Nostalgia & History > Answer For Photobob: Location for His Rare S.F. Freight Image

Hi Photobob, 
You were wondering about the location of the attached picturefrom this thread.. I drew a sketch of the trackage with that diamond to the right there and so forth and checked the trackmaps: San Francisco Railroads layer and here's the location. 342 Ritch Street. You can see the building with the reefer in this streetview link. ROW now occupied by a big building for the most part.  https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7790793,-122.3940991,3a,75y,217.66h,98.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV1tGzgaacLNEWGJHy0HiWQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I'm attaching a view from Google Earth showing the 1948 aerial layer with the 1966 era SPINS trackmap. You can see all the trackage pretty well in the aerial. Looks like by 1966 they were no longer using the spur that ran to the west through that diamond. 

1966 SPINS shows Southend Terminal Warehouse as the only shipper on that track but I don't think that's the pictured building. I found a hit on Google Books showing Southend Terminal Warehouse having a number of buildings on Third Street between this lead and Townsend St. You can see the entrance into the Southend warehouse still the today here, also a bit of tracks peeking out from under the pavement in the alleyway to the left: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7790793,-122.3940991,3a,75y,70.16h,98.42t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV1tGzgaacLNEWGJHy0HiWQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I searched for Ritch Street--specifically 360 Ritch Street.  I found the reelsf site has this as a shooting location in the movie The Laughing Policeman. Says that there was a bathhouse here when the movie was filmed. There's a great photo of Ritch Street pulled from the movie. Shows a crossbuck but that's all. See attached picture #3. The reelsf site is here https://reelsf.com/?offset=1455483076407 

Hope this answers your question for you. Post anymore of those freight pictures of San Francisco if you come across them. I know you didn't take many.

Phthithu



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/20 19:31 by phthithu.

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Found another good resource. The San Francisco Planning Department puts out these things. See here to read about the general area around this building. 

Here is the specific section on the history and use of 330 Ritch Street. 

330 Ritch Street (1920) 330 Ritch Street was constructed in 1920 as a warehouse for William Stuart and the Union Feed Co. Ltd. 330 Ritch Street is an example of a brick industrial building in the South of Market Area. According to the 1913 Sanborn Map, prior to construction of the present building, the property was occupied by a residential flats building and single family dwelling that were separated by an empty lot. Union Feed Co. Ltd. was located at 330 Ritch Street in 1920. The California Hawaiian Manufacturing Co. occupied the building in 1927. The 1933 Reverse City Directory lists L.W. Gorman, hay grain and feed, as the occupant. In 1940, Magra Sprayer & Chemical Co. Inc. leased the space. McNeill-Steinberg Manufacturing Co. was located at 330 Ritch Street in 1945. 330 Ritch Street first appears on the 1950 Sanborn Map and is labeled as “wholesale drugs.” From ca. 1953 to ca. 1963, the warehouse was occupied by Lou Fremy, Inc., which was listed in San Francisco City Directories as dealing in wholesale drugs or cosmetic distribution. From ca. 1968 to ca. 1978, the building housed the Ritch Street Health Club, and in 1982, Club San Francisco occupied this location. In 1989, the building was used by Tony Saab as a restaurant on the ground floor with offices above. According to the Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board Architectural Survey Field Form, the building once contained the S.F. Pie Co., though the dates are unknown.18

Doesn't really help I think with that reefer I don't know...Lou FRemy wholesale drugs/cosmetics?

Thanks that's real neat. I knew I was somewhere around there.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Wow - the question is answered almost 18 years after the first post.  Good work!

MILW16 Wrote:
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> Wow - the question is answered almost 18 years
> after the first post.  Good work!

Thanks I came across the thread somehow yesterday while going through the archives searching for Berkeley stuff and thought it would be interesting to look into and also a bit funny to answer it. 18 years later on a website that's says something about the longevity of this site and the site's posters!

Wow, that is a rare photo!  Great sleuth job!  I too would love to see more photos of SF industrial trackage (with trains on them), because they are so rare.  - Eric Blasko

AlcoRSD15 Wrote:
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> Wow, that is a rare photo!  Great sleuth job!  I
> too would love to see more photos of SF industrial
> trackage (with trains on them), because they are
> so rare.  - Eric Blasko

Me, too! Photobob posted a picture once of a WP switcher near Tunnel A uptown side and I think caption ran something like "Despite living on Potrero Hill for XXX years, this is one of the only pictures of freight side of things..." or something. Which makes the image Photobob posted doubly rare. 

Hopefully Weather will write a book since he did take a bunch of pictures in the late 60's and 70's. 

Bumping this for Photobob. 

Was there supposed to be a Planning Dept link
up above?

timz Wrote:
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> Was there supposed to be a Planning Dept link
> up above?

I think so?

Here's a few links I googled up: 

https://commissions.sfplanning.org/cpcpackets/2017-010250DESc1.pdf

https://commissions.sfplanning.org/hpcpackets/2017-010250DES.pdf

https://sfplanning.s3.amazonaws.com/archives/documents/372-SOMA_Historic_Context_Statement_06-30-2009.pdf