Ann Sheridan and Dennis O’Keefe walk past Pier 45 in the 1950 film ‘Woman on the Run’. I always did want to be in a Film Noir movie! (Thumbnail image)
Author: SF Film Locations
Hello friends! My name is Tim Welsh. I’m the owner and operator of Welsh Income Tax Service in Hayward, California. When I was fifteen, I fell in love with San Francisco. It wasn’t a first in the family; my mother at seventeen had traveled by train from North Dakota, where I was later born, to see the Treasure Island World’s Fair, and fell in love with “The City” long before I did. You can see pictures from her trip in the November 19th, 2014 ‘Summer of 1939’ postings. It’s been a love affair that’s never broken my heart. Here, with pictures from books, movies, the internet, and personal collections, I’ve had a chance to share my affection for San Francisco with comparison and location pictures that I’ve taken. I’ve had help from family and friends, and even my dog ‘Danny’ who sniffed out the trail of Buffalo Bill at Ocean Beach on a November 15, 2014 post. My blog is for non commercial and non profit purposes only, and it’s always a lot of fun to work on. Many of the pictures from November, 2014 to November 2015 are thumbnail images. Pictures from posts after that can be enlarged by viewing the image. I hope you enjoy the posts, and please feel free to follow my blog, or make suggestions, comments or corrections if you like.
The U.S. 101 and Interstate 80 Interchange (Thumbnail image)
Different cars, different buildings, same crazy freeway! Some of the buildings seen from left to right in the 50’s picture are the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, Coit Tower, and on the right, the Call and Russ Buildings, none of which can be seen from here today.
Fort Point (Thumbnail image)
Another view of what the Fort Point area looked like before the building og the Golden Gate Bridge. Look close at the bottom right in the current picture, and you can see the remains of the steps that fellow’s walking past that led from the house at the bottom of the old photo.
“Find your own road.” (1) (Thumbnail image)
The Shorpy’s collection has some wonderful black and white, high density photos from long ago. The following are a few from San Francisco that I did some then and nows on. Here, is the corner of Franklin and California Streets. They had a weird sense of humor in the 1920’s!
“Find your own road.” (2) (Thumbnail image)
Van Ness at California Street: “Now, you and the lovely lady in the back seat be sure to tell your friends about “Honest Harry” and his used car deals. Okay?”
“Find your own road.” (3) (Thumbnail image)
I wonder who that is being greeted at City Hall? Must be “Wrong Way” Corrigan! It might be, kind of, fun to drive your car up the steps of City Hall today.
“Find your own road.” (4) (Thumbnail image)
621 Commercial Street in 1940:
“Here come the bulldozers, Pa.”
“Just sit tight, Son; they ain’t-a gonna be tearing our building down! No, Sir!”
Well, they didn’t tear the old building down; they just built a new one on top of it!
Back on the Base (1)
The old Lombard Street entrance to the Presidio, looks like the late 1940’s. Today, kids with backpacks pass through what was once a secured area. It was while I was appreciating the military history here last Thursday, that I heard about the July 16th attacks at the military locations in Tennessee. (Thumbnail image)
Back on the Base (2)
Soldiers gearing up for battle during the 1898 Spanish-American War. “Bully!” (Thumbnail image)
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 