Peralta Street and Bernal Heights North Slope

Unfinished History

Jan-1-1883-snow-on-north-slope-Bernal-Hts.jpg

Snow on north slope of Bernal Heights, Precita Creek in gulley at bottom, 1883.

Photo: St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception School

Bernlhts$peralta-st-1920.jpg

Peralta Street eastward, c. 1920s

photo: Private Collection, San Francisco, CA

Bernal-north-side 0304.jpg

The once rather barren natural terrain of Bernal Heights takes on a lush, almost tropical appearance after winter rains. This is taken from the top of the Peralta Stairs at Samoset.

Feb 25 1936 Looking west towards intersection of Alabama and Waltham, landslide on north side of hill. DPW A4695 wnp26.152.jpg

Similar view back on Feb. 25, 1936, looknig west towards intersection of Alabama and Waltham.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp26.152, DPW A4695

Peralta-stairs-view-northward 0306.jpg

Just a landing lower than the image above, with the camera pointing northward down the Peralta Stairs (the right of way of Peralta is largely garden paths and stairways on this part of the hill).

Bernal-sculpture-garden-peralta-ave 5670.jpg

Peralta turns northeast nearer the bottom of the hill, and in a vacant lot neighbors have erected this sculpture garden.

Aztec-stairs 5644.jpg

Further west on the north side of Bernal, where Shotwell Street ascends beyond Mirabel (check the 1883 photo for where the streets are written in), the New Deal WPA built these stairs connecting Aztec Street and Shotwell in 1940.

Aztec-stairs-wpa-plaque 5639.jpg

Quake-shacks-on-shotwell-opp-aztec 5643.jpg

These two small structures on Shotwell, opposite the Aztec stairs, are almost surely 1906 earthquake shacks, of which there are a surprising number dotting the hill.

Photos: Chris Carlsson

C1950 Woman standing by a car looking from Bernal Heights to downtown. wnp14.3485.jpg

A woman standing by a car with the northerly view from Bernal Heights to downtown behind her, c. 1950.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp14.3485

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