The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-27
THE SOUTHERN OUTLET.

The efforts which the Southern Heights
Improvement Club is making to introduce
an adequate water service at the Potrero
and otherwise to make that part of the
City more important than it is call to mind
a long series of very interesting matters.
A good many years ago sharp land
scheme worked up boom for that section,
and many thousands of lots were sold to
confding purchasers. Many of these lots
have been since sold under the hammer;
and while that miserable speculation
ruined the progress of the section for nearly
two decades, and went to the long account
of the evils which booms create, matters
are going forward there now at rate and
in spirit which deeply concern the entire
City.
Other causes have operated against the
advancement of the Potrero. One was the
unattractive name of Butchertown, which
is situated therein, and the other was the
execrable condition of Kentucky street,
the direct route from that section to the
downtown part of the main City. Within
the last year Kentucky street has been
paved with basalt blocks, the wretched
horsecar line has been changed to an cleo
trio road and extended more than mile
beyond its former terminus, the Six
tenth street electric road has been con-
structed. and the whole region has been
opened comfortably to all~parts of the
South Side and the City at large. More
than that, China Basin has been leased to
the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley
Railroad, and the Southern Pacific is re-
ported to be ready to construct its long
promised cutoff, " which will divert the
main line of the Coast Division from the
Ocean View route to the Potrero. An en-
largement of school facilities, an extension
of the street-lighting system and a more
generous police and fire protection are
among the more recent acquisitions.
1t has been many years since the famous
old San Bruno road was practically for
gotten for the San Jose road, and yet the
San Bruno road, which is the southern
outlet for the Potrero, is by long odds the
most interesting and picturesque drive on
the peninsula. Had Railroad avenue and
Kentucky street long ago been made
decent highways the San Bruno road would
never have lost its popularity. A vast
amount of improvement between the
southern terminus of the Railroad-avenue
electric line and that part of the San Bruno
road which begins at the bay shore will
have to be done before the influence of the
Potrero can be felt toward the south. There
exists noble opportunity for making this
old road the handsomest drive that San
Mateo and San Francisco counties can
foster.
1t follows the base of the steep, dun
81 Of he lie
some fifteen feet above the high water of
the bay, and pursuing the shore contour in
all its bewlldering windings to Baden. AT
intervals in the trip southwark from Rail-
road avenue an ancient and all but aban-
doned wayside inn is passed-not such
hard, mean and dreary resorts as are found
along the newer suburban thoroughfares,
but quaint and rambling old houses set in
parks of cypress and eucalyptus, all shell
tered from wind and sun, and looking rest
full and inviting. Their glory has been
gone these many years. but their charm
has only been heightened by time and
neglect, and there is many an enterprising
wheelman who knows of the quiet and re-
pose which they are still able to extend.
That is the southern outlet of the Po-
trero. On the north the sappers of progress
are Building roads and Streets and in the
heart of the Potrero itself formidable hill
barriers are fading away to meet the de
mand for room. The wonderful stone dry
dock. perched away on on the extremity
of Hunters Point, Is as yet approached only
by the meanest and poorest of roads. and
not the slightest effort has been made to
extend this drive. southwardly around the
point to rejoin Railroad avenue or the San
Bruno road.
The heights OF the Potrero are exceed
ingly picturesque, for the hills of San
Bruno have a charm and character not
possessed by the other billy regions of the
City, and now that the City has at last
discovered how variable a section this is
the hammer and saw are giving clamorous
evidence of development.