Noe Valley Town Square Turns Ten, and Its Biggest Night Now Spills Onto 24th Street

Noe Valley Town Square opened at noon on Thursday, October 27, 2016. Ten years later to the day, on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, the Noe Valley Night Market will close 24th Street between Sanchez and Vicksburg to cars. It will run more than 40 booths, which is too many for the plaza to hold.

This one parcel on 24th Street has been outgrowing its container for more than two decades. A grocery closure brought a farmers market to a church parking lot. Fundraising around that market turned the lot into a park. Now the park's busiest evening needs the street. The anniversary week of October 23–27 is a good time to see how each step led to the next.

The Lot Had a Market Before It Had a Name

The site at 3861 24th Street started out as a gas station. It later became a parking lot owned by Noe Valley Ministry, which eventually planned to sell it to pay for church renovations.

Before any sale came up, the lot already had a regular weekend use. The Real Food grocery store on 24th Street closed in early September 2003. By early December of that year, neighbors had opened a Saturday farmers market in the Ministry's lot, across from Martha & Bros. Coffee. According to the Noe Valley Voice's 2008 history, the co-founders were Peter Gabel, Leslie Crawford, Paula Benton, Steve Powell and Kim Rohrbach.

That market is still running. The California certified-market directory dated October 1, 2026 lists the Noe Valley Farmers Market at Town Square on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round, with Leslie Crawford still among its managers. The market's own site says community volunteers run it and a local volunteer board governs it.

What $4.2 Million Bought

When the Ministry put the lot up for sale, the neighborhood had already used it as a gathering place for about a decade. A group called Residents for Noe Valley Town Square pushed for the city to buy it. In February 2013 the Noe Valley Voice put the expected price at about $3.6 million and reported $470,000 already raised.

The price went up as the deal moved forward. By May 2013 the Recreation and Park Commission had approved a $4.2 million acquisition, which included $342,500 for environmental cleanup of the old gas station soil. The residents' group had nearly $500,000 in pledges by then. Matching gifts included $24,000 each from Patxi's Pizza and Joel Panzer's Real Management Company. Hoodline reported that the city closed the purchase in June 2013, and that building the plaza cost another $2.8 million on top of the land.

CMG Landscape Architecture led a community design process that started in 2010, with Chris Guillard as project designer and 450 Architects as architect. The completed plaza is 93 percent pervious. Most of the old asphalt became planting and permeable paving, and the small playground has two owl sculptures by Wowhaus, made with Arts Commission support. The design also added trellises for shade and performances, a stage, seating and benches, and open plaza space sized for the farmers market.

Ground was broken in January 2016, and after 10 months of soil remediation and construction, the city opened its 221st park unit in front of nearly 300 people. At the ribbon-cutting, District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener described the gap the square was meant to fill, according to the Noe Valley Voice's November 2016 coverage:

"Noe Valley doesn't have any community spaces in the commercial corridor, and we will now have a beautiful public plaza."

Sixteen Booths

The plaza was built around a Saturday morning market. An evening market eight years later showed how much the space could hold.

Kathryn Gianaras, co-owner of NOVY at 4000 24th Street and vice president of the Noe Valley Merchants & Professionals Association, started the Noe Valley Night Market in October 2024. It runs on the last Tuesday of each month. Held only in the square, it ran from 5 to 8 p.m. The Noe Valley Voice reported in June 2025 that the square's footprint fits only up to 16 vendors.

Gianaras asked the city to close the block. On May 8, 2025, ISCOTT, the interagency board that rules on street closures, approved the request 5–0. The first street-closure market took place on June 24, 2025, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., with room for more than 40 vendors. "This is going to be a night market times a hundred," Gianaras told the Voice. The same report said the Civic Joy Fund had already put $100,000 toward 12 Noe Valley night markets and was adding $50,000 to cover the extra cost of closing the street. Those are 2025 commitments. No source found so far confirms the 2026 funding arrangement.

Neighboring merchants have noticed the effect. In San Francisco Examiner coverage of the city's night markets, Valley Tavern credited the market with more foot traffic and busier Tuesday nights. NOVY chef-owner Travis LeMaster said the markets helped the restaurant meet prospective customers.

The 2003 market took over a parking lot, and a decade of Saturdays on that lot built the case to buy it in 2013. In 2025 the evening market needed more room than the plaza had, so the block next to it now closes once a month.

Anniversary Week, Day by Day

The Town Square's October calendar puts its three biggest events in five days, with a kids' morning the Sunday before. Every event is free and open to the public, weather permitting.

The Saturday party is the official anniversary event. The flyer promises a disco DJ, State Senator Scott Wiener speaking, cake from Noe Valley Bakery, prizes from local merchants for the best disco outfits, and the square's new lighting lit up for the night.

The Tuesday market marks the actual opening date, and it also falls two years after the Night Market started. Lambert Moss emcees. Kids get free face painting, balloon art and a bounce house. Organizers list The Valley Tavern and NOVY among the vendors. The merchants' Night Market page has the full roster.

Who Keeps the Lights On

Rec and Park bought the site and issues final permits for events there. Programming is run through the Noe Valley Association, the community benefit district funded by special assessments on property owners in the 24th Street corridor. According to the association, the district began in 2005, and in January 2020 the Board of Supervisors renewed it through 2035 on a 76 percent to 24 percent vote. Its 2022–23 annual report says it has served as the square's fiscal agent since events began in 2017, working with a special-events program manager and charging a 12 percent fiscal-agent fee.

The new lights come from grant money. The association credits the 2026 lighting retrofit to the Avenue Greelight Foundation. Assessments pay for the work around the square that most people never notice. That includes sidewalk and gutter sweeping seven days a week, monthly steam cleaning from March through November, 21 hanging flower baskets, nine sidewalk gardens, two parklets and 22 planters. The association lists its 28 community benches under grant-funded work, with City grants paying for replacement slats. The association also runs a text line at 415-802-4461 for non-emergency cleanup and graffiti reports in the district.

After anniversary week, the calendar thins out:

• Saturdays: the farmers market runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. all year.
• Sundays: yoga pauses after October 25 and returns April 11, 2027.
• Last Tuesdays: a Funcheap series listing shows a Night Market on November 24 and says the series runs through December 29. The organizers haven't posted those dates yet, so check noemerchants.com before you go.

The farmers market that started all this still opens at 8 a.m. every Saturday on the same lot where it set up in December 2003.

If you own a home within walking distance of the square, a monthly street closure and a busier Tuesday night on 24th Street are now part of what your block offers. KJ Kohlmyer has followed the 24th Street corridor through each of these changes and can show you how the blocks around the square are trading right now. Request a home valuation and get a read that's specific to your street.