Next Friday, December 4th, will be the 100th anniversary of the closing of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The best thing still left from that fair is the Palace of Fine Arts. To me, the next best thing is this 1912 Exposition City map that I first saw years ago in the Wells Fargo History Room on Montgomery Street of what the upcoming fair was going to look like. There are so many things NOT to see in this map; no Golden Gate or Bay Bridges, no Coit Tower or City Hall, and nothing but sand west of Twin Peaks where the Sunset District is today. If you click on this link below, it opens up to David Rumsey’s terrific version of this map that you can zoom in on for a great look at 1912 San Francisco. Alright, so they spelled Fisherman’s Wharf wrong, who’s gonna notice!
http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~275990~90059277:The-Exposition-City-San-Francisco–?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:1915%2Bmap;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=0&trs=421
California at Montgomery in the 1950’s: I wonder if they still make Belfast Sparkling Water!
Union Square in 1948 from a Roger Sturtevant photo
Market and Stockton Streets at Christmas time: Twin Peaks can be seen in the distance of both pictures.
Lana Turner, seen here across from Union Square going into I Magnin’s in the 1960 film ‘Portrait in Black’, is plotting with Anthony Quinn to kill her husband at this point in the movie. She’d, probably, receive a longer jail term today for wearing that coat than she would for a murder conviction! Below, five Lana wannabes at the same spot today
A Victory Window during World War Two, and a Victory for the Macy’s PR Team window.
“Peanuts” for Christmas: Poor Charlie Brown, he’s going to have another sad holiday! Looks like he’s going to need all of the SSRI’s Lucy can prescribe.
1937 limos in this John Gutmann photo at the Mark Hopkins Hotel:
The original bimbos on Russian Hill in 1906:
A scrap metal drive on Valley Street near Church Street in Noe Valley. 
Another view of what was then the Telephone Exchange Building on Grant Avenue sandbagged to offer some protection against the threat of Japanese bombs, which never came, being dropped on San Francisco. 
VJ Day and the end or World War Two at Grant Avenue and Market Street in August of 1945:
The exclusive men’s only Pacific Union Club on Nob Hill: I’ve been by there countless times, and I’ve never seen anyone going in or out. I wonder what goes on in there; probably, men in dinner jackets sipping brandy, and looking at Dow Jones reports. Heck, I could do that at home, if I had a dinner jacket and some stock!
The old Chinatown Gate at Grant and Bush in the 1930’s and today’s Chinatown Gate at Grant and Bush. This is not the same gate or location that Madame Chaing Kai-shek is passing under in the October 24, 2015 post.
Grant Avenue at California Street at Old St. Mary’s in the 1950’s.
There are a LOT of San Francisco landmarks for the sharp eye to spot in this 1982 poster I have. It doesn’t look too different from today’s San Francisco!
1942 – The first of Japanese citizens to be relocated from the West Coast after Pearl Harbor gather at the Civil Control Administration Building at 2020 Van Ness. Taking a peek inside this old garage, it’s a remarkable feeling thinking how historic this building once was!
1957 – Kezar Stadium, the 49ers and the Lions, roof top room only: Kezar was demolished in 1989, but the playing field still exists. No roof top spectators though, for that game or mugging or whatever was happening down on the field when I took this photo.
The old entrance to I Magnin & Company at Union Square in the 1950’s, once THE place to shop in San Francisco.
Maiden Lane in the early 1960’s: Hey, it’s Holly Golightly!
1967 – Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead at Haight Ashbury during “The Summer of Love.”: They don’t even bother putting a Haight-Ashbury sign on this corner anymore, it would be gone five minutes after being put in place!
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 