West Mission District, From Early Days to Post Earthquake
Details
This tour combines the Earthquake Fireline Tour I have done several times in the past with the newly provided information from the SF Planning Dept. Plus we will take an interior tour of the Noe's Nest, Bed & Breakfast in the 1200 block of Guerrero St. I hope this tour will bring the past alive and give you the feeling you were there 150years ago when the neighborhood was alive with the excitement of being one of the first San Francisco "Street Car" suburbs.
The following series of thirteen heritage, history and architecture tours of the Mission District have been completed. The SF Planning Dept. has designated these (1-13, plus the Liberty-Hill Historic District, grandfathered in.) as Historic Districts within the Mission.
The 13 originally planned tours have now been combined into four Mission District Tours:
- now Tour #2. Shotwell St., Victoriana
- now Tour #1. South Mission-Avenues & Alleys
- now Tour #3. Mission-Florida-to-Hampshire Sts.
- now Tour #4. Horner's Addition East
- now Tour #3. Knopf Block
- now Tour #3. Schroeder-Welsh Block
- now Tour #4. 23 St. Shops & Row Houses
- now Tour #3. Alabama St., Pioneers
- now Tour #3. Hampshire St., False Fronts
- now Tour #4. Juri Street,west of San Jose bet.25th & 26th
- now Tour #3. Queen Anne Cottages
- now Tour #3.-Fowler Homes
- now Tour #4. Orange Alley Stables & Lofts
- and Liberty-Hill Historic District
Today enjoy, (numbers from above), #4, #7, #10, #13 and part of the Liberty Hill Historic District, for a Victorian heritage, architectural walking tour, of this part of the Mission District.
This center residential/commercial corridor part of the tour in the heart of the Mission District is an architecturally consistent grouping of Italianate style and Stick style flats above shops and dwellings. The area is representative of the late 19th century character of the most urban, densely populated part of the Mission District, the blocks located between the commercial and transit corridors of Mission and Valencia Sts.
This is an extremely interesting with some surprises other then Victorian homes, that will be fun to explore and discover the ins and outs, nooks and crannies and architectural pathways.
To make a comparison between the East Coast's early history and San Francisco's: Having grown up on the East Coast in Philadelphia, I've lived, worked in and visited some of the well known, large and small, famous historic districts: most well known, Beacon Hill in Boston, Greenwich Village in NYC, Georgetown in D.C., Society Hill in Philadelphia (I lived there for twelve years.). Unfortunately San Francisco lost its most historic downtown areas in the 1906 Earthquake & Fire. But a large portion of the other side of town survived. Thus the Mission, SF's oldest neighborhood becomes San Francisco's most historic neighborhood.
What do the Victorian houses look like out there? In every neighborhood in SF the Victorians differ. In each instance a unique group of people came together to build a single house or a cluster. Something like a group coming together to make a Hollywood movie. People relying on each others strengths, experience, knowledge and talent to get something creative, but structured done. What is created is unique. A piece of their past in our present.
The SF Planning Dept., has done extensive studies of the history, buildings and architecture of several City neighborhoods.
An excellent Historic Context statement exists for the Mission District which will add greatly to knowledge of this area.