News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
PHOTOGRAPHY | THOMAS REYNOLDS Singer James Brown may have been the hardest-working man in show business, but David Johnson is surely the hardest-working 84-year-old in the photography business. In recent months he’s had four major exhibitions — mostly photographs from the heyday of the Fillmore’s jazz era — including one in Atlanta and another at…
ARCHITECTURE | ERICA REDER Every year thousands of people visit a building designed by California’s most celebrated female architect, Julia Morgan. Some seek out her work by taking a tour of Hearst Castle or the Berkeley City Club. Others have incidental encounters while walking around the Mills College campus, swimming at UC Berkeley’s Hearst Pool…
By Don Langley The film “Bhutto,” which earned high praise at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, is now playing at several dozen theaters throughout the country. But local producer-director Duane Baughman says it was most important to him to bring his documentary home to the Clay Theater on Fillmore. He invited his Washington Street neighbors…
After 49 years, Fillmore Hardware closed its doors for the final time on the day after Christmas. Read more: “Fillmore Hardware closing”
SHE WAS 19 when they met in New York. He was a much-in-demand illustrator twice her age. Denise Ackle and Bill Shields became good friends, but both went on to marry other people. After she moved to California and then back to New York, they met again. This time it was different. “When I re-met…
One of Fillmore Street’s iconic institutions will disappear by the end of the year when Fillmore Hardware closes its doors promptly at 5:55 for the final time. For 49 years — since 1961 — the store has been the ultimate neighborhood-serving business. Originally twice its present size, it was a full-service hardware and glass company…
Neighborhood artist Veerakeat Tongpaiboon has a new exhibition of his dynamic cityscape paintings this month at the Thomas Reynolds Gallery, his longtime artistic home at Pine and Fillmore. It’s the 16th year he has shown at the gallery. But this time he won’t be shuttling between his art and his day job at his family’s…
[nggallery id=5] By Tessa Williams “Serendipity,” reads an assemblage of vintage letters affixed to a wall at Timeless Treasures, Joan O’Connor’s antiques store on Sutter Street near Pierce. “Bananas,” reads another. “Slow down,” a third. An establishment that celebrates the relationship between words and objects, Timeless Treasures specializes in vintage letters, available in a vast…
After 26 years of buttery croissants and sweet treats, today is the final day for Patisserie Delanghe. With no notice or fanfare, Dominique and Marie-Jeanne Delanghe will retire and take their delayed annual vacation to France. But while they’ll spend more time in their apartment on the Ile St. Louis in Paris, they will continue…
“THIS IS THE GHETTO. You gotta carry a gun.” So Ruth Dewson was told when she opened Mrs. Dewson’s Hats on Fillmore Street. For decades she has been the unofficial mayor of Fillmore Street. But she has been missing from the neighborhood in recent months, sidelined by ill health. We caught up with her at…