Saints Dance in Potrero Hill
Peter Linenthal, Potrero Hill Archives Project The architecture of Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro Street, blends Russian Orthodox, Japanese Shinto, and Craftsman styles. Long lines of people can be seen at the…
Peter Linenthal, Potrero Hill Archives Project
Neighborhood Mosaics
San Francisco is blessed with numerous publicly accessible, vibrant mosaics, several of which can be seen in Potrero Hill. The View’s history feature is sponsored by Rickshaw Bagworks.
Yard-long Potrero Photos
‘Yard-long’ group panoramic photographs become popular in the early-1900s. The images were often taken with a Kodak Cirkut camera, which rotated on a tripod, making every face recognizable. The horizontal…
Real Estate Redlining on Potrero Hill
“Racial segregation does not just happen; it is made,” wrote Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself. The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation was established by the U.S. Congress in 1933 to…
A Quarter Century of Potrero Hill History
More than 200 people filled St Teresa’s Church last month to celebrate the neighborhood and snack on Goat Hill Pizza and Loard’s Ice Cream. Featured was a conversation between Goat…
Bob Hayes at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House
Bob Hayes served as the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House’s photography teacher, operating from a cramped darkroom with donated chemicals and paper from the early-1970s until his death in 2006. Tall…
1936 Soap Box Derby
The first All-American Soap Box Derby, advertised as ‘the greatest amateur racing event in the world’, was held in San Francisco on July 31, 1936. The event drew thousands of…
Art History on 18th Street
Many Potrero Hill and Dogpatch apartment complexes are products of a 1990s building boom. Between 1988 and 2000, 3000 live-work lofts, intended to provide artists with housing and workspace, were…
An Unusual Past and Uncertain Future
The brick building with black columns at 312 Connecticut Street, just up the slope from Goat Hill Pizza, has an unusual history and an uncertain future. For the last 30…
18th Street: Then & Now
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…
Flu Strikes ‘the Potrero’ as Part of 1918 Pandemic
During World War I shipbuilding by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation was in such high demand that on July 4, 1918 four destroyers were launched from Pier 70. But there were reports…
Development Threatens Historic Power Plant Buildings
Developer Associate Capital’s preferred plan for the 28-acre Potrero Power Station site, located along 23rd Street, calls for 19 new buildings and demolition of all the early-20th Century historic brick…
Former Potrero Power Plant Site Eyed for Preservation
Four early-20th Century brick buildings at the former site of the Potrero Power Plant are all that’s left of what was a center of industrial growth in San Francisco between…
San Francisco artist, Elaine Badgley Arnoux, had a vision after coming across a pile of toilets in her apartment building’s basement; she saw our 45th president sitting on top. Fourteen…
Underground History
History buried for more than a century is regularly discovered during construction projects in San Francisco. Earlier this spring, foreman Mike Handyside led a team removing tons of old bricks…
Jon W. Smith on his 65 years in the neighborhood at Potrero Hill History Night 2017
Jon W. Smith has most likely lived in the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex longer than anyone else. In 1952, he and his family landed at the Channel Projects, on Iowa…