local history

A collection of 87 posts

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Grab Bag

Grab Bag #58

A night owl reporter wanders across San Francisco in 1887.

Grab Bag

Grab Bag #57

Salty diner memories and Jack the Ink Thrower's reign of terror.

Lake Merced

Guns and Golf

A duel between two prominent California politicians took place near San Francisco's Lake Merced in 1859.

Paid-members only

Grab Bag

Grab Bag #55

Babylands, acid-scarred roses, and three formidable women on a San Francisco vacation.

Downtown

Lotta’s 150th

A birthday for San Francisco's most liked landmark.

Telegraph Hill

Telegraph Place

Having a crush on some long-gone San Francisco houses and wondering what happened to Good Children.

Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach Airfield

In the 1910s, the Christofferson brothers flew high in San Francisco before tragedies brought them down.

Paid-members only

Grab Bag

Grab Bag #54

The last house, the widest sidewalk, and the coldest winter San Francisco stories.

Ingleside

Cottages of Care

When San Francisco's Ingleside was a home to Homewood Terrace.

Octagon Houses

A Home for All

San Francisco's landmark octagon houses.

Parkside

The Parkside Village

Early 20th century boosting for a new neighborhood in San Francisco's Sunset District.

North Beach

The Beach at North Beach

San Francisco's North Beach may not have been where you thought it was.

Paid-members only

Grab Bag

Grab Bag #52

Signs of the times and San Francisco views here and gone.

Dogpatch

Old School Dogpatch

San Francisco's oldest public-school building is still doing its job.

North Beach

Beat Elegy

Death laid at the door of the Beat Generation in 1958 San Francisco.

Golden Gate Park

Grove of Memory

Memorial groves, grand and humble, here and gone, honoring San Franciscans lost in World War I.

Vigilance Committee

Return of the Vigilantes

On May 14, 1856, a public shooting catalyzed a vigilante (and political) movement in San Francisco.

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Grab Bag

Grab Bag #50

Apartments in a park, baseball in a pasture, parents in a nightclub, and one goat.

Russian Hill

Living Off the Grid

San Francisco's 1840s Laguna Survey gave the city some growing pains

Ocean Beach

Going Out

Life Saving at San Francisco's Ocean Beach

Silver Terrace

Selling Silver Terrace

Photographer Eadweard Muybridge had a job to do in southeast San Francisco in 1869.

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Grab Bag

Grab Bag #48

Woody goes artifact-hunting in San Francisco's past.

Jackson Square

International Settlement

The exotic restaurant row that was the last gasp of San Francisco's Barbary Coast.

Stern Grove

Trocadero Rebirth

San Francisco's last roadhouse is resurrected in Stern Grove.

Paid-members only

Grab Bag

Grab Bag #47

Portsmouth Square in the 1850s, old photos found, and memorializing motherhood.