I was doing an internet search and found these spectacular photos of San Francisco which I had never seen before. To me, these are really special–different from other vintage photographs: the soft yet vivid pastel colors, the bright but diffuse lighting; and of course the architecture and the cars, so realistically rendered. The houses look like delicate pastries, and some of the cars look like you could just walk up and touch them! Here’s a small sample with a backstory on Professor Max Kirkeberg:
From the San Francisco State University website:
“For the past 50 years, Professor Emeritus Max Kirkeberg has documented the urban geography of the San Francisco Bay Area in almost 60,000 slides. Kirkeberg arrived in San Francisco in 1965 to take a position in the San Francisco State University Geography Department, and quickly became enamored with the city. His collection of just under 60,000 photos were a by-product of his field classes, walking tours, and related slide lectures of the various San Francisco neighborhoods, offered since the early 1970s. These images of streets, architecture, development, landscapes, culture, and geographical highlights provide an encompassing picture of the diverse neighborhoods that make up San Francisco, as well as the features and regions beyond it in the greater Bay Area.”
There are over 7,000 more photographs online if you care to explore further. I have showcased some of the professor’s earliest photos, because I thought they were the “purest” and most interesting. This was before the stucco and aluminum siding salesmen (and the demolition crews) had shown up en masse to do their cruel work. I have not checked to see what these places look like now. I’m sure that some houses have been preserved; others remuddled or gone. But either way, I am grateful to Professor Kirkeberg for so lovingly portraying them in full color!
Thanks for this great post taking me down memory lane. Starting in 85 and until health issues beginning in 2003, San Francisco was almost a second home for me. I truly Left My Heart in San Francisco, in more ways than one. I have albums full of treasured photos, including a 59 pink Cadillac parked off Market Street. Would love to share some, but this Vintage Rolls Canardly (Roll down one hill and Can ardly get up the next) hasn’t a clue how to proceed! LOL to ALL and MY City By The Bay!
Had a chance to move there in “early/ mid 80’s”. Didn’t take up the offer. Always regretted doing so.
Did he take any photos of Carville ? That refers to homes in the Outer Sunset made from old streetcars. In the beginning they were made from a single car , but soon as many as four (or more) were stacked together to make larger homes. There was also a diner made from an old streetcar near the beach. A judge was the first to haul an old streetcar to beach , he was looking for peace and quiet.
Fulton Street. To which my immediate thought was, “Jefferson Airplane.”
Likewise. I recall their house being 2400 which would be about 10 blocks away from the ones seen here.
I played in a few way back when; not sure if us all living in the same house would’ve made the band more cohesive or just make us get sick of each other…
*a few rock bands* that should be. Where’s my edit button?
Could the last photograph be Captain Beefheart the musican? He loved his top hats & long coats. The time and location fits with Beefheart’s career and he’s know to have performed at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. Perhaps the photographer was familiar with his music and recognised him.
To my eyes, his light meter or ‘sunny 16’ settings favored overexposure
They were probably darker when first processed. The color dyes have faded, starting with the reds. This is a common look in 50-year old films that aren’t Kodachrome.
Regarding my earlier post , I should have said “…the remains of Carville ” (or Cartown as it was also called) . Most of the streetcar houses had long since been remodeled or destroyed by this time.
Interesting to see how most (with one gaudy exception) of the Victorians were painted very simply. Go back now, and they are almost invariably “painted ladies”.
Speaking of that one exception (908 Steiner) what is that creature climbing up the wall? A bear rug?
An interesting question is, how were these houses painted originally? I found these images online. Multiple colors, details picked out–but rather drab, not vibrant, color choices. What we might call “earth tones”:
I had to look up 908 Steiner – it seemed so unusual. Turns out it was owned by a couple who were both artists, and who decorated the house rather eclectically. Here’s a 1967 San Francisco Chronicle article on the couple – doesn’t specifically mention the bear pelt on the exterior, but does note many animal skins inside:
These slides appear to all be Ektachrome, giving the very pale and washed-out appearance. Kodachrome may have been slooooow (ASA 25) but the color saturation was tremendously better than Ektachrome. You praise the pale color rendering but old Kodachrome slides really hold up and still look vivid and colorful decades later.
Very true. However, photography, being “art”, does not always have to be 100% realistic. Rather, what it does is take something from physical reality, present it in a new and unique way, thus revealing something previously unseen. It creates a “feeling”.
A fine impressionistic painting is not particularly sharp or realistic in its color choices, but it is beautiful and expresses a certain atmospheric mood:
I’m guessing these were shot on Anscochrome (later GAF) or maybe Agfachrome which I’m less familiar with. Early Ektachrome slides tend to fade to an almost monochrome red and white; later Ektachromes (that used E-4 or E-6 processing) retain their colors vastly better, but have a characteristic slightly grainy look that reminds me of photos in early-1970s brochures. The less-saturated colors in the SF photos here are characteristic of non-Kodak films from that era.
Like the “Buick convert”, in the driveway, on “Grove St”. “Chevy” got lot of “promo” in these pics.
The interior of the house pics were very interesting.
Given the astronomical prices of San Francisco real estate today, it’s hard to believe that 50-60 years ago those old Victorians were just considered old, outdated, undesirable, and therefore cheap housing by most people.
If I understand correctly, the whole “painted lady” trend was just getting started around this time, with hippies buying these old houses for cheap and giving them colorful paint jobs.
Is it even possible to build a house in this style anymore, or are the necessary skill sets and materials no longer available, or prohibitively expensive?
This is what they’re building in Russia now–Moscow’s “Golden Mile”:
Great topic and photo selections Stephen! During the pandemic lockdowns, I watched a number of episodes of The Streets of San Francisco. Well worth picking up the series, if only for the cars, and the architecture.
That and “Ironside” are both great for “SF” lovers.
I feel like I’ve seen a green Beetle in at least six images…
What the Professor is doing here is preserving for posterity these Victorians. Why? These are 1 block away from the Fillmore Redevelopment Plan formulated in 1953. The Fillmore District dates to 1880. It survived the 1906 earthquake and the fires that ensued below Van Ness. It’s borders are Van Ness to the east, Geary on the north, Divisidero on the west, and Grove on the south. These shots are 1-2 blocks away from Grove right up against Alamo Square. Think Painted Ladies and they are on Steiner which is the east border of Alamo Square.Getting picky the northern end against Geary was also called the Western Addition. African Americans populated the Fillmore to the Western and Japanese populated the Western Addition. Today Japantown, if you want to call it that, is on the north side of Geary.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Fillmore_Redevelopment
By the mid-60’s the tear down of Victorians started in earnest and continued into the early 70’s. I moved up here in 1972 and in my exploration of the City saw the big gash where an entire neighborhood used to be. Also preservationists started to realize we must save Victorians since they couldn’t stop redevelopment.Those houses were moved to other lots in the same district. As it turns out the houses pictured here were just outside the Federal map even though in the District. Hence forth they survived. Luckily, since no one knew for sure in 1964.
This was a massive boondoggle that involved a lot of graft. Since tha area was determined blighted speculators moved in and bought at dirt cheap prices only to turn around and sell to the City and Feds. African Americans disappeared and there is a case that this was racist under the guise of redevelopment. The fabulous jazz scene vanished in the 70’s. Japanese moved away. What a mess.
Mayor Christopher (1956-1964) doesn’t take a back seat to Richard J. Daly. The corruption involved in the building of Candlestick sources right out of him. His pocket book benefited big time and I am sure he did with the Fillmore.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Candlestick_Swindle
Below 1482 Golden Gate Ave.
Should be more explicit in that WWII saw the forced relocation of the Japanese out of the Western Addition and the fire sale of their property. Mostly the housing was bought by African Americans and Filipinos. Those Filipino families formed the core that later moved to Daly City which is the largest concentration of Filipinos in the U.S. A Filipina girlfriend, in the early 90’s, had her family home in Daly City. Dad had arrived after Marcos was overthrown as he had been the spokesman for the Marcos government.
I took a geography class from Dr. Kirkeberg at SF State. I think it was 1968 or 69. He was always plugging “Iowa was THE state.” (He was from Iowa.) One lecture was on the geography in California that followed the Butterfield Overland Stage route. He allowed me to do an independent study on the stage route. On Easter Break my brother and I took the family Rambler American, and did our best using primary source material to follow the route through central California, sleeping in the car for 4 days. Took photos with an old Brownie camera, then wrote up a photo essay. He liked the essay, but commented the photos were a bit too “touristy.” HA!
Look at ALL that parking! I lived at 1378 McAllister for 17 years from 95 to 12 … I really loved my flat until the landlord moved junkies into the bottom floor that were getting subsidized by Catholic charities … Adelaide and Co. … I think she left a bad taste and everyone’s mouth.
_THANK_YOU_ ! .
_This_ is what things looked like when I grew up Down East long ago before urban renewal.
My first visit ti S.F. was in the Summer of 1969 and these are the tired old homes so many hippies (like the guy in the last picture) looked like .
I visited as often as I could between 1970 ~ 1975 .
I’d love to see a look at what’s at those exact addresses now .
Bummer he didn’t use Kodachrome, these all look washed out .
-Nate
Zillow
What a great find. When I first started visiting SF in the late 80s, the Western Addition that remained still looked a lot like these pictures. Lots of weathered, monochrome Victorians. Now of it is spruced up, as Paul noted.
Regarding paint colors, there’s definitely been a move to more authentic colors ad detailing. Here’s a street of houses in Hightstown, NJ for example.
Kodak has a process called ‘Restoration of Color’ that uses computers (I think) to make exposure corrections and scratch/bulb burns elimination on old Kodachrome slides. Have a coffee table book of old WW2 color images of the 8th Air Force in England, and the corrected images are quite nice, compared to the originals.