A Bohemian Tribute to John McLaren

Jamie came across it a few months back in the basement of an antiques store in Nevada City and could not believe her eyes. The signatures are a veritable who’s who of San Francisco artists, photographers, architects, businessmen and politicians of the early 1930s, including Mayor Angelo Rossi, photographer Gabriel Moulin, Marshall Hale, Herbert Fleishhacker, architect Timothy Pflueger and a host of googleable names. Many of these Bohemian Club artists had a part in designing and building the Golden Gate International Exhibition on Treasure Island in 1939.

The real prize of the piece is the original artwork by Jo Mora, renowned California artist and Illustrator. The banner is a tribute to McLaren’s work turning over 1,000 acres of rolling sand dunes into the Golden Gate Park we know today (or that we knew in 1934). A likeness of McLaren is flanked by two views of Golden Gate Park (sand dunes and a forlorn squirrel on the left, a bright flowerbed on the right). McLaren’s Scottish heritage is acknowledged with a thistle alongside a California poppy, and a line of dancing owls (a Bohemian Club animal motif) in kilts.
 

Jo Mora Artwork

Stored in a dank basement, the piece has some water damage, but thanks to Jamie and her excellent eye for history, it will survive. Jamie is a member of the Western Neighborhoods Project’s board of directors, works closely with The Guardians of the City organization, and is one of the prime organizers of Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic.  Her plan is to get it reframed, restored, and to research all the names. Hopefully, at some point, we’ll get her to let us display it to the public somewhere.

WNP board member Jamie O'Keefe

]]> http://inside.outsidelands.org/2012/02/06/amazing-historical-tribute-to-john-mclaren-discovered/feed/ 0 http://inside.outsidelands.org/2011/12/31/san-francisco-in-1955/ http://inside.outsidelands.org/2011/12/31/san-francisco-in-1955/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:32:55 +0000 Woody http://inside.outsidelands.org/?p=848

At his Lost Landscapes 6 show at the Castro Theater earlier this month, our friend Rick Prelinger showed parts of this 20-minute travelogue-style movie on San Francisco from 1955. The cinematographer, Tullio Pellegrini, was an amateur with very professional skills as an editor. (His narrative is a bit heavy on the “biggest” and destinations being “meccas,” but most of his facts are right.)

This is already rocketing around the local history community, and everyone has a favorite part. Playland’s Big Dipper? Monkey Island? The rustic bridges of Golden Gate Park? Those beautiful, beautiful cars everywhere? Sit back and enjoy:

http://www.archive.org/details/SanFrancisco1955CinemascopeFilm

This week someone sent us the following:

hi just a curious question here. what was located where blockbuster/walgreen’s/domino’s/ross is on geary street — between 16th and 17th? i go by there all the time, and it really looks out of place! what was there before? when did that “strip mall” go up? I thought maybe you might have some insight. I’ve looked at all the old photos of that area, but none seem to catch that exact block. anyway, just curious! thanks mike

Here’s where we looked and what we found:

The San Francisco Assessor’s Office tells us that the building went up in 1966 through the SFParcel Viewer (which will soon be replaced by San Francisco Property Information Map) A caveat: Pre-1906 buildings will often not have an accurate date.

SFParcel Viewer: http://gispub02.sfgov.org/website/sfparcel/INDEX.htm

San Francisco Property Information Map: http://ec2-50-17-237-182.compute-1.amazonaws.com/PIM/

Then we checked the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps available (with a library card) at the San Francisco Public Library’s eLibrary system, where we found this: apartment buildings taking up the entire end of the lot.

Sanborn Maps California:  http://ezproxy.sfpl.org/login?url=http://sanborn.umi.com

Then we consulted the 1938 Aerial views of San Francisco, another great collection by the SF Public Library, digitized and hosted by the David Rumsey Map Collection.

1938 San Francisco Aerial Views

Then it was on to the Jesse Brown Cook Collection from the Bancroft Library through the Online Archive of California (Jesse Cook was a police officer and later SF Police Chief who took thousands of photo of city streets from 1895 to 1936). There we found a view of our apartments from the street.

East on Geary St. from 17th Ave. March 1928 Jesse B Cook Collection, Bancroft Library

We’ll usually check both of our own maps to see if anything comes up there.
All WNP Articles and Images: http://www.outsidelands.org/maps

1951 West Side Assessor’s Department Images: http://www.outsidelands.org/maps/photo_locations.php

And that’s it! We answered Mike’s questions with just a few minutes of online research. We’re sure there’s more to the story of the Geary Boulevard mall (some of us remember it as “Value Giant” and “Giant Value!”), but hopefully we’ve gotten him on his way. Maybe he’ll even decide to join as a member..?

Attendees will have the opportunity to step inside the former movie palace at 1970 Ocean Avenue and view the design of a master architect of the art deco style. Therese Poletti, author of “Art Deco San Francisco: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger,” will speak about Pflueger and his architectural design of the El Rey Theater. Following the talk will be a screening of “The Smiling Lieutenant” starring Maurice Chevalier, the first film shown in the theater. There will be refreshments and musical entertainment by students from neighborhood schools.

The money raised will support the effort to restore the Geneva Car Barn & Powerhouse for use as arts-related job training for underserved youth.

Doors will open at 7:00 p.m., film at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets

More info at http://www.elrey80th.com

Opening at the Balboa Theater on November 4, 2011 for a one-week run, this full-length documentary film is about Adolph Sutro’s privately-owned swimming and museum complex built in the late 19th century.

Once the world’s largest swimming pool establishment, Sutro Baths switched to ice skating before burning down in 1966. The ruins remain today. Journey back in time to revisit Sutro Baths when it was in full operation. See: The Seven Pools, Sutro Railway, Merry Way, Sutro’s Cliff House, Ice Skating Rink, Egyptian Mummy Museum, Tom Thumb Exhibit, Musee Mecanique, Torture Museum, Lord’s Last Supper, Ito, Giggling Ghost, 1963 & 1966 Fires, Sutro Ruins, and much, much more. A nostalgic trip back in time told by historians and the people that were there through interviews, film footage, and hundreds of photographs.

More info at the film’s official Web site, and the Balboa Theater’s site.

Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic begins bright and early Saturday morning at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Free to the roving spectator, this vintage (pre-1980! How old am I?!) car show has raised money for organizations serving the Developmentally Disabled for 23 years. If you want to show off your cherry 1979 Volkswagen Vanagon, there’s a $40 fee. Lots of local folk with BBQ, swapping memories of drag racing on the Great Highway. (Here’s a short video to whet your appetite.)

The Kelly’s Cove Reunion is that afternoon and evening. The annual event is a gathering of surfers and other salt-water lovers who have enjoyed the Aloha spirit on the northernmost stretch of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach over the past thirty, forty, even fifty years. According to longtime Kelly’s Cove denizens, board surfing started on Ocean Beach after World War II, even if Old Man Kelly himself wasn’t strictly a surfer.

Sunday brings the Inner Sunset Street Fair. WNP will have a table and about 6:30 p.m. we’ll do a historical slide show/movie presentation right in the middle of Irving Street near 10th Avenue. Get your blood sugar up, hydrate, sleep well, and come on out for some history!

No more searching for “18th Avenue” then “19th Avenue,” etc. Just click on the arrows in an area. And you can narrow your options by date. Very neat. Check it out.

Transit historian Grant Ute has coauthored with Walter Vielbaum, Robert Townley, and the late Philip Hoffman and Cameron Beach (the transit guys are very collaborative) to produce San Francisco’s Municipal Railway: Muni. A large-format 144-page book from Arcadia Publishing, this photo-history comes out in time for Muni’s 2012 Centennial and covers the railway’s development to date. If you can, I recommend you buy it at the one of my favorite places, the Market Street Railway Museum at 77 Steuart Street near the Ferry Building.

Also out in August is Theatres of the San Francisco Peninsula by Jack Tillmany and Gary Lee Parks. We usually try to keep our focus on San Francisco history, west side in particular, but I can never resist images of local theaters. There’s something about the vanishing movie house that cranks up my nostaligia endorphins. (Jack, for all his knowledge and love of theaters is far less sappy than I. Perhaps because he’s managed theaters.)

Photographer Don Ross did something we think is pretty cool. For years we’ve made use of a photo album/report that real estate man A.S. Baldwin created in 1910 as part of an appraisal of the land holdings of Adolph Sutro’s estate. A few copies of the book, with photos of Sutro Baths, Richmond District sand dunes, and a country road that turned into Sunnyside’s Monterey Boulevard, are held by local libraries. We’ve taken some crude photos of Baldwin’s shots for various projects and our Web site.

Mr. Ross has made high-quality copies and returned to the vantage points of the century-old views to photograph the modern landscape. Who can resist a good Then/Now? The photos are on display at the Rayko Photo Center, 428 Third Street, San Francisco, until September 15. (Hours and Location)Mr. Ross also created a book on this project that’s for sale.