Saturday, January 23, 2016



... . .. ... .. .sing me a song as life is a strange venture into,
the past as the pass is a lyrics to be long on the steer of enter the story of the chose,
balance the beam on a PARTICULAR water fountain and Name the placard to those Police,
as the station to the thirst came via a today on the once upon a mathematical Track,
bump the wow said to the clam that this is the Terrace,
a story Ride on the Porch of a toy lets bee.

There on the Harbor of the scene the seat,
to term this is the trace of the SFFD,
the Collar and those Hames that spoke to the Hi Tower!!

Free rode to Spreckles Lake?? Nope,
Stow Lake?? Yep,
the tunnel down under the Great Highway?? Yes,
the beach to know the reach of time on the inch of a hands measure?? awe haw.

So there in the Hay a giant Core to the Polo Field runaways and Trotters lean,
round those enormous turns to big deep trailers on the Scope of the Casting Pools??,
well in that the Golden Gate Park has had a bit History,
the land to the Trail?? nigh the hours on the eyes to those Saddles,
benches and Picnic Tables to know the fast and most definitely the paved,
for a look is route of a thousand words to speak a see!! 

Sew, for those thread bare in tuners that roust the sing hear is the right,
out Over the back bale is a view,
down the dirt road a bigger bell to wonder Windows,
calculation to the Clock tower where a stopwatch grace to the were blocks of raise,
ray tog knaw Z knee forged a truth to a sure lee by Means of the Quarter Horse purity,
there the payphone of the Washracks 'Soap' to go get a drink of watch,
take a photo Shoot the clue & Watt do the Bulletins state to shoe??

Hi Oh Silver!!

To Whom Knew Roosevelt Followed You Everywhere With His Eyes regardless, Now, Did You Know That Treasure Island Was Called 'Goat Island' Once??

Yerba Buena Island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yerba Buena Island sits in the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, California. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. It has had several other names over the decades: Sea Bird Island, Wood Island, and Goat Island. The island is named after the town of Yerba Buena, which was named for the plant of the same name that was abundant in the area. The plant's English and Spanish common name, Yerba buena, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (literally meaning "good herb"), generally used to describe local species of the mint family.
Yerba Buena Island
Neighborhood of San Francisco
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island is located in San Francisco
Yerba Buena Island
Yerba Buena Island
Location within San Francisco
Coordinates: 37.809912°N 122.366002°W
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
CitySan Francisco
The island is currently part of District 6 of the City and County of San Francisco. According to the United States Census Bureau, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island together have a land area of 2.334 km2 (0.901 sq mi) with a total population of 2,500 as of the 2010 census.
Today the military reservation southeast of the Yerba Buena Tunnel belongs to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) District Eleven. The US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco – Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) tower is located on Signal Road Bldg. 278 atop the peak of the island. The US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Headquarters is co-located with US Coast Guard Station San Francisco on Healy Avenue @ Fresnel Way at water-level on the southeast coast of the island. The USCG Station has a navigational buoy repair facility on Fresnel Way. The USCG Senior Officers' residences are in Quarters A, B, C, 8 and 9 off of Hillcrest Road on the hill atop the USCG base. During the summer of 2011, the Department of Homeland Security - United States Coast Guard opened the new SAFE Port Act (2006) Interagency Operations Center (IOC at Bldg. 100 site on Spindrift Circle) on the US Coast Guard Sector / Station San Francisco base. The IOC houses the VTS, WatchKeeper and the US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Command Center together in one building.

History[edit]


Aerial photo of Treasure Island (top) and Yerba Buena Island (bottom).
The first California legislature, on February 18, 1850, passed an act establishing the boundaries of San Francisco County and naming the island after the former name of the city of San Francisco, Yerba Buena, which was changed in 1847.
Officially, the island was Yerba Buena Island until 1895, when on a decision by the United States Board on Geographic Names, it was changed to Goat Island. During the gold rush, a large number of goats were pastured on the island, and the name "Goat Island" came into popular use.[1] It was changed back to Yerba Buena Island on June 3, 1931.
The idea of a military post on Yerba Buena Island originated during the American Civil War, when it was feared a raiding Confederate warship could slip past Fort Point and Alcatraz Island during a foggy night. However, it was not until the 1870s that Army Post Camp Yerba Buena Island (aka Army Post Camp Decature aka Army Post at Goat island aka US Engineer Depot, Yerba Buena Island and aka US Quartermaster Depot, Yerba Buena Island) by Navy Road and North Gate Road was completed, including a fog signal and octagonal lighthouse called Yerba Buena Light (1875) that remain today at the end of Hillcrest Road. In 1891, the United States Army Engineers (Currently known as the United States Army Corps of Engineers) built a Torpedo Station / Shed / Storehouse / Assembly building (Building 262) at the end of Army Road by North Gate Road. The torpedoes were actually floating mines that could be placed in the bay via cable for defense against intruding enemy vessels. The Torpedo Station was abandoned in the 1930s but still stands today (hidden underneath the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge) listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Just before the turn of the 20th century, the first U.S. Naval Training Station on the Pacific Coast was established on the north east side of the island by 1st Street and North Gate Road. Quarters One, also known as the Admiral Nimitz House near the intersection of Whiting Way and Garden Way, was built about 1900 as the Naval Training Station commandant's residence. Its Classic Revival style, fashionable for private residences in the Bay Area at the time, was unusual for naval base housing. The training station closed after World War I. Although the training station closed the Navy maintained presence with the stationary receiving ship USS Boston (1884) aka USS Despatch (IX-2) (1940) anchored in harbor through World War II.
During World War II, Yerba Buena Island fell under the jurisdiction of Treasure Island Naval Station, main headquarters of the 12th Naval District inside Building One. Built on the shoals of Yerba Buena Island, the 403-acre (163 ha) Treasure Island was a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. After hosting the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the United States Navy deemed Treasure Island an ideal location for transporting people and machines to the Pacific theater, and on April 17, 1942, established Treasure Island Naval Station (for surface ships and submarines) and as an Auxiliary Air Facility airfield (for airships, blimps, dirigibles, planes and seaplanes) which also included a portion of Yerba Buena Island. Quarters One became the residence of the Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT). Several other buildings used by the Naval Station during World War II also remain on the island, including the Senior Officers' Quarters in Quarters A, B, C, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Buildings 83, 205 and 230 were support facilities to the senior officers' quarters.

A double-deck tunnel carries Bay Bridge traffic between the eastern and western spans, seen here westbound
In 1996, the naval base and the Presidio of San Francisco were decommissioned, and opened to public control, under stipulations. Quarters One by Whiting Way and the other Senior Officers' Quarter by Garden Way are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The SFPD took over law enforcement jurisdiction of non USCG parcels of Yerba Buena Island. SFFD Fire Station 48 on Treasure Island took over medical rescue & fire protection of Yerba Buena Island (including USCG Sector / Station San Francisco) and portions of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

Miscellaneous[edit]

Located west of the island was Blossom Rock, a treacherous submerged rock that lay only 5 feet below the surface of the water at low tide. Blossom Rock was discovered and named in 1826 by Captain Beechey of the HMS Blossom. Beechey noted that the rock could be avoided by aligning the northern tip of Yerba Buena Island with two especially large redwood trees growing in the East Bay hills as one entered the Bay. These redwoods were located in what is now Roberts Regional Recreation Area, near the "Madrone" picnic area; the area is marked with a historical marker. The "Navigation Trees" were logged in about 1851, exacerbating the danger of Blossom Rock. The top of the rock was blown up in 1870, and another section removed by blasting in the early 1930s.
There are three parks located on Yerba Buena Island. Hill Park near Treasure Island Road and Macalla Road which used to be a military cemetery until the high visibility traffic approach to the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition necessitated its removal and transfer of graves to the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio of San Francisco. With Blue Park and Tower Park atop YBI by Yerba Buena Drive.
In his book Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. mentions in the last chapter, actually a post script chapter added 20 years later, that his ship of the 1830s voyage anchored "between a small island, called Yerba Buena, and a gravel beach in a little bight or cove of the same name".

See also[edit]

In Honor The First Range Keeper Thomas Sloane



What is The Supreme Court but a Jury that delivers Justice^Is^Is!!

Talk Radio & Automobile Morning??



What is It with the People of these United division on the Mathematics to a Pulse,
the balance of the Badge to the Wikipedia on the said??,
is Hollywood really only the dog eat pick of the Ole good barrel of lick??,
gosh the darn to the Threads and Fiber the Meet with Understanding complete.

Each brain on the Que born I was to the San Francisco port of a Land,
the golden gate bridge,
bakers beach,
Ocean,
the Farallones on the Vast entry to this search today!!

For as a small riding My pony Freckles I rode,
the barn on the left to the ride over to the Bison there was a Fountain,
green and much to tall for my Pony and I to chorus the water as a quench so off we went.

Banks of dunes rides and Arena of this World just dry laughs these Heavys',
throwing to the Polo Track a battle of skulls that Harped at the Golden Gate Park Stables gab,
those bench barkers were full of hatred towards the Police Barn at garage,
each and every turf to dime in slamming gates their death of the Horse It and Of its Self!!

In the bounce of grid work its the Scene I know from a Too,
in that this ends Up being the foundation of a Keep,
My Mother and her Ownership to the Word,
in frame of determination and width the sit Tea for a cup of this base,
as that is the Enter National Advice,
verse with a Chapter and book it a Weird.

Done gin and Crinkle ice to shave the cream as that Know,
bank on Wall Street I guarantee yous futures as the gas o lens,
swipe than call enter wreck shin to dive the grain a Salt tee Pea of a scare,
but why would I fear what I know must be,
for should that Green Fountain be gone so should that Wonder Bread of Wares,
so Dish this to the National Media,
and be certain to say that after all these long yawns of a Lions Roar,
belch.

Check It Out Rebecca!! Look Kathleen!! KNEW Them Johno!! An Awe Full Lot Lauren.



In the Year of 1874; 

San Francisco’s first mounted policemen patrol in Golden Gate Park and the vicinity as part of the Golden Gate Park Police.  The mounted officers, specifically, are referred to as, “Range Keepers.”  The first Range Keeper is Thomas Sloane, a former cavalryman.  A silver star worn over the heart is the only symbolic identifier worn by the Range Keepers.  This regiment of officers in San Francisco is the first U.S. mounted municipal police unit west of the Mississippi. 
In the Year of 1878; 
Chief of Police John Kirkpatrick requests of The Board of Supervisors fifty additional police officers; new police stations in the Mission District and the Polk Gulch, and mounted police to patrol the vast expanse of the Western Addition and outlying districts.
In the Year of 1883; 
Chief of Police Patrick Crowley poses atop his magnificent horse with many of his assembled SFPD troops, for a department photograph by renowned San Francisco photographer Isaac Taber.  
In the Year of 1888; 
The Park Police are now outfitted in dapper gray uniforms.  They are similar to the grey uniform previously worn by regular members of the SFPD (who now wear dark blue uniforms) but, the uniform sleeves are adorned with elaborate black piping.  The uniforms are nearly identical to those worn by mounted officers in New York City’s Central Park. Their “bobby-style” helmet is adorned with a silver wreath (the first hat badge worn by any police officers in San Francisco) bearing the initials, “G.G.P.P.” Additionally, each officer is outfitted with a magnificent rosewood truncheon with a belt and a silver buckle.   Although jurisdiction for the city police ends at Divisadero Street, San Francisco’s Chief of Police Patrick Crowley details regular city policemen, horses, mules and wagons to Golden Gate Park when necessary, particularly on weekends when burgeoning crowds flourish and overwhelm the Park Police force.   
In the Year of 1896; 
Hailed as the proudest day in San Francisco Police history, nearly half a thousand uniformed police march in the first Annual San Francisco Police Inspection, Review & Parade.  From the ferries along Market Street, to Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco’s Finest, now trained experts in precision drill, march to the delight and enjoyment of over twenty-five thousand cheering spectators, many of whom throw flowers at the feet of the passing policemen.  Favorite amongst the adoring crowds, is the impressive platoon of SFPD Mounted Police under the command of Corporal Shanahan.  Splendidly leading his department as Mounted Brigadier General of the Review, is Chief of Police Patrick Crowley.  Drill Master, Sergeant Robert A. Marshall, follows atop his impressive steed, to the beat of the department drum corps.  Mounted, in command of the First Battalion of marching men is Captain George Wittman.  Mounted and leading the Second Battalion, is Captain John Spillane.  (Previous Reviews did not include precision drill, music, inspection by dignitaries or the pomp and circumstance surrounding this Review, which was officially proclaimed the “first.”)
In the Year of 1899; 
Chief of Police Isaiah W. Lees and Captain George Wittman, both on horseback, lead a glorious muster of SFPD officers down Van Ness Avenue for the fourth annual San Francisco Police Inspection, Review & Parade.  (Different designations and titles were ascribed to the annual processions depending    Mounted officers ride at the rear of the assemblage, which many exuberant spectators proclaim, “…as saving the best for last.”  The image is captured by illustrious photographer George Blum. (Blum entered the SFPD as a sworn officer in 1902 and  later serves as Chief Photographer.)   
In the Year of 1900; 
The San Francisco City Charter is revised, effective, January 1, 1900.  Two keys provisions in that Charter deal specifically with the SFPD.  The most important revision is that henceforth, all sworn policemen will be civil service employees.  By changing the authority over Golden Gate Park from the California State Legislature to the mayor and Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, all of the San Francisco Park Police, including mounted officers are absorbed into the regular ranks of the SFPD.  
In the Year of 1901; 
Chief William P. Sullivan Jr., selects a special squad of detectives and patrolmen to guard visiting President of the United States William McKinley and his entourage.  Four highly regarded and skilled mounted officers are selected to escort President McKinley everywhere he goes, from the time of his arrival until his departure two weeks later. The mounted officers are given majestic black horses to ride and an entire new set of accouterments for the assignment.  The special squad of mounted officers consists of: Sergeant James Kelly, Officer J. Berrie, Officer Christopher Arrellanes and Officer Manuel de la Guerra. 
In the Year of 1909; 
In a feat of extraordinary bravery and courage, Mounted Officer George Merchant atop his able mount, stops a runaway team of eight horses on Market Street, saving countless lives.  Merchant’s daring rescue is spotlighted as one of the most impressive amongst the countless that valiant policemen perform routinely on foot and horseback. 
In the Year of 1910; 
Sixty-two strategically placed mounted officers are patrolling the Golden Gate Park, Ocean Beach and the outlying sections of the Bay View, Mission, Richmond, and Sunset Districts of San Francisco.  They include two sergeants, three corporals and fifty-seven patrolmen.
In the Year of 1911; 
Chief David A. White assembles the first organized traffic squad (See Motorcycles, 1909).  He assigns Lt. Duncan Matheson to be in charge of this new unit.  Twenty-one men comprise the new traffic squad which patrols downtown business districts.  A uniformed officer is assigned to every intersection along the heavily traveled Market Street corridor.  Other officers are assigned to fixed-posts on Kearny Street, Grant Avenue and Sutter Street.  In addition to the men on foot, five mounted officers are assigned to the unit to enforce traffic ordinances, protect pedestrians and facilitate the flow of traffic.  The mounted officers are Corporal Wilbert Pengelly, Officer Grover Coats, Officer John F. Quinlan, Officer Benjamin J. Smith and Officer Fred H. Cook. 
In the Year of 1915; 
To the thrill and amazement of spectators, several SFPD mounted officers and their equine partners, led by Sergeant George Merchant, participate in horse shows and competitions at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (World’s Fair), easily winning ribbons in every event that they enter. 
In the Year of 1918; 
After years of faithful service, through the cooperation of the San Francisco SPCA, retiring city horses (police and fire) are for the first time, afforded the opportunity to enjoy a well-deserved retirement to a pastoral ranch.   (This practice remains in place to this day, for retiring police horses.)
In the Year of 1930; 
Inspector George Merchant conducts weekly lasso practice at Ocean Beach to train mounted officers to rescue drowning people.  Civilian expert swimmers are recruited to volunteer as rescue subjects. 
In the Year of 1935; 
As part of Police Field Day, mounted officers of the Traffic Bureau and the Golden Gate Park Station compete in a mounted tug-of-war at the old stadium in Golden Gate Park.  Sponsored by the San Francisco Junior Chamber of Commerce, the event raises money for charities across the city.   
In the Year of 1937; 
SFPD horses are now stabled in five locations city-wide: Bay View Barn (1676 Newcomb Avenue); Ingleside Barn (Balboa Park); Potrero Stable (in service, June 9, at 2300 3rd Street); Southern Stable (360 4th Street) and the new Golden Gate Park Stable (open, but still under construction which replaces the Stanyan Stable which closed on June 9).   
In the Year of 1939; 
Amongst the hundreds of Depression-era W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) projects undertaken in San Francisco, Project #1699 is the building of a new main SFPD stables in Golden Gate Park.  Construction began on October 10, 1935 and is completed on August 31, 1939. 
In the Year of 1946; 
Horses in the mounted unit are now mobile.  A new, specialized, custom- built van is now able to transport up to seven horses from the stables to anywhere in the city swiftly (see: Trucks).  Due to this efficiency in transporting horses across the city, the Potrero Police barn is eliminated.  Fifty horses are now kept at the Golden Gate Park Stables.  The horses utilized for downtown traffic are still maintained at the Southern Stable.
In the Year of 1964; 
After much wrangling, Officer Ernie Provost becomes the first African-American mounted officer to serve in the SFPD.  (Provost will serve with quiet dignity and grace.  In the 1970’s he will serve as the mounted unit’s horse trainer.  He will spend thirteen of his twenty-seven years in the department as part of the Mounted Unit.)
In the Year of 1980; 
The Mounted Unit is presented with its own unit flag by the Native Sons of the Golden West.  The flag is first displayed during the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, one of many San Francisco parades and festivals in which the unit participates.  
In the Year of 1981; 
The final barrier of inclusion is broken when Officer Laura Carroll becomes the first female officer to join the exclusive ranks of SFPD Mounted Officers. Carroll had been an accomplished equestrian prior to becoming a police officer.    
In the Year of 1988;
 Mayor Art Agnos recommends closing the mounted unit as a cost savings measure.  Fiercely proud of their traditions, the citizens of San Francisco handily reject this proposal.  Measure “V” to save the SFPD Mounted Unit from extinction wins overwhelmingly with 86 percent of the vote. 
In the Year of 2012; 
To protect mounted officers from potential head injuries, Chief Greg Suhr and the Police Commission institute a uniform policy change for mounted officers. Instead of the standard, ‘Duty, Class B, service hat’, ‘Special, Class C, baseball cap’ or Formal, ‘Class AA, Stetson campaign hat’, SFPD Mounted Officers are now required to wear helmets when they ride their mounts on patrol duty.  For ceremonial and other special occasions, a large cowboy hat is worn.  The officers of the mounted unit present Chief Suhr with a commemorative cowboy hat for his very own. 

In the Year of 2014;
San Francisco has the second-oldest continuously serving police mounted unit in the United States. (Due to budget constraints, several municipalities were forced to discontinue their mounted units in the last decade, including Boston and Cleveland.)  Famously known for hundreds of amazing ocean rescues, participation in numerous charitable and civic events, and as ambassadors of good-will, SFPD’s Mounted Unit continues to serve the citizens and visitors of San Francisco with pride and distinction, just as they have for the past 140 years.

Whats A Mart Dure??



Odd memories to establish the link as the Post of that Stable as the concrete barrier of Whom is What on the Hooters of today at Inn the City of San Francisco downtown on the circus.  It is mirror`ly representative to whom may be interested in how devastating it has been to watch the Polo on a buffalo field dead to the cyclone of Steep.  The whistle on that is the Fountain.  A barn and the carriage that was of great pardon to the excuse??  Nigh the hour of mentality to the Golden Gate Park Stables At closed by the Bimps that used to complain of horses tied on the Wall to be of ready.  So shall the Circa perfect to the Taught to Watch not to sea it is Onward Forward goes the shock??  Minute buy minute the cusp of the Richmond District bumper of The Presidio touching the bach Man on a National concorde of Press a dents.

Shanks.

Arena Gate & Clock??

Horses and the founding of golden gate park        Posted on 

http://fromthethicket.com/page/14/
photograph from the SFPL historic photograph collection
A horse actually played a key role in the founding of Golden Gate Park.  The story goes like this:
In the early 1870s, faced with the daunting task of establishing a vegetative cover on the sand dunes that had been set aside for the park, the young engineer in charge, William Hammond Hall, tried some techniques for dune stabilization that had been developed in Europe.  The method involved covering the dunes with planting mat and then seeding a combination of grasses, shrubs and trees.  The expectation was that the grasses would take hold in the planting mat and their roots would help keep the sand in place, forming a medium in which shrubs and trees would germinate and grow.  It was a method that essentially tried to replicate the processes of natural plant succession.  In the first experiments on the dunes of Golden Gate Park, Hall used species that had worked in France, a combination of maritime pines (Pinus nigra) and yellow broom (Cytisus spp.),  but these species failed to thrive.  So Hall and his colleagues tried adding some native lupines, which they noticed grew well locally.  The lupine proved more successful in the San Francisco coastal environment, but the pines and broom grew poorly and were soon choked out by the lupine and drifting sand.
At this point a horse saved the day.  Hall and some of his men were camped on the dunes and noticed that a horse, corralled on the sand, was scattering its feed of whole, wet barley.  By chance it rained and the scattered barley sprouted very readily, quickly covering the patch of sand with a green carpet.
This gave Hall the idea of adding barley to the seed mix they were using.  It worked to stabilize the dunes through the summer and the following winter, allowing the larger plants more time to establish themselves.  The dune stabilization was off and running!  In December 1872 and January 1873, Hall’s crew scattered a mix of barley, lupine, maritime pine and Albizia over an area of 100 acres.  And they established a nursery to give some trees a head start before planting them out in the stabilized dunes.
The rest is history!  Thanks to that horse!       (for complete story see site personally listed above.)
(this information is from Building San Francisco’s Parks, 1850-1930, by Terence Young (pp. 84-87)


Late 19th Century The Richmond District looking towards Lone Mountain
courtesy of : http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/tag/san-francisco-history 
*  Photograph from a Private Collection



Golden Gate Park construction with the Sunset District in the back – 1900 
courtesy of : http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/tag/san-francisco-history     
Photo courtesy of Greg Gaar 


courtesy of : http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/tag/san-francisco-history 
Photo Courtesy of SFPL 

Fleishhacker Pool, like the San Francisco Zoo was a gift to San Francisco by Herbert Fleishhacker. The idea, conceived by John McLaren, designer of Golden Gate Park, was to help bring athletic competitions to San Francisco.
The first event held at the pool was on April 22, 1925 and featured a freestyle swimmer named Johnny Weissmuller representing the Illinois Athletic Club. Weissmuller appeared several times at Fleishhacker and was a real crowd pleaser.
The 6, 500,000 gallon, filtered seawater filled pool, opened to the general public on May 1, 1925.  It cost 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for kids under 12.  For that you had use of the the dressing rooms with showers, and the loan of a bathing suit and towel that were sterilized between uses.
The pool had twelve lifeguards and a number of life rowboats.  It also boasted a tree-sheltered beach, a cafeteria, and even child care if you needed it.
The pool, while it existed was the largest in the world.  In 1943 U.S. troops used it to train for amphibious beach assaults.
Slowly slipping into disrepair the pool suffered its final blow when an outflow pipe collapsed in a 1971 storm, the city was unable to foot the bill for repairs.  The pool closed in June of 1971, and the concrete was broken up and the hole filled with dirt.  The land was granted to the zoo with the intention of adding parking.
The pool house however, remained, it was hoped it would become a restaurant.  Sadly it simply became a shelter for vagrants and feral cats.  The pool house caught fire and burned to the ground on December 1, 2012 leaving San Francisco with but a remnant of a glorious past.
courtesy of : http://www.artandarchitecture-sf.com/tag/san-francisco-history 
Photo Courtesy of SFPL