Search Results for "easter"
-
As legend has it in the Mt. Davidson area, the Easter Bunny lives behind a metal door at the top of the stairs near the cross. Gladys McWood Birdsong writes, “Last Spring before Easter, my granddaughter, Adrienne Long, called my sister Diane excitedly reporting, ‘My whole kindergarten class at Miraloma Elementary walked up Mt. Davidson […]
-
San Francisco’s grandest Easter morning tradition will be held on Sunday, March 31, at 7:00 AM. Admission is free. This year’s citywide celebration atop the City’s highest peak will mark the 101st anniversary of the event. Speakers offering readings, prayers and an Easter message will include Rev. Dave Ainsworth of Citizens Church, State Treasurer Fiona […]
-
To save Inspiration Point, the original site of the annual Easter Sunrise cross and service, former Mayor Rossi successfully convinced the City to purchase seven more acres for Mount Davidson Park in 1941. On the eastern slope of the hill, the grassland was once owned by Leland Stanford, who planned to build a dense residential […]
-
The Father of Tree Planting in California
Adolph Sutro’s Urban Forests: Influences and Lasting Benefits by Jacqueline Proctor June 2014 INTRODUCTION Philanthropist, engineer, park commissioner, and former Mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro (1830 -1898), was one of the greatest philanthropists in the United States. He built the saltwater Sutro Baths, the largest in the world, and was the owner of the […]
-
Mount Davidson and its Historic Neighborhoods
Mount Davidson and its Historic Neighborhoods Mt. Davidson is not only the highest geographic point (938ft.) on the world famous San Francisco skyline (the forested peak to the left of the Bay Bridge above, and covered with snow below) and home to the Mount Davidson Cross and the Annual Easter Sunrise Service 2024, but offers an insiders view […]
-
World War II and Postwar Growth – Living the American Dream
World War II, writes historian Tom Cole, “Threw the city into forty-six months of frenetic wartime activity that altered it in unexpected ways. As America’s major Pacific port, San Francisco was nearly overwhelmed by the needs of the country’s war machine. Historian Oscar Lewis has written, ‘World War II had as great an impact on […]
-
Women’s Suffrage, Temperance Movement, and Prohibition – Daring to Dream
San Francisco in the 1920s The power of women in deciding where to purchase a home was apparent in this sewing circle around the sundial advertising Ingleside Terraces. “Progressive-era women were often responsible for the type of civic action that brought real change to public policy, by leading and organizing campaigns to create or preserve […]
-
1842 Jose de Jesus Noe elected Alcalde of Mission San Francisco de Asis. 1845 Rancho San Miguel, 4443 acres of land area extending east of what is now Junipero Serra Blvd. to San Jose Avenue, and including what is now Mt. Davidson, granted to Don Jose de Jesus Noe, Mayor of Yerba Buena, by Mexican […]
-
Sunnyside Conservatory Excerpts from the history written by Thomas Malim in 1976. Raised across the street from the Sunnsyide Conservatory, (pictured here in 1919 when purchased by the Van Becks) he worked successfully with Ken Hoegger and Greg Gaar to get the property restored and declared a city landmark. The .19 acre conservatory site was […]
-
Sherwood Forest, located West of Twin Peaks on the southwest slope of Mount Davidson, is themed around the folklore of Robin Hood, containing the streets, Lansdale, Dalewood, and of course, Robinhood, the highest residential street in the city of San Francisco, still decorated with the original globe streetlights. The small, three-by-two block community of about […]
-
Bounded by Ocean Avenue and Monterey Boulevard between Westwood Park and Balboa Terrace, this neighborhood of single family detached tile roofed homes was built by Fernando Nelson, who built over 4000 San Francisco homes, from Victorians to Spanish Mediterraneans, in a career which spanned almost a century. Historian Judith Lynch writes, “Arriving in San Francisco […]
-
At 938 feet above sea level, Mount Davidson Park is on the highest of San Francisco’s hills. Located near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the crossroads of Portola Drive, O’Shaughnessy, and Laguna Honda Boulevards, it is accessible by the 36-bus line. Covered with trees planted by a Comstock Lode millionaire on the […]
-
Many cultures hold mountains to be sacred – the ancient Greeks had Olympus and the Japanese have Mount Fuji. Christian crosses have been planted atop mountains for centuries. The word Easter comes from Old English Eastre, from Parent Germanic Austron, a goddess of fertility and sunrise, celebrated in the spring. These traditions were combined by […]
-
Miraloma Park was planned to become a “City in Itself,” a “suburban home center wherein they could use economics of mass production, thus bringing home ownership within the average means.” The neighborhood was developed from 1926 through the 1950s, largely by the Meyer Brothers: Theodore Meyer, President, G.H. Winter, Secretary, and Dewey Blade, Sales Manager, […]
-
“As chairman of arrangements, I have dared to dream that our President would press the button in Washington, D.C., which in turn would light for the first time this giant cross in San Francisco. It seems most appropriate that the President, who has brought light to many a darkened American home and who through his […]
-
What was your inspiration for writing the book? I have loved San Francisco since the first time I saw the gigantic fresh Christmas tree inside the City of Paris Department store on Union Square. Growing up in Southern California, I dared to dream that I might live here some day. In 1980 my husband and […]
-
A native of Nottingham, England, George Davidson (1825-1911) came to Philadelphia with his parents when he was seven years old. By the age of 17 he was given a responsible position in the observatory at Girard’s College. At the age of 25 in 1850 , he headed an expedition to the West for the U.S. […]
-
Council Of Armenian American Organizations Of Northern California
The Council of Armenian American Organizations of Northern California (CAAONC) was formed in 1997 to purchase, protect, and preserve the Mount Davidson Cross. The CAAONC consists of thirty-two Armenian-American organizations in Northern California. See more of their pictures at their website at http://mountdavidsoncross.org/. Bishop Sharvanian, Ed Aslanian, their attorneys, other friends and members of the […]
-
Honoring the Dreams of the Past and Making New Ones Come True In the early 1960s, the rise in North Beach rents causes hipsters to move across the city to Haight-Ashbury, which became the headquarters of America’s “hippie movement.” The first lawsuit is filed accusing the San Francisco Unified School District of a policy of […]
-
Benedict, William F. The Story of Mount Davidson. San Francisco, California: The Municipal Employee, 1928. Binkley, Cameron. A Cult of Beauty: The Public LIfe and Civic Work of Laura Lyon White. California Historical Society, 2005. Carmen, Betty. Some Notes on the History of Ingleside Terraces. San Francisco, California: Manual of Ingleside Terraces Homes Association, 1968. […]
-
Birth of a Benevolent City – The California Dream
San Francisco was first developed on what is now its most eastern boundary alongside San Francisco Bay. The first owner of the area now known as West of Twin Peaks was Don Jose de Jesus Noe, the last Mexican Alcalde (mayor) of Yerba Buena. The 4,443 acres of land granted to him in 1846 for […]
-
One of the earliest subdivisions on Mount Davidson, Balboa Terrace, was filed by Baldwin & Howell in 1912. However, most of the homes were built by Hueter Homes and designed by Harold G. Stoner in the 1920s, with Lang Realty Company in charge of promotion and sales. “A pleasant place to go home to, this […]
-
At 5:12 A.M. on April 18, the Wednesday after Easter Sunday, 1906, an estimated 8.3 magnitude earthquake shakes San Francisco for 48 seconds. Tom Cole writes, “The greatest damage occurred in North Beach and the financial district, where swampy marshes and the old Yerba Buena Cove had been filled during the Gold Rush. The land […]
Try searching for something else?