Public spaces change fast here in San Francisco, and for better or worse, it can be pretty crazy when you see what the City used to look like. Every week, we'll bring you Then & Now, a comparison of historic photos of the Bay Area with current views from the same perspective. Have a suggestion for a photo comparison that looks totally different (or shockingly the same)? Drop us a tip in the Curbed Inbox or leave a comment after the jump.
Quick note: See that vertical green bar in the middle of the then and now photos? You can move it horizontally to see the photos side by side.
[Then photo: SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY/ Now photo: Google Maps] Albert Gallatin Jr. was a San Francisco big shot, and had the palatial house on Alta Plaza to prove it. As a pioneer backer of the electric industry in California, he worked himself up from floor sweeper to president of Huntington Hopkins Co.
Distantly related to Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury under Thomas Jefferson, Albert Gallatin Jr. came to California in 1860. Making a fortune working for Huntington & Hopkins, he built a huge house in Sacramento (which was at one point used as the governor's mansion) before relocating to San Francisco. Gallatin died at his home in San Francisco in 1905. Albert's daughter Jane Gallatin Powers and her husband, San Francisco attorney Frank Hubbard Powers, created a famous artists' haven that became Carmel-by-the-Sea.
The house was demo'd in 1957 to make way for a new campus for the Town School for Boys.
· Albert Gallatin [Ancestry.com]
· Jane Gallatin Powers Co-founded Carmel-by-the-Sea [California Historian]
Loading comments...