above: The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, today. Recently Patty saddled up her old Mule and went to the big city...Ridgecrest! Ha, just kiddin ya, she went to San Francisco. One of her favorite places to visit there is the Upper Haight, aka the Haight-Ashbury. In her youth, Patty actually lived in the Haight. And like many other young people there had many addresses in a short period of time. Take Charlie and Mary, for instance. Most of us know about the house at 636 Cole, but did you know that they also stayed for a while at 616 Page in the lower Haight? True story. And Janis Joplin: her “most famous” address is 635 Ashbury, but the place she is said to have lived when Susan Atkins met Charlie in 1967 was a place at 122 Lyon. Sadie wrote in her autobiography that the commune in which she was staying was “right next door” to Janis. 122 is the house in the middle of the photo below, so Sadie either lived in the house on the right or on the left of it:
Patty remembers that in the early 90’s the Haight could at times be a seedy and dangerous place. Today? Not so much. Verrrrry gentrified, just like in the days before the Summer of Love. Here is Patty’s hack job map if’n you ever find yourself in the area and want to see the sights: what’s left of ‘em, that is.
key to above:Black: 543 Frederick: the Kerista Commune (okay, so they were early 70's, not 1967. Patty just likes cults)
White: 318 Parnassus, Hunter S. Thompson's pad
Red: 122 Lyon, home to Janis Joplin during 1967-1968
Orange: 558 Clayton, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, where the girls were treated, where Gibby's mother did charity work, and where the Family became the topic of a scholarly paper entitled "A Case Study of the Charles Manson Group Marriage Commune" by Dr. David E. Smith.
Yellow: 407 Cole, original SF home of The Process Church of the Final Judgment
Purple: 1350 Waller, Digger bakery where Peter Coyote and friends baked up free wheat bread in one and two pound coffee cans. If you want the recipe, you can find it at: http://www.diggers.org/diggers/digbread.html
Pink: 710 Ashbury, Home of the Grateful Dead
Blue: 636 Cole, Charlie's Upper Haight pad
above: 407 Cole Street, Home of The Process
PS: for a MEAN cape cod, visit Finnegan's Wake on Cole or The Gold Cane on Haight. They both pour pretty liberally...Patty is still recovering.
ReplyDeleteHa! They pour LIBERAL-ly in the Haight - of course they do! With their LEFT hands!
Patty - any info on what Ed Sanders referred to as "The Waller Street Devil House"?? I've never seen an address for it.
ReplyDeleteThe next you go out investigating, in "Coming Down Fast" it says Mary Brunner's apt when she met Charlie, was at 1319 Milton St. Was that a run on sentence??
ReplyDeleteAccording to Map Quest, Milton St only goes to 199. I think it is worth a look though..
Remember, "It is a dry heat"...
Hey Grump! Hard to know where the Waller Street Devil House was. According to legend, it was a Digger crash pad, perhaps the old firehouse at Waller and Stanyan. Nobody knows for sure. Or do they? Anyone? Anyone?
ReplyDeletePS: LOVE the dry heat.
PPS: You are right about Milton St. in SF but are you sure she lived in SF? She was a librarian across the Bay in Berkeley so perhaps the address is Berkeley, El Cerrito, Oakland, Emeryville, or what have you. Just a thought.
ReplyDeletePatty tried to find a Process house at "1820 Oak Street" but there are only odd numbered addresses on Oak. Soooooo much misinformation out there.
Thanks Patty! I went to SF many times as a kid and never knew the Family had lived there. I'll have to check these places out if I ever go back(but I detest SF so it won't be for a long while).
ReplyDeleteIs it true that everyone in SF drives a Hybrid and love the smell of their own farts or has TV lied to me?
ReplyDeleteYou know Adam, when Patty was young and stupid and thought she'd rule the world one day, San Francisco was the perfect place for her. She has fond memories but whenever she goes back, she realizes more and more that yes, San Franciscans have incredibly inflated egoes solely by virtue of where they live. It is truly bizarre.
ReplyDeletePatty, I'm pleased that you included 710 Ashbury. I saw Further this weekend at Bethel Woods Amphitheater in Upstate NY. It was awesome!
ReplyDeletePatty lived a block away when Jerry died - you should have seen the house that day. The whole stoop was covered in so many flowers that the new owners could not even get in the front door. Hippies converged from all over the country: on a normal day it is hard to navigate faster than a snail's pace up and down the main drag. That day, it was impossible to move.
ReplyDeleteThank You Patty Cakes for your time and effort
ReplyDelete<3 U
Well Patty then we may have crossed paths that week. I flew out for Jerry's funeral and was at the polo fields the morning the band appeared.
ReplyDeleteWell ain't that a kick in the pants! Patty's all, "you should have seen" when in fact, you did see with your own eyes. It's a small world after all.
ReplyDeleteSomeone else posted a photo of the 616 Page Street house. It's a lot nicer digs than 636 Cole. See http://www.hauteliving.com/2011/07/famous-homes-%E2%80%93-san-francisco/
ReplyDeleteHey, does anyone know if there was an albino guy who lived on Cole St with CM? My parents lived across the street and they tell a story of how CM "and his albino roommate" stole their VW Beetle. It turned up a couple of days later, spray painted flat black and with the back seat removed. My dad has shown us pictures of the black VW.
ReplyDelete