12 Walks in 2010 - #1 Haight-Ashbury

It's time to make good on my New Year's resolution for 2010 - my big promise to add some exercise to my interest in San Francisco history by taking a walk through SF history once a month this year.

For my first walk I thought, what better place to start than right outside my front door? So I picked up Rand Richards' Historic Walks in San Francisco: 18 trails through the city's past and turned to the chapter on Haight-Ashbury.

[Haight Street, looking west from Ashbury]. Nov 11, 1944.
Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

The walk is listed as 1.7 miles, taking about two hours to complete. It is rated as "Moderate to Strenuous" and let me tell you, when you start that climb from Buena Vista West up to Piedmont and Delmar Streets, you will feel the burn! In fact, one of the hardest parts of the walk for me was resisting the urge to patronize one of the many bars, cafés and restaurants once I got back down to Haight Street. (Well at least I resisted until the walk was over.)

There is a handy map for each walk to make sure you don't get lost in those squiggly streets around Ashbury Heights. Of the 25 stops on the walk, here are some of my favorites:

130 Delmar St. built in 1890. Jefferson Airplane house from 1967-68. Photo by Lisa Weddle

Sex (probably), drugs and rock 'n' roll! - The walk takes you past the places where Janice Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the Hell's Angels called home. While there's still a head shop a stone's throw in any direction along Haight Street, one thing that has changed drastically since the Hippie era is property values.

The Chutes (1895-1902) - It's hard to imagine that there was an amusement park on the block bordered by Haight, Waller, Clayton and Cole Streets. Not only is it mind boggling to picture a place with rides and wild animals where apartments and shops now stand, but thinking about taking a plunge on The Chutes' water ride on a typically foggy day in the Haight makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Haight Ashbury,  1897.

Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library.

But there are much more fascinating sites to visit on this walk, even some that aren't listed (like the Park Branch Library which just celebrated its 100th anniversary), so come on over and take a walk through my neighborhood. Or, if it is still raining, head up to the 6th Floor where you can find all sorts of cool things to study about the Haight-Ashbury district:

• Haight-Ashbury District vertical files - pamphlets, reports, ephemera and news clippings collected about this San Francisco district.
• Hippies Collection - Posters, periodicals, ephemera, and other original materials from the late 1960s. [Guide to Hippies Collection PDF]
• The San Francisco Oracle - The Haight-Ashbury underground newspaper that ran from 1966 - 1968. The SF History Center holds original issues and a facsimile of the entire 12 issue run.
  
• Remember vinyl? - From Haight-Ashbury's former denizens like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead to Bay Area greats like MC Hammer, listen to the music the way it was meant to be heard on the SF History Center's record player.