Photo by Adam Chin

• San Francyclo, based in the neighborhood, offers guided bike tours of the city for all levels of cyclists. Owner Jason will soon be opening up a bike shop on Arguello too.
• Attention inner Clement merchants: City Attorney / Mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera will go on a merchant walk on Clement this Saturday, August 27th beginning at 2:30pm. Consider asking him what he plans to do about the ADA lawsuits…
• Not sweet enough: Reader Chrissy wrote in to tell us The Sweet Days Cafe on 18th & Geary closed it doors. They took over the corner location from Joe’s Ice Cream earlier this year. We’re hearing LOL Cafe at 25th & Geary may have also shuttered.
• Owner William Schoepp of Balboa Street’s Crown Hardware passed away earlier this month. He opened the store in 1957, and his sons Greg and Joe intend to keep the store open.
• Remember the saga over Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic keeping their charity event in Golden Gate Park? SFWeekly digs into the ugly politics behind it. You might need a shower after reading it.
• The tea house at Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden will be named after Jack Hirose, former supporter and garden concessionaire.
• Snip, snip. 7×7 profiles old-school barbershops, including Rick’s Barber Shop on Geary between 17th and 18th Avenue. “Rick doesn’t have much patience for postmodern haircut requests…”
• Outside Lands is over but here’s one cartoonist’s take on his experience at the music/food/wine festival. Three Days of Babies, Bros and Bands.
• I had a chance to check out the Rayko Photo Center show that contrasts then & now views of Adolph Sutro’s San Francisco. If you’re south of Market, I recommend checking it out; through September 15.

Are you a link lover? Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for more updates like this.

Sarah B.

Sutro Baths, 1910

Rayko Photo Center (428 3rd Street) is hosting a photo show entitled Sutro San Francisco: The ‘Outside Lands’ a Century Apart.

The show features the work of photographer Dan Ross, who for this exhibit, juxtaposes black-and-white photos from a 1910 survey of Adolph Sutro’s estate in the northwest corner of the Richmond District with his own current shots of the same areas:

San Francisco-based photographer Don Ross spent a year re-photographing vantages around the City that were originally pictured in a 1910 estate survey of the many tracts of land owned by famed millionaire Adolph Sutro (1830-1898)… On these tracts located by the beach in the ‘Outside Lands’ [Sutro] built his American Dream for his family and shared his wealth with the public through access to the Baths, an adjacent museum, numerous parks and forests, and what was at the time the largest collection of books on the West Coast.

Ross’ objective is to contrast the old with the new using his 4×5″ format camera, and to show how San Francisco was shaped as its residents moved into the 20th Century. A book containing over 30 before-and-after views is also available for purchase at the show.

The RayKo Photo Center is located at 428 3rd Street and is open Tuesday – Thursday from 10am until 10pm, and Friday – Saturday from 10am until 8pm. The Sutro San Francisco: The ‘Outside Lands’ a Century Apart show runs through September 15th.

Sarah B.

[via SFWeekly]

December 4, 1984. From The Chronicle Archives

SF Chronicle columnist Peter Hartlaub is known for his “Let’s Go To The Morgue” series, where he dives into the deep photo archives of the paper to visit the SF of yesteryear. In today’s column, he looks back on the Academy of Sciences and Steinhart Aquarium before it was remodeled into the grass-roofed tourist magnet that it is today.

I’ve included a few pics here; head over to SFGate.com to view the rest.

They brought back a lot of childhood memories and illustrate how far the museum has come. I loved those dolphins, but wow, I’m glad they’re not part of today’s Cal Academy.

Sarah B.

[via SF Curbed]

October 15, 1971. From The Chronicle Archives

September 28, 1993. From The Chronicle Archives

Browsing through the SF Public Library’s great photo archive recently, I came across this shot of a man standing on an unidentified street in the Richmond District. I figured it was a good chance to quiz all the RichmondSFBlog readers to see if anyone could identify the location.

And before you ask, I’m not sure what street it is either. All I can deduce is that it’s looking north – I believe that’s the Marin Headlands in the distance – and is most likely west of Park Presidio. Leave your guess in the comments!

UPDATE: Mystery solved! RichmondSFBlog reader alyxandr correctly identified this as 25th Avenue between California and Lake (looking north).

Thanks to historian John Freeman for providing the photo below, a present day shot that shows the same building on the right side of each photo (now the Kittredge School). John says the original photo was taken in 1925 by Jesse Cook, a Richmond District police officer who worked his way up to Chief, but returned to the streets as an inspector. He used to take pictures all over the city in the 1920s, some because they were the scene of auto accidents and others just for the fun of it.

Sarah B.

Photo by Seul Jung

You can see why Adolph Sutro built his house here, overlooking the Cliff House and the ocean. Want to find out more about Sutro and his “magical kingdom by the sea”? Sign up for the Cliff House and Beyond Walking Tour, taking place this Saturday at 9am:

CLIFF HOUSE AND BEYOND: Walk Through San Francisco’s Fabled Pleasure Grounds Spend a memorable Saturday morning exploring Land’s End — the western-most point in San Francisco. Start with a continental breakfast at the historic Cliff House with its spectacular ocean views, then walk through Adolph Sutro’s magical ‘kingdom by the sea’ with historian guide John A. Martini, regarded as the ultimate authority on this part of the City’s fabled past.

If you can’t make this Saturday’s tour, the historical walks are offered by the Cliff House every 2nd Saturday of the month. Check their website for more information.

Sarah B.

Adolph Sutro in front of his home at Sutro Heights, circa 1895. | SFPL photo archive

Recently, Richmond District historian John Freeman won the above photo in an eBay auction. It’s a 1938 composite picture of the east side of 25th Avenue between Geary and Anza.

What makes the photo interesting are the drawn-in trees that were added to the sidewalk.

The photo, dated January 18, 1938, was part of the San Francisco Examiner’s reference library (which was later sold off when the paper changed ownership). On the back side of the photo are some additional clues to the photo’s purpose: “S.F. streets – 25th Ave. near Anza as it might appear during the fair with trees planted for beautification”.

The fair they’re referring to is the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, held on Treasure Island to celebrate, among other things, the city’s two new bridges – the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.

That same stretch of 25th Avenue as it appears today

So why would the city have been interested in beautifying an area miles away from the exposition’s location?

The Golden Gate Bridge had just opened in 1937 and the main approach to it, for the far end of the city, was via 25th Avenue. This was also true for visitors traveling on Highway 1.

Park Presidio Boulevard existed but it stopped at Lake Street, which is shown below in the Union Oil map from 1939.

Union Oil map showing the northwest portion of San Francisco. Courtesy of Kathryn Ayres

As a result, motorists would have approached the Golden Gate Bridge via 25th Avenue, turning into the Presidio onto Lincoln Avenue, and winding their way up to the toll plaza – just like you can today.

Since the bridge was so new and undoubtedly more and more visitors were coming through San Francisco to see and use it, it was likely The Examiner may have run a story about plans to beautify the roadway.

Back in 1938, there weren’t many trees planted in San Francisco neighborhoods outside of Sea Cliff and St. Francis Woods. So the idea of planting sidewalk trees would have been a new one for homeowners, and might have made for an compelling newspaper story about urban beautification. The city didn’t start benefiting from programs like Friends of the Urban Forest until 1981.

Doyle Drive, which runs parallel to the bay and carries bridge traffic to and from the Marina District, opened in 1937 along with the bridge. It wasn’t until 1940 that the Park Presidio Boulevard tunnel and connector to the Golden Gate Bridge was opened.

Check out the great photo below of a spiffy trio posing in front of the soon-to-be-opened Park Presidio/Highway 1 tunnel. The caption on the back says “Portion of new 19th Ave. Funston approach to G.G. Bridge which will be opened April 21, 1940.”

Source: SF Public Library archive

Photo showing the “Funston Avenue approach” being built. March 9, 1940. Source: SF Public Library archive

So the next time the Presidio Parkway project has to shut down the Park Presidio/Highway 1 approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, think back to when winding through the Presidio would have been the norm for motorists. At least now we have a lot more sidewalk trees to make the drive more attractive.

Special thanks to John Freeman for providing the images and research for this story.

Sarah B.

A closeup of the 1938 photo, revealing the fake trees that were added for conceptual purposes.

Photo from cinematour.com

CinemaTour.com has an excellent photo collection of the exterior and interior of the Alexandria Theater, taken just before it closed in February, 2004. The photos do a nice job of capturing its art deco and Egyptian design influences.

The theater originally opened in 1923 and was designed by the Reid Brothers, who were also architects for other Richmond District landmarks such as the 1909 Cliff House, the Coliseum Theater (where Walgreens is on 9th & Clement), the Alexandria Theater, and the Balboa Theater.

I’ve included a few pics here but be sure to visit the website to see many more.

Thanks to RichmondSFBlog reader Joshua for the tip.

Sarah B.

Photo from cinematour.com

Photo from cinematour.com

Photo from cinematour.com

Photo from cinematour.com

Photo from cinematour.com

Photo from cinematour.com

Photo from cinematour.com