The stories behind San Francisco's street names



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Haven't you ever wondered whom San Francisco's Castro Street is was named after? Or if there ever was a big market on Market Street?

The stories behind the names of San Francisco streets involve Gold Rush prostitutes, a high-profile criminal imposter and a notorious double-murder, a highlight of the city's politically corrupt past.

Would you expect anything less from San Francisco's history books? Of course not.

Naturally, we decided to compile some of the more interesting historical tidbits behind the city's street names.

Many offer an unusual peek into life in early San Francisco -- such as the street that references a former dirty lagoon where laundry was done during the Gold Rush.

There are also some head scratchers, such as the street that translates to "damned to hell."

For this project, we studied San Francisco history by poring over San Francisco Chronicle archives (thank you Bill Van Niekerken for digging up old photos) and utilizing other sites we have listed below.

Study up and be ready to impress friends or visitors with San Francisco facts!

In addition to the Chronicle archives, we used these resources:

Noah Veltman's very cool interactive "History of SF Place Names Map"

The virtual museum of the city of San Francisco

And we checked some names against this "The Beginnings of San Francisco" on the S.F. genealogy website