Noe Valley Town Square Was a Farmers Market's Rescue Plan. Ten Years Later, It Still Runs Like One.

The city dedicated Noe Valley Town Square on October 27, 2016. This year, October 27 falls on a Tuesday, and that evening 24th Street closes for the Noe Valley Night Market. More than 40 booths will set up, and families will crowd the block between Sanchez and Vicksburg. The Night Market falls on the square's tenth birthday to the day. The official party comes three nights earlier.

The tenth anniversary is a good time to look at how the square came to be. A farmers market lost its supplier, and a group of neighbors spent more than a decade making room for it. The square still runs on that same arrangement. People who live and work along 24th Street fund the programming first, and the city pays them back later.

The corner had three lives before the square

The site's first life was as a gas station. In 1935, during the Depression, John W. McCarthy started selling gasoline, oil, service and repairs at 3865 24th St. Starting in 1961, the station ran under a series of Shell names, beginning with Stan's Shell Service. In 1990, waste oil and gasoline were found to have leaked from two underground tanks. Soil cleanup started in 1997, and by then the business was operating only as a repair shop. With the cleanup almost finished, the owners closed it for good in August 2000.

Next came a housing plan. In 2001, a four-story housing and retail building with underground parking was proposed for the lot. Neighbors objected, and the plan was dropped. The boarded-up property was then sold to a joint venture of the Noe Valley Ministry, the Presbyterian church two blocks away, and a group of anonymous donors. They cleared the lot, put up a small attendant's booth, and ran it as a commercial parking lot.

Its third life is the one that led to the square, though it came about by accident. Real Food Company had been part of 24th Street since 1970. It closed suddenly on Labor Day 2003, and the neighborhood lost its local source of organic produce. A group of activists started the Noe Valley Farmers Market that December and got permission to use the Ministry's parking lot on Saturday mornings. A market that began as a stopgap for a closed grocery became the reason to keep the lot public for good.

How a parking lot became a park

Here is how the deal came together, in order:

1. 2010. Residents for Noe Valley Town Square starts pushing to make the lot permanent public open space. The group does years of outreach and brings in then-Supervisor Scott Wiener and the San Francisco Parks Alliance.
2. Spring 2013. The Recreation and Park Commission approves $4.2 million to buy the lot. That amount includes $342,500 for environmental cleanup, a cost left over from the gas station years. The Noe Valley Voice reported at the time that the residents' group had nearly $500,000 in pledges and had applied for a $723,000 state grant.
3. June 4, 2013. The Board of Supervisors approves the purchase, and the lot is deeded to the Recreation and Park Department. The plan calls for a new park that can also keep hosting the farmers market.
4. April 17, 2014. The commission approves a design by CMG Landscape Architecture: mostly open space with a children's play area.
5. January 5, 2016. Construction begins. The square is dedicated on October 27.

Writing in the Voice's October 2019 issue, Recreation and Park historian-in-residence Christopher Pollock put the anticipated total cost at $7 million. The money came from the city's general fund, the Open Space Fund, private donations and state grants. The $4.2 million covered buying the lot. The $7 million figure was the expected price of the whole project, and much of that money came from outside City Hall.

The money that keeps the chairs out

The square's events still depend on that outside money. The Noe Valley Association, a nonprofit community benefit district, is the square's fiscal sponsor. As the Voice reported in September 2026, the association pays for programming up front and then recovers the cost through city grants it applies for. The square's event calendar credits the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the association for making the events possible.

The association exists because local property owners agreed to tax themselves. The same Voice story said the district proposal passed a weighted ballot of property owners 52 to 48. The Board of Supervisors gave final approval in summer 2005. When the district came up for renewal in January 2020, it passed 76 to 24, and it now runs through 2035. Deb Niemann, who has lived in Noe Valley for 37 years, told the Voice what the first pitch to owners sounded like:

"It's like, 'Okay, if we increase your taxes, this is going to be your assessment.' And we said, 'The first year isn't going to be more than $1,200 a year.'"

Along 24th Street, that assessment money has paid for 21 hanging flower baskets, 28 community benches and 127 street trees. Street porters sweep sidewalks and gutters seven days a week. In the square itself, the association's crew sets out the furniture every morning. In the same article, events coordinator Moira Leslie Crawford credited Niemann with making that crew possible. Crawford co-founded both the Noe Valley Farmers Market and the Town Square, so the person who books the square's events today helped start the market that led to it.

What the square looks like at ten

The square still hosts the same Saturday market it was built around. The Noe Valley Farmers Market runs year-round from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is still volunteer-run. The Voice's June 2026 issue described it as full, with 21 vendors.

Live music changed this year. According to the Voice's April 2026 issue, a new amplification permit ended years of acoustic-only performances on the square. Booker Gil Guillermo can now put together a bigger and more varied lineup.

Tuesday nights are the newest addition. The Voice's November 2024 issue carried the Noe Valley Merchants Association's promotion of the first Night Market, held October 29, 2024, as a monthly event. Local News Matters covered the August 25 market this year and described it as a monthly event on 24th Street near the square, with live entertainment, food and artisans. That makes this month's market almost exactly two years old. It's also a second community event that grew out of the square, much as the square grew out of the farmers market.

The anniversary week calendar

Everything below comes from the Town Square events page as of mid-October. The page notes that events depend on weather and on final permits from Recreation and Parks.

The Friday concert is free on Noe Music's 2026–27 calendar. The events page suggests getting a drink from the Vibe Truck and a slice from Haystack Pizza while the band plays its 1930s Paris-style Manouche jazz.

The Saturday party celebrates both anniversaries and also sends off Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who is finishing his last term as District 8 Supervisor. The square's listing promises a disco DJ and says to "get out your disco duds."

The Night Market listing promises face painting, balloon art, a bounce house and live music hosted by emcee Lambert Moss. Plan around the street closure. For the September 29 market, SFMTA's notice closed 24th Street between Sanchez and Vicksburg from 2 to 10 p.m. and rerouted the 48 Quintara/24th Street. If you take the 48 or need to drive through that block, check the October notice before you go. No market dates after October 27 had been posted as of mid-October.

If you have a Town Square story from the parking lot days or the first Night Market, Liz Lanza would love to hear it, maybe at the Night Market on October 27. Let's Connect.