Missouri Mule San Francisco, 2. Editorial Photo

San Francisco`s Castro district is best known as the gay neighborhood of San Francisco. But, it certainly did not start out that way.Named for Jose Castro, one of California`s opposition leaders to Mexico, it was, and still is, a part of Eureka Valley, formed when a street car formally linked the area to downtown.During the Gold Rush era, peoples from Finland settled in the area. Over the years, Irish and Italians joined them. When the Finns, Irish and Italians started to move out in the late 1950`s to early 1960`s, that caused home and apartment prices to drop enough so the gays fleeing other parts of the city finally started moving in, bringing with them new businesses. The Castro was not the first gay neighborhood in San Francisco, and gay bars had existed in other parts of the City, but, Missouri Mule, located at 2348 Market Street was the first gay bar in the Castro, and remained one of the oldest.The bar, the whole address no longer exist. As seen 28 August 2021.