Portola

San Francisco’s historic Garden District, with a dim sum-lined San Bruno Avenue and McLaren Park on its doorstep.

The Portola calls itself San Francisco’s Garden District, and the name has roots. Homesteaders once built small farms, homes and greenhouses with windmills here, and the district became known as “San Francisco’s Garden” because it grew produce and cut flowers for the whole city. A city environment resolution names the University Mound Nursery greenhouses at 770 Woolsey Street among the neighborhood’s remaining landmarks. It also credits the peaks of nearby McLaren Park with a fog break that gives the Portola a sunny climate.

Today San Bruno Avenue is the commercial strip, where the Portola Neighborhood Association lists dim sum houses, bakeries, taquerias and cafes. Families can join free monthly volunteer garden days at the GreenBetween, a community-built greenspace on once-blighted Caltrans land at 2 Burrows Street. They can also visit the Portola Branch Library, which has a seed library and garden. Nearby, John McLaren Park is the city’s second-largest park at 313 acres, with six playgrounds, trails, a lake and sweeping views of downtown and the East Bay.

Sources: Portola Neighborhood Association: History of the Portola, SF Environment: Portola Green Plan resolution, Portola Neighborhood Association: Shop & Dine Portola, SF.gov: Portola Volunteer Garden Days at the GreenBetween, SFPL: Portola Branch, SF Rec & Park: McLaren Park.