San Francisco Chronicle, February 11, 1907 | A 1908 newspaper article noted that ‘At 18th & Texas & 18th & Connecticut a new business center is springing up, and some retail merchants have moved there from other parts of the city.’ When industries expanded in Dogpatch, then known as a part of The Potrero, many homes were built on the hills above, in what’s now called Potrero Hill. In the 1890s, residents asked the City to change the neighborhood’s name to Southern Heights, which had a more aristocratic ring, attractive to builders and homebuyers. Potrero, after all, means pasture in Spanish. Advocates also asked for a water reservoir and a two cow limit. It would take 30 years before water service reached the neighborhood.
Image: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
Le Marché Cezanne | Mario Rimet, who comes from a small French town, opened Le Marche Cezanne, ‘Your local & organic grocery market’, in November. His father helped with extensive remodeling. The space had been Peter Walbridge’s Big Think Design Studio, and in the 1940s, Sam Goldstein & Son, a dry goods store selling clothing and sewing merchandise. Students at St. Teresa’s School, then located at 19th and Pennsylvania Ave bought uniforms here. The Goldstein’s large home was at 1640 20th Street.
Photo and image: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
New Potrero Market | Jamil Khuri, ‘Jim’ (center), and Abdallah Shami, ‘Al’ (left), came to the United States from Palestine in 1956. In 1960 they took over the New Potrero Market at 1301 18th Street. Before ATMs, the store served as a kind of neighborhood mini bank. Al kept the produce section fresh and tidy. Jim’s ‘Hello, brother!’ greeted customers. They sold the business in 1998, now run by Jack Mousa from Jordan.
Photos: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
Wulzen’s Pharmacy | Wulzen’s Pharmacy had a branch at 1400 18th Street from 1919 to 1928. The store continued as the Potrero Pharmacy, Acme Drug Co. and Johnson’s Prescription Pharmacy. Born in 1862, Dietrich Heinrich Wulzen opened a large drugstore at Castro and 17th streets. He was a photographer who shot outstanding glass-plate negatives of Chinatown, the City in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fires, and Miwok Native Americans near Yosemite. His son, Frank, worked for San Francisco’s Moulin photography studio. Christopher’s Books opened at the location in 1991, long run by Tee Minot from Boston.
Photo and image: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
The Dixons | (L-R) Katherine Dixon, granddaughter Diane and son Frank. In 1883 Katherine married James Dixon, who lived on Irish Hill in Dogpatch and worked at nearby Pacific Rolling Mills on the bay. Katherine and James bought several San Francisco properties. A 1902 application for water service at their 1400 18th Street property noted ‘No horse here now’. The couple built a three-story building there in 1905, now home to Christopher’s Books. One of the few houses with water service, police were called to control the crowd that gathered by the backyard gate to get water after the earthquake and fires of 1906. Frank Dixon ran a painting company for many years.
Photo: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
Goat Hill Pizza | The Hollander, a restaurant run by a former Ice Capades star, was followed by Allen’s Bar-be-que at the space where Goat Hill Pizza opened in 1975, quickly becoming a neighborhood favorite. From 1978 to 1985, Goat Hilda lived in the backyard, raising a couple of kids, Bucky and Loretta. The only leaves left on the yard’s bushes were above the goat’s reach. The goats moved to the country when the restaurant needed the space for an addition.
Photos: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
Papito | In 1887, when Serafino Consiglieri was 23, he left Genoa, Italy, came to San Francisco and opened a fruit store on Fourth Street. In 1908, he partnered with John and Anne Sanguinetti and opened the Southern Heights Fruit & Produce Market on 18th Street. The store, renamed the Fortuna Market, continued until 1958. Nicholas Sanguinetti published a memoir about his early days, The Treasure of Potrero Hill, with his dad’s photo on the cover. The space became Good Life Grocery’s first home in 1974, until a 1000 percent rent increase forced a move to 20th Street in 1985. Eliza’s Chinese restaurant opened in the vacant space, followed by Pera restaurant, run by Irfan Yalcin from Turkey. Yalcin continues to operate Papito there, serving Mexican French-accented food, with help from Ruth Auguero from Costa Rica.
Photos: Courtesy of Peter Linenthal
