Two weeks ago, we asked readers if they knew what became of the last commercial farm in San Francisco. It was run by the Demattei family in the Bayview for decades before being sold to a developer in 1988, as chronicled that summer by the Los Angeles Times:
"Three brothers fresh from Italy--James, Louis and Antonio Demattei--started the farm in 1902. In the face of rising real estate values, about two dozen of their offspring sold the single acre they still owned four months ago to a developer."
One of our readers, Eric Fischer, wrote in this week: "In the 1963 city directory, Louis and Irene DeMattei are listed at 173 Venus Street, so the dirt road must be Diana Street, which seems to have been developed with 18 rowhouses, and the tunnel farm must be the adjacent lot between Thornton and Williams, which seems to be vacant."
Indeed, row houses replaced rows of carrots and lettuce. Here's a look at Diana Street today: