Sunnyside Line 10
Sunnyside historian Thomas Malim wrote, “Joost purchased the defunct San Francisco-San Jose railroad, which after changing part of the system from steam to electricity, went bankrupt. It ran along the San Jose Road which is now covered over by the concrete of the 280 Freeway. One of the operators of the Joost-owned railroad was Mr. Taylor, a gripman, who was one of the first to purchase property in Sunnyside, building a home by 1893 next to which the Sunnyside Conservatory would later be built.”
Gallery
Plan for powerhouse on Sunnyside Avenue near the triangle formed by Circular Way, Baden and Sunnyside. Perhaps to confirm the neighborhood was the “creme de la creme”, this diagram shows that the original Moulton Avenue was renamed for the Hearst family. (Courtesy Western Neighborhoods Project.)
Malim continues, “Joost ran the cars as far as the county line, until such time as he had sold all the land in his development, when he abandoned it (above.) Shortly, the Market Street railway purchased it. With the realignment of San Jose Road to its present location, the line was moved to Mission Street, and the Market Street Railroad Company began serving Sunnyside with an extension of the number 10 car, pictured here in 1911. The old SF-SJ cars became the number 40 line.” (Courtesy Ron Davis.)
View of the streetcar line on Sunnyside Avenue at Detroit Street looking west into Sutro’s forest on July 16, 1917. (Image # U05832 | Image Courtesy of the SFMTA Photo Archive | SFMTA.com/photo).
New pavement on Sunnyside Avenue at Edna Street in 1915. “World War I was the first year young boys wore knickerbockers with ties and jockey hats. Many a customer walked up the path up the hill on the left to a well-known Sunnyside bootleg operation. The single-track car rail was a common feature for ‘out of the way’ rail lines at the time.” (Courtesy Ken Hoegger’s Newsletter In the Community…For the Community.)
Bosworth Bridge looking west in 1916.(Courtesy Ken Hoegger.)
Line 10 in 1937 with Mount Davidson in the background. Malim writes, “from Baden to Gennessee Street, the line was a single track, with two bypass tracks a block apart. Occasionally the schedules for the cars would overlap, and the outbound passengers would have to disembark several blocks from the end of the line.”(Courtesy Ron Davis.)
Market Street Railway Line 10 between Acadia and Baden Streets in 1939. (Courtesy Ken Hoegger.)
10 Sunnyside streetcar near Detroit Street in 1939. The 10 ran from the Ferries via Mission, 14th, Guerrero, San Jose Ave., 30th, Chenery, Diamond and Monterey Blvd. (Sunnyside Ave.) to Gennessee and Westwood Park. In 1942, “Poor track” was one of the reasons the No. 10 got Office of Defense Transportation approval to abandon in wartime. The last streetcars operated April 1, 1942. Muni’s J extension follows part of the route today. (Courtesy Ken Hoegger.)
