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Former bricks of Commercial Street |
Around the turn
of the Millennium, the streets of Old San Francisco came a couple
of steps closer to extinction. In December, 2000, the section of Commercial
Street between Grant and Kearny in Chinatown, which was one of the City's
last brick streets, was renovated. It's well-worn bricks were replaced with
new ones, but also with alternating sections of concrete. The discarded
bricks were rescued and stored by a preservationist. When Kearny was at
the water's edge, Commercial Street was known as Long Wharf. It was home
to several brothels and shares a distinction with Market Street as the only
two streets where you can face the east for an unobstructed view of the
Ferry Building. In 2002, the section of 24th
Street between Rhode Island and De Haro is the subject of friction between
neighbors and Department of Public Works officials who want to remove its
cobblestones for plumbing and other improvements.
A quasi-brick
street exists on Pacific Avenue between Lyon Street and Presidio. When
the City's streets were made from bricks, mud, and cobblestones, flat stones
were used at every intersection. St. Brigid's
Church, Broadway and Van Ness Avenue, is made from many of them which
were bought and stored by the church about a hundred years before Y2K. The
City's most famous brick street is Lombard
between Hyde and Leavenworth.
Detail
I: 3rd Ave. between Irving and Parnassus |
Copyright 2002 Hank Donat |