Gables and Fables: A Portrait of San Francisco's Pacific Heights

Enter the world of cornices, cupolas, and colonnettes, prestigious architects, and a parade of remarkable residents

Charming and deeply informed, part historical detective work and part gossip column, this storied tour of 110 of Pacific Heights' grand old edifices offers an architectural and social history of one of San Francisco's most fabled neighborhoods.

The neighborhood of Pacific Heights has long tickled the imagination of locals and tourists alike with its painted Victorians, chateaux, and mansions, and stories populated with the most famous of San Franciscan names. Enter the world of Ernest Coxhead, Willis Polk, Houghton Sawyer, Julia Morgan, William Wurster, and other great architects, along with the moguls, entrepreneurs, artists, mariners, recluses, and charlatans who lived in their creations.