Neighborhoods in San Francisco - Mission Dolores

Mission Dolores

Mission Dolores, bounded by Market Street, the Central Freeway, Valencia Street, Twentieth Street, and Church/Sanchez Streets (transitioning at Eighteenth Street), is the oldest neighborhood in San Francisco and therefore its birthplace. It is named after the Spanish Mission Dolores settlement of 1776, and is a sub-area of the Mission District neighborhood. The location of the Mission Dolores was chosen because of proximity to the Yelamu grouping of the Ramaytush band of Ohlone-speaking peoples living in the villages of Chutchui and Sitlintac on Mission Creek which date to approximately A.D. 500. The Ohlone people together with the Coast Miwok served as laborers to build the Mission San Francisco de Asís as part of the Spanish colonization. On March 17, 2010, the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) unanimously adopted the final Mission Dolores Neighborhood Historic Context Statement and Survey. That document outlines the historic importance of the neighborhood. It can be found on the Planning Department's web site.