Tours of the Tales

Napier Lane

Napier Lane, second wooden walkway on the left as you descend the steps from Montgomery Street

After learning of her pregnancy (Tales of the City), DeDe walked down the Filbert Steps and sat on a bench at the start of Napier Lane to contemplate having an abortion.  Later in Tales of the City, she again visited Napier Lane and watched the neighborhood cat while she contemplated her relationships with her father and Beauchamp.

From time-to-time, a simple wooden bench is placed on Napier where it intersects with the Filbert Steps.  People walking up and down the steps often stop to rest on the bench.

The brown house at the northeast corner of Napier and Filbert (seen the photo) is the former residence of Grace Marchant.  Her ashes are in the garden directly across the Filbert Steps from this home.

When Armistead Maupin introduced his visiting parents to Grace, she was working in the gardens across from her home.  Maupin pointed out to his parents that Grace’s home was at one time a saloon, saying, “Back in the last century, they would drug men at the bar and drop them through a hole in a floor.  When they woke up, they would find themselves doing indentured service on a ship to Shanghai.  That’s where they got the term shanghaied.”

Maupin’s dad turned to Grace and asked if Maupin’s story was true.

Grace shrugged.  “More or less.  Your son, as you know, can be vivid.”