Tag: San Francisco Architecture
-
Fillmore Car Barn and Powerhouse
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…
-
Hellenism in San Francisco
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…
-
McDowell Hall
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…
-
Cosmo Cocktails
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…
-
Engine Company #13
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…
-
Spring Valley Water Company
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…
-
The First National Bank Building
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…
-
The Don Lee Building
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…
-
The Insurance Exchange
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…
-
A Gothic Revival Gem
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…
-
San Francisco’s Civic Center the Heart of the City Beautiful Movement
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…
-
Phone Company Building
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…
-
Market Street’s Flatiron Building
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…
-
The Eastern Outfitting Company
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…
-
IOOF Building at Mid-Market
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…