Every piece the Almanac publishes in this section begins the same way: by checking what Amy O'Hair has already found. The Sunnyside History Project, which O'Hair has maintained since 2015, is the most detailed public record of this neighborhood's built-environment history. It is a solo, volunteer effort. Its About page states the terms plainly: "This site is a gift to my neighborhood and my city. I make no money through this work."
Consider what that gift contains. The site covers the Sunnyside Conservatory's landmarking and near-demolition, the powerhouse that drove San Francisco's first electric streetcar, 74 years of continuous deli operation at Monterey and Edna, a deadly 1942 landslide on Foerster Street, the lost creek beneath the neighborhood's streets. Its categories run from houses to transit to maps to the families who lived in them. O'Hair herself has noted that her work follows an earlier effort: a 2006 SNA oral history project led by Jennifer Heggie, aided by the Western Neighborhoods Project.
The Almanac builds on the History Project's research and cites it by name because the debt is real and the work is irreplaceable. The reader deserves to know where the foundation was laid.
Founded: 2015
Author: Amy O'Hair, identified by KQED as "Sunnyside resident, local historian"
Site: sunnysidehistory.org
Subject areas covered:
- Sunnyside Conservatory
- Sunnyside School
- The Sunnyside Powerhouse
- Ingleside Jail
- Sunnyside's lost creek
- Balboa Reservoir
- Streets, houses, shops, transit
- People and families
- Historical maps
- Then-and-now photo comparisons
- Stories from nearby neighborhoods
Archival sources cited on the site: SF Chronicle archives, SF History Center/SFPL, OpenSFHistory, Western Neighborhoods Project, SFMTA archives, family collections
How the Almanac uses it: As a first-check source for any Sunnyside historical topic. Cited by name whenever drawn upon. Built upon, never replicated.