Washington Square is an American park in the North Beach district of

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 ...

. It was established in 1847 and is one of the city's first parks. The park is bordered by sidewalk cafes and restaurants such as

Mama's (restaurant) Mama's on Washington Square is a family-owned restaurant located in San Francisco, San Francisco’s North Beach, San Francisco, North Beach neighborhood. The restaurant sits on the corner of Stockton Street (San Francisco), Stockton Street and ...

, Park Tavern restaurant and the

Liguria Bakery Liguria Bakery is a bakery in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that sells only focaccia.... It is located on 1700 Stockton Street, at the corner of Filbert Street and across from Washington Square Park in ...

as well as the Sts. Peter and Paul Church.

History

In the 19th century, the area was used by the Mexican rancher

Juana Briones Juana Briones de Miranda (c. 1802 – 1889) was a Californio ranchera, medical practitioner, and merchant, often remembered as the "Founding Mother of San Francisco", for her noted involvement in the early development of the city of San Francisco ...

to grow potatoes and raise cattle, before it was designated a city square in 1847 when surveyor

Jasper O'Farrell Jasper O'Farrell (1817–1875) was an Irish-American politician who served as the first surveyor for San Francisco. He designed the "grand promenade" that became today's Market Street. O'Farrell Street in San Francisco is named after him. Early ...

laid out San Francisco's street grid. It became an unofficial dump next to a cemetery, but by the 1860s, it hosted Fourth of July celebrations, and later

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. ...

celebrations and Italian festivals. Originally, it was a complete rectangle, all the way to Powell Street. But in 1873–1875, the City built Columbus Avenue, then known as Montgomery, cutting through the Square. The avenue was built, evidently, because business and banking interests in the Financial District wanted greater interaction with North Beach, which was isolated, geographically, by the hills, the Barbary Coast, and Chinatown. Washington Square was a place of refuge for many fires on Telegraph Hill, notably in 1894 and 1901. It was home for a year for some 600 people who lived in wooden barracks and Army tents after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Ben Franklin statue

The Base of the statue is a

Temperance fountain A temperance fountain was a fountain that was set up, usually by a private benefactor, to encourage temperance, and to make abstinence from beer possible by the provision of clean, safe, and free water. Beer was the main alternative to water, an ...

donated in 1879 by Temperance crusader

Henry D. Cogswell Henry Daniel Cogswell (March 3, 1820 – July 8, 1900) was an American dentist and a crusader in the temperance movement. Cogswell and his wife Caroline also founded Cogswell College in San Jose, California. Henry Cogswell College, Another campus ...

Marini Plaza

Separated from the main park by Columbus Avenue, Marini Plaza is a tiny park at the corner of Powell Street and Union Street, named after civic benefactor Frank Marini (1862-1952).

Committee to Beautify

In the 1950s, a coalition of community groups, the Committee to Beautify Washington Square, spearheaded the effort to redesign the square, eliminating the paths that criss-crossed the park. Landscape architects Francis McCarthy and

Douglas Baylis Douglas Baylis (January 7, 1915 – November 28, 1971) was a landscape architect often credited as a founder of the "California School" of modern landscape architecture alongside contemporaries Thomas Church, Garrett Eckbo, and Robert Royston. ...

put

Lombardy poplar ''Populus nigra'', the black poplar, is a species of cottonwood poplar, the type species of section ''Aigeiros'' of the genus ''Populus'', native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa.Flora Europaea''Populus nigra''/ref> ...

trees in the center of a grassy expanse encircled by paths lined with benches, the configuration we have today; although

Lawrence Halprin Lawrence Halprin (July 1, 1916 – October 25, 2009) was an American landscape architect, designer and teacher. Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist a ...

is often credited with the design, his plans exceeded the available budget. In 1958, the city tried to solve the parking problem by putting a parking garage under the square, a plan that was defeated then but resurfaced periodically until the park was granted landmark status in 2000.

Popular culture

Washington Square has been featured in many feature films. Director

Don Siegel Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film and television director and producer. Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut ...

features the church and the square in scenes from the 1971 movie, ''

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...

''. The church, and nearby Dante Building, are the setting of sniper attacks by the "

Scorpio Killer ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) ...

". The park and surrounding area is also featured in the 2000 film, '' Bedazzled''. Many chapters in

Richard Brautigan Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935 – c. September 16, 1984) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. A prolific writer, he wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four bo ...

's 1967 novel ''

Trout Fishing in America ''Trout Fishing in America'' is a novella written by Richard Brautigan and published in 1967. It is technically Brautigan's first novel; he wrote it in 1961 before ''A Confederate General from Big Sur'', which was published first. Overview ''Tro ...

'' take place in Washington Square. It was also the setting for

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

's 1979 poem ''The Old Italians Dying''.

Gallery

File:Washington Square cathedral San Francisco.jpg, Saints Peter and Paul Church in Washington Square File:2015-30 views of San Francisco.jpg, Aerial view of Washington Square File:Washington Square Park San Francisco September 2006.JPG, Washington Square Park (eastern side) File:2011-08-14 San Francisco 120 Washington Square.jpg, Washington Square (western side) File:Volunteer Firemen Memorial by Haig Patigian - Washington Square, San Francisco, CA - DSC04869.JPG, Volunteer Firemen Memorial by

Haig Patigian Haig Patigian ( hy, Հայկ Բադիկեան; January 22, 1876 – September 19, 1950), was an Armenian-American sculptor. Biography Patigian was born in the city of Van in the Ottoman Empire. His parents were teachers at the American Missi ...

San Francisco - Coit Tower from Washington Square (939873936).jpg, A sign in the park, with

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 ...

in the background

References

External links

Washington Square , San Francisco Recreation and Park