Neighborhood House

Primary Source

Neighborhood House at the top of De Haro on Potrero Hill.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

The needs of education were also a common concern of the Rev. William E. Parker, Jr., pastor of the Olivet Presbyterian Church, 1905-1913. He brought before the San Francisco Presbytery the needs of the large number of foreign-born people, predominantly Russian, residing on the hill. In 1918, the California Synodical Society of Home Mission, Inc., a very active organization of Presbyterian Church women, decided to make Potrero Hill its first unit of Christian social service. On June 11, 1922, the Neighborhood House was completed.

Russian immigrants at the Neighborhood House, 1920s.

Photo: Potrero Hill Archive Project

It is situated at the top of De Haro Street, and serves the entire Potrero Hill community. In the early years it served primarily as a help to the Russian people with adult education courses. Today it still offers adult education, but also includes dramatics, youth organizations, counseling, summer camp sessions, and many other community interests. It isn't unusual, for example, to hear the sound of folk music or bagpipes floating over the hill on a quiet evening.

--from pamphlet published by Potrero Hill Neighborhood House

View from the Neighborhood House mid-1990s.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

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