It’s Orange Rocktober again, and the San Francisco Giants are in the Playoffs, although, as of this posting they’re down one game to nothing. So, I thought I’d put on my old Giants jersey and head to AT&T Park to do then and nows near the park courtesy of opensfhistory.org. No matter what happens tonight, The Giants will be back here on Monday, and this place will ROCK! (Look at the girl posing like the Willie Mays statue for the camera)
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You can drive to AT&T Park, take public transportation, or walk along the waterfront to the park, as I did today. Here is the old Seaboard Hotel at Howard and the Embarcadero in 1938. This old hotel, which was demolished at the end of the 1970’s, was featured in at least two films. The Seaboard would have been just behind where the first car is turning on to the Embarcadero from Howard Street.
The Embarcadero Freeway, which once ran past the Seaboard Hotel at this location, can be seen in the top picture from the chase scene at the end of the 1958 movie ‘The Lineup’. From Rainier Ale to Regal Pale, I don’t know if that was a step up or down! In the bottom picture, Steve McQueen hides a witness against organized crime here for his protection when it was called the Daniels Hotel in 1968’s ‘Bullitt’. (It didn’t work; the hit men got to the witness, and killed him)
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One block further south is the old Hills Brothers Coffee Factory, seen here in 1938. The Embarcadero has been reconfigured since 1938, and doesn’t turn at the same angle here as it once did. The old sign reads $6 TO LOS ANGELES. I just want the Giants to get past the Chicago Cubs, and get to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers next!
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Kitty-corner from AT&T Park at 3rd and King Street was once the old Southern Pacific Railroad Depot, seen on the left in 1938. This train station was demolished near the end of the 1970’s.
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Bob Hope and Jerry Colonna arrived at the Southern Pacific Depot in May of 1942 on a tour to raise money for the army and navy during World War Two. I don’t recognize who the girls were. The passenger trains still pull up behind the train depot today on the same tracks as in 1942, but now the station is one block southwest, and is the 4th and King Street Station.
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Slide! I’ve got baseball on the mind! A streetcar slides off the track at Stillman and 4th in 1947. That’s the old and new Highway 80 approach to the Bay Bridge in the back. It’s been completely redone since the vintage picture. This accident doesn’t look too serious, but wait until you see the next one.
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I’ve got a bad feeling about this one; a train collision with a truck at 7th and Irwin in February of 1945. Given the extent of the damage to the cabin of the big rig in the right center of the vintage photos, it’s unlikely that the driver survived. A Caltrain commuter liner zooms past homeless encampments at the site of the accident today.
It’s also Fleet Week in San Francisco. Look at that line of visitors waiting to board the USS San Diego! Two of the fellows off one of the ships were kind enough to oblige me with a photo in a pizza parlor across from AT&T Park.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
