View more class photos here. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
Some early class photos that have been generously shared with me by Gayle Junkin Hermann and Mary Lucid.
The photo was mounted on a board with the studio name (Frances Thompson Studio, San Francisco) and the year. Ms Thompson appears to have encouraged the girls to bring their dolls for the photo shoot.
Continue reading “In the Picture VII: More Sunnyside Elementary School Class Photos”
View more class photos here. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
My sincere thanks to Steve Bengle for sending these excellent images of his class photos from 1954, 1959, and 1960.
Continue reading “In the Picture VI: More Sunnyside Elementary School Class Photos”
By Amy O’Hair
Over a hundred years ago, a young woman in Sunnyside led a group of local kids and teens in a fight against animal experimentation on shelter dogs. It was just one part of the nature education and activities of the “Log Cabineers,” a band of young outdoor adventurers led by the remarkable Elfreda Svenberg of 751 Foerster Street. Faced with the dire prospects of a pro-vivisection bill then pending in the California legislature, the group made public its objections, and brought bunches of Mount Davidson wildflowers to the Financial District, hoping to move the hearts and minds of ordinary San Franciscans.
The Prendergast Bill of 1917 allowed for the forced transportation of dogs and cats from animal shelters for the purpose of medical or scientific experimentation. Many people all over California objected to the notion that companion animals could be taken—for only a small payment—from the “havens of mercy” that shelters provided, and given to those who would perform experiments on them before killing them. The Sunnyside kids had spent hours watching the wild rabbits and birds in the scrub of local hills and elsewhere; they loved their own pets at home; and the idea of such cruelties urged them to take action.
Setting up stands on Market Street and at two luxury hotels downtown, the kids offered little wildflower boutonnieres of made up of johnny-jump-ups, buttercups, and other offerings picked from from Mount Davidson, where native wildflowers famously grew before housing came to the slopes. (Read an account from the 1920s here.)
Continue reading “Teens Caring for Nature: The Log Cabineers of Sunnyside”
By Amy O’Hair
With research contributed by Kathleen Laderman
An eight-year-old firebrand of a girl stands before the camera, knowing perhaps that she is leaving an indelible mark on the public record. She exudes a strong sense of self and an unaffected sense of style. Form follows function, and for climbing the rocks and hills around the Point Conception Lighthouse, for stalking prey in the untamed brush like a ninja, only trousers and a sweater could ever do.
She proudly wears her unconventional attire for an official photograph; those shiny curls and that fancy hat are down to the women at the lighthouse. It’s a bargain, and she struck it. Lillie is a force majeure, even at eight, and if she is determined to wear trousers, perhaps the best the women around her can hope for is to get her hair into some sort of girlish shape for the camera.[1]
Lillie Young had come to the lighthouse on the coast of Santa Barbara County to live with her foster father, Edward Young, who worked as one of the keepers. A photographer from the US Coast Guard had arrived that week, hefting his bulky camera, in order to record the facility and some of its occupants.
It was January 1894, a few years before San Francisco would be treated to stories about this remarkable girl who defied the strictures of late Victorian womanhood, venturing where she pleased in the open land and wild hills around Ocean View and boasting all the requisite skills of any boy her age. The photograph was taken at the midpoint of the best and wildest year of her childhood. It was not the last time she attracted wonder and awe—and surely disapproval—before she seemingly disappeared from view, a bold flame extinguished. Continue reading “Artemis Lost: The Story of a Bold Girl in Turn-of-the-Century Ocean View”
View more class photos here. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
My thanks to Richard Tucker for generously sharing his class photos from Sunnyside Elementary School. Richard now lives in Idaho, but he grew up on Joost Avenue, and learned how to scoop up first issues of new comic books from beloved local figure Bruno Cappa, setting off a life-long passion.
Here are his class photos from 1966 to 1970, including the first color photo for the site.
Of note is the apparent diversity of students attending Sunnyside School—before court-ordered desegregation busing began in San Francisco in 1971.
Continue reading “In the picture V: More Sunnyside Elementary School class photos”
View more class photos here. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
My thanks to Jeanne Molinare Malarky for providing these new images.
Continue reading “In the picture IV: more Sunnyside Elementary School class photos”
A collection of photographs of people who lived in Sunnyside.
Photos of places and things in Sunnyside here. Main photo page here. Do you have a photo to add? Write me.
View more class photos here. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
During the 1960s, before court-mandated busing was instituted, Sunnyside was one of two schools where students from the Bayview were bused to, in order to relieve congestion at the overcrowded Bret Harte Elementary School. That meant a greater diversity of kids at Sunnyside, even before the official busing program began in 1973. And it shows in these two sets of photos, from the late-1940s and the mid-1960s.*
I am grateful for the spontaneous contributions of one-time Sunnyside students Doug da Silva, Anthony Eckstein, and Alan Hansen.
Continue reading “In the picture III: more Sunnyside Elementary School class photos”
View more class photos here. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
My thanks to Sunnyside resident and one-time Sunnyside ES student Greg Adams.
Continue reading “In the picture again: more Sunnyside Elementary School class photos”
There are many pages of class photos from Sunnyside School on this website. Visit this page to view more class photos. Read more about Sunnyside School here.
There is nothing quite like kids’ faces! I’ve been fortunate over the years to have been given the chance by several former students to scan class photos from the 1930s to the 1960s. I present them here in reverse chronological order without commentary.* My thanks to Marty Hackett, Mark Sultana, Julie Spalasso Vozza, Bill Wilson, and Greg Gaar for sharing these with me.
Sixth grade, Sunnyside Elementary School, 1964. Courtesy Marty Hackett. View larger.
Continue reading “In the picture: Sunnyside Elementary School students through the years”
