Sand turned Gold: The Warmth of the Sunset

Jasmine Vaucresson in her family restaurant Bei Fang Style on Irving Street.

Meet Jasmine Vaucresson. The Sunset resident and senior at Washington High School won third place in a citywide essay-writing contest for students recounting their neighborhood’s history and the meaning it has today.

Her essay “Sand Turned Gold: The Warmth of the Sunset” was awarded a Fracchia Prize by the San Francisco Historical Society. 

Jasmine tells the story of the Sunset from when it was sand dunes to the many immigrants who arrived — including her mother — to make the Sunset what it is today. Jasmine often works in her mother’s restaurant on Irving Street, Bei Fang Style (which serves northern style Chinese cuisine).

Sand turned Gold: The Warmth of the Sunset 

By Jasmine Vaucresson

The scent of Vietnamese Pho and N-train fuel now wafts through the air in place of towering sand dunes that once rested in-place of the concrete sidewalks of Irving street. Karl the Fog rolls in the way north by Lincoln Way to west by the Great Highway then south by Sloat Boulevard and so forth marking the territories of the district that make up my life; the sunset district.

The only part of the city I know like the back of my hand, a part of the city that is etched into every line in my brain, a part of the city that's history impacts my life every single day. Businesses like Uncle Benny’s Donut and Bagel and Little Shamrock come from barren dunes turned race tracks then pavement; all acting as a piece of living history, a testament of the journey of the community that makes up me. 

The “Great Sand Waste” described the Sunset before it became the residential area with trees and boba shops at every corner, and its residents described as “Sons of the Desert”(Clifford). Like the rest of California, San Francisco was Mexican Land obtained from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. With no public transportation or roads it was deemed uninhabitable but that didn’t stop immigrants such as Carl Larsen: The Gentle Dane from settling with his chicken ranch taking up a block of sunset. A hard working man whose only difference from my immigrant mother—and maybe, the fact he's a white man from Denmark— is he never lived in the Sunset district and yet he stayed involved as well as owning much of sunsets land.

People soon realized they could use this huge amount of “uninhabitable” space for things other than farming and the creation of streetcars made this area more accessible, but before the streetcars were here there were racetracks. The gold rush brought many settlers to San Francisco and the more that settled the more the need for entertainment arose, horse racing was very popular in the United States in the mid 1800s and the perfect location for a racetrack is where Golden Gate Park now resides. Golden Gate Park was proposed in the 1860s and before that the area hosted these horse races on tracks such as the Ocean Road Speedway.

The twist and turns throughout the park act as a remembrance of its racing past, and the way my uncle likes to speed through it suddenly throws me into the horseback clothes my predecessors wore. These horse race tracks turned roads take me to highschool every day, to the piano lessons I randomly decided to pick up again, to walks through the chain of lakes with my friend during whatever free time we have, to endless possibilities offered to me. Golden Gate park acts as a bridge for every person living in Sunset.  

The Introduction of Streetcars mark the first major shift with public transportation and transportation for the United States as a whole. The San Francisco Municipal Railway or better known as MUNI was the first publicly owned streetcar system in the United States, shifting away from the privately owned United Railroads of SF(Coll). The N-Judah line began running in the 1920s and its services helped the sunset to grow, connecting it all the way from Ocean Beach to Downtown.

Streetcars made transportation accessible and easy, allowing people to explore places in the Sunset like the De Young Museum, the aquarium, the Academy of Sciences, and the Japanese Tea Garden. Lorri Ungaretti, an author who grew up in the Sunset district, would take the L taraval Streetcar to see all of these attractions. Now instead of the L, I take the 7 to 9th avenue and Irving and walk down into the park to explore those very same attractions.

My life now as a teenager in the sunset is a mirror of Lorris back in the 1940s; the muni becoming more advanced year by year, the De Young Museum changing shape and adding new artifacts but never leaving, the Japanese Tea Garden Lorri would explore for the nature and pay 26 cents for tea and cookies, I now explore for instagram pictures and overpriced bowls of Udon. 

The growth of streetcars led to and was a result of Sunset becoming a more residential area and as more houses were being built businesses started booming as well. The Muni didn’t just encourage movement but it determined the success of businesses. Sunset is home to many people ranging from Africans to Chinese and everything in between, the businesses reflect the diversity of the people and the cultures that live harmoniously together.

St. Anne’s Church, a testament of the predominantly Irish and Italian Catholics of the 1920s-40s. Restaurants like Uncle Benny's Donut and Bagels, which is Vietnamese founded and owned, acts as a gathering place where elderly Chinese men sip coffee next to a group of surfers grabbing cream cheese bagels before taking the N-Judah Train down to Ocean Beach. Having opened in 2009 when I was barely one and I’ve gone every single day without missing a beat for ten years—give or take.

My father and I knew Uncle Benny—who sadly passed away a few years ago— and we know all the staff on a first name basis as does everyone and anyone who walks through those worn out yet nostalgic doors. Strolling down the streets of Irving or Noriega is like taking a stroll through Asia and Europe—Kevin’s Vietnamese Noodle house next to Lucas Italian deli which is half a block away from the Indian restaurant next to T-pumps and 2 blocks away from Bei Fang Style. Bei Fang style, my family's own special piece engraved into the stone tablet of Sunset's history.

When my mom arrived from China decades ago, and the sunset she landed in was shaped by the 1965 immigration and Nationality Act which abolished the national origins quota system. A system that favored immigration from Northern and Western Europe was replaced with a system that allowed the doors of America to open for all immigrants; it transformed neighborhoods like the Sunset with its white majority into one of multi cultures and now the neighborhood is 46.3% Asian, myself adding to the percentage. Our family restaurant would be unable to operate if my mother, my uncle, and my grandfather were barred from entering the United States. I would be unable to have an education if not for the money earned from their hard work. 

A cultural mix of unique neighborhood experiences cultivates a big heart for curiosity and celebration of all. My family celebrates both Lunar New Year and St.Patrick's Day; the old grannies at Sunset recreation practicing tai chi in the morning and Irish uncles set dancing in the afternoon; the Sunset Branch Libraries that offer books, articles, podcasts in any language you could imagine. This diversity didn’t just happen by accident. 

Every crack I've stepped on, quarter dropped on the sidewalk, and boba straw lost to the wind is a testimony of the living breathing history that engulfs me in the Sunset.