Get to Know: Sunnyside

Photo ©Julie Gebhardt (@juliegeb on Instagram). Used with permission.

Sunnyside is a residential neighborhood in SFAR’s District 4 (Twin Peaks West). It is bounded on the southeast by I280, effectively straddling the Glen Park and Balboa Park BART stations, Glen Park and Miraloma to the north, Westwood Park to the west, and Ocean Ave on the south, inclusive of San Francisco City College.

The area was developed in 1891 by Behrend Joost, a native of Germany who funded the project with a significant amount of money he had made from a contract helping to dredge the Panama Canal. At the time the surrounding areas were not well developed, so to encourage more people to venture that direction, he purchased the defunct San Francisco-San Jose rail line and built the electric San Francisco and San Mateo Railway, which ran from downtown San Francisco to San Mateo county’s Baden stockyards. He marketed the area as the “creme de la creme of San Francisco subdivisions” and “the beauty-spot of San Francisco.”

Perhaps as a sort of wishful prophesy, Joost named the streets after millionaires: Flood, Spreckels, Mangels, and of course Joost himself. Moulton was changed to Hearst later on.

Sunnyside boasts sweeping southerly views, particularly on the steeper slope north of Monterey Avenue, the main arterial, and offers easy access to the centers of Glen Park Village and Ocean Ave. With two BART stations and I280, Sunnyside is desirable for both downtown and Silicon Valley commuters. As such, the area has been having a moment lately. Prices have been trending up, meeting and often surpassing citywide averages.