I’m having more fun lately in exploring San Francisco, and marking the spots where I’ve taken pictures with numbers on my old ‘City In Your Pocket’ map of SF. This spot-by-numbers is Chinatown, south to north; always an adventure to explore. My hike (ten or so blocks is a hike to me nowadays) was late afternoon, yesterday. The vintage pictures are from the UC Berkeley Library Archives, (UC) The San Francisco Library Digital Archives, (SF) and opensfhistory.org (OSFH). The numbers are in purple this time, partly because of Chinatown’s passion for colors. (Thumbnail images)
#1 The Dragon Gate at Grant Avenue and Bush Street: This is the southernmost extension of Chinatown. The older picture was taken in June of 1987. (SF)
#2 A cool picture taken between Bush and Pine Street, circa 1952: (OSFH)
#3 Looking across California Street to the parking garage under St. Mary’s Square: The vintage picture is from 1954. (SF)
#4 An undated picture of St. Mary’s Square, probably from the 1940s: The statue of Sun Yat-sen is on the left, Old St. Mary’s Church is on the right. (SF)
#5 I was surprised to find this photo too. There used to be a service station in St. Mary’s Square Parking Garage. This is probably not the spot where it was. However,when I asked to attendants on duty where it may have been, they didn’t know either. The vintage picture is from 1954.(SF)
#6 Another nice picture of Grant Avenue, looking toward Sacramento Street, either in the late 1920s or early 1930s: (UC)
#7 The easternmost portion of Chinatown on Kearny Street, looking toward Portsmouth Square in 1959: I didn’t get the right line up on this one, so I’ll just blame my goof up on the sun. Several buildings are still visible from here, like the one on the left through the trees, and the one in the center. (OSFH)
#8 Two ladies and a buddy at the Robert Louis Stevenson Statue in Portsmouth Square, dated November 13th 1941: There is currently controversy in the Chinese community over removing the statue permanently from the square during ongoing renovations. (SF)
#9 Not an especially exiting photo from 1984 of Grant and Pacific Avenues, but I was heading that way anyway. Not as bustling yesterday at this portion of Chinatown, nor in the rest of the area, but there were crowds. (SF)
#10 This is an interesting picture taken at the northernmost portion of Chinatown, on Grant Avenue between Pacific Avenue and Broadway in 1943. the caption reads, “Teenage gang fight. Kid put in paddy wagon on Grant Street near Pacific Street.” Pacific Avenue was still labeled a Street then. Gangs had been a problem in Chinatown from the middle of the Nineteenth Century to near the end of the Twentieth Century. Although they produced colorful figures like “Little Pete”, the low point of the gangs was the 1977 Golden Dragon massacre in September of 1977.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 