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University of California Press

San Francisco in the 1930s

The WPA Guide to the City by the Bay
by Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration (Author), David Kipen (Introduction by)
Paperback eBook
Price: $28.95 / £25.00
Publication Date: Apr 2011
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 560
ISBN: 9780520268807
Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Illustrations: 97 b/w photographs, 11 maps
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About the Book

“San Francisco has no single landmark by which the world may identify it,” according to San Francisco in the 1930s, originally published in 1940. This would surely come as a surprise to the millions who know and love the Golden Gate Bridge or recognize the Transamerica Building’s pyramid. This invaluable Depression-era guide to San Francisco relates the city’s history from the vantage point of the 1930s, describing its culture and highlighting the important tourist attractions of the time. David Kipen’s lively introduction revisits the city’s literary heritage—from Bret Harte to Kenneth Rexroth, Jade Snow Wong, and Allen Ginsberg—as well as its most famous landmarks and historic buildings. This rich and evocative volume, resonant with portraits of neighborhoods and districts, allows us a unique opportunity to travel back in time and savor the City by the Bay as it used to be.

About the Author

The Federal Writers Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) not only provided jobs and income to writers during the Depression, it created for America an astounding series of detailed and richly evocative guides, recounting the stories and histories of the 48 states (plus Alaska Territory and Puerto Rico) and many of the country’s major cities. David Kipen served for five years as Director of Literature at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he led the Big Read initiative, and for seven years as book editor and book critic of the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of The Schreiber Theory: A Radical Rewrite of American Film History and translator of Cervantes’ The Dialogue of the Dogs.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
The San Francisco Seven. By David Kipen
Preface 1940

I. Gateway to the West

The Bay and the Land
    The Opening of the Gate
    Earth and Water
    The Climate
    Wild Life

A Frontier to Conquer
    Natives of the Country
    The White Men Came
    Yankee Invasion

Emporium of a New World
    World Port
    Smokestacks Around the Bay
    Engineering Enterprise

Golden Era
    Centers of Learning
    Argonauts of Letters Art and Artists

Calendar of Annual Events

II. "The City"

GENERAL INFORMATION
    Hotel and Other Accommodations
    Restaurants
    Sports
    Churches

SAN FRANCISCANS: I940

THE CITY's GROWTH
    The Village of Yerba Buena (I835-1848)
    Capital of the Gold Coast (I848-1856)
    Bonanza (I8S6-I875)
    Big City (I875-I906)
    Rising Phoenix (I906-I940)

SAN FRANCISCANS AT WORK
    Wall Street of the West
    Labor's Thousands

SOCIAL HERITAGE
    High Life and Low Life
    Before the Footlights
    Music Makers
    San Francisco Goes to Church
    Gentlemen of the Press

III. Around the World in San Francisco

CIVIC CENTER
METROPOLITAN SCENE
LANDMARKS OF THE OLD TOWN
CHINATOWN
LATIN QUARTER: TELEGRAPH HILL AND NORTH BEACH
LORDS OF THE HILLTOPS
EMBARCADERO
SOUTH OF MARKET
WESTERN ADDITION
RIM OF THE GOLDEN GATE
GOLDEN GATE PARK

IV. Around the Bay

THE HARBOR AND ITS ISLANDS
    The Farallones
    Alcatraz
    Angel Island
    Yerba Buena
    Treasure Island

EAST BAY: CITIES AND BACK COUNTRY
    Oakland
    Berkeley
    Alameda
    East Bay Tour 1
    East Bay Tour 2

NORTH BAY
    North Bay Tour

DOWN THE PENINSULA
    Peninsula Tour

SAN JOSE

V. Appendices
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGION
A SELECT READING LIST
INDEX

Reviews

“Perhaps the finest single volume on these 47 square miles.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
“Stylish paperbacks”
— T Magazine - The New York Times
“Reading both is like finding hidden treasures. The San Francisco edition is a must have for anyone interested in the city. . . . The San Francisco and Los Angeles guidebooks offer both traditional tours of the city as well as historical writing more closely akin to poetry. These are books that people can read aloud to one another.”
— Beyondchron
“More than just a tool to help you find the nearest Presbyterian church or a convenient tennis court, the guides, part of the Depression-era Federal Writers Project, included thoughtful essays on history, life and culture in each destination, as well as blow-by-blow tours through city neighborhoods and other information that in many cases remains at least partially relevant (or interesting) today.“
— New York Post
“A useful book as well as an important historical volume.”
— Foreword
“Fascinating book.”
— The Californian
“More fun than just reading a history about San Francisco, this guide contains the type of minutiae that would interest someone who is really interested in getting a better sense of the period, the personality and unique character of this very special city. In the details that fill these articles, the past really comes alive and the rich cultural fabric of The City becomes evident.”
— Salinas Californian