SoFA District
South First Street between San Carlos and Reed streets is downtown’s arts and nightlife district: a 1927 movie palace, a quilt museum, galleries that open late on First Fridays, and a June festival where street meets geek.
Discover SoFA District
SoFA, the South First Area, runs along three blocks of South First Street between San Carlos and Reed streets. A busy shopping street in the late 1800s, it had become a red-light district by the late 1970s; after adult businesses were zoned out in the late 1980s, clubs and galleries moved in and took the SoFA name. (Wikipedia, SoFA District)
The California Theatre opened as a vaudeville and movie house in 1927, closed in 1973 and reopened in 2004 as the home of Opera San José. (Wikipedia)
The San José Museum of Quilts & Textiles, founded in 1977 as the first museum in the United States devoted only to quilts and textiles, moved to SoFA in 2005. Galleries such as Anno Domini and KALEID stay open late, with free entry, on South First Fridays. (Wikipedia, South First Fridays)
Each June the free SubZERO Festival fills the street with outdoor stages, artists, performers and musicians. (SubZERO Festival)
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