San Francisco, 1974

[J3ebrules]

I'm beginning to tackle my grandpa's photo albums and the easiest to organize into one place is his trip to San Francisco in 1974. Disclaimer: I know NOTHING about the city; I'd love to visit (apparently I did when I was 2, but don't exactly remember it). But I pulled out what I believed were his best pictures of city streets and maybe a couple of iconic landmarks.

First, meet my Grandpa, Murray Levy!

[J3ebrules]

Then, there's my Grandma, Bernice:

[J3ebrules]

A few more:

[J3ebrules]

And wrapping up with a nice shot of the skyline. Enjoy!

[sparker]

Surprisingly, from the viewpoints shown in the various pics, not a lot has changed in the ensuing 45 years (save the '70's US-made "boats" on the street, replaced by small cars & more Teslas than one would think).  Most of the developmental "action" has been along the Embarcadero and south of Market St.; since the shots didn't cover that area, what is shown has been largely preserved.  In any case, nice pics -- from the tonal quality, I'm guessing Ektachrome film was used.  Kudos to your grandfather -- he certainly had a knack for framing his shots well!

[nexus73]

"I'll take '1966 Cadillacs' for $500 Alex!".  Love seeing cars that are not appliancemobiles.  The "Dirty Harry" movies also do a good job of showing SF in the Seventies. 

Rick

[J3ebrules]

Surprisingly, from the viewpoints shown in the various pics, not a lot has changed in the ensuing 45 years (save the '70's US-made "boats" on the street, replaced by small cars & more Teslas than one would think).  Most of the developmental "action" has been along the Embarcadero and south of Market St.; since the shots didn't cover that area, what is shown has been largely preserved.  In any case, nice pics -- from the tonal quality, I'm guessing Ektachrome film was used.  Kudos to your grandfather -- he certainly had a knack for framing his shots well!

I'm surprised he had nothing from that angle, honestly - maybe he thought the Embarcadero Freeway was too ugly to be worth photographing!
Not sure what materials he used that far back, although I know he'd developed his own film since childhood. In my lifetime, he was a fan of Nikon cameras, but have no earthly idea what he used in the 70's. There are pictures of him with his camera, though, so I may someday find out when a photography nerd spots the brand.

[TheStranger]

That Standard Oil (Chevron) sign randomly on California Street near Kearny intrigues me, I'm pretty sure it was gone before I was born in the mid-80s!  Wonder what that signified (was there a service station inside that building, or a Chevron office of some sort).

The now-closed McDonald's at 575 Market Street, one of the two Standard Oil/Chevron Towers, used to have a mid-1990s mural of a Chevron station with a McDonald's attached to it.  How did I know how old the painting was?  The menu item highlighted in the McDonald's art was of the Arch Deluxe!  Sadly this space has now sat empty for about 2 or so years.

[sparker]

Surprisingly, from the viewpoints shown in the various pics, not a lot has changed in the ensuing 45 years (save the '70's US-made "boats" on the street, replaced by small cars & more Teslas than one would think).  Most of the developmental "action" has been along the Embarcadero and south of Market St.; since the shots didn't cover that area, what is shown has been largely preserved.  In any case, nice pics -- from the tonal quality, I'm guessing Ektachrome film was used.  Kudos to your grandfather -- he certainly had a knack for framing his shots well!

I'm surprised he had nothing from that angle, honestly - maybe he thought the Embarcadero Freeway was too ugly to be worth photographing!
Not sure what materials he used that far back, although I know he'd developed his own film since childhood. In my lifetime, he was a fan of Nikon cameras, but have no earthly idea what he used in the 70's. There are pictures of him with his camera, though, so I may someday find out when a photography nerd spots the brand.

In less than fully sunny weather (welcome to S.F. most of the year!), Ektachrome would yield something of a sepia tone to grays and pastel colors unless the film was "pushed" -- hence what was shown in the OP.   That's one reason Kodachrome lasted as long as it did despite the tendency to throw primary colors in your face and the fact that it had to be professionally/commercially developed.   I used to do a lot of railroad photography -- and tended to stick to black & white unless taking pics of a new paint scheme -- in which case I'd grit my teeth and break out a roll of Kodachrome just for, as Paul Simon notably mused, those "nice bright colors"!   Still, Ektachrome was best when one wanted to show the true nature of the subject, warts and all!  Switched to Fuji back in the '80's pre-digital, since even the higher grades utilized the Ekta development process (they learned from Eastman's mistakes!).       

[J3ebrules]

Interesting, Sparker!! I wish I could ask my grandpa about it!! He switched RIGHT over to color pretty abruptly at the 1970 mark - do you know if that's the year Ekta became commercially available, or affordable?

[mrsman]

That Standard Oil (Chevron) sign randomly on California Street near Kearny intrigues me, I'm pretty sure it was gone before I was born in the mid-80s!  Wonder what that signified (was there a service station inside that building, or a Chevron office of some sort).

The now-closed McDonald's at 575 Market Street, one of the two Standard Oil/Chevron Towers, used to have a mid-1990s mural of a Chevron station with a McDonald's attached to it.  How did I know how old the painting was?  The menu item highlighted in the McDonald's art was of the Arch Deluxe!  Sadly this space has now sat empty for about 2 or so years.

No way of knowing for sure, and I tried to do a quick bit of research, but given the signage, I believe that the garage may have hosted a small gas station.  It may have had only one pump, but if it sold gas, it could have a sign.

There are "indoor" gas stations in other cities.

Check out this example in NYC, 96th and West End.
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7955365,-73.9737887,3a,75y,334.85h,89.27t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4pVA17Y1MtOlCof1fAOykQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&authuser=0


Arlington, VA: 

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8962901,-77.0723591,3a,75y,261.48h,99.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6lX2amrpWcQm4yAxisgGyQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0

[sparker]

Interesting, Sparker!! I wish I could ask my grandpa about it!! He switched RIGHT over to color pretty abruptly at the 1970 mark - do you know if that's the year Ekta became commercially available, or affordable?

I think Ekta was available several years previously; I remember using it in 1968-69 when I was in my "budding photojournalist" phase -- driving up to Berkeley to take photos of the People's Park activities-cum-riots.  The school (UCR) paper only would supply Tri-X (B&W), so if I wanted to do color, I had to supply my own.  So I loaded the school Nikon with Tri-X and my own Yashica D with 120-format Ektachrome and dragged it along for the ride.  Most of the time Berkeley was overcast, so I stuck with the B&W for that; used up the color taking pictures around Santa Cruz on the way back.  Fun times for a 19-year-old college kid! 

[Northcoast707]

Dear TheStranger: I erred on my post: the Standard (Chevron) sign above the entrance to the St. Mary's parking garage was on California St. between Kearney & Grant sts., not Montgomery & Grant.

[SSR_317]

That Standard Oil (Chevron) sign randomly on California Street near Kearny intrigues me, I'm pretty sure it was gone before I was born in the mid-80s!  Wonder what that signified (was there a service station inside that building, or a Chevron office of some sort).

The now-closed McDonald's at 575 Market Street, one of the two Standard Oil/Chevron Towers, used to have a mid-1990s mural of a Chevron station with a McDonald's attached to it.  How did I know how old the painting was?  The menu item highlighted in the McDonald's art was of the Arch Deluxe!  Sadly this space has now sat empty for about 2 or so years.

I had a BigMac for breakfast at that location in October 1989 (I got there 5 minutes too late for the breakfast menu). And yes, I stayed for Loma Prieta (known to most as the World Series earthquake).

[kkt]

I miss being able to hang on to the outside of the cable cars while they moved.

[bing101]

Surprisingly, from the viewpoints shown in the various pics, not a lot has changed in the ensuing 45 years (save the '70's US-made "boats" on the street, replaced by small cars & more Teslas than one would think).  Most of the developmental "action" has been along the Embarcadero and south of Market St.; since the shots didn't cover that area, what is shown has been largely preserved.  In any case, nice pics -- from the tonal quality, I'm guessing Ektachrome film was used.  Kudos to your grandfather -- he certainly had a knack for framing his shots well!

Freewayjim has a photo of the Embarcadero and South of Market Area from the 1970's when he went through an area then known as China Basin prior to the area being renamed as Mission Bay and SOMA this is where some of the city's gentrification was  taking place prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

https://sf.curbed.com/2018/8/2/17644196/east-cut-sf-neighborhood-name-supervisors-election


Also Parts of the financial district has been renamed "East Cut" Apparently.

[heynow415]

Surprisingly, from the viewpoints shown in the various pics, not a lot has changed in the ensuing 45 years (save the '70's US-made "boats" on the street, replaced by small cars & more Teslas than one would think).  Most of the developmental "action" has been along the Embarcadero and south of Market St.; since the shots didn't cover that area, what is shown has been largely preserved.  In any case, nice pics -- from the tonal quality, I'm guessing Ektachrome film was used.  Kudos to your grandfather -- he certainly had a knack for framing his shots well!

Freewayjim has a photo of the Embarcadero and South of Market Area from the 1970's when he went through an area then known as China Basin prior to the area being renamed as Mission Bay and SOMA this is where some of the city's gentrification was  taking place prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

https://sf.curbed.com/2018/8/2/17644196/east-cut-sf-neighborhood-name-supervisors-election


Also Parts of the financial district has been renamed "East Cut" Apparently.

The Financial District is still the Financial District and is generally the area north of Market Street, including the buildings fronting Market on the south side and bounded on the north and west by Jackson Square, Chinatown and Union Square.  The East Cut, generally from Mission St. to I-80 was created from parts of Rincon Hill and South of Market (or SOMA) or South of the Slot for real old-timers.  The flap over the East Cut is that it was "cut" out of existing neighborhoods and was arguably created as a marketing ploy through real estate interests and a community benefit district.  Nevertheless, the area has changed dramatically since the 1970's.  Some buildings have been retained and reused, most notably the old Hills Brothers Coffee complex fronting the Embarcadero but the rest of it has been pretty much scraped over time and transformed from industrial and warehousing to housing, offices, and retail/foodservice (plus Moscone Center).

[bing101]

Surprisingly, from the viewpoints shown in the various pics, not a lot has changed in the ensuing 45 years (save the '70's US-made "boats" on the street, replaced by small cars & more Teslas than one would think).  Most of the developmental "action" has been along the Embarcadero and south of Market St.; since the shots didn't cover that area, what is shown has been largely preserved.  In any case, nice pics -- from the tonal quality, I'm guessing Ektachrome film was used.  Kudos to your grandfather -- he certainly had a knack for framing his shots well!

Freewayjim has a photo of the Embarcadero and South of Market Area from the 1970's when he went through an area then known as China Basin prior to the area being renamed as Mission Bay and SOMA this is where some of the city's gentrification was  taking place prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

https://sf.curbed.com/2018/8/2/17644196/east-cut-sf-neighborhood-name-supervisors-election


Also Parts of the financial district has been renamed "East Cut" Apparently.

The Financial District is still the Financial District and is generally the area north of Market Street, including the buildings fronting Market on the south side and bounded on the north and west by Jackson Square, Chinatown and Union Square.  The East Cut, generally from Mission St. to I-80 was created from parts of Rincon Hill and South of Market (or SOMA) or South of the Slot for real old-timers.  The flap over the East Cut is that it was "cut" out of existing neighborhoods and was arguably created as a marketing ploy through real estate interests and a community benefit district.  Nevertheless, the area has changed dramatically since the 1970's.  Some buildings have been retained and reused, most notably the old Hills Brothers Coffee complex fronting the Embarcadero but the rest of it has been pretty much scraped over time and transformed from industrial and warehousing to housing, offices, and retail/foodservice (plus Moscone Center).

Well when I lived in the city back in the Loma Prieta era I remember that a portion of SOMA was then industrial though the "China Basin" area though. But sometime in the 1990's when the debate to have the San Francisco Giants move to China Basin came into play then I heard of China Basin being renamed Mission Bay district for the first time though as part of the ploy to spark gentrification at the former industrial area of the city.


If you saw the photo where Freewayjim showed the 1975 picture of the North End of I-280 with the initial intention of connecting to CA-480 that is where Oracle Park and Chase Center are now located plus some VC's and startups that have operations in the city are at the now known Mission Bay. 

[don1991]

If you poke around enough on the Internet, you can find quite a few photos and even a video or two of the Embarcadero Freeway (CA-480).  I have quite a collection of photos I have saved.  Say what you want but it offered magnificent views of the city during its time.

This is the one freeway that I would have done differently (I still believe should have remained but been rebuilt as a 4-lane ground-level freeway).  The elevated double-decker roadway was quite unattractive (and I rarely find a freeway to be anything other than beautiful).  Even a narrow 4-lane freeway at ground-level might have been more acceptable at the time it was built.  Even then, it was quite the political back-and-forth before narrow approval by voters to finally tear it down.

What is harder to find is old pictures of the far northern segments of the US-101 Central Freeway (north of Octavia) before those were torn down.  There are a few floating around on the Internet though.

I also miss those last vestiges of the Embarcadero that were left around the I-80 area just before the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge.  I think those were torn out when the I-80 West Approach was rebuilt, during redevelopment of that area near Fremont, and then the rebuild of the transit depot.  The ramp from I-80 EB to Fremont is still a fun ramp.

[allniter89]

There is a channel on Dish called Buzzr. They show old game show reruns. I get a kick b/c the big prize is a car or pickup from the 1970s, like Vega or Maverick of that genre.

[kkt]

This is the one freeway that I would have done differently (I still believe should have remained but been rebuilt as a 4-lane ground-level freeway).  The elevated double-decker roadway was quite unattractive (and I rarely find a freeway to be anything other than beautiful).  Even a narrow 4-lane freeway at ground-level might have been more acceptable at the time it was built.  Even then, it was quite the political back-and-forth before narrow approval by voters to finally tear it down.

A surface freeway would also have been unacceptable.  Instead of blocking the view of the water, it would have blocked ground-level access by foot, car, truck, and bus to the waterfront.  For pedestrians, I suppose they could have built some overpasses or underpasses, but they have their own unpleasantness.  The are confined spaces where one might get mugged.  Or troublemakers might drop rocks from an overpass.  There was really no acceptable way to build a freeway next to the waterfront - and the popularity of the waterfront new that it's a wide walkway demonstrates that.

[don1991]

Does anyone know where I can find pictures or video of the following :

1)  That stub of the Embarcadero Freeway that survived the 1991 demolition - from the I-80 Bay Bridge to Fremont.  Eventually this stub was torn down / re-done as part of the major retrofit of the West Approach.

I did find this:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dennis_Hill,_Photographer_April_1998_VIEW_OF_UPPER_DECK_OFF-RAMP_AND_REMNANT_STUB_TO_DEMOLISHED_EMBARCADERO_FREEWAY,_FACING_SOUTH._-_San_Francisco_Oakland_Bay_Bridge,_HAER_CAL,38-SANFRA,141-118.tif  but any others.   I never did get to see the original freeway but I do remember that stub portion near Fremont when visiting in the 1990s.  This was before I really got into roads but I just knew it was probably part of the Embarcadero Freeway.  Would love to see a picture of it.

2)  That portion of the old Central Freeway from the curve going towards Fell / Oak to Franklin / Gough / Turk.  This was the portion that got torn down after the Loma Prieta Quake of 1989.  There are a couple of old pictures but they are small.  Would love a larger picture that perhaps shows cars on it. 

Also, any pictures of the freeway footprint after they tore that Gough / Turk section down, prior to buildings eventually taking over that footprint.

[bing101]

Here is a 30 year old video on CA-480 demolition.

I also Remember San Francisco used to have a double decker section Central Freeway too until that was torn down.   

[bing101]

Here is a Tour of CA-480.

And More on the City Pre Loma Prieta quake.

[sparker]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
That really gets the old nostalgia generator working!  My favorite SF restaurant (Hunan) was a block west of the 480 freeway touchdown (and a half-block north on Sansome), so that freeway got a lot of use from me; back around the time the video was filmed,  maybe three times a month.  Convenient, yes -- but with the high concrete rails, you couldn't see much from either deck.  So it was a conduit to North Beach -- no more, no less.  After it fell (and was bulldozed away), it took a smidgen longer to get to the area (much better after the Embarcadero was improved) -- but the view was certainly a hell of a lot better!