Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
melancholy and terror of the period will
never be truly forgotten by the survivors
who lost many of their friends.
At Market, Castro joins with 17th
Street. Turn right and walk down. In
about 5 blocks, past Church Street,
you'll reach Dolores Street. Turn left
and go 1 block to 16th Street.
6
Mission Dolores
Just a week before the Declaration of
Independence was dated—June 29,
1776—the first Western settlers said
their first Mass on this land, which was
then a marshy plain near a small pond.
There were no settlements in San
Francisco yet; these missionaries would
prove to be the pioneers and the mod-
ern city would grow up around them.
By 1791, Spanish missionaries (well,
their Indian slaves) had finished the
building you see on the corner now—a
squat chapel in adobe, with walls 4 feet
thick; it's the oldest building in the city.
Although standing here now, you'll feel
no sense of the wilderness this area once
was, you will see a rare vestige of
California's early days. A survivor of
fires, earthquakes, and (most devastat-
ing of all) development, Mission
Dolores has miraculously survived to
see modern civilization fill the space
around it.
Spanish and Mexican control of the
building ended in 1834, but 20 years
later, the Catholic Church made it a
parish, which it remains today.
Religious services are held next door at
the unremarkable basilica, preserving
the older building as one of California's
most important historic sites. But for a
few dollars (see p. 112 for details), you
can go into the more historic building's
basic, serene sanctuary, sit on a simple
wooden pew, and admire the Mexican
hand-carved altar and figurines.
Through an attached museum, you'll
be delighted to find a cloistered garden
that contains the oldest cemetery in
town.
The Mission (which, yes, gave the
name to the district we're about to
enter) is now crowded on all sides by
modern buildings, streets, and parks.
For the first half of its life, it functioned
as a sort of plantation house, with
active fields and graveyards around it.
There's no telling how many bodies are
buried beneath the surrounding apart-
ment buildings and churches today, but
it's no small figure, since some 5,000
Native Americans died as they lived
here and toiled for the church. Across
Dolores from the Mission, in true
Mexican/Spanish style, there was even a
bull ring, where bears battled bulls
until the mid-1800s.
7
Mission Dolores Park
Also called Dolores Park, this patch of
green is one of the few oases around
this part of town that doesn't require a
backbreaking climb up a hill to attain.
Here, thanks to San Francisco's quirky
weather, you're also more likely to
encounter sun than in other parks in
town. On pretty days, especially week-
ends, it seems like half the surrounding
neighborhoods—lots of gay folks,
plenty of hipsters—pour into the park
for picnics and sunbathing.
The southern part of the park, near
20th Street, has some decent views of
Downtown. Also at the intersection of
20th and Dolores, there's an antique
fire hydrant that is painted gold every
year. Why such an honor? It was the
only one around which functioned dur-
ing the '06 quake and fire, and this sin-
gle unit saved countless buildings to the
south of it. There's a public restroom in
the park for potty breaks, but be
warned: It's filthy. Still, it's your best
option around here unless you try to
sneak into a restaurant's facilities.
