Chinatown, San Francisco: the Dragon Gate, Waverly Place and the alleys

Chinatown is built to a grid of long blocks and short alleys, and almost all of it went up at once. SF Planning's parcel records bear that out frontage by frontage along Grant Avenue: 700-720 in 1906, 733-741 in 1906, 715-717 in 1907, 824-843 in 1908, 900-916 in 1908, 942-951 in 1907, and 1019-1029 in 1924. Waverly Place is the same story a block over, with Nos. 100-108, 143-147 and 151-155 dating from 1906 and Nos. 29-35 and 125-129 from 1911. SF Planning records the Chinatown Historic District as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and for the California Register, and its own note on the record says that neither has been formalised officially.

Grant Avenue is the wide street, 都板街 in Chinese. Stockton Street, which SF Planning dates in the same years — 1000-1032 in 1907, 843 in 1908, 1009-1011 in 1910, 830-848 in 1915, 1040-1044 in 1920 — is where the produce and fish shops are. The alleys are where the temples and the association halls sit: Waverly Place, whose Chinese name 天后廟街 means Tin How Temple Street, after the temple on the top floor at No. 125; Ross Alley, laid out in 1849; Spofford Street, whose buildings SF Planning dates to 1906, 1907 and 1908. At Grant Avenue and California Street the Sing Chong Building faces the Sing Fat Building across the intersection. At 743 Washington Street is the building that housed the Chinese Telephone Exchange, which SF Planning dates to 1909.

Two institutions with long histories are working buildings rather than visitor sites, and a traveller reads them from the pavement. Gordon J. Lau Elementary School at 950 Clay Street opened in September 1859 as a segregated public school for Chinese children, later became the Oriental Public School, and was renamed in 1998 for the San Francisco supervisor Gordon J. Lau; a California law of 1860 barred "Negroes, Mongolians, and Indians" from the public schools and permitted segregated schools instead. Chinese Hospital at 845 Jackson Street traces its origins to 1899 and the Oriental Dispensary, which opened as the Tung Wah Yi Kuk at 828 Sacramento Street and moved after 1906 to 14 Trenton Street. Bruce Lee was born at Chinese Hospital on 27 November 1940.

Chinatown-Rose Pak station is under Stockton Street at Washington Street and opened on 19 November 2022 as part of the Central Subway. Muni routes 1, 8, 30 and 45, the 8AX and 8BX peak expresses, the T Bus and the 91 Owl also serve it. The station structure extends 100 feet below ground and carries a 5,400-square-foot plaza on its roof.

The California Street cable car line crosses Grant Avenue. Stockton Street runs under the hill through the Stockton Street Tunnel, whose south portal is at Bush Street and whose north portal is at Sacramento Street; it opened in 1914 and holds a maximum grade of 4.29 percent, against the 18 percent climb north from Sutter Street and the 12 percent climb south from Sacramento Street that it replaced.

Steer by addresses. The Dragon Gate stands at Grant Avenue and Bush Street. Old St Mary's is at 660 California Street, on the corner of Grant Avenue. The Chinese Historical Society of America is at 965 Clay Street, the Chinatown/Him Mark Lai branch library at 1135 Powell Street and Donaldina Cameron House at 920 Sacramento Street. The Chinese Culture Center's Art Center and Design Store is at 667 Grant Avenue and its office at 750 Kearny Street, third floor mezzanine. Portsmouth Square is bounded by Kearny Street, Washington Street, Clay Street and Walter U. Lum Place. Willie "Woo Woo" Wong Playground is at 830 Sacramento Street, between Waverly Place and Pagoda Place, on the number given by Rec & Park's own project page and by OpenStreetMap; Rec & Park's property dataset gives 850 Sacramento Street for the same park.

Start with the closure at the centre of the quarter. Rec & Park's advisory reads: "Portsmouth Square is now closed for renovation through mid-2028." Construction began on 10 June 2026, and demolition of the pedestrian bridge that carried walkers over Kearny Street was completed on 14 August 2026.

Four institutions publish their own hours. The Chinese Historical Society of America opens Wednesday and Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and states that it is closed on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday; it names no admission price. The Chinatown/Him Mark Lai branch library opens Sunday 1 to 5, Monday 10 to 6, Tuesday to Thursday 10 to 8, Friday 1 to 6 and Saturday 10 to 6. The Chinese Culture Center's Art Center and Design Store opens 11am to 6pm, Thursday to Monday, its office 9am to 6pm, and its Him Mark Lai Learning Center by appointment. Old St Mary's gives church hours of Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm, Saturday 11.30am to 6pm and Sunday 8am to 3pm, with mass at 5pm on Saturday, 9am and 11am on Sunday and 12.05pm Tuesday to Friday.

The temples are harder. No source states opening hours for Tin How Temple, for Kong Chow Temple or for the Ma-Tsu Temple of U.S.A., so none are given here; photography is not permitted inside Tin How. The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory's own site states two different sets of opening hours, so none are given for it either.

Among the places to eat and shop, Mister Jiu's, R&G Lounge, Z & Y Restaurant, Sam Wo, the Wok Shop and Red Blossom Tea Company all publish a full week on their own sites; Sam Wo opens Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 9pm, and closes on Monday. Hang Ah Tea Room publishes only the current day's hours, so none are given here.