The Farm (San Francisco)

The Farm, also known as Crossroads Community,^[1]^: 43 located at the corner of Army Street (later renamed Cesar Chavez) and Potrero Avenue in San Francisco, California, was a community center from 1974 to 1987. It was founded by Bonnie Ora Sherk and Jack Wickert in 1974.^[1]^: 43 The open space incorporated a major freeway interchange and is now site of Potrero del Sol Park, which was originally inspired by The Farm.

Adults and children would gather at the Farm across a park from Buena Vista Elementary School. Children from Buena Vista would visit the Farm for field trips or go to the Farm after school.

The Farm had a two-story building; the lower story contained an actual farm, with vegetable gardens, chickens, geese, rabbits, and goats. Upstairs was a library and an art gallery. Also on the bottom level was a pre-school. The Farm would put on DIY shows to raise funds.

Sherk departed in 1980 after the city parks department decided to reclaim one of the Farm's lots and turn it into a traditional urban park. Later directors turned the Farm into a punk rock showcase by night,^[1]^: 52–53 by partnering with mobile garage productions run by Craig Shell and Bill Gould (of faith no more), infamous for staging seminal 1980s punk rock bands such as Frightwig, Discharge, Camper Van Beethoven, the Descendents, the Mentors, 7 Seconds, MDC (Millions of Dead Cops), RKL (Rich Kids on LSD), Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Raw Power, the Accused, Redd Kross, Soundgarden, the Gits, the Lookouts (early band of Green Day drummer), Bad Brains, and many more.

Buildings in the same complex also housed Survival Research Laboratories, , Subterranean Records, and CoreOS.

References[]

^ ^a ^b ^c Blankenship, Jana. "The Farm by the Freeway". In Auther, Elissa, and Lerner, Adam, eds. (2012). West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965–1977. University of Minnesota Press.

External links[]

documentary at archive.org

37°44′58″N 122°24′18″W / 37.74934°N 122.40488°W

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[jb-1] Blankenship, Jana. "The Farm by the Freeway". In Auther, Elissa, and Lerner, Adam, eds. (2012). West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965–1977. University of Minnesota Press.

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