Mission Dolores Park, often abbreviated to Dolores Park, is a city park in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. It is located two blocks south of
Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to:
* Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores
* Dolores (given name)
Dolores may also refer to:
Film
* ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt
* ' ...
at the western edge of the
Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
.
Dolores Park is bounded by 18th Street on the north, 20th Street on the south, Dolores Street on the east and Church Street on the west. The northern end of Dolores Park is located directly across the street from
Mission High School Mission High School may refer to:
* Mission High School (San Francisco, California), a public high school in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) San Francisco, California
* Mission High School (Mission, Texas), a secondary school loc ...
. On its eastern, southern and western sides, the park is surrounded by residential buildings of two to four stories, in various architectural styles.
South of the park is a hillside area known as "Dolores Heights," while
The Castro
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
neighborhood is located a short distance to the west. The park's topography is characterized by a strong slope from the southwest down to the northeast, offering an unobstructed northeast-looking view of downtown San Francisco, in particular from the southwest corner.
Dolores Park offers several features including many tennis courts, a basketball court, a multi-purpose court, a soccer field, a
pissoir
A (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. They can be fre ...
, a children's playground, and a dog play area. The southern half of the park is also notable for its views of the Mission district,
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
, the
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
and the
East Bay
The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...
. The
Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...
J-Church streetcar line runs through the park along its western border.
The park lies east of
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company, ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cance ...
in the warm and sunny
microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
of the Mission neighborhood, which was named one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world in 2016. In recent years, the park's popularity among San Franciscans looking for outdoor relaxation and recreation has increased, and as of 2016 it was attracting up to 7,000–10,000 people on a sunny weekend day.
History
Native Americans of the Chutchui village of the
Yelamu tribe inhabited the area prior to the arrival of Spanish missionaries, who founded nearby
Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to:
* Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores
* Dolores (given name)
Dolores may also refer to:
Film
* ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt
* ' ...
in 1776.
The park site consists of two plots, Mission Blocks #86 and #87, formerly owned by
Congregation Sherith Israel and
Congregation Emanu-El and was used as a Jewish cemetery, which became inactive in 1894.
The cemetery was moved to
San Mateo County
San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...
when San Francisco land became too valuable for the dead and burial within the city limits was prohibited. The graves were moved to
Colma (via
Southern Pacific railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
), where they still rest today at Hills of Eternity and Home of Peace Cemeteries.In 1903, over 1,000 property owners from the southern side of San Francisco formed the Mission Park Association, which introduced a ballot measure to buy the former Jewish cemetery area and turn it into a park.
It passed by 73.9% later in the same year, initiating the creation of what was back then named "Mission Park".
In 1905, the City of San Francisco bought the land for $291,350 (equivalent to about $4 million in 2004).
In 1906–07, the park served as a refugee camp for more than 1600 families made homeless by the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
and fire.
Camp life after the earthquake ended in the summer of 1908. Some people kept their temporary shacks as houses and a few still survive today scattered across western San Francisco. In 1917, the
J-Church streetcar line, which runs along one side of the park, began service.
[Page & Turnbull, Inc.]
Mission Dolores Park - Historic Resource Evaluation
(revised draft, October 17, 2011; prepared for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department). PDF, 39MB
Until after World War II, the Mission District was largely inhabited by European Americans, which from the 1950s to the 1970s were replaced by an influx of Latino immigrants.
Partly as a symbol of this transformation, on September 16, 1966, a replica of the “Mexican Liberty Bell”, presented by Mexican president
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños (; 12 March 1911 – 15 July 1979) was a Mexican politician and member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He served as the President of Mexico from 1964 to 1970.
Díaz Ordaz was born in San Andrés ...
, was installed in the park near a statue of
Miguel Hidalgo
Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo (), was a Catholic priest, leader of the Mexican ...
, the father of Mexican independence, which had been erected four years earlier.
The "Mexican Liberty Bell" (today located in the
National Palace Buildings called National Palace include:
* National Palace (Dominican Republic), in Santo Domingo
*National Palace (El Salvador), in San Salvador
*National Palace (Ethiopia), in Addis Ababa; also known as the Jubilee Palace
* National Palace (Guate ...
in Mexico City) is a church bell that Hidalgo rang in 1810 in the Mexican city of
Dolores Hidalgo
Dolores Hidalgo (; in full, Dolores Hidalgo Cuna de la Independencia Nacional, en, Dolores Hidalgo Birthplace of exicanNational Independence) is the name of a city and the surrounding municipality in the north-central part of the Mexican state o ...
, in what became known as the "
Cry of Dolores
The Cry of Dolores ( es, Grito de Dolores, links=no, region=MX) occurred in Dolores, Mexico, on 16 September 1810, when Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang his church bell and gave the call to arms that triggered the Mexican War ...
" (El Grito de Dolores) that launched the
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...
.
In 2014, the replica was relocated by around 25 feet during the renovations of Mission Dolores Park.
In subsequent decades, the park also became popular among
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
residents from the nearby
Castro district
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
(an area near the park's south-west corner has been dubbed the "gay beach") and among young professionals who moved to the area to work at Internet tech companies. In 2009, the San Francisco Chronicle observed that "as the wide variety of park visitors indicates - from Latino families to young hipsters to Castro gays - it sits at the intersection of a number of San Francisco demographic groups. And it always has."In March 2014, the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department began a two-stage $20.5 million renovation project made possible by the 2008 Clean & Safe Park Neighborhood
Bond
Bond or bonds may refer to:
Common meanings
* Bond (finance), a type of debt security
* Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States
* Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...
to upgrade the park. Community-driven meetings lead to the
conceptual design Conceptual design is an early phase of the design process, in which the broad outlines of function and form of something are articulated. It includes the design of interactions, experiences, processes, and strategies. It involves an understanding of ...
of the improvement project. Input from local community members, neighbors, merchants, the
San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department
The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department is the city agency responsible for governing and maintaining all city-owned parks and recreational facilities in San Francisco, California. The Recreation & Parks Department also runs Sharp Park i ...
, the
San Francisco Department of Public Works, and other major
stakeholders shaped the final design. The park was fully reopened in January 2016 with a light-up event. The park now contains six
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
courts, a multi-use court, a
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
court, a sports field, the Helen Diller
Playground
A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...
, a pissoir, two off-leash dog areas, improved irrigation, and two public restroom areas. To address trash issues in the park, "LoveDolores" a
Leave No Trace campaign was also launched encouraging park users to "pack it in, pack it out."
According to a 2011 historical study commissioned by the city, "between 1967 and the present, Mission Park gradually acquired the vernacular name 'Dolores Park,' presumably in recognition of its association with both Mission Dolores and Dolores Street. Today, the name Mission Park has been completely superseded".
The park's official name as of 2016 is "Mission Dolores Park".
Facilities
![Mission Dolores Park Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Mission_Dolores_Park_Map.jpg)
Dolores Park is served by the
Church and 18th Street and
Right Of Way/20th St stations of the
J Church Muni Metro
Muni Metro is a light rail system serving San Francisco, California, United States. Operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), a part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), Muni Metro served an average of 157 ...
line, which operates in a private
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
on the park's west side. There are six
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
courts and one
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
court; two
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
fields, a
playground
A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...
, and a clubhouse with public restrooms. Dolores Park has been the neighborhood center for cultural, political and sports activities since the 1960s. It has hosted political rallies, festivals,
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...
ceremonial dances,
Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo ( in Mexico, Spanish for "Fifth of May") is a yearly celebration held on May 5, which commemorates the anniversary of Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, led by General Ignacio Zaragoz ...
celebrations,
San Francisco Mime Troupe
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of political satire which performs free shows in various parks in the San Francisco Bay Area and around California. The Troupe does not, however, perform silent mime, but each year creates an original ...
performances, and an annual "Hunky Jesus" competition on
Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
by the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In 2010, it was announced that the park was to be closed throughout 2011 as part of massive renovations and a construction of a new playground. In spring 2012, the new Helen Diller Playground opened in the park, featuring two large slides, two swing sets, a granite climbing structure, a sand box and climbing nets. The playground is accessible to children with disabilities. As of 2014, there were plans for two off-leash dog play spaces in the park, but these plans were stalled by an environmental appeal from a local resident who felt that the space should be left open to allow more room for children to play, with the goal of reducing childhood obesity.
Up to 2016, more than $20 million were spent on the park's first upgrades in six decades, including the installation of additional toilets to address problems with public urination.
Gallery
File:DoloresParkPanorama.jpg, A panoramic view of Dolores Park, from the Muni
Muni may refer to:
Municipal
* A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like
*Municipal bond
*Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky
*"Muni", slang for a mu ...
stop near Twentieth and Church Streets, with the San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
skyline in the distance.
File:Dolores Park photo montage panorama 2013-04-13 14-39.jpg, a panorama of the park
File:View from top of Mission Dolores Park, SF (July 2017).jpg, View of Dolores Park from the top, 2017
File:San Francisco from Dolores Park - June 2019.jpg, Downtown San Francisco skyline from Dolores Park, June 2019
File:Aerial view of Dolores Park playground, SF (2012).jpg, Aerial view of Dolores Park playground, 2012
File:Man making bubbles in Dolores Park, with view of Mission High School.JPG, Man making large bubbles in Dolores Park. View of Mission High School Mission High School may refer to:
* Mission High School (San Francisco, California), a public high school in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) San Francisco, California
* Mission High School (Mission, Texas), a secondary school loc ...
in background
File:Dolores park sign 2013-04-13 14-44.jpg, A sign denoting the rules of the park
File:Skateboarder in Dolores Park, June 2019.jpg, Skateboarder in Dolores Park, June 2019
File:Dyke March SF 2019.jpg, Dyke March parade, 2019
File:Mission Dolores Park during COVID-19.jpg, Dolores Park in September 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
with circles for social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dis ...
See also
*
San Francisco City Parks
References
External links
SF Rec & Park Mission Dolores Park* Page & Turnbull, Inc.
Mission Dolores Park - Historic Resource Evaluation(revised draft, October 17, 2011; prepared for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department). PDF, 39MB
Dolores ParkInformation on the website of the Dolores Heights Improvement Club
"History of Dolores Park,"a photo slideshow from The Bay Citizen, a nonprofit Bay Area news site
* http://uptownalmanac.com/2011/02/black-and-white-history-dolores-park
{{Authority control
Municipal parks in California
Parks in San Francisco
Mission District, San Francisco
1906 establishments in California