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Explore
the history, lore and architecture of California with “everybody’s favorite guide.’’ Walks
start from locations accessible by public transit and are repeated several
times for your convenience.
December 20th and 21st
Historic Theatres of San Francisco Tour and Tea
(San Francisco)
Our traditional Holiday Tour and Tea will be in downtown San Francisco this year. We’ll be walking through the area west and south of Union Square, now known as the Theatre District, with about a dozen theatres large and small clustered along the Geary Street area. Historically, there were many more legitimate theatres in this area, from dance to vaudeville halls to what were optimistically called “opera houses.” Many were demolished over the years from the Gold Rush period, and all were destroyed in the fire that followed the disastrous 1906 earthquake. On this holiday stroll, we’ll visit the sites of the former and current theatres ending at the boutique King George Hotel on Mason Street for a full English afternoon tea, complete with tea sandwiches, scones and goodies, accompanied by pots of both black and herbal teas. Walk will be from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. and then our full tea service will occur from 2 – 4 p.m. Come join us for the California Historical Society tradition! Walk is easy; parking is not. We highly recommend that you come by public transit to downtown, and do some holiday shopping while you’re here.
January 9th and 11th
Normandy Gardens
(Oakland)
To begin the New Year, we are crossing the Bay to a mid 1920s neighborhood called Normandy Gardens, filled with some 70 homes in the classic French and English styles from the 1700s. The idea of local developer R.C. Hillen and architect W. W. Dixon, these beautiful homes were initially sold for between $7,000 and $10, 000. This walk will transport us to Western Europe, when in the era following WWI, there was a great interest in things foreign. We will look for sturdy wooden doors, stained glass windows, towers, fascinating rooflines, romantic dovecotes and lots of ironwork. All of which contribute to the fantasy look and feel of this area along Picardy Drive, just a couple blocks west of Mills College. You may know this area as famous for having the best Christmas lights display in the East Bay. Come and join us for a stroll down lanes of the past. Walk and parking are easy.
January 23rd
San Francisco's Original Shoreline: The 160th Anniversary Of The Gold Rush of 1849
(San Francisco)
To commemorate the 160th anniversary of the great Gold Rush of 1849, we are turning the clock back to 1848 and 1849 to walk along the original pre-Gold Rush eastern shoreline of San Francisco. On this stroll, we’ll find that the shoreline was almost immediately altered by the addition of the derelict hulls of abandoned ships, as well as new wharfs, and the dumping of earth and garbage along it. Commencing from the Ferry Building, we’ll look first north to follow the original gentle curve of Yerba Buena Cove to where it intersected the base of La Loma Alta, or Telegraph Hill. Thence south towards Rincon Point, which really was a 90-degree turn of the shoreline into Mission Bay. Hundreds of homes, hotels, office buildings and other structures have been built on the landfill which was added to the young town of San Francisco to accommodate its rapid early growth. Walk is easy; parking is not. Please plan to take public transit to the tour commencement site.
March 13th and 15th
Park Merced
(San Francisco)
In the 1930s, The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. built numerous housing projects throughout the U.S. By 1941 they had reached the West Coast and built Park La Brea in Los Angeles and Park Merced in San Francisco. Using 191 acres of agricultural land, New York architect Leonard Schultze (Waldorf, Astoria, and Pierre Hotels) and local landscape architect Thomas Church developed a village of two story townhouses in Lake Merced. In 1951, 13 story apartment towers were added. Now the current owners would like to add middle rise (3 to 4 story units) and additional high rises, thus eliminating open space and increasing the number of units from 3,221 to 8,898. On this walk, we’ll look at the historic mid-century master planned community and talk of the planned changes. Walk and parking are easy.
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