55 Child St #2

Among San Francisco neighborhoods, Telegraph Hill is certainly in the running for most iconic. Not only is it located in the city’s more established northeast, and not only is it built upon a hill with what are arguably the most dramatic views in the entire Bay Area, but it is also crowned by Coit Tower, the fluted Art Deco edifice completed in 1933. Geographically, Telegraph Hill is south and west of the North Waterfront and the Embarcadero, north of the Financial District, and east of North Beach. It is the latter neighborhood with which Telegraph Hill is most closely connected. This is primarily a matter of landscape, with the lower altitudes and gentler slopes of the Hill all converging at its border with Washington Square Park, the beating heart of North Beach; as a result, it can seem like the quieter, more reserved version of that neighborhood. Life in Telegraph Hill offers a reprieve from the daytime foot traffic and nightlife of Columbus Avenue and its offshoots, though they are easily accessible should one crave that energy. Telegraph Hill also shares some of North Beach’s Beat-era pedigree, and the quirky neighborhood personality that comes along with it. 

Coit Tower is the best-known point of interest on Telegraph Hill, meriting a hike, drive, or bus ride to the Hill’s summit for many visitors. Inside the Tower is an extensive series of murals depicting “Aspects of Life in California, 1934,” fresco paintings completed by twenty-five artists working in the Social Realist style. A second point of interest to visitors has emerged since the 1990s when a flock of parrots—bright red and green cherry-headed conures native to Peru and Ecuador—established itself in the area from a few escaped pets. About 200 in number, and often straying well beyond the Hill, they are hardly an overwhelming presence, most often encountered as a flash of vivid color or a chattering high in the trees. Their best-known haunts are along the Filbert Steps, a steep and wending staircase that takes one past numerous private hillside gardens on the way from Levi Plaza on the Embarcadero to the Hill’s summit. Living in Telegraph Hill, you might take the Steps down to the waterfront for a night out or catch the Powell/Mason Cable Car in North Beach heading to points south. But an evening spent right in Telegraph Hill would be equally rewarding, for a meal at one of the cozy neighborhood restaurants so beloved by locals and, of course, for the incomparable and magnificent views.