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Grant Avenue, San Francisco Chinatown
USINFO | 2013-05-27 11:17
Grant Avenue in San Francisco, California is one of the oldest streets in the city's Chinatown district. It runs in a north-south direction starting at Market Street in the heart of downtown and dead-ending past Francisco Street in the North Beach district. It resumes at North Point Street and stretches one block to The Embarcadero and the foot of Pier 39.
Grant Avenue is a one-way street; automobile traffic can only travel northbound.
History
Grant Avenue was originally named Calle de la Fundacion (Spanish for "Street of the Founding") in 1845, when the town was called Yerba Buena. When California became property of the United States following the Mexican-American War, the street was named Dupont Avenue, in honor of a Naval admiral from the USS Portsmouth (Portsmouth Square, located one block east, was named after that ship). In the following years, Dupont Avenue became the location for various opium dens, brothels, and Tong wars.
When San Francisco was rebuilt after being leveled in the 1906 earthquake, Dupont Street was upgraded and given a new name: Grant Avenue, after President Ulysses S. Grant.
Today, the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bush Street marks the southern entrance to Chinatown. Grant Avenue is still written and said in Chinese as "Dupont Gai" (都板街, Gai 街 means street), and in a play on this name, there is a restaurant on the avenue called "Dupont Thai".
Grant Avenue is a one-way street; automobile traffic can only travel northbound.
History
Grant Avenue was originally named Calle de la Fundacion (Spanish for "Street of the Founding") in 1845, when the town was called Yerba Buena. When California became property of the United States following the Mexican-American War, the street was named Dupont Avenue, in honor of a Naval admiral from the USS Portsmouth (Portsmouth Square, located one block east, was named after that ship). In the following years, Dupont Avenue became the location for various opium dens, brothels, and Tong wars.
When San Francisco was rebuilt after being leveled in the 1906 earthquake, Dupont Street was upgraded and given a new name: Grant Avenue, after President Ulysses S. Grant.
Today, the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bush Street marks the southern entrance to Chinatown. Grant Avenue is still written and said in Chinese as "Dupont Gai" (都板街, Gai 街 means street), and in a play on this name, there is a restaurant on the avenue called "Dupont Thai".
