Dolores Park
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Dolores Park is a San Francisco, California city park that offers a clear view of the downtown skyline when there is no fog. The Muni Metro J-Church streetcar line runs through the park. The J-Church travels down Church Street after emerging from the Market Street tunnel but, upon reaching 18th Street, the transit line goes through Dolores Park since the neighboring hill, on Church Street itself, is too steep for any streetcar to climb. The line reconnects with Church Street a few blocks later after it winds its way along the streetcar right-of-way that is behind neighborhood backyards. The northern end of Dolores Park is located directly across the street from Mission High School.
Dolores Park is located on the edges of both The Castro and Noe Valley neighborhoods, west of The Mission District, in an area sometimes referred to as "Dolores Heights." Dolores Park is two blocks tall by one block wide, based on the configuration of north-south and east-west blocks in that part of San Francisco. It is bounded by 18th Street on the north, 20th Street to the south, Dolores Street to the east and Church Street to the west.
History
Dolores Park is named after the Mission San Francisco Dolores, established by Spanish missionaries in 1776. Native Americans of the Ohlone tribe inhabited the area for several centuries before Spanish missionaries arrived. The Ohlone shared the land with Spanish ranchers and shopkeepers until the 1849 Gold Rush, when new settlers, gamblers, and tavern keepers flooded San Francisco.
In 1861, the site was purchased by Congregation Sherith Israel for a Jewish cemetery which became inactive in 1894. The cemetery was moved to San Mateo County when San Francisco land became too valuable for the dead and burial within the city limits was prohibited. The graves were moved to Colma (via Southern Pacific railroad), where they still rest today at Hills of Eternity and Home of Peace Cemeteries. As a result of the mass grave movings from San Francisco, Colma is probably the largest city in the world where the population of the dead outnumbers the living.
In 1905, the City of San Francisco bought the land of Dolores Park for nearly $300,000 (equivalent to about $4 million in 2004). In 1906, the park served as a refugee camp for more than 1600 families made homeless by the earthquake and fire. Camp life after the earthquake ended in the summer of 1908. Some people kept their temporary shacks as houses and a few still survive today scattered across western San Francisco.
The park was home to many drug dealers in the 1980s and during much of the 1990s, and at that time was considered relatively unsafe at night, but drug dealing is no longer a major problem there.
Facilities
Dolores Park has six tennis courts and one basketball court; two soccer fields, a playground, and a clubhouse with public restrooms. Dolores Park has been the neighborhood center for cultural, political and sports activities since the 1960s. It has hosted political rallies, festivals, Aztec ceremonial dances, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and San Francisco Mime Troupe performances. It is also the starting place for the annual San Francisco Dyke March.
Dolores Park remains a popular relaxation and recreation open space for people from all over San Francisco.
