SF Public Library History Annex (via foundsf.org)

#TBT: Roll Back to Carville, SF’s Bohemian Trailer Park in the Outer Sunset

07 December 2017

San Francisco neighborhoods are diverse and ever-changing—some of our old boroughs have even gone without a trace. Remember Carville-by-the-Sea? Of course you don't.

Once upon a time, in fin de siecle SF, there stood a bohemian community on the edge of town made entirely of abandoned rail cars. In what is present day Ocean Beach/Outer Sunset, Carville gave concrete meaning to the word outlandish, and felt as San Francisco as tiny house or #vanlife moment does today. As home to some of the city's earliest adventurists, artists, anarchists and entrepreneurs, Carville is an old school reminder of why we love this town.

When the Market Street Car company switched from horse-drawn to electric railcars in the 1850's and 60's, they sold their old cars for $10 a piece—which translates to about $300 now—and shipped them out to Ocean Beach for private use. Remnants of Carville can still be seen near Great Highway.
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The majority of homes were used as clubhouses, cottages for family day trips, love shacks for secret affairs, and even hiding places for certain shady city officials; but after the earthquake, more permanent residents soon arrived.
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One of the first groups to populate Carville were The Falcons, an all women's bicycle club who set up their clubhouse here—complete with wild soirees and après-bike ride dinner parties on the beach.
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This is a peek inside the home of an unknown Carville resident. What began as a meager collective of bristly characters quickly grew to a developed neighborhood complete with running water, phone lines, and even a chapel. By July 1899, there were an estimated 70 streetcars and 100 residents.
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If sand in your sheets is not for you, perhaps Carville would not have been ideal, but in comparison to the polluted air and dirty streets of 1910's downtown, the ocean breeze and emptiness was a welcome respite to many.
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For many, the freedom and bohemian spirit of Carville offered a breath of fresh air from the stuffiness of Victorian society. Another group of women turned a car into "A Haunt of Bohemia," where they threw weekend-long beach parties when the weather allowed. It was perhaps the inaccessibility from downtown that allowed this corner of the city to create their iconoclastic culture.
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An early connoisseur of the tiny living trend, Anna Marie Adams shows off her railcar home. As development of the Sunset District closed in on Carville/Ocean Beach in the late 1920's and 30's, it became difficult to preserve the original outlandish reputation of the enclave.
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The Outer Sunset is now known as a family oriented neighborhood peppered with the occasional eccentric, surfers and creatives. Perhaps that character is held over from Carville's imprint on the landscape, or perhaps the rugged landscape is what has shaped the spirit of the Sunset all these years.
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