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Maya Angelou’s San Francisco is full of places that helped shape the identity of the beloved poet and author. It’s where she first donned the name, Maya Angelou, after all. She graduated high school in the city, got a job as one of (if not the first) Black women streetcar conductor, tried on calypso dancing and stage performing for size, and birthed her only child. Here are the best sites to see in the Bay Area that touched the author’s life.
MAYA ANGELOU’S SAN FRANCISCO AND BEYOND: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO SEE
George Washington High School
600 32nd Avenue, San Francisco
During WWII, Angelou attended George Washington High School in the Richmond District for a short time before dropping out. It was at this time that she also took dance and drama classes at the short-lived California Labor School (Angelou would have attended the original California Labor School located at 678 Turk Street). George Washington High School is a 1936 Art Deco building overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.
The lobby of the high school is decorated by murals commissioned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal era Works Progress Administration. Painted by a Diego Rivera student, Victor Arnautoff, the murals feature scenes from the life of George Washington.
The murals have faced controversy over the years for their depictions of slavery and white indentured servitude at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate as well an allegorical criticism toward the idea of Manifest Destiny in which a deceased Native American is shown being tread over by pioneers.
Notable alumni include Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Johnny Mathis, the daughter of Chez Panisse owner and California cooking pioneer Alice Waters, Betty Ong who was a flight attendant on 9/11 plane AA Flight 11, and Diane Amos (the Pine-Sol lady!) among many others.
Market Street Railway Transit Operator Offices (now defunct)
58 Sutter Street, San Francisco
When Angelou was fifteen years old, during WWII, she dropped out of high school and went to apply to be a street car conductor. This was in the fall of 1943 and she was ahead of her class at George Washington High School so she took a semester off to gain work experience. She knew that the street car companies were hiring women and the dark blue uniforms with the little money changer on the belt appealed to her.
For two weeks she would come to the Market Street Railway offices (this was their final year in operation before being purchased by the city owned Municipal Railway also known as MUNI) where she was snubbed time and again until she was finally allowed to fill out an application and was subsequently hired. This made Angelou one of the (if not the) first Black women streetcar conductors in all of San Francisco.
Mission High School
3750 18th Street, San Francisco
Angelou graduated from Mission High School in the summer of 1944 just a few weeks before giving birth to her only child, a son she named Clyde (he would later officially change his name to Guy Johnson). Mission High School is the oldest school in San Francisco to still sit on its original site.
The school has been located on 18th street between Delores and Church Streets since its original construction in 1896–just two blocks from the Mission where it gets its namesake. The campus was demolished by fire in 1922 and was rebuilt in two stages later in the decade.
The high school has its very own museum that features memorabilia from some of its notable alumni (including Maya Angelou). Additional Mission alumni include Bruce Lee, Carlos Santana, Nancy Pelosi, and former California Governor and San Francisco Mayor, James Rolph.
The Purple Onion (now Lyon and Swan)
140 Columbus Ave, San Francisco
After Angelou’s first marriage ended in 1954, she turned to performing professionally. It was during Angelou’s time at The Purple Onion that she officially transformed from Marguerite Annie Johnson to Maya Angelou. The North Beach nightclub was one of a few Angelou performed at dancing and singing to calypso music in simple black or white burlap sheath dresses.
Comedienne Phyllis Diller made her stand-up debut at the Purple Onion in 1955 and was a friend of Angelou’s. Other acts around this time included Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, and Woody Allen. In the 90’s the club transitioned to a venue that hosted garage rock music and eventually closed in 1999.
After an ownership change, it reopened in 2004 and made a return to comedy though by 2010 it was only offering weekend performances. The club officially closed in 2012. In November of 2022, what is now called Lyon and Swan opened on the premises–an underground upscale dinner venue with nightly live entertainment.
Waldo Point Harbor
Sausalito, CA
In the 50’s, Angelou spent some time living on a houseboat at the northern end of Richardson Bay in what was a very early version of a commune before people were calling them that. Most of the Sausalito harbor was taken over by the Department of War during WWII and when the war ended what was left was sold to private owners to salvage.
The postwar years saw a large population of “Beat Generation” intellectuals and creatives move in and languish well into the 60’s, giving shape to the artists and writers communities that still thrive in the area today. The Navy barge at Waldo Point Harbor that Angelou lived on with her son (who was ten-years-old at the time) was owned by poet Gerd Stern.
She and Clyde were the only Black residents at the time though she felt a sense of freedom from racial tensions and was able to “walk around barefoot and wear jeans.” While Angelou participated in the active art scene of Sausalito, her time living on the houseboat lasted less than a year.
Glide Memorial Church
330 Ellis Street, San Francisco
When Angelou died in 2014, she was living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. There was a private service held for her there at Wake Forest University, yet she noted in her will that she wanted her public service to be a celebration of life held in San Francisco. It was held at Glide Memorial Church where she had been a longtime member and friends of its pastor emeritus Rev. Cecil Williams and his wife Janice Mirikitani.
Glide Memorial was established in 1930 and is one of the most liberal churches in America–long ago trading church hymns for jazz and blues music and taking down its cross (seen as a symbol of death) to instead celebrate life and living. Located in the heart of the Tenderloin, one of San Francisco’s roughest neighborhoods, Glide Memorial has opened its doors and provides abundant services to the homeless and addicted.
In 2020, Glide separated itself from the United Methodist Church in order to continue fully supporting the LGBTQ+ community. The church’s gospel choir, the Glide Ensemble, has hosted musicians such as Bono, Marvin Gaye, Sammy Davis Jr, and Joan Baez.
Please note: The Tenderloin neighborhood is an area of San Francisco where the fentanyl crisis is especially apparent. Please be aware.
620 Colusa Ave.
Berkeley, CA
Angelou lived at this address in the 1970’s. She married her second husband, Paul de Feu, in 1973. He was a carpenter and spent time remodeling homes while Angelou worked on her writing and dabbled in acting and directing for television and film. The home on Colusa Ave. sold most recently in 2020 for $1.5 million.
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera
One of Angelou’s favorite book haunts, Book Passage in Corte Madera deserves a couple hours of your time. A thriving Bay Area favorite for nearly 50 years, the store is now divided between two adjacent buildings and features an array of books so dazzling you have to remind yourself to come up for breath. Its travel guide selection is one of the most robust I’ve ever seen.
Over the years the store has hosted more than 10,000 events that have included authors, activists, former US Presidents, musicians, and more. If you’re unable to make it out to their Corte Madera location, Book Passage has a satellite location in the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
MFK Fisher’s “Last House”
Glen Ellen, CA
Maya Angelou befriended renowned food writer and fellow author, M.F.K. Fisher, and spent genuine time visiting Fisher at “Last House” in Glen Ellen, CA. Angelou herself was quite a foodie, if you will, and published two cookbooks in her lifetime: Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes in 2004 and Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart: A Cookbook in 2010.
In her first book, Angelou includes a personal memory and recipe for a cassoulet she cooked for Fisher. If you tour Last House, you’ll see a handful of photos of the two together as well as at least one item Angelou gifted Fisher.
Did we miss anything from Maya Angelou’s San Francisco? Let us know in the comments!
