Historic Walking Tour Guide: Liberty-Hill Landmark District

One-sheet walking tour of the Liberty-Hill Landmark District in San Francisco. Features 10 stops: 20th Street, 3333-3345 21st Street, Mixed-Use Buildings on 956-988 Valencia Street, 3755 20th Street, 3765 20th St., 929-945 Valencia Street, 3733-35 20th St., 900 Guerrero Street, Italianate Row Houses on Lexington & San Carlos Streets. From introduction: "The Liberty-Hill Landmark District is a significant architectural representation of nineteenth century middle class housing and is one of the earliest residential “suburbs” in San Francisco. This district developed along San Francisco’s oldest road, Valencia Street, which roughly aligns to the old “San Jose Mission Road” that connected Mission Dolores (founded in 1776) to Mission San Jose. After the Gold Rush of 1849, San Francisco grew rapidly as evidenced by the construction of the City’s first street railroad, which began service on Valencia Street in 1860. In 1864, local citizens pooled their money to form the San Francisco Homestead Union, which allowed them to buy and subdivide a large tract of land, including the future Liberty-Hill Landmark District. Some excess lands were sold to developers. The Real Estate Associates (TREA), the largest builder of speculative housing in San Francisco in the 1870s, developed Lexington and San Carlos Streets, as well as a number of other streets in the district. A mostly Victorian-era district, architectural styles include Italianate, Stick, and Queen Anne. Houses range in size from the small workingman’s rowhouses on Lexington and San Carlos Streets, which feature uniform facades and setbacks, to the architect-designed houses on Liberty and Fair Oaks Streets, designed by well-known Bay Area architects, including Albert Pissis and the Newsom Brothers." Funding for this project was provided in part through a 2010 Preserve America grant to the City of San Francisco (grant number 06-10-AP-5034) for the Market and Octavia Historic Resource Preservation Project. The grant was administered by the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Preserve America is a federal initiative that encourages and supports community efforts to preserve and enjoy our priceless cultural and natural heritage. The goals of the program include a greater shared knowledge about the nation's past, strengthened regional identities and local pride, increased local participation in preserving the country's cultural and natural heritage assets, and support for the economic vitality of our communities.

Historic Walking Tour Guide: Liberty-Hill Landmark District

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