Today I am going to summarize a brief description of one of San Francisco's oldest neighborhoods...Jackson Square.
The Jackson Square neighborhood boundaries vary, but the district generally is considered to encompass the small wedge bordered by Broadway to the north, the Embarcadero to the east, Washington Street to the south, and Columbus Avenue and then Kearny Street to the west. Bordering districts and areas include the Northeast Waterfront to the north, some piers of the Port of San Francisco to the east, the North Financial District to the south, and Chinatown and North Beach to the west.
Portions of Jackson Square have been designated by the city as an historic district, and additional planning restrictions apply to the blocks so designated.
Jackson Square formed the original central business district of the city. Several buildings in Jackson Square survived the 1906 earthquake, and the district contains almost all of the city's surviving commercial buildings from the 1850s and 1860s. The historic district includes architecturally significant buildings constructed in the period between the 1850s and the early 1900s. Buildings generally are of relatively low intensity, with the vast majority being less than 40 feet in height, providing a major contrast from the neighboring Financial District office core. Interior streets tend to be narrow, with few major through arteries.
City planning guidelines note some common architectural themes found through the district, and indicate a strong preference toward maintaining those existing themes. The exterior architectural features of the historic district that should be preserved are described and depicted in a Jackson Square Report that was issued in 1971. Ground floors frequently have very tall ceilings, some as much as 20 feet from street level, often with cornices separating them from upper floors, providing continuity along the street frontage. Buildings tend to have a regularity of overall form and proportion, with closely spaced ground floor bays, deep-set openings and inset entrances oriented to pedestrians. Windows tend to be deeply recessed, narrow, and vertically oriented. At the upper floors, the proportion of windows to solid wall is typically less than 50 percent. Arches doorways and/or windows are common at ground floors, and frequently at upper floors. Predominantly, buildings have brick exterior walls, at times being exposed red bricks and at times painted, with thick bearing walls.
Many of the buildings consist of ground floor retail, service, or restaurant space and upper floor offices. The district also includes some standalone restaurants and retail buildings, professional office buildings, mixed-use buildings, and apartments.