The Mission Dolores is a residential neighborhood in SFAR’s District 5 (Central). It is bounded on the north by Market Street, to the west by Church Street, to the south by 20th Street, and to the east by Valencia Street.

This area truly is the heart of San Francisco, not only because of its central location, but because it is the area that has the longest occupation. Ohlone Indians had a village called Chutchui along the shores of a now-defunct lagoon that occupied what now comprises the neighborhood. A monument still stands on Albion Street marking its location. It’s there that Spanish settlers built their first mission in 1776, relocating it to the current location on Dolores at 16th beginning in 1782. The current Old Mission building, completed in 1791, is the oldest structure in San Francisco.

Like its adjacent neighborhoods, it was slow to develop until later in the 19th century, when modern San Francisco began to creep southwest from downtown. Evidence of this is still apparent in the presence of Victorian structures from the 1870s onward — but not in all parts of the neighborhood.

The fires that ensued from the 1906 earthquake raged to the west and south from their origins in SoMa and downtown. Firefighters struggled to hold the line at Dolores Street. In the end, it was a single fire hydrant at the corner of 20th and Church, the southwestern corner of this neighborhood, that allows them to keep the fires at bay and save the rest of the Mission District and Eureka Valley. (Consequently, most of the structures in the area today postdate 1906.) Every year on the anniversary of the quake, the hydrant is painted gold in commemoration of its service.

The area saw a major blossoming starting in the mid-1990s when Sam Mogannam took over managing his family’s business, Bi-Rite Market, turning it into a European-style market. The neighborhood had been evolving, with a new influx of younger residents moving in. With the growth of the businesses along the Valencia Corridor, the Mission Dolores became a hotbed for dining and nightlife. Today, it remains as vibrant as ever.