San Francisco – Mission Dolores Cemetery, City College of San Francisco & Balboa Reservoir: May 2018

Click on an image to see the full-size photograph.

This is a view of Aptos Middle School. The school is located in the Mount Davidson Manor neighborhood.

This gate is sited at the main entryway to the St. Francis Wood neighborhood. It is located on St. Francis Boulevard.

This is a view looking through a chain link fence at a portion of the Mission Dolores Cemetery; it is the oldest remaining burial ground in the city. 


Mission San Francisco de Asís is the building on the left; it is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. Mission Dolores Cemetery is located to the left of the building. Mission Dolores Basilica is the ornate building on the right.


Bernal Heights Park is ahead. The picture was taken from Corona Heights Park. The view is looking southeast.

This is McLaren Lodge. It was built in 1896 to be the home of John McLaren, the San Francisco Park Superintendent. John McLaren lived here for forty-seven years. The building is now administrative headquarters of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department; it is located in Golden Gate Park. The building is San Francisco Landmark #175.


This is a view of apartment buildings located on Parnassus Avenue at Cole Street. This area is in the Cole Valley neighborhood.


The northern flank of Tank Hill and Sutro Tower both overlook this scene.

Here is a view of downtown San Francisco as seen from Corona Heights Park.

This delightful house is located on Upper Terrace Road in the Ashbury Heights neighborhood. The cross street is Masonic Avenue. 

This apartment building is located on Ocean Avenue in the Balboa Park neighborhood. It is also the current location of the "Deli Man" grocery store.

This is one of the classroom buildings sited on the campus of Balboa High School. The school was founded in 1928, and construction was completed in 1931. The campus is located in the Mission Terrace neighborhood. 

This picture was taken from Balboa Park. The building with the orange roof ahead on the left is the City of San Francisco Ingleside Police Station. The view is looking north, and Mount Davidson overlooks the scene.

This is a picture taken from the campus of City College of San Francisco. The school, named initially San Francisco Junior College, was officially opened on 26 August 1935.

This is a view of Mount Davidson, 928 feet (283 meters). It is the highest natural point in San Francisco. This view, looking north, was taken from the campus of the City College of San Francisco.

This is the Star of the Sea Catholic Church. It is located on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District.

This lovely home is sited on St. Francis Boulevard in the St. Francis Wood neighborhood.

This view is looking down the Saturn Street Steps.


Here is a view looking up the Vulcan Street Steps.


This flower garden is adjacent to the Vulcan Street Steps. 

An apartment building located at the intersection of Belvedere Street and Alma Street in the Cole Valley neighborhood. The view is looking west.

This is a two image panoramic photograph of San Francisco as seen from Mount Davidson, 928 feet (283 meters). The view is looking northeast.

This is a view of Mount Davidson as seen from Balboa Reservoir. The area of land in San Francisco known as Balboa Reservoir may have been what the Grateful Dead were referring to when they recorded What a long strange trip it's been. To attempt to understand the strange and convoluted history of Balboa Reservoir I suggest that you review this excellent three-part detailed history: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Here is another view of Balboa Reservoir.

This is a new San Francisco Municipal Railway Siemens light rail vehicle. The Siemens cars are being manufactured in Sacramento, California. They are slowly replacing the Breda light rail vehicles which have been used by the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency for the last 23 years. This picture was taken at the West Portal station. 

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange 

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt

The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs that were posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view those photos.

   A Sony camera was used to take these photographs.

Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com

A foggy San Francisco, plus Tilden Regional Park & Vollmer Peak: May, 2018

Click on an image to see the full-size photograph.

A view looking north from the summit of Tank Hill. Ahead is St. Ignatius Church and the campus of the University of San Francisco.

This scene is looking east from Corona Heights Park. Potrero Hill is ahead, as is the Mission District of San Francisco.

A photo of the Interior Greenbelt of Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve. This picture was taken from Tank Hill, and the view is looking west.


This is a view looking down the north side of Tank Hill. The intersection of Belvedere Street and Carmel Street is hidden behind the tree growth.


This scene is looking east from Corona Heights Park.


This photo was taken from Tank Hill. Ahead is Kite Hill, and upper Market Street. The view is looking south.

A view from Tank Hill looking northeast. Frontward from left to right are Mount Olympus, Buena Vista Park, and Corona Heights Park.

A view looking north from Tank Hill. Ahead is the eastern portion of Golden Gate Park, and also the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. The hilly area in the distance is the site of the Presidio of San Francisco, a military post that has served under three flags: Spain, Mexico, and the United States. 


This is the same view from Tank Hill as seen in the photo just above. This image was taken when the area was under a dense fog cover.


Here is a three-image panoramic photo of San Francisco looking northeast. The picture was taken from Corona Heights Park.

This recently constructed building is located in Berkeley. It was erected by the University of California, Berkeley to be the new home for the Department of Psychology. 

This is the principal entrance to the new building.


This is a scene of Berkeley looking southeast. The photo was taken from Albany Hill.

This is a view looking south from the summit of Vollmer Peak 1,905 feet (581 meters). Vollmer Peak is the highest point in the Berkeley Hills. The peak was known as Bald Peak until the late 1950s; the name was changed in honor of August Vollmer (1876–1955), the first police chief of Berkeley. 
Unexpected changes took place on Vollmer Peak in the 1950s and 1960s due to the Cold War. 
In 1954 the summit became the site of a US Army 90mm anti-aircraft gun battery. Battery A of the 728th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion was positioned on Vollmer Peak. Soldiers from the California Army National Guard manned the anti-aircraft gun site.
In the late 1950s, the anti-aircraft guns were removed, and Vollmer Peak became the location of a Nike missile radar data acquisition installation known as SF-08C. There were approximately 265 Nike missile sites at strategic locations throughout the US. 


This is a view looking east from the summit of Vollmer Peak; Mount Diablo is visible in the distance. I believe that the windowless concrete building seen in this picture was the location of the SF-08C Nike missile radar data acquisition site. There were three radar antennas positioned around the summit of Vollmer Peak. The radar antennas were scanning the sky and recording the locations of planes that were over the Pacific Ocean and traveling east, towards the San Francisco Bay Area. The aircrafts had to identify themselves while they were over the ocean. If they were not identified, they would be closely monitored. The radar data was transmitted from this building via a wireless microwave transmission system to a missile launching site located approximately four miles north of Vollmer Peak.
The SF-08L & SF-09L Nike missile launching site contained two batteries, each battery had twelve missile launching positions. Twenty-four Nike surface-to-air missiles could be launched simultaneously from the launching site. The missiles were designed to stop enemy aircraft from entering United States airspace.


Here is a view of Briones Reservoir. The view is looking northeast.


This is a picture of Mount Diablo, 3,849 feet (1,173 meters). The view is looking east.


A view looking north, San Pablo Reservoir is ahead.


Mount Tamalpais  2,571 feet (784 meters), is visible across San Francisco Bay. 
The former site of the Richmond Kaiser Shipyard, a World War II Liberty Ship & Victory Ship construction facility is also visible. The Richmond shipyard, with the explicit approval of President Roosevelt, began building vessels in December 1940. The shipyard at that time was constructing cargo ships for the British government. This was during an early phase of World War II; Nazi German U-boats were destroying many British cargo ships. 
There were eventually four Kaiser shipyards in Richmond; the shipyards were operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the duration of World War II. By 1944 the shipyards employed more than 100,000 workers, and the workers, many of whom were women, rapidly built 747 vessels during the war. 
The Richmond Kaiser Shipyard built more ships during World War II than any other shipyard. The shipyard ceased operation after the Japanese government unconditionally surrendered on 2 September 1945. This view is looking west.


A view looking north from Tilden Regional Park. The Seaview Trail is visible along the ridgetop.


Here is a vista of the east side of Grizzly Peak, 1,758 feet ( 536 meters). 

This is an Echeveria 'Mauna Loa' succulent plant; it is native to Mexico.

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange 

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt

The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs that were posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view those photos.

   A Sony camera was used to take these photographs.

Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com

San Francisco – Tank Hill, Buena Vista Park, Mount Olympus, Corona Heights Park & Glen Canyon Park: April 2018

Click on an image to see the full-size photograph.

This is a view from Mount Olympus looking west. Tank Hill is the treeless hill visible on the left, and Mount Sutro is the treed hill on the right.

Here is a view of the north side of the summit of Mount Olympus. 
.


This view is looking southeast from the summit of Mount Olympus.

This is a view from Corona Heights Park. The treed area on the left is Buena Vista Park. The pale pink building ahead is the second iteration of St. Joseph's Hospital. The hospital was founded by the Catholic Church at this location in 1899. This building opened in 1928. It accepted patients regardless of religion or nationality and was known as the working man's hospital. The hospital permanently closed in 1979 due to a decrease in the number of patients, and the concern about the vulnerability of the building in case of a massive earthquake. The building has since been structurally strengthened, and it is now a residential condominium community known as Park Hills Condominiums. This view is looking north.

Here is a view looking north from the summit of Buena Vista Park. The Marin Headlands and Mount Tamalpais are visible in the distance.

This is a view of Corona Heights Park as seen from Park Hills Avenue. The picture is looking south.

A scene from near the summit of Corona Heights Park. The view is looking northeast.

This is a view looking west from Corona Heights Park. A portion of Twin Peaks is visible on the left, and Mount Sutro can be seen on the right.


This is another view from near the summit of Corona Heights Park. This view is looking east.


This was the site of a brickmaking factory when Corona Heights Park was known as Rocky Hill. The factory was established in 1899. The factory buildings were destroyed during the 1906 earthquake; the factory was promptly rebuilt.

 
This is a view from Corona Heights Park looking south.

This picture of Corona Heights Park was photographed from the intersection of Eureka Street and 19th Street; the view is looking north.

In 1848 gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. People quickly traveled to California with expectations of finding gold. Men initially used picks and axes to remove gold from the land. In 1867 Alfred Nobel invented the blasting explosive known as dynamite, which became the widely used method to separate gold from the earth. 
On 19 March 1868, Alfred Nobel personally licensed the Giant Powder Company of San Francisco to produce and distribute dynamite to the companies and individuals who were searching for gold in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The gold diggings were approximately 150 miles east of San Francisco. The Giant Powder Company built the first dynamite factory in San Francisco's Glen Canyon. Less than two years after Giant Powder Company began production of dynamite, a massive explosion destroyed the factory and killed two men and injured nine people working in the factory. 
The Giant Powder Company manufacturing facility was moved to Fleming Point near Berkeley in 1879. In January 1883  there was a massive explosion at the Fleming Point factory. 37 Chinese workers, in addition to the assistant superintendent, were killed in the explosions. 
This is how the New York Times reported the 1883 explosions: 
"There was a terrific explosion this morning at the works of the Giant Powder Company in West Berkeley across the bay from San Francisco. Seven distinct shocks were felt, and 300 tons of giant powder brought death and destruction to the immediate neighborhood and caused great damage to Oakland and San Francisco. People for some moments, in both cities, were panic-stricken." 
The factory buildings were rebuilt, and production continued at Fleming Point for approximately a decade before yet another explosion occurred at the Fleming Point site on 9 July 1892. The general foreman later claimed that the explosion involved more than one million pounds of explosives. This is how the New York Times reported the 9 July 1892 explosion:
"Immediately after the explosion, the town of West Berkeley from a distance resembled the site of an actual volcano. Dozens of private houses in the vicinity were partially destroyed and all along the road from Oakland to West Berkeley Station were damaged buildings." 
Five men were killed, and more than a dozen people were injured. The Giant Powder Company Fleming Point manufacturing facility was then closed. The manufacturing operation was then moved to Point Pinole, an isolated area located north of Berkeley. Numerous explosions also occurred at Point Pinole. In 1960 the Giant Powder Company ceased making dynamite.

This is a late 19th Century advertisement from the Giant Powder Company.

This was the site of the original Giant Powder Company dynamite manufacturing factory. It is now a playground located in the lower area of Glen Canyon Park. The recreation center building seen in the photo was constructed by the Works Progress Administration in 1937.

This is a view from Glen Canyon Park looking north.

Here is a view looking south.

This is a view from Glen Canyon Park looking west. Ahead is Mount Davidson, 928 feet (283 meters), the highest natural point in San Francisco.


This is a view looking north from the top of Glen Canyon Park. Sutro Tower is seen ahead. 


This is a scene from a playground located in the Sunnyside neighborhood of San Francisco.


Here is a view looking southwest from the Sunnyside neighborhood of San Francisco.


This is a view of San Bruno Mountain. The picture is looking south, and it was taken from Yerba Buena Avenue. 


This photo was taken on the grounds of San Francisco State University. This library building is the current home of the Adolph Sutro library.


The next three photographs are of houses located in the St Francis Wood neighborhood of San Francisco.


St Francis Wood.


St Francis Wood.

This is a flowering Leucospermum Pincushion plant; it is native to southern Africa.

"A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.” Dorothea Lange 

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important." Henri Carter-Bresson

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." Ansel Adams

"The important thing is not the camera but the eye." Alfred Eisenstaedt

The first volume of the San Francisco Bay Area Photo Blog contains galleries of photographs that were posted on the Internet between 2002 and 2011. Click Here to view those photos.

   A Sony camera was used to take these photographs.

Question or comment? I may be reached at neil@mishalov.com