Eureka Valley, San Francisco, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eureka Valley is the historic name of the greater Castro district of the city of San Francisco, California. The term Eureka Valley describes a larger area, including many residential areas, while "the Castro" denotes mainly the predominantly gay-oriented commercial district on Castro Street and 18th Street. The term Eureka Valley, though, is largely out of use, replaced by "the Castro" as the gay community grew in the area.
From 1910 to 1920, the area was known as "Little Scandinavia" on account of the number of people of Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish ancestry who lived there. A Finnish bathhouse (Finilla's) dating from this period was located behind the Cafe Flore on Market Street until 1986. The Cove on Castro diner used to be called The Norse Cove. The Scandinavian Seamen's Union was near 15th Street and Market, just around the corner from the Swedish-American Hall which remains in the district. Scandinavian-style "half-timber" construction can still be seen in some of the buildings along Market Street between Castro and Church Streets.
Eureka Valley became a working-class Irish neighborhood in the 1930s and remained so until the mid-1960s and the development of the Castro gay village.
As a curious note, the Castro Street Muni Metro station replaced an older Eureka Street station only a few blocks away, symbolic of the neighborhood shift away from Eureka Street and toward Castro in the late 1970s. The above-ground tracks leading to the old below-ground Eureka Valley station can still be seen on the south side of Market Street just west of the intersection of Castro and Market Streets. Another curious note is that many blocks were built with one home in the center of the block. These homes all have long driveways leading to them.
