July 2008What’s in a Street Name?By Sarah MarloffOne of Potrero Hill’s distinctive features is its street names. Streets running north-south are usually named after states, while east-west streets are typically numerical, with an occasional California county thrown-in. The county nomenclature, which used to be more dominant, was adopted in the mid-1800s, when San Francisco was known as the “Village of Yerba Buena.” The naming reflected a patriotic display in a period before California became a state. Counties became numbers after the Postal Department complained to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Street Names Committee in the early-1880s. The Department asserted that too many of the City’s streets had duplicate names, resulting in mail delivery delays. In response, in 1882 the Board of Supervisors passed several ordinances to rid San Francisco of multiple identical street names. In addition, the Board began naming previously unmarked alleys, and changed some monikers so that they’d have a more melodic sound. The later policy prompted controversy, with some supervisors complaining that changing names caused “great trouble” and “necessitated changes in official maps and records.” Most of Potrero’s streets were unaffected until the 1890s, though some streets – including “Napa” – had already been renamed. Six roads bearing county names were assigned numbers in 1895. With Bay Street as the eastern border and Harrison Street as the western boundary, Santa Clara became 17th, Solano became 18th, and Butte became 19th. Sierra, now 22nd, and Nevada, now 23rd, were only changed as far west as Potrero Avenue. Humboldt Street, which continues to exist for a short block east of Illinois Street, escaped becoming a number when it was renamed Lowell in 1892, which later disappeared entirely. The mania for renaming San Francisco’s streets continued until 1909, with upwards of 400 roads rechristened. The 1906 earthquake damaged a large portion of the City’s records, destroying most of the documentation related to the street renaming process. Another spurt of renaming occurred shortly after World War II, when private developers switched Irish and English names to more Spanish and Asian sounding titles in accordance with the San Francisco’s changing ethnicity. Today, few of Potrero’s streets carry their original county name. Alameda, Mariposa, and Marin stand alone, breaking-up the flow of the numbers established under Board of Supervisor Resolution Number 2833, adopted on January 5, 1895. As a result of these stalwarts – Marin is found south of Cesar Chavez, which not so long ago was Army Street – the Hill’s numbered streets are skewed, if no less beloved. |
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