Old Park Farm, or Richmond Dairy, looking southeast across 21st Avenue from Clement Street, circa 1908. Strawberry Hill on the right and Affiliated Colleges, today’s UCSF, in the distance behind windmill. – Courtesy of outsidelands.org

The photo above is one of the first “jaw-droppers” I came across when I started this blog a few years ago. Our neighborhood was once known as the Outside Lands, with nothing but miles of sand dunes. So it shouldn’t be that surprising to see a vintage photo of a dairy farm at 21st and Clement. Still, there’s something odd about imagining cattle roaming around an area that is now home to Aladdin Rugs.

The photo is part of an interesting article, “Farms? In San Francisco?”, published in the Western Neighborhoods Project October 2011 newsletter:

Just a few blocks east, at the intersection of 21st Avenue and Clement Street, stood one of the pioneer dairies of the area. Theophilis Patten ran thirty-three head of cattle in the middle of the growing residential neighborhood, pasturing the cows on open hills nearby. Patten had started the dairy in 1880, when Point Lobos Road (Geary Boulevard today) was the only path out from the city and not another building stood within a mile. “The life of this dairyman as he galloped over the hills to collect his cows, smacked of that of the cow punchers.”

The article also talks about a bustling dog kennel that operated at 25th Avenue and Lake. Read the full article at outsidelands.org

Mooooooo!

Sarah B.

The same view in present day of the southeast corner of 21st and Clement

That big bridge swathed in International Orange in our backyard is turning 75 years old this weekend. In addition to a bevy of events, exhibitions and concerts taking place in the Presidio, be on the lookout for some changes in traffic conditions. Plus some great fireworks on Sunday night!

MAY 23-25
Before the Bridge: Sight and Sound at the Golden Gate Exhibit
May 23 – November 18, Wed – Sun, 11am-5pm | Montgomery Street Barracks, Building 103 (near the Walt Disney Museum)
A newly rehabilitated Montgomery Street Barracks is the setting for a sensory experience of the Golden Gate before the iconic bridge was constructed. The show combines rarely seen images including historic photographs, maps, charts, drawings, paintings and computer graphics with the sounds of the ocean, foghorns, sailors, and soldiers to immerse visitors in an era before construction of the bridge. A kids’ treasure hunt and evening programs complement the exhibit.

Music of the Golden Gate Bridge Era
May 24 & 25, 7:30pm | Golden Gate Club
Celebrate the 1937 opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. A tenor and three sopranos will present fabulous 1930s and ‘40s songs that forever defined that era: Bye Bye, Blues, As Time Goes By, The Very Thought of You, In Apple Blossom Time, Bei Mir Bist Du Sch?n and many others. $10 suggested donation.

SATURDAY, MAY 26
The Bridge on the Big Screen: It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
May 26, 6-10pm | Main Post Green
This is the first film in a cinematic series celebrating films that feature the Golden Gate Bridge prominently. Bring a blanket or low lawn chair – the flm is outdoors. Plus enjoy food from Off the Grid Food Trucks, Disney Café, and Presidio Bowling Center. Also featuring live music with Whiskey Family Band and extended hours at the nearby Walt Disney Family Museum. The film series continues into September – visit the website for full details.

SUNDAY, MAY 27
This is THE day when all of the major events will be taking place. And also the day when the Presidio will be closed to car traffic from 11am until 9:50pm. So don’t plan on driving into the Presidio on Sunday (except for Presidio residents with special passes).

If you want to attend events or just gaze in admiration at the bridge, plan to walk or bike there. Free bike parking will be available. Transit tips for the festival

The Bridge’s east and west pedestrian and bicycle sidewalks will be accessible during the day but will close at 6pm. The sidewalks will reopen to pedestrians and bikes from 10pm to midnight. Unlike the 50th birthday celebration, the bridge roadway will not be closed at any time.

The main activities will be held at Fort Point, Crissy Field, The Presidio and Marina Green. Download the festival map (PDF)

While you’re walking around and admiring the bridge, be sure to walk up to the new overlook that recently opened (enter at Lincoln Blvd. and Merchant Road). You’ll get a great overview of the bridge from a new angle.

Highlights for the day include:

• International Orange Artists’ Exhibition at Fort Point, 10am–7pm. This exhibition presents new work by contemporary artists responding to the bridge as icon, historic structure, and conceptual inspiration. The artworks on view were developed specifically for installation at the fort, and the interplay between the bridge and the fort enrich the experience of the exhibition as a whole.
• Dance, Music and Local Bands at the Crissy Field and Marina Green stages, 11am-11pm. Including SF Gay Men’s Chorus, Beach Blanket Babylon, Mickey Hart Band, Golden Gate Brass Band and many more.
• Road Trip through History featuring vintage cars and motorcycles from 1937 to the present. East Crissy Field, 11am–5pm.
• Vintage Maritime Display and Historic Watercraft Parade with classic boats spanning 75 years. St. Francis Yacht Club, 11am–3pm
• Fireworks, 9:30pm–9:50pm. Spectacular grand finale showcasing the Bridge, Bay and surrounding national parklands. Optimum visibility along the waterfront from Fort Point to east Marina Green. The hills above Marina/Cow Hollow and in the Marin Headlands also provide stunning views. Soundtrack aired live on KFOG 104.5/97.7FM.

GoGGBRIDGE MOBILE APP
I also recommend downloading the new GoGGBridge app for iPhone or Android. It’s full of great photos – like ones from the opening in 1937, historic information, trivia (the bridge contains 600,000 rivets in each tower and took 4 1/2 years to build), fun activities (“Paint the Bridge” where you can recolor the bridge in yellow and black like the US Navy originally proposed), a foghorn ringtone you can download, historic videos like one of Blackie, the horse that swam under the bridge from Ocean Beach, plus an easy link to the calendar of events for Sunday, May 27. The app makes a great accompaniment to the anniversary celebration.

SHARE YOUR OWN BRIDGE MEMORIES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Wells Fargo, one of the sponsors of the 75th celebation, started a website called Built in the Bay, inviting people to share their stories, photos and videos about the bridge which will be put into a digital mosaic later this year.

Happy 75th Anniversary to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Sarah B.

This is a great collection (playlist) of videos related to the Golden Gate Bridge, assembled to celebrate the 75th anniversary:

This video contains vintage 8mm footage of the Golden Gate Bridge opening in 1937:

Billington brothers and friend inside Sutro Baths, c. 1900

Recently, the team at the de Young Museum came across a stash of over seventy glass plate negatives in their basement, all depicting scenes from Land’s End and old San Francisco. The images are over 100 years old.

The negatives were sent to the paper conservation lab at the Legion of Honor for cleaning and restoration – you can get all the nitty gritty details about the work at the de Young’s blog.

The project brought to light some really interesting photos, including one of the foundation of the first Cliff House before it was built.

The photos were taken by photographers (and brothers) W.C.and J.R. Billington. “The Billingtons owned several studios during this time, most notably the Sutro Heights Gallery at the Land’s End Parapet, where they sold specialty views of Seal Rocks, Land’s End and the Golden Gate,” wrote the de Young.

I hope all of these negatives see the light of day in a future exhibition! As they said on their blog, “It couldn’t be more fitting that the negatives produced at Land’s End were conserved over one hundred years later, only a mile away at the Legion of Honor.”

Sarah B.

Cliff House from Parapet, Sutro Heights, c. 1900 (positive 2012)

City Burning, from Alamo Square, Hayes Street & Pierce Street, April 18, 1906. Courtesy SFMTA

Happy Friday to everyone! Here are some local links to kick off your weekend…

• It was the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake on Wednesday. The SFMTA posted some new historic photos that have surfaced from the aftermath. Amazing stuff.
• This Saturday, Enjoy Vegetarian will be opening their third restaurant at 5344 Geary between 17th & 18th Avenues. Their press release boasts, “Enjoy has vegan food that not only looks but tastes like real meat. Lots of gluten-free options and a fair selection of Americanized-Chinese food, such as sweet-and-sour chicken. No MSG, garlic or onion in any dishes.” CNN even rated them the 7th best Chinese restaurant in California.
• Patricia Unterman may no longer be a food critic for the Examiner, but she has her own website for fans to catch her latest reviews. She recently reviewed Golden Gate Dim Sum (1829 Clement), and in her usual adventurous style said “most of the dishes I wanted to try were posted on the wall in Chinese.” Unterman concludes the review by saying that Golden Gate “has now joined my top comfort food list.”
• Untapped Cities has a nice feature on the architecture and murals at Beach Chalet. “The City of San Francisco built the Beach Chalet in 1925, at a cost of $60,000, to provide facilities for beach goers. The ground floor consisted of a lounge and changing rooms, while the upstairs held a 200-seat bar and municipal restaurant.”
• CurbedSF is running features on local parks, and spotlighted our own Muriel Leff Mini-Park on 7th Avenue. Did you know it was the first mini-park built in the city? I wonder if it’s jealous of the new parklet craze… Curbed also has a nifty post on pics of the Cliff House, Then & Now with a fancy sliding bar that lets you compare photos easily.
• The Anza Branch Library, which re-opened last June after a nice remodel, was recently certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council. What does it mean? That the library was “designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO? emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.” If you’d like a LEED tour of the library, stop by on June 16 from 2-4pm (it’s also their one year anniversary since re-opening).

A couple of local businesses are getting into the Earth Day spirit this weekend:

• The recently opened Ingenious Salon (389 Arguello) is hosting a grand opening party on Saturday night from 7 to 10pm. Stop by to enjoy “hors d’oeuvres and refreshments, modeling of cutting-edge hair styles and fresh spring make up by makeup artist Ananda Grant, goodie bags, music, and raffle for free and discounted service.”
• Foggy Notion (275 6th Avenue), a new boutique that specializes in recycled and vintage items, is hosting an Earth Day Vintage Sale on Sunday from 12noon until 6pm. Little Eagle Vintage will create a pop-up store on site, vintage vinyl records will be on sale, and all mittenmaker handmade jewelry will be 50-75% off. Plus complimentary Mimosas and other champagne cocktails.

Keep it green!

Sarah B.

Photo by lokisi1

On Saturday, April 28, the San Francisco Parks Alliance is offering a guided walking tour of the Golden Gate Park windmills.

The first stop will be at the Dutch Windmill and the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Gardens, followed by a walk along the Great Highway. At 11:00 am we will arrive at the newly restored Murphy Windmill for the opening of the windmill and cottage for the public.

The tour will end back at the Beach Chalet, where you can join the festivities of the Queen’s Day Celebration, a National holiday in the Netherlands that honors the Queen’s birthday. Enjoy a concert by the Netherlands American Foundation at the Park Chalet, visit the flea market and booths along JFK, and buy delicious Dutch delicacies. To add to the fun, participants are encouraged to wear orange, the Netherlands national color.

The tour runs from 9am until 11:30am, and meets at the Beach Chalet restaurant at 1000 Great Highway near Fulton. The cost is $10 for non-SFPA members, free for members.

To sign up, contact Donalda Watson-Walkinshaw at 415-621-3260 x118 or donalda@sfparksalliance.org. Space is limited and sign-ups close on April 24.

Sarah B.

Mirrored houses at 425 and 427 10th Avenue, 1890s. – Courtesy of Craig Bryan and John Freeman

Sleuthing in the Digital Age
Unraveling the Mystery of Two 1890s Richmond District Houses

by John Freeman

I always perk up when someone says they have old photos from San Francisco that need location identification. Sometimes I’m lucky and know the site; other times there is too little to go on. A grouping of contemporary photos, like in an album, adds more clues to find locations. I recently was presented with a series of photos in two albums that became one of the more challenging and fun projects I have attempted. This is a detective story of sleuthing collaboration, combining old research skills and new digital technology mixed with a good dose of luck.

In late October 2011, Craig Bryan in Northridge, California, contacted the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society by email, hoping to find help figuring out the background and maybe the creator of two albums he found a couple of years ago in a corner of a prop-shop liquidation sale in Los Angeles. The secretary of the Society forwarded the email with its four photos to me to see if I wanted to get involved. The photos showed two identical houses, a street view taken from the porch of one of the houses, a burned-out brick building suggesting the 1906 fire, and a cable car passing along a street.

Not much to go on, but I bit and contacted Craig to see what else he had that led him to think the albums originated in San Francisco. Craig sent me four other scans at higher resolution and another variation of the street seen from a front porch. I immediately recognized a beach scene below the ornate 1896 Cliff House and a view that sure looked like a family swimming outing inside Sutro Baths, so there was no doubt that the photos had a San Francisco connection.

One scanned photo in this group really grabbed my attention. It was another street scene, but with a very institutional-looking building on the right:

Fourth of July parade on Point Lobos (today’s Geary Boulevard) and 6th Avenue, 1898. French hospital on right.
Courtesy of Craig Bryan and John Freeman

The building looked as if it might be the original French Hospital. I had a dedication brochure from the hospital’s opening in 1895 and it had a photo that matched the album photo! The mystery photographer had taken a picture of the hospital sometime between 1895 and 1906. After the 1906 earthquake, significant structural damage to the brick building had to be repaired, followed by some changes to the façade, including a distinctive mansard roof on the administration building.

French Hospital on Point Lobos Avenue (today’s Geary Boulevard) between 5th and 6th avenues, 1895.
Courtesy of John Freeman

I had a location, Sixth Avenue and Point Lobos Avenue (Geary Street was not extended past Presidio Avenue until after 1909), but what was the occasion that caused all those men to congregate around, drawing the attention of the photographer? Closer examination shows an American flag draped over the façade of one of the buildings. Camp Merritt, the main part of the temporary camp for army volunteers awaiting transport to the Philippines in the Spanish-American War, was from First to Fifth Avenues, Point Lobos to Fulton Street. These men in uniform were only in the Richmond District camp from May to August, 1898. The celebration must have been Fourth of July, 1898.

If the photographer was taking a picture of the Independence Day celebration, he might have lived close by. I studied the view of the two houses and the intersection seen from the porch more closely:

Looking northeast on 10th Avenue towards Point Lobos Road (today’s Geary Boulevard), 1890s.
Courtesy of Craig Bryan and John Freeman

The two identical houses had no visible numbers or other clues to location, except that they were on a slight hill. The intersection, however, did yield a few clues. There were two windmills [John told us later that these were from dairies operating in the neighborhood], and behind the trees on the right was a long white building with a Gothic window and a cross on the peak of the roof. There was only one church near Point Lobos Avenue in 1898, the original Star of the Sea, which faced Eighth Avenue (right behind the nave of the current church today).

I had a photo of that church in my files and brought it up. I made another match, and since the cross would have been at the rear of the church, the two identical houses would be on the south side of Point Lobos Avenue. I next turned to the 1899-1900 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map to find a footprint of two identical houses. I compared footprints on the west side of the 400 block of Tenth Avenue, since that was the only street on a grade with the south side of Point Lobos Avenue that could match the view of the south side and back of Star of the Sea Church. I found my match easily at 425 and 427 Tenth Avenue and contacted Craig to share my excitement.

Knowing the address in 1899 was great, so I made a check of the microfilm at the San Francisco Public Library of the 1900 census, by blocks, figuring it would yield the resident’s name. The only writing in either album gave the names of two children, a girl named Marian, born in 1891, and her brother George born in 1893. By 1900, there would have to be two children, ages seven and nine, to match the family living at either of these addresses.

The census match didn’t work, because the data at the time of the census showed that each resident had children with different first names and the wrong ages. We were stopped cold.

I knew that the reverse-directories in History Center of the San Francisco Public Library didn’t start until the mid-1920s, so how could we find out who lived in one of these houses in 1898? I consulted with a researcher friend, and he told me about a website where you can download an entire city directory as a PDF file, then do a digital search by address.

The 1898 city directory was nearly 2,000 pages and would take about a half hour to load, but Craig gladly took on the task. A few hours later, he had the name that might match: “Low George P., propr. and pub. Journal of Electricity”.

A search of an online ancestry program told us George lived at 315 Cherry Street at the time of the 1900 census, and besides his wife, he had two children, ages nine and seven, named Marian and George!

Also found in the photo album: the Low family at Sutro Baths with an unusual flotation
system for their child, 1890s. Courtesy of Craig Bryan and John Freeman

We had found the family in the photographs; now we had to see if the houses were still on Tenth Avenue. The early years of house numbering often used one number per family dwelling, but as the outer neighborhoods expanded in the early twentieth century, the popularity of duplexes and triplexes changed the numbering system. I figured that 425 and 427 might change by the next Sanborn map in 1913, but when I searched near mid-block, I couldn’t find the characteristic footprint of the buildings found in the 1899 map.

I rejected Craig’s suggestion that the 1906 earthquake could have destroyed these two substantial-looking houses, because the serious quake damage in the Richmond District had only been to brick structures or chimneys. Maybe a house fire destroyed the building?

I got my next break when a friend sent me a supplementary Sanborn map of the block dated 1905 that showed the original building footprints, but with addresses of 447 and 449. With a hint of the new addresses, I did a contemporary Google street search for these addresses. There were two buildings I had looked at and rejected in my earlier search because they bore no resemblance to the peak-roofed dwellings of the 1898 photo.

But with close examination, I saw what I had missed – small architectural trim features that had been retained when the buildings were converted from single-family homes to flats or duplexes nearly a century ago, in the style of the early 1910s. I found building permits showing that 447 had become 447/449 Tenth Avenue when it was remodeled in 1911 and 449 became 451/453 when it was remodeled in 1913. The remodeled building footprints did show up on the 1913 Sanborn map, but were so radically altered, I had missed them.

These two buildings, 447-449 and 451-453 10th Avenue, had radical remodelings in the 1910s.
Photograph by John Freeman

Craig and I continued pursuing George P. Low, and found that he was a respected electrical engineer who had supervised the electrical system of the Midwinter Fair in Golden Gate Park in 1894, and had signed off on the last phase of the electrical work of the City Hall in 1899. He had written briefly for the Morning Call years earlier, and in 1895 he founded the Journal of Electricity, Power and Gas, listing his office as 427 Tenth Avenue by 1897.

Like so much of this story, a lot of luck went along with skill in uncovering the details. The location of the houses was moderately easy, but finding the name of the man who made the album was a bigger challenge. George Perley Low had only lived on Tenth Avenue for about a year and a half before moving to Cherry Street, then Mill Valley where he died in 1909. But he was a professional person whose career as an electrical engineer was noted in the press when he gave lectures or supervised building projects. The journal he founded and edited has been digitized by the San Francisco Public Library and recently became available online.

The albums were rescued by Craig Bryan just before being tossed in the dumpster. Craig became obsessed with finding out who had photographed and composed these albums, and contacted a local historical society 350 miles away, whose secretary passed the challenge on to me. Most of the albums contained baby pictures, parlor views and family outings. There was no writing except to identify the children when they were infants. Only a few of the photos had distinguishing characteristics that could be used to identify time and place, but the sum of the parts aided the search.

Only a few years ago, solving this mystery would have been impossible without at least a family name, but digital technology continues to make more and more archival items not only available, but also accessible by computer without leaving home.

Special thanks to the staff of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library for help and suggestions; to researchers Peter Field and Frank Sternad for advice and research solutions; and to Craig Bryan for salvaging important photos of the Richmond District, and for collaboration and tenacity to solve the puzzle of who composed the albums and trace their journey to Los Angeles.

George P. Low, electrical engineer for the 1894 Midwinter Fair.

Photo by Hot Mayo

Happy Tuesday to everyone! Here’s a few local links to attract your mouse:

• A report from an online survey run by SFSU found that the Outside Lands concert in Golden Gate Park generated $60 million in revenue last year. “The sales impact of Outside Lands 2011 on San Francisco’s economy was $60.6 million, with another $6.6 million for the rest of the Bay Area.” Another factoid: 73% of concert attendees live outside the city.
• Untapped Cities put an architecture spotlight on the Conservatory of Flowers.
• Like birds? Don’t miss the Birding the Greenbelt: Sutro Baths and Sutro Heights Park free tour on March 10.
• Tablehopper reports that a Cassava Bakery & Cafe is opening this week at 3519 Balboa at 36th Avenue. “The sample menu mentions some simple breakfast items (although there is also “Japanese Breakfast” with stuffed rice balls, miso soup, onsen tamago, and housemade pickles), while lunch brings soups (potato and ham, lentil), salads, and panini (like meatloaf on challah), plus fresh-baked cookies, empanadas, and quiches.”
• Still haven’t seen the Sutro Baths documentary (trailer)? Attend a free screening at the Sunset Branch Library on Monday, March 5 at 7pm. Director Tom Wyrsch will be there for a Q&A afterwards.
• Two tempting deals for ya: Spend $20 and get $40 worth of framing services at Cheap Pete’s on Geary. Or spend $10 to get $20 worth of delicious grub at Pizza Orgasmica on Clement.
• San Francyclo, the new bike shop on Arguello, had its first celeb sighting on Sunday. Comedian Robin Williams came in and purchased an ear flap Chuey Brand cycling hat.

Sarah B.

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