Balmy Alley - Murals of the Americas

Balmy Alley - Murals of the Americas

Photo: DestinationFearFan, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

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

Walk south on Mission Street and east on 24th Street, the heart of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, to Balmy Alley, between 24th and 25th Streets. Murals began appearing here in the early 1970s, but the alley's big moment came in 1984, when a group of artists called PLACA covered its fences and garage doors with murals responding to the wars in Central America and honoring the people of the region, many of whom had fled to the Mission.

Some of those 1984 murals survive alongside many newer ones on themes from Latino culture and immigration to neighborhood change. The Mission's mural tradition also owes much to Precita Eyes, a community mural group founded nearby in 1977.

Balmy Alley is the end of this mini tour. The 24th Street Mission BART station is a few blocks away.

More on Wikipedia: Balmy Alley · Precita Eyes

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