South Park: A San Francisco Tragedy of 1855.

Chapter One: Third Street

    There are two things that identify San Francisco's Third Street. To those whose luck has run out, it's pawn shop row.
    To those whose life is still looking up, it's the street the Muni bus uses from his commute train at the S. P. Depot at Third and Townsend.
    Neither group has really seen the street. The man in search of a pawn shop never has to cross Howard, and the commuter never takes his eyes off his paper until he senses that he's reached Market Street. Third Street to him represents the time to finish a scandal continued on page nine of his Chronicle.
    Why should he look at Third Street? It's drab, depressing, and colorless. And he believes it has always been that way. 
    Yet he has whizzed by the one time hub of San Francisco society, a place rimmed with stately mansions when Nob Hill had nothing but a few shacks.
    For between Bryant and Brannan he missed South Park.
    But if you do walk around South Park you have a feeling it must have seen better days. Nature and man have not completely erased the little park's aura of gentility. Think of it as it was more than a century ago.

South Park 1855

    South Park is a small oval park that will be rimmed with fine homes more in keeping with England than San Francisco; a little bit of Berkeley Square.
    The developer is an enterprising Englishman George Gordon who visualizes it as the place where rich San Franciscans will want to live.
    A railing surrounds the park, only the residents will have keys to the gates. A windmill near Third Street is testimony to Gordon's claim that water can be found at a mere 25 feet. There is no lack of wind, nothing stands in the way of the prevailing Westerly gale that drives the windmill's pump.
    South Park becomes the success George Gordon wants and fine homes go up. One of them is Gordon's.  He has recreated his warm memories of England, but also his sorrows.
    Behind those walls rules the mistress of the Gordon Mansion, his wife Elizabeth, a leader of San Francisco society... an old hand at filling a mug of ale in England. 
    One night in London, after downing many mugs draw by pretty Betty, George had married the barmaid.
    Betty was a nice enough girl, attractive and quick witted but his family quickly disowned him. George was not discouraged and determined to make the best of it, but knew it wouldn't be in England.
    Over the vehement protests of his wife, they sailed to a new life in America arriving in New York City in 1849. The day they left England, Elizabeth Gordon had made a silent vow... her husband would regret ever taking her from London. That vow, in its fulfillment was the tragedy of South Park.
    Looking for an investment in  America, Gordon found some would be gold miners and offered to finance their passage to California. In return they would give him one fifth of the gold they found.
    The  men left in a sailing ship that did not come up to the standards Gordon had promised them. They were becalmed for weeks, lived on meager rations, and arrived in San Francisco more dead than alive. They swore that if Gordon had been there to meet them they would have strung him up.

Chapter two of four