Cyclorama at Tenth and Market
Unfinished History
Long before Dolby and Twitter came to settle on the corner of Tenth and Market Streets, even before the Fox Theater was built across the street, an unusual circular building occupied the southeast corner to Stevenson Alley, originally called the Panorama.
Market and 10th c 1890. This was the entrance to the Panorama Building at 1331 Market Street, built in 1887. It led to a huge circular drum in the rear of the lot where 360 degree paintings of dramatic historical events were on view, the so-called Cyclorama being a precursor to cinema.
Photo: OpenSFHistory.org, wnp67.0131
This Sanborn insurance map from 1886-1893 depicts the Panorama at the corner of 10th and Market Streets.
By the end of the 1890s, Thomas Varney's Rambler Bicycle Company had taken over the space and converted it to a velodrome and bicycling sport club.
The Rambler Biclorama takes over the former space of the Panorama, 1899.
The full-page ad for the Biclorama, 1899.
Two riding academies!
A hundred years later, this would all be reinvented for the Caltrain station, the Giants ballpark, and other venues.
Red arrow points to ruins of the Biclorama after the 1906 earthquake.
Photo: San Francisco History Room, SF Public Library