Nob Hill, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Nob Hill n.

[nob n.² (1) + SE hill; note New York’s Nob Hill, a row of fine houses built c.1815 near Bowling Green and Nob’s Hill, an area of San Francisco colonized by wealthy veterans of the California Gold Rush]

(orig. US) the most socially exclusive and/or richest area of a town or city.

1892		Democratic Messenger (Eureka, KS) 17 June 2/5: The magnificient residences on ‘Nob Hill’.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 382: He [...] had done stunts as a chambermaid in ground-and-lofty palaces on Nob Hill in San Francisco.
1911		Hawaiian Star (Honolulu) 13 May 18/4: The money that comes easy though, goes easy. Did you ever see a gambler ‘win’ on Nob Hill?
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 90: An extremely snooty San Francisco family, I mean the top of Nob Hill.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 220: They reckoned a rocket had hit the Silver Tails up on Nob Hill.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 237: A spacious, old-fashioned, two-room job with expensive pseudo-antique furniture and large French windows opening on an incredible view of Nob Hill.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 47: You can move in different social scenes, Nob Hill to Hungry Hill, highlife to lowlife.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] Martin can see the trophy homes of the wealthy [...] Nobb Hill, they’d called it as kids.