Remnants of Rincon Hill

Remnants of Rincon Hill (HM1DOM)

Location: San Francisco, CA 94107 San Francisco County
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Country: United States of America
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N 37° 46.951', W 122° 23.309'

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Inscription
Look up First Street towards the remnants of Rincon Hill; in the 1850s it was the first fashionable residential neighborhood in the city. When the excitement of the Gold Rush subsided, San Franciscans looked around for the best place to build a house with a view from a sunny hill, out of the wind and fog, and yet within reach of the financial district and the waterfront - Rincon Hill took the honors. In the 1850s the hill was higher, with several summits at 120 feet. An abundance of springs provided water for the gardens that made the hill such a desirable place to live. Hawthorn, Essex, Dover, Vassar Place, and Laurel Place were names taken from the English countryside and transplanted on small streets lined with walled-gardens, just off of Harrison, Folsom and Bryant. Along these streets the capitalists and lawyers, sea-captains and bankers, editors and senators, foundry owners and canny real estate investors, as well as mining stock speculators and judges, settled their families in houses that reflected individual tastes.

Rincon Hill was first assaulted in 1869 when the notorious Second Street Cut dug a trench seventy feet deep along the width of fashionable Second Street from Bryant to Folsom, leaving houses teetering on the abyss. Gradually, in the 1880s and 90s, most of the larger houses became boarding houses with good addresses, or sanitariums, or Bohemian enclaves for artists and writers. The great fire of 1906 destroyed all of the homes on the hill. Some land holders put up post-fire flats for city workers. Others sold out to expanding city industries. Many lots stood vacant. In the 1930s the decision to locate the entrance to the Bay Bridge on the hill destroyed the working-class neighborhood that grew up after 1906. Construction of the Bay Bridge and its highway connections effectively erased any evidence of the day when Rincon Hill was the best address in San Francisco.

On the front of the podia

All that is left of once beautiful and imposing mansions crowned the brow of the cliff - Harles Stoddard, 1903

On the back of the podia

To each the city of his dreams - George Sterling, 1901
Details
HM NumberHM1DOM
Tags
Placed BySan Francisco Art Commission for the Waterfront Transportation Projects
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014 at 3:52pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)10S E 553847 N 4181861
Decimal Degrees37.78251667, -122.38848333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 37° 46.951', W 122° 23.309'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds37° 46' 57.06" N, 122° 23' 18.54" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)415, 650, 408, 510
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 684-694 The Embarcadero, San Francisco CA 94107, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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