San Francisco Technology and History Tour: South of Market

This tour is wheelchair-accessible, and South of Market is the city's flattest neighborhood.

We'll begin in South Park, the home of American venture capital and one of San Francisco's oldest neighborhoods, designed after a British Garden Square in the 1850s. In the 2010s, South Park was home to the first offices of Instagram and Twitter; however throughout its history, South Park has hosted a gold rush encampment, a luxury development during the Gilded Age, a refugee camp after the 1906 earthquake, the city's Japanese community, an industrial community, and now, the financial development community within the tech industry. There is seating and shade available in South Park.

Next, we'll walk along 2nd street, one of the most historically-significant streets in San Francisco due to its linking of downtown to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's docks. 2nd street was also the site of first large land reclamation project, in which one of the city's largest hills was flattened to make room for the commercial thoroughfare. It's also the home of LinkedIn, DoorDash, and Anthropic, The walk is mostly flat (South of Market is the flattest neighborhood in San Francisco!).

We'll visit Yerba Buena Gardens, the site of San Francisco's largest Urban Renewal projects. We'll discuss the people who lived there and the effects of their eviction on San Francisco's political climate.

We'll end the tour near Market Street, at the rooftop garden of Salesforce Terminal, from which we'll have a view of the city's skyline and the Bay. The Salesforce project is the most visible imprint of the tech industry on San Francisco, and it's by far the city's largest development in recent history. The site, built over a beachfront natural gas refinery, was once home to the city's poorest neighborhood: Tar Flat. We'll also have the opportunity to see Klockar's blacksmith, which is reminiscent of the neighborhood's early history as a center for metalworking.

At the end of the tour, you'll have easy access to both BART and MUNI lines (San Francisco's rail transit systems), and the Powell Street cable car is 15 minute walk away.