Enjoy an approximately 90-minute walk along the quiet backstreets of this famed posh residential neighborhood, stopping along the way to note stand-out examples of the area's rich collection of architectural forms. Pac Heights is a street-car inner suburb that was spared the destruction of the Great Fire and has always had the means, even in lean economic times as these, to see projects through to completion.

Highlights of the tour include:
+ a stroll down a turn-of-the-last-century block of stately Queen Anne row houses on a lost postcard row;
+ viewing a mansard-roofed Victorian mansion compound replete with rose garden and bird bath;
+ the post-Earthquake Reconstruction era "Millionaire’s Row" and what was California's largest private home;
+ a Landmarked klinker-style "haunted mansion" formerly inhabited by a fallen society matron turned crazy cat lady;
+ a prime example of a S.F. beaux arts style multi-family building recently restored after severe fire damage;
+ sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate Bridge; and
+ a send-off farewell at the upper Polk Street shopping and restaurant district with suggestions for continuing on a self-guided tour and your nearby dining and ground transportation options.

You'll come away with an understanding of San Francisco's
* principal architectural styles, and how to identify them and spot which elements are and aren't original;
* history through its human settlement and land use;
* application of historic preservation principles to create a more livable city;
* successful transition from a manufacturing economy to a service- and tourism-based economy; and
* regulations and codes that balance the interests of individual property rights and the common good.