Sutro Baths Movie to Debut at Balboa

October 24th, 2011 by Woody

Tom Wyrsch and Strephon Taylor, the duo who created the Remembering Playland documentary that was so successful last year, will unveil another film focused on a San Francisco amusement center at the ocean’s edge: Sutro’s: the Palace at Lands End.

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.

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Posted in Events - Other, Sutro Baths | 2 Comments »

A History-Filled Weekend

October 11th, 2011 by Woody

If you’re a glutton for old-school San Franciscans and local history, this weekend of October 15-16, 2011 is an open buffet.

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!

Posted in Events - Other, Golden Gate Park, Other Organizations, Sunset, WNP Events | 2 Comments »

Map-Based site for SF Library Historical Photos

August 25th, 2011 by Woody

The word is out about the neat project a couple have done at oldsf.org. While the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Main Library has had much of their historical photograph collection online for years, “oldsf” has scraped the data so you can view thumbnail images on a map on their site.

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.

Posted in Libraries, Other Organizations | No Comments »

New History Books Round-Up

August 24th, 2011 by Woody

Good friends of the Western Neighborhoods Project have new books out this month.

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.)

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Outside Lands, Then and Now

August 16th, 2011 by Woody



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.

Posted in Other Organizations, Sutro Baths | 2 Comments »

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