Please help me find some imformation on lombard street anything.

-- james samaniego (samfam@yahoo.com), September 22, 1999

Answers

Louis K Lowenstein in his excellent book "Streets of san Francisco" makes the folllowing remarks:Lombard was one of the original streets named by Jasper O'Farrell. The block between Hyde and leavenworth has been called "the crookedest street in the world." In 1923 eight turns were fashioned on this one block.

To which I would add, because it is on the Hyde Street cable Car line, Lombard Street is one of the top tourist attractions for cable car riders.

-- Kurt Iversen (iversenk@aol.com), September 28, 1999.

Estimado señor: como podrá haberse dado cuente en la dirección de mail mi apellido es Lombard, en este momente navego en internet buscando la historia del por qué es esta avenida tan importante en la Ciudad San Francisco, agradecería cualquier información que me pudiera brindar. Le agradezco de antemano su atención. Atentamente. Lilián Lombard

-- Lilian Lombard (lililombard@yahoo.com.mx), August 18, 2001.

Lilian, this was the first picture that showed up on a search. It shows clearly why so many people want to see Lombard Street for themselves.

http://site.ifrance.com/usa/sf1.html

This is only one block of the street. The rest of it is a principal traffic artery running east to west where it comes to Richardson Drive which is the entrance to the Golden Gate Bridge. Lombard is a very busy street (I lived just off it for years -- you needed earphones to hear the television!).

Lombard Street has lots of motels. A tourist bus tells people there are more than 250 on the street -- that's not at all true, though it seems that way driving down the street. It's in a very warm, sunny part of the city. Within a few blocks on either side of Lombard are many restaurants and boutiques. Up the hill is Union Street (a shopping and residential street in the Pacific Heights neighborhood) and down the hill is Chestnut Street (the Marina District).

Loewenstein says that Lombard was named after a no longer existing street in New York. It certainly fits in with the large Italian population which used to live in that part of San Francisco. It's nice to be reminded of what a beautiful place Lombardy is. Much of the older architecture on Lombard is stucco. There are also remainders of the old Victorian boarding houses. Some of those have been turned into bed and breakfasts.

-- Rosa Debonneheure (rosadebon@yahoo.com), August 18, 2001.