Franklin Square occupies a massive, rectangular city block marked by a collection of mature, towering trees that cast deep, shifting shadows across the open grass. Established in eighteen fifty-five, this park is one of San Francisco’s original public squares. Its survival as a green space is the result of a specific conflict in the nineteen seventies, when the local community mobilized to block a proposal by developers to build a parking garage beneath the historic, grassy expanse. Today, the square contains a lighted, artificial turf soccer field and a modern playground.
Franklin Square
landmark