Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Gritty by the Bay
I suppose Chinatown is a little better -- you can't see one of those in Dayton or Tuscaloosa. And there is so much that is wonderful and cool about San Francisco, including some of the tourist destinations, like Alcatraz; I will concede that. And I enjoy commuting there, including my rides on historic streetcars (although they are too often overloaded with clueless out-of-towners -- man, I'm such a snob). But the tackiness...it just ruins the whole neighborhood for me.
Of course, when my out-of-towners come to visit, I'll still probably take them to Fisherman's Wharf. Where else are you going to go?
I'm sure there's some history around. Must be. I should get out at lunchtime and look for it. And I'm curious about the swimming club nearby, where it appears you go swimming in an enclosed part of the San Francisco Bay. Interesting.
Did you know:
The western end of the wharf started to boom just before the turn of the century when the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory moved into the old Pioneer Woolen Mill, which had made blankets and uniforms for the Union army in the Civil War. At about the same time in an adjacent brick building Marco Fontana formed the California Fruit Canners Association. Once the largest canning operation in the world, it shipped with the Del Monte label until the 1920s.
In 1963 the Cannery was turned into a shopping center by Manchurian immigrant Leonid Matveyeff, who changed his name to Leonard Martin. Martin's son Chris taught penguins to skateboard -- an amusement that harked back to the card- playing pig on Meiggs Wharf. The pigs and penguins are long gone, but Chris Martin is still there, running the Cannery.
