Fwowback Fwiday

One the best pictures of the old gingerbread Cliff House I’ve seen! There’s something contemporary about the old picture even though it had to be taken before 1907 when that Cliff House burned down.  The Dirty Dozen, minus one. I have no idea what military outfit these guys represented at the Ferry Building just after the 1906 Earthquake. This picture shows the damage done to the building.  A Shorpy picture from the 1920’s at City Hall. My friend, film historian and author Mark Vieira, pointed out to me that the church in the far right of the old shot is the St. Paulus  Lutheran Church on Eddy Street at Gough that burned down in 1995. This church can be seen in the films ‘Greed’, ‘Vertigo’ and ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’. Historic Jackson Square at Montgomery and Jackson Streets: These buildings survived the 1906 Earthquake because of their brick and iron construction. At the far right in the old picture was the Montgomery Block Building, (the Monkey Block) at 628 Montgomery Street. Built in 1853. Tt was a favorite hangout for poets and authors the likes of Jack London, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain. The building was demolished in 1959, and the Transamerica Pyramid Building occupies the spot today.   “Hardbodies” of the summer of 1940: This shocking display of skin was at the west side of the Marina Yacht Harbor seen below this winter. The old stone lighthouse can be seen in the background of both pictures. (Cushman Collection)  The Ghirardelli Omnibus Tour of Fisherman’s Wharf was very popular in the 1960’s, and was even featured in an episode of the television show ‘I Spy’ starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby!   The main pedestrian walkway from Haight-Ashbury into Golden Gate Park goes through the old Alvord Bridge Tunnel built in 1889. Everybody, from George Harrison to Timothy Leary walked through this tunnel to get to ‘Hippie Hill’.   The Grateful Dead house, 710 Ashbury Street: I see Jerry Garcia, but the caption says that Janis Joplin and members of the Jefferson Airplane are in the photo too. You’ll have to have keener eyes than mine to spot them.   In 1891, Sweeney’s Observatory opened up on top of Strawberry Hill at Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park, and was popular at the time for its panoramic views. The observatory crumbled in the 1906 Earthquake, and this is all that’s left of the building today.   The 78th Coast Artillery camping out behind the Beach Chalet in Golden Gate Park in October of 1941. They would be awful busy defending the West Coast two months later. This Area is now the renovated Soccer Fields. (San Francisco Public Labrary)