Significant Others: Tales of the City 5

Travel Guide

San Francisco

Macondray Lane

The inspiration for Barbary Lane is Macondray Lane – though the location is not where Armistead describes here though..

“The house was on Barbary Lane, a narrow, wooded walk-way off Leavenworth between Union and Filbert. It was a well-weathered, three-story structure made of brown shingles. It made Mary Ann think of an old bear with bits of foliage caught in its fur. She liked it instantly.”

The Buena Vista – 2765 Hyde Street at Beach

“She came to the city alone for an eight-day vacation. On the fifth night, she drank three Irish coffees at the Buena Vista, realized that her Mood Ring was blue, and decided to phone her mother in Cleveland.”

Washington Square Park

The location where Anna Madrigal met Edgar Halcyon in the “Tales of the City”

“He sat down on a bench in Washington Square. Next to him was a woman who was roughly his age. She was wearing wool slacks and a paisley smock. She was reading the Bhagavad Gita.

Did you know? : A time capsule was buried underneath Benjamin Franklin in 1979. It contains a copy of “Tales of the City”

Dede and Beauchamp’s penthouse – 1360 Montgomery

“Beachamp and DeDe moved into a fashionable Art Deco penthouse on Telegraph Hill. They entertained lavishly and were frequently seen at philanthropic extravangansas…by almost everyone, it seemed, but Mary Ann Singleton.”

Jackson Square – General vicinity of Halcyon Communications

“Halcyon Communications had been a food-processing warehouse in an earlier incarnation. Now its mellow brick walls blazed with supergraphics and rental art. Matrons shopping for Louis Quinze bargains in Jackson Square often mistook its secretaries for top fashion models.