There’s been a lot of events in and about San Francisco so far over the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend; such as the 49ers still playing in the Playoffs, (that turned out dismal) a tribute at Civic Center Plaza for Bob Wier of the Grateful Dead, and the first warm weather in the Bay Area for a couple of months. I visited the Civic Center area yesterday, Sunday, to take some comparison pictures around City Hall of vintage pictures from the UC Berkeley Library Archives. (Thumbnail images)
I’ll post my pictures in the order that I took them. This is the old San Francisco Main Library Building, now the Asian Arts Building. There was some kind of a fire being put out by that tiny fire truck in 1921.
This is an appropriate picture to post today of Civic Center Plaza; it’s of a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial being held in 1969, the year after King was assassinated in 1968. On Saturday, a memorial for Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead that drew thousand of spectators also took place in the Plaza.
The Civic Auditorium now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, near it’s completion in 1915. There’s a long list of famous people who have performed or spoken here, including Bob Weir in 2015 and Martin Luther King in 1956. My picture is from the top of the steps to the Polk Street entrance of City Hall.
The northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street in 1926 before the War Memorial Opera House was built in 1932: Well, opera is wonderful, but I probably would have visited the Bargain Tire Store more than I do the opera if I were around back then.
The corner of Grove and Franklin Streets in 1926: The view City Hall is blocked out now from here by the Franklin Street side of the War Memorial Opera House, but you can just see the top of it on the right in my photo.
San Francisco citizens waiting for a visitor on the steps of the Van Ness Avenue side of City Hall in 1938: I imagine that you’re wondering who they were waiting for.
Well, they were waiting for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to drive by. Look at those bodyguards! I was standing at about the same place yesterday that he was smiling and waving his hat toward in July of 1938; it was kind of an odd feeling.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Why are pollarded sycamores (London plane, Platanus X acerifolia) so common among those particular buildings? The second pair of pictures shows those at City Hall when they were much younger compared to now. The second of the third pair shows two in the foreground of the Civic Auditorium. Even the War Memorial Opera House is outfitted with a few, although those might be something else.