Where History Was Made / A tour of 41 points of gay interest all across the city

The Castro district as gay mecca has been a phenomenon of the past 30 years. But there has been a gay community in San Francisco since the early 20th century, and probably before that. It started in North Beach, moved around to the waterfront, then made the slow migration up Market Street into the Tenderloin, out Polk Street and finally to the Castro.

The following map shows 40 points of interest in San Francisco gay history. It was created with the help of Willie Walker at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transsexual Historical Society and Jim Van Buskirk and Susan Stryker, co-authors of "Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area."

1 The Dash: 574 Pacific Ave. This short-lived bar featured boys in dresses and closed in 1908. It was part of the "Sodom by the Sea" subculture of North Beach.

2 Finocchio's: 506 Broadway. The first gay bar to spring up after Prohibition. Touted as "America's Most Unusual Night Club," it became a haven for female impersonators but catered to straight tourists. It closed in 1999 after 63 years.

3 Mona's Club 440: 440 Broadway. The city's first lesbian bar, it featured pianist Gladys Bentley, a large African American woman in white tails and top hat. Closed in 1948, it became Ann's 440 Club and now the Chi Chi Club.

4 Black Cat Cafe: 710 Montgomery St. Here drag performer Jose Sarria sang "God Save Us Nellie Queens" to the tune of "My Country Tis of Thee." Owner Sol Stoumen fought the legality of closing a bar just because it served known homosexuals. The law was overturned by the California Supreme Court, but the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and San Francisco police retaliated by harassing gay bars until Black Cat closed in 1963. This is not the restaurant at Broadway and Kearny.

5. 12 Adler Place: 12 Adler Place, off Columbus Avenue. A lesbian hangout in the 1950s.

6. Army and Navy YMCA: 166 Embarcadero. It's not necessarily the one that inspired the gay anthem by the Village People, but it may as well have been.

7. Sailor Boy Tavern: 24 Howard St. Opened in 1938, it was convenient to travelers staying at the YMCA. Closed in 1953.

8. Old Crow: 962 Market St. Opened in 1935, it was the last of the old gay bars, including the College Inn and Pirate's Den, on the island where Market Street meets Turk Street. It closed in the early 1980s.

9. The Silver Rail: 974 Market St. Opened in 1942. There were doors on both Market and Turk so when the cops came in the front, customers would run out the back, and vice versa. When the cops outsmarted them by coming in both sides, they'd outsmart the cops by going into a series of underground tunnels that connected the bars along the strip.

10. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Transsexual Historical Society of Northern California: 973 Market St. An archive of gay Bay Area history. Boxes and boxes of pins, programs and posters are stacked warehouse-style.

11. Frisco Disco: 60 Sixth St. Started as the Frisco Club in 1973, it evolved to Frisco Disco in 1977 then Frisco Roy-al from 1979 to 1983 with male go-go dancers. Still above the entrance are 15 colored light panels on the marquee that used to announce Frisco Disco.

12. SIR Center: 83 Sixth St. The world's first gay community center, founded by the Society for Individual Rights in 1966.

13. Gene Compton's Cafeteria: 101 Taylor St. at Turk. Site of a 1966 riot between cops swinging clubs and drag queens swinging purses, leading to 46 arrests. The riot, mostly overlooked, happened three years before Stonewall. Susan Stryker, executive director of the Center for the History of Sexual Diversity, is making a documentary film about it.

14. Glide Memorial Church: 320 Ellis St. at Taylor. Many gay support groups started there, including the Helping Hands Center, Vanguard: the first queer youth group: and Conversion Our Goal, the nation's first transsexual peer support group.

15. California Hall: 600 Polk St. at Turk. Site of a Mardi Gras Ball held on Jan. 1, 1965 to benefit the Council on Religion and the Homosexual. Uninvited, the police arrived in force to photograph arriving couples, often a man in black tie escorting a man in a formal gown. CRH lawyers denied police entry without a warrant and were arrested, starting a campaign against gay harassment in the city.

16. Polk Street: In the 1960s and '70s there were 65 gay bars, peep show parlors, baths and hotels on the strip. Among those still there are the Wooden Horse (622 Polk), opened in 1977; the Locker Room Book Store (1038), opened in 1979; Le Salon (1118), with its erotic window display, opened in 1968; Giraffe (1131), opened in 1979; Kimo's (1351), opened in 1978; N'Touch, (1548), the first gay bar for Asians, opened in 1974; and the Cinch (1723), with its wooden Indian in front since 1975.

17. City Hall: Harvey Milk was assassinated in his second-floor office, as was Mayor George Moscone, on Nov. 27, 1978. The front of City Hall, facing east, was the site of the White Night riot on May 21, 1979. After the verdict came in convicting former Supervisor Dan White of manslaughter instead of murder, 5,000 people converged on the scene of the crime, breaking windows, turning over and burning police cars and causing $1 million in damage.

18. James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center: 100 Larkin St. Located in the new Main Library, it is the first study center for gay and lesbian history in a public library. The third-floor center has rotating exhibits beneath a mural of men, women and children working together to eliminate ignorance.

19. Market Street: The hill leading from Van Ness to the Castro is the site of the AIDS vigil and many organized and unorganized marches.

20. Atlas Savings & Loan: 1967 Market St. The nation's first gay-owned bank opened and closed in 1983. Now it's a Kinko's.

21. Cafe Flore: 2298 Market St. A gay meet-and-greet place since 1977, at the intersection of Noe and Market streets. Once nicknamed Cafe Hairdo. First stop for out-of-towners.

22. Twin Peaks: 401 Castro St. at Market. Opened in 1972 as the nation's first ground-floor gay bar with clear plate-glass windows inviting commuters on Market Street to look in.

23. Castro Theatre: 429 Castro St. The big neon marquee is an unintentional beacon for the gay community. People who go to the movies are greeted by a totally camp scene, with an organist rising through the floor to pump out classics, then going back down before the feature begins.

24. Star Pharmacy: 498 Castro St. In December 1981, AIDS poster boy Bobbi Campbell posted in the display window the first notices describing the "gay cancer" that was to plague the Castro. Star Pharmacy closed in 1985, and the window now belongs to Walgreens. Ironically, a few years later this location set a prescription sales record, noted by a plaque on the wall.

25. Elephant Walk: 500 Castro St. After the White Night riots, the police came here to rough up gays for burning their squad cars. The bar sued the city and won. Closed in 1995, the Elephant Walk is now Harvey's, with a photo wall in back dedicated to gay superstars like Liberace, Dave Kopay and Martina Navratilova.

26. Castro Camera: 575 Castro St. Harvey Milk's store, now the Skin Zone soap shop, is marked by a plaque in the sidewalk describing the life of the city's first openly gay elected official.

27. Josie's Cabaret & Juice Joint: 3583 16th St. A pioneering gay comedy club, the 100-seat room sent gay talent out into the straight world for 10 years until it closed at the end of last year. It is now being transformed to a Zao Noodle Bar.

28. Pendulum: 4146 18th St. The first Castro district bar for gay people of color opened in 1970 and is still going strong. The bar is horseshoe-shaped so cruisers can go in one door, around the bar and pool table then out the other door, round and round all night. The Pendulum basketball team, heroes of the Gay Games, greets its public Thursdays and Sundays after games.

29. Buena Vista Park: A famous meet-and-greet cruise area during the 1970s and 1980s until the parks department cut back some of the foliage. Still site of Friday margarita parties for owners of golden retrievers, Jack Russells and miniature collies.

30. Maud's Study: 937 Cole St. at Parnassus. A popular lesbian bar in the Haight from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s.

31. Kezar Stadium: Site of the first Gay Games from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5, 1982 in Golden Gate Park. Conceived by Dr. Tom Waddell, 1,300 male and female athletes competed in 16 sports.

32. National AIDS Memorial Grove: Golden Gate Park, at the intersection of Bowling Green Drive and Middle Drive East, off John F. Kennedy Drive. A redwood grove and rock garden surrounds the Circle of Friends, thousands of names of people affected by AIDS.

33. Lion Pub: 2062 Divisadero St. at Sacramento. The oldest continuously operating gay bar in the city, looking like Christmas every day since 1969. Located on the southern edge of Pacific Heights, it still draws the upscale sweater crowd.

34. Big Glass: 1801 Fillmore St. Opened in 1964, it was the first black-owned gay bar in the city. It closed in 1968.

35. Mark Hopkins Hotel: 999 California St. The Nob Hill hotel where the world's most renowned lesbian couple: Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas: stayed in 1935 when they returned from France to their native Bay Area. "San Francisco is a good town for haircuts," Toklas said.

36. 44 Macondray Lane: Model for Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City." Between Union and Green, Taylor and Leavenworth.

37. Rich Street Baths: 330 Rich St. First bathhouse, also known as Club San Francisco, was advertised by a lurid billboard at Market and Castro streets. Huge hot tub from 1967 to 1977, now a hipster bar with the same brick walls.

38. Folsom Street Barracks: 1145 Folsom St. Throughout the 1970s, men in towels lounged on the stairs or retired to group rooms with bunk beds. The entrance was behind the Red Star saloon, where bathers were issued a locker key and towel. It burned down in 1981, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence filled vials with the ash and sold them as holy relics called "Ashes From the Barracks" at the Folsom Street Fair.

39. Theatre Rhinoceros: 2926 16th St. between Mission and South Van Ness. The oldest and longest-running gay and lesbian theater company in the world, started in 1977, and in the historic Redstone building since 1981.

40. Esta Noche: 3079 16th St. at Valencia Street. Opened in 1979 and still going strong as the city's premier Latino gay bar and site of a midnight drag show. There's nothing like it between here and Norma Jean's in Castroville.

41. The Stud: 1535 Folsom St. Site of the original muslce bar, from 1966 to 1988.