News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
After the ’89 earthquake, Wells Fargo provided cash FLASHBACK | BOB TERRY It was 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday, October 17, 1989. I had just arrived at Wells Fargo Bank on the corner of Fillmore and California Streets. I was the manager, and I always got there early. I liked the quiet and the…
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA A small architectural detail has become a sizable hurdle in the restoration of the Clay Theater: the decorative crown molding where the ceiling meets the walls. According to project sponsors, attempts to preserve the original molding revealed it was too fragile to restore. Reproducing its historic appearance required additional preservation…
By BOBBIE JO NICHOLS COOK Once upon a time on Fillmore Street, there was a store called Fillamento. If you remember it, chances are you really remember it. Perhaps you shopped there every Christmas, wandered in on your lunch break, or stopped for one little gift and emerged carrying six things you never knew you…
By THOMAS REYNOLDS La Mediterranee — the beloved restaurant at 2210 Fillmore that has been feeding the neighborhood healthy and affordable food for almost half a century — has signed an additional 10-year extension on its lease. “Let’s keep it going,” said Vanick Der Bedrossian, who now runs the eatery his father Levon opened in…
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA Steiner Street looks a little different this week — more like 1930s San Francisco. The feature film Fog City is filming around Alta Plaza, transforming Steiner Street between Jackson and Clay with vintage cars, period costumes, set dressing and even simulated rain. Additional filming is taking place at the former…
SAN FRANCISCO MURALIST Mel Waters is re-creating his Harlem of the West mural on the same wall where the original stood for 12 years. In 2014, Waters painted a “Harlem of the West” mural on a laundromat wall at 1233 Divisadero Street. It was a tribute to the years when so many jazz clubs packed…
LOCAL DISH | SHELLEY HANDLER Let me begin by saying I do not bake. There is a line drawn in a professional kitchen that divides sweet from savory and I have spent my 50-plus years slinging savory dishes. Even so, my preferences in the sweets realm are sharply defined, and my annual birthday choice is…
By JONATHAN PONTELL Being something of a history buff, photographer and storyteller, it’s not unusual to find me online looking for vintage photos of the neighborhood near our home at Broadway and Fillmore. Coming across two photos taken just a couple of blocks from our building was a lucky find. They looked like perfect pictures…
MUST LIKE FOG | CLAUDINE ZAP Long-time conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas — known widely as MTT — died in April at age 81. His musical legacy is vast. But he also left behind quite a real estate legacy. The conductor and his husband, Joshua Robison, who also died earlier this…
The House That Graft Built LANDMARKS | ANNE BLOOMFIELD Back in 1906, the Board of Public Works was stalling building permits until applicants agreed to use an expensive contractor, Deneen Building Co., recommended by Mayor Eugene Schmitz. Deneen built a mansion for Schmitz at 2501 Vallejo, across the street from 2670 Pierce — the new…