--- title: San Francisco: Classic Photos of a Great American City description: Photos from the '30s to the early '70s -- decades during which San Francisco transformed itself as dramatically as any city in America. canonical: https://time.com/3880647/san-francisco-classic-photos-great-american-city/ author: Liz Ronk article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-30T19:27:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:55.011Z og:title: San Francisco: Classic Photos of a Great American City og:description: Photos from the '30s to the early '70s -- decades during which San Francisco transformed itself as dramatically as any city in America. og:url: https://time.com/3880647/san-francisco-classic-photos-great-american-city/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22b7132e39500058/69884c45cd1bba485d6faee7/140728-san-francisco-241.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: San Francisco 1955 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: San Francisco: Classic Photos of a Great American City twitter:description: Photos from the '30s to the early '70s -- decades during which San Francisco transformed itself as dramatically as any city in America. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22b7132e39500058/69884c45cd1bba485d6faee7/140728-san-francisco-241.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE in a Great City: San Francisco (30 Jul 2014) > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Jul 30, 2014 7:27 PM UTC  View of the Golden Gate Bridge toward the hills of Marin County, 1955. View of the Golden Gate Bridge toward the hills of Marin County, 1955. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Jul 30, 2014 7:27 PM UTC For the latest edition of our [“Great Cities”](http://life.time.com/great-cities/) series, LIFE.com features classic photographs of that smallish, hilly gem by the Bay: San Francisco. For a town its size—with a population of 800,000, it has just a quarter as many people as, for example, Brooklyn—San Francisco holds a forceful grip on the imagination of people around the country and around the world. From the legendary, wide-open debauchery of the Gold Rush years to the Beat poets of North Beach in the 1950s; the Haight-Ashbury era and the brief (over-romanticized) Summer of Love of the Sixties; the locavore restaurant revolution, which arguably started in the East Bay with [Chez Panisse](http://www.npr.org/2011/08/22/139707078/alice-waters-40-years-of-sustainable-food); the unstoppable flowering of gay rights; the first stirrings of [“maker culture”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maker%5Fculture) and the dawn of the Digital Age (_Wired_ magazine, etc.), San Francisco and environs have been at the center of countless movements and “isms” for more than a century and a half. The pictures here document The City (as San Franciscans habitually call it) from the 1930s to the early 1970s—a handful of decades during which SF transformed itself as dramatically as any metropolis in America. Despite all the upheaval it’s endured, however, San Francisco remains a singular place. It’s at-once whimsical and tough, self-absorbed and endearing—a cultured, world-class city that retains some of its Wild West character, while harboring neighborhoods that feel like distinct, companionable hamlets. So, let’s celebrate a great American city. Whatever you do, though, do _not_ call it “Frisco.” San Franciscans young and old get weirdly worked up about that nickname. You’ve been warned.  At the scene of the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1938. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  At the scene of the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939. Horace Bristol—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ferry near the the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 1941. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Fong-Fong bakery and ice cream parlor, 1941. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Diego Rivera working on pencil sketches for huge mural depicting Pan-American unity, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1941. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Shipyard ironworkers, San Francisco, 1942. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Streets of San Francisco, 1942. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  San Francisco, 1942. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A civilian observer and plane-spotter, San Francisco, 1942. Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Cemetery of Mission Dolores, San Francisco, 1942. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Newspapers welcome Madame Chiang Kai-Shek to San Francisco, 1943. Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  American troops, San Francisco, 1945. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Author Gertrude Atherton and her dog outside of her home in San Francisco, 1946. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Cable car turnaround, San Francisco, 1947. Charles E. Steinheimer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  View of San Francisco, 1947. Andreas Feininger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  San Francisco, 1947. Charles E. Steinheimer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, 1951. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  South San Francisco, 1951. Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dancing the mambo at San Francisco's Macumba Club, 1954. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Pacific Heights, 1955. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Tin Angel, a waterfront nightclub, San Francisco, 1955. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  View of the Golden Gate Bridge toward the hills of Marin County, 1955. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  San Francisco bar, 1956. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Getting one's hair done in San Francisco, 1956. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights, 1957. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Kenneth Rexroth at a poetry reading, 1957. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Housing construction in San Francisco, 1958. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Looking at Alcatraz, 1958. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Willie Mays and young fan, San Francisco, 1958. George Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opening of the boating season on San Francisco Bay, 1958. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Opening Day at Candlestick Park, 1960. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1962. Walker Evans—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Beatles at a press conference, San Francisco, 1964. Bill Ray—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Brand new BART, 1967. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Vietnam War protestors, San Francisco, 1967. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  San Francisco, 1969. Lee Balterman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Above San Francisco, 1969. Lee Balterman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Black Panthers protest, San Francisco, 1970. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Author Richard Brautigan with his daughter, San Francisco, 1970. Vernon Merritt III—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco mayoral race, 1971. Michael Rougier—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Anti-war march, San Francisco, 1972. 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