Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
During the 1967 “Summer of Love,”
thousands of young people
flooded Haight-Ashbury (simply the Haight to locals) in search of
free love, drugs, and music. As
the
center of hippie culture, this neigh-
borhood captured the world's imagination in the 1960s. Despite the
changing times—a Gap store (gasp!) now lies a stone's throw from the
corner of Haight and Ashbury—nonconformity still rules here. These
days the Victorian townhouse-lined streets where the Dead, Janis
Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Timothy Leary lived contain a mix of
clean-cut residents, hipster 20-somethings, homeless people, and
colorful characters (or intentional freaks, depending on your point of
view) like tie-dye-wearing former Dead-heads and aging we'll-screw-
you flower children. This tour is a must for anyone fascinated by
San Francisco's role in the psychedelic '60s. Some stops are private
homes or working businesses (not museums); they serve to remind you
of the Haight's historical past.
@
3 to 4 hours. Best time: afternoon.
START:
Buena Vista Park: Bus: 6, 7, 66, 71.
1
★
Buena Vista Park.
Climb
the pathway and head uphill to get a
splendid view of Haight Street, the
venerable Victorian buildings sur-
rounding the park, and the city. In
1867 this forest was set aside as the
first of SF's city parks. The retaining
wall (added in 1930) contains broken
marble from an old city cemetery;
look around and you'll see some
headstone inscriptions.
@
30 min.
Bus: 6, 7, 66, 71.
2
★
Janis Joplin's former
residence.
You won't hear anyone
belting out “Me and My Bobby
McGee” in this nondescript multiunit
complex where Janis lived during
the Summer of Love, but it is worth
swinging by for pure nostalgia and
to admire the neighboring Victorian
homes boasting intricate woodwork
details.
@
15 min. 122 Lyon St.
3
★
Magnolia Pub & Brewery.
Relax with a pint of Blue Bell Bitter
or Prescription Pale Ale (brewed in
the basement). Before it was a
brewpub, this historic building had
an endlessly colorful array of previ-
ous incarnations, but in the 1960s it
housed the Drogstore Café (a
famous hippie gathering spot—NOT
named Dr
u
gstore, but Dr
o
gstore)
and former dancer turned curiously
shaped dessert-creator Magnolia
Thunderpussy and her Ice Cream
Parlor (people
still
talk about her
inimitable desserts like Montana
Banana). Ah, only in the Haight.
1398 Haight St.
y
415/864-7468.
magnoliapub.com. $$.
Vivid colors symbolize Haight Street.
