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SFStreets: History of San Francisco place names

47 pointsby jxmorris12yesterday at 4:52 PM20 commentsview on HN

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varencyesterday at 7:21 PM

I extracted all the history information to a single file if others like me would find this useful: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/d3cikbe5siw4uuiurcd...

(Though I do love the website's interface)

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rahimnathwaniyesterday at 8:23 PM

OpenAI Deep Research is great for this. Here's a report about College Hill, a small area of SF between Bernal Heights and Glen Park:

https://chatgpt.com/share/685b0890-fa44-8013-adce-8db2855d13...

(Glen Park Library is where Ross Ulbricht was arrested.)

Here's a similar one about Colliers Wood (South London), another small area whose location is often described as 'between X and Y' (in this case, Tooting and Wimbledon):

https://chatgpt.com/share/685b09a4-14f0-8013-ad2c-3c2c7f8c25...

lvl155yesterday at 6:03 PM

I worked on a project long time ago similar to this. I had to dig up old maps from major public libraries across a handful of cities and overlay them on top of modern maps using key historical landmarks and geographical features. It’s amazing how cities evolve and transform over time. I think what would be cool is if someone could build a street-level time capsule of places like New York. Perhaps monthly or even daily.

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yogurtboyyesterday at 5:39 PM

This is unbelievably cool. I would love to see the same for the Twin Cities, or Seattle.

madcaptenoryesterday at 5:05 PM

This has been here before, but nice to see it again.

If only this answered the great puzzle of San Francisco street names - why are the state-named streets in Potrero Hill and the Mission in that order?

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wagwangyesterday at 6:03 PM

Where's Minna street :))

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davchanayesterday at 7:37 PM

I did not see my Powell St, parallel to Mason & Stockton St.

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