Photo By Peter LinenthalGood Life Grocery's Kayren Hudiburgh and PHAMB’s Jamaica Maxwell get ready to sell dinner tickets. December 2008Ninth Annual Hill History Night Draws Big CrowdBy Peter LinenthalMore than 200 people attended the Ninth Annual Potrero Hill History Night, held on October 25 and co-sponsored by the Potrero Hill Archives Project and the Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses (PHAMB). As the Apollo Jazz Group played, the balmy evening began with a barbeque of Jelenich kielbasa – named for a prominent Slovenia Hill family – on International Studies Academy’s (ISA) patio. Proceeds from the barbeque, which exceeded $1,000, were dedicated to ISA’s International Expedition program, which will take 30 students to Paris next year. The volunteer caterers were so impressed with the students that they donated another almost $200 to the high school’s travel program. After settling into the school’s auditorium, the crowd was welcomed by PHAMB president Keith Goldstein and the Archives Project’s Abby Johnston, who announced the Spring publication of Then & Now, Potrero Hill, published by Arcadia book. The evening’s main event was Goat Hill Pizza owner's Philip De Andrade interviews of Virginia Sustarich and Louise Petrusich, who grew up in the Hill's once large Slovenian community. Sustarich and Petrusich, friends since childhood, reminisced about the annual Blood Sausage Dinner and Dance, which still draws large crowds to Slovenian Hall. Later in the program Dr. Natalie Wisniewski's presented a slide show on the history of Dogpatch and Potrero Point. Wisniewski, who has been leading Cityguides walking tours of Dogpatch for four years, pointed out that the old Union Iron Works buildings on 20th Street are the West Coast’s most important historic industrial sites. De Andrade then interviewed former harbor master Kevin O'connell about the houseboat community on Mission Creek Harbor, where both gentlemen reside. Once located on Islais Creek, the community moved to Mission Creek in the 1960s. The once polluted creek has been largely cleaned-up, bringing a return of native wildlife. |
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