San Francisco's Japantown Gets National "Preserve America" Designation

Nov
28 2008

San Francisco's Japantown now holds official Preserve America status, an award intended to recognize the historical and cultural relevance of the area. Led by honorary chair Mrs. Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States, Preserve America, is a White House initiative in cooperation with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education, the President's Council on Environmental Quality, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Receiving the designation as a Preserve America neighborhood allows those neighborhoods to use the logo on street signs and promotional materials, qualifies such for grants from Preserve America and elevates their area's profile through notifications with the state tourist offices. While other neighborhoods have been recognized around the state of California, Japantown is the first neighborhood with this distinction in the San Francisco bay area. The neighborhood began around 1906 after the Great Earthquake and Fire devastated most of the Japanese enclaves within Chinatown and south of Market Street, sending the Japanese community into the Western Addition area of San Francisco. The Preserve America designation will be displayed throughout Japantown, with eight signs having been erected by the city. These signs are prominent along Buchanan and Sutter, Buchanan and Post, and Buchanan and Geary Streets, facing both east and west.