The Potrero record

Picture book depicts the hill's lost (and surviving) history.

By Christina Dillmann

POTRERO HILL, like every neighborhood that sits along the eastern side of San Francisco, is under assault: Developers with eyes only for big money are dumping high-end housing into the Showplace Square and central waterfront areas, and that will almost certainly put pressure on the light industry and middle-class housing that still exist on the hill.

But Peter Linenthal and Abigail Johnston are trying to save Potrero Hill history – at least, in photographic form. Their new book, Images of America: San Francisco's Potrero Hill (Arcadia) captures the hill from the 1800s to now, often in compelling ways that put the neighborhood in an important context.

Take the photograph of Elvira Bonfiglio and her children, Lou and Lena, who were born at 303 Pennsylvania St., in a refuge shack built for survivors of the 1906 earthquake and fire, and then moved to 12th Street, where they built a bridge to a roof garden on an adjacent barn. Or the photograph of eight-year-old Ellie Baine holding on to her dog despite losing everything and being made homeless by the 1906 quake (the family first slept in an open field, and then in tents on Tennessee Street, and later relocated to a government-built shack on 20th Street).

The book, part of Arcadia's Images of America series, was born when Arcadia's editor, San Francisco native John Poultney, decided to produce a book about the history of Potrero Hill. Johnston, managing editor of the Potrero View newspaper, and Linenthal, director of the Potrero Hill Archives Project since 1986, were the natural choices.

"We began by immersing ourselves in the collection and just looking at everything we had and seeing what themes emerged," Johnson told the Bay Guardian. "There was a lot of back-and-forth in the process of working on the book – whether we would [be] following a strictly chronological theme."

Potrero Hill is historically significant, Linenthal explained, because of the important role it played in the gold rush and in San Francisco's industrialization. Black powder (used in munitions) was manufactured in Potrero Hill, and military ships and weapons were built during World War II at the shipyards nearby.

The book has pieces of that blue-collar history and much more: A photo of Allen Ginsburg typing a manuscript (possibly "Howl") at Peter Orlovsky's apartment at 5 Turner Terrace; a 1968 photo of the Grateful Dead, who used to rehearse at the now-defunct New Potrero Theater; a chase scene from Bullit; a picture of O.J. Simpson at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center in the 1970s; and a long list of other major and minor celebrities who have passed through or made the hill their home.

Like any good history book, it's a reminder of what's been lost – and what's still left to save.

A full-length interview of Johnson and Linenthal, by Bay Guardian editor and publisher Bruce B. Brugmann, is available at sfbg.com. Potrero Hill History Night, sponsored by the Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses and the Potrero Hill Archives Project, takes place Oct/22, 6 p.m., Enola Maxwell School, 656 De Haro, SF. (415) 863-0784.