Grateful Dead House, San Francisco — Guia do visitante e o que fazer por perto

710 Ashbury Street is one of the most legendary addresses in rock music history. This purple Victorian house was the communal home of the Grateful Dead from October 1966 to March 1968, during the peak of San Francisco's counterculture movement.

The house itself was built in 1890 and sits just up the hill from the famous Haight-Ashbury intersection. During the Summer of Love, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan lived and rehearsed here, and the house became a gathering place for musicians, artists, and free spirits from across the city.

On October 2, 1967, narcotics agents raided the house, arresting Bob Weir, Pigpen, and eight others for marijuana possession. The bust made the cover of the very first issue of Rolling Stone magazine. The band held a press conference on the steps, turning the arrest into a statement against drug laws.

By early 1968, the neighbourhood had changed. Hard drugs and overcrowding had taken the shine off the Summer of Love, and the band moved out. But the house remains a pilgrimage site for Deadheads from around the world.

710 Ashbury is a private residence, so you can only view it from the street. If you're on a Questo quest through Haight-Ashbury, this is a stop where the walls still carry echoes of one of the most transformative periods in American music.