The Rise of Modern SOMA
Design by Ally Hernandez. In 2025, the City of San Francisco is trying to incentivize expanded “housing affordability and availability”…
Fun Friday: A Playland Carousel at Yerba Buena Gardens
Amongst the family-friendly bowling alley, ice skating rink, and playgrounds in South of Market’s Yerba Buena Gardens sits the LeRoy…
South Park’s Gran Oriente Filipino Hotel
The Gran Oriente Filipino Hotel in 1996, by Aileen Lainez. The trompe l’oeil pediment lintels above each window and Corinthian…
The Mint Mall and Hall: Landmarking a Symbol of Community Resistance
By Christie Li for San Francisco Heritage Introduction On October 7, 2025, the Board of Supervisors voted to recognize the…
Filipino Legacy in the South of Market
The Filipino community presence in the South of Market spans over 100 years, part of alarger movement of immigration to…
Community Voices: A Legacy of Anti-Displacement Advocacy in the South of Market
An abridged version of this piece was originally published in our October-December 2025 edition of SF Heritage News. BY ZACHARY FRIAL…
The Making of Yerba Buena Center
On February 17, 1953, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency submitted a report to the Board of Supervisors recommending a large…
Fun Friday: Field Trips to the Old Mint
San Francisco’s The Old US Mint—”The Granite Lady,” made mostly of sandstone—stands at the northwest corner of 5th and Mission…
Legacy Business Spotlight: Rocco’s Cafe
Roccos Cafe is currently closed due to a major street construction project and will fully reopen in January 2026. However,…
Old Mint Odyssey
“8:45 PM” by Shawn Clover, CC BY-NC 2.0. As a boy in the 1910s, George Christopher attended Lincoln Grammar School across 5th…
Greek Town
If you want to find the social center of San Francisco’s Greek colony you will immediately set out for the…
Industrial Grace in 1920s South of Market
In the decades after the 1906 earthquake and fire the South of Market neighborhood was reconstructed primarily along industrial lines…
Fun Friday: South of Market Newspaper Bars
Over the 20th century, the robust newspaper business centered around Market Street in downtown San Francisco meant the creation of…
Holcombe Jewelers
This post is part of “Past Meets Possibility,” a newsletter series by SF Heritage.On August 1, 2025 SF Heritage published…
SOMA Landmark Spotlight: Hotel Utah
For 117 years, the building long known as the Hotel Utah has provided lodging and drink to people at the…
St. Patrick’s Church
Saint Patrick’s church is a Landmark of an area now entirely changed and era now gone.” —City Planning Commission Resolution…
Irish Legacies South of Market
In the years after the 1906 earthquake and fire a narrative took hold that South of Market had always been…
Rebuilding South of Market
View southeast across Howard Street from 3rd Street after the 1906 earthquake. OpenSFHistory/wnp37.02131 The April 18, 1906 earthquake and its…