UPDATED September 11, 2022
Frederick Funston was a small man at 5’4” and 120 pounds; however, his stature did nothing to hinder his countless acts of heroism. After spending his young adulthood as a trainman for the Santa Fe Railroad, a reporter in Kansas City, Missouri and a botanist for the US Department of Agriculture, Funston joined the Cuban Revolutionary Army in 1896 to fight for independence from Spain. He developed malaria and returned to the US where he was commissioned as a colonel in the US Army. He was deployed almost immediately to serve in the Philippine-American War where he played a key role in capturing Filipino President Emilio Aguinaldo. He was not only awarded the Medal of Honor, but was promoted to Brigadier General.
Funston came to San Francisco in 1901 and was second-in-command of the military forces at the Presidio[1]. When the 1906 Earthquake[2] hit on the early morning of April 18th, Fulton’s commander was away and Funston unilaterally, and without any authority, ordered his troops to dynamite condemned buildings to create firewalls, fight fires and provide tents and rations to displaced civilians. He also gave the order to shoot looters on site, a decree that was also later issued by Mayor Eugene Schmitz[3]. At the time, he was widely praised for his actions, though historians would later argue that military forces should not have been deployed during a peacetime emergency.
When World War I[4] broke out, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Funston to head the American Expeditionary Force, an independent offensive army to be deployed in Europe. Funston quickly developed health problems and died a few months later at the age of 51 of a heart attack while he was sitting in a hotel lobby in San Antonio, Texas. His body laid in state in the Rotunda of San Francisco’s City Hall[5] and he was buried at the National Cemetery in the Presidio. Shortly after Funston’s death, a street was named after him, and the the Lake Merced Military Reservation, part of San Francisco’s coastal defense, was renamed Fort Funston.
Fort Funston is located in the southwest corner of the City where the Great Highway[6] meets Skyline Blvd. In 1900 the US Army bought this land from the City, installing cannons after the invention of metal battleships that carried cannons with a 10-mile range. Nothing was built there until World War I when the Army bought an additional acres in the area from Spring Valley Water Company[7] and a parade ground, barracks, and coastal batteries were installed. The sight saw very little activity, but in 1938, in preparation for World War II[8], Battery Davis was built. A 600 foot concrete building that was uried under sand held a pair of battleship guns that were 70 feet long and weighed 140 tons each. There were also underground radio stations, plotting rooms, command posts and water storage. Two cement pillars, located at the back of the San Francisco Zoo[9] mark the entrance to the fort at the time.
After the war, Battery Davis was considered obsolete and the guns were removed. The fort was abandoned with the exception of a small patch of land that housed Nike missiles from 1958-1963[10]. The land was temporarily considered for both a VA hospital and then a housing development similar to Park Merced[11], but the fort’s isolated location and miserable weather made both plans unfeasible. In 1963 a bond measure to purchase Fort Funston from the Army and convert it to an open space was put on the allot and passed by a 73% margin. However, Fort Funston had no public amenities and it became a relatively dangerous area. Rumor has it that the Hells Angels[12] used to party there during the 1960s.
In 1976 Fort Funston became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and soon became a popular destination for dog walkers and hang gliders. It is one of the few areas in the City that still retains the natural sand dunes that existed throughout the western side of San Francisco before being developed.
[1] The Presidio: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5121
[2] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849
[3] Eugene Schmitz: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4041
[4] World War I: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4079
[5] City Hall: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4664
[6] Great Highway: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5243 [7] Spring Valley Water Company: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5194 [8] World War II: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4222 [9] San Francisco Zoo: story coming December 22nd [10] Nike missiles: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4043 [11] Park Merced: story coming August 20th [12] Hells Angels: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4608
