Month: September 2024

Well……. if you don’t like stunning, never before available views of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, the Embarcadero, Telegraph, Nob and Russian Hills, Aquatic Park, Alcatraz and the Bay, then you probably won’t like the SkyStar Ferris Wheel at Fisherman’s Wharf. The weekend after Labor Day, I finally took a ride  on the attraction since it was moved from Golden Gate Park to Fisherman’s Wharf. After I landed safely, which one does because it’s not dangerous and it’s not necessarily scary, I searched the internet and my archives for vintage photos that were taken approximately, sort of, looking toward the same direction as the photos I took. (Thumbnail images)

 

Heading up to the top, looking east toward Treasure Island and the Bay Bridge:

  

The view of Fisherman’s Wharf from hundreds of feet lower than an old postcard taken during the 1960s:

 

You have two similar views here that match my picture closer; one from the postcard on top, and also a scene from the opening credits  of every episode of the 1970s television show ‘The Streets of San Francisco’.

  

Looking toward Telegraph Hill and Downtown San Francisco: The older photo from Flickr looks like it’s from the 1980s:

  

Looking over Pier 39 toward Pier 35 and the World War Two Liberty Ship, the Jeremiah O’Brien: The old Pier 39 is at the bottom of the vintage picture from opensfhistory.org, taken in 1923: Pier 37, between Piers 35 and 39, has been demolished.

I didn’t get too bad of a lineup of Nob and Russian Hills with this 1960s photo from opensfhistory.org.

  

Looking toward Russian Hill: My photo is looking over the intersection of Mason and Jefferson Streets. I’m not sure where the crossroads are in the 1930s picture from the UC Berkeley Library of Russian Hill from Fisherman’s Wharf, but I think they’re a block southwest at Beach and Taylor Streets.

  

There’s also a terrific view of Alcatraz Island and the Bay, looking north. When the 1946 picture from opensfhistory.org was taken, there were still quite a few “bad boys” in that penitentiary building.

 

Looking toward Pier 45 and the Golden Gate Bridge in another old postcard from the 1960s:

Gliding down past the old Pier 43 Archway: This picture from the San Francisco Library Archives is as close to a match up that I could get. I’m going to have to research to see what that other pier arch on the left was. It would have been about where the pier that you catch the Red and White Fleet tour boats is located.

  

Walking back to catch the MUNI streetcar, I snapped a picture of the Fisherman’s Wharf Boat Lagoon. The 1939 picture is from the UC Berkeley Library Archives. The building on the right in the vintage picture was demolished. The little chapel, on the right in my photo, is there now.

“Now, I’m standing on the corner of Third and Market. I’m looking around. I’m figuring it out. There it is, right in front of me. The whole city. The whole world. People going by. They’re going somewhere. I don’t know where, but they’re going. I ain’t going anywhere.” – From ‘The Time of Your Life’ by William Saroyan.

Whenever I pass by Third Street at Market, I think about Saroyan’s passage. He understood San Francisco for what it is; a fabled and exciting city. Although few writers are of Saroyan’s caliber, there are still some (San Francisco Columnist, Carl Nolte, comes to mind) who look at the City the way Saroyan saw it. However, the day before I took my updates for this post, a San Francisco 49er football player’s season is over, although he’s in stable condition, because some punk tried to rob him and shot him less than two blocks from Third Street and Market. If Herb Caen was still alive, he’d probably write, “Could have happened anywhere.” But San Francisco’s going to get the blame. (Thumbnail images)

  

The Call Building, on the northwest corner of Third Street at Market, shortly after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire: In 1939, for reasons that are hard to understand, the top crown was removed from the Call Building, and it was streamlined into looking like the Daily Planet Building where Clark and Lois work. It’s now called the Central Tower Building. You can see half of it behind the rebuilt William Randolph Hearst Building. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

Looking to and from Third and Market in these two comparisons from opensfhistory.org. First is looking southwest toward Third and Market and the Central Tower in 1970: Morris Plan; I remember taking out a loan from the one on Broadway in Oakland when I worked there long ago. I wonder if I ever paid that back? Oh, I must have or I’d have heard from them by now. Second is looking northeast toward the Chronicle Building in 1956.

 

Third and Market Streets, looking west along Market during the late 1950s: “Now, I’m standing on the corner of Third and Market with a clipboard. I’m looking around. I’m figuring it out.” Nah, that doesn’t have the same class. (San Francisco Pictures Blog)

  

An accident at Third Street and Market in 1940, around the time of Saroyan’s play; I’m blaming this one on the truck driver. The accident happened in front of where LensCrafters is now. (opensfhistory.org)

  

‘Harry’ doesn’t make it clear in the play whether he was watching the world go by standing on the west side of Third and Market in front of the Call Building on the right, or the east side of Third and Market in front of the Hearst Building on the left. The vintage picture from opensfhistory.org was during 1946.

 

Looking toward the Hearst and Call Buildings at Third and Market Streets in an undated picture from the San Francisco Public Library Archives; I’m guessing that it was around 1967 and that’s Market Street BART construction.

A great picture from the 1960s, looking toward where Third Street comes into Market, from south of Mission Street during the 1960s: The Call Building is on the left. The Gothic looking Mutual Savings Bank Building is in the center. (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

• Addendum, November 23,2024: Ricky Pearsall, the 49er player shot near Third Street and Market, has fully recovered and is back on the playing roster for the San Francisco 49ers.