Something about the poet and author Dr. Maya Angelou escaped most people’s attention, until now. She was once employed by our namesake, Market Street Railway Company, Muni’s old competitor, as a streetcar conductor. The first black female conductor in San Francisco history, in fact.

She said this decades ago in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” when she describes in some detail standing on the back platform of a 7-Haight streetcar collecting nickels from boarding passengers. But now it has become national news, because she talked about it with Oprah. Here’s a clip from that interview, courtesy Harpo Productions.

How Dr. Maya Angelou Became San Francisco’s First Black Streetcar Conductor

Dr. Maya Angelou says the love of her mother, Vivian Baxter, encouraged her to live a life full of pizzazz. It was also that love that helped Dr. Angelou to become the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco at age 16. “I loved the uniforms,” Dr. Angelou says. “So I said, ‘That’s a job I want.’” When she went to get an application, Dr. Angelou says, the staff refused to give her one. Find out how her mother encouraged her to persevere. Then, see how Vivian made sure her daughter was safe at work during her early-morning shifts.

We provided some photos of Market Street Railway streetcars on the 7-line to the program. They added photos of female transit workers from other systems, not San Francisco’s. The program promotes “How Dr. Angelou Became San Francisco’s First Black Streetcar Conductor.” Hiring records no longer exist, but anecdotal evidence we’ve gathered over the years indicate several African-American found employment on the streetcars a little earlier than Dr. Angelou. That, however, in no way diminishes her incredible story of perseverance and determination in overcoming both racism and sexism to land the job she wanted — when she was just 16 years old.

The video clip is well worth watching.

Market Street Railway and the San Francisco Railway Museum invite you to visit us at the third annual San Francisco History Expo. This great event takes place Saturday, March 2 from 10-5 and Sunday, March 5, from 10-4, at the historic Old U.S. Mint at Fifth and Mission Streets, worth a visit by itself.

Our display of San Francisco transit artifacts at the first History Expo in 2011.

This amazing event, sponsored by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, brings together more than 40 local and neighborhood history groups in a mini-museum of San Francisco history. It’s a wonderful opportunity for people to learn about the city’s varied history through displays, presentations, photos, videos, fine art, music, children’s activities and historical re-enactments.

This year’s event is bigger and better than ever, with the added excitement of a raffle. Tickets will be available for purchase at the entrance and throughout the halls, and each exhibitor will offer an item of their choosing for raffle. Buying extra tickets will increase your chance to win that special something, and will help offset the expenses of holding the event.

Over the last two years more than 7,000 people have attended this one weekend only event, and viewed exhibits from the SF Museum Historical Society, Guardians of the City, Market Street Railway, LGBT Historical Society, SF History Association, Chinese Historical Society, The Western Neighborhoods Project, and many others. This year promises to be the best yet. Visit our booth and see transit artifacts and interesting items from our archives.museum

One important aspect of Market Street Railway is the preservation of important documents that illuminate San Francisco’s transit history.

Muni’s first schedule, from the Market Street Railway Archives. Gift of Galen Sarno. Click to enlarge.

The leader of our archival activity, Alison Cant, has sent along this wonderful document, bequeathed to us by the late Galen Sarno (a very generous supporter of our San Francisco Railway Museum, by the way). It’s Muni’s very first schedule, for inbound streetcars on the A-Geary, beginning December 28,1912. If you click to enlarge the photo, you’ll see that eight cars were scheduled (Muni only had ten on hand at the time). It took 28 minutes to go from Tenth Avenue and Fulton Street (Golden Gate Park) to Geary, then all the way downtown to Kearny and Market Streets. Today, the schedule for the 38-Geary is about the same to run from Park Presidio (near 14th Avenue) and Geary to the same point downtown, about the same distance.

The first car of the morning left Tenth and Fulton at 5:30 a.m. The last car of the evening left Kearny and Geary at 1:37 a.m., headed for the barn at Geary and Presidio Avenue (home to Muni trolley buses today).

The more things change…

1954 Hamburg, Germany tram No. 3557 (right) and two ex-Muni PCC streetcars are among the historic vehicles awaiting restoration at Muni’s "boneyard," as the streetcar storage facility is informally known. Todd Lappin photo.

Recently, a group of Market Street Railway board members joined a tour of Muni’s storage facility for streetcars awaiting restoration. This facility, near Islais Creek, exists in part because of our active advocacy, begun three decades ago, to preserve retired streetcars to meet possible future service needs. Already, several have been plucked from this purgatory and restored to service. We are working to see that more follow, as demand grows for additional service on the F-line and future E-line.

The photo above comes from Market Street Railway board member Todd Lappin, who tells all about the trip here, with many more photos. You can find more information on the tram on the right, from Hamburg, Germany, here.

The visit has also been chronicled by Market Street Railway board member Jeremy Whiteman, who co-chairs our calendar committee, and Jon Wollenhaupt. (Enjoy viewing these photos, but please respect the artists’ copyright rules as posted on their sites.)

As Todd points out, not all the streetcars in the “boneyard” will ultimately be restored. Some, with badly rusted or accident-damaged bodies, have already given up many parts needed to keep the current fleet running. We’re currently working with Muni to help determine the most viable candidates for restoration, to set priorities as the need comes up. You can see which streetcars are in storage and get a general idea of their condition by reviewing our complete streetcar roster.

As year-end approaches, it’s a good time to note that we depend entirely on memberships and donations to do what we do, along with thousands of hours of volunteer time and proceeds from gift sales at our San Francisco Railway Museum. Since you’re reading this post, you probably have some interest in our efforts, so please consider helping us. Thanks very much.

Few people today remember — or even know — that cable cars and streetcars crossed paths at Jackson and Van Ness until 1950. But here’s proof, in a snap taken by our board member Walt Vielbaum back then.

PCC No. 1006 carries a load of raifans on the H-line, crossing paths with Washington-Jackson cable car No. 509 at Van Ness Avenue and Jackson Street, around 1949. Walt Vielbaum photo. Click to enlarge.

This was what’s known as a “fantrip:” a chartered streetcar out for a joyride. This trip toured lines about to be converted into buses, including Muni’s H-Potrero line, which ran along Van Ness, 11th Street, and Potrero Avenues. What’s special about this shot is the streetcar: modern PCC No. 1006, then almost-new, today just restored to its original 1948 beauty. Muni never ran any of its few modern streetcars in passenger service on the H-line. Too bad: if they had, perhaps riders would have demanded that streetcar service stay on Van Ness, where now Muni is spending beaucoup de bucks to build bus rapid transit in the center of the street, where the H-line ran.

The crossing cable car line ran from Powell and Market to Washington and Jackson Street, then all the way out to Steiner Street, a block past Fillmore. In 1956, this line was turned to run up Hyde to Aquatic Park as part of a consolidation that cost San Franciscans half their cable car trackage and remains controversial to this day. If the outer portion of the tracks along Washington and Jackson had survived (which they almost did), imagine how different the Fillmore retail district would be today!

That cable car itself, No. 509, was replaced in the fleet in 1997 by a new Car No. 9, painted in the Powell livery used by our namesake, Market Street Railway, from the late 1920s until its merger with Muni in 1944. No. 509 itself was originally an open sided cable car, closed up to match the rest of the fleet in 1923. Muni has it in storage. We would like to see it, or one of the other two surviving open cars, returned to their original configuration someday and put back into service.

Market Street Railway board chair and president Rick Laubscher was one of the guests on Michael Krasny’s “Forum” on KQED-FM this morning, discussing Muni’s history in this, its centennial month. He was joined by Ed Reiskin, SFMTA director of transportation, and Jerry Cauthen of savemuni.com.

Here’s a link to the audio of the one-hour segment.

And here’s a link to the KQED page that links to historic photos and other goodies.