Jones Street by the numbers

Are you down for a long walk? Well, I sure am NOT! I did these photo sets on two different days, and some of them I lifted from posts I did in the past. Jones Street is an interesting choice; if you’re heading south, it starts out at Fisherman’s Wharf, climbs Russian Hill, levels out a bit at Vallejo Street before climbing Nob Hill, and drops down into the Tenderloin. Heading north, Jones Street escapes the Tenderloin, goes back up Nob Hill, (Jones Street from Pine to California is not a good option on foot, heading north) levels out again at Sacramento Street, then takes an up and down roller coaster ride before sliding back down Russian Hill to Fisherman’s Wharf. Either way, you’re going to do a lot of hill climbing if you’re hiking, but you’re also going to see some spectacular views. As in previous posts, you can follow the Jones Street journey from Market Street to Jefferson Street by the red numbers I placed at the picture locations on my trusty old map that I bought around the same time as I started this blog. (Thumbnail images)

  

#1: The old Jones Street cable car terminal, the ‘Hyde Street Grip’ at Jones and Market Streets: Hmm, must have been the “Red House’ playing at the United Artist Theater on Market Street. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

#2: Jones and Eddy Streets in 1962, looking toward the Tenderloin Police Station. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com)

   

#3: Jones Street at O’Farrell in 1955, looking northwest: Those are the cable car tracks of the line that ran between Market Street and Hyde Street at Beach. (San Francisco Digital Library Archives)

 

#4: Another look at the Jones and Hyde Street Cable Car Line at Jones and Post Streets around 1950: (opensfhistory.org)

 

#5: Jones Street, between California and Pine Streets in 1923: This is one of the steepest and scariest streets to drive down in San Francisco, and if you fall while walking south here, you’ll probably roll down to the Tenderloin. (Shorpy Archives)

  

#6: Traffic goes the other way today than it did on a cobblestone Jones Street in 1923, and you don’t want to stand out here in the street too long taking a picture, because when cars begin the drop behind you, they can’t see you at first. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

#7: A car fire on Jones Street at California in 1936: That’s an unfinished Grace Cathedral in the background. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

#8: Clay Street, looking east from Jones Street in 1875: (opensfhistory.org)

   

#9: Jones Street looking toward Pacific Avenue and the valley between Nob and Russian Hills in 1952. (The Charles Cushman Collection)

  

#10: Looking north down Jones Street past Union Street in a slide picture that I took in 1983 and updated in 2021:

  

#11: Mysterious Judy Barton (Kim Novak) thanks “Scottie Ferguson” (James Stewart) for pulling her out of San Francisco Bay in a poster scene from the 1958 movie ‘Vertigo’. The scene was in front of Scottie’s house on the northwest corner of Lombard and Jones Streets. (ebay.com)

  

#12: Jones Street at Jefferson, around 1950: Last October, it was announced that Castagnola’s Restaurant, one of the oldest in Fisherman’s Wharf, was going to be reopening. Now there’s news from AI saying that the restaurant will be demolished for the new promenade being planned for the Fisherman’s Wharf Lagoon. All I know is that it was still boarded up today when I went to take my picture. If you look to the far right in my photo, you can see the empty gap where Alioto’s Restaurant was, and that still depresses me! This is where I catch an F Line Streetcar back to Market Street. Yeah, right, like I’m going to walk back! (opensfhistory.org)