Carville-by-the-Sea: San Francisco's Streetcar Suburb

October 30, 9:07 PMSF Architecture & Design ExaminerKaleene Kenning

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Architecture & Design Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Photograph courtesy of Woody LaBounty, use with permission.

Carville-by-the-Sea: San Francisco's Streetcar Suburb, written by Woody LaBounty, recalls one of the quirkiest communities in the history of San Francisco’s western neighborhoods. In the mid-1890s, San Francisco transit companies began selling obsolete horse cars and cable cars to the public. Writers, judges, lady bicyclists and other San Francisco bohemians arranged, combined, and even stacked old transit cars to create bars and restaurants, shoe repair shops, playhouses, laundries, artists' studios, and even houseboats.

The hardcover book, which has 144 color pages, recalls an antique scrapbook with hundreds of rare images from libraries, archives and private collections. LaBounty took artistic liberties, adding color to many images in the book to highlight the use of cars in structures, to call back to old colorized postcards of the era, and to add to the visual power of the story. The cover photograph is perhaps the most famous image of Carville, depicting Jacob Heyman's purchased cars adrift in the sand waiting for buyers about 1899; L.S. Levin claimed credit on copy negatives years after the photograph was taken.

As Carville-by-the-Sea: San Francisco's Streetcar Suburb is released, LaBounty, a leading authority on the city's western neighborhoods and the founder of the Western Neighborhoods Project, begins a series of appearances and presentations. Details of LaBounty’s currently scheduled events through the end of the year include:

Sunday, November 1, 2009
Book Release Party
Sunset Youth Services
3918 Judah Street
San Francisco, CA 94122-1121
1:00pm - 4:00pm

Thursday, November 5, 2009
Presentation: Carville-by-the-Sea
San Francisco Main Library
Latino/Hispanic room
100 Larkin Street at Grove, San Francisco
6:00pm - 7:30pm

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Presentation: Beachside Bohemia: Carville-by-the-Sea and the Birth of the Outer Sunset District
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society
Jewish Community Center - Kanbar Hall
3200 California Street at Presidio Avenue
Free to SFMHS members. $5 requested of non-members.
http://www.sfhistory.org
7:00pm

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Book signing
Green Apple Books
506 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA
7:00pm
http://www.greenapplebooks.com/

Friday, November 13, 2009
Presentation: Carville-by-the-Sea
Columbarium - Neptune Society
1 Lorainne Court
San Francisco, CA 94118
3:00pm
http://www.neptune-society.com/

Saturday, November 14, 2009
Carville neighborhood history walks for members of the
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, and
Western Neighborhoods Project
(Contact the organizations to reserve space.)

Thursday, November 19, 2009
Presentation: Carville-by-the-Sea
San Francisco Architectural Heritage
2007 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA
$8 for members/students, $12 for non-members
http://www.sfheritage.org/
6:00pm

Monday, December 14, 2009
Presentation: Carville-by-the-Sea
Sunset Branch, San Francisco Public Library
1305 Eighteenth Avenue, between Irving and Judah streets, San Francisco
7:00pm

For more information: For a detailed list of appearances and presentations, visit http://www.carville-book.com/events.php. The order the book from Outside Lands Media, visit http://www.carville-book.com/order.php. For information about the Western Neighborhoods Project, visit http://www.outsidelands.org/index.php.