Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood

Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood

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

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

After 1906 destroyed their old neighborhoods downtown and south of Market, Japanese immigrants rebuilt here in the Western Addition, a district of Victorian houses the fire had spared. By 1940 more than 5,000 people of Japanese ancestry lived in these blocks, with churches, temples, schools and over 200 businesses. In the spring of 1942 the Army ordered every one of them removed and sent to camps.

Their empty homes filled with newcomers, many of them African Americans who came from the South for wartime shipyard jobs. Fillmore Street became the Harlem of the West, with jazz clubs where Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane played. From the 1950s to the 1970s, city redevelopment bulldozed dozens of blocks on both sides of Geary, displacing thousands of residents and businesses.

Buses run here along Geary Boulevard and Fillmore Street. The mini tour takes about an hour; use the details arrow.

Getting here: From the Presidio, take a bus or rideshare southeast about 4 kilometers to Post and Buchanan Streets; check Muni for current routes.

Did you know?: The five-tiered Peace Pagoda in Peace Plaza was designed by Japanese architect Yoshiro Taniguchi and given to San Francisco by the people of Osaka when Japan Center opened in 1968.

Photo op: From the Post Street side of Peace Plaza, frame the Peace Pagoda against the sky with the Japan Center buildings on either side.

More on Wikipedia: Japantown, San Francisco · Fillmore District, San Francisco · Internment of Japanese Americans

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