CASTRO AND UPPER MARKET
WALKING TOUR
November 12, 2005
Scroll down to see tour description and links
  1. Harvey Milk Plaza/Muni Metro Station/Rainbow Flag:s This is the Castro’s transit hub. The entire intersection of Castro, Market and 17th Streets is designated Harvey Milk Plaza, named for Harvey Milk, the San Francisco supervisor who was the first openly gay person to be elected to office in the US. The Rainbow Flag is a symbol of the GLBT community designed by local artist Gilbert Baker. The flagpole was erected in 1998.
  2. Pink Triangle Park Once a leftover piece of public right-of-way, members of Eureka Valley Promotion Association transformed this triangle of land into a memorial to GLBT victims of Nazi persecution in 2001.
  3. F-Line Terminal This is the last stop on the Market Street surface streetcar line rebuilt in 1995 using historic PCC streetcars showing the historic colors of streetcar lines around the US. City CarShare Pod One of three CarShare “pods” in the Castro, and one of dozens around the Bay Area, the non-profit’s 4000 members can rent these cars by the hour, reducing the need for car-ownership.
  4. Magnet SF Magnet is a storefront health center serving the sexual health needs for Gay men.
  5. 18th and Castro - The center of the Castro Neighborhood Business District. Recently, the Castro and Upper Market neighborhood established a Community Benefits District which will implement improvements and provide service, with fees collected from commercial tenants and landlords. New standardized newspaper rack will be installed here soon, eliminating the clutter of individually owned racks.
  6. Harvey Milk Camera Store - 573 Castro Street: An official San Francisco Landmark, this was the home and camera store owned by Harvey Milk. Under One Roof - 549 Castro Street: This store donates all of its proceeds to AIDS/HIV charities.
  7. Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Branch Library The LGBT Historic Society is proposing to construct a new LGBT History Center and Archives. The Library will undergo a seismic upgrade next year.
  8. Noe Street Streets in Duboce Triangle were transformed into tree-lined oases, with small curb plazas, and head-in parking that calms traffic.
  9. Dulux Paint Co. Neighborhood opposition to the plan for a Trader Joe’s store with two levels of parking ended the proposal. Local high quality food merchants are being sought to lease the existing building
  10. Future Housing Site This site will be redeveloped with 26 market-rate condos with three affordable units, as required by the city’s inclusionary housing law.
  11. Church and Market Street /Safeway One of the transit hubs that are the center of the Better Neighborhoods Plan for Market and Octavia. The plan seeks to encourage transit and pedestrian oriented mixed uses like housing, retail and community service with open space. The Safeway site is seen as an opportunity to do so on a large scale.
  12. 1 Church Street Affordable Housing The 97 units built by Bridge Housing Corp. provide affordable housing for families and people with disabilities. Its construction was controversial due to the demolition of a building designed by a prominent modernist architect.
  13. Duboce Bikeway This part of Duboce Avenue was closed to cars to become an important link in the city’s bike network. The mural celebrates the city’s biking community. Market Street Railway Yard Volunteers with the Market St. Railway restore historic streetcars here.
  14. The “Orbit Room Building - The tallest building in the area, this vintage apartment building adds life to the sidewalk with small scale shops at street level.
  15. Laguna Hill / Ex-UC Berkeley Extension Campus Once a campus for the Berkeley Extension program, the campus contains many historic buildings. The University wants to lease the site to developers to build several hundred new units of housing, preserving most of the historic buildings. Neighborhood activists want to ensure that the site retains much of its public functions.
  16. LGBT Community Center/Fallon Building Opened in 2002, the Center fulfills a decades old vision for a center for the LGBT Community. The center includes a large meeting space, a ceremonial room, a child care center, a senior center, classrooms and offices for LGBT community groups. The center includes the new structure and the historic Fallon Building. It stands as a gateway to both the Castro and the new Octavia Boulevard.
Castro Area Planning + Action • 584 Castro Street PMB 169 • San Francisco, CA 94114-2588 • (415) 621-0120 • info@capasf.org
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