The Bernal Heights neighborhood, familiarly called Bernal, lies to the south of San Francisco's Mission District. Its most prominent feature is the open parkland and microwave tower on its large rocky hill, Bernal Heights Summit. Bernal is bounded by Cesar Chavez Street to the north, Mission Street to the west and freeways I-280 and US 101 to the south and east.
Bernal had its origin in an 1839 land grant to Don Jose Cornelio Bernal (September 7,...
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The Bernal Heights neighborhood, familiarly called Bernal, lies to the south of San Francisco's Mission District. Its most prominent feature is the open parkland and microwave tower on its large rocky hill, Bernal Heights Summit. Bernal is bounded by Cesar Chavez Street to the north, Mission Street to the west and freeways I-280 and US 101 to the south and east.
Bernal had its origin in an 1839 land grant to Don Jose Cornelio Bernal (September 7, 1796 - 1842), who grazed his cattle on what he called Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo. By 1860, the land belonged to French merchant Francois Pioche (1818 - May 2, 1872), who subdivided it into smaller lots.
Bernal remained undeveloped, though, until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Built atop bedrock, the hill's structures survived the temblor, and the sparseness of the development saved much of Bernal from the ravages of the firestorm that followed. The commercial corridor of Cortland Avenue filled in with shops as the...
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