On the corner of Eddy and Larkin, a block or two from Civic Center is a large rectangle building several stories high with no windows and covered with panels of pebble stone slabs. It is a PG&E substation that neither adds nor detracts from the landscape.

Almost a year ago one side of the building became an outdoor art gallery adorned with murals of past and present images depicting significant people and places in the Tenderloin. PG&E was approached with a proposal to engage the public in a pictorial dialog with the Tenderloin.
Students at the Academy of Art under the direction of faculty instructor Carol Nunnelly researched the history of the Tenderloin and painted 13 murals. Their time was donated. PG&E provided the supplies and contributed to the Academy of Art Scholarship Fund.

 

• Aunt Charlies Lounge is a gay bar with nightly drag queen performances.
• The Tenderloin is home to a small but vibrant Vietnamese community. A two block area on Larkin is officially known as Little Saigon and is lined with a variety of small shops and restaurants.
• The Cadillac Hotel on Eddy St is a historic building built after the 1906 earthquake. It is the oldest non profit single residence occupancy (SRO) west of the Mississippi founded by the late Leroy Looper.
• The Tenderloin National Forest is a charming little park nestled in a small alley formerly known as Cohen Alley off Ellis St.

 

• Children of the Neighborhood,
• Vanguard Street Sweep was a protest in 1966 staged by GLBT youth who lived in the neighborhood and felt disenfranchised by society.
• The Wally Heider’s Recording Studio was established in 1969 to support the budding SF music community. Music groups like the Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and The Grateful Dead needed a convenient local recording studio. It was open until 1980.
• Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church

 

• In the early 1900’s some local businessmen determined it would be lucrative to purchase films and rent them to the local cinemas congregated on Market Street. They set up Film Exchanges in several Tenderloin buildings.
• Blackhawk Jazz Club was a jazz nightclub located on Turk and Hyde from 1949 to 1963 where well known jazz artists and groups played like Billy Holiday and Lester Young and Dave Brubeck.
• 1906 Earthquake
• There was a time when America watched boxing night on television. It was truly a golden period for boxing when Billy Newman opened the Newman Gym on Leavenworth. “In the 1970s Newmans Gym was one of the oldest standing boxing gym in the US”

For more information about the creation of the murals visit: PG&E