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The tide of history swept through the nation and San
Francisco in the summer of 1967 as hundreds of
thousands of young people converged on the
Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco with shouts
of "Make love, not war," "U.S. out of Vietnam!" and
"Equal rights for all!" Ideals of peace, social
justice and ecology have resounded from the
Haight-Ashbury ever since.
Sami Sunchild,
owner-conservator of the Red Victorian Bed & Breakfast, Peaceful World Center and Café declares,
"I have
long been aware of the impact on our culture of the
spiritual and life teachings of Asia, of the gurus
of India, but it is only since coming to the
Haight-Ashbury that I learned of the reverse
ideological migrations of “peaceniks,” of
ecologists, writers, artists and hippies to other
parts of the world. The hippies who flooded out of
the Summer of Love in all directions, to India,
Europe, Australia, made an influence on those
cultures that continues to resonate. Today more
Americans and foreigners know that the Summer of
Love occurred in San Francisco than know that the
United Nations was founded here.
In 1967 during the Summer of Love, at Haight and
Belvedere streets, there was an upstairs Victorian
hotel affectionately known as the "Jeffrey Haight."
In these upstairs rooms the ideals of the Flower
Children were discussed all night and experimentally
lived out for that brief summer and, to some extent,
beyond. Soon thereafter the drug dealers, the lost
and lonely, the down-and-out took over and Haight
Street’s storefronts were boarded up. The lovely
Victorian neighbourhood faded into crime, ignorance
and poverty.
What of the Haight today? Folks come to the
rejuvenated Haight-Ashbury from all over
the world to reminisce, and to share with each other how
that one brief Summer of Love affected their lives.
Over the big breakfast table at the Red Vic's
Peaceful World Center and Cafe,
creative dreams and actions for the present and
future of the world are discussed. Peace, ecology,
entrepreneurship and yes, personal responsibility
and power, are enticing subjects of the ongoing
global conversation at today’s Red Victorian.
READ MORE ABOUT THE SUMMER OF LOVE IN THE RED VIC’S
IN-HOUSE NEWSPAPER WHICH IS FOUND IN ALL THE GUEST
ROOMS. |
