Vintage San Francisco photos (great thread!)

[destroycreate]

Hey everybody, well I've just painstakingly gone through about 1,700 images of photographs by famous Americana photographer Charles W. Cushman, through the time period of the late 1940's to late 1960's. I chose what I thought were the best and most relevant pictures.

I'm a bit of a San Franciscophile, always have been, so I actually had fun during the process of putting this thread together, and I hope you guys enjoy as well! He's taken pictures of many different American cities throughout this time period so I really recommend you check out this website (where I've taken the pictures from):

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/index.jsp

Enjoy!

[Sulley]

Incredible. I have been having a craving to make it to SF lately.

[OhioGuy]

Wow. Probably one of the more enjoyable photo threads I've ever seen on SSP. The time period of these photos make them all the more interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post this thread!

[destroycreate]

By the way, this is LaJollaCA here....it's been a long time, I haven't been able to post on this forum in probably about 4 years (although I've been browsing of course).

I want to emphasize that I'm really sorry for my incredibly immature behavior years ago. I'm so much different now, and I promise I'm here to focus on urban photography and city dicussions, not euro-political debates regarding immigration.

I've really missed being around here, and I'll be posting many more threads like this one

[Raraavis]

Amazing. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities. I have been there at least a dozen times in the last 15 years. These pictures are familiar but completely foreign at the same time.

To see all of the now ultra-expensive gorgeously renovated houses as old slightly run down housing stock is jarring. I love the early hippie shots, the clothing worn legitimately at that time, but now it is so cliché it is more recognizable as a costume than something someone would legitimately wear. San Francisco is so unique and with such a unique history there is perhaps no city it is more enjoyable to look at these kind of pictures of.

[sopas ej]

Great photos! I go to San Francisco like 3 or 4 times a year, often for long weekends.

The photos from the 1950s makes me think of the movie "Vertigo." And the 1960s shots with the 60s cars makes me think of that Zodiac Killer period.

I really like the shots of the run-down, decrepit 1915 Palace of Fine Arts being demolished; you can really see by its construction that it really was meant to be only temporary, but I guess people loved it so much that they demolished it and recreated it in reinforced concrete. I had never before seen pictures of the temporary structure being demolished.

[peanut gallery]

Great find! You can see a lot of change just within the time period of these shots, from the older ones at the beginning of the thread to the newer ones toward the end.

[BTinSF]

Pictures like this are among the best responses to the "good old days" crowd. Just look at the condition of the houses and other buildings pictured in these photos and compare with today (today they've just about all been renovated and are worth plenty). In the photos even the commercial buildings in Chinatown and elsewhere look like wrecks whereas today they are well-maintained.

And the pics take a little of the nostalgia out of ideas about 60's Haight-Ashbury too.

They even suggest reason for hope for cities that are currently in the condition San Francisco was then--you know the ones (they get regularly trashed here).

[sopas ej]

Well yeah, people seem to forget that just like most American cities, San Francisco also went through a period of post-war urban decay and urban renewal projects.

The shot of the brand-spanking new Embarcadero Freeway also intrigues me. It was obviously an eyesore but sometimes I'll have nostalgia for "things that aren't there anymore," even the eyesores.

[DTLA]

Does anybody know if those deserted buildings were all from one neighborhood, and if so, which one?

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by DTLA

Does anybody know if those deserted buildings were all from one neighborhood, and if so, which one?

There aren't many photos of buildings that actually appear deserted, but of the buildings in severe disrepair I don't think they are in the same hood.

I think this would be Telegraph Hill:



This could be almost anywhere but it looks most to me like maybe Potrero Hill:



From what looks like the Pacific Bell Building in the distance to the left (which is on New Montgomery St in SOMA) , I'm going to guess this is also Potrero Hill:



Could that be Dolores Park to the left? If so, this would be in the Mission on Church St.



I can't see any clues to where this might be:

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by BTinSF

Could that be Dolores Park to the left? If so, this would be in the Mission on Church St.

Actually, to me that looks like the old mansion they used in "Vertigo," on Eddy and Gough, where James Stewart follows Kim Novak as "Madeleine," to discover that she's renting a room there-- or so he thinks. I think the house was torn down not too long after the movie was filmed (1958).

[BTinSF]

Eddy & Gough is 2 blocks from my window (on Franklin between Golden Gate and Turk). It sure ain't there now.

[CiNYC]

What an awesome find, thanks!

From the website:

South side of Union St. between Montgomery and Calhoun. Telegraph Hill.


Atop Potrero. Row of houses on east side of De Haro St. the 1000 block between 22nd + 23rd Sts.


NE corner, 21st & Church.


Old Fortmann mansion on Gough at Eddy, 1959


East up O'Farrell from Buchanan (Western Addition, 1960)


A couple more interesting shots:

Old frame house at SW corner, Franklin + Jackson. Razed in May 1954.


View from west side of San Bruno Ave. toward blown-up house at 2531


High house on south shoulder of Telegraph Hill


Views east by north from O'Farrell between Buchanan and Laguna

[downtownpdx]

That was a great set of photos -- I want more! They really capture the look and feel of the city through those decades.

[jcchii]

fascinating

[Coldrsx]

amazing... but can someone tell me why they were tearing down that beautiful domed structure.

[peanut gallery]

That's the Palace of Fine Arts. It was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and was rebuilt in the 60s as the original structure was never intended (thus not built to the standards required) to be a permanent structure. Here's a more recent photo of it:


Source.

[ColDayMan]

Impressive!

[flight_from_kamakura]

it's painful to think of how many glorious old mansions were demolished during the 1950s and 1960s.