Sans Souci Valley was the name of a valley in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, in the area corresponding to present day's
Lower Haight
The Lower Haight is a neighborhood, sometimes referred to as Haight–Fillmore, in San Francisco, California.
Location
Referred to as "Pine Valley" in the 70s because of all the pine trees, the Lower Haight lies generally along Haight Street ea ...
and
Duboce Triangle
The Duboce Triangle is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, located below Buena Vista Park and between the neighborhoods of the Castro/Eureka Valley, the Mission District, and the Lower Haight.
The Duboce Triangle is served by Muni Me ...
neighborhoods. This valley once allowed excess storm water to flow from
Buena Vista Hill and
Lone Mountain (where the
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...
is today), through the
Panhandle
A salient, panhandle, or bootheel is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state.
While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on three sides. Ins ...
, to the area located near
Duboce Park
Duboce Park (IPA: /du.'bos/) is a small urban park located between the Duboce Triangle and Lower Haight neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. The park is less than one block wide from north to south and two blocks wide from west to east. ...
, along the path today known to cyclists as
The Wiggle
The Wiggle is a zig-zagging bicycle route from Market Street to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, that minimizes hilly inclines for bicycle riders. Rising , The Wiggle inclines average 3% and never exceed 6%. The path general ...
. The creek was not a surface creek in the dune region except as overflow. The valley’s name, French for "without worry," comes from the
Sanssouci Palace
Sanssouci () is a historical building in Potsdam, near Berlin. Built by Prussian King Frederick the Great as his summer palace, it is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and ...
built by the Prussian monarch
Frederick the Great
Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...
in
Potsdam, Germany
Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of Berlin, and lies embedded in a hill ...
.
Background
Sans Souci Valley used to be the easiest walking route connecting
Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to:
* Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores
* Dolores (given name), including list of people and fictional characters with the name
Dolores may also refer to:
Film
* '' ...
and
the Presidio.
Hubert Howe Bancroft
Hubert Howe Bancroft (May 5, 1832 – March 2, 1918) was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote, published, and collected works concerning the Western United States, Texas, California, Alaska, Mexico, Central America, and British Colum ...
's ''History of California'', evaluates an assertion by Mariano Vallejo (in Vallejo's ''Discurso Histórico'' of October 8, 1876) that the former "Lake Dolores" (or "Laguna de los Dolores") was located "in Sans Souci Valley, north of the Mission". Bancroft's conclusion is that it was not. Research by Christopher Richard has since shown that Lake Dolores was one and the same as the wide area of
Mission Creek
Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since b ...
. Research by Joel Pomerantz has shown that other vernal lakes did exist at the location in Sans Souci Valley described by Vallejo.
In the 19th century, the spelling was variable between Sans Souci and San Souci, with some maps including both.
See road name and claim name, which conflict
/ref>
See also
* Hydrography of the San Francisco Bay Area
The Hydrography of the San Francisco Bay Area is a complex network of watersheds, marshes, rivers, creeks, reservoirs, and bays predominantly draining into the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean.
Bays
The largest bodies of water in the Bay Ar ...
* List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
These watercourses (rivers, creeks, sloughs, etc.) in the San Francisco Bay Area are grouped according to the bodies of water they flow into. Tributaries are listed under the watercourses they feed, sorted by the elevation of the confluence so th ...
References
Landforms of San Francisco
{{SanFrancisco-geo-stub