Home / Communities / San Francisco / SF District 2 / Parkside

Parkside, San Francisco: Homes, Streets & Real Estate Guide

By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.

Parkside is the broad grid of stucco houses between 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, from Ortega Street south to Stern Grove and Sloat Boulevard, with Taraval Street and the L Taraval running through its middle. It holds more houses than any other District 2 neighborhood, 5,263 on the Assessor’s 2025 roll, most of them built in two bursts: the mid-1920s and the years around 1940. In the San Francisco MLS it is neighborhood 2D of District 2.

Its edges hold some of the west side’s largest public places: Sunset Reservoir on the north side and Stern Grove and Pine Lake along the south. Wikipedia draws Parkside more broadly, from Quintara Street to Sloat and east of 19th Avenue on a diagonal, and counts the Outer Parkside as part of it; the MLS splits that area into three neighborhoods.

Parkside homes for sale

Parkside market report

The grid and its edges

On the Assessor’s map, Parkside starts on the south side of Ortega Street, where the Central Sunset ends, and fills the avenues from 19th Avenue west to Sunset Boulevard. Inner Parkside lies across 19th Avenue to the east and the Outer Parkside across Sunset Boulevard to the west. The east-west streets run alphabetically from Ortega through Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval, Ulloa and Vicente to Wawona.

South of Wawona, Stern Grove and Pine Lake line Sloat Boulevard. On the Assessor’s roll the grove’s clubhouse parcel is coded to District 3, which takes in Pine Lake Park and the other neighborhoods south of Sloat; see the District 3 guide for those.

From Sutro’s land to a streetcar suburb

The name comes from the “park” of trees around Laguna Puerca, the lake now called Pine Lake. In July 1905 a syndicate led by William Crocker announced it had quietly bought land from the estate of Adolph Sutro for a development it valued at a million dollars. In 1908 the Parkside Transit Company, a subsidiary of United Railroads, built a streetcar line, and under the Parkside Agreements of November 25, 1918 the city’s Municipal Railway gained the use of that company’s track on Taraval.

Muni’s Taraval line opened on April 12, 1919, as a shuttle between West Portal and 33rd Avenue. It reached 48th Avenue by January 1923, began running through to the Ferry Building that October and was extended to the Zoo on September 15, 1937. Even so, most houses came later, in the 1920s and 1930s, when builders applied assembly-line methods and produced the rows of stucco houses that still define the avenues.

Two building booms, and a wartime tail

Year built (2025 roll)	Houses	Percent
Before 1920	211	about 4%
1920 to 1929	1,542	about 29%
1930 to 1941	2,079	about 40%
1942 to 1945	527	about 10%
1946 to 1950	590	about 11%
1951 or later	309	about 6%

The roll shows two peaks: 1925 and 1926, with more than 360 houses each, and 1939 and 1940, with 399 and 427. Unlike Inner Parkside, Parkside kept building into the war, adding 441 houses in 1942 and 1943 alone, and about 590 more from 1946 to 1950. Roughly three-quarters of today’s houses date from 1923 to 1943.

Alongside the houses the roll lists 124 flats or duplexes, 38 condominium units and 57 apartment buildings, a small multi-unit share for a neighborhood this size. The median recorded house is about 1,485 square feet on a lot of about 3,000, and the median build year is 1938. A 1925 house and a 1940 house can share a block and a lot size yet differ in plan, materials and in how the garage level was laid out, which matters when choosing comparables.

The Period Revival blocks south of Ortega

In 2013 SF Planning documented the Sunset Picturesque Period Revival Tracts Historic District, a thematic district of 13 small tracts built between 1931 and 1938. Four of those tracts are in Parkside:

Block	Builder (architect)	Built	Buildings
32nd Avenue, Quintara to Rivera, plus two on Rivera	Golden Gate Investment Co. (C.O. Clausen)	1933 to 1934	5
32nd Avenue, Quintara to Rivera	Samuel Young (C.O. Clausen)	1935 to 1936	6
30th Avenue, Quintara to Rivera	Bay Cities Building Co. (C.O. Clausen)	1936 to 1937	6
34th Avenue, Rivera to Santiago	Standard Building Co.	1938	17

Planning identified the district as eligible for the National Register under its architecture criterion, with status code 3D, and treats it as a historic district for environmental review. For an owner on one of these blocks, that means exterior changes deserve an early conversation with Planning; interior work is a separate matter.

Taraval Street

Parkside’s main street is zoned on SF Planning’s map as the Taraval Street Neighborhood Commercial District, Planning Code section 733, running from 19th Avenue west to around 35th Avenue, a little short of Sunset Boulevard. A point check on Planning’s current height map near 25th Avenue returned a height district labeled 50//85-R-4, with 85 feet as the generalized limit. Separately, Planning’s Family Zoning Plan, in effect since January 12, 2026, calls for mid-rise housing of six to eight stories on major transit and commercial streets. Before paying for development potential on a Taraval lot, confirm with Planning which height applies to that parcel and under what conditions.

At 1200 Taraval Street, at 22nd Avenue, the Parkside Branch Library became City Landmark 310 in 2023. Appleton & Wolfard designed it in 1951 with City Librarian Laurence Clarke, Lawrence Halprin is credited on the landscape, and Planning describes it as the first of eight Mid-Century Modern branches the city built from 1951 to 1966. At 1201 Ortega Street, the 1928 building Planning lists as the S.F. Conservatory of Music, designed by Louis Christian Mullgardt, has been Landmark 242 since 2004.

The L Taraval

Trains stop on Taraval at 19th, 22nd/23rd, 26th, 30th and 32nd Avenues and at Sunset Boulevard. The L Taraval Improvement Project consolidated stops in 2017 and 2018, removing those at 22nd westbound, 24th eastbound, 28th and 35th among others. Its construction, during which buses mostly replaced trains until rail returned on September 28, 2024, rebuilt the track and overhead wire and built boarding islands at 19th, 26th, 30th and 32nd while lengthening those at 22nd/23rd and Sunset. Wikipedia puts daily ridership at about 19,000 in June 2026.

Per published route lists, 19th Avenue carries the 28 and the weekday 28R; other lines are the 29 Sunset, the 18 46th Avenue to 19th Avenue and Buckingham Way south of Sloat, and the 66 Quintara, which ends inside Parkside at Vicente Street and 30th Avenue.

Stern Grove, Pine Lake and Sunset Reservoir

Stern Grove stretches along Sloat Boulevard from 19th to 34th Avenue and covers about 33 acres. Rosalie Meyer Stern gave the site to the city in 1931, and it is named for her late husband, Sigmund Stern. The Works Progress Administration built its original landscaping and facilities, and a $15 million renovation designed by Lawrence Halprin, completed in 2005, added drainage, an expanded stage and stone terraces with bleacher-style seating.

The Stern Grove Festival, which describes itself as the longest-running nonprofit music festival in the country, presents free concerts there, with its venue address at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. Inside the grove, the Trocadero Clubhouse at 899 Wawona Street dates from 1892, a Stick-Eastlake building restored in the 1930s under Bernard Maybeck and again in 1987; it became Landmark 301 in 2022, was struck by a falling tree in early 2023 and reopened in 2025 after repairs.

Pine Lake, the former Laguna Puerca, is one of three natural lakes in San Francisco. Other parks named in Wikipedia’s Parkside article include McCoppin Square, Parkside Square and Carl Larsen Park, home of the Charlie Sava Pool.

Sunset Reservoir, at 24th Avenue and Ortega Street, is an underground concrete basin completed in 1960, 1,000 by 500 feet, holding about 270 acre-feet. Its 480,000-square-foot roof carries about 25,000 solar panels, a 5-megawatt plant that opened in December 2010 and more than tripled the city’s solar capacity at the time. When the project was announced in 2008, the city said Recurrent Energy would build and operate it under a power purchase agreement with the SFPUC, with the output going to city services such as Muni light rail, San Francisco General Hospital and streetlights.

Ground conditions at the edges

On SF Planning’s landslide layer, our query found no mapped zones on the level avenue blocks. The polygons cluster where the ground changes: along Stern Grove’s slopes between Wawona Street and Sloat Boulevard, and on part of the Sunset Reservoir site near Ortega Street. Those locations were matched to streets from coordinates, so treat them as approximate. Lots that back onto the grove are the ones to check first; a parcel inside a zone faces the city’s slope protection review for larger additions and grading, described on our Golden Gate Heights guide.

As for liquefaction, the District 2 page shows the mapped zone along the coast and toward Lake Merced rather than on these blocks. For a specific address, confirm it in the Natural Hazard Disclosure, with our hazard maps guide for San Francisco as a reference.

Selling a home in Parkside

With more than 5,000 similar houses, Parkside buyers have plenty to compare, and they compare closely. What tends to separate one house from the next:

Which boom it came from. Mid-1920s houses and late-1930s tract houses have different plans; say which this is and what has changed since.
Legal rooms on the garage level. Rooms, baths or a unit behind the garage are common. Tie each to a permit; where one is missing, our unwarranted units guide sets out the legalization and disclosure routes.
Historic status on four blocks. On the Period Revival tracts, intact facades are part of the appeal, and buyers planning exterior work will ask what review applies.
Edge-lot disclosures. Near the grove or the reservoir, show where the parcel falls on the landslide map.
Distance to Taraval and the L. Walking time to a stop and to the shops is part of the price.

Citywide requirements, including the 3R report and the transfer tax, are summarized on our seller requirements page for San Francisco, while our San Francisco selling guide walks through preparation and timing. For prices, see the market report on this page.

Questions people ask

What are Parkside’s boundaries?

In the MLS, Parkside (2D) runs from Ortega Street south to Stern Grove and Sloat Boulevard, between 19th Avenue and Sunset Boulevard. Wikipedia’s description is wider, starting at Quintara Street and taking in the areas the MLS calls Inner and Outer Parkside.

Is Stern Grove in Parkside?

It forms Parkside’s southern edge along Sloat Boulevard between 19th and 34th Avenues, though the Assessor codes the grove’s clubhouse parcel to District 3. The Stern Grove Festival’s free concerts are held there.

What is on top of Sunset Reservoir?

About 25,000 solar panels forming a 5-megawatt plant, opened in December 2010 on the roof of the underground reservoir at 24th Avenue and Ortega Street.

Is the L Taraval running again?

Yes. Rail service returned between Embarcadero and the Zoo on September 28, 2024, after the L Taraval Improvement Project, with weekday trains about every 10 minutes.

When were most Parkside houses built?

Between the early 1920s and the war. About 29% of house parcels on the 2025 roll date from the 1920s and 40% from 1930 to 1941, with 1940 the single busiest year.

Are there historic districts in Parkside?

Four tracts of the Sunset Picturesque Period Revival Tracts Historic District are here, on 30th, 32nd and 34th Avenues between Quintara and Santiago streets, identified by SF Planning as eligible for the National Register. The Parkside Branch Library is a city landmark.

Planning a sale in Parkside, or deciding between Parkside and other San Francisco neighborhoods? Ask Diamond Real Estate Group for a home valuation.

Sources & notes

Last reviewed October 2026 by Matthew Martinez.