North Beach, San Francisco, California
Encyclopedia
North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf
and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy
, and has historically been home to a large Italian American
population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though many other ethnic groups currently live in the neighborhood. It was also the historic center of the beatnik
subculture
. Today, North Beach is one of San Francisco's main red light
and nightlife
districts as well as a residential neighborhood populated by a mix of young urban professionals, families and Chinese immigrants connected to the adjacent Chinatown.
The American Planning Association (APA)
has named North Beach as one of ten 'Great Neighborhoods in America'.
, now Jackson Square, the Financial District south of Broadway, Chinatown to the southwest of Columbus below Green Street, Russian Hill to the west, Telegraph Hill
to the east and Fisherman's Wharf
at Bay Street to the north.
Main intersections are Union and Columbus, the southwest corner of Washington Square
, Grant Avenue and Vallejo Street.
The somewhat compact layout of the neighborhood consists apartments, duplex
es, and Victorian
homes dating from the 1920s, when residents rebuilt the neighborhood from its complete destruction after the earthquake and fire of 1906.
Originally, the city's northeast shoreline extended only to what is today Taylor and Francisco streets. The area largely known today as North Beach was an actual beach, filled in with landfill
around the late 19th century. Warehouses, fishing wharves, and docks were then built on the newly formed shoreline. Due to the proximity of the docks, the southern half of the neighborhood south of Broadway was home of the infamous Barbary Coast
.
Following its reconstruction after the 1906 Earthquake
, the proximity of the nearby docks and fishing wharves attracted a large amount of Italian immigrants
that would create the Italian character of the neighborhood that exists to this day. Prominent Italian American
s that came from the neighborhood include Baseball legend Joe Dimaggio
who grew up in the neighborhood and briefly returned to live there with his wife Marilyn Monroe
during the 1950s, as well as former San Francisco mayor and politician Joseph Alioto
as well as others from the prominent Alioto family.
Due to its past legacy as the Barbary Coast, Broadway east of Columbus, grew to be the home of the city's red light district and striptease clubs. The Condor Club
, on the corner of Columbus and Broadway, was opened in 1964 as America's first topless bar which it still is today. The Lusty Lady
, a peep-show establishment, is notable as the world's only worker cooperative
strip club. The Broadway strip was also home to the Mabuhay Gardens
, the Stone and On Broadway nightclubs, which were important venues in the punk rock
scene of the late 1970s to mid-1980s.
During the 1950s, many of the neighborhood's cafes and bars became the home and epicenter of the Beat Generation
and gave rise to the San Francisco Renaissance
. The term "beatnik
" originated from the scene here and was coined in a derogatory fashion by local and famed San Francisco Chronicle
columnist Herb Caen
. Many of that generation's most famous writers and personalities such as Jack Kerouac
, Allen Ginsberg
, Gregory Corso
, Neal Cassady
lived in the neighborhood. Another poet from this generation, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
, founded the City Lights Bookstore
that still exists today on the corner of Broadway and Columbus as an official historic landmark and serves as one of the main focal points of this generation.
Since the 1980s, and much like Manhattan's Little Italy
, due to white flight
, and gentrification
, the neighborhood has seen its native Italian American population rapidly shrink, while neighboring Chinatown has been rapidly expanding north into the neighborhood east of Broadway and along Stockton Street causing a major demographic shift to a mix of mostly Chinese
and young professional
population, although some, albeit very few, Italian Americans remain.
While the native Italian American population has dropped rapidly since the 1980s, the neighborhood still retains an Italian character with many Italian restaurants
, cafes, and bakeries that line Columbus Avenue and Washington Square. The city's as well as the national Shrine of Francis of Assisi
, the city's namesake which also contains a small reproduction of the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
, is located in a small chapel on Vallejo Street.
Known as "The Italian Cathedral of the West," Saints Peter and Paul Church is located on the north side of Filbert Street in front of Washington Square, where Joe DiMaggio married his first wife and came for photos after his marriage to Marilyn Monroe
. Saints Peter and Paul is considered a San Francisco landmark, and emblematic tie to the neighborhood's Italian American past. It still offers a weekly mass in Italian every Sunday at 11:45, and attracts visitors annually from around the world.
An alleyway off of Columbus between Kearny Street and Broadway is named for Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, who once lived there and frequented the famous City Lights Bookstore
on the corner of Columbus and Broadway as well as the numerous nearby bars and coffee shops.
Broadway east of Columbus Avenue still serves as the city's main red-light and nightclub
district as it has many strip clubs, as well as bars, nightclubs, jazz clubs, and the like.
The North Beach street fair
on Grant Avenue on Father's Day
is one of the city's largest. The neighborhood also hosts a large Columbus Day
/Italian American heritage day parade along Columbus Avenue to Aquatic Park
.
The San Francisco Art Institute
is located in the Northern end of North Beach, on Russian Hill, while the Academy of Art University
has several buildings in the area, including one along Columbus Avenue and one across the street from Pier 39
.
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California
Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street...
and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood.-Canada:*Little Italy, Edmonton, in Alberta*Little Italy, Montreal, in Quebec...
, and has historically been home to a large Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though many other ethnic groups currently live in the neighborhood. It was also the historic center of the beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
. Today, North Beach is one of San Francisco's main red light
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
and nightlife
Nightlife
Nightlife is the collective term for any entertainment that is available and more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning...
districts as well as a residential neighborhood populated by a mix of young urban professionals, families and Chinese immigrants connected to the adjacent Chinatown.
The American Planning Association (APA)
American Planning Association
The American Planning Association is a professional organization representing the field of city and regional planning in the United States. The APA was formed in 1978 when two separate professional planning organizations, the American Institute of Planners and the American Society of Planning...
has named North Beach as one of ten 'Great Neighborhoods in America'.
Location
North Beach is bounded by the former Barbary CoastBarbary Coast, San Francisco, California
Barbary Coast was a red-light district in old San Francisco, California. Geographically it constituted nine blocks bounded by Montgomery Street, Washington Street, Stockton Street, and Broadway...
, now Jackson Square, the Financial District south of Broadway, Chinatown to the southwest of Columbus below Green Street, Russian Hill to the west, Telegraph Hill
Telegraph Hill, San Francisco
Telegraph Hill refers to a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is one of San Francisco's 44 hills, and one of its original "Seven Hills."-Location:...
to the east and Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, California
Fisherman's Wharf is a neighborhood and popular tourist attraction in San Francisco, California. It roughly encompasses the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square or Van Ness Avenue east to Pier 35 or Kearny Street...
at Bay Street to the north.
Main intersections are Union and Columbus, the southwest corner of Washington Square
Washington Square, San Francisco
Washington Square is a park in the North Beach district of San Francisco, California. The popular destination, for both locals and tourists, is surrounded by eating establishments and the Sts. Peter and Paul Church...
, Grant Avenue and Vallejo Street.
The somewhat compact layout of the neighborhood consists apartments, duplex
Duplex (building)
The term duplex can be used to describe several different dwelling unit configurations:A duplex house is defined as a dwelling having apartments with separate entrances for two families. This includes two-story houses having a complete apartment on each floor and also side-by-side apartments on a...
es, and Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
homes dating from the 1920s, when residents rebuilt the neighborhood from its complete destruction after the earthquake and fire of 1906.
History
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
around the late 19th century. Warehouses, fishing wharves, and docks were then built on the newly formed shoreline. Due to the proximity of the docks, the southern half of the neighborhood south of Broadway was home of the infamous Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast, San Francisco, California
Barbary Coast was a red-light district in old San Francisco, California. Geographically it constituted nine blocks bounded by Montgomery Street, Washington Street, Stockton Street, and Broadway...
.
Following its reconstruction after the 1906 Earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, the proximity of the nearby docks and fishing wharves attracted a large amount of Italian immigrants
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
that would create the Italian character of the neighborhood that exists to this day. Prominent Italian American
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
s that came from the neighborhood include Baseball legend Joe Dimaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
who grew up in the neighborhood and briefly returned to live there with his wife Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
during the 1950s, as well as former San Francisco mayor and politician Joseph Alioto
Joseph Alioto
Joseph Lawrence Alioto was the 36th mayor of San Francisco, California, from 1968 to 1976.-Biography:...
as well as others from the prominent Alioto family.
Due to its past legacy as the Barbary Coast, Broadway east of Columbus, grew to be the home of the city's red light district and striptease clubs. The Condor Club
Condor Club
The Condor Night Club is a striptease bar or topless bar in the North Beach section of San Francisco, in California, USA. The club opened in 1964....
, on the corner of Columbus and Broadway, was opened in 1964 as America's first topless bar which it still is today. The Lusty Lady
Lusty Lady
The Lusty Lady is the name of a peep show establishment in the North Beach district of San Francisco. It was also the name of another now-defunct location in downtown Seattle...
, a peep-show establishment, is notable as the world's only worker cooperative
Worker cooperative
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically managed by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. A cooperative enterprise may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which...
strip club. The Broadway strip was also home to the Mabuhay Gardens
Mabuhay Gardens
The Mabuhay Gardens was a San Francisco nightclub located at , on the Broadway strip of North Beach, an area best known for its strip clubs....
, the Stone and On Broadway nightclubs, which were important venues in the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
scene of the late 1970s to mid-1980s.
During the 1950s, many of the neighborhood's cafes and bars became the home and epicenter of the Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
and gave rise to the San Francisco Renaissance
San Francisco Renaissance
The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco and which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetic avant-garde. However, others The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range...
. The term "beatnik
Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype of the 1950s and early 1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s and violent film images, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical...
" originated from the scene here and was coined in a derogatory fashion by local and famed San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
columnist Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
. Many of that generation's most famous writers and personalities such as Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, Neal Cassady
Neal Cassady
Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road....
lived in the neighborhood. Another poet from this generation, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
, founded the City Lights Bookstore
City Lights Bookstore
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
that still exists today on the corner of Broadway and Columbus as an official historic landmark and serves as one of the main focal points of this generation.
Since the 1980s, and much like Manhattan's Little Italy
Little Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...
, due to white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
, and gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
, the neighborhood has seen its native Italian American population rapidly shrink, while neighboring Chinatown has been rapidly expanding north into the neighborhood east of Broadway and along Stockton Street causing a major demographic shift to a mix of mostly Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
and young professional
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
population, although some, albeit very few, Italian Americans remain.
Attractions and characteristics
Italian-American cuisine
Italian American cuisine is the cuisine of Italian American immigrants and their descendents, who have modified Italian cuisine under the influence of American culture and immigration patterns of Italians to the United States...
, cafes, and bakeries that line Columbus Avenue and Washington Square. The city's as well as the national Shrine of Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
, the city's namesake which also contains a small reproduction of the Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
The Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor—commonly known as the Franciscan Order—in Assisi, Italy, the city where St. Francis was born and died. The basilica is one of the most important places of Christian pilgrimage in Italy...
, is located in a small chapel on Vallejo Street.
Known as "The Italian Cathedral of the West," Saints Peter and Paul Church is located on the north side of Filbert Street in front of Washington Square, where Joe DiMaggio married his first wife and came for photos after his marriage to Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. Saints Peter and Paul is considered a San Francisco landmark, and emblematic tie to the neighborhood's Italian American past. It still offers a weekly mass in Italian every Sunday at 11:45, and attracts visitors annually from around the world.
An alleyway off of Columbus between Kearny Street and Broadway is named for Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, who once lived there and frequented the famous City Lights Bookstore
City Lights Bookstore
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
on the corner of Columbus and Broadway as well as the numerous nearby bars and coffee shops.
Broadway east of Columbus Avenue still serves as the city's main red-light and nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
district as it has many strip clubs, as well as bars, nightclubs, jazz clubs, and the like.
The North Beach street fair
Street fair
A street fair is a fair that celebrates the character of a neighborhood. As its name suggests, it is usually held on the main street of a neighborhood....
on Grant Avenue on Father's Day
Father's Day
Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June but it is also celebrated widely on other days...
is one of the city's largest. The neighborhood also hosts a large Columbus Day
Columbus Day
Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday...
/Italian American heritage day parade along Columbus Avenue to Aquatic Park
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in San Francisco, California, USA. The park includes a fleet of historic vessels, a visitor center, a maritime museum, and a library/research facility...
.
The San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
is located in the Northern end of North Beach, on Russian Hill, while the Academy of Art University
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University , a for-profit university owned by the Stephens Institute, was founded in San Francisco, California in 1929 by Richard S. Stephens...
has several buildings in the area, including one along Columbus Avenue and one across the street from Pier 39
Pier 39
Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier in San Francisco, California. At Pier 39, there are shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, an interpretive center for the Marine Mammal Center, the Aquarium of the Bay, virtual 3D rides, and views of...
.
External links
- North Beach Interactive Neighborhood Map: Hilton SF
- North Beach Yahoo Maps
- Guided photo tour
- The Chronicle's standing article about North Beach
- North Beach Neighbors a San Francisco Neighborhood Organization
- Surrounded by Sound: Aurally Exploring the Barbary Coast at en fuego magazine
- Historic North Beach and Telegraph Hill photographs by photographer JB Monaco