Joice Street is another interesting little known San Francisco Street. It’s actually a little more than an alley that runs three blocks from Pine Street to Clay, and I’ve posted a few updates on it in the past, but I became interested in exploring it again after reading about it in the opening chapter of Gary Kamiya and Paul Madonna’s wonderful book ‘Spirits of San Francisco’, published just at the opening of the Covid-19 Pandemic that shut San Francisco and most of the world down in the spring of 2020. The street runs in sort of a hill-and-dale from, as Gary Kamiya points out, the “glamour” of Nob Hill to the “drabness” of Chinatown. I revisited a little of street’s history, and also remembered a little known claim to fame, if that makes any sense, that I saw in a 1972 episode of the television show ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ that featured Joice Street. (Thumbnail images)
The Joice Steps, descending or ascending, depending on your point of view, Pine Street, seen in Edward H. Suydam’s 1930s drawing.
Children and guardians posing in front of the Occidental Board Presbyterian Mission House, more commonly known as the Cameron House, in 1908: The Cameron House got its more prevalent name after Donaldina Cameron, who lived in the building and was famous for rescuing women forced into prostitution in Chinatown. (Wikimedia)
Donaldina Cameron stands at the bottom of the ladder in this staged photo of a Chinatown rescue from FoundSF:
Believe it or not, I wasn’t trying to line this bus up with the cable car in the older photo, taken from Joice Street looking toward Sacramento Street, but the MUNI #1 came by at just the right time to make a nicer comparison. The Cameron House is on the right in both photos.
And now, to the main Joice Street story. I did a post in 2018 that covered, in part, what I think was one of the best episodes from the 1970s TV show ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ entitled ‘In the Midst of Strangers’ that showed part of, but not the actual murder on Joice Street, of a cable car passenger. Here’s the set up. The fellow in the hat holding a newspaper has just gotten off of a cable car and is crossing California Street south on Powell Street, followed behind him by the man in the tan suit who knows that he’s carrying a lot of money. The passengers in the yellow car are accomplices of the thug following the cable car passenger.
The yellow car cuts the victim off, supposedly asking for directions, and he’s taken into captivity from behind.
The kidnappers speed down California Street past the obligatory 1970s Volkswagen, and turn left into Joice Street. Joice Street is where the white truck is in the current picture.
They head down Joice Street toward Sacramento Street past what appears to be another obligatory 1970s Volkswagen parked on the right.
Unfortunately, things don’t turn out too peachy for the victim. As the thugs stop on Joice Street to rob the man, one of the bad guys shoots him as he struggles. There’s always somebody who has to make it worse!
The crooks dump the body of the fellow who “gave the last full measure of devotion” for his money into a building under construction. Here’s where the finished building is today, no doubt haunted.
The murderers cross Sacramento Street and head down Joice to Clay Street, past the Cameron House on the right. Donaldina didn’t help that poor fellow.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
