Bush Street-Cottage Row Historic District
The National Park Service has not published a boundary polygon for this district; the map shows the listed properties inside it and the district's reference point.
Why it's listed
Bush Street-Cottage Row is a group of 20 narrow, two-story frame houses, a bricked walkway and a small park in San Francisco's Western Addition. Built between 1874 and 1882, the houses are Italianate or early Stick in style, with bracketed cornices, bay windows and false fronts. Nearly all came from two developers: The Real Estate Associates, the city's largest residential builder of the 1870s, and Charles L. Taylor, an insurance executive and shipping merchant. Taylor also created Cottage Row, a lane of six matching party-wall houses that Here Today compared to an English mews. The district survived while most Victorian houses nearby were demolished or moved during redevelopment. City surveys gave its Bush Street groups some of the highest ratings in San Francisco. In the 1930s the area was home to Japanese-American residents, who sold vegetables along the Row until their wartime internment. Several houses have since been restored.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · catalog entry. Generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29).
| Period of significance | 1874-1882 |
|---|---|
| Styles | Italianate and early Stick style |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Acreage | 1.2 |
| Boundary source | not published |
| Full listing page | Bush Street-Cottage Row Historic District (property record) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.