San Francisco Neighborhoods · Visitacion Valley
Visitacion Valley
also Viz ValleyFog zoneA quiet, working-class corner of San Francisco's far southeast, where a multicultural community gathers along the little Leland Avenue main street between the Cow Palace and the green slopes of McLaren Park.
- Leland Avenue main street
- Steps from McLaren Park
- Deeply multicultural
- T-Third light rail at the door
On the map
Open Visitacion Valley on the map →The story
Spanish friars and soldiers bound for the new Presidio camped in this bayside valley in 1777 on the Catholic Feast of the Visitation, giving the area its name. Through the 19th century it was a landscape of farms and dairies on the old Rancho Cañada de Guadalupe la Visitacion y Rodeo Viejo. In 1926 the Schlage Lock Company opened a factory here that made locks and anchored the local economy for more than seventy years, drawing a working-class immigrant community. Schlage closed in 1999, and the former plant is now being redeveloped as the mixed-use Baylands North community, approved in 2014 with roughly 1,670 new homes. Today Visitacion Valley is one of the city's most diverse neighborhoods, with Asian residents making up over half the population.
Things most people don’t know
Named for a feast day
A 1777 expedition camped here on the Catholic Feast of the Visitation, and the valley has carried the name 'Visitacion' ever since.
Schlage Lock town
The Schlage Lock factory opened in 1926 and made locks here for over 70 years until it closed in 1999.
Baylands North rising
The former Schlage Lock site, approved for redevelopment in 2014, is being rebuilt as a mixed-use community with around 1,670 homes.
The Greenway
The Visitacion Valley Greenway, begun in 2000, links six one-block parks and community gardens from Leland Avenue toward McLaren Park.
T-Third terminus
The neighborhood's Sunnydale Station anchors the south end of Muni's T-Third light rail line, which since 2023 runs through to Chinatown.
Eating and drinking
Restaurants
- Pho Luen Fat · 110 Leland Ave
Bars
- Mission Blue · 144 Leland Ave
Getting around and getting care
Transit. Sunnydale Station anchors the south end of Muni Metro's T-Third line (extended through downtown to Chinatown in 2023). Bus lines 8-Bayshore, 9-San Bruno and 56 serve the area, and Bayshore Caltrain is just to the east.
Nearest hospital. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, 1001 Potrero Ave (about 5 mi)
Thinking about Visitacion Valley?
Send me an address and I will come back with its sun, wind and fog, what is under it, and what has closed on the block.