20 apartments for rent in Castro, San Francisco, CA

The Castro is the famous GLBT-friendly neighborhood of San Francisco. It began to gain its identity when gay World War II servicemen who had been discharged in San Francisco stayed in the area. It expanded because rents were reasonable and a sense of community began to grow.

Market Street and Seventeenth Street border the neighborhood on the north; Clayton Street, Graystone Terrace, and Burnett Avenue on the west; Corbett Avenue, Market Street, and Twenty-Second Street on the south; and Dolores Street on the east. ZIP codes for The Castro are 94110 and 94114.

The Castro is hilly, with a bustling main street. Away from the busy streets, lovely homes line up along sloping streets that reveal hidden public stairways, tiny parks, and surprising vistas across the city.

Architecture in The Castro includes many kinds of Victorians, and row houses of later vintage are plentiful, too. Some are brightly painted and others plain, but somehow they all harmonize.

Castro parks include Kite Hill on Corwin Street, a wild open space with a dirt path winding up to great views. Just downhill, tiny Steward Street Park has fast concrete slides. Dolores Park, on the other side of the neighborhood on Nineteenth Street, takes up two well-groomed city blocks, with tennis courts, a playground, and a dog area.

Castro Street, at the center of the neighborhood, is the main shopping, restaurant, and entertainment area. Twenty-Fourth Street also has shopping.

Harvey Milk Plaza at Castro and Market streets is an entrance to the municipal subway. It is possible to make connections there to all of San Francisco and to commute throughout much of the Bay Area using the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, a combination of subways and elevated trains. The entrance to I-101 is nearby at Market and Octavia streets.