Amy O’Hair is a historian and author who writes for the Sunnyside History Project. We’ve been in touch with each other on our websites, and yesterday I was able to meet her in San Francisco for a sale she was having for her new book. Amy writes mostly about history in the Sunnyside District of San Francisco, an area that I seldom have visited. One of her articles is about a forgotten San Francisco disaster in 1942 that I’d never heard of. On February 6, 1942, a mudslide due to “massive rains” and contractor carelessness caused a huge pile of loose dirt from Mt Davidson to pour down on to Foerster Street, between Teresita Blvd and what is now Los Palmos Drive, demolishing a number of houses and killing two people. I went to the spot of the catastrophe yesterday to take some comparison pictures of the photos from opensfhistory.org that Amy posted on her article, before heading downhill to Monterey Blvd and Foerster Street to say hi to her, and wish her luck on her book sale. (Thumbnail pictures)
Looking south down Foerster Street: The large house center right is still there, as well as a number of houses on the left side of the picture. The bottom photo is behind the house on the right where people are searching for Dora Kammer, who was one of the people killed, along with her brother-in-law Thomas Hill, who was rescued but died from his injuries several days later.
Here is the house on Foerster today where the rescuers were searching behind.
A house knocked into Foerster Street by the slide: You can just see the top of the house on the left through the trees in my picture.
This is looking southeast toward some of the houses that the slide stopped short of. The prayers the homeowners in these houses must have said that night. Where I’m standing would not have been a good spot to be at on February 6, 1942.
Looking northeast at more of the houses that survived the slide and are still there:
Another look southeast on Foerster near Teresita: Two more houses have been built on the right near Teresita Blvd.
This was the main comparison picture that I wanted to get. It’s looking north along Foerster Street just below Teresita. The large house at the beginning of the set is in the far background, but can’t be seen through the trees in my picture.
Here’s a copy of Amy O’Hair’s book. I like that endorsement! Also, here’s a link to the Sunnyside History Project article.
https://sunnysidehistory.org/2023/12/07/catastrophe-on-foerster-street-the-deadly-landslide-of-1942/
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