Watch the video of Mark Scheuer of the Friends of Duboce Park sharing memories of his days growing up at Parkside Square (and other Sunset parks), and how his love for sport grew out of Rec and Park programming. Thanks to the Neighborhood Parks Council.
Memories of West Side parks
February 2nd, 2010 by WoodyA Visit to the Prelinger Library
January 22nd, 2010 by David
View of the Prelinger Library
In our continuing effort to get OUT of the WNP Office ( 300 Taraval at Funston in the Parkside, if you’re wondering), Woody and I decided to take a trip down to the Prelinger ( “Pray – linger”) Library at 301-8th Street at Folsom. “That’s not in the Outside Lands!”, you might say. True, but Megan and Rick Prelinger have created a unique place that hopes:
“to foster discovery and serendipity in a browsing friendly environment; to demonstrate that unforeseen benefits arise from the synthesis between analog and digital cultures; to experiment with new forms of access to information; and to convene community around a collection”.
What it comes down to is a place chock full of books, magazines and ephemera that’s absolutely worth leaving the west side for.
They have a great material on San Francisco History and a burgeoning ephemera collection where we found some excellent stuff that’s on its way to the Western Neighborhoods Project site. That’s right, they’re sharing their collection with us, so we can share it with you.
Doelger sales brochure from The Prelinger Library
We know what you’re thinking, we get access because we’re special, but that’s not the way it is here. The library is open to the public without charge and is appropriation-friendly, which means that all visitors are encouraged to scan, copy, and photograph materials in the library. You can also download digitized books from their collection at the Internet Archive.
We had a great time talking to Rick and Megan about their collection and pouring through the San Francisco ephemera boxes. They material we’ve never seen before including this great Henry Doelger sales brochure touting “the sparkling modern homes in San Francisco’s Sunset District where sand dunes onces ruled.”
The Prelinger Library hours:
Wednesdays from 1-8pm
at least 2 Sundays a month.
More info can be found at http://www.prelingerlibrary.org
What you missed at the WNP Meet-Up last night
January 19th, 2010 by Woody
Cliff House and Ocean Beach, January 2009, by Paul Judge.
Ben brought WNP member Bill Alvarado, who lives in the same Richmond District home that his grandfather built back in 1915. Bill’s father was what Will Connolly called a “makeup man” for the San Francisco Chronicle. No beauty products were involved, though; a makeup man laid out the pages of the newspaper back in the day of linotype machines. Memories and stories of the old newspaper days (Will’s father was a well-known sports columnist for the Chronicle) flowed around the tables.
Paul Rosenberg, inspired by the Presidio Middle School yearbook Tammy Aramian had bought on eBay, sang songs from his junior high school alma mater (from memory, with just the occasional peek at the lyrics in the yearbook).
Talk of the fate of a mysterious Whitney Brothers pick-up truck that used to hang around Pasquale’s restaurant on Geary Boulevard came up as well. Anyone know in whose hands that Playland delivery vehicle ended up?
We’ve decided to make the meet-ups quarterly instead of monthly; move it to a day of the week when more can attend; and perhaps add a presentation aspect to the social gathering—just to make the event more special. We’ll keep you posted!
Sutro Lecture Series
January 14th, 2010 by Woody
Sutro Library, the San Francisco branch of the California State Library, will offer a free series of evening programs on the life and times of Adolph Sutro, a man who had a great influence on the development of western San Francisco and was responsible for some of its iconic landmarks, such as the Victorian Cliff House and Sutro Baths. Learn more about this complicated former mayor of San Francisco.
The series will run on the last Thursday of each month from January through April 2010. Guest speakers from the Presidio Archaeology Lab will cover the following topics:
January 28: Adolph Sutro’s life before America, 1830-1850
February 25: The journey to San Francisco, 1850-1859
March 25: Building the Sutro Tunnel in Nevada; rare book collecting, 1869-1878
April 29: Sutro’s post-tunnel years in San Francisco, 1878-1898
Reception will begin at 7:00pm and the lectures at 7:30pm at Sutro Library, 480 Winston Drive, just west of Stonestown.
More details in this flyer or contact Sutro Library.
Visiting history friends down south
January 6th, 2010 by Woody
David Gallagher and I used our lunch break yesterday to go visit the relatively new Daly City History Museum. Last March the History Guild of Daly City/Colma moved into the attractive art deco building that used to house the Daly City Library at 6351 Mission Street.
The 27-year-old organization is still in the process of creating displays for their great new home, but there was more than enough to occupy we history dudes for an hour. Highlights included a plow from the first Daly City settler (excepting, of course, thousands of years of Native-American residency), artifacts from the old Serra movie theater, and photos, photos, photos galore.
A trio of helpful docents, including Daly City Historian Extraordinaire Bunny Gillespie were there on a weekday afternoon to greet us warmly and share interesting local lore. The museum is open every Tuesday and the first Saturday of the month from noon to 3:00pm. Go take a look!