Lincoln Highway: San Francisco History You Didn’t Know Was There

If you’ve been to visit the fine art treasures at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor, you’ve been to the western terminus of the first transcontinental automobile road in the United States, but probably did not know it. Lincoln Highway, where the museum is located, once spanned 3,389 miles across the nation. It was the first paved road across America, linking San Francisco’s Lincoln Park to New York’s Times Square at 42nd Street.

 From the Atlantic to the Pacific

Just where the parking lot of the Legion of Honor meets the grass of the Lincoln Golf Course, see a Lincoln Highway marker indicating the end of that two-lane transcontinental road. It displays a Lincoln portrait medallion that looks just like a big penny set into the cement post. A small plaque reads, “This Highway Dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.”

Discover the Lincoln Highway, Main Street Across America,  on its 100th anniversary in 2013.  More ->

The western terminus of the Lincoln Highway in San Francisco

 

San Francisco Legends: The Folgers Coffee Company

Long before Starbucks, Peet’s and the rest, there was a 15-year-old entrepreneur named James A. Folger who headed out west from Nantucket, Massachusetts in the company of his two older brothers with their gold mining intentions. James did not initially make it to the mining towns for lack of funds, but did connect with a partner to help build a mill for processing coffee beans, a new luxury in San Francisco.

“The best part of waking up…”

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Folgers, former headquarters 101 Howard Street, San Francisco

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San Francisco Legends: What is the WaaTeeKaa Train?

WaaTeeKaa Museum in San Francisco

Perhaps you’ve stumbled across this tiny museum, which is actually an historic railway car sitting on the brick plaza in front of the Bechtel Corporate Headquarters at 50 Beale Street near Market Street.

Biggest and smallest

While Bechtel is America’s largest engineering company known for some of the world’s biggest projects, including the construction of the Hoover Dam, the Channel Tunnel, Hong Kong International Airport, the Bay Bridge and BART, this museum is perhaps San Francisco’s smallest.  Admission is free.

Why an old railway car?

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Historical markers in San Francisco’s Financial District

In San Francisco’s Financial District, stumble across 11 historical markers relating to state and city history within two-tenths of a mile. A worthwhile exercise, made a great deal easier by having a list of locations to hand. Not surprisingly, markers are often overlooked but do offer an encapsulated historical insight of widely varied events in San Francisco’s history. Begin in Commercial Street near Montgomery Street in the heart of the Financial District.

Find them! 

Site of the First U.S. Branch Mint in San Francisco

San Francisco Legends: Who Was Juan Bautista de Anza?

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, U.S. National Park Service

San Franciscans would be familiar with the name. In tribute to him, de Anza crops up here and there in town and street names, statues, schools, a college, parks and even a National Historic Trail from San Francisco to the Arizona-Mexican border. In fact, Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto is considered to be the first European to see San Francisco Bay. But, who was Juan Bautista de Anza?

Early Alta California

Born in 1735 in Fronteras, in the Mexican State of Sonora, that makes de Anza a contemporary of George Washington. De Anza has another tie to George Washington and the colonialists in significant dates.

Who was he and what happened in 1776?

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San Francisco Legends: Who Was Thomas Starr King?

Even those who have lived a lifetime in San Francisco may not have noticed a small street with the unusual name of Starr King Way located between Gough and O’Farrell near where Geary Boulevard changes its name to Geary Street. It’s tucked away behind the First Unitarian Universalist Church where one’s attention may be drawn to the plaque, a corner statue and sarcophagus, perhaps while en route to nearby Whole Foods.

Thomas Starr King Was Just a Slender Boy

Born in New York City in 1824, eldest of six, he called Boston home and did not make it to San Francisco until the age of 36, less than four years before his death from pneumonia brought on by diptheria in those pre-vaccination days. A slim youth barely five feet tall with a powerful oratory voice,Thomas Starr King spent virtually no time in San Francisco, but he became a local legend before he died, frail and exhausted from tireless work, at age 39. According to the Harvard Square Library, San Francisco was draped in black, flags were flown at half-mast and there was an outpouring of grief at his premature passing.

Who Was He?  

Thomas Starr King gravesite in San Francisco

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Free Guided Walking Tours in San Francisco – Just Show Up!

San Francisco City Guides is Your Host

Since 1978, local volunteers have donated their time, energy and expertise to San Francisco City Guides, escorting visitors and residents on free themed walking tours throughout San Francisco. The tours are well-researched and enthusiastically shared by those who love the City by the Bay and her charms, history, lore and legends. There are 30 different tours offered each month, nearly 100 different tours are offered in all by 200 volunteer guides with topics ranging from “Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco” to “Victorian San Francisco”.

Read how to join your choice of tour: http://bit.ly/rzlx1K

In San Francisco 75 Years Ago

75 Years Ago in San Francisco: The History of Laurel Heights and Laurel Hills Cemetery

In 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge Opened and Laurel Hills Cemetery Closed

Nearly 75 years ago on May 27 – Jun 2, 1937 there was held a week-long celebration known as the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta. “There’s No Delay The Gate Bridge Way” screamed the newspaper headlines, as they charged a rather hefty $.50 per car for a celebratory bridge crossing.  During that same 1937 summer, city planners were involved in a very different sort of project a couple of miles away, across town to the south.  They called this large tract of land ‘the silent city’, marble strewn about and left in fields of untended wild daisies, cows grazing.

Local History on Yahoo!

Final resting places of 110,000 were moved (photo: Morguefile.com)