Thomas Hayes (1820 – June 23, 1868) was a land owner in the western addition to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in the 19th century.

Hayes Valley Hayes Valley is a neighborhood in the Western Addition district of San Francisco, California. It is located between the historical districts of Alamo Square and the Civic Center. Victorian, Queen Anne, and Edwardian townhouses are mixed with hig ...

in the western addition and Hayes Street are named after him. He was the original franchisee of the Market Street Railway and county clerk between 1853 and 1856. The franchise for what would become the Market Street Railway was granted in 1857. The line was the first

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

line to open in

, opened on July 4, 1860, as the Market Street Railroad Company. The goal was to bring the land to market. The method would be a railway. Thomas Hayes, who owned a large tract in the

Western Addition The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States. Location The Western Addition is located between Van Ness Avenue, the Richmond District, the Haight-Ashbury and Lower Haight neighborhoods, and Pacific Heights. ...

, now known as the "Hayes Valley" and the banking house of Pioche and Bayerque, who held Hayes's mortgage, ultimately joined with several large property owners in the

Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

, to form a business alliance to build a rail line connecting the main part of San Francisco with the old Mission settlement, a distance of three miles. Thomas Hayes came from

Rosscarbery Rosscarbery () is a village and census town in County Cork, Ireland. The village is on a shallow estuary, which opens onto Rosscarbery Bay. Rosscarbery is in the Cork South-West (Dáil Éireann) constituency, which has three seats. History The ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and arrived in San Francisco in 1849. Hayes owned the land where the present day

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

buildings are located. In 1861, Tom Hayes constructed the first outdoor recreational park, Hayes Park. In 1868, Hayes was elected as a delegate from San Francisco to the

1868 Democratic National Convention The 1868 Democratic National Convention was held at Tammany Hall in New York City between July 4, and July 9, 1868. The first Democratic convention after the conclusion of the American Civil War, the convention was notable for the return of Democr ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. While on board a steamer to New York, via

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

, he died on June 23, 1868. Hayes died a bachelor. In his will, he left a number of trusts for the benefit of his father and other relatives. The remainder was left to the children of his two brothers, John and Michael Hayes, and to his sister.

References

* Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
Early San Francisco Street Names
'. Retrieved September 25, 2005. *http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccsfwhensteam2.html *Forgotten Pioneers: Irish Leaders in Early California, by Thomas F. Prendergast, The Minerva Group Inc., 2001, , pp 176–181 1820 births 1868 deaths Politicians from San Francisco Democratic Party San Francisco Bay Area politicians Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1820s-stub