{"id":12946,"date":"2019-10-03T10:14:22","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T17:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=12946"},"modified":"2019-10-03T10:14:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T17:14:24","slug":"when-san-franciscos-presidio-almost-became-the-world-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/10\/03\/when-san-franciscos-presidio-almost-became-the-world-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"When San Francisco\u2019s Presidio almost became the \u2018world capital\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Decades ago, the famed Army base nearly became U.N. headquarters; these newly found photos show the Presidio as it was being considered for the world stage.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Photo<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bill Van Niekerken\u00a0<\/a> Oct. 2, 2019\u00a0(sfchronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
1of38The Presidio and Crissy Field as seen from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge tower in December 1948.Photo: Duke Downey \/ The Chronicle 1948<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
2of38The Presidio on Nov. 20, 1946.Photo: Bob Campbell \/ The Chronicle 1946<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
3of38A proposed U.N. headquarters site at the Presidio on Nov. 20, 1946.Photo: Bob Campbell \/ The Chronicle 1946<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco\u2019s Presidio not only predates California\u2019s statehood, it predates the United States\u2019 nationhood by a few months. Given its deep roots, perhaps it\u2019s not surprising that it was once considered a site for the \u201cworld capital\u201d \u2014 the permanent home of the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this long and noteworthy legacy, few photos of the Presidio exist in The Chronicle\u2019s photo archives. A deep dig through the newspaper\u2019s collection of photo negatives, however, turned up many great images of the base from the middle of the 20th century, as well as from throughout its history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Presidio was established in March 1776 as the Spanish empire\u2019s northernmost military outpost. Mexico took it over after declaring its independence from Spain in the 1820s. It would fall to the U.S. military two decades later. In World War I, the Presidio was turned into a vast training base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After World War II, the real surprising plan came about: The Presidio<\/a> came close to becoming the location of the United Nations headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSan Francisco is the odds-on favorite as World Capital,\u201d a headline from The Chronicle\u2019s Sept. 30, 1945, front page read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference that created the U.N. charter was held in San Francisco. For a brief period, the city was the center of world affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt made such a favorable impression on the delegates,\u201d Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte wrote in 2015<\/a>, \u201cthat it was a finalist in the competition to become the permanent seat of the U.N.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet us establish our home in San Francisco,\u201d said Carlos Romulo, the Philippine ambassador to the U.N. He called the city \u201cthe halfway house of the peoples of the East and the peoples of the West; the common ground of all the peoples of the United Nations.\u201dSUBSCRIBER BENEFITDid you know<\/strong> you can access The Chronicle\u2019s photo archives?Remembering the Leslie Salt Mountain: Bay Area\u2019s odd, glistening landmark<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Frank Lapham<\/a> wanted to ensure San Francisco stayed a serious contender for the site, especially after the first approved location on the East Coast, in the suburbs of New York City, fell through after local opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 1946, members of the U.N. site commission visited possible locations in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObvious interest in the Presidio was marked almost from the time the visitors arrived,\u201d reporter Floyd Healey wrote. After lunch, the visitors\u2019 original agenda was rearranged to drive through the Presidio first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has everything we need,\u201d one unnamed commission member was quoted as saying in Healey\u2019s report. By the end of the trip, the committee announced the Presidio or the Crystal Springs Watershed in San Mateo County were their top choices if the U.N. decided on a Bay Area home. But a question remained: Would the U.S. Army give up the site?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a week later, The Chronicle\u2019s front page from Dec. 2, 1946, announced, \u201cPresidio site reported approved by Army and U.N. Committee.\u201d President Harry Truman<\/a> and Cabinet officials were said to be on board. The Army had agreed to give up the Presidio, \u201cThe Chronicle learned last night on high authority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The excitement didn\u2019t last \u2014 the Soviet Union strongly objected, saying it wouldn\u2019t go to San Francisco \u201cunder any circumstances\u201d should it become the permanent home of the U.N. An Eastern Seaboard location had already been voted on, they argued, and a new West Coast selection was merely the U.S. imposing its will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By mid-December, it was all over: John D. Rockefeller offered to donate $8.5 million toward the purchase of land along the East River in Manhattan. Within 24 hours, the selection committee voted 33-7 to accept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it became apparent that San Francisco\u2019s U.N. bid was dead, Michel D. Weill, president of the city\u2019s Planning Commission, announced that he expected a formal petition to convert the Presidio to civilian home sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Truman\u2019s offer of the Presidio to the United Nations has disproved any argument that it is needed by the Army,\u201d he reasoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was an acute housing shortage, and the Presidio was seen as a possible location for \u201ctens of thousands residents,\u201d Weill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was clearly a nonstarter for the Army, and the Presidio as a bustling neighborhood never came to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Army\u2019s car and truck pool at the Presidio in January 1946.Photo: The Chronicle 1946<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken<\/a>, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspaper\u2019s archive. It\u2019s part of Chronicle Vault<\/a>, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Taylor Kate Brown<\/a>, The Chronicle\u2019s newsletter editor. Sign up for the newsletter here<\/a>, and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram<\/a>. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com<\/a> and Taylor at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Bill Van Niekerken<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Bill Van Niekerken is the Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle. He does research for reporters and editors and manages the photos, negatives and text archives. He has a weekly column \u201cFrom the Archive\u201d, that focuses on photo coverage of historic events. For this column Bill scans and publishes 20-30 images from photos and negatives that haven\u2019t been seen in many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill started working at the Mercury News in 1980, when nothing in news libraries was digital. Research was done using paper clippings, and cameras shot film. He moved to the Chronicle in 1985, just as the library was beginning their digital text archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decades ago, the famed Army base nearly became U.N. headquarters; these newly found photos show the Presidio as it was being considered for the world stage. Bill Van Niekerken\u00a0 Oct. 2, 2019\u00a0(sfchronicle.com) San Francisco\u2019s Presidio not only predates California\u2019s statehood, it predates the United States\u2019 nationhood by a few months…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12946"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12947,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12946\/revisions\/12947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}