Waverly Place - The Street of Temples

Waverly Place - The Street of Temples

Photo: Justin Ennis from Ridgecrest, US, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

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

Waverly Place, the short lane between Sacramento and Washington Streets, is known in Chinese as the street of the Tin How Temple. Look up rather than in: the painted balconies on the upper floors belong to temples and to family and district associations, the groups that helped immigrants find work, settle disputes and send their remains home to China.

At 125 Waverly, the Tin How Temple is dedicated to Mazu, the sea goddess sailors prayed to on the long Pacific crossing. It was founded in the early 1850s and is considered the oldest Taoist temple in Chinatown. The 1906 fire destroyed the building, but the goddess's image, the temple bell and part of the altar were saved, and the temple reopened in 1910 on the top floor of a new building on the same spot.

These are working places of worship. If a temple welcomes visitors, be quiet and respectful, and ask before taking photos.

More on Wikipedia: Tin How Temple · Mazu

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