Old Photos Of Dogpatch Show It’s Always Been a Cool Looking Hood — The Bold Italic

By Ann-Marie AlcĚÁntara

Dogpatch’s melding of stark industrial and cozy neighborhood aesthetics is like no other part of San Francisco. Walk the streets crisscrossing 3rd St. and you’ll pass huge warehouses housing artist studios and small businesses, pricy new lofts, and some of the oldest Victorians in the city. While the area is still a haven for creative folks, development is changing the skyline and shifting the mix of people living and working in this area.

Ramp over 19th Street at Iowa (1956)

Though popular belief is that the neighborhood got its name because because stray dogs used to eat all the leftover meat from Butchertown (an old slaughterhouse) in Islais Creek, Dogpatch should really be a given a moniker reflecting its resilience. It’s one of the few neighborhoods that wasn’t devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, meaning many of the houses in the area are over a century old (a number of them were built by hand). San Francisco’s oldest public school building (from 1895) in is Dogpatch, as is one of the oldest firehouses, Firehouse No. 16, at 1009 Tennessee Street. These streets have a good chance of retaining the rich architectural history, since the neighborhood was named a historic district in 2003, garnering it extra protection from the city.

From the ramp over at 19th Street at Iowa (1956)

Dogpatch’s industrial history is a point of pride for many of its residents, as is the way landlords have repurposed older buildings into work spaces for artists and designers. The Noonan Building, located on Pier 70 and built in 1941, has lots of artist studios and is the only remaining wooden building on the pier. Nearby stands what was once the American Can Factory, finished in 1955, and is now the American Industrial Center that many small businesses call home. It’s not all creative types either — even the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels has an outpost on Tennessee Street. All types of people call the waterfront neighborhood home.

20th Street between Third and Illinois Street (1956)

These photos show what Dogpatch looked like from the 1950s to the 1980s. The images come from the Robert Durden Color Slide Collection at the San Francisco History Center in the San Francisco Public Library and we’re sharing them with non-profit Historypin and its Year of the Bay mapping project. Fans of these photos can find more via Historypin’s Year of the Bay project, where you can leave your comments on the locations, dates, and stories that go along with these images.

20th Street Between Third and Illinois Street (1956)

Come help us celebrate Dogpatch with a Microhood in the neighborhood this Thursday from 6–8 p.m., when we’ll have great deals, meals, and drinks on offer from the businesses in this special ‘hood.