Dogpatch Ranch: The Story of a Chinese American Family

Historical Essay

video story by Glenn Lym

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Dogpatch Ranch: The Origins of a Chinese American Family

Video, trt: 1:11:23, by Glenn Lym

Pothill$dogpatch-1990s-photograph.jpg

Tennessee Street, 1990s, before the gentrification really took off in "Dogpatch."

Photo: Chris Carlsson

3rd-St.-South-from-22nd-Potrero-Dist.--1920.jpg

Third Street south from 22nd, 1920, in the heart of the industrial zone that later became known as "Dogpatch".

Photo: Jesse Brown Cook collection, online archive of California I0049181A

"Dogpatch," one of at least two spots in San Francisco that derive this ubiquitous nickname from the L'il Abner comic strip. This is Tennessee Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets, an area that once housed shipyard and other industrial workers, but is a slowly gentrifying area between Potrero Hill and the abandoned shipyards.

20th-Street-viaduct-and-Potrero-Hill-1945-w-strikers-in-foreground.jpg

20th and Illinois in foreground with strikers from the Bethlehem Shipyards milling about in this 1945 photo. Potrero Hill rises in background with earlier viaduct up 20th connecting Dogpatch and crossing what was once Irish Hill.

Photo: Acme Photo

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