June 22, 2007
#62: Samuel Holladay, Pioneer Squatter of Lafayette Park
San Francisco history podcasts » [10] commentsOn a recent Pacific Heights walking tour I found myself standing atop Lafayette Park. As I admired the spectacular view, the guide told an unfamiliar story about a mansion that once occupied this hill. The building is long gone now, of course, but its history is a wild one.
Here’s the story: Samuel Holladay, respectable Gold Rush era citizen and pillar of society, had legally stolen this beautifully situated hilltop. He was a squatter… and even better, had successfully defended the property against the City of San Francisco for over thirty years! Needless to say, after the tour I made a beeline to the sixth floor of the San Francisco Public Library.
It seemed so unlikely; what bizarre circumstances could have led such a distinguished character to take such a seemingly scurrilous action? The great thing about our city’s history is that once you’ve seized a single thread, it can take you anywhere — and this one went all over the place. In today’s podcast I will untangle the story of Samuel Holladay, the king of Holladay Hill.
Holladay’s photo supplied by Jonathan Oppenheimer
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function ereg() in /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/connections-reloaded-15/comments.php:40 Stack trace: #0 /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/wp-includes/comment-template.php(1591): require() #1 /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/connections-reloaded-15/single.php(14): comments_template() #2 /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include('/home/customer/...') #3 /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('/home/customer/...') #4 /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/index.php(17): require('/home/customer/...') #5 {main} thrown in /home/customer/www/sparkletack.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/connections-reloaded-15/comments.php on line 40