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How ‘Urban Renewal’ Decimated the Fillmore District, and Took Jazz With It | KQED

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If you were walking down San Francisco’s Fillmore Street in the 1950s, chances are you might run into Billie Holiday stepping out of a restaurant. Or Ella Fitzgerald trying on hats. Or Thelonious Monk smoking a cigarette. This wouldn’t be out of the ordinary in the “Harlem of the West.” Musician Terry Hilliard started playing at venues in the Fillmore District when he was a student at San Francisco State. “[The Fillmore] was a place where talent could be developed, whether it be music, art, dancing or whatever it was … it was a place where you could express yourself and be accepted by others and you had an audience,” says Hilliard. But, Hilliard says he doesn’t see that kind of culture anymore today. To understand why the music scene in the Fillmore has changed, you have to go back to when so many of San Francisco’s stories begin: the 1906 earthquake. The Fillmore District, today known as the area defined by Turk Street and Geary Boulevard (its boundaries have changed over the years),

Bay Curious How ‘Urban Renewal’ Decimated the Fillmore District, and Took Jazz With It To understand why the jazz music scene in the Fillmore has changed, you have to go back to when so many of San Francisco's stories begin: the 1906 earthquake. Jun 25, 2020 Updated Nov 21, 2023 Bianca Taylor Listen Jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie with San Francisco Mayor George Christopher in 1957. (San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library) If you were walking down San Francisco's Fillmore Street in the 1950s, chances are you might run into Billie Holiday stepping out of a restaurant. Or Ella

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