Category: Parks

Another Year on the Balboa Reservoir: Photos on the Cusp of History

Sunnyside History2 Comments

By Amy O’Hair
More photos and history about the Balboa Reservoir here.

The Balboa Reservoir is due for big changes, if all goes to plan—perhaps the last of its many transformations since Adolph Sutro’s eucalyptus trees were cleared from this corner of his massive forest in 1894. From these recent images I hope to someday create then-and-now photo sliders, showing dramatic changes after housing and a park go up on this land. These are places that automated street-mapping cameras never went, but later will go, when there are new streets and houses.

On the Lower Reservoir, the planned housing project has yet to break ground, but I have included some images from the developers’ projections. See plans here (under ‘Meetings’ > PDFs labeled ‘Boards for Community Feedback’; the most recent one has been removed unfortunately). More about the planned housing project on the developers website. 

Meanwhile, on the Upper Reservoir, City College is presently in the process of building the STEAM Center, for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math; a tall crane rises over the construction area, an unusual but increasingly more common sight in these neighborhoods. More about the new construction at City College here.  Rendering and floorplans here.

In related news, the Board of Supervisors has approved naming the extension of Lee Avenue through the housing project after the mayor who set the ball rolling for the housing project in 2014: “Mayor Edwin M. Lee 李孟賢市長街”. The other planned new streets have been given generic plant names–read more at the Ingleside Light.

Taking the long view, it’s just another phase in the remarkable history of one plot of city land.

First some general views, then some attention to existing and projected pedestrian accessways.

Balboa Reservoir, spring 2023. View south from north berm. Ocean Avenue multi-unit development in view. Photo: Amy O'Hair.
Balboa Reservoir, spring 2023. View south from north berm. Ocean Avenue multi-unit development in view. Photo: Amy O’Hair.
Developers' projected view of central park, Balboa Reservoir. View toward south. Document here. https://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/documents/cac/balboareservoirCAC_community_boards-101621.pdf
Developers’ projected view of central park, Balboa Reservoir. View toward south. Document here. 
Balboa Reservoir, spring 2023. View northeast from west berm. Mount Davidson and City College in view. Photo: Amy O'Hair.
Balboa Reservoir, spring 2023. View northeast from west berm. Mount Davidson and City College  construction in view. Photo: Amy O’Hair.

Continue reading “Another Year on the Balboa Reservoir: Photos on the Cusp of History” →

Now on the Internet Archive: Sunnyside newsletters 1970s-1990s

Sunnyside History1 Comment

By Amy O’Hair

Founded in 1974, Sunnyside Neighborhood Association is coming up for its fiftieth anniversary. The slim pile of paper newsletters that were entrusted to me from the pre-internet days of the organization have now been scanned, thanks to the volunteer work of LisaRuth Elliott.

They are now available on the Internet Archive, part of the online collection of San Francisco Neighborhood Newspapers that LisaRuth and the San Francisco Department of Memory spearheaded. I’m immensely pleased that Sunnyside has now joined this collection, and I extend my sincere thanks to her for this work, delayed as it was by covid. Being in the Internet Archive means they will always be available to future historians, and any interested person, indexed for search. My historian’s heart is aflutter.

The issue above, Winter 1979, features a piece by Greg Gaar writing about saving the Sunnyside Conservatory. Editor Ken Hoegger rhapsodizes about the eucalyptus trees of Martha Hill, which was soon to be a new public open space–Dorothy Erskine Park as it is now known. Read the issue in full size here.  I feel a strong personal gratitude to the people who worked on these projects over forty years ago, saving vital open spaces and the historic Conservatory; it was a critical moment in the development of livability in the city. Continue reading “Now on the Internet Archive: Sunnyside newsletters 1970s-1990s” →

Sunnyside’s Missing Mini-Park

Sunnyside History3 Comments

By Amy O’Hair

If not for the hapless mistakes made by the Sunnyside Land Company in 1891, our district would have no parks at all. An ill-advised street layout meant that some lots were too steep and rocky to build on, leaving them vacant for decades. This resulted in enough conjoined lots that the City, two generations later, could buy up and create the Sunnyside Playground and Dorothy Erskine Park.

Planned streets that were in fact too steep to be built have also been transformed into open space, as in the Detroit Steps Project, the Melrose Detroit Botanical Garden. A portion of unbuilt Edna Street was incorporated into the Playground as well.

Additionally, by laying out streets without regard to slopes, the City had to later buy up several residential lots in Sunnyside, in order to lay the sewer pipes—which must of course go where gravity dictates. This happenstance has given Sunnyside several small open spaces for public enjoyment, such as the Joost-Baden Mini-Park and the steps behind the Sunnyside Conservatory.

Yet still today there remains a City-owned piece of land—500 square feet in size—that is undeveloped as a public open space. It is fenced off and inaccessible. One half is used as a private side yard by an adjacent homeowner. The other half is currently leased to Friends of the Urban Forest, but that organization has never used it. These non-public uses of public land represent a loss to the community, and it is time the situation was rectified.

First, a short history of Sunnyside’s land and its parks. Continue reading “Sunnyside’s Missing Mini-Park” →

Sunnyside in the 1970s: Trees, Traffic, Taxes

Sunnyside HistoryLeave a comment

By Amy O’Hair

Traffic calming – planting and saving trees – safe places for children to play – newly revealed local history: the issues on the minds of Sunnysiders fifty years ago were not so different from things that interest residents now. The newsletters of Sunnyside’s local organization from those years have recently been archived and made available online at the Internet Archive, and tell some inspiring stories about actions that still impact our lives today.

Although Sunnyside has seen organized advocacy by residents since the 1890s (more here), the current organization, Sunnyside Neighborhood Association (SNA), dates to late 1974.[1] The 1970s saw a surge of local activism in the many neighborhoods in San Francisco. Five decades later, we still enjoy some of the fruits of that upwelling, for instance in open spaces that were established as parks. There was also a downside to the activism then that still affects the city; in some areas, such as the Richmond district, residents fought density with downzoning measures, working to exclude multi-unit buildings and “retain local character,” resulting in a dearth of housing units in subsequent decades, and de facto residential segregation.

But SNA was, according to the record of these early newsletters, more intent on trees, parks, and calming traffic. Monterey Boulevard had already undergone big changes in the 1950s and 1960s, with an extensive apartment-building boom. The 1970s saw even more upzoning on the boulevard. SNA didn’t oppose more housing, but as we’ll see, it did try to rescue trees that were eventually to fall victim to a particularly determined developer of multi-unit buildings, among many other projects, such as tree-planting and boosting local businesses.

The publication of the new archive of the SNA newsletters is due to the work of LisaRuth Elliott and her team for the Neighborhood Newspapers of San Francisco project on the Internet Archive. Continue reading “Sunnyside in the 1970s: Trees, Traffic, Taxes” →

Another Year on the Balboa Reservoir: Photos V

Sunnyside HistoryLeave a comment

Part of a series of posts about the history of the Balboa Reservoir. View more photos here, and here, and here and here.

The shabby open space that makes up the remaining portion of the Balboa Reservoir was certainly one place where a person was unlikely to catch Covid this year. Plenty of people came to chill out, literally in the fog or figuratively in the solitude.

From February to June 2021, the reservoir land played its part in the recovery by serving as an overflow route for people in cars coming to the adjacent City College of San Francisco mass vaccination site. The goats were back for their annual munch in August. The big storm in October briefly left more standing water than this would-be reservoir ever held before. Construction on the planned housing project. for the site is due to begin in 2022. All photographs Amy O’Hair except where noted otherwise. Thanks to Susan Sutton and Joanna Pearlstein for their contributions.

A dramatic sunset at Balboa Reservoir in March 2021.
A sunset at Balboa Reservoir in March 2021.
This modest swing has seen a lot of both joy and contemplation over the years. Sept 2021.
Masked teens, lounging on the berm. Mar 2021.
Masked teens, lounging on the berm. Mar 2021.

Continue reading “Another Year on the Balboa Reservoir: Photos V” →

A Year on the Balboa Reservoir: Photos IV

Sunnyside HistoryLeave a comment

Part of a series of posts about the history of the Balboa Reservoir. View more photos here, and here, and here.

Okay, it’s been more than a year of photographing this soon-to-be-lost semi-wild open space. By this time next year, maybe, the lower portion of the Balboa Reservoir will have begun its transformation into a housing development.

Graffiti. Balboa Reservoir. Nov 2020. Photo: Amy O'Hair
Graffiti. Balboa Reservoir. Nov 2020. Photo: Amy O’Hair
A coyote, quietly hunting on the Balboa Reservoir. Dec 2020. Photo: Amy O'Hair
A coyote, quietly hunting on the Balboa Reservoir. Dec 2020. Photo: Amy O’Hair
Berm walker. Balboa Reservoir. Nov 2020. Photo: Amy O'Hair
Berm walker. Balboa Reservoir. Nov 2020. Photo: Amy O’Hair

Continue reading “A Year on the Balboa Reservoir: Photos IV” →

Sunnyside’s other park and the legacy of Dorothy Erskine

Sunnyside History2 Comments
View from Dorothy Erskine Park. Photo: Amy O'Hair

Although Sunnyside Playground is a favorite destination for families, another piece of open space in the neighborhood little known even to locals is Dorothy Erskine Park, located at the top of Baden Street. Poised on the edge of a rocky outcropping, the small park affords great views of the southeast of San Francisco, from among a grove of eucalyptus trees—though without even the amenity of a bench from which to enjoy the vista.

2018Oct-DEPark-3
2018. View from Dorothy Erskine Park.
2018Oct-DEPark-1
2018. A nearby neighbor enjoys the view after just discovering the park for the first time.

Continue reading “Sunnyside’s other park and the legacy of Dorothy Erskine” →

From Tennis to Housing: The Gennessee Courts

Sunnyside HistoryLeave a comment

For twenty years there were public tennis courts at the corner of Phelan and Judson Avenues—the only park facility in Sunnyside then. It attracted tennis aficionados from all over, such as these folks visiting from a fancier part of town in 1932.

1932-Tennis-Courts-Judson-Genn_NorwoodCollection_wnp26.1268
A group of well-heeled friends at the “Genessee Courts” on 15 April 1932. The house at 1 Gennessee Street can be seen in the background. OpenSFHistory.org wnp26.1268.jpg
1938-aerial-Judson-Gennessee-detail-Tennis
Detail from 1938 aerial photo below, showing tennis courts on Judson Ave near Phelan (now Frida Kahlo Way). Maybe the trees were planted to keep the nearby County Jail out of sight. DavidRumsey.com View larger map.

The facility was opened in 1927 with great fanfare—Mayor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph gave the dedication address, and a small army of politicians, as well as Superintendent of Parks John McLaren, gave speeches.   Continue reading “From Tennis to Housing: The Gennessee Courts” →

A Park for Sunnyside

Sunnyside History7 Comments
1966. SF Dept Public Works, Sunnyside Playground.

By Amy O’Hair

When Sunnyside was laid out in 1891, there was no provision for any public park or open space built into the plans—just rectangular blocks filled with edge-to-edge lots for building (see early maps here). To put it in perspective, many more basic matters of infrastructure in the neighborhood were lacking for years: there were no streetlights or sewers, the roads were dirt, and the water supply spotty, even into the 1920s. It was not until the 1960s that Sunnyside got a park of its own.

View of the children's play area at Sunnyside Playground, Foerster Street and Melrose Avenue, San Francisco. Photo: Amy O'Hair.
View of the children’s play area at Sunnyside Playground, Foerster Street and Melrose Avenue, San Francisco. Photo: Amy O’Hair.

Continue reading “A Park for Sunnyside” →