October 21, 2005
San Francisco is famously made up of an eccentric patchwork of neighborhoods. What is less known is that some of the most interesting and unusual have come and gone, leaving very little trace of a once vigorous existence.
One of these was Carville, an eccentric community made up of abandoned streetcars converted into clubs, restaurants and dwellings out on the pacific edge of the fin de siecle city. Though virtually no trace is left, it does my heart good just to know that it was once there, and I think of it now every time I ride down the great highway.
This story was brought to my attention by a listener named Duncan, and I’ve relied heavily on a great article by James Labounty, listed below. Thanks!
for further edification:
» Carville – Steve Labounty
» Carville’s last remnant
» Carville photos – cable car guy
» more Carville photos
Thanks to The Jerrys for the use of the track “Telepop”, courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network.
7 responses to “#31: Carville — A Lost Neighborhood”
leave me a note
trackbacks & pingbacks:
-
Pingback from Sunset neighborhood — televised history tour » Sparkletack - the San Francisco History Podcast
August 28, 2008 at 12:11 pm[…] great fun, packed with juicy stuff — and if for nothing else, the rare inside peek at one of Carville’s famous cable car houses makes it worth a […]
-
Pingback from Gangs of San Francisco » San Francisco History Podcast – Sparkletack
December 13, 2009 at 6:35 pm[…] Falcons — Carville you remember, right? One of those cars was the headquarters of the Falcons — an all-girl […]
October 24, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Wow! To think, I used to live right in the heart of Carville (47th and Lincoln). If I’d have known about this at the time I would have spent my neighborhood walks looking for these things (though, I guess I probably wouldn’t have found anything).
Thanks for the show!
October 29, 2005 at 3:44 pm
You presented that story even better than what I’ve read over the years, thanks a lot for running the story!
November 11, 2005 at 3:44 pm
Thanks! Great listening material. Your podcast brings back such good memories and make me understand this beautiful city so much more! Only wished I had your podcast at hand (or in my ears)when I lived in SF, long,long time ago!
(never old enough to learn some new stuff though)
greetings from The Netherlands
August 24, 2007 at 3:46 am
The Carville house featured on outsidelands.org was also in National Geographic in the late 1990s. I think it was the November 1999 issue. (It’s not in their online archives, and I’m not allowed to keep my back issues around the house anymore.)
-cindy, Carville resident since 1995
April 28, 2015 at 5:45 pm
Hi,I’m reading a romance published in 1907 set in SF. Thanks for giving me some pictures of this area. In the story a guy and gal just finished a “date” on the beach in this area. I had never heard of it and thought to check if there really had been a Carville-by-the-Sea and there had been! The book is “The Heart Line” by Gellett Burgess.
Judith