This was the closing picture I posted on my last blog entry. I’m always interested when find vintage photos of the old traditional telephone booth that was stationed on the western side of old St. Mary’s Church on Grant Ave. I don’t know when it was removed, probably during the 1990s, but it goes at least as far back as the 1960s. (Thumbnail images)
In November of 2019, I posted this photo update and wrote “In my last post I showed a picture of two ladies from the late 1950s making a telephone call from a phone booth next to Old St. Mary’s Church that was designed to look like a telephone booth in Chinatown should look. This picture taken in the early 1960s is the only other picture I’ve seen yet of that old telephone booth with the red roof on the far right. The telephone booth was just behind where the cement potted tree is in my picture.” I found out later that I was wrong.
It wasn’t until I had looked back at old slide pictures I had taken in the early 1980s that I had seen another picture of the “old telephone booth with the red roof”. I think my top slide was from 1985.
Photographer Fred Lyon took the top picture of the “two ladies from the late 1950s” that I mentioned in 2019, but his picture may have been taken in the 1960s.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Gee, I was not aware that those compact C10 (or S10) Blazers went back that far. I thought that they were from the late 1980s, or even 1989. Apparently, they became available first in 1980! The colors of its license plate is also consistent with 1985.
I probably mentioned that there was an old telephone booth at work until only a few years ago. The telephone within had not been operational for many years. Unfortunately, some young person, who had no appreciation for its historical novelty, had it removed without telling anyone else. If others had known prior to its removal, it would still be here now.
That’s the Chevrolet one in my 80s picture, huh? What type of tree is that that they put in next to St. Mary’s since 1985?
The Blazer is to the left in the third pair of pictures. I acquired one from a neighbor who left it when he relocated a few years ago. However, we referred to it as a Bravada rather than a Blazer. I thought that it was an embarrassment to the former Blazers, but that it would be more stylish as an Oldsmobile. It was not. I was hoping that you would not inquire about the trees, since I can not identify them. They are likely Ficus microcarpa ‘Nitida’, Indian laurel. If so, they should have rather smooth grayish or almost white bark that looks like sculpted concrete. The tree in the large urn is likely either Eriobotrya deflexa, bronze loquat or Eriobotrya japonica, loquat.
Wow, these trees are not easy to identify. What I thought were either bronze loquat or loquat are more likely Rhaphiolepis indica ‘Majestic Beauty’ Indian hawthorn. What I thought were Indian laurel are more likely Metrosideros excelsa, New Zealand Christmas tree. ‘Majestic Beauty’ Indian hawthorn resembles loquat, and may actually be a hybrid of it, but is more compact, and blooms with a profusion of pink flowers rather than sporadic and unimpressive pale white flowers. New Zealand Christmas tree develops a densely evergreen canopy, and blooms nicely in summer with rich red staminate flowers that resemble those of various species of Eucalyptus.
The bark of New Zealand Christmas tree is not smooth, but develops a uniform and finely ‘checkered’ texture, with gray color. Some limbs might develop oddly thin aerial roots that hang downward.