San Francisco Architecture – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Fillmore Car Barn and Powerhouse

Posted by Cindy on August 24, 2015

Aug 242015

Corner of Turk and Fillmore

This was one of the first and one of the largest substations built at the turn of the century when street cars were first converted to electric power. The construction date has been documented as both 1902 and 1907.

United Railroads owner, the owner of the line when the building was built, was Patrick Calhoun. Calhoun was a boxing fan and often hired professional fighters as motormen and conductors. There was a gym to the right of the building, explaining why there are no windows on that side of the building. That lot is now the Fillmore-Turk mini park.

The Fillmore-Turk Mini Park

United Railroads was the third iteration of the company. The first franchise, what would become the Market Street Railway, and the first street-railway on the Pacific coast, was granted in 1857 to Thomas Hayes. The line was the first horsecar line to open in San Francisco and it opened on July 4, 1860. A few years later, the line was converted to steam power utilizing a steam engine that was part locomotive and part passenger car.

After the 1906 Quake

By the 1906 earthquake it was the United Railroads of San Francisco. After the quake the Fillmore Street line was the first to go back into service.

Inside the substation, photo courtesy of SFMTA

In 1944 all the street lines were absorbed into the Municipal Railway. The Fillmore substation fed power to streetcars in the western half of the city until 1978, when a new substation was built at Sutter and Fillmore and the old one was declared surplus, it was then declared a landmark.

August 4, 1921 Photo courtesy of SF Public Library

The building has been sitting vacant and in bad shape – the ventilation tower collapsed and for a while the back wall was held up with posts. The Redevelopment Agency bought it with plans to convert it into a community center. The plan never got off the drawing table, so the building was sold back to the city. At this point, it continues to sit empty with no foreseeable future.

Hellenism in San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on July 7, 2015

Jul 072015

This plaque sits, somewhat neglected in an ivy bed at the corner of 3rd and Folsom Streets at the Moscone Center. I, like so many people, have seen it, read it, and continued on my way. I began wondering what was behind it.

The Greek immigrant community was one of the largest and most conspicuous communities South of Market prior to the 1960s. Greeks had begun coming to San Francisco even before the 1906 Earthquake, the community grew rapidly prior to the First World War as Greeks escaped their own war-torn and poverty stricken homeland. Many made their way across the country as railroad workers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle (December 9, 1923) by 1923, 11,500 Greeks lived in San Francisco. In that year, San Francisco contained 26 Greek-owned coffee houses, 380 Greek grocery stores, and 120 Greek shoe shine stands. Many other Greeks worked in auto repair shops, banks, or upholsterers’ shops. Some with transit experience got jobs with the San Francisco Municipal Railway. San Francisco’s Greek community, although dispersed across the city, was centered on the intersection of 3rd and Folsom streets. For a while, the presence of so many Greek businesses gave the area the name Greek Town.

The First Holy Trinity Church

What is left of this vast Greek population in the South of Market area is Holy Trinity. This edifice, the first Greek Orthodox Church west of Chicago, was founded in 1904 at 345 7th Street. The church was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. It was rebuilt, at an original cost of $20,000 in 1907 with additions throughout the years immediately following. In 1964 the church was sold to St. Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The architect for the second church was an S. Andrio and the contractors were R.R. Thompson of San Francisco. In 1922, the church was radically remodeled and the architect for that job was John Bowers of San Francisco.

According to volume 7 of the Architect and Engineer “the building will be of frame construction, ornately decorated, the dome and roof being supported by eight pillars.

The San Francisco Call on October 15, 1906 reported “New Church Plans Approved by Representative Greeks Edifice Will Be Built on Seventh Street. A new Greek church on Byzantine Greek lines of architecture is destined to rise in San Francisco, according to the plans accepted by the Greek Society. A meeting of representative Greeks was held yesterday afternoon at 1735 Market street, at which the plans were displayed and discussed. The edifice, which will be called Holy Trinity, will be located at 317 Seventh street, and will cost more than $20,000.

In addition to the church a school will be attached, in which the children of the Greek population of over 3000 in this city will be educated. The church itself is to be ornately decorated, the dome and roof being supported by eight pillars. The building will measure fifty feet by seventyflve. The architect Is S. Andrio. –

The historical photos are from the great website for Hellenistic history in San Francisco San Francisco Greeks.

McDowell Hall

Posted by Cindy on March 17, 2014

Mar 172014

McDowell Hall
Franklin Street
Fort Mason
Marina District

Fort Mason was originally called Fort Point San Jose

According to a 2005 Historic American Buildings Survey Quarters 1 was built in 1877. General Irvin McDowell secured $9,998.74 from Congress to construct Quarters 1. This building was not named McDowell Hall until July 1958, in honor of the General.

From the Report:

“The original building plans have not yet been found. Quarters 1 was originally built for General Irvin McDowell, the commander of the Military Division of the Pacific, who was stationed at Fort Mason. Prior to 1877, the building site was home to the Brooks- Grisar house, a privately-owned building constructed in 1855. In the course of constructing the general’s residence, the old Brooks-Grisar house was moved from its former location and relocated approximately 250 feet to the north. During the construction of Quarters 1, the Brooks- Grisar kitchen and servant’s wing were retained on site, moved slightly and set on new foundations to serve the same function for the new house. ”

This oil painting, which once hung inside McDowell Hall when it was an Officers Club documents landscape characteristics of 1868 when Point San Jose (Now Fort Mason) remained an isolated outpost.

Quarters 1 Circa 1885-Library of Congress

“The original architect is not known. The building was probably built from standard army quartermaster building plans. The United States Army contracted the construction of this building.

The building was owned by the United States Army from 1877 to 1972, when the property of Fort Mason was transferred to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service.

The original builders and contractors for this building are unknown. It is presumed that the original and all subsequent contractors were hired through the army’s quartermaster office. Almost immediately after the building was constructed, the army began modifications and upgrades to the building. Over the years, there were several different contractors hired for the work, although their information has not been found.

Quarters 1 Circa 1891

Quarters 1 played a significant role during the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. The Commanding General’s house experienced little damage from the earthquake and the building was quickly pressed into service as the army’s emergency headquarters for firefighting and relief activities in the aftermath of the disaster. The divisional commander, General Adolfus Greeley, was not in San Francisco at the time of the earthquake so his second in command, Colonel Frederick Funston, assumed command until the general’s return. It was Funston who realized that the army’s Divisional Headquarters, located in downtown San Francisco, had been grievously damaged during the earthquake and would probably not survive the expanding fires. Reacting quickly, Funston established Quarters 1 as the emergency command post and coordinated the critical martial and civil law enforcement from the building. While much of the city’s down town was on-fire, Fort Mason was quickly designated as San Francisco’s temporary City Hall and emergency command center. Fort Mason was also home to the essential earthquake relief camps, where the soldiers provided food, water and temporary shelter to hundreds of homeless citizens. ”

Fort Mason’s earthquake relief encampment. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library; photo circa 1909

Midway through World War II Quarters 1 was turned into an Officers Club it remained so until 2002 when the building was turned over to the GGNRA

The following two photos are from the Fort Mason website, as the house is now available to rent for private parties.

Sadly the renovation looks as though it was done by the government, the rest of the interior is not worth any further photographs, but the views are rather fabulous.

Cosmo Cocktails

Posted by Cindy on January 21, 2014

Jan 212014

20 Cosmo Place
Lower Nob Hill/Tenderloin

This unassuming building has been providing fine drinks, food and happiness to San Francisco’s since 1951.

Trader Vic’s opened in Cosmo Alley in 1951. The restaurant was built from an old corrugated parking garage. Passing along the narrow walk way through a tropical garden, customers entered the rustic shed.

This photograph, from the archives of the San Francisco Chronicle (with no caption or story) must show the very beginnings of the place, if not the construction for its opening.

While I spent fond nights there eating Pu pu Platters and downing Trader Vic’s famous Mai Tai’s I never took photographs, so we will have to rely on old photographs for pictures of the interior.

While famous for so many things Trader Vic’s was the first restaurant to serve Queen Elizabeth II. Until her visit with the Reagan’s in 1983 she had never eaten in a restaurant. Sadly Trader Vic’s closed in 1994.

Victor Bergeron, Trader Vic, was also a sculptor and has two sculptures in Golden Gate Park that you can read about here.

Trader Vic’s was replaced with Le Colonial. A fabulous French Vietnamese Restaurant.

San Francisco has so very many hidden treasures, Cosmo Place is no different, who knew you would find so much San Francisco history down an alley such as this.

Engine Company #13

Posted by Cindy on November 14, 2013

Nov 142013

1458 Valencia Street
Mission

Built in 1883, this is the City’s oldest standing firehouse. In the heart of the Mission District, this rare brick firehouse in the Victorian Italianate style has a front surface made entirely of cast iron detail. Such buildings are very rare in San Francisco with most clustered in the Jackson Square area.

On the conversion from horse drawn to motorized apparatus, the company was assigned a 1916 American LaFrance Type 12 Chemical and Hose Car with a 35 gallon chemical tank with a 6 cylinder 100 HP engine.

Engine Co. No. 13 remained assigned here until 1958. The firehouse was sold at the City’s surplus property auction and is now privately owned.

Company History:
1883   Engine Co. No. 13 organized and assigned to quarters
1906   Earthquake or Fire damage to the firehouse, $2,000
1917   Converted to motorized apparatus
1918   August 15th, Battalion 6 organized and assigned to quarters
1941   November 1st, Battalion 6 relocated to the quarters of Engine Co. No. 7, 3160 – 16th Street
1941   November 1st, Division 3, commanded by an Assistant Chief, is organized and assigned to quarters
1954   October 14th, Division 3 relocated to the quarters of Engine Co. No. 10, 2300 Folsom Street
1958 February 7th, Engine Co. No. 13 relocated to new quarters at 3880 – 26th Street
1959   Sold at a City & County of San Francisco public auction

Experiences Engine Company #13. 1458 Valencia St. San Francisco

On the morning of the earthquake April 18th, 1906, our Company first removed the horses and apparatus to a place of safety in the street, from where we responded to a still alarm at 22nd & Mission Sts. Arriving there we found Lippman’s Drygoods Store on fire, and took the hydrant on the corner of Bartlett & 22nd Sts., but could get no water; therefore we canvassed the neighborhood testing all hydrants but were not successful in obtaining water until we reached Valencia & 22nd Sts. We worked under directions of Battalion Chief McKittrick and with the aid of other Companies were able to extinguish this fire at 12 M, April 18th, 1906.

Our next move was to Hayes Valley where we reported to Chief Dougherty who sent us to Laguna & Oak Sts., but finding three engines in line from that hydrant we searched the neighborhood for water but were unable to obtain any. Battalion Chief Dolan directed us to the corner of Gough and Eddy Sts. and in connection with Engine Company #24, we led a line to the corner of Gough & Grove Sts., fighting the fire at that point under command of Battalion Maxwell. We fought the fire in this vicinity for sixteen hours finally saving the corner of Gough & Golden Gate Ave.

On April 19th, at about 4 A. M. we were ordered to Fifteenth & Shotwell Sts., reporting to Battalion Chief McKittrick. We were able to save the East side of Shotwell St., north of Fifteenth St. and worked in this vicinity until three P. M. of April 19th, 1906. Finding water at Fifteenth & Valencia Sts., we led down to Mission St., fighting the fire at that point, but finding the pressure inadequate we removed to Eighteenth & Howard Sts., connecting with a broken main.

We next endeavored to obtain water at Church & Twentieth Sts., but finding other Companies in line at this point, we assisted in this vicinity until the fire was extinguished on Twentieth St. We were finally ordered to our quarters at 11 A. M. April 20th, 1906, having been in duty 53 hours.

S. & P.

(signed) Daniel Newell, Capt

(From the UC Berkeley Library Archives of there 1906 Fire and Earthquake)

Spring Valley Water Company

Posted by Cindy on June 26, 2013

Jun 262013

425 Mason Street
Lower Nob Hill/Tenderloin

This unassuming and yet intriguing little building has been sitting in my computer waiting to be written about since March of 2012. My late husband, the architectural sculptor Michael H. Casey had driven me by to show me the wonderful detailed sculpture that covered the first floor. I was unable to find out anything about it and so the post was left unwritten.

In the past few months I had the privilege of hearing Gray Brechin, UC Berkeley lecturer and author, speak on the architecture of the UC campus. I purchased his highly detailed tome titled “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin‘” to further my education on San Francisco’s history. He has chapters dedicated to the fights and corruption of water and its history within our fair city. Most San Franciscan’s familiar with their city’s history know of the fight to bring water to a sea surrounded town, but Gray brings it to life with some underbelly stories that make reading his book worth every second.

An excerpt from the book:

Between the mid 1860s and 1930, San Francisco’s water supply was controlled by the Spring Valley Water Company. As one of the most powerful private monopolies in the state, Spring Valley was controlled by, and used largely for the benefit of, the local land barons and financiers who authorized the development of a wide variety of often-destructive hydrologic projects. Efforts to de-privatize the city’s water supply began under the Progressive mayoral administration of James Phelan, and pressure mounted after the failure of the water supply during the 1906 Earthquake and fire. Eventually the Hetch Hetchy source was secured for the city, ending Spring Valley’s corrupt monopoly.

The Spring Valley Water Company was a private company that held a monopoly on water rights in San Francisco from 1860 to 1930. Run by land barons, its 70-year history was fraught with corruption, land speculation, favoritism towards the moneyed elite, and widespread ill will from the general populace.

***

And yet, that is not what led me to write this post. In researching the First National Bank I took quite a long time to find the artist of the canopy over the side entrance to the bank. Emily Michels was a school teacher in San Francisco, and thus did not warrant much space on the hundreds of art sites dedicated to finding artists in the world. However, again thanks to the UC Bancroft Library, none-the-less, I found her.

It was in reading an interview with her that I discovered she was the one responsible for the water pouring down the Spring Valley Water Company building.

The building was designed by Willis Polk, who was a specialist in public-utility architecture and one of San Francisco’s leading architects. He was the architect on the Central Pump Station in San Francisco.

I found this excerpt about the building in The San Francisco Water, Volumes 1-8 dated January 1923

“The first two stories and part of the third will be devoted to the Water Sales Department. The fourth story will house the Agricultural Photographic, Publicity, Purchasing and Real Estate departments. The fifth will be occupied by the executive offices of the president and vice-president and manager. The sixth will be given over to the offices of the secretary and auditor. The top floor will accommodate the Engineering Department.

On the roof there will be a girls’ restroom, with a kitchen, set in the midst of a garden planted to grass and flowers, the latter being an unusual feature for the office building. The distinctive feature of the main floor will be a fountain designed by the distinguished sculptor, Arthur Putnam.

The public spaces in the building will have marble floors and wainscotings. The woodwork throughout will be oak. An intercommunicating Dictograph system will be installed to relieve the pressure on the telephone exchange.”

***

It is interesting that Arthur Putnam also was a sculptor on the First National Bank.

The City and County of San Francisco acquired the property on March 3, 1930 when it purchased Spring Valley Water Company’s water system. The building served as headquarters for the San Francisco Water Department until January 2003. The City declared the property surplus and placed it on the market in June 2007 at that time the sale price was $5,600,000.

The First National Bank Building

Posted by Cindy on June 24, 2013

Jun 242013

1 Montgomery Street
Financial District

This classic Italian Renaissance bank building was designed by Willis Polk in 1908. Polk has been in this website many times. The Raymond granite entryway is only the tease to a beautiful and highly ornamented interior, replete with a carved white marble staircase; counters and benches of carved marble along with bronze tellers’ windows, and hardware.

Originally the Crocker-Citizens National Bank (absorbed by Wells Fargo in the 1980’s), the building has been extensively remodeled. It originally housed an 11 story office tower above it and was sheathed in terra cotta.

One of its more outstanding features is the rotunda entrance supported by granite pillars, with its coffered ceiling.

Originally a “combination bank and office building” it is now one of the most lavish banking interiors in the city. In 1921 the banking hall and its arcaded base were extended to the north in an exact copy of the original design. This extension made a grand interior even grander but it incurred an interesting reaction from Polk who sued the architect, Charles E. Gottschalk, for plagiarism.

By 1960 the sandstone façade was crumbling. So Milton Pflueger, whose brother Timothy was the city’s most influential architect in the 1930’s and 1940s, redesigned the façade for the upper floors. When Crocker proposed a new world headquarters tower and galleria further west on Post Street, the city provided air space in exchange for the demolition of the upper floors of the building at 1 Montgomery. The roof of the bank is now a garden for the Crocker Galleria Shopping Center.

Found on both the interior and exterior of the windows are these little bats. They were designed by Arthur Putnam. Within the frieze, also done by Arthur Putnam, are mountain lions, wolves and foxes.

Arthur Putnam has also appeared many times in this website. Why bats? I have no idea, other than Putnam was well known for his animal sculptures.

The Don Lee Building

Posted by Cindy on June 20, 2013

Jun 202013

1000 Van Ness Avenue
Tenderloin

This magnificent building was built in 1921. Designed by Weeks and Day it is the largest and one of San Francisco’s most architecturally significant auto showrooms.

As the private automobile became a standard commodity of middle-class American life, hundreds of manufacturers rose to meet the demand. Within this increasingly competitive field, manufacturers quickly learned the value of the showroom in marketing their products to consumers. They understood that the architecture of the showroom was at least as important as its primary functional role: as a place to display, store and repair automobiles. In an era in which smaller automobile manufacturers were being weeded out, larger manufacturers aimed to reinforce customer confidence by designing automobile dealerships that, like banks, conveyed a sense of stability and permanency.

In San Francisco Don Lee was the first to commission such an elaborate showroom for his prominent corner lot on Van Ness Avenue. The completion of the Don Lee Building in 1921 led to increasing rivalries between local dealers, as each tried to outdo each other by commissioning prominent architectural firms to design increasingly elaborate showrooms.

Although the Don Lee Building is a utilitarian concrete loft structure, the architecture of the building embodied popular historicist imagery derived from a multitude of sources including Renaissance Italy and idealized Spanish Colonial architecture.

The main elevation on Van Ness Avenue is divided into three horizontal bands, conforming to the classic Renaissance composition of a base, shaft and capital.

The base is clad entirely in rusticated terra cotta blocks with chamfered joints designed to replicate dressed stone. The recessed entry contains brass double doors that once provided access to the auto showroom. Flanking the entrance are pairs of terra cotta Tuscan Order columns supporting a broken entablature.

The shaft, faced with light-colored stucco and bracketed by terra cotta quoins, is demarcated from the base by a terra cotta entablature and from the cornice by a prominent terra cotta frieze. The shaft is articulated by a grid of fifteen double-height window openings fitted with wood, double-hung sash, decorative metal spandrel panels and twisted metal colonnettes.

The façade terminates in a prominent fiberglass cornice which projects seven feet from the building’s face and duplicates the original sheet metal cornice removed in 1955.

The above is from the National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco. This building is National Register #01001179.

Weeks & Day (1916-1953)
Charles Peter Weeks (1870–1928)
William Peyton Day (1886–1966)Charles Peter Weeks was born in Copley, Ohio on September 1, 1870, the son of Peter Weeks and Catharine Francisco. He was educated at the University of Akron and obtained some preliminary experience working in the Akron office of architect Charles Snyder.
From 1892-95 he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, having been accepted into the atelier of Victor Laloux. Returning from Paris, he worked in Cleveland for a while and then moved to New York, initially working as an interior decorator, until in 1899 he joined John Galen Howard at the firm of Howard & Cauldwell.

In 1901 Howard moved to Berkeley, to become supervising architect for the University of California, and he invited Weeks to join him as head designer. That association did not continue for long. In 1903 Weeks joined established San Francisco architect Albert Sutton (1867-1923) as junior partner in the firm of Sutton & Weeks.

Weeks wrote a plaintive article for the June 1906 Architect and Engineer magazine titled ‘Who is to blame for San Francisco’s plight?’, referring to the devastating earthquake and fire damage. The article hit owners first for a lack of concern for quality, the City for performing inadequate inspections, architects for acquiescing on cheapness, and contractors for not giving value for money. In April 1907 he wrote another article on the renaissance of apartment houses in the City, which featured several Sutton & Weeks designs. Sutton moved to Hood River, Oregon in 1910, leaving Weeks to practice on his own.

In 1916 Weeks took on engineer William Peyton Day as a partner and together they designed this magnificent Don Lee Building, the Huntington Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Brocklebank apartments at 1000 Mason and the Sir Francis Drake Hotel on Powell at Sutter. Weeks & Day were responsible for designing the main mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery, where Weeks is buried.

After the Brocklebank was completed in 1926, Weeks and his wife moved into the building. Sadly, on March 25, 1928, Weeks was found dead in the living room of the apartment by his wife’s maid.

William Peyton Day continued the operations of the company for another 25 years.

The sculpture above the doorway is by Jo Mora you can read all about it here.

The Insurance Exchange

Posted by Cindy on May 4, 2013

May 042013

Insurance Exchange Building
433 California Street
Financial District

Turning 100 years old this year, the Insurance Exchange was designed by Willis Polk. This highly ornamented building is complimented by its sister building the Merchant’s Exchange next door. The highly decorated exterior of the building, flanked with majestic Corinthian columns and topped with a very detailed cornice simply commands attention.

The ornamentation is derived from Renaissance/Baroque sources. The building exemplifies the City Beautiful Movement in its simultaneous success as urban architecture, achieved through form and composition, and as an individual building, achieved in the quality of its details.

Insurance Exchange Cornice

From the San Francisco Call September 7, 1912

“Final Plans Accepted and Financial Arrangements Made for $500,000 Building

After some variations in the original plan the design for the Insurance Exchange building has been finally accepted. Work will be started in a few weeks on this great structure at the southeast corner of California and Lledesdorff streets. The building has been financed through stock in the corporation, the Insurance Exchange, and a bond mortgage for $500,000 which was executed last week to the Savings Union Bank and Trust Credit Company as trustee. The plans of Willis Polk & Co., the architects, have been finally approved acd adopted by the directors of the Insurance Exchange, and contracts will be awarded Immediately for excavating the lot and laying the foundations. Immediately thereafter contracts will be awarded for various parts of the superstructure, beginning with the steel frame which is to be of the cage type. With a frontage of 107 feet on California Street the new Insurance building will be one of the largest office structures in San Francisco. It will cover the entire lot. Besides a basement there will be 11 stories, with the ground floor arranged for banking houses or Insurance offices. The offices in the upper floors will be largely occupied by Insurance brokers and agents and others engaged in some way with insurnace business, although others may locate in the building. The steel frame work will be covered with re-inforced concrete fireproofing and the floors, walls and roof will also be In concrete, the fronts having a facing of pressed brick with terra cotta ornament in the same color tone. In the first story marble and stone will be used. On the California street front will be a colonnade running up three stories to a cornice, the columns and pilasters to be of the Corinthian order. The shaft of the building will be plain, after the style of the Merchants’ Exchange building, and the top will be ornamented-with a classic cornice. Tbe interior throughout Its 11 floors will be finished in first class style similar to the best office buildings of the city.”

Willis Polk (1867-1924) was born in Jacksonville, Illinois. In 1989 he joined the office of A. Page Brown and moved with Brown’s firm to San Francisco. He took over the Ferry Building project following Brown’s death. Polk published the Architectural News from 1890-1891 and wrote a series of short critiques for The Wave, a San Francisco weekly review. In 1901, he moved to Chicago to work with Daniel Burnham. Polk returned to San Francisco in 1903 and worked on the master plan for the City of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire. After opening his own office he was named supervising architect of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Besides the Insurance Exchange he was responsible for such famous buildings as the Hallidie Building (the first glass curtain-walled building ever constructed) the Bourn estate at Filoli and Grass Valley and the water temple in Sunol, California.

Polk’s architectural firm, Polk and Company completed more than one hundred major commercial and residential buildings in the Bay Area.

Lobby Elevators of 433 California Street

The coffered ceiling in the lobby of the Insurance Exchange

A Gothic Revival Gem

Posted by Cindy on May 3, 2013

May 032013

St. Francis of Assisi Church
624 Vallejo Street
North Beach

This was the first parish church in San Francisco after Mission Dolores. The cornerstone of the present building was laid in December, 1857, and the church was dedicated in 1860. This twin towered Victorian Gothic Revival church, in the heart of North Beach, was gutted by the fire of 1906. It was rebuilt in 1913. The walls and the two towers survived the fire, so the church we see today is almost identical to the original that was built in the 1850’s. The original architect was Charles J. Devlin.

The Thomas England interior design that we see today has clustered columns supporting a rib-vaulted ceiling that divides the nave from the side aisles. There is Gothic tracery in the wainscoting, the front and side altars, the vestibule transom and even the pews.

In 1994 the church was closed along with six others because of the declining number of Catholics in San Francisco. In 1999, the National Conference of Bishops named St. Francis the National Shrine to St. Francis of Assisi (Patron Saint of San Francisco) under the guidance of the Franciscan Friars.

Thomas England was a partner at, [William] Craine and England, Architects, of San Francisco. While little is known about him I did find his obituary notice and the obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle of October 24, 1869. He died on October 23rd at the age of 46. The funeral took place at St. Francis of Assis Church.

“ENGLAND–It is with heartfelt sorrow that we record the untimely death of a true-hearted Irishman, who may justly be considered the pioneer of ecclesiastical architecture in California.

Thomas England, who died in this city on the 23d inst. Mr. England was a native of County Cork, Ireland, a county which has contributed so many illustrious names to the history of modern art, and though his career was necessarily a more restricted one, yet in it he showed himself no unworthy countryman of Macline and Barry.

His family was one of the most respectable among the Catholics of Bandon, and is moreover distinguished for the talents of its members. His brother, Professor England of Cork, was, until a late date, the only Catholic savant who made his way to a professorial chair in the Queens University, and the name of his uncle, Rt. Rev. Dr. England, late Bishop of Charleston, is a synonym for all that is noble in the Episcopal character among American Catholics.

The fine Arts were the favorite pursuit of Thomas England from his boyhood, and he had made considerable progress in his artistic studies in Cork, when the Young Ireland agitation broke out in that city in 1848. Faithful to the spirit of his family, he flung himself heart and soul into the patriotic movement, and on its failure, he resolved to witness no longer the miseries which seemed hopeless of redress in his native land.

In Philadelphia, whither he directed his course, he applied himself to the study of Architecture, in which his cultivated taste and art knowledge eminently fitted him for success.

His residence in California dated back to 1851, thus making him one of the pioneers of his profession on the Pacific coast, and during the entire of his career, few have been so fortunate in winning the esteem and friendship of those with whom he came in contact.

His works in this state are numerous, in almost every department of Architecture, but Gothic Art was his study of predilection, and to his talents and study are due almost all of Catholic Art that we possess in California. St Mary’s Cathedral, the fine College now occupied by the Christian Brothers, Grass Valley Cathedral, Stockton Church, and St. Francis’ Church in this City – the latter unquestionably the most beautiful Catholic Edifice on the coast – are a few of the buildings designed and executed by him; and considering the little knowledge of or relish for the true principles of ecclesiastical architecture that existed in this country when he commenced his career, and the difficulty of carrying them into practice in California a few years ago, the success which attended his efforts was something wonderful.

In fact, Thomas England may be said to have been born both an Artist and an Architect, and the knowledge and correct taste which in another is generally the result of long years of training, seemed to come to him by a special gift of nature, seconded by an intense application to study. Had the circumstances of his life been more favorable to the proper development of his talents, he certainly would have ranked among the first Architects of the present century, either in Europe or America; or, as an Artist, he might have attained a foremost place in the Art world; and from what he effected with the limited resources at his command, it is no hard task to conjecture what he could have done under conditions more favorable to Art culture than the early history of California afforded.

In private life his character was peculiarly engaging. Unassuming in his manners, generous to a fault, gentle and considerate in his dealings with others, the soul of honor, and a warm and constant friend, it is rarely indeed that we meet with a disposition possessing so much to attract and so little to repel the love of those around its possessor, as did that of Thomas England.

The lingering disease which for upwards of two years slowly sapped his life away, he bore with cheerful resignation and when the dread summons of death arrived, his gentle spirit, fortified by the life-giving Sacraments of Holy Church, passed calmly away to another and, we trust, a better world. Peace to his soul is, and will be the heartfelt prayer of many a friend, for rarely indeed has the earth closed over a brighter intellect or a more generous heart than when it fell on the coffin of Thomas England.”

Then there was this about the Funeral Service: “On Monday of this week a solemn Mortuary Mass was celebrated in St. Francis’ Church for the repose of the soul of Thomas England, its Architect, who died on the Saturday preceding. The church was thronged by the friends of the deceased gentleman, including most of the members of the Architectural profession in San Francisco, who had assembled to render the last tribute of respect to the memory of their late confrere.

At the conclusion of the Mass, the Rev. Father King, of Oakland, addressed the congregation, and in a few brief but touching words recounted the services of his lamented friend to the cause of Catholicity in California, and aptly compared his labors in behalf of Catholic Art on the Pacific coast to those of his illustrious uncle, Bishop England, in building up the spiritual edifice of the Church on the shores of the Atlantic. When the Reverend gentleman had finished his discourse, the funeral procession moved from the sacred edifice – Messrs. Farquharson, Turnbull, Williams, Mooser, Gosling and Clinch (who was his student), as representatives of the Architects of San Francisco, and Dr. O’Brien, (his friend), Hon. Jasper O’Farrell and Messrs. Lyons, Doyle, Callaghan, Black and John Sullivan, as private friends of the deceased, acting as pall bearers and walking a considerable portion of the way to the cemetery. The length of the funeral cortege simply testified to the esteem in which Mr.England was held by his numerous acquaintances in San Francisco, and rarely indeed is it the lot of anyone to leave behind so many friends, and so few, or rather, no enemies, as he has done. At the Cemetery the remains of the deceased were received with the appropriate funeral ceremonies by the Rev. Father Aerden, assisted by Fathers King and Byrne, and deposited in the elegant little mortuary chapel which he had himself designed, there to remain until they should be deposited in their last resting place.” Source: San Francisco Monitor (Archdiocese of San Francisco), 30 Oct 1869

San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement

Posted by Cindy on December 29, 2012

Dec 292012

San Francisco’s 1906 fire and earthquake not only destroyed much of San Francisco, it also destroyed the dream of many to bring the City Beautiful Movement to large sections of San Francisco.

The City Beautiful Movement began with the “White City,” also known as the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The Exposition took place in Chicago and was an exercise in light, order and forward thinking.

The shimmering “White City” was a model of early city planning and architectural cohesion. In the Court of Honor all of the buildings had uniform heights, were decorated roughly in the same manner, and painted bright white. The beauty of the main court, the well-planned balance of buildings, water, and open green spaces was a wholly new concept to the visitors of the fair. Dignified, monumental and well run, the White City boasted state-of-the-art sanitation and transportation systems. All of this was in sharp contrast to the grey, urban sprawl of Chicago in 1893.

Chicago – 1893 World Columbian Exposition – (Photo courtesy of Boston College)

The City Beautiful Movement was a response to failing urban life. An attempt to improve cities through beautification, it was hoped that the solution of social ills would inspire civic loyalty, and make city centers more inviting to the upper classes, in hopes that they would return to them for work and therefore spend money.

The City Beautiful Movement used the language of the Beaux Arts (Fine Arts) Style. This style was named after the art and architecture school of Paris the Ecoles des Beaux Arts and flourished between 1885 and 1920.

The Beaux Arts is a classical style with a full range of Grecian and Roman elements, including columns, arches, vaults and domes.

General defining elements include the following:

Symmetry
Highly ornamented exterior decorations
A single architectural element as the center of the building composition. This could be an over-scaled
archway or a dramatic line of columns.
A dramatic roofline, often with sculptured figures
Monumental steps approaching the entrance
Floor plans that culminate in a single grand room
Axial floor plans so that vistas can be obtained throughout the building

Classic Elements of Beaux Art Architecture.

The City Beautiful Movement began in San Francisco in 1904, when James Duval Phelan, former mayor and president of the “Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco,” invited Daniel Hudson Burnham to town. Daniel Burnham was the indisputable “Father of City Beautiful.” He was the Director of Works for the Worlds Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and took a leading role in the creation of master plans for a number of cities.

Burnham’s group proposed that a new Civic Center complex be built at the corner of Market and Van Ness with radiating grand boulevards. A landscaped park would begin at the Civic Center and extend to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Twin Peaks was to be crowned with a neo-classic library overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The plan created neighborhoods, which would be accessed by a grid pattern, and tied the transportation systems to scenic views. The groups’ plan prescribed careful treatment of the hills and streets and even took into consideration the issues of building costs, maintenance and upkeep.

The War Memorial Veterans Building – San Francisco

The War Memorial Opera House is almost identical to the Veterans Building.

In 1906 the earthquake and fire presented the City Beautiful movement with a blank canvas-with one caveat, the merchants of San Francisco, eager to regenerate commerce, would have the final say as to the direction of future building in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, there was still a significant Beaux Arts influence in a number of buildings that were built after the earthquake, and the Civic Center we know today is one of the finest examples of the movement.

The Bill Graham Auditorium

The Beaux Arts buildings that create the heart of Civic Center include City Hall and the Exposition Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Auditorium) completed in 1915 in time for the Pan Pacific Exhibition, the War Memorial Opera House and the War Memorial Veterans Building, the Main Library and the State and Old Federal Buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s.

These classic buildings give the San Francisco Civic Center a visual cohesion that should encourage visitors to sit and enjoy this area. Sadly, due to the continued onslaught of vagrancy, the City of San Francisco has destroyed the central park area, Civic Center Plaza, that brings the buildings together.

“The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better public space is the undesirables problem,” wrote William H. Whyte in his 1980 book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. “They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem.”

The Civic Center open space has no benches, and if you are looking for a place to sit, you will find poorly maintained lawns interrupted by sparsely planted annuals. A colonnade of pollarded London Plane trees stands like sentinels over a vast bed of decomposed granite that used to house a reflective pool. While the Asian Art Museum has often placed intriguing and world-class art in the plaza, it is not yet enough to make the average citizen want to visit.

Dealing with the homeless problem in San Francisco has never been one of calm and reason; making the area scream, “go away” has not worked. It is time to find a way to bring vibrancy and humanity back to the area. It is time that the city slowly works its way back to the ideals of the City Beautiful Movement within its own Civic Center.

The State of California building

Phone Company Building

Posted by Cindy on July 21, 2011

Jul 212011

743 Washington Street
Chinatown

San Francisco’s Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia. Established in the 1840s, It plays an extremely important part in the history of San Francisco and the history of the Chinese diaspora. Chinatown is the most densely populated neighborhood in the city and one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the United States. It is also one of the more working class neighborhoods of San Francisco. Chinatown has more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Chinese Telephone Exchange sits at 793 Washington. In 1891, the first public telephone pay station was installed in Chinatown. In 1894, a small switchboard was set up to serve the patrons of the phone system. People were often asked for by name rather than by number, so telephone operators had to memorize and know each patron by name. This made telephone numbers unnecessary, which was important since the Chinatown community felt it was rude to refer to people by numbers. Operators also knew the address and occupations of patrons so they could distinguish between two people with the same name. In addition, they had to speak five Chinese dialects as well as English.

The exchange was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake, but was rebuilt, and remained in operation until it closed in 1949.

Technology changed, and switchboards were no longer needed. The Bank of Canton bought and restored the building in 1960.

Chinatown has an incredibly rich history and there are hundreds of books out there about it, but two that I find especially interesting are: “The Barbary Plague” by Marilyn Chase and “Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown” by Arnold Genthe and John Kuo Wei Tchen.

Market Street’s Flatiron Building

Posted by Cindy on March 23, 2001

Mar 232001

Flat Iron Building
540 Market Street
Market Street / Financial District

Built in 1913 the Flatiron Building was designed by Havens & Toepke. It is one of the few, and most distinctive extant flatirons on Market Street. Flatirons were common north of Market both before and after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, but the destruction of many of them such as the 1892 Crocker Building at Post and Market for high-rises has made them rare.

The skeletal structure of the building is well-adapted to an unusual (for San Francisco) Gothic treatment in which three-part bays are separated by thin piers of reinforced concrete scored to imitate masonry. A highly distinctive cantilevered cornice of Gothic pendants appears to be a prototype for Willis Polk’s 1917 Hallidie Building one block west. Described in 1913 as “pure English Gothic,” the medieval ornament also is used for interior railings, grilles, and elevator doors.

The most well known Flatiron in San Francisco is most likely the The Sentinal in North Beach, but since this is actually called The Flatiron Building the two are often confused.

Flatiron buildings are among the earliest skyscrapers. Their triangular shape was determined by real estate parcels created by diagonal streets, such as Market Street, that sliced through streets designed on a grid. They were named for their resemblance to clothes irons of the period.

The most famous flatiron building is the Fuller Building, of New York City and generally considered that city’s first skyscraper. It was designed by Daniel H. Burnham and built in 1902.

Charles I. Havens was born in New York in 1849 and arrived in California in 1856. Havens served for twelve years as City Architect of San Francisco, designing many of the early schools, none of which survive. He died in 1916.

William H. Toepke was born in California San Francisco July 12, 1870. He attended public schools and then entered the office of William Mooser in 1886 to study architecture. Four years later he became an employee of C.I. Havens and formed a partnership with Havens in 1897 that continued until 1915. Toepke died in 1949.

The Eastern Outfitting Company

Posted by Cindy on March 10, 2001

Mar 102001

1017 Market Street
Mid-Market

This gorgeous building sits on Market between 6th and 7th. It has been sheathed and scaffolded for quite awhile now, and it is a pleasure to see that it has come out from behind its blanket much better for the stay.

The seven story building, with its terra-cotta finish and steel frame construction has a unique steel and glass façade that begins above the ground floor retail space and is framed by Corinthian pillars. The giant Corinthian order columns and capitals are constructed of terra-cotta tiles; and the entablature, seemingly so massive, is in fact hollow—a galvanized-iron box. The words Furniture and Carpets stand out from that galvanized iron entablature reminding us that at one time it was the Union Furniture Store.

During the restoration they have put back the 700 lights that go around the windows. They had simply been empty holes for many many years now.

To see some gorgeous photos of the building prior to its make over, visit Mark Ellinger’s wonderful piece Grand Illusion.

The building was designed in 1909 by George Applegarth (1875-1972).

Applegarth, born in Oakland, was a student of Bernard Maybeck, who encouraged him to train at the Ecoles des Beaux-Arts.

Applegarth’s most famous works were under the commission of Alma de Bretteville Spreckles. He designed both the Spreckles Mansion and the Palace of the Legion of Honor for Alma.

In 1921 and 1922, Applegarth was President of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

A shot of the windows before restoration:

IOOF Building at Mid-Market

Posted by Cindy on March 8, 2001

Mar 082001

26 7th Street
Mid Market

This is the second Independent Order of Odd Fellows Temple in San Francisco, the first was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. There is a wonderful history of the past temples with great photographs at my friend Mark’s site. Check out the old photos here.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), is a global altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations. Their symbol of three links stand for Friendship, Love and Truth.

The North American IOOF was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 26, 1819. Odd Fellowship became the first national fraternity to include both men and women when it adopted the Rebekah Degree on September 20, 1851

The building, designed by G. A. Dodge was erected in 1909. The building is undergoing construction on the lower floor, removing much of what we see today. The photo above was taken in July of 2011.

According to his son David Dodge’s Website:

On July 31, 1919, just weeks before his son David’s ninth birthday, George A. Dodge was killed in an automobile accident. The accident occurred in the tiny San Joaquin County town of French Camp—near Stockton—as a result of a collision with a Southern Pacific train. Witnesses described the driver, Robert Oliphant, a steel salesman from San Francisco, as trying to beat the train to the crossing, ignoring its warning whistles. Dodge was pinned beneath the wreckage and died instantly. Oliphant was seriously injured and taken to the local hospital.

This horrific incident snuffed out the life and career of George A. Dodge, a successful San Francisco architect.

George Andrew Dodge was born in San Francisco on September 4, 1864, the third son of David and Catherine (Gentner) Dodge, who had moved to San Francisco from New England earlier that year. By the age of twenty-six, George was established as a professional architect in San Francisco. On June 15, 1893, he married Maude Ellingwood Bennett. The couple set up house in the city and George’s business grew. Their first child, daughter Kathryn, was born in 1899, followed by daughters Frances, born in 1905, and Marion, born in 1907. By the time of David’s birth in 1910, the Dodge family had relocated across San Francisco Bay to Berkeley.

In 1903, Dodge entered into partnership with James Walter Dolliver (1868-1927) and they worked together up until Dodge’s death under the firm name Dodge and Dolliver. Together they were responsible for designing and building several public buildings around the Bay Area, including St. John’s Presbyterian Church and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall in San Francisco. Dodge was selected as the lead architect by the Odd Fellows Board to rebuild the Hall (on the corner of Seventh and Market Streets) after the previous building was destroyed by the earthquake and fire of 1906. Other projects include the San Mateo County Courthouse in Redwood City, Tamalpais Union High School in Mill Valley, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and Jail in Santa Rosa, and Carnegie libraries in Palo Alto and Woodland (Yolo County).

In Redwood City, the “old San Mateo County Courthouse” now serves as San Mateo County History Museum, which is fitting given the building’s own ill-fated history. The marker designating it a historical landmark tells the story and reads, in part: “In 1903, the architectural firm of Dodge and Dolliver designed a domed rotunda courthouse. It was completed and ready for occupancy when the 1906 earthquake demolished all but the domed rotunda. The courthouse was reconstructed between 1906 and 1910.” Visitors to the museum can still see the Dodge and Dolliver dome. (This project recently underwent a complete restoration. My husband, the late, Michael H. Casey was the sculptor of all the reproduced eagles and ornamentation within the new museum).

This picture, showing the construction, was shot in May of 2013

The symbols of the IOOF.

The IOOF shares the all-seeing eye symbol with the Masons, as both fraternities require members to believe in a higher being, a deity of some sort, though the specific religion of each member is not dictated by the fraternity. (Although many of the IOOF symbolism traces the meanings back to Judeo-Christian teachings.) The all-seeing eye reminds Odd Fellows that God watches them always.

The moon and seven stars is a symbol of the Rebekhahs. They represent the never failing order which pervades the universe of God and all of nature, and suggest to the members the value of system, regularity and precision in all worthy undertakings

The main symbol of the IOOF is the three chain links, sometimes with the letters F, L and T carved inside them, which stand for Friendship, Love, and Truth

Two shaking hands (grasping each other in a handshake) can be a symbol of the IOOF as a sign of Friendship, one of their tenets.

A higher order of the IOOF called the Encampment uses the symbols of crossed shepherd’s hooks and/or ancient Middle Eastern-looking tents. The Encampment branch of the IOOF strives to impart the principles of Faith, Hope and Charity. The crossed shepherd’s hooks symbolize that the higher order of the IOOF are like the Israelites—shepherds, watching their flocks and keeping them safe. And the tents are the tents of the wandering Israelites, to remind us we “do not permanently abide here, as we are on a pilgrimage to the grave.”