In 1845
José de Jesús Noé was granted
Rancho San Miguel, stretching from
Twin Peaks into
Noe and Eureka valleys. In 1854 John M. Horner purchased the ranch and laid out Horner's Addition in a grid bounded by Castro Street on the west,
Valencia Street on the east, 18th Street on the north and 30th Street on the south. Eureka Valley was part of the
Mission Dolores subdivision but was not developed until the 1890s and the early 1900s. After the 1906 earthquake, thousands of earthquake refugees began purchasing lots and erecting cottages and flats in the area. The momentum continued after the completion of
Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 and the
Municipal Railway's J Church streetcar line in 1917. The Eureka Valley branch of the
San Francisco Public Library opened in 1902 at the corner of Noe and Seventeenth streets. The original building, damaged in the 1957
Daly City earthquake, was replaced by the current structure in 1962, and refurbished in 2009. The commercial area of Eureka Valley, centered on the intersection of 18th Street and Castro Street, was transformed in the 1970s with the development of the
gay community known as "
The Castro." ==Gallery==