San Francisco doesn’t get any better than this. (Thumbnail images)
The view looking east in 1927, the year the top of the Mark opened: I squeezed two of my pictures together to get a reasonable comparison for this one. (opensfhistory.org)
The Fairmont Hotel Tower going up in 1961: Their view from the top floor is even higher than the Top of the Mark. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)
Looking northeast in 1963 and another view blocking building going up: (opensfhistory.org)
A daytime comparison of a 1943 evening picture, looking southeast: The 450 Sutter Medical Building is on the left, the Francis Drake (Beacon Grand) Hotel is in the center. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)
Judy Garland on a 1965 promo tour for her album Live at the London Palladium: The view from the Mark is looking north toward Alcatraz. On the right in both pictures is the Brocklebank Apartments where Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) was staying in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film ‘Vertigo’. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)
Well, I didn’t get to share a table with Dorothy from Kansas last time I was up there, but ‘J’ from Texas was just as fun. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)
This 1954 view looking southeast lines up pretty good with my picture, from the Russ Building on the left to the Pacific Telephone Building on the right. Towering over everything is the Salesforce tower Building, but I had to trim it down to almost invisible to make the comparison. (opensfhistory.org)
But the most historic view from the Top of the Mark is from the northwest corner, known now as ‘Weeper’s Corner’. This spot was where mothers, wives, sweethearts, sisters, fathers, brothers, and boyfriends would gather to watch their loved ones sail out under the Golden Gate Bridge to the Pacific Theater during World War two, many who didn’t come back. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)
