Castro Historical Tour
I would highly, highly recommend this tour. Wandering ‘round the Castro on your own is a lot of fun but nothing can compare to Kathy showing you her neighbourhood. Her combination of knowledge, insightfulness and complete love for her beautiful city especially the Castro was amazing and we had a wonderful morning. There wasn’t a question she couldn’t answer!
We began in Harvey Milk Plaza and a lot of the tour relates to Harvey Milk which I loved as he’s one of my heroes. However, there was a lot of tour that dealt with the history of the Castro and LGBT history generally (seeing the Pink Triangle Memorial Park remembering homosexuals persecuted in WWII was very moving). We learned about the massive effect of AIDS in San Francisco and found out more from murals. I also learned about Leonard Matlovich who I’d previously never heard of.
We visited the place the AIDS Memorial Quilt original site and Kathy told us about the Rainbow Honor Walk that will celebrate LGBT people throughout history. I can’t wait to travel back to the
city to see it!
Though some of the LGBT history is dark, the tour is not depressing at all. And if you were feeling overwhelmed by the horrendousness of it the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy will help – it’s one of the most amazing, inspiring, happy places in the world. It’s an elementary school that teaches children to celebrate diversity, be non-violent, include people and be tolerant; in short, not to be sexist, racist homophobes. Why can’t all schools do this?! Their murals outside are inspiring and beautiful. It’s a really special place.
The tour ends at the site of the Castro Camera and even though Harvey isn’t there any more you may just catch him looking out of the window onto the Castro – truly one of the best places in the world! You should go and you should let Kathy show you ‘round. This is one of the best if not the best thing we did in San Francisco.
The other tour offered is great and is also entirely different to this one. I was concerned there may have been some crossover but there wasn’t. They’re both absolutely wonderful and you could do them in any order.
After your tour why not have lunch at Harvey’s and you should definitely visit the GLBT Historical Society!
A brilliant tour and amazing value for money!
City Hall Tour
If I’d not been going on this tour I would probably not have considered going to Civic Center. Because in Britain government buildings are (usually!) not particularly interesting. However, this area of San Francisco was incredible. It’s lovely to walk around looking at the magnificent buildings and the City Hall was designed to be a palace of the people. So it looks palatial and very grand.
It’s free to get in and wander about and there’s quite a bit to see but I’d recommend you do the tour with Kathy as she knows the building, its history and the history of San Francisco. I think I saw about five weddings while I was there which is always lovely to see. It would have been even lovelier to see a same sex marriage while I was there but that fight continues.
I was genuinely worried this tour would be too upsetting – learning about the murder of one of my heroes – and of course it was sad but it was very worthwhile and not at all grisly. We talked about the corrupt legal system that led to Dan White’s absurd defence and ridiculously short sentence.
It was great to see the busts of Milk and Moscone (and other politicians) and get a sense of where he worked. Rather than thinking of him being shot in his office I shall forever think of him dancing up the steps – making an entrance and being his effulgent self.
A brilliant tour and amazing value for money!