Flashback Friday: Streetcars, Surf, and Carville’s Hidden Secrets
Jacob Heyman rental properties, water tank, and real estate office at Ocean Beach. (Willard E. Worden photograph colorized by Woody LaBounty, "Car Town on the Beach, S.F., 1901" Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.)
Welcome back to Flashback Friday - a series where I share some of my favorite weird, wonderful, and occasionally hidden, stories from San Francisco’s past. If there’s one person who loves San Francisco history more than I do (and trust me, that’s hard to beat), it’s Woody LaBounty. This guy lives and breathes SF’s past—and his storytelling skills are second to none. One of my absolute favorite topics he’s tackled is the story of Carville-by-the-Sea, a delightfully quirky neighborhood in the Outer Sunset that was literally made of repurposed streetcars.
That’s right—streetcars. People stacked them, joined them together, and turned them into homes. It was the ultimate “reduce, reuse, recycle” decades before it was trendy. Artists, writers, and adventurers made Carville their haven, long before the Outer Sunset was the surfer and hipster paradise it is today.
Woody didn’t just geek out about Carville—he wrote an entire book about it (because of course he did). And he does an amazing job summarizing this slice of SF history in his post, Carville-by-the-Sea in 10 Slides. But if you’re like me and need all the details, you can grab his book here: Buy “Carville-by-the-Sea”.
Oh, and here’s the kicker: some of those streetcars are still hiding in plain sight today. Tucked inside homes in the area, these historic treasures blend right into the neighborhood—but once you know they’re there, you’ll never look at the Outer Sunset the same way again.
Want more history gems like this? Sign up for Woody’s San Francisco Story newsletter—it’s basically a love letter to SF’s weird, wonderful past. Or visit me here on the blog on Fridays where I’ll regularly be sharing more historic SF gems with you.
So, the next time you’re strolling through the Sunset, keep an eye out—you just might spot a piece of Carville still standing. And if you do find one? Call me immediately. I’ll bring coffee, we’ll nerd out together, and who knows—maybe I’ll help you buy/sell it. 😉
