March Newsletter
Events
We've got a big March in front of us!
03/14 - 10:00AM -12:00 PM
🌿 Small Space Gardening Workshop
📍 Victoria Manalo Draves Park
This workshop will have us working on containers we can bring back to our homes and learning about how we can successfully grow vegetables indoors or in limited outdoor space. (If space is full and you would still like to come learn RSVP as a Maybe!)
RSVP
03/19 – 6:00 - 8:00 PM
🍹 Happy Hour
📍 TBD
Free community happy hour!
03/26 – 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
📚SOMA Book Swap
📍 The Nosh Box
Come celebrate National Reading Month with us by bringing a book from your shelf to swap for a new adventure, playing some fun games, and enjoying time reading, laughing, and hanging out with your neighbors.
RSVP
SOMA West Business of the Month
2nd Annual SOMA Love Event
Our second annual SoMa Love event was such a saccharine success! 💕 We made just shy of 40 handmade valentines for our neighbors in transitional housing, filling the room with creativity, paint, and a delicious spread of sweets and cookies. We’re so grateful to our talented artists who helped bring the Valentines to life and to everyone who came ready to craft, swap, and connect. It was great evening of community and care, and we already can’t wait to do it all again next year! (A huge thanks to Bill Wu for taking amazing photos).
SOMA Name Dropping: Gordon Street
By Cindy Casey
Gordon Street was named after a flamboyant native Londoner who was instrumental in both real estate and industry in San Francisco.
Gordon was in Philadelphia when the first copies of Sam Brannan’s California Star announced a huge gold discovery in California. Gordon had lost what money he had brought from England, speculating in Pennsylvania coal properties, so he headed west.
His first venture was in lumber, providing wharf construction and prefabricated homes. Upon noting San Francisco's vulnerability to fire, he founded Vulcan Iron Works at 135 Fremont Street. The factory occupied the block bounded by Fremont, Mission, Howard, and First Streets. It changed hands many times and was eventually destroyed by the 1906 earthquake.
From 1852 to 1854, Gordon developed the San Francisco neighborhood of South Park, aiming to create an exclusive residential community modeled on the garden squares and circles of London and New York City. By the mid-1850s, Gordon had begun to lose interest in the development, realizing that it was not bringing him the income he had hoped for.
His next venture was California's first sugar refinery, the San Francisco and Pacific Sugar Refinery. It was housed in a brick building on 8th Street near Harrison. By the early 1860s, the refinery was one of San Francisco's most important businesses, making Gordon very wealthy.
In 1863, Gordon purchased the former Rancho San Francisquito, near Mayfield (now Palo Alto). He renamed it Mayfield Grange and relocated there permanently in 1864. The estate is now part of Stanford University.
In 1869, Gordon’s health was failing when he was confronted with several personal setbacks, which led to his death. If you are interested in pursuing Mr. Gordon and his input to San Francisco, you might begin with the book: A San Francisco Scandal: The California of George Gordon