Day One

Yerba Buena Center • Bayview District

Begin your day downtown at 1 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission; 978-2787), a six-acre park that includes exhibition and performing venues. At the south end of the circular esplanade is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Waterfall, designed by African American sculptor Houston Conwill.

Across the street is the new 2 Museum of the African Diaspora (685 Mission; 358-7200), a 20,000-square-foot, glass-fronted building whose exhibitions tell powerful stories of slavery and liberation, and celebrate the ancient to contemporary contributions of Africa’s people — in music, dress, food and more.

On the next block is the 3 California Historical Society (678 Mission; 357-1848), which features photos and artifacts, many from the Gold Rush era. In the shop is the Fall 1996 issue of the Society’s journal, California History, devoted entirely to African Americans in California.

Call 4 Alexander Bookstore (50 Second St.; 495-2992) to see if the Sister Circle is meeting — usually with readings by writers such as novelist Gwendolyn Parker and social psychologist Gaile Elizabeth Wyatt.

At 5 Montgomery and Market, in the underground Metro station, take the T-Third train, which goes past the Giants’ AT&T Park and all along Third Street to the Bayshore Caltrain Station, just west of the football 49ers’ Monster Park. Many platforms along the route have dramatic public artworks reflecting neighborhood characteristics. Also, along the way you pass a bar and barbecue owned by the son of Sam Jordan, the late Mayor of Butchertown, the first African American to run for mayor of San Francisco in 1963 — 6 Jordan’s House of Ribs (4004 Third St.; 282-4003).

The historic Bayview neighborhood is home to the city’s largest concentration of African Americans, an estimated 45%. Many settled here during World War II to build ships for the Navy, and more arrived in the 1960s when the Fillmore district fell victim to urban renewal.

Begin your tour at the landmark 7 Bayview Opera House (4705 Third St.; 824-0386), the city’s oldest theater and the only one to survive the 1906 earthquake, now used primarily for community programming.

Close by are two notable churches, 8 All Hallows Church (1715 Oakdale; 285-3377), built in 1886, and 9 St. Paul of the Shipwreck (1122 Jamestown; 468-3434). Just off Third Street on Oakdale is the Southeast campus of 10 City College of San Francisco, one of nine college campuses in the city. Its Josephine Cole Library is named for the African American woman who integrated San Francisco’s public schools in the 1940s.

Along Third Street past Oakdale are blocks of African American shops and great eateries: 11 Pittman’s Bar B Que (5130 Third St.; 822-2881) and 12 Piccolo Pete’s (2155 Bayshore; 468-6601). Take food from either of these and have a picnic over at 13 Candlestick Point. Eat by the Bay amid hiking trails and abundant wildlife. For dinner, music and dancing, the 14 Monte Carlo Bar and Restaurant (1705 Yosemite; 822-7338) specializes in Creole food and live R & B on weekends.

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