Piazza Saint Francis, The Poets Plaza will provide a small but beautiful open space in 
the most historic section of North Beach, where Upper Grant, Broadway, Columbus and Vallejo streets meet. Waves of Italian immigration transformed this area into Little Italy over many generations.
The first trickle began a century and a half ago, when the California Gold Rush in 1848-49 brought a handful of Italian Forty-Niners to San Francisco. After the Civil war in the 1860’s, more Italian immigrants began to settle in North Beach and parts of Telegraph Hill. In the 1880’s the Sicilians came and took over the fishing industry, settling around Fisherman’s Wharf at the northern end of North Beach.
Northern Italian traders and fisherman came from Genoa, who intended only a temporary stay, long enough to acquire capital to return home and buy land for their families. But many put down roots, established businesses, raised families, and never left. The Genoese came to dominate banking, truck gardening, and grocery wholesaling.
The next wave were the Lucchesi from Lucca in Tuscany: merchants, produce vendors, and peddlers, who opened small retail outlets, restaurants, and produce stores at the base of Telegraph Hill.
In 1851 came the first church built in California after the old Spanish missions, at the corner of Vallejo and Columbus. The original St. Francis church was no more than a humble wooden shanty intended to serve the burgeoning Catholic population in the northeastern section of the city. Soon it became too small for its rapidly growing congregation, and in 1860 the present Norman Gothic church with its twin campanile was dedicated. On April 16, 1906, the great San Francisco earthquake and fire consumed much of the city, including the church. However, the church’s brick walls and badly scorched towers remained intact. A new church was built within those walls and rededicated in 1919. Today it is no longer a parish church, but the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Opened in 1956, Caffé Trieste became a center for the Beat generation and bohemia, a spirit that still thrives there. Around the corner on Grant Avenue at Fresno Alley, just off Columbus Avenue, is the oldest saloon in the City, appropriately called
The Saloon, operating since 1861.Four blocks of cafes, retail outlets, and restaurants line this section of Upper Grant, once called Dupont Street. On the other side of Columbus Avenue is the world-famous Molinari Delicatessen, little changed since it opened a century ago.
Down the slope of Columbus on Broadway, a stretch that once housed some of the city’s finest Italian cuisine and jazz joints has transformed into a bawdy showcase of nightclubs and adult entertainment.
library where books are sold,”, founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and still famous for publishing radical literature. A thirsty reader need only take a few steps to Vesuvio Cafe on Kerouac Alley, or across Columbus to Specs and Tosca Cafes, for another taste of Beat and Bohemia. Nearby are the Hungry i and the Purple Onion, which during the fifties and early sixties spawned the comedic revolution in America and showcased all the early folk singers. A block away is historic Chinatown.
Piazza Saint Francis, The Poets Plaza represents continuity and change in the very heart of North Beach. It will resonate with the history of San Francisco, and will look forward to a future of continually evolving ethnic and cultural expression, a place of peace and repose to contemplate the ever-changing face of North Beach.