Clipper and Diamond Heights Blvd Noe Valley/Twin Peaks This piece titled Redwood Sculpture, was done in 1968 by Stefan Novak. Mr. Novak and his family are very private people, so there is little information regarding the artist. He was an instructor in the architecture department at UC Berkeley. He was born on August 22, 1918 and died on April 29, 2006 at 87 years old. * * The piece is owned by the SFAC.
1458 Valencia Street Mission Built in 1883, this is the City’s oldest standing firehouse. In the heart of the Mission District, this rare brick firehouse in the Victorian Italianate style has a front surface made entirely of cast iron detail. Such buildings are very rare in San Francisco with most clustered in the Jackson Square area. On the conversion from horse drawn to motorized apparatus, the company was assigned a 1916 American LaFrance Type 12 Chemical and Hose Car with a 35 gallon chemical tank with a 6 cylinder 100 HP engine. Engine Co. No. 13 remained assigned here until Continue Reading
San Francisco International Airport Astro Boy (Tesuwan Atomu) When the SFO Museum began Twittering about their upcoming Japanese Toy exhibit, I knew I needed to see it. Sadly, it is behind TSA. It is in Terminal Three for all you lucky people flying in and/or out of SFO in the next 6 months. I contacted the museum, and Exhibits Curator, Nicole Mullen, was kind enough to get me past TSA to view the exhibit. I was a kid in a candy shop. I have been a fan of Astro Boy and Ultraman since I was a child. I have a Continue Reading
San Francisco International Airport Addison Model 2A Radio c. 1940 Many people know that there is art at SFO, but did you know there is an actual museum? Much of the art you see scattered around the airport as single pieces belong to the SFAC, however, the exhibits you see, carefully crafted for your enjoyment, are by an entirely different organization. The SFO Museum was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purpose of humanizing the airport environment. In 1999, SFO Museum became the first exhibitions program in an airport to receive accreditation from the American Alliance of Continue Reading
245 Hyde Street The Tenderloin The blue building hidden behind this tree (the fourth film vault) has a prominent place in San Francisco Music history as well. In early 1969, Wally Heider opened the San Francisco Wally Heider’s Studio at 245 Hyde Street. Heider had reportedly apprenticed as an assistant and mixer at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, CA, with Bill Putnam, “The Father of Modern Recording”, and he already owned and ran an independent recording studio and remote recording setup called Studio 3, in Hollywood, California. In 1967, Heider had been involved in live recording at the Monterey Pop Festival. Artists like Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Grateful Dead had been recording Continue Reading
245-259 Hyde Street The Tenderloin I have driven by this area with these stunning Art Deco/Art Moderne buildings all in a row, and never pursued the history. An evening of beers at the Brown Jug with Mark Ellinger and my eyes were opened. Originally theaters purchased the films they showed their patrons. Then Harry, Herbert and Earle C. Miles, San Francisco brothers, realized there was a business in buying films in bulk and renting them to movie houses. Their original distribution centers were on Market Street/Golden Gate Avenue. Inside these four buildings were film vaults with thick concrete walls Continue Reading
696 Amador Street off 3rd Street / Pier 90/92 Bayview/Hunters Point These abandoned silos on Pier 90/92 formerly stored grain that was brought in by rail and then loaded from the silos onto ships for export. These operations were discontinued following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Pier 90/92 was created in 1918 by the State Harbor Commission. In the 1920’s the grain terminal also had a mill to serve local needs. The terminal could hold 500,000 bushels, the principal grain that flowed through them was barley. In the 1970’s the terminal was used to export grains to Russia during their severe drought. Continue Reading
1529 Polk Street Nob Hill The Royal Theatre was built in 1916 and began its life as a Nickelodeon. Originally designed by the Reid Brothers for the same family that owned two other theaters in San Francisco, the Castro and the Alhambra. It was completely remodeled by Timothy Pflueger during the mid-1930’s for the Nasser Brothers chain which operated it at the time. The theater contained 1515 seats when it opened. As time passed Polk Street became run-down, but still the theater’s vertical sign was a local landmark. The same decorative motif found on the front also gracefully decorated the Continue Reading
San Francisco Presidio Main Parade Ground Anza and Sheridan This is the third installation of Andy Goldsworthy’s at the Presidio in San Francisco. It is titled Tree Fall. There are two other Goldsworthy’s on the Presidio Grounds that have appeared in this site before and can be seen here. The exhibit is in the Old Stone Powder Magazine on the Main Parade Ground. The room is 20 X 17 feet with walls two feet thick. The building dates to 1863, is one of the oldest structures at the fort and has never been opened to the public. Originally a domed Continue Reading
Lombard Avenue On the drive up to Coit Tower North Beach This memorial to Guglielmo Marconi was placed sometime in 1938-1939. A group called the Marconi Memorial Foundation incorporated in the 1930s for the purpose of enshrining Marconi as the inventor of the wireless (a fact contested by the Russians). They placed two memorials one on the slopes of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill and one at 16th and Lamont Streets in Washington D.C.. The Foundation collected public subscriptions from the supportive Italian-American community in North Beach, and on April 13, 1938, received permission from the U.S. Congress and President Continue Reading
End of Cayuga Avenue at Naglee Avenue Under the Bart Train and The 280 Freeway Outer Mission Cayuga Playground is once again open. Your first greeting is the painted still fence, titled Cayuga Portal. Through the City’s two-percent-for-art program, the SFAC commissioned artist Eric Powell to create two new decorative gates for the park. The design for the main entry gateway features vignettes drawn from Braceros’s sculptures linked together by images of plants and leaves that echo the park’s lush plant life. The gates were commissioned for $78,000 in the 2009 City Budget, Cultural Affairs Department. Berkeley artist Eric Powell Continue Reading
Cayuga and Naglee Avenue Outer Mission In 2011 I read this wonderful article in Conversations.org and was intrigued to visit Cayuga Park and Demetrio Braceros’ work. I drove to Cayuga Playground to discover that it was closed. The sign said it would reopen in a few months. Alas, the work took until August of 2013 to actually finish the work. Here is an excerpt from the interview: …Demetrio was born in the Philippines. He had taught industrial arts there. He’d come to the Bay Area in 1977, I think He’d worked at the Arboretum in Golden Gate Park for three years. I didn’t Continue Reading
Cayuga and Naglee Avenues Outer Mission The 3.89 acre, 63 year old, Cayuga Playground closed December 2011 for a badly needed $8.4 million renovation. About $7.3 million of the renovation was paid for by the 2008 voter-approved parks bond, $711,000 from a state urban greening grant and $1.36 million from BART’s Earthquake Safety Program Impact Compensation. The playground’s old clubhouse had fallen into disrepair before the renovation, vandalism had increased and the baseball field was usable for only about three months of the year because of irrigation problems from the creek that runs beneath the park. On one occasion, a lawnmower Continue Reading
35 Onandaga Avenue at Alemany Mission Terrace / Outer Mission This beautiful building was once the Alemany Emergency Hospital. There were no other emergency rooms other than San Francisco General Hospital before 1966, therefore the County was responsible for all emergency care and all emergency ambulance transport. Emergency care was provided throughout San Francisco free of charge by the citywide system, which consisted of the primary emergency room—Mission Emergency—and four other “Emergency Hospitals” scattered throughout the City. These hospitals were Central, located adjacent to City Hall; Harbor, located on the downtown waterfront; Park, located on the eastern edge of Continue Reading
Presidio Bay Ridge Trail Presidio Cemetery Overlook Dedicated on Veterans Day 2009, the Presidio cemetery overlook honors the service and sacrifices of America’s soldiers. A wooded section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail leads to the overlook, which is a perfect place for quiet contemplation. The cemetery overlook offers one of San Francisco’s most stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Marin Headlands. The carvings are part of “The Young Dead Soldiers,” a poem by Archibald MacLeish, who served as an artillery officer in World War I. The young dead soldiers do not speak. Nevertheless, they are heard Continue Reading
333 Pine Street Financial District / Downtown ** From Men Who Made San Francisco 1912 There is not much left to say about McDougall other than he was educated at the California School of Design. As stated, his work covered a wide range of building types, including churches, schools, apartment houses, commercial buildings, hotels, and private residences. Among his better known commissions were the Sheldon Building (1907) in San Francisco, the Standard Oil Building (1910) in San Francisco, an office building at 353 Sacramento Street (1922) in San Francisco, and the Federal Realty Building (1913-14) in Oakland, the West Coast’s first Gothic Continue Reading
27 Hotaling Financial District Jackson Square The center building is the Villa Taverna, it sits on Hotaling Place in the Financial District of San Francisco. This is one of many charming San Francisco alleyways. Hotaling Place is named for businessman Anson Parson Hotaling, best known for his 19th century whiskey trade. Hotaling Place leads from Washington Street to Jackson, the hub of the Jackson Square Historic District. Hotaling Place originally housed stables, (at 32-34) which accounts for the horse-head hitching posts you’ll see in the area. Hotaling Stables are registered as San Francisco Landmark #11. Hotaling Place in 1964 – Continue Reading
36 Bluxome Street SOMA South of the Slot Fire Station Number 8 was built in 1939 as a result of the WPA The San Francisco Fire Department was a big beneficiary of W.P.A. The Department’s 1974 Historical Review noted, “One of the few advances made by the Department in these lean years resulted from the formation of the Works Project Administration. As a result of this program several of the Department buildings were remodeled, new heating and plumbing facilities installed, and much necessary maintenance accomplished.” Assistant City Engineer Clyde E. Healy’s December, 1939, report notes repairs to no less than Continue Reading
Ocean Beach There is only one beach in San Francisco where bonfires are allowed. In response to beachgoers’ concerns that beach fires were leaving unsafe debris on the beach, as well as concerns about smoke blowing into neighborhood homes, Golden Gate National Parks initiated a public process to consider the future of fires on Ocean Beach. Instead of banning fires, Golden Gate National Park joined several organizations in a creative partnership to install artistic fire rings on portions of the beach away from neighborhood homes. Those organizations, Surfrider Foundation, Burners Without Borders, Ocean Beach Foundation, and Golden Gate National Continue Reading
400 Block of 5th Street South of Market From 2003 to 2009, the sound of work crews was a constant in the South of Market area due to a $471 million undertaking to retrofit the western approach to the Bay Bridge. (This construction should not be confused with the replacement of the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge.) One result of the undertaking is called 5th Street Plaza. Photo Courtesy of Bay Bridge Info Seismic safety retrofit work on the West Approach — bordered by 5th Street and the Anchorage at Beale Street — involved completely removing and replacing this one-mile stretch Continue Reading
Historic Odd Fellows Columbarium 1 Loraine Court Inner Richmond During the closure of SFMOMA the museum is placing art around San Francisco. This Exhibition is part of an overall group. The museum commissioned the four award winners of the 2012 SECA Art Award to create work outside the traditional gallery context. These three pieces are by Josh Faught and are hanging around the Neptune Society / Historic Odd Fellows Columbarium. According to an article by Kenneth Baker the San Francisco Chronicle’s art critic: “Partly because its restoration so nearly coincided with the early years of the AIDS crisis, the Columbarium Continue Reading
1 Loraine Court Inner Richmond I recently attended a service at this columbarium for Alice Carey. Alice was a friend and one of America’s most respected historic architects. On the cover of her memorial brochure was this photograph: I knew it was time for me to explore the history of the columbarium and bring it to you. The Columbarium is the only non-denominational burial place within San Francisco’s city limits that is open to the public and has space available. The crematorium was designed by British Architect Bernard J.S. Cahill in 1897. As you can see by the above photograph this Continue Reading
The Presidio SFMOMA is closed until 2016. It is undergoing a $610 million expansion. As a result they are scattering art around the city. The first exhibit was the di Suvero’s at Crissy Field. This particular exhibit “Frog Woman Rock” is part of David Wilson’s Arrivals series. Wilson will develop a series of intimately composed sites at six out door locations in San Francisco for the series. Finding the art is half the fun. You must begin at SFMOMA on 3rd street where David has installed a small kiosk. In the kiosk are these wonderful hand drawn maps (one to Continue Reading
Welsh and 5th Street SOMA Thanks to a recent upgrade to this mural I can write about it. It was originally done in 1992 and has been so faded it was difficult to see. The mural is by Johanna Poethig who has been in the website so very many times. Staff members from the San Francisco Human Services Agency contacted her about restoring her mural, “To Cause to Remember,” better known as the Statue of Liberty mural. It’s located on the side of a homeless shelter in the city’s South of Market district. On the 40-foot by 80-foot wall, Lady Continue Reading
One Leidesdorff Financial District The plaque outside this building celebrates the architect, leaving one to assume that that is who this person is. However, this is William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. Leidesdorff was born to a Dane and a Creole in the Virgin Islands in 1812. Legally recognized by his Danish father, Leidesdorff came under the wing of a British planter who taught him business skills. The planter sent him to New Orleans to work with a cotton broker with business ties to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Although neither the planter nor the broker was a blood relation, both died in Continue Reading
Portsmouth Square Chinatown This marks the site of the first public school in California. Erected in 1847 Opened April 3, 1848 This commemorative marker was erected in 1957 by the grand lodge of free and accepted masons of the state of California California Historical Landmark 587. The following contemporary account of the little schoolhouse in Portsmouth Plaza was written by Charles P. Kimball in 1853 for the San Francisco Directory: In April 1847, the number of inhabitants exclusive of Indians, was 375. Eight months afterwards, when a census was taken by the Board of School Trustees, the number exceeded 800. Continue Reading
Franklin between Starr King and Geary Japantown/Western Addition/ Fillmore Due to the lack of land their are very few bodies actually buried within the City of San Francisco. This is why the Sarcophogus of Thomas Starr King is so unusual. Thomas Starr King, a young, inexperienced Unitarian minister, came to San Francisco in 1860 when the state was undergoing an intense political struggle to determine which side of the Civil War it would follow. In public speeches, up and down the state, King rallied against slavery and secession. Through his eloquence and the sheer strength of personality he is credited Continue Reading
St Marks Cathedral 1111 O’Farrell Street Fillmore/Japantown/Western Addition Germans starting flocking to the San Francisco Bay area during the gold rush of 1849 . The dedication of the present church building in 1895 marked three decades of effort by German immigrants to establish Lutheranism in California. Rev. Frederick Mooshake from Goettingen University arrived in 1849 to minister to the immigrants. Initially, services were held in homes, then in the Congregational Church of Christ, which was later bought by Rev. Mooshake and his followers, and the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1859. In 1883, Rev. Julius Fuendeling arrived Continue Reading
Presidio Lincoln and Harrison Boulevards This memorial is in the memory of the soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and coast guardsmen, who lost their lives in service of their country in the American coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean during World War II. The memorial consists of a curved gray granite wall decorated with a bas relief eagle sculpture on the left end of the memorial and a statue of Liberty on its right flank. On the wall are inscribed the name, rank, organization and State of each of the 412 American missing whose remains were never recovered or identified. The Continue Reading
Maxine Hall Health Center 1301 Pierce Street Western Addition This mural, by Win Ng, is 10′ x 6′ and made of ceramic tiles. The mural depicts various elements of medical science. The mural was installed in 1968. Win Ng (1963-1991) was born in Chinatown, San Francisco. He studied at Saint Mary’s Academy and the City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University. After serving in the United States Army he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1959. He began the Masters of Fine Arts program at Mills College in 1960 but did not complete the program. In 1965 Ng met artist Spaulding Taylor and shifted Continue Reading