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San Francisco Trivia Quiz: A Name In Full appendix

By Dave Schweisguth (email: dave at schweisguth dot org)

Last updated April 29, 2011

 

This list includes every street in San Francisco which has the full name of the person it commemorates. Namesakes (where known) and locations are given for streets which are neither listed in Louis Lowenstein's Streets of San Francisco nor in the main article. Please note that sources differ on whether some streets are called "street", "alley", "way" etc.; the names given here are those used in map data published by the San Francisco Department of Public Works.

 

Adolph Sutro Court. Named for the twenty-first mayor of San Francisco. Near the top of Mt. Sutro, off Johnstone Drive.

Alice B. Toklas Place. Named for the companion of Gertrude Stein. Formerly Myrtle Street. Immediately south of Geary between Van Ness and Larkin.

Ambrose Bierce Street¹

Annie Larsen Lane²

Arelious Walker Drive. Named for the pastor and community activist. Just north of Candlestick Park.

Bernice Rodgers Way. Connects John F. Kennedy Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive west of Chain of Lakes Drive.

Bertie Minor Lane²

Bob Kaufman Alley¹

Bret Harte Terrace

Cesar Chavez Street

Charles J. Brenham Place. See main article.

Cleo Rand Avenue. Named for the 1970's activist, a founder of the Chocolate City youth program. Just outside the Hunters Point Naval Reservation.

Colin P. Kelly Jr. Street. See main article.

Cyril Magnin Street

Daniel Burnham Court. Named for the Chicago architect and author of the famous, although largely unimplemented, Burnham Plan for San Francisco. Between Van Ness, Post, Franklin and Sutter.

Dashiell Hammett Street¹

Dirk Dirksen Place. Named for the punk rock promoter and Mabuhay Gardens emcee. Formerly Rowland Street. South of Broadway between Kearny and Montgomery.

Don Chee Way. Named for the man who oversaw the building of the F Market streetcar line. The southeastern border of Justin Herman Plaza.

Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. Named for the physician, publisher of the Sun-Reporter, and civil rights activist. The section of Polk Street which adjoins City Hall.

Frank Norris Street¹. See main article.

Gene Friend Way. Named for a prominent San Francisco businessman and philanthropist, not for the biotechnology which is the focus of the UCSF Mission Bay campus where the street is located.

Henry Adams Street

Herb Caen Way... Named, of course, for San Francisco's beloved columnist. The Bay-side sidewalk of the Embarcadero. This is the only street in San Francisco whose name, unabbreviated, doesn't end in a letter.³

Isadora Duncan Lane¹

Jack Kerouac Alley¹

Jack London Alley¹

Jack Micheline Alley. Named for the Beat-generation (but not, he said, Beat) poet. West of Grant between Filbert and Greenwich. Formerly Pardee Alley.

Joe Mazzola Place. Named for the business manager of Plumbers and Pipefitters' Union Local 38. The area in front of 1621 Market Street, the Local 38 offices. ³

John F. Kennedy Drive

John F. Shelley Drive

John Maher Street. Named for the founder of the Delancey Street halfway house. Between Front, Green, Battery and Union.

John Muir Drive

José Sarria Court. Named for the drag queen and activist. The stretch of 16th Street between Prosper and Pond Streets, near Market Street. ³

Juan Bautista Circle

Junipero Serra Boulevard

Kenneth Rexroth Place¹

Lech Walesa Street

Lottie Bennett Lane²

Mark Twain Lane¹

Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive

Nelson Rising Lane. Named for the then-CEO of Catellus Development Corporation. Another small street in UCSF Mission Bay east of 3rd Street.

Milton I. Ross Street. In the north Bayview parallel to Toland Street.

Peter Sammon Way. Named for the 32-year pastor of St. Teresa's Church. The stretch of 19th St. in front of his church, between Connecticut and Missouri. ³

Peter Yorke Way. See main article.

Richard Henry Dana Place¹

Robert Kirk Lane

Rosa Parks Lane. Named for the civil rights activist. In the Valencia Gardens public housing development, between Valencia, Guerrero, 14th and 15th Streets.

Rosie Lee Lane

Sgt. John V. Young Lane

Terry A. Francois Boulevard

Thomas Mellon Drive and Circle

Thomas More Way

Turk Murphy Lane. Named for the trad-jazz trombonist. Between Broadway, Powell, Vallejo and Stockton.

Vernon Alley. See main article.³

Walter U. Lum Place. See main article.

Whitney Young Circle

William Saroyan Place¹

Willie B. Kennedy Drive. Ms. Kennedy was a city supervisor from 1981 to 1996. South of Hudson Avenue on Hunter's Point Ridge.

Willie Mays Plaza. Named for the Giants' superstar player. The stretch of King Street in front of AT&T Park. ³

 

Tandang Sora Street, between 3rd, 4th, Folsom and Harrison, is named for the Filipina revolutionary Melchora Aquino, but does not bear her full name; "Tandang Sora" is an epithet referring to her advanced age (84) at the time of the Phillipine Revolution.

 

¹Following a proposal by poet and founder of City Lights Books Lawrence Ferlinghetti, on January 25, 1988, twelve San Francisco streets or parts of streets were renamed for artists and writers. Eleven are listed above; the twelfth, Via Bufano, was named for Beniamino Bufano. Ferlinghetti had also proposed renaming Nobles Alley in North Beach for Richard Brautigan, but the residents of Nobles Alley objected.

 

²All three of these streets in the St. Francis Square housing project, which was founded by the ILWU, are named not after individuals, but ships which were themselves named after individuals.

 

³These streets are signed (whether by the DPW or not) and appear on some maps, but do not appear in DPW mapping data so may not have the same official status as the other streets listed.