Bernal History Project
an offshoot of Bernal Heights Preservation (www.bernalheightspreservation.org)Honoring the history of San Francisco's Bernal Heights.
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Helene Critler -- Bernal Centenarian 440 Cortland -- A Short History
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Wednesday, October 14: Author and raconteur John Rubino, who grew up in a Sicilian-American family in Bernal, talks about his autobiography, Yano: From the Prune Ranch to Skyscrapers, at 6.30 p.m. at Red Hill Books on Cortland. Admission is free; all are welcome. Saturday, October 24: Join our friends at the Potrero Hill Archives Project for the 10th Annual History Night! Admission is free.
Alongside the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, we're gearing up for Bernal History Day on Saturday, August 29! A big thank you to everyone who came to our slideshow for the SF History Association! Kaleene Kenning, the Examiner's San Francisco architecture and design columnist, reviews it here. Longtime Andover Street resident Gabriella West is the Examiner's Bernal Heights correspondent. View her column here.
Carl Nolte's June 21 Native Son column is about Bernal and BHP! BHP member Tony Galomorro has kindly shared then-and-now photos of various Bernal spots from the 1970s. See the Beatles House, lots of Coleridge Victorians, and many more changes. Tony has also taken more photos of contemporary Bernal including stairways, parks, and more. Anyone know more about the Sugar Shack on Peralta? On Tuesday, June 30, at 7:30 p.m., at St. Philip's Church and School in Noe Valley, we're presenting a slideshow on the history of Bernal Heights for the members of the San Francisco History Association! The show is free for SFHA members, $5 for nonmembers. All are welcome. Click here for more details and directions. Continuing our research through the city directories ... want to find out who lived in your century-old house in 1907? Look here! Patriarchal caveat: Women are not listed unless they are employed or widowed ... you'll need to check Census records to find all the inhabitants of a house. Labor leader Olaf Tveitmoe lived at 119 Prospect in 1907. He was president of the American Brotherhood of Cement Workers and later a San Francisco supervisor; unfortunately, he was also a white man of his era, serving as first president of the racist Asiatic Exclusion League in 1908.
Bernal Heights celebrates a 1906 earthquake survivor! (Click to read Examiner story.)
Photo courtesy Don Stegeman Rose Cliver (nee Wyrsch) lived at 527 Gates Street when the 1906 earthquake struck. Read another interview with Rose in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and Carl Nolte's Chronicle report from the April 18 earthquake celebrations. Walt grew up on Andover Street, the son of Norwegian immigrants, and later moved to St. Mary's Park. He and his wife, Fern, graciously shared their time and memories of growing up in Bernal Heights for our book and archive. We hope to post a video of our 2007 interview with Walt here soon. George lived on Banks Street his whole life, and also graciously loaned us photographs and told us stories of life on the hill. See a short video clip (scroll down) of George talking about the swamps that used to surround the Old Clam House. Nearly Bernal: New movie Lost in the Fog opens Friday, April 24, at the Roxie. Director John Corey profiles Noe Valley's Harry Aleo, who owned Twin Peaks Properties on 24th Street, and his award-winning racehorse Lost in the Fog.
The Bocana Street retired teacher and WW2 veteran was a free thinker. A one-boy crime wave, battles between gangs on the north and south sides of the hill, and goat rustling.
The Postcard Guru of Army Street Edward Mitchell was a renowned postcard publisher of the early 20th century, based at 3363 Army. Did his oversize-fruit cards inspire the Allman Brothers? An interesting history, new to us, of the building at 3434 Mission Street. Read about the goat thieves, young hooligans, and suspicious fires on the hill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More stories added regularly! Want to know who lived in your house in 1915 (if it existed then)? Look here!
The Story of the Ribeltad Vorden:
Meet at Carver Street and Bernal Heights Boulevard (near Bradford and Alabama) at 1 p.m.
Subtitled "Short, Steep, and Strenuous" -- you have been warned! Six street right-of-way stairs were completed this year on Bernal's south slope. NEW in October 2008:
Come see us at the Bernal Heights Fiesta! On Sunday, October 19, we'll have a table on Cortland as part of the annual Fiesta celebrations. Drop by and look at our scrapbooks of photos and news clippings, ask questions about the neighborhood (we might know the answer!), and share your stories and photographs. We'll also be selling signed copies of our Arcadia book, for those of you who don't own it yet!
Earthquake? What earthquake? Mission Street businesses were bustling in 1907. NEW in September 2008: Cardboard sleds, forts named Raccoon Palace and the Taj Mahal, and raising tadpoles: Alex Grimm writes about growing up on the north side of Bernal. NEW in August 2008: Bernal Heights in 1922Want to know who lived in your house in 1922 (if it was built by then)? Visit this page to find out!
Do you know George Williamson?George's report cards from Junipero Serra and Bernal Grammar turned up at a house sale recently. Do you know George and his family? Help us tell his story -- or return his report cards!
Diary of a renovation: The Bernal branch library is closed for renovation and retrofitting. Follow the progress through the photos here. And congratulations to longtime BHP member Valerie Reichert on her new post as Bernal's children's librarian! Jerry Schimmel took a walk along Mayflower Street. Longtime Bernal and St. Mary's Park resident Herb Smith passed away recently. Herb loaned many photos and scrapbooks to BHP when we were working on our Arcadia book, and took a keen interest in all our work. He was five-time president of the St. Mary's Park Improvement Club, and designed the St. Mary's flag. He will be much missed. 1922 was a very good year: If your Bernal home already existed, that is. BHP has mapped almost the entire 1922 city directory, block by Bernal block. If you'd like to know who lived in your house in 1922, e-mail Vicky Walker for an Excel file. (Coming soon to this site!) SF Genealogy is an excellent site for all sorts of genealogical and local history research.
Walk virtually down Bernal streets (and the rest of the city). Click on the photos for 360-degree views! Jenni Olson's new-to-us blog on St. Mary's Park has some interesting images and a history of the neighborhood. This excerpt from a 1910 tourist map shows the city's streetcar routes, along with the Ocean Shore Railroad. Where the Ripoff Used to Be a Way of Life: An Examiner article from 1973 about the Brothers and Sisters of Mullen Avenue.
The Charles W. Cushman Photo Collection in the Indiana University Archives contains some photos of Bernal. Cushman was an amateur photographer who took many pictures of San Francisco neighborhoods. See Bernal Hill from South Van Ness in 1953, a city view from Bernal Heights Boulevard, and Bernal seen from Twin Peaks in 1961.
Jerry Schimmel's personal history of 40 Prentiss Street and strange happenings on the hill. Learn how the gate got installed, about the mystery of the Bernal Hill Post Office, and various escapades involving cars and shouting.
Bernal artist Teri Claude's Bernal Hill Project records the items her rabbit, Dusty, unearthed from her backyard. Henry Behrenst's 1920s teenage diary, found on Elsie Street! Can you help us to learn more about him? A history of Bernal Heights Boulevard and the top of the hill by Jerry Schimmel. Moving into Mullen Avenue: An excerpt from Richard Hall's self-published thesis. Waiting for Someone to Get Killed: A 1972 Bernal Journal article by Richard Hall.
Bernal Heights Message Board:Got a question about Bernal history -- or a story or photo to share? Post it here and see whether your neighbors can help!
Jose Cornelio Bernal, d. 1926:
In July 2007, we got together with the neighborhood historians of Potrero Hill and Visitacion Valley to share stories and photos. Click here to see the article on our meeting in The Potrero View.
"Generals of Bernal Hill":
More photos coming soon to this site. If you have stories or pictures of Bernal to contribute, please e-mail vicky.walker@gmail.com
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