Our San Francisco is a time machine look at the city's history through the lens of The Chronicle’s subterranean archive. Pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub is the writer and ringmaster, taking requests and sharing his own finds. Feed your nostalgia and discover something new with each chapter of the series, exclusively on SFChronicle.com. Share your ideas: #OurSF, @PeterHartlaub, phartlaub@sfchronicle.com
Today's Stories
When Mick Jagger joined Dianne Feinstein to save SF’s cable
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 ...
Continue ReadingMarine 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 ...
Continue ReadingRoller disco was the biggest craze in San Francisco, until it
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 ...
Continue ReadingRobert 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 ...
Continue ReadingSF almost had a Sutro Drive-In in 1950, and more local outdoor
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 ...
Continue ReadingHarvey Milk’s last fight: Found photos from landmark debate
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 ...
Continue ReadingLost SF punk rock photos surface: Temple Beautiful, Mabuhay and
Henry Rollins was two years away from joining Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys hadn’t released their first album yet, and punk rock in the U.S. was largely ignored by the masses. In this musical ...
Continue ReadingEarly photos of Radiohead, at their ‘one-hit-wonder’ first
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 ...
Continue ReadingRare photos of SF ‘Star Wars’ fans waiting in line for the
For one night on May 20, 1980, the Northpoint Theater in San Francisco and surrounding neighborhoods became a campground, a barter economy and a revival meeting. Moods were strong as ...
Continue ReadingHerb 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 ...
Continue ReadingSan Francisco Giants debut in 1958 with a great headline, better
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 ...
Continue ReadingUnpublished 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 ...
Continue ReadingAs 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 ...
Continue ReadingPhotos from the first San Francisco Warriors homestand in 1962
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 ...
Continue ReadingRare 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 ...
Continue ReadingSan 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. ...
Continue ReadingFor 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 ...
Continue ReadingWhen 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 ...
Continue ReadingRare 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 ...
Continue ReadingFirst 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 ...
Continue ReadingRichard 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 ...
Continue ReadingThese 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 ...
Continue ReadingA 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 ...
Continue ReadingWhen 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 ...
Continue ReadingAtomic bomb scare in 1950s brought the city on high alert
The atomic scare hit the Bay Area so hard and fast in 1950 and 1951, even the upscale shopping district of Union Square felt the impact. “FOR YOUR FAMILY’S PROTECTION,” a sign stated, on top of a ...
Continue ReadingAre 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. But ...
Continue Reading‘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 ...
Continue ReadingPhotos 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 ...
Continue ReadingWillie Mays threw a party for the kids, and the guests kept
“Willie’s Block Party,” The Chronicle’s Sporting Green headline read, truly from another time. For all the good vibes given off by the current roster of Warriors, Giants and A’s, there will ...
Continue ReadingFirst 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 in 1965, it took ...
Continue ReadingThe 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. There was once a ...
Continue ReadingThe unforgettable furor: 1987 U2 free show led to controversy
The U2 free show at Justin Herman Plaza in 1987 was, in most ways, everything that was great about the band, promoter Bill Graham and San Francisco. On less than 24 hours’ notice from conception to ...
Continue ReadingWhen the Giants broke ground on a ballpark for the ages
Willie Brown was booed, Willie Mays cried and Barry Bonds hit baseballs into McCovey Cove while wearing a pager. The groundbreaking on the swath of broken concrete that would become AT&T Park marks ...
Continue Reading‘Apple II Forever’: Found photos offer early look at icons
“Apple II Forever” was an event staged by a company still working out the bugs. The April 24, 1984, press and exhibitor gathering was late to start and later to finish. Apple executives sat on the ...
Continue ReadingGrateful Dead ‘drug bust’ at 50: Nothing left to do but smile
Is it time for San Francisco city leaders to draft an official apology to the Grateful Dead? As the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love comes closer — The Chronicle debuts its commemorative magazine ...
Continue ReadingLife and death: Anti-Japanese order devastated SF 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 ...
Continue ReadingHow the Donald’s hole-in-one highlighted a Trump-ian Pebble
For one day, at least, nobody could blame Donald Trump for boasting. The biggest long shot of the businessman-turned-politician’s career — arguably bigger than being elected to the presidency — ...
Continue ReadingSFPD’s first K-9 corps protected, served and sacrificed
The first San Francisco police dogs got an early test, on New Year’s Eve in 1962. The streets near downtown fell into disorder, as they had in previous years, and the 1,000 San Francisco Police ...
Continue ReadingHow the Warriors became Golden State
The Warriors moving back to their original Bay Area home brings up a touchy question: Will they be the San Francisco Warriors, or continue to rep the ambiguous Golden State? Which raises another question: ...
Continue ReadingFrancis Ford Coppola, George Lucas show maverick flair in
Francis Ford Coppola had just moved to San Francisco in 1969, and he was the walking definition of an insufferable artiste. In one dizzyingly eccentric interview with The San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. ...
Continue ReadingDrive-through and conquer: SF’s first ‘computerized
For decades in the middle of the 20th century, Ott’s Drive-in near Fisherman’s Wharf was known for two things: its enormous 250-space parking lot and getting robbed on a regular basis. But for a brief ...
Continue ReadingFox Theater’s short path from spectacle to demolition in San
When the Fox Theater was built in 1929, it seemed as if there weren’t enough adjectives to describe the movie theater’s magnificence. The Chronicle called the opening “a spectacle of such beauty and ...
Continue ReadingIdea of roller coasters on bridges thrilled SF leaders in 1930s
There were warning signs that Joseph Bazzeghin’s 1938 plan to run roller coasters on San Francisco’s two largest bridges might be a scam. He promised that the Golden Gate Bridge Bolt roller coaster ...
Continue ReadingThe 1950 Blue Angels flew over SF, into history
The Blue Angels rocketed over San Francisco in 1950, and this time nobody was complaining about the noise. The precision flying team arrived in the city piloting F9F Grumman Panthers painted black for ...
Continue ReadingIn 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 ...
Continue ReadingWhat an SF bike protest looked like in 1972
There were no mountain bikes, no messenger bags and alarmingly few helmets at the 1972 San Francisco bike protest of City Hall. Most of the 100 or so politically engaged riders were on “Breaking ...
Continue ReadingFor ‘luxury’ BART in 1965, the future looked shiny and bright
The plans look like something downloaded from “Mad Men” protagonist Don Draper’s brain. In 1965, when Bay Area Rapid Transit was still more than seven years away from transporting passengers, the ...
Continue ReadingWelcome 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. That ...
Continue ReadingAn ode to SF’s ‘infinite’ Steinhart Aquarium fish
The old California Academy of Sciences was a labyrinth to a child. With its lack of windows and narrow corridors, it felt at times as if you had been walking forever in an endless loop. So it was an apt ...
Continue ReadingGays 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 ...
Continue ReadingChronicle captures a joyous first SF Gay Pride Parade in 1972
The “no nudity” rule was ignored from the beginning. The first Gay Pride Parade in downtown San Francisco on June 25, 1972, was deemed too small for Market Street. Police reported just 15,000 ...
Continue ReadingWhen Muhammad Ali caused an SF panic, then made magic
“Muhammad Ali’s Disappearing Act,” the San Francisco Chronicle headline read. The former heavyweight champion had already been declared missing and quickly found by the time the story ran. Ali, who ...
Continue ReadingCow 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. They are San Jose’s team. But for their first two years, while the SAP Center was under construction, the current ...
Continue ReadingPier 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 ...
Continue ReadingPier 39's original Chronicle review was merciless
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 ...
Continue ReadingHamm’s Brewery: Pour a little out for SF’s greatest sign ever
No one raised a glass in 1954, upon the arrival of the greatest sign in San Francisco history. There was no Champagne christening, or drinks poured in its honor. The Hamm’s Brewery sign was able to ...
Continue ReadingWarriors 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. The players inexplicably didn’t wear layers. More than one can be seen huddled and shivering, or ...
Continue ReadingMays 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. All three openers after the ...
Continue ReadingThe 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. ...
Continue ReadingThe last San Francisco farm's stubborn final years
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. They continued working ...
Continue ReadingEvel 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 ...
Continue ReadingWhen a submarine shot 1950s San Francisco (with a camera)
In a photo archive filled with ghosts, this image is especially eerie: San Francisco, as seen from a Cold War-era submarine, with Fisherman’s Wharf in the crosshairs. Thankfully for unsuspecting ...
Continue ReadingThe haunting last days of Playland-at-the-Beach, frozen in time
If you were born in the 1970s or later, the legend of Playland-at-the-Beach is one of joy and fun and a working-class San Francisco that newer generations never got a chance to experience. “It’s too ...
Continue ReadingMarket Street: A history of dividing and uniting San Francisco
Let us begin by cursing Jasper O’Farrell for the traffic. O’Farrell was the man who in 1847 decided that Market Street would bisect a jagged grab bag of intersections, with diagonal streets on one ...
Continue ReadingMarket Street movie palaces: What’s playing in 1950 and 2015
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, there were at least a dozen theaters along the Market Street corridor showing Hollywood movies and newsreels. Most closed in the 1960s and 1970s, and others converted to ...
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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, ...
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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. Bodies were clinging to trees and perched 20 feet above the road on street signs. A mob surged toward the ...
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Looking where we’re going
When Peter Schwartz looks out his window, he sees the future of San Francisco. Emerging out of a hole in the ground across the street from his 50 Fremont St. office are a new Transbay Transit Center and the ...
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The city has a gift for festivities, good times or bad
The best worst Christmas in San Francisco history arrived on Dec. 25, 1906. It was the city’s first holiday season since the great earthquake and fire had left hundreds dead.
Continue ReadingHerb Caen’s cynical, celebratory look at Christmas 1990
Herb Caen wrote dozens of Christmas-themed columns, and the one excerpted below may be the most melancholy.
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San Francisco mayors come through in a crisis
Eugene Schmitz, the only San Francisco mayor to be sentenced to jail while in office, did not go quietly. The mayor’s July 8, 1907, guilty verdict and sentencing were met with verbal attacks on the ...
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The Beats help build city’s progressive future
One of the more cinematic moments in San Francisco history arrived on Oct. 3, 1957, when a judge handed down the verdict for perhaps the most important misdemeanor case in the city’s history. Judge ...
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Aviation takes off in flight-obsessed city
It was, for anyone who frequently flies commercial in the Bay Area, an appropriate beginning to San Francisco aviation history.
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City’s hosted presidents, pope and a queen over time
San Francisco has a rich history of free entertainment, from Luisa Tetrazzini’s open-air opera on Market Street in 1910 to the graffiti-infused performance by U2 at the Vaillancourt Fountain in the 1980s.
Continue ReadingCharles Lindbergh lands big welcome in 1920s
Read a newspaper in the first third of the 20th century and the level of mania surrounding celebrities is striking. With no TV or Internet, a live appearance by a star stirred up a big frenzy.
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Hospitals offer compassion through the generations
It’s hard to imagine a worse time or place to be sick and injured than the Barbary Coast era in San Francisco. There was trauma in every port and alleyway, but no trauma center or proper emergency room.
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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 ...
Continue ReadingWarriors 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 ...
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Police and fire stood guard through early challenges
The San Francisco police and fire departments were born out of the roughness of the city’s Barbary Coast, and for better and worse reflected that attitude through most of the past century and a half. ...
Continue ReadingFire horses ‘doomed’ after losing great race
[...] the public wasn’t convinced and weren’t supportive of the Fire Department spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to replace equipment across the city. Below is an excerpt from a ...
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How a scruffy burg acquired its glories
San Francisco was almost 15 years old — a rebellious, insolent, cocky and yet full-of-potential teen — when The San Francisco Chronicle first published on Jan. 16, 1865.
Continue ReadingSeismic destruction and revival
Few in San Francisco could have felt prepared when the earthquake hit in the early morning of April 18, 1906. Corrupt civic leaders had just spent 27 years building a City Hall so shoddy that there was ...
Continue ReadingInnovators 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 ...
Continue ReadingA city at play, from baseball to the beach
San Francisco started as a business center, growing quickly with the hype surrounding the Gold Rush in the 1840s. But with all that money flowing, and even more fortunes lost, residents needed ...
Continue ReadingHow the Golden Gate Bridge became an accidental icon
The Golden Gate Bridge was built, if you can believe it, as a means for locals to travel by car between San Francisco and Marin County. Foes of the plan included ferry owners — who ran advertisements ...
Continue ReadingThe Greatest Generation built the city’s foundation
We should all continue to respect and thank the children of the 1910s and 1920s for their contributions to the country. But beyond the wars fought, monuments built and the culture that was created, the ...
Continue ReadingArtists and entertainers, from high culture to low comedy
From the beginning, San Francisco crowds have entered theaters, arenas and clubs, never totally knowing what to expect. John “Grizzly” Adams started the tradition in the 1850s at the Pacific Theater ...
Continue ReadingProtests amid progress
San Francisco was built too big, too fast after the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. The city grew from 500 residents to hundreds of thousands in just a few decades, corruption was a way of life and the weak ...
Continue ReadingConstructing a developing city
There was a point in the 1950s when three different San Francisco companies could be called to uproot your house or apartment building and move it across town. On one day in 1962, a Marina Green mansion ...
Continue ReadingChronicle of changing times
With four pages, no breaking news, no photos and a different name, the first edition of the Daily Dramatic Chronicle is almost unrecognizable when compared with today’s San Francisco Chronicle. But the ...
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'Noisy sounds' of jazz become an institution in the city
The first Chronicle editorials about jazz, in 1917, called jazz music “obscene, indecent and demoralizing.” San Franciscans ignored the critics, and their city became a great jazz town.
Continue ReadingTen jazz performances we wouldn’t miss
More than most Our San Francisco chapters, researching jazz in San Francisco has made us want to fire up the time machine and see music history firsthand.
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From trash to treasure, the city loves its landmarks
In a decision that is now San Francisco blasphemy, The Chronicle editorial board on March 2, 1966, blasted the city’s decision to throw out an ordinance that would have killed the Doggie Diner sign.
Continue Reading10 underrated San Francisco landmarks
No one would think about dismantling the Golden Gate Bridge or Coit Tower.
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Chinatown rises from ashes, after decades of struggle
The history of Chinatown in San Francisco is filled with prejudice and disaster; the Chinese suffered attacks, a plague and xenophobic rioters.
Continue ReadingThe 'extraordinary pageant' of an 1887 Chinatown parade
In 1887, a Chronicle reporter witnessed one of the community’s early parades and came back with a tale of astonishment — and wrote more than 5,000 words.
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Radio in San Francisco — the signal remains strong
The children of San Francisco were the first to discover the wonder of radio. The equipment had been stocked in a small corner of local toy departments for years.
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Rising from the streets, a football town builds a dynasty
Long before the sport became a very lucrative profession, football began in San Francisco as a crime.
Continue ReadingSan Francisco football stars we’d like to see play
The Our San Francisco time machine is headed to San Francisco football fields of the past, to choose the seven prep, college and pro stars we’d most like to see in person.
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The city’s movie palaces make an unexpected comeback
The Chronicle article covering the 1929 opening of the Fox Theater was memorably effusive, reading as if the reporter sent the dispatch by telegraph from a war zone.
Continue ReadingTime Machine: 10 historic screenings we’d like to visit
After seeing dozens of live music shows at the Warfield, we’re curious what a movie was like at the Market Street cinema.
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The static clears, and television comes to San Francisco
The first live television broadcast in Bay Area history began with a bright light, followed by a screen filled with static.
Continue ReadingPicking an S.F. TV Show Hall of Fame
San Francisco has a rich history of television shows being set in the city, but very few of them were filmed within easy driving distance of the Bay Area.
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Forces of history put schools to the test
The Little Red Schoolhouse, San Francisco’s first public school in early 1848, is a forgotten piece of history for a reason.
Continue ReadingThe ultimate S.F. high school alum dinner party
While researching this week’s Our San Francisco back-to-school chapter, we were impressed by the well-rounded celebrity cachet coming from city high schools.
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In a city full of culture, classical music came first
There is no moment in the city’s entertainment history more impactful than Luisa Tetrazzini’s a cappella Market Street performance on Christmas Eve in 1910.
Continue ReadingAn inebriated crowd awaits Placido Domingo’s arrival
By Peter Hartlaub and Randy Shilts
Sept. 9, 1983, the day that Placido Domingo saved the San Francisco Opera, was greeted with a growing buzz that was well chronicled in the next day’s newspaper.
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Startup culture begins with a crash, then a boom
San Francisco’s startup culture was forged more than a century and a half before Twitter, Uber and Salesforce coded their way onto the local scene.
Continue ReadingThe Gap falls into San Francisco startup success
“Real estate broker Donald Fisher is going to open a boutique.” The Chronicle announced the opening of the Gap in the society pages — a brief mention by Frances Moffat, who in the same column ...
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Starting with birds and bears, a museum town grows
It must have been a chaotic morning at the California Academy of Sciences building on Market Street after the earthquake hit in 1906.
Continue ReadingKing Tut ruled San Francisco in 1979
The King Tut exhibit at the de Young Museum in 1979 is one of those events where the hype starts to skew reality. There was so much local television coverage, newspaper stories and water cooler talk that I ...
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A changing city reinvents its waterfront
Welcome to Our San Francisco, a yearlong project looking at 150 years of the city’s history. Each week a different chapter will be explored in the newspaper, on SFChronicle.com, in Peter Hartlaub’s ...
Continue ReadingNachman’s 1980 column defends Pier 39
By Gerald Nachman
The transformation of the San Francisco waterfront in the late 1970s and early 1980s drew battle lines in The Chronicle newsroom. Herb Caen poked good-natured fun at some of Pier 39’s wilder touches, ...
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A great city builds, 1 neighborhood at a time
San Francisco is the City of Seven Hills. And if the power of the press had prevailed, there might be only six.
Continue ReadingClassifieds show 120 years of rising S.F. rents
Nothing puts modern-day rental housing costs in perspective like an afternoon leafing through old San Francisco Chronicle classifieds sections. There were some great deals to be found when San Francisco ...
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Amusement parks and the pursuit of fun
The grand opening of Chutes at the Beach in 1922 made the front page of The San Francisco Chronicle, for all the wrong reasons.
Continue ReadingHerb Caen’s last trip to Playland
By Herb Caen
While researching Our San Francisco chapters, we run into many beautiful and lyrical Herb Caen columns. This may be our all-time favorite. Playland-at-the-Beach had been on a downhill slide for more ...
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Transportation thrives after a muddy history
Future Civil War hero William Tecumseh Sherman, after visiting San Francisco in its early years, called the city “the worst bog and succession of mudholes masquerading as a street in the United ...
Continue ReadingLove the cable cars, but don’t forget S.F.’s historic ferries
San Francisco’s cable cars get most of the attention on postcards, T-shirts and disaster movies. But when it comes to the city’s transportation history, it’s hard to go much deeper than San ...
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Music from the 1960s fuels a social revolution
The first time the words “San Francisco Sound” showed up in the San Francisco Chronicle, they appeared under (of all people) the byline of the television critic. He was not a fan. “There’s nothing ...
Continue ReadingJefferson Airplane impressed Chronicle critic early on
San Francisco Chronicle
In addition to being one of the stronger writers in San Francisco Chronicle history, critic John Wasserman was also an excellent judge of talent. During his 15 years at The Chronicle, before crashing ...
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Stubborn gardeners made Golden Gate Park a treasure
Golden Gate Park was built by men and women who cherished horticulture and despised politics. And because of them, it is a treasure.
Continue Reading7 historical Golden Gate Park events we wish we could see
Time Machine 7 Golden Gate Park events we wish we could see live … California Midwinter Exposition (1894): Our first stop in the time machine is this lesser-known expo. Created by Chronicle ...
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Long road led to victory for LGBT pride over old fears
With San Francisco Pride weekend 2015 a few days away, let's celebrate the lesser-known champions who laid the foundation for the first San Francisco Pride parade in 1972.
Continue ReadingEarly editorial on gay marriage: glimpse of the future
San Francisco Chronicle
The San Francisco Chronicle took a conservative stance on social and cultural issues through the 1950s and most of the 1960s, reflecting the community. Beginning in the late 1960s, The Chronicle ...
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Bankers of the past led the broken city to recovery
The first bank in San Francisco opened on Jan. 9, 1849, and no one has had more fun near the teller’s window in the 16 decades since.
Continue ReadingA.P. Giannini, a banker who was no ‘slave to his money’
A.P. Giannini is remembered as the founder of Bank of America. But when he died at age 79, he was celebrated by San Franciscans for much more than his financial successes. Giannini’s rise, and refusal ...
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City Hall is a masterpiece, in the shadow of a fiasco
Make a list of all the worst San Francisco-funded projects, then throw in the Bay Bridge. Collected together, they cannot compare to the fiasco of the old City Hall.
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Comedy rises in San Francisco, without compromise
San Francisco is more than just a launching point for successful funny people. It has been the perfect incubator, allowing innovation and experimentation that has changed the way the world views comedy. It ...
Continue ReadingEarly support for comedy trailblazer Lenny Bruce
By Ralph J. Gleason
Lenny Bruce was an instant sensation — and immediately controversial — when he arrived in San Francisco in March 1958, for his first stay at Ann’s 440 Club in North Beach. One journalist who ...
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After much strife, two bridges worthy of the superlatives
The first architectural rendering for a bridge spanning San Francisco Bay, unveiled in 1922, was an unmitigated disaster. Awkwardly combining cantilever with suspension bridge elements, the clunky first ...
Continue ReadingFrank Lloyd Wright had the right idea
The Bay Area doesn’t need another bridge right now. We can fix BART; we can take the ferry; we can telecommute and work from home. If there’s one lesson that the overpriced and underplanned eastern ...
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The rags-to-riches story of Union Square
Union Square was presented as a gift, but it seemed like more of an insult. Col. John White Geary, later the first mayor of San Francisco, in 1849 donated 3 acres of windswept and flea-ridden sand dunes to ...
Continue ReadingThey belong on the Union Square Walk of Fame
The last thing Union Square needs is additional tourist bait. But if San Francisco was going to add an attraction to Union Square, a walk of fame seems like a good fit.
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San Francisco becomes a vibrant, weird convention town
It was, with little doubt, the worst convention in San Francisco history. A no-host bar was nowhere to be found at the Social Progress Congress meeting of 1915.
Continue ReadingTime machine: Seven conventions we’d love to see live
Democratic National Convention (Civic Auditorium, 1920): Any time-machine journey through San Francisco conventions must begin at the first big one — the Civic Auditorium political convention where ...
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The end of World War II and a city that sacrificed
The newspaper has countless articles and images documenting the details of World War II and the Bay Area’s important role as a military port. But these 1945 photos are more illuminating than the ...
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Tourists heart S.F., and our disdain is only a posture
The argument probably made sense at the time. When Alcatraz Island was being converted to a federal prison in the 1930s, opponents spread fears that it would negatively impact tourism.
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San Francisco rises as a great restaurant town
If you ever think — even for a moment — that San Francisco is hitting an all-time low as a restaurant town, strike the thought from your head and read a San Francisco Chronicle from the 1800s. The city ...
Continue Reading5 S.F. restaurants we wish were still around
Five restaurants we wish were still around Poodle Dog: Not only was the French food at this five-story 1800s restaurant hailed as the best ...
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The 1906 earthquake brought out the best in the city
The smoke was still clearing on April 22, 1906, the city was under martial law, and mothers continued to wander San Francisco’s streets looking for lost sons and daughters. Some manhole covers were ...
Continue ReadingThey fought the 1906 earthquake inferno and saved their homes
Chronicle staff report
The 1906 earthquake and resulting fire destroyed almost everything east of Van Ness Avenue. But when the fires were extinguished, one set of houses miraculously remained. This story ...
Continue ReadingBaseball
Baseball emerges in the city, guns blazing
Longtime Giants fans probably think they’ve been through some hard times. There were the cold winds at Candlestick, the hopeless teams of the 1970s and 1980s and two excruciating years in the 2000s with ...
Continue ReadingBest baseball names in S.F. history
The current San Francisco Giants have a roster of great baseball names. Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, Joe Panik and Madison Bumgarner all seemed destined at birth to throw a slider or hit a double into the ...
Continue ReadingConcerts
Why pop talent takes our city higher
The SNACK benefit concert at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco was put together in a breakneck 3½ weeks, with appearances by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Marlon Brando, Willie Mays and more.
Continue ReadingTime machine: 10 historic S.F. rock concerts we’d resurrect
If time travel ever becomes a reality, here are 10 San Francisco rock concerts we’d like to see: Rolling Stones at the Civic Auditorium (May 14, 1965): The Stones played higher-profile shows at ...
Continue ReadingSports Arenas
Unconditional love for the sports arenas of the city
Candlestick’s current slow-mo demolition, along with plans to build a new Warriors arena in Mission Bay, are part of a circle of San Francisco sports arena life that dates back to the Gold Rush.
Continue ReadingCrazy Crab leads the mascot hall of fame
San Franciscans have always embraced their stadia and arenas, but team mascots are often a different story. Below are the five best mascots in San Francisco history. I’ve also included my pick for the ...
Continue ReadingPrep Sports
San Francisco high school sports played through the pain
Welcome to Our San Francisco, a yearlong project looking at 150 years of the city’s history. Each week a different topic will be explored in the newspaper, on SFChronicle.com, in Peter Hartlaub’s The ...
Continue ReadingJohnny Mathis was singing a different tune as a high jumper
When you think of Johnny Mathis in 2015, it’s all about the music. “Wonderful! Wonderful!” “Chances Are.” Family gathering around the fireplace viewed through a soft filter, with a cup of hot ...
Continue Reading13 athletes we’d like to have seen in high school
San Francisco has an impressive history of high school athletics, with many legends — and some forgotten athletes who deserve to be household names — passing through the city on the way to stardom. ...
Continue ReadingStyle
A city that has dressed itself in savoir faire
San Francisco’s first great fashion legend was a delusional 19th century boardinghouse dweller who proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States. It’s a credit to the city’s people that they loved ...
Continue ReadingAt the pinnacle of San Francisco style
San Franciscans have been dressing to the nines and sometimes the tens for decades.
Continue ReadingFarmers' Markets
The rocky, inspiring history of farmers’ markets in S.F.
There were no artisanal cheeses or old guys playing “Brown Eyed Girl” on acoustic guitar at the first farmers’ market in San Francisco history. A bouncy house to entertain the kids was at least 50 ...
Continue ReadingThe Chronicle covers S.F.’s first farmers’ market
San Francisco Chronicle
The Chronicle’s first farmers’ market story was published on Aug. 12, 1943. The market was so successful, all apples were sold out before the market officially opened. Farmer’s Mart Opens Today ...
Continue ReadingSan Francisco farmers’ markets by the numbers
San Francisco Chronicle
3 cents Price per pound for apples at the first farmers’ market on Aug. 12, 1943. 50 Poundage of a pig, named Porky, auctioned off at the first anniversary of the San Francisco farmers’ market. ...
Continue ReadingArcades
The era of the arcade: Play it again
Welcome to Our San Francisco, a yearlong project looking at 150 years of the city’s history. Each week a different topic will be explored in the newspaper, on SFChronicle.com, in Peter Hartlaub’s The ...
Continue ReadingTo ’80s kids, arcades were more than fun and games
What was your favorite 1980s arcade? Send us a tribute in 200 words or less, along with a photo, to phartlaub@sfchronicle.com . If you don’t have a photo ...
Continue ReadingArcades: They’re not lost to us after all
Musee Mecanique: The Louvre of Bay Area arcades, this delightful spot hosts a collection of mechanical games from the Playland-at-the-Beach/Sutro Baths era (through the 1960s-early ...
Continue ReadingMovies
San Francisco films that make our day
Asked to choose the best San Francisco movie ever made, Chronicle readers elected an otherwise satisfactory film — that just happened to include the greatest car chase of all time. And actually, ...
Continue Reading6 underappreciated San Francisco movies
All too often in San Francisco movies, directors settle on repetitive views from Telegraph Hill, the Golden Gate Bridge or Treasure Island — with the camera angled west toward the city’s skyline. More ...
Continue ReadingReaders pick 10 top San Francisco movies
San Francisco Chronicle
We asked readers to pick their favorite San Francisco movies of all time, weighing equally for the quality of the movie and the film’s use of San Francisco. They were given 24 choices — 18 picked by ...
Continue ReadingTall Buildings
The heights of audacity: How S.F. has grown upward, amid conflict
Welcome to Our San Francisco, a yearlong project looking at 150 years of the city’s history. Each week a different topic will be explored in the newspaper, on SFChronicle.com, in Peter Hartlaub’s the ...
Continue ReadingHerb Caen: Those endearing old charms
By Herb Caen
Excerpted from a Herb Caen column — June 27, 1971 I KEEP READING in learned journals that nostalgia is the hottest movement in the land these days, but I’m not buying. It all seems phony to me, ...
Continue ReadingA timeline of San Francisco’s tallest buildings
Tallest buildings by year Tallest buildings by year 1854 Old St. Mary’s Cathedral (660 California; 90 feet) 1875 Palace Hotel (2 New Montgomery; 120 feet) 1890 Old Chronicle Building ...
Continue ReadingParades
Our city: For 150 years, San Francisco has loved a parade
The parade was exactly four blocks away from The Chronicle offices in 1887, but it was reported as though it were happening on another planet. “The most extraordinary pageant ever seen in America was ...
Continue ReadingTime machine: Seven parades we would like to visit
Chinatown parade (1887): The Chinese New Year parades are wonderful now, with many traditions from the past. But the Chinatown parades of the 1800s sound astounding — colorful displays of pride from a ...
Continue ReadingSan Francisco parade history: by the numbers
San Francisco Chronicle
Parade highlights 4 Number of floats in the 1869 San Francisco Columbus Day Parade. Two of them held statues of Christopher Columbus. 1880 First Chinese New Year ...
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