Western Addition

The Western Addition is San Francisco 's original melting pot, its most ethnically and economically diverse district – and perhaps its most photographed. Alamo Square Park offers stunning views of the city, and it's the site of the ubiquitous “Painted Ladies” – a row of six painstakingly restored Victorian houses. In the heart of the Western Addition, the Fillmore area was the city's first African-American neighborhood. It became an international music mecca in the 1940s when all the jazz greats jammed at Jimbo's Bop City – and later when the Grateful Dead debuted at the famous Fillmore Auditorium. An annual jazz festival and numerous clubs continue to flourish on Fillmore Street , as do gospel music and community activism in the district's many black churches. The Western Addition is also home to Japantown, a neighborhood and cultural center where Japanese Americans (and everyone else) come to shop, eat, and celebrate spring at the Cherry Blossom Festival. In addition, the Western Addition is full of wonderfully funky coffee shops, pizza parlors and barbeque joints, as well as secondhand music and clothing stores.

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