For Then and Now, we hunt through the archives of amazing vintage photographs of San Francisco to find historic images—and then do our best to go out and recreate those same photographs today. We're curious about how far we've come and what's stayed the same in this constantly-changing city we love.
Photograph: Wikimedia
Union Square, 1905
Union Square was the gift that no one wanted. In 1849, Col. John White Geary, who later became the first mayor of San Francisco, gave three acres of sandy dunes to the city. They lay untouched for years before becoming a recreational field in 1855 (coining the term “sandlot baseball”). But by the turn of the century, the erection of a beautiful new Beaux Arts building (which today houses Neiman Marcus), the Dewey Monument spire and the St. Francis Hotel (with its celebrity clientele) had cemented Union Square’s reputation for the finer things.
Photograph: Garrick Ramirez
Union Square, 2017
In the past 100 years, Union Square has undergone one of the biggest makeovers in Bay Area history. Surrounded on all sides by tall buildings, the square is where the city’s grand past merges with its sleek future. On the same bench where Alfred Hitchcock and Herb Caen were once photographed, weary shoppers can be seen unloading after a day of perusing Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, Niketown and the Apple Store. Through it all, the square remains one of the best people-watching sites in the world.