Noe Valley, San Francisco

Noe Valley ( ; originally spelt Noé) is a neighborhood in the central part of San Francisco, California. It is named for Don José de Jesús Noé, noted 19th-century Californio statesman and ranchero, who owned much of the area and served as mayor.

Location

Roughly speaking, Noe Valley is bounded by 21st Street to the north, 30th Street to the south, San Jose Ave and Guerrero Street to the east, and Grand View Avenue and Diamond Heights Blvd to the west. The Castro ( Eureka Valley) is north of Noe Valley; the Mission District is east.

History

The neighborhood is named after José de Jesús Noé, the last Mexican ''alcalde'' (mayor) of Yerba Buena (present day San Francisco), who owned what is now Noe Valley as part of his ''Rancho San Miguel''. Noé sold the land, later to be known as Noe Valley, to John Meirs Horner, a Mormon immigrant, in 1854. At this time the land was called Horner's Addition. The original Noé adobe house was located in the vicinity of the present day intersection of 23rd Street and Douglass Street. Along with nearby neighborhood Corona Heights, Noe Valley was the site of two quarries until 1914.

Noe Valley was primarily developed at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, especially in the years just after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. As a result, the neighborhood contains many examples of the "classic" Victorian and Edwardian residential architecture for which San Francisco is famous. As a working-class neighborhood, Noe Valley houses were built in rows, with some of the efficient, low-cost homes being more ornate than others, depending on the owner's taste and finances. Today, Noe Valley has one of the highest concentration of row houses in San Francisco, with streets having three to four and sometimes as many as a dozen on the same side.

Gentrification

Like many other San Francisco neighborhoods, Noe Valley started out as a working-class neighborhood for employees and their families in the area's once-thriving blue-collar economy. Since 1980 it has undergone successive waves of gentrification and is now considered an upper-middle class/wealthy neighborhood. It is home to many urban professionals, particularly young couples with children. It is colloquially known as Stroller Valley, for the many strollers in the neighborhood. The median sale price for homes in Noe Valley as of December 2019 was $1.83 million.

Notable residents

Artist Ruth Asawa was a resident of Noe Valley from 1962 until her death in August 2013. Musician Carlos Santana graduated from James Lick Middle School on Noe Street in the early 1960s, as did actor Benjamin Bratt in the 1970s. Other residents include billionaire Evan Williams, and political scientist Terry Karl.

See also

*
* Noe Valley public toilet

References

External links

The Noe Valley Voice
the neighborhood's newspaper

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Neighborhoods in San Francisco