The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement

The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement

Photo: Roman SUZUKI, CC BY 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

When a streetcar line reached Eureka Valley in 1887, working-class families, many of them Scandinavian and Irish, built rows of Victorian houses here. After World War II many of their children moved to the suburbs, and in the late 1960s and 1970s gay men and lesbians, drawn by cheap houses and the freedom of the city, made the Castro one of the first openly gay neighborhoods in the country.

The neighborhood became a political force. In 1977 Harvey Milk, who ran a camera shop on Castro Street, won a seat on the Board of Supervisors, one of the first openly gay people elected to office in the United States. On November 27, 1978, he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated at City Hall by a former supervisor. In the 1980s the AIDS epidemic devastated the Castro, and the community's response helped shape care and activism worldwide.

Muni Metro's Castro Station is right under this plaza. The mini tour takes about an hour.

Getting here: From Golden Gate Park, take a bus or rideshare southeast about 4 kilometers to Castro and Market Streets, or ride Muni Metro to Castro Station.

Did you know?: The giant rainbow flag above Harvey Milk Plaza has flown since November 8, 1997, the 20th anniversary of Milk's election, and the city made it an official landmark in 2024.

Photo op: Stand at the rainbow crosswalk at Castro and 18th Streets and look north to frame the Castro Theatre's tall sign with the giant flag beyond it.

More on Wikipedia: Castro District, San Francisco · Harvey Milk · George Moscone

Stops on this tour

  1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
  2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
  3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
  4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
  5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
  6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
  7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
  8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
  9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
  10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
  11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
  12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
  13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
  14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom