Street View of Dance Halls in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast Neighborhood, c. 1910

San Francisco, California, 1910. Single photograph, approximately 6 ½ x 9 inches, manuscript verso reading “SF Barbary Coast 500 Block of Pacific ”THE SO DIFFERENT” now 550 Pacific Ave 1911”. Appears to be trimmed from a larger photograph. Portion of image cut and pasted with editorial overpainting. Some damage to edges and corners with one tear at right middle, some residue from pasting a now-missing object; overall very good.. A photograph taken on Pacific Street in about 1910, showing a group of men standing by the curb in front of The Midway, The Bear, and The So Different nightclubs (note that the sign for The Midway is pasted in). This block in Barbary Coast—”Terrific Street”—was home to a number of dance halls and early jazz clubs many of which, like Purcell’s So Different Café, were “black and tan” – catering to all races. Founded by former Pullman porters Lew Purcell and Sam King shortly after the neighborhood was rebuilt from the 1906 earthquake and fire, Purcell’s was one of the better-known clubs. Influential ragtime and jazz pianist Sid LeProtti led the So Different Jazz band, and King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton are among the alleged guest performers. Patrons could buy twenty-cent vouchers for a quick dance with one of the girls who worked, and sometimes lived, at the venue. Around 1913, though, police began to crack down on drinking and dancing in the neighborhood, and by the 1920s the venues were gone.