VIEW THE PAINTED LADIES

The Painted Ladies of San Francisco are a must-see on your visit. You'll find the most famous set across the street from Alamo Square Park along Steiner Street. You will also hear them called the Seven Sisters or Postcard Row.

But that’s not the only place you will find them.

Other top spots include streets around the Alamo Square District, the Haight-Ashbury, the Castro, Pacific Heights, and the Lower Haight.

San Francisco builders started putting up Victorian houses around San Francisco in the mid-1800s. They built thousands of them, but it came to an abrupt stop in April 1906.

This is when San Francisco was hit by one of its largest earthquakes in history. This massive quake destroyed hundreds of Victorian homes and a large part of SF.

However, the fires that raged for days after the earthquake took the largest toll on the city and these gorgeous houses.

To help preserve the western and southern neighborhoods, the city built a fire line along Van Ness Street.

This is why you will find hundreds of Victorians on the western side of the city, but not very many painted ladies in the eastern districts such as Nob Hill, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill.

After the destruction around the city, it took years to rebuild it. Even though the earthquake destroyed thousands of these homes, they decided to rebuild them up until around 1915.

The next interesting period for these beauties is during the First World War and Second World War.

As these homes aged, thousands were destroyed and replaced with more modern houses.

Many of those that owned these Victorian homes started to spruce them up by using left-over battleship grey paint from the Navy to repaint them.

YUCK!!! Can you imagine all these gorgeous houses with cheap gray paint? I don’t want to even think about it.

The houses stayed this way for several years as the paint was inexpensive, easy to get, and seemed okay since other homeowners were doing the same during this time.

Luckily, we can thank artist Butch Kardum as the creative genius behind the change back to brightly colored Victorians. In 1963, he painted his house bright colors including a combination of blues and greens.

Some people loved it, some hated it. Those that loved his colorful home decided to do the same with theirs.

This started a trend that was eventually dubbed the "Colorist Movement."

It led to the writing of the book mentioned above about the painted ladies which gave them a new name. It also allowed even more homeowners the freedom to express their creativity on the outside of their homes.

This trend continues today as more and more homeowners add bright colors of paint to highlight the lovely details of these historic homes.

Now that you know a bit about the painted ladies let's talk about where you can find some of the best houses around San Francisco.

I’ll start with the most well-known set, the famous Painted Ladies of Alamo Square.

These seven sisters line up along Steiner Street just to the east of Alamo Square Park.

Six are the same, and then one larger sister on the northern end. This is why they are called the Seven Sisters.

The beauty of this set is not just in the houses but the fact that they are easy to photograph without any homes across the street because it is the park. More than that, you can also climb the hill at Alamo Square Park to get a beautiful view of downtown SF behind them.

These are two of the reasons they are also called Postcard Row.

You will find them (from south to north) at 710, 712, 714, 716, 718, 720, and 722 Steiner Street.

Does anyone live in the Painted Ladies San Francisco?

Yes, all seven are privately owned, and you are not allowed to visit inside them. When visiting, please be respectful to the people living in these homes.

Painted Ladies | San Francisco Travel (sftravel.com)

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