Lovin' the Haight

On our visit to San Francisco I just had to go around and visit the homes of the old rock stars that occupied the Haight back in the day. I'll post some images of buildings today and people tomorrow. Both are amazing experiences and it was wonderful revisiting the idealism and starry-eyed quality of the 60s.

I'm such an ornament fanatic that I am in heaven looking at the old Queen Anne style houses and their architectural detail. I was fascinated by this facade that clearly got separated from another row house at some point.



The row houses perched on hills are a tantalizing sight, like those dozens of kinds of fudge in the old time candy shops.



Our first stop was at the old boarding house for Janis Joplin. She lived in the room with the curved balcony.





The buildings are still painted in fanciful and colorful style.



We visited all kinds of "historic" sights - the oldest head shop in the Haight (where we dutifully bought buttons/badges with psychadellic images, an anarchist bookstore, a coffee shop.



Our next stop was the home of Jerry Garcia. In case we weren't sure which house it was, the dead heads had left a mark on the sidewalk for us.



The house was large and stately.





Some of the buildings were interesting because of what was in the windows.



Those are punk raisins in the top playing guitars.

The last house on the tour was where Jefferson Airplane hung out. They painted the whole house black and you can still see the signs of the black undercoat on the pillars which don't have a sparkling white quality.







Here is the famous corner.



And here is what it felt like being there! Really cool!