The “Definitive List of San Francisco Hills” is drawn from the maps, publications and on-line resources included below, listed in chronological order.  The author thanks the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection of the Boston Public Library, the David Rumsey Map Collection and Picture Box Blue for use of their digital map collections; the San Francisco Public Library for use of its online and reference desk resources; and to those preceding chroniclers below who contributed so much to the cause. 

Maps

Bridgen’s 1854 Map of the City of San Francisco.  The city’s considerably smaller boundaries in 1854 included only three listed hills: Cannon Hill (now Pacific Heights), Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill. 

Wackenreuder’s 1861 City and County of San Francisco Map.  The city’s new southern boundary had been established, but the developed portion of the city was still limited to the N.E. corner of the peninsula.  The only hill within San Francisco specifically identified is Bernal Heights.  The map shows the Black Hills (Bayview Hill and Merced Heights), Mission Hills (Diamond Heights and Noe/Castro area hills) and Sand Hills (the dunes now buried beneath the Richmond and Sunset districts). 

Bancroft’s Official Guide Map of City and County of San Francisco, 1873 edition.  The city was growing into its modern boundaries.  Bancroft’s map emphasizes schools, churches, parks and other important buildings, but assigns little touristic import to still bare hilltops. 13 hills are identified by name or reference to the park/square/cemetery atop the hill: Alamo Square (Alamo Heights), Bernal Heights, Black Point (now Fort Mason Hill), Buena Vista Park (Buena Vista Heights), Clay Street Hill (now Nob Hill), Holly Park (Holly Hill), Lafayette Square (Lafayette Heights), Laurel Hill Cemetery (Laurel Hill), Lone Mountain, Pacific Heights (specifying the parallel streets of California and Broadway), Rincon Hill, Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill.  Cannon Hill was no longer a named place on maps, possibly because no cannon was still situated at that location.  The 1877 edition of Bancroft’s map drops Pacific Heights entirely. 

Parsons’ 1878 Birds Eye View of San Francisco.  Fun to look at.  Lone Mountain, topped by a cross, appears as the most prominent hill in San Francisco.

Combined USGS Topographic Sheets for San Francisco 1895 and San Mateo 1896.  Newly identified hills are Blue Mountain (now Mt. Sutro), Las Papas (now Twin Peaks), San Miguel Hills (encompassing Mt. Davidson and other hills south of Twin Peaks) and Strawberry Hill. 

Umbsen’s 1898 Map of the City and County of San Francisco. Use the overlay tool to adjust the opacity of a recent google street map to reveal which of the aspirational street layouts from 1898 came to fruition.  The map also usefully features many of the homestead tract names, showing early neighborhood demarcations. 

Chevalier’s 1912 Commercial, Pictoral and Tourist Map of San Francisco.  This excellent map combines topography with mini-drawings of significant places and contains many street names in use today.   

Peter’s 1914 San Francisco Locator Map.  Prepared for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, this birds-eye-view of the city now includes Forest Hill and University Mound.  Fort Mason is now the place name for Black Point, which remains “forgotten” for nearly a century.

US Coast and Geodetic Survey of 1924.  The highest point in the city finally bears its current name, Mt. Davidson.  Elevations are given for 28 of the city’s hills, and these elevations are commonly cited today. 

Published Lists

The Hills of San Francisco (1936) by Margaret Perkins Deering.  This booklet is the earliest published list of hills found by this author.  Deering is the progenitor of the avocation of hill census taking, telling the stories of the most significant hills in the life of San Francisco, mentioning 18 hills in all.  A physical copy is available at the reference desk of the History Dept. at the San Francisco Public Library. 

Hills of San Francisco (1959), Chronicle Books.  This (thin) table book collects articles appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1957-1958, with the forward by Herb Caen.   Covering 42 hills along with excellent photography, descriptions of the various hills include numerous accounts of the city’s resident characters and oddly specific anthropological reporting (e.g., we are told about life in the orphanage located on Mount St. Joseph, where “three to four girls share a bedroom and dine with other girls from their apartments.  Among the teen-agers radios blare, phonograph records spin, and the talk is just like the talk of other girls the same age.”)  Currently out of print, a physical copy is available in the History Dept. of the San Francisco Public Library.

SF Almanac (1975 edition) by Gladys Hansen.  Ms. Hansen, famous for working to remember all  the lives lost in the 1906 earthquake and fire, included a list with 43 hills in the almanac, adding Cathedral Hill to those hills included in the SF Chronicle’s Hills of San Francisco.  With conviction, Ms. Hansen declared these to be the “Seven Hills” of San Francisco: Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, Rincon Hill, the Twin Peaks, Russian Hill, Lone Mountain and Mt. Davidson. 

Hank Donat republished the SF Chronicle’s list on his MisterSF.com blog in 2001, adding Tank Hill to the list without including Hansen’s added Cathedral Hill.  

Tom Graham’s article “Peak Experience” (Nov. 7, 2004, updated Jan. 19, 2012), brought the number of listed hills to 52 (including both Cathedral Hill and Tank Hill).  Graham conveys the satisfaction of walking the hills and truly seeing the city in this companion piece.

Dave Schweisguth’s “How Many Hills in San Francisco” (2007) is an incredibly thorough (but, as we shall see, not yet exhaustive) accounting of the city’s hills, including obvious hills that for whatever reason never achieved named status.  Schwiesguth tallies 74 hills, 71 on San Francisco’s mainland and 3 more on the city’s Farallon and Yerba Buena islands.

Brian Stokle’s “Forgotten Hills” series (ca. 2013) on his Urban Life Signs blog reintroduces Black Point (now Fort Mason Hill) and introduces  Hunters Point Hill and La Portezuela to the list.

Shawn Sax’s “Definitive List of San Francisco Hills” (2021) collects, (in some cases) corrects and re-sorts all of the above.  Leaving no stone un-peed-upon, Sax adds Battery Davis to the city’s inventory of hills.  

Special shout out to Ben Pease, San Francisco’s own local cartographer with numerous map titles available at www.peasepress.com and finer city book stores. Pease’s 2019 The Walker’s Map of San Francisco (4th ed.) is a wonderful street and trail guide with topographical contours.  For anybody seeking to climb the city’s hills The Walker’s Map is its own treasure.  Ben also happens to be a warm and helpful guy, so support Ben and your local bookshop by buying a few copies for yourself and friends!