San Francisco's hidden history: haunted, dark & lost places
From the Barbary Coast and the 1906 fire to the Zodiac, Alcatraz and Hitchcock’s Vertigo, San Francisco is layered with stories. Here are its best-documented haunted, dark, weird and vanished places, self-guided paths to walk them, and the stories people are telling now.
Self-guided paths
- The Zodiac Killer in San Francisco · 3 stops, best as a drive — The Zodiac killed five people around the Bay Area in 1968–69 and taunted police and the press with letters and ciphers. His last confirmed murder was in San…
- Haunted San Francisco · 8 stops, best as a bike ride — Places Wikipedia lists as reportedly haunted in San Francisco: a Financial District tower with reports of unexplained cold spots, old hotels, mansions and…
- Burned in 1906 · 12 stops, best as a bike ride — Buildings that burned in the fires after the earthquake of April 18, 1906, which destroyed most of the city. Some were rebuilt on the same spot; others are…
- LGBTQ history in San Francisco · 12 stops, best as a bike ride — Sites from Wikipedia's category of LGBTQ history in San Francisco: bars, protests, memorials, and the places where people fought to be themselves.
- Notorious crimes of San Francisco · 6 stops, best as a drive — Sites of notorious crimes from Wikipedia's "Crimes in San Francisco": bombings, shootings and assassinations. These were real events with real victims, so…
- Vanished San Francisco · 12 stops, best as a drive — Demolished buildings and structures: stand where something remarkable used to be, from a stadium to a giant saltwater pool to the block that housed the city's…
- The Beats in North Beach · 7 stops, best as a walk — In the 1950s North Beach was home base for the Beat Generation. City Lights, the bookstore and publisher founded by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, published Allen…
- The Summer of Love · 7 stops, best as a bike ride — In 1967 as many as 100,000 young people converged on Haight-Ashbury. Ride through the neighborhood, up to the hills where crowds gathered, and on to the…
- Harvey Milk's Castro · 7 stops, best as a walk — Harvey Milk ran his camera shop and his campaigns from Castro Street, and in 1977 became the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He…
- Chinatown: stories of survival · 7 stops, best as a walk — Established in 1848, San Francisco Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America. It endured the Chinese Exclusion Act and rebuilt after the 1906…
- Lands End & the Sutro legacy · 6 stops, best as a walk — Adolph Sutro, the engineer who became mayor in the 1890s, built a pleasure ground at the western edge of the city: the vast Sutro Baths, a Victorian Cliff…
- Hitchcock's Vertigo · 12 stops, best as a drive — Alfred Hitchcock shot Vertigo (1958) on location around San Francisco in late 1957. Every stop is a filming location from Wikipedia's list. (The bell tower…
- The Golden Gate & the Presidio · 8 stops, best as a bike ride — For more than 200 years the Presidio was a military post under Spain, Mexico and the United States, until it became part of a national park in 1994. Ride from…
- Gold Rush & the Barbary Coast · 6 stops, best as a walk — The Gold Rush turned San Francisco from a town of about 1,000 people in 1848 into a city of 25,000 by the end of 1849. Walk from Portsmouth Square, the old…
- Victorian San Francisco · 7 stops, best as a bike ride — The 1906 fire was stopped at Van Ness Avenue, and thousands of Victorian houses to the west survived. See the Painted Ladies, the grand houses of Pacific…
- Fisherman's Wharf & the historic ships · 9 stops, best as a walk — Beyond the souvenir stands, the waterfront has real history: a World War II Liberty ship and submarine you can board, a pier of historic vessels, the 1930s…
Haunted, weird & curious
- Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary — United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: , Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum…
- 555 California Street — 555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, is a 52-story 779 ft (237 m) skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the fourth…
- Palace of Fine Arts — The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, United States, originally built for…
- Gerald Ford assassination attempt in San Francisco — In San Francisco on September 22, 1975, Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate the 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford, after he had…
- Sutro Baths — The Sutro Baths was a large, privately owned public saltwater swimming pool complex in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District on the West…
- Preparedness Day Bombing — The Preparedness Day bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California, United States, on July 22, 1916, of a parade organised by local supporters…
- Twin Peaks Tunnel — The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a 2.27-mile-long (3.65 km) light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The tunnel runs under Twin Peaks and…
- Market Street Cinema — Market Street Cinema was a historical theater located on Market Street in the Mid-Market district, San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1912…
- Yerba Buena Tunnel — The Yerba Buena Tunnel, also known as the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel, is a highway tunnel in San Francisco, California. It is the part of San…
- Eureka Valley — Eureka Valley station is an abandoned underground streetcar station in San Francisco, California. It was located inside the Twin Peaks Tunnel, very…
- Warden's House — The Warden's House was the home of the wardens of the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, off San Francisco. It is located at the southeastern…
- Sunset Tunnel — The Sunset Tunnel, originally known as the Duboce Tunnel, is a 4,232 ft (1,290 m)-long light rail/streetcar tunnel in San Francisco, California. The…
Dark history: crimes, disasters & injustice
- Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary — United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: , Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum…
- San Francisco City Hall — San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in…
- June 1962 Alcatraz escape — On the night of June 11, 1962, inmates Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin escaped from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, the…
- Compton's Cafeteria riot — The Compton's Cafeteria riot occurred in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The riot was a response to the violent and…
- Room 641A — Room 641A is a telecommunication interception facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency, as part of an American mass…
- Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), also called Order of Perpetual Indulgence (OPI), is a charitable, protest, and street performance…
- Gerald Ford assassination attempt in San Francisco — In San Francisco on September 22, 1975, Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate the 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford, after he had…
- Grace Cathedral — Grace Cathedral is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California. On top of Nob Hill, Grace is the cathedral church of…
- Saints Peter and Paul Church, San Francisco — Saints Peter and Paul Church (Italian: Ss. Pietro e Paolo, Chinese: 聖伯多禄圣保禄教堂) is a Catholic church in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.…
- Starfleet Academy — Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is an American television series created by Gaia Violo for the streaming service Paramount+. It is the 12th Star Trek…
- Preparedness Day Bombing — The Preparedness Day bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California, United States, on July 22, 1916, of a parade organised by local supporters…
- SS Jeremiah O'Brien — SS Jeremiah O'Brien is a Liberty ship built during World War II and named after the American Revolutionary War ship captain Jeremiah O'Brien…
Lost San Francisco: places that are gone
- Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary — United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: , Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum…
- University of San Francisco — The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly…
- California Academy of Sciences — The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest…
- M. H. de Young Memorial Museum — The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, United States, named…
- Candlestick Park — Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium located in the Hunters Point area of San Francisco, California, United States. It was the home of Major…
- San Francisco City Hall — San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government for the City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in…
- San Francisco County — San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the 17th-most populous city and second-densest large city in the United States,…
- Kezar Stadium — Kezar Stadium () is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, United States, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern…
- Winterland Ballroom — Winterland, called at first New Dreamland Auditorium and later Winterland Arena and Winterland Ballroom, was an ice-skating rink and music venue in…
- Palace Hotel — The Palace Hotel is a landmark historic hotel in San Francisco, California, located at the southwest corner of Market and New Montgomery streets.…
- Grace Cathedral — Grace Cathedral is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California. On top of Nob Hill, Grace is the cathedral church of…
- Sutro Baths — The Sutro Baths was a large, privately owned public saltwater swimming pool complex in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District on the West…
Landmarks & historic places
- San Francisco — San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the 17th-most populous city and second-densest large city in the United States,…
- Charter of the United Nations — The Charter of the United Nations, also referred to as the UN Charter, is the foundational treaty of the United Nations. It establishes the…
- Golden Gate Bridge — The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km) strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the…
- Alcatraz Island — Alcatraz Island () is a small island about 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco in San Francisco Bay, California, near the Golden Gate strait. The…
- University of California, San Francisco — The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF or UC San Francisco) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California,…
- Transamerica Pyramid — The Transamerica Pyramid Center (locally known in some communities as “Big Pointy") is a pyramid-shaped 48-story modernist skyscraper in San…
- Golden Gate Park
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco,…
- Lombard Street — Lombard Street is an east–west street in San Francisco, California, that has a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. The street…
- Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary — United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz (English: , Spanish: [alkaˈtɾas] "the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum…
- San Francisco State University — San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco, California, United States.…
- San Francisco cable car system — The San Francisco cable car system is the world's last manually operated cable car system and an icon of the city of San Francisco, California. The…
Stories people are telling
- “We had scarcely finished placing the men when, inside, the building was made almost dark as night by a mass of black smoke that swept in…” — Old San Francisco Mint
- “The entire front of a tall four-story brick building in Third street sprung outward like a door and fell sprawling across the street,…” — Third Street (Mark Twain’s earthquake)
- “We took a few bricks and built a fire between them in the middle of the street, like every one else, and ate our breakfast on the steps of…” — Haight-Ashbury
- “Seeing this I broke into a run and continued running over bricks on the sidewalk, and dodging automobiles, which were doing ambulance duty…” — Bacigalupi's phonograph store (site, 1906)
- “At eight o'clock Wednesday evening I passed through Union Square. It was packed with refugees. Thousands of them had gone to bed on the…” — Union Square
- “I stood at the corner of Kearny and Market, in the very innermost heart of San Francisco. Kearny Street was deserted. Half a dozen blocks…” — Lotta's Fountain
- “So on the Wednesday morning early I wake up about 5 o’clock, feeling my bed rocking as though I am in a ship on the ocean, and for a…” — Palace Hotel
Know a story?
The best history of San Francisco isn't in any archive. Open the map, find the place, and tell your story.