Chinatown: Gamblers, Gangsters and Bordellos

This walk is through Chinatown, an easy 1.2 mile walk but with much to see in this dense neighborhood. The first photo is of the Donaldina Cameron House (1908) at 920 Sacramento.  A solid clinker brick building significant for its history.  The home was established in 1876 across the street as a home for Chinese girls seeking refuge from enforced prostitution and abusive employers. The clinker bricks are blistered from the heat of the 1906 fire as the house had to be rebuilt and bricks scavenged. The slave trade of Chinese girls continued into the 20th century, but was done by 1930.  The building is now a rec center.

 

Donaldina Cameron House 930 Sacramento

The next building is the YWCA building designed by Julia Morgan. This photo hardly does it justice and is wonderful with it's subtle asian elements and elegant stance on the steep street. There is a serpent design about the door, recessed industrial sash windows with the cut out keystones and bronze and glass lantern next to the doorway.  This building is now the Chinese Historical Society.

Chinese Historical Society. YWCA. 965 Clay St.

After continuing on Stockton and turning right on Jackson, you pass Duncombe Alley, which in the 1870's and 1880's was all opium dens in the basement units.  The photo that follows is Beckett Alley, now a fairly charming place, but in the 1880's was the locus some of the lowest brothels in the city. Young girls as well as young boys would "entertain" many clients a night and it was a hotbed of venereal disease and misery for the young.

Cooper Alley is a dead end alley that you will pass on the left as you head back up Jackson to Wentworth Alley.

Cooper Alley

At 955 Grant is the narrowest storefront in Chinatown, measuring 6'10", now a jewelry store.

955 Grant Avenue

At Ross Alley, previously known as "Stout's Alley," or "Old Manila Alley" since it was the favorite spot for the brothels and gambling spots of Filipinos and Latinos.  This photo is of 37 Ross with its elegant gold lettering on black, is especially pretty.

 This building at 743 Washington is the most fancifully docorated buildingg in the area and was Chincatown's telephone exhchange until 1949. The building was constructed by the Bell System. The exchange served only Chinatown and the operators had to be fluent in English and five dialects of Cantonese. They used a hand painted telephone directory to direct calls until direct dial in 1949. This building is now a bank.

Old Chinese Telephone Exchange 1909

This photo is at the corner of Waverly and Washington as seen from Waverly. The next few photos are other sights on Waverly.  Waverly Place was made "famous" by Amy Tan in her epic novel "Joy Luck Club" wherein one of the girls was named Waverly in honor of the street she lived on

The Tin How Temple is the city's oldest Taoist temple on the top floor of 125 Waverly.

Tin How Temple Waverly Place

Buildings on Waverly Place

This interesting building dates from 1907 and is an unusual design, having a second -story mansard roof made out of iron, with 5 dormer windows.  Apparently it, like so many other houses, was a bordello.

761 Commercial St. (1907)

Southern Water front

Mission Bay Campus

Mission Creek with House Boats

Willy Mays Statue

Old Fire Building

Iconic Arrow Along the Embarcadero

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Gap Building

Photo from the Hillsboro Coffee Building of Tasters

Ferry Building

Bay Bridge

Clipper and Diamond

This walk is a relatively short walk with lovely views which don't show up well on the photos.  There are lots of interesting houses though. The houses on this walk range from extremely run down shacks to enormous impressive new construction. The house on Duncan is huge, a veritable mansion. Once on Beacon, you want to look for the Harry Steps to go down to Laidley. 

Upper Clipper View

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Duncan Near Clipper

From Laidley

Impressive House on Laidley with Matching Car

Beacon and Diamond

Land's End, 4+ mile walk

We embarked on the Land's End walk thinking we would take in Sutro Park in addition to Land's End. But there was a crowd assembled on Ocean Beach and our curiosity got the best of us and we went exploring. It was the ProSearch surfing competition and we got to see a couple amazing surfers doing their thing. It was a beautiful sunny day, but the Land's End hike can be nice in the fog, too. Pictures didn't really turn out that well of the surfing competition, so I left them out.

The view from the trailhead, the GG Bridge, of course.

The Marin Headlands
The trail itself
The view out to the Pacific
The trail leading down to the site of the old Sutro Baths
The back of the Palace of the Legion of Honor. Stunning.
A peak through the flowers and fence to the incredible cafe at the Legion of Honor. Hard to appreciate it from the picture, but it's a wonderful place to sit and chat, good food, too.

Cow Hollow Walk: Washerwoman Lagoon, Victorians, and Art Nouveau Beauties

This walk is a 3.45 loop which we started at Greenwich and Divisadero and headed to Broderick and up.

These shingle houses, built without an architect in 1901, but with their steeply pitched and gabled roofs, sawtooth shingles and charming paint application, maintain their appeal today.

This gorgeous house at 2460 Union was designed by Mooser and Cuthbertson and built in 1892. It has a mansard roof with a gambrel roofed dormer with arched windows.

This apartment building is on the corner of Pierce and Union (2383 Union , 2860 Pierce) and was built in 1930-1931 by Albert Schropfer, architect. It has a rounded tower and gable-roofed wing but is clad in stucco so is considered a Mediterranean Revival building.

The famous Casebolt House (architects Hoagland and Newsom 1868) was built when this area was almost rural, and has such an impressive entrance and approach that one can easily imagine it surrounded by countryside, lording over all it surveys. Photos don't do the entrance porch, paired arched windows, and majestic pair of palms justice.

St. Vincent De Paul is a bustling center of activity in Cow Hollow with it's popular school and busy church schedule. It was built in 1916 by Shea and Lofquist. The sanctuary is covered with a gambrel roof, its square tower is a neighborhood landmark.

The Leander Sherman House, built 1876 at 2160 Green, is an Italianate House with a mansard roof, and was built for Leander Sherman.  Sherman was founder of Sherman and Clay, a prominent Bay Area music store.  It was used as a high end Bed and Breakfast for years, but now is privately owned and used by the Getty family.

On 1950 Green, this apartment building was of interest because of its embellishments that appeared to be Art Nouveau, or Craftsman style.  We don't have any more information, only the picture!

This was a lovely house further on at 1850 Vallejo St.  Again, all we have is the photo!

This stunning apartment building at the corner of Vallejo and Laguna is interesting in that they seem to have added decks in front for ease of access.  In the process they obscure the beautiful arched entrances to the individual flats.  Still a beauty.

The Burr House, at 1772 Vallejo St. by T.J. Welsh architect built in 1778, is an impressive Italianate.

It also has a charming carriage or gardeners' nook in back.

The Digby Brooks Studio, built in 1921, 1737-1757 Vallejo by Henry Gutterson, seem to be out of a fairy tale with the medieval looking stone, brick and lush garden in front.  If you look carefully in the second picture, you'll see one of the inhabitants harvesting his dahlias.

This turned into our favorite place of the day (2413-2417 Franklin) because of its beauty, the prominence of the architect, and the fact that we were allowed to view the inside.  These flats were built 1902 by James Francis Dunn (see our last blog to see another work by him.)  It has swirling plaster ornament, lush classical ornament frames.  Inside it was a work in progress, but it will be stunning.  Hard wood floors throughout, marble being installed, and a one of a kind mantel piece from L.A. about to be placed.  A really fantastic place, yours for $7500 a month. That's just the bottom flat, fyi...

This Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral was built in 1909 (1520 Green St.) by C.B Ripley.  The original church was in  North Beach and burned in the 1906 quake. It has bells you can easily see in its bell tower, that you can't see in the photo.

Blackstone Court is an easy-to-miss cul de sac off Franklin between Lombard and Greenwich.  This is close to the "Washerwoman Lagoon" and the house, though thought to be built in 1850, was moved to this site in 1889, raised a story in 1906.

The Vedanta Society Building, at 2961-2963 Webster St. has to be included in this tour, just because it's so unique.  It was built by Joseph Leonard architect in 1905, the third floor was added in 1907. 

The James Dyer House at 1757 Union St is another rare survivor of Cow Hollow's early history.  The original owner began farming here in 1860.

This is a charming house at 2940 Octavia which is one of the last dairy farm houses standing. It has normally has thriving roses in front and an inviting front entrance.

This triplex at 1978-1982 Filbert were built in 1882 by James G. Behrens and they are a rare Stick-style design, each with it's unique front door, gabled roofs and decorative bargeboards.

We were entranced by this picturesque pair of dogs in front of the local Real Foods at Fillmore and Filbert. From there we hightailed it back to Greenwich and Divisadero...