By Sam Whiting, Staff Writer Nov 30, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
The intersection of 16th and Noe streets in the Castro is not known as a rock ’n’ roll cornerstone, but Bob Weir has been there, as have Carlos Santana, Joan Baez, John Mayer and Slash of Guns N’ Roses in his top hat. They all came to 3622 16th St., the modest first-floor flat where the pioneering rock photographer Jim Marshall lived and worked, with a glass of whiskey at his side and a constant flow of musicians coming through the door to buy his prints.
Marshall carried a gun and was known for being irascible. But he also listed his phone number and welcomed drop-ins, and a lot of them will be coming when the 3600 block of 16th is renamed Jim Marshall Way in tribute to someone who helped put the San Francisco Sound on the map in the 1960s and ’70s.
The street will be redesignated during an on-location civic ceremony on Dec. 19 where Market, 16th and Noe streets come together. Though Marshall died in 2010 at age 74, a cutout of him at Woodstock, complete with his five Leica cameras, will stand in his place. It will be carried by his longtime assistant, Amelia Davis, who lived a block away and is the owner and manager of the Jim Marshall Estate and Archive.
This photographer shaped rock history. Now a block in S.F. in the Castro will bear his name
Quick and Dirty
The intersection of 16th and Noe streets in the Castro is not known as a rock ’n’ roll cornerstone, but Bob Weir has been there, as have Carlos Santana, Joan Baez, John Mayer and Slash of Guns N’ Roses in his top hat. They all came to 3622 16th St., the modest first-floor flat where the pioneering rock photographer Jim Marshall lived and worked, with a glass of whiskey at his side and a constant flow of musicians coming through the door to buy his prints.
Marshall carried a gun and was known for being irascible. But he also listed his phone number and welcomed drop-ins, and a lot of them will be coming when the 3600 block of 16th is renamed Jim Marshall Way in tribute to someone who helped put the San Francisco Sound on the map in the 1960s and ’70s.
The street will be redesignated during an on-location civic ceremony on Dec. 19 where Market, 16th and Noe streets come together. Though Marshall died in 2010 at age 74, a cutout of him at Woodstock, complete with his five Leica cameras,will stand in his place. It will be carried by his longtime assistant, Amelia Davis, who lived a block away and is the owner and manager of the Jim Marshall Estate and Archive.
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“Jim used to roll out of bed and open his window and yell ‘Davis!’ and I could hear it across Market Street,” she said in an exclusive interview with the Chronicle. “Jim was recognized as the rock ’n’ roll photographer from early on, and his apartment housed rock ’n’ roll history for 28 years.”
Janis Joplin in front of the Palace of Fine Arts, 1968, in a photograph by Jim Marshall.
Provided by Jim Marshall Photography LLC
Marshall, the first photographer to be awarded a Grammy, was known for always having the inside track. He was in the locker room at Candlestick Park with the Beatles before their last paid concert in August 1966, and he was onstage at the Civic Auditorium, standing up behind the Rolling Stones, when they made their San Francisco debut in May 1965. He hung out in hotel rooms with bands and rode with the musicians in limos to concerts at Candlestick, the Cow Palace, Winterland, the Fillmore and Fillmore West, Avalon Ballroom and Oakland Coliseum for Days on the Green.
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His images appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone and the big three glossies — Life, Look and Time — plus an estimated 1,000 album covers for everything from country to chamber music. The Marshall archive of more than 1 million images continues to appear in movies, books and magazines.
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Just last summer, “The Grateful Dead by Jim Marshall: Photos and Stories from the Formative Years, 1966-1977” was released by Chronicle Books to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of San Francisco’s most famous band.
“Jim is still relevant because every year Jim’s photos are in at least three or four movies and documentaries,” said Bonita Passarelli, who manages licensing for the estate and archive. “We are in books and museum shows worldwide every year. We do a lot with the U.K. and France. They love eccentric men.”
Before he moved to the Castro, Marshall had an apartment on Union Street where he was visited by the likes of Jerry Garcia, Duane Allman and Eric Clapton. That flat would probably be the honored landmark if Marshall had not been busted there for possessing guns and ammo in 1981. This got him a felony conviction and a year of work furlough, which cost him his apartment.
Jimi Hendrix performs in San Francisco’s Panhandle Park in 1967 in a photograph captured by Jim Marshall.
Court3esy of Jim Marshall Photography LLC/© Jim Marshall Photography LLC
But he’d grown up in the Western Addition and graduated from Lowell High School, and he had enough connections to get a place when he’d finished serving his time, a five-room flat in 1982. This is where Davis went to work for him. Marshall, who was married and divorced twice, was still renting there for less than $1,000 a month at the end of his life, although he died in his sleep in a hotel during a trip to New York like “a rock star,” Davis said.
Last spring, she and Marshall's neighbor Justin Fichelson went door-to-door on Marshall’s block collecting signatures from homeowners and renters to present to District 8 supervisor, Rafael Mandelman. They had to show that at least 70% of 16th Street residents approved of renaming the block after Marshall, which was easy with the old-timers who remembered him as “an a-hole but a great photographer,” she said. For younger residents, Davis carried a two-page printout showing his photos of Janis Joplin on her psychedelic Porsche at the Palace of Fine Arts, Jimi Hendrix playing the Panhandle and the Dead performing on a stage set up in the middle of Haight Street. Mandelman got approval from San Francisco Public Works and the Board of Supervisors, who unanimously passed legislation to add the street name in October.
“He befriended many San Francisco bands including the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Charlatans, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin,” said Mandelman in his resolution. “His photographs of these bands helped push them into the mainstream consciousness and put San Francisco in the epicenter of the 1960s counterculture movement.”
Jim Marshall stands in a locker room at Candlestick Park as the Beatles prepare to go onstage for their last live concert on Aug. 29, 1966.
Provided by Jim Marshall Photography LLC
Commemorative signs will be hung under the existing 16th Street signs at the intersections of Noe and Castro streets. The ceremony starts at 10 a.m. on Dec. 19, and the public is welcome. Maybe someone will bring an old Leica on a strap to hang over the sign.
“Jim would be embarrassed by all the hoopla because despite his bravado, he was very humble and quite shy,” Davis said. “Jim is now forever a part of San Francisco history, the city that he loved.”
Greg