The neighborhood sits on the site of the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, staged after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to celebrate the reemergence of the city.

The area is bounded to the east by Van Ness Avenue and Fort Mason; on the west by Lyon Street and the Presidio National Park; on the south by Cow Hollow and Lombard St, which bisects the southern edge of the Marina District.

The area in the 19th century prior to the 1906 earthquake consisted of bay shallows, tidal pools, sand dunes, and marshland similar to nearby Crissy Field.

Human habitation and development came in the mid to late 19th century in the form of a sandwall[further explanation needed] and of a road from the nearby Presidio to Fort Mason.

In the 1930s, with the completion of the nearby Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street (now Highway 101) was widened, and soon developed into a strip of roadside motels.

[2][5] San Francisco's Academy of Art University has a campus housing building at the Southern edge of the neighborhood on Lombard Street.