Month: January 2025

In November of 2022, I found a collection of terrific photographs from the UC Berkeley Library Archive taken from the top of Coit Tower in July of 1933, three months before it was completed. When I went to the tower that month, the elevator was out of order, but I was told that if I wanted to pay the admission fee, I could walk up the 13 floors of stairs that wrap around the tower from the bottom to the top, which I did, but will never do again. It’s not an easy climb, and when you’re ready to leave, there’s 13 floors of steps to walk back down. I wasn’t happy with the way my pictures turned out, and I’ve been trying to go back to the top of the tower to redo my shots numerous times, but the elevator has always been out of service. Last Sunday, the ancient lift was up and running again and I finally got a chance to ride back up to the top, and although the lines to board were back as well, I didn’t mind. Each section of views surrounding the tower has three windows to a set, and I wanted to try to get my updates from the same window as the pictures taken over ninety one years ago. Enjoy the view, and I’ll try to point out some of the buildings, structures and locations still visible today. (Thumbnail images)

  

Looking south between Montgomery and Kearny Streets: If you look close, you can see the Columbus Tower/Sentinel Building along Kearny Street on the right in both pictures.

  

Looking toward Nob Hill, with the Mark Hopkins and Fairmont Hotels on the right: The Fairmont Tower blocks out the Mark Hopkins now.

  

Looking southwest across North Beach to the valley between Nob Hill on the left, and Russian Hill on the right:

  

Looking over Washington Square and Saints Peter and Paul Church at the lower left and center:

  

Looking northwest over Russian Hill and Aquatic Park: No Golden Gate Bridge yet, but the Van Ness Pier is in both photos. Pier 45 is on the far right in both pictures.

They were still putting some finishing touches on Coit Tower in this view across Fisherman’s Wharf and Alcatraz.

  

Looking east toward Yerba Buena Island: Pier 25, where the cruise ship is, was demolished by the end of the 1930s. Pier 23 is still there. The Pier 19 Shed was demolished and a rebuilt Pier 19 is in the approximate location now. Pier 17, the last pier on the far right, is still there and you can see part of it in my picture.

  

Looking southeast across the Embarcadero: The three piers visible on the right in my picture are Piers 17, 15, and 9. Pier 11 in the vintage photo was demolished and is now where Pier 9 is.

  

Coming back around full circle now to the Ferry Building and the foot of Market Street:

 

I feel sorry for people who avoid going to San Francisco because of the ‘Chicken Little’ talk about San Francisco being unfriendly, unsightly and dangerous. At twilight, it’s still one of the most beautiful cities in the world. (Thumbnail images)

  

Fisherman’s Wharf at twilight during the 1950s: That top photo just might be my favorite San Francisco picture.

  

#9 Fishermen’s Grotto at dusk: I used to think the Fisherman’s Wharf and the top of Telegraph Hill were the two most romantic spots in San Francisco to be at during sunset. Unfortunately, Fisherman’s Wharf has lost a lot of its charm now, and I worry it will never again be like it was.

  

Pier 43: The old Sailing ship, the Balclutha, is now over at the Hyde Street Pier.

  

Looking toward Pier 43 from upstairs Alioto’s Restaurant during the 1970s:

  

Looking up Powell Street from Market Street; looks like the early 1960s:

  

One block up from the previous picture at Powell and Ellis Streets:

  

Geary Street, west of Mason in the 1950’s: Carol Channing was appearing at the Curran Theater. I learn something new about San Francisco all the time; when I was researching this location I found out that the old Paisley Hotel, now the Union Square Plaza, is where a woman named Florence Cushing jumped to her death in 1911. It’s rumored to be haunted.

  

An Old San Francisco travel poster of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset: Well, if they can make a fake sunset, I can too.

  

Ghirardelli Square from the old, and now closed, Van Ness Pier:

  

The top photo is a slide picture I took from Telegraph Hill during Fleet Week 1985. The bottom picture is a redo I did in 2020.

  

Kim Novak and Frank Sinatra wander off into the sunset behind the St Francis Club building at the end of the 1957 film ‘Pal Joey’. This time the sunset in my picture wasn’t fake.

#12, Folsom/Pacific MUNI Route, approaching from the south, starts deep in the Mission District near Cesar Chavez Street and from south to north travels north, northeast, northwest, north, west, north again, and then west again to Van Ness, and travels back along a similar route in the opposite direction with a few variants. Along the way, it travels through the Mission District, SOMA, Downtown San Francisco, North Beach, and Chinatown, and is one of the most relaxing and peaceful MUNI rides you can take. I only covered a small portion of it, from Drumm Street to Powell Street, and back to Drumm. (Thumbnail images)

  

I usually catch #12 at Drumm and California Streets heading north, about left center in the vintage picture. My match-up is further west on California Street because California Street cable cars are backed up almost the whole block here. As often in the past, I found vintage photos along the portion I traveled from the terrific opensfhistory.org web site.

 

From Drumm Street, #12 travels west along Sacramento Street, looking north along Davis Street from Sacramento in 1921.

  

Sacramento at Front Street, looking west toward Nob Hill in 1914: You can see the Fairmont Hotel at the top of Nob Hill in the vintage picture, and the Fairmont Hotel Tower in my photo.

  

#12 turns north onto Sansome, seen here in 1938. #12 runs every ten minutes on weekdays, so I got off the bus for pictures I was taking in different areas before re-boarding another #12 that came along. The old Federal Reserve Bank Building is on the right in both photos.

 

The north bound bus turns west on Pacific Avenue, and we traveled through lower North Beach into Chinatown. The 1949 photo is looking south along Grant Avenue from Pacific.

  

The route continues west along Pacific before looping around at Polk Street to Jackson Street to Van Ness, back to Pacific Avenue, and heads back to Powell Street, where it turns north to Broadway. Along Broadway it heads east back to Sansome Street. The vintage picture is looking north from the intersection of Broadway and Stockton Street during the 1940s.

  

At Sansome Street, #12 turns south. The De Soto and West Paint  buildings on the northeast corner of Broadway and Sansome Street, and the National Biscuit building (Nabisco), now the KPIX building,  are still around. That’s always a comforting sight for me.

  

From Sansome Street, #12 turns east on Clay Street and heads back to Drumm Street. The view east along Clay from Drumm Street is not as quaint as the 1915 picture, but it still has the cobblestone and the north wing of the Ferry Building.

There was a report early in 2024 of a possible reopening of the Cliff House by December of 2024. Obviously that didn’t happen. I went out there last Saturday to walk around the empty and lonely Cliff House wondering when, if ever, the famous restaurant will reopen. Also, if the new owners think that people will refer to it by any other name other than the ‘Cliff House’ well….. (Thumbnail images)

  

No trouble finding a parking spot Saturday.

  

My niece, Beverly, my sister, Julie, my niece, Christie, my brother, Pat and my niece, Stacy, walking into the Cliff House in 1989.

  

A scene from the best Film Noir movie set in San Francisco, the 1958 movie ‘The Lineup’.

   

This photo from the San Francisco Library Archives only notes that this was the “Site where a woman leaped off from the rocks.” I couldn’t find out much info on the story, but I did find out that it happened on October 3, 1941, and the unfortunate woman never did it again. This was as close of an angle to where she jumped as I could get.

  

A photo from probably the 60s of the Cliff House I liked the best. (ebay.com)

  

Looking down toward Playland-at-the-Beach in the late 1960s: (San Francisco Public Library Archives)

  

The pathway that leads to behind the Cliff House in 1909: This is basically the same structure that’s there today. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Visitors looking at Seal Rocks from behind the Cliff House in the 1950s: Nobody behind the Cliff House Saturday. (San Francisco Chronicle)