This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (May 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

During the "hippie" period 1967–1968 in San Francisco, an individual named Al Rinker started an organization located at 1830 Fell St in the city's Haight Ashbury district called the Switchboard. Its purpose was to act as a social switchboard for people living there.

History

In early 1967 the Diggers were promoting a new type of philosophy and life concept in the Haight Ashbury. With the increase in media coverage of the district, a local resident, Al Rinker, was able to see the need for a service that would provide news and information about the hippie movement in the area. At the beginning of 1967, he rented an apartment on 1830 Fell Street just across the street from Golden Gate Park's Panhandle in order to function as both his home and the headquarters of his conceptual "Switchboard" concept. As a result of Al's concept of a human switchboard, George Darling and Danny were willing to assist him in the creation of it.

While he and the volunteers were doing this, the "Human Be In" took place and the Fillmore Auditorium was gaining national prominence. There has been a significant increase in the amount of coverage that has been given to the Haight Ashbury, bringing in more people and making it more difficult to run the Switchboard.

Al did not initially consider how some of the services that would be needed as a direct result of the rapid influx of people in the area would be needed. Among the things they had to do was find safe lodging (Crash Pads) for the wandering jobless hippies who arrived in the city without any means of support whatsoever. As a result of the popularity of this program, Al's office (living room) was remodeled to serve as the "We will help you find a place to stay" room. In an attempt to save space, Al moved his office from the kitchen to a tiny room next to it. In order to be able to accomplish the many tasks that the Switchboard wanted to accomplish, the Switchboard attracted additional volunteers Ron Small and Ken Englander.

In the midst of the population explosion, social networking took a back seat to more important services required to support the growing population. In summary, the Switchboard was created, then made useful by events not originally considered and grew[1] to fill those needs as well as those in its original plan.

Social events 1967–1968

Later period

After the departure of Al Rinker, Ken Englander and others took up the Switchboard concept. They moved to a storefront office at 1797 Haight St. It went through a number of moves and forum changes through the 1990s.

Before he left, Al Rinker transferred the Haight Ashbury Switchboard's 501 (c)(3) (non profit tax status) to Pam Hardt and Jed Riffe. They changed the name to Resource One and moved it into Project One.

Where are they now

Pictures

Footnotes and other references

  1. ^ Evening Independent article about the Switchboard and Community activities, Jul 26, 1968
  2. ^ "The Haight Ashbury - A History Archived 2009-02-06 at the Wayback Machine" by Charles Perry Random House 1984, page 143
  3. ^ "We are the people our parents warned us against" by Nicholas von Hoffman, LCCN:68013465
  4. ^ Herb Caen column San Francisco Chronicle 1967 "Mayor visits Switchboard Get together
  5. ^ Death of Hippie Parade
  6. ^ Note from his son Adam
  7. ^ Ron Thelin and the Red House

Other references