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Blocker: 1400 Montgomery
Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a weekly series by Charles Hodgkins. Look for it on SFist each Wednesday, around the lunching hour.
Blocker, No. 7: Montgomery St. on Telegraph Hill
You know you’re dealing with an isolated stretch of Montgomery St. when a driver can’t reach it without first leaving Montgomery St. And in an addressing quirk that must drive new workers at the North Beach post office bonkers, the northernmost apartment building on this block is actually 303 Greenwich, even though Greenwich as a cross street doesn’t exist here. After all, the only cross traffic up here on the precipitous eastern slope of Telegraph Hill is on foot.
Stunning bay views, folial grandiosity, and hill-hugging construction schemes dominate this block of Montgomery, bookended by the famed Filbert and Greenwich steps. The street itself is a bi-level roadway divided by a tall center wall lined with numerous pine trees, not dissimilar to Lawton St. in Golden Gate Heights, or Arlington Ave. in the Berkeley Hills. It’s designed for neither speed nor mass amounts of auto traffic. Aesthetically, however, it’s nearly unbeatable.
Despite the high-end living, folks here don’t appear ridiculously rich, famous, or full of themselves. Rather, the residents we see strike us as fairly humble, at relative peace with the fact that they’re lucky to live up here – even if it is a titanic pain to reach - and OK with a little tourist give-and-take. We watch as a woman emerges from the magnificently detailed art deco palace at 1360 and gives directions to the Greenwich steps to a family of three, and we play a quick game of Compare/Contrast with the scene over on the crooked block of Lombard: GET YOUR MINIVAN OUT OF MY BEGONIAS!!
Everyone’s favorite creeping/hanging/flowering vine, the perennially striking bougainvillea, accents several residences by either framing garages or simply adding color to side walls. The hillsides that lead up to ever-looming Coit Tower, and down to the Northeast Waterfront, meanwhile, are positively jungular. Maybe it’s a botanist’s paradise, but it’s certainly a realtor’s: We hear a Southern woman shriek-drawl to her husband as they descend the Greenwich steps, Bart! Here’s one for sale!
Unimpeded views to the north and east, as well as reportedly mediocre/overpriced food, are available nightly down at the end of the block, at old-time restaurant Julius’ Castle. (A second restaurant here on Montgomery, Dalla Torre, at the foot of the Filbert Steps, is currently shuttered.) Julius’ Castle has been around longer than most of the other buildings on this block; kudos are in order for longevity. Maybe you can eat the view.
