The Castro

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The Castro with the Castro Theater

The Castro is a neighborhood in San Francisco that forms the gay and lesbian neighborhood of the city.

The Castro Theater

Geographical location

The Castro extends on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends on Market Street to Church Street and on 18th Street on either side of Castro Street from Sanchez Street to Eureka Street. Castro Street itself continues through Noe Valley, crosses the business district on 24th Street and ends a few blocks further in the Glen Park area

The greater Castro includes other residential areas. It is bounded by the Mission District, Noe Valley, Twin Peaks, and Haight-Ashbury . In addition, in some cases Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights are also included, where many homosexuals also live.

Surname

The Castro

The Castro Theater , a historic cinema, named after Castro Street and located there, gave the district its name. It is named after Joaquin Isidro de Castro, a soldier who took part in the expedition to California led by Juan Bautista de Anza . The Castro Valley in the East Bay is named after his son Don Francisco María Castro.

history

Beginnings

The Castro was created in 1887 when the Market Street Cable Railway was extended and connected what was then known as Eureka Valley to the city center.

From 1910 to 1920 the neighborhood was known as Little Scandinavia because of the large number of people of Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish origins that lived here. A Finnish bath house from this period was located behind Cafe Flore on Market Street until 1986 . The Cove on Castro was then called The Norse Cove . The Scandinavian Seafarers Union was based in the area and the Swedish-American hall is still here. The Scandinavian half-timbered style can be seen in many of the buildings along Market Street between Castro Street and Church Street . Mama's Bank Account , a novel by Kathryn Forbes, describes the life of Norwegian immigrants on Castro Street around 1910. The book was made into a film in 1948 under the title I Remember Mama with Irene Dunne in the lead role.

Between 1930 and 1960, the Castro District was a neighborhood of Irish-born workers.

Gay district

Castro Street, rainbow colored pedestrian crossing, since Oct. 2014

After the Summer of Love in 1967 in neighboring Haight-Ashbury , the Castro district became a gay district. The Summer of Love brought tens of thousands of middle-class youth from across the United States to San Francisco. The district has now been renamed The Castro , based on the cinema on the corner of Castro Street and Market Street .

By the 1970s, a style of clothing was fashionable in the Castro neighborhood known as Castro Street Clone , nicknamed Clone-Canyon . A Castro Street clone mostly wore leather boots, Levi's 501, a T-shirt in warm weather and a leather jacket in cold weather. The full beards of the hippies were replaced by the mustaches of the gays.

In 1975, Harvey Milk opened a photo shop on Castro Street. He campaigned politically for gay rights and thus contributed to the reputation of The Castro as a gay district. Many well-known clubs and bars such as the Corner Grocery Bar , The Norse Cove , the Pendulum and The Elephant Walk contributed to the vibrant nightlife.

In 1979, after protests over the extremely mild verdict against former city councilor Dan White , who had shot mayor George Moscone and city councilor Harvey Milk, the “White Night Riots”, in which gay bars were ransacked by local police.

In the 1980s, the neighborhood was hit hard by the AIDS crisis. City authorities closed many public baths and saunas and launched campaigns to prevent the disease from spreading. Since then, many shops on Castro Street have been promoting safer sex and HIV testing.

Attractions

Harvey Milks Photo Shop, today: Human Rights Campaign office

Celebrations and festivals

Demographic data

In November 2000, Noe Valley Voice published the following statistics for City District 8, which includes Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Corona Heights, Duboce / Reverse Triangle and Castro / Dolores Heights. The newspaper quoted from a 1999 survey of registered voters conducted by David Binder Research (a local polling company).

  • Americans of European Origin: 81%
  • Age 30-49: 54%
  • Men: 58%
  • Straight: 59%
  • Tenants: 55%
  • Academics: 71%
  • Democrats: 72%
  • Republicans: 12%
  • Religious: 56%
  • No religious affiliation: 40%

swell

Web links

Commons : The Castro  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Castro Clone , homowiki.de
  2. ↑ Homepage of the GLBT History Museum .

Coordinates: 37 ° 45 '42.2 "  N , 122 ° 26' 6.4"  W.