 Andrew Hallidie and Horses The story goes like this: Andrew Hallidie once saw a team of horses, while pulling a tram up the Clay Street Hill, fall to the cobblestones, exhausted and injured. Deeply moved by the incident, Hallidie became determined to develop a system to save the noble beasts from further fatal exertion. Voilá (so the story goes)! The Cable Car is born. Evidence: Hallidie's first cable car descended the Clay Street Hill at 5:00 am (so no one would get hurt in case it didn't work) on the morning of August 2nd, 1873 (well recorded in newspapers of the time). But what really happened here? Things you should know: • Andrew Smith, the mechanical genius who originated ..... |
 Fireproof in SFSix fires between 1849 and 1851 destroyed large parts of rapidly growing San Francisco. Clearly fires were a significant hazard for a town filled with structures made of wood. Local attorney (and future Chief of Staff of Lincoln's armies) Henry Wager Halleck felt that public confidence needed to be bolstered by building a structure that would be impenetrable to fire or flood. A civil engineer trained at West Point military academy, Halleck was very able to guide the development of San Francisco's first fireproof building, the Montgomery Block, located at 628 Montgomery Street at Washington Street. A new style of architecture for office buildings inspired by the ..... |
• Carleton Watkins - Photographing Early California  Carleton Watkins - Photographing Early CaliforniaCarleton Watkins was an early photographer who captured the Western landscapes, new cities, and industries. He photographed burgeoning San Francisco, land baron estates, Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Pacific coast, and mining and rail operations. His photographs of Yosemite, seen by few people at the time, encouraged Abraham Lincoln to sign a bill which was the forerunner for the National Park System. Considered one of the best landscape photographers, he made thousands of majestic images. However, Watkins had financial problems, and many of his photographs (including many in the San Francisco History Center collection) are attributed to other people who acquire..... |
 Henry Wager HalleckAs a follow-up to last month's excellent history of the Montgomery Block, it is appropriate to consider the life and career of Henry Halleck, the builder of the Block. He is memorialized by a statue in Golden Gate Park, by Halleck Street between Leidesdorff and Front Streets, and by Halleck Street in the Presidio, from Lincoln Blvd. to Crissy Field. The Halleck monument stands on the south side of JFK Drive in the Park, near the tennis courts, perennially shaded by a grove of coast live oak trees and a towering cypress. The inscription on the monument reads "Tribute To His Memory, from his best friend, Gen. George Callum, 1886." The sculptor was Carl Conrads..... |
Why is it called Chinatown? As we sat at the June 2nd Volunteer Luncheon hosted by Friends of the Library, a few of us brand new City Guides tour leaders noted the beautiful table settings. We had wine at our tables, which caused us to anticipate a festive meal. Our conversation soon led us to wonder if we were going to be served our meal on fine china. "I wonder what is the origin of the word 'china,' and how did it get to be associated with dishes?" someone asked. As we discussed this, we all agreed that it was likely that the first porcelain dishes came from the country China, but how did that name come about? I vowed to my tablemates that I would discover the answer and, when I..... |
 Japanese Tea Garden The California Midwinter International Exposition held in Golden Gate Park in 1894 offered an opportunity to set up cultural displays from other countries. A Japanese Village placed west of the Horticulture building took form with pavilions, gardens, and a traditional teahouse. Makoto Hagiwara, a wealthy local Japanese landscape designer and member of Japan's aristocracy, funded, built, and managed the project, depleting the family fortune for his labor of love. Maintaining a closed society, Japan remained a great unknown to most Americans at this time. The few who immigrated to San Francisco proved very different from the local Chinese population. The village of..... |
• Kezar Pavilion - An Ongoing Legend  Kezar Pavilion - An Ongoing Legend
I remember one of my first visits to the legendary Kezar Pavilion. It was the early 90s, and I must've been around 8 years old. My father took my two brothers and me to the Pavilion for a Pro-Am summer basketball game. The fans were going crazy, the game was great, but amidst all of this I remember one moment quite clearly. After the game my older brother came running back to the rest of us. "I got to shake hands with Tim Hardaway!" a Golden State Warriors legend from the glorious TMC* days of the late 80s and early 90s. I was full of jealousy. But this was the kind of place Kezar was: an intimate sports venue where a kid could get close and personal with his ..... |
 The Cobweb Palace
Mid-nineteenth century San Francisco demanded entertainment. Pockets jingled with gold. The mines, the burgeoning shipping business, the merchant trade, and wild speculation fueled a runaway economy. Keyed to a fever pitch, the City wanted to play to blow off steam. San Franciscans were soon to show the world that they were not only getting rich, but knew how to spend it as well. Abe Warner opened his Cobweb Palace at the foot of Meigg's Wharf on the northeast corner of Francisco and Powell Streets in 1856. His establishment earned its name by the curtains of cobwebs hanging from the rafters. Abe admired both spiders and their webs. Crowds gathered at Abe's t..... |
• Norton I, Famous for Being Well-Known  Norton I, Famous for Being Well-KnownCelebrity is a capricious state in that, while many seek the public eye, few catch and hold it. Consider Joshua Norton, the self-styled Emperor of the United States and erstwhile Protector of Mexico. The fast and easy analysis–maybe crazy, maybe not so crazy, but everybody in San Francisco loved him just the same! The Cranky Historian suggests that a closer look helps explain this supposedly universal municipal "love." A few well-documented facts: • Joshua Norton was a successful merchant in the gold rush and a member of the first Vigilance Committee. • He lost all when the bottom fell out of the rice market. • He returned to public attention after..... |
 Jesse Benton FremontShe is thought to be the real author behind the successful writings of John C. Fremont (general, senator, presidential candidate, and the Pathfinder of the West) describing his explorations. Jesse Benton Fremont (1824– 1902), Fremont's wife, was also the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a leading advocate of Manifest Destiny, a political movement pushing expansion to the West. And in her event-filled life, some of her happiest times were at her house in San Francisco's Black Point area, now known as Fort Mason. The Fremonts lived there between 1860 and 1861. The prop- erty included three sides of the point, and Jesse described..... |
• The Parallel Crashes by the Cliff House  The Parallel Crashes by the Cliff HouseOn the afternoon of Thursday, January 13, 1887, the 98-foot schooner Parallel left Hay Wharf in San Francisco bound for Astoria, Oregon. She was loaded with kerosene, a cask of dynamite caps, and 1,685 50-pound cases (about 42 tons) of black powder. Exiting the Golden Gate, the ship ran into strong headwinds. By Saturday evening, the captain still fought for open sea, tacking against strong headwinds. The Parallel, gripped by the tide, slowly approached the Cliff House. Captain Miller ordered his men into the lifeboats and abandoned the ship at 8:30 p.m. Mr. Wilkins, manager of the Cliff House, telephoned John Hyslop at the Point Lobos signal station an hour l..... |
• Yerba Buena Island, Almost the Rail Destination  Yerba Buena Island, Almost the Rail DestinationAround the time this photo was taken of Yerba Buena Island, just off the shore from San Francisco, Leland Stanford and the Central Pacific Railroad owners proposed to make the island the terminus for the transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads had not yet met at Promontory, Utah. However, in 1867 Stanford thought that Yerba Buena, known as Goat Island, would make a great place for the terminus by building a causeway to Oakland on the adjacent shoals. In 1868, the State Legislature granted the Central Pacific Railroad a permit to use tidelands in Oakland, and the right to construct a bridge to connect the shore with the island. In 1872, the San Franci..... |
• San Francisco Tunnel History and Miscellany  San Francisco Tunnel History and MiscellanySan Francisco is a city of hills (over 50 by one San Francisco Chronicle count), and consequent-ly a city with many tunnels. There is a tunnel running from Aquatic Park under the Fort Mason bluff, built in 1914 and now abandoned, which was constructed to haul materials for building the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). The tracks ran from South of Market along the Embarcadero into the Presidio for the State Belt Line Railroad. The tunnel was closed in the 1970s. PPIE construction began in 1912 in an area called Harbor View, known today as the Marina District. Around this time the Civic League of the Improvement Clubs of San Francisco created a Tunnel Committee to p..... |
 Researching HistoryWhen you research your tours, you find more information than you can possible use for your hour and half walk, and it travels in many directions and tangents. Most guides probably have enough information for a five-hour tour. picture2right200 This piece began as a story about Bummer and Lazarus, the two faithful dogs of Emperor Norton--and about the intriguing fact that Mark Twain wrote an obituary for Bummer in the Daily Morning Call. Joshua Norton, who declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, came to San Francisco in 1849, had financial success as a commodities merchant, but went bankrupt and somewhat crazy. For twenty years he roamed the city, ..... |
• The Castro: One Neighborhood, Many Names  The Castro: One Neighborhood, Many NamesAmong San Francisco's rich tapestry of neighborhoods, one particularly colorful patch stands out. Today we commonly refer to it as The Castro, but over the years this chameleon of a community has had many monikers. For centuries, the gentle slopes leading up to Twin Peaks proved a fertile foraging ground for indigenous Ohlone Indians based in the diminutive village of Chutchui on the shores of a lagoon. In 1776, the de Anza expedition arrived and established the site of the first Mission de San Francisco de Asis, or Mission Dolores, as well as the Presidio. The Mission Trail, which connected the two encampments, intersected existing Ohlone hunting trails at what is now Castro and Market..... |
• Art (and History) on Trial: Historic Murals of Rincon Center  Art (and History) on Trial:
Historic Murals of Rincon Center
On the first day of May 1953, the House Committee on Public Works launched debate on a motion to destroy of one of the largest and most expensive works of art ever commissioned by the federal government. According to Rep. Hubert Scudder (R-Sebastopol), murals by the artist Anton Refregier in the lobby of Rincon Annex, the main downtown post office in San Francisco, slandered California pioneers and pushed Communist propaganda upon unwitting postal customers. Nearly 30 years later, plans were announced to raze the outdated post office and replace it with a huge mixed-use development called Rincon Center, stretching from Mission Street to Howard Street. Faced with the loss of the Refregier ..... |
 Golden Gate BridgeThe Golden Gate Bridge, which was opened to pedestrian traffic on May 27, 1937, and to vehicular traffic the following day. Pictured here is the festive celebration featuring three sawyers who competed to be the first to cut through the final Marin barrier to the Golden Gate Bridge. With the logs sawed through, automobiles rolled onto the bridge. Chief Engineer Joseph P. Strauss wrote a poem for the occasion, which begins: At last the mighty task is done; Resplendent in the western sun The Bridge looms mountain high; Its titan piers grip ocean floor, Its great steel arms link shore with shore, Its towers pierce the sky. Bridging the Golden Gate Strait had been proposed as ear..... |
• Katrina Cottages and SF Earthquake Cottages  Katrina Cottages and SF Earthquake CottagesOn the Gulf Coast, an entrepreneur has manufactured "Katrina cottages" to sell to hurricane victims as a permanent alternative to FEMA trailers in which many are still housed. How do these Katrina cottages compare to the San Francisco earthquake shacks, provided as alternatives to tents a hundred years ago? The new cottages range in size from 308 to 1,175 square feet compared to earthquake shacks that were 140 to 252 square feetóbut today's cottages are meant to be permanent housing, whereas the earthquake shacks were built as temporary refugee camps. However, just as ultimately many of these shacks later served as the basis for larger structures, the Katrina cottages are designed as "Gro..... |
 Grauman's TheatersOne of Hollywood's early theater impresarios created his first theaters in San Francisco. Sid Grauman (1879-1950) is best known for Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. This lavish 1927 movie palace is famous for its celebrity handprintsóalso footprints, hoofprints, knees, and legsóthe in the cement in front of the building. Grauman was also one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Born on St. Patrick's Day to Jewish parents, he was named Sidney Patrick Grauman. "I owe my tremendous success to the Man Upstairs," Grauman frequently said, "but having a name that got the Jews and the Irish behind me was what cinched things." He was born in Indiana i..... |
• The Fairmont Hotel Celebrates 100  The Fairmont Hotel Celebrates 100She is a Grand Dame, the jewel in the crown of Nob Hill. She is the Fairmont Hotel, and she is turning 100 this month. When Silver King James Fair purchased the hillside at Mason and California Streets back in the late 1800s, his intent was to build the largest mansion in the neighborhood. However, when he died in 1894 this lot was still undeveloped. It remained so until 1902 when his daughters Tessie Fair Oelrichs and Virginia Fair commissioned the architectural firm of Reid & Reid to develop plans for a large hotel with the look of an Italian Renaissance Palace. By 1906, the Fairmont Hotel, 600 rooms, seven stories high, made of gray granite, cream marble, and terracotta stone, st..... |
• Craftsman Building on S. Van Ness Avenue  Craftsman Building on S. Van Ness AvenueAn unusual American example of Craftsman design principles applied to housing for the urban working class stands at South Van Ness Avenue and 26th Street. Built by the T.B. Potter Realty Company in 1905, it is a clinker brick and shingle building consisting of 16 attached cottages. Curiosity about this structure led Bathsehba Malsheen to delve into its history – and ultimately to gain San Francisco landmark status for the structure. The units originally contained Craftsman detail such as coffered redwood ceilings and leaded glass cabinets. And each unit has a small private courtyard in the back. The mystery is why there is no other example of this style of building in San Franciscan Ameri..... |
 Murphy In-a-Dor BedsAs the story goes, William Murphy lived in a one-room apartment in San Francisco around 1900 and wanted to invite friends over, including lady friends. If you have ever lived in a studio apartment, you know that the center of attention is the bed. Either Mr. Murphy, or his landlady, or just the morals of the time, deemed it scandalous for a woman to be in a man's bedroom. So Murphy, with the help of a blacksmith, designed a bed that could flip into a closet to hide it. William L. Murphy (1876–1959), the son of a 49er, was born in the Gold Country of Columbia, California. Before he moved to San Francisco, his various jobs included breaking in horses, driving a stagecoach, and serving as s..... |
• San Francisco’s St. Francis Wood  San Francisco’s St. Francis Wood In my current work, San Francisco's St. Francis Wood, the history is told of one of the country's most successful examples of a City Beautiful "garden suburb" through historical images and photographs. Known for 100 years as one of San Francisco's finest residential neighborhoods, early visitors were impressed with the graceful streets, parks, and landscaping designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers and the classically-inspired public monuments designed by the prominent architect John Galen Howard of the University of California. The houses reflect many period revival styles and the talents of dozens of architects, yet the effect is homogeneity of scale, color, and style.This ..... |
• From Nickelodeons to Movie Palaces  From Nickelodeons to Movie PalacesThe following is an excerpt from Therese Poletti's book, Art Deco San Francisco, The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger.In the spring of 1920, a trio of brothers-William, Elias, and George Nasser-came to see Timothy Pflueger. They had got Pflueger's name from the Humboldt Bank, where they had obtained a loan to expand their growing neighborhood theatre on Castro Street.The Nassers owned two small theatres in the Mission district where Pflueger lived and a larger theatre on Castro in the Eureka Valley neighborhood. In 1907 their father, Abraham, an immigrant from Lebanon, turned the family market on Collingwood and Eighteenth streets into the Liberty. In its first incarnati..... |
 Railways of San FranciscoBefore automobiles, San Francisco with its unique terrain was dominated by railways. Horse-drawn railcars appeared in San Francisco around 1862. One of the earliest lines connected the posh neighborhood of South Park with North Beach. In time there were eight rail companies. By 1886 fashionable ladies could be seen coming downtown to go shopping, meet friends, or even attend a performance in one of the many theaters. Horse cars lingered for more than 20 years after the introduction of electric streetcars, with the last horse car retired on June 3, 1913. Steam dummies (engines) were used for a time on some lines, including the Park & Ocean Railroad that connected with the Haight Street c..... |
• San Francisco’s Le Petit Trianon  San Francisco’s Le Petit TrianonSan Francisco has several representations of European landmarks, including Marie Antoinette's Le Petit Trianon. The original building at Versailles Palace in France was built between 1763 and 1768 for Louis XV’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour (Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson). Unfortunately for her, she died before the estate was completed. Louis then gave it to his next favorite mistress, Madame du Barry (Jeanne Bécu). When Louis XVI became monarch, he gave the estate to his wife, Marie Antoinette, who used it as a retreat from palace life. The architecture was called the Greek style, a transition between the Rococo of the early 18th century and the Neoclassical of the later part ..... |
 The Saga of Sutro LibraryAdolph Sutro is obviously one of the towering figures of San Francisco history, and his legacy is indelibly enshrined in our landscape and several important institutions. The Sutro Library, located at San Francisco State University since 1982, houses approximately 40% (about 100,000 volumes) of the original legendary massive Sutro collection, salvaged from the fire-proofed Montgomery Block after the destruction of 1906. Stored in warehouses on Battery Street, the balance of the collection was destroyed. Sutro had initially planned to build a library at Sutro Heights, then decided to use half the acreage subsequently given to the University of California, on Mount Parnassus (now Mount Sut..... |
• James Lick, Miser and Philanthropist  James Lick, Miser and PhilanthropistMiserly, selfish, reclusive, “touched in the head,” – but absolutely honest and an astute business-man. This is what James Lick’s contemporaries thought of the eccentric, disagreeable Gold Rush pioneer who, at the end of his long life, astonished them by using his millions to benefit his adopted state. Lick’s Beginnings Born in rural Pennsylvania in 1796, James Lick learned fine cabinetmaking from his father, and from his mother inherited a passion for gardening. He fell in love with the daughter of the local miller, and when she became pregnant with his child he sought her hand in marriage. The rude rebuff he received from her father would mark Lick for life: the wealthy miller ridicu..... |
• Sigmund Stern Grove: The Jewel of the Sunset  Sigmund Stern Grove: The Jewel of the SunsetWithout the foresight of civic leader Rosalie Stern, Stern Grove might have been filled in and developed with houses, much like the rest of the Sunset. In 1866, the “Outside Lands,” the areas west of Twin Peaks that now include the Richmond, Golden Gate Park, and the Sunset, became part of the City and County of San Francisco. Although a few pieces of land were set aside as city parks, what we now call Stern Grove, running from 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard west to the end of Pine Lake, was privately owned and had no such designation. The Greene Family In 1847, Alfred Greene came to San Francisco and settled on the land at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard. The family began farming a..... |
• The Monastery Stones – Final Chapter  The Monastery Stones – Final ChapterThe monastery stones of Santa Maria de Ovila, found enclosing the Library Terrace Garden and at other locations in the SF Botanical Garden, have been controversial since their arrival in San Francisco in 1941. The monastery was built about 1200 by Cistercian monks on a hilltop in Spain overlooking the Tagus River, 90 miles northeast of Madrid. In 1835, it was suppressed by royal decree, sold, and used briefly as a hostel and for farm buildings. By 1930 it was in ruins, although the walls were still standing. They attracted the attention of a roving American art dealer who had handled many art acquisitions for William Randolph Hearst. He contacted Hearst, who immediately agreed to buy the mo..... |
• Levi Strauss and His Company  Levi Strauss and His CompanyAs historians, we like to correct others’ misconceptions of history. Here are some myths about Levi Strauss and his company: • Levi Strauss invented jeans when peddling tent canvas material in gold camps. The miners asked for strong pants, and he made pants out of the canvas and used rivets on the pockets. • The company always made jeans. • The name denim comes from a town in France named Nimes. • These pants with the riveted pockets were always called jeans. The actual history goes like this: • A tailor named Jacob Davis was the inventor of the pants later known as Levi’s or jeans. He approached Levi Strauss & Co. with his idea to secure a patent. It is likely that Davi..... |
• Lighthouses Around San Francisco Bay  Lighthouses Around San Francisco BayOur friends from other locations think of this area as sunny California. But if you live around San Francisco Bay, you know about the fog. And there are other dangers for ships, including strong gales, rocks, and shoals. Lighthouses were built here since Gold Rush times to warn ships of the dangers. I spoke with City Guide Patricia Duff, who works for the United States Coast Guard in their Lighthouse Divestiture program. As Patricia told me, the lighthouses were operated by the U. S. Lighthouse Service until 1939, when the Coast Guard took control. By the 1970s, most lighthouses were automated, mariners were using GPS systems, and the keepers were not needed at these sites. The keepers’ qu..... |
• Vermont Street - Is it the Crookedest?  Vermont Street - Is it the Crookedest?Did you know that there are two crookedest streets in San Francisco? Yes, you know about Lombard Street--but did you know about Vermont Street on Potrero Hill? Running between 20th and 22nd Streets, Vermont is a 14.3 percent grade and has five full turns and two half turns. But other than those facts, your intrepid editor could not find much else. In various newspaper articles it is cited as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) building project. However, the WPA was created in 1935, and the San Francisco History Center digital photography collection shows a photo dated from 1928 with the existing curves. Also in the S.F. Public Library is a reference book listing all the WPA projects i..... |
Treat for Coit Tower Guides On October 13, guides for the Coit Tower Murals tour were privileged to meet with Masha Zakheim Jewett. The author of Coit Tower, San Francisco, Its History and Art, Masha shared with the guides her personal experience of meeting and interviewing most of the original artists and workers involved with this project in 1933 and 1934. Masha's father, Bernard Zakheim, was one of the muralists on the Coit Tower project as well as one of the main organizers who initiated contact with Washington, DC, to secure federal funding and, with Ralph Stackpole, organized the project’s artists. The only Jewish artist to work on the Coit Tower murals, he was given the subject of "The Library" to paint in a ..... |
 Fleishhacker PoolThe name Fleishhacker invoked visions of fun at the beach—Fleishhacker Playground for amateur baseball, Fleishhacker Zoological Gardens, and Fleishhacker Pool. “When I was a kid, we would dive off the top platform. It must’ve been thirty feet up.”--Robert W. Smith, father of the author. Fleishhacker Pool was an attraction that was unique to San Francisco. It rightfully claimed its status as the world’s largest heated salt-water pool. The pool measured 1000 feet in length by 160 feet across at the middle section and 100 feet across at each end. The depth graduated from 3 feet at the west end to 15 feet under the diving platform. It held 6,500,000 gallons of filtered seawater pumped in f..... |
• Tom Maguire: A Colorful Character in SF’s Theatrical Past  Tom Maguire: A Colorful Character in SF’s Theatrical Past
In her book The San Francisco Stage: From Gold Rush to Golden Spike, 1849-1869, Misha Berson remarks on the beginnings of theatrical life in San Francisco: Theater was only getting its start in the Atlantic states when San Francisco was founded during the Gold Rush. Thus, the far frontier city began its theatrical life as an equal among equals as far as theatrical experience was concerned. Given San Francisco’s importance in the development of the theater in the United States, it is interesting to examine the background and life of one of those who produced and directed on those early stages. Tom Maguire ran San Francisco’s first legitimate house for serious actors, the Jenny Lind. Th..... |
 Old Vedanta TempleIts roofline an architectural confection of fanciful domes and graceful galleries, the Old Vedanta Temple at the corner of Webster and Filbert Streets is a vibrant landmark of the Cow Hollow neighborhood. The spirited architecture of this building, however, has a firm spiritual foundation. The structure is said to be the first Hindu Temple in the Western Hemisphere. From 1905 until the community outgrew the space and dedicated the “New” Vedanta Temple in 1959 at Fillmore and Vallejo Streets, just a few blocks away, the Old Temple served as the home for what became the Vedanta Society of Northern California. An early pamphlet published by the Society noted that the Temple “…may be consider..... |
• Adolph Sutro Travels to California (Part 1)  Adolph Sutro Travels to California (Part 1)Young Adolph Sutro, barely twenty years old, arrived in New York from Prussia in October 1850. He was the first of his band of seven brothers to arrive, and the second oldest. After learning all he could about the Gold Rush from the California-bound gold-seekers, the brash but perceptive Adolph decided abruptly, just a few days after his arrival, to go to California. He boarded the steamer Cherokee on October 12th. The first of his many letters to his brothers is dated Wednesday, October 30, from Panama; they assumed he was still in New York. (The voluminous letters, edited and paired with unattributed translations from the German, are found in the collection of the Sutro Library in San ..... |
 Land’s End in San FranciscoThe search in the History Room’s clipping disclosed numerous fascinating tidbits about the Cliff House. and the neighboring Seal Rocks, located 400 feet offshore. Over the years it has featured diverse entertainment – including tightrope walkers in the 1860s and a Sky Tram a hundred years later. As early as 1849 San Franciscans were making Sunday excursions to watch the seals cavorting on the Seal Rocks. When the opening of the Point Lobos Toll Road in 1863 made Land’s End easily accessible by carriage, the newly built Cliff House became a popular Sunday rendezvous spot. After the first tightrope walks over Niagara Falls created a national sensation, the fad soon came to San Francisco. On..... |
• San Francisco's West of Twin Peaks  San Francisco's West of Twin PeaksCongratulations to City Guide Jacquie Proctor on the publication of her book, San Francisco’s West of Twin Peaks, by Arcadia Press. This neighbor-hood, home to the city’s highest hill, Mount Davidson, and the 103-foot-high cross at its summit, also has links to the creation of San Francisco’s first railway and water systems, its tallest buildings and longest bridges, and a number of men who held the City’s highest office. First owned in 1846 by the last Mexican alcalde, Jose Noe, it was later purchased by the City’s fourth mayor, Cornelius Garrison, as well as its 21st, Adolph Sutro. Sutro had made his fortune digging a seven-mile long tunnel to mine the Comstock Lode beneath another Mount ..... |
• USS Hornet: the Grey Ghost in Alameda  USS Hornet: the Grey Ghost in AlamedaThe old gray lady sits in the water alongside Pier 3 in Alameda, California, at the end of another busy week. She has lost a lot of the spring in her step since she was launched as a young lady in Newport News, Virginia, in 1943. It’s easy for her to reminisce about the experiences of a long and active lifetime of service. She is the eighth USS Hornet in a long lineage of ships that go back to the American Revolutionary War. She was also a “Rosie the Riveter” ship with thirty percent of her construction crew being women. Like most people, she gained weight with age. In 1943, she was a young lady of 27,000 tons, while today she is quite a bit stouter at 41,000 tons. Displayed proudly on ..... |
 The Rancheria Act of 1958
The Mission neighborhood is renowned for its many colorful, intense murals. One could easily overlook four relatively modest panels displayed on the walls of the auto service garage on 16th Street on the corner of Albion. The subject of these works is the Rancheria Act, passed by Congress in 1958. The remarkable consequences of the Act seem especially relevant to devotees of California history, of which tribal history is a critical component. Perhaps it is not coincidental that these murals are so close to the landmark plaque on Albion celebrating the establishment of the first Mission Dolores. The presence of the Miwoks in northern California was documented in 1579 by a priest accompanyi..... |
 Who Knows About 650 Geary?While traipsing around the Tenderloin, researching another project, your editor sighted a very interesting Moorish style building at 650 Geary Steet. GuideLines put out a call to see if anyone knew the history of this building. Thank you to all who responded including Bob Bowen, Don Andreini, Peter Field, Gary Holloway, Ulla Kaprielian, and Ernie Ng. The building, San Francisco Landmark #195, is today the location of the Alcazar Theater. It was built in 1917 at a cost of $150,000 as the Islam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The Shriners, a men’s social and charitable organization of the Freemasons, used the building until 1970. The building was designed by Scott..... |
• San Francisco's Shanghai Kelly  San Francisco's Shanghai KellyIn the black trade of “shanghaiing” sailors from San Francisco’s Barbary Coast, one man’s infamous villainy earned him the label “King of the Crimps.” Known by all as Shanghai Kelly, he was a short, slovenly, man with unkempt flaming red hair and beard and a fierce temper. Born James Kelly in Ireland in 1820, he joined the Gold Rush to California in 1848. Kelly soon set himself up in business with a sailors’ boardinghouse at 33 Pacific Street, the heart of the Barbary Coast. This was the perfect set-up for his real money-maker, filling the “orders” of sea captains desperate for sailors to man their ships sailing on from San Francisco. In the years after the Gold Rush, with hundreds of shi..... |
• Isadora Duncan’s San Francisco  Isadora Duncan’s San FranciscoIsadora Duncan is considered the mother of Modern Dance. Her dance movements were borrowed from Ancient Greece, and she danced in flowing costumes, bare feet, and loose hair—revolutionary at the time. Although she created her reputation in Europe and Russia, Isadora Duncan started in San Francisco. She was born Dora Angela Duncan in 1877 and baptized at Old St. Mary’s Church on California Street. Her family home at 501 Taylor Street near Geary was adjacent to a vacant lot where they kept their cow. The present day building on the site hosts a commemorative plaque. Isadora’s maternal grandfather, Colonel Thomas Gray, was a California State senator and established the first ferry between ..... |
• San Francisco Mural Month of May  San Francisco Mural Month of MayMay is Mural Awareness Month in San Francisco! This inspires GuideLines to explore historic photos of some of the famous murals found along the routes of City Guides tours. On the route of the City Guides Nob Hill tour, Grace Cathedral boasts murals by John DeRosen and Antonio Sotomayor. In the photo shown above from September 1949, John DeRosen is working on the mural of St. Francis of Assisi found in the Cathedral’s south aisle. Neighboring murals show the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945; the 1906 burning of Grace Church; and Fra Junipero Serra at Monterey in 1770. Murals in the north aisle include depictions of Francis Drake holding the first English-lang..... |
• Salvation Army’s Help in 1906 Earthquake  Salvation Army’s Help in 1906 EarthquakeIn 1906 when The Salvation Army’s National Commander Evangeline Booth said, “San Franciscans have spirits like corks and come back with a bounce every time,” she was referring to more than just the earthquake and fire. Survivors, she said, had “pluck.” Candidates applying to become Salvation Army officers also were expected to have “pluck and go.” In the mid-nineteenth century, this was Horatio Alger’s definition for people who never gave up. The author of over one hundred popular books for boys applauded those who conquered adversity and rose above difficult times. They had resilience, he said, an understanding that no matter how devastating a disaster was, there was always hope for..... |
• San Francisco's Old Clam House on the Lost Waterfront  San Francisco's Old Clam House on the Lost WaterfrontThe Old Clam House, opened in 1861, is one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco. Located on the corner of Bayshore Boulevard and Oakdale Avenue, it has also been called the Clam House and Oakdale Bar. When it opened, the restaurant was on the waterfront, sitting on Islais Creek which flowed into San Francisco Bay, and surrounded by a shallow marshy estuary. At that time, the restaurant was connected to downtown San Francisco by two wood-planked roads. Within ten years the marsh was filled in, more than 100 buildings were constructed on piles over the creek, and the area became known as New Butchertown. After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, even more debris was dumped into the marsh. ..... |
• Where Was the Valencia Hotel?  Where Was the Valencia Hotel?Little did I know when I entered Cherin’s Appliance store on Valencia Street that I would find answers to a question I hadn’t been able to solve. Luckily, Michael Cherin waited on me. During our conversation I asked him if he know where the Valencia Hotel had been. He said, “Right here,” but then for validation he asked his grandfather, Lou Cherin, who is the family historian. Lou said no, the Valencia Hotel was across the street. Built in 1898, the Valencia Hotel was a four-story wood frame structure with a brick foundation. The Mission district was originally a marshland with creeks and shallow lakes. Landfill began in the 1860s, and in 1888 four hundred acres of solid ground had been..... |
 ALBA Bay Area Connection
In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a military uprising to overthrow the elected government of Spain. In response, the International Brigades – 40,000 volunteers from fifty countries – went to Spain to fight for democracy. The Americans who joined the fight were known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. But Franco had the support of Hitler and Mussolini, and in April of 1939 he gained control of Spain. Five months later the Nazis invaded Poland and World War II began. As is true for many Americans, my knowledge of the Spanish Civil War was minimal, gained primarily through the work of Ernest Hemingway and other writers of the 1930s – that is until my cousin, Julia Newman, made several trips..... |
• Eureka Benevolent Society and Henry Mauser in San Francisco  Eureka Benevolent Society and Henry Mauser in San Francisco
When the ground started shaking at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the three-story frame building at 436 O’Farrell, which housed the administrative offices of the Eureka Benevolent Society, was empty of workers, so no lives were lost at the site. However, after the fire raged throughout so much of San Francisco on that inauspicious day and the two that followed, only portions of the front and rear exterior walls remained standing. Having to start over was nothing new for the members of the Eureka, first organized in 1850 to provide financial assistance to “Israelites landing here, broken in health or destitute of means.” Founder August Helbing, only 25 years old when he convince..... |
• Philo Farnsworth and Green Street  Philo Farnsworth and Green StreetCalifornia Landmark 941 commemorates Philo Taylor Farnsworth’s laboratory where the first television image was transmitted. The landmark plaque at the corner of Green and Sansome Streets refers to him as “The Genius of Green Street.” picture1left200 On September 7, 1927, in his lab at the bottom of Telegraph Hill, 21-year-old Phil Farnsworth’s invention transmitted the blurry image of a line. With his “Lab Gang,” as the researchers called themselves, he perfected the technology, in the next year transmitting shapes, and a few years later sending signals from the lab at 202 Green Street to the Merchants’ Exchange Building on Battery and Washington—8 blocks away. Phil Farnsworth was bor..... |
• In Case of Fire, Look to Twin Peaks  In Case of Fire, Look to Twin PeaksAndy Rooney’s voice lives in my head. Yeah, that unmistakable cranky whine from CBS TV’s 60 Minutes seems to be always asking, “Do you ever wonder why...?” Do you ever wonder why San Francisco has two sizes of fire hydrants? You sometimes see them facing each other across an intersection, one Stan Laurel to the other’s Oliver Hardy. And my inner Andy wanted to know why. A fireman once gave me the first piece of the puzzle. Skinny Stan is a fairly standard model that in San Francisco runs the drinking water pumped from Chain of Lakes, a.k.a. the San Andreas Fault. Husky Oliver, on the other hand, spouts a high-pressure stream that is essentially driven by gravity through its own..... |
 Douglas Tilden
As we travel along Market Street, we can admire two splendid survivors of the 1906 earthquake. On the corner of Market/Bush/Battery stands the Mechanics Monument, dedicated in May 1901, and just a few blocks further, at Market and Montgomery, is the Native Son Monument, unveiled on September 5, 1897. Both of these statues were created by Douglas Tilden. What do we know about this artist? Born in Chico, California, on May 1, 1860, he was the son of William Peregrine Tilden, M.D., and Catherine Hecox Tilden. At age four, Douglas became ill with scarlet fever. As a result, he became deaf-mute. Two years later, he was enrolled in the California School for the Deaf, located at UC Berk..... |
• Adolph Sutro in Panama (Part 2)  Adolph Sutro in Panama (Part 2)In Jack Leibman's series of articles culled from Sutro’s letters - here he takes up the tale of Sutro’s journey to San Francisco after the steamer Cherokee from New York deposits him in the port of Chagres on the Caribbean coast of Panama. As always, Adolph provides vivid descriptions of his experiences. The exotic natives of Chagres in Panama number about 1500 and seem to be a mixture of brown and black. "They are very lazy and passionately fond of smoking, especially the women. Nearly every girl has a cigar in her mouth or sticks it behind her ear like a pen. Men and women are clad from the hips down or not at all, and have no shame. Some women are dressed in fine ..... |
 Chagres TravelersPeople bound for California from New York or New Orleans generally sailed to the port of Chagres in Panama, then traveled overland 60 miles through jungle and over mountains to reach the Pacific Ocean and await a ship to transport them north. The harbor was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502. For three centuries under Spanish rule, the village was considered unhealthy and unruly. When tens of thousands of gold-seekers landed there on their way to California, the village did not have the resources—including sanitation or police—to handle all the people. The biggest dangers included robbery and insect- and water-born diseases such as Chagres or Panama fever (yellow fever), malaria,..... |
• Landmarks Versus National Historic Places  Landmarks Versus National Historic PlacesDid you know that the Mission Dolores is both a San Francisco Landmark and a California Historical Landmark, and also holds a place on the National Register of Historic Places? And do you know the difference in these designations? Many buildings on our tour routes display plaques indicating landmark status, but the process for achieving each form of recognition is different. National Historic Places and Landmarks The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) includes over 80,000 listings, of which over 2,400 are designated as National Historic Landmarks. Landmarks are designated by the Secretary of the Interior for their national significance. Historic places are nomi..... |
• Hollywood Stars Visit San Francisco's Chinatown  Hollywood Stars Visit San Francisco's ChinatownIn 1947, near the end of an unhappy five-year marriage, Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth sat in a dark theater and tensely watched a Chinese opera production. Only four years earlier, Hollywood’s “Boy Wonder” had married “The Love Goddess,” but whatever happiness they had once enjoyed was short-lived. They had come to San Francisco’s Chinatown not for the theater, but to make a film of their own, Lady from Shanghai. In the movie, Orson Welles’s character gets caught up in a murder scheme, and he confronts Rita Hayworth’s character in a pivotal scene that takes place during the Chinese opera performance. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll likely remember that the climactic last scene takes ..... |
 SF Theater Quiz
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• Wayside Chapel of St Francis  Wayside Chapel of St FrancisThe City’s smallest and largest churches once stood side-by-side atop Nob Hill. Perched in the shadow of Grace Cathedral, the Wayside Chapel of St. Francis opened on May 28, 1945. When the Episcopal Bishop wanted a chapel where people could come 24 hours a day to pray for their loved ones at war, the bishop’s chaplain suggested they convert a tiny construction shed on the California Street side of the still-unfinished cathedral. Built in 1932, the wooden structure had been used as the fund-raising office for the cathedral building campaign, and subsequently as Dinwiddie Construction’s on-site office. And thus in the waning years of World War II, generous donors helped to convert it i..... |
 Chicken TetrazziniThere is one thing we know for sure about Chicken Tetrazzini: it was named for famed Italian opera soprano Luisa Tetrazzini. Everything else is up for grabs - including whether to use chicken, turkey, or salmon. Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1941), called “The Florentine Nightingale,” was a world-renowned opera star who was a favorite of San Francisco audiences. Chefs often named dishes for prestigious clients at their restaurants. You may recall our story in the July issue of GuideLines about the creation by the Palace Hotel of Green Goddess salad dressing, named for a play entitled The Green Goddess when its star, George Arliss, was a guest at the hotel. In other restaurants, Lobster Newber..... |
• Falling for Vertigo’s Madeleine  Falling for Vertigo’s MadeleineIf five years ago I‘d not visited the town of San Juan Bautista, there‘d be no guided Vertigo tour. Most people go there as fourth-graders to see the old Spanish mission, the stable, and associated buildings--a field trip during their year of California History. As a tour operator, I went out of idle curiosity. I love the town because it appears to have no aspirations to fame. (Search in vain for a “San Juan Bautista” T-shirt.) But what a unique place! Its mission church sits adjacent to the San Andreas fault. Stand next to its Indian cemetery on a rise above the old El Camino Real to view miles of cultivated fields stretching across the Salinas Valley to the Gabilan Range. Face west to s..... |
• The Big Dipper at Playland at the Beach  The Big Dipper at Playland at the BeachIn 1913, Arthur Looff and John Freidle formed a partnership to create an amusement park, located at Ocean Beach on the Great Highway, called Concessions at the Beach. Looff owned the Hippodrome, housing the first of San Francisco’s three famous carousels, and Freidle owned a shooting gallery and a baseball knockdown game called Babyland. picture1right300 That meager start grew to ten major attractions and countless arcades by 1921, including the Shoot-the-Chutes water ride. By then the park had taken on the name of its top attraction, billed as Chutes at the Beach. The remaining nine attractions were the Bob Sled Dipper roller coaster (Bobs), the Aeroplane Swing, the Whip, Dodg `Em, th..... |
• San Francisco Transit History  San Francisco Transit HistoryOf all the cities in the United States (if not the world), San Francisco probably has one of the most interesting transit histories. Starting in 1873 when a hilly horse car problem was solved by the invention of the cable car by Andrew Hallidie, one no longer had to walk up Nob Hill or Russian Hill. The first electric streetcar ran in 1892. Streetcars were replacing all non-hilly cable lines when the 1906 earthquake struck. In one fell swoop all five Market Street lines and Sutter, Polk-Larkin and Union cables were electrified. picture1right300 The worst streetcar strike in the United States hit in 1907. It involved San Francisco’s United Railroads, lasted four months and resulted in thr..... |
• Castro Movie Makeover: Glimpses of the Castro from 30 Years Ago  Castro Movie Makeover: Glimpses of the Castro from 30 Years Ago
Guides for the Castro: Tales of the Village tour have been able to observe the ongoing retrofit to the Castro as its appearance from 30 years ago is brought to life. The time warp is all part of the Gus Van Sant film entitled Milk. The biopic on the life of the first openly gay man elected to office in the United States stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk and Josh Brolin as Dan White. Filming began on January 22, 2008, and is slated to continue until March 15th. For those of us who walk the Castro and, through our stories, evoke the images of decades ago, these are exciting times! Construction workers have altered the Castro Theatre marquee to use the color palette from the late seventies. The..... |
 Sparkletack.comI love my iPod, but it is kind of a piece of junk with lots of programming bugs. At my last visit to the Genius Bar to get the thing fixed, the Genius complimented me on my podcast collection. And then he told me Sparkletack was one of his favorites. Sparkletack.com is the website, blog, and podcast of Richard Miller, who has created close to 70 history tidbits. You can download the files, get them from iTunes, or go to the website and read the text and see historical photos. He is a detailed researcher and uses the San Francisco Public Library History Center for his work. I emailed him and asked how he became interested in history, and Richard started reciting parts of my tour—the pa..... |
• Adolph Sutro Slogs Through Panama (Part 3)  Adolph Sutro Slogs Through Panama (Part 3)This is the third in a series of articles tracing German immigrant Adolph Sutro’s 1850 journey by ship from New York to California via the isthmus of Panama. City Guide Jack Leibman has drawn this description from Sutro’s letters found in the collection of the Sutro Library. His tale resumes after he has spent a miserable night in a canoe, besieged by mosquitoes and drenched by rain. Today's scenery again features thick forests, trees lying across the river, and isolated huts. At noon, a “disgusting” lunch table is encountered, covered with flies, little worms, and ants. Then a terrible drenching thunderstorm occurs before the next station, which is furnished with two huts. Abou..... |
ALBA Monument In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a military uprising to overthrow the elected government of Spain. Forty thousand people went to Spain to fight for democracy. The 2,700 Americans who joined the fight were known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (ALBA). After Franco gained control of Spain in 1939 with help from both Hitler and Mussolini, the Nazis invaded Poland and World War II began. To read a GuideLines story about the many women from the Bay Area who served as medical personnel in Spain, see the GuideLines article: Bay Area..... |
 SF's First World's FairThe United States found itself mired in recession in the first years of the 1890s. San Francisco and the state of California suffered with the rest. Unemployment was up and productivity and the markets were down. The only bright spot nationwide was the 1893 Columbian Exposition, better known as the Chicago World’s Fair. Shortly after the grand opening, San Franciscan Michael Harry de Young, vice president of the Columbian Commission, recognized an opportunity to promote his city and state. San Francisco Chronicle publisher de Young proposed an adjunct to the Chicago Fair for San Francisco, to be held in the dead of winter. On June 1, 1893, de Young announced his plans to open the Califor..... |
• San Francisco Baseball Giants  San Francisco Baseball GiantsMore than fifty years ago, the Giants’ move from New York brought major league baseball to San Francisco. The City welcomed the Giants with a parade down Montgomery to Market Street and on to City Hall. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, they changed their name to the New York Giants in 1885. They played at New York City’s Polo Grounds until the end of the 1957 season, when, at the instigation of San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, they moved to the West Coast in a deal that also brought their great rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, to Los Angeles. For their first two seasons in San Francisco, they played at Seals Stadium, 16th & Bryant, which had been the home of the Pacific Co..... |
• Adolph Sutro Arrives in SF (Part 4)  Adolph Sutro Arrives in SF (Part 4)City Guide Jack Leibman, a volunteer at the Sutro Library, has been sharing with GuideLines readers descriptions from the letters of German immigrant Adolph Sutro about his 1850 journey from New York to San Francisco. The previous installment featured Sutro’s description of his dreadful passage across the isthmus of Panama. In this fourth and final installment, Sutro, after further adventures, at last reaches his destination. After six steamy, disagreeable days in Panama, on November 1, 1850, for $300, Adolph boarded the California bound..... |
• San Francisco's Divas of the Past  San Francisco's Divas of the PastToday's headlines-making pop stars have nothing on their predecessors. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, colorful entertainers graced the stages of San Francisco: Lola Montez, who could have served as the inspiration for the song from Damn Yankees, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets," was famous for performing her Spider Dance, a provocative performance based on the notion that spiders were crawling on her body under her clothing. As she twirled and writhed around the stage, rubber spiders came flying out. Born Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in Ireland, Lola married and separated at a young age and became a noted courtesan, mistress to Franz Liszt and Ludwig I of Bava..... |
• Baroness von Schroeder, Rambling Bits of History  Baroness von Schroeder, Rambling Bits of HistoryThis article began as a search to learn more about Baroness von Schroeder, the developer of a Mission district residential area. Her trail proved to intersect with many of the movers and shakers of San Francisco at the turn of the last century. Between 1889 and 1894, Baroness Mary Ellen von Schroeder developed 27 houses on South Van Ness (then called Howard Street) between 22nd and 23rd Streets and the backing lots with houses facing Capp Street. Designed by architect Thomas J. Welsh (1845-1918), the Eastlake or American Stick style houses sold for around $5,000. Many of the existing houses have the original flash glass—small colored glass squares surrounding the main window pane. Welsh d..... |
 Crystal Palace Market “The Palace was an emporium dedicated to the palates of the cosmos. It probably had food from Saturn. It was the FAO Schwarz of the stomach.” Thus author Gus Lee describes the Crystal Palace Market of his youth in China Boy, the fictionalized account of his boyhood that was San Francisco’s choice for this fall’s “One City/One Book” shared reading experience. His description is no exaggeration. During its 36-year run, the 71,000-square-foot market imported goods from at least 37 countries to provide the most varied offerings in the country. Its 65 shops included four dairy stands – selling 36,000 eggs daily –, four poultry stands, six butcher shops, three fish markets, and seven fruit..... |
 Mark Twain at the BancroftThe Mark Twain Papers and Project at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library is converting the works of Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens) into HTML files, making Twain’s work available electronically and for web searches. The Twain Project is translating all of Mark Twain's surviving private papers and published works, including notebooks, letters, unpublished manuscripts, drafts, deleted chapters of published books, essays, newspaper columns, editorials, and speeches. There are approximately 27,000 letters, 150 books from his library (many with notes written in the margins), clippings, scrapbooks, interviews, bills, checks, and photographs. The Project is converting not only items in the ..... |
• Swensen’s Ice Cream: Looking Back at a Neighborhood  Swensen’s Ice Cream: Looking Back at a Neighborhood
In 1948 Earle Swensen opened his ice cream store on Hyde and Union Streets. Since then, more than 180 flavors have been created, Swensen's franchises have opened worldwide, and Swensen became a multimillionaire. Earle Swensen, the son of a Norwegian brick mason, started making ice cream on a Navy troop ship in the South Pacific during World War II. He only had the ingredients for vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, but he said the sailors didn't care what flavor he made – they just wanted something cold in the hot climate. Back in San Francisco, he became a Deputy City Assessor. When a small store became vacant on Russian Hill, he started his empire with $750. Realizing he needed more cap..... |
• Albion Castle – San Franciscans, their Beers, and the Story of One Brewery  Albion Castle – San Franciscans, their Beers, and the Story of One BreweryNineteen-year-old John Burnell, already an experienced brewer trained in London, came to San Francisco in 1868. He bought a parcel of land with large flowing springs in an area where brothers Robert and Philip Hunter managed real estate transactions for the new city – an area known today as Hunter’s Point. Here in the 1870s Burnell established the Albion Porter & Ale Brewery. The building he erected, featuring a three-story tower reminiscent of a Norman castle from Burnell’s native England, has always been known as the Albion Castle. The Castle was recently in the news when it was auctioned off for $2.1 million. The building has walls two to three feet thick and was built with stone t..... |
 Honest Harry MeiggsOf the many dreamers, promoters, and con men who built Gold Rush San Francisco, perhaps none was as hard-working and well-liked as Henry “Honest Harry” Meiggs. Born in 1811 in New York, by his mid-twenties Harry had managed, through his own energy and abilities, to purchase a lumber mill in present-day Brooklyn. Caught by a business downturn in the 1840s, Meiggs joined the throngs heading West. But before departing, the resourceful lumberman used his remaining funds to purchase a sailing vessel and load it up with lumber to ship around the Horn. Arriving in San Francisco in January 1849, he fetched a fabulous price for his cargo. With his profits he built a sawmill and a small wharf..... |
• Kurt Herbert Adler - San Francisco Legend  Kurt Herbert Adler - San Francisco LegendKurt Herbert Adler was the autocratic general director of the San Francisco Opera. His uncompromising personality and his central role during a half century of San Francisco’s cultural history ensure his place among the City’s unforgettable great leaders. As a member of the Opera Chorus during the now-legendary Adler years, I can testify that Adler was omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent in his kingdom at the War Memorial Opera House. Even if I was positioned in the darkest corner of the stage amidst a cast of hundreds, Mr. Adler was sure to notice if I forgot a word or tripped on my costume. “Eeet’s not POSS-eeble!” he would growl in his Viennese accent, sending terror into the he..... |
• Secret Places to Go in San Francisco  Secret Places to Go in San Francisco
City Guides know that San Francisco holds a plethora of delightful surprises beyond the cable cars and Fisherman’s Wharf. But could there be some FREE hidden gems you haven’t discovered yet? With map in hand and a bit of Internet route pre-planning, I recently set off to see some of San Francisco’s non-traditional sights. First stop was the City College campus on Ocean Avenue to view Diego Rivera’s Pan American Unity mural, painted in 1940 for the Golden Gate International Exposition. Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo lived in San Francisco while he created this stunning work combining the art, culture, history, politics, religion, and technology of the Americas. City Guides will offer a t..... |
• Black Bart and Clean Handkerchiefs  Black Bart and Clean Handkerchiefs
Charles Bowles – aka Charles Bolton, C. E. Boles, Black Bart, and Po8 – robbed twenty-seven Wells Fargo stagecoaches between 1875 and 1883. A resident of Second Street in San Francisco, he would travel to Stockton, California, walk into the mountains, and later appear on roads where stagecoaches traveled. After each robbery, he left behind a poem. Black Bart wore a light-colored overgarment covering his clothes, a flour sack over his head, and a derby hat on top of it. His first poem, written on a waybill and left weighted by a stone on top of a tree stump, appeared after Bart robbed a stage in Sonoma County. "I've labored long and hard for bread and honor and for riches But on my c..... |
• 826 Valencia: Pirates and More  826 Valencia: Pirates and MoreLast year while doing one of my walks in the Mission Dolores Neighborhood, I suddenly realized that I had been bypassing one of San Francisco's most interesting and famed addresses, 826 Valencia, now listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark. picture1right300 This relatively modest storefront exterior masquerades as a pirate supply store, providing a commercial “front” for its real business, which must be seen to be believed. If you can get past the tantalizing random and eclectic pirate supplies, such as spyglasses, eye patches, wooden legs, a fish tank, and an infamous tub of lard, the rest of the facility is dedicated to a vibrantly unique tutoring enterprise, now in its ninth ..... |
 The Irish in San FranciscoI am the granddaughter of four Irish immigrants. They all came to the United States in the early 1900s, part of the wave of Irish immigrants who came to the United States because of the political unrest in Ireland during her struggle for independence from England. My mother’s parents first settled in Oakland and later in San Francisco, and my father’s parents lived in Los Angeles. They all came to California by way of the transcontinental railroad. They were sponsored by relatives who were already living here, and when they were able, they themselves sponsored other relatives from Ireland. I grew up in San Francisco very conscious of my Irish roots. We would celebrate St. Patrick’s..... |
• Robert Louis Stevenson - One Visit….and So Many Memorials  Robert Louis Stevenson - One Visit….and So Many MemorialsAre San Franciscans star struck? This may explain why San Francisco and California has many commemorations to Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scotsman who was here for less than a year. If you have been on our Chinatown or Gold Rush tours, you know about the memorial in Portsmouth Square pictured here. There is also a plaque located on the site where he once lived, an elementary school and a state park named for him, and museum dedicated to his work in the Wine Country. Stevenson was in San Francisco, waiting for the divorce of the woman he loved, and recuperating from his arduous journey here. He often visited Portsmouth Square, now marked by this memorial. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1..... |
Cappuccino in San Francisco It’s no surprise that the first espresso machines in San Francisco were brought over from Italy to North Beach. Less well known is that those first machines have never been used to make coffee. Today’s North Beach institution, Tosca Café, was opened on 19 November 1919 by three Italians returning from World War I who wanted a bar like those they had frequented in Italy. Alas, less than two months later, on 16 January 1920, Prohibition went into effect throughout the United States. How could Tosca fill its customers’ orders? One of the three partners was dispatched to Healdsburg to make brandy. Espresso machines were imported from Italy – the first in 1921 and a second in 1927. Soo..... |
• The SF Chronicle Building Restored  The SF Chronicle Building RestoredSan Francisco’s first skyscraper, whose original façade has been hidden for more than 40 years, is presently undergoing restoration. Located at 690 Market Street at the corner of Kearny and 3rd Streets, the structure was originally the Chronicle Building, but has been known in recent years by its tenant, Washington Mutual. It was the Chronicle's home until 1924 and shares the important “newspaper corner” intersection with the Hearst and former Call buildings. The building’s 1889 brick and stone façade was covered with white enamel sheets in a 1962 modernization, but at least some of the original material was preserved underneath. Interestingly, although it is historically known as the Ch..... |
• Goats on Goat Island in San Francisco  Goats on Goat Island in San FranciscoGoat Island – now called Yerba Buena Island – is located halfway between San Francisco and Oakland. This piece of land has had a number of names, most referring to its inhabitants. José de Canizares, believed to be the first European to sail through the Golden Gate, named it Isla del Carmen in 1776. Apparently that name never stuck, because the locals referred to it as Sea Bird, Wood, and Yerba Buena (for the mint plant growing all over the island). When people started settling in California after the Gold Rush, there were a large number of goats brought to the island by squatters – hence the name Goat Island. The first California legislature, when passing an act establishing t..... |
• Talbot Green and His Green Street  Talbot Green and His Green Street Running from the Embarcadero to the Presidio, Green Street was named in William Eddy’s 1849 survey of San Francisco. But just who is the Green of Green Street? Like many of San Francisco’s earliest settlers, he was not who he seemed. Talbot Green came west in the spring of 1841 in the first immigrant party to travel over the Sierras to California. The arduous journey of this group of forty-eight settlers who set off together from Independence, Missouri, was chronicled in the diary kept by their secretary, John Bidwell. After surviving the grueling journey, Green traveled to Monterey and joined Thomas Larkin as a junior partner, conducting business on Larkin’s behalf in Los Angeles and ..... |
• Diana Statue in Sutro Heights Park  Diana Statue in Sutro Heights ParkDiana the Huntress…Artemis. If you have been on our Lands End: Sutro Highs and Lows tour, you have seen this statue at Sutro Heights, the park located in the northwest corner of San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was once the home of Adolph Sutro, Comstock Silver Baron, San Francisco mayor, land developer, and builder of Sutro Baths and the second, most grandiose Cliff House. Sutro loved statues, and at one time had 200 surrounding the grounds and niches on the cliffs above Ocean Beach. Only two original statues remain--the Stag and Diana the Huntress. In addition, gracing the entrance gates are copies of the original Lions that were replaced after they deteriorated. Sutro collected thes..... |
 San Francisco's BirthdayJune 29, 1776—just a few days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence a continent away in Philadelphia—is celebrated as the official birthday of San Francisco. It was on this date that the Spaniards celebrated their first mass under a temporary shelter at the site of the future Mission Dolores. In March of that year, a Spanish scouting party under Captain Juan Bautista de Anza had determined the sites for a future presidio overlooking the entrance to the bay and, in a sheltered valley to the southeast, a mission. They named the small stream and lake where the mission was to be built Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Lake of our Lady of Sorrows). De Anza’s advance..... |
 San Francisco and the UN
June is United Nations Month. On June 26, 1945 – the UN was officially born when delegates from fifty nations gathered at San Francisco’s War Memorial Veterans Building to sign the UN Charter. US President Franklin Roosevelt had insistently pushed his fellow war leaders Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin to create an organization to replace the League of Nations. Roosevelt’s passionate advocacy was acknowledged when, at their February 1945 meeting in Yalta, the three leaders agreed to hold the UN Conference in the US. But why San Francisco? For that we can thank Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. During the Yalta Conference, he awakened in the middle of the night from a dream a..... |
 Old Mt. Sutro, Reborn!Mt. Sutro – where is that? This is a question that I often get from San Francisco natives and long-time residents. After over 20 years spent growing up high up on Sutro’s southern slope, even I didn’t know precisely until recent years, although I knew that it was somewhere in that dense forest up behind UCSF. The summit of Mt. Sutro lies in Sutro Forest, which is to the south of UCSF’s main campus at Parnassus Heights, west of Cole Valley, east of the Inner Sunset, and north of the Sutro Tower and Twin Peaks. Mt. Sutro is San Francisco’s fourth highest summit at 904 feet. Nearby Twin Peaks and Mt. Davidson are much more visible, partly due to the remnants of Sutro’s Giant Forest, w..... |
• PPIE: San Francisco's Finest World's Fair (Part 1)  PPIE: San Francisco's Finest World's Fair (Part 1)The building of the Panama Canal in the beginning of the twentieth century meant expanded trade and less costly passage east for local goods shipped through San Francisco. In 1904, the San Francisco Merchants’ Exchange proposed that San Francisco should host a world’s fair celebrating the opening. Our great quake and fire in 1906 put those plans on hold, but San Franciscans did not forget. In October 1909, President William Taft announced January 1, 1915, as the date for the opening of the canal. The San Francisco Merchants’ Exchange met and by March 22, 1910, incorporated the Panama Pacific International Exposition Company. Local support quickly generated six million dollars in subscript..... |
• Golden Gate Park’s Speed Road  Golden Gate Park’s Speed Roadpicture1left400 Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park is the former location of Speed Road, a track built in 1888 for recreational horse racing. The Speed Road began where the eastern edge of the meadow is now at Lloyd Lake, continuing southwest to what is now the southern seating area of the Polo Field, making a northward curve at the Bercut Equitation Field, and ending where John F. Kennedy Drive is now at the 42nd Avenue grid line. picture2right400 In the 1870s and 1880s, a number of commercial horse tracks existed in the western part of the city. During this period, a group of wealthy men were pushing to build a track in Golden Gate Park for recreational use. The intent was to bu..... |
 Dearborn GardenJoni Mitchell’s well-known lyric “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” is a rueful sentiment about the destruction of our natural environment. But there is at least one place in San Francisco where that process was actually reversed. The Dearborn Community Garden is located on a quiet street about two blocks northeast of Dolores Park, adjacent to 43-49 Dearborn Street. It was formerly an employee parking lot for the Pepsico bottling plant situated at the southwest corner of 17th and Valencia Streets. This is also where the police station is now. As the plant's business started to wane, the parking lot stood virtually empty for many years. Neighbors started to garden there, taking..... |
 Walking Buenos AiresSince discovering San Francisco City Guides during the 1906 Earthquake and Fire centennial in 2006, I have become somewhat obsessed with walking tours. In addition to receiving the award for attending the most City Guides tours during the 2008 training class, I have sought out similar guided walking programs in several other cities. In the September 2008 issue of GuideLines, I wrote about my experience with Big Onion Walking Tours in New York City. Preparing for a recent trip to Argentina, I noted a guidebook reference to Eternautas (www .eternautas.com), where “highly informed young historians from the University of Buenos Aires lead the cultural and historical tours.” Their website was..... |
 Graffiti in San FranciscoCity Guide's North Beach by Night guides are saddened every time they lead walkers past the marvelous mural on Romolo Place off Broadway between Columbus and Kearny. Created by artist Ann Sherry in 1994, the 200-foot-long mural entitled “Gold Mountain” depicts the history of the Chinese in San Francisco. It includes such Chinatown icons as Donaldina Cameron, who rescued Chinese girls forced into prostitution, Edsel Ford Fong, the famously rude waiter at Sam Wo’s restaurant, and Betty Ong, a flight attendant on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center on 9/11, who was painted into the mural in 2003. Chinatown native Betty Ong, a flight attendant whose plane was flown into the World Tr..... |
• Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree in San Francisco  Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree in San FranciscoElizabeth Rosanna Gilbert (1821-1861) was notorious. The dancer and actress was well-known for her lovers, including King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Franz Liszt. As one biographer said, she was an incorrigible liar, and many of the fantastic stories about her life were probably started by her. The biggest fantasy was her name. She was born in Ireland and traveled to Spain while being sued for adultery and divorce in England. She returned to England the next year pretending to be Spanish royalty with the name Maria Dolores de Porris y Montez—familiarly called Lola. But what is fact is that she came to San Francisco in May 1853, quickly married a man she met on the ship, moved to Grass Valley..... |
 Jack Kerouac Alley Mural
Perhaps as you stroll along Columbus Avenue in North Beach, you pay little attention to the sixty-foot-long Jack Kerouac Alley, aptly situated between the landmark City Lights Bookstore and legendary Vesuvio Café. The passageway that served as a transportation shortcut from Chinatown to North Beach was once a refuge for back-alley drinkers and rotting garbage. Today, Jack Kerouac Alley is transformed into an inviting pedestrian-only thoroughfare complete with decorative lampposts and poetry from eastern and western cultures inscribed on the brick walkway connecting the two neighborhoods. The renovated alley was opened to the public on March 31, 2007, under the funding and direction of the Ch..... |
• San Francisco Armory in the Mission  San Francisco Armory in the MissionCity Guides offers three different tours in the Mission. None venture remotely near the hulking ugly pseudo-Moorish Armory building at 1800 Mission Street. With clinker brick exteriors, four octagonal towers, and 200,000 square feet of space, this forbidding structure was built in 1912-14 as an arsenal for the US National Guard, replacing one in the Western Addition destroyed in 1906. Its ultimate cost, including land, was $500,000. Besides its official function as a military training and storage facility, it was used frequently for sporting events and prizefights. Said to be the largest building of architectural importance in the Mission, it has the largest unsupported enclosed volu..... |
• PPIE: San Francisco’s Finest World’s Fair (Part 2)  PPIE: San Francisco’s
Finest World’s Fair (Part 2)
In the May issue of GuideLines, James R. Smith, author of San Francisco’s Lost Landmarks (2005, 2007), described San Francisco’s bid to host the world’s fair celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, and the creation of the fantasy world of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. In this issue: The fair’s glorious success. San Franciscans bought 100,000 Opening Day badges at 50 cents each, pre-paid entry to the exposition. At six o’clock on the morning of February 20, 1915, those San Franciscans tu..... |
Warning: getimagesize(images/guidelines/sina_feat.JPG) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/sfcity2/public_html/public_guidelines.html on line 622 • Guide Profile: Our Great Feat Winner!  Guide Profile: Our Great Feat Winner!If you log on to the City Guides website regularly, you will see new things each time. And the reason for that is our webmaster and 2008 Great Feat Award winner, Sina Ghaemmaghami. (If you, like your editors, wonder how he pronounces his name, it is GA-em-ma-GA-mee.) Since Sina took over as webmaster from Sean Timberlake in 2007, he has been responsible for updating the site, offering more features in the Guides Only section, coordinating the content with City Guides groups, and managing the database. In addition to website duties, Sina leads the Dogpatch and Potrero Point and Murals in the Multiethnic Mission tours, conducts Dogpatch armchair walks, presented historical research train..... |
 Links to the PastThree City Guides have recently encountered living links to historic figures they have researched or whom they speak about on their tours. Sally Ward was filling in as guide for the 10 AM Palace Hotel Tour when, about halfway through the tour, one of the guests introduced herself as the great grandniece of William Ralston, who drained his banking empire building the fabulous Palace. The grandniece, a resident of Seattle, was staying in the hotel with her husband, and was happy to give Sally her card. When Sally asked if she could email her for more family history, the grandniece said it would probably inspire her to go through all the books and material she has on the hotel and the Ralsto..... |
• Thomas Baldwin Jumping in Golden Gate Park  Thomas Baldwin Jumping in Golden Gate ParkIn January 1887 in Golden Gate Park, Thomas Baldwin set a record with his jump from a hot air balloon in a parachute that he had designed himself. Captain Tom, or Professor Baldwin, as he liked to call himself, had been orphaned at a young age and joined the circus as a balloon acrobat at age 14. He spent the next 10 years performing in balloons at shows and fairs across the country, offering to parachute from a balloon at the rate of a dollar a foot. A thousand feet were eagerly bought for the successful Golden Gate Park jump. Baldwin made a major contribution to parachute design by creating a harness and by making the parachute flexible so it could be packed. He volunteered his ex..... |
• The Flowers and Fruits of Chinese New Year  The Flowers and Fruits of Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year, which falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice, is observed with a sense of celebrating the earth coming back to life after winter. It is a time for starting a new year with hope and promise as symbolized with the opening of flower buds. As we approach Chinese New Year of 4702, which falls on February 9th this year, shops in the Chinese community start to display red azaleas and red gladiolas as well as the large pomelo, oranges, tangerines, and bright mandarin oranges with the leaves attached. In Southern China, peach or plum blossoms are brought into the house with the hope that the buds on the bare branch will open on New Year’s Day. Opening flowers a..... |
Presidents in San Francisco
The celebration of Presidents’ Day on February 21 calls to mind some dramatic presidential moments that occurred in San Francisco. By far the most sensational encounter of a president with the City was that of Warren G. Harding, counted by some as the worst president in American history, who died at the Palace Hotel in 1923. As scandals began to surface about the graft and corruption that was rampant in his administration, Harding and his wife, Florence, set off from Washington, D.C. on a cross-county tour to strengthen his popularity with the American people. Among his retinue was his homeopathic physician and close family friend, “Doc” Sawyer. Although Harding had exhibited signs o..... |
• San Francisco State Normal School -1903- A Personal History  San Francisco State Normal School
-1903- A Personal History Pictured here is the San Francisco State Normal School in 1903 and after the earthquake and fire of 1906. What was to become today’s San Francisco State University opened in 1899 in this rented building located on Powell between Clay and Sacramento Streets. Of the plain stone structure, which had previously served as a church and as Boys’ High School, one faculty member wrote, “It would be difficult to locate another normal school building that was as old, inconvenient, or depressing.” Following is the story of one of the first graduates of San Francisco State Normal School and her connection to two extraordinary San Franciscans. My grandma was privileged to know and le..... |
• Ella Castelhun - A Lesser Known Woman Architect  Ella Castelhun - A Lesser Known Woman ArchitectIn 1901, the State of California adopted a law that required all practicing architects to be licensed, either demonstrating their experience in the field of architecture or passing an exam and fulfilling requirements in education and experience. Julia Morgan was the first woman to appear on the roster of licensed architects, receiving license number B344 in 1904. The second woman licensed to practice architecture in California was Ella Castelhun, who received license B358 in 1905. In contrast to Morgan, she remains little known. Unfortunately, her file is not available at the State of California Architects Board. The last record of her architectural career is her inclusion in the 1920 r..... |
• The Russian Connection in San Francisco  The Russian Connection in San FranciscoWe all know about Fort Ross in 1830, Sebastopol, the Russian River, and Russian Hill, where artifacts of buried Russian sailors have been found. Perhaps we also know that the founding of the Presidio may have been inspired by Charles III of Spain because of concern about Russian incursions from the north. A few of us know about the Russian exploration of San Francisco Bay in 1812, when the Russian-employed botanist von Chamisso first described the California poppy, took a specimen back to St. Petersburg, and enshrined it in the Russian Museum, where it still resides as the “type specimen,” the original. Most of us have heard the romanticized love story of Count Rezanov and Concepcion Arg..... |
• San Francisco Coffee Roasters  San Francisco Coffee RoastersCoffee is one of the most exported commodities in the world. It originated in Yemen and by the 1400s trading brought it to Africa, Arabia, and the Mediterranean. After achieving popularity in Europe in the 1600s, “the Wine of Araby” traveled to America, where by the end of that century it overtook beer as the favorite breakfast drink. During the Mexican-American War in 1846, it was a ration for soldiers. Traders spread coffee to other hot climate growing areas, including the East and West Indies. And just like the Gold Rush immigrants traveling to California, green coffee beans also came by ship. San Francisco became a center for coffee roasting businesses, with coffee a main part of t..... |
 Big Onion WalkingBefore heading east recently for a week in New York City, I conducted an Internet search for NYC walks and came across Big Onion Walking Tours. I have taken walking tours in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and London and am always looking for new ones to help me experience cities my favorite way: by walking neighborhoods and hearing interesting stories. Big Onion started in 1991 as way to provide supplemental income for graduate students. The Big Onion website describes their guides as “the finest group of tour guides in the city. We are not your traditional tour guides. Most of us are full-time graduate students researching and writing doctoral dissertations in history. Big Onion guides ..... |
• San Francisco Emporium Rooftop Holiday Tradition  San Francisco Emporium Rooftop Holiday TraditionA ferris wheel, merry-go-round, train, and visit with Santa Claus and his elves – all these treats and more awaited visitors to the rooftop holiday carnival presented every Christmas by the Emporium on Market Street. Once upon a time this venerable department store also boasted an indoor ice rink and an auditorium for lectures and concerts by The Emporium Orchestra. The last Christmas carnival was held in 1995, the Emporium’s 100th anniversary year and the year the store closed. A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed visitors and quoted an Emporium employee who boasted, “Our Santa is the best Santa in the Bay Area.” (In fact, there were two Santas, separated by screens..... |
• The San Francisco Ferry Building Clock  The San Francisco Ferry Building ClockFerry Building Guides were recently treated to a talk by Dorian Clair, a specialist in antique clocks who in 2000 began working on the Ferry Building’s famous timepiece. Today the Ferry Building still boasts its original Special #4 clock made by the Boston clock maker E. Howard in 1898. It is the largest dialed, wind-up, mechanical clock in the world. Before the ’06 quake, this top-of-the-line clock lost only two seconds a week. Although the clock is now powered by an electric motor installed by Dorian, the old weight and pendulum system is still in place and could be hooked up in a few hours. This system’s one-ton weight, which dropped 48 feet in 8 days when it powered the clock, now..... |
 Visitacion ValleyEditors Note: City Guide Cynthia Cox fell in love with Visitacion Valley after purchasing a wonderful old fixer-upper there six years ago and hearing tales of the community’s past from her octogenarian neighbor. Cynthia incorporated this information into her two-part City Guides Special Visitacion Valley May/October Neighborhood Walk. GuideLines is grateful to Cynthia for sharing the following Viz Valley historical overview: For thousands of years, today’s southern San Francisco neighborhood nestled between Bayview Heights and John McLaren Park was inhabited by Native Americans who hunted in the hills and fished in the nearby bay. But with the July 2, 1777 “discovery” and nami..... |
 The 1909 Portolá Festival”Pageant Is Too Big for Eye to See or Brain to Grasp; Even With Smoked Glasses.” With this headline, the San Francisco Examiner trumpeted the wonders of the 1909 Portolá Festival. Opening on October 19 – three and a half years and one day after the 1906 quake – the five-day festival showed the world that San Francisco was back in business. Its tremendous success opened the way for the City to host the Panama Pacific International Exposition six years later. San Francisco was also eager to announce its recovery from disastrous post-quake labor dissension and the political corruption that had culminated in the trial and guilty verdict against former political boss Abe Ruef. As one lead..... |
• Art Deco in San Francisco's Downtown  Art Deco in San Francisco's DowntownOne day in the spring of 2003, fellow City Guide Bob Bowen and I visited the lobby of the Telephone Building on New Montgomery Street. We were on a trial walk for a revived Downtown Deco Tour, which a few of us had decided to bring back to life after conducting Art Deco Marina for several years. A security guard working for SBC, which then owned the building, kindly allowed us into the inner sanctum. We stood in the wide lobby of San Francisco’s first real high-rise, with its dark marble walls, occasionally accented by shiny metal trim. A glorious multi-colored ceiling in the pattern of a Chinese quilt brightened the space, and various animal forms seemed to float overhead. Above the elev..... |
• Yerba Buena Lane: San Francisco's Newest Street  Yerba Buena Lane: San Francisco's Newest Street
Although open since 2002, the pedestrian-only thoroughfare named Yerba Buena Lane is finally coming into its own. With the recent opening of the Contemporary Jewish Museum and Jessie Square, many people are now taking notice of this lively and interesting area for the first time. Yerba Buena Lane allows pedestrians to flow from the Union Square area north of Market Street to the museums and public landscapes of Yerba Buena Gardens south of Market (SoMa), without a long detour down to Third or Fourth Street. At 550 feet long, it is designed to provide a convenient corridor for over 5 million people annually, fulfilling a vision of urban planners over 50 years in the making. Historical..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 7  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 7In earlier episodes Isabelle traveled by steam ship from Bangor to New York City, freshened up (accidentally) at the exclusive Astor Hotel, and met her future husband while getting stuck in her hooped skirt exiting a coach (apparently one of the reasons this fashion never really took hold.) From that point on she refers to Mr. Lusk as My Knight. In the last episode she described her traveling companions on the steam ship to Panama; and she continues in this part. You can read Parts 1 - 6 on the City Guides website. In 1856 more women and children were traveling to California. One man stated during this period, "The greatest annoyance on board the ship is the number of babies and ch..... |
Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco tour was fantastic! Jay Sherwin was superb, and had tremendous adapting skills given the size of the group (around 50+). He was both passionate and insightful. Now that we know about this wonderful organization, we'll be back! Thank you. -Nancy Anderson..... |
• Emporium Dome Celebrates 100  Emporium Dome Celebrates 100Editors’ Note: The October 2004 GuideLines featured a story on the Emporium dome when it was hoisted on a perch for a year during construction of the Westfield Centre. The following article revisits the story with some new information and permission from the Bancroft Library to publish another photo. September 2008 was the 100th birthday of the dome in the Westfield Centre. In 1896 a cooperative of merchants rented space at the Parrot Building at 835 Market Street and called their venture the Emporium. As its signature feature, the building contained a magnificent dome. The Parrot Building was designed by Albert Pissis, who also designed the James Flood Building across t..... |
• Golden Gate International Exposition: SF’s Final World’s Fair – Part 1  Golden Gate International Exposition: SF’s Final World’s Fair – Part 1As early as 1933, San Franciscans urged their politicians to host another world’s fair to follow up on the success of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Mired in the “hard times” of the Great Depression, they were eager to bring increased trade to the City, and to celebrate the opening of two engineering marvels, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco and its surroundings had grown markedly by the 1930s, with the Bay Area now boasting two million residents. Lacking the open land required to host the proposed Golden Gate International Exposition, backers of the fair looked to San Francisco Bay and selected Yerba Buena Shoal, lying jus..... |
• Archbishop’s Mansion in San Francisco Archbishop’s Mansion in San Francisco The handsome French Second Empire structure was built in 1904 for San Francisco’s second Archbishop, Patrick Riordan (1841-1914). A major architectural asset and anchor to the Alamo Square Historic District, it was at the turn of the century an important symbol of the Catholic Church’s prominence in San Francisco’s religious, social and cultural life. The Mansion’s architect was Frank Shea, who worked on several projects for the Catholic Archdiocese, including St. Vincent de Paul on Steiner Street and Holy Cross on Eddy Street. Archbishop Patrick Riordan played an important role in San Francisco history. Arriving in 1882, he set about building churches, schools, and hospitals. The Arc..... |
• San Francisco’s Mount Davidson  San Francisco’s Mount DavidsonCentered in the crossroads of Portola Drive, O’Shaughnessy Boulevard, and Monterey Boulevard, Mount Davidson is near the geographic center of the city. You can walk up to the trailhead on Juanita Street. The walk winds up the hill, through overhangs of pine and eucalyptus trees, to the top of the mountain, at 938 feet it is the highest peak in San Francisco. As you wind around the hill towards the west, you come upon solemn and lonely trees. Once known as Blue Mountain thanks to its profusion of colorful wildflowers, the peak was part of Don Jose de Jesus Noe’s 4,443-acre San Miguel Rancho granted in 1845 by Mexican governor Pio Pico. After California gained statehood, French naval ca..... |
• Court of Appeals and Old Main Post Office Building  Court of Appeals and Old Main Post Office BuildingPenny Bradshaw had the wonderful idea for the Class of 2008 to keep in touch on a regular basis by meeting for lunch once a month to discuss and share experiences, and Tuesday, October 7th, was scheduled for our “first date.” When I discovered that the United States Court of Appeals and Old Main Post Office were offering a docent tour that day (and had a café on site!), seven of us met on the steps of this most beautiful example of an American Renaissance / Beaux Arts classical style building and took the tour given by Ms. Ellie Foster, docent since ’97, who had previously volunteered at various museums in Washington, D.C. This building has a special meaning for me since it was here, ..... |
• Golden Gate International Exposition: SFs Final World’s Fair - Part II  Golden Gate International Exposition: SFs Final World’s Fair - Part II The world found itself at war on February 18, 1939, just as it had been on that very date for the opening of the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915. The United States claimed neutrality both times. Accompanied by a light breeze, the sun shone brightly on San Francisco Bay. Automobiles jammed the causeway exiting the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, and loaded Key System ferries steamed across the Bay that Saturday morning, all awaiting the grand opening of the Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco’s third world’s fair. San Francisco was again in celebration mode, and the fair openly supported peace with all nations. The fair charged an entrance fee of fif..... |
• Foch and Joffre Visit San Francisco  Foch and Joffre Visit San FranciscoThe east side of the Palace of the Legion of Honor is flanked by a wide gravel path, the Lincoln Park golf course, and a row of tall Monterey cypress trees. On closer inspection, two of these trees are accompanied by rocks bearing embedded bronze plaques. The plain weathered plaques are similar in format. One simply states that on December 3, 1921, Ferdinand Foch, Marechal de France, planted the tree; the other marks a similar event on April 7, 1922, by Joseph Joffre, Marechal de France. What was the background to these intriguing memorials? What brought these distinguished military commanders of the Allied forces in France in World War One to this remote, barren spot on the edge of the ..... |
• The Call Building of San Francisco  The Call Building of San FranciscoSan Francisco’s Call Building shared the spotlight with the Ferry Building as the city’s most notable landmark at the turn of the twentieth century. San Francisco’s first skyscraper, it was depicted by Thomas Kinkaid in his nostalgic painting San Francisco Market Street, and it stands as a point of reference in locating other structures in historic photographs. We can credit the very public feud between two leading San Francisco families for the construction of this grand building. Claus Spreckels dominated the sugar industry from the 1860s until 1905, when the new C&H co-op broke his monopoly. After gaining control of Hawaiian cane sugar production through his ownership of the Hawaii..... |
• The Old Mint Building in San Francisco  The Old Mint Building in San FranciscoCity Guide Larry See recently joined the San Francisco Museum & Historical Society’s members-only tour of the Old Mint and shares this report: Built in 1874, at one time the Old Mint held about one-third of all of the gold in the nation. It sits on bedrock just ten feet below the surface. The foundation is four feet thick, with two-inch reinforcing iron bars interlaced all though it. The walls are a combination of very thick sandstone on the outside with granite and brick in the interior. Huge heavy iron shutters protect the windows. The ceilings are approximately 20 feet high, with graceful brass lighting hung from the ceiling. There was only one "slightly" successful known inc..... |
• Guide Profile: Annie Reasoner  Guide Profile: Annie ReasonerWhat tours do you lead? Just Chinatown now. When I first started giving tours with City Guides, I did Japantown for ten years. I also gave tours for Sutro Highs and Lows. What do you do when you are not leading City Guides tours? I have a full-time job as a deputy clerk for the (state) First District Court of Appeals. What is the most unusual thing that has happened to you on a City Guides tour? Street people come up and help me give the tour sometimes. They talk about something related to the tour, talk to ghosts that only they can see. I had one tour of Chinatown that a young couple came on… They had their five-month-old son with them. The husband ..... |
 Lombard StreetThe block of Lombard between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets began as a straight, cobblestone street with a 27% grade. In the 1920s the people living on this street wanted cars, but the street was too steep for vehicles. Carl Henry, insurance and drug business executive, is credited with initially proposing the idea of a curved street. Henry owned half of the lots on the 1000 block of Lombard and land all around the street. He created a lily pond and rose gardens, and had planned to give his land to the city as a park. However, when he died his widow sold the property to pay off debts. Since the Lombard Street lots were inaccessible by autos, the property values were not as high as on ne..... |
• Timothy Pflueger Gets a Street  Timothy Pflueger Gets a StreetThanks to City Guide Therese Poletti, on December 16th the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, at their last meeting of the year, passed a resolution to rename the former Chelsea Place, a short alley behind 450 Sutter, Timothy Pflueger Place, honoring the city's great architect of the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Therese brought the resolution to outgoing Board President Aaron Peskin, who reported that the resolution was passed in a unanimous vote. In fact, Supervisor Jake McGoldrick was so enthused about the proposal that he asked to be a co-sponsor. Therese, author of the recently released book Art Deco San Francisco: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger, became interested in Pflueger's work..... |
 St. Dominic’s ChurchDominicans first arrived in San Francisco from Spain in 1850, and established their first priory in 1863 at Van Ness and Broadway. That same year, the Dominican Friars paid $6,000 for the city block bounded by Steiner, Bush, Pierce, and Pine Streets, anticipating the future development of what was still the largely open country of the Western Addition. picture1left300 The first St. Dominic’s Church, blessed in 1873, was a small, unpretentious wooden church at the corner of Bush and Steiner Streets. To accommodate a rapidly growing congregation, a second, much larger church was built of brick on the same site; this church opened in 1887 but was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. During the..... |
 St. Rose AcademyFrom January 1906 until June 1990, St. Rose Academy shared with St. Dominic’s Church the city block purchased in the Western Addition by the Dominican friars in 1863. picture1left300 The oldest private girls’ school in San Francisco when it closed in 1990, St. Rose was founded by the Dominican sisters of San Rafael in 1862. It soon outgrew its first convent on Brannan Street between Third and Fourth Streets, and moved into its new St. Rose Academy on Tyler Street (later renamed Golden Gate) between Steiner and Pierce in 1878. After this building was consumed by fire in 1893, the school found temporary quarters at two other sites before constructing their new academy on the land owned by ..... |
 2830 Pacific Avenue HouseThis house is one of the spectacular Georgian brick mansions atop the Gold Coast Hill. It is the westernmost of a pair of twin homes designed in 1910 by Nathaniel Blaisdell for George Lingard Payne, a manufacturer of carriage bolts. Payne shared the $42,500 residence with his wife, five children, chauffeur, cook, and four lodgers, but only for the winter seasons; they summered in Mill Valley. picture1left300 2830 Pacific boasted up-to-the-minute conveniences, like an early Otis elevator, laundry and trash chutes, and two walk-in Hermann safes. It featured a ground floor ballroom, landscaped garden terrace, and an unusual side driveway commodious enough for up to ten vehicles, leading to ..... |
 Guide Profile: Kay RabinKay leads tours of Chinatown, Nob Hill, and Fisherman's Wharf picture1left200 What do you do when you are not leading City Guides tours? Theater and movies -- we have season tickets to five different theater groups. Friends and family get-togethers and events keep us pretty busy. Traveling someplace in the States once a year and someplace out of the country once a year. We oftentimes travel to places where our former foreign students live. We hosted a slew of foreign kids throughout the years. What is the most unusual thing that has happened to you on a City Guides tour? After a Nob Hill tour in late November in 2006, my guests were asking me questions. A young..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 2  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 2This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusk’s memoir. She journeyed from Bangor, Maine to the California Sierras. In Part 1, Isabelle described herself and her trip preparations. Part 2 - Isabelle Meets her Chaperon and Travels to New York So with my two trunks, my [several] hundred dollars, [I traveled over the Maine countryside] on the 23rd of November 1856 for California. I took a steamer to Belfast where I met my chaperon, Mrs. Lucille Barnard.(1) She with her two bo..... |
 Sewer WalkEven now, nearly 30 years later, it's difficult to define the Suicide Club, but certainly challenging mindless tradition was one goal. So was balancing "the hype" - providing an alternative platform for thoughts on current events. And, of course, there were adventures that conquer fears. On this particular night, we all dressed up, in tuxedos and ballgowns, with rubber waders, and gathered on Grove Street at the entrance to Davies Hall where we mingled with the "swells" who were arriving for the symphony opening night performance. We watched as the line of limos disgorged their satin- and lace-wrapped riders; waved as they dashed up the steps and into the concert hall. Then we turned t..... |
• Missing Features in Golden Gate Park: Why is this Mound Here?  Missing Features in Golden Gate Park: Why is this Mound Here?
In its 140-year history, Golden Gate Park has contained many features that have moved, been reconstructed, or disappeared. picture1right300 For the 25 years he has walked in the park near his home, Eric Bennion had always wondered why there was a man-made earthen mound around the tennis courts. It is filled in with trees and shrubs with a path on top. There does not seem to be a particular architectural reason to enclose tennis courts with this landscape feature. picture2right300 I joined Eric in exploring this mystery, and we discovered that the tennis courts site was once the location for the park’s second bandstand, the New Music Stand, located where the clubhouse is now. Th..... |
• A Remarkable Life: Alice Marble  A Remarkable Life: Alice MarbleProbably the best-known sports star who lived in the Sunset District as a child was Alice Marble. She was a great tennis player whose life story had more twists and turns than many movie scripts. Marble was born on September 28, 1913, in the northern California town of Beckwourth. Her family moved to San Francisco’s Sunset District at 1619 12th Avenue when Alice was five. Her father died within the year, and Alice’s mother was left to raise five children alone. As a young child, Marble was always interested in sports, especially baseball. She wrote in her memoir that she and her brother Tim attended SF Seals games, going early “so we could play catch in the bleachers before the game..... |
 Our Day with Huell HowserHuell Howser, creator and host of California Gold on Public Broadcasting affiliates, contacted City Guides seeking people for two episodes of the program. This included the 75th Anniversary of Coit Tower, and a story on which street is the crookedest. picture1right300 Laura Schoeder recruited Mary Nell York and Masha Zakheim for Coit Tower. City Guide Emeritus Mary Nell led this tour for many years, and Masha, an author and educator, is the daughter of Coit Tower muralist Bernard Zakheim. Because of a GuideLines article, I became the subject matter expert on Vermont Street. Phil Noyes, the show’s producer, asked me to give some history on Lombard Street. He said, “Just read a tourist ..... |
• Sutro’s Triumph of Light Statue  Sutro’s Triumph of Light StatueSan Francisco maps from the early 1900s show a depiction of the Statue of Liberty on a hill above 17th Street, near Clayton Street. This rise is called Mount Olympus, and at the time, was considered the geographic center of San Francisco. Adolph Sutro—silver baron, philanthropist, and one-time mayor—owned the land. And, as he did on his other property, Sutro installed a statue. picture1right300 Like Sutro’s other statuary, this was a Belgian copy of something he saw on his travels. The Triumph of Light depicted Lady Liberty victorious over Despotism. picture2right300 On Thanksgiving Day, 1887, a crowd congregated at the no-longer-existing intersection of Ashbury and 16th Streets f..... |
• Treasures at Mission High Museum  Treasures at Mission High MuseumSometimes an era or institution is forgotten when not enough resources are available to collect and memorialize artifacts or stories from the past. This is not the case for Mission High School, whose rich history has been preserved in a museum located right inside the school. The idea for the museum was initiated and eventually implemented by a group of volunteers in the Mission High School Alumni Association. This included Ted Scourkes and Walter Swan, who previously served as principal and teacher at the school, respectively, and now are active volunteers at the museum. Tucked inside a rectangular room, the museum’s artifacts include antique school furniture and equipment, photogra..... |
 Pan American UnityThere are several Diego Rivera murals in San Francisco; one of them is at City College. The official name of this artwork is The Marriage of the Artistic Expression of the North and of the South on this Continent, but it is commonly known as Pan American Unity. picture1right300 The mural is a fresco created for the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island held in 1939-1940. It was part of an exhibit at the fair called Art in Action, the idea of architect Timothy Pflueger for the second year of the fair. The first year of the fair had masterpieces from the museums of Europe, including Sondro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. But those pieces were on loan for only ..... |
 Crocker’s Spite FenceIf you look up “spite fence” in the Wikipedia you will read: “A spite fence is an overly tall fence typically constructed between adjacent lots by a property owner who is annoyed with, or wishes to annoy, a neighbor or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots.” Just below the definition you see a picture of the top of Nob Hill before 1906 that includes one of the most famous (or shall we say infamous?) spite fences ever built. picture1right300 The story has been told a number of ways, but generally goes like this. Charles Crocker, one of the “Big Four” partners in the Central Pacific Railroad, had become a multi- millionaire and wanted to build a mansion at the to..... |
• San Francisco Ocean Beach Sand Art  San Francisco Ocean Beach Sand ArtIf you’ve been to the Cliff House area at the north end of Ocean Beach in the last 5 years or so you might’ve seen a large design carved into the sand just beneath the Cliff House. I found the art when I started leading the Land’s End: Sutro Heights tour in 2006. picture1left300 Andres Amador, a San Francisco-based artist, is the mind behind the designs. He does most of his designs at this specific site so that people can see the whole design from Sutro Heights above and he can take pictures of his works of art there. There are a few others like Andres that are pioneering a new art genre – crop circles in sand. The designs are made using just a few tools. After crafting designs from..... |
The Prelinger Library Last month while visiting the show Green Dimensions at Lower Fort Mason, Building D, I came across an exhibit in the lobby, a fascinating continuously changing video about the history and landscape changes in the Bay Area coastal regions. This display was produced by the Prelinger Library, a facility unknown to me, and to everyone else in my vicinity. I decided to investigate, and thus spent several hours one Sunday afternoon, on site. The Prelinger Library is a unique private collection located in a faceless obscure building just off Folsom Street at 8th. It is staffed by the Prelingers, a welcoming and helpful couple, who are solely responsible for the collection, retrieval, classificat..... |
 John W. GearyThe following are excerpts from Rand Richards’ newest book, Mud, Blood and Gold - San Francisco in 1849. All throughout the year 1849, thousands of people poured into San Francisco “like bees to a swarming.” One of those was John White Geary. Geary, for whom Geary Boulevard and Street are named, spent only three years in San Francisco but he looms large in the City’s early history. picture1left300 Geary was born in western Pennsylvania in 1819. His penniless father died when he was 14, forcing young Geary to leave school to work to support his widowed mother. He put himself through college and studied law and civil engineering. During the Mexican War, he served as a ..... |
• Izzy Gomez’ Café in San Francisco  Izzy Gomez’ Café in San FranciscoPortuguese-born Isadore Gomez was a Barbary Coaster with a different tack than most. Izzy always followed his heart rather than a quick buck. He opened Isadore Gomez’ Café in 1930 at 848 Pacific Street, a somewhat rundown café focusing on the new Bohemian movement and its artists. Three principles ruled Izzy’s life: “When you don’t know what to say, say nothing”; “Life is a long road, take it easy”; “When you come to a pool of water on that long road, don’t make it muddy; maybe you’ll pass there again, and you’ll be thirsty.” Izzy’s Café was a gathering place for aspiring artists. Famed writer William Saroyan, himself a regular at Izzy’s, immortalized the place, its characters and the..... |
• San Francisco’s Green Goddess Dressing  San Francisco’s Green Goddess DressingGreen Goddess salad dressing was created by the chef at the Palace Hotel in honor of actor George Arliss, who was starring in a play entitled The Green Goddess. The creamy salad dressing was very popular in the 1920s through the 1980s, and then dropped from sight on most menus. picture1left250 The Green Goddess, a very successful play of the 1920s, was written by William Archer, a Scottish drama critic who translated and published the work of Henrik Ibsen in London in the 1880s. The play is about an airplane that crashes in the Asian kingdom of Rukh. The Rajah holds the three British survivors prisoner because the British are about to execute his three brothers in neighboring India..... |
 Terra Cotta in SFThere is a multitude of terra cotta building decoration in San Francisco, and much of this is thanks to the town of Lincoln, 30 miles northeast of Sacramento. The town began in 1861 as a railroad terminus on land owned by railroad pioneer Theodore Judah. Civil War veterans settled in the area to raise cattle and orchards, and coal mining began in 1873. In 1874, when a source of high quality clay was discovered nearby, several Chicago businessmen decided to open a clay products manufacturing plant. A year later Gladding McBean opened as the first producer of clay sewer pipe west of the Rockies. Sewer pipe was, and continues to be, Gladding McBean’s main product. In 1884 the company began ..... |
 Miniature San FranciscoIf you missed the model train exhibit, Golden Gate Express Garden Railway, at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park last year, you have another chance. A model train and a cable car go through a miniature landscape of San Francisco with some of the City’s most recognizable landmarks made from recycled material. Small cars drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, and the exhibit is landscaped with real miniature plants. Coit Tower is made from white venetian blinds and measuring tape. The Ghirardelli Building is made from dark brown light switch plates. The Chinatown Gate is made from mah jong tiles; its roof is constructed of circuitry boards, imitating a green tile roof. Prominent..... |
• Stockton and Kearny, Ending at Mason  Stockton and Kearny, Ending at MasonThere is no such intersection. Stockton and Kearny, like their street names, pursued parallel courses - but eventually collided and ended at odds. Both streets start at Market Street, but Kearny ends at Telegraph Hill, while Stockton, befitting its namesake, runs to the Embarcadero. Unlike their streets, the two men did intersect rather uncomfortably and ignominiously during the taking of California, and later at the sensational court-martial of John Frémont in Washington. Commodore Robert Stockton arrived in Monterey to replace the retiring Commodore Sloat, who had just occupied Monterey. This was a crucial moment in California history in July 1846, shortly after the declaration of war ..... |
• David Warren and the Suicide Club  David Warren and the Suicide Club“Members must agree to set their worldly affairs in order to enter into the REAL world of chaos, cacophony, and dark saturnalia, and they must further agree to live each day as though it were their last, for it may BE. The club will explore the untravelled, exotic, miasmal, and exhilarating experiences of life: deserted cemeteries, storms, caving, haunted houses, Nazi bars, fanatical movements, hot air ballooning, stunts, exposes, impersonation. The Club will be ongoing for the rest of our lives.” This was the agreement among the founding members of the San Francisco Suicide Club in 1977. One of those founders, and a long-time friend of City Guides, David Warren, died in Januar..... |
 Opera in North BeachGuideLines frequently receives emails from people who have read our articles on the City Guides website, and request information. This includes:
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 Bison in Golden Gate Park Although often referred to as buffalo, it is American bison that live in Golden Gate Park. The name buffalo is thought to be derived from what the French fur hunters called these animals in the 1600s, but they are related to bison and not buffalo. Bison were brought to the park in 1890 as a living memorial to the old Wild West days when thousands roamed the western plains of North America. But by 1890, the only existing wild bison herd was at Yellowstone Park - population of 400. A few years later, Congress passed a bill to ban bison hunting in Yellowstone. The first two of the San Francisco herd were named Sarah Bernhardt - after the famous stage actress who had appeared in San Francisc..... |
 Tending Our gardensSometimes, you just have to get your hands dirty. For me, that mostly means finding strata of food under my nails after a sweaty day in the kitchen. But on a chilly morning in December, my hands got dirty with real, actual, honest-to-god dirt. As in, from the earth. Me and dirt are like oil and water. Gardening is not something I have an innate passion for, but there is one garden I have a soft spot for. Tucked between modern apartment buildings on a dead-end street on the slopes of Eureka Valley, the Corwin Street Community Garden is more than a patch of pretty flowers. As a tour guide in the neighborhood, I often drag my more ambitious groups up the steep incline to the garden ..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 1  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 1Isabelle Walton Lusk wrote her memoir in the 1920s, when she was in her 90's, about traveling to California. Her great-grandson, Eric Bennion, heard from his mother that Isabelle was looking for her lost father who disappeared somewhere near Nicaragua on the journey back to Bangor, Maine. Other relatives intimated that she was actually not looking for Dad, but for treasure he supposedly buried in California. More likely, thinks Eric, she just did not want to be the daughter who was assigned caretaker of her mother - and took her opportunity to escape Maine. Her memoir will be published in GuideLines in installments. Part 1 - Isabelle Prepares to Travel On October 16..... |
 Bay Bridge ClimbElaine Molinari, former City Guides Director (1985 - 1990) contributes a story this month on San Francisco Bay Bridge shenanigans. No matter that it was illegal, I was too old for such things, and my husband was a cop - it was an adventure we couldn't miss. This was acute urban daring, and we were being challenged. Twenty-five years ago, when the world was not yet afraid of terrorists, a group of five friends led by an intrepid urban cowboy, planned a surreptitious nighttime exploration of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Gary, our trusted leader, had climbed the bridge before, and had encouraged us to conquer our fears and join him (Gary was a City Guide and was a founder of t..... |
 Researching in the LibraryAs a new guide in 2005, I was excited about all I'd learned, and I was focused on getting ready to give my first tour, City Scapes and Public Places. The coordinator of that tour gave me lots of material to use to create my own tour. Of course, I'd also made notes during the tours I'd taken earlier. During my training, I'd toured the History Center at the SF Main Library, but there was no way I could use their resources yet, because I had so much material already. Five years later, now giving half a dozen different tours, I was ready to head to the History Center to see what further information or photographs I could find on a few topics. The San Francisco History Center i..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 3  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 3In the first two parts of Isabelle Walton's memoir, she traveled from Maine to New York City, and was separated from her chaperon on the way to their hotel. She mistakenly went to the luxury hotel Astor House, while Lucille Barnard was at another hotel. Part 3 - Isabelle dines at the Astor House, meets her future husband I sat a moment and said do you think it is possible they took Mrs. Barnard to another hotel? That might be, or my coach took me to another hotel. I asked quickly what hotel is this? "Why, this is the Astor House," [said Mrs. Ashley]. [I thought], I suppose their coach will take me to the [steamer]. [She also said], "The city is full of ..... |
• Harold G. Stoner and Adolph G. Sutro  Harold G. Stoner and Adolph G. SutroAdolph Sutro is well known as a former Mayor of San Francisco, owner of the Cliff House, and builder of the Sutro Baths. His lesser known grandson, Adolph G. Sutro, teamed up with one of San Francisco's most prolific - yet largely unknown - architects, Harold G. Stoner, to bring their own legendary landmarks to the "City by the Bay." It was Sutro's grandson who commissioned Harold G. Stoner to design the magnificent medieval mansion that once stood high above San Francisco on Mt. Sutro. Built for $250,000 in the middle of the Great Depression, it was called "La Avenzada." Two decades after being sold to ABC in 1948, the City deemed it a firetrap and required its demolition as part of th..... |
 Famed Frances WillardWhile walking around the periphery of the balustrade of the Legion of Honor parking area, I came across a weathered bronze plaque facing one of the pillars of the balustrade on the western side. The plaque commemorated a visit to San Francisco in 1883 by Frances Willard. Her message was We are one world of tempted humanity. So who was Frances E. Willard (1839 - 1898), and why had I never heard of her? She was world-famous at the time, on a nationwide tour promoting her incendiary vision of women's suffrage and, of equal importance, spreading the gospel of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Her travels and fame reached all the states in the union, all the provinces of ..... |
 Todd Stresspicture1left250 Gregory Todd Stress, Class of 1997, succumbed to lung cancer on August 18, 2010. Todd was a member of the Management Board, 2001-2002, and he led the Palace Hotel and Gold Rush City tours. The Management Board of 2001 was transitioned from the Advisory Board, revamping the City Guides organizational structure. Todd weighed in with his legal and corporate expertise, with a particular clarity that greatly aided discussions on matters such as the bylaws, insurance issues, and legal responsibilities. While serving on the Board, Todd pushed for a guide recognition program, which eventually became the Great Feat Award. His wife, Silvia Stress, tells GuideLines that w..... |
• Tanforan 1910 Aviation Meet: Rambling Bits of History  Tanforan 1910 Aviation Meet: Rambling Bits of History Horseracing was a popular pastime in the early days of San Francisco. However, most of the race tracks failed as business ventures for reasons including the difficulty of getting there (before paved roads), competition from other tracks, poor financial planning, municipal laws, and the City wanting the land. A number of wealthy San Francisco horse owners banded together in 1899 to build the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno. Its investors wanted to get away from San Francisco laws, and rural San Bruno was mainly a large dairy farm with no municipal regulations. Adolph Spreckles, Leland Stanford, and George Hearst raced their horses here. The track did well even though it was outside the ..... |
 Mary Ellen PleasantAlmost 100 years before Rosa Parks, San Francisco resident Mary Ellen Pleasant sued a local transportation company for not letting her and other African Americans ride. She won. picture1left250 Many details of Ms. Pleasant’s life are open to question, but what is certain, and recorded in a plaque at the corner of Octavia and Bush streets, is that she was a tireless worker for civil rights and a great entrepreneur. The Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park, the smallest park in San Francisco, consists of six enormous eucalyptus blue gum trees marching down Octavia Street, remaining from the twenty she planted. The trees are landmarked by the City of San Francisco. The site was chosen b..... |
 GuideLines QuizDo you know what and where this building is? picture1left250 The building is the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, a gift to the City from Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, and home of the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums. The building is based on the Palais de la Legion d’Honneur in Paris, France. This is the back of the building. The sculptural figures on the dome are based on the gods and goddesses: Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Minerva, Diana, and Ceres. The busts (thirteen in all) are based on unidentified people of their day. GuideLines heard that the sculptures are made of fiberglass and contacted Elisabeth Cornu, retired conservator, to confirm. She told us: They a..... |
 Marines Memorial TheaterIf you've recently seen a show at Marines, you probably noticed that although it's a plain auditorium, it's in pristine shape. This is due, in large part, to the current manager, Roxanne Goodfellow. She was also instrumental in redoing the Post Street Theatre some years ago, but unfortunately, that space has closed. These are both important houses in San Francisco theatre history, but Marines holds an especially pivotal place in the history of regional theatre in the United States. picture1left300 Until the 1920s, regional theatre was alive and well in San Francisco. Then the Shubert brothers, among others, came on the scene, and bought and built theatres where they brought shows f..... |
 GuideLines Quizpicture1left600 The photo is taken from the top floor of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) looking out the window facing Minna Street. You can find Waldo, the creation of author Martin Handford. SFMOMA is the first museum on the West Coast devoted to modern and contemporary art. In 1935, art patron Albert Bender donated 36 artworks, including The Flower Carrier by Diego Rivera, to begin the museum's collection. GuideLines discovered that the museum has nothing to do with Waldo. People at the business located at 170 Minna believe that the building owner put Waldo on the roof...... |
• City Guides Named in Sponsor's Will City Guides Named in Sponsor's Will Mary "Micki" Ryan loved San Francisco's history and the local organizations which celebrate it. She found an important way to provide long-term support for issues about which she was passionate: she created a will and trust that reflected her desire to support City Guides. Ten years before her death in July 2009, Micki took steps to demonstrate her love of the city's history by naming City Guides as one of several beneficiaries of a trust. The trust provided that the money from the sale of her home was to be distributed to the beneficiaries. As a result of Micki's generosity, City Guides recently received the largest donation in our history. Micki demonstrated her interest in "giving ..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 4  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 4Twenty-one year old Isabelle Walton traveled from Maine to California, and wrote this memoir in her 90s. In Parts 1-3, Isabelle wrote about preparing for her trip, meeting her traveling companion, dining in New York, and meeting Mr. Salmon Lusk. You can see the earlier parts on the City Guides website. Part 4 - Boarding the Ship People were falling over Mrs. Barnard's carpetbag and jostling us right and left trying to find their staterooms [on the steam ship]. I found ours at last. We were so far in, what is called the aft.(1) Light filtered through from a small porthole in the side of the ship. |
• Leonard Borchardt's “Oofty Goofty”  Leonard Borchardt's “Oofty Goofty”Leonard Borchardt's first glimpse of America was brief. The fourteen year old stowaway from Berlin was discovered en route to the new world by the Captain of the SS Fresia. He was forced to stay on the ship, join the crew to earn his passage, return to Germany and back again to the United States, before being allowed to disembark in New York. From there Borchardt drifted from state to state before signing up for the U.S. Cavalry in Detroit. After learning he would be fighting Native American Indians who might scalp him - Borchardt deserted, sold his horse and gun to a farmer, and headed for San Francisco. He arrived in 1884 at the age of 22. Borchardt would try any crazy scheme for..... |
 A Note On SpeakeasiesDuring a recent Palace Hotel tour, a guest asked if there was a speakeasy in the hotel during Prohibition. Author and GuideLines contributor James R. Smith gave us some information on speakeasies: Every hotel had a speakeasy of some sorts. There were a couple of federal arrests at the Palace, so they did have one but I don't know exactly where. The Sir Frances Drake built a speakeasy between floors, although no one drank there. Liquor was sent up to the rooms. Prior to Prohibition, no respectable woman would drink in a bar. San Francisco speakeasies were usually restaurants, and that's when women first drank in public. Playland had a speakeasy as well. |
 GuideLines QuizDo you know what this post is, and where it is located? picture1left285 The inscription on this marker is: You are standing at the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway. This marker is in front of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park and marks the Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast highway. The highway was 3,300 miles long and crossed 12 states. It began at Times Square in New York City and ended in Lincoln Park in San Francisco. picture2left285 The remains of the Lincoln Highway are now part of Interstate 80. Other markers in California are in Livermore, Eldorado Hills, Truckee, Elk Grove, and Davis. Source: hmdb.org
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• Willis Polk – His Work is Everywhere!  Willis Polk – His Work is Everywhere!My interest in the architect Willis Polk began when I trained as a docent at Filoli, a mansion he designed in Woodside. It continued when I became a guide for the tour City Scapes and Public Places. On that tour, the number of Willis Polk designed buildings is remarkable. Of course, I had seen a house he designed on Russian Hill, but I did not realize how much he was a part of the Arts and Crafts movement. A number of individuals were involved in that movement and worked together including Joseph Worcester, A. Page Brown, Ernest Coxhead, and Willis Polk. The first houses Polk designed in San Francisco showed that he was aware of the Shingle Style popular on the East Coast, had ..... |
Betty de Losada San Francisco lost a friend, and City Guides lost an avid supporter: Betty de Losada died recently. Her obituary barely did her credit by listing her union affiliation, her work for the SF Unified School District, and her twenty-year tenure on the Landmarks Board. Betty was a co-founding “mother” of the San Francisco Victorian Alliance, a group active in historic preservation for more than 38 years. Betty made a mark on City Guides too - she coined the name! It was sometime in November 1977; I was starting a volunteer program for people with day jobs who loved San Francisco, revered our history, and wanted an active role in showing it off. I had a powerful group of advisors includin..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 5  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 5In her 90s, Isabelle Lusk wrote about her journey from Maine to California. At the time of her writing, she had lost her sight and much of her hearing. As she wrote her memoir on a manual typewriter, using onionskin paper, she often did not hear the carriage return bell. She typed over many of her remembrances and parts of this memoir are lost. In Parts 1-4, Isabelle described her background and trip preparations, meeting her traveling companion, and finding her way to the steamship. You can find the earlier installments on the City Guides website. Part 5 - Off to Panama When the dinner bell rang, Henry was sound asleep but little Charley was wakeful. I told [Mrs. Barnard..... |
 The Lincoln HighwayEditor's Note: The February GuideLines Quiz had a photo of the Lincoln Highway marker in San Francisco. In this article Jack Leibman describes its history. The Lincoln Highway was conceived in 1912 by Carl Fisher, a visionary who also promoted the Indianapolis Speedway and Miami Beach. As the first transcontinental highway in the United States, it crossed 14 states on its way from Times Square in New York, to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. Lincoln Park was dedicated to President Lincoln in 1909. The mileage varied over the years as routes changed. Counting all realignments, the grand total was 5,869 miles. The original marker was placed on the north end of the plaza and fountai..... |
 San Francisco Presidio WalkThis view is at Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio. The bridge crosses a ravine where Dragonfly Creek is located—a stream supporting a variety of native plants. It had become overrun by eucalyptus trees and other non-native plants. However, restoration through the Doyle Drive and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy projects is now cleaning it up. The creek drains into Crissy Marsh and then into the San Francisco Bay. Dragonfly Creek is located on a hill below tennis courts and above the Presidio Native Plant Nursery. These tennis courts are now part of the Presidio YMCA, and have been at Fort Winfield Scott since the early 1900s when the game began becoming popular. Th..... |
• Coffee Dan’s - Most Popular SF Speakeasy  Coffee Dan’s - Most Popular SF SpeakeasyNo one should forget San Francisco’s riotous Coffee Dan’s. The original club opened in 1879 as a cabaret located in the basement below Daniel Davis’ restaurant on the southeast corner of Sutter and Kearny. After the earthquake and fire of 1906, Dan moved his club to Powell and O’Farrell Streets. Like its predecessor, it opened for breakfast, serving customers long past dinner with entertainers that belied the apparent low station of the café. Posh city magazine The Wasp proclaimed Coffee Dan’s the rendezvous for San Francisco’s elite in their May 20, 1916 issue. picture1left250 Dan died in 1917 and son John Davis took over management. It was Prohibition and Coffee Dan’s was now..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 6  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 6Over the last year GuideLines has been publishing the memoir of Isabelle Walton Lusk. She traveled from Maine to California when she was 21, and wrote this memoir in her 90s. You can read the previous installments on the City Guides website where she describes meeting her chaperon Mrs. Lucille Barnard, arriving at the wrong hotel in New York, and being rescued from a hooped skirt mishap by the man who would become her husband (she refers to him as My Knight.) In this part, Isabelle has boarded the steamship that will take her to the Panama Railroad. Part 6 - Life on the Ship It seemed we were overloaded. Our steamer was only allowed nine hundred passengers a..... |
• King Philip Reappears At Ocean Beach  King Philip Reappears At Ocean BeachOne of the 25 shipwrecks off Ocean Beach resurfaced for a short time at low tide this year. She is the King Philip, a clipper ship that reappears every so often. She was wrecked after leaving San Francisco Bay in 1878. A tugboat towed the ship through the bay to the Golden Gate, the King Phillip dropped anchor, but the ship had no cargo or ballast and drifted into the breakers and ran aground. The heavy surf caused the ship to break into pieces and it was quickly destroyed. Clipper ships came in use in the 1830s. They had speed, but did not last long in the shipping industry because they had little cargo space and depended on the wind for traveling. They were also difficult to hand..... |
• Pier 70 – A View from Inside  Pier 70 – A View from Inside Pier 70, which lies on the cusp of the Dogpatch Historical District, is not your typical pier - it is almost 70 acres in size. The long wharf, made of timbers that at one time extended from 20th Street into the bay, is now mostly gone. It is a place I discovered not long after moving from New York to San Francisco five years ago. I was attracted to the area because of its similarities to the waterfronts of port cities located on the east coast. It is also one of the few remaining spots in this city where brick industrial buildings continue to stand their ground - even after earthquake, fire, and the decline of industrialization. Shipbuilding and repair thrived here for over 150 ..... |
 Golden Gate Bridge TowerWhen I was 8 years old, my mother took me to the Statue of Liberty. I was so afraid looking down as we were ascending to the crown, that I would not budge after the second level. But when Cynthia Gregory asked if I would accompany her on a trip in the teeny tiny elevator to the top of the Golden Gate towers, well....I jumped at the chance. Daniel Belman, who works security on the Bridge, offered Cynthia the trip after she performed his marriage. He met us in the parking lot. We got hard hats, signed releases (and probably a criminal background check), and then Daniel took us in a small Cushman cart to the south towers along the bridge walkway. This was a navigational feat itself ar..... |
 The Octagon House2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the (McElroy) Octagon House, owned by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in California (NSCDA-CA). It is located on the corner of Gough and Union Streets in Cow Hollow. Octagonal structures have been documented as early as 300 B.C. Early North American examples include Thomas Jefferson’s private retreat Poplar Forest, built in Virginia in 1806, and the Octagon House in Washington, D.C. built in 1801. This building served as a temporary White House during the War of 1812, and formerly served as the headquarters for the American Institute of Architects. These buildings were popularized in North America and Canada in t..... |
• Carl G. Larsen: The Gentle Dane  Carl G. Larsen: The Gentle DaneSometimes called the “Gentle Dane,” Carl Gustav Larsen was born in 1844 in Odense, Denmark. He came to San Francisco in his late 20s and worked as a carpenter. In 1879, he started the popular Tivoli Café downtown on Eddy Street. When the Tivoli Café was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906, Larsen was undaunted; he rebuilt and opened it as the new Hotel Larsen, where he lived. Carl Larsen’s first venture into Sunset District real estate was in 1888, when he bought one block at an auction. The area was still dominated by sand dunes and was largely inaccessible. Larsen continued to buy land in the Sunset, and by 1910 he owned fourteen city blocks and scattered lots that tota..... |
• Stories in the Sand San Francisco's Sunset District, 1847-1964  Stories in the Sand
San Francisco's Sunset District, 1847-1964
City Guide Lorri Ungaretti’s new book about the Sunset District will be available soon. This book provides a historical background of the Sunset District, from the early settlers in 1847 through the controversial statewide election with Proposition 14 in 1964. GuideLines has published two sections from this book about notable Sunset residents: Alice Marble and Carl Larsen. You can read those articles on the City Guides website. In addition to researched history, the book has more than 175 photographs and quotes from people who used to live in the neighborhood or who live there now—including the adult children of the men who built the thousands of houses in the Sunset in the 1930s ..... |
• 1906 Earthquake and Fire Remembrance  1906 Earthquake and Fire RemembranceAt 5:12 am on Wednesday, April 18, 1906 the Great San Francisco Earthquake occurred. And every year on the anniversary the City remembers the event at Lotta’s Fountain at 5:12 am. There is a wreath laying ceremony and fire sirens. The remembrance continues 30 minutes later at the fire hydrant at Church and 20th Streets, repainting it in gold to celebrate when it was one of few working hydrants in the Mission. • Market Street 1906, courtesy of the Bancroft Library, call no. BANC PIC 1981.044--fALB v.3:07. Copyright © 2012 San Francisco City Guides ..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 8  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 8This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusk's memoir about traveling from Maine to California. Even though steam ships did not depend on wind, weather was still important for smooth traveling. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of his trip on a steamer. "I was in the forward part of the vessel where all the great waves struck and broke with voices of thunder. In the next room to mine, a man died. I was afraid that they might throw me overboard instead of him in the night."(1) Part 8 - Coal Stop in Kingston, JamaicaWe soon [traveled] down to where it was beginning to be hot, and poor Mrs. Bernard almost suffocated w..... |
 Music at Sutro’s ShowplaceA Love Affair Can you be in love with something that doesn’t exist? This is not as easily answered, but for me the answer is “yes.” The object of affection is San Francisco’s iconic Cliff House in the French Chateau style, completed in 1896. It caught fire in 1907, and burned to its foundation. My love affair with the Cliff House began in August 1958 when I had lunch there with a friend. In 1960, I bought my first music box for what would later dev..... |
 The Missing Mission LakeWell…..we are all embarrassed about this. The Mission Dolores Neighborhood and Mission guides held a special workshop with Christopher Richard. He is the Associate Curator of Aquatic Biology at the Oakland Museum of California, and has researched what he thinks is the story of the San Francisco mission founded on the shores of a "now-vanished" lake. Guides have all been telling our walkers about this lake on the Mission tours. He thinks it is a misconception. In his research, Christopher has come to the conclusion that there was no lake where Mission Dolores was founded. He has arrived at the position that:
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• A Trip to California in 1856  A Trip to California in 1856This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusk's memoir about traveling from Maine to California through the Isthmus of Panama. In 1852, Cornelius Vanderbilt and investors developed a second way back and forth to California by way of Nicaragua. This route was three times longer than the Panama route, using the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. However, the land portion of the trip was shorter, so the journey was cut by 374 miles..(1) It is curious that Isabelle chose the Panama Isthmus route, since she claimed in the beginning of her story that her mother consented to the trip so she could look for her father. He had died by drowni..... |
• Dolly Adams, the Water Queen  Dolly Adams, the Water QueenCurt Gentry's sources, in his wonderful volume The Madams of San Francisco: An Irreverent History of the City by the Bay, confused a woman named Dolly Adams - the Water Queen, with a woman named Dolly Ogden - who started up one of the Tenderloin's early parlor houses.(1) In her brief time Dolly Adams became the more famous of the two, but even though they were both active members of the demi-monde, her fame was for her performances under water rather than under the sheets. Who was she? She was born Ellen Loretta Callahan around 1860 in New York. She was the fourth of at least 10 children, all of them girls except one boy. Her paren..... |
• How We Almost Lost the Cable Cars  How We Almost Lost the Cable CarsRoger Lapham was the Mayor of San Francisco from 1944 to 1948. He ran as the premier business man who would bring efficient government to San Francisco. For him, the elimination of cable cars would be the ticket. At the time, cable cars were showing losses while busses were showing a profit. Lapham argued that: the rails, which are no longer being made, are worn dangerously thin. Cables are difficult to obtain. Gripmen are getting old too, and younger men are not interested in pulling grips. The system is unsafe." A defiant group in the San Francisco Federation of Art created "Citizens' Committee to Save the Cable Cars", headed by Friedel Klussmann. They circulated petitions ..... |
 Tea Garden TreasureThe guides who lead the walking tours through the Japanese Tea Garden are the fortunate beneficiaries of the fabulous work done by its gardeners. When I ask my visitors, as we walk around the Garden, to guess how many people keep this place so lovely, I hear bids of fifteen, even twenty. My answer, "three professional gardeners," always brings gasps of amazement and incredulity. One of the three gardeners - in reality, only 2 ½ since one employee also works in other parts of the Park - is Steven Pitsenbarger. His path to employment at the Japanese Tea Garden was anything but random. Steven is a San Francisco native, born and raised in Visitacion Valley. As a child he spent lots of time in o..... |
• 1906 Train and Ferry Evacuation  1906 Train and Ferry EvacuationThe Southern Pacific Railway moved more than fifty percent of the San Francisco population immediately after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. The combination of ferries and trains took 300,000 of the 410,000 population to other cities in the Bay Area. The U.S. Navy accounted for another 20,000 to 30,000 people from Fort Mason. This was one of the greatest evacuation efforts in history.picture1right400After the earthquake, Southern Pacific ran 1400 trains throughout the Bay Area free of charge. The SP evacuation began 45 minutes after the earthquake occurred and for lasted the next five days. In an April 25, 1906 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, it was noted that eart..... |
Big Onion Walking
by Chuck Schwartz
Before heading east recently for a week in New York City, I conducted an Internet search for NYC walks and came across Big Onion Walking Tours. I have taken walking tours in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and London and am always looking for new ones to help me experience cities my favorite way: by walking neighborhoods and hearing interesting stories.
Big Onion started in 1991 as way to provide supplemental income for graduate students. The Big Onion website describes their guides as “the finest group of tour guides in the city. We are not your traditional tour guides. Most of us are full-time graduate students researching and writing doctoral dissertations in history. Big Onion guides have high school or college teaching experience and are quite often researching topics relevant to the tours they are leading.”
One tour is offered each day, Monday through Thursday. Two or three tours are offered on Fridays and week-ends.
Tours are “show-up” walks and cost $15 per walker, which is collected at the start of the tour. I took the "Official" Gangs of New York tour and Brooklyn Bridge & Brooklyn Heights tour. Both walks met near New York City Hall, with easy access from public transportation. Two guides were present for each tour. After payment was collected, the guides split the walkers into two equal-sized groups of about 15 walkers each. Minimal time was spent describing Big Onion, so named because its tours aim to peel away the layers of the city.
The guide for the Gangs of New York walk recently received her PhD in American Studies from NYU. Her dissertation was on Irish immigration to Yonkers from earliest times to now. Her walk took an Irish perspective and focused on the life and challenges of the Irish immigrant community. The specific blocks that were central to her tour (Five Points) were at one time so crime-infested that the whole neighborhood was demolished and replaced with law and justice buildings. Our guide did a great job of storytelling, helping the walkers envision the conditions of the era.
The Brooklyn Bridge & Brooklyn Heights walk was led by a grad student working on a Masters in English. He spoke well of the history of the Brooklyn Bridge and was able to draw upon his literature background to provide extra color and quotes as we walked through Brooklyn Heights, which was at various times the home of Walt Whitman, Truman Capote, and Arthur Miller.
The guides I had were well prepared, knowledgeable, and good speakers. Both used notebooks with historic photos. San Francisco City Guides compares favorably to Big Onion.
Newly minted City Guide Chuck Schwartz, pictured on the previous page with his wife, Debbie, in front of the Brooklyn Bridge, won the award for attending the most City Guides tours during the training class–a total of 19!
Photo courtesy of Chuck Schwartz
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