Districts (Outlying Areas) of San Francisco

San Francisco

Bernal Heights

Bernal Heights lies south of Mission District, beyond Army Street, rising sharply from the surrounding flatlands. Nondescript in nature and nearly strictly residential, its wooden row housing follows the usual pattern of higher rents nearer the summit. Expressway I-280 runs through a stretch of land south of Bernal, separating it from the hill known as McClaren Park.

Candlestick Point

Found along the southern shore of the bay, this is the location of Candlestick Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and 49ers. Cold and windy, often foggy, there is an ongoing campaign to close it up and build a new stadium nearer the city.

The Castro

San Francisco's gay village is mostly concentrated in the business district that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market Street toward Church Street and on both sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Although the greater gay community was, and is, concentrated in the Castro, many gay people live in the surrounding residential areas bordered by Corona Heights, the Mission District, Noe Valley, Twin Peaks, and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods. Some consider it to include Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights, which both have a strong LGBT presence.

Castro Street, which originates a few blocks north at the intersection of Divisadero and Waller Streets, runs south through Noe Valley, crossing the 24th Street business district and ending as a continuous street a few blocks farther south as it moves toward the Glen Park neighborhood. It reappears in several discontinuous sections before ultimately terminating at Chenery Street, in the heart of Glen Park.

San Francisco’s well-known gay district, while still potentially shocking to Midwestern sensibilities, has become relatively respectable these days. Populated mostly by professionals, the Castro offers a wide variety of fine restaurants, book stores, and other shops.

History

Castro Street was named after José Castro (1808–1860), a Californian leader of Mexican opposition to U.S. rule in California in the 19th century, and alcalde of Alta California from 1835 to 1836.[6] The neighborhood known as the Castro, in the district of Eureka Valley, was created in 1887 when the Market Street Railway Company built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown. Castro Street pedestrian crossing with rainbow flag color Corner of 20th and Castro Streets

In 1891, Alfred E. Clarke built his mansion at the corner of Douglass and Caselli Avenue at 250 Douglass which is commonly referenced as the Caselli Mansion. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire which destroyed a large portion of San Francisco.

Late 19th century

During the California Gold Rush and in its aftermath, a substantial Finnish population had settled in San Francisco.[8][11] In addition to Etholén, Furuhjelm and Niebaum, a number of Finns had become household names in the social circles of San Francisco by the time when the Finnish corvette Kalevala anchored in San Francisco on November 14, 1861. Accordingly, Kalevala's visit in the city received a very warm welcome and created much attention.[8][12] A festive dinner party arranged in honor of Admiral Popoff and the naval officers of the Russian Pacific Fleet visiting San Francisco in 1863

In 1863, a six-vessel Russian Imperial Navy squadron, a part of the Russian Pacific Fleet, sailed via Vladivostok to the West Coast of the United States, to help defend the waters there against a possible attack by the United Kingdom or France, during the American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 10, 1865).[13][14][15] In addition to the Finnish-built corvette Kalevala now returning to the U.S. West Coast, this squadron included three other corvettes, Bogatyr, Rynda and Novik (Russian: "Новик"), as well as two Finnish-built clippers, the sister-ships Abrek (Russian: "Абрек") and Vsadnik (Russian: "Всадник"), both built in the southwestern Finnish town of Pori and launched in 1860. Finnish officers serving in the squadron included Theodor Kristian Avellan, who later became the Minister of Naval Affairs of the Russian Empire (similar role to Great Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty).[16] Among Finnish officers participating in the expedition were also Mr. Enqvist and Mr. Etholén (not Governor Etholén of Russian America).[9][13]

At the time when Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Niebaum, the founder of Inglenook Winery (1879) in Rutherford, California, was busy conducting business in the San Francisco Bay Area and Alaska – from the late 19th to the early 20th century –, both places had considerably large Finnish settlements. As the Governor of Russian America from 1858 to 1864, Finnish Johan Hampus Furuhjelm helped pave way for the American Alaska purchase, just like Gustave Niebaum did as the Consul of Russia for the United States in San Francisco in 1867 (at the time Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia), when Alaska became part of the United States of America.

During his governorship of Russian America, Furuhjelm put an end to the hostilities involving groups of the native peoples of Alaska, and he succeeded in abolishing the Alaskan Ice Treaty with San Francisco. According to a contract which had been signed, Russian America had to deliver a certain amount of ice to San Francisco at a fixed price. The problem was that the product melted down on the way to the warmer climates. The ice contract became very awkward for the Russian colony. Furuhjelm arranged for a new contract to sell ice to San Francisco: 3,000 tons at $25.00 a ton.

Officially registered Finnish Club No. 1 was established in the Castro District of San Francisco in 1882. Soon after, two "Finnish Halls" were erected nearby. One was located at the corner of 24th Street and Hoffman Street. The other hall was located on Flint Street, on the "Rocky Hill" above Castro, an area densely populated by Finns at the time, consequently nicknamed Finn Town.

In 1899, the First Finnish Lutheran Church was founded on 50 Belcher Street, in what then was considered part of the Eureka Valley district of San Francisco, but what is located on the outskirts of what today is best known as the Castro District. Next to it, on September 17, 1905, the cornerstone was laid for the Danish St. Ansgar Church at 152 Church Street, between Market Street and Duboce Avenue. During the April 18, 1906, San Francisco earthquake and its aftermath, the parsonage served as a feeding station and hospital. In 1964, St. Ansgar merged with First Finnish Lutheran Church. The name for the united church, St. Francis Lutheran Church, was derived from San Francisco.

Before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, nearly all the kids attending the McKinley school (now McKinley Elementary School) at 1025 14th Street (at Castro) were Finnish. Following the earthquake, a large number of Finns from San Francisco and elsewhere moved to Berkeley, where a Finnish community had been established already before the earthquake. A large part of the early Berkeley population was Finnish. The brick and wood frame of the St. Francis Lutheran Church building survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and then was used for several months as an infirmary. Following the earthquake, the same year, Finns founded the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Berkeley, at University Avenue, where the Lutheran congregation still operates today.

In c. 1910, a bathhouse called Finnila's Finnish Baths began serving customers in the Castro District, at 9 Douglass Street. Its opening as an official business serving the general public took place in 1913. In 1919, the business moved to 4032 17th Street, a half block west from the busy Castro Street. In 1932, the business moved again, now to 2284 Market Street. In 1986, after having been stationed in the Castro District for over seven decades, the business moved the final time, now to 465 Taraval Street in the San Francisco's Sunset District, where it continued as Finnila's Health Club, serving women only. Despite public outcry and attempts to prevent the closing of the popular Finnila's Market Street bathhouse, the old bathhouse building was demolished by Alfred Finnila soon after the farewell party held in the end of December 1985. Today, the Finnila family owns the new Market & Noe Center building at the location of the old bathhouse, in the corner of Market and Noe Streets. Change of character

From 1910 on, the Castro District of San Francisco and some of the surrounding areas were known by the term Little Scandinavia, because of the large number of the residents in the area originating from Finnish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ancestry.

The 1943 novel Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes focused on a Norwegian family living in the area in the 1910s. Forbes' book served as the inspiration for John Van Druten's 1944 play I Remember Mama. The play was adapted to a Broadway theater production in 1944; to a movie in 1948; to a CBS Mama television series running from 1949 until 1957; to a Lux Radio Theater play in the late 1950s; and to a Broadway musical in 1979. "Mama's Bank Account" reflected a (then) Eureka Valley neighborhood, where for generations Norwegians worshiped at the Norwegian Lutheran Church at 19th and Dolores streets, and met for fraternal, social events, and Saturday night dances at Dovre Hall, 3543 18th Street, now the Women's Building.

The Cove on Castro used to be called The Norse Cove at the time. The Scandinavian Seamen's Mission operated for a long time on 15th Street, off Market Street, just around the corner from the Swedish-American Hall, which remains in the district. In the 1920s – during prohibition – the downstairs of the Swedish-American Hall served as a speak-easy, one of many in the area. "Unlicensed saloons" were known as speak-easies, according to an 1889 newspaper. They were "so called because of the practice of speaking quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not to alert the police or neighbors".

Scandinavian-style "half-timber" construction can still be seen in some of the buildings along Market Street, between Castro and Church Streets. A restaurant called Scandinavian Deli operated for decades on Market Street, between Noe and Sanchez Streets, almost directly across the street from Finnila's.

Receiving an influx of Irish, Italian and other immigrants in the 1930s, the Castro gradually became an ethnically mixed working-class neighborhood, and it remained so until the mid-1960s. There was originally a cable car line with large double-ended cable cars that ran along Castro Street from Market Street to 29th St., until the tracks were dismantled in 1941 and the cable car line was replaced by the 24 MUNI bus. The Castro is at the end of the straight portion of the Market Street thoroughfare, and a mostly residential area follows Market Street as it curves and rises up and around the Twin Peaks mountains.

LGBT community

The U.S. military discharged thousands of gay servicemen from the Pacific theater in San Francisco during World War II (early 1940s) because of their sexuality. Many settled in the Bay Area, San Francisco and Sausalito. In San Francisco, an established gay community had begun in numerous areas including Polk Street (which used to be regarded as the city's gay center from the 1950s to the early 1980s), the Tenderloin and South of Market. The 1950s saw large numbers of families moving out of the Castro to the suburbs in what became known as the "White flight", leaving open large amounts of real estate and creating attractive locations for gay purchasers. The Missouri Mule first opened in 1935 by Norwegian Immigrant Hans K Lund and would find its place in San Francisco's history becoming a proud icon of the LBGTQ community following its reopening in 1963. "Missouri Mule".

The Castro's age as a gay mecca began during the late 1960s with the Summer of Love in the neighboring Haight-Ashbury district in 1967. The two neighborhoods are separated by a steep hill, topped by Buena Vista Park. The hippie and free love movements had fostered communal living and free society ideas including the housing of large groups of people in hippie communes. Androgyny became popular with men even in full beards as gay hippie men began to move into the area. The 1967 gathering brought tens of thousands of middle-class youth from all over the United States to the Haight which saw its own exodus when well-organized individuals and collectives started to see the Castro as an oasis from the massive influx. Many of the hippies had no way to support themselves or places to shelter. The Haight became drug-ridden and violent, chasing off the gay population, who looked for a more stable area to live.

The gay community created an upscale, fashionable urban center in the Castro District in the 1970s.[37] Many San Francisco gays also moved there in the years around 1970 from what was then the most prominent gay neighborhood, Polk Gulch, because large Victorian houses were available at low rents or available for purchase for low down payments when their former middle-class owners had fled to the suburbs.

By 1973, Harvey Milk, who would become the most famous resident of the neighborhood, opened a camera store, Castro Camera, and began political involvement as a gay activist, further contributing to the notion of the Castro as a gay destination. Some of the culture of the late 1970s included what was termed the "Castro clone", a mode of dress and personal grooming that exemplified butch-ness and masculinity of the working-class men in construction—tight denim jeans, black or sand combat boots, tight T-shirt or, often, an Izod crocodile shirt, possibly a red plaid flannel outer shirt, and usually sporting a mustache or full beard—in vogue with the gay male population at the time, and which gave rise to the nickname "Clone Canyon" for the stretch of Castro Street between 18th and Market Streets.

There were numerous famous watering holes in the area contributing to the nightlife, including the Corner Grocery Bar, Toad Hall, the Pendulum, the Midnight Sun, Twin Peaks, and the Elephant Walk. A typical daytime street scene of the period is perhaps best illustrated by mentioning the male belly dancers who could be found holding forth in good weather at the corner of 18th and Castro on "Hibernia Beach", in front of the financial institution from which it drew its name. Then at night, after the bars closed at 2 AM, the men remaining at that hour often would line up along the sidewalk of 18th Street to indicate that they were still available to go home with someone (aka The Meat Rack).

The area was heavily impacted by the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s. Beginning in 1984, city officials began a crackdown on bathhouses and launched initiatives that aimed to prevent the spread of AIDS. Kiosks lining Market Street and Castro Street now have posters promoting safe sex and testing right alongside those advertising online dating services.

In 2019, San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Rafael Mandelman authored an ordinance to create the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District; the ordinance was passed unanimously.

Attractions

Stores on Castro near the intersection with 18th Street. Rainbow flags, which are commonly associated with gay pride, are hung as banners on streetlights along the road.

One of the more notable features of the neighborhood is Castro Theatre, a movie palace built in 1922 and one of San Francisco's premier movie houses.

18th and Castro is a major intersection in the Castro, where many historic events, marches, and protests have taken and continue to take place.

A major cultural destination in the neighborhood is the GLBT History Museum, which opened for previews on December 10, 2010, at 4127 18th St. The grand opening of the museum took place on the evening of January 13, 2011. The first full-scale, stand-alone museum of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history in the United States (and only the second in the world after the Schwules Museum in Berlin), the GLBT History Museum is a project of the GLBT Historical Society.

The F Market heritage streetcar line turnaround at Market and 17th-streets where the Jane Warner city parklet sits. Across Castro street is the Harvey Milk Plaza in honor of its most famous resident with its iconic giant flag pole with an oversized rainbow flag, symbol of the LGBT community. Below street level is the main entrance to the Castro Street Station, a Muni Metro subway station and a multitiered park. Milk's camera store and campaign headquarters which were at 575 Castro has a memorial plaque and mural on the inside of the store, now housing the Human Rights Campaign Action Center and Store. There is a smaller mural above the sidewalk on the building showing Milk looking down on the street fondly.

Across Market Street from Harvey Milk Plaza, and slightly up the hill, is the Pink Triangle Park – 17th Street at Market, a city park and monument named after the pink triangles forcibly worn by gay prisoners persecuted by the Nazis during World War II.

Harvey's was formerly the Elephant Walk, raided by police after the White Night Riots.

Twin Peaks is the first gay bar in the city, and possibly the United States, with plate glass windows to fully visibly expose patrons to the public is located at the intersection of Market and Castro.

The Hartford Street Zen Center is also located in the Castro, as well as the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, 100 Diamond Street.

Special events, parade and street fairs that are held in the Castro include the Castro Street Fair, the Dyke March, the famed Halloween in the Castro which was discontinued in 2007 due to street violence, Pink Saturday discontinued in the Castro in 2016, and the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.

A LGBTQ Walk of Fame, the Rainbow Honor Walk, was installed in August 2014 with an inaugural twenty sidewalk bronze plaques representing past LGBTQ icons in their field, who continue to serve as inspirations. The walk is originally planned to coincide with the business district of the Castro and eventually include 500 bronze plaques.

The main business section of Castro St from Market to 19th street were under reconstruction and repaving in 2014 to address a number of neighborhood concerns. The area has heavy vehicular traffic as well as many visitors. As part of the work the sidewalks were widened and new trees were planted. Additionally 20 historical cement etchings covering from the inception to the area being settled to the 2010s sweeping gay marriage movement victories were installed in September 2014.

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Fillmore

The Fillmore District is a historical neighborhood in San Francisco located to the southwest of Nob Hill, west of Market Street and north of the Mission District. It has been given various nicknames such as “the Moe” or “the Fill”. The Fillmore District began to rise to prominence after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As a result of not being affected by the earthquake itself nor the large fires that ensued, it quickly became one of the major commercial and cultural centers of the city.

After the earthquake, the district experienced a large influx of diverse ethnic populations. It began to house large numbers of African Americans, Japanese and Jews. Each group significantly contributed to the local culture and earned the Fillmore district a reputation for being "one of the most diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco". In particular, the district was known for having the largest jazz scene on the west coast of the United States up until its decline in the 1970s. A large Japantown was also historically located in the Fillmore District although technically it does not lie within the borders of the district today.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, the Fillmore District underwent a large-scale redevelopment. This has largely led to a decline of the jazz scene in the area. However, many people have claimed that jazz in the district has made a large rebound in recent years. Even today, the redevelopment of the Fillmore remains a controversial issue. Many of the people who were forced to move from the district say that redevelopment was a product of racism. The city planners claim redevelopment was a way to combat the high rates of crime in the area and to reinvigorate the local economy.

The small Fillmore District has long been a black neighborhood. Economically depressed, it still retains its character. Lively at night, it is cursed with drug problems and associated crime.

Fort Funston

This is the southernmost point of the city’s shoreline. A quiet stretch of white sand beach overlooked by high cliffs, it is a favorite spot among bay hang gliders. Fort Mason

Located on the bluffs overlooking the Golden Gate, Fort Mason was first manned by Spanish soldiers in 1797. It came into the hands of the U.S. Army in 1850 and during World War II, 1.6 million men passed through this facility on their way to and from the Pacific theater. Now a park open to the public, it is mostly rolling grasslands and trees with a few old barracks buildings, and used as a park by local residents. Three old piers jut out into the bay. Tied up to one of them is a World War II Liberty ship, also open to the public.

Golden Gate Park

A broad band of green in an arid city mostly covered in concrete, Golden Gate Park is an oasis of exotic flora, meadows, lakes, and facilities for nearly every conceivable sport or diversion. Begun in 1871, the area was slowly reclaimed from the thousands of acres of sand dunes that once covered the area. Beginning with quick-rooting barley, vegetation was slowly introduced that eventually anchored the soil.

The park is a half-mile wide and three miles long, plus the narrow strip to the east known as the Panhandle. Roads meander through the park, some of them closed to auto traffic on weekends, and trails lace the hills and glens. Eucalyptus and cypress trees are the most prevalent, but stands of palms, tree ferns, redwoods, and other natural-styles plantings are found everywhere. Formal, landscaped gardens of roses, rhododendrons, and others also decorate the park.

The eastern end of the park is the most developed and features the Steinhart Aquarium inside the California Academy of Sciences building, the de Young art museum, the Victorian glass Conservatory, and the Japanese Tea Garden left over from the 1894 World’s Fair. A paddock in the western end of the park holds a dozen bison. Athletic facilities run the gamut. There are baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields, a polo field, riding trails, horseshoe pits, fly-casting pools, archery ranges, stables, playgrounds, and even a nine-hole golf course. Most of these are cleverly hidden from site, allowing strollers to imagine the park as undeveloped and natural. At the western edge of the park, facing the sea, stand two huge windmills, originally installed to pump water from underground to supplement the skimpy rainfall.

The narrow Panhandle of the park extends another half-mile east. Landscaped and open, the fine Victorian homes lining both sides are prized residences.

Haight-Ashbury

San Francisco holds diverse cultures and widely different philosophies. Within the city are many neighborhoods, each unique in atmosphere and lifestyle. One of the most unusual enclaves exists in Haight-Ashbury. Catapulted into the headlines as the birthplace of the hippie movement, this formerly middle-class neighborhood became a fostering ground for idealists and iconoclasts. Although the halcyon days of "flower power" were short-lived, vestiges of the hippie presence can still be found amid the dirt and squalor of the World of Darkness.

History

After the United States acquired California in 1848, groups of squatters sought and won the right to settle an expanse of dunes along the western fringes of San Francisco. The area became one of the most poplar promenades during the 1880s because of its proximity to the newly opened Golden Gate Park. With the coming of the tramway connecting the park to the city, the Haight became prime territory for development. Elegant Victorian houses, as well as an assortment of hotels, restaurants, and saloons, soon made the Haight a desirable residential and commercial district.

Although barely damaged during the 1906 quake, the Haight suffered a decline in popularity as the gentry relocated to more fashionable neighborhoods. The stately homes in the area became apartment houses for the influx of immigrants who came west to seek their fortunes. In the years following World War II, a large number of lower-income families moved into the Haight. This incursion continued into the 1950s, when many artists and members of the Beat Generation settled in the area. These free-thinkers brought with them a bohemian lifestyle and became the foundation for the society that evolved during the next decade.

In the mid-1960s, the "hippie movement" found its spiritual and physical home in the blocks surrounding the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets. Rejecting materialism and the politics of war, the hippies embraced a gospel of free love, free speech, and free living. Anarchist groups like the Diggers advocated a moneyless society, while the search for spiritual enlightenment sparked a new interest in Zen Buddhism and other non-Western philosophies. Experimentation with mind-altering drugs likewise became prevalent. The word "psychedelic" began making the rounds and was used to describe everything from the new music of the 1960s to the wildly apricots artistic styles inspired by the profusion of mind-altering experiences. The "Summer of Love" in 1967 marked the apex of the counterculture's dream. Nearly half a million people, most of them under the age of thirty, flocked to the Haight.

By the end of the decade, the fragile mood of universal peace and love had turned ugly. Commercialism took over the trappings of the hippie movement; being "hip" became big business. Free love gave way to casual rape, traffic in hard drugs increased, and violence ruled the streets. Many hippies left in disgust.

In recent years, though, the Haight has begun to enjoy a renaissance. The streets of Haight-Ashbury reflect a hybrid culture made up of New Agers, yuppies, old hippies, goths, punks, drifters, and modern entrepreneurs. This combination of bright-eyed idealists and hardcore cynics has resulted in a strange and sometimes sinister atmosphere.

Geography

Haight-Ashbury stretched eastward from Golden Gate Park as far west as Gough Street and the Central Freeway. California Street forms the northernmost boundary, while a line connecting Carmel Street, Roosevelt Way, Buena Vista Avenue East, and Duboce Avenue marks its southern edge. Within this territory, the heart of the Haight comprises a few blocks delineated by Stanyan (on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park), Fulton, Fillmore, and Frederick Streets.

Supernatural Landmarks

• Buena Vista Park: Located atop one of the dunes, this lovely park offers spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount Tamalpais. A stream rises up from a spring in the park, supporting a variety of native flora. A dryad lives in this park in her guise as a coastal oak tree. From this place, she keeps watch on the surrounding area.
• Spreckles Mansion: Built in the late 19th century for a nephew of sugar magnate Alfred Spreckles, this Baroque-style mansion near Buena Vista Park was once a bed-and-breakfast and the temporary residence of both Jack London and Ambrose Bierce. In the World of Darkness, this house functions as a gathering place for many of the city's supernatural residents.
• Haight Street: This east-west thoroughfare runs the length of Haight-Ashbury. During the 1960s, it was home to The Drugstore Cafe, the Psychedelic Shop, The Print Mint, the I-Thou Coffeehouse, and a host of other stores owned by and catering to the hippie counterculture. Though these places are gone, other enterprises have taken their place. New Age shops, occult bookstores, secondhand clothing stores, and coffeehouses rub elbows with trendy shops and restaurants.

• The Wasteland: Once a theater, this shop now sells vintage clothing. Many changelings frequent the shop, drawn by the artistic displays of bygone fashions and the residual ambiance of the building itself.
• Holos Gallery: This gallery specializes in holograms and holographic products and is a favorite "hangout" for Kithain who patronize high-tech art, including members of House Dougal and a few ambitious nockers.
• Red Vic Movie House: A move house dedicated to art films. The Zoetrope Society uses this building as its unofficial headquarters.
• Nightbreak: This contemporary rock and New Wave club hosts both local and out-of-town bands. Depending on the talent and creativity of the nightly bill, there is often a good chance for a music-oriented Kithain to absorb Glamour along with the vibes. Seelie and Unseelie rock bands find this place a handy venue for their performances.
• Pipe Dreams: At the height of the hippie movement, this store was THE place for water pipes and other accoutrements related to smoking in all its forms. While it still offers an assortment of unusual pipes, in the current "smoke-free" culture it has broadened its merchandising base to include New Age paraphernalia, Egyptian jewelry, and T-shirts. Some grumps who remember "how it used to be" find the atmosphere suitably nostalgic.
• Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic: Originally founded to minister to the needs of the hippie community, the clinic now counts AIDS victims among its clientele. Some boggans, following their innate compulsion to help the needy, work here on a volunteer basis, while a wilder noble of House Liam serves on the clinic's medical staff.

The District at Large (Supernatural)

Haight-Ashbury includes a plethora of unusual and interesting shops, which can be adapted by a Storyteller for inclusion in their chronicles. Stores specializing in body-piercing (frequented by redcaps and numerous Unseelie wilders), numerous goth clubs and bars, shops devoted to a variety of international cultures and fashions (gathering places for the city's eshu and other eclectic Kithain), specialty bookstores of every type, comics and games shops, art and "pseudo-art" galleries, stores offering recycled clothing, cookware, and records... all of these and more can be found in Haight-Ashbury.

• The Toybox Coffee Shop
• Kurtzweiler's Toyshop
• Trickster's

Hunter's Point

Hunter’s Point was a navy shipyard during World War II. Temporary housing for the shipyard’s 35,000 workers now serves as a public housing facility. Far from the rest of the city, out of sight and out of mind, Hunter’s Point is a fearful place haunted by gangs, drugs, and guns.

Japantown

Bordered by California and Geary, Van Ness and Fillmore, this area is the traditional center of San Francisco’s Japanese community. Originally settled by Japanese sugar workers, it was emptied out during World War II when innocent Japanese were rounded up and incarcerated in concentration camps. Returning after the war, the Japanese found their old neighborhood populated mostly by blacks. The small area now reclaimed is basically a shopping center marked by a 100-foot tall pagoda and called the Japanese Cultural and Trade-Center. Along with shops and restaurants, the development includes the Kabuki movie theatre complex and the Kabuki Hot Springs baths.

Lake Merced

This small lake serves as a standby reservoir for the city. It is isolated, surrounded by homes and stands of trees. The main campus of San Francisco University overlooks the lake from the east.

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park is a remote area on the far northwestern corner of the peninsula atop the headlands overlooking the Golden Gate. Trails run along the face of the cliffs as well as along the top. Accidents are not uncommon in this undeveloped area. A special Cliff Rescue unit is maintained by the city to save those who suffer falls or become otherwise stranded over the cold, churning waters around the mouth of the bay. From the tip known as Land’s End, one can look down on wrecked ships left partially exposed by retreating tides. Foghorns, no longer necessary in an era of radio navigation but still operated out of nostalgia, ring up and down the gate during heavy weather.

The rocky China Beach lies at the foot of the cliffs. Although often sunny and pleasant, cold waters and deadly currents make swimming dangerous and unattractive.

The Marina

This is a quite fashionable neighborhood of Mediterranean revival houses overlooking the bay and the marinas of the prestigious St. Francis and Golden Gate Yacht Clubs. Still expensive and exclusive, real estate values have fallen sharply since the quake of 1989 when this neighborhood suffered some of the worst devastation in the city. Originally the site of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition, the neighborhood is built upon landfill, mainly rubbles from the quake if 1906. The uncompacted soil quickly liquifies during tremors, causing buildings to sink on their foundations. A gas main fire touched off by such settling during the 1989 quake burned down an entire block of homes

The Mission District

The Mission is a sprawling flatland neighborhood of residences, shops, and stores. If it has anything resembling a center, it would be the intersection of Mission and 24th street, or along Dolores Boulevard to the west. Hemmed in by hills and mountains, it is the warmest part of the city and the site of official temperature readings taken by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Formerly the home of San Francisco’s sizable Irish population, it is now mostly Latino with a wide variety of other ethnic groups including Spanish-speaking Chinese immigrants from Peru. Many of the wooden row buildings along the main streets are brightly painted with Mexican-styled murals and other art works.

Various gangs, mostly Latino, roam this solidly blue-collar area, warring over turf, drugs, and women. A large number of clubs, restaurants, and bars attract nighttime visitors, but neighborhoods off the main drag can be risky late at night. Regardless, day or night it is one of the city’s liveliest neighborhoods.

The area is named after Mission Dolores, first established on the peninsula in 1776. The ancient mission still stands, the oldest building in San Francisco, and still an operating Catholic church. A small cemetery, one of the few in the city, stands out back, but nothing marks the graves of the more than 5000 Native Americans believed buried in the immediate area. Originally located on a flat plain near a pond from which Mission Creek ran to the bay, the old adobe building now stands oddly sandwiched between low-rent frame row house.

The Mountains

A chain of three mountains beginning just south of the eastern end of Golden Gate Park and extending nearly to the city limits dominates the city’s central skyline. They form a natural barrier to traffic as well as the fog that pours in off the Pacific. All three peaks are thickly populated, save the highest summits, and suburban in nature. As always, property values increase with altitude and homes near the peaks fetch prices nearing a million dollars, despite 30-foot lots, postage stamp backyards, and uninspiring stucco, row architecture. Winding roads cross these mountains, affording fantastic views of the city. Lesser peaks, like Diamond Heights and Mount Olympus, lay at the eastern foot of the mountains and are similarly populated.

The western flanks of the mountains are cool and foggy much of the year, particularly in summer. The eastern flanks are sun-warmed, the heat rising from them holding back the creeping fog which mounts in a wall sometimes a thousand feet high above the peaks.

Beginning in the south, Mount Davidson, at 925 feet, is the tallest of the three, though only by a few feet. It is topped by a great, concrete cross. Twin Peaks, at 910 and 904 feet, is a double peak bristling with a half-dozen 150-foot microwave towers. Mount Sutro, 909 feet, is capped by a 900-foot red and white steel broadcast tower that seems to dominate the entire City. High-rise apartments on the northern slopes of Sutro afford beautiful views of the Golden Gate Park and beyond. Ocean Beach & Sutro Heights

Running the length of the western edge of the city, Ocean Beach is a broad expanse of gray sand separating the pounding Pacific surf from the sea wall and the Great Highway beyond. Often chilly and windswept, the cold water and treacherous currents make it unsuitable for swimming. Sunbathing is possible on warmer days and a few hardy surfers dressed in wetsuits are usually seen out among the waves. The broad concrete steps at the base of the long seawall are usually buried in drifting sand that has to be periodically bulldozed back toward the water to prevent it from eventually topping the wall and invading the city. Otherwise, the beach is a nice place for a leisurely stroll, along either the water’s edge or the broad promenade above the seawall two hundred yards from the shoreline. It is a place to run the dog, build a sand-castle, or fly a kite.

At the northern end of the beach, around Fulton, the land rises in a series of rocky cliffs known as Sutro Heights. The popular Cliffhouse restaurant stands atop these cliffs, overlooking Seal Rock and its raucous sea lions. West of the Great Highway the cliffs rise higher still, to a plateau overlooking the ocean. Once the site of millionaire Adolf Sutro’s mansion and grounds, it is now open park land with little save a few specimens of exotic palm trees to remember the great home that once stood there.

Pacific Heights

After building their Nob Hill extravagances, then the mansions that lined Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco’s moneyed set turned to the rounded uplands called Pacific Heights. Today inhabited mostly by upwardly-mobile young professionals, it is a quiet part of town, high enough to provide views of the bay to the north and downtown to the east. A few foreign embassies, including the Russian one, maintain residences in this secluded neighborhood. A number of historic Victorian mansions surround the hilly, tree-covered Lafayette Square, including the Haas-Lilienthal house and the Spreckels mansion… the later built with the profits from the Hawaiian sugar industry. Alta Plaza Park, a dozen blocks west, is another high patch of land surrounded by sumptuous residences and affording views over the Marina and the bay. Potrero Hill

Located south of downtown, and now separated from the neighboring Mission District by a coursing expressway, the Potrero community has long enjoyed a sense of privacy and isolation from the city. Long a blue-collar retreat, rising real estate values have resulted in homes on the hill commanding high prices. A growing population of upscale yuppies inhabit the heights while the area surrounding the hill is composed of depressed neighborhoods of varying ethnic character.

San Francisco General Hospital is located on the western face of the hill.

The Presidio

The Presidio has been occupied by the military ever since the late 18th century, when the Spanish decided to establish northern outposts in an attempt to enforce their claim to the California coast. Long ago taken over by the U.S. Army, it has seen little development and its 1400 acres, reclaimed from the sand dunes years ago, are green and leafy, covered by eucalyptus trees. Soon to be abandoned by the Army, it will be handed over to the city and turned into a park. In the meantime, it is headquarters for the Sixth Army and houses over 6000 soldiers and a National Military Cemetery covering twenty-nine acres. The nearby hospital treated many of the worst wounded of the Vietnam War, some of whom are still confined to the facility.

The main entrance to the Presidio is at Lombard Street. Here, a gate flanked by statuesque figures of Liberty and Victory leads to a quadrangle of buildings beyond. For the most part, the Presidio is open to the public.

The western edge of the Presidio is a series of cliffs overlooking breezy Baker Beach below. On the beach stands the huge replica of the 95,000-pound cannon originally installed in the site in 1905 by the Army to defend the bay. At the top of the cliffs, near the Bridge, stands a brick fortress built in 1850 to guard the bay. Known as Fort Point, it is dwarfed by the massive pier of the Golden Gate Bridge behind it. On the northern edge of the Presidio is a flat green meadow, Crissy Field, where Fourth of July fireworks and other outdoor festivals are staged. On its eastern edge stands the Palace of Fine Arts, a leftover from the World’s Fair of 1915. Nest door to it is the Exploratorium, a huge hands-on technological museum and art gallery inside a vast warehouse-like structure.

Richmond

The Richmond District is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California, developed initially in the late 19th century. It is sometimes confused with the city of Richmond, which is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of San Francisco.

The Richmond is in many ways defined by its relation to the parks; bordered by Golden Gate Park on the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Lincoln Park, Land's End, Mountain Lake Park and the Presidio of San Francisco to the north, bisected by the Presidio Greenbelt.

The Richmond has many influences from the Chinese-American culture. One of its three commercial strips, Clement Street in the inner Richmond segment is sometimes called the second Chinatown due to the high concentration of Chinese establishments.

The other two commercial strips are Geary Boulevard and Balboa Street.

The Richmond also has deep Irish and Russian roots and has many Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Sub-districts

• Inner Richmond

Sunset

Location

The Sunset District is the largest neighborhood within the city and county of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park forms the neighborhood's northern border, and the Pacific Ocean (or, more specifically, the long, flat strand of beach known as Ocean Beach) forms its western border. A section of the Sunset District towards its southeastern end is known as the Parkside neighborhood. Prior to the residential and commercial development of the Sunset District, much of the area was covered by sand dunes and was originally referred to by 19th century San Franciscans as the "Outside Lands."

The Sunset District and the neighboring Richmond District (on the north side of Golden Gate Park) are often collectively known as The Avenues, because the majority of both neighborhoods are spanned by numbered north-south avenues. When the city was originally laid out, the avenues were numbered from 1st to 49th, and the east-west streets were lettered A to X. In 1909, to reduce confusion for mail carriers, the east-west streets and 1st Avenue and 49th Avenue were renamed. The east-west streets were named in ascending alphabetical order in a southward direction after prominent 19th-century American politicians, military leaders, or explorers; 19th-century Mexican landowners; and Spanish conquistadors. 1st Avenue was renamed Arguello Boulevard, and 49th Avenue was renamed La Playa Street (Spanish for "the beach").

Today, the first numbered avenue is 2nd Avenue, starting one block west of Arguello Boulevard, and the last is 48th Avenue near Ocean Beach. The avenue numbers increase incrementally, with one exception: what would be 13th Avenue is known as Funston Avenue, named after Frederick Funston, a U.S. Army general known for his exploits during the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War, and for directing the U.S. Army response to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The east-west streets in the Sunset appear mostly in alphabetical order. These streets are: Lincoln Way (bordering the south side of Golden Gate Park), Hugo (from Arguello to 7th Avenue only), Irving, Judah, Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, Noriega, Ortega, Pacheco, Quintara, Rivera, Santiago, Taraval, Ulloa, Vicente, Wawona, Yorba, and Sloat Boulevard. "X" was originally proposed to be Xavier, but was changed to Yorba due to a pronunciation controversy.

History

The origin of the "Sunset" name is not entirely clear. One claim indicates that Aurelius Buckingham, a developer who owned property in the area, coined the term in 1886. Another claim comes from the California Midwinter Exposition, held in Golden Gate Park in 1894 and also known as "The Sunset City."

Before construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1917, the Sunset was a vast, sparsely inhabited area of large sand dunes and coastal scrub land known as the "Outside Lands." Development was initiated in the 1870s and 1880s with construction of Golden Gate Park, but it did not reach a full scale until after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, when small lots of tract homes and row homes now characteristic of the neighborhood were built into the sand dunes. These tract homes would displace a smaller original settlement built into the dunes called Carville, which was so named for squatters that lived in abandoned horse cars (horse-drawn trolleys) and cable cars that were dumped in the sand dunes. Development increased by the 1930s, as the Sunset was built and developed into a streetcar suburb. The post–World War II baby boom in the 1950s saw the last of the sand dunes leveled down and replaced with more single- and multifamily homes. In these developments, built mostly by Henry Doelger, entire blocks consist mainly of houses of the same general character, differentiated by variations in their stucco facades and mirrored floor plans, with most built upon 25-foot-wide (7.6 m) lots with no free space between houses. Later, Oliver Rousseau built more individualistic homes in the district.

Historically, the Sunset has been an Irish and Italian ethnic enclave. Beginning in the late 1960s the neighborhood saw a steady influx of Asian (mostly Chinese) immigrants following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which lifted racial quotas allowing for more non-European nationals to immigrate to the United States. Additionally, the Handover of Hong Kong motivated many Chinese to immigrate to the U.S. due to the political and economic uncertainties. In 1999, around 60% of the homeowners in the Sunset and Richmond districts were Chinese.

Sub-Districts

Inner Sunset

The Inner Sunset is bordered by Lincoln Way to the north, 2nd Ave to the east, Quintara Street to the south, and 19th Avenue to the west. This far-east section of the Sunset is located just west of Mount Sutro. The main commercial area is along Irving Street from 5th Avenue to 12th Avenue, and along 9th Avenue from Lincoln Way to Judah Street, much of which is dotted with a variety of restaurants and shops.

The Inner Sunset hosts a variety of local businesses, including restaurants, bars, breweries, book stores, bakeries, coffee shops, ice cream parlors, clothes and shoe stores, a tattoo parlor, and a wine bar. Many of these establishments are clustered around the intersection of 9th Avenue and Irving Street. Food offered by the restaurants located in the Inner Sunset includes pizza, Mexican, Thai, Persian, Korean, Malaysian, Hawaiian, Greek, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Cajun/Creole, Dim Sum, Turkish, Peruvian, Chinese, Vietnamese, California Cuisine, Mediterranean, Indian, Japanese, Vegetarian.

The Inner Sunset is the 12th wealthiest neighborhood in San Francisco with a median income of $112,050. [10] The median sale price of homes in the Sunset District is $1.5M.

Central Sunset

The Central Sunset is bounded by Lincoln Way to the north, 19th Avenue to the east, Quintara Street to the south, and Sunset Boulevard to the west. This area is mostly residential with cookie-cutter homes and large lots and a commercial strip along Irving Street from 19th Avenue to 24th Avenue and on Noriega Street from 19th Avenue to 27th Avenue and 30th Avenue to 33rd Avenue. Features of the area include the Sunset Reservoir (which takes up eight square blocks between Ortega and Quintara streets and 24th and 28th avenues), which has a small park surrounding its outer rim; Golden Gate Park; the Sunset Recreation Center; and Abraham Lincoln High School.

• Abraham Lincoln High School

Outer Sunset

The Outer Sunset is bordered by Lincoln Way to the north, Sunset Boulevard (between 36th and 37th avenues) to the east, Sloat Boulevard to the south, and Ocean Beach to the west. The primary commercial avenues are Judah, Noriega, and Taraval. The Outer Sunset is the foggiest section in San Francisco due to its close proximity to Ocean Beach. The area's main attractions include the San Francisco Zoo, Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach, and Lake Merced.

Attractions

The western part of the Sunset borders the cold northern California Pacific Ocean coastline, so it tends to get much of the fog San Francisco is famous for. The Sunset can be foggy and chilly for some days during summer. The Sunset's finest weather is usually from August through December, when regional air patterns transition from onshore to offshore weather and the area is free of fog. Sand carried by Pacific Ocean winds can be found on roadways and driveways within the first five to ten blocks east of Ocean Beach.

The Sunset District contains several large park and recreation areas. The San Francisco Zoo is located in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood by Lake Merced, the largest lake within San Francisco. Also within the Lake Merced area are several golf courses: the private Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club, and the public TPC Harding Park. Across from Lake Merced is Fort Funston, an old coastal battery, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Fort Funston notably has some of the last remnants of the sand dune ecosystem that once covered the entire Sunset District.

There is a year-round, Sunday morning farmers' market which is located at 1315 8th Avenue (the parking lot between 8th and 9th Avenues). The market is operated by the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association and is sponsored by the Inner Sunset Park Neighbors. The Inner Sunset Farmers' Market offers California-grown produce, fish, eggs, and meat, as well as local food vendors and artisans.

Stern Grove, a heavily wooded park and amphitheater located on Sloat Boulevard between 19th and 34th avenues, is known for its annual summer festival.

Three parks lie on the far east border of the district: the northernmost is Grand View Park (also referred to as Turtle Hill) a small, elevated park surrounded by 14th and 15th Avenues, as well as Noriega Street; moving south, next is Golden Gate Heights Park, just east of 14th Avenue north of Quintara; and Hawk Hill Park, also east of 14th Avenue at Santiago. These natural areas belong to a remnant ridge-top system and include some of the last-remaining sand-dune communities in the city.

Education

The San Francisco Unified School District operates public K–12 schools.

Educational institutions include the Parnassus campus and medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, located in Inner Sunset; the main campus of San Francisco State University, located in the southwestern corner of the neighborhood across from Lake Merced; Abraham Lincoln High School, located in the center of the Sunset District; St. Ignatius College Preparatory (a private, coeducational school operating in San Francisco since 1855) located since 1969 adjacent to Sunset Boulevard; and Lowell High School, the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi and one of the top performing ones in the United States.

Beach Culture

The strip near the Pacific Ocean has a notable population of surfers who take advantage of the sometimes excellent surf conditions of Ocean Beach. Because of the cold Pacific current that brings ocean water from Alaska, it is usually necessary to wear a wet-suit when surfing at Ocean Beach. Several surf shops can be found near the beach in the Outer Sunset.

Several playgrounds are located in the Sunset, including Sunset Playground and Recreation Center, Blue Boat Playground, West Sunset, McCoppin Square, and South Sunset.

Climate

Like much of the coast of Northern California, Sunset district has a cool summer Mediterranean climate, albeit with an unusual annual temperature distribution. The warmest days of the year occur in October and then the coldest nights of the year occur just two months later in December. Its climate is strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean and therefore has even cooler summers and milder winters than downtown San Francisco. Rainfall follows a seasonal pattern with plentiful precipitation in the winter (almost all of this falling as rain) and extremely dry albeit foggy summers.

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The Western Addition

Lying west of Van Ness Avenue, bordered by the main thoroughfare of Geary on the north and roughly Fell on the south, the Western Addition extends as far west as the edge of Golden gate Park and includes the small University of San Francisco. The area derives its name from being one of the first residential areas developed outside the central city. Technically, it encompasses many other neighborhoods such as Fillmore, the Lower Haight, and Japantown. Once solidly lower-middle class, it has become a somewhat seedy neighborhood sharing a border with the Tenderloin. Some of the best neighborhoods are found around Alamo Square, a high plateau of green park land. A famous view of San Francisco showing a row of Victorian houses in the foreground and the spires of downtown in the background is taken from Alamo Square.

Mostly untouched in the 1906 fire, the Western Addition offers some of the finest examples of San Francisco Victorian row houses, known popularly as “painted ladies.” Professional colorists earn their living creating and executing color schemes that highlight the redwood gingerbread decorating these houses. Once built for the middle class, these old Victorians, mostly Italianates and a local hybrid called Stick-Eastlake, are now in high demand, fetching prices of three-quarters of a million dollars and more.

A point of interest is the old Fillmore Auditorium on the corner of Fillmore and Geary. It was the site of much of the late 1960s music scene when under the hand of master promoter Bill Graham. Another interesting location is a vacant lot on Geary between Scott and Steiner streets. This was the former site of Jim Jones’ People’s Temple before the move to Guyana and the resulting Jamestown Massacre. The building mysteriously burned to the ground in 1990.

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