News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
FIRST PERSON | BARBARA KATE REPA When retrieving the dry cleaning recently, I ran into an old friend: a brightly colored skirt, freshly cleaned and snaking down the automated trolley at Perfect Cleaners on Fillmore. The unusual combination of colors, the nubby silk fabric and the jaunty scalloped waistband all were unmistakable. It had been…
Dawn does not often break over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home on Broadway without anti-war protesters outside. Last month Pelosi denounced some of them as “nuts” and told them, “Get away from my house.” She and her staff have refused to meet with the protesters. Some nearby residents have complained about the disruption, but the…
In 2005 it snowed in the neighborhood on the hottest day of the year — and 15,000 people showed up to watch world-class skiers jump down the Fillmore hill. The ski jump is back, but this year it won’t be on Fillmore. Organizers have announced that the event will move to AT&T Park, where a…
By Gary Carr Seneca Klassen is a chocolate nut. His shop, Bittersweet, the chocolate cafe at 2123 Fillmore Street, is the culmination of a lifelong passion for chocolate. “I’m a home chocolate-maker from way back,” Klassen says. For years, he’s collected recipes for chocolate drinks and confections, concocting goodies in his kitchen capable of driving…
Celebrity food guru Alice Waters had been approached by a number of writers who wanted to tell the story of Chez Panisse. But they didn’t “get it,” and getting it was the whole idea behind Chez Panisse. So she approached Tom McNamee, whose work on food and natural history she admired, and asked if he…
By Don Langley Another new high-rise residential tower — this one almost twice the permitted height — is being proposed in the neighborhood. The tower, part of a project to be built at Pine and Franklin Streets, would be 240 feet, or 25 stories, tall. A second tower on the site would be at the…
One fateful day in 1947, a scruffy dog wandered into the yard of a Pacific Heights home. Mrs. Carter Downing took the dog to the city pound, where she learned his prospects for survival were slim. Wayward pets were put to sleep unless adopted quickly. Horrified by the thought, she decided to take the dog…
ICONS | LESLIE M. FREUDENHEIM From 1876 to 1910, a group of creative and pioneering men and women in Northern California sought an architectural expression appropriate to the region. They rejected Victorian excess, preferring simple homes of natural materials. Their aspirations went beyond architecture to advocate a sensibility and a way of life. The cradle…
LEGENDARY PHOTOGRAPHER Ruth Bernhard, who lived up a narrow stair in a Victorian flat on Clay Street from 1953 until she died in December 2006 at age 101, was released to “fly with the angels” — her term for death — at a memorial service March 31, 2007, at Calvary Presbyterian Church. Bernhard was remembered…
LANDMARKS | ANNE BLOOMFIELD Hiding behind the trees at Pacific and Baker is a beautiful Georgian Revival house, all brick walls, white trim and fascinating roofline, the work of architects Bliss and Faville, who almost cornered the luxury market in Pacific Heights. The mansion’s trim peaks in a broad entrance with an interrupted pediment over…