WPA

I want to thank Donald for waking me out of my blog fog. He pointed me to this photo on Caliber. Interesting theory about why names are stamped on San Francisco streets.

Back in January I walked the length of 36th Ave. and found a bunch of concrete markings.

A couple weeks later I decided to check out 37th Ave., just curious if the other side of Sunset Boulevard was poured by the same people. The coolest thing I found was a Works Progress Association stamp from 1941. First I've seen of these. I almost walked right over the first one because it was filled with dirt. I spent quite a while using a stick to clean it out enough to decode it, only to find several nice clean ones further down the street.


These are between Lawton and Ortega. I didn't find any other new marks on 37th Ave.

Bonanza

Well, it's a bonanza if you are interested in cement markings on the west side of San Francisco. Someday they will all be gone, victims of renovations and improvements. I have a feeling when the majority of the houses in the neighborhood start turning a hundred years old there will be more interest in who built this side of town.

I walked down almost the entire length of 36th Ave and onto Ocean Ave heading east, and found a bunch of new markings.

First up "A. B. Rilovich Cement Contractor San Francisco" at 36th and Lawton:


Next, "P.R. Kelly 1947" at 36th and Pacheco:


"Meyer Rosenberg Contractor San Francisco 1931" was in a couple spots at 36th & Santiago:

"Eaton S. Smith 1931" at 36th & Ulloa. The first time I have seen the contractor name with the street name:


Nobody but maybe one or two people who read this blog will understand my excitement for what I found at Wawona: "THIRTYSIXTH AVE" and "Meyer Rosenberg Contractor San Francisco 1931", twice. You can see the date didn't fit below the name on the curb, so it is sideways. I guess it makes sense that the name iron and date would be separate, I just never thought of it before:


Somewhere in there was a G A Love and Sons mark, like I had seen right on Sunset.

Finally we head to Lakeshore Park / Merced Manor.

I think this "Bay Concrete Co. 1931" is the only one I've seen on the side of a curb, found on Ocean at Melba:


While not a marking, I like that they saved this "TWENTY SECOND AVE" which has particularly large letters, when they put in the corner ramp. Not a great photo, but there is new cement on three sides of this:


I almost forgot, here are a couple I found on a bike ride the other day:

19th and Sloat: "A. B. Rilovich San Francsico CAL". Different from the mark in the first photo of this post.


Dewey at Pacheco: "1932 Love & Haun Concrete Construction 1354 20th St. SF 1932":

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:

Union Builders

I came across a couple more new (to me) marks in the sidewalk last week. I didn't take notes but they are in the 1400 block of either 22nd, 23rd, or 24th Aves.

Here's the first, a contractor's name I haven't seen before and couldn't read.


A little further down the block MJ Lynch turned up again, this time up against the competition, D.C. McCabe and Sons.

The block had quite a few McCabe marks.


Across the street I found this Union marking. There was no contractor's name marked along with it.


I can't quite make it all out. It looks like:

UNION MADE
S - 70 - F
LOCAL [3 or N]01 REG

First, I'm quite sure the "70" is not a year. The houses it was in front of didn't appear to built or remodeled in 1970. And I can't imagine them making a new iron every year. I'm not really up on union names and numbers so I searched the web a bit. Today there is a cement mason's union 300 in San Francisco, and the Teamster's local in Oakland is #70.

One of these days I'm going to look through old phone books at the Main Library and search for contractors, builders, and unions.

Out and About

Just a couple things I saw today.
A really bright house:


I don't know if you can see, but the shingles are kind of orange.


I hadn't seen this imprint before. It's on Irving at 11th.

Speaking of contractors, be on the lookout for "EJB". A reader's grandfather was a contractor, and she is lucky enough to still have the imprint iron. I haven't seen that particular mark yet.

Lincoln Way Viaduct

I walk under the viaduct that crosses Lincoln Way at Sunset quite often to go into the park. It is kind of creepy right underneath it. Hollow spaces that pigeons live in. Heck, I think you could toss a whole body up there.


It's kind of moldy, too.


From afar it does have a certain grace of shape.



The railings remind me of Golden Gate Bridge. See that little outcropping?


Here's what it looks like on top.


And the view from above.


There are a couple mysteries. What used to be here on the top of the outcropping?


And was this a light?

I couldn't find any old pictures of it. I did find this photo from 1932 showing the Sloat & Sunset viaduct, in the Library's collection. They have quite a few showing the construction, too.

I'm guessing it was built around the same time, as I found this impression on the sidewalk of the bridge.

Concerte Contractors

A few weeks ago I realized I was wrong about the location of this concrete imprint. You will also remember I was lamenting the fact that they aren't as plentiful as I remembered.

Well, I hit the jackpot on the 1400 block of 33rd Avenue. I found both the location of my mis-labeled mark and quite a few others.

On the west side of the street I found these two "?. SARTORIO 1938 S.F.". Or is the second one 1920-something? I can't tell.

Also on the west side were are at least two "D.C. McCABE & SON CONTRACTORS"

Over on the east side of the block D.C. McCabe or his son went a little crazy:


This is the only one I've seen imprinted at an angle:

More Sidewalk Markings

Since my last post I decided to focus on these concrete contractor markings. It really has to be a conscious decision to constantly look down at the sidewalk instead of up while walking.

I had to run an errands near 30th and Ortega and 22nd and Irving yesterday. I walked from home to both of those and back. I didn't see a single one.

What's the deal? Where did they go? Here are my theories:

There weren't that many to start with. It was just a warped kid's memory.
There were more in the Inner Sunset
They have been eradicated due to the curb cut-ins for ramps at the corners
They have been eradicated by utilities work

I had noticed one along Sunset last week, so I took my camera out and hunted these up:

This is at Santiago and Sunset:

And Pacheco and Sunset:


I think the ramp theory is most likely. These are both on the "bridle path" side of Sunset, where several intersections don't have ramps. (Edited 3/24/08 - this marking is also on the center islands and west side of Sunset)

I'm going to investigate further. My husband said he saw Lawrence Kornfield, the chief Building Inspector, talk about these and the plates and such on SFGov TV.

Possible New Obsession

Walking with a toddler reminds me of when I was little. Closer to the ground everything looked different. I happened to see this imprint and flashed back to when I was a kid and tried to count all the different names I could find in my neighborhood. Maybe it's time to do it again.


This is at the corner of 32nd and Judah Edited May 26, 2008 on 33rd Ave between Judah & Kirkham.