Hemmed in by steep hills, Glen Park is defined by its quintessentially
San Franciscan topography. Only 120 years ago this area, as well as
neighboring Diamond Heights, was part of the Outside Lands, so
isolated that only farmers would settle here. Life revolved around
Islais Creek, which ran through the canyon and provided water for the
dairies. Then, in 1892, a German immigrant named Behrend Joost founded
the city's first electric streetcar to shuttle residents to jobs
downtown, and a neighborhood was born. As peak-roofed wooden cottages
and houses began to fill in the valleys, the urban, homey, and decidedly
livable Glen Park that we know today began to emerge.