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Grab Bag

Grab Bag #63

Cliff-dwellers of Polk Street, more San Francisco house-moving, and our time-machine goes tiki.

Woody LaBounty

• 9 min read
Grab Bag #63
Cliff-dwellers of Polk Street, more house-moving, and our time-machine goes tiki.

As with all Woody Grab Bags, we start with...

Guess Where

guess where photo
Where and when is this in San Francisco?

This one might be only for the Guess Where experts, or maybe it’s an easy one for you. In 2026, the six-story apartment building which once had “Up-to-Date” corner market still stands tall over one- and two-story residences and… (hint) a city park.

Where is it in San Francisco? When was this photo taken? Why was this photo taken?

All answers are at the bottom of the Grab Bag, available for Friends of Woody to relish. (Friendship is within your grasp.)

Polk Street Cliff-Dwellers

“The most popular woman on Polk-street,” the San Francisco Examiner claimed in 1895, “is Mrs. Farley.” 

What made the widowed Mary Farley so alluring was the location of and access to her cottage.

In grading Lombard and Greenwich streets on the west side of Russian Hill the city created a high peninsula which stranded residents 50 to 80 feet above the thoroughfares. (Sound familiar?)

1895 illustration of Polk Street
A view south from chopped-down Lombard Street to where Polk Street was planned to be cut through. Russian Hill residents found themselves reluctant cliff dwellers. The Michael Shea residence at right. (Gordon Ross illustration, San Francisco Examiner, May 3, 1895.)

“[T]here are only two ways these cliff-dwellers can reach their homes. One is with a balloon and the other is up Mrs. Farley’s ladder and through her backyard and kitchen. The balloon service is not available at present…”