Oldest San Francisco

Oldest San Francisco features stories of the institutions that helped make San Francisco the place it is today, a forward-looking city with a strong sense of its past. Published by Reedy Press, the book details certain American firsts: found here are the stories of the oldest American senior center, community-run suicide hotline, and athletic club.

It speaks of civic fabrics — specifically, the oldest extant blue jeans and rainbow flag.

Its site is: www.oldestsanfrancisco.com.

The book has pieces on the city’s oldest book store, bike shop and building; the oldest mattress-maker, auto shop and scientific institution; the oldest Cathedral, synagogue and recording studio; the oldest department store, movie theater and opera company; the oldest hotel, funeral home and hat-maker.

Throughout, the book focuses on people: those who've founded these long-lived concerns, and those who've helped them survive, often against great odds. Through these small stories, a larger one, maybe, emerges – here, woven together, through stories, is some sense of San Francisco’s distinctive DNA.