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October 17, 2010. An abandoned store at the corner of O'Farrell and Jones, in The Tenderloin, San Francisco.

October 17, 2010. A store at the corner of Powell and O'Farrell, near Union Square, San Francisco. If you ever need liquor, cigars, a magazine, the New York Times, and a baseball cap when you're in San Francisco, Marquard's is the perfect place to go.

October 17, 2010. Hotel Stratford on Powell St. near Union Square, San Francisco.

October 17, 2010. The Handlery Union Square Hotel on Geary St., San Francisco.

The port-a-potties were not actually part of the hotel, but were set up on the street for the San Francisco Women's Marathon.

October 17, 2010. David's Delicatessen on Geary St., near Union Square, San Francisco.

Love the sign, but I'm glad I didn't eat there, according to the reviews I just read online.

October 17, 2010. High Tide Cocktails, at the corner of Geary and Jones in The Tenderloin, San Francisco.

This is probably my favourite commercial sign that I saw in all of San Francisco. I walked past here several times, though I never got a chance to see it at night. I'm not even sure if it lights up anymore, but I'm picturing the lights "flowing" out of the martini glass, around the sign, and down the building. Classy.

October 17, 2010. New Century Theater on Larkin St. in The Tenderloin, San Francisco. Photo taken at 7:08am after leaving my hostel in search of breakfast.

Opened in 1916 as The Larkin Theater, was hugely popular in the 1940's to 1960's, then declined and eventually was renamed The Century and became a porn theatre. The New Century Theater continues in this role as a porn theatre / strip club.

More photos and history at Cinema Treasures.

October 17, 2010. Hotel Essex, at the corner of Ellis St. and Larkin St., in The Tenderloin, San Francisco.

7am on Sunday morning, I was up and out of my hostel, which was directly across the street from this hotel. There are some pretty sketchy areas around here, but all the old hotel and bar signs around here made it very visually appealing.

October 16, 2010. Another old theatre in the Mission District of San Francisco, at the corner of 16th Street and Capp Street. In fact, it's the oldest one still in business, dating back to 1908.

The Victoria Theatre was known for a short period of time as the 16th Street Theatre, and this is still evident in the partially obscured mosaic in the ticket lobby. This place has seen it all over its 100+ years: Vaudeville, burlesque, plays, films, Spanish films, porn, punk rock... Nowadays, it seems to mostly host local events, film festivals, locally-produced plays, musicals, etc.

It's interesting to note that this place still uses the correct "theatre" spelling. :-)

History, photos, and much more about the Victoria Theatre can be found at the Victoria Theatre website, Cinema Treasures, and Wikipedia.

October 16, 2010 on Osage St., a small but very colourful laneway just west of Mission and 24th in San Francisco. Someone must really like Lou Reed.