Playland (San Francisco)

Juliette Steele

In this early 1940s lithograph, Juliette Steele depicts an afternoon at San Francisco's Playland-at-the-Beach, a popular 10-acre park that once ran alongside Ocean Beach on Highway 1, just north of Golden Gate Park. The property's storied history culminated in the park's demolition in the early 1970s, making way for real estate developers. In this image, Steele preserves a nearly forgetten slice of San Francisco's blue-collar history.

The modern history of the sandy stretch of property, which runs between the Cliff House and the Dutch windmills of the Park, began as a shantytown known as Mooneyville-by-the-Sea. Inhabited by squatters protesting the encroachment of monied railroad companies, they were forced out by the city's Park Commissioner, Frank Pixley, who then sold it to developers. There, they built the first iteration of the amusement park, Ocean Beach Pavilion. Over time, the park added to its many features and, in 1926, it was taken over by George Whitney, the "Barnum of the Golden Gate".

His purchase came just before the Great Depression. When the economic downturn took hold of the city, Whitney bought out the struggling concessionaires and expanded his empire to include the Beach Chalet and Sutro Baths. To the amusement park he added three blocks of entertainment, including a Funhouse, a diving bell, a midway of games and vendors, photobooths, and roller coasters. In time, it would become the birthplace of the perennial favorite: the It's-It.

Playland would be a boon to the working class citizens of San Francisco as they struggled through the Depression and then World War II. Families of all economic situations could enjoy themselves with a ride on the Big Dipper coaster and a 40 cent corn dog. But By the 1960s the park was run down. Though many people rallied to keep it going, it finally shut down in 1972, to be quickly bought up and demolished. Upon it's closure, the park would be eulogized by famed San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen in an article titled "We'll Never Go There Anymore".