The Rise of Butchertown
- Date Range
- 1868 – 1906
- Title
- The Rise of Butchertown
- What occurred
- From 1860 to 1870, San Francisco's population grew exponentially causing an increased concern over the city's sanitary situation. By the mid 1860s, slaughterhouses in San Francisco began to be pushed from the city center by residents and local government agencies such as the SF Department of Health due to their foul stench and new scientific evidence suggesting that environmental factors might be a source of disease. In 1868, a group of butchers purchased land along mission creek, far from the city center. The creek and ocean tide underneath these slaughterhouses acted as a natural sink that would carry away offal, blood, and other byproducts of the butchering process, into the San Fancisco Bay causing a great deal of pollution.
- Location
- 1101 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94158
- Image Citation
- Robichaud, Andrew. Trail of Blood: The Movement of San Francisco's Butchertown and the Spatial Transformation of Meat Production, 1849-1801. April, 2010. Sanford University: Spatial History Lab
- Student name(s)
- Mitch Stechmann