Irish Hill (San Francisco)
The neighborhood was located on a 250-foot hill reached by a wooden stairway at Illinois and 20th streets, and extended from there to the bay. Founded in the 1860s by Irish immigrants, it consisted of approximately 60 small houses and 40 boarding houses and hotels, housing mostly working-class Irish. A large number were single men who worked at Union Iron Works or the Pacific Rolling Mills, in the nearby industrial area known as the Dogpatch. The Union Hotel was run by Frank McManus, a political boss known as the King of Irish Hill.
The neighborhood was destroyed when the hill was flattened in two stages, in the 1880s by quarrying to provide fill for under Long Bridge (now the site of 3rd Street) and starting in 1897, by quarrying and dynamiting to clear space for the expansion of the Union Iron Works and subsequently of Bethlehem Steel. By 1918 it had been reduced to a mound less than 50 feet high.
See also
References
- ^ Donat, Hank (2001). "Farewell Favorites: Irish Hill". Mister SF. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
- ^ Dowd, Katie (March 16, 2020). "The bloody reign of the King of Irish Hill, San Francisco's destroyed neighborhood". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Bakalinsky, Adah; Burk, Mary (2014). Stairway Walks in San Francisco: The Joy of Urban Exploring (8th ed.). Birmingham, Alabama: Wilderness Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780899977492.
External links
- Irish Hill then and now, Found SF
- South End Historic District in San Francisco, Noe Hill
37°45′31.15″N 122°23′10.91″W / 37.7586528°N 122.3863639°W