![Sacramento at Kearny, San Francisco 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Sacramento_at_Kearny%2C_San_Francisco_2016.jpg)
Kearny Street () in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " 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 fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
runs north from
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
to
The Embarcadero. Toward its south end, it separates the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
from the
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
and
Chinatown districts. Further north, it passes over
Telegraph Hill, interrupted by a gap near
Coit Tower
Coit Tower is a tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's beq ...
.
History
![SF Kearny Street looking north from the Portsmouth Square pedestrian bridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/SF_Kearny_Street_looking_north_from_the_Portsmouth_Square_pedestrian_bridge.jpg)
Kearny Street was originally named "La Calle de la Fundacion" by the Spanish, meaning "street of the founding". The origin of the present name, Kearny Street, is generally assumed to be
Stephen Watts Kearny
Stephen Watts Kearny (sometimes spelled Kearney) ( ) (August 30, 1794October 31, 1848) was one of the foremost antebellum frontier officers of the United States Army. He is remembered for his significant contributions in the Mexican–American Wa ...
, the first military governor of California under U.S. rule.
Another possible namesake is General
Philip Kearny
Philip Kearny Jr. (; June 1, 1815 – September 1, 1862) was a United States Army officer, notable for his leadership in the Mexican–American War and American Civil War. He was killed in action in the 1862 Battle of Chantilly.
Early life and c ...
.
It is sometimes erroneously assumed to be named after the (differently spelled) labor leader
Denis Kearney
Denis Kearney (1847–1907) was a California labor leader from Ireland who was active in the late 19th century and was known for his anti-Chinese activism. Called "a demagogue of extraordinary power," he frequently gave long and caustic speeches ...
, known for his racist anti-Chinese agitation.
At Kearny and Clay was the lower end of the first
cable car line in America, launched by
Andrew S. Hallidie
Andrew Smith Hallidie (March 16, 1836 – April 24, 1900) was the promoter of the Clay Street Hill Railroad in San Francisco, USA. This was the world's first practical cable car system, and Hallidie is often therefore regarded as the inventor of ...
on August 2, 1873, climbing five blocks up Clay Street hill toward
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...
.
During the early 20th century, "running north from Market Street to the
Barbary Coast, Kearny Street was an avenue of honky-tonks and saloons frequented by racetrack tipsters and other shady professionals. On election nights it was the scene of torch-light parades and brass bands", as summarized in the 1940
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
guide to San Francisco.
From the turn of the twentieth century until 1977, the area around the intersection of Kearny and Jackson Streets was home to a large Filipino population, and earned the nickname
Manilatown. Located at 848 Kearny Street, the
International Hotel served as the heart of Manilatown. In its heyday of the 1920s and 1930s the estimated population of Manilatown was between 20,000 and 40,000 people.
In 1968 the hotel was sold to developers intending to replace it with more profitable commercial property. After a protracted court battle, the remaining two hundred odd tenants were forcibly evicted on 4 August 1977. The hotel and other buildings to the south of it on that block were quickly torn down, after which the land lay vacant for over a quarter of a century. On 27 July 2004, a two block stretch of Kearny Street was officially declared to be Manilatown.
![SF Kearny Street looking south from the Portsmouth Square pedestrian bridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/SF_Kearny_Street_looking_south_from_the_Portsmouth_Square_pedestrian_bridge.jpg)
The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design critic John King observed in 2006 that while Kearny Street's "architectural mish-mash" includes a number of skyscrapers, "several blocks survive ramshackle and low, delightful blurs of pre-World War II architecture that mix their styles but maintain sturdy-looking masonry facades
..These low blocks exist because of city efforts in the 1970s and '80s to preserve older buildings and keep the Financial District from devouring everything around it. That protective foresight is what good planning is all about."
Landmarks
Landmarks along Kearny Street include
Lotta's Fountain
Lotta's fountain is a fountain at the intersection of Market Street, where Geary and Kearny Streets connect in downtown San Francisco, California.
It was commissioned by actress Lotta Crabtree in 1875 as a gift to the city of San Francisco, an ...
at Market Street, where
1906 earthquake commemorations are held;
One Montgomery Tower (an office building located on Kearny and Post streets, despite the name);
555 California Street
555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, is a 52-story skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the fourth tallest building in the city as of February 2021, and in 2013 was the largest by floor area. Completed in 1969, t ...
, the city's fourth tallest skyscraper; the location of the old
Hall of Justice at Kearny and Clay Streets now occupied by the Hilton San Francisco Financial District; the
Lusty Lady
The Lusty Lady is a pair of defunct peep show establishments, one in downtown Seattle and one in the North Beach district of San Francisco. The Lusty Lady was made famous by the labor activism of its San Francisco workers and the publication ...
, the nation's first worker-owned
peep show
A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the c ...
;
Portsmouth Square
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most densel ...
, the original
Plaza
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
of the
pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
of
Yerba Buena
Yerba buena or hierba buena is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family. ''Yerba buena'' translates as "good herb". The specific plant species regarded as ''yerba buena'' varies from region to regi ...
; and
Coit Tower
Coit Tower is a tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's beq ...
, at the top of Telegraph Hill.
Other uses
* "Kearny Street" is a song by American composer
Rod McKuen.
References
Further reading
*O'Brien, Robert, ''This is San Francisco.'' 1948. 1994 Chronicle Books
{{Streets in San Francisco
Streets in San Francisco
History of San Francisco
Chinatown, San Francisco
Financial District, San Francisco