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on three sides, with Castro and Noe Valley to the west, Potrero Hill to the east and Bernal Heights to the south. Mission St was once San Francisco’s ‘miracle mile’ of deco cinemas and Sunday strollers, and though most of the cinemas are now occupied by 99 Cent stores, faded marquees remain and Latino families still stroll Mission St dressed for church on Sundays. On parallel Valencia St, former appliance storefronts are now prime locations for hip restaurants, local designers and vintage boutiques. The street known as El Corazón de la Mission (the heart of the Mission) is 24th St, with its bodegas, mural-covered alleyways and taquerias (taco restaurants).

Potrero Hill is divided from the Mission by a couple of streets and several income brackets, but on the downward slope of Potrero off 3rd St between 18th and 22nd Sts, galleries, bars and reasonable restaurants are springing up among the shipyards in an area known as the Dogpatch. Downhill among the warehouses clustered around 16th St are furniture designers, the San Francisco Center for the Book and the California College of the Arts.

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THE MISSION & POTRERO HILL

Murals in Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley Click here

826 Valencia

Creativity Explored

Intersection for the Arts

California College of the Arts

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MISSION DOLORES Map

415-621-8203; www.missiondolores.org; 3321 16th St; adult/senior & child $5/3, audio tour $5; 9am-4pm Nov-Apr, to 4:30pm May-Oct; 14, 22, 33, 49, J; 16th St Mission

The city’s oldest building and its namesake, the Missión San Francisco de Asis, was founded in 1776 and rebuilt in 1782 with conscripted Ohlone labor in exchange for a meal a day – note the ceiling patterned after Native baskets. The building’s nickname, Mission Dolores (Mission of the Sorrows), was taken from a nearby lake, but it turned out to be tragically apt. With harsh living conditions and little resistance to introduced diseases, some 5000 Ohlone died in mission measles epidemics in 1814 and 1826. A replica Ohlone hut commemorates their mass burial in the graveyard, among early Mexican and European settlers. Recent restorations in the old mission have revealed a hidden mural behind the altar painted by Ohlone artisans: a small, grim sacred heart, pierced by a sword and dripping with blood.

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TRANSPORTATION: THE MISSION & POTRERO HILL

BART Stations at 16th and 24th Sts serve the Mission.

Bus Line 14 runs along Mission St from Downtown. Bus 49 follows Van Ness Ave and Mission St, while the 33 links Potrero and the Mission to the Castro, the Haight, Golden Gate Park and the Richmond. The 22 connects Potrero Hill and the Mission to the Haight, Japantown, Pacific Heights and the Marina.

Streetcar The J streetcar passes through the Mission, stopping at Mission Dolores Park on its way from Downtown to Noe Valley. The T Muni line from Downtown via SoMa stops along 3rd St between 16th and 22nd, in Potrero’s Dogpatch district.

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Today, the modest adobe mission is overshadowed by the adjoining ornate Churriguera-esque basilica, built in 1913 after an 1876 brick Gothic cathedral collapsed in the 1906 earthquake. The front doors are usually open only during services, so to get inside you’ll need to head into the small entryway shop, pass through the original mission structure and cross a courtyard.

Your eyes may take a moment to adjust once you’re inside, because most of the light is filtered through the basilica’s splendid stained-glass windows. The choir windows show St Francis beaming beatifically against an orange background, and lower windows along the nave feature the 21 California missions from Santa Cruz to San Diego and mission builders Father Junípero Serra and Father Francisco Palou. Seven panels depict the Seven Sorrows of Mary, one above the main door and three on each of the side balconies.

Along with the Ohlone memorial, the cemetery out back is packed with graves dating from the Gold Rush. Alongside mission founders are Don Luis Antonio Arguello, the first governor of Alta California under Mexican