archive for February, 2008
Monday, February 25th, 2008
1907 harrison street mainline — photographic google map
It’s my favourite thing, finding physical evidence of times past in the landscape of contemporary San Francisco. That’s why I was delighted when Aaron, a Sparkletack reader, sent me to a page of photographs snapped by a railfan in 1907. The website displaying the photos is the passion of Amtrak engineer (and native San Franciscan) […]
3 Comments » - Posted in From the community,Just plain cool by richard - sparkletack
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
SFist — whiskerless waiters at the palace hotel
The latest from my little column over at the SFist: Whiskerless Waiters at the Palace Hotel In the middle part of the 19th century, a thick set of whiskers were an essential facial feature of every man of Victorian respectability. These were not simply expressions of pride or masculine peacock vanity, but due to a […]
2 Comments » - Posted in SFist by richard - sparkletack
Friday, February 15th, 2008
book review — “The Bottle Imp”
I read a lot of books on San Francisco and California history. And though these posts are labeled “book reviews”, the only books you’ll ever see here are those that I’ve really enjoyed. In short, if you see it here, it’s a great book — I’ve no urge to write about the stinkers! And if […]
No Comments » - Posted in From the community,Historical book reviews by richard - sparkletack
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
The fog rolls in — 24 hours in 144 seconds
This is spectacular. Twenty-four hours of San Francisco are compressed into less than three minutes of time-lapse video, gorgeously captured from the hills above Sausalito. The city and bay spend most of the day almost buried by a dramatically roiling mass of fog, which finally whisks itself out to sea to reveal the sparkling lights […]
2 Comments » - Posted in Just plain cool by richard - sparkletack
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
#66: Alma de Bretteville Spreckels
It’s one of San Francisco’s best-loved monuments — the figure of a heartbreakingly beautiful girl balancing lightly atop a granite column high above Union Square. She soars above both pedestrians and pigeons, gracefully clutching trident and victory laurels, lifting her shapely arms in triumph over the city of San Francisco. It was intended to memorialize […]
Sparkletack was the blog and podcast of a guy obsessed with diggin' up San Francisco history. The site is on permanent hiatus.
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