South Park is a small oval green between Second and Third, Bryant and Brannan, laid out in 1854 by an English developer who modeled it on a London residential square. It is the oldest park in San Francisco still in its original form. In the 19th century it was a fashionable address, then a working-class and Japanese American neighborhood, then an industrial zone.
In the 1990s the surrounding warehouses filled with internet startups, and South Park became the geographic center of the first dot-com boom. Wired magazine was founded nearby. The cafes and offices around the oval still lean tech. The park is a quiet oval of lawn and benches in the middle of it all.
Part of a self-guided walking tour
