South Park, San Francisco

The South Park block was assembled in 1852 by the British-American entrepreneur George Gordon.{{cite web|url=https://www.sfparksalliance.org/our-parks/parks/south-park|title=South Park Revisited History|author=Jeanne Alexander|website=SF Parks Alliance|date=10 May 2012 |publisher=San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council}}

The park was originally constructed in 1855 as the center of an exclusive residential community. It was modeled after a square in London, England, as a housing development of seventeen mansions plus townhouses{{cite news|url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5840242_ITM|publisher=Chicago Tribune|title=Search for housing bargains turns up few nuggets in San Francisco|date=2001-02-15}} (a total of 58 residences) on a 550-foot oval around a private grassy park. It featured the first paved streets and sidewalks in San Francisco. A windmill in the center of the park pumped water for the houses.

On January 2, 1895, during the settlement movement era, the South Park Settlement at Number 15 South Park was established by the San Francisco Settlement Association.{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=Robert Archey |last2=Kennedy |first2=Albert Joseph |title=Handbook of Settlements |date=1911 |publisher=Charities Publication Committee |pages=20–21 |edition=Public domain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNUJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA20 |access-date=1 May 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} From the late 19th to the early 20th century, South Park was also the center of one of San Francisco's largest Japanese American communities. Sandwiched between the waterfront and the South Pacific Railroad terminus, the area featured Japanese owned and operated hostels, hotels, baths, and shops. Many of the structures remain: the Madrid Hotel occupies what once was the Eimoto Hotel at 22 South Park.{{cite book|title=Images of America: San Francisco's Japantown|year=2005|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=Charleston, SC|isbn=073853059X|pages=128}}

The neighborhood began to lose exclusivity after the construction of Second Street, which made the area accessible to less affluent residents. Rich residents moved to the newer Nob Hill neighborhood in the late 19th century, and the city took over the park in 1897. It suffered further decline after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, when most of the homes around the Rincon Hill neighborhood were destroyed. The oval park, however, has remained unchanged and is still a central meeting place in the neighborhood. After the quake, the neighborhood was rebuilt as warehouses, light manufacturing, nightclubs, and hotels. Immigrants from various countries came to the neighborhood, as well as longshoremen, drug addicts, and vagrants. The neighborhood began to attract artists and young professionals beginning in the 1970s.

The area flourished during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, due to flexible office space at initially low rent. It was sometimes described as "ground zero" of the dot com revolution,{{cite news|url=http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2006/id20060519_650456.htm?chan=search|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208111532/http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2006/id20060519_650456.htm?chan=search|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 8, 2009|date=2006-05-19|publisher = Metropolis Magazine|title=All About Yves}} with many start-up Internet companies based in the area. By late 2001, however, many of these companies had closed their doors. Yet, as of 2006, in an era for the Internet that some have dubbed Web 2.0, South Park has once again become home to many small Web-related companies.{{cite web |url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/16/BUG88I9EFK1.DTL&type=business |title= Web 2.0 has a local address: South Park, the neighborhood that fostered the dot-com boom, is back |author= Dan Fost |publisher= San Francisco Chronicle |date= 16 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060417174317/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ffile%3D/chronicle/archive/2006/04/16/BUG88I9EFK1.DTL%26type%3Dbusiness |archive-date=17 April 2006 }}

Recently,{{when|date=August 2016}} some neighbors in South Park have expressed opposition to a proposal to put an above-ground stop on the Central Subway at the southwestern end of South Park Street, on Third Street. Finally the routing of the line has been decided by the Municipal Transportation Agency, and will be along Fourth Street, one block farther west.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

===Current===

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(as of January 2016)

• Aidlin Darling Design{{cite web|title=Aidlin Darling Design - Contact|url=http://www.aidlindarlingdesign.com/contact.html|publisher=Aidlin Darling Design|access-date=15 January 2016}}{{cite web|title=ARCHITECT Visits: South Park, San Francisco|url=http://www.architectmagazine.com/videos/architect-visits-south-park-san-francisco|publisher=ARCHITECT|access-date=22 January 2016}}
• Arcanum Architecture{{cite web|title=Arcanum Architecture - Contact|url=http://www.arcanumarchitecture.com/contact/|publisher=Arcanum Architecture|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Blue Clover Devices{{cite web|title=Blue Clover Devices - Contact|url=http://www.bcdevices.com/contact/|publisher=Blue Clover Devices|access-date=6 June 2017}}
• CMG Landscape Architecture{{cite web|title=CMG Landscape Architecture - Contact|url=http://www.cmgsite.com/contact/|publisher=CMG Landscape Architecture|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Fennie + Mehl Architects{{cite web|title=Fennie + Mehl - About|url=http://fm-arch.com/about/|publisher=Fennie + Mehl Architects|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Levy Design Partners{{cite web|title=Levy Design Partners - About|url=http://www.levydesignpartners.com/about/about.html|publisher=Levy Design Partners|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Mark Horton / Architecture{{cite web|title=Mark Horton / Architecture - Contact|url=http://www.mh-a.com/contact/|publisher=Mark Horton / Architecture|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Pfau Long Architecture{{cite web|title=Pfau Long Architecture - Contact|url=http://www.pfaulong.com/contact/|publisher=Pfau Long Architecture|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Sand Studios{{cite web|title=Sand Studios - Contact|url=http://www.sandstudios.com/contact/|publisher=Sand Studios|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Strandberg Engineering{{cite web|title=Strandberg Engineering - Contact|url=http://strandbergeng.com/contact-us//contact/|publisher=Strandberg Engineering|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Valerio Dewalt Train Associates{{cite web|title=Valerio Dewalt Train - Our Offices|url=http://www.buildordie.com/us/our-offices/|publisher=Valerio Dewalt Train Associates|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• WRNS Studio{{cite web|title=WRNS Studio - Contact|url=https://www.wrnsstudio.com/contact|publisher=WRNS Studio|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Zack | de Vito Architecture + Construction{{cite web|title=Zack / de Vito Architecture - Contact|url=http://www.zackdevito.com/contact/|publisher=Zack / de Vito Architecture|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• zero ten design{{cite web|title=zero ten design - Contact|url=https://zerotendesign.com/contact-us/|publisher=zero ten design|access-date=15 January 2016}}

• Lamplighters Music Theatre, nonprofit music theater company
• Gallery 16, contemporary art gallery

• Blue Bottle Coffee
• Caffe Centro, coffeehouse{{cite web|title=Caffe Centro|url=http://www.caffecentro.com/|publisher=Caffe Centro|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• HRD, Asian fusion restaurant{{cite web|title=HRD|url=http://www.hrdcoffeeshop.com/|publisher=HRD|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Small Foods, cafe and "grab and go" grocery store{{cite web|title=Small Foods - Our Location|url=http://smallfoodssf.com/#our-location|publisher=Small Foods|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• South Park Cafe{{Cite web|url=http://southparkcafe.com/|title=South Park Cafe (official site)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011130185806/http://www.southparkcafe.com/|archive-date=2001-11-30|url-status=dead|access-date=2017-08-05}}

• Alternet (Independent Media Institute), journalism website
• Apartment List
• Macworld
• PC World
• R/GA
• SFist
• Tendo Communications, marketing communications,
• Wired, tech magazine

• 1BOG, One Block Off the Grid, clean-tech solar {{cite web|title=One Block Off the Grid|url=http://www.1bog.org/}}
• AxleHire, integrated logistics provider
• Dropbox, web-based file hosting service {{cite web|title=Dropbox bags second building for SoMa campus|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2014/02/dropbox-bags-second-building-for-soma.html|publisher=San Francisco Business Times|access-date=21 January 2016}}{{cite web|title=Exclusive: Dropbox looks to shed China Basin HQ space|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2015/11/tech-trouble-dropbox-looks-to-shed-china-basin-hq.html|publisher=San Francisco Business Times|access-date=21 January 2016}}
• Fantasy Interactive, full service digital agency
• Foxcove, IT Services Firm
• Flowcast, fintech company
• Grid Net, WiMAX based power meters
• TravelBank, travel expense management
• Tune, mobile marketing firm
• iOffer, Social marketplace
• Olark, live chat provider
• Okta, Internet identity and access management provider
• PlanetScale, a MySQL cloud database provider
• Presence, Digital Product (web, mobile, XR) development and strategy
• Prowl, music discovery
• Sauce Labs
• Slideshare.net, a slide hosting service
• Splunk, software company
• Strava, Athlete GPS tracking and analysis
• Rubicon Project, advertising automation
• Wcities

• Accel
• Coatue
• GGV Capital
• Genoa Ventures
• GV{{cite web|title=Trendspotting: Google Ventures Opens Office in SF's South Park|date=18 January 2014 |url=http://recode.net/2014/01/18/trendspotting-google-ventures-opens-office-in-sfs-south-park/}}
• Kleiner Perkins{{cite web|title=KPCB|url=http://www.kpcb.com/|publisher=KPCB|access-date=15 January 2016}}
• Norwest Venture Partners
• Redpoint Ventures
• Singtel Innov8
• Vertex Ventures US

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• Adaptive Path, Web consulting
• Bigwords.com, used textbooks
• Cumulus Networks, creators of Cumulus Linux, a network operating system
• DigaCast, Digital Music.(recapitalized in 2008){{cite news|title=The Sound of Online Advertising|author=Jayson Mathews|publisher=Internetnews.com|date=2001-02-21|url=http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/593921}}
• Dipity, Web-based Digital Timelines {{cite web|title=Welcome to the Dipity Triangle|url=http://blog.dipity.com/2009/01/02/welcome-to-the-dipity-triangle/|publisher=Dipity|access-date=29 August 2012}}
• Engine Yard, Platform as a Service
• frog design inc., design consultancy
• Fuseproject, product design and branding studio that designed new Mini, founded by Yves Behar{{cite news|work=New York Times| title=Curve Your Enthusiasm|author=Pilar Viladas|date=2004-03-14|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5DF173FF937A25750C0A9629C8B63}}
• FutureAdvisor, A digital investment advisor that optimizes all of your investment accounts automatically.
• Get Satisfaction, web-based customer support
• Grockit, Web-based collaborative learning platform
• Hummer Winblad, Venture Capital firm{{cite news|title=Born Again:Silicon Valley, the site of busted dot-com dreams, is bustling once more as entrepreneurs focus on business' I.T. infrastructures|author=Charles Babcock|publisher=InformationWeek|date=May 2, 2005|url=http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=162100052}}
• Lookout Mobile Security
• LookSmart, online advertising
• Lumosity, Brain fitness
• Mashape, Cloud API Hub
• Mule Design Studio, Web design
• Obvious Corp., blog-related company, acquired by Odeo.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/11/MNGKKOCBA645.DTL|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Where Neo-Nomads' Ideas Percolate:New 'bedouins' transform a laptop, cell phone and coffeehouse into their office|author=Dan Fost|date=2007-03-11}}{{cite news|url=http://mashable.com/2006/10/25/odeo-gets-acquired-by-obvious-corp/|title=Odeo Gets Acquired by Obvious Corp|publisher=Mashable|date=2006-10-25|author=Pete Cashmore}}
• Odeo, podcasting
• Organic, Inc., formerly in same building as Wired Magazine.
• Quokka Sports, on-line sports coverage
• PeerSpace, short-term work space marketplace
• Podshow, podcasting
• Prismatic, social discovery,
• Rubyred Labs, Web applications
• Sherman Clay (Steinway distributorship), now rented out to dot com companies{{cite news|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/03/03/newscolumn3.html?page=2|publisher=San Francisco Business Journal|date=2003-02-23|title=UCSF lease adds medical facilities near Mission Bay|author=James Temple}}
• Socialcast, Enterprise social software developer
• Slide.com, Widget software maker (moved when acquired by Google)
• Sputnik Integrated, web design and development
• Technorati, blogging
• Twistage, video workflow
• Twitter, micro blogging
• VerticalResponse, direct marketing
• Wikimedia Foundation{{cite news|title=Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit|author=Chris Cadelago|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=2008-08-24|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/24/MNIJ12ETP4.DTL}}{{cite web|date=2009-10-27|title=Wikimedia finds a new home!|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation|url=http://blog.wikimedia.org/blog/2009/10/27/wikimedia-finds-a-new-home/}}
• Xoom Corporation, money transfer
• YouNoodle, innovation data analytics company

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South Park is located between the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (Interstate 80) and Oracle Park, the city's baseball stadium. Many of the nearby streets are one-way, and many carry traffic to and from the bridge, the stadium, and Interstate 280, which terminates slightly to the south of the neighborhood.

Oracle Park (formerly Pacific Bell Park, then SBC Park, then AT&T Park), where the San Francisco Giants major league baseball team plays, is two blocks south and east of South Park.

{{Reflist|3}}

{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}

• [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/30/BUOMTKNJA.DTL San Francisco Chronicle] article As Wikipedia moves to S.F., founder discusses planned changes published November 30, 2007 says "Wikipedia [...] has found office space in the city's South Park neighborhood."
• [https://archive.org/stream/sanfranciscobloc1901hick#page/332/mode/2up The San Francisco Block Book (1901) p. 332] showing "100 Vara Block 359" (South Park)
• more recent [https://web.archive.org/web/20111002083005/http://gispub02.sfgov.org/assessorblocks/block3775.pdf Block Book page] from the County Recorder-Assessor's Office showing Block 3775 (formerly 100 Vara Block 359, i.e., South Park)

{{South of Market, San Francisco}}

{{San Francisco}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Parks in San Francisco

Category:Neighborhoods in San Francisco

Category:South of Market, San Francisco