Hayes Valley
It is difficult to imagine today, but the part of our city, which is now known as Hayes Valley, used to be known as the Mission Creek area, which included seasonal Hayes Creek. Hayes Valley would have been thickly covered with wildflowers every spring and the native people who belonged to the Ohlone Tribe and who lived in this area for 10,000 years, would come here to gather food. When it rained in the winter, Hayes Creek cut diagonally through the area that is currently Hayes Valley. The creek is now underground year-round. In the 1850s, the area became part of the Western Addition neighborhood, in an effort to expand the city to the West of Van Ness Avenue. In 1855, a committee was formed to name the streets of this development. One of the members named Michael Hayes has been instrumental in naming Hayes Street for his brother Thomas, a wealthy land owner. Another committee member, former milkman, Charles H. Gough, named the central street in Hayes Valley Octavia, in honor of his sister Octavia Gough. He also named parallel street Gough.
During 1950s, the area was part of an elevated section of the Central Freeway of U.S. Route 101, which was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. After the eventual demolition of the concrete monster, the neighborhood revitalized and became one of the trendier sections of San Francisco, with an eclectic mix of boutiques, high end restaurants and hip stores, as well as new apartment buildings along Hayes Street.
In the place where the concrete freeway used to be, the city built a neighborhood green area, and named it Patricia’s Green for Patricia Walkup, a local activist. There is a playground for children, sculptures and benches. On one side of Octavia Boulevard, there are residential buildings and on the other, resides a Biergarten and Smitten Ice Cream with a constant line of people. Further up, there is Loving Cup that sells great frozen yogurt and rice pudding. Young people are everywhere. One evening during the week, we tried to have dinner in the area without a reservation. We were lucky to find parking on Gough Street but had to walk five blocks before we found an available table at a restaurant. The area is close to the main performance venues of our city; Davis Symphony Hall Opera House, the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and a recent addition – the San Francisco Jazz Center. We are fortunate to live in an incredible and dynamic city.
Enjoy and Share.
P.S. I love to come here with my camera and to just hang out. I sometimes bring along a book and sit on the bench, indulging with some frozen yogurt. And of course, I encounter people who become my models. One of them, whom I photographed through a window, was reading “Cool Gray City of Love. 49 Views of San Francisco” by Gary Kamiya. It is a great book about San Francisco’s history, which I read while working on “42 Encounters in San Francisco.” Both books are available on Amazon.com. Meanwhile, enjoy the four portraits of people I encountered in Hayes Valley.
Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!
Cheers,
