Forest Hill, San Francisco

Location

Forest Hill is an affluent neighborhood 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

Forest Hill is akin to a "small town" inside San Francisco city: 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 single family dwellings each sitting separately on generous parcels of land, some are on double lots, that are landscaped in front and back yards, and each is unique in architecture.

Several homes and the neighborhood clubhouse are designed by celebrated California Arts and Crafts Movement architect Bernard Maybeck; and many other Forest Hill homes are designed by renowned architects. This charm adds to the picturesque, bucolic quality of the neighborhood.

Forest Hill has its 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 also within 15–20 minutes walking distance to the village of West Portal and there, the West Portal MUNI Station. The residents further benefit from being 20 minutes driving distance 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 have access 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.

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" within the city. 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. The clubhouse is the site of many private happy celebrations. 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.