St. Leo's is a small neighborhood of The Alameda district, in Central San Jose, California. It takes its name from the

Saint Leo the Great Church Saint Leo the Great Church is a Roman Catholic church in the St. Leo's neighborhood of San Jose, California. Founded in 1923, it is a territorial parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California and named for Pope Leo I, a Doctor o ...

, located in the center of the neighborhood.

History

A collection of bungalow neighborhoods bordered by The Alameda, Park Avenue, Diridon Station, and Race Street. It neighbors the Shasta-Hanchett and Cahill Park neighborhoods. Most homes were built between 1900 and the 1920s. Many of the original residents worked in the old Del Monte cannery that have been converted to lofts.

Culture

Known as San Jose's Gay neighborhood, St Leo's featured the Watergarden (a gay bath house, now closed due to the covid pandemic), The Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center, Carla's Social Club for cross dressers and transgender events, Leather Masters adult store and Health Trust's AIDS Service program. The annual San Jose Gay Pride festival is held at nearby Discovery Meadow in Guadalupe River Park.

Parks and plazas

Cahill Park Cahill Park is a park in San Jose, California, located in the St. Leo's neighborhood of The Alameda district, immediately west of Diridon Station in Downtown San Jose. History Cahill park was deeded to the city in 2003. The park is named ...

Popular culture

St Leo neighborhood and church are mentioned in Smash Mouth's song "Heave-Ho" where guitarist and songwriter Greg Camp rented a home (47 S. Morrison Ave., San Jose, CA 95126) and wrote about his neighbors and landlord.San Jose's Rock Musicians http://0-infoweb.newsbank.com.catalog.sjlibrary.org/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=NewsBank&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=114E23BBF2F24C20&p_docnum=144&p_queryname=4
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External links

Next Door Neighborhood Group

References

{{Neighborhoods of San Jose Neighborhoods in San Jose, California