Mary Pleasant Memorial Park

 Posted by on March 15, 2022
Mar 152022
 

March 2022

Near the corner of Bush and Octavia Streets

The Plaque Reads

MARY ELLEN PLEASANT MEMORIAL PARK

MOTHER OF
CIVIL RIGHTS
IN CALIFORNIA

SHE SUPPORTED THE
WESTERN TERMINUS OF THE
UNDERGROUND RAILWAY FOR
FUGITIVE SLAVES 1850-1865. THIS
LEGENDARY PIONEER ONCE
LIVED ON THIS SITE
AND PLANTED THESE
SIX TREES

PLACE BY THE SAN FRANCISCO
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORICAL
AND CULTURAL
SOCIETY

1814 – 1904

Mary Pleasant was an amazing woman. She was perhaps the most powerful Black woman in Gold Rush-era San Francisco. Little is known of her life before 1820, by then she was living in New England and working to help with the Underground Railroad.  Here she met her first husband, James Smith, who upon his death, left her with a large inheritance.

Mary Pleasant remarried in 1848 and set sail for San Francisco in 1852.  She was a savvy businesswoman and invested in many things including laundries and boardinghouses (staffed by mostly Black individuals). She owned properties in San Francisco, Oakland and even Canada.  In the 1890 census, she listed her profession as “capitalist.”

She generously donated to causes she felt important and was also a crusader for rights. After a streetcar driver refused to stop for her—even though there was room in the car and she already possessed tickets—she sued the streetcar company for denying service to Black citizens. The case went all the way to the California Supreme Court, which declared segregation on streetcars to be unconstitutional.

There are few records of Pleasant’s life, although it is thought she was an ardent abolitionist and supporter of the Underground Railroad in San Francisco as well as the East Coast. Near the end of her life, she told a reporter that she helped fund the militant abolitionist John Brown’s 1859 raid on a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

She died embroiled in scandal due to her financial investments with a Scotsman, but her life was rich, and she was definitely the first black self made millionaire.

Pleasant died on January 11, 1904, and was interred at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, California. At her request, her tombstone describes her as “a friend of John Brown.”

Her former mansion was demolished and has been replaced by the Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park.

The trees that the plaque refers to, and the park itself, are 6 Eucalyptus Trees she planted just before her death.

The Eucalyptus trees planted by Pleasant right before her death in 1904. The trees were designated a Structure of Merit by the City of San Francisco in 1974.

The plaque was installed by the San Francisco African-American Historical and Cultural Society

 

Tile Benches at Alta Plaza

 Posted by on January 13, 2014
Jan 132014
 
Tile Benches at Alta Plaza

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A San Francisco Jewel

 Posted by on May 14, 2013
May 142013
 
A San Francisco Jewel

2266 California Pacific Heights Sherith Israel Synagogue “Loyal Remnant of Israel” On a whim, a photographer friend of mine, Lisa, suggested we stop in and take a look at the Sherith Israel Synagogue.  She has been documenting its amazing details for posterity, and I had never been inside.  What an incredible adventure and I am truly grateful to have been introduced to this architectural and artistic gem that holds so much San Francisco history. Sherith Israel was designed by Albert Pissis.  Pissis (1842-1914) was the son of a French physician who immigrated first to Mexico and then to San Francisco Continue Reading

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