Rediscovering the Peninsula: Pleasure centers in Bayview

In the 1850s, as a ship traveled through the Golden Gate (with no bridge), the captain immediately scoured the land to the right for a good place to anchor the ship. The first ships pulled into a swampy area after seeing the Presidio a short distance from the water. The passage to the Presidio was difficult and treacherous as the area was completely wetlands, full of shallow water, rushes and birds. The Presidio was in disrepair with few soldiers living there. Most of the soldiers had been transferred to the Sonoma fort where Gen. Vallejo commanded them. This area will eventually be filled in and Crissy Field for aircraft will occupy the site.

The area where Marina Green exists now was a vast wetland surrounded by sand dunes and salt marshes. Very few residents lived in the area in the mid-1850s. In 1854, Rudolph Herman, a German, settled in San Francisco and did a number of jobs until 1860 when he opened a bath house called the North Beach. After a successful beginning, Herman moved to the north end of Baker Street and enlarged his business and added a large hotel, a restaurant, picnic gardens, a complete system of hot and cold water baths, changing rooms for a Bay dip and two wharfs. The complex was renamed Harbor View Park. The seafood restaurant became well known for its clam chowder, cracked crab and steam beer. Business was brisk and other pleasure businesses opened such as a dance hall called the Winter Garden on Baker near Beach, Seaside Gardens at Baker and North Beach, Germania Gardens at Baker and Jefferson and McLane’s Crab House at the foot of Fillmore Street. Later, heavy industry developed in the area such as Phelps Manufacturing Company at Fillmore, Bay and Buchanan as well as The San Francisco Gas and Light Company. As the Bayview industry area developed, lodging was needed for the workers. The Garfield Hotel opened in the 1880s at Chestnut and Fillmore. In the 1890s, the Jefferson Hotel at Broderick and Jefferson housed mainly employees of the iron works and ship yard. The Bayshore and Fort Point Road, a macadamized road was built along the shore and the Presidio Road to the north also aided transit to the pleasure centers. A stage line provided transit from Portsmouth Square and later omnibus service from South Park (Rincon Hill) reached North Beach and Harbor View. In 1866, Henry Casebolt’s City Front, Mission and Ocean Railroad began horsecar operation traveled outbound on Sutter and Polk, then north to Broadway and finally reached Herman’s Hotel.