• McLaren Park
• Jerry Garcia Amphitheatre
• Mission Street Corridor
• Excelsior Playground

The Excelsior takes its name from the Latin word for 'ever upward' — an aspirational label that captured the neighborhood's promise as a refuge for immigrant families working their way into San Francisco's middle class. The Excelsior Homestead was officially filed at City Hall on April 15, 1869, and the area's grid of streets — named for world nations and international capitals such as London, Paris, and Madrid — reflected the cosmopolitan ambitions of its early developers. Originally part of the Rancho Rincón de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo, the Excelsior remained largely agricultural through the early 1900s, with Italian, Irish, and Swiss farm families cultivating its hillside lots.

Following the 1906 earthquake, displaced residents from across San Francisco — particularly from Italian North Beach — resettled in the Excelsior, urbanizing the district along Mission Street. McLaren Park, one of San Francisco's largest green spaces at over 300 acres, forms the neighborhood's eastern boundary and contains the Jerry Garcia Amphitheatre, named for the Grateful Dead front man who grew up in the Excelsior. The Granada Theater, which opened on Mission Street in 1922, served for decades as the neighborhood's cultural anchor.

The Excelsior has lived up to its Latin motto through a century of immigrant waves and working-class perseverance. MY-NHD's Excelsior collection is for those who carry the neighborhood's 'ever upward' spirit with them.