Filbert Steps and Grace Marchant Gardens: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 22:41, 17 January 2020

Unfinished History

Cushman-Dec-14-1952-Tel-Hill-from-Embarcadero-on-Filbert-P06512.jpg

View from Filbert and Battery west towards Filbert Steps on Telegraph Hill, December 14, 1952.

Charles Cushman Collection: Indiana University Archives (P06512)

C1960 Filbert and Battery wnp14.2202.jpg

Filbert and Battery west, c. 1960.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp14.2202

C1890 Battery and Filbert view west on Filbert to two-horse carts on east side of Telegraph Hill. German Castle (Layman's Castle) atop hill. wnp24.227a.jpg

Filbert and Battery west, c. 1890. German Castle (Layman's Castle) atop hill.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp24.227a

Cushman-Dec-14-1952-Filbert-Steps-from-Sansome-P06510.jpg

Filbert Steps from Sansome, December 14, 1952.

Charles Cushman Collection: Indiana University Archives (P06510)

Filbert-Steps-1950s-courtesy-Jimmie-Shein.jpg

Filbert Steps, 1950s.

Photo: Courtesy of Jimmie Shein

Filbert at Sansome 1942 AAC-1417.jpg

Filbert at Sansome, 1942.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library

Cliff at Filbert St. stairway below Alta St. feb 15 1942 AAC-1431.jpg

Cliff at Filbert St. Steps below Alta Street, Feb. 15, 1942.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library

Filbert steps ceanothus blooms bursting.jpg

Ceanothus in full bursting bloom along the Filbert Steps, March 2013

Photo: LisaRuth Elliott

Filbert steps 1.gif

Filbert Steps, mid-1990s.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

The spectacular public garden along the Filbert Steps on the east side of Telegraph Hill is known as the Grace Marchant Garden. As the story goes, Grace Marchant moved to the corner of Napier Lane and Filbert Street in 1949, when the Filbert Steps was a pathway through an informal garbage dump. She began cleaning up the slope herself. She petitioned City Hall for permission to burn the trash that was many feet deep, and it is said the fire burned for three days. Making a garden there was a passionate embrace of public space, as Marchant spent the next few decades creating it as a public corridor.

In creating her garden Grace Marchant was very casual about property lines. One large section extended into the yard of a cottage whose owner wanted the land back in 1989 to build a larger house. When a permit for construction was granted, neighbors founded Friends of the Garden and took the issue of its preservation to City Hall and the Trust for Public Land. The Trust developed a plan to buy the cottage property and resell it with deed restrictions protecting the garden. To cover the difference between the purchase price and the much lower resale value of the restricted property, donations came in from garden lovers. With additional gifts from local corporations, foundations, and benefit events, the Trust exceeded its fundraising goal, enabling it to buy the cottage and create an endowment to support the garden. Friends of the Garden have since taken over the maintenance of Grace Marchant's gardening vision. (excerpt from Gianni Longo in A Guide to Great American Public Places, courtesy of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers Association)

--Chris Carlsson

Norbeach$filbert-steps-sign.jpg

Filbert Steps sign

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Napier lane.jpg

Napier Lane

Photo: LisaRuth Elliott

Look down napier lane.jpg

A look down Napier Lane, a woodplanked "road" off of the Filbert Steps, March 2013

Photo: LisaRuth Elliott

Filbert-garden 0147.jpg

Grace Marchant Garden, 2009.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Filbert-lush 0146.jpg

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Flibert-steps 0157.jpg

Filbert Steps through Marchant Garden, 2009.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Filbert-vertical9941.jpg

Grace Marchant Gardens, 2009.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Filbert-parrot 0153.jpg

Most visitors to the Filbert Steps and Grace Marchant Gardens are treated at some point to a visit from the noisy parrot flock that makes the eastern slope of Telegraph Hill its main home.

Photo: Chris Carlsson


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