Bayview Hunters Point Historical Footprints -- The Early Years

Has the main drag that runs through the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood always been called “Third Street?” Older residents will know the answer to that question, and many will remember when Third was called “Railroad Avenue” and, before that, “Hunters Point Boulevard.”

It’s not just the name that has changed.

At the turn of the century, the road was little more than a broad wagon trail, clay or mud depending on the season. It was graded in 1917 in a surge of investment following the 1916 flood that crept up the road from Innes Avenue. Until being discontinued in the 1950’s, Southern Pacific rail cars steamed along a rugged waterfront that was still wild between clumps of one- and two-story wooden commercial building. The train ran from Townsend and King Streets, criss-crossing what is now Third and running passengers directly through the neighborhood.

Whatever you call it, Third Street has always been a major artery for San Francisco.

Until the mid-1900’s, the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood was critical to San Francisco as the City’s food-shed: its pastures were filled with livestock and family farms, residents almost always had a backyard garden (if not cows and chickens) to supply their own tables, and Chinese fishermen and others actively harvested the bay. The docks included a thriving open-air market that many residents still remember as the best place to buy shrimp. “Truck farms” used Third Street to transport the wealth of food to San Francisco’s wholesale market.

Light industry speckled the area, including a concentration of breweries servicing the still untamed City. Lucky Lager Brewery, one of the best known, was also the last brewery in the neighborhood to be torn down or go out-of-business. After the U.S. Civil War, the Hunters Point Drydocks began keeping trade afloat, and in 1916 built what was then the largest drydock in the world. The military, already ensconced in the Presidio, took notice and began negotiations to acquire the commercial facility.

As food and beer trucked north on Third, new residents traveled south to take up residence in the growing neighborhood. Working class immigrants - Chinese, Italian, Maltese, Irish and German – gravitated to the area because it was less expensive and reminded them of the rural areas they came from. The work was hard, but life was in many ways idyllic given the bay-front beauty of the land and the determination of the diverse populations to build a cohesive, peaceful community.

A notable surge of new residents followed the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Much of the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood was built on bedrock, and the fire stopped far short of its border. If you had relatives or friends in the Bayview when the disaster occurred, you were lucky indeed.

The War Years and the African American Migration to the Bayview Hunters Point

Big news came to workers of the Shipyards in Bayview Hunters Point during World War II when the Navy made a policy decision to racially integrate new military housing being built following the Navy’s $4 million purchase of 47 acres there. Hunters Point developed into one of the most progressive examples of military housing while the country as a whole would wait until 1948 for full desegregation of the armed forces.

United States entry into World War II was imminent, and the value of African American labor to the war was understood. While full integration was slow to come, and episodes like the Port Chicago disaster exposed a deep racial divide, the military was ahead of mainstream America in terms of respect and opportunity for African Americans. And Hunters Point sat on the lead edge of change.

Life in the Bayview Hunters Point began to set a new social standard.

African Americans surged to the area for jobs and the relative tolerance they found in this place where nearly everyone was from somewhere else, and where peaceful coexistence was prized. African American children sat side-by-side with European- and Asian-American children in neighborhood schools. There were no “turf wars,” transportation was easy and safe, and children of all colors thought nothing of a Saturday afternoon walk to Playland at the Beach.

By the mid-1950’s, the shipyard swelled with thousands of civilians.

With money in their pockets, African American’s were bringing a unique new vibrancy to the neighborhood. Eateries featured Southern foods. Nightclubs pulsed with jazz and blues, star entertainers, and young people living the life. Homes became centerpieces of family investment. Small businesses and churches grew to serve the newest population.

Along with the fishy scent of the Bay, the breeze carried a collective optimism for racial harmony, the rise of the black middle class, and distance from the history of pain and struggle in this country for people of African decent.

The development of the shipyards also ushered in a legacy of pollution, including radioactive contamination, and the severe health outcomes still being experienced by Bayview Hunters Point residents. Similarly, the stage was being set for the rapid economic downturn of this “one-industry town” when the military closed their operation in 1974 during a national recession.

“We were all Catholic, and it seemed like that was more important than the color of our skin in getting along with neighbors.” Ms. Stacil talking about the Bayview in the 1950’s [Tom has actual quote]

Landmarks in the Bayview Hunters Point Neighborhood

What kid wouldn’t want to go see three horror movies back-to-back along with cartoons at their neighborhood movie theater? Many current Bayview Hunters Point residents remember doing exactly that. The Chiller Dillers, as they were called, brought together kids from all over the neighborhood to scream with delight at the Bayview Theater on the east side of Third Street between Quesada and Palou.

Activities for youth were prevalent then, and the entire community shared the responsibility of caring for and correcting neighborhood children. The area known as “Hilltop,” was alive on warm afternoons with kids sliding down hillsides on burlap and cardboard. The area boasted its own cinema, the Hilltop Theater, part of the bustling commercial center just finished in 1944 to service nearly 25,000 public housing occupants.

The oldest continually running business in the neighborhood is Mazzei’s Hardware, a family-owned store which was started in 1936 by Italian immigrants. Still located at 5166 Third Street, the store has weathered everything from the Great Depression to recent Third Street Light Rail construction.

All Hallows Catholic Church on Newhall and Palou was built in 1886, survived the earthquake in 1906 and a lethal fire that consumed its community hall in 1964, and remains a picturesque fixture nestled in the Bayview hills. It’s part of the Bayview’s rich religious history. Today, St. Paul of the Shipwreck on Jamestown Avenue, which was founded by Maltese immigrants, has a predominantly African American congregation. Other important centers of faith in the neighborhood include Providence Baptist Church and True Hope Baptist Church.

The Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theatre, established 1888, is San Francisco’s first and oldest opera house. Well-known vaudeville acts and old time minstrels frequented the venue during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and community-based programming continues to this day. In the late 1960’s, it was a movie house operated by the African American group San Francisco Youth Organizers. Danny Glover and Mel Steward raised money to remodel the building in the late 1970’s, and founded the respected Bayview Actors Guild there.

The Bayview Branch Library is emblematic of the changing face of the neighborhood, and of the community’s historic commitment to education - an important stepping stone to a better life for African Americans, immigrants, and all working class families. The branch is now named for a San Francisco clerical employee, Anna E. Waden, whose bequest made possible the cooperative community project that resulted in the current building at Third and Revere where a Sinclair gas station once stood. Constructed in 1969 under the leadership of its first librarian, George Alfred, the library still traces its roots to a humble storefront facility opened in 1927. Now, a major renovation of the current branch is on the drawing board.

The Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood is rich with physical assets. India Basin, the northern-most tip of the neighborhood’s waterfront, can be traced to a 1868 map. It is where Jack London’s ship, The Snark, was built, and where the film “Blood Alley,” starring John Wayne was filmed. It is now, as it was historically, a mixed use area for business and recreation.

The Quesada Gardens, a community-building project of the Quesada Gardens Initiative, is a centerpiece open space just off of Third Street. It is just one of many community-based projects creating safe spaces for public gatherings in the neighborhood. Candlestick Point Park is another open space, and helps serve the recreational needs of residents along with the nearby Monster Park stadium.

Many important homes, businesses and civic structures now exist only in the memories of residents, and in scattered photographs. Mount St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Orphans Asylum, built in 1912 on the hill known as Silver Terrace, is one of those buildings. Some residents remember it clear as day as it was a distinctive and stately place, the Bayview’s premiere western landmark, and full of life given the hundreds of boys and girls it housed over the years.

“It is communities like this one, Bayview Hunters Point, that work to bring us together in these times of extremism.” Supervisor Dianne Feinstein, May 6, 1974, at a dinner honoring religious leaders J.A. Morgan, Victor Medearis, and Calvin Jones. SF Chronicle.

“There’s a big difference between a ghetto and a neighborhood.” Billie Hicks, December 29, 1977, founder of Malaka Lisha School of Modeling and Fashion Ensemble. SF Examiner

The Spokesman, Civil Rights, and Rioting on Third Street

The Bayview’s history includes important moments in the development of the Black press. More than two decades after the Sun Reporter formed when Charles Goodlett and Thomas Fleming joined forces in the late 1940’s, The Spokesman launched to give the Bayview a dedicated voice. Under the leadership of Mohammed Al-Kareem, it operated for several years in the 1960’s, and then became the New Bayview until Willie and Mary Ratcliff stepped forward in 1991 to develop the San Francisco Bayview which still operates out of an office on Third Street between Palou and Quesada.

September 27, 1966 delivered The Spokesman its most dramatic story: 14 year old Mathew Johnson from Hunters Point was killed by a police officer over an alleged robbery, and the Black community united in response. By six o’clock that evening, a crowd of angry citizens reportedly led by James Richards gathered on Third Street frantically calling for Mayor John Shelley who did not appear.

“Roving bands of youth marched down Third Street, The Spokesman reported, “breaking out windows, attacking white passengers in cars, screaming and looting.” Mayor Shelley finally arrived after the windows of every white business on Third Street were smashed out, but could do nothing to calm the crowd. Police and National Guardsmen who stood by in hopes of bringing order were stoned by brick-throwing rioters.

The crowd disbursed at about one o’clock in the morning of its own accord, though not before the riot had spread to the Fillmore District and had sown the seeds of unrest for days to come in pockets of both neighborhoods. But, when the streets were finally quiet, the outcry was just beginning in The Spokesman.

“There has been too many fake programs out here that don’t offer the youth anything” Lindsay Crenshaw, Police Community Relations Officer, October 3, 1966, describing civic failures that led to the riot. The Spokesman

“Representatives of Hunters Point pleaded with the Mayor, Shelley, to come out and talk…but he sent word telling us to come to him….” Unidentified youth writing to The Spokesman, October 3, 1966

The Spokesman appeared during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement, and at a time when San Francisco was trying to put meat on the bones of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 “War on Poverty” declaration. Spokesman headlines screamed criticism of government leadership and social programs that seemed paltry to residents who were witness to daily need. Articles about public welfare, housing, jobs, “urban renewal,” and racial discrimination crowded the newspaper’s pages along with lifestyle features that reflected the lives of residents who didn’t expect to see themselves in the mainstream press.

On November 18, 1968, one of the most fondly remembered incidents in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood occurred when cattle escaped from “Butchertown’s” nearby slaughterhouses, herding around Newcomb Avenue and Southridge Road. It took hours to recapture the escapees, and hundreds of people ran to see the commotion. The story of rural and city lives colliding is retold even still, illustrating that the most serious times were rich with light moments.

Families and Community Values in the Bayview Hunters Point Neighborhood

Even in the worst of times, the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood was grounded by strong family principles, and inspired by community leaders who stepped forward to create change. Early immigrants from China and Europe depended on their family members for survival, and understood that the struggle of one member was the concern of everyone in the family.

In the Black community, attuned to its history of families being torn apart by slavery, family loyalty was often fierce. In the 1940’s, facing racism and poverty in the South, black people came thousands of miles, often leaving loved ones behind as they searched for opportunity. Not surprisingly, they held close the “people” they had in the Bayview.

Women are “quiet” in the nation’s history books before contemporary times. But in the Bayview Hunters Point - while still undervalued relative to men - they were also the cornerstone of the family unit in the neighborhood’s working class and African American populations. They were respected moral leaders in the church. And they were visible community workers who were quick to find solutions while others complained.

Moease Curry exhibited that kind of strength, energy and insight. She was a nurse, teacher and mother; and she was an active member of every parent organization, church group, business alliance, and community group imaginable. When asked what she would like to see done in the community, she said, “I would like to see a place set up for young mothers to be able to take their children for child care during the day…enable the mothers to go to work….” The statement is not surprising today, but was visionary in 1965 when Mrs. Curry said it!

Moease Curry was in good company. Lola Carter was the first black counselor for the seven schools of Bayview Hunters point in the 1960’s. Ivory Smith was a poverty worker with the San Francisco Economic Opportunity Council. Essie Webb was a church volunteer, block organizer, and founding member of the CO-OP Supermarket.

And then there was “the big five,” women of tremendous character and energy who were credited with running the Hunters Point community: Julia Commer, Osceola Washington, Ruth Williams, Rosie Williams, and Elouise Westbrook. If one of those women sounds familiar, it just might be because there is a street or building named after her!

The men of the Bayview have left their marks, too. One of the most indelible names is that of Sam Jordan, a man who found fame as a boxer shortly after arriving in San Francisco in 1947 when he won a Golden Glove. In 1959, he opened Sam’s Personality Club (now “Sam Jordan’s”) on Third Street, and made it a welcoming center of community and an after-hours destination point for entertainment stars performing in the City. Jordan was also the first African American candidate for San Francisco Mayor, running on behalf of The Freedom Now Party.

But for all his fame and accomplishment, Jordan is best remembered by those who knew him for his character. He built community in every word and gesture. He was universally respected and loved, and was a role model for young people. Some remember going to Sam Jordan’s as children in the 1960’s for cake on their birthdays, each feeling as though he or she was the most important person in the world. Later they would discover that lots of children had the same experience. It was just the way Sam Jordan was.

Many other men who helped shape the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood live on in the hearts of residents. Wayland Fuller was the owner and operator of Fuller Pharmacy which opened in 1947. He held many degrees, but was not officially a doctor; yet the community called him “Doc” as a sign of respect. Archie Reynolds founded the Bayview Merchants Association. Arthur Coleman was one of the first black physicians in San Francisco, and a tireless health and civil rights advocate. We are still walking in the footprints of these remarkable men.

Today, it’s easy to find residents of all backgrounds and colors whose families have been here for generations. Historically, the bonds of family and community have proven stronger than the struggles that might push people out. Community leaders step up daily to create the kind of neighborhood that remains inclusive, where those who have lived here longest will choose to stay.