Mark Roy Daniels (1881-1952) was born in Spring Arbor, Michigan. He attended UC Berkeley, graduating in 1905 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He went on to study city planning and architecture at Harvard. Daniels returned to California and held a number of different jobs, including mine superintendent and railroad engineer, before opening up an office in San Francisco in 1908. His first commission was creating the landscape design for the Thousand Oaks development in Berkeley where he gained a local reputation for working around and keeping natural features like rock outcroppings.
In 1904 Daniel Burnham[1], a renowned city planner, had been invited by Mayor James Phelan[2] to radically beautify the City with tree-lined boulevards, spacious parks and public stairways. While Burnham’s plan was never adopted, in part because of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires[3], the idea of creating beautiful enclaves within City limits led to the development of eight residence parks on the western side of the City left untouched by the earthquake: Jordan Park (1906), West Clay Park (1910), Ingleside Terraces (1911), Forest Hill (1912), St Francis Wood (1912), Lincoln Manor (1913), Sea Cliff (1913) and Balboa Terrace (1920). These residence parks were designed to replicate the feeling of suburban living while still being in close proximity to downtown. They are distinguished from other neighborhoods by pillared entrances, public sculptures, ceremonial stairs, fountains and curved streets. Mark Daniels designed the layout for Sea Cliff and Forest Hill.
Forest Hill[4] is located on the lower western slopes of Twin Peaks, directly atop the western end Twin Peaks Tunnel. In 1912 the land was purchased by developer Newell-Murdoch (also responsible for Balboa Terrace) from the heirs of Adolph Sutro[5]. Daniels designed curving streets with sharp turns and, to accommodate horse and carriages, he made the streets extra wide. Because these streets did not conform to City standards, they were not maintained by the City until 1978. The main entrance is at Pacheco and Dewey with off-white pillars, seat walls and a grand public staircase that ascends the hill.
As with the other residence parks, strict guidelines were set out in the deeds when purchasing a lot within Forest Hill: houses had to be set back from the street at a uniform distance; construction costs for a single family home, no taller than two stories, had to exceed $4,000; apartment complexes and commercial businesses were prohibited; and houses and lots could only be sold to Whites. A promotional brochure stated: “When a man purchases a home site in Forest Hill he can feel assured that his investment, his home and his family are protected from unsightly building and undesirable neighbors.” In 1917 the US Supreme Court outlawed residential segregation ordinances; however, residence parks were seen as private contracts and segregation covenants were enforced until the 1960s.
The City’s most prominent architects, including Bernard Maybeck[6], Julia Morgan[7] and Willis Polk[8], designed many of the 650 homes located in Forest Hill. Its most famous resident was Governor Pat Brown.
In 1914 Mark Daniels was hired as the landscape engineer for Yosemite National Park. Two months later he became General Superintendent and landscape engineer for all US National Parks. He resigned after only a year and a half as he found the job too overwhelming, after-which the National Park Service was established. Daniels was an Army captain during World War I[9], returning to San Francisco after the war to expand his original business to include architecture and city planning. He designed 17–Mile Drive in Carmel and the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood in south San Francisco. He spent his later years writing books about US National Parks before and died in San Francisco in 1952.
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[1] Daniel Burnham: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3273 [2] James Phelan: story coming February 4th [3] 1906 Earthquake and Fire: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849 [4] Visit them at https://foresthillassociation.com [5] Adolph Sutro: story coming March 14th [6] Bernard Maybeck: story coming February 7th [7] Julia Morgan: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4408 [8] Willis Polk: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5219 [9] World War I: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4079
