Forest Hill, San Francisco

Forest Hill
Neighborhood of San Francisco
Stairway into Forest Hill from Pacheco Street and Dewey Boulevard up to Magellan Avenue.
Government
• Supervisor	Norman Yee
• Assemblymember	Catherine Stefani (D)
• State Senator	Scott Wiener (D)
• U.S. House	Eric Swalwell (D)
Area
• Total	0.93 km2 (0.359 sq mi)
• Land	0.93 km2 (0.359 sq mi)
Population  (2008)
• 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 conveniently located near the middle of the City of San Francisco, 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.

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) on the border to the east, School of the Arts high school is located at the intersection of Portola Drive at Woodside Avenue/O'Shaughnessy Boulevard.

History

Forest Hill was purchased by a private firm from the heirs of [[Adolph Sutro]. Ground digging to develop this neighborhood began in 1912. The streets in Forest Hill were originally built for horse and carriage, consequently, they are unusually wide and generous. These streets in Forest Hill did not conform to San Francisco's specific standards regarding width, grade, etc., and therefore were not initially approved nor maintained by the City until 1978. Many of the streets are extravagantly landscaped and gracefully curved throughout the neighborhood. All the homes enjoy a view, some have full ocean, and others downtown San Francisco.

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 neighborhoods with no condominium, no multi-tenancy developments in San Francisco and 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. The association also governs remodeling and new construction in the neighborhood.

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. Forest Hill homes are beautiful single family dwellings sitting on generous parcels of land, some are on double lots, that are nicely landscaped in front and well appointed back yards, and each is unique in architecture. Several homes and a community clubhouse are designed by celebrated California Arts and Crafts Movement architect Bernard Maybeck and other homes by renown architects, add to the picturesque, bucolic quality of the neighborhood.. Forest Hill has it's own MUNI station "Forest Hill" which the K, L, M lines service situated on the edge of its boundary on Laguna Honda, and residents are within 15-20 minutes walking distance to the village of West Portal and the West Portal MUNI Station. This area benefits from its 20 minutes driving proximity to San Francisco International Airport on HWY 280 but has a mandated no fly over zone which the residents of Forest Hill enjoy the tranquility this provides.

Forest Hill residents enjoy the convenience to the commerce provided by the village of West Portal's first run movies' theater, boutiques, salons, cafes, multitude of small ethnic and California style restaurants, national bank branches, post office, and various types of service providers. The quiet leisure style of Forest Hill combined with its access to both entertainment in West Portal and public transportation that takes residents in 15 minutes to downtown San Francisco and connections to BART and other mass transit stops throughout the Bay Area: Truly the best of both Worlds.

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 on Magellan Avenue is also home of the Forest Hill Garden Club, 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. Volunteers from the neighborhood organize the festival, as music-loving residents open their homes to host performing artists from all over Europe. In addition, the Club hosts many children's events for the residents of Forest Hill from Christmas party when Santa Clause visits, Halloween, and the annual Club picnic parties. There is also a well attended annual year end holiday ball.

See also

• List of San Francisco, California Hills
• Forest Hill