

Why this specific corner?

Well in the mid-60s young people flocked to this neighborhood attracted by cheap rent. At this very building, at the Doolan-Larson building, the first hippie boutique on Haight Street opened, Mnasidika. Mnasidika closed in 1968, but the space as it was is virtually unchanged. The storefront here was owned by a young woman named Peggy Caserta. She was 24 years old when she opened it. The name refers to the first known lesbians in history and among her early friends and customers were members of an unknown band called The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin — who would become her lover until Janice's death in 1970. She is credited with convincing Levi Strauss to produce bell bottom jeans for the first time. She was selling homemade version of bell bottom jeans and then approached Levi's and is credited for starting that trend.

Wow I feel like there should be a plaque right here so people can know which store was Mnasidika.

Over the next several months we'll be working with the National Trust (for Historic Preservation) and the Haight Street Art Center for a future cultural destination at this site and Mnasidika will be a prominent part of that because it reflects so many of the values that the counterculture movement embodied whether it be fashion, music, attitudes towards sexuality. I think Mnasidika's story is really reflective of those things.