Month: July 2023

A special thanks to Paul P. of the San Francisco Remembered Facebook Page, a group I’m a member of, for posting the link to the Examiner Digital Archives on the UC Berkeley Library site; another fine collection of vintage San Francisco photos. (Thumbnail images)

A fashion model named Marion Carter emerges from her carriage, I mean taxi, and walks along O’Farrell Street toward Stockton in 1938:

 

Yeah, she knows she’s 1938 hot. I put her right about here.

“You’re not putting me anywhere, mister!”

Sorry! I mean, I place her location right about here.

 

Market Street at Stockton in the 1940s:

 

Mason Street at Pacific in 1939: I almost got it perfect; even the lighting was similar.

Although most of the pictures from the archives are dated, they don’t always clarify “what hath occurred”, such as the incident at this building on the northwest corner of Jones Street and Pacific Avenue in 1937.

One group from the collection is of photos taken from the top of Coit Tower in 1933, the year that it opened. Some of the pictures I took last November when I went to the top of the tower match up fairly well with the opening year photos

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I wanted to close out my set with this cool picture of Jones Street at Market in 1947. I was a little hesitant; I’m familiar with this area, and I’m never comfortable here. As I was taking my pictures, one of a group of street people crossed Jones Street over to me and asked if I was taking their picture. I told him, “Nope, just the buildings.” He asked if he could see what I was taking a picture of. I looked across the street toward his three buddies with him. There were four of them and nobody on my side. I showed him the vintage picture, and when he went back to his pals, I heard him say that it was okay, I was just taking pictures of the buildings. That is the Tenderloin, and that is why San Francisco is not the class act city that it used to be. This doesn’t mean that I don’t love San Francisco; it’s the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. However, in last Friday’s San Francisco Chronicle, a gentleman wrote to the Letters to the Editor with a viewpoint that I think is accurate. He closes his letter with;

“You can throw all the money you want toward housing and rehab, but if people turn it down, as they often do, where’s that get you? Right where we are now. You can’t let a few people destroy businesses, jobs and entire neighborhoods. What recourse is there other than to enforce laws already on the books and prevent people from living, partying and trashing our public streets? If we do that, perhaps then San Francisco can reclaim its once envied status as a world class city,”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town.”

No, it’s not as bad as the lyrics to the old Simon and Garfunkel song. The term “doom loop” refers to a city where financial concern and a rising crime rate cause a viscous cycle or domino effect, forcing businesses to leave and creating a ghost town. That’s not going to happen in San Francisco, but it’s going to take some changes concerning San Francisco’s seemingly, although not necessarily accurate, tolerance to criminal activity and drug use. Last Wednesday, I toured the City with six visiting relatives from Texas; starting with a brief stop at the Exploratorium. Next, the Liberty Ship the Jeremiah O’Brien, Fisherman’s Wharf, a cable car ride to Nob Hill and back to Ghirardelli Square, a drive through Chinatown and down Lombard Street, a visit to Alamo Square, a drive through Golden Gate Park, and ending up on Ocean Beach at sunset. (Whew, I’m getting too old for these tours!) We didn’t encounter anything unpleasant, except for a vagrant sleeping on a bench inside the Musee Mecanique. One of my relatives asked, “Why is that allowed? This is a tourist attraction!” all I could think of to say was, “You got me!” Anyway, back to the doom loop. Things are closing in San Francisco, some of them favorites of mine, some of them promising to reopen. I took a look back on my site for pictures I’ve posted in the past of places that haven’t or will not survive in San Francisco, although as I mentioned, some of them are planning to reopen. We can only hope. (Thumbnail images)

There was an article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle about the imminent closing in August of the Westfield Shopping Centre inside the old Emporium Department store. I was there yesterday to take a picture for an upcoming post I’m planning. I walked one block to Market Street at Mason to get my picture. Some days this area isn’t bad, yesterday was not one of them. I kept looking around and over my shoulder carefully as I located  my picture spot, and left as quickly as I could. When I got back to Westfield Centre, I wondered how the shopping center survived this long near a frontier like that.

 

Alioto’s and #9 Fishermen’s Grotto in Fisherman’s Wharf, both gone forever: This one is the hurt that will never go away.

The Cliff House: There are indications that the famous landmark will be back in business soon. This one has to reopen or there is no God!

Lefty O’Doul’s Bar near Union Square, seen here in the 1960s: I never had a chance to visit there before it closed in 2017.

I did used to take a pit stop at another bar near Union Square, the Gold Dust Lounge, rumored to be a favorite hangout for Bing Crosby when he was in town.

Candlestick Park: Boy the memories I have from there, going all the way back to the Mays and McCovey days when my mom and dad took us out there.

Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd, named after the famous, and now closed, musical play that I also never had the pleasure of seeing.

Fleishhacker Pool, once the largest swimming pool in the world, and the Bath House, seen here when it closed in 1971:: My mom took a train out to San Francisco from North Dakota when she was 17, and went swimming here with her cousin Frances. She told me about how nice the Steakhouse upstairs in the Bath House was. The pool is now buried underneath the San Francisco Zoo parking lot, the Bath House building burned down in 2012 in a fire caused by homeless people.

 

Louis Restaurant, just up from the Cliff House, seen here in 1966 when a fire burned down the Sutro Bathhouse next to it: I’ve eaten here more often than I have at the Cliff House. There’s also talk of the Louis Restaurant opening again soon, and I’m ready for breakfast.

“Great day for the race, huh?”

“What race?”

“The Human Race.”

These are pictures about various races and chases around San Francisco. (Thumbnail images)

I’m not sure what this race in Chinatown at Grant and Pacific Avenues in 1982 was. (Flickr)

Vic Morrow, being chased by Inspector Keller (Michael Douglas) in a 1973 episode of the television series ‘The Streets of San Francisco’, runs down Grant Avenue under the Chinatown Dragon Gate, where he is killed on Bush Street by a passing van. Sadly, nine years later Vic Morrow was killed in a tragic accident that wasn’t a teleplay.

A bicycle race at the Polo Field at Golden Gate Park in 1945:

“Hey, I didn’t say Go yet! What do you think this bazooka I’m holding is for?” (opensfhistory.org)

 

Buster Keaton, being chased by San Francisco’s finest, runs down Minna Street and turns south on New Montgomery, in his 1922 film ‘Daydreams’.

 

City Hall honors the San Francisco Giants 1962 Pennant win, and the 2013 Oracle Team, USA 2013 America’s Cup yacht racing victory.

The Dodge Charger flies over Taylor Street at Union Street followed by Steve McQueen’s Mustang in the classic chase scene from the 1968 film ‘Bullitt’.

  

A roller diva watches the start of the Bay to Breakers Race at Howard and Fremont Streets in May of 1986: Based on the direction of the runners and the angle of the stop lights, this may have been the corner where she was resting her cute little….. everything on. (SF Gate)

I can’t believe I’ve never visited Duboce Park. I ride past there many times on the N Line Metro, but I’ve never stopped to walk around. It’s a really nice little dog friendly park. It rhymes with those and not with cozy, and Wikipedia says it’s “one of the few parks in the city without a roadway or walkway separating the park land from buildings.^” I found some vintage pictures of Duboce Park and went over there last Thursday to do some then and nows. (Thumbnail images)

The difficulty with updating vintage pictures of Duboce Park is that I couldn’t find a lot of old photographs of the actual park; most vintage photos are looking toward the Sunset (or Duboce) Tunnel on the south side of the park. I wasn’t able to match up the location of this old photograph of Duboce Park from the San Francisco Public Library Archives. It was probably taken looking east toward Steiner or south toward Duboce, the only views that could have street traffic in the background, but the buildings don’t match up. My picture is looking northeast across the park.

Addendum: That’s the Mint Building in the upper right of the vintage picture. The view is northeast across Steiner, just to the right of my picture.

I may have gotten a match up with this circa 1910 photo of the park with my picture looking southeast; the four houses in the upper right do match up with the houses behind the trees in my photo. Check out those interesting rock formations in the vintage photo; one person’s artistic landscape, another person’s liable for injury lawsuit. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

Looking west toward the Sunset Tunnel in 1935: The Muni Metro N Line runs through here now. (opensfhistory.org)

Another view looking west toward the streetcar tunnel in 1963: (opensfhistory.org)

Looking southwest toward the tunnel in 1964: Duboce Avenue is on the left. Buena Vista Park is in the background of all of the streetcar tunnel pictures.