A History of the Castro Neighborhood in San Francisco | KQED 

Every now and then, we will bring something out of the KQED archives to share online. This is part of a 1997 documentary series examing the history of different neighborhoods in San Francisco. We will also be publishing a video about the Fillmore neighborhood later this month.

One of the absolute best things about the net, the ability to see old documentaries we wouldn't otherwise have been able to, thanks to all the lovely people that put them on You tube for us

I'm so pleased that you uploaded this documentary, which is an important chronicle of San Francisco for posterity.

Thank you so much for uploading this. LGBTQIA History is SO important to share. ❤

In the 1990s, I purchased this VHS documentary from Wolfe Video and I'm so thrilled to be able to watch it again today. Such a great series.

I would love to see a follow up on the people in this documentary.

It was wonderful to view this again. I saw it when it was first broadcast on KQED. I was living in San Francisco then (1989 to 2021). As I no longer live there it was very nostalgic to watch it and remember the city I called home for so long.

Thanks for posting this. An important look at our history and the struggles that still remain.

Thank you for sharing this awesome production with us, in the rest of the world. It may not be important to some but it is vital to others! It's an important piece of history. Thanks again!

Só proud to have been a part of It..❤

That was outstanding !!!! Thank you for creating this historical record of merit for us and the world

Beautiful documentary. Thank you for posting.

This is a wonderful and necessary documentary - thanks for posting it! I've stayed in The Castro five times in the past 14 months and love it. It's my home when I travel to the city to visit family.

This was my SF and my brother John's .....he is gone now and this place is no longer what it once was....

I remember this documentary. Glad to see it once again. Thanks for posting 😊

Someone needs to make a video documentary on "Where Are They Now"?

I was born and raised in the Castro neighborhood (Duboce Triangle to be exact), and have many great memories there as a child and growing up in the 80's and 90's. I do miss those days and so many of the people who are now gone so much. I feel very lucky and honored that my childhood neighborhood has a terrific documentary like this made on it, and that my old neighborhood has so much history. Not many people can say their childhood neighborhood was so important that it has documentaries made on it! A question for KQED: I know that KQED also did a documentary like this on the Mission District a couple years prior to making this one on the Castro back in 1996, is there any chance that will be uploaded? Would love to see that one again, I know we recorded it on VHS back when it came out, but that tape is likely long gone. I miss the old neighborhood and my home so much. I loved growing up in the Castro, I feel so lucky that I did. Many things change in life, they say the only thing constant in life is change itself, and the neighborhood has certainly changed over the decades since this documentary was made. But the memories will always be there until the day I die. That will never change.

Great channel! San Francisco will always be a fantastic city!! ❤❤❤

Frank Butterfield has done books about life in The Castro beginning around 1947, it was so glamorous like a pre Mad Men. In one of his Books Nick Williams and his Husband Carter Jones bought a House in Eureka Valley.

This sure reminds me of why I loved living in the Castro!

Great documentary very moving and informative!! Press on ! 💜💜💜

Viewing this almost mid-way through 2024, I cried - smiled, was so moved. Time - the human heart, we are all the same species. Evolution and generational change is unpredictable, dynamic but constant - nothing stays the same. Except LOVE.

Im very lucky to have been born to two SF natives, and I grew up and live in the East Bay. Im double lucky to live in an educated, liberal, area of America. I have lived in another state briefly for college, Im glad I did because it makes me appreciate living here ever more. It is expensive though but only because people want to be here.

It’s still so devastating to remember the aids epidemic that took the lives of so many amazing people😭Especially in the beginning when no one knew the exact cause so many died horrific deaths ALONE….. how terrifying

You were 16 in 1968, you come out of the movie and there are a dozen cars circling Castro from 18th to 19th. Cruisers. looking for rough trade. Teenage boys from the local gang, the Valley Boys would lure them into the baseball diamond and six or seven guys would jump out of the bushes and beat them with axe handles. The cops would tell the perpetrators to scram, even when it was a case of serious injury, mayhem. I saw things I wish I could forget. Those Irish Catholic boys could be sadistic.

A powerful documentary. Our young people need to know this history. Thanks! Definitely a 2 hanky film.

Thank you for this video

I'm so glad that HIV is no longer a death sentence

Great documentary! I still haven't made it to San Francisco yet, but I bet nobody can afford to live in this neighborhood anymore lol

Seeing this in 2024 - 27 years later. I'm now in my mid-70's. What is it like today ?!?

Excellent documentary! Thanks KQED!! About love not hate ❤!!😮

Great story.

Straight white female here and this is fantastic documentary. I love San Francisco for the history. I hope it can return to the way it was before

IT WOULD BE AMAZING TO SEE WHO OF THESE MEN AND WOMAN, TAKING PART IN THIS DOCUMENTARY, IS STILL WITH US IN 2024 ??? ANY SUGGESTIONS OUT THERE ???

such a great documentary

In my opinion, it does not matter who you love. We are humans and children of God.

Such a interesting watch, I can’t wait to visit ❤

The club they show in this documentary is Studio 54 in NY.

I remember this documentary series aired on PBS and it was available on DVD, where can I find the DVD copy of this series?

Actually, I live at the epicenter of S.F. …The corner of Castro and Market Streets are not far away; about 10 blocks away. But, that’s OK we can share the concept and the actual reality which is Baker and Fulton streets!😂

love it i lived there for many years great place

Hawaiian history is alive and strong. She got a bit confused. The concept is called Na'au and it is a place of refuge. Every island has one. On Maui where I live it is Oluwalu. A beautiful tiny tiny area where you pass thru on the way to Lahaina. Some will recognize it as where the big trees hang over the hwy. She erroneously spoke of it as an island. Most importantly she missed the entire reverence for Mahu. Healers that are both male and female. Asexual. Healers. Consider that! There's a n animated film on the Mahu on You Tube. Kapaemahu. Go watch it and then go see the stones on Oahu. Aloha my friends! 🎉❤🎉

What is the date this was recorded?

Didn't live in Castro but want there couple times a week, 70s-80s... Many great times. Friends lived there and had businesses. Made new "friends" even if it was only for a night or two.😉

0:00 Film maker Rick Bacigalupi produced a documentary short _Only in the Castro with Trevor Hailey_

I know this one will be very interesting story about Castro years & the beginning i remember we use too go there every Halloween it definitely was the place to be they party & the people were so beautiful ❤

The other thing i wanted to comment on is this whole marriage thing. So far I have had 4 of my friends get "married" cause its so amazing and now we can do it...well, all 4 have divorced. let that sink in for a second.

Where are these people now? Would love to know.❤

I noticed When something was wrong I remember coming out of😢 Studio 54 &. Everything I took was to make me feel good little. Did I know the black? Cloud that was around the corner coming towards us full speed The year was 1980. That's when I said at least I don't know anybody that died of aids I most have said too soon because the following week. The first one 🧣 dropped in it came up to the 98 of my friends. That I missed them terribly. 😢

I liked this video. Mainly the nostalgia. I'm straight. But really enjoyed

Where did everyone work and stuff, is there alot of factories around sf

The Castro depicted in this 1997 documentary is gone, unrecognizable and nothing like she was 27 yers ago. I know becasue I was there.

I wish I could afford to live there it looks amazing ❤

We thought the Apocalypse had hit the Castro in the early 80s!

46:28 i don’t why if the white lgbtq people can feel liberated by the civil rights movement, how come they never acknowledged the racism that took place in that same neighborhood?

well, there was christopher street, in the '60s...

❤

tHE only thing they left out of this documentary is that when black and brown people came to the home land of the Castro they were met with racism ...an only whites were rented apartments and sold homes. The blacks went to oakland or other parts of SF. How do I know cause i am latino and i went there when i was 22 and i was not able to rent an apartment anywhere near castro...then one of my white friends came and he was able to get a two bedroom on market.

The shirt on the person at the start of the video tells me all I need to know.

Actually the Deaf Community also have to find their family and community

Straight girl misses her Dearest. friend Tom Connelly. He was in the HARVEY MILK GROUP..... ❤

Every few years I find myself in the Castro's in the 70s 80s and 90s and every time I went it was changed a little bit I haven't been there in quite a few years and it seems like it's really going on I don't know and I lived in New York in the village in the same thing happened in The villages all yuppies now and fancy shops there's no more village of poor people and artists and I think the same thing is probably happened in the Castro

Why didn't they mention the Compton's Cafeteria riot in 1966?

A tad long but potent.

Narrator name?

Who ever said that Anita Bryant could sign? She sounds tone deaf

82-92 Sadly it has all changed for SF.

Gayborhood!😅

Now do one in 2023 showing how it all spiralled out of control.

SF is one of the creepiest places I’ve ever been.

I lived in SF for 30 years, from 1969 to 1999, and finally left the city after retirement because it had become too expensive. I am appalled at how the criminal-favoring Democratic politicians have ruined the city, driving out the middle class, and turning Market Street into a haven for drug addicts. No wonder so many businesses are closing!

No true that Honaunau is an island. It is and was a designated area for refuge and neutrality.

So I married an Axed Murder

It is NOT the geographical center of San Francisco. The geographic center is Mount Olympus located at the end of Upper Terrace Street.

🏳‍🌈

Why are there so few views in 7 months????? Where are all the “trans” viewers, who are in angst and seeking medicalization and surgical interventions???? They need to watch this. To take a breath. To take time to grow up in order to accept who they are 🙂

Too bad about what happened to San Fran. Stepping over feces and empty storefronts is a drag.

The Castro, just like ALL of San Francisco has become an out of control s**t show... It's been that way for the last 10 years.

The heart is not in the center of ur chest its in the left side so saying its the heart cuz its in the center doesn't make sense if u are literally speaking

Zombies, got cash for to do drugs? Got poo latrines? Got free support for using drugs? So san Francisco CA, a place to be, a go to area to be zombies? Hmm.,., So why not advertise to the world? "Zombies, be on San Francisco CA" to have all the free goodies, free stuffs and all tax free & paid?,.,.,

It's a shame that the alphabet identity politics ruined the community and the flag.

it's a shame!

Weh weh weh… Too expensive? Or you’re entitled to be in a place people literally killed themselves to build?

Zombies, got cash for to do drugs? Got poo latrines? Got free support for using drugs? So san Francisco CA, a place to be, a go to area to be zombies? Hmm.,., So why not advertise to the world? "Zombies, be on San Francisco CA" to have all the free goodies, free stuffs and all tax free & paid?

They won't enter God Kingdom so sad but I feel sorry for them most are kind of kind people but in the commandments God said they won't enter God Kingdom

please no

Sad that this is what America is defined by.

SF can have these creatures.

haha what? stick to cooking videos

I grew up in the Castro in the 80s 90s , I couldn’t stand it so cringe!😊

I was in this Documentary. Today in 2024, Gentrifuckcation watered down The Bay. But still here!