The City as Suydam saw it

The City as Suydam saw it; like Professor Harold Hill’s Gary, Indiana, it kind of rolls off the tongue. Edward Howard Suydam, pronounced Soo-damn, was an illustrator, born in 1885 and died in 1940. There’s not a lot on the internet about him, he came to my attention, due to his sketches that are in two San Francisco biographies written by Charles Caldwell Dobie during the 1930s,’San Francisco, a Pageant’ and ‘San Francisco’s Chinatown’. Although Dobie’s books are interesting histories of San Francisco as well as vintage tours of the city during the 1930s, they’re not without imperfection. For example, his racist remarks on his description of the 1930s South Park in ‘San Francisco, a Pageant’ is hard to take. However, E. H. Suydam’s pencil drawing, many in areas of the city not usually covered by artists, are fun to look at. I’ve covered some of his drawings in the past, and here’s another collection I did recently trying to duplicate in photograph some of his pencil sketches. (Thumbnail images)

  

O’Farrell Street, looking toward Market Street and the Call Building: This would have had to have been drawn no earlier than 1939 when the Call Building was remodeled and its dome removed.

  

Market Street, looking toward Mason Street and the old Admission Day Monument: The monument is now located at Market Street and Montgomery. The Western Insurance Building on the left has been remodeled and is still there.

  

Looking toward the Clift Hotel on Geary St. from Mason Street:

  

The old Pacific Stock Exchange Building on Pine Street at Sansome, with the Russ Building on Montgomery Street in the background:

  

Old Beckett Alley in Chinatown, once notorious for having the most brothels of any street in San Francisco:

  

California Street at Grant Avenue in Chinatown, looking toward St. Mary’s Square: The Russ Building can barely be seen from here now.