The SoMa Leather District

In 2018 San Francisco designated a stretch of Folsom Street as the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, the first leather cultural district in the world. The blocks had been the center of the city’s gay leather community for decades.

Folsom Street and the Miracle Mile

From the 1960s on, the South of Market blocks around Folsom Street held a concentration of gay leather bars, clubs, and businesses. The strip was known as the Miracle Mile. One of the first bars, the Tool Box, appeared in a 1964 Life magazine article on gay life in America.

The cultural district

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors created the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District in 2018. The designation was meant to protect the area’s bars, housing, and institutions from displacement as the surrounding neighborhood redeveloped. The district covers about ten blocks of central SoMa.

Folsom Street Fair

The Folsom Street Fair began in 1984 and is held on the last Sunday of September. It is the largest leather and fetish event in the world, and it closes several blocks of Folsom to traffic.

Landmarks

The SF Eagle, a leather bar at 398 12th Street, has operated on that corner since 1981. Powerhouse is on Folsom at 1347. Ringold Alley, between 8th and 9th off Folsom, holds a leather history memorial installed in 2017, with bronze markers naming people and businesses from the community.