the United States, as well as one of the most desirable and expensive real estate markets in the country. [6] [7] [8] [9] Prior to Covid-19, it was the most expensive real estate market per metre squared, narrowly beating Monte Carlo, although it has since fallen heavily. [10] [11] It was the only place in the United States so far where market price per square metre exceeded the average yearly salary in the country ($72 400).
Nob Hill is a luxury destination in San Francisco, owing to its numerous Michelin-starred restaurants, [12] boutiques, cultural institutions, art galleries, and historic landmarks. [13] [14] The neighborhood is named after one of San Francisco's original "Seven Hills" and it contains the Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District (also known as Lower Nob Hill).
The actual peak of Nob Hill lies approximately at the intersection of Jones and Sacramento Streets.
North of Nob Hill is Russian Hill. West of the district is Pacific Heights. To the south of Nob Hill is the Union Square shopping district, Civic Center district, and the Tendernob neighborhood. East of Nob Hill is Chinatown and the Financial District. Northeast of Nob Hill is North Beach and Telegraph Hill.
The Polk Gulch area comprises the westernmost portions of Nob Hill and Russian Hill. The southern portion of Nob Hill is known as Lower Nob Hill. On its southwest slope, the area in between Nob Hill and the Tenderloin neighborhood is an area known as the Tendernob.
Prior to the 1850s, Nob Hill was called California Hill (after California Street, which climbs its steep eastern face), but was renamed after the Central Pacific Railroad's Big Four – known as the Nobs – who built their mansions on the hill. [15]
The area was settled in the rapid urbanization happening in the city in the late 19th century. Because of the views and its central position, it became an exclusive enclave of the rich and famous on the west coast who built large mansions in the neighborhood. This included prominent tycoons such as Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University and other members of The Big Four. These early citizens were known as nabobs , a term for prominent and wealthy men. This was shortened to nob, probably the origin of the area's eventual name. [16] [17]
The neighborhood was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, except for the granite walls surrounding the Stanford, Crocker, Huntington and Hopkins mansions. These walls remain and black scars caused by smoke from the intense fires that burned after the quake can still be seen.
Also gutted by the fires was the newly completed Fairmont Hotel at Mason and California Streets, as well as the mansion of tycoon James Clair Flood. Both structures had stone exteriors that survived the fires, and both buildings were subsequently cleaned and refurbished. The Fairmont Hotel remains in operation to this day and the Flood Mansion is the headquarters of the exclusive Pacific-Union Club.
While the neighborhood was able to maintain its affluence following the quake, every mansion owner moved or rebuilt elsewhere. Some rebuilt mansions further west in San Francisco, for example, in Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow. In place of where the mansions had been located, swank hotels were erected. Hotels built over the ruins of the former mansions include the Mark Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford Court.
Nob Hill is an affluent district, home to many of the city's upper-class families as well as a large young urban professional population, and a growing Chinese immigrant population from Chinatown to the east.
Four of San Francisco's well-known and most expensive hotels are located on Nob Hill, along California Street: the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Stanford Court, the Huntington Hotel, and the Fairmont Hotel. The hotels were named for San Francisco tycoons Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, & Collis Potter Huntington — three of the Big Four entrepreneurs of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad — and James Graham Fair, respectively.
Opposite the Fairmont Hotel and Pacific Union Club is Grace Cathedral, one of the city's largest houses of worship.
The Grand Lodge of California's headquarters are the SF Masonic Auditorium.
In Lower Nob Hill, the Academy of Art University owns and operates several buildings for housing and educational opportunities. [18]
Also in lower Nob Hill, on Bush Street, are the Memorial Home of Fire Chief Dennis T. Sullivan [19] and the sister hotels, the White Swan Inn and Petite Auberge. [20]
There are numerous historic and well maintained parks throughout Nob Hill. The most prominent park in the neighborhood is Huntington Park, which takes up an entire block, bounded by Sacramento Street to the north, Taylor Street to the west, California Street to the south, and Cushman Street to the east. Huntington Park was formerly the site of the mansion of Central Pacific Railroad baron Collis Potter Huntington; the mansion was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, however, and Huntington's widow donated the property to the city to establish a park in 1915. [21] Huntington Park has a playground for children, landscaping, and several fountains.
Washington & Hyde Mini Park is situated on a single lot between two apartment buildings on the north side of Washington Street, between Hyde Street and Leavenworth Street. Washington & Hyde Mini Park has a playground for children and landscaping. [22]
"The Big Four" was the name popularly given to the famous and influential businessmen, philanthropists and railroad tycoons who funded the Central Pacific Railroad (C.P.R.R.), which formed the western portion through the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, built from the mid-continent at the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean during the middle and late 1860s. Composed of Leland Stanford (1824–1893), Collis Potter Huntington (1821–1900), Mark Hopkins Jr. (1813–1878), and Charles Crocker (1822–1888), the four themselves, however, personally preferred to be known as "The Associates." They enriched themselves utilizing tax money and land grants, while heavily influencing the State legislature from within the Republican party, and through monopolizing tactics. Contemporary critics claimed they were the greatest swindlers in U.S. history.
Mark Hopkins Jr. was an American railroad executive. He was one of four principal investors that funded Theodore D. Judah's idea of building a railway over the Sierra Nevada from Sacramento, California to Promontory, Utah. They formed the Central Pacific Railroad along with Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Collis Huntington in 1861.
Alamo Square is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California with a park of the same name. Located in the Western Addition, its boundaries are Buchanan Street on the east, Turk Street on the north, Baker Street on the west, and Page Street Street on the south.
Pacific Heights is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It has panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, the Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, and the Presidio.
The Top of the Mark is a penthouse level bar located on the nineteenth floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill at California and Mason Streets in San Francisco, California. Located at the highest point of downtown San Francisco, on fog-free days the Top of the Mark has views of the financial district, Chinatown, North Beach, The San Francisco Bay, and of Grace Cathedral and Huntington Park.
The Pacific-Union Club is a social club located at 1000 California Street in San Francisco, California, at the top of Nob Hill. It is considered to be the most elite club of the West Coast, and one of the most elite clubs in the United States, along with the Knickerbocker Club in New York, the Metropolitan Club in Washington D.C., and the Somerset Club in Boston.
The InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco is a luxury hotel located at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. The hotel is managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group. The chain operates over 5,000 hotels and resorts in approximately 75 nations. The Mark Hopkins is the oldest InterContinental in the United States.
The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. Encompassing about 50 square blocks, it is historically bounded on the north by Geary Street, on the east by Mason Street, on the south by Market Street and on the west by Van Ness Avenue. The northern boundary with Lower Nob Hill has historically been set at Geary Street.
The Stanford Court Hotel is a historic 393-room hotel located at 905 California Street on Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. The hotel sits at the intersection of California & Powell St, where the city's cable car lines also intersect.
California Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. It is one of the longest streets in San Francisco, and includes a number of important landmarks. It runs in an approximately straight 5.2 mi (8.4 km) east–west line from the Financial District to Lincoln Park in the far northwest corner of the city.
The Huntington Hotel is a historic luxury hotel at the top of the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California. It is located at 1075 California Street, corner of Taylor Street. The hotel is a twelve-story, Georgian-style brick building that features 135 guest rooms and suites. It is currently closed.
The James C. Flood Mansion is a historic mansion at 1000 California Street, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, California, USA. Now home of the Pacific-Union Club, it was built in 1886 as the townhouse for James C. Flood, a 19th-century silver baron. It was the first brownstone building west of the Mississippi River, and the only mansion on Nob Hill to structurally survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Weeks and Day was an American architectural firm founded in 1916 by architect Charles Peter Weeks (1870–1928) and engineer William Peyton Day (1886–1966).
The Tender was a news blog published 2009–2011, covering life in San Francisco's fifty square block Tenderloin District.
The University Club of San Francisco is a private social club located atop Nob Hill in San Francisco, California. Notable members have included President Herbert Hoover and conservationist John Muir.
The Theodore F. Payne House, also known as the Payne Mansion, is a Victorian house in the Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. Built in 1881 and designed by William Curlett in a mix of Stick, Eastlake, and Queen Anne styles, it survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has been adapted to house a hotel and a restaurant.
Collis P. Huntington Park is a 1.3-acre (0.53 ha) park in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California.
The Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District is a historic district located in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, U.S.. It covers roughly a 5-block length in downtown San Francisco on the south slope of Nob Hill. It is sometimes referred to as the "Tendernob," the name is a portmanteau for the area that is the meeting point of the Tenderloin and Nob Hill. The Lower Nob Hill Apartment Hotel District is listed as a California Historical Landmark since July 31, 1991; and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since July 31, 1991, for architecture and social history.