The grounds of the Cow Palace, straddling the San Francisco/Daly City border, parking areas are partially within Visitacion Valley.

It is a visit by Mary, bearing the child Jesus, to her cousin Elizabeth, who despite her advanced years is pregnant with John the Baptist.

[8] In the 1990s, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) called Visitacion Valley “a neglected urban backwater of 18,000 with rampant crime, awful schools, and a deplorable housing project called Geneva Towers.” [9] It has also been labeled by news media as San Francisco's least known neighborhood.

[10] Despite the sentiment, Schlage Lock Factory and Southern Pacific Railyard Redevelopment, one of the city's largest developments has been approved and waiting to break ground in Visitacion Valley.

The Mexican imperial court granted Rancho Cañada de Guadalupe la Visitación y Rodeo Viejo, which included Visitacion Valley, to American trader Jacob Leese in 1830.

[5] The area was settled by German, French, Italian, Jewish, and Maltese immigrants during the Gold Rush to establish farms, dairies, and nurseries in the mid-1800s.

[15] In 1907, Southern Pacific Railway constructed the Bayshore Cutoff - a sprawling 200 acres railyard that cut off Visitacion streets from the bay.

After the war ended, more African Americans relocated from the Fillmore District and the Western Addition when the Urban Renewal (operated by San Francisco Redevelopment Agency) program uprooted them and their businesses.

[26] During the 1970s, with the closing of the Bayshore Cutoff and the Schlage Lock Factory winding down its business, the neighborhood experienced economic decline.

[30] In 2008, Universal Paragon Corp (UPC) took over the site from Ingersoll-Rand Co. of Montvale, N.J., who owned the land and the Schlage Lock Factory as part of a lawsuit settlement.

As part of the settlement, UPC agreed to clean up the contamination on the site and redevelop the land into a transit-friendly community with housing and commercial space.

[31] In 2009, after a series of reviews and delays, the Board of Supervisors approved a plan to develop the vacant land at Schlage Lock Factory and Southern Pacific Railway, naming it the Visitacion Valley Redevelopment Area.

The plan also includes improvement to Leland Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard [30] That same year, all structures on the Schlage Lock Factory and its adjoining Southern Pacific Railyard site were demolished; save for the Schlage Lock Factory Headquarter building which would be retrofitted and became a community center.

It would have consisted of six buildings, 594 housing units, two parks, a renovated Bayshore Caltrain station and a pedestrian-oriented retail strip.

[37] However, a report released by the San Francisco City and County in Oct 2024 lists the Baylands North's start date as TBD.

Development of the land was stalled for several years while UPC cleared the site of contamination, a process that eventually cost $30 millions.

[44] The existing T-Third rail that starts at Sunnydale Station and terminates at Mission Bay was extended to Union Square and Chinatown.

This extension is part of a major project of Central Subway that extends Muni to connect the southeast and the northeast section of the city.

[45] The old Visitacion Valley Branch of the San Francisco Public Library was leased out of a small storefront at 45 Leland Ave.

The current building was built in 1923 and designed by San Francisco Bay Area native architect Julia Morgan.