Panhandle (San Francisco)

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The Panhandle from Clayton Street

The Panhandle is a park in San Francisco, California that forms a panhandle with Golden Gate Park. It is long and narrow, being three-quarters of a mile long and one block wide. Fell Street borders it to the north, Oak Street to the south, and Baker Street to the east. The Haight-Ashbury District lies to the south of it. Only two streets run through it, Stanyan Street at the western end between it and Golden Gate Park, and Masonic Avenue through the middle. Two paths run through it from Golden Gate Park to Baker Street, one for pedestrians and one for bicycles. There are basketball courts and a playground in the section between Stanyan Street and Masonic Avenue.

Previously, the Panhandle had a rough reputation, but recent renovations, specificially the addition of lighting, have lessened this.

The neighborhood that borders the Panhandle to the north--bounded by Divisadero Street, Fell Street, Turk Street, and Masonic Avenue--is called North of Panhandle or simply North Panhandle. It is part of the Western Addition, and is near the geographic center of the city. Like the Panhandle itself, it has changed significantly over the past two decades.

[edit] History

An 1853 map of San Francisco labels the area that the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park presently occupy the "Great Sand Bank." In 1870, the Panhandle's footprint occupied large, shifting sand-dunes with little vegetation in between it and the Pacific Ocean known as the "Outside Lands". The large hills of sand, semi-arid conditions, and powerful winds generated by the Golden Gate Effect conspired to make agriculture and gardening nearly impossible -- except for in a few small valleys protected from the constant winds.

William Hammond Hall's long-term plan to create a vast recreational park in San Franciso was first implemented in The Panhandle in 1870, which became part of Hall's experimental laboratory for finding suitable vegetation for reclaiming the dunes. After much trial and error, Hall found that by first planting barley - followed months later by sea bent grass mixed with yellow lupin - the sand dunes could be stabilized enough to dump manure and top-soil without risk of wind-erosion. On top of this layer, Monterey Pines, Monterey Cyprus and Eucalyptus could take root -- all known for quick growth and shallow root structures.

After Hall tamed the dunes, the Panhandle was ready to accept planting of 100's of tree varietals, representing regions from all over the world, including such species as Bailey's Acacia, Japanese Yew, Black Walnut, Backwood Acacia, Queensland Kauri, and Italian Alder.

The land that surrounds The Panhandle has been so completely transformed that few of its residents are aware of the sandy, unstable ground beneath their homes. ^{[citation needed]}

Trees in the Panhandle are among the oldest in the county of San Francisco. A small stand of California Live Oaks near Fulton Street and 6th Avenue pre-dates Hall's plantings.