San Francisco then and now

February 4, 2016 9:52 AM

19 Historical photographs of well known places in San Francisco. Use the sliders to see them today. (SLGuardian).
posted by immlass (21 comments total)

I love stuff like this. Thank you!
posted by entropicamericana at 10:08 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Ferry Building and Internment/Chase pics were really depressing. Nice to see that the Upper Haight has remained relatively unchanged.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:12 AM on February 4, 2016

Really cool. I do love how they take the photo on the corner of Haight and Ashbury so that you can't see the Ben and Jerry's there, though.
posted by holborne at 10:15 AM on February 4, 2016

First, this is great.

Second, and I know this is a loosing battle, but Oakland is not San Francisco. Cupertino is not San Francisco. Palo Alto (#11) is not San Francisco. They couldn't call it "The Bay Area Then and Now"?
posted by Frayed Knot at 10:15 AM on February 4, 2016 [6 favorites]

For some reason, the gentlemen sitting in the chairs watching the fires after the earthquake strikes me as both odd and comforting.
posted by AugustWest at 10:21 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

1. I loved this, but
2. Cupertino, Silicon Valley, and Mountain View aren't part of San Francisco;
3. #13 looks amazingly like a pro-immigration protest I witnessed just last week;
4. sorry, #6, Lombard isn't even the crookedest street in SF (Vermont between 20th & 22nd);
5. the Embarcadero Freeway one is kind of hilarious in that it represents a great achievement for community organizing against unwanted public works but... the "now" picture shows yet another highway, just a block away;
6. the Alcatraz occupation (#14), which I learned about just last year, is an incredible historical moment on par with the Japanese internment and Black Panther movement--it lasted a year and a half!--and yet it gets very little acknowledgement today.

Good stuff. Kudos to the Guardian.
posted by psoas at 10:23 AM on February 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

a few days ago I was watching Magnum Force, and wondering what the areas in the end (shipyard) look like now. I'm guessing this kind of answers it.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:31 AM on February 4, 2016

That shipyard from the movie would have been across the bay in Richmond. Looks kinda the same these days, except no more shipyards.
posted by notyou at 10:38 AM on February 4, 2016

Well, it's the San Francisco Bay Area.. As for the crap around the Ferry Building, can't wait for it to be over.
posted by mikhuang at 10:43 AM on February 4, 2016

And.... looking for images of Richmond, I stumbled across this TROVE of 'Frisco (and 'Frisco only) postcards "then and now" (where now = 2009).
posted by notyou at 10:44 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ahh, heck, my productivity is ruined. May was well ruin yours, too.

How San Francisco Has Changed Since Hitchcock's Vertigo.
posted by notyou at 10:49 AM on February 4, 2016

#3 was interesting. On the left hand side, the hillside seems to line up exactly in both photos. On the right, in the distance, the hill is significantly larger. Is the angle slightly different? Or has the landscape changed that much?

Sliding really slowly on #7 Ferry Building reminds me of the end of the Langoliers movie. I think they were waiting at the airport for time to catch up and people faded in.

Great photos. Thanks for posting!
posted by Beti at 11:29 AM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

awww, I love how many of the photos (esp at the beginning of the set) are on my walk to work. I had fun with this, thanks!
posted by janey47 at 11:37 AM on February 4, 2016

psoas: "yet it gets very little acknowledgement today. "

Unless you actually visit Alcatraz, which is great fun and where the occupation is among the various noteworthy historical moments involving the island that get highlighted.
posted by chavenet at 11:55 AM on February 4, 2016

Which was when I actually learned about it, but for comparison I was aware of the Japanese internment long before I visited Angel Island.
posted by psoas at 12:09 PM on February 4, 2016

#3 was interesting. On the left hand side, the hillside seems to line up exactly in both photos. On the right, in the distance, the hill is significantly larger. Is the angle slightly different? Or has the landscape changed that much?

I actually think the hills line up pretty well. Note that the old image has a much smaller dynamic range than the new picture such that the distant hills fade into the background a bit. The only real difference I see between the distant hills in the two pictures is subtle differences in some of the trees.
posted by Betelgeuse at 12:23 PM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Ferry Building and Internment/Chase pics were really depressing.

Don't be depressed. The Ferry building may look like that "now," but 99% of the time it looks like the original picture, only with palm trees in the foreground and vintage streetcars and stuff.

Looking forward to getting the Embarcadero back.
posted by uraniumwilly at 12:35 PM on February 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

It could also be the focal length of the camera being used - a wider angle would make the hills in the background smaller relative to something in the foreground.
posted by LionIndex at 12:47 PM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

5. the Embarcadero Freeway one is kind of hilarious in that it represents a great achievement for community organizing against unwanted public works but... the "now" picture shows yet another highway, just a block away;

Hilarious or just completely ridiculous, given this presentation's skewed perspective. The highway's removal was celebrated for a good reason, like the ending of a good deal of claustrophobic structure and downright ugliness.
posted by uraniumwilly at 12:52 PM on February 4, 2016

What they didn't mention about those abandoned ships in the first photo is that probably the majority are still there: the ships were scuttled and made up a lot of the landfill that expanded some of the waterfront areas. Construction projects near the water still uncover old shipwrecks underground from time to time (I think they found one not too long ago, in fact).
posted by teponaztli at 6:05 PM on February 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Great post, I love black & white nostalgic photos thank you.
posted by istanbulclues at 11:20 AM on February 19, 2016