San Francisco (1911)

Show Stroly map

The Herbst Theater is where the United Nations was born in 1945. Almost a century earlier, San Francisco's most famous colorful character came up with almost the exact same idea as a way to end wars. The self-proclaimed Emperor Norton, a man who in the 1800s printed his own money and wrote his own laws, made it a crime to call the city anything other than its full name (the prejudice against calling the city "San Fran" or "Fricso" exists to this day). Like the best of the San Francisco characters, residents adopted him as their own. Born Joshua Abraham Norton in England, he came to San Francisco at the height of the Gold Rush from South Africa, where he lived with his well-to-do parents. Soon thereafter, something changed in him and he declared himself the Emperor of the United States and Protectorate of Mexico. Norton is proof that if you act like something is a fact for long enough, people will start to play along. His uniform was donated by the army post at what's now Presidio Park. Bars and hotels accepted his self-printed money as legal tender. Norton inspected his empire every morning and by all accounts was a charming, friendly man and a good listener with a good heart. On one occasion, he used his standing to step in front of a group of anti-Chinese demonstrators who were about to take out their anger on a group of Chinese immigrants. Norton, although maybe a little out of joint by some standards, was ahead of his time in many ways. One of his decrees was to build a bridge between Oakland and San Francisco (there is occasionally talk of renaming the Bay Bridge the Emperor Norton Bridge). He also decreed that scientists spend time researching how to build machines that fly, called for a "universal religion" that he hoped would end religious wars. And, of course, called for the creation of what we now call the United Nations. Norton died on January 8, 1880, on the corner of California and Grant Streets. The San Francisco Chronicle proclaimed in a headline banner: "Le Roi Est Mort," the king is dead. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 San Franciscans paid their respects. The day after his funeral there was a total solar eclipse, and people were convinced it was a sign of Norton's passing.

Show Stroly map

Sam Brannan: A Mormon entrepreneur who liked his drink and was a proponent of free love before the phrase existed. Brannan convinced 230 Mormons to come with him from the East Coast; the group arrived here in 1846 (when the town was still called Yerba Buena, though it was renamed to San Francisco the next year) and tripled the population. Brannan and his followers laid down the infrastructure -- by constructing buildings and opening stores -- that the Gold Rush took off on. According to legend, after visiting a gold mine near Sacramento he returned to San Francisco, bought every shovel he could find, and ran through the streets shouting that there was gold for the taking in the nearby hills; he then resold the shovels at outrageous prices. Brannan was excommunicated because he kept his followers' tithes for himself and his projects. When representatives from the Mormon Church in Utah asked for the money, Brannan infamously said, "You go back and tell Brigham Young that I’ll give up the Lord’s money when he sends me a receipt signed by the Lord."

Show Stroly map

The first home to be built in San Francisco was at 827 Grant Avenue. It was owned by William A. Richardson, a former British sailor who worked as a middleman between the seamen and land owners. The original house is long gone, but a plaque has been placed on the wall that reads "The birthplace of a great city, here, June 25, 1835, William A. Richardson, founder of Yerba Buena (later San Francisco), erected its first habitation..."

Show Stroly map

Literary icon Herb Caen wrote impish observation and commentary on his favorite city, "Baghdad by the Bay," a phrase that for him had connotations of otherworldliness and the apex of a civilization. Caen said that it was no surprise he fell in love with San Francisco. He claims his parents conceived him during the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition world's fair -- the domed Palace of Fine Arts building was built especially for the occasion. The list of Caen's quotable lines about the city that first appeared in his long-running San Francisco Chronicle column are long; in addition to the "Baghdad by the Bay" moniker, he popularized the term "beatnik" in 1958 after overhearing it at a literary hangout. A three-mile stretch of the Embarcadero was renamed Herb Caen Way... in 1996, with the signature ellipses at the end of the name. It was going to be called Herb Caen Promenade, but Caen, a francophile who first visited Paris during his time in the military in World War II, said "promenade" sounded too French, "like something you spread on toast."

Show Stroly map

Charlie Chaplin dining at San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel City Lights was ground zero for the nascent West Coast Beat movement, serving as publishing house, hangout spot, and reading space. It is still the matriarch of independent bookstores in San Francisco. City Lights was the country's first all-paperback bookstore, and is named after the Charlie Chaplin movie. Legend has it that Chaplin created the hapless everyman character while he was in San Francisco. Apparently, the silent movie star perfected the loveable tramp after spending some time with one of the city's down and out residents. Although the location varies, legend has it that Charlie Chaplin entered a Chaplin look-alike contest in an old San Francisco theater. He lost, and apparently he bitterly complained that none of the contestants did his trademark walk correctly.

Show Stroly map

In the 1800's a ferry service connected the tip of San Francisco to Marin County. After decades of debate about the feasability of a bridge here, the 1.7-mile Golden Gate Bridge opened on May 27, 1937. The name of the bridge doesn't come from its color, but because the Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. In any case, the bridge is not golden, but "international orange." Bridge authorities say that if the Navy had their way, the bridge would have been painted black with yellow stripes to make it visible to passing ships. Somehow, we think it might not have become the icon of San Francisco if the bridge looked like a bumble bee. Ironically, the bridge that has become the biggest suicide magnet in the world has an impressive safety record. Eleven men died during its four-year construction, 11 men too many, but that was a feat during that time. Safety nets saved many a man from falling to his death, and hard hats were used. As a matter of fact, hard hats became de rigueur in the construction world thanks to the safety record of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Show Stroly map

Any member of the public brave enough to swim the cold waters is allowed in Aquatic Park, though many of the swimmers there are members of the nonprofit, open-to-all Dolphin Club, established in 1877. Dolphin Club members can be distinguished by their swimsuit-only attire--"Dolphins never use wetsuits or wear fins," the club proclaims. A line of buoys in the water is one-quarter-of-a-mile long, and a member in good standing who swims at least 40 miles between December 21 and March 21 qualifies as a Dolphin Club Polar Bear. The club also organizes the yearly Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. Swimmers jump off a boat at Alcatraz Island and swim to Aquatic Park; from there, a 14-mile bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Marin County is topped off by a 13-mile run. The members-only event culminates in a celebration dinner--anyone who crosses the finish line gets an Escape from Alcatraz triathlon belt buckle. The buckle's not exactly pretty, but neither are most participants by the end of the race.

Show Stroly map

One of the city's most popular baseball legends is SF-born Lefty O'Doul and the sports bar named after him is an unofficial museum of San Francisco baseball history. O'Doul played for a number of teams, including the San Francisco Giants, during the 1920s and 1930s. He also managed the San Francisco Seals baseball team for a time, and was a goodwill baseball ambassador to Japan. He loved the ardent baseball fans in the Land of the Rising Sun, and they loved him in return--he's known there as Japan's Father of Baseball. O'Doul was deeply troubled by the December 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but returned throughout his life to Tokyo, where he suggested the name of Japan's first professional team be changed to the "Tokyo Giants," which it was. O'Doul did many good deeds for the war-torn citizens and the sport of baseball in Japan. Ironically, he died on December 7, 1969, exactly 28 years after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Show Stroly map

Visitors to Lake Merced--really a group of four interconnected lakes in the southwest corner of the city--might notice two small granite posts and a nearby plaque referring to a famous duel. On September 13, 1859, U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and David S. Terry, formerly Associate Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, dueled over the issue of slavery; Broderick was shot and died three days later. The Terry-Broderick duel is often referred to as the duel that ended dueling in California. The American Civil War started two years later, and the pro-slavery Terry fought for the losing side. In 1889, Terry, famous for his bad temper, attacked a judge (and former friend) at a train station in Stockton, California. It seems the judge had ruled against Terry in a bizarre case that looked like a scheme to cash in on a silver baron's fortune. As it turns out, this judge had a bodyguard, a former federal marshal, who handily shot Terry dead. The bodyguard, ironically, was from Tombstone, Arizona. These days, Lake Merced is the best place in the city for bird-watching, and also has hiking and biking trails, a fishing pier with boat rentals, an 18-hole golf course, and, appropriately enough, a gun club with a skeet and trap range.

Show Stroly map

The two-level San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is not nearly as scenic as the Golden Gate Bridge, but does have its charms--each level is dedicated to oneway traffic, and the view from the top deck coming into San Francisco, especially at night, is well worth the toll collected in Oakland for west-bound traffic. There has been talk for quite awhile to rename the Bay Bridge the Emperor Norton Bridge, in honor of the city's most colorful of colorful characters. The natural resource in San Francisco is definitely its people, and Emperor Norton, the man behind the "don't call it Frisco" fetish in this city, was one of the richest, in his self-minted currency and personality, at least. He declared himself "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico," and made it illegal to call the city "Frisco," among other things. Who would have thought that the two-level bridge that's pleasant at a distance but nothing special up close could have so much character?

Show Stroly map

Redwood Park is one of the best places to see John Muir's beloved redwoods. These 80 trees were transported here from Santa Cruz in 1972. Note the plaque to the dogs of Emperor Norton (the city's first and still most famous character), Bummer and Lazarus. Muir, naturalist extraordinaire, co-founded the Sierra Club (http://www.sierraclub.org) in San Francisco in 1892. Muir was also an early champion of Yosemite (http://www.nps.gov/yose). Muir had long been enchanted with Yosemite through reading about it and had set off for the majestic mountains soon after arriving in San Francisco in 1868. He was planning on heading to the Amazon to study botany, but had what can only be described as a spiritual experience at Yosemite. Muir was ahead of his time in many ways -- his theories on how vast glaciers carved up Yosemite Valley were later found to be accurate. He also contributed greatly to the modern concept of an ecosystem, observing that everything in nature is interconnected and that changing one minor part of the landscape can ripple into unforeseen catastrophes. Muir wasn't just an observer of nature, but a protector of it as well--he's largely responsible for giving Yosemite national park status and is credited with making the US national park system what it is today. Muir and President Theodore Roosevelt spent a few days tramping around Yosemite largely on their own, and Muir was able to convince the outdoorsman president of federal oversight for national treasures.

Show Stroly map

A venue with a fantastic view, the Randall Museum is the place to go for nature and science lovers – it’s geared mainly to kids, but adults with an unhealthy fascination with Mother Nature’s tectonic writhing might enjoy the seismometer in the museum’s lobby that records local tremblers. Jumping up and down on the floor will register on the seismograph, and a full-sized replica of an earthquake cottage, typical of shelters which displaced residents constructed all over San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, is also on the grounds. Permanent areas of the experiential museum include a live animal exhibit, woodshop, arts and ceramics studios, theater, darkroom, lapidary workshop, greenhouse, and gardens. See more here ( http://randallmuseum.org ).

Show Stroly map

San Francisco has 42 hills ranging from 200 to 938 feet. Mt. Davidson is the highest point in the city, and is set in the geographic center of the town, topped by the tallest cross in the United States. When it was originally purchased by Adolf Sutro in 1881 it was called Blue Mountain, but he renamed it after a founding member of the Sierra Club--an organization pioneered by John Muir. Even though Mt. Davidson is a city-owned park, the area surrounding the cross is technically private property. In 1997, the city sold a portion of the park to an Armenian religious group as a result of legal pressure. A number of atheist and religious groups had accused the city of using tax dollars to maintain a religious symbol. Clint Eastwood fans will recognize the large concrete cross from its appearance in "Dirty Harry."

Show Stroly map

Since its opening in 1886, Fior d'Italia (http://www.fior.com) has survived several earthquakes and fires, and even changed locations a few times. It’s the oldest Italian restaurant in the city and although the food hasn't changed much, the clientele certainly has. At their first location, here, the staff served meals for clients of a bordello next door. Nowadays, you'll see sports figures (in photos, or in person) like Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia. The restaurant can now be found at 2237 Mason Street.

Show Stroly map

P. Allarme and A. B. Blanco opened San Francisco's first French restaurant, Le Poulet d'Or, meaning "Gold Chicken"; it was nicknamed the "Poodle Dog" by gold diggers because the French name was too difficult to pronounce. The owners were two Frenchmen who were asked to move to San Francisco, as many others would, to improve the quality of food in restaurants here. Le Poulet d'Or, which stood at 445 Bush Street, was the best dinner in town you could get for a dollar until it burned down in the 1906 fire.

Show Stroly map

Established in 1849, Boudin Bakery (http://www.boudinbakery.com) is the oldest business in town; Isidore Boudin, the French immigrant who started the company, can thank his wife for that. During the 1906 earthquake and fire, as their bakery was burning down, Louise Boudin was able to quickly grab a bucket of dough and save the business. The sourdough bread sold today is still made with the 1849 "mother dough," a starter dough made of flour, water, and yeast that keeps expanding. The Bay Area is home to a unique bacteria called lactobacillus San Francisco; when mixed with yeast, called candida milleri, it becomes the "mother dough." Although Boudin didn't come up with the recipe-it came from local mining families- he did bring his French-style baking skills and made the bakery one of the most successful in town.

Show Stroly map

In 1849, three Croatian immigrants set up a canvas coffee stand on the waterfront. The coffee joint turned into the first restaurant in town, Tadich Grill (http://www.tadichgrill.com). Now in this location, the restaurant is still one of the only places where you can sit in curtained booths. It also serves more seafood and cocktails than coffee these days.

Show Stroly map

In 1850, entrepreneur William Bovee opened the city's first coffee-roasting plant, the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills. One of his early employees was J.A. Folger. In 1865, Folger bought out Bovee and changed the name to J.A. Folger & Co.

Show Stroly map

In 1878, brothers Austin and Reuben Hills opened a small dairy stall at Bay City Market, where the United Nations Plaza stands now, and a few years later, they purchased Arabian Coffee & Spice, which became Hills Brothers Coffee.

Show Stroly map

In 1899 a company by the name of Freed, Teller & Freed (http://www.freedscoffeetea.com) began selling coffees and teas downtown. Although the company's Polk Street store has closed, it still roasts its own beans and sells them online. We heard that if you peeked in its database, you'd still find the special blends made for Tina Turner and Harvey Milk.

Show Stroly map

Rumor has it that the fish stew known as Cioppino was invented at Fisherman's Wharf in 1900. Fishermen who wanted to eat fish stew once they returned from a hard day out at sea would contribute or "chip in" fish for the meal and cook it in a communal pot. The name is said to have come from "chip-in-o" which, over time, became Cioppino.

Show Stroly map

Oysters Kirkpatrick were first baked at The Palace Hotel (http://www.sfpalace.com) by Chef Ernest Arbogast in 1900. These oysters, dipped in a mix of ketchup and butter, covered with bacon and some Parmesan cheese and then baked, were named after the hotel manager, Colonel John C. Kirkpatrick.

Show Stroly map

Union Square's Westin St. Francis Hotel's (http://www.westinstfrancis.com) claim to food fame is the Celery Victor; celery stalks boiled in chicken, veal, and vegetable stock and topped with salt, black pepper, chervil, tarragon vinegar, and olive oil. It was invented by chef Victor Hertler in 1910.

Show Stroly map

This peace-loving city has a dark side, and nobody captured it better than the pioneering author of hard-boiled detective fiction Dashiell Hammett. There's a plaque in this downtown alley that marks the death of a fictional character in one of the Sam Spade books -- don't read the plaque before you finish The Maltese Falcon is all we can say. The hard-drinking, fast-living Hammett worked for a detective agency in the city before giving up the gumshoe life for health reasons -- one of his last cases was trying to find evidence to bolster the defense in the Fatty Arbuckle rape and murder case after a tragic night at the nearby St. Francis Hotel.

Show Stroly map

Fans of hard-boiled author Dashiell Hammett can grab chops, a baked potato, and sliced tomatoes at John's Grill where Sam Spade had a quick meal in The Maltese Falcon. Today, John's Grill is a fine dining establishment where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Olympia Dukakis (star of the TV version of Tales of the City, a campy but classic portrait of a changing modern San Francisco) are known to sup.

Show Stroly map

Once the site of Platt's Music Hall, Ambrose Bierce of Devil's Dictionary fame saw the flamboyant Oscar Wilde speak here on aesthetics and literature. Bierce wrote: "His lecture is mere verbal ditchwater -- meaningless, trite and without coherence. It lacks even the nastiness that exalts and refines his verse." Bierce earned the title "Wickedest Man in San Francisco" during his time here. He headed a number of San Francisco newspapers and wrote many short stories, "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" being the most famous one. He and Mark Twain were friends, at one time working at the same newspaper on the Montgomery Block. Bierce exited his life as he lived it; with flair. His disappearance at the age of 71, in the heart of Mexico, is dramatized in The Old Gringo, by Carlos Fuentes, and then adapted into a film starring Gregory Peck as Bierce.

Show Stroly map

Jack London was born in San Francisco and grew up in Oakland. The plaque at his birthplace reads: "To mark the birthplace of the noted author. Jack London - January 12, 1876. The original home on this site, then known as 615 Third St was destroyed in the fire of April, 18, 1906." London lived a hardscrabble existence until he catapulted to fame and became the highest-paid writer of his time. Although London is best known for his adventure novels, his portrait of his own lifelong love affair with alcohol in John Barleycorn greatly impressed fellow California resident Upton Sinclair, who highly praised the book.

Show Stroly map

The Victoria Theatre was built in 1908 as a vaudeville house, and in its time has seen everyone from Mae West to Whoopi Goldberg walk its boards. The oldest theater in San Francisco still in use today, during its long life it has housed a Spanish language cinema and a burlesque club. Now, the venue hosts everything from independent film to comedy to performance art and plays.

Show Stroly map

Unlike the mural at New York's Rockefeller Center that was destroyed because it included a portrait of Lenin, Diego Rivera's three murals in San Francisco (one in what was then the Stock Exchange for the West Coast and caused a huge stir) are still around today. The stock exchange is now the members-only City Club but is still home to Rivera's first U.S. mural, "Allegory of California." For residents who want to see the mural, the City Club is often a special events venue. Anyone willing to pony up for some chi-chi cocktails will not only get to see Diego's large, stunning mural, but will be hobnobbing in one of the most well preserved Art Deco spaces in San Francisco.

Show Stroly map

In the Barbary Coast days of the late 19th century, entertainers had to earn their way to the top the hard way. Oofty Goofty knew this fact when he willingly covered himself in tar and horse hair and stood in a cage on Market Street to entertain passersby. For a week, he was the talk of the town but, he had to stop the show when, unable to sweat under the tar, he was rushed to the hospital. Goofty later found a job as a dancer and singer in a local bar where, after performing one act, he was kicked and thrown out of the bar. Landing on the sidewalk, the comedian realized that he felt no pain. And so he found his next act. For the next 15 years, Oofty Goofty walked around town carrying a baseball bat and charged people 25 cents to hit him with it. Goofty may have carried on longer if boxing champion John L. Sullivan hadn't hit him as hard as he could on the back with a pool cue. Oofty Goofty never fully recovered and his career ended quickly.

Show Stroly map

We don't want to claim that everything started in San Francisco, but it just so happens that while experiments on radio prototypes were being done on the East Coast, San Francisco had its own radio genius. Francis J. McCarty started testing his "wireless telephone" in 1903 and was able to show his invention to the press in 1905. He set up the apparatus at the Cliff House while reporters stood a mile down the beach and listened to McCarty singing into his wireless telephone. The experiment got him the attention he wanted and he was soon giving lectures and demonstrations all over the city. Unfortunately, McCarty's life was cut short in 1906 on his way home from work. When the streetcar he was riding in had to stop suddenly to avoid a pedestrian, McCarty was thrown out and is said to have crashed, ironically, into a telephone pole.

Show Stroly map

San Francisco's oldest and grandest nightclub opened in 1907. The club has quite a rocky past; it served as a restaurant/bordello named the Music Box from the early 1900s to the dark day of the Great Depression. During the 1950s, the club was taken over by members of the Moose Lodge, a fraternal social organization. Eventually, the building fell into ill-repair, and was set for demolition. A last-minute reprieve saved it from being destroyed, and it reopened in 1972. Over the decades many famous acts have graced the hall with their presence including Duke Ellington, Van Morrison, Sarah Vaughn, and the Grateful Dead. The Hall still hosts a wide variety of acts each week.

Show Stroly map

In his early twenties, William Randolph Hearst took over his father's newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, and made it a financial success by sensationalizing the paper's front pages and introducing banner headlines and lavish illustrations. Hearst’s technique was inspired by Joseph Pulitzer and became known as "yellow journalism." Hearst is also believed by many to have initiated the Spanish-American War of 1898 in order to boost newspaper sales. When illustrator Frederic Remington asked him if he could return from Havana since not much was happening there, Hearst told him "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

Show Stroly map

In 1853, a Bavarian immigrant by the name of Loeb Strauss became a US citizen and opened a dry-goods business in San Francisco. Nicknamed Levi, the man and his family ran a successful business. In 1873, a Nevada tailor and customer of Levi, Jacob Davis, wrote him a letter to ask for help in paying for a patent. Davis wrote "the secratt of them Pants is the Rivits that I put in those Pockots and I found the demand so large that I cannot make them fast enough.... My nabors are getting yealouse of these success and unless I secure it by Patent Papers it will soon become to be a general thing everybody will make them up and thare will be no money in it. tharefor Gentlemen I wish to make you a Proposition that you should take out the Latters Patent in my name as I am the Inventor of it, the expense of it will be about $68, all complit and for these $68 I will give you half the right to sell all such Clothing Revited according to the Patent..." Knowing a good idea when he saw one, Strauss accepted, and the two went on to make a fortune selling their riveted pants to miners. Levi's Jeans became the world's most famous jeans brand, a favorite of cowboys in Western movies, gay men in the Castro, and hipsters alike. Rivets were first used on 501 jeans in 1873 because miners complained that their pockets ripped under the weight of ore samples. The early jeans had rivets on the front and back pockets. Rear rivets were covered beginning in 1937 because of complaints that the rivets scratched school desk chairs and saddles. Since 1967, reinforced stitching has replaced the back pocket rivets. Strauss's dry-goods business was located at 90 Sacramento Street. Now, the flagship store is at 300 Post Street. (http://us.levi.com/home/index.jsp)

Show Stroly map

Starting as a makeshift store on his boat, Frenchman Felix Verdier realized that selling luxury items brought over from France was a lucrative business in the 1850s. He quickly expanded his business, building the City of Paris department store, where the Neiman Marcus building now stands. The store lasted until 1970. Although most of the former building was torn down in 1981 to make room for the new store, Neiman Marcus agreed to retain a four-story rotunda which now houses the Rotunda Restaurant (http://www.neimanmarcus.com). The rotunda's dome was temporarily taken down and sent to Massachusetts, where glass artisans cleaned and restored each of the 26,000 pieces.

Show Stroly map

The San Francisco Cable Car Museum exhibit space overlooks the huge engines and winding wheels that pull the cables. Downstairs is a viewing area of the large sheaves and cable line entering the building through the channel under the street. There are also historical displays on San Francisco's cable cars, as well as actual cable cars that operated in 19th-century San Francisco, including one that ran on the original Clay Street Hill Cable Railroad.

Show Stroly map

Invented by an English immigrant who witnessed a gory horse-car accident, cable cars are synonymous with the city, and tourists and locals alike hang off of these historic contraptions at all hours. Andrew Smith Hallidie's father was an inventor who had a patent in Great Britain for "wire rope" cable, and the junior Hallidie came to San Francisco in 1852, during the Gold Rush. Hallidie's story is typically Californian. He spent much time trying to make a name for himself without much luck--a failed restaurant, career as a gold miner, and a couple of disagreements that almost cost him his life rank on the short-list of near misses--but finally hit it big once he stopped going on half-baked adventures and applied himself. He saw passengers on the Clay Street Hill Railroad riding his invention on August 1, 1873. The plaza near the Powell Street Station, next to one of the three remaining cable car lines, now bears his name.

Show Stroly map

Check out the plaque located on the southwest corner of Bush and Octavia Streets. It commemorates the house of slave-born Mary Ellen Pleasant, who made and lost a fortune, challenged the powerful, and was either vilified or loved by the public. At the end of her life, there were rumors of strange happenings at her house; of the secret orgy kind. She's known as the Mother of Civil Rights in California because she won a lawsuit that allowed black people to ride the streetcars of San Francisco. She also established the Western terminus of the Underground Railroad, the loose network of abolitionists who helped slaves escape to free states.

Show Stroly map

Grant Avenue, formerly known as, Calle De La Fundacion, was the first named road in San Francisco. At that time, the city was called Yerba Buena, after a plant that grew in the area.

Show Stroly map

Keen-eyed travelers might notice that at some intersections of San Francisco, there are circles outlined in brick. According the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD), in 1909 city officials wisely decided that there would always be enough water to fight fires. Due to the Great Quake of 1906 and the fires that started because of broken gas lines, fire fighters were forced to scrounge sewer water to try to stop the blazes. These circles at 100-plus intersections mark underground cisterns, most with a 75,000 gallon capacity. The Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS) is fed from a ten million gallon reservoir on top of Twin Peaks, along with some subsidiary tanks. Pumping stations and SFFD fire boats can suck water from the Bay into the AWSS in emergencies. One station is at the foot of Van Ness Avenue, the other at 2nd and Townsend Streets, the location of the SFFD Headquarters. All AWSS hydrants have caps that are painted green.

Show Stroly map

For a friendly ghost encounter, book room 410 at the Queen Anne Hotel. Formerly Ms. Mary Lake's School For Girls, the room is said to be haunted by the school's namesake. Lake was the daughter of James Fair, patriarch of the Fairmont Hotel family, silver baron, and U.S. senator. When they rent you 410, they don’t tell you this room is haunted. Why should they? What’s the worst that’s going to happen? You might get tucked in under a cozy blanket,” says Jim Fasbinder during his Ghost Hunt (http://www.sfghosthunt.com) tour.

Show Stroly map

The Cliff House--a structure anchored on a cliff that hangs over the Pacific Ocean--still houses the only original-location camera obscura (a giant camera) in the country. The restaurant here is all that's left of what was once a popular amusement park complex, which included Playland at the Beach, the Sutro Baths, and the Musee Mecanique. Sutro Baths and the Cliff House were built by Adolph Sutro, the first Jewish mayor of San Francisco. Complete with fountains, gardens, sculptures, and historical pieces from around the world, these "Tropical Winter Gardens" featured 100,000 feet of stained glass covering more than three acres of sculpted pools filled with fresh and salt water. But the success of the baths was short-lived and only ruins remain. Sutro also gave his name to the Sutro Tower TV antenna overlooking the city.

Show Stroly map

The Richmond is the "real Chinatown" where many of the newer Asian immigrants live, but the neighborhood was the final resting place for many San Franciscans until 1901, when housing pressures forced officials to uproot the dead to make more room for the living. When the bodies were moved, it caused a lot of upset -- for both the living and the dead, some say. The Richmond's residents--long-term would be a good way to describe them--were taken south of the city, to Colma. A law prohibiting cremations, and another prohibiting burials within the city were passed; the Columbarium, built in 1898, was closed. In 1980, the Neptune Society purchased the building and started renovations. Now, the Columbarium houses the cremains of many national celebrities, like the Wells Fargo family and the Folgers coffee family, and was the first to accept AIDS victims in the 1980s.

Show Stroly map

Built in 1915 of wood and plaster for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the site features a classical Roman rotunda with curved colonnades in a quiet park setting.

Show Stroly map

The Bison Paddock which was created after the city began a breeding program in the late 1800s to try to save the continent's largest land mammal, the American Buffalo, from extinction.

Show Stroly map

One of the most visited areas of the park is the Japanese Tea Garden and tea house, where Makoto Hagiwara invented the fortune cookie served with tea at the house starting in 1914. The tea garden was closed for a time starting in in 1942 when the Hagiwara family was sent to an internment camp.

Show Stroly map

Three miles long and a half-mile wide, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco's biggest open space, was once a barren area full of sand dunes, the park was built in 1870 (designed by William Hammond Hall) to give residents a place to get away from the bustle of city life. Golden Gate Park is larger than Central Park; it's also been said that, as a result of John McLaren's (Halls successor) correspondence with botanists and gardeners, the park has trees from every country in the world with only one exception: Bolivia (sometimes you don't get everything you want). Today, the park is famous for homeless encampments, the AIDS Memorial Grove (http://www.aidsmemorial.org), and the Gathering of the Tribes: a Human Be-In concert on the Polo Grounds in 1967 that gelled the Flower Power movement.

Show Stroly map

Opium dens may be a thing of the past, but Li Po bar is supposedly built on top of an old underground den. The place has kept the atmosphere alive with its dark creepy rooms, stories of the ghosts of opium junkies that still wander the place looking for a fix, and a special herb-laced shot of liquor (ask for "in-ga-pay") that is sure to raise the spirits in one way or another.

Show Stroly map

Chinatown's Spofford and Ross Alleys were home to the most popular brothels, bars, and opium dens. Spofford Alley is also where an exiled Dr. Sun Yat-sen wrote the Chinese constitution that would lead to the 1911 revolution which ended the Quing Dynasty. Sun became the first president of the Republic of China in 1912; he died in 1925 and has since become a heroic symbol of modern China.

Show Stroly map

Mission San Francisco de Asis, commonly called Mission Dolores, is considered the very first landmark of the city this town was settled and built around it. Anza and Father Font, after searching the perfect spot for the mission for days, finally arrived at a lovely creek near an Indian village in June 1776. They named the creek the Arroyo de los Dolores since it was Friday of Sorrows. The resulting church celebrated the first religious service in the city on June 29, 1776, which now marks the anniversary of the city of San Francisco. For a chance to meet some of the founders of the city, check out the numerous graves in the back of the church, next to the museum. A visitor to this cemetery is bound to recognize some street names on the tombstones. The Ohlone and other Native American tribes helped build the mission and decorated it with natural dye paintings. These were eventually covered with an ornate altar and were almost forgotten until an architect and an artist uncovered some of the paintings and projected digital photographs of them for the public to see.

Show Stroly map

The exclusion act and other discriminatory laws made the "Chinamen" want to stick together. Although the ratio of men to women in the area was 20 to one, Chinatown residents were almost completely self-sufficient. The neighborhood had restaurants, grocery stores, laundry outlets, and even a telephone exchange called the China 5. The operators there, who all had to speak five dialects of Chinese, knew residents' phone numbers, addresses, and profession by heart because the Chinese believed it was disrespectful to call people by number. China 5 operators worked in the building that now houses the Bank of Canton (743 Washington St.). To see a switchboard from the China 5, head to the Pacific Bell Museumat 140 New Montgomery. The building is worth a look too. Three of the old telephone booths can still be found today. You'll find one near the corner of Jackson and Stockton, another near the corner of Grant and California (next to Old St. Mary's Church), and another one on Grant between Clay and Washington streets, at 743 Washington St.

Show Stroly map

Chinatown has more tourists on the street than Chinese people, and that's exactly what Look Tin Eli, a Chinese merchant, wanted. The great earthquake of 1906 wiped out the original Chinatown where Chinese immigrants had been living and doing business since the Gold Rush years, and city officials were interested in reclaiming the land. But Eli was able to change their minds by proposing the construction of a new Chinatown, one that would include Victorian buildings with pagodas and other Asian decorations to attract tourists. How did he convince them? By telling city officials that Caucasian architects should do all of the design work.

Show Stroly map

For a room closer to Union Square and its shopping, head over to the Westin St. Francis Hotel. A favorite of classy aristocrats, the hotel at one time offered a money-washing service. Guests could leave their coins to be washed and their bills to be ironed while out on the town. It’s here that the silent movie star Fatty Arbuckle enjoyed a wild night with Virginia Rappe and Maude Delmont, two young ladies of questionable character. Rappe died four days later and Delmont spread the rumor that Fatty Arbuckle had raped and crushed Rappe. Reports read that Arbuckle, unable to perform, had raped the woman with a Coca-Cola or wine bottle. As a result, the movie star went through several trials that eventually ended his career.

Show Stroly map

Celebrities love San Francisco, so it’s no surprise that celebrity hotel stories abound. Perched on top of Nob Hill overlooking the city is the Fairmont San Francisco, one of the most luxurious hotels around. This is the only place where each of the city’s cable car lines meet and it was the first hotel to reopen after the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed most of the city. The guests may be well-mannered today, but that didn’t stop Orson Welles from causing trouble the night of the premiere of Citizen Kane, which contained some thinly-veiled stabs at newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. As Welles put it at the time: “I found myself alone with him [Hearst] in an elevator in the Fairmont Hotel on the night ‘Kane’ opened in San Francisco. He and my father had been chums, so I introduced myself and asked him if he’d like to come to the opening of the picture. He didn’t answer. As he was getting off at his floor, I said, ‘Charles Foster Kane would have accepted!’”

Show Stroly map

Bono of U2 fame once told Time Magazine, "There's one church that if I was living close by I'd definitely be in the congregation: Glide Memorial. Rev. Cecil Williams there looks after the homeless, gays, straights; he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., he's funny as hell -- pardon the pun -- and you can get an HIV test during the service. Now that's my kind of church" For anyone looking for a slice of San Francisco spirit, Glide Memorial Church is the place to get it. Starting in the 1960s, Rev. Williams and his wife, Janice Mirikitani, created a safe place for people of all walks of life. It was here that city residents who came together against the Vietnam War were joined by Bill Cosby, Angela Davis, and Bill Graham. It was here too that Randolph Hearst pleaded for help in securing the release of his daughter Patty who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. And Glide Memorial opened its doors to mourners when the death of gay activist and City Supervisor Harvey Milk was announced.

Show Stroly map

Maiden Lane and the Barbary Coast may be home to upscale stores, hotels, spas, and the country's first garage under a park, but the dark side alleys were first home to the city's most popular brothels, where women hung out their windows bare-chested to entice the rich men walking by. From the Union Square area to what is now the Embarcadero was where hard-drinking lonely sailors came looking for company. Some unlucky lover-boys were "Shanghaied" -- drugged, kidnapped, and put onboard a ship for compulsory service -- and woke up on a ship half-way to China; others, such as Calico Jim, made extra money by "shanghaing" others. In the 1890s, Calico Jim was famous for having shanghaied six policemen who had been sent, one by one, to arrest him. He left the city shortly afterwards. At the end of a long search, one of the police officers found the "crimp" in Chile and shot him six times, once for each of the men in blue he sent to China. Today, you'll find classy stores and the biggest names in fashion on Maiden Lane. Worth peeking into is the Xanadu Gallery (140 Maiden Lane), the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in the city, said to have been his model for the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Show Stroly map

Jackson Square is the center of interior design, uber-hip furniture makers, and upscale apartment buildings. This low-key area is so stylin' that even the fire station sign has a funky-cool sign. In the Jackson Square neighborhood, one can still find Domingo Ghirardelli's old chocolate factory standing at 415-417 Jackson St. (somehow it survived the 1906 earthquake). It's currently used as an antique gallery.

Show Stroly map

Owned by Francis Ford Coppola, the Sentinelis the only flatiron building in the city. It was built before the 1906 earthquake by Abe Ruef, a corrupt politician who ended up in San Quentin Penitentiary, in part due to the constant accusations published by Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin. The building survived the earthquake and fire, but Abe's days were over quickly. The Sentinel was then home to the Kingston Trio, a band that made folk music a national genre in the 1950s. The building now houses Coppola's studio American Zoetrope. The voice- overs for Apocalypse Now were recorded here as was the Grateful Dead's "Anthem of the Sun."

Show Stroly map

Grace Chapel was built in the Gold Rush year of 1849 and was yet another landmark to burn down in 1906. The railroad baron/banker Crocker family gave their ruined Nob Hill property for a Grace Cathedral diocesan building which took its name and founding congregation from the nearby parish. The Chartres Cathedral-inspired church is a grandiose structure that presides over Nob Hill. Walking up the stairs, visitors can see an outdoor labyrinth on the right where everyone is welcome to walk around and meditate. Another labyrinth is found inside the cathedral. Even for those who don't go to church, the building's murals are worth a look as they depict the history of the city. Grace Cathedral is where David Arquette and Courteney Cox got married.

Show Stroly map

April 18 marks the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake that destroyed most of San Francisco, and every year at 5:13 am, survivors meet at Lotta's Fountain, as many families and friends did the day of the quake. The fountain was donated to the city in 1875 by Lotta Crabtree, a popular vaudeville performer. But after more than 100 years, memories get a little hazy; then mayor Gavin Newsom mistakenly referred to the "1908 earthquake" at the 2004 reunion.

Show Stroly map

Built in 1853 by Henry Halleck, Montgomery Block stood on the lot the Transamerica Building now graces. In its day, the Montgomery Block was just just as important to San Francisco as the now-iconic pyramid. Montgomery Block was the city's first fire-proof building and the highest one west of the Mississippi. Although the building first attracted lawyers and professionals, the tenants quickly changed to artists and writers. The building's history is the stuff of legend. In 1856, James King, the owner and editor of the Evening News Bulletin, was shot dead on Montgomery Street by Supervisor James P. Casey. By lengthy investigation, the journalist had found out about Casey's shady past in Sing Sing Prison. One day at a Montgomery block sauna, Mark Twain, a neighborhood regular, met a fireman named Tom Sawyer, whose name he used in his 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Among the tenants of the building were native San Franciscan Jack London, Bret Harte, Ina Coolbrith, Robert Louis Stevenson, and photographer Arnold Genthe.

Show Stroly map

Not yet standing on top of Telegraph Hill in 1911, rumor has it, though the architects always denied it, that the tower was designed to resemble a fire hose nozzle in memory of Lillie Coit and her fondness for the local fire department. A San Francisco resident who grew up on Telegraph Hill, Coit lost two of her school friends in a fire. One afternoon, she helped out the shortstaffed Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5. To thank her for her work, they made her their mascot and gave her a gold diamond-studded fireman's badge reading "No. 5" which she wore proudly until she passed away in 1929. On a sunny day, nothing beats the view from the 210-foot Coit Tower. From here, you can look down to the hilly streets of North Beach, the sailboats of the Marina, and the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge.

Show Stroly map

Across the street from the iconic Transamerica Pyramid stands the original Transamerica Building where San Francisco's first Jewish religious service took place in 1849. A star of David can still be seen on the fire escape. The building now houses the Church of Scientology.

Show Stroly map

Made famous in Hitchcock's movie Vertigo, Fort Point (http://www.nps.gov/fopo/) is located at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1853 and 1861 to prevent entrance of a hostile fleet into San Francisco Bay. Needless to say, the soldiers there waited for a long time.

Show Stroly map

Once the strongest fortress in the west, Alcatraz (nps.gov/alcatraz) was build to protect San Francisco from foreign invaders. It was used mostly during the Civil War, and when the military left it, the island stronghold became one of the world's most famous prisons. Celebrity prisoners, an escape-proof reputation, and stories of the hardest cases' extreme isolation fired the public imagination. Among others, D Block was home to Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Robert Stroud (aka the "Birdman of Alcatraz,") and Morton Sobell. As Clint Eastwood's movie Escape from Alcatraz showed, some escaped the "unescapable" prison. A total of 36 prisoners were involved in attempts. Seven were shot and killed, two drowned, five were unaccounted for, the rest recaptured. In June 1962, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers successfully escaped the prison, but no one knows if the men made it across the Bay.

Show Stroly map

The Legion of Honor museum attracted curious visitors when in 1993, about 300 corpses from the Gold Rush era -- two of them still holding rosaries, others wearing Levi's blue jeans -- were dug up from what appears to be an old pauper's graveyard. Some experts say another 11,000 bodies might still lie underneath the museum grounds.

Show Stroly map

After a law that prohibited cemeteries within city limits was passed, all tombs and bodies were dug up and transported out of the city. Gravesand tombstones from the Odd Fellows Cemetery were taken out in 1901 and used to build the Aquatic Park sea wall. Some of these grave markers can also be found at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge near Fort Mason. Next time you're looking at a nice rock in these areas, look closer, there may be a name and date inscribed...