Sometimes, I’ll find myself feeling smug about a little piece of San Francisco history that I’ve found all by my lonesome only to discover that FoundSF.org covered a story about it long before I did. Their website includes not only some terrific vintage photos from San Francisco’s past, but also fascinating histories that accompany the pictures. These are some then and nows that I did today on some of the interesting pictures from their site.
We’ll start at the southwest corner of Golden Gate Park and the old stone streetcar bridge that used to span what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, circa 1910. Behind the bridge is the Murphy Windmill. The bridge was anchored into the hill on the left in my photo. Charlie Chaplin filmed a scene driving under this bridge in his 1915 comedy ‘Jitney Elopement’. (Vintage photo, C. R. Collection)
The streetcar line ran along the western side of Golden Gate Park and passed through a tunnel under what is now John F. Kennedy Drive. The vintage photo is looking north toward the tunnel from the tracks in 1903. To the left can be seen the Dutch Windmill at the northwest side of the park. The buildings on the right side of the tracks are gone now. You have to get closer to see the tunnel from where the tracks ran today, as in my middle picture. The third picture at the bottom is looking back along where the streetcar line ran. (Vintage photo, C. R. Collection)
Hey, those are two-built-for-bicycles! They were riding along the sand barrier between Ocean Beach and the Great Highway in 1955 just down from the Cliff House.
This picture is looking north down Fillmore Street from Broadway in 1903. It’s still a breathtaking view today. (Vintage photo, C. R. Collection)
One of the historical essays on FoundSF.org is about a sit-down demonstration by military prisoners in the Presidio stockade during October of 1968 that became known as the “Presidio Mutiny”. After a suicide-by-armed-guard by one of the prisoners that was classified as being justified, twenty seven of the stockade prisoners participated in a peaceful demonstration outside of the stockade. FoundSF points out that many of the prisoners were misfits who should never have been in the army, but their treatment by the guards was undoubtedly brutal. Here, one of the prisoners reads a list of their demands. Behind him is the old Fort Winfield Scott, seen from the stockade today in my picture. (Vintage photos, Steve Rees)
The vintage photo here is of the prisoners being given orders to end their demonstration. This is the spot where the “Presidio Mutiny” took place. Three things can be seen in both pictures; the stairs, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the stockade building on the right.
In the end the prisoners were dragged back to the cells by other army soldiers. Some were given additional prison sentences ranging from six months to sixteen years. Over a year later their convictions were overturned and their sentences reduced to time served.
The Presidio stockade today, building 1213, empty and spooky to walk around:
Actress Jane Wyatt pitches in on construction work for the Golden Gate Bridge in a publicity photo from 1937. She did a good job! (Pinterest)
The main entrance to the Japanese Tea Garden from inside the attraction in March of 1966: (SF Gate, SF Chronicle)
They still sail boats at Spreckles Lake in Golden Gate Park like they did in the 1930’s, but most of the boats aren’t as well crafted as those in a vintage picture from the Shorpy Collection.They’ve smoothed out the shoreline of the lake now, but I think it looked more natural before.
Stefanie Powers has fallen right into Ross Martin’s trap as she races down 25th Ave. toward Clement Street in the Richmond District in the 1962 thriller ‘Experiment in Terror’. Powers believes that her sister played by Lee Remick has been hurt. When she nears Clement Street Martin kidnaps her.
Kim Novak taking a break during filming of the Fort Point attempted suicide scene from the 1958 film ‘Vertigo’. One used to be able to get to the exact spot where the scene with Kim Novak jumping into the Bay was, however, since 9/11 the Golden Gate National Recreation Area doesn’t let visitors get that close to the Golden Gate Bridge anymore. (Cinephiliabeyond.org)
We’ll start out at the crookedest of crookedest streets in the world, Vermont Street on Potrero Hill. This street has tighter turns than the more famous Lombard Street on Russian Hill. I drove down Vermont for the first time Christmas day and you do have to drive slower than when on Lombard. The vintage picture is by photographer Fred Lyon.
Tillman Place, off Grant Avenue circa 1925: I’ll bet I’ve walked past this alley a hundred times and never paid attention to it. It’s interesting how they had crate-like stands in the vintage picture and fence-like stands today. (OpenSFHistory.org)
Young ladies hopping on a cable car in the 1930’s and these days: The hair styles and color may be a little different.
The Moon Bridge in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, probably near when the attraction opened in 1894: Three of those four Victorian ladies were really pretty! Well, let’s face it, the one on the right wasn’t. She’s like one of those blind dates you get when friends describe your date as “She (or he) is really nice!”
Speaking of the Japanese Tea Garden, here are a couple of ladies from the 1920’s in front of the old and now closed off entrance to the attraction in a photo from the Shorpy Photo Archive. I could easily spend time doing nothing but then and nows on the terrific pictures from the Shorpy collection!
An OpenSFHistory.org photo of the old de Young Museum taken from the California Academy of Science circa 1954: I could easily spend time doing nothing but then and nows on the terrific pictures from the OpenSFHistory.org collection! Oh, wait, I already said that about the Shorpy Archive in the previous picture. The statue the two pictures were taken behind is of Robert Emmet, an Irish patriot executed in Dublin in 1803.
Here’s another picture from the Shorpy Archives on Broadway near Fillmore Street. What intrigues me about the vintage picture most is how would the two cars in the middle have gotten out if the cars behind them didn’t leave first?
On a more solemn note, at Lands End near the Cliff House is the shell blasted part of bridge of the cruiser the USS San Francisco. In November of 1942 during a naval battle at Guadalcanal, Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan and 76 other officers and sailors were killed aboard the San Francisco by shelling from ships of the Japanese naval force. The USS San Francisco made it back to port for repairs and the wings of the damaged bridge are now part of the memorial at Lands End. They point directly toward Guadalcanal. The vintage picture from the San Francisco Chronicle is of a ceremony at the memorial in 1956. You can see holes from shell damage to the bridge to the left of the flagpole in my photo.
Here’s the story about the USS San Francisco on a marker at the site.
Here are some of the old houses on Alta Street that were saved from burning after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Legend has it that many of the houses on Telegraph Hill were saved from the fires by residents who poured wine on them to dampen them before the flames approached. These may be a few of them.
Union Street just off of Montgomery in the 1940’s: Margaret Parton moved into the second house from the left and spent a year writing about her adventures in San Francisco just before Pearl Harbor in her book ‘Laughter on the Hill’. You can still see that house just behind the stairs in the center of the current picture. I posted a story about her book in my September 6, 2016 post. (Vintage photo from the Charles Cushman Collection)
Here’s a cartoon from ‘Laughter on the Hill’ of Margaret Parton deciding if she’s going to move in.
A film noir looking picture of Montgomery Street looking south toward Union Street in the 1950’s: I’m not positive but this might be a Fred Lyon picture. His pictures are usually clearer than this, but I found it on Pinterest and it is probably a copy of one of his pictures.
This 1930’s picture is looking the opposite way from the previous picture, north along Montgomery from Union, during the 1930’s.
The classy looking Neautra-Kahn Apartment on Calhoun Terrace in the 1940’s: You don’t turn around when you drive into this street, you back up, and you do it very carefully or you may end up driving off Telegraph Hill!
Now I’ll offer you the closest thing I can get to a virtual tour of San Francisco from the air. They open many of the windows now at the top of Coit Tower so you can get fantastically clear pictures of San Francisco when you look out the openings! (Just don’t look down) We’ll start by looking southeast across the Embarcadero to the Bay Bridge.
Moving counter clockwise we’re now looking east toward Yerba Buena and Treasure Island.
Looking northeast we get a great view of Pier 39, Alcatraz, and Angel Island.
Looking roughly north is Fisherman’s Wharf, too good not to zoom in on. The two ships from World War Two berthed at Pier 45 are the submarine the USS Pampanito, and the Liberty Ship the SS Jeremiah O’Brien.
Looking northwest you’ll see the Golden Gate Bridge and Russian Hill. At the top of the second street from the left coming down Russian Hill is Lombard Street, “The Crookedest Street in the World”, if you don’t count Vermont Street on Potrero Hill.
Looking west is the heart of North Beach with Washington Square and Saints Peter and Paul Church.
Southwest is Nob Hill.
Directly south is Downtown San Francisco. That little cluster of buildings on the right is Chinatown.
We’ll end up where we started from and a terrific view of the Ferry Building.
The “Hyde Street Grip” at Chestnut Street on Russian Hill, looks like in the 1960’s: I snapped my picture a split second too soon for a perfect comparison, but the cable cars were running slow and it was too cold up there today to wait for another one heading downhill. (Vintage Everyday)
The Cliff House in the 1950’s: I haven’t been able to get a full frontal of the restaurant from Sutro Heights since I’ve been taking pictures because of the trees that block the view today. However, in November I found a walking trail that winds along the Sutro Heights mountainside that allows hikers to get a clear view if the Cliff House like long ago.
The Powell and Market Street cable car turnaround in the late 1960’s: December’s cold weather in San Francisco made the cable car passenger line even lighter this week than in the 1960’s. (Vintage Everyday)
The San Francisco Skyline from the Bay in the mid 1970’s and during Fleet Week, 2017:
San Francisco Bay looking east from Telegraph Hill in 1880: No Treasure Island, no piers, and no Bay Bridge.
The art deco Golden Gate Bridge Toll Booths in the 1950’s: Although they’re obsolete now, I hope they keep them; they’re as much a part of the bridge as the famous span is. (Vintage Everyday)
A suitor on a scooter! This is near the approximate spot he was chugging up in the Life Magazine picture, Lombard Street, just down from “The Crookedest Street in the World”, but a little further down the street in order to get the view today. The building behind his left shoulder is the building the couple are walking past in my photo. In the background is Telegraph Hill with Coit Tower and the two spires of Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach.
Market Street at Powell circa 1908: On the left is the Flood Building, across Market Street in the center are the towers of the Call and Humboldt Buildings, and on the right is the Emporium Building. (Charles C. Pierce)
Powell and Ellis Streets at twilight in the 1950’s: (Vintage Everyday)
Mason and Market Streets looking north toward Nob Hill: (Vintage picture from Monovisions.com)
Looking east along O’Farrell Street: The domed Call Building in the center was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at the time. You can see the remodeled Call Building, now called Central Tower, in the center of my photo. (OpenSFHistory.org)
San Franciscans crossing Market Street toward the Emporium Department Building as the fires head up Market Street.: The Call Building is already on fire in the background. (Moulin Studios)
3rd Street at Mission Street looking north: You can see the Call Building (Central Tower) peeking out on the left in my picture. The old gothic Mutual Savings Bank Building, another survivor, is in the center of both pictures.
Mason, Turk, and Market Streets looking east: The Admission Day Monument on the left in the vintage picture is now on the corner of Montgomery and Market Streets. (OpenSFHistory.org)
This is a rare early color photo of the San Francisco ruins by Frederick Eugene. On the left is the Flood Building, center is the Mutual Savings Bank, and on the right is the Call Building. (The Smithsonian Museum of American History)
The Orpheum Theater at Hyde and Market Streets was completely destroyed and has been rebuilt. (Monovisions.com)
The west side of San Francisco didn’t get off easy, either. The Sharon Building at the Children’s Playground in Golden Gate Park was heavily damaged. The domed Carousel Building is on the left. (SFMTA Photography)
Some things were never rebuilt. At the top of Strawberry Hill in the middle of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park was where the Sweeney Observatory once stood. It collapsed during the earthquake and is seen here in a picture taken shortly after the disaster. The ruins of the observatory are still up there and can be seen in my picture. It’s always a pleasure to meet people and talk with them when I’m working on these pictures. I met a really nice Park Ranger on top of Strawberry Hill named Ed, and I enjoyed talking about San Francisco history with him for a little while. (Monovisions.com)
I seem to be going down to Disneyland a lot lately; I think it’s known as “escaping from reality”. I haven’t been down there at Christmas time though since the top photo was taken in 1986.
A Christmas Parade in 1961 and a Christmas Parade in 2017: (Vintage picture from Gorillas don’t Blog)
No Christmas Star on top of the Matterhorn today, like in 1968: You can still see the old People Mover tracks today. (Pinterest)
The entrance to Frontierland from a slide picture I took in 1983: They’re letting the place get overgrown!
Another 1983 slide showing Tom Sawyer Island and the Mark Twain Steamboat: They finally reopened Tom Sawyer Island, (now called the Pirate’s Lair) and the Mark Twain is sailing around the island again too.
The Mark Twain from the Tom Sawyer Island – Pirate’s Lair in 1983 and 2017: I haven’t been out to that island in I don’t know how many years!
The Indian Canoe Ride following the Mark Twain in the 1950’s: This looks like a photo from the Charles Cushman Collection.
The Matterhorn Skyway in another 1983 slide: I miss the Skyway ride.
Where the ‘America the Beautiful in Circle Vision’ movie was: I remember seeing that for the first time when I was 16 and thinking that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen! (Duchess of Disneyland)
The Christmas Tree on Main Street in 1955, when Disneyland opened, and in 2017:
Of course, I couldn’t get down there for a visit if it wasn’t for the brave firefighters battling all the L A Fires, and they’re not like the Three Stooges! My brother Kevin and I stopped in Hollywood on the way back to track down a few Three Stooges filming locations that I read about in Jim Pauley’s book about filming locations used by the Stooges. In ‘False Alarms’ from 1936, the Stooges are firemen. Curly gets the bright idea of rolling out the fire hoses across North Larchmont Street at Melrose where they cut by a passing streetcar. Moe’s not going to like this. This is the spot today. (Columbia Pictures)
Yeah, Moe didn’t like it! (Columbia Pictures)
In ‘Calling all Curs’ from 1939, the Three Stooges are peeking around the corner of Fernwood Street and North St. Andrew’s Place trying to find a lost dog named “Garcon” they were in charge of that was dognapped. Those trees sure have grown since the Stooges were there! We met a very friendly security guard at this location named Crisco, and he enjoyed learning that the Three Stooges filmed a scene at his location. (Columbia Pictures)
Long-ago people from the 1920’s at the Father Junipero Serra statue in Golden Gate Park: (OpenSFHistory.org)
“Do I have to stop this car?”
A vintage picture from the Shorpy Collection at Stow Lake with the old Rustic Bridge to Strawberry Hill in the background:
A long-ago family enjoying Ocean Beach in 1939: (Moulin Studio)
Pedestrians on the Golden Gate Bridge on opening day in May of 1937: Obviously, you can’t walk on the road anymore, (although, I did once in May of 1987 for the 50th anniversary of the bridge) so this is as close of a comparison as I could get. (Moulin Studio)
Long-ago cars with long-ago people in them: This is on 5th Street between Market and Mission Streets near the old Mint Building. The Pickwick Hotel was where Sam Spade hid the Maltese Falcon before turning it over to the “Fat Man”. The Chronicle Building is in the background on the right. (SF Chronicle, SF Gate)
Montgomery Street at Sutter looking toward Market Street in the early 1950’s: I tried to compare the people in the old picture from today’s crowd, but the group in the vintage picture all look like people from a film noir movie, and the people in the current picture all look like something from ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ to me. (SF Chronicle, SF Gate)
Maiden Lane in the early 1960’s and long-ago people who may still be with us, except for the old man on the right: They reopened the old Xanadu Building in September of 2017, the only building in San Francisco designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, after being closed many years. It’s now an Isaia Clothing Store. That’s an interesting suit that fellow on the motor scooter was wearing; it’s like you are looking at it through 3D glasses. (John Whinham Doss)
Maiden Lane where it ends at Kearny in the 1940s: “BOND TWO TROUSER SUITS”. You know, it’s probably just me, but I hate the word “trousers”, it sounds so old fashioned to me. I bought my very first suit at age twenty two at a Bond Clothing Store shortly before the company folded, but not the one on Kearny. Street. I bought mine at the one on Broadway in Oakland, and I didn’t get two pairs of “trousers”.
Mint Street behind the old San Francisco Mint Building at 5th and Mission Street: Across the street is the San Francisco Chronicle Building, built in 1924. I subscribed to the Chronicle for many years and had a number of letters printed on their editorial page from the 1980s to the New Millennium. Then the internet came along and you didn’t have to write letters to the newspapers anymore, you could just voice your opinion on Facebook. But to me the San Francisco Chronicle Building means “Mr. San Francisco” Herb Caen who spent most of his career here. I was proud to have met him once. His love of San Francisco will never be matched by anyone, and his sense of humor had a lot to do with shaping mine, only his jokes were funny. This is also ‘Maltese Falcon’ territory. That building in the shadow on the right is where the old Remedial Loan Company was, and still is. In the novel, Sam Spade makes Brigid O’Shaughnessy hock her jewelry here to come up with money for his retainer. “You’ll have to hock them.” Spade says to her. “The Remedial’s the best – Fifth and Mission.” Also, across 5th from the Mint Building is the old Pickwick Hotel where Sam Spade stashes the Maltese Falcon after it comes into his possession. (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate)
Montgomery Street near Sutter Street around 1915: Three of the Buildings in the old photo are still around. In the center is the Palace Hotel, built in 1909. President Warren G. Harding died in office at this hotel in 1923. Just to the left of the Palace is the old Metropolis Savings and Trust Building, built in 1907. For many years a Bank of America has been located here. The building just to the right of the Palace has been demolished, but the one next to that is the old Crocker Bank Building, built in 1908. It’s now a Wells Fargo Bank and the top floors were removed at the end of the 1970s.
One of the little Dancing Sprites from the statue at Huntington Park on Nob Hill with the north tower of Grace Cathedral in the background, probably the early 1960s: They’ve been moved around with remodeling so I couldn’t get an exact lineup. The building between Huntington Park and Grace Cathedral in the old picture has been torn down. (John Whinham Doss)
Now, do you see what I mean about the November shadows? This might have been a good picture otherwise! Well, you still have Chinatown, Old St. Mary’s, and the Transamerica Pyramid Building. You also have the Cathay House on the corner of Grant Avenue and California Street. That restaurant goes back a long way! In fact, it can be seen in the 1947 Bob Hope movie ‘My Favorite Brunette’. (Vintage Everyday)
An old postcard of St. Mary’s Square in the heart of Chinatown, and a perfect place to relax and enjoy a little “sweater weather” at the end of November: The statue on the left is of Sun Yat-sen, sculpted by Beniamino Bufano and erected in 1938.
The old Turk Street Follies in the Tenderloin:
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 