Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
Our old friend and long-time WNP member, the late Will Connolly, used to say that shopping in San Francisco was a highly geographic activity. Things you might need regularly, such as groceries, newspapers, and aspirin could usually be purchased very close to home mostly within walking distance while major expenditures like automobiles, furniture, and appliances generally required a trip downtown. Everything else (clothing, kitchen curtains, paint/hardware) could often be found somewhere in between. His theory held true for decades, though that is no longer the case.
Neighborhood shopping areas, such as 16th Avenue and Irving Street, 22nd and Taraval, 23rd and Clement, 24th and Noriega, 37th and Balboa, and many others, generally contained several different businesses within a couple of blocks: grocery stores, produce shops, bakeries, pharmacies, and laundries/dry cleaners. There were usually a couple of banks, barber shops/beauty salon
Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
In the fall of 2008, WNP founders Woody LaBounty and David Gallagher asked if I would be interested in writing a series of articles on local history/folklore and thus, Streetwise was born, making its debut as a monthly column in January of 2009. I’m grateful to have been given this opportunity, and also happy that Woody agreed to loan me the column’s name one that he had been using for many of his own WNP articles dating back to the late 1990s.
Now, after 8+ years, the calendar tells me that Streetwise is reaching its 100th column a good time to take a look back to see where we have been.
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708 Clement Street
From the Pioneer Potato Market in the 1910s to the Clement Street Bar & Grill in the 2010s.
Unraveling the History of the Clement Street Bar & Grill Building 708 Clement Street has been the location of numerous businesses, including the Clement Street Bar & Grill, since the 1910s. - Photograph by John Freeman.
by John Freeman
As you look around the interior of the historic Clement Street Bar and Grill, it is hard to get a clear fix on what this space has been used for since it was built in 1907. You look at the decorative vaulted ceiling and think maybe this was a nickelodeon or small theater at one time. The bar appears really old, but is it original? The oak face and doors of an old commercial icebox is a confusing element. The fireplace is another flourish that looks nice, but can it be original? None of these puzzling elements are original, nor give any hint to the original use of the building.