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Chronicle Vault & Our S.F.

Portals of the Past
Once-swanky Tenderloin is S.F.’s ultimate riches-to-rags story
The downtrodden neighborhood, known for its crime and drug use, was once home to San Francisco’s top politicians and millionaire merchants. By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
Then-Prince Charles landed in S.F. in 1977. Not everyone was happy to see him
King Charles had a whirlwind visit through the Bay Area in 1977, with protests everywhere. The prince rode BART, went to the opera and was handed a bean sprout sandwich from Jerry Brown — surrounded by police the entire time. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
September’s unusual weather? It was even weirder more than a century ago in San Francisco
September 1904 recorded the highest S.F. temperature until that time and the most rainfall ever during the fall month. By Jack Lee and Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
The strange saga of James Lick, piano-building magnate to cranky philanthropist
Lick arrived in San Francisco in January 1848, just before Mexico ceded California to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — and 17 days before James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma. By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
Comedy Day is the greatest free event in S.F. history. Don’t take it for granted
Paula Poundstone was not invited to perform at the first Comedy Day in Golden Gate Park in 1981. As the show went on without her, the sad young comedian sat in her apartment near Fulton Street in the Richmond District, unable to escape the... By Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco
50 years of weirdness on BART: Richard Nixon, ‘Pong’ and lost Ohtani
As Bay Area Rapid Transit celebrates 50 years in the Bay Area, we look back at some of the most unusual moments — including the BART arcade, a service horse, and memorable rides from Richard Nixon, Shohei Ohtani and Marshawn Lynch. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
A softball rivalry between a gay bar and the SFPD reached epic heights (then crashed)
In 1975, a gay bar softball team took on the SFPD. It was one of the greatest sporting events in S.F. history, followed by a sad and violent epilogue. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The case for ‘Frisco’: History weighs in on S.F.’s controversial nickname
The shared history of Frisco is a wild ride, with heavyweights including Herb Caen and Emperor Norton seemingly on one side and Jack London and the Hells Angels on the other. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘A child-size Wild West’: Remembering Frontier Village, San Jose’s cowboy-themed amusement park
Why does a park that was open for only 19 years — from 1961 to 1980 — have such a hold over generations of Bay Area residents? By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
The dark past of San Francisco’s Sharp Park
During World War II, this 100-acre parcel in Pacifica — belonging to San Francisco — held an “alien enemy” internment camp that has been almost entirely forgotten today. By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
A Chinatown Boy Scout troop has endured against all odds for 108 years. Can it survive today?
Founded in 1914, Troop 3 is believed to be the oldest Boy Scout troop west of the Mississippi, but it’s hanging on by a thread. There’s a merit badge for wilderness survival. Maybe there should be one for urban survival too. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
How veterans and avant-garde art saved the California School of Fine Arts
The artists and movements associated with the institution include Diego Rivera, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Manuel Neri, the Bay Area Figurative School, the funk movement and too many others to list. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
It was the first bridge to cross the S.F. Bay. Then they blew it up
The Dumbarton Bridge was once a sensation and symbol of the future — the first bridge to span the San Francisco Bay. By the time the original bridge was demolished in 1984, it had become a punch line. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
How Mexico tried to prevent Russia from taking over Northern California
In 1834, Mexico sent colonists to create a settlement on California’s northern frontier that would prevent the Russians from expanding from their outpost at Fort Ross. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Golden Gate Bridge NIMBYs? These 1930s citizens protested S.F.’s greatest icon
The Golden Gate Bridge was once the subject of protest that held up construction for years — from 1930s critics who said (among other things) the landmark would hurt local tourism. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Nearly a century of stunning skylines in S.F.
We scoured the Chronicle archive for the best photos of downtown San Francisco — including images taken at obscure parks, a dentist's office and the Goodyear Blimp By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
A 1961 helicopter ride captures the tragedy and beauty of a changing San Francisco
In 1961, a Chronicle photographer took a helicopter ride over the city. He captured the tragic impact of urban renewal, a skyline still in its infancy and the lingering beauty in the rapidly changing city. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
That time Mexico launched an expedition into its most remote land: California
The wagons carried women, children and provisions, along with 10 merino sheep, and five Tibetan goats. The expedition was Mexico’s most ambitious attempt to colonize its distant province of California. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
How San Francisco celebrated its — and America's — 200th birthday in 1976
San Franciscans had a lot to celebrate in the summer of 1976. Not only was the country observing the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but the city also commemorated the bicentennial of its founding on June 29,... By Vanessa Arredondo
Chronicle Vault
Lost landmarks of the Bay Area
These beloved local signs and wayposts are gone, but they remain in our hearts and memories. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
In the 1980s, California’s first war with the medfly
In the summer of 1980, the Bay Area was invaded by tiny Mediterranean fruit flies, causing a pesticide frenzy in Santa Clara County and throughout California. By Vanessa Arredondo
Portals of the Past
Painterland: the forgotten apartments of San Francisco’s avant-garde
This was the start of an artistic and social circle that would have a major impact on the San Francisco and national art scene — and have a hell of a lot of fun along the way. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
‘Death of the Hippies’: A Haight Street funeral for the Summer of Love
With the Summer of Love over in 1967, counterculture leaders organized a funeral for the hippies, marching through the Haight-Ashbury with a ceremonial casket and declaring the era over. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Have you seen these fugitives? Alcatraz escape mystery remains after 60 years
Sixty years ago, three Alcatraz inmates staged a brazen and ingenious escape. They were once presumed dead, but the case is still open and officials think they may have survived. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
A storm almost doomed S.F.'s Conservatory of Flowers, until Hillary Clinton stepped in
With close to 2,000 species of flora, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers has drawn droves of people to Golden Gate Park for more than 140 years. But in 1995, the historic greenhouse came close to shuttering forever. By Vanessa Arredondo
Bay Area
Two men, a bulldog and the first Great American Road Trip — from S.F. to N.Y.
In 1903, an intrepid young doctor, his trusty mechanic and a bulldog named Bud made the first transcontinental road trip from San Francisco to New York. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The Bay Bridge opens in 1936, and a city's good people lose their minds
When the Bay Bridge opened on Nov. 12, 1936, it sparked one of the biggest parties the Bay Area has seen — even bigger than the Golden Gate Bridge debut the next year. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Young Warriors fans have only known the team’s golden age. They’re missing out on heartbreak —...
It’s a bitter parent who harbors jealousy toward children, especially their own. But that’s a very real feeling for those of us who have lived through the 37 horrible Warriors years that came before the last 10 transcendent ones. By Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco
San Francisco: The best stairway city in the world?
San Francisco’s stairways are everywhere out of necessity. We’ve chosen a dozen all-time greats in the city, including tourist-friendly classics, a sampling of our trademark mosaic staircases, stunning views and a few hidden gems. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
A British Invasion: When S.F. discovered double-decker buses
Long before double-decker, sightseeing buses took tourists around San Francisco, Britain used them to promote vacations in the aftermath of World War II. By Gwendolyn Wu
Portals of the Past
From riches to rags: How the earliest San Franciscan lost his property
The American era, and the Gold Rush, proved to be disastrous for William Richardson. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Dramatic photos of the Bay Area's Mt. Diablo through the decades
Mt. Diablo may not be the highest peak in the San Francisco Bay Area, but it provides some of the most dramatic views in the state. Chronicle archive photos show the majestic range through the years. By Vanessa Arredondo
From the Archive: Our S.F.
What was the smallest crowd in Bay Area sports history? (The 2022 A’s aren’t even close)
We found the most poorly attended pro sporting events in Bay Area history — even worse than the recent Oakland Athletics games. Back in the 1970s, fewer than 1,000 fans turned out for some Giants and A’s games. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
Englishman who sought Mexican citizenship helped establish early San Francisco
William Richardson spoke some Spanish, so his captain sent the London-born first mate ashore to purchase provisions from the Mexican citizens who lived at the Presidio. The visitor never left. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘An inhumane creation’: The rise of the Transamerica Pyramid, once S.F.’s most hated building
The Transamerica Pyramid is a San Francisco icon. But it was once the most hated building in the city, called “an affront to San Francisco.” We look at the history, and find the best Chronicle photos of the construction process. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The Oakland-inspired ‘Star Wars’ snow walkers? The real story is so much better than the myth
For decades, an urban legend spread that “The Empire Strikes Back” snow walkers were inspired by the Oakland port cranes. We found the real story, and it’s even better. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
The Blackhawk: San Francisco’s greatest jazz club
Most of the great jazz musicians of that era, the golden age of modern jazz, appeared there: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, the Modern... By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
Like Ukrainian cities shattered by war today, S.F. was reduced to rubble in 1906 earthquake
The blow that landed on the city 116 years ago was inflicted by nature, not man, but the results were equally destructive. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How S.F. Chinatown's Dragon Gate came to be
It took decades of planning, a blueprint from a man who didn't even live in the city and a donation of ceramic tiles from the Republic of China before the iconic Dragon's Gate entrance on Grant Avenue came into existence. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
Golden Gate Bridge was built with tons, and nerves, of steel
The truly Herculean feat was the construction of the bridge’s south tower. No structure of its size had ever been built in such a daunting environment: 1,125 feet offshore, in black water 110 feet deep, scoured by powerful currents. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When science fiction became reality at the bottom of the bay: Incredible Transbay Tube...
The 1956 Bay Area Rapid Transit master plan was full of high hopes and soon-to-be-failed dreams. But the part of the plan that sounded most like science fiction actually happened. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Read The Chronicle’s 1972 ‘The Godfather’ review: ‘Best gangster movie ever produced’
The Chronicle’s 1972 review of “The Godfather” was a rave, written by one of the newspaper’s legendary critics Paine Knickerbocker. Here’s what he had to say about the film. By Peter Hartlaub
San Francisco
When exactly was the Golden Age of San Francisco? We did the math …
The Golden Age of San Francisco has always been in the rear-view mirror. We created a mathematical equation to help determine that mythical time once and for all. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
The genesis of the Golden Gate Bridge was a carnival ride
The Aeroscope was essentially a counterweighted, swinging bridge with a passenger car attached to its movable arm. It was designed by an engineer named Joseph Strauss, whose company specialized in such raisable bridges, known as bascule bridges. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
Before the Golden Gate Bridge: years of yearning and dreams for a span
The story of how the bridge was conceived, planned and built is a tale worthy of the great span itself. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
The day Jedediah Smith came to San Francisco
This episode is almost completely forgotten. There are no plaques or historical markers commemorating it. Yet it was a momentous visit. Jedediah Smith was the most legendary of the mountain men and the first non-native person to cross the Sierra... By Gary Kamiya
San Francisco
What happened to the family in this 1942 photo? It’s a story of persecution and resilience
The 1942 photo of a Japanese family held a rare clue to tracing their story. It began with forced relocation and ends in the S.F. Sheriff’s Office. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
Clipper ships, built for speed, the ‘greyhounds of the seas’ during S.F.’s Gold Rush
The fine-lined, graceful wooden ships represented the pinnacle of the sail-driven vessel in history. By Gary Kamiya
49ers
Rams vs. 49ers: With one petty move, a historic fan rivalry returns
The tradition of 49ers fans invading Rams games goes back 70 years, to when rail cars brought San Francisco boosters to Los Angeles. The rivalry was always a gift, and we hope it’s back for good. By Peter Hartlaub
Crime
He had plotted the ‘perfect murder’ for years. It didn’t go as planned
What the newspapers in 1925 called the “too-perfect murder” failed and eventually police closed in on Charles Schwartz, a Berkeley chemist who thought he had everyone fooled. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
They called it ‘the too-perfect murder.’ This 1925 mystery gripped the Bay Area
The truth, when it came out, revealed one of the weirdest murder plots in California history, one so carefully planned and fiendishly audacious that it seems to have been patterned on a (time-machine-assisted) combination of “Columbo” and “Mad Men.” By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
Unchecked crime, destructive disasters robbed early San Franciscans of Christmas spirit
For the city’s mostly male population, thousands of miles from home and without wives or families, it could be a melancholy occasion. And the young city’s rough edges made things worse. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
How landline telephones became a must-have in old San Francisco
At first, the city’s few telephones were simply connected by wires strung from boards nailed to roofs. But as the city grew denser, this chaotic system became impractical, and in 1880 the first telephone poles were erected. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘The World’s Finest Theatre’ was demolished in 1963. Collectors are piecing it together again
The Fox Theatre was scoffed at by Herb Caen and unwanted by San Francisco voters. But historians and technology are bringing the city’s grandest cinema back again, one stray piece at a time. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
Rude boys, bobbing corks and kitchen lines: The birth of San Francisco’s telephone system
The telephone is such an integral part of modern life that it’s easy to forget that for years after Alexander Graham Bell patented it in 1876, it was regarded as little more than a toy. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Podcasts
Listen: Boatload of S.F. history with Gary Kamiya
Total SF hosts Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub take a boat trip through the bay with historian and author Gary Kamiya, learning about Juana Briones and other under-appreciated early San Francisco heroes. By Total SF
Bay Area
How the Gold Rush almost drove sea turtles and Galapagos tortoises to extinction
The hordes who flooded into California seeking gold also almost eradicated some of the most majestic and longest-living creatures on Earth: sea turtles and Galapagos tortoises. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
One weekend in S.F. kicked off the Haight-Ashbury hippie era. This is what it was like
The event that kicked off the hippie era, and whose cultural reverberations are still echoing today, took place in San Francisco’s Longshoremen’s Hall on the evenings of Jan. 21-23, 1966. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
The long, strange trip of Longshoremen’s Hall
Fifty-six years ago, a most unexpected building kicked off what we now call the ’60s. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘Hate the Dodgers’: The Giants/Dodgers rivalry was a mirage ... until now
Part of the package deal that brought the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to the West Coast in 1957 was the promise of enough anger between the fan bases to justify the move. With any luck, these two baseball teams’ fans would hate each... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘Shoot the tires’: The violent early history of cars in Golden Gate Park
When the first cars arrived in Golden Gate Park in the early 1900s, they were banned by park officials. That kicked off a battle involving lobbyists, violence and fierce and eerie parallels to the 2021 car-free JFK Drive debate. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
The weird restaurants of old San Francisco
A striking number of San Francisco’s old-time restaurants were offbeat, unusual or just plain bizarre. Here are some of the city’s oddest eateries. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A domed S.F. Giants stadium at China Basin? This monstrosity was almost a reality
Decades before the San Francisco Giants built their beloved waterfront ballpark, Dianne Feinstein pushed for an enormous domed stadium in the exact same spot. A concept drawing and artist’s rendition in The Chronicle archive show how losing a... By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
How William Randolph Hearst remade struggling S.F. Examiner into prestige paper
The unimpressive youth grew up to be a born newspaperman, tripling the Examiner’s circulation through “stunt” journalism, state-of-the-art presses and high salaries. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
Ring of artillery protected Golden Gate from invaders until end of WWII
From the days of the Spanish-American War until the end of World War II, the Golden Gate was protected from potential invaders by a mighty ring of artillery, remnants of which can be found around the entrance to the bay. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Did Sutro Tower have plans for a restaurant on top? Truth finally revealed
Years after rumors surfaced that a restaurant was once planned on top of Sutro Tower, the truth has come out. It’s mostly a myth, but there’s enough there there to keep Sutro lovers hungry for a crab sandwich overlooking the city. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Remembering the Circle Star, the odd Bay Area theater that put Sinatra and Cheech & Chong on a...
The Circle Star Theatre has been gone for almost 30 years. But its strange rotating stage, and its ability to bring stars like Sinatra to San Carlos, are still fondly remembered. By Peter Hartlaub
Portals of the Past
Big guns that never fired in anger: the Bay Area’s coast artillery
A formidable ring of coastal artillery emplacements once ringed the Golden Gate, starting with the Spanish era. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
That exotic-looking building in Cow Hollow was the first Hindu temple in the West
One of the most exotic-looking buildings in San Francisco stands on the southwest corner of Filbert and Webster streets, in the decidedly un-exotic neighborhood of Cow Hollow. By Gary Kamiya
Membership Center
Total SF Book Club: 'The End of the Golden Gate'
With the Total SF Book Club, Chronicle Culture Critic Peter Hartlaub and City Columnist Heather Knight celebrate and explore San Francisco through the work of local authors. The club's second book is "The End of the Golden Gate," a collection of...
Bay Area
Gold Rush impresario set stage for S.F. to become great theater town
Tom Maguire, the city’s dominant theatrical producer for more than 20 years, had an uncanny ability to bounce back from disaster. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
How S.F. neighborhood sprouted where horses once raced
The Ingleside Terraces neighborhood is worth a visit just to behold one of the strangest streets in San Francisco: Urbano Drive. This unique street, in the shape of a giant oval, traces the contours of a long-vanished horse-racing track that was... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The S.F. Giants City Connect jerseys are bad. They are not the worst in history
Despite negative reviews in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Giants’ City Connect uniform is not a new low. The worst uniform in team history was worn just once in 1999 on a night imagining baseball in the year 2021. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How an intercultural couple in early S.F. gained acceptance
It was unheard of in the 19th century for a Californio man of Spanish descent to marry an Anglo woman. But because they lived in the mostly Hispanic Californio colony near Mission Dolores, Eustaquio Valencia and Ann Moses were certainly accepted. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Unusual romance in early S.F. defied cultural taboos
Intercultural unions were common in early California, but they were almost exclusively between Anglo men and Latin women. The most obvious reason for this was that there were few Anglo women in California, but racial and ethnic bias also played a... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The Golden Gate Bridge’s first draft: 1922 design was an industrial mess
The Golden Gate Bridge is a classic. But century-old concept drawings found in The Chronicle archive show that the original plans were an industrial mess. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
S.F. once hosted a bike tour on freeways and the Bay Bridge. Let’s bring it back
For 10 years in the 1980s and ’90s, San Francisco hosted a popular event that let bicyclists ride on freeways and the Bay Bridge. We need it now more than ever. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Tucked away in an S.F. cemetery, an intriguing tale of the early city
The tombstone of Ann F. Moses in the Mission Dolores cemetery hinted at a mystery. It turned out to be the key to a rich, strange and hitherto unknown piece of San Francisco history. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
She was the biggest fan of San Francisco’s firefighters and California’s ‘most original woman’
‘Lillie Hitchcock Coit is the most original woman California has produced,’ The Chronicle wrote in 1895. Even though the field at the time contained plenty of competitors, there’s a case to be made for the choice. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How will historians remember the coronavirus pandemic in San Francisco?
San Francisco was an example of what not to do during the 1918-1919 influenza, but we’ll likely look back at this one with pride. With COVID numbers dropping and life getting back to normal, it’s clear we didn’t repeat our earlier blunder. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
They strutted, brawled and threw the best parties in Gold Rush S.F. They also put out fires
The volunteer fire companies quickly became the darlings of San Francisco, and much of the city’s social life revolved around the balls, parades and other festivities they organized. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
San Francisco finally has its own font. And the inspiration was truly historic
After 171 years, San Francisco has its own font: Fog City Gothic, based on old street signs. Creator Ben Zotto hopes the public finds creative uses for it. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
San Franciscans still live in 1906 earthquake shacks. Here’s why they matter more than ever
One hundred and fifteen years after the 1906 earthquake and fire forced their speedy construction, dozens of tiny earthquake shacks still house San Franciscans. Activists say they’re more important than ever: a symbol not just of the city’s past... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When San Francisco burned down — six times in a year and a half
Gold Rush San Francisco’s structures were made of canvas, oilcloth or wood, heated and lit by wood stoves and oil-burning lamps, vented by primitive chimneys or flues. The infant city was a tinderbox. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Murder at the newspaper: When a Chronicle editor was shot dead
Western journalism in the 19th century was a blood sport — often literally. Editors made a habit of launching vicious personal attacks against their enemies, who sometimes responded violently, as one of The Chronicle’s co-founders discovered. By Gary Kamiya
Portals of the Past
One of San Francisco’s strangest buildings was a mash-up masterpiece
The Hallidie Building on Sutter Street features one of the more unusual design juxtapositions on any building in San Francisco. Its contradictions reflected those of the architect, Willis Polk. By Gary Kamiya
Local
S.F. nonprofit raised $180,000 to buy Cliff House artifacts at auction. Here’s what will happen...
From Sutro Baths swimsuits to an old Playland cowboy, the nonprofit gobbled up about 70 historic items and plans to keep them at Lands End. By Matthias Gafni
Chronicle Vault
S.F.’s strangest bar had monkeys, parrots and cobwebs. Lots of cobwebs
For 37 years, no broom was ever used inside Abe Warner’s saloon on Francisco Street in North Beach. It showed. By Gary Kamiya

From the Archive: Our S.F.
A shame revealed: that time The Chronicle tried to kill the cable cars
The Chronicle was once part of a drive to hasten the extinction of cable cars in San Francisco, using its pages as a campaign to replace the ailing system. But a cable car-loving citizen had other plans. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
From a school to a casino, a brief history of epic building moves in S.F.
San Francisco has a long and storied history of transporting buildings, from a high school to a casino to more than 5,000 earthquake refugee shacks. With the recent relocation of a 139-year-old Victorian, here are several more headline-worthy moves. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
S.F. had its own demagogue who capitalized on racist grievances
Almost 150 years before Donald Trump harangued a mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol, a provocateur rose to prominence in the city by capitalizing on the rage of disaffected working-class voters, demonizing minorities and promising to drain the... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
These S.F. streets are named for people who were morally suspect, or worse, by school board...
Few of the figures who have streets named after them in San Francisco could meet the standards that the city school board set in stripping names from 44 schools. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
S.F.’s rebirth from disaster was an occasion to party 24/7
The Portola Festival was the most exuberant, and weirdest, of the city’s great fairs. It simultaneously celebrated San Francisco’s recovery from the destruction of the 1906 earthquake and fire and paid tribute to the city’s Spanish heritage. It... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Photos of the first Macworld in 1985, and why Steve Jobs was a no-show
San Francisco Chronicle photos show a modest first Macworld in 1985, with no appearance by Steve Jobs. (He was too busy at a dinner party with Herb Caen.) By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
S.F.’s forgotten Mardi Gras: Rebirth from 1906 disaster was time for a party
The Portola Festival was inspired by San Francisco’s greatest feat, rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake and fire. For three years, San Franciscans had worked day and night and were ready to show the world their city had risen from the ashes and... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Snow day in the Bay Area 1976: The view from above
During the last major snowfall throughout the Bay Area in 1976, Chronicle photographer Art Frisch chartered a plane and captured the scene from above. Here are all of his images, with a call for reader photos to expand our S.F. Snow Day 1976 project. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
1,400 orphans in S.F.: Devastating Spanish flu didn’t spare the young
The Spanish flu of 1918-19 was worse than the current pandemic in one major way: It seemed to target San Francisco’s youngest citizens. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
S.F. love affair with soprano: 250,000 jammed downtown to hear her on Christmas Eve
Never before or since has any San Francisco performer connected with an audience as profoundly as when Luisa Tetrazzini sang at Lotta’s Fountain in 1910. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Who is the Lotta of Lotta’s Fountain? She was once one of America’s biggest stars
Since 1875, an ornate water fountain known as Lotta’s Fountain has stood near where Geary, Kearny and Market streets come together. The anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire is marked every year at this spot, but few people know the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Can S.F. fire stations rescue holiday spirit? 1940s decorating contest returns
The San Francisco Fire Department is reviving a competition that was held from 1948 to 1950. Fire officials hope it will brighten a grim, pandemic-dominated holiday season. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
A private toll road to Mission Dolores in 1851 opened S.F. to development
In 1850, the infant city of San Francisco was hemmed into a small area of what is now downtown. But when an entrepreneur built a private plank road to Mission Dolores over the deep sand and boggy ground along what became Mission Street, it opened... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Strange S.F. mansion’s owner was city’s ‘prize litigant’
Alfred “Nobby” Clarke drove judges to distraction, landed repeatedly in jail and became the laughingstock of the city. By Gary Kamiya
Politics
S.F. has two new supervisors. How will they work with Mayor Breed?
There’s one new supervisor that many hope will be a bridge builder, not just between the mayor and board, but also among the supervisors. By Trisha Thadani
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The S.F. mansion that made waves
The Moffitt Mansion was shipped across the bay on a barge in 1962, to a new home in Belvedere. It was a huge spectacle covered by newspapers, and also a bold movement for denser city housing that never got a chance to succeed. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
It’s one of S.F.’s strangest houses. Its history is stranger still
A vast, 45-room Queen Anne-Baroque pile with a profusion of gables, turrets and other over-the-top adornments, Nobby Clarke’s Mansion rises above the smaller houses around it in Eureka Valley like a gingerbread behemoth. And the history of this... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Richard Nixon resigned, but the 1972 BART car he made famous still serves
When Richard Nixon rode BART in 1972, he offered positive reviews and brought the nuclear football. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
S.F.’s unofficial poet laureate thrived in ‘cool, grey city of love’ — for a time
George Sterling was a strange bundle of contradictions: extremely sociable but deeply solitary, a compulsive womanizer who found his deepest fulfillment in friendships with men, a Dionysian reveler who was profoundly modest, a gifted poet who did... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘With a love that is filial’: It’s 2020 and the battle for S.F.’s soul has just begun
How do we save San Francisco’s post-pandemic soul? With San Francisco still smoldering after the 1906 earthquake and fires, Raphael Weill pledged his life to the city’s resurrection. The businessman and his words can inspire us today. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Getting to S.F. the hard way: Gold Rush trip through Panama could be fatal
Many of those heading for California during the Gold Rush chose the route across Panama to connect from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was an uncomfortable, dangerous and not infrequently fatal ordeal. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
How sand dunes became S.F.’s Golden Gate Park, thanks to a clumsy horse
The site of Golden Gate Park was a vast landscape of sand dunes, inhabited only by a few sketchy characters, when engineers set to work in the 1870s. The first problem was how to control the shifting sands. The secret was unlocked one day when a... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Cliff House: A century of photos of the many lives of an SF icon
While the coronavirus pandemic has closed the doors of the Cliff House, the renowned roadhouse has survived economic downturns, fires and explosions before. By Bill Van Niekerken
Chronicle Vault
How Golden Gate Park ended up in the Outside Lands
An influential editor derisively called the site selected for San Francisco’s showpiece open space “The Great Sand Park.” The nation’s leading authority on park design, Central Park co-creator Frederick Law Olmsted, did not believe a park worthy... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Life beyond coronavirus? Here’s how SF rebounded after the 1918 Spanish flu
With cautiousness becoming the new national pastime, will people attend crowded events once we get the all clear? San Francisco faced the same questions in the past and responded by filling the seats. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Aileen Hernandez, Gloria Steinem and the ERA: Historic photos of women calling for equal rights...
A look back at rallies for equal rights and the ERA in San Francisco, as well as some of the best-known leaders from the era making the case. By Bill Van Niekerken
Chronicle Vault
Much more than a ‘sob sister’ — San Francisco reporter was one of the best of her time
Winifred Sweet, a longtime San Francisco journalist who wrote under the pen name “Annie Laurie,” went to extraordinary lengths to get extraordinary stories. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
‘Peace riots’: We found more V-J Day San Francisco archive photos, showing celebrations before an...
V-J day celebrations in San Francisco, marking the end of World War II, started as joyous and chaotic but turned dangerous. By Bill Van Niekerken
Chronicle Vault
How shipwreck of an opium clipper changed California
Through a peculiar series of events, the wreck of a former opium clipper off the Mendocino coast in 1850 turned out to play a key role in the development of California’s economy. By Gary Kamiya
Wine, Beer & Spirits
What I miss about bars, dingy smells and all
Right now, during the pandemic, we’re all missing the social aspect of going to bars. But I’m also missing things I never thought I’d miss. By Esther Mobley
Chronicle Vault
SF murderer escaped lynching, only to be executed and have testicles transplanted
Clarence Kelly, ringleader of the “Terror Bandits,” was shot by San Francisco police as he tried to escape arrest for a 1926 crime spree. The aftermath was eventful. By Gary Kamiya
Culture Desk
Can SF’s historic bars outlast COVID?
San Francisco’s beloved bars face two questions. What does social distance mean at a business whose product is close-up human connection? And how do you reinvent a space whose charm is that it always stays the same? By Emma Silvers
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Mitt Romney, in marching for Black Lives Matter, was inspired by his father’s 1964 SF battle
Romney was 17 when he watched his father suffer a bitter defeat at the 1964 Republican National Convention. The event helps explain why Romney supports Black Lives Matter and stands up to President Trump. By Peter Hartlaub
Crime
‘Terror Bandits’ rock 1926 SF with one of the city’s most horrifying crime sprees
In fall 1926, San Francisco was rocked by one of the most terrifying crime sprees in its history. On two October nights, a 22-year-old former boxer and taxi driver named Clarence Kelly and two different accomplices, drove around town, killing four... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
When the world made peace in San Francisco
The creation of the United Nations was the triumphant culmination of a long, arduous process that had begun in the darkest days of World War II. It brought the president and dignitaries from around the world to San Francisco, 75 years ago. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
The year San Francisco’s mud was so bad, it swallowed horses
San Francisco in 1849 had only dirt streets, which wasn’t a big problem as long as the weather was dry. But as ill luck would have it, the winter of 1849-50 was one of the rainiest ever recorded in the city. The young city became a quagmire. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A tribute to the Steinhart Aquarium two-headed snake, communal pet of our imaginations
Reptiles are already an otherworldly experience, a chance to reroute your brain into a prehistoric mind-set. But the two-headed snake was a journey beyond that into pure fantasy. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When disease racked Gold Rush San Francisco
In 1849, several thousand argonauts created a tent city in a South of Market area called Happy Valley. It was soon to become one of the grimmest neighborhoods in the city’s history. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Tall tales of a California epidemic: How one man did not vaccinate thousands of people
Nineteenth century trapper James Pattie was a supreme storyteller who mingled true stories with exaggerations, distortions and outright lies. His account of his adventures in the West, and in particular his tale of vaccinating more than 22,000... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Anti-Mask League: San Francisco had its own shutdown protests during 1918 pandemic
San Francisco in the coronavirus era has been a model of rule-following. But during the 1918 pandemic, some in the city rebelled against wearing masks, establishing a group that closely resembles the shutdown protests of 2020. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
He would have been a pandemic hero in early California, if only his tale were true
An early 19th century frontiersman claimed to have personally inoculated more than 20,000 Californians against smallpox on his travels through the state. If he had actually done this, James Pattie would qualify as one of the state’s greatest... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
San Francisco’s ‘Phantom of Playland’ sheltered in place for five-plus years
From 1949 to 1955, Kit Hing Hui lived alone in two caves at Lands End. He is known to have spoken only once during that time, and he lived on food he stole in the middle of the night from nearby restaurants. There have been many hermits in the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Ten SF creations helped define Golden Gate Park. You can enjoy them all today
During the 1906 earthquake, Golden Gate Park became a place of refuge. But it has always been that way, welcoming outcasts and hosting original S.F. creations that wouldn’t work anywhere else in the city. Here are 10 park-defining places, groups... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Marin shipyard welcomed blacks and women in WWII, but diversity ended at the gates
Men and women, blacks and whites, Asian Americans and Latinos from across the country worked at Marinship in Sausalito. But African Americans in particular found that housing in Marin County was largely off-limits to them. By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Marin County shipyard was built in a hurry after Pearl Harbor. It helped win World War II
For more than three years in World War II, Sausalito’s Marinship was a key part of what President Franklin Roosevelt called “the great arsenal of democracy.” It was created with astonishing speed — from when the idea was first proposed, it took... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
In World War I, SF became a hotbed for a German-inspired conspiracy
San Francisco in World War I was a focal point of a German conspiracy with Indian nationalists, most of them students in the Bay Area, to instigate a revolt against British colonial rule in India. It all came to a head in a bloody courtroom shooting. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Long before the coronavirus, SF faced the 1918 Spanish flu. It was horrifying
More than a century before the coronavirus, the Spanish influenza killed thousands in San Francisco, where dancing was banned, churches closed and wearing masks was mandatory by city law. Here are photos and stories from the 1918 epidemic. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A tribute to Warriors legend Manute Bol, in seven photos
In just over two years as a Warriors center, the 7-foot-7 Manute Bol brought joy to the Bay Area that’s remembered three decades later. A tribute to the basketball player and humanitarian, in seven archive photos. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
These 1981 photos of the SF Gay Men’s Chorus were lost in time. See them now
Historic photos from The San Francisco Chronicle archive show the S.F. Gay Men’s chorus in 1981, preparing for a national tour that would make them pioneers, and jump-start a new era of pride and song. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
San Francisco’s Greektown was a big part of South of Market. Now it’s long gone
Large-scale Greek immigration to San Francisco began after the 1906 earthquake and fire, drawn by reports that there were jobs to be had rebuilding the city. Like other ethnic immigrants, Greeks settled in the city’s working-class South of Market,... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
The day the Mexican-American War came to Santa Clara
The Battle of Santa Clara was a swan song for Californios, whose tranquil way of life was about to be swept away by the Americans they faced off against on a muddy plain in the South Bay. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Market Street is car-free: A salute to the people who started this fight
The fight for no cars on Market Street started in 1896. Here’s a thank-you note to the ringleader of this protest, and to everyone else who has battled for a San Francisco cause they didn’t live to see. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
What we learned reading ‘Dwight Clark’s Super Bowl Diary’ from 1982
The six-part feature that ran in The San Francisco Chronicle before Super Bowl XVI was a fun, if a bit hokey, feature that resembled a ‘Seinfeld’ episode. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How horse stealing brought the Mexican-American War to the Bay Area
Most Californios in the Bay Area — native Californians, most of them Spanish-speaking — accepted the U.S. occupation in the 1840s and offered no resistance. But a series of outrages eventually led a group of prominent rancheros to rise up in a... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
We found 1982 photos of a 49ers Super Bowl block party, and it was epic
We searched The Chronicle archives for evidence of a Super Bowl XVI party, and found an epic example. The technology has changed, but the vibe of this Douglass Street block party continues today. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
War in the Bay Area: Why native Californians fought U.S. takeover from Mexico
Many native Californians admired the efficiency and modernity of Americans and hoped that the U.S. would take control of California from Mexico in the 1840s. Had the Americans dealt with them in a more enlightened way, many of the conflicts that... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘Ask for Bud’: What the 49ers ticket market looked like in 1982
With tickets for this Saturday’s 49ers playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings going for as much as $23,000, we look at secondary market sales for ‘The Catch’ playoff game in 1982, when selling tickets to strangers was an incredibly complicated... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A love letter to Hunters Point crane, the most underrated Bay Area landmark
The giant Hunters Point crane has an incredible resume, built in 1947 to work on battleships and later being refitted to test Polaris missiles. But it doesn’t get the respect of a major bridge or Sutro Tower. Peter Hartlaub salutes the most... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How Pisco Punch, the Holy Grail of San Francisco drinks, was lost and found
Early San Francisco’s most famous cocktail was Pisco Punch. From the Gold Rush until Prohibition, this secret concoction was the preferred beverage of discerning tipplers. But when the legendary bar where it was invented closed, and the bar’s... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Archive find: Photos of Warriors coach Steve Kerr, still in his teens
With Arizona coming to San Francisco for the Al Attles Classic, we found Chronicle photos of Warriors coach Steve Kerr when he was still in his teens. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When SF police broke the law to combat Chinatown’s violent gangs
The police Chinatown Squad, as it was called, used harsh and often illegal methods, and some of its officers were corrupt. But despite its heavy-handed tactics — and, in some cases, because of them — the squad played a central role in combatting... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A tribute to Wendy Tokuda, Dave McElhatton and the golden age of TV news
Tokuda discusses her time with McElhatton after photos from 1981 are discovered, capturing the beginning of the KPIX anchor team. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How the Native American occupation of Alcatraz turned sour
At first, the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in November 1969 received laudatory press coverage, and the young occupiers were viewed sympathetically by many San Franciscans. Donations of food, clothing and money poured in. But soon, the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The Occupation of Alcatraz: 50 years later
Nov. 20, 1969, was the start of a year where the island was taken over by Native Americans and their supporters. Chronicle photographer Vince Maggiora was there. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
‘The Indians have landed!’ How the long occupation of Alcatraz began
The Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island reflected the passionate social activism of the late 1960s and had deep historical roots in the dispossession of California Indian lands and destruction of Indian culture by the Spanish, Mexicans... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
The Sioux occupation of Alcatraz you don’t know about
Five years before the historic occupation of Alcatraz by Indians of All Tribes, a smaller group staked a claim to the abandoned prison island under a U.S. treaty. By Bill Van Niekerken
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A cocktail lounge on BART? Here’s the man who tried to make it happen
A cocktail lounge on BART? It was the dream of BART director Wilfred T. Ussery, who pushed for a bar car to be added on trains twice in the 1980s and 1990s. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Mission Dolores’ dark legacy for Indians: From salvation to subjugation and death
The white adobe church on San Francisco’s Dolores Street was once celebrated as a testament to the faith and courage of the Spanish colonizers who built it. Today, however, Mission Dolores’ legacy is seen as far more problematic. By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
Sex and cycling: How bike craze aroused passions in 1890s San Francisco
Bicycling swept the nation in the 1890s, and San Francisco was not immune. But some men weren’t happy when women enthusiastically joined in. The backlash was prompted in part by men’s concern that riding would sexually stimulate women. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A family of trailblazers
Marvin Lewis died eight years before Salesforce was founded, and has mostly been absent from the media myth-building around Marc Benioff, but his influence over the values of the city’s largest private employer is immeasurable. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Powerful forces wanted freeways all over SF. Here’s how they were stopped
A coalition of politicians, business people, newspapers and — most crucially — ordinary people created what is now known as the Freeway Revolt. Residents of two neighborhoods that stood to be torn apart by the freeways, Glen Park and the Sunset,... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Bay Area’s first bomb shelter has a surprising second act
In 1950, before the Korean War started, a London couple convinced their Oakland landlord to build a bomb shelter in their apartment complex. It still exists — now used as an art studio, wine cellar and music room. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Peter Frampton’s Day on the Green
Just months after the release of “Frampton Comes Alive,” Peter Frampton headlined Day on the Green, performing at the peak of his fame for a sold-out crowd. The photos are stunning, so ahead of his farewell-tour stop in the Bay Area, we got... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
A freeway through the Sunset District? Roots of a San Francisco revolt
Most of the vast freeway system that was planned for San Francisco in the 1950s was stopped by a strange-bedfellows coalition of neighborhood activists, media figures, politicians and business people. What came to be known as the Freeway Revolt... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
See what a Critical Mass ride looked like in 1994, at the movement’s start
The Critical Mass bicycle movement looked a little different in 1994, when The Chronicle first covered the controversial street-closing bike rides in the Datebook section. We show a dozen photos from that session and cover some of the early... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Not just Washington High murals: WPA’s work lives on, all over San Francisco
Virtually every neighborhood in San Francisco bears the imprint of the Works Progress Administration and other Depression-era federal work agencies. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
See the ‘twin’ Bay Bridge that nearly happened despite outrage from SF
After the original Bay Bridge lured far more traffic than expected, a “twin” Bay Bridge very nearly happened. While proponents said two identical bridges 300 feet apart would be “one of the wonders of the world,” S.F. leaders and The Chronicle... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
San Francisco love story: A hooker, her gambling man and a hanging
In Mission Dolores cemetery a tombstone bears the names of Charles and Arabella Cora, who were married for exactly two hours. It is a monument to a tragic only-in-San Francisco love story, involving a beautiful young prostitute, her rakish gambler... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
It’s time to rediscover Virginia de Carvalho, 1940s photojournalism pioneer
Reportedly the first female photojournalist on the West Coast, Virginia de Carvalho garnered a lot of attention, working five years at The San Francisco Chronicle in the 1940s. But then her story was lost in time. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
SF ‘hobohemia’ transformed into Skid Row as jobs and city changed
San Francisco’s hobo population changed with the Depression, the evolving job market and the city’s long-running plans to transform the South of Market area By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A day that lives in infamy: Wine comes to Candlestick Park in 1977
San Francisco has been flirting with self-parody since gold miners were still waiting for Levi’s to be invented. For a century and a half, we have spent wantonly, embraced oddball trends and elected politicians viewed by the world as far-left,... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Don’t call them bums: Hobos once filled the South of Market
For decades, thousands of hobos called San Francisco their part-time home. Living in cheap hotels and rooming houses, these itinerant workers came and went with the seasons. The center of “hobohemia” was Fourth and Howard streets, now an upscale... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Requiem for Sony Metreon
A requiem for Sony Metreon, which debuted in 1999 as the biggest mall of its kind in the world, claiming it was the future of urban entertainment. After burning bright at the opening, the fall was spectacular — and it’s now anchored around a Target. By Peter Hartlaub
Ann Killion
Could today’s start be Madison Bumgarner’s last with the Giants?
He remains the most valuable trade piece the San Francisco Giants have, in large part because of his postseason dominance. Hence, the talk of moving a man who once would seem to be untouchable. By Ann Killion
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Apollo 11 moon landing inspired celebrations, strife-free days in San Francisco
Bay Area parties were plentiful when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Apollo 11 advertisements: First Mad Men on the moon
Fifty years after the Apollo 11 Moon landing, let’s take a look at some of the first advertisements trying to cash in on the historic journey. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
It was just like the movies — only this SF sniper was for real
Spurned by a woman, a disturbed man takes to a rooftop in San Francisco and opens fire. It happened in a 1952 movie, and seven years later it happened in real life. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Legend of the Skate Patrol, guardians of Golden Gate Park
Forty years ago, San Francisco almost banned roller skating in the park — until a band of skating enthusiasts who cared about the sport and the scene united to save it. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
San Francisco scenic treasure that locals overlook
The 49 Mile Scenic Drive has distinctive signs featuring a chummy-looking seagull and travels through neighborhoods predictable and less so. But for most locals, its route — not to mention its entire concept — is a mystery. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
See Jerry Rice’s first photos as a 49er (taken after his first time on a plane)
Jerry Rice’s arrival in 1985 as a member of the 49ers was a series of firsts. First time holding a professional team jersey. First time in the San Francisco Bay Area. And, it turns out, the greatest wide receiver in history’s first time on an... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When a red-hunting Congress took on SF murals — and lost
The Rincon Annex murals by artist Anton Refregier, a sweeping, warts-and-all depiction of the history of San Francisco commissioned by a New Deal federal arts program, was attacked for years by right-wing groups that considered them subversive,... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
1958 photos of the Embarcadero Freeway: A double-decker mistake rises
It was January 1959, and most of San Francisco seemed to have a case of buyer’s remorse. The Embarcadero Freeway, a double-decker public relations disaster, was finally complete. The Chronicle had hailed the arrival of almost every other major... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When conservatives went to war over SF post office murals
Throughout San Francisco’s history, conservatives almost invariably have been the ones leading the charge to remove “objectionable” art. One case in point: The Anton Refregier murals in the Rincon Annex post office, which inspired the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘San Francisco is rotting’ story is wrong: City is brimming with soul
San Francisco takedown pieces, particularly the recent ones, share similar hallmarks: a legacy business that is closing down, as if legacy businesses haven’t closed and opened for a century. A sense that the city is rotting from the inside, as if... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
We found 1970s Mission District mural photos; and the artwork is still there
The first high-profile murals in San Francisco’s Mission District appeared in 1971, beginning a history of public art that has defined the district. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When the waterfront was San Francisco’s heart, soul and muscle
The City Front, as the waterfront was called, was the engine that drove San Francisco’s economy. It swarmed with longshoremen, sailors and other workers of all sorts. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: They belong on the Union Square Walk of Fame
The last thing Union Square needs is additional tourist bait. [...] if San Francisco was going to add an attraction to Union Square, a walk of fame seems like a good fit. Below are our first round inductees to the Union Square Walk of Fame. The... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Behold the first SF Giants photos in history, with Willie Mays front and center
The Chronicle’s documentation of Willie Mays’ arrival includes arguably the first San Francisco Giants images in history — two deteriorating-yet-striking photo negatives of the 26-year-old legend standing in front of Seals Stadium, where the... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
San Francisco’s vanished island resort: Dancing, shooting and zinc tubs
Strawberry Island was hard to get to, and it wasn’t even a full-time island. But precisely for those reasons, it was among the most enchanting of San Francisco’s lost landscapes. For a few years, it was a resort destination extending into the bay. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
San Francisco then and now: 1954 Top of the Mark photos show city’s change
On a clear day in 1954, Chronicle photographer Art Frisch took the Mark Hopkins Hotel’s elevator to the 19th floor, walked toward the windows and started taking photos of San Francisco. Today that view of the waterfront is much obscured by a... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How 1906 quake helped thousands of San Franciscans own their first homes
Most eartthquake refugees who ended up in city-provided cottages were working San Franciscans. About a third of them were Irish and Italian immigrants and their children, whose tenements in the poor, heavily ethnic South of Market and North Beach... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
These houses will not burn: Epic 1906 earthquake story is lost in time
Three San Francisco homes, on the south side of Green Street between Leavenworth and Jones, become easier to miss with each passing decade. But their history shouldn’t be forgotten, as a handful of civilians withstood the 1906 earthquake, then,... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The birth of a Market Street cinema district: Celebrities, crack dens and a coda
You wouldn’t know it today, but from 1915 to the 1960s Market Street was San Francisco’s prime destination for movie lovers. Ghosts of the city’s vanished cinemas are still here, though. By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Think SF’s housing crisis is bad? You should have seen it in 1906
Nearly half of San Francisco’s population was homeless after the earthquake and fire of 1906. The relief effort to shelter thousands of people marked a shift in disaster recovery in the United States. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Photos of first SF airport security checkpoints in 1973: ‘A sign of the times’
The first security lines at San Francisco International Airport featured no X-ray machines, no dogs and no federal officers. The bag searches consisted of a guy poking around your purse with a stick. But for airline passengers used to visiting... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When Navy sailors in SF ripped a Nazi flag off the German consulate
Months before Pearl Harbor, two US sailors tore down a Nazi flag flying outside the German consulate in San Francisco — we searched The Chronicle’s archive to see what happened next. By Bill Van Niekerken
Chronicle Vault
SF Zoo Monkey Island: Depression jobs and fun for humans, mixed bag for animals
The monkey island at Fleishhacker Zoo was one of many the WPA built around the country to put people to work and lift families’ spirits during hard times. For the monkeys, the islands were an improvement on cages but still not ideal. By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Did Julia Child really dine at Tu Lan? A legend rediscovered
New hires at The San Francisco Chronicle often begin their careers dining at Tu Lan. The Vietnamese restaurant is a block and a half from the newsroom in San Francisco, and a time machine when it comes to both décor and price. It’s a Chronicle... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
All the rejected early BART logos — before agency settled on ‘ba’ design
In a Bay Area that seems to reinvent itself by the week, few things have remained more constant or recognizable over the past half-century than the BART logo. Big lowercase black “b” overlapping a big lowercase blue “a.” Small uppercase “BART” on... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
San Francisco’s Chinatown was a seedy ghetto. Then a stage set replaced it
The pre-1906 district had a reputation for squalid conditions and sin. Neighborhood leaders rebuilt it with faux Chinese architecture to attract tourists and ease pressure from a white city government. By Gary Kamiya
Wine, Beer & Spirits
SF’s Lone Palm bar is where time stands still, in the best possible way
When Jane Seabrook’s daughter was 4 days old, in 1999, Seabrook and her then-husband, Mark Green, decided it was time for their infant’s first outing. So they did what any other young Mission District family would do: They headed to the... By Emma Silvers
Chronicle Vault
‘Vertigo’ mansion’s fate was a San Francisco horror story
The most recent Portals told the tumultuous early history of the Fortmann mansion, a Victorian at Gough and Eddy streets in San Francisco that plays a cryptic role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece, “Vertigo.” To review: In “Vertigo,” the... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
That weird San Francisco mansion in Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ had a history
Every year, throngs of people take “Vertigo” tours in San Francisco, visiting the sites where Alfred Hitchcock shot his 1958 masterpiece. Many buildings, such as the swanky Brocklebank apartments atop Nob Hill and the building at 900 Lombard St.... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Snow over Marin Headlands: How The Chronicle got that 1976 aerial photo
This interview is part of the S.F. Snow Day 1976 project. The Chronicle is gathering photos from readers and creating a Feb. 5, 1976, snow map of San Francisco neighborhoods. See it and contribute here. Gary Fong did his duty when he woke up at 3... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
SF 1976 Snow Day: What did your neighborhood look like after the miracle snowfall? See it here
The surprise snowstorm of 1976 may have been the last great miracle in San Francisco. I’m Peter Hartlaub, and that day is one of my earliest memories as a Bay Area resident. I first found stunning photos of the rare San Francisco snowfall in The... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
These lost 1981 Candlestick tailgate photos will make 49ers fans feel joy again
The Bay Area teams are a long way from football glory this Super Bowl weekend, with the Raiders heading to Las Vegas via who-knows-where, and the 49ers suffering in Santa Clara after four consecutive losing seasons. But the fantastic local sports... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Saving SF’s Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park’s grandest building
Close to 2,000 species of flowers decorate one of the oldest and most photographed buildings in Golden Gate Park: the Conservatory of Flowers. The beauty and rarity of this historic greenhouse — it is the only wooden conservatory left standing in... By Bill Van Niekerken
From the Archive: Our S.F.
That (stunning) time The Chronicle gave real estate to boost circulation
Imagine, if you can, a Bay Area real estate market that’s relaxed to the point where property in San Francisco, San Carlos, Mill Valley and Piedmont could be handed out like free tote bags. That is precisely what happened in 1911, when The... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
Gold Rush satirist, impresario and Farallones egg-gatherer did it all
One of the most rollicking characters in San Francisco during the Gold Rush years was David G. “Doc” Robinson, a man whose wild career could only have taken place in the instant city. Robinson made his initial stake in an only-in-San-Francisco... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Pillars of Jewish community held one of SF’s most amazing Christmas parties
For decades, one of the most splendid Christmas celebrations in San Francisco took place at a grand Queen Anne Victorian on Franklin Street. Preparations for the holiday extravaganza started months before Dec. 25. Every year, the mansion’s... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
SF Chronicle’s early days: Showbiz, pluck and cure-alls for self-abuse
The newspaper you are reading came into existence because San Francisco was crazy about the theater. From its beginnings, San Francisco was stagestruck. The city’s young, mostly male, rough-and-tumble denizens were addicted to excitement and... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
When WWII brought blacks to the East Bay, whites fought for segregation
Just north of Berkeley off San Pablo Avenue in Albany stands a housing complex called University Village, reserved for married students at UC Berkeley. Few realize that in the years after World War II, this complex, then called Codornices Village,... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The SF Giants’ ballpark concept drawing that (thankfully) never got built
The design for the new San Francisco Giants stadium, presented to San Francisco voters on Aug. 5, 1987, was no AT&T; Park. The Seventh and Townsend streets ballpark was designed so Giants batters would be facing a maze of off-ramps, not a lovely... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
A party to end all parties: SF went wild when WWI ended
At 1 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 11, 1918, San Francisco held one of the greatest celebrations in its history. Shouting and singing, an army of men and women flowed up and down Market Street, waving flags and banging on drums. Tens of thousands massed... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
Iconic SF building was home to Bohemians for decades. Then it was destroyed
The previous Portals told the story of how the Montgomery Block was erected in 1853 in response to devastating fires that ravaged Gold Rush San Francisco. It was the grandest building of its time, a fireproof structure at Montgomery and Washington... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
An Atari arcade on BART? In the 1970s in SF, it was game on
The history of BART is filled with hard-to-fathom, random moments. Both Richard Nixon and Prince Charles rode the rails in the 1970s. Early concept drawings had trains traveling on a lower deck of the Golden Gate Bridge. But for pure “did that... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
SF’s swankiest building was made to survive if city burned
Many beloved San Francisco buildings have disappeared over the years, from the original Mission Dolores to the City of Paris department store to the old Produce Market. But none was as rich in history as the Montgomery Block. When the four-story... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Blue Angels’ low-altitude ambush left San Francisco fuming in 1983
The Blue Angels will always be a simmering debate in San Francisco. Until the city’s dogs get organized enough to hire a lobbyist, the Navy precision flying team will almost certainly continue its multi-decade tradition of flying above and between... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Ghost blimp’s enduring mystery: How did crew vanish before Bay Area crash?
Shortly before noon on an August Sunday in 1942, a solitary bather on a beach near Fort Funston looked up to see a strange sight. A Navy blimp was approaching the beach at extremely low elevation. As the observer looked on in consternation, the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1984, San Francisco citizens rejoiced
There are lifetime San Franciscans who probably don’t even know that a Hard Rock Café still exists in S.F. Why would they? It moved from Van Ness Avenue to Pier 39 more than 15 years ago, outside many locals’ definition of the city limits. But for... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Prohibition meant party time in San Francisco
Much of America greeted Prohibition with great enthusiasm. San Francisco didn’t join the party. Temperance movements led by crusading Protestants, women’s groups and progressive reformers had been popular since the 19th century. So when the 18th... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
SF’s first cellular phones arrived in 1984, costing just $30 per hour
For reasons hard to pinpoint, 1980s articles in The San Francisco Chronicle archives often feel more dated than stories that were published decades earlier. Columnists defended the aesthetic of Pier 39. Journalists quoted “experts” who said... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When the Army recruited incompetent troops in SF and armed them with lances
On March 3, 1863, an advertisement appeared in El Voz de Mejico, a Spanish-language newspaper in San Francisco. The notice invited Californios — native Californians — to enlist in a new cavalry unit. Interested parties were told to go to the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When Mick Jagger joined Dianne Feinstein to save SF’s cable cars
Dianne Feinstein’s early 1980s fight to save the cable cars had no shortage of star wattage: from Tony Bennett to members of Jefferson Starship to Pac-Man. But no one gave a bigger impression — while expending very little effort... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF whaling crews lived to regret it, if they lived
The previous Portals described how a young man named Walter Noble Burns, while eating breakfast in a San Francisco restaurant in the late 19th century, saw an advertisement in a newspaper for whaling crews and impulsively signed up.... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Roller disco was the biggest craze in San Francisco, until it wasn’t
Disco was already dying at the beginning of summer 1979, but the news hadn’t reached San Francisco print publications. The Sunday Examiner & Chronicle on June 17, 1979, decided to get behind the future of roller disco, declaring... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When ships hunted whales, SF Bay was their home
San Francisco has been called the Paris of the West, but for decades it could have been called the New Bedford of the Pacific. Between 1885 and 1905, San Francisco was the leading whaling port in the world, home to a fleet of... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Robert Mueller and the San Francisco hash bust of 1978
Robert S. Mueller may be the most recognizable lawyer in America, a former FBI director now heading the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. But he was just another young law enforcer when he... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When derelicts from Down Under overran San Francisco
In the early years of San Francisco, one neighborhood was synonymous with vice, crime, degradation and all-around sleaze: Sydney-Town. Sydney-Town was located in the waterfront area around Pacific and Montgomery streets, at the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
SF almost had a Sutro Drive-In in 1950, and more local outdoor movie history
Decades before the controversy surrounding the 1970s construction of Sutro Tower in San Francisco, the prospect of a Sutro Drive-In riled up neighborhood leaders from Twin Peaks to Clarendon Heights. As impossible as it sounds in... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When the fog lifts, you can always find your retro summer
For three seasons of the year, life in the Bay Area seems to be designed with the primary purpose of squelching fun. San Francisco has a history of drastic change, and a lack of sentimentality. A stunning cinema is replaced by a... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The original Grizzly Adams kept his bears on a chain in SF
In 1856, San Franciscans who paid a quarter to venture into a large basement room found themselves a few feet away from half a dozen grizzly bears. Two of these ferocious beasts were in the middle of the room, secured with 5-foot... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Harvey Milk’s last fight: Found photos from landmark debate over gay teachers
The most iconic and enduring photos of Harvey Milk were taken at the 1978 Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, where the San Francisco supervisor’s followers held signs protesting the Briggs Initiative — a state proposition that would have made it... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When Miles Davis and Charlie Parker were in SF, this was the go-to club
From 1950 to 1965, one of the greatest jazz clubs in America, Jimbo’s Bop City, could be found in the heart of San Francisco’s jumping African American nightclub scene. Every jazz heavyweight who came through town — Miles Davis,... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
How SF’s namesake ship survived a World War II ‘suicide’ mission
In November 1942, the heavy cruiser San Francisco, flagship of an outgunned and outnumbered American task force, was ordered to stop a much stronger Japanese armada that was steaming toward the U.S.-held island of Guadalcanal. The Japanese planned... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
In World War II, San Francisco’s namesake ship was a Navy hero
The most haunting war memorial in San Francisco stands near Point Lobos, above the Lands End trail overlooking the Pacific. On either side of a flagpole are set two large sheets of gray-painted metal, twisted and punctured. Those... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Early photos of Radiohead, at their ‘one-hit-wonder’ first S.F. show
A newspaper archive is full of articles that now play as comedy, after time has passed and you know the rest of the story. But nothing seems more obsolescent — even if it’s an article from 1993 — than the first small story about a... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
In the depths of the Depression, SF had the best ballpark in the country
At the corner of 16th and Bryant stands a venerable bar and grill called the Double Play. This joint, which opened in 1909, is the only reminder of the most beloved of San Francisco’s neighborhood ballparks — Seals Stadium, home to the minor... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
The 19th century nude scene that took San Francisco by storm
On Aug. 24, 1863, a thunderbolt hit San Francisco. The sensation appearing at Maguire’s Opera House was all anyone could talk about. In 16 nights, 30,000 people came to see her — more than half the population of the city. The... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Herb Caen, Hitchcock, and the war with the Union Square pigeons
During nearly 60 years as a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Herb Caen didn’t lose many battles. But while restaurateurs, politicians and even Hollywood celebrities were deferential to his sharp wit and barrels of ink, the... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How San Francisco evicted thousands of dead people
The last Portals described how, starting in 1854, four cemeteries were installed in the then-desolate Lone Mountain area of the Inner Richmond District. Neighborhood boosters began a campaign at the turn of the century to clear this 320-acre city... By Gary Kamiya
Wine, Beer & Spirits
The great survivors: Napa’s oldest existing wineries
Napa’s oldest existing wineries hold so much history. By Urmila Ramakrishnan
From the Archive: Our S.F.
San Francisco Giants debut in 1958 with a great headline,...
San Francisco Chronicle headlines have celebrated the end of wars, triumphs in outer space and a people’s rebellion against bad coffee. But if you cheer for the orange and black, there is no better headline in newspaper history... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Lively, lengthy battle over where to bury SF’s dead
From the 1868 squatters who used a cannon-armed gunboat to enforce their claim to Mission Creek to the egg-hurling commuter shuttle protesters of 2013, San Francisco has always been noted for the variety and vehemence of its battles over land use.... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Unpublished photos from Metallica’s 1991 Day on the Green
If it wasn’t for the wooden wall separating Kirk Hammett and the crowd before Metallica’s Oct. 12, 1991, Day on the Green performance at the Oakland Coliseum, it would be impossible to tell who was the rock star and who were the fans.... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Corrupt, inhumane reform school was SF’s first form of...
Today, George M. Rush Stadium on the San Francisco City College campus is the scene of nothing more violent than football games. But during the 19th century, one of the grimmest institutions in the city’s history stood near here — the Industrial... By Gary Kamiya
Outdoors
Yosemite’s March run: lodging, snow treks wide open
With its winter brush and 5 feet of snow this month, nature has painted a fresh coat across Yosemite, the world’s finest artwork. The timing this week offers a rare opportunity for Northern Californians: the ability to venture... By Tom Stienstra
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Marine World/Africa U.S.A. is gone, but the legend grows
You could see the domed roofs on the African-style huts an exit or two away, driving north up Highway 101. “Silicon Valley” was a name people were already throwing around in the early 1980s, but there was little visible sign of it... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF bad guys get away in a car. In 1915, that was big news
On the evening of Nov. 20, 1915, four masked gunmen barged into the Sloat Cafe, a dance hall in San Francisco’s sparsely settled hinterlands at Sloat Avenue and the Great Highway. After robbing the bartender, they marched him onto the dance floor,... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
As wires crossed in 1949, Muni championed electric bus future
Muni’s big conversion to electric trolley buses in 1949 wasn’t a total disaster. There were no bus-related fatalities on the day Market Street went electric — at least none that was covered by The Chronicle — and a few people... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How ships on dry land helped Gold Rush San Francisco grow
In the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid, under a high-rise a few feet to the east of verdant little Redwood Park, are buried the remains of a wooden ship whose story captures the entire history of Gold Rush San Francisco. The... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: Photos from the first San Francisco Warriors homestand...
The first San Francisco Warriors game in 1962 was bumped back to a 9 p.m. start because owners were worried a nighttime boxing match at Candlestick Park might draw away most of their crowd. The second game had just more than 3,000... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The woman who fought Chinatown sex slavery for decades
Neither Chinese American leaders nor white officials in San Francisco made any real efforts to close the houses of prostitution that flourished in Chinatown in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Only one group of people stood up for the sex slaves... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: Rare photos of the demolition of Winterland Ballroom
Considering it was one of the three greatest live popular music venues in San Francisco history, Winterland Ballroom went without much of a fight. Promoter Bill Graham shrugged his shoulders when he announced he was closing the... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How early SF police delivered sex slaves to the brothels of...
The previous Portals described how sex slavery was widely practiced in 19th century Chinatown. Starting in 1852, secretive associations called tongs began kidnapping or buying young girls and women from China and forcing them to work in Chinatown... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
San Francisco Seals mascot was a real sea lion
In the history of Bay Area professional sports mascots, there is no shortage of beloved icons (Stomper the A’s elephant and Lou Seal), notorious missteps (Crazy Crab) and mysteries that remain unsolved. Is it possible we just dreamed the Warriors’... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Shame of the city: When Chinese sex slaves were trafficked in SF
For more than five decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries, sex slavery was openly practiced in San Francisco. Young women who had been kidnapped or purchased in their native China were shipped across the ocean and forced to... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
SF’s tense Yuletide in 1941: wartime footing, evacuees and...
The holiday season hardly felt like a time for rejoicing in 1941. Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor just 18 days before Christmas, thrusting the United States into World War II. Newspapers normally fill their Dec. 25 editions with seasonal... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
For a half century, the Santa Claus parade ruled San Francisco
For a solid run from the 1920s until the early 1970s, Santa Claus was bigger than Tony Bennett, Wilt Chamberlain and the mayor of San Francisco. None of the above appeared in a more lively Market Street parade than Santa, who... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When SF lost its mind over a stolen painting
In 1875, San Francisco went wild over a painting of a dead Arthurian maiden. Thousands flocked to see the artwork during its brief exhibition. When it was stolen, city residents reacted as if a beloved friend had been abducted.... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When Dianne Feinstein hung out with Pac-Man in San Francisco
There are folders full of Dianne Feinstein photo ops in The Chronicle archive; she was on a cable car with Mick Jagger, in a bathing suit at Pier 39 and, as a 16-year-old, posing with a calf at the Cow Palace. (The future U.S. senator once ran for... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How Argentine-led invaders chased defenders from a Monterey fort
One day in 1818, a Spanish lookout in Monterey saw a pair of mysterious vessels approaching. The Spanish had been warned that enemy ships were planning to attack California, and the commander of the Presidio immediately ordered his troops to... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Rare photos of Harvey Milk on the campaign trail
Harvey Milk is remembered for his inspiring speeches, his charisma, fearlessness, and that celebratory ride during the 1978 Gay Pride parade in San Francisco, leading a small army of supporters while holding an “I’m From Woodmere N.Y.” sign.... By Peter Hartlaub
news
When Argentina attacked Monterey: Part I
At 2 a.m. on Nov. 23, 1818, a soldier named Dolores Cantua galloped into the crumbling Presidio of San Francisco. He had ridden 90 miles through the night from Monterey, the capital of Spanish Alta California, to deliver an urgent message: Two... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
First SF performance by Michael Tilson Thomas was a rave
When the San Francisco Symphony this week announced Michael Tilson Thomas’ intention to step down as the Symphony’s music director in 2020, his start date was correctly listed as 1995. But his “stunning debut” with the... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF’s lost opportunity to be reborn as ‘Paris, with hills’
In the last decade of the 19th century, San Franciscans were fed up with the physical condition of their city. Parks were neglected, and schools were falling apart. The shopping district had become so decrepit that merchants were hiring workers to... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Richard Nixon, environmental warrior, enjoyed his 1972 ferry ride
A conservative Republican president voluntarily visits San Francisco, is met with no protest, then climbs on a ferry to passionately lobby for his pro-environment initiatives. What sounds like science fiction in 2017 actually... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When an outlaw’s severed head went on tour in SF
Many strange objects have appeared in San Francisco, but none odder than the head of Joaquin Murieta. For more than 50 years, the notorious outlaw’s head was displayed in various places in the city, until it disappeared after the... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
SF’s forgotten jazz pioneer
San Francisco’s Barbary Coast is remembered as one of the world’s most depraved vice districts. But in the years after the 1906 earthquake, it was also a hotbed of the swinging, improvised new music that soon came to be known as jazz.... By Gary Kamiya
Chronicle Vault
SF’s most-hated boats: Remembering Barney Gould’s nautical...
It would take quite a voyage to find more despised vessels than these in San Francisco’s seafaring history. While in The Chronicle’s archive looking through photos of Aquatic Park, I noticed a large, distinctive boat docked near... By Bill Van Niekerken
From the Archive: Our S.F.
These 1970s Golden Gate Park roller skaters are pure joy
They rolled in on eight wheels sometime in the spring of 1978, first in small groups, then larger packs, dancing around radios blasting hot new beats from Chic and Peaches & Herb. Roller skating mania had arrived in Golden... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The streets of San Francisco: Here’s the oldest one
From A Street to Zoo Road, there are 2,659 official streets in San Francisco. This cornucopia of streets, avenues, boulevards, lanes, places, alleys, walks, courts, terraces, stairways, plazas, paths, halls and circles contains a host of... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
A delirious city celebrates after SF’s first Super Bowl win
San Francisco knows how to throw a spontaneous party in the streets, celebrating new bridges, old buildings, the end of wars, and the court decisions that begin eras of social change. But there may never be a greater public... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Early SF’s German Jews quickly became an aristocracy
The last Portals described how a small group of German Jews escaped the restrictions and prejudices of their homeland to prosper in Gold Rush-era San Francisco. By 1870, a group of several dozen families, almost all from Bavaria, had come to... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When a Confederate battle flag flew in front of SF City Hall
In San Francisco, where watching “The Dukes of Hazzard” might be a questionable political decision in 2017, a flag of the Confederacy flying near City Hall with the blessing of the mayor seems unimaginable. But for several months... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Fleeing repression, Jewish immigrants found success in Gold...
Of all the groups that arrived in Gold Rush San Francisco, the Jews who fled a legacy of oppression in Europe may have experienced the most remarkable success. In their Central European homelands, these German speakers had been... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Atomic bomb scare in 1950s brought the city on high alert
Fear of the spread of communism and the Korean War caused a wave of civil defense preparation in the Bay Area that would be hard to match. Mobilization started after Robinson invited other city leaders to a June 14, 1950, conference on civil... By Peter Hartlaub
news
When the Pony Express came to SF, it was party time
[...] the Pony Express, a wildly ambitious enterprise that promised to cut that delivery time in half, fired the imagination of the residents of America’s most far-flung city. The final legs of the run had been triumphant, like the entrance into... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Are you in these photos? Kiss rocks the Cow Palace in 1977
San Francisco played host to Elvis Presley’s shaking hips, the Rolling Stones after “Sticky Fingers” was released, and Menudo when the multilingual boy band was eliciting its loudest screams. [...] few concerts in Bay Area history struck... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How the Pony Express linked an isolated SF to the country
The Pony Express, the short-lived mail service whose daring young riders and tireless horses raced back and forth across 2,000 miles of a mostly unexplored continent, fired the imagination of the entire country. For San Franciscans, the Pony... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘Angels’ premieres to raves at the Eureka Theatre
Before “Angels in America” became associated with Broadway, HBO and the first discussions of AIDS in countless American homes, the groundbreaking production was playing to sold-out crowds in a small theater in the Mission District. Within weeks... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
How Coit Tower’s murals became a target for anticommunist forces
The murals were funded by a federal program called the Public Works of Art Project. In December 1933, the head of the de Young Museum, Walter Heil, and other officials chose 25 artists who would be paid $25 to $45 a week to create murals at the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Photos of the 1935 China Clipper over SF worthy of hyperbole
When the China Clipper arrived, soaring over the partially built span of the Golden Gate Bridge in late November 1935, the journey tested the limits of even The San Francisco Chronicle’s most poetic reporters. The greatest airplane ever built in... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Death of SF’s boozy beach shantytown
At its height, Mooneysville consisted of about five dozen tents, shacks and frame buildings, and it purveyed whiskey, coffee, doughnuts and clam chowder, as well as various games and hustles, to the thousands of people who thronged the beach.... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
Whiskey by the waves: When squatters took over SF’s Ocean Beach
In keeping with their populist political stance, the squatters said they were justified in seizing beachfront land because the Park and Ocean Railroad, which was owned by the all-powerful Southern Pacific Railroad, had been equally unscrupulous in... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Willie Mays threw a party for the kids, and the guests kept...
For all the good vibes given off by the current roster of Warriors, Giants and A’s, there will never be another era like Feb. 16, 1963, when the greatest baseball player in the world invited an entire San Francisco neighborhood of children into... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
First BART car in 1965 was a sleek, futuristic magic trick
First BART car in 1965 was a sleek, futuristic magic trick The first BART car was carefully covered in a gigantic sheet before it was wheeled into view, then unveiled to the public with a magician’s flourish. Once the model car was made visible... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
A railroad to Ocean Beach: How ‘the Octopus’ got its way in SF
A reported 18,000 people filled the northern end of Ocean Beach, packed the Cliff House and spilled south toward Golden Gate Park. An 1863 toll road, Point Lobos Avenue, ran from Bush and Presidio to the Cliff House, but using it required owning... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The screams still echo from SF’s great roller coaster
The condo complexes currently stretching across the front of Ocean Beach are also a sacred burial ground, from a scene that fewer and fewer San Francisco residents even know existed. [...] that roller coaster might still exist if it weren’t for... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Sex and guitar lessons: SF’s sensational reefer madness trial
Sex and guitar lessons: SF’s sensational reefer madness trial [...] that recreational marijuana is legal in California, it’s easy to forget that cannabis was once regarded as a dangerous, even demonic, substance that led users to chop up their... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The unforgettable furor: 1987 U2 free show led to controversy
On less than 24 hours’ notice from conception to execution, the Irish rockers played an energetic 45-minute lunchtime set, as kids cutting class mixed with business workers in suits in the audience. Firefighters had to rescue a few fans who got... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How Chinese Americans won right to attend SF schools
The previous Portals described how Chinese Americans in 19th century San Francisco were subjected to racist city and state school laws. From 1871 to 1885, they were denied access to any public schools at all. In September 1884, a Chinese woman... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
How early SF kept Chinese children out of the schoolhouse
The Chinese Presbyterian Mission Church became the first U.S. church with an Asian congregation when it opened its doors in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1853. [...] it was a feeble exception to a long, ugly government policy of racist segregation... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When the Giants broke ground on a ballpark for the ages
[...] time seems to stand still at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, where the team has celebrated three World Series titles, and watched China Basin transform from a row of forgettable warehouses into a place-to-be residential and commercial district. The... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How Emperor Norton rose to power
From “Dirty Tom” McAlear, a 19th century Barbary Coast habitue who for a small coin would eat literally anything given to him, to the “12 Galaxies” man of our own day, the list of our fair city’s cracked denizens is virtually endless. [...]... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
‘Apple II Forever’: Found photos offer early look at icons
Apple executives sat on the kind of metal folding chairs that one would find at a recreation center singles dance. Steve Jobs — hair feathered gloriously — hadn’t quite settled into his permanent turtleneck-and-jeans uniform yet, choosing a bow... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The life and times of North Beach’s renowned Beat dive the Place
For seven years it was a favorite Beat hangout, famous for its anything-goes Blabbermouth Night, its poetry readings, jazz jam sessions, and its clientele of neighborhood ne’er-do-wells, lunatics and drunks. After studying painting at Black... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Grateful Dead ‘drug bust’ at 50: Nothing left to do but smile ...
[...] it’s clear that local authorities — and the media — overreacted on Oct. 2, 1967, when police raided the Grateful Dead’s crash pad at 710 Ashbury St. and hauled 10 handcuffed band members and associates to the police station on questionable... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Quentin Kopp remembers the Haight before that fateful summer
The former San Francisco supervisor, member of the California Senate and retired judge would go to a tennis shop in the Haight-Ashbury in the late 1950s and early ’60s, then play in Golden Gate Park. Early in his political career, Kopp remembers... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Peter Albin recalls more mellow Haight-Ashbury before the crowds
The Big Brother & the Holding Company founder and bass player remembers living in the Haight-Ashbury beginning in 1965, when the neighborhood had a congenial and giving vibe. By the time 1967 arrived, the band members were all living in the... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When bulls fought bears in brutal Mission District matches
Visitors file out of buses to tour the adobe church, while a couple of blocks away the queue for the Bi-Rite Creamery stretches around the corner. Few if any of the people in either line know that from the Spanish colonial days to the Gold Rush,... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Life and death: Anti-Japanese order devastated S.F. citizens
The directives started in late December 1941, with a command for San Francisco citizens of Japanese ancestry to surrender their cameras and short-wave radios to the nearest police station. In just a few months, federal authorities would forcibly... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
He decided who thrived and who faded in SF’s high society
Not only did he have an unrivaled passion for the bubbly — he supposedly once consumed 25 bottles in a single day — but his position as the city’s master of entertainment allowed him to sell his product to his society guests. [...] it was... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How the Donald’s hole-in-one highlighted a Trump-ian Pebble Beach
The biggest long shot of the businessman-turned-politician’s career — arguably bigger than being elected to the presidency — happened in 1993, on the 12th green of the Spyglass Hill Golf Course, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. On the same... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How red-baiting crusade collapsed in SF courtroom in 1960
The previous two Portals described how students protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in San Francisco in May 1960 were blasted with fire hoses, beaten and dragged down the stairs of City Hall by police. All 68 protesters... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
SFPD’s first K-9 corps protected, served and sacrificed
The streets near downtown fell into disorder, as they had in previous years, and the 1,000 San Francisco Police Department personnel dispatched weren’t enough to keep the peace. The Chronicle reported that after an officer arrested a man who had... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The day SFPD turned fire hoses on protesters at City Hall
The previous Portals described how scores of demonstrators, mostly students from UC Berkeley, came to San Francisco City Hall on May 13, 1960, to protest hearings being held by the House Un-American Activities Committee. When the panel’s chairman... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How the Warriors became Golden State
They're not Oakland, not San Francisco, not even California. How did the Warriors become Golden State? It appears it began as something of a bluff. By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When Washington’s Red-baiting congressional committee came to SF
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, recently advocated creating a new version of the House Un-American Activities Committee to combat “Islamic supremacists.” On May 13, 1960, 300 protesters, most of... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How S.F. partied on New Year’s Eve, through the ages
“San Francisco will say good-by to the old year tonight — with no regrets,” The Chronicle’s 1941 editorial began, just weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. [...] even when the outlook for San Franciscans has looked its absolute worst — after... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When the Chutes on Haight was SF’s go-to place for speedy kicks
The most beloved of San Francisco’s vanished pleasure grounds was Playland-at-the-Beach, which stood along the Great Highway beside Ocean Beach from 1921 to 1972. [...] Playland’s original name was Chutes-at-the-Beach. Boyton was not only one of... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
San Francisco’s off-kilter 1st suburb
The Lagoon Survey’s story begins in September 1847, when San Francisco was a growing village of 459 people whose built-up area encompassed about 50 square blocks surrounding Yerba Buena Cove. By 1847, enough people were building houses in the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Coppola, Lucas show maverick flair in unpublished 1969 photos
In one dizzyingly eccentric interview with The San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. 11, 1969, the eve of the opening of American Zoetrope, he took phone calls during the photo shoot, posed next to the facility’s high-end espresso maker, and asked the... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How an early SF lake went from jewel to cesspool
The Forty-Niners reported that Spanish and Indian women used the Laguna Pequeña to wash clothes, an activity that would be most associated with the lake and lead to a new moniker, Washerwoman’s Lagoon. During the Gold Rush, laundry was extremely... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Drive-through and conquer: SF’s first ‘computerized hamburgers’
“The carhop, that wiggling creature hailed for her teasing step, swinging hips and ready smile, is fading from the American way of life,” reporter Rob Haeseler’s story began. Ott’s paid $300,000 for a system that included drive-through,... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF’s first hipster cafe and its descent into ruin
The first and most legendary of all of San Francisco’s bohemian cafes was a restaurant called Coppa’s. Coppa’s crowning glory was its wildly creative murals, done on the fly by the artists and writers who made the place their second home. Soon,... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Fox Theater’s short path from spectacle to demolition
The Chronicle called the opening “a spectacle of such beauty and magnitude that it seemed rather a fancy of one’s mind rather than the inaugural night of another commercial enterprise.” [...] the life of the 4,651-seat theater was a lesson in how... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF’s 1st street preacher brought God to a godless crowd
At 3 p.m. on Dec. 3, 1849, a tall, powerfully built man made his way through the throng in Portsmouth Square. Taylor climbed up on a carpenter’s bench in front of one of the gambling houses that lined the square and, in a voice so powerful it... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Idea of roller coasters on bridges thrilled SF leaders in 1930s
(In 2016, there isn’t a roller coaster in Northern California that can break 65 mph.) Even as he made his Golden Gate International Exposition proposal in person to city leaders and the media, Bazzeghin asked newspapers not to print his name.... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF’s Cliff House has seen thrills, chills ... and maybe a curse
The Cliff House, perched majestically above the ocean near San Francisco’s northwestern tip, has been one of the city’s most famous landmarks since it opened in 1863. An earlier Portals described how it began as a refined roadhouse that attracted... By Gary Kamiya
Outdoors
Yosemite’s best hike: Link John Muir and Mist trails
In Yosemite Valley, the Mist Trail has become the park’s landmark hike, up to 317-foot Vernal Fall and beyond to 594-foot Nevada Fall at the foot of towering Liberty Cap. Even in autumn, when the waterfalls become silver threads compared with... By Tom Stienstra
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The 1950 Blue Angels flew over SF, into history
The precision flying team arrived in the city piloting F9F Grumman Panthers painted black for combat, no doubt more nervous than any Blue Angels team in history. Pierre Salinger, then a San Francisco Chronicle reporter and years later press... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The SF riots that brought out the National Guard
The previous Portals described how, on a sweltering Tuesday afternoon 50 years ago in Hunters Point, a white police officer shot and killed Matthew Johnson, an unarmed 16-year-old African American suspected of car theft who was running away and... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
Officer’s ’66 killing of black teen sparked Hunters Point riots
Officer’s ’66 killing of black teen sparked Hunters Point riots Alvin Johnson, a white patrol officer with 23 years’ experience on the force, gave chase in his cruiser and tried to cut off Bacon and Matthew Johnson at Navy Road. According to an... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Krukow on Krukow: Ambush on Memory Lane with beloved Giants...
Ambush on Memory Lane with beloved Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow arrived in San Francisco on Dec. 14, 1982, with an arsenal of pitches, a stellar attitude and the quick wit that would later make him one of the most beloved broadcasters in Bay... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
From the Archive: Mike Krukow a pitcher and family man in 1986
From his vantage point in the middle of the field, Giants pitcher Mike Krukow could tell from the crack of the bat that the ball was well-hit. [...] just as the ball was about to reach the fence, it hit a tree limb, and Jarek Krukow, 5, had to... By David Bush
From the Archive: Our S.F.
In 1968, SF airport had its own ‘miracle’ landing
Four decades before Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed his plane in a New York river and became an American hero, the Bay Area had its own bizarro version of “Miracle on the Hudson.” While the saga of the 1968 Japan Air Lines water landing near... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When SF journalism was a blood sport
Even before the Gold Rush, San Francisco’s two rival newspapers provided their readers with enough invective to make the late Warren Hinckle nod approvingly from his celestial barstool. The California Star, published by an ambitious young Mormon... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
What an SF bike protest looked like in 1972
The protesters were a diverse group of San Franciscans, including long-haired young men, older adults who looked like they biked over from the Financial District, and several children. [...] their message was already solidified, as spelled out in... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Just before the world rushed in: SF’s small-town early days
The event that had changed Yerba Buena from a speck on a Mexican map to a growing American town had taken place on July 9, 1846, when a band of sailors and Marines disembarked from the Portsmouth, marched up to the old Mexican Plaza, now... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
For ‘luxury’ BART in 1965, the future looked shiny and bright
In 1965, when Bay Area Rapid Transit was still more than seven years away from transporting passengers, the agency gave customers the most detailed look yet at their transit future. Seatback maps! A classy analog next-train countdown clock near... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The losing fight for integration in SF’s first housing projects
The whites-only policies in San Francisco’s first public housing projects in the early 1940s, described in the last Portals, were mainly aimed at keeping Chinese Americans in Chinatown and out of America’s great experiment in federally funded... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Welcome to SF: Giants’ 1958 parade ushered in new era
When the plane landed and the Giants players spilled out on April 13, 1958, there were still critics who believed San Francisco wasn’t a big enough market to support a major-league baseball team. The baseball team from New York was 52 years away... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How SF’s Housing Authority kept its early projects all white
The ubiquity of public housing makes it easy to forget that government didn’t supply any until late in the Depression, when the plight of working people who had been pushed into destitution led Congress to pass the 1937 Housing Act. Public... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
An ode to SF’s ‘infinite’ Steinhart Aquarium fish roundabout
The stunning two-story $1.2 million exhibit had a touch pool and a spiral ramp, leading upward into darkness and shadows and dozens and dozens of orbiting fish. Then-aquarium superintendent John McCosker called it an “infinite window,” and that’s... By Peter Hartlaub
Crime
Chinatown gang feud ignited one of SF’s worst mass homicides
Few Chinatown restaurants besides the cheap noodle joint Sam Wo across Washington Street were still open, and about 100 tourists and locals were seated at the restaurant’s two dining levels. Louie and two friends were seated in a booth in the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Gays vs. SFPD softball game was a moment of grace in 1970s
There were San Francisco Giants games in the 1970s that drew smaller crowds than the Aug. 10, 1975, slow-pitch softball exhibition between the Police All-Stars and the Pendulum Pirates. More than 5,000 turned out to Margaret Hayward Field, a few... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
SF’s 19th century Burning Man: Party all night, and then some
The party was thrown by Yerba Buena’s second Anglo resident, an Ohio-born adventurer and businessman named Jacob Leese. The Mexican governor, eager to stimulate commerce in the sleepy hinterlands of Alta California, had just declared Yerba Buena... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Chronicle captures a joyous first SF Gay Pride Parade in 1972
“A spirited gay parade with more than 2,000 male and female participants marched with full flourish through 22 blocks of the city yesterday,” reported Chronicle staff writer Larry Liebert. Chronicle staff photographer Greg Peterson took more than... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Hundreds of Germans spent early days of WWII on Angel Island
The strange saga started Aug. 19, 1939, when a German luxury liner called the Columbus sailed from New York with 750 passengers, mostly Americans, and 579 German crew members on a 12-day cruise to the West Indies. With German troops massing on the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
When Muhammad Ali caused an SF panic, then made magic
Ali, who was staying in the Clift Hotel on May 1, 1988, for a Joe Kennedy fundraising dinner, had merely gone for a walk. Fitzmaurice spoke almost mythically about two memorable assignments: an interview and photo session where Larry King smoked... By Peter Hartlaub
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Receive a 25 percent discount on your tickets
More than 30 Bay Area media organizations spanning radio, print, online and television news will curate an unprecedented wave of coverage about homelessness in San Francisco to inspire a public dialogue and to urge local politicians to come up...
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Cow Palace-era Sharks fans: Are you in these photos?
The Sharks’ home ice has been in the heart of the South Bay for more than two decades. [...] for their first two years, while the SAP Center was under construction, the current NHL Western Conference Champion hockey team needed a halfway house.... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When SF’s rich and famous lived atop Rincon Hill
San Francisco’s first fashionable neighborhood was not Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights or Nob Hill. Unlike most of the city’s sandy terrain, it was a wooded promontory covered with shrubbery and small oak trees, and it had a beautiful view of... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Pier 39 opens to scathing review, bathing suit-clad Feinstein
San Francisco’s Pier 39 opened in 1979 to a civil war, pitting brother against brother, columnist against columnist and a bathing-suit-wearing Dianne Feinstein against future Pulitzer Prize-winning Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko. The... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Pier 39 opens to scathing review, bathing suit-clad Feinstein
San Francisco’s Pier 39 opened in 1979 to a civil war, pitting brother against brother, columnist against columnist and a bathing-suit-wearing Dianne Feinstein against future Pulitzer Prize-winning Chronicle architecture critic Allan Temko. The... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
When the Mission District was home to horse racing
When the Mission District was home to horse racing The first news account of a horse race in San Francisco appeared on Page 2 of the Californian newspaper on March 15, 1848. The editors deemed this contest more significant than the following minor... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Pour a little out for SF’s greatest sign ever: Hamm’s Brewery
The Hamm’s Brewery sign was able to toast itself, high above the Central Freeway, a neon chalice that filled and emptied endlessly in the San Francisco night sky. There is no known video, and The Chronicle only has black-and-white photos. The... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Troubles, tensions for Japanese American internees in WWII
The previous Portals described how in April 1942, 7,800 Bay Area Nikkei — people of Japanese ancestry — were imprisoned in horse stalls and other makeshift shelters at the Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno. Topaz was one of 10 wartime concentration... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Warriors picture day in 1973 was a classic
There were ducks, lots of short shorts and a shiny Rolls-Royce at the Warriors’ picture day in 1973. Rick Barry, one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, was photographed in a glorious 1970s mustache, awkwardly bending over to feed some... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
7,800 imprisoned in San Bruno for just 1 crime: being Japanese
If it weren’t for a small commemorative rock garden and plaque near the main entrance, there would be no sign of the fact that during the spring and summer of 1942, 7,800 Japanese Americans from San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area were... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Mays meets Nixon: The weirdest Giants home opener in history
Great moments in San Francisco Giants Opening Day baseball include the first-ever Giants game at Seals Stadium in 1958, and the first game at what is now AT&T; Park in 2000. [...] for pure madness, weirdness, magic and mayhem, the finest Opening... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When the CIA ran a LSD sex-house in San Francisco
On an elegant dead-end block on the north side of Telegraph Hill is 225 Chestnut St., a swanky modernist building with panoramic bay views. It's about the last place you would have expected to find a clandestine CIA program during the Cold War.... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The shiny, futuristic BART that wowed President Nixon
Bay Area Rapid Transit is now seen, by BART’s own definition, as an aging transit system at the end of its useful life, scraping by on failing technology that predates a “Space Invaders” arcade game. Photos and words from The Chronicle archive... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
The passionate 1879 battle over ‘The Passion’
After a bizarre globe-trotting career that included managing an Australian hotel, traveling to Crimea during the Crimean War, running a ranch in Mendocino, and trying to pull off a land-speculation scheme in the Dominican Republic, he returned to... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Let’s time-travel to 1976 Bay Area sci-fi convention
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak received raised eyebrows when he announced that his Silicon Valley Comic Con would merge comics and pop culture with science and technology. Along with Shatner and “Trek” co-stars Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan and... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The stubborn final years of the last San Francisco farm
In the 1960s, somewhere between Highway 101 and the Lucky Lager brewing plant, brothers James and Louis DeMattei worked in what became the last commercial farm in San Francisco. The story desperately needed a visual aid, and our archive delivered... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Deadly serious: Early SF’s shortage of decent graveyards
[...] World War II, tens of thousands of bodies were interred in numerous cemeteries and informal burial sites all across town, before they were removed in extremely haphazard fashion. The graveyard at Mission Dolores and the area around it hold... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Write to bear arms: When The Chronicle gave guns to subscribers
For several years, we ran ads from a local pharmaceutical company that was selling heroin. The Chronicle once mailed readers firearms as an incentive for a yearly subscription. Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper dropped the above “Chronicle... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Evel Knievel’s epic Cow Palace crash in 1972
The baddest man on the planet was still hung over and in his underwear when he answered the door to let a Chronicle reporter inside his airport motel room at noon on March 3, 1972. “Sure, I drink a lot and buy a lot of drinks, and I also chase a... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Gold Rush S.F.’s water supply switched from barrels to creeks
Early San Franciscans bought their water from street vendors, who made the rounds with large wooden barrels mounted on mule-drawn carts. [...] most came from springs on the Sausalito ranch of William Richardson and was ferried by tank steamer... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: When a submarine shot 1950s San Francisco (with a camera)
The Chronicle, publishing in a more conservative pro-military era, played up these fears. “What would the skipper of an enemy submarine see were he to venture through the Golden Gate into the strategic San Francisco Bay?” the newspaper queried,... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
How the Bay Area’s first residents lived
San Francisco’s first permanent inhabitants, a linguistically distinct group of Ohlone Indians known as the Yelamu, settled here around 4,500 years ago, drawn by the food-rich environment on the bay. Typically seen as having acquired supernatural... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Eddie DeBartolo 1977 photos, and the apology he still deserves
Eddie DeBartolo 1977 photos, and the apology he still deserves A lot of superlatives are being used to describe Eddie DeBartolo Jr. as we wait to hear this weekend whether the former 49ers owner will be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame:... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our S.F.: Like a dream, snow fell on San Francisco in 1976
Adding to the surreal magic of the day, Bay Area residents were given almost no warning. A six-paragraph Chronicle weather story, which reached city doorsteps that were already covered in powder, suggested that snow might fall “on some Bay Area... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
S.F.’s first residents: Marshlands drew Indians to a barren spit
What led the Yelamu to make this barren peninsula their permanent home was the creation of San Francisco Bay. Around 11,000 years ago, the glaciers of the last ice age began melting and sea levels began to rise. The Pacific Ocean moved eastward,... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
For decades, sex trade thrived on S.F.’s Maiden Lane
Last week’s Portals described how Union Square evolved in the 19th century from a wasteland of sand dunes to a landscaped public square surrounded by churches and a thriving, diverse residential neighborhood. From the 1870s until 1896, this little... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
When Union Square was a desolate sand dune
Surrounded by brilliantly lit department stores, swanky hotels and high-end retailers, Union Square is the most intensely urban space in town — San Francisco’s Times Square or Piccadilly Circus. By contrast, during the Gold Rush years, what would... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
1982 Super Bowl parade takes detour into history
From a distance, Market Street appeared to be under siege, like the final act of a zombie movie. The Super Bowl XVI parade on Jan. 25, 1982, combined sporting renaissance with civic negligence, for one of the most memorable celebrations in San... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Carnage collides with cheer at Christmas 100 years ago
On Christmas Eve 100 years ago, San Francisco was a happy and prosperous city, its streets thronged with shoppers and carolers and its big downtown retail stores doing record business at the end of the Exposition year. World War I lurked in the... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
City’s top ‘pleasure garden’ created by hotelier who banned women
During the city’s early years, before it had public parks, San Franciscans flocked to privately owned “pleasure gardens” for fresh air, greenery and entertainment. An irresistible combination of park, museum, zoo, amusement park and circus,... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
S.F.’s old-time pleasure gardens: Parks for a city that had none
During San Francisco’s early years, its most popular destinations for recreational outings were “pleasure gardens.” The pleasure gardens provided oases of greenery, fresh air and entertainment in a city that desperately needed them. City surveyor... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
When lethal beasts roamed free in the Bay Area
For millennia, the Bay Area teemed with enormous beasts, including Columbian mammoths, giant bison, ground sloths, American horses and camels. Last week’s Portals described how these gargantuan animals moved through a great grassy valley now... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
When Columbian mammoths roamed San Francisco
[...] for more than 100,000 years, San Francisco was truly a wild kingdom, one traversed by the most awe-inspiring mammals ever to walk the Earth. The heyday of giant mammals in North America was the middle and late Pleistocene, an epoch that... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
How the WPA saved S.F.’s Aquatic Park
Last week’s Portals described how San Francisco started building it during the Depression, but ran out of money. In 1935, with the project on life support, assistant city engineer Clyde Healy went to Washington, D.C., to ask a new federal agency... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
S.F. once treated Aquatic Park as a dumping ground
After the Gold Rush, some Argonauts willing to trade a long walk into town for a beachfront residence erected two dozen buildings near the shoreline, which at the time was several blocks farther south, around North Point Street. [...] the... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: Hospitals offer compassion through the generations
Advertisements for a freak show promised that a doctor on hand would cure any disease for $5. Even the city’s foremost surgeon, who later founded the first medical school at the University of California, gave a speech in the 1860s suggesting... By Peter Hartlaub
Chronicle Vault
When S.F. had visions of its own Mardi Gras
San Francisco author and Chronicle contributor Gary Kamiya writes his Portals of the Past columns on Bay Area history, and finding photos to accompany the stories can be difficult, especially when the focus is an event from before The Chronicle’s... By Bill Van Niekerken
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Warriors all-time tough guy team
The great Golden State Warriors teams will always be known for their shooting and finesse. Rick Barry’s underhand free throws, Purvis Short’s rainbow jumper, Chris Mullin’s sweet stroke and Stephen Curry’s magical shooting are a few examples.... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: After slow start, San Francisco becomes a basketball town
The first college basketball game covered by the press in San Francisco was about to begin in 1894, and there wasn’t a man in sight. Overcoming protests by UC professors, and wearing shoes with the heels removed, more than a dozen female Stanford... By Peter Hartlaub
Bay Area
Spanish discovered S.F. Bay through misfortune and blunders
Last week’s Portals told the story of San Francisco Day at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which commemorated two monumental events in the city’s history: its rebirth after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and Gaspar de Portola’s... By Gary Kamiya
Bay Area
San Francisco’s biggest party ever
Season ticket holders were urged to purchase a separate ticket for the day to support it, and everyone who bought a ticket received a lapel stub reading, “I Paid.” Gov. Hiram Johnson declared the day a holiday, schools were closed, and the two... By Gary Kamiya
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: Building a city
Whether it was the introduction of a subway, the so-called “Manhattanization” of downtown San Francisco or the rebirth of China Basin, San Francisco has been built with layer upon layer of construction rebirths. The first skyscrapers arrived in... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Chronicling changing times
The earliest version of The Chronicle’s work space was filled with memorable characters, whose desks weren’t very neat, and a leadership that was investing in new technologies. Within months, The Chronicle was covering news, sports and business,... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The protests that catalyzed progress in San Francisco
[...] shoddy government projects, including an old City Hall that took 27 years to build, lit a fire under San Franciscans. City officials went to jail, the people demanded accountability, and protests and progress became an enduring part of the... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
The artists and entertainers who made their mark on SF
John “Grizzly” Adams started the tradition in the 1850s at the Pacific Theater in Barbary Coast era — inebriated miners thought the bears advertised on the handbill would be fake, only to look at the beasts eye to eye. The thrill of the unknown... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How survivors of WWII and the Great Depression built SF
Beyond the wars fought, monuments built and the culture that was created, the generation that lived through World War II was hugely responsible for building the foundation for modern San Francisco. Coming out of the Great Depression, mid-century... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
How the Golden Gate Bridge became an accidental icon
Foes of the plan included ferry owners — who ran advertisements suggesting that the unbuilt bridge would have a negative effect on tourism. Long in the shadow of New York and Paris, the city hosted the Pan-Pacific International Exposition in... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
What San Franciscans did for fun throughout in the 20th century
San Franciscans know how to have an unforgettable time — whether it’s roller skating in Golden Gate Park, dressing up or going nude at the Bay to Breakers, skiing six blocks down Noe Valley streets in a rare 1976 snowstorm (someone really did... By Peter Hartlaub
From the Archive: Our S.F.
Our SF: Innovators and eccentrics
San Francisco has always been blessed with a large number of citizens among its population who have come up with great ideas, from blue jeans to the cable car to the television to the Fillmore West and “White Rabbit.” There were innovators such... By Peter Hartlaub

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