SF Heritage joined a community forum on Wednesday, April 2 in the Castro with San Francisco Planning and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman about potential individual landmark designations in District 8.
Individual Landmarks are unique and irreplaceable assets considered for their architectural, cultural, and/or historical significance, and the 21 initial properties proposed are part of an effort to recognize and protect important sites as local review of housing projects are removed through new state programs.
Sites include the former location of Maud’s lesbian bar (now home to legacy businesses Finnegan’s Wake and Zazie, 929-941 Cole Street), His Most Holy Redeemer Church (100 Diamond), the inaugural site of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (514-20 Castro Street), and the former site of the American Indian Historical Society (1451 Masonic Avenue).
SF Heritage worked with the American Indian Cultural District (AICD) and Planning on documentation for the latter site. Other American Indian sites within the AICD and District 8, like Dolores Park, are also worthy of recognition, a point acknowledged at the forum.
The AICD is in the midst of creating an American Indian Historic Context Statement, which will identify and document further sites in the district and beyond. Many of the sites chosen were documented as historic resources by the LGBTQ Historic Context Statement by Donna Graves and Shayne Watson (2015). This is the value of historic documentation at work: context statements can be (and are) used by community historians, advocates, and city planners to provide a foundation for the protection, identification, interpretation, and designation of significant related sites and places.
Similarly, San Francisco Cultural Districts and businesses on the Legacy Business Registry are required to document their historic significance and contributions to the city’s cultural fabric, as well as policy recommendations to incentivize businesses, protect community spaces, and interpret significant sites. This information too is used for preservation actions.
The Planning Department is starting this landmarking process in District 8 before moving to other districts. If you have thoughts about this process, or want to support the American Indian Cultural District in elevating more American Indian landmarks, email Planning’s Alex Westhoff at alex.westhoff@sfgov.org and Supervisor Mandelman at mandelmanstaff@sfgov.org
