Sand, scrub and more sand. Such was the foundation for the Sunset District.

Although real estate investors such as Aurelius Buckingham and Sol Getz tried to claim credit, the Sunset received its name in 1889 from Easton, Eldridge and Co. which was selling a block it marketed as "Sunset Heights". Outside of a few scattered dairy farms, Carl Larsen's chicken ranch, and the eucalyptus trees George M. Greene had begun planting at today's Stern Grove, early buyers in the Sunset lived alone with the dunes.

Carville detail from A.S. Baldwin, Estate of Adolph Sutro, Deceased, March-April-May 1910. - Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

The taming of the outside lands for homes really began the day Golden Gate Park split the sand hills. Developers predicted booms and started laying out lots and streets. Early buyers found themselves almost buried in dunes when the winds blew. Streetcar service was limited to a single line hugging the park, and only the heartiest made their homes out in the fog.

The 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition held in Golden Gate Park gave businesses a foothold. Some newspapers nicknamed the fair site "Sunset City", and establishments such as the Little Shamrock (still serving drinks on Lincoln Boulevard at Ninth Avenue) moved in to accommodate the crowds.

Early in the 20th Century, the inner Sunset began to fill in, often only small islands of two or three houses at a time, accessible by sidewalks made of planks. William Crocker's realty company in 1905 erected the first large housing development on the western edge: the "Parkside" tract, built up around 21st Avenue and Taraval streets. At the same time, enterprising folks made homes in abandoned cable and streetcars at the beach, and named the community "Carville". (More "respectable" residents of the Carville area called the neighborhood "Oceanside".)

The 1930s brought developers such as Ray Galli, the Stoneson Brothers, the Doelger Brothers and others to construct affordable row housing. The years after the second World War, with easy lending policies, finally represented the housing boom the Sunset had always waited for, and the last of the sand lots were filled in.

The inner Sunset District from Strawberry Hill. Sutro Forest in the background. Note the large sand dune in center, between Tenth and Twelfth Avenues. - Courtesy California Historical Society, FN-24498

Sunset Articles

• "Spanish Town": Street Names in Western SF
  The Alphabet of the Richmond and Sunset
• 100 Stonecrest Drive
  Henry Stoneson built this house in Lakeside for his own use
• 1201 Vicente street
  1201 Vicente Street, former Pinelake Market
• 1906 Earthquake Refugee Shacks
  Over 5600 were built after the Great Earthquake, now only a few remain.
• 1913 SF Chronicle article on Sunset homes
  News of the burgeoning neighborhood in the dunes
• 1951 Building Photos
  A map of the WNP collection of 262 photos documenting buildings in the Sunset and Richmond Districts
• 20th & Taraval street
  20th Avenue and Taraval Street - Then and Now
• 21 Hayes Streetcar Line
  1886-1948
• 22nd & Taraval Market
  22nd & Taraval Market
• 2701 Lincoln Way
  Fernando Nelson's home in Parkway Terrace
• 4329 and 4331 Kirkham Street
  The Sunset Earthquake Cottages
• 555 Taraval Street
  The Former 16th Avenue Foods
• 6 Haight and Masonic Streetcar Line
  1906-1948
• Anna L. Conti
  An artist shows there's many ways to document a historical icon.
• Architectural and Historical Resources of the Oceanside
  History and buildings in the Outer Sunset.
• Blackie the Wonder Horse Movie
  A 1938 film of Blackie swimming the Golden Gate
• Carville - 1415-47th Avenue
  The last streetcar house
• Charles Warren Stoddard
  The poet and writer remembered the sand dunes of the 1850s.
• Columbus School Traffic Squads
  Columbus Elementary School was located between on 12th Avenue between Kirkham and Lawton streets in the Sunset district.
• Conservatory of Music
  The story of this 19th Avenue landmark
• Doggie Diner Dedication
  The restored Doggie Diner Head was dedicated with much ceremony in 2001
• Doggie Diner Head
  A Landmark Dachshund
• Ella Driscoll
  Ella (Gross) Driscoll has lived in Ingleside Terraces since 1963, but grew up with a twin sister in the outer Sunset District
• Fernando Nelson
  Builder of West Portal, Parkway Terrace, and Merced Manor
• Fire Chief's Cottage: 1984 Great Highway
  Built as a vacation retreat in 1905 by Fire Chief Dennis T. Sullivan
• First Doelger Home Identified
  First Doelger House Discovered: 1427-39th Avenue
• Fred Van Dyke
  a surfing legend from the Sunset
• Golden Gate Park Bums
  1937 article about the "bums" (some professional) who play baseball in Golden Gate Park
• Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
  Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church began as a Sunday school in 1940.
• How the Sunset became "The Sunset"
  Sorting out the conflicting accounts
• Irving Theater
  Irving Street between 14th and 15th Avenues
• Jane Cryan's Little Red Shacks
  The houses that started it all
• John and Irene Fay
  Longtime residents of the Sunset District.
• Juan Crespi Home School
  The Forgotten School
• Kirkham Shacks Heroes
  Some of the people and organizations who helped save the Kirkham Refugee Shacks
• L-Taraval Extension, September 15, 1937
  70 years ago the Parkside celebrated public transporation to the zoo.
• Leon Levy
  Leon Levy worked for almost 40 years as a pharmacist in the Inner Sunset.
• Mary Ada and Charles Williams
  A wife preserves a husband's love of the Parkside district.
• My First Dance
  Rosemarie Green's first hop in Forest Hill
• N Judah Streetcar Line
  October 21, 1928 - present
• Ocean Park Motel
  San Francisco's first motel
• Parkside Branch Library
  Architects Appleton and Wolfard designed eight modern libraries in the 1950s and '60s for the San Francisco Public Library.
• Parkside District
  To most persons the land acquired by the Parkside Realty Company is a terra incognita.
• Parkside District Improvement Club Scrapbooks
  WNP saves 25 years of Parkside History
• Parkside District Photos
  Historical Photos of the Parkside
• Parkside Primary School
  Parkside's first school, dedicated September 1909
• Parkside School
  History of the (now demolished) John Reid-designed school
• Parkside Theater
  Taraval Street at Nineteenth Avenue
• Parkway Terrace
  Fernando Nelson's Sunset development
• Pinehurst Lodge
  Pinehurst was built by the San Francisco Junior League as a home for underprivileged children and orphans awaiting foster homes.
• Polly Ann Ice Cream Parlor
  Sunset Institution Celebrated 50 Years in 2005
• Ralph L. Selleck
  Playland worker, postman, baseball and race fan
• Rickey's Red Chimney
  The former Stonestown restaurant brings back a lot of memories
• Robert Fisher
  Sunset Heights, Columbus School and other memories
• Ron Jones
  Storyteller, Writer, Special Olympics Basketball Coach, and Sunset boy.
• San Francisco Zoo
  The San Francisco Zoo was established in 1929, and built in the 1930's as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.
• Sand Dunes to a City Park
  Memories of Golden Gate Park and the Inner Sunset from 1920.
• Sigmund Stern Grove
  The history of this musical glen
• Signs of the Times: 536 Judah Street
  A Look back at home prices circa 1970
• St. Andrews Church in Carville
  served the streetcar community of Carville
• St. Paul's Presbyterian, 1907
  St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, 43rd Avenue and Judah Street
• Stan Adair
  Country living off 19th Avenue in the 1920s
• Streetcars: 17 Haight and Ingleside Line
  1916-1945
• Streetcars: The Boneyard
  The streetcar graveyard at 14th and Lincoln
• Streetwise: Carville
  19th Century Recycling: a neighborhood of derelicts
• Streetwise: Carville's Last Remnant
  In search of the steetcar houses
• Streetwise: Doelger City
  No man had a greater impact on the Sunset District than builder Henry Doelger
• Streetwise: Parkside and the Graft Trials
  Downtown politics helped build the Parkside
• Streetwise: Shaken Up
  Refugees and the 1906 Earthquake
• Streetwise: Six Million Gallons
  Fleishhacker Pool, the "world's largest swimming tank" officially opened April 23, 1925.
• Streetwise: Tait's
  The long-gone beach resort
• Sunset Community Improvement Club - 1947
  Civic-minded folk of the past in words and image.
• Sunset District
  Sand, scrub and more sand. Such was the foundation for the Sunset District. A brief history, articles, and photos.
• Sunset Finally Becomes Sunset
  Continuing the story of the Sunset's naming
• Sunset Nursery School
  This Great Highway Co-Op has a long history
• Sunset Streetcars
  A history of rail transit in the Sunset
• Surf Theater
  Irving Street at 45th Avenue
• The Sunset Developers
  Gellerts, Doelgers, and the Stoneson Brothers
• Trocadero Inn
  This Stern Grove victorian gem has a storied past.
• Val J. Golding
  Sunset Reflections: Timel's Creamery, World War II, and Sunset streetcars...
• Western Sunset Market
  Memories of Art's Western Market on the SE corner of 46th Avenue and Judah street in the Sunset
• Your Market, My Deli
  A market has stood at 1460-62 48th Avenue between Judah and Kirkham streets since at least 1915, when the outer Sunset was called "Oceanside" and people still lived in nearby cable cars.