Trocadero, San Francisco

Historic building in San Francisco

Trocadero in c. 1920

Year(s) built| 1892

San Francisco Designated Landmark

Designated| April 15, 2022
Reference no.| 301
Building in 1936

The Trocadero is a historic building located in San Francisco. Formally it was a lively roadhouse at the turn of the 20th century it had offered gambling at roulette tables and dancing, as well as the best trout pond in California.

The building is listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark, since April 15, 2022.[1]

## History

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It was opened in 1892, in a wooden building that had been brought around the Horn and was by reputation the first house built in San Francisco west of Twin Peaks, on the "rancho" of George Greene and the Greene family.[2] The first seeds of Australian eucalyptus had been sown here, about 1871.[2] Appropriately, it was at the Trocadero that Abe Ruef was found hiding, after his indictment in the notorious municipal graft trials of 1907.[3][4]

In the 1930s, Bernard Maybeck recast the Trocadero Inn into a children's playground and renamed it the Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove.

On March 11, 2023, a large eucalyptus tree fell on the Trocadero, causing severe damage and flooding.[5] The building reopened in 2025.

## Other uses

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In San Francisco, "Trocadero" continued to have a connotation of stylish nighttime fun. In its heyday, the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Trocadero Transfer was regarded as the best hard-core—and largely gay—disco on the West Coast. It was among the half-dozen musical style-setters in the country.

Today, the Trocadero is used as the setting for the haunted house at the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department's Scaregrove Halloween Festival,[6] and the seasonal Stern Grove Music Festival.

## See also

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* San Francisco Bay Area portal

* Trocadero (disambiguation), consequently, Trocadero is the name of several restaurants and clubs throughout the world

## References

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1. ^ Young, Kerri (March 15, 2022). "Trocadero Passes Latest Step in Landmark Designation Process". San Francisco Heritage. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
2. ^ a b Chamings, Andrew (January 30, 2022). "This notorious bullet-pierced roadhouse is an SF icon". SFGATE. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
3. ^ "Trocadero". San Francisco Chronicle. SF Genealogy. July 15, 1940. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
4. ^ ""From a Cow Pasture to Cantatas": The Romantic Story of San Francisco's Sigmund Stern Grove". News Bulletin. San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. July 1953. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
5. ^ Mauhay-Moore, Sam (March 11, 2023). "San Francisco's historical Trocadero Clubhouse severely damaged by falling tree". SFGATE. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
6. ^ Pawlowska, Kasia (October 25, 2017). "Scaregrove Halloween Festival in the Park". Marin Magazine. Retrieved November 4, 2022.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trocadero, San Francisco.

* SFmuseum.org: Trocadero and the Stern Grove
* San Francisco History: Trocadero
* Remembertheparty.com: Trocadero Transfer

37°44′10″N 122°28′41″W﻿ / ﻿37.73621°N 122.47801°W﻿ / 37.73621; -122.47801