Road Trip

  For my California road trip I chose to go to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. My mom and I love going to Haight-Ashbury to check out all the boutiques, but we have never explored the history behind this famous area until now. Many people travel great distances in search of historical points of interest and I found mine just across the bay. My mom and I participated in the Flower Power Walking Tour of the Haight-Ashbury district on Saturday May 18th. My mom and I rode BART to Civic Center and then rode a MUNI bus to Stanyan Street within walking distance of the starting point of our tour. This tour cost was $20 per person and two hours in length, but that was not nearly enough time to experience all the history that Haight-Ashbury has to offer.

  This is a picture of our tour guide named Izu. She is originally from New York, but moved to Haight-Ashbury at the age of fourteen. She was around during the summer of love and has been to over 400 Grateful Dead concerts. She still lives in the Haight-Ashbury and is well known all throughout the area obviously since natives of the area often interrupted our tour to say hello to her. Izu is very passionate about maintaining the history of the Haight-Ashbury and keeping the area lively. She definitely kept the group interested with her very impressive and extensive knowledge.

  The Flower Power walking tour started on the corner of Waller Street, which is the beginning of Haight-Ashbury. Our first stop was at a historic fire station that closed in 1956. This fire station is not only historic, but especially unique. Fire Station No. 12 had the Grateful Dead logo on the driver’s side of its truck (see picture) symbolizing its tribute to Haight-Ashbury.

  Our next stop was Belverdere Street. This street was really cool because believe it or not, an amusement park used to exist on that very street. The amusement park was named the Chutes and even included a huge water slide that was about 300 feet long. However, due to the poor weather in San Francisco, it is no surprise that this amusement park did not last very long and was later relocated.

  While continuing our tour, we walked past a San Francisco Food Bank and along the side of the building was a historical mural painted in 1977. Charles Lobdell designed it and theme was “The Spirit of Youth in America”. This mural includes Martin Luther King Jr. and John F Kennedy on the far left, while also displaying various scenes of youth coming together in unity through celebration and nature.

  The next part of our tour is when things got really interesting because we started looking at different houses. The first house that I posted above with the address number 719 Ashbury Street was originally home to the Hells Angels. Although there have definitely been renovations to the house over the years, it is still an incredible sight.  While we were taking pictures it was no surprise that we found more people walking down the street taking pictures as well that were not on our tour. This house was great to see, however, the next house was my favorite.

  This house was originally home to the Grateful Dead. It includes ten rooms and back in the day had an open door policy where anyone was allowed in. There were constantly people coming in and out bonding over music. The sidewalk in front of the house includes painted pictures of Jerry Garcia and other band members.  In addition, on the side of the house on the meter box, there was also a painted picture of Jerry Garcia.

  Take into account this house address is 710 Ashbury and directly across from the Hells Angels house. In class we learned from our California Notable presentations that these two famous groups became very close and eventually the Hells Angels worked as security for the Grateful Dead. According to Izu, their relationship started after the death of one of the Hells Angels where the group then asked the Grateful Dead to provide a tribute concert for the deceased member. After that, the Hells Angels started providing security services for the Grateful Dead and were content with being paid with beer.

  Janice Joplin lived at 635 Ashbury Street.  She could conveniently go up the street and visit with the Hells Angels, cross the street and rock with the Grateful Dead and back down the street she could visit her boyfriend. When she wanted some time to herself, she went to her apartment in this pink building shown in the picture.

  Finally we reached the actual strip of Haight-Ashbury. Here I posted pictures where you can see a mural that was dedicated to Jimmi Hendrix, several boutiques and shops, and a picture of me in front of the famous Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop that is on the corner of Haight-Ashbury. Lastly there is my favorite mural that was just added in 2012 and themed after the magnolia flower. I love all the vibrant colors it includes and there are constantly people taking pictures in front of it, it’s definitely a sight to see. Some of you may know the song by the Grateful Dead, “sugar magnolia”, which is why I found this mural to be very appropriate in the Haight-Ashbury community.

  Our tour ended at the Herb’n Inn, which also includes the Psychedelic History Museum. Inside the Inn we were welcome to look all throughout the downstairs area. I posted pictures of the dinning room, which displays countless pictures of the Haight-Ashbury culture and community. The Herb’n Inn typically holds students who are going to school in the area or people who are touring the area. I was taken by surprise at how big the place (looks can definitely be very deceiving). Walking up to the Inn it looked fairly small from the outside, but I was wrong. The house was actually very spacious with 14-foot ceilings, much larger than I expected.

  My mom and I really enjoyed this tour because there was just so much information to take in. Izu was a great tour guide whose passion for the Haight-Ashbury made it so enjoyable. Besides all the landmarks we looked at, Izu also gave us insights to her experience during the summer of love and the atmosphere of the Haight-Ashbury culture. She emphasized how the hippie lifestyle was to embrace having a free spirit and showing love for others and nature. The drugs that later entered the picture are what ended the love movements. In addition, music is what brought so many people together during that time. I am so thankful for our California notable presentations because I had prior knowledge of The Grateful Dead, Hells Angels, and Jefferson Airplane and could understand what was being said about them and now actually appreciate them. Below I have a listed a link to the Flower Power Tour if any of you are interested in taking it. I would highly recommended visiting Haight-Ashbury and taking the Flower Power Walking Tour to experience the hippie culture.

Flower Power Walking Tour:
http://www.haightashburytour.com

I hope you all enjoyed my project and thanks for stopping by!

As Izu would say, peace!….Katey DeSanti