Posted on April 17, 2018
Join The East Cut Community Benefit District for a week-long series of behind-the-scenes events celebrating the past, present, and future of The East Cut district. The week of events kicks off on Monday, April 23rd and is a unique opportunity to discover how the East Cut shaped San Francisco history, from prehistoric animals roaming our streets to the building boom of the Gold Rush. Events include special access to historic landmarks, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Salesforce Transit Center, and gatherings at neighborhood businesses. Space is limited so make sure to RSVP below.
Walk the streets of the East Cut and you’re bound to find a coffee shop on nearly every corner. But did you know our neighborhood’s connection to coffee goes all the way back to the Gold Rush? It turns out the East Cut was home to the state’s first large-scale coffee roasters and some of the nation’s most recognizable coffee brands today.
Join us the morning of Monday, April 23rd for a hosted ‘coffee hour’ at Special Xtra Café at 46 Minna Street. Stop by anytime between 8:30am and 9:30am to meet The East Cut team and enjoy a free coffee drink (it’s on us!). To redeem, simply show your RSVP confirmation to your barista when ordering.
In the mid-1800’s, much of the East Cut was underwater, part of a shallow body of water called Yerba Buena Cove. But starting in 1850, gold rushers arriving on newly landed ships turned the cove into a forest of masts. Soon thereafter the cove was filled in, creating new land we know today as the areas of the Financial District, South Beach, and the East Cut and with tall ships still buried underneath.
Join us the evening of Tuesday, April 24th for a family-friendly outdoor movie night in the neighborhood! We’ll be screening Pirates of the Caribbean in Rincon Place, the public plaza adjacent to 375 Beale Street, where a buried ship was discovered next door at 201 Folsom Street (Lumina) during the building’s construction. Our friends at Ada’s Café will be selling snack packs (sandwich + cookie + hot chocolate or hot cider) for those in attendance. Movie starts at 7:45pm.
In 2012, a construction crew digging more than 110-feet below ground at the Salesforce Transit Center construction site at 1st and Mission Streets made a rare discovery: the fossil of a Woolly Mammoth tooth. The tooth was found in remarkable condition, the enamel still intact. Where woolly mammoths once roamed, new buses and trains will soon bring humans to the same destination at the Salesforce Transit Center.
Join The East Cut Community Benefit District and the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) for an intimate behind-the-scenes tour of the Salesforce Transit Center project. Set to open in mid-August, the Transit Center will occupy 3-city blocks, boast a 5.4 acre rooftop park, will have over 100,000 square feet of retail and will operate as the Bay Area’s transportation hub.
San Francisco as we know it was born of the gold rush, and the East Cut was its ground zero. As news spread of the mineral discovery, tens of thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or land to San Francisco every year in search of riches. As ships made land in Yerba Buena Cove, the barren Rincon Hill was soon transformed by wealthy pioneers who began building homes, attracted by the views and sunny climate and to seek refuge from the notorious Barbary Coast.
Join The East Cut Community Benefit District on the evening of Thursday, April 26th for a happy hour at Klockars’ Blacksmith. Opened in the early days of San Francisco to assist the building boom, Klockars still operates as a functioning blacksmith shop complete with the original dirt floors – designed to discourage fire should molten ore land in the wrong place. Stop by starting at 5:30pm and sip on a ‘Sloe Gin Fiz’ cocktail while touring the building. The owner, Tony Rosellini will be conducting a live black-smithing demonstration starting at 6:15pm.
The week-long series culminates with a reception in the lobby of 350 Mission Street. From 2pm – 3pm, join for light-appetizers and refreshments as guests gather for a historical walking tour of the East Cut. Tour starts at 3pm and will last 1.5 hours and end at 4:30pm.
ABOUT THE TOUR
Cutting Corners: Transformations in the Landscape
The walking tour led by Shaping San Francisco’s LisaRuth Elliott features an historical exploration of San Francisco’s newly defined The East Cut Community Benefit District. From prehistory to the mid-20th century, we look at how the social and economic transformations on and around Rincon Hill inform our sense of the neighborhood today. We uncover buried knowledge of marshes, shorelines, sand dunes, rocky mounds, and landfill, and find echoes in the present of the making of a new urban and industrial center in the 19th century.
