San Francisco's West Portal Neighborhoods

By Richard Brandi

Book Overview

When you're in West Portal and the adjacent Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood, it's hard to believe you're still in San Francisco. These quiet and picturesque neighborhoods are decidedly non-urban, yet they are connected by a streetcar tunnel that leads under Twin Peaks to the bustling downtown area, two miles through the city's mountainous core. In fact, West Portal is named for the western end of this tunnel, which opened in 1917 to bring residents from the city center to what were new garden suburbs. Originally West Portal was sandy and scruffy, while Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood were heavily forested. The neighborhoods grew rapidly in the 1920s, and today West Portal is a popular shopping and entertainment district, while St. Francis Wood and Forest Hill boast some of the city's finest architecture and landscaping.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738529974
• ISBN13: 9780738529974
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (SC)
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

My neighborhood

This is a fantastic little book. I grew up in the West Portal neighborhood and have never known the history of the area. This book provides a wonderful, and quite comprehensive, overview on the background and history that is unsurpassed in any other source I have seen. The pictures are great. As a native west-San Franciscan I highly recommend this book.

Trying not to live in the past

But I can't help it. Everything was cleaner, simpler, NICER then. I spent my teen years at the Empire Theatre, Shaw's Candy, and the rest of WP. There are some pictures in this book that even native San Franciscans will be surprised at. A great addition to anyone's SF history library.

San Francisco's West Portal Neighborhoods

"It's laid out well, has great captions, and the photos from different eras laid out in close proximity tell a good story. I was much entertained. " Susan Snyder, Head, Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley "The detail is explicit and unusual covering the adjacent neighborhoods of West Portal, Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood: areas of San Francisco well off the usual beaten tourist track. Author Brandi is himself a West Portal resident, and uses his knowledge to compliment a wonderful gathering of vintage images depicting the area's many changes. Each picture is clearly identified, dated, and provided appropriate historical background." Midwest Book Review "You did a masterful job of getting all the history into a series of captions and historic photographs. Arcadia's format makes being able to tell the story somewhat dependent on the photos available. I am impressed how many photographs you were able to find that provided a visual narrative and enhanced the history of West Portal. Good job! Susan Cerny, Historian and author of Berkeley Landmarks. "Thanks a lot for your book on West Portal. It's a valuable resource. Enjoyable too." David Weinstein, Architecture writer and contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and CA Modern. "It is absolutely great. It is one of the best ones yet that I have seen of the Arcadia series on San Francisco. You deserve a great pat on the back." Glenn Koch, historian and author of San Francisco Golden Age Postcards, Windgate Press.