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:

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.

Saturday Sidewalks

Here are a few additions to the cement archives from my morning walk:

What's curious is these letters are much smaller than normal. They are in the old-fashioned typeface, but in a newer ramp at 32nd Ave.


I have walked over this name on 32nd Ave. at least fifty times but never noticed the extra "I" in "Kirkham" until today:


I like how someone was cognizant of the fact that the "nd" "st" should be small letters, and attempted to have them make more sense by superscripting them.

12th & Judah

Sometimes it is just too easy. I went to the Cheese Shop at 12th and Irving and walked up to catch the N. While I was waiting I looked down and saw a two-fer:

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.

Saturday Stroll

I walked down Lincoln today and found that some of my favorite misspellings have, indeed, been eradicated. Here's a photo I took a couple weeks ago at 32nd Ave.


Did I ever post LIN"G"OLN?


Well, it's gone now, with this in it's place.


At my destination, 22nd and Irving, I spotted this addition to the named apartments:


Not sure where the "plaza" is, but here's the building, circa 1965.

26th and Moraga

Remember when I said that it was rare to see the same misspelled street name on all four corners of an intersection? Well, I was at the corner of "Z6" and Moraga toady and guess what?

This last one is really weird. It looks like the "Z" was initially left off, giving the opportunity to put in a "2". Instead, yet another Z was scratched in.

I also said that Moorish arches are rare in the Sunset. Not so much it seems. Here they are mixed with faux half-timbers.


Here's the reason I was at 26th and Moraga.


Another curlicue (more here and here):

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.