The Women's Building - MaestraPeace

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

Walk down 18th Street toward Valencia to a building you cannot miss: the Women's Building, wrapped on two sides in the huge mural MaestraPeace. Seven women artists painted it in 1994, covering the walls with images of women from many cultures and eras, healers, goddesses, scholars and activists, along with plants and symbols drawn from around the world.

The building began in 1910 as a meeting hall for German and later Norwegian community groups. Women's organizations bought it in 1979, making it the first women-owned and operated community center in the United States, and it still offers services and meeting space to the neighborhood.

Stand across 18th Street to take in the main facade, then walk around the corner onto Lapidge Street to see the side.

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