Tag: San Francisco History
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Woodward Garden
Woodward Gardens Duboce and Woodward Street Mission/South of Market On January 19, 1873, 12,000 people showed up at Woodward’s Garden in the Mission District to watch Frenchman Gus Buislay and a small boy soar aloft in a hot air balloon. The man who made it happen was Robert B. Woodward. Woodward had made his fortune…
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Trader’s of the Adriatic
The banking lobby at the Sansome Street entrance to the Bentley Federal Reserve contains a mural by Jules Guerin. “Traders of the Adriatic” features prominently in the entrance to the main lobby. It pays homage to the world of banking with its depiction of Venetian shipping merchants accepting receipts for goods on deposit and slaves attending…
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Fillmore Car Barn and Powerhouse
Corner of Turk and Fillmore This was one of the first and one of the largest substations built at the turn of the century when street cars were first converted to electric power. The construction date has been documented as both 1902 and 1907. United Railroads owner, the owner of the line when the building…
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Lincoln Park Steps
Lincoln Park End of California Street Lincoln Park was dedicated to President Lincoln in 1909. At the terminus of California street just past 32nd Avenue sits the Lincoln Park Steps. These steps date to the time of the park and were the access for the surrounding neighborhood. If you simply sit on the benches at…
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Hellenism in San Francisco
This plaque sits, somewhat neglected in an ivy bed at the corner of 3rd and Folsom Streets at the Moscone Center. I, like so many people, have seen it, read it, and continued on my way. I began wondering what was behind it. The Greek immigrant community was one of the largest and most conspicuous…
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Compton’s Cafeteria
Corner of Turk and Taylor Tenderloin Funny how a plaque can stop you and educate you about something you may have known nothing about, and at the exact same time leave out so very very much of the story. If you were to hear about this event during those times you would have been told that…
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Labyrinth in Duboce Park
Scott Street Lower Haight Duboce Triangle This labyrinth was part of Duboce Parks revitalization plan. The plan, funded by Friends of Duboce Park, began with fundraising in 1997 and took years to accomplish. The labyrinth was laid in 2007. It was proposed by Friends’ Janet Scheuer, who had walked labyrinths all over the world. “We…
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Castro District History
Castro Street The Castro Street Design Project was a street improvement project by the City of San Francisco that improved the cable car turn around at Market Street and Castro Street between Market and 19th. This included the fabulous rainbow cross walk you see above and historic markers placed in the sidewalk up and down…
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Lover’s Lane
Lover’s Lane The Presidio There is a small trail in the Presidio titled Lover’s Lane. It has a well known history that you can read on the plaque found at one end of what is still existing of this trail. The sign reads: “This trail has witnessed the passing of Spanish soldiers, Franciscan missionaries and…
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Mission Branch Library and Leo Lentelli
Mission Branch Library 24th Between Bartlett and Orange Alley Mission District Leo Lentelli was one of San Francisco’s more prolific and well known sculptors during his time. Sadly very little of his work survives inside of the city. There is a beautiful piece at the Hunter Dunlin building downtown, and this sculpture over the original entry…
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What are those ruins in the parking lot of the San Francisco Zoo?
San Francisco Zoo The Parking Lot Sloat and The Great Highway This small monument is a remnant of a once great institution of San Francisco, the Fleishacker Pool. Fleishhacker Pool, like the San Francisco Zoo, was a gift to San Francisco by Herbert Fleishhacker. The idea, conceived by John McLaren, designer of Golden Gate Park, was…
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155 Sansome Street
155 Sansome Street Financial District The sculptures over the Sansome Street entrance to the Pacific Stock Exchange, now the City Club, were done in 1929-1930 by Ralph Stackpole. Stackpole has been in this website many times before and you can read about him and his work here. On January 18, 1930 Junius Cravens of the Argonaut…
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Hearst Grizzly Gulch
San Francisco Zoo This grizzly by Tom Schrey graces the Hearst Grizzly Gulch building at the SF Zoo. Tom has a degree from California College of the Arts and presently works at Artworks Foundry. The following was excerpted from a June 15, 2007 SF Gate article by Patricia Yollin: Three summers ago, two…
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Bruton Sisters WPA Mural at the San Francisco Zoo
San Francisco Zoo Mother’s Building These murals, on the Mother’s Building at the San Francisco Zoo were WPA projects. They were done by three sisters: Esther Bruton, Helen Bruton and Margaret Bruton. Helen Bruton has murals in downtown San Francisco that you can read about here. Here is an excerpt explaining the sisters work on the…
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Native Sons of the Golden West
414 Mason Street Union Square The Native Sons of the Golden West Building on Mason street is an eight story, steel frame structure, with a highly ornamented façade of granite, terra cotta and brick. Around the two main entrances to the building are placed medallions of men associated with the discovery and settlement of California.…
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The Rialto Building
116 New Montgomery South of Market I became intrigued with this building when a friend showed me this Black and White photo in the lobby of the Rialto. (Note: the round building on the left is the Crossley building) The Rialto is an eight-story H-shaped plan with center light courts. It has a steel frame…
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San Francisco Flower Market
San Francisco Flower Market 6th and Brannan SOMA With the face of San Francisco changing so very rapidly right now, I thought I would take a look at a block of buildings that has been a stalwart in the South of Market area serving an single industry, the San Francisco Flower Market. There are…
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Sargent Johnson Tile’s the Maritime Museum
Maritime Museum Aquatic Park This 14′ x 125′ glazed tile mural was created by Sargent Johnson in 1939 with the help of FAP (Federal Art Project) funds. The east end, however, is incomplete. When the project began, the building was to be a publicly-accessible bathhouse. However, shortly after it opened, the City leased a majority…
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Arelious Walker Stairway
Innes Avenue Bay View / Hunters Point This was the proposal that was written for the Call for Artists by the SFAC: The Arelious Walker Drive Stair replacement is a dynamic community project in partnership with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and the Department of Public Works to create ceramic tile mosaic steps on the…
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McDowell Hall
McDowell Hall Franklin Street Fort Mason Marina District Fort Mason was originally called Fort Point San Jose According to a 2005 Historic American Buildings Survey Quarters 1 was built in 1877. General Irvin McDowell secured $9,998.74 from Congress to construct Quarters 1. This building was not named McDowell Hall until July 1958, in…
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Atlantis and Mu
Maritime Museum Aquatic Park The interior of the museum is painted with a large mural by Hilaire Hiler, These murals depict the mythic continents of Atlantis and Mu. Many know the story of Atlantis, but Mu is not as well known. Mu is the name of a suggested lost continent whose concept and the name were proposed…
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Sargent Johnson and Aquatic Park
Maritime Museum Aquatic Park This carved sandstone entry to the Maritime Museum was done as a Federal Arts Project (FAP) by Sargent Johnson. Johnson was in this site before for the log. This building was originally a New Deal WPA (Works Progress Administration) building called the Aquatic Park Bathhouse. Construction began in 1936 and the…
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Judge James Seawell
Second Floor City Hall Civic Center The San Francisco Call ran this article on November 8, 1898: Judge James M. Seawell. No better nomination has been made by any party than that of Judge James M. Seawell, one of the Democratic candidates for Superior Judge. During the six years he has served in that capacity…
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Dianne Feinstein
City Hall Mayors Balcony Civic Center Dianne Feinstein was the head of the Board of Supervisors on the day that Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were tragically assassinated. She instantly became Mayor. This sculpture (the second of Dianne Feinstein to sit in City Hall) was done in 1996 by Lisa Reinertson. According to…
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Cyril Magnin
City Hall South Light Court Cyril Magnin served as San Francisco’s Chief of Protocol from 1964 until his death in 1988. He was responsible for keeping many key international consulates from moving out of San Francisco and to Los Angeles. He is seen here walking his dog Tippecanoe. In Magnin’s 1981 autobiography, “Call Me Cyril,”…
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Goddess of Progress
City Hall South Light Court Goddess of Progress by F. Marion Wells The plaque that accompanies her reads: On April 17, 1906, the dome atop San Francisco’s City Hall that was completed in 1896 supported a twenty foot statue by F. Marion Wells. The Goddess of Progress, with lightbulbs in her hair, held a torch…
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Cosmo Cocktails
20 Cosmo Place Lower Nob Hill/Tenderloin This unassuming building has been providing fine drinks, food and happiness to San Francisco’s since 1951. Trader Vic’s opened in Cosmo Alley in 1951. The restaurant was built from an old corrugated parking garage. Passing along the narrow walk way through a tropical garden, customers entered the rustic…
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Caduceus
110 Sutter Street Financial District This was originally designed in a skeletal Chicago School manner by the important but little-known firm of Hemenway and Miller and remodeled with an overlay of Beaux-Arts details by architect E. A. Bozio. **** This slightly stuffy, but excellent article, written in 1979, explains the building and its environs perfectly.…
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One of only Two Octagonal Houses in San Francisco
1067 Green Street Russian Hill The Feusier Octagon House, built between 1857 and 1858, is one of only two surviving octagon plan houses in San Francisco. The other is the Colonial Dames Octagon on Gough Street. Both Houses retain their original exterior construction and reflect their eight-sided shape in the interior. This house was originally two…
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Bernstein’s Fish Grotto
123 Powell Street San Francisco * Bernstein’s Fish Grotto was opened by Maurice Bernstein (1886-1932) in 1907. It was known for its unique entrance, a ship’s bow jutting into the sidewalk. The ship was a faithful reproduction of Christopher Columbus’s Nina. Inside the restaurant, the marine theme continued. Bernstein’s had seven colorful dining rooms: the…