F I R S TP R E V212NEXTLAST

Old Building, Barbary Coast
Named after the pirate-infested coast of Algeria and Tunisia, San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast district set the standard for "wickedness and unbridled depravity" for 50 years in the mid-to-late 1800s. The district featured brothels, bars, street gangs, blind alleys, gambling dens, dance halls, and drug dealers. Some infamous characters there included filthy 'Dirty Tom' McAlear who would eat or drink anything you placed in front of him for five cents, 'Pidgeon-toed Sal' the female owner and bouncer at the Billy Goat Tavern where drinks often included knockout potions, 'Oofty Goofty' who would allow you to hit him with a baseball bat for 50 cents, and the woman who worked at the Boar's Head Bar, whose "act" involved the bar's namesake. Destroyed by the 1906 fire, the area today offers little evidence of its sordid past and is now filled with expensive antique stores and lawyer's offices.
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