A main attraction of the Richmond District since it opened in 1896, the Sutro Baths was already in decline when this Kodachrome slide was taken circa 1957.
Historical Photo – Sutro’s
Historical Photo – Packed Playland Parking Places
A packed parking lot along the Great Highway in front of the Cabrillo Street entrance to Chutes at the Beach, circa 1932. This was the main gate to an amusement area that became known as Playland at the Beach, where visitors could get sweet waffles (a favorite treat) before enjoying popular attractions such as the Aeroplane Swing and Ferris wheel, visible in the distance.
Historical Photo – Amundsen’s Gjoa
… passing by the Dutch Windmill and the sloop Gjoa on the western edge of Golden Gate Park. Famed explorer Roald Amundsen sailed the Gjoa through the Northwest Passage, reaching Alaska in 1905 and bringing her to dock in San Francisco in October 1906.
Historical Photo – View from Geary and Ninth, 1890
When this photograph, looking southeast towards Lone Mountain from Ninth Avenue near Geary Boulevard, was taken around 1890, the Star of the Sea Church, built in 1888, was still a new addition to the neighborhood. Visible in the distance is the Bay District Racetrack, Golden Gate Park and Mt. Sutra.
Historical Photo – Carville High-rise
The photo, circa 1905, above shows a three-story home made from old horsecars on La Playa, between Irving and Judah streets, in a bohemian enclave known as Carville at Ocean Beach.
Historical Photo – December 2019 – The Reporter
The shipwrecked lumber schooner “Reporter” ran aground on Ocean Beach near what is now Noriega Street on March 13, 1902.
Historical Photo – The Sand Pipers
The construction to prepare for the laying of sewer pipes on Vicente Street, near 39th Avenue, was documented by SF Department of Public Works’ (DPW) staff photographer Horace Chaffee on July 23, 1909. Chaffee covered numerous infrastructure projects spearheaded by DPW from the 1910s through the 1930s and captured the modernizing of San Francisco in the process. Photo courtesy of a private collector/Western Neighborhoods Project.
Historical Photo – Addressing the ‘Housing Crisis’
A woman wearing Victorian-era clothing walks in front of the “Carzonia Apartments” at Fourth Avenue and Cornwall Street in the Inner Richmond, circa 1908. Mimicking Carville in the Outer Sunset, Dr. Charles V. Cross placed 10 surplus McAllister-line cable cars on a narrow strip of his land between California and Cornwall streets to address housing needs after the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Historical Photo – Glider Soars Over Sunset Sand Dunes
A crowd of onlookers gathers atop a Sunset District sand dune to watch the launch of McGill Glider No. 813N, by the Pacific Glider School at 33rd Avenue and Kirkham Street, on May 24, 1930.
Historical Photo – Ninth and Geary
This photo shows the northwest corner of Ninth Avenue and Geary Boulevard, the future site of the Pacific Telephone Company building.
Historical Photo – Welcome to ‘Rabbitville’
Just east of the Children’s Playground carousel in Golden Gate Park stands a red-and-white painted barn built in 1943 as part of a small petting zoo with a barnyard theme. The zoo once had a goat, chickens, ducks, guinea pigs, sheep and, as seen above in 1948, a “Rabbitville” with a fire station, hotel and school.
Buggy Traffic on the Great Highway
The creation of the Great Highway in the 19th century gave horse riders and buggy drivers a broad road to enjoy at Ocean Beach. This circa 1905 view shows a couple rolling by the U.S. Life Saving Service (predecessor of the Coast Guard) complex and North Windmill of Golden Gate Park.
Historical Photo – GG Park’s Early Aquifer
To tap a subterranean aquifer and provide water for Golden Gate Park, a pump works was first built in the late 1880s in what is today the Botanical Garden.
Early Days at UCSF
The Inner Sunset District campus of the University of California, San Francisco had its origins as The Affiliated Colleges, bringing together medical, dental and pharmacological schools on one site in 1898.
Before the Condos
Playland at the Beach, located between Balboa and Fulton streets at Ocean Beach, featured a fun house, rides, carnival games and the famous “It’s It” cookie ice cream sandwiches.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 