That makes about as much sense as Hitchcock’s ‘North by Northwest’ but he got away with it! These are pictures of San Francisco from different points on the compass.
North: Fort Point in 1945. Aw, he took his turkey to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, there’s a pet lover! (San Francisco Public Library)
Northeast: A cable car chugs up Hyde Street in the 1920’s and today. The old reservoir on the left is no longer in use. There’s normally a low amount of traffic on this stretch of Hyde, and I could stay for hours watching the cable cars go up and down the hill. Usually, more seem to head down the hill than up which might make one wonder if some are going into the Bay, but they just stack them up at the bottom of the hill.
East: The view down Jackson Street from Mason looking east toward the Bay Bridge.
Southeast: The worst accident in Muni’s history occurred at this intersection in 1918, just east from the Cow Palace. A streetcar lost it on, what is now, Geneva Avenue, and jumped the track as it made the turn here onto Schwerin. The utility power plant building, now owned by PG&E, is still in the corner.
South: This was the house on Morse Street in the Crocker Amazon District where Patty Hearst was captured by the F.B.I. in September of 1975. Hey, where did the Daily News get off by calling it “Frisco”?
Southwest: I wasn’t even a naughty wink by my mom yet when this picture was taken. Here she is on the left with her cousin Frances at the old Sloat Blvd. entrance to the San Francisco Zoo, then called Fleishhacker’s Zoo, in 1939 when she was 17. This old Works Progress Administration project from the 1930’s is fenced off now to visitors and the San Francisco Zoo doesn’t respond to requests concerning why; maybe, to protect it.
West: Balboa Street and the Great Highway at Playland-at-the-Beach. Balboa is the street going uphill on the left. Kiddieland was a portion of Playland with rides and attractions for children. This is about as west as you can go in San Francisco without getting wet, and even that isn’t guaranteed! (Western Neighborhood Project)
Northwest: I couldn’t get their names, but these ancestors of the lady news anchors of today’s CNBC are reporting at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in the early 1930’s. (Voices out of the Fog)
In my August 1st 2016 post ‘Out in the Field’ I wrote about a book I had recently read called ‘Laughter on the Hill’ by Margaret Parton. In the book Margaret writes about a year she spent in San Francisco looking for a job just before Pearl Harbor. Although outdated, and the events of her social life and zany parties may seem dull at times compared to now or even the 1960’s life of Holly Golightly from ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, her descriptions of, historical recaps about, and obvious affection for San Francisco makes the book an interesting story of the City in 1941. At times Margaret identifies her locations by name, but other times you have to use your knowledge of San Francisco to determine where she’s writing about. These are a few passages from her book pertaining to some of her adventures on Telegraph Hill.
Margaret’s search for a place to live in the second chapter ‘Gingerbread Versailles’ leads her to a run down house on Telegraph Hill. On the way, she passes what is obviously Washington Square in North Beach; I think the only fat old man with a red face in the park the day I took this picture was me! 
She crosses Union Street at Montgomery on the approach to Calhoun Terrace. Her description of the view from the cliff at Calhoun Terrace is still accurate today.
Margaret moves into what she describes as a shack with a “pointed red roof outlined with white gingerbread carving” at this location. The building has a leaking roof, bad plumbing and is in overall poor shape. On the left is a cartoon from the book of where Margaret will spend her year in San Francisco, and in the middle of the picture on the right is the house today. The part about cutting down the level of the street and stranding the garages of the houses is amazing! Incidentally, the Michael Douglas character, Steve Keller from the television show ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ also lived in this house, and Lee Remick’s Kirsten Arnesen from ‘The Days of Wine and Roses’ lived just across the street.
A photograph from the 1940’s of this location shows how accurate Margaret’s description was; the paint on the bay window of her “shack” didn’t match, and the garages here really were stranded from street work.
Earlier this week, I found a 1932-1933 Yearbook from Miss Burke’s School for girls at the bookstore in the San Francisco Main Library. I had never heard of the school, but the book was interesting as it has autographs from most of the high school senior girls graduating to a girl named Constance, who the yearbook belonged to. There was no Constance among the senior girls or the faculty, and none of the names of the students from the lower classes are in the yearbook. I became curious about who Constance, who must be long dead by now, was, and also about Miss Burke’s School.
Nearly all of the thirty three graduating seniors had written loving and thoughtful sentiments to “Connie” and I learned from the autograph written by Frances Crosby Beedy at the lower left of the above picture that Constance was a freshman! Wow, when I was a freshman, asking a senior to sign your yearbook was a good way to get punched out! (I get a kick out of what Janice Sanborn in the upper right wrote. I’m going to have to borrow that sometime if I’m ever asked to autograph a yearbook.)
This was the building on Jackson Street in the Pacific Heights District where Miss Burke’s School was in 1933. This is now the San Francisco University High School.
The top picture was one of the pages of photographs from Connie’s yearbook. Four of the pictures were taken in the courtyard behind the main entrance. Holly Johnson, the Director of Alumni Relations at San Francisco University High School, was kind enough to send me a photograph of the courtyard today. The yearbook picture at the lower right is the closest to the current picture of the courtyard. The archways seen on the left of the main building, which were also on the other side of the courtyard, have been filled in with additional wings since then.
The March of Time events of the school year are a great time capsule. For instance, on March 9th the Intermediate IV class went to visit the Golden Gate Bridge. Construction on the bridge had only began two months earlier in January of 1933, so this would almost make them pioneers; one of the first groups of people to visit the Golden Gate Bridge! On March 24th, the school “swarmed down Lyon Street” to watch “Old Ironsides” come into the Bay. The USS Constitution did, indeed, sail into the Bay in March of 1933 ; something else I’m just learning from Constance’s yearbook. Check out the link below.
This would have been where the school “swarmed down Lyon Street” to get a glimpse of “Old Ironsides”. The building with the white dome is the Palace of Fine Arts. Behind it is the Bay.
The Intelligence Test and Myths pages show that the girls had a wonderful sense of humor! I love “Work and answer 5 out of the 3 problems given below:”
The girls in Constance’s freshman class all signed on one separate page, and they tell us a lot about the young lady, such as that she had a crush on her Dramatics teacher, Ronald Telfer, her “silent love” and she slapped “Jimmy” in the face! I missed it when I first went through the yearbook, but she signed this page. Her name was Constance Crowley!
Constance had, indeed, gone far in life, and she only died a little over six months ago in February of 2016. She was 97. The link below has her obituary from SF Gate where this picture of her is from. Rest in peace, Connie.
18th and Dolores Streets, across the street from Dolores Park, in the 1950’s: They’re painting a mural on that building now! Well, no matter how artistic it will be, it won’t look as nice as, “SANDWICHES, MILK SHAKES, HOT DOGS, HAMBURGERS, ICE CREAM, and Coca Cola”. (SF Images)
Powell Street, looks like the mid 1960’s: The tall building in the center of both pictures is the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. For decades its Starlight Room at the top rivaled the Top of the Mark. Many people, including Herb Caen, preferred it. Then for some stupid reason, they allowed two enormous and ugly buildings to go up blocking its north and east view leaving it with, basically, just a view of Union Square. What a shame! (vintage everyday)
California Street at Powell on Nob Hill: Sometimes it works out just right! (vintage everyday)
I never get tired of the magic of Chinatown. I’ll bet I’ve posted more pictures on my blog from here than any other spot in San Francisco. I don’t have much patience for crowds anymore, but the crowds in Chinatown never seem to bother me! I’m not sure why that is. (vintage everyday)
“They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day” but it might not have taken as long as Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill did to build. Started in 1928, the church wasn’t completed until 1964. Still, the wait was worth it, it’s one of the most beautiful churches in San Francisco. In the vintage picture taken from the Top of the Mark circa 1960 it still wasn’t finished. Click on the link below if you want to explore Nob Hill further.
The Road Not Taken, I mean, taken before the road. (SF Images)
A Pyramid scheme; The Transamerica Pyramid on the way up in 1971: (SF Images)
A poet on Telegraph Hill; Allen Ginsberg’s partner, Peter Orlovsky on Vallejo Street: (Howard Greenberg Gallery)
California Street up from Stockton Street in the 1950’s: This is a redo that I went back for; it’s too nice of an old picture to not try to get as close as possible. (vintage everyday)
Police activity at the Cliff House in 1958, and police activity at the Cliff House yesterday: Click on the link below for some more police action in a series of pictures I did called ‘Cops” in May of 2015.
Speaking of the Cliff House, this was how it looked in the early 1970’s. How cool was that; although, I would have got seasick looking at it! The totem pole farther down the street is still there.
The Tenderloin is certainly the most depressing neighborhood of San Francisco. Bounded by Mason on the east, Van Ness on the west, Geary, on the north, and Market Street on the South, it has one of the highest crime rates in San Francisco, and the sidewalks are filled with homeless people, many of who are far beyond any help. Still, there are some great vintage pictures from the area to do comparisons on. We’ll start here at 645 Larkin Street in 1961. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
Manuel’s Steakhouse at Turk and Leavenworth looked good. Looks like the early 60’s. The Market and Deli sign on the corner is the old 288 Club neon sign. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffington.com) 
Larkin and O’Farrell Streets in 1939:
A fender bender at the Shawmut Hotel on O’Farrell near Jones in 1941: The Shawmut is now the Crosby Hotel. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
The Golden Gate Theater on the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street showing the 1956 movie ‘The Conqueror’: This movie has a notorious legacy; it was filmed in the Utah desert near an above ground nuclear test site, and ninety one people involved with the filming contracted cancer afterward, many who died of the disease, including John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Director Dick Powell. 
Eddy and Taylor Streets, 1963: Aw, another lovely eyesore gone forever! Well, at least the fire hydrant survived. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
Jones and Eddy Streets in 1962: The corner restaurant serving Chinese food is now the Tenderloin Police Station. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
Hyde and Turk Streets, 1961: It would have been a great comparison if the Black Hawk Club was still there, but “Alas, alack, and Alaska” it isn’t. Andre Previn performed here!!! (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
The opposite view from the previous photo of the Black Hawk Club looking down Hyde Street in 1961: The tall building in the background is the old Empire Hotel building. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
Looking down McAllister toward Market from Hyde in the 1939: The building on the right is the Federal Building. (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com) 
86 Golden Gate Avenue in 1964: Unfortunately, this is part of life in the Tenderloin. Maybe someday long after I’m gone someone will do a then and now of my photo and write, “Can you imagine when it was like that?” (Vintage San Francisco Library photo from the Huffingtonpost.com)
Fifty Five years ago this December, Tony Bennett first sang ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’ in the Fairmont Hotel’s Venetian Room. The Fairmont honored the occasion today with the unveiling of a statue of the singer who recently celebrated his 90th birthday. On hand were former San Francisco mayors Dianne Feinstein and Willie Brown, Nancy Pelosi, and Tony Bennett himself. A passing California Street cable car stopped for the ceremony and the conductor played ‘I Left My heart in San Francisco’ on the cable car bell. 
After a mist of imitation San Francisco fog for effect, the statue was unveiled. Click on the You Tube link below to see Tony Bennett singing a version of his signature song in July of 1963 to somebody else pretty special.
These are updates of slides I took in San Francisco in the 1980s when slide photography was popular. Gawd, I’m doing then and nows on my own pictures! If I didn’t already feel old…….. This view is of the Embarcadero near Broadway and the old Belt Line railroad tracks in May of 1983: This is an area that has changed drastically since 1983. You can see part of the building the Exploritorium moved into on the left. Nice Thunderbird!
This view is looking down Vallejo Street on Telegraph Hill in May of 1983: “Slug bug!” That’s a game we used to play when we were kids; the first person to spot a Volkswagen would hit the person they were with on the arm. I was nearsighted so I was never very good at it.
Union Square when it had grass looking toward the St. Francis in May 1983: I wonder who those ladies photo bombing me were! Hey, lady, put out that cigarette!
Mission Street at the Embarcadero in May of 1983: That’s the Embarcadero Freeway on the left. Sinbad’s Restaurant was finally forced to close this year. They sure liked to save paint on their crosswalks back then. “Slug bug!”
Harrison at the Embarcadero in May of 1983: Look how run down it was back then! The opening of AT&T Park really did a lot for this area.There’s the Embarcadero Freeway again. You can just barely see the Ferry Building in the new shot. The old Hill’s Brothers Coffee Building is on the left.
Ah, the Cliff House that I liked best in August of 1983; and back when it could still be seen from Sutro Heights:
Powell Street looking up Nob Hill: This was taken in June of 1984, the day that the cable cars were placed back in service after a two year shutdown for repairs.
Looking down Commercial Street toward the Ferry Building in August of 1983: KABL Radio! I remember that station! That’s the one we turned off because we thought it was for old people, and I like that kind of music now! “Slug bug!”
The view of the waterfront from Coit Tower in May of 1983: Not too different now, except for the absence of the Embarcadero Freeway, and the pier that used to run out to the Bay Bridge tower that could not exist today because of 9/11.
Pier 39, Alcatraz, and Angel Island from Coit Tower in May of 1983: I must have taken my picture from the same Coit Tower window as I did in 1983.
Fisherman’s Wharf from Coit Tower in May of 1986: The World War Two submarine Pampanito is still tied up at Pier 45, but the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O’Brien is tied up behind her today. I don’t know what the two ships behind her in 1986 were. The Wax Museum sign is long gone.
Market Street at Eighth St. in September of 1985: Looks pretty close today. They were just starting to run the old trolleys about then, you can see one in both pictures. The Orpheum Theater has a new sign now, but I couldn’t get it in my picture. Click on the link below for a collection of pictures I posted in November of 2014 on the classic ‘A Trip Down Market Street’ from 1906. The old film began about here.
No, this post isn’t about people searching for survivors after the disaster; it’s about buildings or landmarks, seen here in pictures from the earthquake, that have survived to this day. We’ll start at California and Sansome Streets looking up Nob Hill. There’s actually two survivors seen here, first being the California Street cable car tracks. The cable car line has been running along California Street for one hundred and thirty eight years! Second is the Fairmont Hotel at the top of Nob Hill on the right. You can still see part of the hotel, although somewhat lost in the sunshine, today. Notice the church near the top of Nob Hill on the left in the old photo. This was the Grace Episcopal Church on the corner of California and Stockton Streets. There’s more about this church in the next picture. (Vintage photo Atlantic Magazine)
Old St. Mary’s Church on the left side of California Street, and Grace Church at the corner of Stockton Street on the right: The old photo is looking down California Street just up from Stockton Street, a reverse direction from the previous photo. You can’t see Old St. Mary’s too clear from this spot anymore, and not at all from between the cable car tracks like the old picture, but it’s still there. This is as far out into the street you can go before losing sight of it, and you take a chance at being run over by a car or a cable car! The church can be seen just above the cable car on the left, and it’s still a great place to light a candle for a loved one or, like me, rest your feet awhile when you’re tired of walking around San Francisco. Grace Church on the right did not survive the disaster, and was rebuilt on top of Nob Hill. Now known as Grace Cathedral, it’s one of the most beautiful churches in San Francisco. (Vintage photo Atlantic Magazine) 
The Palace Hotel, the grandest hotel west of the Mississippi, survived the earthquake in relatively good shape, but was completely burned down by the fires after the quake. Although another Palace Hotel is there today, and as fine a hotel as any in San Francisco, it was completely rebuilt so it doesn’t count as a survivor. What is a true survivor is the crown topped Call Building behind the Palace Hotel. It survived the earthquake and fire, although heavily damaged, and was a major part of the San Francisco skyline for years after. In the late 1930’s, some nitwit with power decided to remove the dome at the top and remodel the facade of the building. It’s now called the Central Tower. (Vintage photo San Francisco History Center) 
One block west from the Palace Hotel is where 3rd Street runs into Market. On the right is the bottom of the Call Building, what it looked like in 1906, and what it looks like today after the 1930’s remodeling. On the left is the Hearst Building of publisher William Randolph Hearst, the inspiration for Orson Welles movie ‘Citizen Kane’. Hearst wasn’t about to let an act of God or nature take anything away from him, so he had the building completely rebuilt. It’s still known as the Hearst Building today, see the H above the door in the modern picture, but it’s really a survivor in name only. (Vintage photo Atlantic Magazine) 
Kearny Street, up from Broadway: Just down Kearny behind the man in the old photo you’ll see the diagonal cut of Columbus Avenue. On the corner you’ll see a building that was under construction when the Earthquake hit. This is the Sentinel Building, also known as Columbus Tower, and it’s still there today; it’s the green, white, and gold building in the center. (Vintage photo San Francisco History Center) 
Powell and Market Streets; two survivors here: On the left is a small portion of the Flood Building. You’ll see more on this one in the next picture. In the center is the front of the old Emporium Building across Market Street from Powell. Although heavily damaged, by the earthquake and fire, enough of the structure survived for rebuilding, and is now Bloomingdales. (Vintage photo San Francisco History Center) 
Market at 5th Street looking toward the Flood Building: There’s, actually, six genuine survivors from the old photo today, and you can see them all in my picture. On the corner of Powell and Market Streets, the Flood Building survived the disaster in pretty good shape, and looks almost as it did in 1906. Below it is one of the busiest locations in San Francisco, Hallidie Plaza, and the Powell Street cable car turntable. Next survivor on the right is the Gothic looking building with the red top at 704 Market Street, originally the Mutual Savings Bank Building. Just behind 704 Market Street is the old Chronicle Building with its damaged clock tower. You can just see a piece of the brownish red Chronicle Building minus the clock tower it no longer has behind the Baroque looking 704 Market Street. In the center of Market Street is the Ferry Building. Across Market Street and seen today behind the Humboldt Building is the Call Building. At the far right is the old Emporium Building, now Bloomingdale’s. (Vintage photo Atlantic Magazine) 
The grandest survivor of them all; the Ferry Building seen from the Bay as the fire that destroyed most of San Francisco approaches: The only thing that saved the Ferry Building from burning was the width of East Street, now called the Embarcadero, which was too wide for the fire to jump. (Vintage photo Atlantic Magazine)
This 1912 panorama from one of the volumes in the History Room at the San Francisco Main Library was taken looking south from Telegraph Hill between Montgomery and Kearny Streets. Development on the hill has made a perfect comparison shot today unavailable, (unless you’re one of the lucky people living in some of the buildings on this side of Telegraph Hill today) so the best I could do was use a composite of two pictures I took from the top of Coit Tower between Montgomery, where the Pyramid Building is, and Kearny, where the dark Bank of America Building is. The pictures sweep from the top of Nob Hill on the right to the downtown business district of San Francisco on the left. The highest spot in the vintage photo is of the Fairmont Hotel on the top of Nob Hill. You can see it from my picture behind the Fairmont Tower built in the 1960’s. The building with the cupola and white stripes near the center of the picture is the Sentinel Building also known as the Columbus Tower. You can still see it from much higher up in my picture. Speaking of cupolas, this building is owned by film director Francis Ford Coppola! The large building with the arches to the left and behind of Columbus Tower was the old Hall of Justice Building on Kearny. This building was the setting of many films and at least two television shows, ‘The Lineup’ (San Francisco Beat) and ‘Ironside’. It was demolished for the Hilton Hotel in 1967. Trivia note, the swimming pool on top of this Hilton was where “Scorpio” shot the girl in the opening of the 1971 film ‘Dirty Harry’. The area of smaller buildings between the Fairmont Hotel and the Columbus Tower is Chinatown. None of the surviving buildings on the far left can be seen from here today because of the downtown skyscraper boom that began in the 1960’s.
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 