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

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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. Read some recent news on the funding at the Ingleside Light.

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. Read about the new project at the Ingleside Light. Or on CCSF’s own page about the new construction.  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 new development 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” →

Artemis Lost: The Story of a Bold Girl in Turn-of-the-Century Ocean View

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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, at Point Conception Lighthouse. 30 Jan 1894. National Archives. Original. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/45709007
Lillie Young, at Point Conception Lighthouse. 30 Jan 1894. National Archives. Original. 

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.

Point Conception Lighthouse. 30 Jan 1894. National Archives. Original. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/45709007
Point Conception Lighthouse. 30 Jan 1894. National Archives. Original. 

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” →

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

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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” →

In the picture V: More Sunnyside Elementary School class photos

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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.

1966. Kindergarten class, Sunnyside School, San Francisco. Photo courtesy Richard Tucker.
1966. Kindergarten class, Sunnyside School, San Francisco. Photo courtesy Richard Tucker.
1967. First Grade class, Sunnyside School, San Francisco. Photo courtesy Richard Tucker.
1967. First Grade class, Sunnyside School, San Francisco. Photo courtesy Richard Tucker.

Continue reading “In the picture V: More Sunnyside Elementary School class photos” →

Of Goats and Groceries: Some Italians in Early Sunnyside

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By Amy O’Hair

The presence of goats in Sunnyside is evident from the earliest photographs, such as this iconic shot that captured the witch’s hat tower of the Sunnyside Powerhouse in the background, with a munching goat in the foreground, taken on Monterey near Circular in 1911.

A view looking west of Monterey at Circular, with the Sunnyside Powerhouse in the background, and a roaming goat in the foreground. SFMTA Archives, https://sfmta.photoshelter.com/
A view looking west of Monterey at Circular, with the Sunnyside Powerhouse in the background, and a roaming goat in the foreground. 1911. SFMTA Archives, https://sfmta.photoshelter.com/

Then the same photographer turned to face the other direction, and caught a few more grazing goats on the railroad tracks.

A view looking east on Monterey near Circular, with goats grazing near the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks on far right. 1911. SFMTA Archives, https://sfmta.photoshelter.com/
A view looking east on Monterey near Circular, with goats grazing near the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks on far right. 1911. SFMTA Archives, https://sfmta.photoshelter.com/ Learn more about this rich early photograph in this post.

One Sunnyside resident had his own goat dairy, located further up the street on Monterey in the 1910s. It probably wasn’t quite legal, given the City’s pound limits regulating what animals could be kept where. But no matter, because there were a lot of small dairy operations here, and in the Excelsior and elsewhere, well into the twentieth century. A cow in the backyard was far from uncommon.

After arriving in 1909, Sicilian immigrant Frank Maita opened a small dairy operation with goats, on the site of the present house at 535 Monterey Boulevard, in 1915. Most of the lot was open, with a little house set down the hill. Frank and Catherine Maita already had five children when they started their business; with four more to come, it was not a sustainable setup.

But it was a start on a new life in a new country.

Frank Maita with one of his goats. I was told this was taken at the Monterey Blvd site in the 1920s, but the background matches another photo taken later on the Hayward farm, so I believe it to be from the 1940s or 1950s. Photo courtesy Jack Maita.
Frank Maita with one of his goats. I was told this was taken at the Monterey Blvd site in the 1920s, but the background matches another photo taken later on the Hayward farm, so I believe it to be from the 1940s or 1950s. Photo courtesy Jack Maita.

Continue reading “Of Goats and Groceries: Some Italians in Early Sunnyside” →

A phalanx of Fazekas

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By Amy O’Hair
All things Fazekas can be found linked on this page.

A few more novel sightings of the work of Anton Fazekas, San Francisco’s midcentury sculptor-entrepreneur of illuminated house numbers. Read the background in the original post.

As if the classy copper metallic paint wasn't enough, this one has had its numbers replaced with real copper digits, complete with a touch of verdigris patina. Raymond Avenue.
As if the classy copper metallic paint wasn’t enough, this one has had its numbers replaced with real copper digits, complete with a touch of verdigris patina. Raymond Avenue.

 

A bit of fancy paintwork on this Slimline number. Dolores.
A bit of fancy paintwork on this Slimline number. Dolores. 

Continue reading “A phalanx of Fazekas” →

View of Mt Davidson and Balboa Reservoir: 1973 and Today

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Looking north from Summit Street near Thrift in Ingleside. Note changes in the Balboa Reservoir and along Ocean Avenue (center), while residential streets are little altered (except perhaps bigger trees) in 50 years. Science Hill at City College Ocean Campus visible on the far right.

Future changes planned for the Balboa Reservoir will alter the view once again in coming years—both the housing development on the western portion, and City College’s plans for the eastern portion. A new house on the lower left muddles the 2022 view a bit.

Move slider to compare photographs. Can take time to load. View larger here. Look at other comparison photographs here.

Sunnyside Conservatory, as seen by artist Barbara Wyeth

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In 1994, before it was thoroughly renovated into a celebrated local gem, Barbara Wyeth captured Sunnyside Conservatory in three moody images created with a plastic-lens camera. Wyeth, a San Francisco-based artist, specializes in photography, copier art, and mail art. More about Wyeth below images. More about Sunnyside Conservatory here.

A view of the Sunnyside Conservatory, San Francisco, by Barbara Wyeth. Digital image, taken with plastic camera. 1994.
A view of the Sunnyside Conservatory, San Francisco, by Barbara Wyeth. Digital image, taken with plastic camera. 1994.

More photos follow.

Continue reading “Sunnyside Conservatory, as seen by artist Barbara Wyeth” →

A House with Character(s): The Stolen Down-Payment, the Bigamist Builder, and Some Old Soldiers

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Read other tales of Sunnyside houses here.

By Amy O’Hair

This cottage on Staples Avenue has a juicy set of stories in its past, revealed by some recent research. It was the first in Sunnyside I’ve found whose first buyer ended his short residence there as a wanted felon, on the lam for ten years after stealing the money to buy it, and then fled to Portland where he continued his life of crime.

One of the eight cottages built by Rudolph Mohr's company in 1913 on Staples Avenue. Photo: Amy O'Hair
One of the eight cottages built by Rudolph Mohr’s company in 1913 on Staples Avenue. Photo: Amy O’Hair

The carpenter who built this house for developer Rudolph Mohr—and its seven sister houses in that row—also had his own disreputable tale, involving serial bigamy. The residents that followed the escaped embezzler have more ordinary tales to tell, as we’ll see, but which hold interest as they touch on San Francisco’s perennial themes of immigration, labor history, and military service. In all this 110-year-old house was home to some characters of note.

Elegant Cottages, Strictly Modern

When in the summer of 1913 the last cottage in a trim set of eight on Staples Avenue was completed, it sold as quickly as the others; the construction company, Rudolph Mohr and Sons, was as competent as Mohr’s firm that handled the sales, Moneta Investments. Continue reading “A House with Character(s): The Stolen Down-Payment, the Bigamist Builder, and Some Old Soldiers” →