History of San Francisco
The history of the city of San Francisco, California, and its development as a center of maritime trade, were shaped by its location at the entrance to a large natural harbor.
Only lightly settled by European-Americans at first, after becoming the base for the gold rush of 1849 the city quickly became the largest and most important population, commercial, naval, and financial center in the American West.
The high demand for housing, driven by its proximity to Silicon Valley, and the limited availability has led to the city being one of America's most expensive places to live.
[2] The earliest Europeans to reach the site of San Francisco were a Spanish exploratory party in 1769, led overland from Mexico by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Fra.
[4] Linguistic and paleontological evidence is unclear as to whether the earliest inhabitants of the area now known as San Francisco were the ancestors of the Ohlone population encountered by the Spanish in the late 18th century.
In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first significant homestead outside the immediate vicinity of the Mission Dolores, near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square.
[14] On July 31, 1846, Yerba Buena doubled in population when about 240 Mormon pioneers from the East coast arrived on the ship Brooklyn, led by Sam Brannan.
US Navy Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican–American War, and US Navy Captain John Berrien Montgomery and US Marine Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson of the USS Portsmouth arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later by raising the flag over the town plaza, which is now Portsmouth Square in honor of the ship.
Many businesses founded to service the growing population exist today, notably Levi Strauss & Co. clothing, Ghirardelli chocolate, and Wells Fargo bank.
Many famous railroad, banking, and mining tycoons or "robber barons" such as Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford settled in the city in its Nob Hill neighborhood.
Since the city's rapid Gold Rush population growth had significantly outstripped the development of infrastructure, including sanitation, a serious cholera epidemic quickly broke out.
In 1905, The Sisters of Mercy purchased a lot at Fulton and Stanyan Streets, the current location of St. Mary's Medical Center, the oldest continually operating hospital in San Francisco.
[citation needed] Due to the Gold Rush, and despite the Vigilantes, and the gradual implementation of law and order in San Francisco, its red-light district at the time became known as the Barbary Coast which became a hotbed of gambling, prostitution and most notoriously for Shanghaiing.
It was during the 1860s to the 1880s when San Francisco began to transform into a major city, starting with massive expansion in all directions, creating new neighborhoods such as the Western Addition, the Haight-Ashbury, Eureka Valley, the Mission District, culminating in the construction of Golden Gate Park in 1887.
[citation needed] The next mayor, James D. Phelan elected in 1896, was more successful, pushing through a new city charter that allowed for the ability to raise funds through bond issues.
Water mains ruptured throughout San Francisco, and the fires that followed burned out of control for days, destroying approximately 80% of the city, including almost all of the downtown core.
The initial low death toll was concocted by civic, state, and federal officials who felt that reporting the actual numbers would hurt rebuilding and redevelopment efforts, as well as city and national morale.
After the exposition ended, all of its grand buildings were demolished except for the rebuilt Palace of Fine Arts which survives today in an abbreviated form, while the remainder of the fairgrounds were re-developed into the Marina District.
The void was quickly filled by thousands of African Americans who had left the South to find wartime industrial jobs in California as part of the Great Migration.
However, Caltrans soon encountered strong resistance in San Francisco, for the city's high population density meant that virtually any right-of-way would displace a large number of people.
The San Francisco Sound emerged as an influential force in rock music, with such acts as Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead achieving international prominence.
[citation needed] San Francisco's frontier spirit and wild and ribald character started its reputation as a gay mecca in the first half of the 20th century.
In 1977, businessman Harvey Milk announced he would run for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at a memorial for Robert Hillsborough, a gay man murdered in a homophobic attack.
[citation needed] During the early 1980s, homeless people began appearing in large numbers in the city, the result of multiple factors including the closing of state institutions for the mentally ill, the Reagan administration reducing Section 8 housing benefits, and social changes which increased the availability of addictive drugs.
Mayor Agnos made the controversial decision to tear down the Embarcadero Freeway, opening the waterfront but eventually shifting Chinatown voters away from him and costing him re-election in 1991.
[citation needed] Also that year, Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old lacrosse coach, was killed by two Presa Canario dogs owned by her neighbors, who were charged with murder.
[52][53] That same year, severe wildfires, including the North Complex Fire, burned more than 2 million acres east of San Francisco, resulting in Orange Skies Day.
[60] The overwhelmed police department was forced to prioritize more serious calls for service and could no longer enforce most of the California Vehicle Code or the city's own traffic laws.
[62] The news was regarded as the culmination of Union Square's collapse as a regional shopping hub,[62] as many retailers either fled to or consolidated their Northern California operations at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose.
[62] In April 2024, the staffing crisis in the city jails got so bad that the sheriff deputies' union openly asked Governor Gavin Newsom to call out the National Guard to restore order.
