Kearny Street

Kearny Street as seen from Telegraph Hill toward the South

Corner of Kearny and Sacramento (with the Transamerica Pyramid and other Montgomery Street buildings in the background)

Kearny Street (/ˈkərni/[1]) in San Francisco, California runs north from Market Street to The Embarcadero. Toward its south end, it separates the Financial District from the Union Square and Chinatown districts.[2] Further north, it passes over Telegraph Hill, interrupted by a gap near Coit Tower.

History

Looking north on Kearny Street from the Portsmouth Square pedestrian bridge. The north side of Kearny ends at Telegraph Hill.

Kearny Street was originally named "La Calle de la Fundacion" by the Spanish, meaning "street of the founding". The origin of the present name, Kearny Street, is generally assumed to be Stephen Watts Kearny, the first military governor of California under U.S. rule.[3] Another possible namesake is General Philip Kearny.[4] It is sometimes erroneously assumed to be named after the (differently spelled) labor leader Denis Kearney, known for his racist anti-Chinese agitation.[5]

At Kearny and Clay was the lower end of the first cable car line in America, launched by Andrew S. Hallidie on August 2, 1873, climbing five blocks up Clay Street hill toward Nob Hill.

During the early 20th century, "running north from Market Street to the Barbary Coast, Kearny Street was an avenue of honky-tonks and saloons frequented by racetrack tipsters and other shady professionals. On election nights it was the scene of torch-light parades and brass bands", as summarized in the 1940 WPA guide to San Francisco.[6]

From the turn of the twentieth century until 1977, the area around the intersection of Kearny and Jackson Streets was home to a large Filipino population, and earned the nickname Manilatown. Located at 848 Kearny Street, the International Hotel served as the heart of Manilatown. In its heyday of the 1920s and 1930s the estimated population of Manilatown was between 20,000 and 40,000 people. [7][8] In 1968 the hotel was sold to developers intending to replace it with more profitable commercial property. After a protracted court battle, the remaining two hundred odd tenants were forcibly evicted on 4 August 1977. The hotel and other buildings to the south of it on that block were quickly torn down, after which the land lay vacant for over a quarter of a century. On 27 July 2004, a two block stretch of Kearny Street was officially declared to be Manilatown.

Kearny Street seen from looking south on the Portsmouth Square pedestrian bridge.

The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design critic John King observed in 2006 that while Kearny Street's "architectural mish-mash" includes a number of skyscrapers, "several blocks survive ramshackle and low, delightful blurs of pre-World War II architecture that mix their styles but maintain sturdy-looking masonry facades [...] These low blocks exist because of city efforts in the 1970s and '80s to preserve older buildings and keep the Financial District from devouring everything around it. That protective foresight is what good planning is all about."[9]

Landmarks

Landmarks along Kearny Street include Lotta's Fountain at Market Street, where 1906 earthquake commemorations are held; One Montgomery Tower (an office building located on Kearny and Post streets, despite the name); 555 California Street, the city's fourth tallest skyscraper; the location of the old Hall of Justice at Kearny and Clay Streets now occupied by the Hilton San Francisco Financial District; the Lusty Lady, the nation's first worker-owned peep show; Portsmouth Square, the original Plaza of the pueblo of Yerba Buena; Columbus Tower, the headquarters for American Zoetrope; and Coit Tower, at the top of Telegraph Hill.

Other uses

"Kearny Street" is a song by American composer Rod McKuen.

References

Mullins, Jessica (August 11, 2014). "You're saying it wrong! How to pronounce Bay Area streets, towns and landmarks". San Francisco Gate. Archived from the original on August 13, 2014.
King, John (June 20, 2006). "Kearny Street's timeless in its pedestrian way". San Francisco Chronicle.
Lupton, Samuel L. (September 8, 1901). "The Making and Naming Of the Streets of San Francisco". San Francisco Call. Archived from the original on March 6, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2006.
Thompson, Walter J. (August 27, 1916). "When Kearny Street Was Young". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 28.
"Gascón's million-dollar task force for SF car break-ins finds few friends". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
California Writers' Program (1940). San Francisco, the bay and its cities. Prelinger Library. New York, Hastings House. pp. 177.
Estrella, Cicero A. (July 28, 2004). "'Manilatown' will rise again". San Francisco Chronicle. pp. B1.
"Manilatown: Seeds of the Community". Manilatown Heritage Foundation. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
King, John (June 20, 2006). "Kearny Street's timeless in its pedestrian way". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 11, 2018.

Financial District, San Francisco
Buildings and business	44 Montgomery 45 Fremont Street 50 Beale Street 50 California Street 88 Kearny Street 100 First Plaza 100 Montgomery Street 100 Pine Center 101 California Street 101 Montgomery 150 California Street 225 Bush Street 301 Howard Street 333 Bush Street 333 Market Street 345 California Center 388 Market Street 425 California Street 425 Market Street 456 Montgomery Plaza 505 Montgomery Street 555 California Street 580 California Street 595 Market Street 601 California Street 650 California Street Bank of California Building Bank of Italy Building Central Plaza Central Tower Commercial Union Assurance Building Embarcadero Center Embarcadero West First Market Tower Flatiron Building Four Embarcadero Center Hallidie Building Hobart Building Humboldt Bank Building Hunter-Dulin Building The Infinity JPMorgan Chase Building KPMG Building Market Center McKesson Plaza Mills Building and Tower Mutual Savings Bank Building One Bush Plaza One California One Embarcadero Center One Front Street One Maritime Plaza One Market Plaza One Montgomery Tower One Sansome Street Pacific Gas & Electric Building Phelan Building Russ Building San Francisco Ferry Building Shell Building Stevenson Place Three Embarcadero Center Transamerica Pyramid Two Embarcadero Center
Businesses	Hilton InterContinental Le Méridien Park Central Hotel Punch Line Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences Tadich Grill
Diplomatic missions	Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco
Education	Academy of Art University Golden Gate University
Geography	Belden Place Embarcadero Plaza Kearny Street Montgomery Street New Montgomery Street
Public art	Admission Day Monument Lotta's Fountain Mechanics Monument Vaillancourt Fountain
Transportation	Embarcadero station F Market & Wharves Montgomery Street station
Category Commons

Streets in San Francisco
Numbered streets	Third Street 19th Avenue 22nd Street 49-Mile Scenic Drive
North–south streets	Castro Street Fillmore Street Folsom Street Grant Avenue Great Highway Hyde Street Junipero Serra Boulevard Kearny Street Mission Street Montgomery Street Octavia Boulevard Park Presidio Boulevard Polk Street Powell Street Skyline Boulevard Rescue Row Stockton Street Stanyan Street Van Ness Avenue Vermont Street
East–west streets	Broadway California Street Cesar Chavez Street Commercial Street Filbert Street Fulton Street Geary Boulevard Haight Street Jackson Street Lincoln Way Lombard Street Union Street
Diagonal streets	Alemany Boulevard The Embarcadero Howard Street Market Street Columbus Avenue New Montgomery Street
Alleyways	Balmy Alley Belden Place Clarion Alley Jack Kerouac Alley Macondray Lane Maiden Lane Ross Alley
San Francisco place names etymologies

Kearny Street

History

Landmarks

Other uses

References

Further reading