My Building Museum

After my HASF posters post I received several requests for views of the rest of the building. Since I became manager in the 1990s I have turned it into a museum of San Francisco & California memorabilia.
The tour starts at the bottom of the stairs:

View from 1st landing. The 4 postcards in the black frame change to show old and new views

Tickets for the playground and carousel (World’s 1st public playground)

A real estate developer’s illustration from 1893

The coin is a token for a free loaf of bread at a Haight St bakery

At the first floor foyer on the left are photos of the GGBridge under construction:

Given by a friend who rescued them from a dumpster.

A large image, also rescued.

On the right side are a large SFFD map from 1980 and several construction bonds.

Hall of Flowers 1964

Hetch Hetchy 1932

The city hall that burned down in 1906

Every time the map changes every dept. in the city gets new maps. About $10

Note name of Moscone Center

McCarran Field/SFO 1949

SFFD map, 1970 whole view

Returning to the stairs and ascending we see a plethora of memorabilia:

Bay Area Discovery Museum bought at Building Resources

Bird’s eye view 1870

Bird’s eye view 1894 from a Mid-Winter Exhibition guide book

Bird’s eye view 1950s

Don’t come to San Francisco now! (wait til the war is over)

Karl Maulden autograph card from “The Streets of San Francisco”

NORTON I., Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Please move to San Francisco ad from Nat’l Geo magazine

MUNI bus roll (replica)

Turning the corner we find a collection of more maps and photos:

1910s map showing distance from downtown in time
(wrapping paper from Mendel’s)

GGB under construction 1930s with SS Lurline Matson Line

GGB Construction from Ft Baker 1930s

Hotel Turpin 1930s (next to an apt. of a tenant named Turpin)

Illustrated map 1920s (wrapping paper from Mendel’s)

Playland-at-the-Beach (1930s judging by the cars)

Skunk Line train & US Army Presidio map 1960s

Every solid red line was a streetcar line

The second floor foyer is where I posted the HASF posters and the Orpheum and actors’ cards. Here’s a better look at the latter:

The large cards are lobby cards, the small are tobacco cards, most from Australia, bought in Bangkok

Kathleen Myers, femme fatale in the Silent Era

Returning to the stairs and again ascending we have this classic:

At the next landing are 2 more photos and a painting I won in a raffle:

GGB Construction from Ft Baker 1930s

One-Mile Light at entrance to Golden Gate 1960s?

This, like several other rare objects, has the original wrapped in acid-free paper behind this copy.

At the top of the stairs are these memories of our City’s darkest days and one bright one:

I was looking for a frame when I found this at a garage sale but couldn’t use it. There is a lipstick print over the description of the Cable Congress Motel on Lombard.
Tryst? Honeymoon?

Loma Prieta 1989
I was the only person in the bldg. with a working phone. All my neighbors had cordless. Today, I still have the only landline, just in case…

SF Fire from St Francis Hotel roof

Finally, we reach the pièce de résistance, the wall outside my apartment:

In greater detail here:

Bay Bridge ashtray, Victory matches, Matson Lines (1st to go union), 1964 GOP Conv, SF Air Raid warden WW2, Dairy where Roberts Hdware is today, 1970 SF State strike, WHERE WE SINNED IN FABULOUS SAN FRANCISCO 1940-ish

Cockettes with Divine at the Temple of Beauty 1839 Geary

A collection of Hammett’s first stories from ‘Black Mask’ 1927. With map of the stories’ locales on the back cover.

Doggie Diner 18th&Mission 1985

Original wall menu from the Drugstore Cafe 1967

Haight Ashbury 1968 by Joe Gomez (bottom of illustration painted on wall at Gus’s Market)

Haight shopping map 1969

I Left My Heart (1st edition UK):Cable Car restoration 1984

If All the World’s a Stage, San Francisco is the Cast Party (my 1st time in Herb Caen) 1977

LANDSAT photograph 1960s Found at St Vincent de Paul from long before NASA photos were available as posters

1st edition “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” sheet music:Silly Pink Bunny bobble head:Folger’s and Hills Bros coffees:HO-scale MUNI Boeing street car:Doggie Diner head