If you take the Hop On, Hop Off tour buses they’ll take you to places like the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf and those are fine places to visit, but if you take the Tim Tour here, I’ll take you up close to a cable car and the famous “Painted Ladies”. You’ll get a past look at the Portals of the Past and travel back to a World War Two change in Golden Gate Park. You’ll see San Francisco’s answer to the Swiss Alps, and I’ll show you where the lights are out and nobody’s home at a famous San Francisco landmark, at least for the time being! We’ll end up with a different view of the Cliff House than the one usually seen, complete with a celestial visitor!
Cable cars still “climb half way to the stars” on the “Hyde Street Grip” here on Russian Hill, and I got a nice smile from a passenger!
The famous “Painted Ladies” of Alamo Square from a different view than the one that’s now folklore: (Bob Hollingsworth)
The doorway of A. N. Towne’s mansion was all that was left standing of his Nob Hill home after the 1906 Earthquake. It was moved out to Lloyd’s Lake in Golden Gate Park in 1909. Known as the ‘Portals of the Past’, here it is seen in an undated photo from whatever they call the decade before the 1920’s and yesterday.
The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park is one of the few attractions that remain from the 1894 Midwinter International Exposition. After Pearl Harbor when anti Japanese sentiment ran high, the name of the Garden was changed to the Oriental Tea Garden. The name was changed back to the Japanese Tea Garden after World War Two. The left photo was at the Moon Bridge during the war.
The Sky-Tram ran behind the Cliff House from 1955 to 1961. It carried passengers across part of the Pacific Ocean behind the Sutro Bathhouse from the Cliff House to a waterfall at Point Lobos, seen here in these pictures, and back. It’s just a faded memory today and few people have heard of it.
The only building in San Francisco designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is at 140 Maiden Lane. Built in 1949, a number of galleries and businesses have been housed there, the last being the Xanadu Gallery, but as of last Thursday evening it remains empty, and, kind of, spooky looking. The picture on the left is from the 1950’s.
The old drawing from 1910 at the top appears to be the view from behind the Cliff House. They labeled it “New” then, and it’s, basically, the same building that’s there today. You can only get to this spot at low tide, (or if you’re an angel, and I had no idea what that was all about) I’ve never been this far behind the Cliff House before so I don’t know what those butts up on the wall are for, but there are some interesting caves down here that you would drown in when the tide comes in.
I’ll just pretend I’m taking a picture of Seal Rocks!
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 