The Presidio of San Francisco: Culture and Landscape.

 

Walker, Deborah Lee.

 

This research traces the diverse and distinct activities of three cultural groups that have impacted the visual landscape at the Presidio, a 1,480 acre military base located at the tip of the San Francisco peninsula. Due to its geographical command of the entrance to San Francisco Bay, it has always had strategic importance for the control of the region. Over time, the flags of Spain, Mexico, and the United States have flown above it. Each culture's contact with the land has contributed to the visual appearance of the present landscape. Today, most representative symbols of the different peoples who inhabited this area have disappeared, taken over by present day culture.

 

The starting point for this thesis is the region's most recent geological formation, when a unique geographical base was established. In time, the land attracted three different cultural groups that settled within the area of study, starting with the Costanoan Indians. In 1776, The Spanish established the first fort at the Presidio and maintained it until the Mexican government took it over in 1822.

For the Spanish, governing the land represented control of the region. The Spanish transformed the area through livestock grazing, resource use, and introduction of new species. When the Mexican government gained control of the land it was visibly barren. The absorption of Spanish customs by Mexican culture during three centuries colonial rule was visible in the way the Mexican government continued to use the land within the boundaries of the Presidio until it came under control of the United States in 1847. The next major change for the Presidio came in the 1880s when the philosophy of the Park Movement came to dominate the management of the base. Over twenty-five years, 400,000 trees were planted to create a park-like setting that stabilized shifting sand dunes and provided protection from prevailing winds. The resulting landscape became a precedent for other military bases and landscapes around the country.