S.F. Hopes to Save Castro Country Club

San Franciscans on Saturday kicked off a fund-raising drive to save the Castro Country Club, a clean and sober meeting place that opened in the Castro in 1983. The owner of the building housing the center died last year, and now the property is set to go on the market July 1, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

"This place has always been a place of comfort, a place of sanctuary," said state assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who was at a Saturday fund-raiser for the meeting place, which hosts more than 30 Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous, and similar 12-step meetings a week.

Club reps told the Chronicle that they expect the asking price for the 1901 Victorian to be about $1.7 million. They hope to raise $700,000 in their campaign, called "Keep the Steps in the Castro," in order to buy the property, secure a long-term lease there, or to find another location in the Castro.