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Overview

The Urban Realty Company planned Ingleside on the site of a former racetrack in western San Francisco, laid out on a plot of 150 acres in early 1912.

Building History

In 1912, the Joseph A. Leonard and his Urban Realty Company submitted the first residential tract plans in San Francisco that specified cruving, winding streets, laid out to harmonize with existing hillside contours. This method, influenced by English landscape planning precepts, was first used in the city at the Ingleside Terrace development. The San Francisco Call wrote in May of 1912 about the Urban Realty Company's efforts to convince the San Francisco City Engineer's office to allow this divergence from grid planning. It wrote: "The filing of the map of Ingleside terraces in the city engineer's office this week established a new precedent in laying out of residential sub-division in this city. the old plan of having streets follow straight lines and at right angles is set aside. Every street in this large tract if 150 acres is on a curve, conforming to the slope and lay of the land. At first the city engineer's office refused to accept the map and survey as made by the Urban Realty company, maintaining that it was contrary to the established custom and ordinances of this city. Joseph A. Leonard, the manager of the Urban Realty company, pointed out that this very custom is what has practically ruined large parts of San Francisco for residential purposes. Straight streets running without regard to natural slopes have made it impossible to live in hilly sections unless there is a cable line on every street. Country roads, railroads and every other modern thoroughfare have accommodated themselves to natural conditions, so as to get easy grades and make elevated places accessible. But San Francisco streets have run in defiance of nature and human needs. Oakland and Berkeley have been built up largely because the streets of the residential districts were made to follow the contour lines of the hills. Winding streets not only gave a charming appearance but made elevated districts accessible which would otherwise have been useless for habitation." (See "City Building Started on New Lines in Western District," San Francisco Call, 05/25/1912, p. 19.) Following the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the cities of Berkeley and Oakland burgeoned with displaced San Franciscans. The picturesque layouts of streets in the Berkeley and Oakland Hills had great charm, and the winding roads, graded in harmony with hillside contours, enabled the development of steep hilltop locations. This relocation of residents to Alameda County may have raised awareness about the charm of these hillside neighborhoods, and probably convinced Leonard that this more expensive methods of planning would result in rapid real estate sales back in San Francisco.

The poet and writer Charles Keeler's residential planning guide, The Simple Home (1904), also may have influenced the Urban Realty Company's choice. In this book, Keeler extolled the benefits of building residences in harmony with nature, particularly in laying houses out so that they respected existing hillside contours and site lines. He advocated minimal terracing in siting houses, planning interiors to maximize views and outdoor living and retaining as much indigenous vegetation as was feasible. This book became widely read in Keeler's home improvement group, the Berkeley Hillside Club, and the club became active in civic affairs in Berkeley. The Hillside Club's activities may have exerted some influence on the thinking of Leonard and his Urban Realty Company.

PCAD id: 21506