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A Brief History of the Area

The Funston Avenue area has a rich past, spanning prehistoric, Spanish-colonial, Mexican, and United States epochs of California history.

Communities of Ohlone Indians lived along the Presidio's bay shore for thousands of years. Inland areas like this were important sources of plant foods and game.

When Spain colonized California, this area was selected as the site for a fort, or presidio, to defend to San Francisco Bay. About forty families traveled here from northern Mexico in 1776. They built their first settlement, a small quadrangle, only a few hundred feet west of Funston Avenue.

By the early 1800s, they had expanded their settlement.

The east side of this larger quadrangle is located in the back yards of Officers' Quarters 11 through 16. Archaeologists first uncovered the stone foundations for this expanded adobe structure in 1993. Since then, excavations have recovered butchered animal bones, fragments of wrought-iron tools, and bits of pottery manufactured in Mexico, China, and England. Artifacts from the Native Californians who lived and worked at this Spanish fort include a shell bead, a mortar, and a piece of chipped stone.

Mexico controlled the Presidio following the revolution in 1821, and put less importance in on the post. In 1835, most soldiers and their families moved to Sonoma, leaving the Presidio nearly abandoned. By 1846, when John Fremont claimed the Presidio for the new Bear Flag Republic, the eastern side of the quadrangle had completely collapsed. United States military troops established their command post and barracks on the west side, where some adobe buildings still stood in 1847.

The Funston Avenue area remained in disuse until the Civil War. At that time, the Presidio expanded its defenses to protect the Golden Gate waterway. Twelve cottages along the west side of Funston Avenue were constructed in 1862 to provide much-needed housing. Over time, wives and families joined the officers quartered there.

In 1878, these buildings were changed so that their front entryways faced east toward the city of San Francisco. This reorientation created sealed archaeological deposits relating to the Civil War era residents. Archaeological traces of a Presidio officer's family life include cow and chicken bones, buttons, milk glass and ceramic fragments, and part of a porcelain doll's head.

Officers' Row remained an active area of the Presidio over the next century.