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The Most Creative Spaces in San Francisco History, Part One
City Lights and The Fillmore:
Copyright Jim Marshall Photography LLC
Creativity and innovation are hallmarks of San Francisco, where a startup mentality continues to define us. We routinely set foot on the hallowed grounds of storied cultural landmarks—unprecedented venues at their inception that remain progressive icons today. Here, insiders reminisce on the impact of four classic SF institutions to remind us why they epitomize the city’s special spirit. In this installment, we start with City Lights and The Fillmore. Next week, we’ll continue with Castro Theatre and Stern Grove.
City Lights Bookstore, est. 1953. By Lawrence Ferlinghetti, cofounder, publisher, and poet
In 1953, San Francisco wasn’t what it is today. At that time, paperbacks were not considered real books in America. Peter Martin, an editor I met in North Beach, had the brilliant idea to open the first paperback bookstore in the U.S. My idea was to make City Lights a literary meeting place. I was used to the literary scene in Paris cafes and wanted to create a public place where people could hang out and read all day.
As soon as we got the doors open—we started off with one little room and slowly expanded—the store attracted people because there was such a void in that space. This was a brand-new scene. Back then, bookstores weren’t open on the weekends or late at night. We changed that. We were the first to introduce a periodicals section and the first to carry gay magazines. There was a lot of demand for this new culture, and we rode the wave. Comedians like Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl stopped in before gigs.
I was one of those New York carpet-bagging poets. I wasn’t really one of the Beats, but I got associated with them because I published them. City Lights, under my direction, was a publisher almost from the beginning, and this was another innovation—bookstores didn’t do that sort of thing. We printed Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1956, at the start of the poetry revolution. The Beats articulated what later became the themes of 1960s hippie counterculture, antiwar demonstrations, and ecological consciousness. Kerouac’s On the Road was a sad book, but it turned everybody on because it expressed what his generation was feeling. Sociologists said it articulated the end of American innocence.
In the late 1990s, we restored the City Lights building because of a required retrofit, but the inside remains mostly the same. You’ll still see locals reading in the basement or up in the poetry room. We have so many events there, but the tourists don’t generally know about them—they’re just passing through. We also get a lot of professors and students from all over the country and an enormous amount of foreign visitors. Today, there’s not a literary revolution as there was when City Lights opened. Today, we have the electronic revolution, which is wiping out so many bookstores. We’re benefitting from being among the few that have survived. We could soon be the last man standing.”
—As told to Chris Trenchard and Allison McCarthy
The Fillmore, est. 1966 By Joel Selvin, San Francisco Chronicle music critic, 1972–2009
I saw my first show at the Fillmore in 1967: Chuck Berry and the Grateful Dead. It cost $3 to get in. There were two walls covered with lights. The stage was small. About 1,100 people, absorbed in sound and lights, crammed into the room. The experience was truly authentic.
And to think that bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Otis Redding, Howlin’ Wolf, and the Grateful Dead all played on that tiny little stage. Bill Graham started renting the place from promoter Charles Sullivan in the ’60s. The thing was a success right from the word “go.” Bill wasn’t really a fan of rock music—he was originally a mambo dancer from New York. But he had plenty of street smarts. Over time, though, he figured out how to book that room. It became a tribal rite to play there, and that gave the Fillmore this kind of mystique. Groups like Traffic and Cream gave performances that ended up being fundamental to the acceleration of their careers. It became clear that this place was at the center of something very special. At the time, Chet Helms operated the Avalon Ballroom, which was the Fillmore’s primary competitor back then. He had this theory that the Fillmore’s Apollonian stage and proscenium were gateways to the gods. Promoters would leverage this mystique to get bands like Crosby, Stills, and Nash, who would normally play at much bigger theaters. Then in the early ’90s, Tom Petty played 20 or 30 shows there over the course of a few months. Petty was definitely building on that mystique. It was quite a different place then. The old stage now lies (almost completely hidden from view) underneath the newer, bigger stage. But the Fillmore is still a space steeped in history and the ghosts of great performers. The guy who does the booking now, Michael Bailey, really knows the thrill of fandom. He’s been shrewd about capitalizing on the legacy of the Fillmore in the ’60s. Bands today are aware of the mystique—who hasn’t heard Cream’s Wheels of Fire: Live at the Fillmore? And it’s still a damn fine place to see a show.”
This article was published in 7×7′s June issue. Click here to subscribe.
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San Francisco — the Good Stuff!!!
DISCOVER SAN FRANCISCO From Sparkletack
San Francisco History, Photo Archives, Map Archives, Walking Tours, Museums, Online Resources, Running Tours and Historical Organizations
History Resources
- “What’s on the 6th floor?”The official blog of the San Francisco Public Library’s San Francisco History Center and Book Arts & Special Collections!
- April 18, 1906“Exploring San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire through the photographic archive” — A new and interesting project, which pulls out individual period photos and digs in deep.
- Bay Time Reporter
A series of smart, funny and insightful columns on a staggering array of Bay Area historical (and contemporary) subjects, written by the inimitable Paul Potocky. Highly recommended… the man can write.
- California Business History
Don’t be put off by the awkward design; this site is actually packed with timelines, photographs and histories of California (and San Francisco) businesses.
- California Historical Society
The grand-daddy of California history in its physical incarnation, the Society’s website features an online guide to over 300 years of California history. This resource includes over 400 images from their fine arts, library, and photography collections.
- Library of Congress
The “American Memory Project” — just type “San Francisco” into the search bar and jump back at the flood of photos and historical artifacts… this is the Library of Congress, after all!
- Market Street Railway
All things “streetcar”, packed with historical articles and photos — the home of the brand new “San Francisco Railway Museum”
- Mister SF
Long time chronicler of the city’s faces and places. This website features countless short takes on aspects of life in our favourite city — local joints, the vanishing of favourite haunts, literary/cinematic history and more.
- Noehill – San Francisco Historic Landmarks
A mixed bag, featuring a great photographic listing of San Francisco registered historical landmarks, as well as some nice stuff on the Eureka Valley, Russia Hill, & Alta Plaza neighborhoods. (California historical landmarks also have listings here)
- Online Archive of California
A part of the “Digital Library of California” — over 1,000 texts available. These include transcripts of oral histories, personal narratives, letters, press releases, newspaper articles, and other types of documents.
- Russian Hill Neighbors
Small site — couple of nice walking tours and a guide to neighborhood architectural styles, run by a non-profit neighborhood association.
- San Francisco Genealogy
An incredibly rich and comprehensive collection of historical sources — always my first stop on quests for information. Many primary sources, maps, and a forum where host Ron Filion helps answer your San Francisco history questions.
- San Francisco Memories
A loving tribute to our fair city from a passionate collector of San Francisco ephemera — photo intensive and quite lovely.
- San Francisco Pier 70
The story of the historic shipyard at Potrero Point
- San Francisco Virtual Museum
A long running and deep archive dedicated to historical accuracy, curated by the energetic Gladys Hanson. A terrific source for primary texts & photos, currently featuring major exhibits on the Gold Rush, Golden Gate Bridge, and ’06 Quake.
- SF Genealogy’s Research Resource List
This list is not comprehensive, but seems pretty close to it! A fantastic resource for researchers.
- The Western Neighborhoods Project
“Preserving the history of San Francisco’s West side” — An excellent site featuring photos, memories, and passionately in-depth essays documenting the lesser-known half of San Francisco.
- Up from the Deep: The Hotel Project
San Francisco’s downtown SRO hotels – past, present, and future
-
Western history and genealogy blog – Denver Public Library
I know it isn’t San Francisco, but the West is the West! (don’t miss the link to their image galleries)
Historical Photo & Map Archives
- America Hurrah!
A little treasure trove of California historiana with a San Francisco slant — click on a link and a map, reminiscence, or who knows what may result. Good fun…
- April 18, 1906
“Exploring San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire through the photographic archive” — A new and interesting project, which pulls out individual period photos and digs in deep.
- Calisphere – University of California
A part of the “Digital Library of California” — More than 150,000 digitized items, including photographs, documents, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, advertising, and more…
- Central Pacific Railroad – Photographic History Museum
Not only photos — there’s all kinds of great stuff here, essays, articles, and historical data too — but what great photos! A sprawling site, and a joy to get lost in.
- Charles Cushman Photograph Collection
Charles Cushman, amateur photographer, bequeathed 14,500 Kodachrome color slides to Indiana University. Hundreds are of San Francisco in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s.
- National Archives at College Park, MD
These National Archives holdings cover the whole history of photography, and a few subjects are well represented in their digital collection.
- Old SF
Interactive map of the SF Public Library’s Historical Photograph Collection, which contains 40,000 digitized images from San Francisco’s past.
- Online Archive of California
A part of the “Digital Library of California” — access to tens of thousands of photographs, paintings, graphical materials and other images, which can be organized by topic.
- Rails Around the Bay
Frank Caron is an Amtrak engineer and passionate rail buff. His website focuses on railroads operating in and around the greater San Francisco Bay Area, including the history of operations in the area, maps, drawings and historical diagrams.
- Rumsey Historic Map Collection
This stunning collection of cartographic ephemera from the 18th and 19th centuries includes atlases, globes, school geographies, books, maritime charts, and more. Insanely cool.
- San Francisco Public Library Historical Photo Collection
Searchable collection featuring more than 250,000 photographs of San Francisco and California, from 1850 to the present day. Wow.
- SF Images
Images of the past and present day, people and places, structures and landscapes. Large collection of historical photographs, from pre-Gold Rush times to today, all digitally mastered at high resolution.
- SF Library Sanborn Maps
1867-1970 Sanborn Insurance maps — San Francisco Library card required!
- SFGate.com “The Great Quake 1906-2006″
Multimedia and photo galleries from the archives of the San Francisco Chronicle
- Shorpy – The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog
Not San Francisco-centric, but a wonderful and growing user-driven collection of visual treasures from the previous century.
- Zpub – Historical Map Collection
Random collection of scans of historical maps
- Zpub – San Francisco History Archive
Photo-intensive collection of San Francisco-related material — collected generally from other online sources.
San Francisco Walking and Running Tours
- “Emperor Norton’s Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine”
Tour of historic San Francisco led (of course!) by Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
- Barbary Coast Trail
The famous self-guided walking tour — follow the bronze medallions in the sidewalk!
- Oakland Walking Tours
Free walking tours of historic downtown Oakland — explore the Railroad Era, Chinatown, Art Deco Uptown, the Jack London Waterfront, Preservation Park and so much more. Sponsored by the City of Oakland.
- Pacific Heights Walking Tour – San Francisco Architectural Heritage
(see “Walking tour reviews” link in right column)
- San Francisco City Guides
The wonderful free walking tour organization, all volunteer, sponsored by the SF Public Library.
- San Francisco Tour Guide Guild
“A professional, non-profit corporation of experienced tour guides and members of the travel industry.” They maintain the prefessionalism of the industry through tour guide certification, but also offer their own tours.
- Walking in San Francisco for Health and History
“Meet other locals interested in walking for fitness and in learning about the history of San Francisco. Most Saturdays we go on long walks that have great variety in distance, stair climbing, and amount of history information. Walks are free.” - Explore SF
Explore SF offers unique tours that from a local perspective that for the most part avoid anything touristy. Each tour offers something above and beyond a normal tour, be it lunch and a spa visit in Japantown, Wine Country in the City, 1970′s Folsom District Tour, Sin Francisco to the SF Armory or a WIld Parrot Safari, “These tours are not to be missed.”
- SF Scenic Running ToursThe newest trend in staying in shape and meeting new people. Running
tours led by professional trainers and experienced guides, all of whom are
locals, and they take you on the most beautiful runs through the most
breathtaking city in the world. We challenge you to find a more positive way to see San Francisco. If you can find one, we’ll pay your way…
San Francisco Museums and Archives
- “What’s on the 6th floor?”
The official blog of the San Francisco Public Library’s San Francisco History Center and Book Arts & Special Collections!
- Bancroft Library
California’s memory bank on the UC Berkeley campus, one of the largest special collections in the U.S. Includes the Mark Twain Papers, Regional Oral History Office, UC Archives, History of Science & Technology Program, & Pictorial Collection.
- San Francisco Fire Department Museum
Comprehensive website of San Francisco’s fabulous Fire Department Museum.
- San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum
Documenting and preserving the Bay Area’s rich performing arts heritage from the Gold Rush to today – and making it available to us! Programs, events, exhibitions, and the fabulous library. Based on dancer Russell Hartley’s private collection, ca 1947.
- Treasure Island Museum
Once upon a time there was a museum on Treasure Island. Someday it may return, but ’til then, enjoy the museum’s website, featuring a “Memory Book” message board, info about the collections in storage, and “Treasures”, an illustrated history of the Fair.
- Wells Fargo History MuseumThis colorful museum features a beautiful stagecoach, piles of real gold, and many other exhibits focusing on San Francisco’s Gold Rush history. Even cooler, it’s located on the very spot in which Wells Fargo opened for business in 1852!
Contemporary Online San Francisco
- FunCheap SF
“Finding fun and cheap stuff to do San Francisco and around the Bay Area.” Yahoo group dedicated to having fun in the Bay Area on the cheap. Good stuff!
- San Francisco Virtual Tour
“An interactive photo documentary Walking Virtual Tour” — and that’s just what we have here, a staggering amount of work. Kudos!
- SF Cityscape.com – Transportation & Urban Design
Forum, maps & photos — SF Bay Area city and regional land-use and transportation planning, architecture, development and urban design issues.
- SF Journey (German language)
A German-language travel guide to San Francisco and the West Coast: “Ihrem Reiseführer nach San Francisco an der Westküste der USA”
- Wells Fargo History Museum
This colorful museum features a beautiful stagecoach, piles of real gold, and many other exhibits focusing on San Francisco’s Gold Rush history. Even cooler, it’s located on the very spot in which Wells Fargo opened for business in 1852!
San Francisco History Organizations
- Sacramento Historical Society
A thorough listing of all things related to Sacramento history.
- San Francisco History Association
A group “Dedicated to Remembering San Francisco’s Past” — they sponsor regular talks, slide shows, and guest speakers on a fantastically diverse array of subjects. - San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Historical Society
Often referred to as San Francisco’s “queer Smithsonian,” the GLBT Historical Society houses one of the world’s largest collections of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender historical materials. The society’s GLBT History Museum is the first full-scale, stand-alone museum of its kind in the United States. - San Francisco History Museum and Historical Society
The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society is dedicated to preserving, interpreting and presenting the historical heritage of San Francisco.
- Treasure Island Museum
Once upon a time there was a museum on Treasure Island. Someday it may return, but ’til then, enjoy the museum’s website, featuring a “Memory Book” message board, info about the collections in storage, and “Treasures”, an illustrated history of the Fair.
Related articles
The battle of 8 Washington | SF Bay Guardian
The battle of 8 Washington
Condos for millionaires approved with progressives split
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The condos at 8 Washington (center) would be the tallest buildings and the priciest housing along the waterfront
More than 100 people showed up May 15 to testify on a condominium development that involves only 134 units, but has become a symbol of the failure of San Francisco’s housing policy.
I didn’t count every single speaker, but it’s fair to say sentiment was about 2-1 against the 8 Washington project. Seniors, tenant advocates, and neighbors spoke of the excessive size and bulk of the complex, the precedent of upzoning the waterfront for the first time in half a century, the loss of the Golden Gateway Swim and Tennis Club — and, more important, the principle of using public land to build the most expensive condos in San Francisco history.
Ted Gullicksen, director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, calls it housing for the 1 percent, but it’s worse than that — it’s actually housing for the top half of the top half of the 1 percent, for the ultra-rich.
It is, even supervisors who voted in favor agreed, housing the city doesn’t need, catering to a population that doesn’t lack housing opportunities — and a project that puts the city even further out of compliance with its own affordable-housing goals.
And in the end, after more than seven hours of testimony, the board voted 8-3 in favor of the developer.
It was a defeat for progressive housing advocates and for Board President David Chiu — and it showed a schism on the board’s left flank that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. And it could also have significant implications for the fall supervisorial elections.
Sup. Jane Kim, usually an ally of Chiu, voted in favor of the project. Sup. Eric Mar, who almost always votes with the board’s left flank, supported it, too, as did Sup. Christina Olague, who is running for re-election in one of the city’s most progressive districts.
At the end of the night, only Sups. David Campos and John Avalos joined Chiu in attempting to derail 8 Washington.
The battle of 8 Washington isn’t over — the vote last week was to approve the environmental impact report and the conditional use permit, but the actual development agreement and rezoning of the site still requires board approval next month.
Both Mar and Olague said they were going to work with the developer to try to get the height and bulk of the 134-unit building reduced.
But a vote against the EIR or the CU would have killed the project, and the thumbs-up is a signal that opponents will have an upward struggle to change the minds of Olague, Kim, and Mar.
DEFINING VOTES
The 8 Washington project is one of a handful of defining votes that will happen over the next few months. The mayor’s proposal for a business tax reform that raises no new revenue, the budget, and the massive California Pacific Medical Center hospital project will force board members to take sides on controversial issues with heavy lobbying on both sides.
In fact, by some accounts, 8 Washington was a beneficiary of the much larger, more complicated — and frankly, more significant — CPMC development.
The building trades unions pushed furiously for 8 Washington, which isn’t surprising — the building trades tend to support almost anything that means jobs for their members and have often been in conflict with progressives over development. But the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union joined the building trades and lined up the San Francisco Labor Council behind the deal.
And for progressive supervisors who are up for re-election and need union support — Olague and Mar, for example — defying the Labor Council on this one was tough. “Labor came out strong for this, and I respect that,” Olague told me. “That was a huge factor for me.”
She also said she’s not thrilled with the deal — “nobody’s jumping up and down. This was a hard one” — but she thinks she can get the developer to pay more fees, particularly for parking.
The battle of 8 Washington – Page 2
Condos for millionaires approved with progressives split
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Print
The condos at 8 Washington (center) would be the tallest buildings and the priciest housing along the waterfront
Kim isn’t facing re-election for another two years, and she told me her vote was all about the $11 million in affordable housing money that the developer will provide to the city. “I looked at the alternatives and I didn’t see anything that would provide any housing money at all,” she said. The money is enough to build perhaps 25 units of low- and moderate-income housing, and that’s a larger percentage than any other developer has offered, she said.
Which is true — although the available figures suggest that Simon Snellgrove, the lead project sponsor, could pay a lot more and still make a whopping profit. And the Council of Community Housing Organizations, which represents the city’s nonprofit affordable housing developers, didn’t support the deal and expressed serious reservations about it.
Several sources close to the lobbying effort told me that the message for the swing-vote supervisors was that labor wanted them to approve at least one of the two construction-job-creating developments. Opposing both CPMC and 8 Washington would have infuriated the unions, but by signing off on this one, the vulnerable supervisors might get a pass on turning down CMPC.
That’s an odd deal for labor, since CPMC is 10 times the size of 8 Washington and will involve far more jobs. But the nurses and operating engineers have been fighting with the health-care giant and there’s little chance that labor will close ranks behind the current hospital deal.
Labor excepted, the hearing was a classic of grassroots against astroturf. Some of the people who showed up and sat in the front row with pro-8 Washington stickers on later told us they had been paid $100 each to attend. Members of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, to which Snellgrove has donated substantial amounts of money in the past, showed up to promote the project.
BEHIND THE SCENES
But the real action was behind the scenes.
Among those pushing hard for the project were Chinese Chamber of Commerce consultant Rose Pak and community organizer David Ho.
Pak’s support comes after Snellgrove spent years courting the increasingly powerful Chinatown activist, who played a leading role in the effort that got Ed Lee into the Mayor’s Office. Snellgrove has traveled to China with her — and will no doubt be coughing up some money for Pak’s efforts to rebuild Chinese Hospital.
Ho was all over City Hall and was taking the point on the lobbying efforts. Right around midnight, when the final vote was approaching, he entered the board chamber and followed one of Kim’s aides, Matthias Mormino, to the rail where Mormino delivered some documents to the supervisor. Several people who observed the incident told us Ho appeared to be talking Kim in an animated fashion.
Kim told me she didn’t actually speak to Ho at that point, although she’d talked to him at other times about the project, and that “nothing he could have said would have changed anything I did at that point anyway.” Matier and Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Ho was heard outside afterward saying “don’t worry, she’s fine.”
Matier and Ross have twice mentioned that the project will benefit “Chinatown nonprofits,” but there’s nothing in any public development document to support that assertion.
Chiu told me that no Chinese community leaders called him to urge support for 8 Washington. The money that goes into the affordable housing fund could go to the Chinatown Community Development Corp., where Ho works, but it’s hardly automatic — that money will go into a city fund and can’t be earmarked for any neighborhood or organization.
CCDC director Norman Fong confirmed to me that CCDC wasn’t supporting the project. In fact, Cindy Wu, a CCDC staffer who serves on the city Planning Commission, voted against 8 Washington.
The battle of 8 Washington – Page 3
Condos for millionaires approved with progressives split
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The condos at 8 Washington (center) would be the tallest buildings and the priciest housing along the waterfront
I couldn’t reach Ho to ask why he was working so hard on this deal. But one longtime political insider had a suggestion: “Sometimes it’s not about money, it’s about power. And if you want to have power, you need to win and prove you can win.”
Snellgrove will be sitting pretty if 8 Washington breaks ground. Since it’s a private deal (albeit in part on Port of San Francisco land) there’s no public record of how much money the developer stands to make. But Chiu pointed out during the meeting, and confirmed to me later by phone, that “there are only two data points we know.” One is that Snellgrow informed the Port that he expects to gross $470 million in revenue from selling the condos. The other is that construction costs are expected to come in at about $177 million. Even assuming $25 million in legal and other soft costs, that’s a huge profit margin.
And it suggests the he can well afford either to lower the heights — or, more important, to give the city a much sweeter benefits package. The affordable housing component could be tripled or quadrupled and Snellgrove’s development group would still realize far more return that even the most aggressive lenders demand.
Chiu said he’s disappointed but will continue working to improve the project. “While I was disappointed in the votes,” he said, “many of my colleagues expressed concerns about height, parking, and affordable housing fees that they can address in the upcoming project approvals.”
So what does this mean for the fall elections? It may not be a huge deal — the symbolism of 8 Washington is powerful, but if it’s built, it won’t, by itself, directly change the lives of people in Olague’s District 5 or Mar’s District 1. Certainly the vote on CPMC will have a larger, more lasting impact on the city. Labor’s support for Mar could be a huge factor, and his willingness to break with other progressives to give the building trades a favor could help him with money and organizing efforts. On the other hand, some of Olague’s opponents will use this to differentiate themselves from the incumbent. John Rizzo, who has been running in D5 for almost a year now, told me he strongly opposed 8 Washington. “It’s a clear-cut issue for me, the wrong project and a bad deal for the city.” London Breed, a challenger who is more conservative, told us: “I would not have supported this project,” she said, arguing that the zoning changes set a bad precedent for the waterfront. “There are so many reasons why it shouldn’t have happened,” she said. And while Mar is in a more centrist district, support from the left was critical in his last grassroots campaign. This won’t cost him votes against a more conservative opponent — but if it costs him enthusiasm, that could be just as bad.
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Related articles
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Scott Wiener goes after historic preservation | SF Politics
Housing for the super rich approved, 8-3
The two defining votes of 2012
Alcatraz and Historic San Francisco, From Gold Rush To Silver Boom
FROM BACKWATER BOOMTOWN TO BOOMING METROPOLIS
San Francisco became a city during the Gold Rush of 1849, prior to that it was a sleepy backwater named Yerba Buena. But soon after the Gold Rush came years of economic insecurity and then, financial panic. That all changed in 1859.
The discovery of silver in the Comstock Lode would transform San Francisco from boomtown to metropolis. The era ushered in the Gilded Age that would last until the early 20th Century. The Gilded Age was a time of great wealth, corruption and Corporate interests bribed governments, locally and nationally. Some of the world’s greatest fortunes were made and lost during the silver boom. The “Big Four”Leland Stanford, Collis P Huntington, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins would dominate the city, link the country via railroad, and bring in tens of thousands of Chinese workers who were despised by their neighbors; yet Chinatown thrives to this day.
Because the political landscape was considered so corrupt, an emperor was
proclaimed in 1859, lived in San Francisco and may or may not have wandered the city with two dogs. He printed his own currency that was accepted all over San Francisco.
He fired President Lincoln and abolished Congress, attempted to solve the civil war and end anti-Chinese sentiment. He also ordered the building of the Oakland Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube in the 1860′s. The self
proclaimed Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I was the Emperor of the US and Protector
of Mexico. He declared himself the Protector of Mexico in response to the French
invasion of Mexico in 1861. Luckily, on Cinco de Mayo 1867, Mexico ousted the French
so the Emperor did not have to send any American troops.
Image of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I
Emperor Norton bans the F-Word
Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word “Frisco,” which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor, and shall pay into the Imperial Treasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars.
1872
Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29 1830 - August 8, 1898)
Adolph Sutro was the King Of the Comstock, he also became a defender of the common
man and fought to break up the control that monopolies had on the everyday citizen.He spent great amounts of money on gifts to the population of San Francisco. He built He built
the Sutro Baths and also built a railroad from downtown to his bathhouse, the train fare
was a nickel. He became the city’s first Jewish Mayor. He built
the Sutro Baths and also built a railroad from downtown to his bathhouse, the train fare
was a nickel. He became the city’s second Jewish Mayor. Although, not remembered for
being a great mayor, as a citizen he was beloved by all.
English: San Francisco harbor (Yerba Buena Cove), 1850 or 1851, with Yerba Buena Island in the background. Daguerrotype. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We’ll look at the:
*Barbary Coast
*Wells Fargo Museum
*Shanghai Dens
*Pacific Heritage Museum
*Playboy Club
*Playboy Club
*The Original Federal Mint
*Alleys of Ill Repute
*Montgomery Block
*Pony Express Headquarters
*Leidesdorff Street-Named for explorer, merchant and SF’s 1st Black citizen,
Includes Alcatraz!
Explore SF
Explore Alcatraz and Historic San Francisco
Cost $75.00
Retail Alcatraz Island ticket price $28 and is included in tour package price.
When: Thur and Sunday at 9:00
Reservations Line: 800.595.4849 (24hrs)
Book Online Now to Reserve Your Space!
Easy meeting location emailed with confirmation
More Information: 415.793.1104
Fax: 415.651.9148
E-mail: info@ExploreSanFrancisco.biz
Please note: Alcatraz tours must be sold as part of a package and cannot be sold separately.
All other Explore San Francisco Tours are sold individually.
Alcatraz | Alcatraz-Japantown with Spa| Alcatraz- The Mission District | Alcatraz-Presidio Run| Alcatraz-GG Promenade Run
Alcatraz-Chinatown | Alcatraz- Chinatown & North Beach | Alcatraz- Chinatown & North Beach at Night | Alcatraz-Historic SF
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About Old S.F.
About Old S.F. (One our favorite sites here at ExploreSF)
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the San Francisco Public Library in any way.
This site provides an alternative way of browsing the SFPL‘s incredible San Francisco Historical
Photograph Collection. Its goal is to help you discover the history
behind the places you see every day.
And, if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll even discover something about San Francisco’s rich past that you never knew before!
Where did these images come from?
The images all come from the San Francisco Public Library’s San Francisco Historical
Photograph Collection. They were culled from many sources, including the
now-defunct San
Francisco News-Call Bulletin.
The Library retains the copyright for many of these images. For details,
please read their Permissions page and FAQ.
The creators of this site did not collect or digitize any of these images
— credit for that massive undertaking belongs entirely to the
Library.
Who built this site?
The site was built by @danvdk and designed by @ravejk.
What did this site do?
The creators of this site associated latitudes and longitudes to the images in
the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection at the San Francisco Public Library, located in the Main Branch on the 6th floor. This process is known as geocoding. Doing this
allows the images to be placed at points on a map, which enables new ways of
exploring this collection.
How were they geocoded?
The geocodes are based on two sources:
- Photo Subjects. All photographs in the “City Hall (old)”
series presumably belong in the same place. We manually geocoded several
hundred subjects. - Addresses and Cross-Streets. The photo descriptions often contain
either an address, block number or set of cross-streets. These were
converted to coordinates using the Google
Geocoding API.
What’s the story of this project?
Several years ago, I searched for my cross-streets
on the Library’s San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection and found the
photo on the right. The image was mislabeled — the intersection in the
foreground is actually Waller and Fillmore, not Waller and Webster. Which
meant that this photo from 1945 was taken from my roof!
I put together a now-and-then
shot, but it always bothered me that the mislabeling of the image was so
crucial to my finding it. This led to the idea of putting the images on a
map.
And now, years later, we have that map!
What fraction of the images have been geocoded?
The library’s collection contains about 40,000 images. Many of these
photographs have little geographic context (e.g. they’re portraits) and
cannot be located. In all, about 20,000 of the images could be placed on a
map. We’ve geocoded about 65% of the possible images: 13,000.
How can you help?
If you’re technically minded, here’s a JSON file containing all the image
descriptions, as well as geocodes for the records on the map (including the
reason I thought they were at that location): records.js.zip (2MB download).
If you improve on my geocoding or do something else interesting with the data,
please share your results!
via About Old S.F..
To see this collection in person or to order reprints please come to The San Francisco Library, Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone (415) 557-4567, email: info@sfpl.org
The San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, located in the San Francisco History Center on the 6th floor, contains photographs and works on paper of San Francisco and California views from 1850 to the present. The Collection is open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-5 and Saturdays 10-12 & 1-5
Explore the Library’s Geocoded Images On Old S.F.!
- View Digital Images
- Browse Digital Images
- Order Images
- Permissions
- Collections
- Featured Galleries
- Photo Collection Frequently Asked Questions
- What’s New Online
About the Photo Collection
Photo Collection
The San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection contains photographs and works on papers of San Francisco and California scenes ranging from 1850 to the present. This collection includes views of San Francisco street scenes, buildings, and neighborhoods, as well as photographs of famous San Francisco personalities. The collection consists mostly of the photo morgue of the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, a daily newspaper, ranging from 1920s to 1965. The collection also contains albums, slides, postcards, cabinet cards, stereoviews, and lantern slides of San Francisco and California subjects.
Copies of images may be ordered with the Reproduction of Images Form (PDF 31K). Many of the photographs are available for commercial use when a Permission to Publish Form (PDF 40K) has been submitted.
The collection may be viewed in two ways: through the online database on the San Francisco Public Library website, which contains 40,000 digitized images from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, or in person during photo desk open hours.
Looking up in the atrium of the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, California, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When viewing the collection in person, only a limited number of photographs may be examined at one time. Library users will be provided with gloves to wear while examining the photographs. The photographs are to be handled by the edges only and held securely on two sides. The following items are not to be used in contact with the photographs: pressure sensitive tapes, all types of glues, paper clips, elastic bands, staples, pins, pens or pencils. Photocopying of photographs is harmful to the image and is not allowed. Photographs may be reproduced through a photo lab of the Library’s choice, through the Library scanning service or through a scheduled photo shoot. See Order Images for details.
For further information about the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection please call 415-557-4567 during open hours.
via About the Photo Collection :: San Francisco Public Library.
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