Next time you’re walking around the downtown end of Columbus Avenue, take a turn down a narrow one-block alley named Hotaling Place. Rather than staring up at the towering Transamerica Pyramid, look down between your feet, and you’ll see parallel waving lines etching the pavement along the quiet, narrow block. Those lines mark the old city shoreline, before hundreds of abandoned ships formed new land claiming the bay, when San Francisco was a very different place.

Hotaling Place may be the most unique street in the city and holds centuries of secrets that are rooted in a time when it wasn’t called San Francisco, or even America.

The little fishing village of Yerba Buena was part of Mexico until July 9, 1846, when US Navy officer John B. Montgomery landed his ship on this shore and planted an American flag at what is now Portsmouth Square (named after his ship).

Within two years, with the end of the Mexican-American War, the land became part of the United States, and Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.

Hotaling Place, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

The Gold Rush that followed changed the growing town beyond all recognition. Its population grew from 1,000 to 25,000 in a year, with thousands more forty-niners leaving ships abandoned there and heading to the Sierra Nevada for gold. Those 500 ships and newly built wharves grabbed some 50 city blocks from the water. This old buried shoreline lies where Hotaling Place’s line curves along the alley.

The street earned its name from pioneering entrepreneur Anson Parsons Hotaling, who built his exquisite Italianate business headquarters at 451 Jackson St. in 1866. (Hotaling also owned Hotaling Annex West across the street. That later became a gathering place for artists and writers in between their work shipbuilding during World War II.) In the early 1900s, Hotaling’s chief line of work was booze, and his company was described as “the biggest warehouse for booze in the west.” Gallons of whiskey were stored there when the earthquake hit in 1906, and while nearly every building in the area was razed by the shake and subsequent fire, Hotaling’s whiskey store somehow survived. Archives report that a mile-long fire hose that ran from Fisherman’s Wharf extinguished the flames.

The Oakland Tribune, May 17, 1906.

Archival/Oakland Tribune

Hotaling, an opportunist who knew how to make a buck, promptly ran ads in Bay Area newspapers after the quake boasting that his liquor reserve survived, and if readers sent money he would ship them his “Old Kirk” whiskey. Though, likely due to the destruction of the city’s bank offices, he requested only “coin,” noting that “checks and exchanges are useless at this point.”

For those inclined toward the supernatural, a story shared on a ghost tour of the alley tells of a stampede of cattle rushing down the narrow street on a foggy day. The ghost cows are said to be the specters of the livestock that ran through the city during the chaos of April 1906.

Hotaling Place, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

While it’s impossible to verify if this actually happened on this street, there were instances of cattle fleeing their pastures across the city in Cow Hollow and running through the smoldering ruins. It was an eerie sight amid the darkest days of San Francisco. As one police officer described to the press: “The noise and the dust, and the feeling of destruction, all combined to daze a man. All about us houses were tumbling, and falling walls and chimneys and cornices were crushing men and horses in the street.”

(In other bovine-related earthquake incidents, the New York Times reported shortly after the disaster that a cow in Point Reyes was swallowed whole by a crack in the earth on the San Andreas Fault.)

The street was also known for the horse stables at 32-34 Hotaling. The alley was a hub for horse-drawn streetcars that used the road and stables as a turnaround point.

Hotaling Place, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

One of the most stunning structures still standing, which feels like it could line a cobbled alley in Victorian London, is the red-brick back entrance of what is now the Barbarossa Lounge, which fronts onto 714 Montgomery St. That structure also reportedly survived the earthquake And, similarly to Hotaling, an advertisement for the grocers that operated there in San Francisco’s Italian newspaper, L’Italia, in October 1907 said they continued to sell “excellent and select liquor.”

Neighboring that building is a somewhat foreboding brick structure that has housed private members club Villa Taverna since the 1950s. Between two medieval-looking lanterns, a goddess with wheat and snakes (this appears to be Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest) looks out over the alley, ensuring only those with invitations pass through the doors. The marble sculpture was erected above the doors in the 1950s, and the owner claims it was an ancient Roman piece gifted by the Italian government.

Hotaling Place, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

That building backs onto 716 Montgomery, another structure as old as the city; it was built in 1849 from the wreck of a ship named The Georgean. That building became an art studio after the earthquake and was visited by Frida Kahlo, according to historian Nancy Boas.

The street is now lined with art galleries, designer showrooms and high-end clubs, but until as late as the 1970s, Hotaling Place was described as a “dirty little old alley” in the press, as it had been for years.

After the earthquake in 1906, religious leaders in San Francisco blamed the Barbary Coast’s vices for the disaster, declaring that the event that took thousands of lives was a wrathful God’s retribution on the dirty town.

Hotaling Place, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

One plaque, on the corner of Hotaling and Washington today, quotes the words of poet Charles K. Field on finding the building undamaged after so many churches crumbled.

If, as they say, God spanked the town
For being over-frisky,
Why did He burn His churches down,
And spare Hotaling’s whiskey?

The post The plentiful secrets and techniques of San Francisco’s oldest alley appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Any Englishman who visits San Francisco will soon hear their name mumble in conversation.

“Have you heard of that pub over the Golden Gate Bridge? They have real pints and shepherd cakes. “

But the mention of Americans trying to build something “authentically British” is usually greeted with eye rolls by us snooty Brits. I’ve been to the Dickens Fair at Cow Palace, where kids run around and stare at old Victorian sex workers while bearded guys slap their thighs and sing shanties – it doesn’t bring back memories of home. I also went to You Say Tomato, the UK grocery store on California Street that is now closed and where you could pay $ 20 for a sad Lincolnshire sausage.

But The Pelican Inn was supposedly different, a real taste from Blighty; There were even rumors that the place was being moved brick by brick across the oceans from the old country. The first time I got wind of this, I made plans to visit, but those plans were a little unusual.

Every full moon, an informal moon walk is organized along the Marin Headlands, which ends in the legendary pub. We drove over the bridge one night, parked in the Tennessee Valley, and headed out when the moon rose over the high tide.

The walk is magical, from the cliffs down to the beach at Pirate’s Cove and back up again, bathed in the moonlight shining from the water under the Golden Gate Bridge. And while it’s foggy and muddy, it’s well worth the reward – a pint of Old Speckled Hen and a Guinness beef stew at the Pelican. (Though the way back, three leaves against the wind with a belly full of stew, isn’t fun.)

When I got to the Pelican at the end of this hike (named after Sir Francis Drake’s galleon Marin visited in the 1570s, later renamed The Golden Hind), I was glad the rumors were circulating about a real British pub just 10 miles north from San Francisco were true, and a few more, and I’ve returned countless times since then.

Although the Tudor-style white picture-book building was built in 1979, surrounded by a lush green lawn, it looks like it could have been in Shakespeare’s time. And the inside is even more magical – horse brass lines the walls around a roaring fireplace. Guests eat hearty stuffed quail by the fire while flutes and lutes fill the air.

But is it really more serious than Harry Potter World?

“All wood, all tables, all pillows, all curtains – everything in here was shipped from England, Scotland or Ireland,” hotel manager Amaya Cotton tells me over a pint of Pelican Inn Pale Ale (the Old Speckled Hen Barrel) was tapped.

I inspect the stately 12-foot dark wood banquet table next to us. Is the table english?

“Scottish!” she corrects me. “We may not be in the UK, but everything in here is from there.”

The Pelican Inn, Muir Beach, California.

Andrew Chamings

So how did this Old World treasure come about in the shadow of Mount Tamalpais, just steps from Muir Beach and the sequoias of Muir Woods?

It is all thanks to a very ambitious man named Charles Felix, who in 1978 worked with a friend on the construction of the place for over a year.

“He came from a long line of Vikings. He traced his ancestry and found that most of his ancestors were tavern owners in Britain.

I was a little relieved to find that the architect of this place was from the UK and not the idea of ​​a New World Anglophile. “Oh, he was very, very English,” says Cotton. “He moved here with his wife and four children and got to work. This country was really in the middle of nowhere back then, but he knew exactly what it should look like. ”

The Pelican Inn, Muir Beach, California.

Andrew Chamings

It turns out that the Pelican Inn seems so British because it is. The old beams that held the steep roof and even the floors were shipped across the Atlantic. “The floors are from a centuries-old barn, so we ask cyclists to remove the studs when they come in,” says Cotton. “The bar comes from a pirate ship that was salvaged from an English port.” (I wanted to know which ship, but unfortunately, many of the secrets of the origins of the artifacts died with Felix dying in 2016.)

One of the strangest things in the tavern is the fireplace, on which the Christian motto “Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. Nobody was there, ”mysteriously adorns the coat. “I don’t think Charles Felix knew where it came from, he just liked it,” laughs Cotton.

If you climb into the huge fireplace, you can see a dark, somewhat eerie hole in the roof next to the chimney.

“Oh, that’s the priest’s hole,” says Cotton. “Take care of your head.”

A priest’s hole was a head-high column built into the walls or ceilings of Catholic houses in England in the 16th century when priests were hunted and persecuted by Queen Elizabeth I. A place to hide your priest when the protestant queen’s guards came knocking on the door.

While this probably wasn’t a problem in 1980s California, the attention to detail is pretty impressive.

The Pelican Inn, Muir Beach, California.

Andrew Chamings

Felix lived at the Pelican with his family and ran the pub and hotel for 12 years before selling it to Edward and Susan Cunningham, who still own it to this day. The new owners didn’t change anything – “It was perfect the way it was,” says Cotton.

(The couple also own other famous sites around the world, including the Culloden House in Scotland, which Bonnie Prince Charlie called home during the unsuccessful Highlander Revolt against the British in 1746.)

During last year’s pandemic, the pelican was closed from March to June but never closed permanently. “It was just waiting for it,” says Cotton.

When al fresco dining was allowed again, the pub became one of the few places on the bay where people outside of parklets could feel a semblance of normalcy.

This writer’s family spent many afternoons during the darkest days of the pandemic at Muir Beach, wandering back to catch fish and chips on the lawn. This dish is the inn’s favorite dish, according to Cotton, but she prefers the mussels. Liver and onions are surprisingly popular too, and as any Briton will tell you, the real national dish is curry, and the pelican is a flavorful madras among the more traditional English dishes.

If the myth that English cuisine is subpar can be debunked anywhere, it is here. And critics agree: “My favorite place in the world is the Pelican Inn,” wrote former SF Chronicle food editor Paolo Lucchesi in 2018.

Aside from food and history, the inn is also known as a cozy romantic getaway.

“We’re a huge wedding venue. The ceremony sometimes takes place on the lawn or on the patio, ”says Cotton. “And then they celebrate inside and rent out all the rooms.”

The Pelican Inn, Muir Beach, California.

Andrew Chamings

The romantic allure of the Pelican leads to the cozy bedrooms above the pub. As you climb the narrow staircase, it feels like stepping into another time – brass lion knockers, four-poster beds, low ceilings, ornate curtains, and portraits of monarchs adorn the walls.

Cotton showed me the carved bedposts with the initials of lovebirds and honeymooners crammed into the hotel. “I encourage it, it adds character to the room,” says Cotton. “My guests love it.”

I would recommend a visit to the Pelican to everyone, not just expats in San Francisco who miss their home. And while you can park next to the pub, the Beef Wellington is worth the 2-mile moonlit hike through the sand, although I would recommend taking an Uber back.

The Pelican Inn hotel is now open for bookings and the restaurant is open daily from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

The post The secrets and techniques of Muir Seaside’s Pelican Inn appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Carolin Hagenstroem and I are staring down an octagon-shaped hole in the hardwood floor of her home at 724 Brazil Ave. in San Francisco’s Excelsior District. It reveals a dizzying drop that plummets at least 19 feet down to an artist’s studio, and at the center is a fire pole that inspired one of the most influential movies of my childhood.

“I’ll go down first, and then you can try it,” Hagenstroem says to me with a reassuring nod.

She wraps her arms and legs around the brass, and carefully slides to the bottom with ease.

I gulp. I’m not afraid of heights, but let’s just say the drop appears much more intimidating than it did in one of my favorite scenes in “The Princess Diaries,” a landmark San Francisco movie that just celebrated its 20th anniversary. 

But if the clumsy Mia Thermopolis could take the plunge before school each morning, so could I. Suppressing a scream, I cling on for dear life and make my way down. 

Carolin Hagenstroem slides down the fire pole inside Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, on Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The fire house that became a castle

Perhaps one of the most beloved coming-of-age stories of the early aughts, the Disney film based on the bestselling series by Meg Cabot follows an awkward San Francisco teenager (Anne Hathaway, in her breakout role) who discovers that her deceased father was a prince, making her the heir to the throne of the fictional European country of Genovia. She must come to terms with this life-shattering news when her estranged grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews in a role that kicked off her career renaissance) stops by for tea at the fire house-turned-artist’s loft where Mia lives with her mother Helen (Caroline Goodall).

“The Princess Diaries” was a surprise critical and commercial success, garnering more than $165 million worldwide after its premiere on July 29, 2001. It’s filled with funny one-liners — “I don’t want to rule my own country, I just want to pass the 10th grade!” — apology pizzas topped with M&Ms, a feline sidekick named Fat Louie, probably one of the best makeover scenes of all time and plenty of San Francisco scenery considering the crew only had two and a half weeks to film exterior shots in the city (the rest of production took place in Los Angeles). 

The Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, seen Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Even two decades later, the burgundy-and-white fire house is among one of the most recognizable San Francisco filming locations for “The Princess Diaries.” It helps that a large print next to the front door of the Mission Revival style building bears the painted likenesses of Princess Mia and Princess Leia standing side-by-side — something I noticed when I visited on a recent Wednesday morning.  

The film’s production designer, Mayne Berke, said his team scrutinized all 25 of San Francisco’s vintage fire houses before settling on Engine Company No. 43, not only because it was located at the top of one of the city’s quintessential hills, but also for the reason that it had a tower jutting out of it, evoking a subtly royal look and feel.

A sign outside Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” in the Excelsior District of San Francisco on Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

“After all, she was a princess, and this was her castle,” Berke said with a laugh. The late Garry Marshall, who directed the film, liked the idea so much that he changed a line in the script, said Berke, adding a joke about a frustrated Mia storming off to her tower.

Although the interior scenes were shot on a sound stage in Los Angeles, the space bears a near-identical resemblance, with its high ceilings, a spiral staircase and, of course, the fire pole. 

Not Fat Louie, but Sapphire, one of two cats living inside the Engine 43 art studio, sits in her favorite position on the spiral staircase. 

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

‘There are people taking pictures almost every day’

Hagenstroem has lived in the refurbished fire house  (now the Engine 43 Art Studio) with her husband and 9-year-old son since 2015, but at first she was unaware of its ties to the popular film and was more interested in its origins as a fire house dating back to 1911, when Engine Company No. 43 formed. It was run with horse-drawn carriages that were replaced by engines seven years later, and functioned as a fire house until 1970, when the company relocated. It was then sold to Dr. Steve Shohet as a private residence in a 1976 surplus auction, according to Guardians of the City. Shohet didn’t actually live there, said Hagenstroem, though he did build a sailboat on the empty lot next to it, in addition to hosting several artists for a number of years, including dancers, sculptors and painters. 

When Hagenstroem and her family moved in, they kept the tradition of a communal artists’ space going. The ground floor still serves as a studio today, not unlike the fictional loft where Helen Thermopolis painted, and two artists-in-residence are currently living there — Ryan Smith, a goldsmith and hatmaker, and Anastasia Podlysovka, an architect and painter. 

Artist Ryan Smith makes custom tailored hats inside Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, seen Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Unfortunately, because it’s now a private residence, fans of the movie aren’t allowed to go inside — with the exception of periodic events held by the studio — which many are disheartened to discover, said Smith. 

“One day, there were these people who showed up and wouldn’t stop ringing the doorbell. So I came out and politely had to tell them we don’t do tours. They said, ‘Really? We drove three hours to get here.’ I thanked them for their interest, but it was early on during COVID, and I was in my pajamas just trying to eat my breakfast,” he said with a laugh. 

For the most part, though, fans are polite and respectful, added Podlysovka. 

“There are people coming and taking pictures in front of the house almost every day,” she said. “They’re very sweet.” 

Artist Anastasia Podlysovka’s studio is located at the top of the tower at Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, seen Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Setting the scene in San Francisco

Cabot’s novel was originally set in Manhattan, but director Marshall (“Pretty Woman,” “Beaches”) thought the film was better suited for San Francisco — primarily because he wanted to spend time there with his granddaughters, who were then just 4 years old. Their mother also appears, as well as Marshall’s sister, daughter-in-law and son, who served as a second unit director on the film. In addition to their cameo, his granddaughters also helped with casting and were responsible for choosing Hathaway.

“[Garry] showed them the audition tapes and asked, ‘Who looks the most like a princess?’ They chose Annie because they thought she had the best hair,” Scott Marshall, Garry’s son and a second unit director for the film, said with a laugh. 

Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) faces off with the arm wrestling machine at the Musée Mécanique while Mia (Anne Hathaway) cheers her on in “The Princess Diaries.”

Courtesy of Disney Plus

Several other recognizable locations also played a role in “The Princess Diaries,” like the Musée Mécanique, where the queen faces off with a coin-operated arm wrestling machine as Laffing Sal looks on and cackles. At the time, the attraction was still at Land’s End, and additional scenes were shot near the observation deck at the shuttered Cliff House.

The fictional Grove High School was shot at two locations. For the exterior, they used a mansion at 2601 Lyon St., which belonged to former Giants owner Bob Lurie, said location manager Laurie Noll. 

“It was dumb luck and perfect timing,” she said, adding that he had just moved to Atherton and planned to sell the house shortly after. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Lilly (Heather Matarazzo) chats with Mia (Anne Hathaway) on the roof of the fictional Grove High School in “The Princess Diaries.” 

Courtesy of Disney Plus

Meanwhile, the tennis and basketball courts where Mia and her best friend Lilly (Heather Matarazzo) hang out were shot on the roof of the Hamlin School on Broadway, Garry Marshall told the Chronicle in a 2001 interview (the public is not permitted to visit). And the infamous cable car accident scene was filmed at the intersection of Broadway and Taylor streets.

“I really don’t believe we could have filmed that scene anywhere else,” said Scott Marshall. “The hills were what made filming the movie in San Francisco so fun.”  

Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) pretends to knight a police officer after Mia (Anne Hathaway) accidentally crashes her Mustang into a (fake) cable car. 

Courtesy of Disney Plus

Some scenes were more difficult to shoot than others. Only a few second unit shots were taken at Baker Beach for the high school party scene where Mia is bombarded by the paparazzi.

“The day we scouted it, it was beautiful and warm. Then we came back and realized how cold it could get,” said Berke, laughing. “We shot the rest in Malibu, and the second unit crew told us we made the right choice.”

Mia (Anne Hathaway) and Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) chow down on a corn dog at Lands End. 

Courtesy of Disney Plus

Originally, during the sequence where Mia is showing the queen around San Francisco, the script had them take an elevator up to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. When the crew got there, they realized it only held two people and took 17 minutes to reach the top — not to mention it was rather rickety, said Berke. 

“The wind could blow you right off that thing. I turned to our cinematographer and said, ‘The cast is never coming up here.’” (They opted for the Musée Mécanique instead.) 

Noll remembers filming the scene when Mia is attempting to drive her ’60s Mustang to the coronation, only for it to get stuck on Russian Hill in the rain.

“That was a pretty crazy night. We were making all of this fake rain and shooting until one in the morning,” she said. 

Mia (Anne Hathaway) and Helen Thermopolis (Caroline Goodall) throw darts at paint-filled balloons in a fan-favorite scene of “The Princess Diaries.” 

Courtesy of Disney Plus

But the best story might be one of the film’s most iconic moments, when Mia and her mother spend an evening together shooting darts at paint-filled balloons on a canvas. The crew never tested it beforehand, figuring that if they threw the darts at the balloons, they would pop. 

They didn’t. 

“Annie threw the first dart and it bounced right off the balloon,” said Berke. “So the prop master tried throwing a dart as hard as he could, and again, it bounced off. I got really scared at first — I thought, ‘My god, this was my idea.’” 

In the end, they made the scene happen by having the prop master stand just behind the camera, shooting a BB gun each time the actresses threw a dart.

“It required so many takes,” said Berke, laughing. “We probably spent an hour or two longer on that scene than we should have, but it’s a very fun moment.” 

Of course, I have to ask Hagenstroem if she’s ever tried to replicate the scene at home. She chuckles.

“We haven’t, but we’ve filled water guns with paint and sprayed them on a sheet,” she said. “We decided to create our own twist.”

It’s Excelsior Month at SFGATE. We’ll be diving deep into the neighborhood for the entirety of September as part of a new series where we’ll be highlighting a different corner of San Francisco every month this year. 

The tower on top of Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, seen Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The view from the roof of Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, seen Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Some of the gear artist Carolin Hagenstroem helped created for the Engine 43 art studio, otherwise known as Mia Thermopolis’ house in “The Princess Diaries,” which is in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, on Sept. 15, 2021.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

The post The secrets and techniques of filming ‘The Princess Diaries’ in San Francisco revealed 20 years later appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Most people in the Bay Area are familiar with the oft-repeated fact that the Colma has more corpses than live ones – it’s true and it’s not even close. Established in 1924 as one of the only necropolis in America, the city has a living population of about 1,700, but about 1.5 million corpses.

The reason the small town a few miles south of San Francisco is a large cemetery is because of the mass movement (and rather cruel movement) of bodies that took place a century ago.

But a beautiful San Francisco building tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac north of Golden Gate Park is still a holdover from a time when the city was covered with graves.

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A woman looking west in Odd Fellows Cemetery in the 1900s. The columbarium can be seen on the right.

OpenSFHistory / wnp15.208.jpgshow moreShow less

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The Columbarium, 1 Loraine Court, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamingsshow moreShow less3of3

A “columbarium” is a building that houses cremated remains in memorial niches. Unlike traditional in-ground burials, where a granite headstone may only contain a name and dates, cremation niches display personalities, hobbies, and passions surrounding the urn.

When the San Francisco Columbarium was built in 1897, the great neoclassical depot for human ashes was in Odd Fellows Cemetery, one of four huge cemeteries inside Richmond – Laurel Hill to the north, Odd Fellows to the west, Masonic to the south, and Golgotha ​​to the east . The cemeteries were filled with corpses not long after they were founded, and the columbarium provided an efficient way to house deceased San Franciscans.

If you live in Inner Richmond now, from California to Turk and from Presidio to Parker Avenue, chances are your home is above the final resting place for San Franciscans of yesteryear.

Inner Richmond’s four great cemeteries, seen here on an 1870 map.

Dave Rumsey

Odd Fellows was one of 30 cemeteries in San Francisco at the time – including a Jewish cemetery in what is now Dolores Park, the huge Golden Gate Cemetery near Land’s End, and the city’s first cemetery, Yerba Buena Cemetery, which is located is now Civic Center BART.

1900s San Francisco was not a clean place, and the acres of cemeteries were neither safe nor sanitary. Most of the sites already ran out of room for more bodies, and coffins weren’t always used, leading to some archive reports of children finding body parts while playing among gravestones and mausoleums.

One of the most curious concerns of the residents was the eerie activity in the Chinese cemetery near Point Lobos. History has it that during funerals, Chinese residents often leave delicacies and meat on the tombstones of loved ones to feed the spirits. Opportunistic tramps would walk through the cemetery at night and enjoy the offerings.

Charles Caldwell Dobie’s 1933 book “San Francisco: A Pageant” states: “On a previous day, the cemetery was the meeting place for ghoul-like hoboes who indulged in roast pork and sweets after the mourners disappeared.” This cemetery is now the Lincoln Park Golf Course, and while the flesh-strewn graves have long since disappeared, Chinese gravestones can still be seen on the 1st and 13th fairways.)

The problem became a major controversy at the time, and in 1900 Mayor James D. Phelan signed an order “prohibiting the burial of the dead in the city and county of San Francisco.”

It was officially illegal to be buried in San Francisco. Or as a later examiner story went: “The funeral became as unlawful as peddling drugs on Eddy Street.”

The newspapers wrote of stolen skeletons and the poor city camping about the dead. Column Inch sensationalized the problem in order to promote development in the countryside. Headlines included “Criminal Elements Use Tombs” and even “Vaults Now Headquarters for Drug Addicts”.

View of Lonely Mountain from the Columbarium, San Francisco, 1862.

OpenSFHistory / wnp37.01340.jpg

It took decades of political battles, with real estate developers scrutinizing acres of house-ready land against the church to decide what to do with the cemeteries that had become a nuisance to the city.

It was finally decided to remove the buried bodies from the four major cemeteries outside the city limits, and after many more years of city politics, the ugly process of moving thousands of dead across the city limits into San Mateo County began in the late 1930s.

The cemeteries were paved and built upon at the request of the property developers. The crematorium in Odd Fellows, which hit the Columbarium, was demolished along with various mausoleums. Many of the headstones were used to build a dam in the Aquatic Park, and some still line the sidewalks of Buena Vista Park.

Many corpses were left behind; In 1993, excavations for the renovated Legion of Honor Museum in Land’s End uncovered at least 700 bodies, and it is believed that there are many more under Lincoln Park Golf Course.

Although the columbarium survived the demolition of the cemeteries, the ban on cremation in the city meant the landmark had no means of generating income, and it fell into disrepair for many decades.

In 1972 the auditor wrote about his shabby condition and the lonely janitor watching the urns.

“A white-haired man is sitting behind a desk waiting for the phone to ring … a couple of old pigeon feathers lie next to some metal containers huddled in a corner.” The white-haired man was Claude Fuller, who alone manned the Columbarium’s office part-time, surrounded by tin cans full of ashes in a large, dusty building the city had long forgotten.

“He looks at the clock, yawns and looks out the window in the direction of the Columbarium,” wrote the newspaper, “which also seems to be waiting for the waiting time.”

But the building was again saved for the dead from the fate of the long-forgotten surrounding buildings when the Neptune Society of Northern California purchased it in 1980 and restored it to its present ornate state. And in 1996 the building was added to the register of San Francisco Designated Landmarks.

The Columbarium, 1 Loraine Court, San Francisco.

Andrew Chamings

After much of the coronavirus pandemic closed the Columbarium, it is open to the public again. As you step in, a silence fills the sacred space as the 45-foot rotunda centers the three-story structure above you. Eight rooms surround the main atrium, named after mythological winds.

The urns on display range from the famous music producer Chet Helms to the “Muppets” writer and puppeteer Jerry Juhl to Carlos Santana’s father, the violinist Jose Santana. Six beautiful glass windows with angels and religious figures filter the San Francisco sun into the 123-year-old landmark.

Strolling through the Columbarium and its beautiful memorial garden is perhaps one of the most peaceful things to do in San Francisco today.

It is still illegal to be buried in San Francisco, and the building is one of the few cremation remains in the city.

The hidden landmark is currently available for more remains, but the baroque dome, hidden alcoves, and spiral staircases are likely worth a visit before you die.

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WE NOT IN GENERAL Imagine interior designers who are particularly careful to save their clients money. You’re not bidding on $ 14,000 worth of antique Hungarian chairs or gilding the undersides of piano benches unless you are working for someone with a bottomless bench, right? In fact, designers are often asked to keep an eye on the left side of the ledger – without letting the cost cut down. So 14 of them have skillfully maintained high standards of style using strategies that are economical enough that you can try them out for yourself.

Find free art

At the home of an adventurous family in Orinda, California, designer in San Francisco Kriste Michelini I haven’t invested in expensive art and have authentic surfboards displayed all over the house. “They are the perfect work of art for this beach-loving family who wanted a casual and relaxed atmosphere,” she said.

Semi-Customize Curtains

“I re-used the Pottery Barn linen curtains by adding quality trimmings,” he said Christine Markatos Lowe. The designer from Santa Monica, California hired an upholsterer to lay a light gray modern lace from Samuel and Sons on a blue-gray linen ribbon, and then edged the ivory-colored curtains with the combination. “They looked all made to measure.”

Open dramatic doors

“Color is a necessary finish and an underrated wand,” said Phil Mahlathe New York company Belsey & Mahla. On the doors, architect Benjamin Moore’s New York State of Mind, a deep blue, “used a standard interior design component to make it special,” he said. “A fully saturated shade becomes neutral, and doorknobs, on the other hand, look beautiful.”

Find a finished mural

“We used an old opera stage set that I found at auction instead of the scenic wallpaper we wanted to do,” he said Anne Rainey Rokahr, from Trouvaille Home in Winston-Salem, NC “Cost: $ 400.”

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