Growing Up in San Francisco
Page 17
SUTTER’S MILL. Highly popular downtown LGBT bar that catered to workers in the Financial District in the 1980s.
UKRAINE BAKERY. Classic longtime Jewish bakery located on McAllister Street in the Fillmore District—the best place for challah bread. Closed when urban redevelopment overtook the area.
UNITED SHOPPERS EXCLUSIVE (USE) DISCOUNT STORE. A 1950s-era discount store that operated on Alemany Boulevard in the Excelsior District.
VILLA ROMANA. Classic Italian restaurant on Irving Street in the Inner Sunset District from 1956 until it closed when the owners finally retired in 2015.
WHITE HOUSE, THE. San Francisco department store that began operations in 1854 and prospered until 1965. Its former location at Sutter Street and Grant Avenue still retains the classic 1909 façade and signage, while the interior was long ago gutted for a parking facility.
WINTERLAND. Originally the Dreamland Ball Room, built at Post and Steiner Streets in 1928, the venue was renamed Winterland in the late 1930s. Home for decades to the Ice Follies for its long run every summer in San Francisco, it was converted to a music venue by rock promoter Bill Graham in 1971. Winterland closed with a farewell concert early in 1979 and was demolished in 1985 and replaced by apartments.
WOOLWORTH. One of San Francisco’s most memorable downtown stores occupied the ground floor of the Flood Building from 1952 to 1997, when the chain shut down operations. The last of the bulk candy, pizza slices, sewing notions, parakeets and picture frames were sold at discount prices as the Veg-o-Matic demonstrators packed up their wares for the last time.
YET WAH. The classic Chinese restaurant in the “big purple building” had been operating on Clement Street at 22nd Avenue for decades when it closed suddenly in 2011. It has long since been replaced with another eatery, but thousands of San Franciscans still remember when it was new and cutting edge, complete with a large upstairs banquet facility.
ZIM’S HAMBURGERS. The restaurant phenomenon revolutionized casual dining in San Francisco. Founded by Art Zimmerman, who dreamed of hamburgers and milkshakes during his World War II military service, the chain opened in 1948 and expanded throughout the Bay Area to more than two dozen locations but closed its final outlet in 1995, a victim to the presence of faster, cheaper hamburgers. The location at 19th Avenue and Taraval was seen by thousands every day, its red neon sign glowing like a warm, friendly beacon, welcoming travelers to the culinary delights that were available at the counter there for decades.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALUMNI PUBLICATIONS
Genesis, St. Ignatius College Prep.
George Washington High School Alumni Association Newsletter.
Lowell Alumni Association Newsletter.
Perennial Parrott, Polytechnic High School.
ARCHIVES
Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Holy Cross Cemetery Archives.
LGBT Historical Society.
Prelinger Library/Archives.
San Francisco History Center.
San Francisco Public Library.
State of California Vital Statistics Index.
St. Cecilia Parish Archives.
Western Neighborhoods Project.
BOOKS
Caen, Herb. Baghdad by the Bay. New York: Doubleday, 1949.
Conrad, Barnaby. The World of Herb Caen 1938–1997. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.
Dunnigan, Frank. Growing Up in San Francisco’s Western Neighborhoods. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014.
Gilliam, Harold. The Face of San Francisco. New York: Doubleday, 1960.
Hansen, Gladys, and Emmet Condon. Denial of Disaster. Petaluma, CA: Cameron & Co., 1989.
Hitz, Anne Evers. Emporium Department Store. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014.
Hooper, Bernadette C. San Francisco’s Mission District. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006.
Kamiya, Gary. Cool Gray City of Love. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
LaBounty, Woody. Carville-by-the-Sea. San Francisco: Outside Lands Media, 2009.
Lewis, Oscar. San Francisco: Mission to Metropolis. Berkeley, CA: Howell North, 1966.
Lyon, Fred. San Francisco: Story of a City 1940–1960. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2014.
Martini, John A. Sutro’s Glass Palace: The Story of Sutro Baths. Bodega Bay, CA: Hole in the Head Press, 2013.
McGloin, John B., SJ. San Francisco: The Story of a City. San Francisco: Presidio Press, 1978.
Polk’s Crocker-Langley City Directory. Various editions.
Scharlach, Bernice. Big Alma. San Francisco: Scottwall Associates, 1990.
Talbot, David. Season of the Witch. New York: Free Press, 2012.
Tillmany, Jack. Theatres of San Francisco. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005.
Trimble, Paul C. Railways of San Francisco. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004.
Ungaretti, Lorri. Legendary Locals of San Francisco’s Richmond, Sunset, and Golden Gate Park. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014.
INTERNET SITES
Archdiocese of San Francisco. www.sfarchdiocese.org.
Congregation Emanu-El. www.emanuelsf.org.
Curbed SF. www.sf.curbed.com.
Department Store Museum. www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org.
Legacy. www.legacy.com.
Lick-Wilmerding High School. www.lwhs.edu.
Parkmerced Vision. www.parkmercedvision.com.
Richmond District Blog. www.richmondsfblog.com.
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. www.sfmta.com.
San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. www.sfrecpark.org.
St. Ignatius College Preparatory. www.siprep.org.
University of San Francisco. www.usfca.edu.
Western Neighborhoods Project. www.outsidelands.org.
NEWSPAPERS
Catholic San Francisco.
J. (Jewish News Weekly).
Noe Valley Voice.
Ocean Beach Bulletin.
Richmond Review.
San Francisco Chronicle.
San Francisco Examiner.
San Francisco History Association Quarterly.
San Francisco News Call-Bulletin.
Sunset Beacon.
Westside Observer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Frank Dunnigan was born during the baby boom years to a family that first settled in San Francisco in 1860. He graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep and the University of San Francisco and spent more than twenty-five years as a bank auditor and corporate trainer in the downtown area. He is now a recent retiree after a career with the federal government.
The author, seated at an IBM word processor at the St. Ignatius High School yearbook office in 1968. Today, only the equipment has become more modern. Author’s collection.
He is the author of two other books: Growing Up in San Francisco’s Western Neighborhoods: Boomer Memories from Kezar Stadium to Zim’s Hamburgers (The History Press, 2014) and San Francisco’s St. Cecilia Parish: A History (The History Press, 2016). Since 2009, he has written a monthly column, “Streetwise,” for Western Neighborhoods Project (www.outsidelands.org) and has contributed content to the works of other local historians.
The author is grateful for the kind assistance provided by volunteers at Western Neighborhoods Project, founded in 1999 by Woody LaBounty and David Gallagher. Preserving the history of San Francisco’s west side was the group’s initial goal, and that has now been expanded to include citywide historic preservation. In 2015, WNP launched a new program, OpenSFHistory, created to digitize, catalogue and share with the world more than 100,000 vintage images, donated by an anonymous private collector.
To see images, read articles, hear podcasts, review/comment on posts or join Western Neighborhoods Project, go to www.outsidelands.org.
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