Painted balconies and temple lanterns give this narrow alley its nickname, the Street of Painted Balconies, in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown you now enter. The buildings that line Waverly Place — just half a block wide, stretching two blocks — were rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake in the same ornate Cantonese style as the rest of Chinatown, with red and green balconies hung with banners and lanterns. But Waverly's distinction is what those buildings contain.
Three floors above the street level, reached by steep interior stairs, are some of the oldest Chinese temples in North America. The Tin How Temple on the top floor of 125 Waverly Place is dedicated to Tin How, the Queen of Heaven and goddess of the sea who protects sailors and travelers — exactly the deity that Chinese immigrants crossing the Pacific would invoke. The temple has been in continuous operation since 1852, surviving earthquake, fire, and exclusion.
It is still an active place of worship. This block still looks almost exactly as it did when it was rebuilt in 1907, and on still mornings incense drifts from the temples above you to the street.