• Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrover/73197974/">Macondray Lane</a> by Jeremy Rover
  • Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brockney/3625135856/">California Poppies</a> by Karen Brockney
  • Photo: Radkol | Dreamstime.com

Russian Hill

Essentially a tony residential neighborhood of spiffy pieds-à-terre, Victorian flats, Edwardian cottages, and boxlike condos, Russian Hill has some of the city's loveliest stairway walks, sweetest hidden garden-ways, and steepest streets—not to mention wonderful bay views. Several stories explain the origin of Russian Hill's name. One legend has it that Russian farmers raised vegetables here for Farallon Islands seal hunters; another attributes the name to a Russian sailor of prodigious drinking habits who drowned when he fell into a well on the hill. A plaque at the top of the Vallejo Steps gives credence to the version that says sailors of the Russian-American Company were buried here in the 1840s. Be sure to visit the sign for yourself—its location offers perhaps the finest vantage point on the hill.

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