The racist history of San Francisco's bougiest street

Presidio Terrace. Presidio Terrace. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close The racist history of San Francisco's bougiest street 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Tucked away in one of the most bucolic corners of San Francisco, near the forests of the Presidio, lies a crescent of magnificent homes that for much of its history refused entry to people of color.

The advertisement for Presidio Terrace, a newly established circle of mansions, printed by The Baldwin & Howell Real Estate Company of Fillmore Street in 1906, boasted: "There is only one spot in San Francisco where only Caucasians are permitted to buy or lease real estate or where they may reside. That place is Presidio Terrace," it concluded, "There you will obtain protection from the many nuisances that are now making life in many portions of San Francisco unbearable"

The ad's horrifying headline warned, "The Japs Have Invaded The Western Addition,"

Historically, San Francisco has had its share of persecution based on race, such as the forced internment of Japanese Americans in 1942, or a school segregation order in 1906 that was defended by the San Francisco school board "to save white children from being affected by association with pupils of the Mongolian race."

The developer's ban on the sale or lease of any homes in Presidio Terrace to non-whites was never as newsworthy as those heinous, historic events, but it speaks to a dark undertone of segregation in real estate and urban development that continued into the 1990s.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Diane Feinstein and former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto all used to live among the 36 multi-million dollar homes that make up the ritzy enclave. Perhaps on no street in San Francisco do homes change hands less often, although one is on the market right now for $10 million — the buyer will be only the third owner of the century-old property.

Presidio Terrace is San Francisco's most prestigious private street (one of 264 in the city). Visitors are met by a security gate upon entering the cul-de-sac from Arguello Boulevard. The gate is normally open, but there is a security guard to stop the public from getting in. Google Street View took down images of the street in 2007.

Members of the small neighborhood have often pushed back against change — in the '90s the homeowners protested a new resident's attempts to modernize the architecture on one home. This led to the publication of a coffee table book paid for by the residents in a attempt to educate newer neighbors as to how the crescent's homes "should" look.

ALSO: Unearthed footage of San Francisco's Market Street in the '60s looks like a different city

The street's designation as "whites-only" came to an end in 1948 when the Supreme Court made such segregation in real estate illegal in Shelley v. Kraemer, but racist practices in housing continued for decades in San Francisco.

Until as recently as 1998, an unenforced homeowners association rule in the Lakeside neighborhood near Lake Merced stated: "No person other than one of the White Caucasian Race shall rent, lease, use or occupy any building on any lot in said tract." That year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development looked into the restriction and announced that it had reached an agreement with the HOA to remove the racial covenant that had been in its bylaws since 1939.

At the time, HUD secretary Andrew Cuomo told the San Francisco Examiner "these kinds of covenants are a sad legacy of the past, when outrageous and ugly racial discrimination was common and accepted."

In a bizarre turn of events, Presidio Terrace came under scrutiny again in 2015 when San Francisco Supervisors overturned the sale of the street itself to an Asian-American couple.

The street, including sidewalks and common areas, was sold at auction after the Presidio Terrace HOA failed to pay $994 in back taxes. The $14-a-year tax bill was apparently being mailed to an accountant who hadn't worked for the association since the '80s.

Two San Jose residents, Michael Cheng and his wife, Tina Lam, became aware of the unique sale and bought the street, sidewalks and green spaces for $90,000 at auction.

When Cheng revealed he was considering charging residents of the street to park, or worse let the public park on the crescent, residents protested, resolving in the Board of Supervisors voting 7-4 to take the formerly whites-only street away from the Asian-American couple.

At the time Lam told SFGATE she wasn't rich enough to buy a home on the street. Buying the street itself fulfilled her “simple dream of owning a piece of San Francisco.”

Supervisor Mark Farrell, who voted to overturn the sale, said, "I believe the vote today to rescind this sale was the best possible outcome. The speculators get their money back — no harm, no foul."

Former Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who also voted to rescind the sale, took to reddit to defend his decision and was largely mocked, with one redditor, nnniccc replying, "It's a classic example of SF xenophobia, including a nasty streak against East Asians, (Chinese nationals!), push button sloganeering totally divorced from reality (real estate speculators!) and the way that being a current resident of SF that's 'got yours' trumps everything else, particularly if you connected and affluent."

The most recent census revealed that Presidio Terrace is now 74% white, 15% Asian, 7% Hispanic and 0% African-American.

Take a look at the slide show above to see the infamous racist advertisement and the street today.

Andrew Chamings is a digital editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings