Events

Join us for this in-person history walk led by our pal John Martini through his old stomping grounds at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Fort Funston is more than hang gliders and dog walkers. It began its history as San Francisco’s most remote (some said desolate) military fort in 1900. From World War I to the Cold War, the sandy post featured barracks, massive gun emplacements, trenches, antiaircraft guns, and NIKE missiles that protected the southern approach to San Francisco Bay. Today, the remains of many of these fortifications lie buried beneath the city’s last large expanse of natural dunes.

Our journey begins at 10:00am and is expected to take about two hours. This is a moderately difficult walk with terrain that includes walking unpaved and sandy areas. The super secret meeting location will be emailed when tickets are purchased: $10 for WNP members and $20 for non-members. Please register through Eventbrite.

The walk is limited to 30 people and we will follow whatever San Francisco Department of Health regulations are in place at the time.

Recently, the State Historic Resources Commission voted to nominate St. Francis Wood as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. It's a remarkably intact residence park featuring homes by some of San Francisco's most significant architects and a landscaping plan conceived by the Olmstead Brothers. But what exactly is a residence park and what's the deal with these racist covenants you might be hearing about?

Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) has answers for you. Join us on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 6:30pm via Zoom for a virtual history talk by Richard Brandi, former WNP board member and author of the book "Garden Neighborhoods of San Francisco: The Development of Residence Parks, 1905-1924."

In that time period, residence parks were either planned or created with picturesque streets, landscaping, detached houses, and setbacks to convey the feeling of living in a park. St Francis Wood, Forest Hill, Seacliff, and Ingleside Terraces are all residence parks, which were located mostly on the west side of San Francisco, with a few on Twin Peaks, the Outer Mission, the Marina, and Visitation Valley. Learn about how these neighborhoods came to be and their complicated but colorful history from the man who literally wrote the book on this subject.

This WNP event is free but donations are appreciated, and you must register in advance via Eventbrite. We're trying a new event registration format for this program so bear with us as we learn together. If you have any questions about this event or problems receiving the link, please email Executive Director Nicole Meldahl.

Join us for this in-person history walk led by our pal John Martini through his old stomping grounds at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

The wild northwest corner of San Francisco known as Lands End will be highlighted in this moderately strenuous walk. Along the way we’ll follow the right of way for the famous “Ferries & Cliff House” steam train, see the remains of the oil tanker SS Lyman Stewart that wrecked in 1922, visit the site of the vanished community of Ocean Terrace, and explore the once-lavish grounds of Adolph Sutro’s estate of Sutro Heights.

Our journey begins at 10:00am and is expected the to take about 2 hours. The super secret meeting location will be emailed when tickets are purchased: $10 for members and $20 for non-members. Please register through Eventbrite.

The walk is limited to 30 people and we will follow whatever San Francisco Department of Health regulations are in place at the time.