The Basque District is the historic center of Bakersfield's Basque immigrant community, concentrated in the blocks south of downtown around South H Street and East 21st Street. Basque sheepherders from the Pyrenees began arriving in California in the 1870s, and Bakersfield became one of their main settlement points — the surrounding grasslands and foothills provided ideal sheep country. By the early 20th century, the community was large enough to support a cluster of boarding houses, social clubs, and handball courts.
Three of the original Basque boarding house restaurants still operate within a few blocks of each other: the Noriega Hotel, Wool Growers, and Pyrenees Café. The Bakersfield Basque community is one of the oldest and most intact in the United States, and this small district is its physical heart. The streets around the restaurants still have the low-rise commercial character of the early 20th century, though the surrounding neighborhood has changed considerably. If you are eating at any of the Basque restaurants, walking the surrounding blocks gives context to what the community once looked like.