Castro Street became the heart of town after the railroad arrived in 1864 and the new station town grew up beside the tracks. It appears among the street names of the 1865 plat of Mountain View Station.
Between 1988 and 1990 the city rebuilt it from four traffic lanes into two, with wide sidewalks and trees. In 2020 four blocks closed to cars for outdoor dining, and in October 2022 the council made Castro Street a pedestrian mall between Evelyn Avenue and California Street.