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SF History Night: Saving the Cable Cars | SF

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Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - 7:00 pm | Cost: $5*
*$5 for non-members; free for SFHA members

St. Philip’s Church | 725 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA

Event Details

SF History Night | Pacific Heights

The San Francisco History Association hosts monthly talks which explore our city’s enchanting history in depth.

Each month, a local history expert hosts a themed talk usually accompanied by a slide show with light refreshments.

Cable cars are a premier symbol of the City-by-the-Bay, known and loved throughout the world. But, as it is to believe, they were almost relegated to the scrap heap barely 60 years ago by the city where the system was born.

Michael Phipps will give a presentation on the battle to save San Francisco’s famed cable car system during the 1940s and 1950s. He will share a treasure trove of historical photographs, ephemera, and stories. He will detail how a small group of San Franciscans kept the fabled hill-climbers running, and how that battle reverberated around the world, and ultimately resulted in permanent protection for the little cars of another era. Mike Phipps is a fourth-generation San Franciscan and director at the Cable Car Museum. He co-wrote a complete history of the cable cars, Watermusic in the Track: A History of San Francisco Cable Cars.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: $5*
*$5 for non-members; free for SFHA members
Categories: History, Lectures & Workshops
Address: 725 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA