Well, yesterday was the last day of summer. Or is it today? It didn’t seem like much of a summer; I did make it to Disneyland, the Alameda County Fair was back, and I did take a lot of pictures around San Francisco. However, I spent most of my summer evenings at home, drinking beer and watching reruns of ‘Gunsmoke’. Wait a minute, it was a great summer! On the Sunday before Labor Day, I took an F Line streetcar (which was standing room only) to Fisherman’s Wharf, and took the Number 30 Muni Line along Stockton Street back to avoid the crowds. I got a window seat, and took some pictures of cross streets along the way back to Market Street. Later, I tried to find vintage pictures that closely matched the ones I took. Now and thens are a lot more difficult than then and nows for getting comparison pictures and they seldom line up perfectly, but there’s no better site on the internet to find pictures that match-up than opensfhistory.org.
Broadway at Stockton Street in 1969: I was relatively close to where the older picture was taken, although a little further back, but I got a closer image of the Bay Bridge.
Looking down Clay Street from Stockton at the ruins of San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake:
Looking down Post Street from Stockton toward Market Street in 1911:
Maiden Lane from Stockton Street in 1949: The Union Square Lounge, on the right in the vintage photo, was a favorite watering hole in the area for many years, and was seen in a number of films, such as ‘The Days of Wine and Roses’. The original entrance door to the Union Square Lounge can still be seen today in Maiden Lane behind a metal gate.
Looking down Geary from Stockton Street toward Market Street in 1912: You can see the Palace Hotel in the far background in both pictures.
Looking down O’Farrell Street toward Market in 1906; just after the earthquake and before the fire destroyed almost all of this area: The Call Building, now remodeled and called the Central Tower, survived the 1906 disaster and is at right center in both pictures.
Here, the #30 crosses Market Street from Stockton to 4th Street, and is where I got off the bus. The vintage picture from 1909 lines up pretty good with the shot I took through the bus window, and a lot of the buildings seen in the old photo, such as the Phelan Building, the Gothic Mutual Savings Bank Building, and the Call Building can still be seen.