Early in this millennium, Tuesday, September 11, 2001, became yet another fateful milestone for millions.
Yet, there is another date that marks a stark division in the history of our city—one that has forever separated a beloved past from the stark realities of the present. In my mind, that fateful day occurred fifty-five years ago—Tuesday, November 7, 1961—the day that San Francisco voters went to the polls and overwhelmingly defeated a bond issue, Proposition I, that would have had the city and county acquire ownership of the Market Street land and the magnificent building that housed the Fox Theatre.
Sadly, San Francisco had a poor track record of preserving the past in the 1950s. The Montgomery Block (or Monkey Block in the local parlance) was a large, solid gold rush–era office building in the Financial District that had handily withstood numerous earthquakes, fires and financial panics, only to be torn down in 1959 for a parking lot (the Transamerica Pyramid was built on the site in 1972).
Likewise, magnificent old Victorians had been cleared from the landscape on a wholesale basis during “urban renewal” efforts in post–World War II years. The architectural atrocity of the Embarcadero Freeway was erected in the late 1950s, blocking the cherished image of the Ferry Building—and it took a major earthquake and a vote of the people to get it torn down nearly forty years later. And until the time of the 1950s Freeway Revolt, several neighborhoods were ruined by the demolition of housing for various freeways.
The loss of the Fox Theatre, though, was a sad turning point for the city and its residents. From its opening in June 1929—the absolute heyday of all that was grand and glorious in the film industry—the Fox was San Francisco’s largest theatre, with more than 4,600 seats. There were financial difficulties early on, and the movie palace even closed its doors temporarily at the depth of the Great Depression, from the fall of 1932 until the spring of 1933. Business soon rebounded, though, and through the World War II years, movies were the great escape and an affordable luxury for many San Franciscans.
The Fox was San Francisco’s grandest theatre, from its opening in 1929 until the day the wrecking ball struck in 1963. The bland Fox Plaza office-apartment tower has occupied the site since 1965. Jack Tillmany Collection.
Needing only a simple majority of 50 percent plus 1 vote to pass, the proposition went down to defeat by almost 60 to 40 percent. San Franciscans were turning their collective backs on a fabled past of glamourous downtown movie theatres in favor of the bland high-rise office/apartment complexes that emerged from the rubble.
More than that vote itself, though, the populace demonstrated that it had somehow bought in to the notion that “bigger is better” and that San Francisco was in some sort of deranged race to transform itself into a West Coast version of New York City. That vote was the final nail in the coffin of the San Francisco that many of us miss and remember so fondly today.
The rise of television in the 1950s began to spell trouble for movie theatres across the nation. In San Francisco, the losses began in the Western Addition and Mission Neighborhoods in the 1950s and then spread to other areas: the State on Mission Street (1950), Midtown on Haight Street (1952), the Noe on 24th Street (1952), the Green Street in North Beach (1955), the New Fillmore (1957) and the American (1959), also on Fillmore Street. The Irving Theatre in the Inner Sunset District was one of the first victims west of Twin Peaks, closing in 1962, a little more than six months after that fateful vote on the Fox, while Mission Street’s magnificent El Capitan, closed since 1957, had its interior gutted in 1964 for a parking lot.
Other elements of daily life also began to change drastically at the same time—including the shipping industry along the Embarcadero, manufacturing in the South-of-Market and shipbuilding/maintenance in the Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhoods. These changes wiped out thousands of stable, unionized blue-collar positions that had provided strong economic support to San Franciscans for decades.
San Francisco saw the rise of tourism, convention activities and various forms of shopping. More parking garages were built, and the ghosts of demolished buildings were increasingly paved over with asphalt—ironically, this was the fate that befell the once-grand El Capitan Theatre.
As shipping and manufacturing declined, there was also a declining presence of U.S. military installations all across San Francisco, including the losses of Fort Mason, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Presidio of San Francisco and Treasure Island Naval Base. Adjacent cities also saw the closures of Alameda Naval Air Station, Hamilton Field–Novato, Mare Island Naval Shipyard–Vallejo, Moffitt Field–Sunnyvale and Oakland Army Base.
But in February 1963—when the wrecking ball took that first swing at the Fox Theatre—history saw the beginning of the end for the San Francisco that so many of us miss today.
Changing times can confront even modern structures. The Galaxy Theatre was a newer, widescreen multiplex, built in 1984 on Van Ness Avenue. It closed in 2005 and was demolished in 2011 for an apartment tower. Jack Tillmany Collection.
San Franciscans woke up to the witty words of columnist Herb Caen in their morning newspapers for nearly sixty years, from 1938 until his death in 1997. Author’s collection.
Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Herb Caen, who spent a career writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, summed it up best when he said, “I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.”
Many changes, both large and small, take place in our lives every single day. Most are so small that we barely notice. Yet when we review decades of them all at once, we begin to understand how tiny events—in our personal lives and in the life of our hometown—can add up to some very big changes, indeed.
THE 1700S
1769
Discovery of San Francisco Bay by the Portolá Expedition, which claimed California for the king of Spain.
1770
Beginning of Russian colonization on the West Coast as far south as present-day Sonoma County.
1776
Founding of the Presidio of San Francisco by the Spanish army and Mission Dolores by Spanish missionaries.
THE 1800S
1821
Mexico’s independence from Spain shifts control of California to the Mexican government.
1835
Pueblo of Yerba Buena is founded with construction of houses near Portsmouth Plaza.
1845
Beginning of the Great Famine in Ireland, marking the start of massive Irish immigration to America.
1846
Start of Mexican-American War.
1848
Discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill; treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican-American War, giving ownership of California and other territories to the United States.
1850
California admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state.
1859
Silver discovered in Nevada’s Comstock Lode.
1861
Start of the Civil War in the United States.
1865
End of the Civil War; major earthquake strikes the San Francisco Bay Area, causing widespread damage from Santa Cruz to Petaluma.
1868
Second major earthquake in three years, this time centered in Hayward, and also causing widespread damage throughout the Bay Area.
1869
Completion of the transcontinental railroad.
1886
Pine United Methodist Church founded—San Francisco’s oldest continuing Methodist congregation—which moved to the Richmond District in 1965.
1894
Midwinter Fair in Golden Gate Park attracts thousands of tourists; construction of St. Paulus Lutheran Church at Gough and Eddy Streets near Jefferson Square, which was a hub of activity for decades until a disastrous fire destroyed the landmark in 1995.
1896
Opening of Sutro Baths on Point Lobos Avenue near the Cliff House.
1898
San Francisco has fewer than a half dozen automobiles, increasing to 25 in 1900, to
more than 500 by 1903 and to thousands by the time of the 1906 earthquake/fire. (Today, there are more than 470,000 vehicles registered in San Francisco, plus an additional 35,000 entering during business hours, Monday–Friday.)
THE 1900S
The First Decade
1904
Bank of Italy founded, bringing financial services to the masses.
1906
Great earthquake and fire; St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church opens in the Sunset District—a new congregation formed by earthquake refugees.
1907
The most elaborate incarnation of the Cliff House is destroyed by fire; beginning of graft trials that eventually put the mayor and others in jail for bribery.
1909
Portolá Festival celebrates San Francisco’s rebirth from disaster of 1906, attracting thousands of tourists.
1910s
1910
Emergence of Van Ness Avenue as San Francisco’s “Auto Row.”
1913
The last horse-drawn streetcar in regular service runs up Market Street; the Call newspaper merges with the Evening Post to become the San Francisco Call & Post.
1914
Start of World War I in Europe.
1915
Panama-Pacific Exposition in the present-day Marina District attracts thousands of tourists and celebrates opening of the Panama Canal.
1916
Preparedness Day Parade on Market Street, held in anticipation of the United States’ entry into World War I, is racked by a suitcase bomb that kills ten and injures forty others; final burial is recorded at Calvary Cemetery at Geary and Masonic, with Holy Cross in Colma, open since 1890, accepting all new Catholic burials.
1917
Congress votes to approve U.S. entry into World War I.
1918
End of World War I; first round of influenza epidemic in the spring spares San Francisco, though in the fall, there are more than 23,000 cases with nearly a 10 percent fatality rate, along with another 5,000 cases in December and more than 3,500 fatalities by year-end.
1920s
1922
Completion of Standard Oil building in downtown San Francisco, leading to decade-long building boom for downtown skyscrapers (Telephone Building, 1925; Russ Building, 1927; Shell Building, 1929; 450 Sutter, 1929; William Taylor Hotel/100 McAllister, 1930; Mills Tower, 1931).
1925
Construction of first homes in the Sunset by Henry Doelger, with prices ranging from $5,000 to $6,000; Temple Emanu-El dedicates its new post-1906 building at Arguello Boulevard and Lake Street.
1929
Start of the Great Depression; the San Francisco Call & Post newspaper merges with the Bulletin to become the Call-Bulletin, leaving the city with only four daily newspapers—Chronicle and Examiner in the mornings and Call-Bulletin plus News in the afternoons—all with slightly different political slants.
1930s
1930
Bank of Italy becomes Bank of America; St. Ignatius College becomes USF.
1931
Removal of bodies from Masonic Cemetery, allowing for expansion of USF.
1932
Fluoridation of drinking water begins in San Francisco’s Western Neighborhoods, expanding citywide in 1955.
1933
Removal of bodies from Odd Fellows Cemetery at Geary and Arguello, allowing for commercial development of the area.
1934
General strike begins along San Francisco waterfront.
1935
Beth Sholom, a Conservative Jewish congregation founded in 1904, moves west to 14th Avenue and Clement with construction of a new temple; City College of San Francisco opens as San Francisco Junior College.
1936
Bay Bridge opens.
1937
Golden Gate Bridge opens.
1939
Start of two-year Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island, attracting thousands of tourists.
1940s
1940
Final removal of all bodies from Calvary Cemetery at Geary and Masonic, allowing for commercial development of the area; widening of 19th Avenue approach to Golden Gate Bridge begins.
1941
Start of World War II, with tens of thousands of war workers moving to California; beginning of food/gasoline/supply rationing.
1942
Massive expansion of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and construction of wartime housing; Executive Order 9066 is put in place, forcing the relocation and incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast, most of whom are U.S. citizens.
1943
Union Square Garage, built beneath the square with nearly one thousand parking spaces, opens for business.
1944
Opening of Parkmerced garden apartments.
1945
End of World War II; delegates from fifty countries meet in San Francisco to form the United Nations.
1946
San Francisco 49ers win their first All-America Football Conference game against the Chicago Rockets, 34–14, at Kezar Stadium.
1947
Henry Doelger begins construction of homes in suburban Westlake in Daly City; Harold Dobbs and a partner open Mel’s Drive-In on South Van Ness Avenue.
1948
Final removal of bodies from Laurel Hill Cemetery, allowing for the commercial development of the area; KPIX goes on the air as Northern California’s first television station; ground-breaking for Westlake Shopping Center in Daly City, one of the first malls in the United States, even predating Stonestown.
1949
Opening of Lick Market in the Richmond District, as supermarkets begin replacing small neighborhood grocers; Zim’s Hamburgers opens for business; Archbishop Riordan High School opens.
1950s
1950
Construction of Parkmerced tower apartment buildings; construction of Stonestown tower and garden apartments.
1951
Bankruptcy of California Cable Company, leading to eventual ownership by MUNI in 1952, with elimination of several lines by 1954; new Sears Roebuck store, employing fifteen hundred, opens at Geary and Masonic, on the site of the former Calvary Cemetery; Highway 101 freeway opens, linking San Francisco to San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.
1952
Opening of Stonestown Shopping Center; opening of Mercy High School on 19th Avenue; Broadway Tunnel opens, linking North Beach with Pacific Heights; George Whitney, owner of Playland-at-the-Beach and the Cliff House, buys Sutro Baths.
1953
Relocation of San Francisco State College to 19th Avenue and Holloway; construction of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company (now University of California’s Laurel Heights campus) building on former cemetery property; Stanford University votes to move its medical school from San Francisco to Palo Alto.
1954
Major expansion of San Francisco International Airport with new Central Terminal; a thirteen-foot-tall neon-lighted beer glass depicting beer filling and then spilling over the top is installed on Hamm’s Brewery on Bryant Street, remaining in operation until 1974; KQED public broadcasting channel begins operation; Kaiser Foundation Hospital opens on Geary Boulevard; swimming eliminated at Sutro Baths.
1955
New downtown skyscraper building boom commences with completion of Equitable Life Building, followed by Crown Zellerbach Building (1959), Hartford Building (1965), Wells Fargo/44 Montgomery Street Building (1967), Bank of America World Headquarters (1969), Alcoa Building (1970), Embarcadero Center (1971), Hilton Tower (1971), St. Francis Hotel Tower (1971) and the Transamerica Pyramid (1972), continuing until the early 1980s; Crocker First National Bank and Anglo California National Bank announce merger, becoming Crocker-Anglo Bank; Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon found Daughters of Bilitis, the first national lesbian group; George Christopher, first Greek-American and last Republican mayor of San Francisco, is elected; Allen Ginsberg publishes Howl, which ushers in the beat generation; beginning of “freeway
revolt” in San Francisco’s Western Neighborhoods.
1956
Enactment of federal Interstate Highway system; last automobile ferry runs on San Francisco Bay upon completion of Richmond–San Rafael Bridge; last streetcars run along Geary from downtown to Ocean Beach, replaced by diesel buses; first demolition project begins in Western Addition Redevelopment area; George Christopher sworn in as mayor.
1957
National League approves move of Giants baseball team to San Francisco; moderate earthquake, centered near Daly City, strongest since aftershocks of 1906; Soviet Union launches Sputnik.
1958
Key System trains end trans-bay service on Bay Bridge; last Southern Pacific passenger ferry between San Francisco and Oakland; Giants baseball team moves from New York to San Francisco.
1959
Seals Stadium demolished; Embarcadero Freeway opens; the Call-Bulletin newspaper merges with the San Francisco News to form the News-Call Bulletin, leaving the city with only three daily newspapers; Bruce Sedley (aka Skipper Sedley as host of KRON’s Popeye cartoons and later Sir Sedley on KTVU’s the Three Stooges) introduces “Trunkey Zoo Key” for talking storybooks at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland and at San Francisco’s Fleishhacker Zoo.
Growing Up in San Francisco Page 13