The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights.

Today, the term Western Addition is generally used in two ways: to denote either the development's original geographic area or the eastern portion of the neighborhood (also called the Fillmore District) that was redeveloped in the 1950s.

From there, it is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods such as Lower Pacific Heights, Cathedral Hill, Japantown, the Fillmore, Hayes Valley, Alamo Square, Anza Vista, and North Panhandle.

The area was initially used for small-scale farming; but, following the invention of the cable car during the 1870s, the Western Addition developed as a Victorian streetcar suburb.

After the Second World War, the Western Addition — particularly the Fillmore District — became a population base and a cultural center for San Francisco's African-American community, a consequence of opportune housing supply due to the internment of Japanese Americans.