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August 1958. "U.S. Branch Mint, Mission & Fifth Streets, San Francisco." Photo by William S. Ricco for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size.
To the right is the Pickwick Hotel, once the station for Pickwick Stages buses. If the picture included a bit more to the right, you would notice the big arched sections where the buses once pulled in to load and discharge passengers.
Dash Hammett had Sam Spade check the Maltese Falcon at the Pickwick baggage room...
Even for then, in the immediate left foreground by the bus is another of those 1950 eight passenger Chryslers, identified by its center opening rear doors and separate rear quarter windows. Made in every trim level except surprisingly New Yorker, it looks like the shorter wheelbase (125") Royal or Windsor rather than the extended wheelbase (145") Crown Imperial.
The Hotel Chronicle next door was named for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, which is on the other side of the intersection. On the right side of the photo, you can see a delivery vehicle loaded with the day's newspapers.
[You're right about the location of the Chronicle building, but those aren't newspapers. Also, the Chronicle used delivery vans. -tterrace]
Fosters had restaurants in a few locales in San Francisco. My parents and I used to go to the outlet on Clement Street after doctor appointments. I amused myself at King Norman's Kingdom of Toys, the corner magazine and news store and eventually enjoying a rice pudding at Fosters. 1958 was a nice year for an eight year-old in San Francisco.
The Old Mint is the venue for the annual San Francisco History Expo, at which "more than fifty San Francisco organizations create 'mini-museums' showcasing the diverse history of San Francisco's communities." Here's a shot I took at the one in March 2013, right up there at the top of the entrance steps. Also, I knew this man who worked there at the time of the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Nice to see the home of all the "-S" coins from my childhood coin collection.
[This facility stopped minting coins in 1937; thereafter "S" mint-marked coins were produced at the new mint at Market and Duboce Streets. -tterrace]
Ah, OK thanks! (That would explain why it was being recorded for a survey of historic buildings ...)
It's kind of hard to tell though, for all the trolleybus wires in the way. Ferry Plaza route 14 is a currently served by the new generation trolleybuses though.
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