SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE, 800 Chestnut. Diego Rivera mural, two galleries, established 1871. Web site

LOMBARD STREET. "Crookedest street in the world," Eight switchbacks. Web site

ALICE MARBLE TENNIS COURTS/GREENWICH ST. STUB. Summit of hill with largest park, cypress and other wind-resistant trees.

STUB OF GREENWICH ST. Walk into stub, turn around, walk back. Coit Tower seems to grow up out of the ground.

VIEW TOWER, 2238 Hyde. Sixteen stories, bay-windowed, built on standard home lot.

Grade of 31.5 percent, steepest paved street in city, sidewalks are shallow steps.

MARINE VIEW APARTMENTS, 2054 Hyde. Four stories, Edwardian building, corner bay windows.

HYDE AND UNION: EDWARDIAN COMMERCIAL CROSSROADS. Transit lines cross. Edwardian shops, bay windows at all four corners.

29 RUSSELL PLACE, near Hyde and Union. Important literary site. Jack Kerouac drafted three major works.

POST-FIRE APARTMENTS, Union and Leavenworth. Classic examples of how fine post-1906 reconstruction was.

VIEWS. North: Alcatraz, Angel Island. East: Telegraph Hill summit, Coit Tower, Christopher Columbus statue, Garfield Grammar School.

1101 GREEN, southwest corner. Twenty stories. Elegant tower.

1111-33 GREEN. Complex of Tudor-gabled apartments atop high retaining wall.

1088 GREEN. 1908 firehouse, bought by philanthropist, donated to National Trust for Historic Preservation.

FEUSIER OCTAGON HOUSE, 1067 Green. One of two octagon house in the city. Original house built about 1859, added story and mansard roof with cupola in 1870s.

1055 GREEN. Built about 1866, reworked in 1915, arcade of windows, large garden.

O'BRIEN HOUSE, 1045 Green. Built in 1867, remodeled in California style.

1039-43 GREEN. Behind vintage fence, unusual exterior staircase, built in 1885.

1011 GREEN. Hidden behind and above ivy-covered garage. View from across street.

1030 GREEN. Behind brick wall and green hedge, Pueblo Revival designed in 1913. Square turret, recessed side entrance with Tuscan arcade.

1040 GREEN. Built in 1912, Colonial Revival features with Mission Revival-style stucco exterior.

1050 GREEN. Apartment building is one of most eloquent small buildings in the city.

SUMMIT APARTMENTS, 999 Green. Sculpted piece of futuristic design. Two-story penthouse.

GREEN AND JONES STREETS. View down hill to Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, and north bay. To south, contrast between futuristic Summit Apartments and its Mediterranean neighbors.

GREEN STREET CUL-DE-SAC, at end of block. Rocky outcropping, box-seat views of downtown.

MACONDRAY LANE, between Jones and Taylor below Green. Landscaped pedestrian lane ends in steep stairs. Four of the buildings survived 1906 fire, others built in the next three years.

1950 JONES, at corner of Macondray Lane. Built in 1907, polygonal bay windows at corners, bay windows along two sides. Second floor of uphill half connects with third floor of downhill section.

68 MACONDRAY LANE. House now several apartments, cut glass and curved glass for curved bay windows.

VALLEJO STREET IMPROVEMENTS. Elegant concrete retaining wall, automobile ramps, and sidewalks.

VALLEJO. Block is narrow, passes between embankments, leads to balustraded turnaround. Steps embowered in greenery zigzag down eastern escarpment.

RUSSIAN HILL PLACE. Row of Mediterranean-style town houses designed by Willis Polk.,

THE HERMITAGE, 1020 Vallejo. Brown-shingled, four stories, seven-unit condominium. View at turnaround.

1013-19 VALLEJO. One of Russian Hill's distinctive cliff dwellings built in 1892.

FLORENCE STREET PUEBLO REVIVAL GROUP. One block long between Vallejo and Broadway

1071 VALLEJO, southwest corner of Florence. U-shaped, two-flat building with entrance court facing Florence.

37 FLORENCE. Fine door and entry window. Carefully-trained landscaping.

40 FLORENCE. Behind the wall, house built in 1857.

1000 BLOCK OF BROADWAY. Most of traffic is under the hill in a tunnel built in 1952.

1020 BROADWAY. Superb brown-shingled house built in 1909.

1629 TAYLOR, around the corner. Very modern. Large garden between the houses.

1032 BROADWAY. Built in 1853, added to about 1860, remodeled about 1893. E-shaped Italianate house, ancient oak, set in a fine garden.

BROADWAY AND TAYLOR. At base of stairs, twin white Baroque spires of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Church of 1907 can be seen silhouetted against Telegraph Hill and the bay.

1652 TAYLOR. Survived 1906 earthquake and fire, flames quenched using seltzer water and wet sand.

INA COOLBRITH PARK. Photograph Alcatraz Island and bay. Named after poet laureate of California in 1915.

PACIFIC AND TAYLOR, southwest corner. Chinese-style prefabricated-metal gas station.

CABLE CAR MUSEUM, Washington and Mason. Exhibits, photographs, scale models, other memorabilia from 115-year history. Web site

CALIFORNIA AND POWELL CABLE CAR TRANSFER POINT. Three cable car lines intersect. Look down from each corner.

VIEW OF SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE. Visible at foot of California is red brick hulk of 1916 former Southern Pacific railroad headquarters. Beyond is one of the piers of the Bay Bridge.

UNIVERSITY CLUB, 800 Powell at California. Northeast corner, designed in style of Florentine Renaissance city palace. Visible at foot of Powell are three masts of Balclutha.

STANFORD COURT HOTEL, 905 California. Southwest corner, built in 1911, glass-enclosed conservatories added, reconstructed inside in 1972. Dark granite wall along Powell remains from Stanford mansion. Web site

PINE STREET WALL, corner of Powell and Pine. Massive granite retaining wall surrounds block where Stanford and Hopkins houses stood.

JOICE. View three towers of Hyatt Hotel, Union Square Holiday Inn, twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach.

900-08 PINE, southwest corner. Bay-windowed apartment building designed in 1915. Vista down Mason cuts through raffish Tenderloin, terminated by diagonal of Market St.

MASON STREET TOWNHOUSE ROW, 831-849 Mason. Urbane row of townhouses, elegant detailing.

MORSEHEAD APARTMENTS, 1001 California, southwest corner. French style, six stories, one of the handsomest in city. Shallow bays at corners reflect oval rooms. Lobby with statuary and mosaic work.

1021 CALIFORNIA, next to Morsehead Apartments. Three-story townhouse steps down hill to five-story rear.

PACIFIC-UNION CLUB, 1000 California. Reconstructed Flood mansion, originally built in 1886 with brownstone. Most exclusive men's club in the west.

MARK HOPKINS HOTEL, 999 California, southeast corner at Mason. Remains from Hopkins mansion are granite retaining walls, stone turret with iron finial on Pine that capped a stable. Famous for its Top of the Mark lounge. Web site

FAIRMONT HOTEL AND TOWER, 950 Mason between California and Sacramento. Opened in 1907 after being gutted by 1906 fire. Opulent marble palace. Eight-room, $4,000-a-day penthouse was used frequently in TV series Hotel. Web site

FAIRMONT HOTEL TOUR. Enter main entrance. Walk across carpet, past staircase, all the way to Venetian Room, turn left. Go down corridor and turn right. Around corner is enormous and beguiling rendering of hotel with original gardens. Photographs of 1906 earthquake and fire. Continue to exterior elevator to Crown Room, panorama is breathtaking.

VIEW FROM SACRAMENTO AND MASON. Red brick Cable Car Powerhouse with bottle-shaped chimney, white church with twin spires is Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.

BROCKLEBANK APARTMENTS, 1000 Mason. Brick-paved court and curiously small windows. Was pride and joy of Mrs. M.V.B. MacAdam who oversaw every step of design and construction. During late 1920s, she sank her entire fortune into the project, but a $1 million loan was foreclosed during the depression.

1083 CLAY. Best seen from across the street. Contemporary (1986) San Francisco architecture. Curved bay windows break across upper four stories like agitated waves.

PARK LANE APARTMENTS, 1100 Sacramento. Reflects the opulent twenties.

1150 SACRAMENTO. Latest luxury building on Nob Hill, 45 condominiums, fanciful parapet reflecting general shape of the Park Lane.

NOB HILL COMMUNITY APARTMENTS, 1170 Sacramento. Built before height limits. Driveway circles through the ground-floor level. Sliver of a garden along west side.

1172 SACRAMENTO. Best appreciated from across the street. Facade ornamented with mahogany pillars and fancy cast-iron grilles over plate-glass French windows.

1190 SACRAMENTO, northeast corner of Sacramento and Taylor. Pink-and-black International style 12-story highrise designed with a slight flavor of Miami Beach.

HUNTINGTON PARK, Taylor between Sacramento and California. One of the city's landscape jewels, divided into four quadrants. At center is copy of Tartarughe Fountain of 1581. Sculpture "Dancing Sprites." Red-tile-roofed toolshed looks like a temple.

HUNTINGTON HOTEL, 1075 California at Taylor. Unostentatious but one of the city's very finest.

CALIFORNIA MASONIC MEMORIAL TEMPLE/MASONIC MUSEUM, 1111 California, southwest corner at Taylor. Facade has bas relief of four figures representing branches of armed services, 14 figures engaged in a tug-of-war between forces of good and evil. Terrace on Taylor gives view of city. Twenty-three-foot-high marble pillars support a globe and the heavens. Historical window in lobby (brochure available). Second floor houses a museum.

GRACE EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL AND CLOSE, 1051 Taylor. Seat of Episcopal bishop of California, 329 feet long and 162 feet wide. Two towers rise 174 feet, cross is 247 feet above street level. Gilded bronze doors were taken from casts of "Gates of Paradise" on baptistry in Florence. Murals on south sidewall. Gift shop in basement. Web site

1100 BLOCK OF TAYLOR. Interesting array of post-1906 apartment buildings more ornamented and with more individuality.

APARTMENT BUILDING, northwest corner of Taylor and Sacramento. Recently sprouted a modern penthouse.

1135-41 TAYLOR, corner of Pleasant. Elegant shingled building designed in 1908. Interesting side elevation.

1153-57 TAYLOR, across street. Frame building with urbane design built in 1906. Glass windscreen across top shelters a roof deck.

75 PLEASANT, almost at Jones. Post-modern townhouse, exaggerated rusticated base and round-arched top. Large circular window over entrance is set on pivots.

1200 BLOCK OF TAYLOR. Site of first cable car line. Down Clay with 17 percent grade to 853-foot-high TransAmerica Pyramid.

1224-32 TAYLOR. French-style apartment house.

1234 TAYLOR. Modern condiminium designed in 1980s. Looks stained and dreary because of use of unstained wood.

1255-57 TAYLOR. Giant columns and clumsy balconies are eye-catching.

1360-70 TAYLOR. Hillgate Manor apartment house has a startling view of the TransAmeria Pyramid through its gate.

1333 JONES. Block-long highrise Comstock Apartments (1960).

1250 JONES. One of the earliest residential highrises, still one of the best designed Slender Art Deco shaft capped by a radio tower.

NOB HILL SUMMIT, Clay and Jones. Highest point on Nob Hill, 338 feet above sea level.

1200 BLOCK OF SACRAMENTO, facing Grace Cathedral.

1242 SACRAMENTO. Rounded by windows with highly ornamented railing that masks the fire escape. Three round-headed French windows with balconies.

1230 SACRAMENTO. Three French windows with semi-circular balconies and ornamental iron railings at the second floor.

CHAMBORD APARTMENTS. Built in 1921, elegant building features oval living room stacked at the corners.

LEROY PLACE AND GOLDEN COURT. Two hidden cul-de-sacs. Leroy lined with "Popsicle" trees.

14-16 LEROY PLACE. Unique treatment of traditional bay-windowed facade.

GOLDEN COURT. Ordinary architecture but fuchsia plantings are delightful.

LEAVENWORTH AND SACRAMENTO. Brown-shingled, vine-covered building built in 1911. Entrance with pergolas.

1201-19 LEAVENWORTH. Frame construction, America's vernacular building materials and method.

1155 LEAVENWORTH, southwest corner of Sacramento. Mystery writer Dashiell Hammett's home.

1151 SACRAMENTO, between Leavenworth and Hyde. Art Nouveau, spade-shaped entrance arch, sweeping cornice.

CORONADO APARTMENTS, 1500 Sacramento, northeast corner of Larkin. U-shaped apartment building built in 1911, art glass ceiling in lobby,.

POLK. Lively commercial strip.

CALIFORNIA HALL, Polk and Turk. Originally German National Community Hall built in 1911. Today houses California Culinary Academy. Tour available. Web site