Adopted! Russian American Heritage in SF Officially Preserved
- Ann Kutner
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
For over 2 years, the SF Planning Department has been recording Russian-American history and cultural resources. Authored by San Francisco native of Russian-American descent, Dr. Nina Bogdan, the document benefitted from Bogdan's years of research and earlier writing on the subject.
Once drafted, SF Planning Department's Melanie Bishop presented the first version of the Russian American Historic Context Statement (RAHCS) to San Francisco's Cultural Heritage Preservation Committee. Commissioners were briefed on the scope and intent of the document, its authors, community engagement events and partnerships. Read more about the July presentation here.
RAHCS Adoption
On October 15th, the RAHCS was up for acceptance by the Cultural Heritage Preservation Committee. After a heartfelt introduction by Dr. Bogdan, Melanie Bishop shared updates made to the document since July, like community feedback, events, map updates, and research recommendations. The Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the RAHCS.
"This is one of the best historic context statements that I think I've read because it allows us to look at things not myopically, but in terms of what happened. We can see the parallels [across] many communities who had to endure a lot of the same challenges that you have pointed out here... it's one of the very few historic context statements that do that." - Commissioner Diane Matsuda
What's Next?
In the short term, SF Planning will be translating the RAHCS into Russian and making copies available in public libraries. In the longer term, they will conduct further research and include the history of people from Ukraine, Serbia and Poland. SF Planning will advocate for other recommendations that propose a Russian Heritage Day and more Russian language education programs.
What Does Adoption Mean?
The history of Russian immigrants in San Francisco is now officially documented by the City. In 170 pages, we have an encapsulated view of how Russians influenced San Francisco's development and growth since the 19th century.
The author has vividly preserved the family lives, businesses, exploits, cultural events and religious affiliations of Russian Americans in the City. Through images and stories, we can see what physical history still exists, and what sadly, was destroyed or redeveloped.
To that end, the document serves to identify and evaluate historical Russian American properties for preservation, so no more history is inadvertently removed. Learn about the rich history of SF Russian Americans in the RAHCS.
In Appreciation
Many people and organizations dedicated their time to bringing the RAHCS to life. A great big thank you to:
Dr. Nina Bogdan
Melanie Bishop and SF Planning leaders and staff
Russian Center of San Francisco
Museum of Russian Culture
Russian American Community Services
Russian Life Newspaper
Slavic Voice
San Francisco Public Library
Western Neighborhoods Project
Erica Uribe of incommon
