Another Fun Filled Fact ‘Bout San Francisco: South Park

From the SFHotelstories History File: Neighborhoods

First and foremost, like Television show Twin Peaks, South Park has nothing to do with the animated comedy series on Comedy Central.

Before the Railroad barons made Nob Hill the city’s premier bourgeois neighborhood, San Francisco’s first upscale suburb was South Park.

Between 1854 and 1897, It was a gated community until it became a public park.

South Park’s oval-shaped park survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, but the trees were removed to make way for a refugee tent city to house those displaced.

From 1906 until the 1930sw, South Park was a thriving Japanese community with no less than four residential hotels.

After the neighborhood fell on hard times in the post-war years, artists took advantage of the low rents and created many studios in the 1970s, and thus reviving the neighborhood.

A Little company called Twitter set up shop for the first time at 164 South Park Ave.

The last scene in Woody Allan’s Blue Jasmine was filmed in South Park.

The film Rent recreated New York City in South Park by adding fake snow.