Points of Interest, Ice Cream Obscura Hike

April 29, 2007

Outer Sunset District

The Outer Sunset District extends from 19th Ave to the beach. The neighborhood was named by former city assessor turned real estate developer, Aurelius E. Buckingham, who wanted a name that would dodge the area's reputation for gloom. The Sunset and Richmond districts have a reputation for being the foggiest in the city. No word yet on whether Al Gore predicts that to change.

Fire Chief's Cottage

1984 Great Highway. Built as a vacation retreat in 1905 by Fire Chief Dennis T. Sullivan, Sullivan didn't have much time to enjoy the home. He became one of the prominent and early casualties of the 1906 earthquake, falling through three floors of his home above a fire house on Bush Street. He lay in a coma while his leaderless department battled a conflagration that demolished most of the city.

The Last Streetcar House

1850s and 1860s transit companies used horses to pull rail cars. When horse-drawn rail cars gave way to electric street cars and cable cars, the companies unloaded the then worthless rail cars to bohemians looking for cheap shelter. 1415 47th Ave. is the last of the rail car housing, indistinguishable from the outside, but from the inside clearly based on three rail cars joined side by side (a triple wide).

Dutch Windmill

The first Golden Gate Park windmill stands 75 feet tall with 102 foot long spars, and was built to pump up to 30,000 gallons an hour of well water for irrigation purposes. (Before the windmill's erection the Park was spending $4,800 a year buying water from the Spring Valley Water Company.) The windmill's usefulness only lasted a few years. Electric pumps augmented and eventually replaced the windmills in pumping irrigation water. Neglect, storms, and the needs of World War II stripped the windmill of its metal and spars, leaving it a closed-up ruin by the 1950s.

Freddy's Ocean Beach Deli

4.5 stars on yelp and included on the tour just because Pronto Pup has been torn down as part of a Cliff House renovation. 734 La Playa St. (between Balboa St & Cabrillo St)

Sutro Baths

The seven Sutro Baths were built by SF Mayor Adolph Sutro in 1896. One bath was fresh water and the rest were salt water, the coldest ice cold and the warmest 80 degrees. In its heyday, the baths were home to a number of events and attractions including swimming competitions and dwarf boxing. The cost of running the baths forced several sales and near bankruptcies. In 1966 the baths were destroyed in a fire. Although Church of Satan founder, Anton Lavay, claims that he placed a curse leading to the fire most people believe the fire was set deliberately to collect on insurance.

Giant Camera

Shaped like a giant camera, and sometimes referred to as the giant mirror of life, the Giant Camera is actually a camera obscura, a precurser to photography that uses a pinhole to make an accurate projection of an outside location (in this case Seal Rock).

Balboa Theater

3630 Balboa Street between Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Avenue. Built in 1925 by the same architects who designed the Cliff House and Fairmont hotel, the Balboa has managed to survive despite competition from large multiplexes by offering double-features of high quality second run features.

The Sweet House

3512 Balboa. Hong Kong drinks, i.e. drinks with tapioca balls.

Buffalo Paddock

Small herds of bison have made their stoic presence known since 1892, when the park was a free-range zoo of elk, bears, goats and other animals.

Polly Ann Ice Cream

500 flavors (including vegetable and zuchini) and free doggie cones. Can't decide? Spin the wheel of ice cream.