RON HENGGELER

San Francisco, 1908. "Boxer Stanley Ketchel at wheel of American Underslung auto with manager Britt Willis." Both of whom would be dead not long after this photo was made -- middleweight champion Ketchel (the "Michigan Assasssin") fatally shot in a training-camp robbery in 1910, and Willis the victim of a "violent stomach hemorrhage" in 1909. Their car, an American Underslung, was among the first to employ the now-universal dropped frame, with the bottom of the car below the axles. 6½ x 8½ glass negative by Dana Studio, from the collection of George Whitney Jr. (1922-2002), owner of the Cliff House restaurant. View full size.

San Francisco circa 1915. "Sutro Baths. Spectator's view to Small Pools." 1970s copy negative of an image formerly of the Martin Behrman, Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections.View full image.

 

San Francisco. 1918. "Buick at Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park." Domina­trix footwear on the left. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

Circa 1918. "Federal truck -- San Francisco Casket Co." Makers of the box you'll go in. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/20422?size=_original#caption

"Truck -- Federal, 1918." Outside the premises of the Serbo-Croatian Produce Company somewhere in San Francisco. 5x7 inch glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1918. "Studebaker sedan off Great Highway at Ocean Beach." In the background, below the Sutro Heights observatory and parapet, is the future site of Playland Amusement Park. 5x7 glass negative.View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1919. "Federal truck -- Breuner's van." Delivering the goods for a furniture retailer that got its start in the California Gold Rush, declared bankruptcy in 2004 and reconstituted itself as an online business. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1919. "Cadillac touring car and sedan." Touring a veritable wonderland of chalk art. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1919. "Cadillac touring car at marina." Putting rubber to the road with a variety of treads. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.View full image.

San Francisco circa 1919. "Truck moving house" ("Vista Grande"). Even for 1919, this rig looks ancient. Note the soapbox racer on skate wheels. 5x7 glass negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1919. "Briscoe auto at Lands End." Latest entry in the Shorpy Dossier of Dead-Ends. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.View full image.

 

1919. "Paige touring car at San Francisco Golf Club." When a Caddy just isn't enough. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1919. "Nash touring car." Across from the pool hall, taking delivery of some apple crates and an Edison Electric Something-or-Other. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1919. "Shell Oil Co. service station No. 27." Filling something with something, and smoke 'em if you got 'em. 5x7 inch glass negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections.View full image.

 

San Francisco City Hall circa 1919. "Peerless truck." Three young ladies aboard what seems to be some sort of street-cleaning, finger-ripping machine. Hide your children and stand clear! 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1919. "Franklin Brougham." A car with an air-cooled engine and unusual veed windshield. Latest entry in the Shorpy Catalog of Quirky Conveyances. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1920. "Haynes touring car leaving garage." Riding on Gruss Air Springs. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1920. "Franklin car ascending steep grade." Bonus points if you can Street View this. 8.5 x 6.5 negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1920. Three gents in a dusty touring car with Arkansas and Colorado tags (and Yellowstone National Park windshield pass) are the stars of this 5x7 glass negative with the caption "Studebaker. Chester N. Weaver Co., S.E. corner Van Ness & California. Remodeled and occupied by Crocker-Citizens' Bank in 1967." Photo by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1920. "Atterbury truck at City Hall." Looking somewhat skeletal if you ask us. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/19637?size=_original#caption

San Francisco circa 1920. "Chalmers touring car on Van Ness Avenue." At F.J. Linz Motor Co., your Scripps-Booth dealer. With a streetcar squeezing by. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

"San Francisco, 1920. Hudson touring car." Owned by F.W.P., idling in front of the imposing edifice at 1150 Anonymous Avenue. 5x7 glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1921. "Sonora Fire Dept. (Tuolumne County) REO truck at Engine Company No. 15 firehouse, California Street." 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

"REO Speedwagon grocery truck, San Francisco, 1921." Compare with our previous Speedwagon. Glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1921. "Antique Cadillacs -- still running." On the left, a 1902 Cadillac that's nineteen years old, if you can believe it. Next to mere sixteener with 200k miles on the clock that seems to be in far worse shape. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1921. "Saxon auto and fishing boats." Another automotive brand not long for this earth. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1921. "Sonora Fire Dept. (Tuolumne County) REO trucks at Engine Company No. 15 firehouse, California Street." Our second look at No. 2 and our first look at No. 1. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1921. "Marmon dual-cowl landaulet at Spreckels Mansion." A car that looks like it's been around the block a few times. Latest entry in the Shorpy Catalogue of Creaky Conveyances. 5x7 glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1921. "Sonora Fire Dept. (Tuolumne County) REO trucks at Engine Company No. 15 firehouse, California Street." Firemen and their machines, and one other guy off to the right. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1922. "Army car with carriage-mounted searchlight." A military-grade Cadillac at the Presidio next to an aircraft hangar. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1922. "Fageol truck on construction ramp." Flintstones-era dumper with solid rubber tires. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1922. "Cliff House road construction, view of Sutro Heights and Playland amusement park." 6x8 inch glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1922. "Ice-packed Buick motor stunt." A demonstration of the "Heat Control Carburetor." 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1923. "Nash sedan at Spreckels Mansion." With Alcatraz in the distance. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1923. "Fageol motor truck -- G.W. Thomas Drayage & Rigging." And their little dog, too, along with a liberal sprinkling of totlets. 6½ x 8½ glass negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1924. "Buick sedan at Lafayette Park -- costumes." If only some of that style would rub off on the car. 5x7 glass negative. View full size.

 

San Francisco circa 1924. "Oldsmobile sedan." Ready to waft Milady to her club luncheon or favorite speakeasy. 5x7 inch glass negative. View full image.

 

1925. "REO coupe overlooking San Francisco Bay, Embarcadero piers and Yerba Buena Island." Plus an unintentional shadow-selfie. 5x7 glass negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1924. "Lady greasing Oldsmobile sedan." A pioneer of Women's Lubrication. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

The smallest automobile in the world –- Designed and built by Gus Petzel of Alameda, California. The car has a 4-cylinder air cooled motor, 3 speeds, electric lights and starter, 60-inch wheelbase, 21x4 airplane tires, and weighs 560 pounds. It makes 52 miles per gallon and has a speed of 65 miles on the road and 80 miles on the track. Cost $2,000 to build. -- Promotional postcard

San Francisco, 1925. "California State Automobile Association -- Gus Petzel 'Baby Car' at start of cross-country run." A scene from the inauguration of the historic Trans-Continental Sidewalk. 8x10 nitrate negative. View full image.

 

From around 1925 comes this uncaptioned 6x8 glass negative of Milady and her motorcar somewhere in San Francisco. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1925. "California State Automobile Association -- Emergency Road Service motorcycle." Perhaps an adjunct to the Broken Glass Depart­ment. 8x10 nitrate negative from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1925. "Auto at Twin Peaks -- North Peak seen from South Peak." 5x7 glass negative from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

Before getting to all those department stores, Santa has to hit the bank. Leave your checkbook at home, but bring the kids!

December 1925. "Christmas tree and Santa Claus at Crocker National Bank, Post & Montgomery Streets, San Francisco." 8x10 nitrate negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full image.

 

San Francisco ca. 1926. "Market Street from Ferry Building." Note the backwards Owl Cigar signage. 8x10 nitrate negative, photographer unknown. View full image.

 

"Paiges on Fillmore Hill at Broadway." San Francisco in 1926 is the setting for this latest entry in the Shorpy Pageant of Extinct Conveyances, a passel of parked Paiges. 8x10 film negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

OVER CALIFORNIA ST. IN HIGH GEAR

FROM KEARNEY ST. UP "EASILY"

FROM 60 TO 75 MILES PER HOUR -- ALL DAY LONG

75 MILES PER HOUR AS SMOOTH AS 30 MILES

ONLY CAR THAT WILL DO IT -- REGARDLESS OF PRICE

"KISSEL STRAIGHT EIGHT"

HORACE HILLS -- 1910 VAN NESS

San Francisco, 1926. "Kissel Straight Eight on California Street." Around 150 Kissels are said to survive, out of the 35,000 manufactured before the company expired in 1930. 5x7 inch glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1927. "Cadillac touring car with Fleishhacker Swimming Club." With someone who's either their coach or their mechanic. 5x7 glass negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full image.

 

"Al Jolson and Cadillac touring car at St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, 1927." The year he made talkie history in "The Jazz Singer." 5x7 glassneg. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1927. "Cadillac and swimmers at Fleishhacker Pool." 5x7 glass negative formerly of the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

Circa 1927. "Chrysler roadster at San Francisco Public Library with racing drivers." And festive balloons! 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1927. "Traffic signals -- police officer stops pedestrian crossing against the light in front of Hudson sedan at Bee Garage service station." 8x10 film negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

"Franklin sedan, San Francisco, 1927." An upscale auto parked outside an imposing home whose balcony seems to have been modified for keeping chickens or children. 5x7 glass inch negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1928. "DeSoto sedan cresting hill." Last seen here a year ago, making steady progress up Webster Street toward points unknown. 5x7 inch glass negative by automotive impresario Christopher Helin. San Francisco circa 1928. "DeSoto sedan cresting hill." Last seen here a year ago, making steady progress up Webster Street toward points unknown. 5x7 inch glass negative by automotive impresario Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1928. "Graham-Paige at Golden Gate Park." Especially well equipped with fender-mounted spares. 5x7 glass negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1928. "Nash Special Six on Gough Street at Lafayette Park." Sporting a brace of Goodyear 31 x 5.25 Balloons. And if you don't like my parking, get off the sidewalk. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1929. "Graham-Paige at California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park." Which one is Paige, and which is Graham, we'll leave up to you. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1929. "Franklin sedan at Pioneer Park, Telegraph Hill." The view-blocking "funeral urn" balustrade, like the Franklin, proved unpopular with motorists and soon vanished. 5x7 glass negative by Chris Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1930. "Essex Super Six climbing Webster Street hill." Latest display in the Shorpy Diorama of Discontinued Dreadnoughts. 5x7 inch glass negative by automotive impresario Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1930. "Oldsmobile sedan at Spreckels Mansion." With Olive Oyl and her sister, Baby. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full image.

 

San Francisco circa 1930. "Grant Avenue at Sacramento Street." 4x5 inch nitrate negative by Arnold Genthe. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1932. "Essex Super Six at El Capitan Theatre, in the Mission." Now playing: Jay Brower with Peggy O'Neill's Merrymakers Revue. Whether these ladies constitute five-sixteenths of the Sweethearts or some undetermined fraction of the Merrymakers, or both, we cannot say. 5x7 nitrate negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full image.

 

Sept. 14, 1932. "Goodyear service station opening, Mission Street at 11th, San Francisco." The festivities here include shrunken blimps, a giant tire tread and that cryptic confection the "Baffle Bar." 8x10 inch nitrate negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco April 14, 1934. "East side looking south, Montgomery Street commercial buildings." In later years the Gold Rush-era building here housing the Chicago Specialty Co. became the law offices of flamboyant San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli. Today this block is part of the Jackson Square Historic District, while down the street at the next corner the Transamerica Pyramid rises. Large format negative by Roger Sturtevant for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full image.

 

An interesting look at San Francisco car culture circa 1934. "Ocean Beach Playland -- Red Bug and Cliff House on Great Highway." With a billboard advertising Topsy's Roost, a dancehall and fried-chicken emporium just out of frame to the right. 5x7 negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1935. "Oldsmobile coupe and Golden Gate Bridge under construction." Only two more years and this lady will be able to cross. 8x10 film negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

June 1, 1935. "San Francisco. Union Square at Geary and Stockton." Where businesses vying for your trade include Owl Drug, Stubo Furs and Ann DeBritz's "School of Fashionable Dressmaking." 8x10 acetate negative, formerly of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full image.

 

July 22, 1936. "Aerial view of Pan American Airways 'China Clipper' (Martin M130 Flying Boat) over San Francisco with Coit Memorial Tower at left. Clyde H. Sunderland, commercial and aerial photographs, Oakland, Calif." View full image.

 

April 8, 1936. "Pontiac convertible at Spreckels Lake, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco." A model family's model boats. 8x10 acetate negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1937. "Don Lee Oldsmobile on Golden Gate Bridge with police officer." Whose cruiser we can see reflected in the bumper. 8x10 acetate negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

January 20, 1938. "San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge under construction. View of track and roadway, lower deck, East Bay. Caltrans, photographer." Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1938. "Yes, Columbus Did Discover America!" A jeweler (and car) with definite political views. Gelatin silver print by the German-born painter and photographer John Gutmann (1905-1998). View full image.

 

Aug. 28, 1939. "Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco. General Motors exhibit of GMC trucks with Pan American Airways Clipper Ship at Treasure Island. Bay Bridge in background." The Boeing 314 flying boat Honolulu Clipper. 8x10 Agfa negative from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

April 1939. "Salvation Army, San Francisco, California. Unemployed young men pause a moment to loiter and watch, and then pass on." Large format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full image.

 

April 1939. "San Francisco, California, seen from the First Street ramp of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge." Before BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) crossed the bay, there was the Key System. Photo by Dorothea Lange. View full image.

 

"Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939. Transportation hall." Exhibits by General Motors and Union Pacific dominate this view, with TWA, Greyhound and Santa Fe also showing up. 8x10 acetate negative. View full image.

 

April 1939. "Salvation Army, San Francisco, California. At Minna Street the army forms a semicircle, girls' Sunday school class sings between preaching to attract a crowd." Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange. View full image.

 

San Francisco 1940. "Silas Palmer House, NW corner Van Ness and Washington. Essentially stick in style, with features of the Villa and Shingle eras, as well as tall Mansard roof on tower. Squared bays are typical of 1880s. Some pseudo-Moorish details on entrance porch. Cast iron cresting on roof. Built circa 1886. Destroyed after 1940" (from HABS notes dated 1961). Large format negative for the Historic American Buildings Survey, photographer unknown. View full image.

 

James Clair Flood Mansion (now Pacific Union Club), 1000 California Street, San Francisco. Built 1885-86; Augustus Laver, architect. Reputed cost of about $1 million. Flood died 1889; Mrs. Flood, 1897. Descendants occupied until fire of 1906 gutted interior. Acquired by Pacific Union Club about 1909 and remodeled by Willis Polk in 1910. New England brownstone shell (said to be first brownstone west of Mississippi); Italianate ornamental details. Fence of bronze by W.T. Garratt, at cost estimated from $30,000 to $60,000. Only Nob Hill house to survive fire. —HABS, 1940

March 1940. The Flood Mansion in San Francisco, last seen here after being gutted by fire following the 1906 earthquake, 108 years ago today. Photo by A.J. Wittlock for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1940. "Oldsmobile sedan and pedestrians ascending steep grade." With the Palace of Fine Arts and Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. 8x0 film negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

U.S. Government bought property of Curtis, Perry & Ward, assayers, for $335,000 and reconstructed building as fireproof three-story brick. Opened as U.S. Mint April 3, 1854. Old building razed 1874. New Sub-Treasury built 1875-1877, four-story pressed brick on granite sills. Building partially destroyed by fire and dynamited in 1906 earthquake ($13 million in gold saved in basement vaults). Restored as one-story building. Passed into private hands in 1915. —HABS, 1940

March 1940. "McCoy Label Co., old U.S. Sub-Treasury & Mint, 608 Commercial Street, San Francisco." Break time for the label-gummers. Photo by A.J. Wittlock for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full image.

 

San Francisco March 1940. "Built as the largest and safest office building in San Francisco, the Montgomery Block became the headquarters of professional men from 1853 to 1890. It was the only major downtown San Francisco building to escape the earthquake and fire of 1906." Previously seen here, its site became a parking lot in 1959, and is now part of the footprint of the Transamerica Pyramid. Large format negative by A.J. Whitlock for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full image.

 

Golden Gate International Exposition, Treasure Island, San Francisco, 1940. The woman with the hat at the Fountain of the Evening Star by sculptor Ettore Cadorin. From a box of Kodachrome slides I found at a flea market. View full image.

 

A look at the Pontiac "Ghost Car".

June 11, 1940. "General Motors exhibit at Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco. Transparent Car with Pontiac Chassis and Body by Fisher." 8x10 Agfa negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

The Plexiglas Pontiac Deluxe Six "Ghost Car," which sold at auction a few years ago for $308,000. (Another shot here.)

June 11, 1940. "General Motors exhibit at Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco. Transparent Car with Pontiac Chassis and Body by Fisher." And what a body it is! 8x10 inch Agfa acetate negative. View full image.

 

San Francisco, 1940. Latest entry from the General Motors promotional file: "Pontiacs at Golden Gate International Exposition. Billy Rose Aquacade." 8x10 film negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full image.

 

Golden Gate International Exposition, Treasure Island, San Francisco, 1940. The Temple Compound and Towers of the East, designed by William G. Merchant. Between the Towers were two gold bas-reliefs, "Dance of Life" and "Path of Dark­ness." From a box of Kodachrome slides found at a flea market. View full image.

 

December 8, 1941. "Corner of Montgomery and Market streets. Monday morning after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." Photo by John Collier. View full image.

 

"San Francisco. Corner of Montgomery and Market Streets, Monday morning, after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." Photo by John Collier. View full image.

 

San Francisco on Dec. 8, 1941. "Japanese restaurant, Monday morning after the attack on Pearl Harbor." Empires may crumble and Reichs turn to dust, but the Coca-Cola Company endures. Photo by John Collier. View full image.

 

"December 1941. Enlisting in the Marines. Recruiting office, San Francisco." Nitrate negative by John Collier, Office of War Information. View full image.

 

December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full image.