Cortland & Folsom ~ Thursday, February 19, 2009

This is a 1937 B&W photo by noted old-school SF transit historian Charlie Smallwood, colorized by noted modern SF transit historian Emiliano Echeverria:



The location is Cortland and Folsom, where the Market St Ry ended it's Cortland St line just before the Cortland begins a steep descent down the back of Bernal Heights (the hill I used to live on).

I used to cross the street right here to get to school, unaware that there were ever stretcars here.

The same little house is still there:


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The neighborhood is physically unchanged, it's just gone a bit upscale since 1937 (or even the 70's when I was around)!

Cars did occasionally overshoot the end of line, and I hear from Emiliano that in 1945 one slid down the hill sideways!

Colorization is a venerable technique, btw--all the vintage "color" postcards from the streetcar era are colorized, rather than actually color pictures.