San Francisco History Podcast – Sparkletack

At the end of the Part One of this two part series, Abraham Lincoln had been elected president, the Civil War had broken out, and the question of California’s loyalty to the Union was in grave doubt. The youthful Unitarian minister from Boston was a newcomer to the scene, but his powerful voice had been […]

Over 100,000 people a day travel the Geary Street corridor. But how many glance over and notice the grey statue standing watch at Franklin Street? Only a very few look even further, and notice the low, stone sarcophagus nestled in front of the gothic Unitarian Church. Walk right up to it and you’ll discover that […]

History is rife with bizarre confrontations and grand feuds, but in San Francisco none were more bizarre than the showdown between Charles Crocker (bellicose railroad robber baron) and Nicholas Yung (unassuming German undertaker). Call it “a tale of two egos”. It was over a very small piece of land, but this property was located on […]

In this week’s podcast we’ll marvel at beautiful Lotta Crabtree, quintessential star of the late 1800s. She was the protege of Lola Montez, the highest paid performer on Broadway, the darling of the entire nation, and the most popular comedienne of her era. As you may already suspect, her story begins right here in California, […]

This week’s podcast chooses just one of the many thousands of individual stories to emerge from the catastrophe, following the eccentric Italian superstar and the storied hotel through their respective trials and tribulations. One survives… but the other does not. For further edification: » “The San Francisco Earthquake” – Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan Witts » […]

This week’s podcast grapples with the unbelievable legend of Lola Montez, the gorgeous Irish peasant girl with the soul of a grifter and the heart of a despot. She lived about three lifetimes’ worth of adventure, turning Europe upside down and provoking a revolution in Bavaria before conquering Gold Rush-era San Francisco with her scandalous […]

The history of one of these hidden layers is, however, little known and rarely spoken of – I refer of course to the San Francisco trolls. Though some hold that the trolls are a primitive people original to this area, and were in the hills even before the native american Ohlone, other, more reputable sources […]

This week’s podcast explores the history of the millionaire philanthropist who gave so much to our city and whose story is — amazingly — almost forgotten. For further edification: » The Western Neighborhoods Project– outsidelands.org » Sutro bio from 1898 – sfmuseum.org » Sutro Baths – National Park Service » Sutro Baths – San Francisco […]

In an attempt to answer the oft-voiced question "what is that thing, anyway?", in this week’s podcast a visit is finally paid to this sumptuous Victorian repository for cremated remains, the baroque center of what was once a 167 acre cemetery in the center of San Francisco. It’s a spectacular building, but the real discovery […]

The Park Service website reads simply "sing traditional working songs aboard a floating vessel." The songs? Sea chanteys. The vessel? A majestic iron-hulled squarerigger called the "Balclutha". I had no idea how inspiring the experience could be, nor how powerful. It turned out I had inadvertently wandered into a 25 year old San Francisco tradition: […]