Month: January 2026

Yesterday, Sunday, I had planned to visit the City Centre Mall in the old Emporium Department Store Building before it’s scheduled closure on Monday. However, on Saturday, the morning news was that the Centre, San Francisco’s largest indoor mall, would close that Saturday, rather than Monday. I went over there anyway on Sunday, in case the news wasn’t accurate, but alas, alack, and Alaska, the old department store building was locked up, and as empty as the Cliff House. So, I crossed Market Street to Powell to see if the cable cars were running. They were, and the line was jaw-dropping; there was only about ten people in line, and to me, that’s jaw-dropping! I figured that it was a good time to take another ride on America’s only moving National Monument to the California Street Cable Car Line, and ride that line down California Street to Market Street near the Ferry Building. This turned out a much better outing than visiting a near empty mall, no matter how famous the old building is. (Thumbnail images)

  

The ten or so people in line in front of me for the cable car wanted to catch the next one going to Hyde Street after this one, so I got right on. As we took off, I decided to take some pictures along the way, and try to match them up with vintage pictures near the same locations when I got back to the office; I call these “now and thens”, rather than “then and nows”. There is no better website on the internet for vintage San Francisco pictures than opensfhistory.org, where I found these vintage photos. As we took off from Market Street at Powell, I thought to myself that you don’t see as many street preachers at this location anymore; they’ve probably given up on me anyway. The vintage picture is from 1974.

  

Looking down Ellis Street toward the Humboldt Building in 1922: I cropped my picture a little further to the right to get John’s Grill in.

  

Looking down O’Farrell Street, circa 1912: The crowned Call Building, and the remodeled Call Building is on the left in both photos.

  

I didn’t get that bad of a line up with this 1957 photo as we passed by Union Square.

  

Looking down Bush Street in 1968: You can see the Russ Building on the left in both pictures. Hmm, Sherry’s Liquors with Ice Cubes and Liquors, and further down Bush Street was another Market with Liquors. Looks like this might have been a good spot to get drunk back then!

  

At California Street I switched to the California Street Cable Car Line as we plunged down Nob Hill from Powell Street. The vintage picture is from 1952

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Approaching Chinatown from Stockton Street in 1908, two years after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire: The Dim Sum and Sing Fat Pagoda Buildings were built by then, and Old St. Mary’s Church on the left that survived the 1906 disaster was back in business.

  

Looking down Sansome Street toward Market Street circa 1939: It’s not the best of line ups, but it works. In the far left background of the vintage picture is the Pacific Telephone Building on New Montgomery Street, blocked from the view now by whatever that building on Market Street is.

  

California Street at Drumm and Market Streets, and the end of the line: The vintage picture is from 1948. Boy, I’d have liked to have done the whole thing again in reverse yesterday, but I was anxious to get back to the office to find my vintage pictures for comparison.

There’s been a lot of events in and about San Francisco so far over the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend; such as the 49ers still playing in the Playoffs on TV, (that turned out dismal) a tribute at Civic Center Plaza for Bob Wier of the Grateful Dead, and the first warm weather in the Bay Area for a couple of months. I visited the Civic Center area yesterday, Sunday, to take some comparison pictures around City Hall of vintage pictures from the UC Berkeley Library Archives. (Thumbnail images)

 

I’ll post my pictures in the order that I took them. This is the old San Francisco Main Library Building, now the Asian Arts Building. There was some kind of a fire being put out by that tiny fire truck in 1921.

  

This is an appropriate picture to post today of Civic Center Plaza; it’s of a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial being held in 1969, the year after King was assassinated in 1968. On Saturday, a memorial for Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead that drew thousand of spectators also took place in the Plaza.

    

The Civic Auditorium, now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, after  it’s completion in 1915. There’s a long list of famous people who have performed or spoken here, including Bob Weir in 2015 and Martin Luther King in 1956. My picture is from the top of the steps to the Polk Street entrance of City Hall.

  

The northwest corner of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street in 1926 before the War Memorial Opera House was built in 1932: Well, opera is wonderful, but I probably would have visited the Bargain Tire Store more than I do the opera if I were around back then.

  

The corner of Grove and Franklin Streets in 1926: The view of City Hall is blocked out now from here by the Franklin Street side of the War Memorial Opera House, but you can just see the top of it on the right in my photo.

  

San Francisco citizens waiting for a visitor on the steps of the Van Ness Avenue side of City Hall in 1938: I imagine that you’re wondering who they were waiting for.

Well, they were waiting for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to drive by. Look at those bodyguards! I was standing at about the same place yesterday that he was smiling and waving his hat toward in July of 1938; it was kind of an odd feeling.

I’m having more fun lately exploring San Francisco, and marking the spots where I’ve taken pictures with numbers on my old ‘City In Your Pocket’ map of SF. This spot-by-numbers is Chinatown, south to north; always an adventure to explore. My hike (ten or so blocks is a hike to me nowadays) was late afternoon, yesterday. The vintage pictures are from the UC Berkeley Library Archives, (UC) The San Francisco Library Digital Archives, (SF) and opensfhistory.org (OSFH). The numbers are in purple this time, partly because of Chinatown’s passion for colors. (Thumbnail images)

  

#1 The Dragon Gate at Grant Avenue and Bush Street: This is the southernmost extension of Chinatown. The older picture was taken in June of 1987. (SF)

  

#2 A cool picture taken between Bush and Pine Street, circa 1952: (OSFH)

  

#3 Looking across California Street to the parking garage under St. Mary’s Square: The vintage picture is from 1954. (SF)

#4 An undated picture of St. Mary’s Square, probably from the 1940s: The statue of Sun Yat-sen is on the left, Old St. Mary’s Church is on the right. (SF)

  

#5 I was surprised to find this photo too. There used to be a service station in St. Mary’s Square Parking Garage. This is probably not the spot where it was. However,when I asked to attendants on duty where it may have been, they didn’t know either. The vintage picture is from 1954.(SF)

  

#6 Another nice picture of Grant Avenue, looking toward Sacramento Street, either in the late 1920s or early 1930s: (UC)

  

#7 The easternmost portion of Chinatown on Kearny Street, looking toward Portsmouth Square in 1959: I didn’t get the right line up on this one, so I’ll just blame my goof up on the sun. Several buildings are still visible from here, like the one on the left through the trees, and the one in the center. (OSFH)

 

#8 Two ladies and a buddy at the Robert Louis Stevenson Statue in Portsmouth Square, dated November 13^th 1941: There is currently controversy in the Chinese community over removing the statue permanently from the square during ongoing renovations. (SF)

  

#9 Not an especially exiting photo from 1984 of Grant and Pacific Avenues, but I was heading that way anyway. Not as bustling yesterday at this portion of Chinatown, nor in the rest of the area, but there were crowds. (SF)

  

#10 This is an interesting picture taken at the northernmost portion of Chinatown, on Grant Avenue between Pacific Avenue and Broadway in 1943. the caption reads, “Teenage gang fight. Kid put in paddy wagon on Grant Street near Pacific Street.” Pacific Avenue was still labeled a Street then. Gangs had been a problem in Chinatown from the middle of the Nineteenth Century to near the end of the Twentieth Century. Although they produced colorful figures like “Little Pete”, the low point of the gangs was the 1977 Golden Dragon massacre in September of 1977.

That’s a pretty banal title for a post, but it’s accurate. Also, some of the photos are actually of cliffs on designated hills or heights. Herb Caen wrote something about when travelers get tired of walking around San Francisco, they can lean against it. That’s not inaccurate either. These are vintage photos of San Francisco that I took from two books I have, the 1939 WPA guide, ‘San Francisco in the 1930s’, and ‘The Far West’ by the editors of Look Magazine, published in 1948. They’re pictures of exciting views that are still around, although some of them have been drastically altered. (Thumbnail images)

  

A two page view of the Cliff House from Sutro Heights during the 1940s: I, and some buddies of mine, used to climb up this cliff from Point Lobos Avenue when we were teenagers, and I’m not making that up. (Look Magazine)

  

The view down Montgomery Street from Telegraph Hill: The picture is labeled “A FIVE MINUTE WALK FROM THE BUSINESS DISTRICT”. It’s an easy five minutes from one direction, and a tiring five minutes from another. The buildings that I can identify in the far background of the vintage picture are, from left to right, the Shell Building, the Standard Oil Building, the Hobart Building, the Russ Building, the Chronicle Building, and the Call Building, all still around. Only the Russ Building can be spotted in my photo. The tree on the left in my photo blocks an exact match up today (San Francisco in the 1930s)

  

Another two page view, looking east from the Top of the Mark: Once again, about the only discernible building in the modern picture is the Russ Building. Actually, this one at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel is 306 feet above Nob Hill, but I guess that still counts as a hill picture. (Look Magazine)

  

Looking up at the Filbert Steps from the bottom of Telegraph Hill in the 1930s: This one is labeled “TELEGRAPH HILL FROM THE PRECIPITOUS SIDE”. It’s even more precipitous when you’re walking up the steps, rather than down. You can just see Coit Tower in the upper right of my picture today. (San Francisco in the 1930s)

  

Another dramatic view down Nob Hill past Chinatown in the 1940: Cars shoot down from Stockton Street to where I’m at pretty quick, so it was too dangerous get a perfect lineup farther out into California Street with traffic at my back. I know, “And this is the guy who used to climb up Sutro Heights!” Well, at least back then you knew what was behind you. Old St. Mary’s and the Dim Sum Building on the left, and the Sing Fat Building on the right frame the view; the Southern Pacific Building and the Bay Bridge are at the far end of California Street.

  

I took another trip to Fisherman’s Wharf on the last Sunday in 2025 to do some comparison pictures from old photos from the UC Berkeley Library (UC) and San Francisco Digital Library (SF) Archives, and I’m happy to say that it was packed. I enjoyed doing this two posts ago, so I took another picture of the Fisherman’s Wharf portion part of my beat up ‘City In Your Pocket’ San Francisco street map, and I photo painted in blue numbers this time where I took my pictures. (Thumbnail images)

  

#1 Looking east across Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon in 1938. That tank in the background was filled with gas! Can you imagine how hazardous that would be today? You can see Joe DiMaggio’s Restaurant on the far right in the old picture; That’s where Supreme Crab is now. (UC)

  

#2 Fishermen looking northwest across the Lagoon in 1939: The Fisherman’s Chapel is now where that big building was in the background. (UC)

  

#3 Looking west, also in 1939, toward where Castagnola’s Restaurant is now. (UC)

  

#4 Looking southwest toward Russian Hill in 1965: (SF)

  

#5 Looking southeast in 1939 from the opposite side of the Lagoon as the previous three pictures. Coit Tower is on the left in both photos. (UC)

  

#6 Kids at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Taylor Streets in an undated picture from the 1940s, and the same corner last Sunday: (SF)

  

#7 The southeast corner of Jefferson and Taylor Streets, where Applebee’s is now, in 1958: I told you it was crowded. (SF)

  

#8 Looking toward Alioto’s Restaurant in 1953: I hate to see Alioto’s fenced and taped off like that. (SF)

  

#9 Jefferson Street in 1934: Everybody was packed into the small corner left open here on this Sunday. (SF)

  

#10 Also, there’s something lacking in today’s ‘View Alcatraz’ sign, as compared to ambiance of the 1957 one. (SF)

  

#11 Pier 43 in 1967 when the sailing ship, the Balclutha, was still berthed there: