In the 1950’s, THE SAN FRANCISCO NEWS ran a series of cartoons created by Albert Tolf. They depicted various historical San Francisco moments and locations throughout the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century, and are fun to look at look at. I recently found a collection of the cartoons at the San Francisco Main Library.
The streetcar loop at the foot of the Ferry Building:
The stretch up Greenwich Street between Powell and Kearny isn’t as steep as the cartoon suggests, but it’s an interesting piece of San Francisco trivia.
The old Number 5 still runs out to Ocean Beach, but you can’t climb on top of it anymore.
The historic Call Bulletin Building at Third and Market Streets has gone through many name changes and much remodeling, but it’s still there.
Ocean Beach, Sutro Heights, and the gingerbread Cliff House:
The old Cliff House survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire only to burn down the following year.
The Palace of Fine Arts:
The old granddaddy (or grandmommy, depending on your point of view) of the Hop On, Hop Off tour buses:
Buffalo Bill did indeed visit San Francisco with his famous Wild West Show in the early Twentieth Century, and my dog Danny may have picked up his long ago scent on one of our Ocean Beach trips!
“The greatest street gathering of all time in San Francisco.”: This may have been true in 1910, but I was on Market Street in 2010 when over one million people gathered to watch the first San Francisco Giants World Series victory parade.
Pacific “Terrific” Street: This WAS the Barbary Coast. The building Spider Kelly’s was located in still exists behind the trees on the left, and “Baby Face” Nelson of the John Dillinger gang visited there on a trip from Chicago during his crime spree.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 