RON HENGGELER

November 3, 2008
San Francisco's City Hall on All Hollows Eve

The original City Hall structure, completed in 1898 at McAllister and Larkin Streets, collapsed in a heap during the 1906 earthquake. The focal point of the Civic Center, the current City Hall, was designed by John Bakewell and Arthur Brown. This 1915 building covers two city blocks bounded by Polk, McAllister, Van Ness, and Grove. The huge lead-lined dome is modeled after Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and dominates the area, rising 301 feet above the street, higher than the Capitol dome in Washington D.C. The building, 400 feet long and 300 feet wide, has an exterior of granite from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. In 1960, civil rights and freedom-of-speech protesters were washed down the central stairway with fire hoses. Mayor Dianne Feinstein was married at City Hall in 1980 and invited the entire city to her wedding reception. Badly damaged by the 1989 earthquake, City Hall’s arches were supported by large wooden struts until the building was closed in 1995 for seismic retrofitting. (San Francisco’s previous City Hall was built of inferior materials, including trash and newspaper, by a corrupt city administration.) Respectfully taken from SAN FRANCISCO SECRETS by John Snyder Chronicle Books 1999

 

"There's just no doubt about it. Sanfransensual it is." Herb Caen

These San Francisco City Hall photos were taken October 31, 2008

 

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