Then … The FBI agents follow communist sympathizer Radchek to a house in the Hayes Valley/Lower Haight district where he has rented a room in a Victorian Italianate building with three identical side-by-side units - 151, 153 and 155 Octavia Street bordering Rose Street (map).
and Now, that building has been torn down, replaced as has so often happened with a contemporary structure, 200 Rose Street, contributing no architectural interest whatsoever. Because of its ground floor garages this is one of the thousands of so-called ‘soft’ structures in San Francisco that are vulnerable to the next big earthquake unlike the extant solidly magnificent Victorians still standing across Rose Street.
Radchek climbs the middle set of stairs. Later he tells a contact that he is staying at “153 Octavia Street, 2nd floor front” which is the correct and precise address; unusual for a film script not to use a fictitious address, even back then.
Then … Ahead, Page street crosses in this view down Octavia from the newel post of the staircase above and that’s the Page Street Market on the corner at 198 Page.
Later … this 1991 view across Page and down Octavia shows dramatic changes. By 1959 the double-decker Central Freeway had been built after widening Octavia by razing several blocks of houses on its east side. The Page Street Market would have been under the freeway at the right edge of this photo.
and Now, another dramatic change! The freeway, damaged in the 1989 earthquake, was closed in 1996 and torn down in the early 2000’s, transforming Octavia into a wide, tree-lined road free of concrete blight.
O’Hara wiretaps Radchek’s phone and hears him speak to a contact - ‘Igor’. Not much to go on, but a definite lead.
Shortly afterwards they find, apparently deemed expendable by his contacts, Radchek’s murdered body in his room. The search for the FBI agent’s killer goes on.
Back at his apartment at 700 Laguna Street (described in an earlier post) Caul turns to his saxophone to calm his churning mind. While playing along to a Gerry Mulligan track his unlisted phone interrupts ...
It's Stett. By now it's clear he was part of the plot to kill the Director. "We know that you know, Mr. Caul ... For your own sake don't get involved any further ... we'll be listening to you."
Then ... The bugger is now the bugged. The very thought drives him nuts and sends him scouring his apartment for the bug. Behind drapes, inside lamps, the phone, everywhere.
... and Now, the window view looks west across Laguna along Birch towards distant apartments on Buchanan Street. Viewed at street level, below, the matching top story of those apartments can be seen above a newer building (map, red marker on the apartments, blue marker at Caul's place). The building across Laguna has since been built on the newly cleared empty lot visible above.
Caul is rapidly losing it. Everything in sight is ripped apart, even the floorboards.
His meltdown leaves the apartment demolished without revealing the bug. Perhaps it exists only in his imagination. He seeks solace the only way he knows how and as the movie's end credits slowly pass on by to the plaintive sound of his sax it is left to us to unravel the unanswered questions.
Caul lived in the 3-story Sylvia Apartments at 700 Laguna Street, on the corner of Grove in the Hayes Valley section of the Western Addition (map). Here's a recent photo of the front door.
Then ... Caul lets himself into the apartment building. No iron security front gate back then.
... and Now, It's been 40 years but it's still the same old lobby.
Then ... Upstairs on the second floor corridor he has just passed apartment 206 on his left, 208 is on our left and he is heading for his apartment at the end of the corridor, # 207, just off the right of this picture.
... and Now, the same corridor no longer has a molding strip along the upper walls and the light fixtures and doors and casings have been replaced. It was a little classier then.
Then ... CitySleuth composited several interior shots to come up with this overall panorama of Caul's apartment, created by combining apartments 206 and 207 into one unit (click image to enlarge). The 207 entrance leads from the corridor into the apartment from the far right and the two bay windows on the left wall look out directly across Laguna. The building seen across the street at far left was being torn down as this scene was filmed, coinciding with the tail end of the Western Addition 'urban renewal' program that saw the demolition of 2500 Victorian homes.
... and Now, street views from interior scenes led CitySleuth to conclude that the apartment was on the second level, highlighted in red. The building was built in 1928 and was mostly vacant when Coppola filmed the movie but it survived the demolition taking place all around it. Birch Street intersects on the left.
Then ... The kitchen is at the corner of the building and its west view looks across Laguna along Birch towards apartments on Buchanan Street.
... and Now, Here's the same view today taken from street level; those same apartments in the distance are still there, the matching top story can be seen above a newer building.