Recovered from the brink of extinction, at home in the Financial District.

An art supply shop holds the secrets of this quiet neighborhood's raucous Barbary Coast past.

Appropriation-friendly collection of books, periodicals, and more.

One of few lasting examples of the brief octagon craze that developed into folly.

Barely visible foundations remain where Stow Lake’s “observatory” once welcomed visitors.

A brooding mansion of clinker brick stands out among the Victorian houses of Pacific Heights.

A pair of mutilated bronze octopuses slump at the base of the monument honoring California's admission to the U.S.

Alleyway plaque commemorating the death of a fictional character in The Maltese Falcon, not far from the author's home.

Gold Rush ship-turned-hotel buried underneath San Francisco's financial district.

This surreptitious shop is only open five hours per week.

Amazing meticulous gardens of personal wood carvings, Hydrangea, Canna, and many other flowers.

A garden oasis filled with flowers mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.

A library built during San Francisco's pioneer times is a student's retreat, bibliophile's sanctuary, and chess player's delight.

This one-block alleyway is stuffed with street art that is colorful, cultural, and intensely political.

Fonts are born and bred here at the oldest letterpress type foundry in the United States.

Adolph Sutro's little-known, geographically inaccurate, deprecated monument.

A famous alternative culture epicenter and where Joplin serenaded young hippies.

Russian history in San Francisco.

San Francisco's most expensive hotel suite includes a secret passageway rumored to have been used by JFK.

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.

A walk down memory lane in the heart of one of San Francisco's most notorious neighborhoods.

The grand, column-fronted, sculpture-adorned home of the ambitious digital library.

Early prototype for Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim.

The miraculous hydrant that saved the Mission District in 1906.