The Parkside is a neighborhood in the western part of San Francisco, California, usually considered to be part of the Sunset District. It is located in the southern part of the Avenues south of Quintara and north of Sloat Boulevard. Also referred to as the "Parkside District," the neighborhood includes the following parks: Parkside Square, Pine Lake, Pine Lake Park, Concert Meadow, Charlie Sava Pool, Carl Larsen Park, Stern Grove, McCoppin Park, and McCoppin Square.
Location
The Parkside as a neighborhood started in July 1905 when a syndicate led by William Crocker announced they had quietly bought land from the estate of Adolph Sutro and others to create a new million-dollar development. The "park" of Parkside was not Golden Gate Park, but rather the stand of trees and plants around Laguna Puerca west of Sigmund Stern Grove. The boundaries of the Parkside consist of Quintara Street on the north, Sloat Boulevard on the south, 36th Avenue/Sunset Boulevard on the west, and a diagonal eastern boundary line that abuts on the former Rancho San Miguel property, running from 12th Avenue on the north to 19th Avenue and Sloat on the south. Later with more development to the west from Sloat Boulevard west to the ocean, east to Quintara and south to the San Francisco Zoo the Outer Parkside is also part of the Parkside District of San Francisco. Parkside Elementary School was closed in 1975 and torn down in 2004. In its place today stands Dianne Feinstein Elementary School at the Parkside Campus. Parkside Library is located at 22nd Avenue and Taraval.
Characteristics
The area is mostly residential, except for the commercial corridor on Taraval Street. Its buildings largely consist of almost identical "cookie-cutter" stucco houses with various decorative elements, which were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, when assembly-line techniques entered building construction. The L Taraval of the Muni Metro serves the neighborhood and provides a mode of transportation to downtown. Other transit lines include the 29 Sunset, 48 Quintara-24th Street, 66 Quintara, and 18 46th Avenue. The Parkside branch of the San Francisco Public Library is also located in the area. The Sigmund Stern Recreational Grove is known as the location of the Stern Grove Festival summer concerts. The neighborhood is represented by District 4. The current District 4 supervisor is Gordon Mar.
