I had relatives from Texas last Tuesday and Wednesday, and I was honored again to be allowed to suggest their itinerary. I took my pictures over the two days, and when I was back in the office after their visit, I scouted up vintage pictures on the internet that came as close to mine as I could find. As I have mentioned in past posts, now and thens are more difficult to match up than then and nows because you don’t have control over getting a perfect line up, obviously, but they’re still fun to try. (Thumbnail images)
On the way to Treasure Island: I had to do a little cropping to get this 1983 photo from opensfhistory.org to come close to my picture. My apologies for cutting out their watermark.
The old Administration Building on Treasure Island: We had a lot of fun here. It’s hard to find many vintage pictures of this building, one of the three surviving structures from the 1939/1940 Exposition. This vintage picture is from the 1950s. (ebay.com)
Huntington Falls at Blue Heron Lake (Stow Lake) in Golden Gate Park: The vintage picture is a circa 1910-1915 postcard of the falls from the UC Berkeley Library Archives.
The alleys of Chinatown, like Ross Alley in my photo, are fun to explore. I saw a site on the internet that read that this prior to 1906 picture that I have in my archives was taken in Ross Alley; it’s possible. The site also gave credit to Arnold Genthe; this I don’t know about, I’ve never seen it in his collections.
High above Fisherman’s Wharf on the SkyStar Wheel Ride: We got pretty far up, but not as far as the old postcard from the 1960s. (ebay.com)
Back to Chinatown: It was nice of the musicians to let him sit in, particularly since he couldn’t play one note. Still, his playing was better than my singing would have been, so I kept quiet. (ebay.com)
Aw, I can’t take credit for this vintage old Cliff House jigsaw puzzle, only the modern picture. Class is where you find it.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Canary Island date palms on Treasure Island, as well as those from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in the Marina, have their own history. They were grown at California Nursery in Niles, and relocated to San Francisco. Some came to San Francisco twice, for both events. Afterward, some were returned to the nursery, and recycled. Some were relocated elsewhere in San Francisco. Some, like the pair in your picture, remain where they were. California Nursery closed only several years ago, and its land was redeveloped. Some of the palms that were returned but too flawed to be recycled might still remain.