Potrero Hill was 'pretty well demolished' 140 years ago

DeHaro St. between 24th and 25th St. Dec 19, 1941, Department of Public Works strudy prior to paving. [DPW A7077]. Courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org. DeHaro St. between 24th and 25th St. Dec 19, 1941, Department of Public Works strudy prior to paving. [DPW A7077]. Courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org. Photo: Courtesy Of OpenSFHistory.org Photo: Courtesy Of OpenSFHistory.org Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close Potrero Hill was 'pretty well demolished' 140 years ago 1 / 37 Back to Gallery

San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood is a shadow of the outcropping it used to be, if 1870s reports are to be believed.

"The Potrero Hill has been pretty well demolished by the cut recently finished by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company," read an August 8th, 1876 San Francisco Chronicle report. "The material excavated has been used in filling between the old sea wall and the Kentucky Street bridge. The bay shore branch of the Southern Pacific will pass through the cut."

It would appear the neighborhood was used routinely for landfill in the city's early days, according to research in the Chronicle archives. In fact, other neighborhoods - such as the current Dogpatch and China Basin - owe much of their real estate to Potrero.

The neighborhood had earlier been excavated in April of 1872 for a depot at Mission Bay using a crew of 250 engaged in "cutting down Potrero hill, and throwing the rocks and dirt into the bay." Again on December 18, 1896, it was reported that "John Center was grading his property on Sixteenth street, from Bryant and Potrero avenues toward Fifteenth Street, involving the "cutting away of the Potrero Hill." In 1901 a plan was announced to level the hills and use "great quantities of waste earth removed to fill in China Basin."

We've included what photos we could find of the earlier days of Potrero Hill in a slideshow above, but they don't date back far enough to give us a real sense how much the topography changed based on these early projects.

The neighborhood's origins extend back to an 1835 land grant to Don Francisco de Haro to graze Mission Dolores's cattle at the potrero nuevo ("new pasture").

The area had been slower to awaken than other areas of San Francisco closer to the city center. The earliest use was for livestock grazing on land primarily owned by the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad Company, as detailed in this account of a land purchase from the Chronicle Archives:

"The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company has purchased fourteen blocks of realty at the Potrero, for which negotiations have been in progress for over three months. The last piece of property wanted by the company was finally secured at noon yesterday, and today the deeds for the entire tract will go on record.

"The property is bounded on the north by Mariposa Street, on the east by Tennessee Street, on the South by Twenty-second Street, and on the west by Iowa Street. In addition, the purchase includes a block bounded by Illinois , Kentucky, Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Streets. The main tract, comprising twelve and one-half square blocks, included Tennessee Street, the eastward boundary, is the next street west of Kentucky Street, and China Basin, which by legislative enactment, has been leased to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company, is less than half a mile to the northward. The Santa Fe Company now owns the hill property along the east side of Iowa Street, and the Southern Pacific marks the line of their proposed tunnel through the Potrero hill when they shorten their cast line by running from Third and Townsend Streets southerly through tunnels in the Potrero and San Bruno hills in almost a straight line for the Seventeen-mile House."

Gold rush squatters started pushing the herds aside and began the first of many waves of urbanization and immigration: Scots in the 1860's, then Irish, Chinese, Russians, Mexicans and finally African-American Southerners in the 1940's, building battleships at the bustling wartime shipyards.

On August 5, 1881, it was reported that "it is a matter of regret that the Potrero hills have not be utilized before now. The trouble with this spot is inaccessibility. The Long Bridge cars afford the only means of access, and they transfer with but one line of the city cars, the transportation to and from is not only tedious, but expensive."

While families lived on the hill, flatland manufacturing by firms like U.S. Steel, the Union Iron Works, the Western Sugar Refinery, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co. and American Can Co., among others, ensured that the area remained largely industrial through most of the 20th century. But a combination of de-industrialization and the late-1990's Internet boom began driving the conversion of factories and warehouses into housing or offices.

Bob Bragman is a producer for SFGATE. His writing reflects his love of the Bay Area, in addition to his passion for vintage pop culture, ephemera and vernacular photographs. To see more of his content, please click here.