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January 17, 2024
San Francisco Heritage at the War Memorial & Performing Arts Center (Veterans Building)
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On Thursday night September 5th, I attended an event that celebrated Japantown, the Fillmore, and the 50th anniversary of moving Victorians. The event was hosted by the San Francisco Heritage.
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A glimpse of San Francisco's City Hall from the south side of the War Memorial Performing Arts Complex at 410 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister Street.
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The view of Van Ness Avenue and City Hall from the outside balcony |
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The SF Heritage displayed photos of Victorians being moved 50 years ago during the controversial urban renewal in San Francisco.
Photos from
Craig Buchanan
Dave Glass
Andrew McKinney
OpenSFHistory
SF Memory
San Francisco Public Library
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Commemorating the
50th Anniversary of Saving, Relocating, and Rehabilitating
12 Historic Buildings in
San Francisco's Western Addition |
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Photos from
Craig Buchanan
Dave Glass
Andrew McKinney
OpenSFHistory
SF Memory
San Francisco Public Library |
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Photos from
Craig Buchanan
Dave Glass
Andrew McKinney
OpenSFHistory
SF Memory
San Francisco Public Library |
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Photos from
Craig Buchanan
Dave Glass
Andrew McKinney
OpenSFHistory
SF Memory
San Francisco Public Library |
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Photos from
Craig Buchanan
Dave Glass
Andrew McKinney
OpenSFHistory
SF Memory
San Francisco Public Library |
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The SF Heritage displayed photos of Victorians being moved 50 years ago during the controversial urban renewal in San Francisco.
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An alcove on the outside balcony of the Veterans Building. |
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The view of Van Ness Avenue and San Francisco's City Hall from the outside balcony of the War Memorial Performing Arts Complex at 410 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister Street. |
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Detail of: San Francisco's City Hall |
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Detail of: San Francisco's City Hall |
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Detail of: San Francisco's City Hall |
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Detail of: San Francisco's City Hall |
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JAPAN BOMBS HAWAII
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise air attack on the US Pacific Fleet's base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack compelled the US to enter World War II.
President Roosevelt called the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor a "date which will live in infamy," in a famous address to the nation delivered after Japan's deadly strike. Roosevelt asked a joint session of Congress to declare war December 8th.
AMERICA ON THE DEFENSIVE
General Douglas MacArthur commanded US
Army Forces in the Far East consisting mostly of Filipino soldiers. When Japan invaded the Philippines after Pearl Harbor, MacArthur strategically retreated to the Bataan peninsula as part of pre-war Plan Orange. The last peninsula defenders surrendered on May 6, 1942.
Thousands of US and Filipino troops died on the infamous "Bataan Death March" and in prison camps. MacArthur vowed, "I shall return" and did in October 1944, liberating the Philippines in September 1945. |
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FORTRESS SAN FRANCISCO
AN ARMY FORTRESS
A NAVY TOWN
Any intended Japanese attack was deterred by US Coast Artillery along the Pacific coast. US guns never fired in anger. More than one million soldiers shipped to the Pacific at Fort Mason from Oakland Army Base and other Bay Area locations. Mare Island Navy Yard employed 50,000 workers building, maintaining, and repairing warships, including the cruiser San Francisco - one of the most decorated warships of the Pacific War. Mare Island was the largest naval repair facility in the US
- it built 17 submarines, 31 destroyer escorts, and dozens of smaller vessels. Other vital Navy facilities included the Naval Air Stations at Alameda and Moffett Field, plus Coast Guard and Marines district headquarters on Treasure Island.
The Bay Area had more than 120 military installations. |
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FEAR UNDERMINES LIBERTY
RELOCATION CENTERS
Under armed guard, Japanese Americans were transported to 10 war relocation centers in remote deserts, plains, and swamps of seven states; Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Of all the interned Japanese Americans, about two-thirds were American citizens by birth. The rest had been living in the United States for decades, but were denied citizenship by law. To prove their loyalty, 33,000 served in the US military with more than 800 killed.
UPROOTED
Citizens of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast had only days to decide what to do with houses, possessions, farms, and businesses. They did not know where they were going or for how long. The relocation forced families to quickly sell or abandon their belongings and the lives they had built. |
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SF PORT OF EMBARKATION
SHIPPING FACILITIES
During the war, 1,647,174 soldiers moved through the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason. This represented two-thirds of all troops sent into the Pacific. The war lasted 1,365 days. In that span of time more than a dozen Bay Area shipyards built 1,867 vessels—this averages to more than a ship a day, like the SS Escambia shown here, which launched on April 30, 1943.
Thousands of civilian workers migrated to the Bay area during the war, including more than 40,000 Black Americans. They worked in shipyards, repair facilities, and factories, dramatically changing the demographics of the San Francisco Bay Area. |
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OVERCOMING PREJUDICE
PORT CHICAGO DISASTER
On July 17, 1944, an ammunition ship exploded while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 332 - nearly two-thirds of them Black sailors representing 15 percent of all Black Americans killed during World War II.
"ROSIE THE RIVETER" IS BORN
As women worked and served in World War I they did so in even greater numbers in World War II. To help recruit women for factory jobs, the government created propaganda campaigns centered on the iconic figure known as "Rosie the Riveter" to help recruit women for factory jobs. |
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UNITED NATIONS CHARTER CONFERENCE
EISENHOWER LEADS TROOPS TO VICTORY
After the United States entered
World War II, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower rose rapidly through the army becoming the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) in Europe in December of 1943. On June 6, 1944-popularly known as D-Day-General Eisenhower commanded the Allied invasion of Europe at Normandy, France. This long-awaited offensive ultimately led to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
GERMANY SURRENDERS
On May 7, 1945, Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in World War II. General Alfred Jodi, representing the German High Command, signed an "unconditional surrender" effective the following day. May 8th was declared Victory in Europe (VE) Day, a holiday celebrated and remembered by many European countries. |
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HOPE FOR PEACE
HISTORY IS MADE AT HERBST THEATRE
The War Memorial Veterans Building
Herbst Theatre
is the historic site where the United Nations Charter was signed by delegates on June 26, 1945, adopting the prineples of equal rights, self-determination of all people, and international cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems around the world. President Truman signed the Charter on August 8 and it was ratified by the Senate in October 1945.
EXCERPT FROM PRESIDENT TRUMAN'S U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADDRESS
"We can no longer permit any nation, or group of nations, to attempt to settle their arguments with bombs and bayonets. If we continue to abide by such decisions, we will be forced to accept the fundamental concept of our enemies, namely, that "Might makes right." To deny this premise, and we most certainly do deny it, we are obliged to provide the necessary means to refute it. Words are not enough. We must, once and for all, reverse the order, and prove by our acts conclusively, that Right Has Might. If we do not want to die together in war, we must learn to live together in peace..." |
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THE END OF WORLD WAR II
NUCLEAR AGE BEGINS
President Harry Truman called for Japan's surrender with the Allied Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, avowing "prompt and utter destruction" if Japan did not comply. The surrender came only after the United States dropped two atomic bombs - one on Hiroshima (August 6th) and three days later on the city of Nagasaki.
CELEBRATIONS FOLLOWING JAPANESE SURRENDER
On September 2, 1945, representatives from Japan and the United States gathered on the deck of the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay to formally sign the surrender papers formally ending the war. This day is recognized as the official Victory over
Japan (VJ) Day. |
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Adorned by a series of stunning Frank Brangwyn murals originally painted for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the Herbst is also distinguished as the site of the United Nations Charter signing in 1945. |
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San Francisco Heritage presents
Gala '24
A Night Celebrating Japantown, the Fillmore, and the 50th Anniversary of Moving Victorians
War Memorial Performing Arts Complex
September 5, 2024
Films from
Eleanor Coppola
Zepporah Glass
Kevin Khamneipur
Fiona McDougall
Jarrel Phillips
Aaron Ryder
Editing and technical assistance from
Gavin Libbey
Performance by Capoeira ljexa
Spotlighted Partners
African American Arts and Culture Center
Nihonmachi Little Friends
Host
Woody LaBounty |
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Adorned by a series of stunning Frank Brangwyn murals originally painted for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the Herbst is also distinguished as the site of the United Nations Charter signing in 1945. |
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Host
Woody LaBounty |
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San Francisco Heritage presents
Gala '24
A Night Celebrating Japantown, the Fillmore, and the 50th Anniversary of Moving Victorians
War Memorial Performing Arts Complex
September 5, 2024
Films from
Eleanor Coppola
Zepporah Glass
Kevin Khamneipur
Fiona McDougall
Jarrel Phillips
Aaron Ryder |
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Host
Woody LaBounty |
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San Francisco Heritage presents
Gala '24
A Night Celebrating Japantown, the Fillmore, and the 50th Anniversary of Moving Victorians
War Memorial Performing Arts Complex
September 5, 2024
Films from
Eleanor Coppola
Zepporah Glass
Kevin Khamneipur
Fiona McDougall
Jarrel Phillips
Aaron Ryder |
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Performance by Capoeira ljexa
Spotlighted Partners
African American Arts and Culture Center
Nihonmachi Little Friends |
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Performance by Capoeira ljexa
Spotlighted Partners
African American Arts and Culture Center
Nihonmachi Little Friends |
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The red lights on City Hall, Thursday, September 5, 2024 – red – in recognition of SF Symphony’s First Official Concert of the 2024 Season: Music of Studio Ghibli; the SF Consul General of Japan is attending the performance. |
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Commemorating the
50th Anniversary of Saving, Relocating, and Rehabilitating
12 Historic Buildings in
San Francisco's Western Addition |
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Urban Renewal
In 1948, San Francisco designated the city's Western Addition neighborhood as "blighted" and embarked on a multi-decade campaign of "slum clearance." Under the leadership of Justin Herman, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA), displaced more than 4,000 primarily Japanese and African American households and demolished hundreds of buildings in the name of urban renewal.
"Justin Herman's] vision was a flat buildable space after the ravaging of the bulldozers tore down and chewed up every single piece of physical history so that developers could come in with tinker-toy erector-set spaces that humans would somehow occupy."
- former SFRA employee Carlo Middione
The SFRA's work in its designated Project Area A-1 zone-108 acres between Franklin, Broderick, Post, Eddy, and O'Farrell Streets-produced landscapes worthy of glossy annual reports and magazine spreads: modern architecture, plazas, hotels, churches, apartment towers, cooperative housing communities, and the Japan Center mall.
But at least 1,350 households, 358 businesses, and a total of 8,000 residents were permanently displaced by A-1 redevelopment. Hundreds of historic row houses, apartment buildings, meeting halls, and stores-uniquely San Franciscan architecture from the 19th century which had survived the 1906 earthquake and fire-were demolished.
Many of the buildings were in disrepair, some purposefully neglected by absentee landlords who knew the agency's eventual plans for purchase and demolition. But many were beautiful, affordable, and possessed a high degree of craftsmanship and design beginning to be re-appreciated by the public. They were also people's homes, human-sized housing that had served diverse generations of new San Franciscans.
In 1966, SFRA began work on Western Addition Project Area A-2, which wrapped around and more than doubled the size of Project Area A-1. The bulldozers once more began their work, but with increased opposition to the motives, methods, and harmful effects of "renewal."
"We had seen the results of bulldozer redevelopment, and they weren't good. Slums were wiped out, but so were neighborhoods. The crowding in a housing complex is not much less than a slum, but it is crowding without the slum's lively communion. Better to live in a substandard Victorian than in one of redevelopment's filing cabinets."
- Guy Wright, San Francisco Examiner, 1972
San Francisco Heritage
Charles Hall Page and Harry Miller, two young professionals unhappy with the SFRA's ongoing destruction of the Western Addition, created a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of San Francisco's historic buildings in 1971.
The first project for the Foundation for San Francisco's Architectural Heritage (as San Francisco Heritage was then known) was to advocate for the preservation of the best buildings still standing in Western Addition Project Area A-2, preferably by rehabilitation in place, but as a last resort, by relocation. |
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SFRA had plans to demolish most of two blocks between Eddy Street, Golden Gate Avenue, Franklin Street, and Van Ness Avenue, encompassing Turk Street and mid-block alleys of Larch and Elm Streets. A dozen 19th Century buildings of high architectural merit stood on the site, most slated to be razed for the new Opera Plaza housing and shopping complex.
San Francisco Heritage identified several of the buildings as eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places and worked with Gee Gee Bland Platt on the city's Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board to have them designated. The SFRA agreed to put these buildings and others deemed worthy of preservation up for sale to new owners if the buyers would relocate them.
In a 1972 public auction, San Francisco Heritage acted as the bidder of last resort, temporarily securing 16 of the Victorians and agreeing to find new buyers and oversee restorations. |
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With invaluable assistance from SFRA rehabilitation supervisor Enid Sales, San Francisco Heritage negotiated a plan for relocation of eight buildings from the Opera Plaza site and single houses from Octavia, Eddy, Post, and Scott streets.
Two would land in Japantown and the rest to cleared San Francisco Redevelopment Agency lots near similar structures around Divisadero and Ellis Streets. The full grouping there would be designated
"Beideman Place Historic District."
The big move was schedule over three weekends in November 1974.
Operation Victorian
To move the first caravan of century-old buildings 13 blocks west took three days of work (five hours actually on the move), dozens of people employed by truck, utility, and telephone companies, ten city departments, and $230,000. |
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Most of the moving happened in the middle of the night to minimize pubic inconvenience. Overhead utility and trolley wires were raised or removed and reinstalled. Traffic was diverted, parked cars towed. Forty-seven light standards had to be pivoted to clear the path.
The main route for the first weekend (November 8-10, 1974) ran west out Turk Street, north on Webster, and then west on Ellis Street.
Houses moved the second weekend (November 15-17, 1974) took the same route with two buildings towed further west to Divisadero and then pulled into place mid-block on Beideman Street and 1708 Eddy and 224 Elm pulled uphill to Broderick Street. The last weekend move (November 29-December 1, 1974) had 770 Turk Street and 1624
Post Street shifted to their new locations in Japantown.
It represented one of the largest house-moving projects in San Francisco history. |
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The dramatic November 1974 moves were just the beginning for both
SF Heritage and the SFRA. Finding qualified buyers, assisting with financing, and ensuring proper renovations took years more.
Consultation with a community advisory committee ensured that formerly displaced residents received preferential bidding opportunities.
The costs of purchasing and rehabilitating one of the lots and houses ranged from $60,000 to $135,000 in 1970s dollars.
San Francisco Heritage placed conservation easements on the buildings, still in force in 2024, which require SF Heritage's consent for any substantial changes to the historic buildings. |
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Top: An 1870s single-family home at 848 Octavia Street near Golden Gate Avenue was converted into a rooming house in the 20th century. Left: SF Heritage moved it to an empty lot when the entire 800 block of Octavia Street was closed for the Freedom West housing development's parking lot. Right: The building joined the 1974 house-move and was rehabilitated as two flats at 45-47 Beideman Street. |
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Built in 1868, the house at 770 Turk Street (top) was the oldest of the dozen buildings moved in 1974. Relocated to 1249 Scott Street (above) in the designated Beideman Place Historic District, it was purchased and rehabilitated by Reverend
Hannibal Williams. |
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The unusual three-unit building at
216-220 Elm Street (right) was built in the mid-block alley between Turk Street and Golden Gate Avenue in the 1880s. It now stands at 1331-1335 Scott Street in the Beideman Place Historic District (below).
Also on the 1300 block of Scott Street, but on the opposite side, two multi-unit Victorian buildings were purchased by San Francisco Heritage. While 1356-1362 Scott Street (opposite page at top) was successfully moved to 1239-1245
Scott Street (opposite page at bottom), a neighboring building was accidentally demolished by the SFRA one month before the scheduled move in November 1974. |
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Photos courtesy of Craig Buchanan, Dave Glass, Tom Gray, OpenSFHistory, and San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library.
Text by Woody LaBounty with thanks to William Beutner, Richard Brandi, Dave Glass, Rick Prelinger, and Hannah Simonson.
Created with generous support from the Joe & Libby Fee Endowment for San Francisco Heritage and in honor of the visionary individuals who saved beautiful and historic housing for future San Franciscans through "Operation Victorian." Apologies are given for this certainly incomplete list:
R. Bruce Anderson, R. Lawrence Bacon, William Beckman, Susan Bragstad, Donald H. Brandes, Edward J. Conner, Linda Jo Fitz, James M. Flack II, Austin E.
Hills, Ellen Lipsy, Herbert P. McLaughlin, Harry Miller, Carlo Middione, Stewart Morton, Charles Hall Page, Gee Gee Bland Platt, Enid Sales, Jay Turnbull, and the adventurous, brave buyers of the houses in the 1970s.
San Francisco Heritage is a California 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to preserve and celebrate San Francisco's unique architectural and cultural heritage. Learn more at www.sfheritage.org
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On Sunday February 21, 2021, hundreds of San Franciscans lined the streets to watch a 139-year-old Victorian house move on giant dollies, from 807 Franklin Street, to its new home six blocks away at 635 Fulton Street. I was at the starting point at 7am as the sun was coming up, and for the next six hours, I photographed the process of moving the house to its new location. To see my photos from that historic move, click here: Englander House |
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