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yuiyoshida

(41,762 posts)
Sat Oct 17, 2015, 05:07 PM Oct 2015

Big homeless camp today near S.F.’s old Dumpville


San Francisco view, 1878 from Currier & Ives. Showing a view of the city from the southeast.

For years, one of the largest homeless encampments in San Francisco has stood on Division Street. Half a dozen or more tents, some with bicycles and other possessions piled outside, can usually be found under the freeway around 11th and 12th streets.

Few motorists who drive down Division Street realize this is not the first time a homeless colony has stood near there. In the 19th century, a shantytown called Dumpville existed just a few blocks to the east, where the stream that used to flow along what is now Division Street trickled through mudflats into Mission Bay.

This peculiar settlement had its own rudimentary government and economy, featured the first recycling operation in the city, and even attracted a homeless shelter. And it lasted more than 20 years.

As its name suggests, Dumpville grew up on the site of San Francisco’s first major garbage dump, which was open from 1869 to 1877 on what is now Berry Street between Sixth and Seventh streets, on the edge of Mission Bay and Mission Creek. As noted in “Behind the Seawall: Historical Archaeology Along the San Francisco Waterfront, Vol. 1,” edited by Allen G. Pastron, Berry Street did not exist before Dumpville: An 1869 map shows it as underwater, whereas an 1877 map shows it partially filled.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Big-homeless-camp-today-near-S-F-s-old-6574857.php?t=0c50a13530f294ee0d&cmpid=twitter-premium
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