Pacific Heights, San Francisco

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco is the last remaining structure from the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. The palace was restored and the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre seats 1,000 patrons.

Haas-Lilienthal House is one of the largest private residences in San Francisco. It has remained quite unspoilt for nearly a century, with just one or two additions made. Designed by the architect Peter R Schmidt, it was constructed in 1886 for William Haas, a wholesale grocer who had emigrated from Bavaria. The so-called Eastlake style was chosen, with a Queen Anne tower. The asymmetrical placing of cubes, cones, pyramids, cylinders and other geometrical forms is the most striking feature.Most unusually for the time, the house was fully wired for electricity, though candle sconces were provided in the candelabra just in case. Including everything, down to the very last cent, the builder's bill is said to have amounted to only $18,500.Until the end of the 1970s the house was still lived in by descendants of the original owner. Since then it has been the offices of the Foundation for San Francisco's Architectural Heritage which works to preserve the best of the city's architecture. The Ball Room is still used for its original purpose; it is hired out for various social functions.

In the years following the Gold Rush the part of present-day Union Street west of Van Ness Avenue was a green valley. People used to call it "Cow Hollow" and the name has survived, though there have not been meadows or cows there for many years. The area began to be developed about a century ago; in the last 25 years it has become a model of enlightened urban renewal. The numerous Victorian houses have been beautifully restored, some being converted for commercial use.Today there are fashion boutiques, antique shops, galleries and restaurants, as well as some of the city's best-known singles bars and cafés. Cow Hollow is a district which has rediscovered its style.The side streets off Union Street between Octavia and Steiner Streets are also worth exploring; note in particular the houses at 2038 and 1980 Union Street, built in the 1870s by James Cudworth, a dairy-farmer. The house at 2038 is the largest former farmhouse remaining here.

The Spreckels Mansion, situated two blocks west of Van Ness Avenue in the district known as Pacific Heights, is noteworthy both on account of the man who built it and for its architecture.Adolph B Spreckels was the son of Claus Spreckels, an immigrant from Hanover in Germany; Spreckels senior made his fortune as the "sugar king" of California. The architect of the mansion was George Applegarth, who took as his model a French Baroque palace.Applegarth chose white stone for the building, which occupies the space of half a block. Three years later, in 1915, Spreckels entrusted him with an even more ambitious project, the design of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, which the millionaire and his wife bequeathed to the city.Twenty-seven rooms have been turned into tourist accommodation.

Situated in Cow Hollow the Vedanta Temple is surely the most unusual building in San Francisco. Erected in 1905 it was designed by the architect Joseph A. Leonard in collaboration with Swami Trigunatitananda who, five years earlier, had founded the Vedanta Society of North California, which is still in existence. In its all but grotesque mixture of architectural styles - Queen Anne, Colonial, Oriental, Moorish and medieval - the temple is said to symbolize the Vedic doctrine that all religions are but different ways of approaching the one God. The Vedanta is the highest of the six systems of Hindu religious philosophy.Note in particular the crenellated European castle tower on one side and the octagonal cupola such as is raised above a Shiva temple on the other. Between them is a double dome of the kind seen on Bengali temples.

In the late 1850s San Francisco was gripped by a short-lived vogue for octagonal houses with dormer windows and roof lanterns. It was triggered by a book recommending the design as making for healthier living. Today only two such houses remain and only one, Octagon House, built in 1861, can be visited.Octagon House is undoubtedly a curiosity. It is nowadays the Californian headquarters of the National Society of Colonial Dames in America. The items on display are something of an anachronism as far as San Francisco is concerned. Most date from the American colonial period long before the city was founded.

Alta Plaza was the place to live in San Francisco in the 1880's. This hilly park is surrounded by Scott Street, Clay Street, Jackson Street and Steiner Street - it covers four city blocks.

LaFayette Park is located at the highest point in Pacific Heights in San Francisco. The 13 acre park was created as part of the city expansion of 1855. The park offers good views of the city.