San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

‘Bus Stop’, the Hollies song that inspired this post for me, is probably the best song ever written about a bus stop, assuming that there haven’t been a lot of songs written about a bus stop. These are vintage pictures of buses and bus stops from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. I thought it might be fun to try to get match-ups to the picture locations, but also match-ups to the lyrics in the song. Although the Hollies weren’t singing about a San Francisco summer, that could fit too. Anyway, “That’s the way the whole thing started, silly but it’s true.” (Thumbnail images)

  

Number 30 stops on Stockton Street on the east side of Union Square in 1977:

“Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say, “Please share my umbrella.”

 

The Number 2 Clement Express stopping on Sutter Street near Market Street in 1951

“Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop. Sometimes she’d shopped, and she would show me what she bought.”

  

Another Number 2 Clement Express stopping at the northeast corner of Sutter and Montgomery Streets in 1951: Number 2 doesn’t stop at this corner now.

“All the people stared as if we were both quite insane.”

Well, if you use your imagination….. some of the people in the old photo could be staring at someone they think is insane!

  

The Number 2 Clement on Sutter Street near Stockton in 1969:

“Thinking of a sweet romance, beginning in a queue.”

Neither one of these queues for the Number 2 were very romantic, and I was in the second one!

  

Number 30 turning right on Stockton Street at Sutter, heading for the Stockton Tunnel in 1978:

“Bus stops, bus goes, she stays, love grows, under my umbrella”

  

Looking east on Sutter Street from Kearny Street in 1958:

“Came the sun the ice was melting, no more sheltering now. Nice to think that that umbrella led me to a vow.”

Well, they probably didn’t honeymoon at the Hotel Sutter, although it may have been a nice place for it.

She went on to work for SFMTA, (and for some reason, her bus was always crowded) and he went on to become a private eye, seen here years ago in Union Square with a trench coat, flip phone, and, of course, an umbrella.

I’ll post a link to the song below; it is a catchy tune!

 

 

San Francisco doesn’t get any better than this. (Thumbnail images)

The view looking east in 1927, the year the top of the Mark opened: I squeezed two of my pictures together to get a reasonable comparison for this one. (opensfhistory.org)

  

The Fairmont Hotel Tower going up in 1961: Their view from the top floor is even higher than the Top of the Mark. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

 

Looking northeast in 1963 and another view blocking building going up: (opensfhistory.org)

  

A daytime comparison of a 1943 evening picture, looking southeast: The 450 Sutter Medical Building is on the left, the Francis Drake (Beacon Grand) Hotel is in the center. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Judy Garland on a 1965 promo tour for her album Live at the London Palladium: The view from the Mark is looking north toward Alcatraz. On the right in both pictures is the Brocklebank Apartments where Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) was staying in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film ‘Vertigo’. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Well, I didn’t get to share a table with Dorothy from Kansas last time I was up there, but ‘J’ from Texas was just as fun. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

This 1954 view looking southeast lines up pretty good with my picture, from the Russ Building on the left to the Pacific Telephone Building on the right. Towering over everything is the Salesforce tower Building, but I had to trim it down to almost invisible to make the comparison. (opensfhistory.org)

  

But the most historic view from the Top of the Mark is from the northwest corner, known now as ‘Weeper’s Corner’. This spot was where mothers, wives, sweethearts, sisters, fathers, brothers, and boyfriends would gather to watch their loved ones sail out under the Golden Gate Bridge to the Pacific Theater during World War Two, many who didn’t come back. The vintage picture is from 1955. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

“The comparison pictures you see are true. The cars and signs have been changed to protect the innocent.”

I know, “Who remembers ‘Dragnet’?” Actually, about the only thing that has changed in these photo sets are the cars and signs! My introduction to Clement Street goes back to before the 1990s. After a night of carousing around San Francisco on weekends, we’d often head to The Front Room Pizza Parlor on Clement near Ninth Avenue. They were open late at night, seems to me at times after midnight. We’d close out the evening with pitchers of beer, (as if we needed more beer) and terrific pizza, individual booths, and a perfect dark atmosphere and aroma that was also very romantic. The last time I was there was in 2013; the name had been changed to one of the Pizza Orgasmica chain, and although the food was good, it just wasn’t the same. Also, to say that the names of their combo pizzas were suggestive is like saying that Mussolini was a little to the Right; they were downright naughty! I’ll show a portion of the vegetarian menu as a tease; it’s actually a little tamer than the ‘specials’ menu. The first photo set is of the last menu I got there, and next is a picture of where the Front Room used to be; the entrance still looks the exact same. Now where was I? Oh, yeah, Clement Street in the 1990s. The vintage pictures are from a photographer named Robert Durden, a photographer I’m not familiar with, and they’re posted on the San Francisco Digital Library Archive. (Thumbnail images)

 

An Orgasmic menu and where the  Front Room Pizza Parlor used to be:

  

7^th Avenue and Clement Street in November of 1992: Wow, compact discs! Uh, what are they? Oh, I remember.

 

406 Clement Street in February of 1993: There’s still a bar there, under a different name.

  

The southwest corner of 5^th and Clement in December of 1992: The Toy Boat Restaurant opened in this old building in 1983, closed in 2020, and reopened in June of 2025 as Toy Boat by Jane, specializing in ice cream.

  

The north side of the 300 Block of Clement in December of 1992: That upturned awning in the 90s picture is kind of cool!

  

Looking northwest on the 300 Block from 4^th Avenue in December of 1992: City Girls Clothes is now a Specialty Grocery Store.

  

Another look at the north side of the 500 Block in February of 1993; just to show that I can take a picture over the top of cars too.

  

This was the one that I wanted to get the most, looking at Clement Street from the south side on 6^th Avenue. However, alas, alack, and Alaska, scaffolding messed up my shot. It’s a cool picture; the kid on the bike grocery shopping is just the right clement Street touch.

And why not? As one of the five cable car terminuses and three blocks away from Fisherman’s Wharf, it’s a great spot to include in your San Francisco adventure. There was also a few relatively unknown movie scenes filmed here. (Thumbnail images)

   

Looking north along Taylor Street past the intersection, circa 1940: The cable car turnaround was right in the middle of the intersection then. Sharp eyes will spot Pier 45 in the far background of both photos. (opensfhistory.org)

I first learned about the cable car turnaround being right of the middle of the intersection when watching Buster Keaton’s 1922 film ‘Day Dreams’, or ‘Daydreams’. While being chased by the police from Minna Street to North Beach, Keaton jumps on a cable car on Columbus Avenue, and thinks he’s lost the police. While he’s relaxing he doesn’t notice that the turnaround at Bay and Taylor is turning around and sending him right back to where to police are. The view from the movie scene is looking east along Bay. A school bus has replaced the old Tin Lizzie on the left.

   

In 1941 the turnaround was moved from the middle of the intersection. Its current location is about twenty five feet south on Taylor. The vintage picture is looking north from Francisco Street. (opensfhistory.org)

  

Grip men turning a car around in 1953: The view is looking toward the northwest corner of the intersection. (opensfhistory.org)

  

Looking south in 1955 from the northwest corner in the previous picture; I was happy with the way this one turned out because I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to get a good line up. (opensfhistory.org)

  

This might have been a good match up with the circa 1960 photo, except that I’m looking west from the east side of Taylor Street, and the photographer in the vintage picture was looking east from the west side. Also, passengers are not allowed to board the cable cars while they’re on any of the three turntables anymore. (opensfhistory.org)

  

Looking south across the Bay and Taylor Streets intersection toward Nob Hill in 1963: (opensfhistory.org)

  

Jack Lemmon races his Thunderbird south past a turning cable car during the wild car ride scene from the 1964 comedy film ‘Good Neighbor Sam”. There are a number of reasons why this scene could not be filmed today, but mainly because of the metal queue line up rail that surrounds three sides of the turntable. The Shell Gas Station on the left is gone now, but the 76 Service Station on the right is still there. In fact, I was able to get air into a flat tire on my ebike from there long enough to get back to the BART Station in 2021.

  

Looking toward the northeast corner of the intersection in 1973. The sign from the 76 Station mentioned in the last photo set is visible past the rear entrance of the cable cars in both pictures. That fellow with the long hair on the left is seen in different locations in a number of the opensfhistory.org pictures taken at this time, and I think he was a grip man! No, not grip lady. After taking my pictures yesterday, I took a lonely walk around the block missing Cost Plus Imports.

 

 

Lately, there has been a rash of fake Facebook pages posting AI generated then and now images and moving films that are ridiculously inaccurate to the point of being stupid. In addition to this, they have lifted pictures from websites, including mine, and posted them on their junk pages, watermarked with their logo suggesting that they have either created the images or own them. This isn’t just stupid, it’s nefarious. The people who create these fake pages are not historians, photographers or artists, they’re just culprits trying to inflate their popularity on Facebook for ulterior motives. However, now and then you do find a Facebook page posting interesting vintage San Francisco photos with accurate descriptions. They don’t always name the source of the pictures, but I’m guilty of that sometimes too. ‘San Francisco City Guides – Free Walking Tours’ is one of those pages. This group is just trying to promote their business in an honest way, and I wish them luck. I took a walk along Market Street yesterday taking a few updated comparison pictures of some of the old photos they’ve posted on their page. I’ll leave the history notes short because City Guides has covered most of that on their posts. (Thumbnail images)

  

Market Street at Spear in the 1940s: The Southern Pacific Building is on the right, the Ferry Building in the center, and the Terminal Hotel on the left. I wonder if the Terminal Hotel’s slogan was, “When you stay with us, you’ll never want to leave.”

 

The Embarcadero Freeway going up: I wasn’t there to see that, but I saw it coming down.

  

Lotta’s Fountain, shortly after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire: The original Palace Hotel had burned down, and is not in the background of the vintage picture. The hotel was rebuilt in 1909.

  

The green Pacific Building at Market Street and Fourth Street: Since the COVID 19 Pandemic this has become one of the most popular intersections in San Francisco.

   

The entrance to the Emporium Department Store: In 2006 Bloomingdale’s took over the department store, and you can still make out their sign above the entrance. The entire complex is closed now.

  

The old Hibernia Bank Building, where McAllister and Jones Streets come into Market Street. Built in 1892, the Hibernia Building came through the 1906 Earthquake and Fire with relatively slight damage.

 

 

The title is in reference to the pictures I took because they’re about as close to the locations of the vintage pictures as I could match. These are now and thens rather than then and nows because I took the pictures first, and then looked for vintage pictures afterwards that would come close to the locations of my photos. It’s kind of a private scavenger hunt I like to do sometimes, and it wouldn’t be possible to find reasonable facsimiles to match my pictures without opensfhistory.org. Last Sunday, about the only place in the Bay Area to get some relief from the warm weather was San Francisco, so I took another visit to Chinatown to take some pictures with my cellphone, and tried to match them up with vintage pictures when I got back to the office. (Thumbnail images)

  

I got off the Metro Central Subway at Washington Street, and turned into Ross Alley, seen in 1910 in the vintage picture.

  

Coming out of Ross Alley at Jackson Street, I took a picture looking east toward the Bay Bridge, barely visible in the 1960 photo.

  

I headed down Jackson Street, turned left at Grant Ave, and walked down to Broadway, passing the old Mandarin Theater Building, seen from the opposite side in 1934.

  

When you get to Broadway you’re leaving Chinatown, so I turned around and headed back south. I took a picture looking south at Grant Avenue and Jackson Street, and found a picture at the same intersection, but taken from the opposite side of Grant Avenue  in 1960.

    

I cut back through Ross Alley, heading south this time. This might have been a perfect match up to the vintage picture taken inside Ross Alley, except that I was looking south and the photographer in 1890 was looking north.

  

I exited Ross Alley at Washington Street, and moved uphill a few yards to Old Chinatown Lane, seen in another picture from 1960.

   

Doubling back down to Grant Avenue, I proceeded south, and took one last photo looking east down California Street from Grant. There are many pictures at this intersection from opensfhistoey.org, but this vintage picture, taken after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire in 1906, was the closest to where I was standing.

 

 

I’ve been riding bikes around San Francisco for decades, and the various editions of the ‘San Francisco Bike Map & Walking Guide’ have come in handy for avoiding hills or steep grades; the darker streets showed where the grades were. However, when I got an ebike in 2020 the map became obsolete concerning bike riding for me, but still handy for walking. I found one of my copies of the map, the 2011 edition. I paid $5.99 for it, and I’m sure I got my money’s worth. I took a picture of the northeastern portion of the map and went back to my archives to collect some then and now pictures to post of the area. The locations of my photos are numbered in red, not to be confused with the dark purple numbers on the map that indicate bicycle routes, and the pictures ricochet from Pier 45 at the top to City Hall at the bottom. (Thumbnail images)

#1 The crew at the bridge of the World War ll submarine USS Pampanito: The Pampanito is open for visitors at Pier 45. (Images of America)

  

#2 Bathing Beauties on the west side of the Maritime Museum at Aquatic Park in 1939: That tall microphone-like thing was there for broadcasting messages. (San Francisco: West Coast Metropolis)

 

#3 Piers 37 and 35, seen the opening of the 1934 film ‘Fog Over Frisco’ staring Bette Davis Pier 37 is gone but pier 35 remains.

  

#4 Franklin D. Roosevelt’s motorcade, on Van Ness near Bay Street in 1938: Fort Mason is in the background. (opensfhistory.org)

  

#5 The Parade of Ships opening Fleet Week in October of 1986: This was a slide picture I took from Chestnut Street on Telegraph Hill.

  

#6 Another slide picture I took of the Embarcadero, looking south from Levi Plaza in 1983: The old Belt Line railroad tracks were still there then.

  

#7 The Filbert Street drop near Hyde in the 1940’s, courtesy of Fred Lyon:

  

#8 We’ll stop and say hi to Carol Doda, here on southeast corner of Broadway and Columbus in 1966. (SF Chronicle)

  

#9 A big jump over to the Haas-Lilienthal House at California and Franklin Streets: They’ve done a little remodeling since 1887. (SF Heritage)

  

#10 California Street and Van Ness, looking east during the 1950s. You can’t see Grace Cathedral from here anymore. (Phil Palmer)

  

#11 Another slide picture of mine at the intersection of Pine and Powell Streets in 1987:

  

#12 The Chinese New Year Parade, coming up Pine Street near Grant Avenue in 1934: (San Francisco, Portrait of a City)

  

#13 Where Battery and Bush Streets come into Market Street, in front of the Crown Zellerbach Building in 1962: (San Francisco, Portrait of a City)

   

#14 Steuart and Mission Streets, looking south past the historic Audiffred Building in a slide picture I took in 1983: You can see the Embarcadero Freeway in the background of the slide.

  

# 15 The intersection of First and Mission Streets in 1970: (San Francisco Pictures Blog)

   

#16 Third Street between Mission and Howard Streets, looking toward Market Street in 1952: (opensfhistory.org)

  

#17 The Bay Bridge Inn on Harrison Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets: I wasn’t sure if the motel in this postcard was still around since I took my comparison picture before the Pandemic, but it still is.

  

#18 The O’Farrell & Jones cable car line on, seen appropriately at Jones Street at O’Farrell in the Tenderloin, closed in 1954. (Market Street Railway)

  

#19 Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio leave the McAllister Street side of the City Hall Building after their 1954 wedding. She looked so happy.

  

#20 The less photographed side of City Hall, seen on Fulton Street, looking past Franklin toward Van Ness Avenue in the 1940s: (flickr.com)

 

 

 

 

In July of 2016 I went to the Fisherman’s Wharf area to take some comparison pictures that were taken in 1975 by photographer Peter Stratmoen. It was a fun day, and turned out to be one favorite posts. The Fisherman’s Wharf area has changed almost as drastically in the last ten years as it had from 1975 to 2016, so I went over to the Wharf again yesterday to update my post, albeit from the opposite direction than in 2016. (Thumbnail images)

  

The view southeast toward Powell Street and the Eagle Cafe in Stratmoen’s photo is impossible to duplicate now because of the Pier 39 Parking Garage. So, as I did ten years ago, I’ll take my picture from the footbridge of the parking garage that crosses over the Embarcadero. The Eagle Cafe, built in 1928, was relocated to the second level of Pier 39.

  

N. Alioto’s Captain’s Cabin Restaurant was at 155 Jefferson Street. The SkyStar Wheel is in the background of the modern picture.

  

Alioto’s, #9 Fishermen’s Grotto, and Pier 45 in 1975: Alioto’s Restaurant is demolished now, something that would have been unimaginable in 1975 or 2016, #9 Fishermen’s Grotto is closed forever, and one fourth of Pier 45 was destroyed by fire in 2020.

  

Looking south down Taylor Street from Jefferson:

  

It’s comforting to know that passing cars can still spoil your shot up Hyde street from the Hyde Street Pier.

  

Looking southwest toward Ghirardelli Square from the entrance to the Hyde Street Pier:

  

The Hyde Street Pier is closed right now for renovation. I included my 2016 photo of the pier because it made a nicer comparison than yesterday’s picture. Below is the link to my 2016 post.

Fisherman’s Wharf – 1975

Amy O’Hair is a historian and author who writes for the Sunnyside History Project. We’ve been in touch with each other on our websites, and yesterday I was able to meet her in San Francisco for a sale she was having for her new book. Amy writes mostly about history in the Sunnyside District of San Francisco, an area that I seldom have visited. One of her articles is about a forgotten San Francisco disaster in 1942 that I’d never heard of. On February 6, 1942, a mudslide due to “massive rains” and contractor carelessness caused a huge pile of loose dirt from Mt Davidson to pour down on to Foerster Street, between Teresita Blvd and what is now Los Palmos Drive, demolishing a number of houses and killing two people. I went to the spot of the catastrophe yesterday to take some comparison pictures of the photos from opensfhistory.org that Amy posted on her article, before heading downhill to Monterey Blvd and Foerster Street to say hi to her, and wish her luck on her book sale. (Thumbnail pictures)

 

Looking south down Foerster Street: The large house center right is still there, as well as a number of houses on the left side of the picture. The bottom photo is behind the house on the right where people are searching for Dora Kammer, who was one of the people killed, along with her brother-in-law Thomas Hill, who was rescued but died from his injuries several days later.

Here is the house on Foerster today where the rescuers were searching behind.

   

A house knocked into Foerster Street by the slide: You can just see the top of a house on the left in the photo through the trees in my picture.

  

This is looking southeast toward some of the houses that the slide stopped short of. The prayers the homeowners in these houses must have said that night. Where I’m standing would not have been a good spot to be at on February 6, 1942.

  

Looking northeast at more of the houses that survived the slide and are still there:

  

Another look southeast on Foerster near Teresita: Several more houses have been built on the right near Teresita Blvd.

 

This was the main comparison picture that I wanted to get. It’s looking north along Foerster Street just below Teresita. The large house at the beginning of the set is in the far background, but can’t be seen through the trees in my picture.

   

Here’s a copy of Amy O’Hair’s book. I like that endorsement! Also, here’s a link to the Sunnyside History Project article.

https://sunnysidehistory.org/2023/12/07/catastrophe-on-foerster-street-the-deadly-landslide-of-1942/

 

 

I’m old enough to remember what the area around what is now known as Levi’s Plaza was like before the plaza opened in 1981, and I first visited it in 1982; old warehouses, bordered on one side by the rusty Belt Line Railroad tracks. It had a special atmosphere though, just as the Embarcadero did, of a bypassing time. We’d walk around the area picking up discarded railroad spikes along the tracks, and on a foggy day there was a feeling that I’ll never get again. Today, there’s clean office buildings, a very comfortable park to relax and have a bag lunch in, (although the park is not as crowded on a sunny day as it used to be) and the best views of Coit Tower anywhere in town, so it’s not a disappointing change, it’s just not the same. Well, what in San Francisco is as it was when I was a teenager? These are some vintage pictures of how the area where Levi’s Plaza is used to look. (Thumbnail images)

  

A 1978 drawing of what Levi’s Plaza would look like when completed: They got it pretty close. (Wikipedia)

  

Filbert Street looking toward Telegraph Hill, circa 1950: The vintage picture is right where Levi’s Plaza is today. (opensfhistory.org)

 

Where Filbert Street used to merge with the Embarcadero in 1949: This might be one of the best vintage pictures around San Francisco I’ve seen. The photographer was Minor White.

  

My update on a 1982 picture of the western side of Levi’s Plaza sort of juxtaposes, (Am I using that word right?) the previous vintage picture. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Looking southwest across Battery Street in 1958: The lower wooden portion of the Filbert Steps, visible in the 1958 picture, have been used in at least three film noir movies shot in San Francisco; ‘Dark Passage’ from 1947, ‘Raging Tide’ from 1951, and ‘The Sniper’ from 1952, all covered on my blog. This part of the wooden Filbert Steps was replaced in the 1980s. (opensfhistory.org)

  

Another great picture right where Levi’s Plaza is today, taken during the early 1950s. (Cushman Collection)

  

Looking west along Filbert Street from Battery, circa 1940: It’s kind of interesting trying to find buildings from the old picture today on Telegraph Hill. (opensfhistory.org)

 

Looking across the Embarcadero from Greenwich Street toward Pier 23 during the 1950s: This is where the northern side of Levi’s Plaza is now. The TIN ANGEL, I think I’d like to have gone in there. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)