I’m always drawn to San Francisco’s Chinatown whenever I’m in the city, partly because of its history but also because there is always so much to see just wandering the sidewalks. With my hotel located on the lower slope of Nob Hill, I’m actually within walking distance of the Stockton Tunnel, and I used this as my gateway to Chinatown […]
My sincere thanks to the San Francisco Heritage and City Guides for saving this precious piece of the city’s history and for allowing visitors a look inside this beautiful late-Victorian era house. Here are a few images from my visit last month, giving just a small idea of the gracious living in one of the few mansions to survive the […]
Today’s San Francisco is a very different place from the city of the early 20th century. But if you spend much time walking around in the area to the east of Van Ness Avenue, eventually you’ll find inevitable reminders of the great cataclysm, the earthquake and fire of 1906. This memorial, San Francisco Landmark No. 42, caught me by surprise […]
The third California mission established in 1776, San Francisco de Asís is more familiarly known as Mission Dolores. I finally got a chance to visit last month and spent an afternoon exploring the original mission building, the basilica next door, and the small cemetery. Here are just a few of my images, although I have a lot more!
One of the historic homes I went searching for in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood was the Atherton House at 1990 California Street. I didn’t know anything about the house’s history, but that — and the scaffolding obstructing my view — didn’t stop me from admiring the place from the sidewalk. Built between 1881-1882, the house was added to the […]
Although I still have quite a lot of photos of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden to share, I thought today I would take a break and offer up something different. Just the other day Google Photos reminded me that in mid August 2019 I took a stroll through Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown. My opening image is one of […]
If I had planned ahead better, I may have booked a tour of the inside of Grace Cathedral. This Gothic beauty sits atop Nob Hill in San Francisco. Despite its elaborate style, this church building is relatively modern; the earlier cathedral, built a bit lower down on the slopes of Nob Hill in 1862, was destroyed by fire in 1906. […]
I have heard the story of San Francisco’s great earthquake and fire in 1906 countless times, but walking around certain parts of the city can still bring the history back to life in unexpected ways. Visiting the California Academy of Sciences in 2016, I entered the earthquake simulator and experienced first the shaking of the Loma Prieta quake in 1989 […]