Finding aid to the Lee Sims Photographs of Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR) (June 1970 – July 1971 ) SFP 125
Finding aid created by Christina Moretta
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
2022
Title: Lee Sims Photographs of Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR)
Date (inclusive): June 1970 – July 1971
Identifier/Call Number: SFP 125
Creator:
Sims, Lee
Physical Description:
3 folders of 156 strips of 35mm negatives, 26 contact sheets and CDs of digital scans
(.25 Linear Feet)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 557-4567
info@sfpl.org
Abstract: The Lee Sims Photographs of Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR) include 156 strips of 35mm negatives,
26 contact sheets and digital scans photographed by Lee Sims from June 1970 to July 1971 of various South of Market district
single-room occupancy hotels and residents affected by San Francisco Redevelopment Agency projects in San Francisco, California.
Photographs include interiors and exteriors of various single-room occupancy hotels, storefronts, street scenes, demolition
scenes by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and housing rights activism. Activism includes protesting outside of the
annual luncheon for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. Individuals depicted include residents, resident activist
George Woolf and attendees of community meetings. Other subjects include Third Street, Sixth Street and meetings of the organization
Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR).
Physical Location: The collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English
.
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center's Photo Desk hours.
All requests for permission to publish from photographs must be submitted in writing to the Photo Curator. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items. San Francisco Public
Library holds copyright to this collection.
[Identification of item], Lee Sims Photographs of Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR) (SFP 125), San
Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Gift of photographer (2015-15)
Researchers are encouraged to see also San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Records (SFH 371).
During processing, the collection was re-housed in archival enclosures.
Lee Sims was born in 1944 in Palo Alto, California. Sims graduated from Stanford University in 1966 with a degree in political
science. A few years after college graduation, Sims was a VISTA volunteer in Athens, Georgia, 1968-1969. When Sims finished
his VISTA service in 1969, he returned to California and moved in with his cousin in San Francisco. His cousin was a legal
aid for the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation and he helped Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment
(TOOR) to get the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency to provide decent housing for displaced and otherwise South of Market
residents. Sims photographed the documentation needed to support TOOR, which at times were lawsuits. This was the beginning
of Sims as a freelance photographer until the mid-1970s. In the early 1970s Sims began his career in the newspaper business
until his retirement in 2009.
The Lee Sims Photographs of Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR) include 156 strips of 35mm negatives,
26 contact sheets and digital scans photographed by Lee Sims from June 1970 to July 1971 of various South of Market district
single-room occupancy hotels and residents affected by San Francisco Redevelopment Agency projects in San Francisco, California.
Photographs include interiors and exteriors of various single-room occupancy hotels, storefronts, street scenes, demolition
scenes by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, and housing rights activism. Activism includes protesting outside of the
annual luncheon for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. Individuals depicted include residents, resident activist
George Woolf and attendees of community meetings. Other subjects include Third Street, Sixth Street and meetings of the organization
Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR). Hotels depicted include Anglo Hotel, Boyson's, Hotel Chronicle,
Daton Hotel, Embarcadero Hotel, Finnigan Hotel, Harbor Hotel, Herald Hotel, Hernon, Hotel, Howard Hotel, Imperial, Jesse Hotel,
Hotel Jessie, Lincoln Hotel, Hotel Mars, Milner, Padre Hotel, Hotel Panama, Planters Hotel, St. Regis, Sherman Hotel, Vincent
Hotel. The area depicted would eventually become redeveloped into Yerba Buena Center (Yerba Buena Gardens, the Moscone Center
and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art). There are some images from outside of the South of Market area shot for the San
Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation which include a Chinese-American family of 6 living in one room in a Chinatown
apartment, Portsmouth Square; the exterior and interior of a house on Fillmore Street in Western Addition; portraits of an
unidentified Western Addition resident and portraits of Hunter's Point resident Ms. G. Whitfield.
Arranged following photographer's roll order.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Urban renewal -- California -- San Francisco.
Urban renewal-California-San Francisco-Pictorial works.
Relocation (Housing) -- California -- San Francisco
Low-income housing -- California -- San Francisco -- History
Single-room occupancy hotels -- California -- San Francisco -- Photographs
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (San Francisco, Calif.)
South of Market (San Francisco, Calif.)
Yerba Buena Center (San Francisco, Calif.)
Transparencies
folder 1
Negatives 1970-1971
Roll 151 1970
folder 2
Contact Sheets 1970-1971
folder 3
Photographers notes and CDs of images