News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY As the automobile increased in popularity and affordability in the 1920s, neighborhood parking garages and repair shops became the norm in San Francisco. Because private homes were commonly constructed without garages, a new type of building evolved to serve residents with parking needs. Neighborhood garages were often one- or two-story concrete…
By BRIDGET MALEY My predecessor in writing about neighborhood architecture for the New Fillmore, the respected architectural historian Anne Bloomfield, was an amazing researcher and a passionate advocate for maintaining the character of Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights. She died in December 1999, but her life’s work of helping preserve San Francisco’s past lives on.…
“LOVE WAS IN THE AIR,” says Fred Martin of the days when he and Browser Books were both young. And on many nights, it still is. “This place is magic,” he says of the bookstore, where he has worked for 36 of its 40 years as it grew into a landmark on Fillmore Street. “People…
By FRED MARTIN, KEN SAMUELS and ERIN MESSER of the Browser Books staff Browser Books, a neighborhood fixture since 1976, has no doubt sparked countless anonymous instances of romance. The store’s staff, however, has been especially susceptible to this phenomenon. Perhaps it’s because we spend so much time in the store — or perhaps it’s…
FIRST PERSON | CHRIS NICHOLS My day job in the tech world is rewarding, but music is my passion. And much of my musical journey has played itself out on Fillmore Street. It started two decades ago with a friend’s invitation to a Thursday night rehearsal of the choir at Calvary Presbyterian Church at Fillmore…
BODY & SOUL | BARBARA KATE REPA There was a message on my phone marked urgent: “There’s a new spa in the neighborhood — and it looks really, really nice.” The alert came from Melody Sams, a friend who had spied the newly opened Pearl Spa & Sauna on Post Street, just a few doors…
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY The Vedanta Society of Northern California was founded in 1900 by visiting Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, who earlier gained fame and admiration at the Chicago Parliament of World Religions in 1893. The society owns two neighborhood landmarks: the “old temple” at 2963 Webster at Filbert, completed in 1905, then further expanded…
By CHRIS BARNETT On New Year’s Eve, when most wine and champagne purveyors were tallying up their holiday sales receipts, Vino at 2425 California Street closed its doors forever after a 20-year run — the victim of a potential $1,000 a month rent hike, shrinking profits and a retailing strategy that no longer works in the…
FOR YEARS, residents of the 1700 block of Broderick Street, between Bush and Pine, have struggled with an overabundance of love from fans of the beloved ’80s sit-com Full House, supposedly set at 1709 Broderick. When a sequel, Fuller House, was launched last year, the opening credits still showed the Italianate Victorian at 1709, and…
LOCALS | ANNE RUTH ISAACSON After a long walk back home from the Hardly Strictly Blue Grass Festival, I stopped at Peet’s, at Fillmore and Sacramento, for coffee. Outside on the corner there were no free tables, but a gentleman signaled that I could join him and his friend. That was the day I met Kelly…