Panhandle (San Francisco)

Panhandle (San Francisco)

The Panhandle is a park in San Francisco, California that forms a panhandle with Golden Gate Park. It is long and narrow, being three-quarters of a mile long and one block wide. Fell Street borders it to the north, Oak Street to the south, and Baker Street to the east. The Haight-Ashbury District lies to the south of it. Only two streets run through it, Stanyan Street at the western end between it and Golden Gate Park, and Masonic Avenue through the middle. Two paved walking paths run through it from Golden Gate Park to Baker Street, one allowing bicycles. There are basketball courts, a public restroom and a playground in the section between Stanyan Street and Masonic Avenue.

The William McKinley Monument is at the foot of the park, facing the DMV across Baker Street. It was dedicated in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt, who succeeded McKinley after his assassination in 1901.

The Panhandle is near the geographic center of the city, and forms the southern boundary of the Western Addition neighborhood and the northern boundary of the Haight-Ashbury. At least from the 1990s if not before, the area north of the panhandle, bounded by Divisadero, Fell, Turk, and Stanyan Streets, has been termed North Panhandle, North of the Panhandle, or, more colloquially, NoPa.