Eureka Valley, San Francisco, California
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Please help improve this article by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (January 2010) |
| Eureka Valley | |
|---|---|
| — Neighborhood of San Francisco — | |
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| Nickname(s): The Castro | |
| Government | |
| - Board of Supervisors | Bevan Dufty |
| - State Assembly | Tom Ammiano (D) |
| - State Senate | Mark Leno (D) |
| - U.S. House | Nancy Pelosi (D) |
| Area [1] | |
| - Total | 1.7 km2 (0.662 sq mi) |
| - Land | 1.7 km2 (0.662 sq mi) |
| Population (2008) | |
| - Total | 12,503 |
| - Density | 7,293.5/km2 (18,890/sq mi) |
| [2] | |
| ZIP Code | 94110, 94114 |
| Area code(s) | 415 |
Eureka Valley is a neighborhood in San Francisco. It is known and referred to by its more famous sub-neighborhood, The Castro District.
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[edit] Location
Eureka Valley is bounded by Market Street, Dolores Street, Sixteenth Street, and Noe Street.
[edit] History
In 1845 José de Jesús Noé was granted Rancho San Miguel, four thousand acres stretching from Twin Peaks into Noe and Eureka valleys. In 1854 John M. Horner purchased the ranch and laid out Horner's Addition in a grid bounded by Castro Street on the west, Valencia Street on the east, 18th Street on the north and 30th Street on the south. Eureka Valley was part of the Mission Dolores subdivision but was not developed until the 1890s and the early 1900s.
The opening of the Market & Castro Street Cable Car line in 1886 opened Eureka Valley to development -- primarily small wood-frame cottages and two-story flats. The only industry in the area was a mattress factory on the block bounded by Market, Dolores, and Fifteenth streets.[3]
Most residents were working and lower-middle-class tradesmen, small business owners, civil servants, builders, and artisans, with Irish, German, British, and Scandinavian immigrants, as well as some old-stock Americans living in the neighborhood.[3]
Eureka Valley escaped destruction in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire, mostly because the fires were stopped at Dolores Street.[3] After the 1906 earthquake, thousands of earthquake refugees began purchasing lots and erecting cottages and flats in the area. The momentum continued after the completion of Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 and the Municipal Railway’s J Church streetcar line in 1917.[3]
The Eureka Valley Improvement Association, founded on September 3, 1905,[4] successfully lobbied the city's Board of Supervisors for many early improvements in the neighborhood, such as improved streetcar service, better lighting, and public school construction.[3] The association was instrumental in preventing the spread of the fires after the 1906 earthquake.[4] The association has renamed itself as The Eureka Valley Promotion Association.
The Eureka Valley branch of the San Francisco Public Library opened in 1902 at the corner of Noe and Seventeenth streets.[5]. The original building, damaged in the 1957 Daly City earthquake, was replaced by the current structure in 1962, and refurbished in 2009.[6]
The commercial area of Eureka Valley, centered around the intersection of 18th Street and Castro Street, was transformed in the 1970s with the development of the gay community known as "The Castro."
[edit] References
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ a b c d e Market & Octavia Area Plan Historic Resource Survey: San Francisco, California, San Francisco Planning Department, December 20, 2007, http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/planning/projects_reports/MO_Context_Final_202007.pdf
- ^ a b C. F. Adams (August 20, 1910), Many Improvements for Eureka Valley, The San Francisco Call, p. 11, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1910-08-20/ed-1/seq-11/
- ^ Eureka Valley has it's Library, The San Francisco Call, April 30, 1902, p. 7, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1902-04-30/ed-1/seq-7/
- ^ Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Branch Library History, http://www.sfpl.org/librarylocations/branches/eurekavalleyhistory.htm
[edit] External links
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