While I was working on a post up on Nob Hill today, I was sorry to see that they had demolished the old Crest Garage. Sitting strategically on the southeast corner of California and Powell Street, it can be seen in a number of vintage pictures, old movies, and prime time television shows from the past. Here are a few pictures that I have posted on my blog where the Crest Garage can be seen in the old and current images.
One of the best pictures of the Crest Garage, and also one of my favorite vintage San Francisco pictures, as two cable cars from the California and Powell Street Lines cross the intersection in the 1940’s. The Crest Garage can be seen behind the cable car on the right in my picture.
Here’s another then and now of the Crest Garage from the 1940’s that I posted in November of 2016.
In another picture, this one from the early 1950’s just across California Street from the previous picture, the Crest Garage is on the far right in the old photo from Vintage Everyday and with the arrow sign on it in my picture. The apartment building between the garage and Powell Street was demolished by the 1990’s.
In the 1964 movie ‘Good Neighbor Sam’, Jack Lemmon races his Thunderbird past the Crest Garage which by that time had become a Flying A Service Station.
In a 1968 episode of the television show ‘Ironside’ starring Raymond Burr, the Crest Garage had by then become a parking garage. My picture of the garage behind the cable car signal box taken in August of 2017 was the last picture I took of the building.
The oldest picture I’ve seen of the Crest Garage dating from the 1920’s; I’m not sure but it might be from the Shorpy Picture Archive. The bottom photo is all that’s left of the garage today. You can see the imprint of where the Crest Garage leaned against the old Apartment building on California Street since the 1920’s.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Crest garage:
Woman on the run (1950)
Yeah, there’s a nice close-up scene of the garage in that film, Ron. That movie could be a travel log for 1950s San Francisco.
Watching the movie right now… what brought me here was seeing Ann Sheridan jump off the cable car (a tram to this Brit) right outside that garage at the crest of the hill. What a view from there! I don’t watch too many films more than once, but this one is worth it. Poor Ann didn’t make old bones, but she could certainly act—when she’s in the shot, your eyes can’t help but follow her.
Must be Woman on the Run, Keith. A lot of films and TV shows have the old Crest Garage in scenes; Good Neighbor Sam with Jack Lemmon, Race Street with George Raft, and the TV Show Ironside with Raymond Burr to name a few. The garage was demolished in 2018.