Haight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco and was famous
in the 1960s for its role as a center of the hippie movement.
The 60s era and modern American counterculture have been synonymous
with San Francisco and the upper Haight neighborhood ever since.
Haight-Ashbury is further broken into The Upper Haight and the
Haight-Fillmore or Lower Haight district. The names of the streets
themselves are taken from pioneer and exchange banker Henry Haight
(or perhaps the tenth governor of California, Henrey Huntley
Haight, Henry's nephew), and one of the city's first politicians,
Sup. Ashbury. Both Haight and his nephew as well as Ashbury
had a hand in planning the neighborhood, and, more importantly,
nearby Golden Gate Park at its inception.
Today property in the area is in high demand, which is a testament
to the long history and many attractions of Haight-Ashbury, and
much of what attracted the artist to paint it as it. |