1939 was a good year for San Francisco, and also the year the first person in my immediate family visited SF. My San Francisco exploring has been interrupted by the 2024 Tax Season, but I don’t usually get a chance to post something on February 29th, so I searched my archives for some past pictures I posted for the 85th anniversary of 1939. (Thumbnail images)
Dorthea Lange’s photo from the ramp of the First Street exit off of the Bay Bridge, now called the Fremont Street exit. You can see Coit Tower, the Shell Building, the Standard Building, and the Russ Building among other landmarks in her picture, none of which are visible from here today.
An artist’s rendition of what the Transbay Terminal that opened in 1939 would look like, and the Transbay Terminal on the last day before it closed forever in August of 2010.
A lady waiting for an auto, bus, streetcar or cab at on Market Street at Jones in 1939: I don’t know if that coat that’s attacking her would go over too well nowadays.
A couple of 1939 free-spirits riding their bicycles up to Sutro Heights above Playland-at-the-Beach:
The road leading from Yerba Buena Island to the Treasure Island Exposition that opened in 1939:
Grant Avenue, Chinatown, in 1939:
A long-ago 1939 family in a probably posed picture at Ocean Beach, with the Cliff House and Seal Rocks in the background:
My 17 year old mom, on the right, next to the Pool of Enchantment at the de Young Museum on her 1939 visit from North Dakota, and an update I did at the spot before the building was demolished in 2000:
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Ah, furs! I can barely remember them. We were just talking about them today in regard to cedar closets and cedar chests. They are obsolete now that no one wears fur, and wool is so rare. It was a horticultural topic because cedar chests and cedar closets are made with two different species, and neither are actually cedar. Cedar chests are made with Eastern red cedar, which is actually a big juniper, because it is readily available in the East, where most of such chests were made. Cedar closets are made with incense cedar because it is native to California. It took me a while to figure out why the two look so different. Old homes of San Francisco may resemble comparably old homes of Eastern cities, but are constructed of locally available materials. Most of it is obviously not visible under paint. You might notice though that the intricate details of Victorian homes here are a bit less durable than they are in cities with harsher climates. That is because they are made with redwood. Floors do not look like white oak because they are actually valley oak (which is a type of white oak) or even coast live oak. Such trees were in the way of development back then. They were not easy to process into lumber, but the process was less expensive than importing lumber at that time. Of course, imported mahogany front doors were both very durable and likely something to show off.