An Admirer Pays His Respects to A Fine Old Lady
Originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 1952.
By Will Connolly (father of WNP member by the same name) Colorized postcard of Suto Baths - WNP collection
It is inconceivable that there is one grown person in San Francisco -even an immigrant of the Kaiser-Bechtel persuasion -who hasn t seen Sutro Baths. But there must be thousands of kids who haven t been inside.
They shouldn t grow up without seeing it. Playland-at-the-Beach is all right and a lot of fun but it will be there for a long while. Sutro s is not long for this world. She shuts down next Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, and then they start removing her stays.
By Gary Kamiya |
Updated: Dec. 20, 2020 1:13 PM
With San Francisco (and the rest of California) locked down, the holidays may feel more blue than red and green. But even though many indoor activities are suspended, the city itself is a stocking overflowing with treasures waiting to be discovered. Here are eight fun and fascinating places to explore this holiday season all kid-friendly, outdoors and able to be enjoyed at a safe social distance.
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Coit Tower
A beloved symbol of San Francisco since it was finished in 1933, the 210-foot Italianate tower atop Telegraph Hill was funded by a bequest left by eccentric heiress Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who liked to dress in men’s clothing and was a patroness and mascot of the city’s volunteer firemen. The tower’s inside walls are adorned with superb Works Progress Administration frescoes depicting scenes of California life. Although Coit Tower is currently closed to the public because of the pandemic, you can still see some of
Over the past 20 years, I’ve become my family’s family historian. The passing of my father Hershel Herzberg the last of his generation inspired me to tell his life story in this week’s J.
Hershel Herzberg (1934-2020) was an Army veteran who aspired to be a lawyer. Instead he became a high school teacher, earned a master’s degree in American history and served the San Mateo Unified School District as a social studies teacher and curriculum writer for almost 50 years.
He and his family were fortunate to have lived in San Francisco during World War II. After the war, he was drafted into the Army, and from 1957 to 1959 he served as a soldier in postwar Germany, living in former SS officer quarters at Dachau, the concentration camp outside Munich. His role was to calculate the trajectory of big guns in the event of a Russian invasion.
Here s the fiery, doomed history of San Francisco s Cliff House
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The Cliff House, circa 1900OpenSFHistory
From a dynamite-laden exploding schooner to earthquakes and numerous fires, here s a closer look at the institution s often doomed history, and its repeated rebirths.
In 1858, Samuel Brannan the man who shouted Gold! Gold on the American River! on the streets of San Francisco and became the first Gold Rush millionaire paid $1,500 for lumber salvaged from a shipwreck off the coast at Ocean Beach. It s said that he used the wood to build the first Cliff House on the cliffs at Point Lobos. Other sources say the first Cliff House was constructed a few years later by a man named Captain Junius G. Foster.
Abraham Lincoln, once a hero, is now a bad guy in some S.F. education circles
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Alex Thompson walks with his daughter to Abraham Lincoln High School to receive a meal for students and siblings last week. Lincoln High School, which remains closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, is subject to a name change under a proposal by a city committee.Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle 2020Show MoreShow Less
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A statue of Abraham Lincoln stands at the entrance of Lincoln High School. The base of the statue reads: “Gift to the Memorial Museum from M.H. de Young.”Yalonda M. James / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less