Recognizing an obvious need for a permanent gathering place where her fellow residents could assemble, Florence Friedman helped establish the Visitacion Valley Community Center which today remains an eminent institution in what has been affectionately known as the "valley of the good neighbor."

Visitacion Valley was little but a rural village when the 22-year-old Miss Friedman arrived in 1909 to teach all eight grades on a rotation basis at Visitacion Valley Elementary School.

"The Valley had nothing but hills, a one-way street and wooden planks for sidewalks," she later said of the area she had grown to love.

"It took an hour-and-a-half to get to the Center from downtown.  We called the two dinkies the molasses special.  You had plenty of time to get acquainted with your neighbors while you waited for them at the end of the line."

When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, the Army took over the nearby Southern Pacific Railroad yard, encamping troops to be readied for battle.

With a modest government allotment of 10 dollars a month, Miss Friedman volunteered her services as director of the War Camp Community Service Center, settling up facilities on March 14, 1918 in a small wooden building still standing at 101 Raymond Ave. at the corner of Alpha Street.  It's fireplace had been constructed by Valley residents from used bricks, and the building was elaborately decorated with wild flowers.

Neighboring families gathered at the once-abandoned building throughout the war's duration to hold pot luck dinners and social engagements for the soldiers in a forerunner of what would eventually develop into the USO.

With the signing of the armistice in November, 1918 came a termination of government funds, but the San Francisco Aquatic Park Recreation League soon agreed to sponsor the center's continuance with contributions from individual donors.

Miss Friedman had looked to the San Bruno Community Center and Telegraph Hill Center as models for the new Valley center she was about to convince them was a necessity.  Growing interest in the activities at the quaint but cramped storefront quarters at Alpha Street made expansion eminent and she soon acquired a spacious site on the north side of Raymond Avenue.

Architect Dorothy Wormser donated a set of plans to the community calling for construction of a new complex on a site 75-by-100 feet.  As described by Miss Friedman's published report announcing an eventful Sunday afternoon groundbreaking scheduled for April 23, 1922, "The plans call for a 50-foot frontage on Raymond Avenue which includes the club room, library, and club or meeting room.  The domestic science room, clinic, office and main entrance and lobby face an interior court.  The gymnasium and auditorium combined is 75-by-35 feet."

Miss Friedman's report also stressed that the new building's central section would be two stories high, containing modest living quarters for resident center workers.

More than 200 local workers labored tediously on Sundays and holidays to make the new center a reality.  Generous local contractors and residents donated building materials and equipment.

Located at 66 Raymond Ave., the Visitacion Valley Community Center was officially incorporated in 1922 with charter membership in the San Francisco Community Chest, later to become United Way in the Bay Area.

Stressed M.A. Nolan, then principal of the elementary school, "Eyes yet unborn will thank the elders for the community center.  How we ever lived without it we do not really know."

With the assistance of Dr. Adelaide Brown, Miss Friedman organized the first municipal well-baby clinic provided by the Department of Public Health.  New classes were also added at the center to instruct Valley residents in cooking, home economics, woodshop, millinery, sewing and physical education.

Increased development of the surrounding properties in the 1930s again encouraged the community center's expansion.  In 1938, a set of blueprints was finalized for the construction of a two-story building at 50 Raymond Ave. to house a ballroom, classrooms and administrative offices when completed in 1941.

Miss Friedman retired in 1959 after 41 years of continual service as VVCC's executive director, moving a few blocks away to Peabody Street after decades of residence in the Center's upstairs quarters.  "I just couldn't live any place else," she once told a newspaper reporter of her passion for Visitacion Valley.

Miss Friedman remained active in Valley affairs until a 1981 hip injury necessitated her moving to the Jewish Home on Silver Avenue where she lived to be 95.