Sunnyside Conservatory’s nearly 120-year history uncovered at 236 Monterey Boulevard

The Sunnyside Conservatory at 236 Monterey Boulevard stands today as a restored octagonal greenhouse and community gathering place framed by a hundred-year-old palm grove, owned by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and open every day from dawn to dusk. The Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory describe it as "an extraordinary gathering space and botanic jewel," and the site lists the address and current hours.

The structure traces to English inventor and stargazer William Augustus Merralls, who moved to the Sunnyside area when Monterey Boulevard was largely undeveloped. "He was an inventor, William Augustus Merralls, he moved here to Sunnyside when there was very little on Monterey Boulevard," one account records. Another contemporary recounting notes Merralls "bought a big house here in 1897 and then several adjoining plots of land over the next few years." Sources vary on the exact construction year; the conservatory website gives c.1898 while other local histories place construction in 1902. A circa 1919 photograph in the Van Beckh Collection shows the conservatory already in place on Monterey Boulevard between Baden and Congo Streets.

Midcentury change left the conservatory vulnerable. Local histories recount that in the 1950s through 1970s Monterey Boulevard underwent postwar rezoning and infill, with empty lots filled by apartment buildings, creating pressure to demolish neighborhood landmarks. Residents "had grown attached to the conservatory. They view it as a symbol of the neighborhood," one account states, and the Sunnyside Neighborhood Association undertook research to secure landmark status for the building.

Neighborhood organizing led to the formal creation of the Friends of Sunnyside Conservatory in 1999; Arnold Levine organized the group via a Sunnyside Neighborhood Association newsletter, and Levine and Stacy Garfinkel served as co-chairs until 2013. The Friends assembled a steering committee that included Chester Hartsough, Andrea O'Leary, Sally Ross, pro-bono landscape architect Vera Gates of Arterra, LLP, and "press photographer extraordinaire" Bill Wilson. The Friends credited their work in "design, writing, public relations, lighting, cost estimation, teaching, photography, and gardening."

After roughly a decade of advocacy and fundraising the community and city partners completed a $4.2 million renovation of the conservatory and grounds; the Friends' account records that the project "opened to great fanfare on December 5, 2009." Video from the reopening captures the moment as "a long fought community effort to make this happen," and the event drew then-Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was quoted noting the significance of the year for the neighborhood.

Before restoration the conservatory had lost features including its windows, an east wing, and an accompanying observatory; reopening footage also references the building's original spire. The restoration was completed in conjunction with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and the Department of Public Works, returning the site to daily public access and reaffirming its place on Monterey Boulevard.

Archival traces remain local: the Van Beckh photograph captioned "Sunnyside Conservatory, circa 1919" and oral-history recollections that the Van Beck family acquired surrounding lots after a bank sale in the 1920s. With a history spanning the turn of the 20th century, the conservatory today represents a neighborhood effort that combined volunteers, landscape design, city agencies, and a $4.2 million capital project to preserve an unusual piece of Sunnyside's built and botanical heritage.