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1499 California St.
San Francisco, CA 94109
Tel: (415) 346-5219 |
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There was a time when the singing
cables of the Cable Cars along California Street ended
in the basement of the Cable Car Court. An enormous wheel
threaded the cable to a slot that returned it down California
Street from whence it had come. The cable cars traversed
Nob Hill, and passed through Chinatown to the financial
district, ending up a block from the Ferry Building, where
all the ferries landed from all over San Francisco Bay.
The history of the singing cable still lives in the memories
of the walls of the subterranean Cable Car Court vaults.
The history of Cable Car Court is intertwined with the
opulence of Nob Hill. The cars still find their way past
the magnificent Grace Cathedral with the front doors of
the Gates of Paradise, the most beautiful gates ever fashioned
by Italian Renaissance artisans. It then passes the Stanford
Mansion, where Leland Stanford built the grandest residence
on Nob Hill. Down the steep hill through crowded, segregated
Chinatown, where foreign Chinese found their way on the
endless search for Gold Mountain. It reeks of memories
of brothels, houses where pipes were smoked filled with
opium from the mother country, and steam laundries with
hot presses and tickets issued for each wash processed
by light bulbs deep into the night and early morning.
The austere power base of the financial district, and
the romance of the teeming ferry building ended the ride,
and the singing cables once again turned around and sang
their way back to Cable Car Court. In the other direction,
a block away, lays Polk Street, which; along with Castro
Street is the home of the largest gay community in the
United States of America. Need we say more for the tolerance
of this great city, and the respect it affords all peoples
from anywhere and everywhere?
The Cable Car Court floats in memories, and the fog that
sometimes enshrouds it carries the echoes of the footfalls
that sound on the damp sidewalks. On bright days, it shakes
off the memories and simply nods in the golden sun, peaceful,
relaxed and glad to be alive in the greatest City on Earth,
at the rising foot of the most prestigious hill on the
City of San Francisco, Nob Hill. And day after day, the
cables still sing. |
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