Potrero, CA

Potrero is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is located on the eastern side of the city, east of Visitacion Valley and south of the Mission District. Potrero Hill is a neighborhood located within Potrero. The area was originally part of a Mexican land grant given to José de la Cruz Spreckels in 1853. The name comes from the Spanish word for "pumpkin", because the hills were once covered with wild pumpkins.

In 1868, John McLaren purchased Rancho Rincon de las Salinas from Juan Bautista Alvarado for $22,000. He built a home on part of this land and named it " Potrero". In 1874, McLaren sold half interest in his property to Henry Epperson for $10,000 and moved to Los Angeles. Epperson increased his ownership over time until he became the sole owner in 1907. He developed Potrero as an upscale residential area and named it after his home town in Missouri, which was also called " Potrero".

In 1886, James Flood bought an acre of land at 6th and Utah Streets from A. J. Drexel for $4200; this lot would later become Potrero Hill Elementary School (now closed). Flood built two homes on his property - one for himself and one for his wife - and began renting out rooms to working people who needed housing close to their jobs at nearby factories such as Levi Strauss & Co., Singer Sewing Machine Company, Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company (now AT&T), Western Union Telegraph Company (now Verizon), American Tobacco Company (now Reynolds American), Wells Fargo Bank (now Bank of America) and others.[1]

The 1906 earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco but did not affect Potrero or its residents too greatly; however many new homes were not able to withstand major shaking so many residents lost their homes during that time period.[2]

In 1917-1918 construction began on what would become known as The Embarcadero Freeway which ran through Potrero along 8th Street between Mission Street and Howard Street; this freeway divided Potrero into eastern and western sections.[3]

This freeway caused major displacement within the community as well as changes in demographics; middle-class families who could no longer afford to live there moved out while working-class families moved into the area due to its lower prices.[4]

The 1990s saw a resurgence in popularity among young professionals living in urban areas such as San Francisco due to its low cost of living combined with its proximity to technology companies such as Google,[5] Facebook,[6] Twitter[7], Apple Inc., LinkedIn Corporation,[8], Adobe Systems Incorporated[9], Oracle Corporation[10], Salesforce CRM,[11], Uber Technologies Incorporated[12], Airbnb,[13] Pinterest [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]; consequently prices increased significantly throughout all neighborhoods within San Francisco including Potrero where average home prices reached over $1 million by 2018.[21][22][23][24]