Excelsior District, San Francisco, California
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The Excelsior District in San Francisco is the area along Mission Street, south of Interstate 280 and north of Geneva Avenue. Its central point is arguably the intersection of Mission Street and Ocean Avenue. The area is characterized by the names of the streets, many of which are named for European countries and cities. Excelsior is an ethnically diverse neighborhood with Latinos, Cantonese-speaking Chinese, Filipinos, Italians, Irish and African Americans. It holds an annual street festival every October. Mexican, Italian, Salvadoran, Filipino and Chinese cuisines are particularly well-represented.
Famous Excelsiorites include surrealist poet Philip Lamantia, Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia, Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Cronin, DJ Qbert, and San Francisco mayoral assassin Dan White.
Central to the neighborhood was the Granada Theater at the intersection of Mission and Ocean, which opened in 1922 as the Excelsior. In 1931 when the downtown Granada Theater changed its name to the Paramount, the name and a vertical "Granada" sign were deployed in the Excelsior. The theater closed in 1982.
[edit] External links
- Excelsior Action Group
- http://www.excelsiorfestival.org
- http://www.excelsiordistrict.org
- http://www.jerryday.org
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