San Francisco History – Page 2 – Public Art and Architecture from Around the World

Tudor Revival and Craftsman Style Firehouse

Posted by Cindy on November 20, 2013

Nov 202013

1088 Green Street
Russian Hill

After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, Newton J. Tharp was named city architect and was charged with rebuilding city government buildings. He designed this firehouse along with a number of Beaux Arts-style firehouses. Located on top of Russian Hill, this firehouse was designed to conform to the neighboring architecture and is the only firehouse of the Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles.

1915

During the horse-drawn era, the Department chose to build their firehouses at the top of the City’s many hills as it was quicker to respond to fires that were “downhill.” To get the four ton steam engine back to the firehouse took time. All San Francisco steam engines and trucks were drawn by a three-horse hitch, and at times the double horse team from the hose wagon was also hooked up to the steam engine, making a five horse team. Even with five horses, the return trip up the hill to the firehouse was often difficult. On the steepest return up Leavenworth to Green Street, there was a mechanical pulley system to move the steam engine up the hill. In 1918 the company received a 1917 American LaFrance Type 45, registry #2623, chain drive 6 cylinder 120 HP engine with a 900 GPM rotary gear pump and hose wagon and the horses were retired. In 1952, and the Company was deactivated and the firehouse was closed.

In 1959, philanthropist Mrs. Louise M. Davies bought the firehouse at a sealed bid City surplus property auction for $17,500. Mrs. Davies had the communications area on the main floor remolded into a sitting room that featured the 1855 Knickerbocker No. 5 hand engine and other fire memorabilia. The wooden apparatus floor was used for social receptions, banquets and dancing. The upstairs dormitory and officer’s rooms were converted into living areas. Mrs. Davies, an Honorary Chief of Department, often opened this firehouse, her city home, to neighborhood associations and charitable organizations for fund-raising events. During the 1970’s and 80’s, Mrs. Davies hosted many fund-raising parties for the SFFD Museum in this firehouse. In 1978, Mrs. Davies donated the firehouse to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In the 1998, the Trust sold the firehouse to the Scottish American St. Andrew’s Society.

Underwriters Fire Patrol

Posted by Cindy on November 18, 2013

Nov 182013

147 Natoma
SOMA/Financial District

According to the History Department of the SFFD:

On May 24, 1875, the City’s insurance companies joined together to organize and fund the Underwriters Fire Patrol. The UFP was like a fire department; it had its own firehouses, alarm system and firemen whose only task was salvage practices. The patrol worked at fires in conjunction with the SFFD. These firemen often worked below the fire floor and spread waterproof covers over merchandise threatened with water damage. They also saved and removed business records from the fire building.

The insurance companies realized that if valuable items could be saved from fire damage that their business expenses could be controlled. Due to the reduction of these expenses, their policy holders would not have to pay higher premiums. On this premise, the Underwriters Fire Patrol was organized.

On March 27, 1911, the company received a 1911 American LaFrance, registry #25, Type 5 Fire Patrol Wagon with a 4 cylinder 50 HP engine, the first motorized apparatus in San Francisco.

This three-story brick structure, designed by Clinton Day, has a terra-cotta bracketed cornice with egg and dart molding, and an arched entry ornament in bead and reel pattern molding.

Clinton Day is also responsible for the Union Trust Company Building, he has been in this site before here.

The building was sold at public auction in 1956. The construction fence is part of the new expansion of SFMOMA.

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)

Alemany Emergency Hospital

Posted by Cindy on October 25, 2013

Oct 252013

35 Onandaga Avenue at Alemany
Mission Terrace / Outer Mission

This beautiful building was once the Alemany Emergency Hospital.

There were no other emergency rooms other than San Francisco General Hospital before 1966, therefore the County was responsible for all emergency care and all emergency ambulance transport. Emergency care was provided throughout San Francisco free of charge by the citywide system, which consisted of the primary emergency room—Mission Emergency—and four other “Emergency Hospitals” scattered throughout the City. These hospitals were Central, located adjacent to City Hall; Harbor, located on the downtown waterfront; Park, located on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park; and this on, Alemany, that served the the southwestern part of the city.

They were all staffed by surgeons—graduates of the County surgery residency program. At these hospitals, minor emergencies were treated and first aid administered. If a patient needed hospitalization and had private funds, a private physician was contacted and the patient was transferred by private ambulance to a private hospital. If the emergency was critical or the patient was indigent, the patient was transported by City ambulance to Mission Emergency, which was attached to but administratively separate from the City and County Hospital.

This information came from The History of the Surgical Service at San Francisco General Hospital, a wonderful read if you are interested in the history of the health care system in San Francisco.

This is from a 1962 San Francisco City Annual Report

Care is rendered at five Emergency Hospitals on a 24-hour basis with a minimum of one doctor, one registered nurse, one medical steward, and one ambulance driver on duty 24-hours daily throughout the year. Care is also provided at Ocean Beach Hospital from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday by a doctor and a steward (no ambulance) ; additionally, by a doctor only on holidays and each week day during summer school vacation. Alemany and Park Emergency Hospitals have the minimum staff; Central has an additional nurse from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., two additional part-time doctors on Friday and Saturday evenings and an extra “trouble-shooter” ambulance from 4:00 PM to midnight. Mission has 24-hour ambulance service, but has all the medical and nursing staff needed and provided by San Francisco General Hospital.

The San Francisco situation was not unique. The emergence of the modern emergency department (ED) is a surprisingly recent development. Prior to the 1960s, emergency rooms were often poorly equipped, understaffed, unsupervised, and largely ignored. In many hospitals, the emergency room was a single room staffed by nurses and physicians with little or no training in the treatment of injuries. It was also common to use foreign medical school graduates in this capacity. In teaching hospitals, the emergency areas were staffed by junior house officers, and faculty supervision was limited. One young medical student in the 1950s described emergency rooms as “dismal places, staffed by doctors who could not keep a job—alcoholics and drifters” (University of Michigan, 2003, p. 50).

Photo Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library – January 6, 1933

November 20, 1933.

To the Members of the Grand Jury of the City and County of San
Francisco.
Gentlemen: Your Committee on Health, Hospitals and Homes
submits the following report:

Department of Public Health

During the past year the Department of Public Health has carried on its administrative functions from the new Health Center Building, located at 101 Grove street. This building was constructed with the funds made possible through the bond issue of 1928, at a cost of approximately $725,000…

From the same bond issue, funds were also made available to build the newest Emergency Hospital and Health Center. These structures are located at the corner of Alemany boulevard and Onondaga avenue, affording emergency hospital care and health center activities for the southern portion of the City.

Eventually the building was taken over by St. Mary’s and turned into an Adult Day Health Care Center. Sadly the building now sits empty:

Old Chamber of Commerce Building

Posted by Cindy on October 23, 2013

Oct 232013

333 Pine Street
Financial District / Downtown

From Men Who Made San Francisco 1912

There is not much left to say about McDougall other than he was educated at the California School of Design. As stated, his work covered a wide range of building types, including churches, schools, apartment houses, commercial buildings, hotels, and private residences. Among his better known commissions were the Sheldon Building (1907) in San Francisco, the Standard Oil Building (1910) in San Francisco, an office building at 353 Sacramento Street (1922) in San Francisco, and the Federal Realty Building (1913-14) in Oakland, the West Coast’s first Gothic Revival skyscraper.

Hotaling Place

Posted by Cindy on October 22, 2013

Oct 222013

27 Hotaling
Financial District
Jackson Square

The center building is the Villa Taverna, it sits on Hotaling Place in the Financial District of San Francisco. This is one of many charming San Francisco alleyways.

Hotaling Place is named for businessman Anson Parson Hotaling, best known for his 19th century whiskey trade. Hotaling Place leads from Washington Street to Jackson, the hub of the Jackson Square Historic District.

Hotaling Place originally housed stables, (at 32-34) which accounts for the horse-head hitching posts you’ll see in the area. Hotaling Stables are registered as San Francisco Landmark #11.

Hotaling Place in 1964 – Photo Courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library

Villa Taverna is a private club. It opened in February 1960, was the inspiration of then-Italian Consul General Pierluigi Alvera and founding members such as the late Janet Fleishhacker, who were educated in Europe and members of the city’s leading families. Their idea: a private social club that celebrates Italian culture and cuisine.

The architect was Mario Gaidano.

From Mr. Gaidano’s September 20th 2003 obituary:

Mr. Gaidano died Sept. 13 at his home in San Francisco. He was 89 years old and had continued to work until the day of his death, relatives said.

He designed an array of notable office buildings and restaurants, including the Fairmont Hotel tower, San Francisco National Bank, the House of Prime Rib, Mel’s drive-in, Fior d’Italia and Marin Joe’s.

“He had a style that was ageless,” his son Scott Gaidano said. “He is known for designing restaurants that stay in business. Marin Joe’s is exactly the same today as it was when he designed it in 1953.”

As an architect, Mr. Gaidano was known to be “fanatical” about creating and installing the perfect lighting for the space, his son said. He also was known for creating “big luxurious booths” in restaurants and for his innovative use of elevators. He was among the first architects to create elevators running on the outside of buildings, including the elevator at the Fairmont Hotel.

Born in 1914, Mr. Gaidano attended St. Ignatius High School and went on to graduate from the San Francisco School of Fine Arts and the Beaux Arts Institute of Design in San Francisco. He enlisted in the Army at the start of World War II and was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers.

While enlisted, Mr. Gaidano met his future wife, Fanita Simon, who worked as an ambulance driver for the military.

Mr. Gaidano opened his own firm in 1947 and quickly gained a reputation for designing buildings with strong, classic lines.

He received numerous awards, including the American Institute of Architect’s Honor Award. His design of the Fairmont Hotel tower won him a special citation from the mayor and Board of Supervisors.

***

This marble sculpture is by an unknown Roman artist. The owner of Villa Taverna states the piece is a gift of the Italian government sometime prior to 1958 and that it is an ancient Roman piece.

Historic Odd Fellows Columbarium

Posted by Cindy on September 19, 2013

Sep 192013

1 Loraine Court
Inner Richmond

I recently attended a service at this columbarium for Alice Carey. Alice was a friend and one of America’s most respected historic architects.

On the cover of her memorial brochure was this photograph:

I knew it was time for me to explore the history of the columbarium and bring it to you.

The Columbarium is the only non-denominational burial place within San Francisco’s city limits that is open to the public and has space available. The crematorium was designed by British Architect Bernard J.S. Cahill in 1897. As you can see by the above photograph this Neo-Classical building was originally part of the 167-acre Odd Fellows Cemetery. The columbarium and cemetery survived a 1901 law that banned further burials with in the city limits, but the cemetery didn’t survive the development of the next several decades. In the 1930’s the city mandated that all cemetery gravesites be moved to Colma (nicknamed the City of the Dead), just south of San Francisco down the peninsula. The entire cemetery was moved leaving behind only the columbarium.

From 1934 to 1979 the building lay untended, some say it was even home to bootleggers during prohibition. In 1979 it was purchased by the Neptune Society and underwent a $300,000 restoration.

The Columbarium is considered one of his Cahill’s finest works. The Odd Fellows regarded death as a dignified and ordinary affair, without fear or morbid feelings. The interior of the Columbarium was furnished like a Victorian parlor with potted palms and oriental rugs. The neo-classical style building blends Roman Baroque, English neoclassicism, and 19th century polychrome.

The exterior has a Roman-inspired dome similar to Michaelangelo’s original conception for St. Peters. The dome is copper-clad and ribbed with an inner steel framework. A squat lantern is clad in copper with round openings and decorated with garlands. The walls are stucco and grooved to simulate stone.

The interior has four levels topped by a stained glass ceiling within the lantern. The dome is supported by eight Roman Doric piers. Flower and urn decorations are cast plaster. The central rotunda has four square wings.

The diameter, from the entrance to the stained glass window opposite, is 64 feet. The width of the rotunda within the Inner circle is 29 feet and the rotunda reaches a height of about 45 feet.

Original Odd Fellows literature described the rotunda of the Columbarium: “a delicate and refined atmosphere prevails here, divesting the mind of unpleasant feeling that so often goes hand in hand with anything associated with the burial of the dead.”

Built into the building’s four stories of passageways, the decorated niches for San Francisco citizens of the past tell the city’s history dating back to the 1890s, including the 1906 earthquake (which the building handily survived), Harvey Milk’s assassination and the staggering number of deaths during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

The first floor has the Greek names of the winds: Aquilo, Solanus, Eurus, Auster, Notus, Zephyrus, Olympias and Arktas. The second floor has the Greek names of the constellations: Corona, Zubanan, Cheiron, Argo, Sothis, Orion, Perseus and Kepheus.

The window in the Aquilo room depicting three angels in flight, was restored by The Hyland Studio, according to their website:

The Designer was a fellow named Harry Ryle Hopps, the glazier was E. B. Wiley. Mr. Hopps was born in 1869. We know that he was an owner of “United Glass Art Co.” located at 115 Turk St in San Francisco.

The Three Angels window was built in 1909. Three years after the 1906 earthquake, 7 years after the 1902 cemetery re-location began and one year before cremation was banned in the city which led to the eventual abandonment of the building.

The ground floor contains approximately 2,400 niches, the first floor 2,500, and the second and third floors approximately 1,800 each, with an overall total of more than 8,500.

Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill (1866–1944), was a cartographer as well as an architect. He was born in London, England in 1866 and is known for his cemetery architecture and for the design of the San Francisco Civic Center. He was also the architect for a number of other commercial buildings, including the Multnomah Hotel in Portland, Oregon and various buildings in Vancouver, B. C.

He was also the inventor of the Butterfly World Map, like Buckminster Fuller’s later Dymaxion map of 1943 and 1954, the butterfly map enabled all continents to be uninterrupted, and with reasonable fidelity to a globe. Cahill demonstrated this principle by also inventing a rubber-ball globe which could be flattened under a pane of glass in the “Butterfly” form, then return to its ball shape.

There is a marvelous group of stories about some of the inhabitants of the Columbarium at Bella Morte, be sure to click on the name Emmitt Watson to read about him. His story is so entwined with the Columbarium that not knowing about Emmitt is not finishing your history lesson.

William Alexander Leidesdorff

Posted by Cindy on September 14, 2013

Sep 142013

One Leidesdorff
Financial District

The plaque outside this building celebrates the architect, leaving one to assume that that is who this person is. However, this is William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr.

Leidesdorff was born to a Dane and a Creole in the Virgin Islands in 1812. Legally recognized by his Danish father, Leidesdorff came under the wing of a British planter who taught him business skills. The planter sent him to New Orleans to work with a cotton broker with business ties to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).

Although neither the planter nor the broker was a blood relation, both died in the late 1830s and left their fortunes to Leidesdorff.

Leidesdorff’s future as a wealthy Louisiana merchant seemed settled as he became became engaged to be married. His mentors had told him to never mention his race, but he felt compelled to confide in his white bride-to-be.

She called off the wedding, saying her father would never accept it.

Leidesdorff bought a ship and prepared to sail away. The evening before he set off, a funeral cortege passed with his fiance’s family in the lead coach. When he asked, Leidesdorff was told the young woman had died of a broken heart.

For three years, Leidesdorff sailed back and forth between the Sandwich Islands and Yerba Buena, carrying sugar from Hawaii and hides from California.

By then, he captained the J.D. Jones. When the ship was sold, Leidesdorff opted to settle in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1841, building the first shipping warehouse at the site of the current Leidesdorff and California streets, the first hotel and general store at Kearny and Clay streets, the first lumberyard and shipyard, and, later, the first public school.

He sailed the first steamship into San Francisco Bay.

Fluent in six languages, Leidesdorff became a Mexican citizen to receive a land grant from the provincial governor, Michel Micheltorena. That grant is now known as the city of Folsom, California. Leidesdorff then acquired 47 lots in what is now San Francisco’s Financial District.

Leidesdorff began to advocate an American takeover of California, becoming the U.S. vice consul. In that role, he not only relayed the word of the Bear Flag Rebellion, but borrowed against his property to pay for supplies for American sailors and soldiers during the Mexican War. He later served on the first municipal council under U.S. rule.

Once the war was over, Leidesdorff translated and posted the proclamation declaring California part of the United States. The welcoming reception for Commodore Stockton and his troops was held at Leidesdorff’s home at the corner of California and Montgomery streets.

As evidenced by the naming of the first street laid out on landfill after Leidesdorff, no one placed a larger footprint on the origins of San Francisco than William Alexander Leidesdorff. – From a 1997 SF Gate Article by John Templeton

Leidesdorff, Jr. achieved a high reputation for integrity and enterprise; he is said to have been “liberal, hospitable, cordial, confiding even to a fault.”

William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. died of brain fever on May 18, 1848.

I have been unable to find the name of the sculptor of this piece.

The First School of California

Posted by Cindy on September 13, 2013

Sep 132013

Portsmouth Square
Chinatown

This marks the site of the first public school in California.

Erected in 1847 Opened April 3, 1848

This commemorative marker was erected in 1957 by the grand lodge of free and accepted masons of the state of California California Historical Landmark 587.

The following contemporary account of the little schoolhouse in Portsmouth Plaza was written by Charles P. Kimball in 1853 for the San Francisco Directory:

In April 1847, the number of inhabitants exclusive of Indians, was 375. Eight months afterwards, when a census was taken by the Board of School Trustees, the number exceeded 800. Of these there were adult males, 473; adult females, 177; children of age proper to attend school, 60. This increase of more than an hundred per cent, in eight months, took place some months before the discovery of gold, and when California was sought merely for agricultural and commercial purposes.As early as January 1847, a complaint was published in the California Starthat there was no school for children, the writer stating that he had counted forty children playing in the street. A public meeting was then called, to adopt measures to found a school. But the project failed. Some months later it was revived, with better success. A school house was built, and completed by the 1st of December….

The first American school in California was duly opened on Monday, the 3d day of April, 1848….

This first American school on the Pacific coast south of Oregon, though founded apparently on a basis so safe and economical, had a short lived existence. In less than a year the gold excitement was to sweep over the country like a whirlwind, and for a season to crush everything like intellectual and moral culture, substituting the one all-absorbing passion for the accumulation of wealth.

At this time, I have been unable to find who the sculptor was.

Thomas Starr King

Posted by Cindy on September 12, 2013

Sep 122013

Franklin between Starr King and Geary
Japantown/Western Addition/ Fillmore

Due to the lack of land their are very few bodies actually buried within the City of San Francisco. This is why the Sarcophogus of Thomas Starr King is so unusual.

Thomas Starr King, a young, inexperienced Unitarian minister, came to San Francisco in 1860 when the state was undergoing an intense political struggle to determine which side of the Civil War it would follow. In public speeches, up and down the state, King rallied against slavery and secession. Through his eloquence and the sheer strength of personality he is credited with shifting the balance and making California a Unionist state. In his oratories King prodded Abraham Lincoln to issue an emancipation proclamation well before it was actually enacted.

During the Civil War, King turned his energy to raising funds for the United States Sanitary Commission, which cared for wounded soldiers and was the predecessor to the American Red Cross. King personally raised over $1.5 million, one-fifth of the total contributions from all the states in the Union. Exhausted from his campaigning Thomas Starr King died in 1864 of pneumonia and diphtheria. He never lived to see the end of the war or the Union re-established. Today Union Square is still named for the pro-Union, abolitionist speeches that he delivered on that site. (From the Fog Bay Blog)

The sculpture was commissioned in 1954 by the San Francisco Unified School District to be installed at the new Starr King Elementary School. In 1965, the sculpture was damaged by vandals and repaired on site by the artist, Ruth Cravath. The sculpture was extensively damaged by vandals in 1970 and was removed to the artist’s studio for repair. Because of the history of vandalism to the sculpture, the newly repaired sculpture was given on long-term loan to the First Unitarian Church, where it was installed in 1978. Martin Rosse, architect for the First Unitarian Church, designed the base; and Sheedy Drayage served as the contractor during the 1978 installation.

Sarcophagus of Thomas Starr King

Apostle of liberty, humanitarian, Unitarian, minister, who in the Civil War bound California to the Union and led her to excel all other states in support of the United States Sanitary Commission, predecessor to the American Red Cross. His statue, together with that of Father Junipero Serra, represents California in the national capitol. His name is borne by a Yosemite peak. “A man to match our mountains.”

California Registered Historical Landmark No. 691

Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the California Historical Society and the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco.

April 24, 1960

Ruth Cravath (1902-1986) has been in this website with a sculpture at the Forty-Niners Stadium. In 1965 she gave a wonderful interview to the Smithsonian, the history of the art world of San Francisco opens up so beautifully in her interview.

St Markus Kirche

Posted by Cindy on September 11, 2013

Sep 112013

St Marks Cathedral
1111 O’Farrell Street
Fillmore/Japantown/Western Addition

Germans starting flocking to the San Francisco Bay area during the gold rush of 1849 . The dedication of the present church building in 1895 marked three decades of effort by German immigrants to establish Lutheranism in California. Rev. Frederick Mooshake from Goettingen University arrived in 1849 to minister to the immigrants. Initially, services were held in homes, then in the Congregational Church of Christ, which was later bought by Rev. Mooshake and his followers, and the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1859.

In 1883, Rev. Julius Fuendeling arrived and stayed for 29 years until 1912. Fuendeling was responsible for the establishment of the present church, constructed on 2 lots on O’Farrell between Franklin and Gough that were bought for $17,500. The church, which cost $56,000 to build, was dedicated on March 10, 1895. A Schoenstein organ and chandelier from Germany, donated by sugar tycoon Claus Spreckels, were transferred from the Geary St. church to the new St. Markus.

The architect was Henry Geilfuss. Geilfuss was born in Thurin, Germany in 1850. He attended architecture school in Erfurt, Weimar and Berlin, and began his architectural practice in Berlin and Schlessing, where he designed railroad bridges and related masonry structures. He came to San Francisco in 1876 where he remained in practice until at least 1910. By the late 1880s he was known in San Francisco for having designed “some of the best buildings erected here.” Geilfuss was one of the foremost practitioners of the Victorian style of residential architecture – a style that incorporated Italianate, Gothic, Eastlake, and Stick elements – that has since become synonymous worldwide with “historic San Francisco architecture.”

The name on the cornerstone, St. Markus Kirche, reflected the congregation’s German heritage. The church is a blend of Romanesque and Gothic elements of pointed gables and arches, pier buttresses, and a Rose Window. The red brick is set off by details of buff-colored brick and Bedford stone. The lower tower has an octagonal base with a conical roof, and the higher tower is squared with four upper corner turrets and a pyramidal roof. Other tower features include small arches stained glass windows, diagonal wood moldings and fleur-de-lis patterns. Beautiful stained glass windows were incorporated throughout the architectural design, containing symbols dating from both Jewish and Christian traditions presenting doctrinal concepts.

The church building was damaged in the major ’06 quake and the church’s cross melted as result of the heat from the fires that swept the city just east on Franklin. The devastating fires stopped just short of consuming St. Mark’s. In 1944 the chancel was completely refurbished for the 50th Anniversary of the church. In 1947 the interior was renovated and a new Moeller organ was installed. A few years later there were renovations to the altar, and in 1949 the centennial of St. Mark’s was celebrated. The Ascension window was installed around 1950.

In 1971 in recognition of its historical and architectural significance St. Mark’s was designated San Francisco Registered Landmark #41. A new front entry plaza with ramp, complementing the architectural style, was constructed in 1987.

Following the major Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989 (the quake destroyed the chandelier brought from the 1863 church), the city mandated that all unreinforced masonry buildings throughout San Francisco must be seismically retrofitted for safety. This requirement began approximately 15 years of many fundraising efforts to completely restore the aging building and retrofit it for earthquake safety. In 1995 Garrison Keillor gave a rousing benefit performance for an early restoration fundraiser. Substantial income came from refinancing Martin Luther Tower (the 121-unit affordable senior housing project built by the church in the mid-sixties), and ongoing capital campaign fundraising. Additionally, scenes for the Hollywood movie “RENT” were filmed in the sanctuary just prior to the church’s closure in June 2005 for the $11 million extensive renovation.

Soon after renovation work began, a time capsule was discovered by a worker under the church foundation. The copper strongbox was in a large sandstone block snuggled under an arched brick niche. On October 9, 2005, the time capsule was opened and provided exciting glimpses into the past. The fragile water-damaged contents included several San Francisco newspapers in German and English, a German hymnal, a German copy of the Augsburg Confession, and 1863 US silver half dollar coin minted in San Francisco. The newspapers were dated 1863, and the time capsule was probably brought from the previous church on Geary Street during construction of the present church. Church archives indicate there is another time capsule sealed in 1894, probably encased within the old cornerstone of the present church.

The church was closed from June 2005 until December 2006 for the extensive seismic work and restoration. In honor of this effort, St. Mark’s was awarded a 2007 Preservation Design Award by the California Preservation Foundation.

The tracker organ made by Taylor & Boody Organbuilders in Virginia, which had been installed in the balcony of the sanctuary, was dedicated on March 25, 2007.

Much of the history of the church comes from their website.

Mission Dolores Mosaic

Posted by Cindy on August 17, 2013

Aug 172013

Mission Dolores
16th and Dolores
The Mission District

This mural is in the hallway between the Mission and the Basilica.

The brass plaque that accompanies it reads:

Guillermo Granizo

1923-1996

This ceramic mural is the work of Guillermo Granizo a native San Francisco Artist. Shortly after Guillermo’s birth in 1923 the Granizo Family moved to Nicaragua for a period of eleven years. The family then returned to San Francisco. Extensive travel and research in Mexico and Central America in 1958 has provided flavor of many of his works.

This mural depicts the arrival of the San Carlos in San Francisco Bay while presenting at the same time the arrival of the military representative of Spain, Juan Bautista de Anza, and Father Junipero Serra to symbolize the bringing of the Good News of the Christian Chapel to the natives of California. Father Serra holds in his hand a plan for the facade of Mission Dolores.

The sails of the ship tell the story of the coming of civilization to the area. REY signifies Spanish sponsorship of the colonization: DIOS the spiritual element brought by the Franciscan Fathers: PUEBLO the city of San Francisco that was to grow out of this expedition and MUERTE to in indicated the gradual disappearance of the Naive People of this area. The artist then asks himself, QUIEN SABE? What would have happened if the civilization had not come. If the people who inherited this land had been left to themselves. He leaves the answer tot the imagination of the viewer.

The green area surrounded by brown in the lower left hand corner of the mural represents the island of Alcatraz, and the pelicans symbolize the same island in the San Francisco Bay.

We are grateful to the artist for placing this mural on extended loan to Mission Dolores since 1984.

******

Granizo was born in San Francisco and became a noted ceramic-tile muralist, who worked in bright colors, geometric shapes, heavy lines and varying textures, which gave his work a festive feeling. In the eleven years he lived in Nicaragua he absorbed influences of pre-Columbian primitive art and also styles of the Mexican muralists.

He graduated from the San Francisco College of Art, and then served as Art Director of KRON TV in San Francisco where he produced educational films. He became the resident artist for Stonelight Tiles in San Jose in 1970, and devoted the rest of his career as a ceramic tile muralist. He died in 1997.

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

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?”

Sarah B. Cooper Brings the West its First Kindergarten

Posted by Cindy on May 18, 2013

May 182013

Golden Gate Park
Near the Sharon Art Center

This memorial to Sarah B. Cooper was placed in the park by the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association in 1923. This area sits on the other side of the carousel from the Koret Childrens Playground.

Sarah Cooper was instrumental in the Kindergarten Movement of San Francisco. Here, from John Sweet in Public Education In California, Its Origin and Development, With Personal Reminiscences of Half a Century. American Book Company: 1911. Excerpts, Chapter XIII, pages 224-226.

Mrs. Cooper entered on the free kindergarten work with her whole soul. She was a woman of marked literary ability. For many years she earned enough with her pen to aid in the support of her family and in the education of her sister’s children in Memphis, Tennessee. She had no money to contribute to the kindergarten cause, but she gave what was needed more than money, —the wealth of her clear intellect, her winning manner, and her devoted Christian philanthropy. It was through her influence that Mrs. Leland Stanford became interested in the work and finally endowed three kindergarten schools with one hundred thousand dollars for their support. Mrs. Phoebe Hearst was induced by Mrs. Cooper’s persuasive power to endow another kindergarten school. A large number of citizens subscribed five dollars a month, each, for the support of other classes. The Golden Gate Kindergarten Association was organized, and in ten years there were forty-six kindergarten classes supported entirely by endowments and subscriptions. Mrs. Cooper’s annual reports were distributed and read wherever the English language is spoken.

After the death of Mrs. Cooper’s husband, she still continued her management of the kindergarten schools, her daughter Hattie meanwhile supporting the family by giving music lessons. Mrs. Cooper steadily refused to receive a dollar for services, though persistently urged by the officers of the association to accept a salary. Once when I urged her to yield to the wishes of the association, she replied, “This is the Lord’s work, and I feel it would not be blessed if I received pay for it.” She held frequent consultations with me about any new undertakings, and is no person living who knows more fully than myself the extent of her labors, and the wealth of philanthropic devotion and Christian self-sacrifice that she brought to the work of training, reforming, and educating the children of the poor in San Francisco. Her sad and sudden death cast a gloom over the city in which her great work was accomplished.

This sculpture is of a small child with a squirrel and cat at her feet. It was carved by Jack Moxom. According to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park by Christopher Pollock:

“A rainy spring day in 1923 witnessed the dedication of a cast-concrete pool with inlaid bronze lettering dedicated to Sarah B. Cooper, creator of the first kindergarten of the West and one of the most influential women of her time. Retailer Raphael Weill, owner of the White House department store, had spearheaded a memorial effort in 1912 when he met Cooper’s cousin by chance on a steamer trip, but the project lay dormant for several years until the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association accomplished the good deed.

The subject of the original statue, by native San Franciscan Enid Foster, was a child standing by a pool. A newer figure (shown here) was carved of red sandstone. Proposed in 1934, the replacement figure was sculpted in 1939 by WPA sponsored artist Jack Moxom, a Canadian by birth who was an architect and a painter.

“Moxom’s life-size sculpture of a naked girl with a cat and a squirrel at her ankles was modeled after Moxom’s younger sister. Moxom had no sculpting experience and in an interview for the Archives of American Art New Deal and the Arts project Moxom recalls the challenge of creating his first sculpture. “But one of the errors, beside the kindness of hiring me, was that I bought a type of sandstone that darkened to a bloody red when the water hit it and while it was beautifully flesh colored in the studio or in the shed, it wasn’t the moment the water hit it. I kind of pretend it wasn’t that bad, you know, but this little girl of six looked kind of pregnant too. And it had the typical square noses, remember in those days every nose was square. I thought there was a law about noses. Noses just came down with a good flat bridge on them. Now who did we get that from or was it my own … ?” (SF Uncovered)

Now neglected, the pool is filled in with dirt. One can still read around the rim, In Memory of Sarah B. Cooper.

This badly neglected sculpture is administered by the San Francisco Art Commission.

Carl G. Larsen. Chickens to Jet Fighters

Posted by Cindy on May 2, 2013

May 022013

Larsen Park
19th Avenue at Ulloa
Sunset District

This plaque can be found on the corner of 19th Avenue and Ulloa. The plaque was done by M. Earl Cummings in 1913 of Carl G. Larsen.

Cummings has appeared prominently in this website for the many sculptures he has done around town.

“In the late 1800s, many speculators began buying land in the Sunset District. By the early twentieth century, landowners in the area included Michael deYoung, Fernando Nelson, and Adolph Sutro. But one of the largest land owners, Carl Larsen, also had other ties to the district.

Larsen did not live in the Sunset District, but he owned a business and a lot of land in the area. Sometimes called the “Gentle Dane,” he donated land for parks in the Sunset and probably would have given more to his city, but underhandedness after his death prevented any further gifts.

Carl Gustave Larsen was born in 1844 in Odense, Denmark. He came to San Francisco in his late 20s and worked as a carpenter. In 1879, he started the Tivoli Café downtown at 18 Eddy Street. In 1905, he moved across the street, constructing his own building at 50 Eddy Street. A popular restaurant, the Tivoli Café was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Undaunted, Larsen rebuilt and opened the Tivoli Café and Hotel Larsen.

Plenty of land was available in the Outside Lands in the late 1800s. Larsen’s first venture into real estate was in 1888, when he bought one block in the Sunset at an auction. He continued to buy land in the area, and by 1910 he owned fourteen entire city blocks and lots that totaled about nine more blocks. At this time, all of the land was sand dunes. Few of the streets were cut through, and accessibility was difficult.

As time passed, Larsen sold or donated parts of his holdings. Well-known structures that sit on land once owned by Carl Larsen include St. Cecilia’s Church on Vicente Street and the (former) Shriner’s Hospital on Nineteenth Avenue.

Larsen’s Chicken Ranch

Larsen operated a chicken ranch on one square block bounded by Moraga and Noreiga streets, Sixteenth and Seventeenth avenues. Each morning, a horse-drawn carriage took eggs from the chicken ranch to the Tivoli Café downtown, probably along the only through road in the Sunset, the Central Ocean Road. Tivoli Café ads boasted, “Fresh eggs from Sunset Ranch EVERY DAY.”

Once a year, at Easter, the Larsen chicken ranch hosted a large party for the neighborhood, with open bars and tables of food. Some reports say that these annual parties got out of hand and were discontinued in 1913.

Local Activism

Larsen lived downtown, but he was very involved in the Sunset neighborhood. He was a member of the Sunset Improvement Club and the Nineteenth Avenue Boulevard Club, a group that lobbied for a macadamized road and beautification along today’s Nineteenth Avenue, from Golden Gate Park toIngleside. In 1900, this group raised money to plant “bunch grass” on the west side of the newly macadamized Nineteenth Avenue.

Although he worked for civic improvements and streetcar service to the area, Larsen was not completely happy when his efforts were successful. To help pay for the Twin Peaks Tunnel, a tax assessment was made of Sunset landowners, who would benefit the most from the tunnel’s construction. What happened at this point is not clear. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Larsen owed about $60,000 and filed an unsucessful protest with the city. The newpaper said that to pay his assessment, Larsen sold many of his lots to the city and to private bidders on May 22, 1914. However, Block Books from 1915 and 1920 show Larsen owning most of the same Sunset land he owned in 1910. In More Parkside Pranks and Sunset Stunts, George Stanton wrote that Larsen did not have enough money to pay the tunnel assessment and “died a broken hearted man.” However, according to the Chronicle, the Larsen estate was worth close to $800,000 when he died.

Navy Jet – 1960’s Photo:Richard Lim F-8 in 1975 Larsen Park Photo: Gary Fong

Land Donation

Larsen is best remembered as the donor of Larsen Park, two blocks between Nineteenth and Twentieth avenues, between Ulloa and Wawona streets. Current Sunset residents know the green lawns, baseball diamond, tennis court, basketball court, and Charlie Sava Pool. Sunset residents in the 1950s and 1960s swam in the “modern” Larsen Pool, and remember the military airplanes that sat on the land, one at a time, for years, unique life-sized toys for children to climb over and sit in.

In 1926, when Larsen donated this park to the city, Mayor James (“Sunny Jim”) Rolph thanked him on the steps of City Hall proclaiming that Larsen would “be remembered in company with other benefactors, who have accumulated great wealth within our boundaries and were inspired to reciprocate with gifts to the commonwealth.”

Larsen Park was unique in that two spaces were set aside as “out-of-door card rooms,” one for men and the other for women. The outside card rooms and soccer field are long gone, but the tennis court and baseball diamond remain, now accompanied by a basketball court and an indoor swimming pool.

A memorial to Larsen stands at the Nineteenth Avenue and Ulloa Street corner of Larsen Park. The bronze plaque, mounted on a large stone, displays a bust of Carl Larsen sculpted by Melvin Earl Cummings, who also sculpted Sather Gate at UC Berkeley. Below the sculpture, the plaque reads, “Carl G. Larsen has generously given these two blocks to the city of San Francisco for park pleasure purposes.”

Larsen also donated land at the southern edge of Golden Gate Heights. Golden Gate Heights Park (or “Larsen’s Peak”) rises 725 feet above sea level, one of the city’s highest hills.

Larsen’s Death and Disputed Will

Carl Larsen died on November 5, 1928. He was remembered as generous both to the City of San Francisco and to his employees at the Tivoli Café. Newspapers reported that the Tivoli Café had been losing money for years before Larsen’s death but that he would not close it or terminate any workers.

Evidence indicates Larsen wanted to leave some of his estate to San Francisco. A handwritten will, dated July 27, 1909 and found after his death, gave $10,000 to a brother, $5,000 each to his other brothers and a sister, $25,000 to a friend, $25,000 to the Danish Ladies’ Relief Society of San Francisco, and $5,000 to the Boys and Girls’ Aid Society of San Francisco. The remainder, estimated at more than $500,000, was given to San Francisco for a museum in Golden Gate Park.

Some people listed in the will never saw those funds. When the will was discovered, Larsen’s signature and the signature of a witness had been “cut off.” Larsen’s relatives (22 of them, some living in Denmark) disputed the will and, in 1931, Superior Court Judge Dunne declared the will invalid. The friend mentioned in the will received a settlement; the rest of the estate was divided among Larsen’s relatives.

Larsen’s museum was never built in Golden Gate Park, but two Sunset parks—Golden Gate Heights Park and Carl G. Larsen Park—remain as reminders of the Gentle Dane.”

Lorri Ungaretti, is the author of the above history.

As a child I was fascinated with the airplanes that sat in Larsen park. There were three planes in the park over time. The first was a WWII recon camera plane that sat in the park from 1959 to the mid 1960’s. The jet was hauled to the park by G.W. Thomas Drayage and Rigging Company then the Russell Hinton Painting Company and the District Council of Painters Repainted it.

The second plane was a Navy FJ-Fury fighter that sat in the park from 1967 to the 1970’s.

In 1975 an old F-8 Crusader replaced the fighter plane. The F-8 was slung on a Marine Helicopter and flown under the Bay Bridge, a sight that must have been something to behold. From there it was taken to the San Francisco Zoo and trucked to the park. The F-8 was removed on orders from the City as there was not enough money to do lead-paint abatement. That plane was eventually moved to Santa Rosa and restored.

There is an effort to bring back a play structure that mimics an old military jet, donations are being taken at the Larsen Park Jet Organization.

The Masonic Temple – 25 Van Ness

Posted by Cindy on April 26, 2013

Apr 262013

Masonic Temple
25 Van Ness
Civic Center

Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville were the architects of this, the second Masonic Lodge in San Francisco.

The first lodge, at 1 Montgomery Street, was built in 1860 and burned down in the 1906 fire. In 1911 the Masonic Temple Association, headed by William Crocker, laid a 12—ton cornerstone (the largest ever in California at that time) for their new building. Two years later a grand parade of 8,000 Masons, with Knights Templar on horseback, marked its dedication.

Cornerstone

An outstanding example of the Beaux-Arts period, the temple is primarily Italian Gothic in design, with a Romanesque—style arched entrance and touches inspired by cathedrals in France.

The entrance is through this elegant and noble portal, under a semi-circular hood supported on corbels formed by the stone figures of lions. The tympanum shows three allegorical figures in relief by New York Sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman (The future creator of the Winged Head Liberty Dime and the Walking Liberty Half Dollar), consisting of three figures of Charity, Fortitude and Truth. Beneath, the lintel is a row of nine smaller figures by San Francisco artist Ralph Stackpole, representing David, Abraham, St. John the Divine, Nathan the prophet, Moses, Aaron, St. John the Baptist, Joseph and Jonathan.

The 1913 Chamber of Commerce Handbook for San Francisco declared, “One of the few buildings in America comparable to some of the good buildings in Europe is the Masonic Temple.” And the 1919 Architectural Review said, “Bliss & Faville’s Masonic Temple is widely known as one of the best Masonic structures, both inside and out. . . . It looks like what it is, and this cannot always be said of lodges and fraternity buildings.”

The sculpture of King Solomon is also by Adolph Alexander Weinman. The canopy itself is adorned with sculptured angels, and with enshrined allegorical figures all done by Ralph Stackpole . The man with the capital represents the Builder: the one with the book, Social Order; the one with the lyre, Reverence for Beauty of the World; the one with his hands on his breast, Reverence for the Mystery of the Heavens.

Walter Danforth Bliss was born in Nevada in 1872, the fourth of five children born to Duane and Elizabeth Bliss. Duane Bliss had migrated out to California from Massachusetts during the gold rush period and had become a partner in a Nevada Bank, which was purchased by the Bank of California. Later Duane formed a partnership with Bank of California President, Darius Ogden Mills, in the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company. This successful venture secured the education of the Bliss’ children, each of whom was sent back to Massachusetts for schooling at MIT.

At MIT, Walter Bliss met his future partner William Baker Faville. Faville, more than 5 years his senior, was born in San Andreas, California, but had grown up in western New York State, and had already served an apprenticeship in Buffalo with architects Green & Wicks. Bliss and Faville both left MIT in 1895 and began working at the prominent New York firm of McKim, Mead & White. Although neither appears to have attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, they would have been exposed to its philosophy in New York at McKim, Mead & White and also at the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects in New York, of which John Galen Howard was then President.

In 1898 the pair decided to form a partnership and selected San Francisco as the city in which to work.

The freemasons moved from this building in 1958, it is now home to a number of city and county departments, including the San Francisco Arts Commission, the New Conservatory Theatre, and the San Francisco Parking Division.

It allegedly sits along the outlines of a pyramid shape planned for the streets of San Francisco by various influential Freemasons. The shape reflects a prominent Freemason symbol and also the pyramid in the Great Seal of the United States. Supposedly, the first diagonal runs from Market to Mission Streets, the second runs along Montgomery Avenue, and the base is formed by Van Ness. The Transamerica Pyramid sits at the capstone.

Utility Boxes get Dressed Up

Posted by Cindy on January 18, 2013

Jan 182013

Duboce and Church
Castro

Mona Caron, who created the adjacent Bicycle Coalition mural on the back of the Safeway has added new touches to the Muni utility boxes on the sidewalk. On one side of the boxes, bicyclists entering the Wiggle are greeted by an illustrated flowing banner that lists the names of the streets that make up the route. On the other side, pedestrians are treated with a window to a re-imagined intersection featuring an uncovered Sans Souci Creek (which once roughly followed the path of the Wiggle).

The title of this box is Manifestation Station.

This photo, from Mona Caron’s website, shows exactly how the box was meant to be viewed.

Update: There was fire in this particular utility box, and the utility company has replaced it with a plain unpainted box, Mona’s beautiful creation is not to return. But you can enjoy her video about it here:

Cross the street, and you get lovely depictions of “weeds” sprouting from the ground. “They may be tiny yet they push through concrete. They are everywhere and yet unseen. But the more they get stepped on, the stronger they grow back.”…Mona Caron

Mona Caron has several murals throughout San Francisco.

These boxes are part of the Church and Duboce Track Improvement Project by the SFMTA

For a great day spent learning about the area and the mural check out ThinkWalks, if you don’t have time to actually take a walk, they have a wonderful full color description of the mural with facts, trivia, and lots of bits of San Francisco History in their store.

Art at the Richmond District Library

Posted by Cindy on November 23, 2012

Nov 232012

351 9th Avenue
SF Public Library
Inner Richmond

According to Scott Donahue’s website “these sculptures were designed to integrate into the very symmetrical renovate library landscape and building. Each dome is a relief sculpture map. On is the entire Bay Area and portrays a time in history from 15000 years ago to 100 years ago. The other is a close0yo view of San Francisco and the Richmond District from today. The interpretation exaggerates certain features like the mountains and hills and there are little reliefs and images depicting how virtually everyone arrived, or their relatives arrived, to be looking here and now at these sculptures. I say no one is native to San Francisco and even Native American’s relatives had to walk here, or maybe boat here a long time ago.”

Scott holds a BFA from Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA from University of California Davis. Scott is also responsible for the sculpture on the Taraval Police Station in San Francisco.

Titled “Touching Earth” this piece was commissioned by the SFAC for $36,000 in 2007.

Liberty Bell of Mission Dolores Park

Posted by Cindy on July 18, 2012

Jul 182012

Mission Dolores Park

The Mission

The plaque reads:

Mexico’s Liberty Bell

(A Replica)

On the early morning of Sunday September 16th a.d. 1810, Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla rang the bell of his church in the town of Dolores, in the now state of Guanajuato calling the people to mass and to bear arms against the Spanish yoke of 300 years. The original bell stands now above the central balcony of the National Palace in the City of Mexico where the president rings it at exactly eleven o’clock in the evening of each September 16th in a traditional ceremony called “El Grito” – The “Cry” of Independence

Plaza and monument presented to the City of San Francisco by Lic. Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, President of the United Mexican States September 16th 1966

On May 17th, 2009 the San Francisco Chronicle ran this interesting article:

This seems like heresy, given the apartment prices around Dolores Park, but that gloriously hip plot of land connecting the Mission District to the Castro neighborhood was once deemed “cheap” enough to house the dead. According to Charles Fracchia, president emeritus of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, when Dolores Park (then Mission Dolores) was purchased by Congregation Sherith Israel for a Jewish cemetery in 1861, the area was “well out of town.” “There were virtually no residences in around the park,” he said.

Like the 15 to 20 other cemeteries in San Francisco, the graves were moved when property values got too high to justify burial grounds. (Parking lots, on the other hand …) After the city of San Francisco bought the land for nearly $300,000 in 1905, Dolores Park was briefly a refugee territory for people stranded by the 1906 earthquake and the accompanying fires.

Nowadays, the park has become the place to enjoy a sunny afternoon in the Mission. As the wide variety of park visitors indicates – from Latino families to young hipsters to Castro gays – it sits at the intersection of a number of San Francisco demographic groups. And it always has. Fracchia says that even while the park’s two statues – one the Mexican liberty bell and the other of Miguel Hidalgo, the George Washington of Mexico – speak to the Latin American heritage of the area, the immediate environs were a haven for the Irish community for much of the first half of the 20th century. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Telegraph Hill – Coit Tower

Posted by Cindy on May 29, 2012

May 292012

Telegraph Hill

Coit Tower

To understand Coit Tower you must first understand Lillie Hitchcock Coit. A nice tale is told here from the Virtual San Francisco History Museum written by: By Frederick J. Bowlen, Battalion Chief, San Francisco Fire Department.

One of the most unusual personalities ever connected with our Fire Department was a woman. She was Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who was destined not only to become a legend but to attain that eminence long before her life ended.

She came to this city in 1851 from West Point, where her father had been an army doctor. Seven years later, when only 15 years old, she began her famous career with Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5.

One afternoon that pioneer fire company had a short staff on the ropes as it raced to a fire on Telegraph Hill. Because of the shortage of man power, the engine was falling behind. Oh, humiliating and better was the repartee passed by Manhattan No. 2 and Howard No. 3 as the total eclipse seemed to be but a matter of seconds. Then, suddenly there came a diversion. It was the story of Jeanne d’Arc at Orleans, The Maid of Sargossa and Molly Pitcher of Revolutionary fame all over again.Pretty and impulsive Lillie Hitchcock, on her way home from school, saw the plight of the Knickerbocker and tossing her books to the ground, ran to a vacant place on the rope. There she exerted her feeble strength and began to pull, at the same time turning her flushed face to the bystanders and crying: “Come on, you men! Everybody pull and we’ll beat ‘em!”…

It continues:When Mrs. Coit died here in July 22, 1929, at the age of 86, she gave practical evidence of her affection for San Francisco. She left one-third of her fortune to the city “to be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved.”For several years after her death, there was question as to the most fitting interpretation of the “appropriate manner” in which to make the memorial. The executors of her will at last determined to erect a memorial tower in honor of this colorful woman.

Coit Tower was built in 1933. The concrete tower was constructed by Arthur Brown Jr., best known for City Hall. The tower is adorned with one simple ornament by Robert Bordman Howard, the phoenix, symbolizing San Francisco’s repeated growth after its many fires.

The structure is made of unpainted reinforced concrete. Contrary to urban legend, the building was not made to resemble a fire hose.

There is a small studio apartment on the second floor of the tower, which was originally used as lodging for the structure’s caretaker.

If you are interested in learning more about Coit Tower, I highly recommend Masha Zakheim’s book Coit Tower, San Francisco Its History and Art

S.F. Bicycle Coalition Mural

Posted by Cindy on January 11, 2012

Jan 112012

Castro/Duboce Avenue/Nob Hill

Back of

2020 Market Street

In 1972 BART built the Market Street subway, including Muni Metro. Along the Duboce Avenue tunnel entrance was a single eastbound lane for cars. During the 1994 closure of the street, for construction, The Bicycle Coalition worked to show that this street, which when used by both cyclists and cars was highly dangerous, was better served as a bikeway. They were successful.

In 1995 Peter Tannen of the SF Bicycle Coalition obtained grant funds and Joel Pomerantz, then, co-founder of the bicycle coalition but now, leader of ThinkWalks, was recruited to produce a mural celebrating the first street closed to cars specifically for bicycles.
Joel convinced Mona Caron that she was capable of doing a mural and this was the result. Mona has been in this site many times before, however, this was her first mural. The mural is on the back side of the Market Street Safeway along the Duboce Bike Trail where muni heads underground.

According to Mona Caron’s website “At the center of the block long, 6,075 square foot mural is a depiction of the bikeway itself, (complete with its mural,) in geographic and historical context along the ancient streambed which cyclists follow to avoid hills. (The zig-zagging route is now known as “the Wiggle.”) To the east of the Wiggle is Downtown, to the West, residential neighborhoods, Golden Gate Park and, finally, the beach.

At the east end of the wall (downtown), Market Street’s bicycles are seen transforming into pedal-powered flying machines which rise out of the morass of pollution and gridlock. The scene alludes to the subversive nature of Critical Mass in particular, and generally symbolizes the freedom experienced by those with visions of alternatives to the status quo, represented in the mural by frowning corporate skyscrapers. Each of the flying contraptions trails its pilot’s dream of utopia in the form of a golden banner. The whole rest of the mural, westwards from this scene, starts in the shape of one of these golden banners, suggesting that this mural depicts just one of many ideas that make up our collective vision. Ours happens to deal with the issue of transportation, and the City depicted in the rest of the mural is a traffic and pollution free one, where the community takes back the space which now fragments it: the street.”

There is a fabulous, color photo, panel by panel, description of this mural, with stories, trivia and great bits and pieces of San Francisco history available at the Thinkwalks store.

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Check out this post about the utility boxes across the street.

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:

The Faces of 50 UN Plaza

Posted by Cindy on March 7, 2001

Mar 072001

50 UN Plaza
City Center

The Federal Building of San Francisco was vacated by the US Government in 2007 when they built a newer building in Civic Center. It has recently undergone a $121 million restoration and will be the offices of Section 9 GSA.

This article is about the exterior of the building.

In 1927, the government allocated $2.5 million for the Federal Building’s design and construction, although final costs reached a total of $3 million. Architect Arthur Brown, Jr. designed the building, which was constructed between 1934 and 1936.

Arthur Brown, Jr. (1874-1957) was born in Oakland, California. He graduated from the University of California in 1896, where he and his future partner, John Bakewell, Jr. were protégés of Bernard Maybeck. Brown went to Paris and graduated from the École des Beaux Arts in 1901. Before returning to San Francisco to establish his practice with Bakewell, the firm designed the rotunda for the “City of Paris” in the Neiman Marcus department store in San Francisco. Other notable San Francisco buildings include Coit Tower; San Francisco War Memorial Opera House; and the War Memorial Veterans Building. He was a consulting architect for the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.

The Federal Building is an excellent example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture. The six-story steel frame is encased in fireproof concrete with concrete flooring and roof slabs, important features after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The street elevation walls are constructed of brick but faced with granite, with the exception of a section of the McAllister Street elevation, which is faced in terra cotta.

Male and female mascarons (carved faces) adorn the exterior. The carvings sport different horticulturally themed headpieces, including corn, wheat, cat tails, and oak leaves. There are 18 of them in total.

Sadly it is not known who did all these wonderful carvings for the building.

The 1852 Shoreline

Posted by Cindy on January 27, 2000

Jan 272000

162 King Street
South Beach

Here is a map of San Francisco prior to 1852.

In this map Townsend is the western-most street on the waterfront, one block northwest of King Street.

Thanks to Found SF and the Oakland Museum, you can see what the area looks like today:

If you are interested in more information about the water that lies under our fair city, I suggest you take one of Joel Pomerantz’s Thinkwalks. He is a local expert on the indigenous water of San Francisco, and gives fascinating tours around different parts of the city.

The waterfront art project is part of the San Francisco Art Commission for the Waterfront Transportation Projects.

Rammaytush

Posted by Cindy on January 26, 2000

Jan 262000

These plaques run along the south side of King Street, between the Caltrain station and AT&T Park. There are 104 of them embedded in the sidewalk. On them are engraved all of the known words of a language called Rammaytush.

The Rammaytush language is one of the eight Ohlone languages, historically spoken by the Ramaytush people, indigenous people of California. Historically, the Rammaytush inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in the area which is now San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Ramaytush is a dialect or language within the Costanoan branch of the Utian family. The term Rammaytush was first applied to them during the 1970s.

There is very little documentation of the Rammaytush language. It consists of twenty-six worlds recorded by Father Vicente Santa Maria, chaplain of a Spanish naval ship anchored in San Francisco in 1775, a collection of words collected by an Indian agent by the name of Adam Johnston in the 1850s, and a list of twenty words and two phrases obtained in 1912 from an elderly man living in San Louis Obispo, making for a total of 104 Ramaytush words that we are aware of.

The words are:

The plaques are part of the San Francisco Barbary Coast Trail.

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