Mt Davidson

Mt. Davidson with cement cross erected in 1934, viewed from northeast, looking southwest.

Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA

Same angle in 2006.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

The heart of Franciscan country was right in the center of town, where you had the old 49'er cemeteries, where all the rare manzanitas were represented. Also Mt. Davidson, where the Franciscan manzanitas have been exterminated, was just about the heart of Franciscan country, and the whole Franciscan flora was found on the small mountain range in the middle of San Francisco. If [only] the city of San Francisco had preserved Mt. Davidson-to-Sunset Heights-to-Twin Peaks-to-Diamond Hts. just in its natural form, with some small spurs out at the Presidio and down at Hunter's Point, and so on. Now the whole Franciscan Type country has been destroyed with the exception of San Bruno Mountain.

View towards Twin Peaks from Mt. Davidson, 2006.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

The people who inhabit San Francisco are almost always from the East. They look at the Franciscan land and they scorn it. They say, "It's bare, it's bare, we've got to plant something on it." That's what Sutro did when he was the mayor of San Francisco. He perverted the whole center of the central Franciscan garden of Mt. Davidson, Sunset Hts., Mt. Sutro. He did leave Twin Peaks alone because it was a symbol of the city. Well, Twin Peaks is the least of the Franciscan mountains. It had wildflowers, but it didn't have the flora of Mt. Davidson, Sunset Hts., or Mt. Sutro. You can still find remnants of that flora there, but all the manzanitas are gone. All of the things that made the heart of the Franciscan zone have been subdivided out.

--James Roof

View of downtown from Mt. Davidson, 1939.

Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA

View of downtown from Mt. Davidson, 1994.

Photo: David Green

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