The achievements and historic legacy of women’s activism during the 20th century in San Francisco’s Glen Park district have never been more important than they are now.

In 1948, the Circumferential Expressway was planned to bisect Glen Park and Glen Canyon Park, located in the very heart of San Francisco, to create a shortcut to the Golden Gate Bridge.

In 1958, Minnie Straub Baxter, a lifelong district resident, channeled the moxie of the Glen Park suffragists she had observed as a teenager (some of whom co-led the first march for women’s suffrage in America) and galvanized Glen Park residents against the plan, halting further development. Then in 1965, the freeway plan returned. Glen Park moms Zoanne Theriault Nordstrom, Joan Seiwald, and Geri Arkush soon organized the Save Glen Park Committee to stand up, fight back, and say, “No!”

Famously known as the Glen Park Gum Tree Girls, these women continued fighting until the last of multiple attempts to force the freeway through the district failed in 1970. Without their moxie, the quality of life in the Glen Park district would have been forever changed and the natural landscape of 70-acre Glen Canyon Park would have been irreparably harmed.

Several other women associated with the Glen Park District also strove to make a difference. The lessons emanating from the achievements of Glen Park’s 20th century women have never been more important than they are now. That is why on July 10, 2022, in beautiful Glen Canyon Park, we will Celebrate Glen Park Moxie! Learn more: https://www.glenparkhistory.org/support-the-gum-tree-girls-festival