Road crews uncover old streetcar tracks during sewer work.

As we move around in our modern world, we tend to forget how things used to be. But every now and then, during the most meaningless of moments, we are reminded.

That’s what happened on Monday, when cub reporter David H. came upon a road crew on California between 15th and 16th Avenue. The street had to be opened up for some sewer work and as crews dug in, they stumbled upon a piece of San Francisco’s transit history – old streetcar tracks.

“The wooden ties were a bit rotted but the rails and spikes were as good as new,” David said. He even snagged a couple of the spikes for his collection.

After seeing pics of this accidental archaeological dig, I contacted Richmond District historian John Freeman to get more background on the streetcars that used to run along California Street.

California Street had the first rail line that went completely through the Richmond, as the steam train of the Ferries and Cliff House Railway. It opened September 30, 1888 to take passengers from the end of three cable car lines that terminated at Central Avenue (now Presidio Avenue) at the Laurel Hill Cemetery, to Sutro Baths and the grand chateau Cliff House which opened in 1896.

The C streetcar at 2nd Avenue & Clement, 1948. Courtesy outsidelands.org

John says the rails uncovered on California Street could date as far back at 1905. The #1 Sutter and California streetcar may have traveled on them. According to outsidelands.org, the C Geary-California streetcar line began running in 1915 out to Park Presidio / 13th Avenue as the Municipal Railway’s seventh route. The line was then extended to 33rd Avenue and California in 1915.

But with progress comes changes, and on July 3, 1949, all rail service on the California Street trolley tracks ended, to be replaced by buses. The Richmond District did have the B-Geary streetcar line up until December 1956, when it was replaced by the #38 bus line.

John says that simply covering over the streetcar rails was a common practice. Just a few years ago, he saw a similar scene on Balboa when they were doing roadwork.

“You would think the rails had salvage value, but in a post-WWII world, scrap steel was not very valuable and it was cheaper to cover the rails than to remove them for their scrap value,” John told me.

Special thanks to David H. for snapping pics and to John Freeman for providing the background on what was uncovered.

Sarah B.

Photo courtesy of the SF Public Library archive

Next Tuesday night, California historian James R. Smith will be at the Conservatory of Flowers to give a special lecture “San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach: The Early Years 1914-1945″.

Smith will share rare photos and stories from his book about the once bustling amusement park that sat across from Ocean Beach on the Great Highway.

You’ll start your evening with a private viewing of the Conservatory’s delightful garden railway exhibition, “Playland at the Conservatory.” While you’re there, try your hand at vintage arcade games and chat with former Playland carny Marvin Gold who will be on hand to answer questions and tell you about the memorabilia. Then sit back and enjoy the ride as Smith explores the phenomenon that was Playland at the Beach.

We’re giving away a pair of passes to the event. To enter, simply send us an email via our contact form by Friday, February 3 at 12noon. We’ll draw a winner randomly from the entries.

The lecture begins at 7pm, doors open at 6pm for viewing the Playland exhibition beforehand. And even if you don’t win the free pair of passes, tickets are only $5 per person.

Sarah B.

Playland, 1962. Courtesy SFPL.

Playland, 1949. Courtesy of SFPL

Sarah B.

These first three are worth watching for the humorous narration alone. Shots of cable cars, Chinatown (“Where ancient East and modern West serenely blend”), the Marina harbor, Seal Rock, the Bay Bridge (“The City that knows how, did it!”), great footage of of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge (“The bridge that couldn’t be built!”), and the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition (which apparently cost $50M to build).

This next video is 13 minutes in length but has no soundtrack. It’s labeled 1939 but also contains earlier footage. You’ll see great shots of the Conservatory of Flowers, the Japanese Tea Garden, Musee Mechanique?, footage after the 1906 earthquake including a rubble-filled Market Street, a ferry unloading, the Great Highway, City Hall, Golden Gate and Bay bridges, what appears to be footage of the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition on Treasure Island, SFO, panoramic views of the city, and lots of old cars.

This next 8 minute video is set to lovely Rachmaninoff piano concertos and features life scenes from the early 1920s. More cable cars, the Ferry Building, Chinatown, the piers, overhead aerial footage (incl. ones of the Richmond District + Golden Gate Park!), dock laborers, a great steam locomotive running along the Embarcadero, a shot of a stadium (not sure where?), and Golden Gate Park.

This last video has a brief history and historic stills of the Cliff House and Sutro Baths, some 1897 film footage of Sutro Baths from the Library of Congress Edison films catalog (previously posted) plus film of Ocean Beach.

This Wednesday, the Richmond District branch library will host a free screening of the new documentary “Sutro’s: The Palace at Lands End”, directed by Tom Wyrsch. He was also the director behind the “Remembing Playland” documentary that came out last year.

The film is a nostalgic trip back in time told by historians and the people that experienced Sutro Baths and its museums through interviews, film footage, and hundreds of photographs. The entire film will be shown (84 minutes), followed by a Q&A with Director Tom Wyrsch afterwards.

The event begins at 6:30pm at the Richmond Branch Library, 351 9th Avenue.

If you can’t make it to the free screening, both of Wyrsch’s films are playing at the Balboa Theater as a double feature this Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 21-22). On each day, “Remembering Playland” plays at 11:15am, followed by “Sutro’s: The Palace at Lands End” at 12:30pm.

Sarah B.

The Internet Archive (Clement and Funston) will be screening two “Lost Landscapes” films in the coming weeks featuring San Francisco and Detroit.

The films are compilations of old footage of each city, compiled by archivist Rick Prelinger of the Prelinger Archives. The films are feature-length compilations of home movies, industrial films, outtakes and newsreels showing each city as it was. All of the footage is pre-1970 and is a fascinating look at an earlier time in these urban landscapes.

First up on January 24 at 7:30pm is “Lost Landscapes of San Francisco Part 6″. I saw this at the Castro Theater in December and I highly recommend it. If you’re interested in San Francisco history or just enjoy seeing old footage of the city, you’ll really enjoy it. See footage of San Francisco’s cemeteries just before their removal, unique drive-thru footage of the Old Produce Market (now Golden Gateway) in the late 1940s, cruising the newly-built Embarcadero Freeway, grungy back streets in North Beach, and newly-rediscovered Cinemascope footage of Playland, the Sky Tram and San Francisco scenes, all in Kodachrome. One of my favorite parts was watching bi-planes take off over the dunes of the Sunset District.

On February 22 at 7:30pm, there will be a screening of “Lost Landscapes: Detroit Part 2″. Most of the material has never been shown publicly, and this year’s show will include a great deal of new footage, including women workers at World War II Chrysler plant, Detroit public school students (1947-48) in class, on the streets, and
on a field trip to the Diego Rivera murals, Detroiters making a pilgrimage to the newly opened Northland Center in 1956, driving down Woodward during the 1950s, in Kodachrome and much more.

To attend one or both screenings, send an email to rsvp@archive.org to reserve your spot. Include your full name, the number in your party and which screening(s) you want to attend.

And don’t miss the 1955 Cinemascope footage of San Francisco at the top of this post. It’s an example of the fascinating kinds of clips that Prelinger has assembled for “Lost Landscapes: San Francisco”.

Sarah B.

Here’s the latest history minute video from Woody and David of the Western Neighborhoods Project. In this installment, they share some history about unfortunate vessels that met their fate on the rocks below Lands End; you can still see some of their remains at low tide.

Sarah B.

An aerial view in 1938 over Sutro Baths and the Cliff House

Via their twitter, the SF Public Library turned us onto a fascinating map that gives you a bird’s eye – or what we’d now call satellite – view of San Francisco in August, 1938. It’s great fun to zoom in and out, exploring the city.

The map is a composite image of a set of 164 high quality, large format, black and white vertical aerial photographs that partially overlap. The photos were taken by Harrison Ryker in 1938, who according to the map’s biography, “teamed with various pilots beginning aerial photography services out of the Oakland Airport and throughout the West.”

In the Richmond District, you get a nice overhead view of the monstrous Sutro Baths complex (as seen above), as well as blacked out portions of federal land in the northwest corner.

It wasn’t until 1940 that we had a Park Presidio extension onto the Golden Gate Bridge and Doyle Drive, so you’ll see the boulevard wind its way into the Presidio instead.

We also noticed what is now the campus for Katherine Delmar Burke School at the end of California adjacent to Lincoln Park was then a complex of sports courts (one of those tennis courts still exists).

In the neighboring Sunset District, the most interesting part is what’s not there. Blocks and blocks of sand dunes still existed in the heart of the outer Sunset in 1938.

This is a really fun map to explore. If you find other interesting tidbits in the neighborhood, let us know in the comments. Enjoy!

Sarah B.

SFGate reports that the Rec & Park Commission unanimously approved the name change after hearing testimony from a bevy of supporters, including “musicians, educators, union representatives, business leaders, park neighbors, movers-and-shakers in high society and community activists”.

The article didn’t mention if anyone spoke in opposition to the name change, which displaces the historic “Speedway Meadow” name. The meadow is the former location of Speed Road, a track built in 1888 for recreational horse racing.

Golden Gate Park’s Speed Road in 1898. Courtesy of SF City Guides

The track was financed by wealthy businessmen like Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, James Donahue, Adolph Sutro, and Adolph Spreckels, who wanted a place to race their horses privately. SF City Guides has more on the track’s history:

The intent was to build it as an exclusive racing road, not for the people of San Francisco like the rest of the park features. William Hammond Hall, the first park superintendent, wanted the park to be bucolic and was against this road. A battle ensued as those for and against the track lobbied politicians and newspaper editors. At the time, the speed in the park for horses and buggies was strictly enforced at 10 miles per hour. Park Commissioners finally relented, but required the horsemen to raise $35,000, the estimated cost, and to take responsibility for maintaining the track.

Eventually upkeep became too costly for private citizens, and the advent of bicycles and complaints from citizens who wanted equal access to the park led to the demise of the track.

After the 1906 earthquake, the meadow became “Camp Speedway” and housed refugees who were displaced by the disaster. The camp closed in October 1906 and Speed Road was officially closed, and converted into the meadow we use in the park today.

Read more on the history of Speedway Meadow at outsidelands.org

While it’s nice to honor Mr. Hellman – who has been very generous to the park and the city – with this naming, it is sad to see a piece of the park’s history be wiped away with the name change.

Let’s hope that in another act of generosity, Mr. Hellman will erect a nice info piece at the site that pays homage to the original name of the meadow, so the next generation will know what used to be.

Sarah B.

The Western Neighborhoods Project (become a member!) brings us a very timely history minute this week.

The Board of Supervisors would like to change the name of Speedway Meadow to Hellman Meadow to honor financier and park contributor Warren Hellman, so it’s good that we all know the history behind its name.

Where do you stand on Speedway Meadow being renamed? Take the poll and let us know!

Sarah B.

Click on the photo to enlarge

RichmondSFBlog reader Rob sent me this pic yesterday of the B Geary streetcar that used to run in the Richmond District. According to outsidelands.org, service for the B Geary began in December, 1912.

The B-line started as a shuttle service for the MUNI’s A-line cars, extending service west on Geary from 10th Avenue (where the A cars terminated) out to 33rd Avenue. Eventually the B-line became the primary route on Geary, reaching east to the Ferry Building and west to the ocean. The A-line ended in 1932, leaving the B as the Geary Street workhorse.

The B Geary was replaced in December, 1956 with the 38 Geary motorcoach. Read more about the Richmond District streetcar lines at outsidelands.org.

I had forgotten all about Zim’s until I saw this photo! And doesn’t the Alexandria look so nice?

Sarah B.