Originally part of Rancho San Miguel, the West of Twin Peaks district was among the last to be developed in San Francisco. Behrend Joost, using the fortune he made to start dredging the Panama Canal, built a railway in 1891 to bring people out to his "cr¨me de la cr¨me" subdivision next to the forest planted by Comstock Lode millionaire Adolph Sutro. After the streetcar tunnel was bored through Twin Peaks in 1918, A. S. Baldwin planned neighborhoods on Sutro's estate around Mount Davidson. With noted architects and engineers, Baldwin created "residential parks" with well-built Craftsman, art deco, English, and Spanish homes on curvilinear landscaped boulevards. These "suburbs in the city"—among them, Sunnyside, Balboa Terrace, Ingleside Terraces, Westwood Park, Westwood Highlands, Monterey Heights, Mount Davidson Manor, Sherwood Forest, and Miraloma Park—became home to thousands and a unique part of the San Francisco tapestry.
In this informative retrospective, local historian Jacqueline Proctor offers a view of San Francisco's development from its highest point. Gathering together more than 200 vintage images from a variety of local sources, including longtime residents, the Westwood Park Association, and the Miraloma Park Improvement Club, she pays tribute to the West of Twin Peaks and the beautiful neighborhoods it contains.