by hisbabydoll

Created on: August 16, 2011   Last Updated: August 17, 2011

Alamo Square is an upscale residential neighborhood surrounding Alamo Square park in San Francisco, California.  It is perhaps best known for a lovely row of Victorian houses known as the "painted ladies" which have been featured both on TV and in movies.  For instance, the American situation comedy "Full House" shows the row of ladies in a sequence in it's opening theme song.  A lovely place to visit, if you know how to park on a hill, the park is impeccably kept, and even features a shoe garden where people have creatively planted flowers and plants in shoes. 

Alamo Square is a loosely defined area around Alamo Square park bordered by: Fulton Street to the North, Hayes Street to the South, Scott Street to the West and Steiner Street to the East.   Centrally located, residents enjoy the Golden Gate Park to the West, as well as close access to both the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge.  

Enjoying a rich history, the 12.7 acre Alamo Square was legislated as a public park way back in 1856, and both the park and surrounding Victorian neighborhood were designated a Historic District in 1984.  However, the park was not always as lovely as it is today.  In the 1860s the land was dangerous to access and controlled by "Dutch Charlie Duane" a known killer and squatter.  While he was kicked out by the city in 1868, the city didn't begin grading and landscaping until 1892.  Once completed upscale residents such as lawyers, doctors and teachers flocked to the area, as did new business.  It was during this flourishing period that Matthew Kavanagh built the eternal "Painted Ladies".  In the 1920s, apartment buildings began to spring up and families began to move into the elite community.

Untouched by the depression, Alamo Square area slipped into decay between the 1950s and late 1970s.  The once splendid Victorians were subdivided into (sometimes illegal) multiple-bedroom housing units.  In the 60s and 70s, the area was ripe with halfway houses, drug rehab centres and boarding houses for hippies.  Resident safety suffered as a result of widespread drug use, burglaries and muggings.  The city, responding to complaints from the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association stepped up day and night patrols of the area. As a result Alamo Square began to return to it's past splendor by the mid-1980s.

Today Alamo is resplendent with small businesses, markets, restaurants and is close to tourist attractions such as: the Exploratorium; the Japanese Teagarden; the Cable Car Museum; and the Cartoon Art Museum.  It's a lovely place to live or to visit.

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