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    San Francisco's Fillmore District
    San Francisco's Fillmore District
    San Francisco's Fillmore District
    Ebook166 pages31 minutes

    San Francisco's Fillmore District

    By Robert F. Oaks

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    Today's Fillmore District, while one of San Francisco's most diverse neighborhoods, bears little resemblance to the cosmopolitan place it once was. This district, which has arguably changed more than any other in the city, once held a large Jewish settlement, replete with synagogues, bakeries, and kosher markets. It also had a huge Japanese community, now centered in Japantown but not as extensive as in the prewar years; amusements like the Chutes, Dreamland boxing ring, and theatres; schools, churches, and a celebrated "Jazz District" that hosted the top names in music for many years. And in one of the most controversial displays of civic power, this densely populated area fell to the forces of redevelopment, bisected by the ambitious plan to widen Geary Boulevard, creating a freeway-like road through the district and forcing out thousands of dwellers whose homes were either moved or demolished.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439630921
    San Francisco's Fillmore District
    Author

    Robert F. Oaks

    San Francisco historian Robert F. Oaks has assembled a stirring collection of images that tell the Fillmore�s story, from the early times to the troubled redevelopment era and beyond. In this stirring collection of photographs culled from such sources as the Fillmore Jazz Preservation District, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, celebrated historian Jerry Flamm, and other private collections, readers will see the faces, places, and events that made the Fillmore a hometown within San Francisco, both in the past and in the present.

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      Book preview

      San Francisco's Fillmore District - Robert F. Oaks

      Fillmore.

      INTRODUCTION

      San Francisco’s Fillmore District is as much a state of mind as it is a geographic area. Few if any neighborhoods went through so many transitions throughout the 20th century—some positive, some negative—that forced residents to reinvent the neighborhood time after time. Geographically, the Fillmore means different things to different people. A subset of the larger area called the Western Addition, Fillmore Street itself is the focus of this book, from about Fulton Street on the South to Bush Street on the North, and several blocks to both the east and west, including Japantown. This area is sometimes referred to as the lower Fillmore.

      From a sleepy suburb in the late 19th century, with streets that looked much more permanent on early maps than they did in reality, the neighborhood was transformed overnight by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Fillmore Street itself from its neighborhood’s beginnings had many businesses that primarily supported its residents, but before 1906 there was little to attract outsiders to the area. Then, with downtown destroyed by quake and fire, Fillmore Street suddenly became a new Market Street, with temporary quarters for businesses, theaters, and government agencies.

      Fillmore Street merchants hoped the neighborhood would remain a permanent magnet for shoppers. They installed arches and lights to provide glitter and advertised the benefits of the area. They even promoted a tunnel through the Fillmore Street hill to make it easier for people from North Beach to get to their shops. Others argued for a Steiner Street tunnel, but Union Square and Market Street merchants had more political clout and the tunnel instead went to Stockton Street. The neighborhood did remain a center for entertainment—amusement parks, vaudeville, movies, and ultimately jazz and rock music—but for the most part shops reverted to serving the neighborhood.

      The earthquake changed more than just the mercantile aspect of the Fillmore. It also changed the racial and cultural makeup. Before 1906, it was largely a white, middle-class district with a significant Jewish population, some immigrants, and a few African Americans. Afterwards, there was an influx of Japanese, who had previously congregated near Chinatown and in the South of Market South Park neighborhood. When both areas were destroyed, the Japanese began moving in an area that would soon be called Japantown, or Nihonmachi.

      Other groups crowded into the Fillmore as well, and buildings that had been single-family houses were soon converted into multiple dwellings and rooming houses to support the growing population. One long-term result is that the Fillmore remained a relatively cheap, if crowded, place to live in the

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