How to Find Photographs of a San Francisco Building in the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection
Step #1 - explore the digitized collections
Begin with an online search for a building by using either the building name, street name, and/or district.
- Use keyword searching for street intersections.
- Do not enter the street address as street numbers do not appear on most photographs that were cataloged online.
The majority of the street, district and building photographs have been digitized from the San Francisco History Subject Collection. Apartment buildings have not been digitized. Businesses are arranged by business name and churches are organized by denomination. In addition, all of the transportation lines have been digitized – the building may be in the background of a transportation photograph.
A complete aerial survey of San Francisco digitized. The index indicates which sheet to locate for property or neighborhood. Explore the 164 black and white photographs. The original aerial photographs may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
This is a community history photography project of the San Francisco History Center. The photographs collected include residences and buildings from Western Addition, Mission District, Oceanview/Merced/Ingleside, the Sunset and Bayview/Hunters Point.
Includes residences of Ingleside Terraces, Jordan Park, Visitacion Valley, and Richmond district.
Step #2 - explore the Collection Guides below for non-digitized visual materials to discover address, block number, street, intersection, and/or district. Make a list of the discoveries with collections noted. Visit the Photo Desk during open hours to view the original visual materials.
San Francisco Office of Assessor-Recorder Photographs (late 1940s to early 2000s)
To note before your visit to the Photo Desk, these bundles are unavailable August - December 2, 2024. The photographs in the bundles are at a vendor for a digitization project.The collection covers properties photographed by the San Francisco Assessor’s Office. Search by street address or block number. Locate block and lot numbers (Assessor's Parcel Number APN) through the San Francisco Property Information Map. To be thorough, check both the Address/APN Index and Block Number Index. Sometimes a negative of one address will include the neighboring property. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
Check the guide by building name, street name, business name, and/or district. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
San Francisco Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering Photograph Records (1907 - 1977)
Collection consists of approximately 16,770 photographs documenting the planning, construction, use and maintenance of San Francisco Department of Public Works (SFDPW) Bureau of Engineering projects from 1907 - late 1970s. The majority of photographs are in photograph albums, but there are also glass negatives, film negatives and prints. The collection includes a card index to facilitate searching by topic, street or building within the photograph albums. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
Robert Durden Color Slide Collection (early 1950s – early 1990s)
The collection consists of over 58,000 35mm color slides. Check the guide by street name, building name, business name and/or districts. A small sampling of the color slides has been added to digitalsf.org. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
The San Francisco Police Department Records (SFH 61) includes over 12,000 acetate negatives photographed by the Bureau of Photography. The bulk of the collection documents automobile accidents photographed for the Bureau of Accident Prevention. Most of the shots include businesses and residences in the background with the focus on the automobile accident site. To find a building, search the collection guide by street name. For each “hit,” note the box number at the top of the “contents” text block, listed on the left. The negatives are arranged in envelopes chronologically by date of accident. Each envelope may contain several negatives. A small sampling of the negatives has been added to digitalsf.org. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
Panoramas can be helpful in finding 19th century buildings in early views of San Francisco. There are several downtown views from the 1990s by Al Greening. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
This collection is helpful for significant San Francisco buildings, hotels and restaurants (both interiors and exteriors). Separate from the photomechanical postcard collection is the photo postcard collection which has some businesses and buildings. The collections may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
This collection is helpful for significant San Francisco buildings. The guide is arranged by photographer/studio. The online guide can be searched by building name. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
Other collections to explore
The survey files include snapshots of the buildings surveyed in the early 1960s for the Junior League’s Here Today, San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage book.
John Gerrard Graham Photograph Collection (late 1930s-early 1990s)
The collection’s photographs document San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) streetcar and bus lines. If your building was or is along a Muni streetcar or bus line, your building may be in the background of the photograph. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
Use this collection once the architectural style of the building has been identified. The guide lists the architectural styles of the photographs in the collection. Request the photographs by folder name. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
This collection is helpful for significant 19th century San Francisco buildings. Search the collection by building or business name. Note the photographer of item and place request by photographer’s name. The collection may be viewed during the Photo Desk open hours.
The articles contain photographs of the significant buildings mentioned in the articles (many include interior shots as well).
Step #3 - explore these other resources and visit the repositories
Images documenting San Francisco Municipal Railway. For building research, keyword search by street, neighborhood and/or landmark name.
The photograph collection focuses on the 19th century. A subject guide is available on the website; selected digitized photographs, including buildings.
There are over 100,000 images under the subject of San Francisco including buildings and residences.
Many of Bancroft’s photographs have been digitized and are hosted on Calisphere. Visit for an in-depth research.
Collections are organized by architect. Within collections are photographs of the architect’s works.
Max Kirkeberg Photograph Collection, San Francisco State University
Collection of digitized color slides of San Francisco neighborhoods, streets and architecture.
Images documenting San Francisco neighborhoods and street scenes. For building research, keyword search by street, address and/or neighborhood. Use the map feature to zoom in on neighborhoods and streets.
