The Zoo

The San Francisco Zoo is celebrating its 80th year. If you visit the website, you can see historic photos and videos and download the latest annual report which has a lot of great photos in it.

There will be a historical tour on August 1st. You can meet the author of the new book about the zoo. I bought my copy of "Images of America: San Francisco Zoo" by Katherine Girlich in the gift shop. It will be carried at bookstores, too. I enjoyed all the photos, some of them jarred long buried memories, like the trash cans with the enormous animal heads.


New at the Zoo, as part of their conservation and historical focus, is one of the 1906 Earthquake shacks. You can read all about them and the preservation efforts of the Western Neighborhoods Project here.



There have been so many changes at the zoo. There are a lot of things I miss. One day I will have been using the "new" entrance longer than I ever used the old one, but it will never be the same.

I took this shot of the Mother's building last Fall.


Like many people I have mixed feelings about zoos. Some argue that kids can see wildlife on television, so we no longer need to keep animals in captivity for them to experience. Some of the photos of animals make me sad, as do my memories of the old small cat cages.

I do know that the changes I lament about the zoo are made in large part to improve the animals' surroundings. There is still a lot to be done. I'll miss the old buildings, they are so tied to my childhood memories.

An inexpensive ($3.50) book published by the zoo in 2004 is for sale in the gift shop. It is only 32 pages long, but well worth the cost. It has color photos, and are not all the same as the Arcadia Publishing book.

More Weather Vanes

Ship in the fog on Kirkham. Check out the rigging.

Fowl:


Just passing through?


And a final vessel heading west.

Sidewalk Sightings

I took a good long walk in the Inner Sunset and Golden Gate Heights yesterday. On a tip from reader (thanks!) I snapped this at Noriega and 11th Avenue. Noriega comes in at a funny angle and there are really only three corners at this intersection. Noriega is spelled correctly on one.


This is a new to me concrete contractor. It reads: M. THIDE CONCTRACTOR 376 22nd AVE. This mark is on the 1800 block of 9th Ave.

This next may be of interest to reader CM whose grandfather, EJ Brown, was a contractor. I have spotted a bunch of "DC McCabe and Sons" marks in the Outer Sunset. They are listed in the 1938 phone book at the McCall building.

This sewer cover is the first I have see of "McCabe & Brown". I wonder if they were partners and later McCabe went out on his own? There were two of these on 9th Avenue. The bottom says "1st NATL-BK-BDG"


I took tons of photos of sewer covers with names I hadn't seen before. That will be a later posting. This F. Nelson cover is on the block of 16th Ave between Judah & Kirkham that is full of Crafstman homes.

Although the house it is in front of is not that style. It is across the street from these:

Cousins in the Richmond

I finally stopped to take pictures of three buildings on outer Fulton. They have the same detail as some buildings on Judah.









I often wonder if houses in the Richmond and Sunset with similar details were built by the same companies, or if the builders just shopped at the same decoration supplier.

Here is the post about the 31st & Judah versions.


I like the place where these two meet.













And this one is a different layout, but it has the same detail across the top.

29th Ave

I was walking down 29th Ave the other day to find this house. It is a cousin to one of my favorites.


I love pink, but this is one case where the color doesn't do the house justice.

(No, the Photoshop Fairy has not visited my computer yet).


I think there is another house in this style at about 15th and Rivera.

Also passed the corner of "z9th" and Ortega.

Looking Down

Here are some things on the sidewalks here and there.

This looks like a sunrise to me:


I've been meaning to get pics of the giant footprints on Irving at 32nd for a long time. I'm glad I did, they are really faded.

I thought that they had been around since I was a kid, but I see they are on a ramp, so that means they aren't that old.

And finally, here is 15th and Judah. On this corner we have an "S" standing in for the "5".

On on this side an upside-down reversed "2", I think.

Weather Vanes of the Sunset

Here's a collection of weather vanes I have seen in my travels around the neighborhood. I think some of them are quite jaunty.

This one is on Parkway Terrace:


This one is on 34th Ave:


I didn't take note of the locations of the rest.