You may not have come to San Francisco for Russian Hill Bookstore, but when you go down the crooked Lombard Street or visit Holy Trinity Cathedral at Green and Van Ness or take a ride on the Hyde Street cable car, stop by the bookstore to browse our San Francisciana.

At the west edge of the historic areas of old San Francisco, we are on walking routes for those exploring San Francisco history. To help you fall even more in love with San Francisco, we carry a large collection of both used and new books on our city, including history; guidebooks, walking maps, and children’s books. If you want to get a sense of history or adventure, we stock novels set in the city or by local writers.

Once you have captured the magic of San Francisco, you will want to have mementos to take home and cards to send to tantalize those back home. For that purpose, we carry a wide selection of San Francisco related gifts and merchandise from note and postcards, calendars, magnets and coffee table books to flour sack towels, business card cases and mint boxes.

Contrary to some expectations, we are not a Russian Language Bookstore. The neighborhood’s name goes back to the Gold Rush era. Early settlers discovered a small Russian cemetery at the top of the hill. Russian naval and merchant ships frequently visited San Francisco throughout the 19th century beginning in 1806. The cemetery was later removed, but the name remains in memory of those early sailors to this day.