Month: November 2025

Naturally, I’m always interested in finding sites, articles, books, etc. with vintage San Francisco pictures. There’s a Facebook page that posts vintage San Francisco photos daily named ‘Historical San Francisco’. Some of their pictures I’ve seen before, but most of the ones they post are new to me. Here’s a few of their recent pictures where I went to the location and updated with a comparison picture; one of them I’m really proud of. (Thumbnail images)

  

A cable car approaches Sutter Street from Powell during the 1950s: The buildings on the right side foreground were demolished for the Marriott Hotel there today. The Sears Food Restaurant on the left has moved one block south, between Sutter and Posts Streets now.

  

A cool picture looking down Jackson Street, between Grant Avenue and Kearny Street in the 1950s: The Great China Theater, now called the Great Star Theater, is still there. The S. J. Distributors parked truck kind of got in the way of my update, but the building behind it doesn’t look as quaint today as it did in the 1950s anyway.

  

The fleet passes along the unfinished Bay Bridge in 1935: I got a pretty good line up with my picture from upper Calhoun Terrace; the vintage picture was probable taken from the lower portion of Calhoun Terrace, and that view is blocked by an apartment building now.

  

Looking up California Street past Chinatown to Nob Hill in the 1970s: The view is from California and Montgomery Streets, the building at the top of Nob hill is the Mark Hopkins Hotel.

  

Tower Records in 1982; the El Dorado for albums in our turntable days: I was excited to try to get an update of this one at twilight, and as close to a line up with the 80s picture as I could get, but I wasn’t sure if it was possible until I went there. The weather last night, Thanksgiving evening, was a perfect match for when the older photo was taken. However, the view from Bay Street was limited, and I couldn’t get a good comparison. I saw steps leading up to the second level of the Travelodge at Bay Street and Columbus Avenue, and hoped I could climb up to it without  bothering anybody. When I got up there and looked back at the view, it was almost perfect! It sounds self-serving, but this will always be one of my favorites.

  

Union Square last Friday, Black Friday minus seven days: It looks like the Twilight Zone; the modern people on the right are all walking into the 1990s.

Well, I was hoping Longfellow would be right and it would be raining yesterday when I went over to SF to update these vintage 1940s rainy day pictures from the SF Digital Library and opensfhistory.org, but it dried up by the time I got there. Well, at least it was cloudy. (Thumbnail images)

  

Noah would have loved this April of 1941 day here at Market and Church Streets.

  

Market Street at Church, looking west in December of 1944: That’s Twin Peaks in the background of both pictures.

  

Stockton Street at Market in December of 1943:

  

The Powell and Market Streets cable car turnaround in March of 1945: It was kind of nice around here yesterday, so, it was probably better that it didn’t rain.

  

Market Street, looking east from Mason in July of 1946; pretty unusual weather for July, even in San Francisco. Those decorations above were for a Shriners Parade. Most of the buildings in the old shot are still around, except for the Esquire Theater, showing ‘The Wife of Monte Cristo’, starring John Loder. My authoritative figure, Leonard Maltin, only gives that one two stars, so I won’t rush out and buy the DVD.

With some of his work featured in my last post, in the summer of 1964 a photographer named Alan Canterbury took a large number of photographs around San Francisco. I found a collection of his pictures on the SF Library Digital Archives. I mentioned previously that I couldn’t find out much about Alan, but I hoped he’s still with us. However, a friend of Alan named Judy told me in a post on the Facebook page ‘Baghdad by the Bay’ that Alan died two years ago. Like my last post, these pictures were also taken in June of 1964. I thought it might be fun to walk in his footsteps for awhile, and update some more of the pictures Alan took over 61 years ago. In addition, it was also kind of sad noting all of the long gone businesses he’s captured in most of his photographs. (Thumbnail images)

  

The old Emporium Department Store on Market Street:

 

The 121 year old Flood Building, Market Street at Powell, when it was the location of the Woolworth’s Department Store:

  

Powell Street at O’Farrell, and the legendary Omar Khayyam’s Restaurant:

 

Maiden Lane:

  

The beloved City of Paris Department Store:

  

Looking toward the Palace Hotel and the extended Lotta’s Fountain: Lotta’s fountain was in a slightly different spot in 1964, so this is as close of a lineup as I can get.

  

Market Street at Stockton:

  

The Pacific Building on the corner of Market Street and 4^th:

  

Sam’s Original Brauhaus on the corner of Mason and Turk Streets: I’ll bet that was a great place to have lunch.

  

Alan Canterbury might not be with us anymore, but the Warfield Theater on Market Street still is. ‘Black Sabbath’ is a 1963 horror trilogy narrated by Boris Karloff. The Crest theater next door was showing Elvis Presley in ‘Kid Galahad’. I don’t know, as much as I like Elvis, I probably would have gone with ‘Black Sabbath’.

Well, Broadway isn’t named as a “Street”, nor is it an Avenue, Boulevard, or Drive; Broadway is just….. Broadway. However, 1964 was definitely a year. On June 18^th of 1964, a fellow named Alan Canterbury walked along Broadway taking pictures of nightclubs the beat crowd, beatniks, if you will, hung out at. Alan may have been one himself. I can’t find out much about him, but he took a lot of pictures around San Francisco in 1964, and I hope he’s still with us. I found these vintage pictures of his on the San Francisco Digital Library Archives site. I don’t know if Alan walked east to west along Broadway on that day, or west to east, but I took west to east when I updated some of his photos, because it was two less hills to climb. (Thumbnail images)

  

I started at Nuestra Sonora De Guadalupe Catholic Church at Broadway and Mason Street because it was downhill all the way from here. That’s a long name to try to remember; I wonder how many people just refer to it as “the church at Broadway and Mason”.

  

Looking back along Broadway from the small, one way portion of it, that runs along the north side of the Broadway Tunnel. This was as close to a match up as I could get.

    

I stopped here for a moment when I remembered that I hadn’t walked into the Broadway Tunnel on foot since a group of friends and I, circa age 21, walked into the tunnel on a long ago New Year’s Eve midnight, toting beer and waving at the passing cars, wishing them a Happy New Year as they honked back.

  

The Copacabana Nightclub at 831 Broadway: This is a difficult spot to get into, in 1964 and today; you can only reach it from the west along a small strip of Broadway that runs next to the south side of the Broadway Tunnel.

  

Grant Avenue, Chinatown, from Broadway: What a difference now! Just kidding, the view’s hardly changed at all. Hmm, the ‘Tingling’, that must have pulled them in!

  

The famous El Cid Nightclub at Broadway and Columbus, with that great mural painted on its east side now.

  

Finocchio’s at 506 Broadway; Famous for female impersonators, this would later be Enrico’s Restaurant.

  

Yes, there’s no doubt it, that was Vanessi’s Restaurant. Not sure when the famous Italian Restaurant on the northeast corner of Broadway and Kearny Street officially closed, but San Francisco should have never let that one get away.

  

The Moulin Rouge Nightclub at 412 Broadway, next to the Casa Madrid; like France is next to Spain. The Moulin Rouge building is the only one in this post gone now.

  

Washington Irving School, now the John Yehall Chin Elementary School, at 350 Broadway: This seems like a more appropriate name for a school in San Francisco,  as I don’t know if Washington Irving ever visited here. Of course, neither did George Washington. That reminds me; just last Friday on Halloween, I read a terrifically atmospheric ghost story by Washington Irving called ‘The Adventure of the German Student’. Perfect for October 31^st.

  

Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, I ended here at the old United Seed Company Building at 60 Broadway. The building is still there behind the trees, but you’ll never see the Embarcadero Freeway behind it anymore.

Well, it is All Saints Day. Just about every famous person who has visited San Francisco has stayed there; actor John Barrymore was there in 1906 when the ‘06 Earthquake hit, “Fatty” Arbuckles’s career was ruined there, a crackpot tried to kill President Ford there, the list is a long one. (Thumbnail images)

  

I couldn’t get a good line up with this 1915 postcard, but it works. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Al Jolson in front of the St. Francis in 1927: He actually died in the hotel from a heart attack in 1950.

  

Some kids from Siskiyou County, Northern California visiting San Francisco in June of 1957: The St. Francis is on the right behind the cable cars. (SF Digital Library)

  

Groucho Marx with a couple of twins from Washington High School in 1940, from a SF Chronicle picture: Come on, Groucho!

  

Abbott and Costello in front of the St. Francis:
“Hey, Costello, let’s check into the St. Francis. Who’s the Manager?”
“I don’t know.”
“No, he’s on third base.”
“Oh, don’t start that again!”

  

The old clock, where people would often meet, in a 1960 picture from SF Digital Library:

  

Not sure what this protest in front of the St Francis in 1964 was all about, but the signs are sure contemporary! The Mr Bridges on one sign would be Harry Bridges, so this must have had something to do with a Longshormen’s issue. (SF Digital Library)

  

President Gerald Ford leaving the Post Street entrance to the St. Francis in September of 1975, just one second before Sara Jane Moore fired two shots at him. She just died this September.

They used to let you ride up the Westin St. Francis Tower elevators, but they’re only for guests now. These two updates of pictures from the SF Digital Library that were taken in 1972.