Arts & Entertainment

Tripling in Size, The Tenderloin Museum Doubles Down on Its Legacy

The Tenderloin Museum is tripling in size, adding a neon gallery, and relaunching 'Compton’s Cafeteria Riot' to honor the neighborhood’s rich history of activism, nightlife, and LGBTQ+ resistance.

Arts & Entertainment

New Book Reframes The Story of Magid Bateh, The Young Arab Boy Accused Of Burning Down Jefferson Elementary School in 1959

Local author Raine Bajalia-Evans recently released a book about her uncle Magid Bateh, who in 1959 was wrongfully accused of burning down his school in the Sunset in 1959.

Arts & Entertainment

The Rousseau Family: Prolific Beaux Arts-Era San Francisco Architects

The Rousseaus were a high society family of Beaux Arts-era architects who built hundreds of buildings during the reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. They also had their fair share of scandals.

Arts & Entertainment

Historic Oakland Music Landmark Vandalized, GoFundMe Campaign Launched

Thieves recently stole 40 plaques from Oakland’s Walk of Fame, erasing tributes to music legends like B.B. King and Aretha Franklin. A GoFundMe aims to raise $150K to replace them and restore the landmark.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

7 Mile House Celebrates Its 167th Anniversary This Sunday, With $1.67 Jack Daniels Shots

Sunday marks the 167th anniversary of the 7 Mile House bar and restaurant, and they’ll be marking the occasion with $1.67 whiskey shots, free adobo, and a historical presentation of 7 Mile House’s (often criminal) 167-year history.

Arts & Entertainment

Back In The '80s, San Francisco Banned Arcades (And Blamed Tommy Guerrero)

Chronicle culture critic Peter Hartlaub pens a piece about the early ’80s when San Francisco politicians declared war on arcades and the media painted Tommy Guerrero, who was a 14-year-old skateboarding prodigy and "Scramble” wizard at the time, as a delinquent.

SF News

34 Years Ago Today, the Bay Was Shaken By the Loma Prieta Quake, and One Local News Anchor Stayed as Cool as Can Be

The Bay Area's last major earthquake over 6.5 in magnitude occurred 34 years ago today, on a day when the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's were coming onto the field for their first-ever Bay Bridge Series.

SF News

Throwback Thursday: A Sitting U.S. President Died in San Francisco, 100 Years Ago This Week

Warren G. Harding, roundly considered one of the worst U.S. Presidents of all time, kicked the bucket exactly 100 years ago this week at SF’s Palace Hotel, which is still the Palace Hotel at Market and New Montgomery streets.

SF News

The Cable Car Turns 150 Years Old Today

As you may know, the cable car was a San Francisco invention, conceived of as a solution to some tragic accidents that involved horse-drawn streetcars. And August 2, 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the first cable car being tested on Clay Street.

SF News

San Francisco Was Declared Dead, and Full of AIDS and Drugs and Homeless People, Multiple Times In the Last 50 Years

The local and national news media has loved to declare San Francisco in a state of decline and/or crisis on many occasions in the last five or so decades, so this is just a primer for everyone who wasn't aware of that and bought into the "failed city" and "doom loop" narratives too hard.

Arts & Entertainment

Amid Gentrified Lofts and IKEA, Few Remember That Emeryville Was Once a Gamblers' Haven

One of the last vestiges of Emeryville's former era when it was dubbed the "Rottenest City on the Pacific Coast" is the Oaks Card Club, and its owner hopes it can live on amid a city that looks far different than it did half a century ago.

SF News

Huge Booty of Sunken SF Gold Rush Treasure To Be Auctioned Off Saturday in Reno

The S.S. Central America sunk in 1857, and 425 people did not make it off alive. But their artifacts have been recovered, and will be up for auction at a Saturday antiquities event in Reno.

Arts & Entertainment

Did You Know There Was an Internment Camp For Suspected Japanese Spies During WWII on San Francisco Property?

One internment camp specifically for "enemy aliens" was on San Francisco property, set up in 1942 next to a municipal golf course just south of the city proper.

Bay Area Sports

The USF Dons' Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, and the Alley-Oop Origin Story

Bill Russell's recent passing at age 88 highlights the evolution of the game of basketball, and the countless contributions made by two Bay Area-bred greats.

SF News

Photos: SFMTA Celebrates First In-Person Muni Heritage Day in Two Years With Free Rides on Vintage Vehicles

This past weekend, the SFMTA honored Muni Heritage Day by offering free rides on some of the city's historically significant (and rarely ridden) buses and trolleys to the delight of droves of public transit nerds — a first since the pandemic began in March of 2020.

Arts & Entertainment

Look Up Who Was Living In Your Apartment In 1950 Via Newly Released Census Records

Ever been curious who lived in your house or apartment 72 years ago? Want to know how your grandparents or great-grandparents responded to census-taker questions when they came around in 1949 or 1950, or who their neighbors were at the time? Well, you're in luck.

SF News

Five Gold Ingots From China, Looted From an 18th Century French Shipwreck, Returned to French Government Via SF

The Department of Homeland Security just returned a trove of artifacts deemed to be the property of the French government, and five gold ingots that were likely smuggled to the U.S. decades ago and which landed in a Bay Area auction house, were among them.

SF News

135 Years Ago Today, San Francisco Saw Its Most Significant Snowfall to Date

The last time measurable snow fell in San Francisco was February 7, 1976, when snow covered the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands, with snowflakes also coming down to sea level. But February 5, 1887, saw the city's most plentiful snowstorm ever recorded — when nearly 4" of snow buried downtown.

Arts & Entertainment

In Its History, SF's Conservatory of Flowers Has Burned Down Twice, and Was Nearly Destroyed By a Windstorm In 1995

The history of the grand Victorian greenhouse in Golden Gate Park that has served as the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers since 1879 is kind of crazy, and it's had to be rebuilt three times already.

Arts & Entertainment

Rare, Full Johnny Cash San Francisco Concert From 1968 Digitally Restored and Free Online

An SF Johnny Cash concert from 1968, recorded just one week before the release of his landmark Folsom Prison album, has been digitally restored and released online by the son of famed Grateful Dead roadie “Bear” Stanley.

SF News

Bay Area Marks 80 Years Since Attack on Pearl Harbor

Tuesday marks the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and by extension the United States' entry into World War II over the following days. Commemorations are happening around the Bay Area, which is also home to a handful of the remaining survivors of the attack.

SF News

Diary Belonging to Husband of Betsy Ross Found In Marin County Garage

In another reminder to always go through your deceased relatives’ possessions lest you lose an amazing artifact, Betsy Ross’s third husband’s diary has been gathering dust in a Marin County garage until it was recently found.

SF News

Rev. Amos Brown: 'The Only Thing San Francisco Is Progressive On Is Sex'

Longtime San Francisco civil rights activist and Black community leader Rev. Amos Brown, who also served on the Board of Supervisors from 1996 to 2001, sat down for a recent interview with the Chronicle — and he minced no words about the city's history when it comes to the treatment of Black people.

SF News

History Reminder: The 1918 Flu Came Roaring Back In January In San Francisco Because People Stopped Wearing Masks

Now as we're at least ankle-deep in a growing surge of cases in the Bay Area, it's worth remembering that San Francisco suffered its worst part of the last pandemic after the holidays, in January 1919, when a lot of people were sick of wearing masks.

SF News

Loma Prieta at 30: 'I Was the Guy Driving the Pickup Behind the Disappearing Car in the Video on the Bay Bridge'

An immediately famous bit of video shot on the Bay Bridge in the moments after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake showed two cars driving on the damaged eastern span, with one, a sedan, dropping into the gap created when a 50-foot segment of the upper deck collapsed.