San Francisco Heritage

The bright lights of our favorite bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues have always welcomed us into the places that make San Francisco special. During the shutdown, remember to show some love to your favorite legacy spots to help keep the lights on and spirits up. We look forward to the day we can gather and enjoy good times together again!

News from the American Indian Cultural District of San Francisco: The boundaries of the district are now expanded to include Dolores Park! Read more below

Today, a handful of restaurants that rose to feed the hungry and lead the city's recovery after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire are still in operation - and now weathering a new pandemic crisis. One of those special places is Swan Oyster Depot, which opened on Polk Street in 1912 and has been owned by just two families ever since. With fresh seafood with no fuss, Swan Oyster Depot was first owned by the Lausten family, who helped deliver free flour and water to people living in ...Golden Gate Park after the 1906 quake. The Lausten's owned the restaurant until 1946, when they sold it to Sal Sancimino. The Sancimino brothers and cousins can still be found serving the same menu from the same marble counter after more than 100 years. Take out and delivery services have been part of Swan's business model from the very beginning, and those strategies have helped sustain them during the pandemic. Call in or stop by for cracked crab, oysters, shrimp, and more, and help this city institution continue chugging along for another 100 years (Swan Oyster be closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day). 1517 Polk Street (415) 673-1101 Mon. - Sat. 8:00 AM - 2:30 PM

We are thrilled that Jeremy Fish Artwork has created this beautiful artwork to celebrate our upcoming 50th anniversary year in 2021! It captures our desire to continue advocating for all the special places and practices, buildings and businesses, that are the beating heart of the city we love. Keep a look out for more announcements on our upcoming 2021 activities! #Repost @mrjeremyfish Haas-Lilienthal House... I drew this a few days ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary of @sfheritage For the last 50 years SF Heritage has been dedicated to preserving and enhancing the city's architectural and cultural identity. Saving the heart of our city, one precious landmark at a time Thanks again to @sfheritage and @haightstreetart for this incredible residency project in the historic Doolan Larson house. I can’t imagine a more spectacular spot to shelter in place Photos of this epic historic property by @jondragonette

Mike Buhler, who has led San Francisco Heritage since 2010, will leave for a new role as President and CEO at the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in January, the San Francisco Heritage Board of Directors announced today. At the Fort Mason Center, Buhler will focus on preserving and programming one of San Francisco’s most iconic historic landmark districts. Read the full announcement here: https://bit.ly/34BQFXC

As we re-enter stricter safer-at-home measures due to COVID-19, the threat of permanent closures amidst our community-serving small businesses continues to increase. How are cities like San Francisco helping protect legacy businesses? Join the Los Angeles Conservancy for a special live Q&A event, "People + Places: Saving L.A.'s Legacy Businesses," on Thursday, December 10 from 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM PT. The program will focus on legacy businesses and how the cities of San Francisc...o and San Antonio have created official programs, branding, and financial incentives to help support legacy business owners. SF Heritage's outgoing President and CEO Mike Buhler is a featured speaker, and will talk about San Francisco's legacy business program. In 2015, Heritage co-authored city legislation to establish the first official Legacy Business Registry in the country. Find the link to register for this FREE virtual program here: https://bit.ly/33JRoW3 The neon sign from longtime SF diner It's Tops Coffee Shop being removed after they announced their closure back in June 2020. It's Tops operated since 1935. Photo by @sfneonbook

For our last video installment of #MarinaHeritage, Woody LaBounty picks out a few favorite examples of Modern architecture in San Francisco's Marina District and tosses out some ideas for future preservation projects. https://youtu.be/QJR7JaeCojk Catherine Stefani Marina Community Association of San Francisco Marina Times

The area along and adjacent to the Third Street corridor in the Bayview features one of the densest concentration of churches in San Francisco, including a number of storefront churches. These are just a few of the cultural resources highlighted by San Francisco's draft African American Historic Context Statement, which aims to document the physical and cultural presence of African Americans in the city. For more background on the context statement and some of the important histories it highlights, read our full article "Black Lives Matter, Black Places Matter" from the latest issue of Heritage News: https://bit.ly/3jgXUIT SF Planning Department

The Marina District has two distinctive movie theaters, both dating back to the birth of its commercial area in the 1920s and 1930s. Each have had a range of owners, remodels, and revitalizations, but today continue to serve their original purpose. Read our short history of the Presidio and Marina Theatres: https://bit.ly/35O2d9U #MarinaHeritage Marina Community Association of San Francisco Catherine Stefani

Within one of Chinatown's bustling commercial strips is a pandemic partnership between two neighborhood mainstays: Red's Place and New Lun Ting Cafe (Pork Chop House). Known by locals as the Cheers of Chinatown, Red’s Place may have been the first spot to open in Chinatown since Prohibition (followed closely by the iconic Li Po Lounge). City directories indicate that a "Red's Place" has existed at 672 Jackson Street since at least 1937-1940 (before that it was home to Shan...g Tai Creamery in 1936). Its current brick building dates to 1906, and historic photos reveal that its facade dates to at least the 1930s. Today owned by the Chan family, Red’s has maintained the bar's long-time role as a community gathering spot. New Lun Ting Cafe, known as the the Porkchop House, serves Hong Kong-style comfort food and has been a popular spot for unmarried men in Chinatown since its inception (which gave it the other nickname bachelor’s cafe"). A sign put up in the past few years establishes the restaurant's origins in 1909; a few years after San Francisco's devastating 1906 Earthquake and Fire. Use of the cafe's current name "Lun Ting Cafe" is found as early as 1930 in city directories. It has been in the same family since 1970. Owner Frances Mah took it over from her father in 1989 and added round tables and booths to bring in families and larger groups. Order a protein (porkchop or roast beef), side (rice or spaghetti), and your choice of sauce (curry, black pepper, oxtail or their classic brown sauce) at this unique diner spot. During the pandemic, when you stop by for a drink at Red's parklet space, staff from New Lun Ting will stop by to take your order for food. Help support these important Chinatown businesses! Red's Place 672 Jackson Street New Lun Ting Cafe 670 Jackson Street photo: New Lun Ting's famous pork chops, photographed by Andria Lo for the 'Eat Chinatown' photography exhibit at 41 Ross in 2017. 41 Ross Chinatown Community Development Center Made In Chinatown SF Aaron Peskin

Our Mayhem Mansion flashlight tours continue this Thursday night at the Haas-Lilienthal House! This is your chance to explore an 1886 Victorian landmark on a new, reservation-only Halloween tour. When: October 29-31, 7:00-11:00 PM Purchase tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/self-guided-flashlight-tours-a

Fort Mason, at the edge of the Marina District, began in the 1860s as a Civil War gun battery site, and in 1882 was named after Richard Barnes Mason, a former military governor of California. The historic wharves were the country’s primary embarkation port to the Pacific theater during World War II, with more than 1.6 million passengers shipping out over the course of the war. The complex is now a National Historic Landmark District and part of the Golden Gate National Recrea...tion Area, with the wharves and red clay tiled buildings on the east home to the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. Here's a history walk you can print and take on your next outing to Fort Mason! bit.ly/fortmasonhistorywalk #MarinaHeritage Lisa Erdberg

On October 21, 2020, San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission voted to initiate landmark designation for the Japanese YWCA/Issei Women’s Building at 1830 Sutter Street in Japantown. The building is owned by Nihonmachi Little Friends (NLF), a bilingual, multicultural childcare organization established in 1975. In 2002, NLF launched the Issei Women’s Legacy Project a $2.2 million Capital Campaign to fund the purchase and renovation of the historic 1830 Sutter Street b...uilding. Completed in 1932, it was designed by master architect Julia Morgan and was originally built as the Japanese Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), the first independent Japanese YWCA founded by Japanese American (Nikkei) women in the US. The building is also significant for its association with the African American and LGBTQ civil rights. It served as the San Francisco chapter of the Committee on Racial Equality (CORE), and was the site of numerous meetings and gatherings organized to advance the civil rights of African Americans during the 1942-1959 tenancy of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The building was also the center of civil rights leader Bayard Rustin’s organizing work early in his career, and as the site of the Mattachine Society’s first convention in 1954. Founded in 1950, the pioneering LGBTQ organization sought to form a group that would free gay men and women of negative attitudes. We were lucky to have Karen Kai briefly cover the building's history in last week's Lecture Series program. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/viaYBB2UZ4k?t=1217 Historic : Women in front of Japanese YWCA, 1936 (San Francisco Public Library History Center); Young Issei women campaign for a Japanese YWCA building in the 1920s (San Francisco: Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), 2001). APIAs in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP) San Francisco Planning

For 96 years, the field house at George R. Moscone Recreation Center has hosted community meetings, parties, children’s’ programs, and innumerable volleyball and basketball games in San Francisco’s Marina District. Read our short history here: https://bit.ly/3mr53Z6 : Moscone Field House, 1800 Chestnut Street. (Daniel Kim photograph, special to the San Francisco Examiner); Moscone Field House, then Funston Field House, circa 1930. (OpenSFHistory/wnp27.6472.jpg); Entry to the Moscone Field House, 1800 Chestnut Street. #MarinaHeritage Catherine Stefani Marina Community Association of San Francisco San Francisco Recreation and Park Department

Scenes from UNDISCOVERED SF's pop-up at Sunday Streets San Francisco yesterday to close out #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth! UNDISCOVERED SF is a nonprofit designed to jump-start economic activity and public awareness of SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District, based in the South of Market (SOMA). In the district's 1.5 square miles are places and organizations that share over 100 years of Filipino history, including Victoria Manalo Draves Park and the Bayanihan Commu...nity Center. "UNDSCVRD Sundays" took place on Folsom between 6th and 8th streets, and featured local Filipino American small businesses. This area of SOMA also encompasses the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, and a map at the event highlighted its important institutions. Visit undiscoveredsf.com and sflcd.org to read more about how you can support local businesses in the cultural districts!

Adapting during the pandemic: San Francisco's oldest restaurant, Tadich Grill, announced that they will reopen starting on November 9. The reopening will mark the first time the Financial District restaurant will take reservations in its 171 years in business. Takeout and delivery will also resume. Tadich Grill first opened as a coffee stand on Clay Street in 1849 during the California Gold Rush. Croatian immigrants Nikola Budrovich, Frano Kosta, and Antonio Gasparich set up ...a tent and served fresh fish grilled over charcoal to the merchants and sailors that populated the waterfront. In 1887, John Tadich, an immigrant from the Dalmatian region of Croatia and a bartender at the saloon, purchased the establishment and renamed it the "Cold Day Restaurant" in 1882. Following the destruction of the restaurant's home in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, John Tadich reopened his business in a series of locations, settling at 545 Clay Street in 1912 with the name "Tadich Grill." Mr. Tadich sold the restaurant in 1928 to the Buich family, who continues to own and operate the establishment that is best known for serving traditional seafood today. In 1967, the restaurant moved to its current location on California Street after the building on Clay Street was purchased for redevelopment. One of the finest buildings of its type in the city, the 1909 building has superb coloring and materials alongside Renaissance/Baroque ornamentation. Renowned for interior details that date back to the 1920s, including distinctive Art Deco lighting fixtures, the owners took great care to preserve the original atmosphere and design, including relocating the original Clay Street bar to the new location. 240 California Street Reservations on Tock : Exterior of Tadich Grill; an undated photo of Tadich from the Heritage archive

Vesuvio Café's bohemian spirit iscontinuing outside its wooden doors.The recently-reopened North Beach watering hole has set up tables and chairs in the pedestrian-only Jack Kerouac Alley! Vesuvio Café was founded in 1948 by Henri Lenoir as a bohemian gathering space. Due to its prime location next to @citylightsbooks, the bar hosted and inspired numerous beatnik writers, including Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, and Neal Cassady. Housed in a 1913 Renaissance Revival building..., Vesuvio resides on the site of the former A. Cavalli &Co. Bookstore. The colorful mural that adorns the facade today was created by artist and café patron Shawn O’Shaughnessy. Though the neighborhood has evolved, Vesuvio remains as a tribute to the jazz, poetry, art, and culture of the Beat Generation in San Francisco. Grab a book at City Lights next door and enjoy a drink (and a menu of food) at this classic neighborhood hangout. 255 Columbus Ave.

Our flashlight tours of the landmark Haas-Lilienthal House continue tonight! A special audio tour in the dark and some spooky guests await. Reserve your slot at the ticket link below.