Maiden Lane, San Francisco - View from Union Square - 2021-04-11

Maiden Lane is a pedestrian mall located in San Francisco, California, United States. A former section of the city's red light district, Maiden Lane is now home to high-end boutiques and art galleries. The street also serves as the location of San Francisco's only Frank Lloyd Wright designed building.

History

Prior to the 1906 earthquake, the street was called Morton Street and was the center of San Francisco's

red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light districts are particu ...

. Historically, the street reported one murder a week. The earthquake, which leveled much of the city, rendered this two-block stretch rubble, and the brothels were destroyed.http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/500472 It was renamed Maiden Lane by an enterprising jeweler who wanted to conjure the Maiden Lanes of London and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. In 1955, on the initiative of local merchants, cars were prohibited from the lane during certain times of day, an unusual measure at the time. In 1958, Jane Jacobs described the street, in an essay that was later characterized as a "spirited rebuttal to the antiseptic urban renewal that was gospel at the time": In 1961, the San Francisco Chronicle's columnist Herb Caen praised Maiden Lane as "a busy little block of intriguing shops."

Today

Maiden Lane, San Francisco from Union Square

Today, the street is a pedestrian mall lined with

boutique A boutique () is a small shop that deals in fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek ἀποθήκη (''apothēkē'') "storehouse". The term ''boutique'' and also ''d ...

s. The pedestrian mall stretches two blocks, between Kearny and

Stockton Stockton may refer to: Places Australia * Stockton, New South Wales * Stockton, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region New Zealand *Stockton, New Zealand United Kingdom *Stockton, Cheshire *Stockton, Norfolk *Stockton, Chirbu ...

Streets. The street is blocked from traffic from 11 am until 5 pm by wrought iron gates, reopening in the evening to traffic. The most notable building on the street is the

V. C. Morris Gift Shop The V. C. Morris Gift Shop is located at 140 Maiden Lane in downtown San Francisco, California, United States, and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948. The store was used by Wright as a physical prototype, or proof of concept for the circu ...

, which is a

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alterations. ...

. The building is the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed space in the city. In 2016, the Chronicle's urban design critic John King revisited Jacobs' 1958 essay and found that much of it no longer applied: "Maiden Lane feels mighty generic these days ..posh but pallid, a testament to the dangers of prosperity when it has more to do with the global scene than the local one."

References

{{Streets in San Francisco Pedestrian malls in the United States Streets in San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco