The Parnassus Heights campus was the site of the Affiliated Colleges , which later evolved into the present-day institution . The site was established along Parnassus Avenue in 1898 on land donated by Mayor Adolph Sutro . At the time , the site was in the remote and uninhabited western part of San Francisco , but its medical facilities became vital in saving lives when 40,000 people were hosted in the nearby Golden Gate Park after the 1906 earthquake . In the early 1900s , the medical research operations of the medical center were split between Parnassus and UC Berkeley , and discussions arose about which site should become the center of medical activity . In 1914 , the '' Hooper Foundation for Medical Research '' decided to move its research work to the Parnassus site , becoming the first medical research foundation in the United States to be incorporated into a university . This expansion led to a 1949 decision by the UC Board of Regents designating the UCSF campus , rather than UC Berkeley , as the main site for all medical sciences of the UC system . The 20th century saw remarkable growth , with the expansion of new research institutes and facilities , which led to the administrative independence of UCSF and the selection of John B. de C.M. Saunders as the first Chancellor in 1964
1906 earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
University of California, San Francisco