The San Francisco call., 1896-02-20
PROTEST FROM BAY VIEW,
Residents Object to Mr.. Sutro's
Choice of q PeSthouse
Site.
They Say His Object Is to Have II
Located Far Away From His
Own Property.

Residents Of the Bay View District are
circulating q protest against the location
of the Pesthouse there. They object to
Mayor sutro bonding a piece of property
IN that section for the purpose of donating
it to the City for Pesthouse purposes, and
they intend to present the protest to the
Board of Supervisors on Monday. Fol-
lowing is portion of the document:
To the Honorable Board of Superuisors-GEN-
TLEMEN Monday morning, February II, 1896,
Mayor Sutro took q drive, in company with the
representative OF local real estate agents, out
beyond South San Francisco and down into
the pretty little Bay View Valley. The object
OF Mr.. Sutros visit was to inspect the site
which these real estate agents, as we are in
formed, have bonded for Mr.. Sutro, who pro-
poses to purchase the property and donate it
TO the City for the location OF a pesthouse.
0Wnether Mr.. Sutro drove out Railroad avenue
or out San Bruno avenue does not make ID uch
difference. He had to go over one or the other
routes, and for miles on either road he passed
the humble cottages OF hundreds of poor work
ing people, and not one of the residents along the
route would have given him cordial greeting
had they known that he was trying to drag
behind him trail of lepers and smallpox pa
tlents and people with loathsome and con-
tagious diseases.
After leaving Railroad avenue at Thirty
second avenue south, and going thence down
the latter avenue TO the bay, he passed scores
OF homes-homes OF poor people who had
roofs over their own heads, and yet among
these people and in the midst of a we'll popu-
lated valley. he wishes to locate pesthouse.
Had he taken the trouble to get out of tie car
rage in which he reclined and stepped onto
the land that he proposes to purchase, he could,
feeble as he is, have almost tossed a stone
through the open door of the nearest residence
to the block OF land which he wishes to poison
by planting thereon the germs OF virulent and
contagious diseases.
In his endeavors to prevent the Supervisors
from locating the thOnSa the m
Tract where it would have been near some of
his vacant and inaccessible property, Mayor
Sutro promised to donate TO the City suitable
location.
He is accredited with being the owner OF
over 1000 acres OF land in this City and County,
most of II vacant, and great deal of it being
hills and mountains too steep to ever be util-
lied for residence or other purposes, yet in all
his 1000 acres of land, covering many hun
dreds OF blocks and extending over miles of
unln nhabited waste, he cannot find a location
suitable for pesthouse, but must needs at
tempt to foist it upon locality that has been
settled for more than twenty years, and where
scores of poor and hardworking people, OWN
and live in their own homes.
The location chosen by Mr. Sutro is gently
sloping hill at the mouth of the valley and
near to the present beach, 1t commands a
view of the entire valley from Hunters Point
to Bay View Point and from Holly Park to the
bay. There are no trees or shrubbery to OBJ
scure the sight OF so foul a plague, and for
miles along the San Bruno road and along
Railroad avenue, the two great thoroughfares
leading out of the City, this institution would
be visible; and not alone would it retard the
advancement and progress of already we'll
populated residence district, but would utterly
destroy the value OF such improvements as
have already been made.
Mr.. Sutro's motive in Offering to donate q
site to the City for pesthouse appears to be an
entirely selfish one. The objection that he
urges to the location of pesthouse on the
Almshouse Trace is that it is the geographical
center of the City, How much more true 1t
would be If he would only state that it is the
geographical center OF Mr.. Adolph Sutro's
landed estate" Were he actuated by desire
TO honestly provide the City with suitable
| location for pesthouse it would be q small
matter for him to choose from his many hun
dreds of blocks one block of land hidden in a
ravine or behind a hill off from the tide OF
travel and shut out from sight by sloping hills
too steep to ever be used for residence pur.
poses,