History of the Portola

Before urbanization, the valley and hills of the Portola District were filled with birds, rabbits, foxes, wolves and native plants. For many thousands of years, the indigenous Ohlone traversed these hills between Yelamu villages in the locales now known as Visitacion Valley and Mission Creek. Spanish conquerors settled the area in the eighteenth century, decimating and displacing the Ohlone. The Spanish divided the area into ranchos and named the region “Rancho Rincón de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo” in part for the salt marshes around Islais Creek, parts of which remain hidden in the Portola. Homesteaders further divided the area and built small farms, corrals, homes, businesses and green houses with windmills.

The still rural Portola District at the edge of the city kept the name San Francisco’s Garden because produce and cut flowers for all of San Francisco were grown here. In its past, the Portola also held two homes for young, unwed mothers, an immigration station, and to this day houses many churches and religious organizations. Italians, Jews, Maltese and Greeks were among the first waves of immigrants to settle here and have been followed by others including African Americans, other European Americans, Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese and Latinx. For the last hundred years the Portola has provided refuge and served as the birthplace of new hybrid identities, growing from an isolated agricultural and cattle district—"out the road"—to a vital urban neighborhood shaped by global migration. Kate Connell, 2020

Want to dig into Portola history? Check out the following resources: