Tuesday's Fun Filled Fact ‘Bout San Francisco: Russian Hill

From the SFHotelstories History File: Neighborhoods

Russian Hill

As early as 1806 the Russian empire stretched as far south as the bay area, many Russian merchant sailors were buried in a small cemetery there, hence the name. In fact the Fort Ross State Park preserved the buildings of a Russian colony only 20 miles north of San Francisco.

The city's first legal hanging occurred on Russian Hill in 1852.

Of the three remaining cable car routes, the Powell/Hyde Street line is the only one which traverses Russian Hill.

In the 1870s, a small artists' colony developed on Russian Hill.

Russian Hill poet and California's first poet laureate, Ina Coolbrith, was part of the Russian Hill art scene and a park in her namesake was dedicated to her in1911.

The San Francisco Art Institute was founded in 1871, and is only one of three buildings in San Francisco which contains an original billboard-sized Diego Rivera Mural.

In 1947, the original Swenson's Ice Cream shop opened, and it is still there today.

Russian Hill is home to San Francisco's newest open green space on the site of a former century old reservoir named Francisco Park.