Hippie communes and Victorian bordellos, czarist bootleggers and jazz legends: these genteel "Painted Lady" Victorian mansions have hosted them all since 1857, and survived elegantly intact. Pastel "Postcard Row" mansions (aka the Full House sitcom backdrop) along the southeastern edge of this hilltop park pale in comparison with the colorful, outrageously ornamented Victorians along the northwestern end – especially the 1889 Italianate Westerfield mansion, where Kenneth Anger filmed Church of Satan tower rituals starring one grumpy lion that refused to climb the stairs.
In the 1860s, an outlaw named Dutch Charlie wouldn't let anyone near Alamo Sq's crest – now hilltop picnic benches let you take in the view he so jealously guarded, while toddlers play tag on his turf at a Victorian-themed hillside playground.
