There have been many names for the Richmond and Inner Richmond Districts over the years. In the 1800’s it was known as “The Outside Lands,” which makes the neighborhood sound ominous and full of secrets and mystery, like something out of a faded map in the back of a well-worn book.
175 Clement (1993)
There’s also “New Chinatown,” which I think aptly describes the influx of Boba shops and dumpling joints on Clement St. And then there’s “The Great Sand Waste,” which I’m pretty sure was an alternate name for Tatooine in Star Wars.
Clement by 4th St. (1992)
The last one nods more the area’s past than its present. The Richmond used to be full of sand dunes and scrubby plants as far as the eye could see. One source claims that these constantly shifting dunes got to be 100 feet tall. Eventually developers shoveled the dunes and filled up the marshy areas to make the landscape look more like it does today.
Clement by 5th St. (1992)
The Inner Richmond was almost SF’s version of Colma in terms of corpse real estate. It was home to many cemeteries and as one source charmingly puts it, “some of the earliest inhabitants were dead.” Eventually live people settled in the area and it would be a mistake to call this robust neighborhood dead today. Even in these pictures captured in the early ’90s, you can see streets full of life and culture. These images come thanks to our friends at the Robert Durden Color Slide Collection at the San Francisco Public Library and are part of our partnership with non-profit Historypin and their Year of the Bay mapping project. (You can add your memories to these images over at Historypin’s Year of the Bay site.)
Clement by 5th St. (1992)
One of the main people responsible for the Richmond’s development was George Turner Marsh. Marsh was an Australian native and kind of a bad ass. When he was 15 his parents took him to visit Japan and he loved it so much he begged them to just leave him there — and they did! It was the ultimate Home Alone moment of the 1800s. He fell in love with Japanese culture and when he came to San Francisco 1876, he became determined to pay homage to Japan, even in his new home.
Clement and Arguello (1992)
He settled in the “Outside Lands” area with his wife, children, and tons of pet carrier pigeons. Legend has it that once he sent a pigeon to a local doctor with a vial of life saving medicine attached to its leg. Basically he was as close as San Francisco could get to Harry Potter and he ended up being so influential they let him name the neighborhood after his hometown in Australia: Richmond.
The neighborhood today is packed with a cross section of different cultures. You can visit Irish pubs and excellent Asian noodle houses in the same evening, if not the same block. The smell of pork buns and boiling pho pervading the air may be what lead one online commenter to say of the neighborhood, “ it’s Chinatown food without the tourists.”
116 Clement St.(1993)
The Bold Italic encourages you to come hang out in the Inner Richmond at our Inner Richmond Microhood party this Thursday night starting at 6 p.m. There will be free food and drink from local vendors as well as your friendly Bold Italic staff with a few treats up their sleeves.
We’ll see you in the Outside Lands!
Clement by 5th St. (1993)
Photos courtesy of the Robert Dunden Color Slide Collection.
