Notes: | CMP notes: Verso mount: Peterson stamp u.l., and inscribed in pencil by Peterson: Mechanic's Institute--held annually for many/years in the Mechanics Institute Building on/Larkin St. in San Francisco. It was the great event of/the season and for many years was exceedingly/popular. After the advent of the Midwinter Fair in/1893, interest was lost in the old Institute, and/it was finally abandoned. Later the place was used for/carnivals, dances, pony shows, indoor circuses etc. At/present it is used as a skating rink. It is within/a few hundred feet of the new City hall--at the time/it was built it was on the very outskirts of the city./It is now almost in the center, with some of the/largest of the mercantile houses within a block of it. and l.r., Machanic [sic] Institute 398. |