Art project seeks to bridge Castro’s past, present Community

by John Ferrannini

Anew art installation in the Castro is seeking to bring the LGBTQ neighborhood’s history alive while at the same time enliven empty storefront spaces.

Pete Betancourt, a gay San Francisco man, is the co-founder and creative director of Castro Street Seen (https://castrostreetseen.com/). He put up the new group’s first installation in the old Harvey’s space at 500 Castro Street on June 17.

Betancourt told the Bay Area Reporter on August 7 that initially he’d been planning a documentary on the Castro’s history through photography – which he still hopes to do – and that the physical installations were conceived as a way to raise awareness about it.

“We still want to do a documentary; that’s something we’re exploring, but it just felt like it [a physical installation] was much more immediate and something we could do quickly as opposed to the pre-production and fundraising that’s needed to produce a documentary,” Betancourt said.

Harvey’s was shuttered in January, as the B.A.R. reported

A new bar and nightclub is set to open next summer in the old restaurant space, which will undergo a complete overhaul and expansion into a vacant adjacent retail space, as the B.A.R. subsequently reported The new ownership group does plan to find a way to honor slain LGBTQ rights pioneer and San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk in their nightlife venue.

Betancourt said that the Harvey’s location was “incredibly symbolic to be our very first installation, for so many reasons, not just the name itself but it being Castro and 18th [streets], the heart of the Castro, and with so many windows, so much visibility, it was a beautiful starting point to launch this project.”

He initiated the project with the intention of beautifying empty storefronts; the Paul Langley Co., which owns the space, agreed just in time for Pride 2023 and installation began forthwith. The

Langley company did not return a request for comment for this article.

“I try not to use this term, but it was a series of miracles for this project to have happened,” Betancourt said. “I was taking pictures of the Harvey’s location to do a mockup and I ran into one of the [real estate] agents and quickly pitched them the concept. I think everyone on that team loved it.”

That agent, Steven “Stu” Gerry, told the B.A.R. that “nothing happens unless it goes through me.” He said the pictures will remain up as long as possible until work must begin for the next use of the 500 Castro Street space – the aforementioned bar and nightclub to be operated by a new ownership group from Beaux, as the B.A.R. previously reported.

“The Paul Langley Co. is absolutely invested in getting the community involved, and that’s why the pictures went up during the construction period,” Gerry said. “We are going to keep it up as long as we can.”

Gerry said they support anything to make the neighborhood more “visually pleasing.”

Betancourt has obtained the photos being used under an arrangement with the GLBT Historical Society, which operates the nearby LGBTQ museum space on 18th Street, through the “standard licensing process,” according to Andrew Shaffer, director of development and communications for the society.

The project consists of life-size reproductions of photos taken in the heady days of gay liberation in the Castro in the 1970s, such as the 1977 photo “A Kiss on Castro Street” by the late Crawford Barton, whose work appeared in the B.A.R. The iconic photo shows two men kissing, with an older man and woman sitting next to them, but looking forward. The photo has been used to illustrate the change from the Irish Catholic and Scandinavian hamlet of Eureka Valley to the LGBTQ Castro district that people know today.

“That image of the kiss is one of the most iconic images,” Betancourt said. “If you’re going to show a Crawford Barton collection, it’s important to show that one.” Betancourt said that Barton’s photos are the focus of this first installation, which centers on the “exuberant” joy of the early Castro. Many of the photos come from the 1978 Castro Street Fair, which was the last one before Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assas-

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