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U.S. Custom House Sculpture

Posted by Cindy on August 1, 2013

Aug 012013

555 Battery Street
Financial District
U.S. Customs House

Most of the granite sculptures on the U.S. Custom house were done in-situ by unknown artists.

The roof top sculpture, however, was done by Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper (April 8, 1875 – 1937) was an American sculptor.

Born in Glenwood, Iowa, and based in Denver, Colorado, Cooper studied under Preston Powers (son of the well known sculptor Hiram Powers,) then at the Art Institute of Chicago with Lorado Taft and the Art Students League of New York through about 1901.

Cooper is best known for her bronze figure of Sacajawea originally produced as the centerpiece for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, 1905, unveiled in a ceremony attended by Susan B. Anthony and other prominent feminists. This figure now stands in Washington Park.

Regarding the sculpture. The figure on the right holds a staff with two snakes coiled around her left arm. The figure on the left holds a two handled vase in her right arm.

U.S. Custom House

Posted by Cindy on July 31, 2013

Jul 312013

555 Battery Street
Financial District

The first United States Congress established the U.S. Customs Service in 1789 to collect duties and taxes on imported goods, control carriers of imports and exports, and combat smuggling and revenue fraud. Until the federal income tax was created in 1913, customs funded virtually the entire government.

Possessing an extraordinary natural harbor and one of the country’s finest ports, San Francisco rapidly expanded during the nineteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth century, construction of the Panama Canal, which would dramatically shorten trade routes between the Atlantic and Pacific, had begun. City officials likely anticipated increased commerce and determined that a larger custom house was needed.

In 1905, Eames & Young, a St. Louis architectural firm, won a national design competition for a new custom house. The firm was chosen under the auspices of the Tarsney Act, which allowed the Treasury Department to hire private architects rather than use only government designers. William S. Eames and Thomas Crane Young were the principals of the prominent firm. They designed the building in the Beaux Arts Classicism style, which was popular as part of the City Beautiful movement that sought to create more appealing urban centers.

An earlier, more modest custom house, located on Battery Street between Jackson and Washington Streets, was demolished to make way for the present building. Ground was broken for the new custom house on January 28, 1906. The 1906 Fire and Earthquake occurred on April 18th, as a result, construction of the custom house was not completed until 1911.

The U.S. Custom House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. After the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, seismic and other upgrades were made from 1993 to 1997. While the building continues to serve many of its original purposes, the U.S. Customs Service is now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Eames and Young consisted of Thomas Crane Young, FAIA (1858-1934) and William Sylvester Eames, FAIA (1857-1915). Young was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and went to St. Louis to attend Washington University, then spent two years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1880, and briefly worked for the Boston firm of Van Brunt & Howe. Eames had gone to St. Louis as a child, attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, and served as Deputy Commissioner of Public Buildings for the city.

They formed a partnership in 1885. Their first works were elaborate mansions for Vandeventer Place and other private places in St. Louis, which led to an important series of landmark downtown warehouses, later collectively known as Cupples Station. Eames was elected President of the American Institute of Architects in 1904-1905. Through the 1900s and 1910s the firm designed several St. Louis skyscrapers and built a reputation for offices, schools, and institutional buildings constructed nationwide.

Eames died in 1915. Young’s last building was the 1926 immense St. Louis Masonic Temple, he stopped practicing in 1927.

Eames was the uncle of American designer Charles Eames.

The smaller granite sculptures was sculpted in-situ by unknown artists.

You can read an excellent complete article with amazing photographs on the U.S. Customs house here.

Original Customs House, Photograph courtesy of San Francisco Public Library

The Hayward/Kohl Building

Posted by Cindy on July 30, 2013

Jul 302013

400 Montgomery Street
Financial District

The Hayward/Kohl Building was designed by Percy & Polk (George Percy and Willis Polk both of whom have been written about on this site many times before) for Alvinza Hayward.

Hayward made his fortune from the Eureka Gold Mine in California and the Comstock Silver Mine in Nevada as well as investments in timber, coal, railroads, real estate, and banking. He was a director of the Bank of California and one of the original investors in the San Francisco City Gas Company which become the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Hayward was in his late seventies when he commissioned the partners Percy and Polk to create a first-class office building that would be a testament to his wealth and position in the community. The building was completed in 1901. The footprint of the building is shaped like the letter H, perhaps a giant monogram for Hayward.

Purchased in 1904 by C. Frederick Kohl the building was one of the first steel-frame “fireproof” buildings in San Francisco. It survived the 1906 Earthquake and Fire with damage to only the first floors which were reconstructed under Polk’s supervision. (see the end of this posting)

The lower stories have been redesigned several times, but the upper stories with their brick curtain walls clad in Colusa limestone remain unchanged.

As noted in Splendid Survivors: San Francisco’s Downtown Architectural heritage (Michael R. Corbett, 1979):

It was an early and excellent example…of the more formal designs that later came to characterize the city, relying on a relatively restrained and “correct” use of Renaissance/Baroque ornamentation and the two or three part compositional formula….Ornamentation in this three part composition is concentrated in the upper tier with its mannerist giant order and carved garlands and animal heads.”

C. Frederick Kohl was a man of leisure who lived on an estate down the peninsula inherited from his father, who made his fortune in the Alaska fisheries. In 1909 a French maid employed by Kohl’s wife got into a dispute with a chauffeur. After Kohl had her arrested she sued him for false arrest. When found not guilty two years later he was shot, by the maid, in the chest while leaving the courthouse . He survived and Adele Verge was required to spend time in a mental institution in her native France. She spent years bombarding Kohl with threatening notes. In 1921 at the Del Monte Lodge in Carmel he committed suicide.

Separated from his wife, Kohl left most of his $4 million estate to his mistress Marion L. Lord, ex-wife of the heir to the Lord and Taylor retail chain Alfred P. Lord.

News clippings after the 1906 Fire and Earthquake regarding the Hayward Building:

Very little fire entered the basement, and the power plant is practically uninjured. The marble finish of the entrance hall is in good condition, the ornamental plaster being but slightly damaged. The second and third stores are fire swept, but a few offices in the northeast corner of the building escaped. In the fourth and fifth stories, the fire did the most damage in the offices around the southwest corner of the building. In the sixth and seventh stories the fire entered the building through windows in the northeast corner, consuming all the combustible contents in a few offices and discoloring the rest of the story by smoke. The upper stories are but slightly damaged by fire and smoke, but are disfigured by a great number of plaster cracks caused by the earthquake (Himmelwright 1906: 168-172).

The building’s unique survival of the disaster was generally ascribed to its construction. One engineer noted that “The advantages of the metal-covered trim and the incombustible floor finish were clearly demonstrated in this building.”(Himmelwright 1906: 172) Another observed that the “metal-covered doors in this building…prevented to some extent the spread of the fire within the building itself, so that where one room burned out, the fire coming through a front window, an adjacent room was not burned because of the resistance offered by the door.”(Department of the Interior, United States Geological Survey, The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906, and their Effects on Structures and Structural materials, Bulletin no. 324, Series R., Structural Materials 1, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907, repr: San Francisco Historical Publishing Co., n.p.)

Another reason for the building’s survival was its relative isolation. A local architect, visiting the scene, noted that the “Merchants Exchange building really acted as a screen across the street to the Hayward building, and the one-story Merchants Trust building also served to protect the building, by the fifty-foot open space on the east; California Street on the south and Montgomery Street on the west also protected the building.”(The Architect and Engineer of California, Vol. V No 1 (May, 1906), n.p.)

In 1854 this corner was the site of Sam Brannan’s Express Building, a four-story edifice with a stone facade and New Orleans-style iron balconies around the windows on the upper floors. (source: Rand Richards – Historic Walks in San Francisco) (Photo Courtesy of SF Public Library)

Richard L. Perri and the Giant Pill

Posted by Cindy on July 29, 2013

Jul 292013

7th and Market Street
SOMA/Mid Market

The Odd Fellows Temple (you can read my post about the IOOF building here) is getting a CVS on the ground floor. Artist Richard L. Perri has brightened up the construction zone with a really fun mural.

Richard L. Perri has a studio in the Odd Fellows Building. Born in Rockville Center, New York, Perri studied at the San Francisco Art Institute.

MidMa stands for Mid Market District. According to their website: The Mid Market district has historically been an art center. During its heyday (mid 1900’s) it was a vibrant and star-studded hub for theater and entertainment. Since the 1960’s the area experienced a decline in activity. Theaters closed their doors, storefronts were boarded up and people stopped coming. Then slowly, over time, the artists moved in.

One building in particular the Odd Fellows, became an art center for these artists….

Historic Old Clock

Posted by Cindy on July 27, 2013

Jul 272013

400 Parnassus
UCSF Medical Center
Inner Sunset

Carried by ship around Cape Horn, this Seth Thomas Clock was installed on the medical school of the affiliated colleges in 1897. Surviving the 1906 earthquake, it served the university and community for 70 years. Members of the UCSF family have made possible its restoration as a campus landmark.

February 20, 1982

Seth Thomas was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1785. He was apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner, and worked building houses and barns. He started in the clock business in 1807, working for clockmaker Eli Terry. Thomas formed a clock-making partnership in Plymouth, Connecticut with Eli Terry and Silas Hoadley as Terry, Thomas & Hoadley. They made tall clocks with wooden movements.

In 1810, he bought out Terry’s share of the clock business, and in 1812 he sold his partnership and moved to Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut . Here he set up a factory with the intention to make metal-movement clocks. In 1817, he added shelf and mantel clocks. By the mid-1840s, he changed over to brass movements. He died in 1859, and the company was taken over by his son, Aaron. Aaron added many styles and improvements after his father’s death. The company went out of business in the 1980s.

Hippocrates

Posted by Cindy on July 26, 2013

Jul 262013

400 Parnassus
UCSF Medical Center
Inner Sunset

Hippocrates by Costos Georgakas

A sign on the base of the statue reads:

Provided through the great generosity of Mr. and Mrs. John Nicholas Pappas. Mr Pappas, A Greek emigrant from Kiparisi, Lakonia, Greece, and his wife, Jennie Pappas, donate this statue in appreciation of San Francisco the home of Mr. Pappas since 1905.

This statue was donated in 1987.

Hippocrates, is a sculptural example of five other versions of a marble sculpture attributed to Costos Georgacas. According to the Smithsonian, they date between 1967 and 1979 and are located on the campuses of University of Alabama in Birmingham, Alabama; Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey; University of Illinois in Chicago, Illinois; University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona; and Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan

Although mostly of historic and traditional value and not necessarily required by medical schools, the Hippocratic oath is considered a rite of passage for practitioners of medicine in some countries. Nowadays the modernized version of the text varies among the countries and has been rewritten often in order to suit the values of different cultures influenced by Greek medicine.

Born around 460 B.C., Hippocrates is credited with being the first person to believe that diseases were caused naturally and not as a result of superstition and Gods, believing and arguing that disease was not a punishment inflicted by the gods but rather the product of environmental factors, diet, and living habits. While little is actually known about who originally wrote it, the Hippocratic Oath, is an oath historically taken by doctors swearing to practice medicine ethically.

Knights Templar Building

Posted by Cindy on July 25, 2013

Jul 252013

2135 Sutter Street
Western Addition

This steel reinforced building with brick exterior walls trimmed in lots of terra cotta was designed by Matthew O’Brien and Carl Werner in the architectural style known as the Jacobean Phase of Medieval Revival. It was built in 1905 and 1906-1907.

The building has been home to two institutions, the Knights Templar and the Baptist Church. The building was originally built for the Golden Gate Commandery #16 of the Knights Templar, a masonic order at the turn of the century. In the 1950’s there was a decline of masonic and other fraternal groups in the city, possibly as a result of a movement towards the suburbs, and the Knights Templar moved to a smaller building.

The building was then bought by the Macedonia Missionary Baptist church in1950.

Martin Luther King Jr. preached at the Church in the late fifties and early sixties, making the church the center of much of the activities that took place regarding the civil rights movement.

O’Brien & Werner had their offices at 1683 Ellis Street in San Francisco. Between the two of them they designed and built several San Francisco movie palaces like the Orpheum, the Tivoli Opera House (later the Columbia), the Hippodrome, Golden Gate Theater, The Princess Theater, and the Valencia Theater. They designed the Golden Eagle Hotel and three buildings in the Alamo Square Historic District.

Carl Werner was born in 1875 in Philadelphia and was at one time the unofficial architect for the city of Alameda. Werner was a mason and it is possibly one reason that Werner and O’Brien received the commission.

Look at the wonderful terra cotta faces that grace the building. The sculptural elements are drawn from both the Knights Templar imagery and Gothic architecture.

This building was deemed San Francisco Landmark #202 in 1993

The Knights Templar is an international philanthropic chivalric order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a Masonic Lodge, which only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in the Christian religion. The full title of this Order is The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta. The word “United” in this title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual Order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual Orders ‘united’ within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross. The Order derives its name from the historical Knights Templar, but does not claim any direct lineal descent from the original Templar order.

The historical Knights Templar trace their origin back to shortly after the First Crusade. Around 1119, a French nobleman from the Champagne region, Hugues de Payens, collected eight of his knight relatives including Godfrey de Saint-Omer, and began the Order, their stated mission to protect pilgrims on their journey to visit the Holy Places. They approached King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, who allowed them to set up headquarters on the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock, at the centre of the Mount, was understood to occupy the site of the Jewish Temple. Known to Christians throughout the Muslim occupation of Jerusalem as the Holy of Holies, the Dome of the Rock became a Christian church, the Templum Domini, the Temple of the Lord. But the Templars were lodged in the Aqsa Mosque, which was assumed to stand on the site of Solomon’s Temple. Because the Aqsa mosque was known as the Templum Solomonis, it was not long before the knights had encompassed the association in their name. They became known as the Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici – the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, which was shortened to “Knights Templars”.

William Tecumseh Sherman and the Bank of Lucas, Turner

Posted by Cindy on July 24, 2013

Jul 242013

800-804 Montgomery Street
Jackson Square

The Bank of Lucas, Turner and Company was designed in the Italianate style typical of early San Francisco. The classical façade faces Montgomery Street, the main business street at the time. The ground floor is built from well cut and fitted granite blocks. The granite is not from California, and is variously said to be from the eastern United States or from China.

It was built in 1853-1854 by Keyser and Brown, after designs by Reuben Clark, architect for the Bank of Lucas, Turner and Company, under the supervision of William Tecumseh Sherman, later to become General of the (Union) Armies during the Civil War. Sherman stayed on to manage the bank. The owner was J.N. Lucas, resident partner of the bank, a well-known St. Louis firm of the day. The lot had been bought from James Lick for $31,000. Lick had paid $3,000 for a larger parcel, from which this was carved in 1848. Other parts of this larger lot were later given by Lick to the Trustees of the Protestant Orphan Asylum, Society of California Pioneers and a volunteer fire company.

The bulding cost $53,000 to build, a large sum for the day.

The Bank of Lucas, Turner and Company moved into their impressive new building during the summer of 1854, but despite surviving the run on banks of 1855, that closed most every other banking establishment in San Francisco, Lucas, Turner and Company was closed by 1857. Sherman moved back to New York to manage a Lucas, Turner branch there.

Ex-Mayor Brenham had his office here in 1856. In 1860 William Blanding, a captain of the South Carolina Volunteers in the Mexican War and US District Attorney in San Francisco, became the primary tenant. Blanding was instrumental in introducing the silkworm culture into California.

In 1870 the movement of the business district toward Market Street, left this area of town in a downward market, and in 1900 the building became the property of the daughter of first Jewish California State Supreme Court Justice (1852-1857) Solomon Heydenfeldt.

In 1906, Eiffel Tower, a French restaurant occupied the ground floor with lodging above.

The 1906 Earthquake and Fire damaged the third story which was removed. The restaurant remained until 1924, the lodgings even longer.

A sausage factory shared part of the ground floor in the 1920’s. In later years, a Chinese soy sauce factory was located here.

In the 1950’s, with the revival of Jackson Square for the design trade, the building was converted for use by decorators. The building now houses one of the finest Architectural Book Stores one can encounter William Stout Books.

Elegant Stag Poses at Lands End Lookout

Posted by Cindy on July 23, 2013

Jul 232013

Lands End Lookout
GGNRA
680 Point Lobos

This stag sits in a small seating area at the front entrance to the new Lands End Lookout building.

This is a copy of a statue that originally sat in the park across the street, Sutro Heights Park. The two lions that grace the entry to the park, as well as the entry to the lookout, and the history of that park can be found here.

Sutro collected statues after traveling to Europe, to recreate a European garden around his home. He did not buy and ship home works of art from other countries, like many other wealthy people such as William Randolph Hearst. When he saw something he liked, he would have a statue maker in Antwerp, Belgium make copies. The Lions are copies of those in London’s Trafalgar Square—making the two currently at the gate copies of copies.

This stag was copied in cast stone by an unknown artist in the 1980’s.

The new building designed by San Francisco’s EHDD was dedicated in December 0f 2012. It is the latest in a series of upgrades that follow the 1993 master plan for the Sutro Historic District done by the National Park Service and implemented in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.

The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, donated $8.6 million to the Lands End efforts.

Farm Girl by Aryz

Posted by Cindy on July 22, 2013

Jul 222013

Polk and Eddy
The Tenderloin

This five-story farm girl — and her bushel of apples looks over the corner of Eddy and Polk. Aryz deliberately used muted colors, especially flesh tones, to paint the lady onto this beige building.

***

“I feel it’s really aggressive when you paint in a public space, so I don’t really want to play with bright colors. It would be too much,” Aryz says. “I’d prefer that people who are observing [the scene] find the work by themselves. The last few walls I’ve done like this.”

Of the world’s top street artists, Aryz sits alongside names such as Banksy, JR, ROA and Blek le Rat. Aryz, a Spaniard who lives in a town near Barcelona, is 24 years old and has been doing street art — starting with graffiti — for a decade. His Tenderloin girl, at 665 Eddy St., is his first street work in California after a busy few years transforming buildings across Europe and other parts of the Americas.

Much of Aryz’s art is slyly humorous — his farm girl has a small top hat flying off her head — and when you combine that sly absurdity with his obvious painting talent (Aryz studied art in college) and his eagerness to exhibit in the open air, it’s no surprise that Aryz would have a growing fan base stretching far beyond the usual street art crowd, and far beyond Spain.

Aryz’s Tenderloin project was accomplished through behind-the-scenes negotiations and timely generosity. Chris Shaher, a San Francisco art curator and art activist who runs the organization WallSpaceSF, has an agreement with the owners of 665 Eddy St. to put select street art on the building’s western facade. To let Aryz work from the roof of the KFC next door, Shaher’s team also had to secure permission.Deborah Munk, director of Recology’s Artist in Residence Program, donated the paint for Aryz’s Tenderloin project. This community approach to street art meant that Aryz could — unlike, say, the stealth-oriented Banksy — work in the middle of the day, without disguise, without interruption. Even in his hydraulic lift high above Eddy Street, Aryz greets anyone who shouted to him from below. Aryz says he doesn’t want to be a “celebrity” street artist, and doesn’t want the trappings of museum shows, where audio guides detail every facet of the art on display. His farm girl has no formal name.

“I don’t really care about saying what it is — I just want people to see it,” says Aryz, who was born in Palo Alto, where he lived until age 3, when his family moved back to Spain. “The problem in the art business is that you have to create your own ‘character,’ and the art business sells your art as a whole thing. Of course the artist is a whole thing. Everything affects your art and the way you do things. But in the end, what remains is the art, not the artist. So that’s what I think is important. It’s not important how I look like. Or how I am. In the end, what’s important is what I do.”

This was excerpted from an article in the SF Weekly by Jonathan Curiel. To read the entire article go here.

This higher up and closer view is courtesy of Graffuturism.com

Regardless of History

Posted by Cindy on July 20, 2013

Jul 202013

400 Parnassus
UCSF Medical Center
Inner Sunset

Regardless of History by Bill Woodrow

Bill Woodrow (1948) was one of a number of British sculptors to emerge in the late 1970s onto the international contemporary art scene.

Woodrow’s early work was made from materials found in dumps, used car lots and scrap yards, partially embedded in plaster and appearing as if they had been excavated. He went on to use large consumer goods, such as refrigerators and cars, cutting the sheet metal and allowing the original structure to remain identifiable, with the cut-out attached as if by an umbilical cord to the mother form. Collecting all manner of things, altering them and giving them a new context, allowed Bill Woodrow an element of narrative in his work.

Regardless of History is a quarter scale version of a sculpture with the same title created for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, England, which was installed there from the spring of 2000 to the summer of 2001. Bill Woodrow chose to explore a recurring theme in his work—challenging and questioning man’s inability to learn the lessons of the past. A critic has observed that by placing the book over the man’s ears and the tree’s roots over his eyes, Bill implies that mankind listens to history but cannot see the lessons. We carry on ‘regardless of history’—an appropriate symbol and reminder for the entrance to a library. However, the work also evokes the theme of human frailty and of the strength and importance of knowledge and understanding.

Huru by di Suvero

Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2013

Jul 192013

Crissy Field

Huru 1984-1985 Steel

“Huru”, at 55 feet, is the tallest sculpture in the exhibit. A simple tripod base supports a six-ton upper section made of two long pointing pieces, like open scissors that move in the wind. Some read them as welcoming arms; to me they looked like futuristic machine guns, or at other times a gladiators helmet.

This is my favorite, which is why I have left it for last. I could not quite put my finger on why it was my favorite, and oddly, as I have been writing about all the others, I’m not so sure why this stole my heart above and beyond any number of the others. At the time, my photography partner mentioned that it was the only piece that sat all by itself and for that reason could be appreciated the way I had been lamenting that large sculpture should be appreciated, which may very well be why it was my favorite.

Are Years What? #7 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 18, 2013

Jul 182013

Crissy Field

Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore) – 1967

“Are Years What (for Marianne Moore)”, is the first sculpture Mr. di Suvero made entirely with steel I-beams. Its main feature is a steel V-shaped angle that hangs and swings freely in space, counteracting the solidity of its two vertical and four sprawling diagonal beams. (The tall beam from which it hangs—itself held in place by thin cables—is 40 feet long.)

Are Years What is part of the Hirshhorn Museum Collection.

What Are Years?
By Marianne Moore

What is our innocence,
what is our guilt? All are
naked, none is safe. And whence
is courage: the unanswered question,
the resolute doubt,—
dumbly calling, deafly listening—that
in misfortune, even death,
encourages others
and in its defeat, stirs

the soul to be strong? He
sees deep and is glad, who
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in its surrendering
finds its continuing.

So he who strongly feels,
behaves. The very bird,
grown taller as he sings, steels
his form straight up. Though he is captive,
his mighty singing
says, satisfaction is a lowly
thing, how pure a thing is joy.
This is mortality,
this is eternity.

Old Buddy #6 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 17, 2013

Jul 172013

Crissy Field

Old Buddy (For Rosko) 1993-1995

“Old Buddy (For Rosko)” (1993-95), a tribute to the artist’s dog, could be read as an abstract animal. A rear upright section on two legs (which might have a tail) is joined to a front upright section on three legs (which might have a circular face and upward-pointing ears) by a straight 50-foot-long silver-painted spine. But it’s far more than a sentimental gesture. The precisionist rear section and the long connecting beam are painted silver; the tripod, circles and “ears” of the front section are left rust-brown. And one can admire it—especially if viewed from either end—as a masterly complex of steel beams in perspective, framing the sky. (from the NY Times)

Mother Peace #5 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 16, 2013

Jul 162013

Crissy Field

Mother Peace – 42 feet tall, painted Steel 1969-1970

Mother Peace was originally installed near an entrance to the Alameda County courthouse in Oakland, but a judge, so offended by the peace sign that di Suvero had painted on one of the I-beams, transformed himself into an art judge and insisted on its removal. The work is now installed at Storm King Art Center.

Di Suvero himself moved to Europe in 1970 to protest against the war in Vietnam, returning to the United States in 1974.

Mother Peace is built around one 42-foot vertical beam (a V-shaped horizontal piece hangs from and swings about the top), the two lower horizontals (one moving), and two long diagonal props.

Figulo #4 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 15, 2013

Jul 152013

Crissy Field

Figulo (2005-11) 47′ × 55′ painted steel, steel buoys – collection of the artist

From the Brooklyn Rail when this piece was exhibited at Governor’s Island: From afar, it looks to be a drafting compass fit for the gods. Its red extension beams ignite in the afternoon sunlight. At close range, the dimensions shift perceptually. The sculpture’s backbone extends outward as joints become gracefully visible, angles more acute. The sky seems closer than ever, as meandering clouds seem to collapse into the slats between the beams.

Will by di Suvero #3 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 13, 2013

Jul 132013

Crissy Field

Will, 1994- steel- Doris and Donald Fisher Collection

This exhibit on Crissy Field coincides with di Suvero’s 80th birthday, the exhibition holds particular significance for the artist, who immigrated to San Francisco from Shanghai at the age of seven. His passage beneath the Golden Gate Bridge—which opened a few years before his arrival—proved to be a lasting inspiration, as the scale and color of the structure have influenced di Suvero throughout his life. Di Suvero notes, “It was like a rainbow, a bridge coming to the New World starting a new life. The woman who chose the color of the bridge, Malo Lowell, taught me how to work wood as a teenager and from there, all was freedom.”

Magma by Mark di Suvero #2 of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 12, 2013

Jul 122013

Crissy Field

“Magma” (2008-12), steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero, measures 25 feet tall by 48 feet wide. Leant by the artist, this piece is on public view for the first time. Magma appears as a giant sawhorse in which a 48-foot I-beam is supported between two of the artist’s traditional, uneven tripods. It is distinguished by a big pair of cut circles (or C’s, or G’s) that can slide along the horizontal beam, matched by a pair of similar rings that wrap around the joint at one of the ends.

Mark di Suvero, has other pieces permanently around San Francisco.

di Suvero was born in Shanghai, China, in 1933. He immigrated to the United States in 1941 and received a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. Di Suvero began showing his sculpture in the late 1950’s and is one of the most important American artists to emerge from the Abstract Expressionist era. A pioneer in the use of steel, di Suvero is without peer in the exhibition of public sculpture worldwide.

Dreamcatcher first in a series of 8

Posted by Cindy on July 10, 2013

Jul 102013

Crissy Field

In light of the closing of SFMOMA for its expansion, the museum is placing art “all around town”.

This exhibit of EIGHT of Mark Di Suvero’s massive metal sculptures is the first of the series. As much as I love and respect the curators of the SFMOMA, I have always felt that they never quite understood the subtleties of culling an exhibit down to its finer points.

This retrospective is no different. It is the opinion of this writer, that large sculpture should either overwhelm its environment so that it becomes the focal point, or is overwhelmed by its environment so that the eye focuses on the piece. In the case of this exhibit the sculptures not only compete with the background of road construction, but with each other.

None-the-less, local boy makes good is the point of this exhibit and it is well worth the visit if you are given the opportunity.

This piece is titled Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher is 55 feet high and normally resides at Storm King in New York. The piece was done from 2005 to 2012. There are four unusually high and symmetrical tilting beams joined at the top, where they blossom into an interlocked array of cut-out steel circles. Held horizontally to a stainless steel spire in the middle and above the circles is a giant hand of four splayed similar beams, joined at one end, which blow freely in the wind, “catching dreams”.

Storm King is one of America’s finest outdoor art galleries, and a space where large sculpture is given its true due by the vast open spaces that surround each piece.

Tromp l’oeil by John Wullbrandt is gone

Posted by Cindy on July 8, 2013

Jul 082013

Turk and Hyde
The Tenderloin

This tromp l’oeil was done by John Wullbrandt in 1983. John is a Carpenteria, California – Hawaii based painter responsible for creating much of the artwork on the Island of Lana’i, Hawaii. He founded the Lana’i Art Program in 1989, where he engaged local talent to embellish the award-winning Lodge at Koele and Manele Bay Hotel.

Before John’s work the wall looked like this.

In February of this year (2013) Wullbrandt’s mural was painted over by How and Nosm in conjunction with Rogue Projects and White Walls,

This was a shock to the artist, as to those of us have enjoyed John’s work over the years. The State of California has very specific laws regarding painting over murals in the state, and first and foremost that the artist must be notified. I have had correspondence with John specifically stating that he not only was not made aware, but is devastated that his work has been painted over.

John went on to write “John Wehrle and I painted 222 Hyde with liquid silicates so that it would have lasted more than 80 years… At the time we painted it, it was the largest architectural trompe l’oeil mural west of the Mississippi. it was soon eclipsed by many others…It represented a building rising from the rubble of other buildings in a theatrical/stage set manner. It was my way of illustrating the symbol of San Francisco which is the Phoenix rising.”

I contacted White Walls Gallery, this was their response :

“The wall was painted per request and permission from the building owner. The city was fining the owners for the tags on the wall. The owners had contacted the artist and they had also painted over the graffiti to try and preserve the wall. We were asked to paint the wall because of those reasons. In no way were we trying to disrespect the artist and we’re quite upset to hear that backlash that has occurred.

The artists who painted the wall are very well respected artists and the wall has not been tagged since they’ve painted it. The community seems to like it, but I understand some are upset that John’s mural is no longer there. It was a beautiful piece and I am sorry to see it go, but I believe it was time for a new piece.”

I then told them about the California Law and this was their response:

“I am not aware of that law, and I have heard differently from the cities arts commission. I contacted the arts commission before we painted the wall and they said there was no legal steps that needed to be taken because the wall is not property of the city, it is private property. Seeing as we had permission from the original owners, we were free to paint on it.”

It is a sad business and it is my contention that the SF Art Commission is most likely the organization in the wrong. The mural was painted with funds from the City of San Francisco’s Mayor’s Office of Community Development, and was the responsibility of the Art Commission. Their lack of interest had directly led to the destruction of a treasured piece of art.

Fletcher Benton at Symphony Hall

Posted by Cindy on July 2, 2013

Jul 022013

201 Van Ness
Civic Center

Titled, Balanced Unbalanced T, this Steel and Flat Black Enamel piece sits on the exterior second floor of Davies Symphony Hall, it is accessible at all times via a staircase that can be accessed off of Grove Street.

The piece, done in 1981, is by Fletcher Benton, who has been in this website before .

Fletcher Benton (born February 25, 1931 Jackson, Ohio) is from San Francisco, California

He graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1956. From 1964 to 1967 he taught at the San Francisco Art Institute and taught as an associate professor and then professor of art at San Jose State University from 1967-1986.

This piece is actually owned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Leo Lentelli and his San Francisco Work

Posted by Cindy on July 1, 2013

Jul 012013

Hunter Dunlin Building
111 Sutter Street
Financial District

The Hunter Dunlin Building is one of San Francisco’s gems. Restored in the late 1990’s to its former glory, it has ornamentation throughout its lobby and everywhere you look on the exterior.

There are six plaques on the Northern and Eastern facades called The Seasons. They are by Leo Lentelli. They are allegorical representations of the seasons, and while there are six plaques there are only two different sculptures.

Leo Lentelli is best known in San Francisco for designing the tops of the street lights on Market known as the Path of Gold.

Lentelli was an Italian sculptor who immigrated to the United States. During his 52 years in the United States he created works throughout the country, notably in New York and San Francisco. He also taught sculpture.

Water Sprites at Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco – Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library

Born in Bologna, Italy, Leo Lentelli studied in Bologna and Rome and worked as a sculptor in Italy. He immigrated to the United States in 1903 at the age of 24. In 1911 he entered the Architectural League exhibition and won the Avery Prize. The following year he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.Chosen to provide sculptural ornament for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Lentelli moved to San Francisco in 1914. He collaborated with Frederick George Richard Roth and Stirling Calder (Alexander Calder’s Father). Calder has been credited with aiding Lentelli in developing his own style An example can be seen in his Water Sprites.

He also participated as a sculptor in the city’s artistic renewal, which took place after the 1906 earthquake and fire. While in San Francisco he taught at the California School of Fine Arts. Significant works from this period include the Five Symbolic Figures at the Old Main Library elevated above the street entrance of the Larkin Street entrance.(no longer available) Still a resident of San Francisco, he made the ornament for the Orpheum Theater, then known as the Historic American Theater. (no longer available)

Eventually Lentelli moved back to New York City and began teaching at the Art Students League. Lentelli’s bas-reliefs on the International Building at Rockefeller Center are considered among his most important works.

Lentelli retired to Italy and died on December 31, 1961 in Rome.

At the entrance to the Hunter Dunlin Building is this sculpture by Leo Lentelli titled Mercury.

The San Francisco Public Library Blog has some wonderful photographs of Lentelli’s work in San Francisco that is no longer around.

The City in Bronze

Posted by Cindy on June 29, 2013

Jun 292013

275 Sacramento Street
Financial District

These three whimsical buildings, titled The City, are by Alexander MacLeitch. They are bronze and were installed in 2009 by the owners of the Patson Building at 275 Sacramento Street. This is part of the percent for Art Program in San Francisco.

According to MacLeitch’s website:

I create art using various metal manipulation art fabrication techniques. My interest in metal sculpture developed while attending college in Northern California. I was quickly drawn to the industrial processes involved and decided to have two fields of study: biology and art.

It is a particularly exciting time to be involved in the arts and creative processes as many new technologies have become accessible and available. One now has the ability to develop ideas, techniques and work with new materials, tools and technologies.

I probably have more tools and machines than I need. However, I work on a wide variety of projects, from small scale production to unique public sculpture. It all interests me.

A common theme of my work is that I bring objects to life using various tools and tricks. Most of my work is playful and whimsical in nature, I use plain materials and animate it. I find it particularly fun to apply this idea using both urban and natural themes.

Fort Gunnybags

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2013

Jun 282013

Sacramento and Front Streets
Financial District

The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance was a popular ad hoc organization formed in 1851 and revived in 1856 in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal government of San Francisco. It was one of the most successful organizations in the vigilante tradition of the American Old West.

***

From Found SF

May 14, 1856: The nation was gearing up for the Civil War, and San Francisco was divided between the secessionist and unionist factions. James King of William, editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin and a Union loyalist, wrote an editorial condemning James Casey, rival editor of the Weekly Sunday Times, a pro-South stalwart. King of William made a point of saying unflattering things about Casey–not a terribly difficult task, as Casey was a notorious hothead who had served eighteen months in Sing Sing. The same day the editorial was published, Casey approached King of William at the corner of Montgomery and Commercial Streets, whipped a concealed pistol from beneath his cloak, pressed it against his rival’s chest, and squeezed the trigger.

The city fell into a frenzy. Tens of thousands of hard-drinking San Franciscans poured into the streets, frothing at the mouth and howling for lynch law. The cavalry charged through the streets, but was unable to scatter the swelling mob. Mayor Van Ness stood in front of the jail and spoke in favor of the rule of law, but was met by a torrent of verbal abuse and rotten vegetables. The mob threw its weight behind the Vigilance Committee, an extralegal paramilitary force that had been dispensing vigilante justice since 1851. In the next two days, 2,600 men joined the Vigilantes and were quickly organized into companies of 100 and armed with knives, pistols, shotguns, and cannons. On Sunday the 18th, as King of William lay dying, the Vigilante mob surrounded the jail and pointed a cannon at its door. Sheriff David Scannell and his outgunned deputies quickly handed over Casey. James King of William died on Tuesday. On Thursday, May 22, just as tolling bells signaled that funeral services for King of William had ended, the Vigilance Committee hanged James Casey at their homemade “Fort Gunnybags”.

Historical note: Despite the two Vigilance Committees’ fearsome reputation, they only hanged eight men during their five years of existence. When the Vigilance Committee arrested a man, they would put on what now appears to have been a reasonably fair trial before meting out punishment. (Some of their detainees were acquitted or released for lack of evidence.)

***

Fort Gunnybags was the sandbagged warehouse converted in 1856 to the use of the San Francisco Vigilantes as its armory and drill hall, “Fort Vigilance” also served as the group’s headquarters. The site of the pseudo fort in San Francisco is on Sacramento Street, bounded by Front, Davis and California Streets.

Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library

Photo courtesy of ExecutedToday.com

Pennsylvania Comes to San Francisco

Posted by Cindy on June 27, 2013

Jun 272013

600 California Street
Chinatown

These two bronze plaques were originally the doors to a hand operated elevator. The doors, designed by Lee O. Lawrie in 1930-1931 were in the Education Building of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Capitol Park in Harrisburg.

The sculpture was one of six sets of elevator doors that the artist originally fabricated. This set of door panels remained there until 1972, when the building’s hand-operated elevators were replaced with automatic ones. From about 1980 to 1989, the doors were in a private collection in Virginia. They were installed at the new Federal Home Bank in 1990.

Lee Oskar Lawrie (1877-1963) was born in Rixdorf, Germany, and came to the United States in 1882 as a young child, settling in Chicago. It was there, at the age of 14, that he began working for the sculptor Richard Henry Park.

In 1892 he assisted many of the sculptors in Chicago, constructing the “White City” for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Following the completion of the work at the Exposition, Lawrie returned East and became an assistant to William Ordway Partridge. The next decade found him working with other established sculptors:Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Philip Martiny, Alexander Phimister Proctor, John William Kitson and others. His work at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St Louis, 1904, under Karl Bitter, the foremost architectural sculptor of the time, allowed Lawrie to further develop both his skills and his reputation as an architectural sculptor.

Lawrie received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Yale University in 1910. He was an instructor in Yale’s School of Fine Arts from 1908 to 1919 and taught in the architecture program at Harvard University from 1910 to 1912.

His most prominent work is the free-standing bronze Atlas (installed 1937) at New York City’s Rockefeller Center.

This panel on the left has allegorical figures representing Exploration, Literature, Architecture and Drama.

The allegorical figures on the right represent Religion, Physical Labor, Sculpture and Music.

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.

Systematic Saving is the Key to Success

Posted by Cindy on June 25, 2013

Jun 252013

1 Montgomery Street
Financial District

This pressed copper decorative marquee graces the side entrance to the First National Bank, now Wells Fargo.

There are two figures, one on each side of the marquee that stand and serve as supports. Cornucopias are placed at their feet. A nude male and female figure recline on either side of a medallion that is repeated on both sides of the marquee. Fruit, leaves, wheat, and a griffin are used as decorations.

The medallion reads Systematic Saving is the Key to Success.

The marquee is the work of Emily Michals and was done in 1924.

Information about Ms. Michals was difficult to find, however, thanks to the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library I found an interview with her done in September of 1984 by Micaela DuCasse regarding Liturgical Art.

Here is the introduction to the interview:

Emily Michels was one of the finest art teachers at high school level in San Francisco. She taught at Mission High School for thirty-nine years.

Many future priests, several that would have an influence on liturgical art in one way or another, passed through her classroom and enjoyed her inspiring influence.

She had an unerring instinct for recognizing hidden or latent artistic talent in a student. She worked hard to develop and encourage such talent whenever possible. Those students who benefited by her excellent training and encouragement to go on with it as a life-work or an avocation were always grateful to her, and gave her the credit due her with gratitude and friendship. Among her students was Rev. Terrance O’Connor, S.J., sculptor and teacher and member of the Catholic Art Forum.

Emily was one of the first artists to join the Catholic Art Forum, and she was one of its most enthusiastic and loyal members to its end.
Her contribution as a teacher of a art was invaluable in that area of its aims which was education. This, combined with her knowledge of art in general and her faith and interest in contemporary art in the Church, was reason enough to interview her.

It goes on:

[Note: In filling out the biographical information form requested of interviewees by the Regional Oral History Office, Emily Michels offered some comments about her own work.] She was an architectural scale model maker in the office of Willis Polk, and other architects after his death. She did architectural ornamental sculpture, such as the facade of the Water Department Building on Mason St., San Francisco, figures over the Post Street entrance of the Crocker National Bank, Montgomery and Post Streets, figures for the forestry department panorama and models for heads of wax and papier-mâché mannequins. She taught arts and crafts at Mission High School for forty years, and at senior centers. She was interested in modeling in clay, pottery, painting, plastic, crafts, screen printing, illustration. She prepared and coached students to win free scholarships to the California School of Fine Arts. She was also interested in decorating tables for teachers and church lunches, dinners, banquets,et cetera.

She says about liturgical arts, “I had intended to produce figures and reliefs in terra cotta for the church upon my retirement, but, when I saw the kind of monstrosities in scrap metal and the brutal faces of some statuary being installed in some churches, I quit. I believe that art should inspire beauty, peace. ‘The tranquility of order is peace. ‘ A lot of contemporary confusion and chaos is expressed in what we call contemporary art. I wonder if it has an inspiring place in the church?”

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.

Jo Mora’s California Bears

Posted by Cindy on June 22, 2013

Jun 222013

1000 Van Ness
Tenderloin

Flanking the doorway of the Cadillac building are two spirally-fluted columns with Ionic capitals, each topped by a bear seated on its haunches. According to the Smithsonian, these were also done by Jo Mora.

I have been unable to find any other attribution, and while they are in terra cotta, they have always felt to me as though they were an after thought to the building.

However, I was able to find this photo at the San Francisco Public Library that was taken in 1928 that clearly shows the bears, and as the building was built in 1921, I must assume they were a part of the original design.

Jo Mora and the Don Lee Cadillac Building

Posted by Cindy on June 21, 2013

Jun 212013

1000 Van Ness
Tenderloin

This sculpture sits over the entryway to the Don Lee Cadillac Showroom. The sculpture is the creation of Jo Mora, who has been in this website before.

This doorway pediment consists of a central shield bearing the Cadillac insignia framed by an ornately carved, stylized border with a lion’s face at the bottom. Symmetrically seated on either side of the shield is a partially draped seated male figure. The male figure on the left rests his outstretched proper right arm on an 8-spoke Cadillac wheel, beyond which is an anvil. He holds a sledgehammer in his proper left hand, a sprocket and cable are on the base beneath his knee. The male on the right rests his outstretched proper left arm on a 12-spoke wheel, beyond which is a battery.***

The cadillac emblem is one of few in the automotive industry whose origins legitimately belong to a family name. Le Sieur Antoine De La Mothe Cadillac was born in Gascony on March 5, 1658. He founded Detroit in 1701, as well as the governorship of Mississippi. King Louis XIV awarded him the rank of Chevalier of the Military Order of St. Louis.

The Crown symbolizes the six ancient counts of France. Each tip is topped with a pearl, a symbol of descendancy from the royal counts of Tolouse.

The birds are merlettes, which are heraldic adaptations of the martin. They are set in trios to represent the Holy Trinity. Merlettes were usually awarded by the school of heralds to knights making significant contributions in the Crusades. The color black against gold, represents wisdom and riches. The “fess”, or lateral black bar, represents the award for Crusader service.

The red band symbolizes prowess and boldness in action. The silver (which looks white in the photo) represents purity, charity, virtue and plenty. The blue represents knightly valor.

The emblem was adopted for use on Cadillac cars in 1905. It was registered as a trademark on August 7, 1906. The Cadillac emblem underwent a complete redesign in 1998.

***The battery is in the official explanation of the piece. However, I found a wonderful, but sadly very small, photo at the website Roadside America that shows that what that really is is an engine block.

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