Forest Hill, San Francisco

Forest Hill
Neighborhood of San Francisco

Stairway into Forest Hill from Pacheco Street and Dewey Boulevard up to Magellan Avenue.
Forest Hill

Location within Central San Francisco

Coordinates: 37°44′53″N 122°27′47″W / 37.748°N 122.463°W
Government
 • Supervisor Norman Yee
 • Assemblymember Phil Ting (D)[1]
 • State Senator Mark Leno (D)[1]
 • U.S. House Jackie Speier (D)[2]
Area[3]
 • Total 0.93 km2 (0.359 sq mi)
 • Land 0.93 km2 (0.359 sq mi)
Population (2008)[3]
 • Total 3,106
 • Density 3,345/km2 (8,663/sq mi)
ZIP Code 94116
Area codes 415/628

Forest Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California.

Location

Forest Hill is located near the middle of the city, southeast of the Inner Sunset and northeast of West Portal. Boundaries are roughly Seventh Avenue/Laguna Honda Boulevard to the north and east, Taraval Street to the south, and 14th Avenue to the west.

History

Construction on the neighborhood began in 1912, on land originally owned by Adolph Sutro that a private firm purchased from his heirs. Streets in Forest Hill were not built to San Francisco's specific standards regarding width, grade, etc., and therefore were not accepted nor maintained by the City until 1978. (Many of the streets are extravagantly landscaped curving lanes.)

Attractions and characteristics

The Forest Hill Clubhouse is the center of the Forest Hill community. It was designed in 1919 by Bernard Maybeck and was built principally by the members of the association on weekends.

Forest Hill is one of the few non-condominium developments in San Francisco that has an active homeowners' association, requiring membership of all property owners and payment of an annual fee for maintenance of the planted common areas owned by the association.[4] The association also governs remodeling and new construction in the neighborhood.

The area south of Dewey Boulevard is known as Laguna Honda or the Forest Hill Extension. The extension is another section of Forest Hill, except with smaller homes and more moderate pricing. The name Laguna Honda means "deep lagoon" in Spanish and presumably refers to the Laguna Honda Reservoir at the intersection of Laguna Honda Boulevard and Clarendon Avenue.

Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center (public funded long term care facility) and the Muni Metro Forest Hill Station are located near the intersection of Laguna Honda Boulevard and Dewey Boulevard. To the east, School of the Arts high school is located at the intersection of Portola Drive at Woodside Avenue/O'Shaughnessy Boulevard.

Landscaping throughout Forest Hill is unusually lush for San Francisco: Magellan Avenue's elms make it one of the few streets in the city with a true tree canopy that goes for several blocks. Several homes and a community clubhouse designed by celebrated California Arts and Crafts Movement architect Bernard Maybeck add to the picturesque, rustic quality of the neighborhood.[5]

Forest Hill is one of the least-densely populated neighborhoods in San Francisco, and residents take pride in what they perceive as a small-town community. The Forest Hill Association has served the residents of Forest Hill for nearly 100 years and holds its Board meetings on the first Monday evening of each month at the clubhouse. The historic Forest Hill clubhouse[6] on Magellan Avenue is also home of the Forest Hill Garden Club,[7] the neighborhood women's social organization founded in 1931 to promote the cultivating of flowers and gardens in the community. The clubhouse is also the site of the Forest Hill Musical Days, an intimate neighborhood chamber music festival, founded in 2003 by pianist Mari Kodama and her husband, conductor Kent Nagano, both of whom were residents of the neighborhood.[8] Volunteers from the neighborhood organize the festival, as music-loving residents open their homes to host performing artists from all over Europe.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Statewide Database". UC Regents. Retrieved December 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ "California's 14th Congressional District - Representatives & District Map". Civic Impulse, LLC.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Forest Hill neighborhood in San Francisco, California (CA), 94116". City-Data.com.
  4. ↑ "Welcome to the Forest Hill Association of San Francisco". Forest Hill Association.
  5. ↑ McCoy, Esther (1960). Five California Architects. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation. p. 6. ASIN B000I3Z52W.
  6. ↑ "The Forest Hill Clubhouse". Forest Hill Association.
  7. ↑ "Welcome to Forest Hill Garden Club". Forest Hill Association.
  8. ↑ "Welcome to Musical Days in Forest Hill". Forest Hill Association.

Coordinates: 37°44′53″N 122°27′47″W / 37.748°N 122.463°W