The Fulton Food shop, at Fulton (rising) and Masonic (to the left), source of endless amounts of Camel cigarettes, bourbon (usually a blend, once in a while Jack Daniels), and blue cheese - all on mounting credit, of course.

1725 Fulton Street
The cross street, from which this picture was taken, is Central, the western boundary of the then nearly all black Fillmore District. It was a no-bedroom, murphy bed, kitchen/bath for $65 a month. I roomed there, on the top floor, front left, beginning the summer of 1958 with George Schornick a USF student from Lafayette CA. His grandfather had been master of the Balclutha, old sailing ship now a SF landmark. After George left to enter a Franciscan seminary in California, I next roomed here with Mike Prest who had just left the same seminary system to enroll at USF. Mike later took his own life in the organic lab at USF. After here I returned to Phelan Hall, Room 437.

Panorama of the Balclutha

The Haight-Ashbury Music and Culture site Hippies on the Web

Panorama view from a Haight-Ashbury rooftop (actually Clayton and Waller).

117 Cole Street
Summer of 1959 I roomed with Ed Griffith at 411 Cherry Street (no picture yet). We worked on the Foghorn (USF's newspaper); I worked on politics (Mayor Christopher's campaign); and I had (untreated) mononucleosis. After losing my job at the Housing Authority, we moved to the attic at 117 Cole, a half block from USF. There we enjoyed KSFR's "Wolfgang" morning radio ('bow toward Salzberg and hum something from Mozart') and a lot of classical music. From here I returned to Phelan Hall 236, then 436.

Big Brother
and the Holding Company

1812 Pacific Avenue
One of the few places I lived outside the Haight. I roomed here with Dick Magary and Ben Hanley, the summer of 1960. We were all working and could afford the place on the second floor in the rear. This is in Pacific Heights, just up from Van Ness Avenue, where the old Hippopotamus hamburger house was. This was the only house in the area to escape the 1906 fire. It had two huge living rooms, separated by columns, and a view of both bridges. I worked in the mailroom of the Hartford Insurance company. Ben spent part of the summer doing his national guard duty at the Presidio. Then back to Phelan Hall, 106A with Ben Hanley as roommate. After a summer at home in Paso Robles, I roomed in Phelan Hall 136 (roomed with Buzz Armanini).  

28 Hemway Terrace
Jack DeGovia and I had rooms on the top floor.My room--the three windows on the top floor--was built originally as a rooftop bar (turkish decor, beaded curtains, windows opened out on the roof which overlooked all of downtown). Jack's (behind mine, not visible here) had been the master bedroom. We did a great deal of reading. We memorized all 101 quatrains of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat. We were involved in the College Players (campus theatre); Jack ran for ASUSF president; we successfully opposed a new ASUSF constitution). Jack's girlfriend Shiela opened a sandwich shop which in 1963 became the Blue Unicorn, first coffeehouse in "The Haight."

737 Buenavista West
Jack DeGovia and I moved into the top floor of this place, which is just west of Buenavista Park (which is on the south side of Haight Street, two blocks east of Ashbury). Our room had long ago been the music room, with high ceilings, and pull-down stairway to the roof, and two padded window seats (one looking to the Golden Gate on the north, the other open to all fifty-plus block of Golden Gate Park - the flower aromas which reached us there were overwhelming).

58 Clayton Street
Sam Andrew and Jay Twigg lived here. When I ran out of money I moved in with them. When Sam and I both ran out of money we lived on rice only for weeks at a time. We finally suggested to the Remolif sisters that we should move in to their place on Page Street.

1849 Page Street
Lived here twice. First, on the second floor, front left, with Penny and Sue Remolif. They had the larger room at the corner of the building, Sam and I had the adjoining one. They worked in the financial district, Sam and I played guitar for the many parties they held. After living at 115 Cole Street, Dave Ayala and I, along with Jack DeGovia and Dan Dugan, moved here, top floor in the rear and on the right. Dave and I lived here when we enrolled at San Francisco State College. My mentor, Pete Phillips, happened to be living across Page street, at Page and Cole.

115 Cole Street
I roomed here with Quin Selman, who had been my first year USF dorm roommate and chem lab partner. As a junior he taught biochem classes at USF and, leaving without a degree, was later enrolled concurrently in the biochem Ph.D. and M.D. programs at the University of Colorado. It was here that we kept the skeleton Gertie. My next roommate at the same address later on, about 1962, was Dave Ayala, my fellow guitar player in the Highgraders. When we went to SF State we moved to 1849 Page with Jack DeGovia and Dan Dugan.

705 Irving Street
I lived in the flat on the second floor. Dave Ayala and I shared the room with the round window on the corner; at first Jack DeGovia had the adjoining room (to the left in the picture), then fellow student Larry Buffington shared it with his brother Howie, fresh from prison and then working at Gateway Chevrolet. In 1964 the space below us was rented by the Goldwater for President campaign; I hung a 75 foot canvas Johnson & Humphrey banner from the windows of our flat. This was my last address in San Francisco.