The Castro Story - Once Upon a Time

THE CASTRO STORY— IF THE FOLKS BACK HOME COULD SEE ME NOW

Ever since its Gold Rush boomtown days, San Francisco has maintained a well-deserved reputation as hard partying town with a live and let live attitude. Well, I’m here to tell you that of all the City’s diverse neighborhoods, the Castro does the most to carry that legacy forward. That’s me, The Castro. 

If there’s a more cohesive community in San Francisco, I’d like to see it. If there’s a more vibrant neighborhood, let me hear about it. I’m The Castro. I’ve struggled to get where I am today. But I’m here and I’m not going away. Call me queer and you’d be right—but what of it? I’m proud of the people who live here. Their activism and pride makes me what I am today—a flourishing neighborhood of beautiful Victorians, cutting edge clubs, trendy shops and streets that are alive with energy, streets that are owned by the people who live here. I’m The Castro.

History

I’d love for the people who lived here a hundred years ago to see how I’ve reinvented myself and carried the society with me. Back when San Francisco was called Yerba Buena, Mexican ranchers grazed their cattle where Castro and 18th Streets intersect. That gave way to dairy farms and dirt roads when California became part of the U.S. in the 1840s. Irish, German, Swedish, Norwegians and Finns looking for cheap land came to Eureka Valley, as I was called then, and they built big houses for their big families. The architectural vogue back in the day was Victorian and many of these classic beauties have survived. People here have the money to restore them, and everyone agrees they’re one of my most outstanding features. 

Until the postwar era, things were pretty quiet here in Eureka Valley. Mostly working-class people doing working-class jobs. When the jobs left, so did the people. They headed down the Peninsula or across the Bay. That’s when I came of age, you might say.

The charming old Victorians became available for a song and gay men began buying them up and restoring them inside and out. Some had remained in San Francisco after being discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation. The City’s reputation for tolerance seemed more appealing than a return to their uptight hometowns in the Midwest or elsewhere.  Word spread and gays and lesbians began coming from all over; thousands during 1967’s Summer of Love in the Haight-Ashbury.

Yes, the 1960s and 70s were a wonderful time. Change was everywhere in society. People began to be comfortable being who they were, not whom “society” said they needed to be. And I changed too. They dropped my old name, Eureka Valley, and started calling me what I am today, The Castro, after the busy thoroughfare that runs through my middle.

There was a price for my new identity, though. The old order did not give up without a fight. The first openly gay elected politician in a large American city, Harvey Milk, died at the hands of an assassin in 1978, and in the 1980s an AIDs epidemic swept through me. But people came together as never before and we came through it stronger, much stronger. 

We’re all pretty much activists here now and we look out for each other. More than that, we celebrate who we are.

Community Events Like No Other

Come here the first Sunday in October for the Castro Street Fair. Food, arts and crafts, fashion (drag), comedy, plus four band stages with dance pavilions going all day. It’s San Francisco’s longest running street fair, founded by Harvey Milk himself, and proceeds go to community causes.  You might call it our little warm up for Halloween, the Castro’s enduring contribution to international queer-friendly culture.

Halloween in the Castro is big, extravagant and outrageous. So much so, that it is giving birth to similar parades throughout San Francisco. A tradition for more than 30 years, streets in the neighborhood are closed off and people come out after dark for the City’s unofficially official freak show. For most years, it was the LGBT community celebrating their queerness, but as more people came from all over to enjoy the show, homophobes among the crowd sometimes caused trouble. The party is currently in a state of flux as is the Castro itself. 

The last Sunday in June sees Market Street become a throbbing, pulsating sea of humanity during the yearly San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade.  That day , the Civic Center downtown is given over to booths promoting causes of every description and food and festivities for every persuasion.

The SF Dyke March (and Rally) is also held on Saturday where lesbians and their children, pets and musical instruments gather for festivities and speeches in support of a wide array of causes. That evening the largest underground party in San Francisco, Pink Saturday, hosted by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., brings together people of every stripe and flavor for a long night of revelry. 

The parade on Sunday begins with the Dykes on Bikes motorcycle contingent and only gets wilder from there. Parties and more parties throughout the day ensure that even the hardest core party boys get their fill.

Also in June is the SF International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Many consider it the Castro’s most exciting time of the year. Hundreds of experimental films, shorts and features with queer themes exhibit in theaters around the City, most especially at the neighborhood’s legendary Castro Theater. Sponsored by Frameline [link], filmmakers from around the world gather for 10 days of screenings, discussions and, of course, parties.

These are just some of the highlights of life in the Castro.  On any given day, the neighborhood’s streets are filled with shoppers, tourists, couples, guys just hanging out and, increasingly, moms or dads pushing strollers.

Landmarks

There is no shortage of sights for the merely curious or for those on a pilgrimage from the more closeted hinterlands. Tourists come down from Fisherman’s Wharf to gawk, just as they would in Amsterdam’s red light district. And there’s plenty for me to show off. Just outside the Muni station at Market and Castro you’ll find Harvey Milk Plaza, commemorating the man’s life. Flying proudly above the plaza is a huge rainbow flag and you’ll see smaller versions on every light pole and many houses throughout the district. 

The longest standing landmark is the Castro Theater, the last grand movie palace in the City. The ornate interior and Wurlitzer organ—it is still played before performances-- are themselves worth the price of admission.

A little further down Castro you’ll come to Harvey Milk’s Camera Store, which Harvey opened when he moved here in the 1970s.

The shops on Castro and 18th Street offer an array of goods and services you aren’t likely to find in most areas of San Francisco, much less the rest of the country. For one, Cliff’s Variety Store on Castro is referred to as the gay man’s Home Depot, stocking, in their words, “everything from tiaras to tape measures.” Some may gnash their teeth over what they see as the waning of the neighborhood’s rainbow image and ambience, but rest assured, the gay, tolerant, party hearty community is here to stay.

A Vibrant Nightlife Scene

If a stroll down 18th Street in daytime doesn’t convince you that we are a neighborhood that is alive!, cruising the neighborhood at night surely will. The bars and clubs rock at night and the revelry often spills out into the street. Neon signs up and down the drag highlight the goings on, from Moby Dick’s to The Bar on Castro, Metro, The Café, SF Badlands and dozens of others, there is plenty happening. Gay, lesbian, straight or any combination thereof, every place in the neighborhood is accommodating, eccentricities are the tolerated because they are the norm and one night in the Castro will show you why it’s Planet Earth’s gay Mecca. 

That’s not to say things aren’t in a constant state of change. While the proportion of gays and lesbians ranges from 30% to 90% in various sections of the neighborhood, more heterosexual couples and their children are moving in, falling for the same amenities as their LGBT neighbors: charming Victorians, safe streets, proximity to downtown and nice weather (the hills west of the district often spare the Castro from San Francisco’s renowned fog). Real estate prices are slightly below average for the City in general, though most houses you’ll find have been lovingly cared for. Odds are that the former residents had plenty of discretionary income to sink into their home.

While some may fret about a dilution of the neighborhood’s gay identity, others see it as a step in the right direction, an assimilation into the mainstream. And, as San Francisco always seems to be at least one step ahead of the curve, might this trend not indicate that society is evolving towards the eventual acceptance of people as they are? We think so.