Join Us at The Slope on April 17th at 6 PM—The Site of the Earthquake Refugee Camp of Corbett Heights
At Corbett and Mars. There will be refreshments, photo-gifts, and more….
120 Years
Ago—April 1906 Corbett Heights Earthquake Refugee Camp at the Slope
The photograph below appears to be taken from the vantage point of Caselli and 18th. Near the top of the photo, you will see 328 and 303 Corbett (extant); on Mars, 56, 52, and 46 (extant) are visible. Above these properties are some houses on Uranus. On the very far right edge, is the back of what most likely is 56-58 Danvers. And, between 303 and 328, is what eventually became the Slope
Community Garden. Market Street now runs right the middle of this photograph. Gardner’s gum (Gardner’s Pepsin Chewing Gum) painted on the side on a shed was a 1904 patent medicine of the era.
If you recognize anyone, let us know!
OpenSFHistory / wnp37.00189
The second photograph taken in 1912 shows a close up of houses on Mars (52, 56, and 64) in the 1906 photograph—46, 52, and 56 are visible in an 1895 photograph (see January newsletter); 64 was built between 1906 and 1912. See the Sanborn Fire Map below to put the streets and houses in perspective.
Credit: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library 1912 (portion of larger photo—3 of the oldest houses on Mars (extant, but with alteration)
After the Earthquake - Food Line at 17th and
Collingwood
The photograph below shows the food line at 17th and Collingwood after the 1906 earthquake. This beautiful building was demolished for the Market Street extension. The second photo shows the building in 1910 and the building opposite it, which was moved and still exists at 3955 17th Street. The drugstore was owned by Frederick Wulzen. Later Wulzen’s drugstore relocated to 500 Castro. The owner lived at 4021 17th
Street above the store.
Credit: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Credit: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Where Was This? Hint: It Was Within the CHN boundaries
As the
photograph indicates it was taken at 18th and Danvers, but it’s still a challenge to understand where this was because it all was demolished with the Market Street extension. Fred. G. Horner, the grocer and saloon keeper, was at 2 Falcon Street. As you may know Falcon was expunged with the Market Street extension. Market Street extension at Danvers went through this intersection. 328 Corbett can be seen at the top left on the hill. Across from 328
Corbett is 349 Corbett (pyramid roof) under construction. The grocery store was very close to 56-58 Danvers, which remains as built. Next to 56-58 is 60-62, at the northwest corner of Market and Danvers Horner’s store sat partially on that property. The photo is dated 1909. The tracks, of course, are on 18th Street. See the 1905 Sanborn fire map below, page 686, for this area. Page 684 shows the three buildings on the right of this photograph.
Merritt/Ord Park would be on the right across the street from the market. The tracks under construction are part of the 18th Street San Francisco and San Mateo Railway. Originally it went to Douglass Street, but it was extended to Merritt in 1909.
18th/Danvers/Falcon 1909
Intersection (circled) of 18th/Danvers/Falcon from another angle, 1910-1920 Before Market Street Extension
Same circled intersection after the Market Street
Extension. Note the building that lost a portion on 18thStreet at Danvers, south of Market, now a triangular building, late 1930s-1940s.
Join Our Neighbors for a Congressional Forum, May 6
We are co-sponsors of a forum with three of the leading candidates
vying for San Francisco’s U.S. House seat, featuring Saikat Chakrabart, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, and State Senator Scott Wiener. There are as of this date 10 candidates. To participate, candidates must meet at least one of the following criteria by April 15: (1) raised $75,000 or more in contributions from individual donors as reported to the FEC, excluding personal loans or self-funding; OR (2) registered at 5% or higher in a credible, independent public poll of
the race.
Eleven neighborhood groups across District 8 are hosting the forum to address issues that matter to neighbors and households across the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Duboce Triangle, and Cole Valley.
San Francisco Standard reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez will moderate the forum, which will feature questions submitted by the neighborhood groups. With mail-in ballots arriving the same week, the forum is the perfect time to make your final choice for the June 2 primary in this once-in-a-generation
race.
One of the three planter boxes was set on fire at the Slope Community Park. We have filed a
police report and requested a repair by the Department of Public Works. In addition to the damage to the planter box, three mature plants were lost, and the drip system needed to be repaired. This happened March 11 and was reported by a CHN member on an early walk. The fire department responded at 5:20 AM.
Corbett/Ord Triangle Park Gets a Tree Trim
The Strawberry Tree was overtaken by the overhanging pine limb and the ever expanding yucca. See before and after photographs.
Pet Pics
Meet Misty and Olive (Ollie). No, it’s two cats, not one with two heads.
Don’t forget to send us your pet pics.
Blooming Now in the Neighborhood
Blooming now in the neighborhood is Grandmother’s Hat rose. It’s pink, with lilac undertones, a darker center,
aging to light pink with a strong, rose fragrance, 24-40 petals, blooms through the season, tall, arching, bushy, heat tolerant, to a height 6’ to 12’.
In Memory of Al Kovalick—Five Year
Anniversary
The Randall Museum
The Randall Museum requests your assistance in raising funds for the Nature Exploration Area. Any amount helps!
Richie’s Picks: WHITE LIES: HOW THE SOUTH LOST THE CIVIL WAR, THEN REWROTE THE
HISTORY by Ann Bausum, Macmillan/Roaring Brook, August 2025, 368p., ISBN: 978-1-250-81657-3
“White ones and red ones
And some you can't disguise
Twisted truth and half the news
Can't hide it in your eyes
Lies lies lies yeah”
– Thompson
Twins (1983)
“LIE #3: The Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery; it was all about states’ rights.”
“Lies have multiple purposes, and one of them is to create power. The people who have benefited from past lies will be the first to criticize efforts that undercut them. Not surprisingly, they will lie to do it. That’s the problem with lies. Once you start telling them, it’s hard to stop.
Threaten liars with the facts, and they’ll reflexively double down with more falsehoods. It’s not surprising today during an era where issues of race, class, and privilege are such a focus of national debate that the matter of truth is too. Lies swirl around us, corrupting our understanding of current events in the same ways that they have distorted our appreciation of the past.
Until we break this cycle, until accuracy replaces misinformation, we will
struggle.”
– from the Introduction: The Lost History
Employing dozens of these lies as propaganda, and armed with four potent weapons: voter suppression, Jim Crow segregation, lynching, and the erection of Confederate-related statues in public places, yesteryear’s enslavers and subsequent generations of their White supremist supporters–both in the South and North–have been responsible for 160 years
of countless Black Americans being cheated, mistreated, maimed, killed, and/or otherwise discriminated against because of their skin color. The biggest pile of propaganda bs, known as the Lost Cause, developed as a fantasy alternative to the real history of what slavery actually involved, and the real truth about the Southern states rebelling from the United States.
“[T]he Lost Cause was so captivating, so enticing, so flattering, so
face-saving, in short, so convenient. The lies were easier to swallow than the facts.
For example, it was far easier to whitewash the nature of slavery than it was to admit that southern Whites had benefited for generations by exploiting Blacks in an immoral and violent act of enslavement. It was far easier for southern Whites to suggest that Confederate soldiers had been heroes defending the U.S. Constitution instead of rebels supporting the financial
interests of enslavers. And it was far easier for southern Whites to blame the federal government for the defeat of the Confederacy than it was to hold the South’s generals accountable.”
“LIE #8: White people are naturally superior to Black people.”
Unbelievably, the legions of lies exposed in this incredible expose were still being formally fed to impressionable young students when we
Boomers were kids–and even beyond then!
“What had started as misleading statements intended to spare the South’s ruling class from blame for the region’s demise had accomplished far more than originally expected. The lies of the Lost Cause had been absorbed so thoroughly that they had not only taken hold with White southerners but were influencing Americans as a whole. These falsehoods had helped fuel vigilante violence, derail
Reconstruction, and strengthen White supremacy to the South. The Lost Cause had infused public art, inspired works of literature, and perpetuated the celebration of the Confederacy. Furthermore, historians were accepting its lies at face value and beginning to present falsehoods as historical facts.”
As we see from the extensive backmatter, nonfiction author Ann Bausum did a wealth of research in order to expose the lies and (still) ongoing
campaign of White supremacy in America. The story details so many vivid examples of the related statues, literature, the demonization of Reconstruction, and all of the lies-lies-lies, yeah! The informational literacy lessons inherent in this nonfiction tale make it a volume that should unquestionably find its way into middle- and high school collections.
“[The] word–truth–would become inseparably linked to the Lost Cause effort. It
appears over and over in the historical record, and for a good reason. As historian David W. Blight observed in his study of the postwar period, Race and Reunion, ‘in the sheer repetition of the word “truth” they claimed credibility and sought justification.’ Lies could replace the facts, these southern Whites reasoned, if they insisted loudly enough and long enough that they were the truth.
And, over time, that’s exactly what
happened.”
And because that’s exactly what happened, countless millions of Black Americans have been screwed out of their rightful enjoyment of the American Dream…and far worse.
After WWII, Germany quickly ridded itself of tributes to Hitler and Nazi-ism. But 160+ years after the traitorous Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House; there are still lots
of statues and plaques in public places that celebrate the joys of slavery and the Confederacy. This makes this extraordinary expose of the White Supremacists’ perverted rewriting of U.S. history the most consequential piece of nonfiction for young people I’ve read so far this year.
And God bless the teacher-librarian who scores a class set of this one, and helps incorporate it into the curriculum.
