Podcast Transcription

#484 - MacArthur Tunnel

Nicole: [00:00:00] It's Outside Lands San Francisco, Podcast of the Western Neighborhoods Project. I'm Nicole Meldahl.

Arnold: And I'm Arnold Woods.

Nicole: Hey Arnold.

Arnold: Hey Nicole.

Nicole: How's it going?

Arnold: It is going just fine. I think we're gonna deliver a curve ball this week.

Nicole: We generally do. There's no tight schedule for the Western Neighborhoods Project Podcast, which I'm sure most of our listeners know already. But we took a little break last week that was unscheduled, and this is also not a podcast about the San Francisco State strike, which we're saving for the final podcast of 2022. However, in honor of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as we enter the final weeks of 2022, we're offering a podcast on the MacArthur Tunnel instead. [00:01:00]

Arnold: That should have been a preview we had offered up cause it would would've been perfect.

Nicole: These good thoughts don't always come to us in the moment.

Arnold: Anyways, as work progressed on the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge back in the 1930s, an approach to the bridge from the east was also built. This Doyle Drive approach connected Lombard Street to the bridge through the north end of the Presidio, kind of at Marina. However, officials also wanted to build an approach to the bridge from the south. Such a road would necessarily have to go smack dab through the middle of the Presidio, which at the time was still a very busy army base.

Nicole: A very busy army base in the interwar period at the time. So, in June of 1935, Golden Gate Bridge District Directors indicated that they would like to build a state highway approach through a tunnel in the [00:02:00] Presidio. In mid-July 1935, California Governor Frank Merriam signed a legislative bill that would allow the state to accept rights of way through the Presidio for approaches to the Golden Gate Bridge. By a letter in October, 1935, the United States War Department promised cooperation with regard to what was being called the Funston approach to the bridge. Gotta believe that name, which honored General Frederick Funston, former Presidio commander, was an attempt to influence the army to approve the road. At the time there was talk that a tunnel under the Presidio could be anywhere from 900 feet to 2200 feet long. And more on that soon.

Arnold: Yeah, cause in 1935, General Paul Malone was in command of the Ninth Corps area and the Fourth United States Army, both which were headquartered in the Presidio. Essentially, General Malone was in command of West Coast operations [00:03:00] for the Army. And although the War Department would make the decision, General Malone would heavily influence any decision to build a road to the Golden Gate Bridge, which went through the Presidio. And General Malone was not against this idea, but he wanted very minimal above ground roads in the Presidio as part of this Funston approach. And that meant he wanted a lengthy tunnel traversing through the Presidio.

Nicole: Yeah, I heard a lot while, during my time working the Presidio, about how everyone revered the fact that it was not on a grid and it was some of the most beautiful grounds in the entire Army post system. So, they were always really protective of this sort of terrain about not getting mucked with. In January 1936, it was reported that there was a deadlock in negotiations between General Malone and the State Highway Commission. General Malone and the Army were proposing a 2300-foot-long tunnel, whereas the Highway Commission wanted a [00:04:00] 1200-foot-long tunnel. The general manager of the Highway Commission stated that the Army's proposal would greatly increase the cost of tunnel construction and that it would greatly increase future maintenance costs. Fearing the standoff with Malone could not be solved, the Golden Gate Bridge District made plans to engage local Congress people and civic groups to appeal to Secretary of War George Dern for help. Proving that it's always been impossible to get something built in San Francisco.

Arnold: And that lobbyists are always the answer, to a lot of people.

Nicole: Although this is the first time where they were like, oh gosh, it's gonna be too expensive. I feel like that's not historically accurate, but I feel like now they're like 400 million, 500 billion, whatever. Let's just build the thing.

Arnold: So, these negotiations continued, but the greatly divergent views on how long a tunnel through the Presidio should be was still a sticking [00:05:00] point. At a Golden Gate Bridge District meeting on March 11th, 1936, one of the directors, A.R. O'Brien, he just had enough. O'Brien lambasted both federal and state authorities for failing to cooperate on a resolution. He warned that the bridge would be finished, but there'd be no way to get to it. While even he noted this was a bit of hyperbole, he noted that the one approach to the bridge, which was Doyle Drive, that would be ready, would not be available to revenue producing trucks. And that was because trucks were barred on Marina Boulevard and the approach would only be accessible from Marina Boulevard when the bridge opened.

Nicole: Malone had stated that he would approve use of current Presidio roads to get to the bridge as a temporary measure. However, even that compromise was conditioned upon the lengthy 2300-foot-long tunnel being approved. Malone's hard-line stance finally came to an end. On April 30th, [00:06:00] 1936, General Malone retired and he was succeeded by General George Simonds. On July 29th, 1936, General Simonds announced that the War Department had tentatively approved plans for a 1300-foot tunnel-based Funston approach through the Presidio. And surprise, it turned out that General Malone had actually recommended the plan to the War Department just before he retired.

Arnold: Plot twist! The tentative plans were for a four-lane tunnel, two in each direction. However, there were, as yet, no actual plans in place. So construction did not begin right away. In General Simonds' announcement, he invited the State Highway Commission and Bridge authorities to submit plans for the Funston approach and tunnel. And, in fact, in September, 1936, when the State Highway Commission approved its 60 million budget [00:07:00] for the 1937-38 years, no actual monies were earmarked for the Funston approach because of this lack of plans.

Nicole: Whoops. Little bit of a cart before the horse situation right here, but it's okay. It's gonna work out. We do have a tunnel, so we know that the end is near. There were a number of government agencies that would be involved in the Funston approach effort, and this created sort of a cluster, you know what we me, we mean by cluster-hmmm. In December 1936, the Bridge District Board sent a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The letter noted that the Army would not give permission to cons, for construction until it received an application from the Bridge District which, with detailed plans, and that the State Highway Commission would not prepare plans unless it was assured that the City would commit money to the project. On the other hand, the City had taken the position of the Funston approach was a state [00:08:00] highway project. So why should they spend money on it? And by the way, listeners, it's still just as complicated to do any work on any of these things. I actually cataloged a lot of the bridge materials when I was over at the GGNRA and like all these people are still involved and still need to get sign offs and all that kind of nonsense.

Arnold: They're gonna get together here. On December 22nd, 1936, a conference between city, state and Bridge District officials took place in Sacramento. And after a whole lot of discussion, a compromise was reached whereby the state would provide two thirds of the cost of the Funston approach, while San Francisco would only have to pony up one third of the cost. The total cost was expected to be somewhere between 1.1 and 1.6 million dollars. Total cost expected at that time. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved this compromise proposal on January 4th, 1937.

Nicole: And [00:09:00] that's still cheaper than what it costs to build a toilet in a San Francisco park these days. Email me if you want that full Heather Knight story. Anyways, now, at this point, you're thinking that all it needs to be done is for plans for a 1300-foot-long tunnel to be prepared. It turns out that though the issue of the length of the tunnel was far from being settled. Plans for a 900-foot tunnel were initially submitted by the State Highway Department to the War Department. They rejected those plans because, hey, that wasn't what had been agreed to. And perhaps in a fit of pique, the War Department responded by saying that the tunnel had to be 1400-feet-long. Oh boy.

Arnold: Gotta wonder how the State Highway Commission thought they could just sneak in that shorter tunnel plans in and expect it to get approved.

Nicole: Just [00:10:00] a bunch of men arguing about how long it needs to be.

Arnold: So, while this is all going on, construction on the actual Golden Gate Bridge was completed in April 1937, and it officially opened on May 27th, 1937.

Nicole: Huzzah!

Arnold: And at that time, the only way to get to the bridge was on Doyle Drive from Marina Boulevard. Now, over the course of this first year of operation, the amount of traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge actually doubled, and as such, there was some urgency to get that Funston approach plan going.

Nicole: Too bad if you're a truck carrying commercial goods. Another sticking point came up in December 1937. The Funston approach would require a connection with the Doyle Drive approach. The Army and State Highway Commission wanted to, wanted free use of the Doyle Drive approach up to the connection with the Funston approach. [00:11:00] The Bridge District, on the other hand, did not want city traffic cluttering up the bridge approach and wanted to include both approaches as part of the toll for the bridge. The Army and State Highway Commission won that battle and the Bridge District finally conceded and approved the free approach route with a toll for the bridge only.

Arnold: And they're not gonna be happy about that. The director of the Bridge District, Hugo Newhouse, was irate. He stated, quote, "it's the same old story of obstruction by the Army and Highway Commission. The Army didn't wanna spoil three of their golf holes, so they gave us the problem of a 1400-foot tunnel. Now the Highway Commission wants to give it to us between the eyes.” End quote. He's talking about the free use of the Doyle Drive up to the Funston approach there. He finished by saying quote, “I'm willing to let public inconvenience annoy the people. Then they'll [00:12:00] go get after these Hitlers, Mussolinis and Stalins." End quote.

Nicole: I mean it’s with most conversations we have today as well, pretty much all conversation ends when you bring up Hitler, right?

Arnold: Exactly.

Nicole: Oh gosh. Okay, so on January 11th, 1938, a new Funston approach plan was submitted to the War Department. It offered two alternatives for how the tunnel itself would be constructed. One method was an open cut construction, which would dig a cut down to the tunnel level. The other was to bore a tunnel at a lower elevation, the open cut construction method was preferred as it would be cheaper and faster to do. The War Department approved this plan and allowed for the open cut construction in February 1938. By this time, the estimated cost of the Funston approach was more than a contemporary park toilet [00:13:00] at two million dollars.

Arnold: So, on July 27th, 1938, it was announced that construction work on this Funston approach and tunnel would likely begin by December 1938. The cost had also been reduced to 1.69 million dollars likely, in part because the plans now called for a 1300-foot tunnel instead of a 1400-foot tunnel. 1300-feet, and this is the reason for it, was as long as the tunnel could be without a requirement for forced ventilation of the carbon monoxide, that would be spewed by automobiles traveling through the tunnel.

Nicole: Which makes me feel great about getting stuck in traffic in there today. H.R. Judah, chairman of the State Highway Commission signed the Federal Government's permit on August 20th, 1938 after a unanimous [00:14:00] vote in favor of it by members of the commission. In September 1938, the first contract for $593,042 for the Funston approach construction was awarded to the Macco Construction Company, a Los Angeles firm. Macco had already built the Waldo Grade approach in Marin to the Golden Gate Bridge, so it did make sense to award this new contract to them. I guess.

Arnold: And that's just the amount for the first part of the construction.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: It's not the whole construction cost. So, construction of the Funston approach actually begins in October 1938, which was earlier than previously announced, which is something that doesn't happen anymore. It, it's always later now.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: As previously noted, they did not bore a hole through the till, hill in the Presidio, like was used in the construction of, like the Twin Peaks and Sunset tunnels. Using the cut and cover method for tunnel construction, they had to move a lot of earth for [00:15:00] the tunnel. The excavated dirt was stockpiled by Mountain Lake, which was by the southern entrance to the tunnel.

Nicole: And because they were cutting a hole through a part of the Presidio golf course, parts of the course had to be relocated during construction, God forbid, right? This included two tees and one green. A footbridge over the open cut was also constructed for golfers to crossover. And that must have been some site for the golfers walking over that footbridge and looking down on a tunnel being but…Being built.

Arnold: Once this excavation work was done, steel arch forms that had previously been used in the construction of the Bartlett Dam in Arizona were placed along the north-south route of the tunnel, and then concrete was poured over them. The tunnel was built in 28-foot sections beginning at each end and working towards the middle. Work progressed [00:16:00] quickly with the construction of two to three of these 28-foot sections per week.

Nicole: That's pretty wild. And although the length of the tunnel did not require forced air ventilation, the 24 by 24-foot ventilation shaft that was constructed at the midpoint of the tunnel was built larger than necessary for passive air ventilation. They did this to accommodate a fan for forced ventilation later if it became necessary. So good to know they were thinking ahead there and I'm curious if and when they put that in.

Arnold: Did they put in the, the fan? I don't know. Certainly seems as you're driving through there, that there's a lot of carbon monoxide.

Nicole: It does.

Arnold: You have to roll up your windows. You do not wanna be sniffing in the air as you drive through there.

Nicole: Agreed.

Arnold: After the tunnel was completed, the dirt stockpile over by Mountain Lake was placed back on top of the tunnel, as the army also required that there be no water [00:17:00] drainage from the tunnel onto Presidio property. The tunnel was designed to drain water into Mountain Lake on the south side and into the Bay on the north side. The tunnel was finally completed in January 1940, a year and three months after work had begun, and nearly three years after the Golden Gate Bridge was opened. And the final cost was actually $300,000 cheaper than expected because of contract arrangements that they made. Again, something that doesn't happen anymore, it's always more expensive. We would note that you should go to OpenSFHistory.org, our website, our image website, because we have some really great pictures of that construction work.

Nicole: Also, let's take a moment to appreciate that they were like, we don't want runoff going onto our golf course. That would be a crying shame. So, let's put it into the lake and the ocean. Let's get that crap out to different places. Oh the 1930s, am I right? [00:18:00] So on April 21st, 1940, a dedication ceremony was held for the Funston approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. Organizers went big with the ceremony, although this was just a way to get to a bridge, albeit a beautiful and already famous bridge. The ceremony honored the friendly relations between west coast states, naturally Canada and Mexico. Delegates from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California came to give speeches as did the general consul, or, I'm sorry, the consul general of Mexico. Why not.

Arnold: Let's get everybody there.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: The celebration began with a luncheon at the Cliff Hotel. That's not the Cliff House, the Clift Hotel, that was given by the Mayor's Citizens Committee. At 1:00 PM, a motorcade from Marin came over the Golden Gate Bridge and joined a motorcade, [00:19:00] that had started in the Marina District, at the new junction for the Funston approach. And this connection between Doyle Drive and the Funston approach was being called the Cloverleaf.

Nicole: I like that.

Arnold: The newly larger motorcade, then headed south through the tunnel to Lake Street. There the motorcade was stopped at what the Chronicle called a quote "chain of 20 pretty girls stretched across the thoroughfare." A grandstand had been built there for this ceremony.

Nicole: Naturally, put it near the pretty girls. My cat just jumped out of a box, so if you heard a giant noise, it's not thunder, it’s just my cat jumping out of a box. Okay, so. Before the speeches, the Presidio Band and the Municipal Band took turns playing music for the assembled crowd. Besides the out-of-state speakers we already noted, a number of city and state officials also spoke. [00:20:00] Never one to miss a photo op, San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi was surprisingly absent because of an illness. City administrator Arthur Cleary spoke in Rossi's Place. The daughters of General Frederick Funston, Betty and Barbara, were honored guests at the dedication. And after all the speechifying, the living gate of girls swung open and allowed the combined motorcade to move on to a second spot for speeches at 19th Avenue and Noriega. And dear listeners, I'm gonna abstain from my commentary on the living gate of girls.

Arnold: And it's not gonna be the only one, because at the 19th Avenue Noriega spot for the second ceremony, there was yet another barricade of girls setting up the celebration there. Here, the motorcade coming from the north met up with a motorcade coming from the south, made up of representatives from counties in Central and Southern [00:21:00] California. A bunch more speeches were given before the gate of girls opened up again. At this point, the now even larger motorcade proceeded back north to the cloverleaf north of the MacArthur Tunnel. Only then was the new Funston approach to the Golden Gate Bridge opened up to public traffic.

Nicole: The tunnel was initially known as the Funston Avenue Tunnel, but later received the official name of Presidio Tunnel. In 1986, state Senator Milton Marks of San Francisco introduced legislation to have the tunnel renamed in honor of General Douglas MacArthur. The legislation was enacted and the tunnel was formally renamed MacArthur Tunnel on November 5th, 1986.

Arnold: So that's your long in winding tale of how a tunnel was constructed on an active army base, so the public could get to the Golden Gate Bridge. At times it looked like it might not happen. [00:22:00] All this scurrying back and forth over the length of this tunnel. But eventually the compromise is reached and three years after the Golden Gate Bridge was completed, the southern approach to the bridge was finally opened. And that leads us to say, Say What Now?

Nicole: Arnold, we mentioned the complicated negotiations between the Army and State Highway Commission over the length of the tunnel, through the Presidio for the Funston approach. That was not the only tunnel related issue for the Highway Commission here. The road from the South was not just about the Presidio. It actually involved roadwork all the way through San Francisco Sunset District, Golden Gate Park, and the Richmond District. And our old friend Herbert Fleishhacker had something to say about how the Funston approach would go through Golden Gate Park.

Arnold: Yeah. At that time, Fleishhacker was president of the Park Commission, and although the [00:23:00] city engineer had proposed an above ground road through Golden Gate Park with a bridge over Main Drive, Fleishhacker flatly refused this idea and insisted that a tunnel be built underneath the entire length of the park. I'm pretty sure we've mentioned that fact before on one of the podcasts. As we know now, there is no tunnel underneath Golden Gate Park. The city engineer's plan for the road and bridge over Main Drive was actually the one that was adopted, and we should maybe do a podcast in the future on the construction of Crossover Drive and how that all came down with Herbert Fleishhacker and not getting his tunnel.

Nicole: I think maybe we did a couple podcasts on like the approaches to the bridge and how it widened 19th Avenue. But I can't remember, and I know we did one. I've researched a recordings podcast and I still can't remember if we actually did one. That's where we're at, listeners. I'm the oldest, 38-year-old alive. But I [00:24:00] also have something to add. It's a complete aside that even Arnold doesn't know I'm gonna tell you about the Say What Now I did. I have, I know Funston is like a very controversial figure cause what we did in the Philippines and was not great. Agreed. Totally agreed. But I do have a certain beloved space in my heart for him cause I cataloged his family's collection at the Presidio. And I think I've mentioned on this podcast before that I've touched his pants. Like his wife hand wrote his name in them, in the pockets. Very cute.

And a lot of the collection actually came to the Presidio Army Museum on post from an antiques dealer, because his daughters never married. They lived together in the Funston family home as the family fortune slowly slipped and slipped away. And I will never forget this and, as it's been raining, I think about these ladies a lot since I live alone in my own home. That like they had no money. They had no way to make money cause women at that time weren't in a professional way. And so, they [00:25:00] just started hawking their dad's things to this one antiques dealer in Marin. And he said he went to the house at one point. They even sold his Medal of Honor and they, this man then donated it to the Army Museum.

He said the last time you went to visit them, before they died, the house was failing. And the sisters would just gather all their treasured belongings and keep moving all of them, they would abandon certain rooms, and they would just leave it over to the leak. And so when he finally got there, they were in this big house and they were only using the kitchen and one room, and one bathroom. And that thought terrifies me every day that I'm gonna be these crazy, this crazy lady who lives at home with her stuff and just keeps going into like smaller and smaller rooms. Anyways. I'm always an advocate for explaining that these people were people. Do you know what I mean? Like I think about them and I'm, I get very emotionally connected to them. Anyways, that's the Say What Now I brought to the table today.

Arnold: [00:26:00] Fortunately, we don't live in the 1920s and 30s, so you have a lot more options than they did.

Nicole: It's true. I have a job. It's true, but still doesn't mean like that fear's not baked into me as a woman. From years of reading crap like this. Anyways, anyways, God bless you. Barbara and...

Arnold: Betty.

Nicole: Betty Funston. Bless you both. Dear souls. Okay, now it's time for hopefully a more uplifting listener mail. So, first of all, Arnold, how does one send us listener mail?

Arnold: I think we've mentioned this before, where you take out a piece of paper and a pencil. You write a letter, you address it to 1617 Balboa Street in San Francisco. 94121. You write down your question or your comment about the [00:27:00] podcast and you mail it into us. Or, for the more technologically advanced, you can send us an email at podcast@outside, or @outsidelands.org or comment on an Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook post because we will usually post the podcast to those places. And you'll get through to us because any of those areas, the commentary or the email comes back to one of us.

Nicole: Real human beings. Real human beings to read and do all these things. You know Arnold, I would like to advocate for pigeon post. I think we should bring back pigeon post. Joey Yee, if you're listening, help us bring back pigeon posts. I don't know if your pigeons are like carrier pigeons or if they're just regular pigeons, but anyways, pigeon post. Let's get into it then, we ha, we again got some Facebook messages in response to a couple recent podcast posts. So, in response to our recent Great Highway, Part 4 [00:28:00] podcast, episode number 481, JP commented that the Great Highway was a test track for local hot rodders when he was in grade school, and that he got a couple of rides at over 100 miles per hour. We are pretty sure that JP wasn't the only one of our members to get such a ride.

Arnold: And likely the statute of limitations have passed for anybody who fractured the speed law back then.

Nicole: I mean, you're a lawyer, so you would know.

Arnold: Also, in response to our Facebook post about episode 482, which was on the San Francisco National Cemetery, Donne commented that his father's funeral and burial was there and that his uncle was also buried there, and he also let us know there's an event coming up there. It's called Wreaths Across America. There's a ceremony at the San Francisco National Cemetery there on Saturday, December 17th at 11:00 AM. So, if any of you are [00:29:00] interested, you should definitely go check out the San Francisco National Cemetery at some point, but that might be a good time to go do it.

Nicole: Yeah, it's also a great place for a walk. It's a really beautiful part of the city that most folks don't utilize that much, even when they are in the Presidio, cause there's lots of other places to be when you're there. So, big advocate of the San Francisco National Cemetery. And you know what? We do a lot of work preserving the stories that are in this national cemetery with folks like John Martini, and we really need your help to support that work. So Arnold, maybe this is the right time for you to tell folks what the benefits of membership and donating are.

Arnold: I would start by just simply saying, hey…

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: This is, it's really something to be, feel like you're contributing to all the free stuff we do, like this podcast, like the Cliff House collection that we've made available for free all summer long at The Museum at The Cliff. Then there's our OpenSFHistory, [00:30:00] the over 54,000 old historic images of San Francisco, and we're gonna have more coming up with that next year where we've got some planning going on for that. But also, you get some perks.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: You get our quarterly membership magazine. You get discounts on certain events and there's some events that tend to be members only. So, it only costs $50 a year, but you may want to get locked in on that right now, particularly if you want the paper version of the magazine. And why is that, Nicole?

Nicole: Because next year our prices are going up a little bit cause printing prices for the magazine went up a whole lot in the last couple years. So, starting in 2023, members over the $100 level are gonna be the ones that are eligible for the paper magazine. But don't worry, that's not gonna change anybody who becomes a member or has been a member for a really long time before that switch. So, we're not pulling the rug out from under you. We're just trying [00:31:00] to stay afloat basically.

Arnold: Yeah. The current membership gets grandfathered in at the current price. So...

Nicole: Correct.

Arnold: So…

Nicole: Definitely.

Arnold: If you get in on that $50 level before the end of this year, you can continue to receive the paper version of the magazine at that membership level.

Nicole: Absolutely. We've been working really hard over the last few years to bring you history that is impactful, that responds to the moment, and that is also really fun. So just clickity clickity clack the big orange button in the upper right-hand corner, or the top of any of our pa, our webpages, outside lands.org. You can also donate through OpenSFHistory.org and we really appreciate it. Now this feels like a good way to segue into talking to you about all the other things that are going on at Western Neighborhoods Project in our announcements.

Arnold: [00:32:00] Yeah, so as we mentioned, The Museum at The Cliff is completely done now. It's been completely deinstalled, and we are now getting out to planning our events for 2023. So, stay tuned for those announcements. But in the meantime, we are looking for both volunteer help and donations. There are several volunteer opportunities.

Nicole: Yeah.

Arnold: To begin with, as we've mentioned before, on prior recent podcasts, we have begun to transcribing our podcasts and putting those transcriptions online. So, we're doing this as we move forward with any new podcasts, but there's 400 and, I don't know, 70 podcasts, old ones that are online without a transcript. So, we're looking for volunteers to help us do those transcriptions.

Nicole: Yep.

Arnold: It's, you know, those are a little labor intensive because even with the software that will get you the initial version of that, you have to go through and fix [00:33:00] all the mistakes. But you know, we're not asking you to do, 10 podcasts a week or anything. You can do one a month or one every couple months. If we get a bunch of people to do that, it would be very helpful. So, if you're willing to volunteer to help us out with that, send us an email at podcast@outsidelands.org and we will tell you how you can help.

Nicole: Yep. This is to help our accessibility online because, you know, sometimes it's hard for us to do the history and do the accessibility. Unfortunately, when you're a one to two personal organization, and I think we've mentioned it before, in fact, I know we've mentioned it before, we're really working hard to completely transition our entire website Outsidelands onto a new platform from our 1999 original spaghetti code built by our own David Gallagher. Bringing it into the 21st century, even though it's served us very well and we love it, we very much love it. So that process is ongoing. If you wanna help with us with that too, if you're a developer [00:34:00] or if you just love website design, our dear John Lindsay of the Great Highway Gallery is helping us out a little bit, but he kinds of runs his own business. I don't know if you've heard. So, if you're interested in volunteering for that, fantastic. Email us at chelsea@outsidelands.org. But really the best way you can support our community history work is by donating to our Winter appeal campaign. Arnold, what's going on with that Winter appeal campaign?

Arnold: Yeah, we've already started it and we are in this incredible position where the membership dues cover your salary.

Nicole: Mine.

Arnold: Without our second employee’s salary. Most of our work relies on individual contributions, and that's not some marketing tagline. It's true. We need your support to survive.

Nicole: Yeah, and we've sweetened the pot this year. Donations over $75 are eligible to receive a limited edition [00:35:00] Trad’r Sam enamel pin designed by our dear friends at San Francisco Neon. And donations over $125 are eligible to receive an authentic Cliff House mug. Now that's part of the glassware and barware we saved at the Cliff House auction last year. So full disclosure, it's a plain white coffee mug. There's nothing that says it's from the Cliff House except the provenance we’ll be sending with it. They're very cute, they're very petite, and I do enjoy drinking out of them in the morning. I also have one on my desk and they hold all of my pens.

Arnold: Now I know we sent out an email to our email list about our Winter appeal. We've posted about it on social media as well. But Nicole, if people wanna make one of these donations, how do they do it?

Nicole: Yeah, that's a great question. We have it available on all of our social media channels, or you can just donate through any one of our donation buttons on the website. [00:36:00] And just make sure you tell us if you are donated that level, whether or not you wanna mug or a pin. Or no gift cause no gift lets us know that we don't have to send you anything or follow up. Please know that we cannot guarantee delivery before Christmas, so maybe don't get this as a Christmas gift for someone you love. And also, gifts are limited to one per person. So just because you donate $500 doesn't mean you get as many of these things as you want. And also, while supplies last, we do have a finite number of these items, so heads up.

Arnold: In the meantime, while you wait for our public programs to relaunch next year, we hope you will continue to enjoy this free podcast. We got some really great stuff coming up planned. And we would love to hear your requests for potential podcast episodes, for what history walks and lectures and panel discussions you'd like to [00:37:00] hear from us next year. Anything you would really like us to do and hear from us in 2023, let us know how we can serve history your way. Send us an email at podcast@outsidelands.org and let us know.

Nicole: Absolutely. We love to hear your ideas because they're almost always fantastic. Sometimes they're a little wild and we can't do it, but that doesn't mean we don't enjoy it. Alright, Arnold, what's going on the podcast next week?

Arnold: Next week we, and by we, I mean you, will be interviewing a longtime Outside Lander and a historian who is pushing to rename a certain water feature in Golden Gate Park.

Nicole: Absolutely. He and his dog Ichabod are two of my favorite beings on the west side, so I'm very excited.

Arnold: Tune in next week to find out who that is.

Nicole: Thanks Arnold. I had a blast today, as usual.

Arnold: As always, Nicole. See ya.

Nicole: See you [00:38:00] next week.

Ian: Outside Lands San Francisco is recorded by Ian Hadley. Content creation and media production at ihadley.com.

Nicole: To learn more about the Western Neighborhoods Project and more on San Francisco history, go to Outsidelands.org. You can also find us on social media at Facebook, which is outsidelands with an S, at Twitter, which is outsidelandz with a Z, and on Instagram, which is outsidelandz, also with a Z. And check out our historic San Francisco images website at OpenSFHistory.org.