FoundSF

Unfinished History

In 1890, baleen from the jaws of whales dries in the Arctic Oil Works yard along 16th Street at the bay. After drying it was cut into stays for corsets, collars and umbrellas, as well as for buggy whips.

Image: Bancroft Library, Berkeley, CA

16th and Terry Francois, long before such a street existed, on April 14, 1925. Elevated View east from the Loop Lumber Tower toward the 16th Street piers. Remnants of these piers can be seen during low tide off the shoreline.

Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp36.03207

1938 aerial view of Mission Bay with 16th and Illinois Streets highlighted. The Southern Pacific Roundhouse is off Mariposa and 3rd, at the site of today's Children's Hospital.

Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library

For a few wonderful years, the future site of the Warriors stadium was an open wetland, intimating the return of the pre-urban landscape in this unlikely locale on 16th and 3rd.

Photo: Chris Carlsson, 2016

By 2018 the new stadium was well underway.

Photo: Chris Carlsson

In the plaza in front of the Warriors stadium, October 23, 2022.

Photo: Chris Carlsson