Local Historian Catherine Accardi Keeps Activist Spirit Alive in North Beach

Catherine Accardi is a true North Beach treasure. A passionate San Francisco historian who was born and raised on Telegraph Hill, she not only has her own stories to pass on about the neighborhood, but she works tirelessly to preserve and share those of others.  

 

From her role as Editor-in-Chief of The Semaphore, to author of books like San Francisco’s North Beach & Telegraph Hill, to local activist, working to save the precious buildings that give the community so much character, Accardi is humbly unaware that her life’s work is fast becoming a legacy on its own.  

Catherine Accardi was born the daughter of Italian immigrant parents, both of Tuscan descent, who came to the United States separately, her father in 1915 and her mother in the early 40s, before America became heavily involved in WWII.  She grew up speaking Italian, perhaps the last generation to do so before most parents began discouraging the language in favor of English, which she actually didn’t begin learning until entering the first grade at the age of six.  

 

Accardi recalls the same North Beach so many people continue to reflect upon, calling it a “true Italian village snuggled around Telegraph Hill.” Her favorite place to escape to as a kid was the crest of Vallejo Street, just a few steps from Kearny, where the panoramic views made a deep impression on Accardi and manifested the love she has for San Francisco today.  Of course, Accardi was also a woman of the times, and she grew up right alongside the transitioning city and neighborhood, including roving the streets as a college student, holing up at bookstores and frequenting the coffee houses of that era.  

 

Today, the avid historian fittingly lives in a condo that was renovated from the old Simmons mattress factory where the actual north beach used to start.  Accardi tells a touching tale about wandering in with her husband to take a look one day and having an eerie feeling that she had been there before: “They kept all the walls and pillars and concrete columns from my father’s office. When we walked in, it was the exact same view from my father’s office. I started bawling, I could feel him there.”  Needless to say, escrow closed quickly.  

 

While so many bemoan the diminishing authenticity, loss of important landmarks and Italian presence in North Beach, Accardi also offers a surprisingly fresh—and refreshing—perspective on just how rewarding preservation efforts have been.  Though she admits being “personally pained” by the loss of places like El Matador and the original U.S. restaurant, to name but a few, Catherine chooses to focus on successes like Julius’ Castle, the 8 Washington development (ongoing), the Belli and Genella buildings at 722 – 728 Montgomery, and the continuing work of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers to preserve the lobby and murals at COIT Tower.  

 

Catherine is involved in smaller, lesser known projects that often include blocking space-consuming modifications to historical addresses within the Telegraph Hill neighborhood as well, which she says, “ …  may not sound particularly significant individually, but the sum of all the ongoing efforts add up in the end.”  

 

What keeps her motivated? As Accardi explains, “There’s just some things that we’re not going to be able to preserve. What keeps me going is that there’s a lot of us in North Beach; there’s so many lovely people and each one has so many lovely friends, and they have lovely friends, too.”  But, there is no doubt that the work of Accardi and her peers will take the entire village to sustain.  And in Catherine’s view, there is a job for everyone.  “However much the person wants to get involved, there’s a place for them.  If it’s only shopping at the local places or eating at the local restaurant … there’s a large aging population in Telegraph Hill, and there’s a woman who reads to those who can’t see anymore. Write to your district supervisor; get nosey and pushy! Get out there!”

 

Catherine’s next step in working to research and retell the oral and photographic histories of North Beach and Telegraph Hill is a yet-unnamed companion text to the San Francisco’s North Beach & Telegraph Hill Images of America series published through Arcadia Press.  In this volume, which she plans to print on her own, Accardi will dive into some of the more colorful and possibly checkered pasts of landmark buildings—an endeavor that will hopefully satisfy the life-long dream she’s had of being a mystery writer.

 

 Catherine currently presents the material from her books and life in San Francisco to nonprofit groups, businesses and other interested parties, with any proceeds from book sales donated to the hosting organization.