2301 San Jose Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112, USA

Geneva Office Building and Power House (Geneva Car Barn Complex; San Francisco & San Mateo Railroad Co. Office Building)- National Register of Historic Places

The Geneva Office Building and Power House, also known as the Geneva Complex, possess both historical and architectural significance. The buildings are historically significant for their local association with the development of San Francisco’s electrical railway system, as well as for their local association with labor history in San Francisco. Originally constructed for The San Francisco and San Mateo Railroad Company between 1901 and 1903, the two adjoining buildings served as the administrative center and as a source of power for the city’s first electric railroad company and are the last remaining physical reminders of it. The development of San Francisco’s Street railway system opened San Francisco’s outlying areas, such as the southwestern part of the city where the property is located, for development and connection to the established urban core to the northeast. Further, the Geneva Complex provided interurban transportation, running from its rail yard to the city of San Mateo to the south. The site is associated with a number of railroad companies serving San Francisco during the last century including the San Mateo and San Francisco Railway, the San Mateo and San Francisco Electric Railway, the United Railroads of San Francisco, the Market Street Railway, and the San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI). The Geneva Complex also played an important role in labor history as the site of the Carmen’s Strike of 1917, the impact of which is still evident in exterior modifications to the Office Building. The Office Building and Power House are also architecturally significant, as they embody the characteristics of both the Romanesque and Queen Anne Styles in an eclectic blend that also incorporates industrial elements appropriate for a working rail yard. The brick masonry construction is representative of the pre-1906 Earthquake period in San Francisco. In a city where brick is no longer a predominant building material, the Geneva Complex is a good example of PR Earthquake use of brick to convey architectural detailing.

The years 1901 through 1944 mark the period of significance for the Geneva Office Building and Power House. The year 1901 marks the original construction of the Office Building, and the year 1944 marks the date the Geneva Complex was taken over by the city-owned San Francisco Municipal Railway and underwent several subsequent changes in use and appearance. Although the complex has undergone several other alteration campaigns since that time, it primarily reflects the 1944 changes.

Criterion A: Association with the History of Public Transportation in San Francisco
San Francisco was a pioneer in public transit. The Gold Rush brought about such a significant increase in the City’s population that by 1852 public transportation facilities had become both economically feasible and a public necessity. A variety of transportation methods, including the horse drawn omnibus, cable cars, and electric rail were developed to serve the growing population.

Omnibus
The first public transportation line in San Francisco was the “Yellow Line,” a horse drawn omnibus line operated by the firm of Crimm and Bowman. The Yellow Line ran between the Post Office (then located at Kearny and Clay Streets) to Mission Dolores via Kearny, 3rd, and Mission Streets. This service was expanded in 1854, with the addition of a second route running to Mission Dolores via Folsom and 16th Streets. The following year a third route was added from 3'“' and Townsend to Meiggs Wharf. By 1857, a second horse-drawn line was added in San Francisco. Known as the “Red Line,” this line was operated by the People’s Omnibus Company. The Red Line ran on many of the same routes as the Yellow Line, generating competition and spurring further growth of mass transit systems in San Francisco’s growing urban environment.

By the 1850s, San Francisco had a population of approximately 50,000 people. A population of this size made the horse drawn omnibus an obsolete mode of transportation for the ever-growing metropolis. In 1857, the California Legislature granted Thomas Hayes the first franchise for a steam-powered street railway in the city, called the San Francisco Market Street Railroad. This was the start of the Market Street Railway Company, which opened for service on July 4, 1860, making it the first street railway on the west coast. The line ran from California and Market Streets, out Market to Valencia Street, and terminated at 16"’ and Valencia Streets. Within three years the route was extended further out Valencia to 25"’ Street. This line was later converted to horse car operation and was subsequently acquired by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad and renamed the Market Street Railway in the late 1860s. The line was later purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and in 1892 it was renamed the Market Street Cable Railway, reflecting the change in the dominant mode of transportation.

Cable Cars
On August 1, 1873 Andrew S. Hallidie, a manufacturer of wire rope cables, introduced the nation’s first cable railway in San Francisco. This initial cable car line ran along Clay Street from Kearny Street to Leavenworth Street. Drawing his inspiration from a similar system in England, Hallidie installed a steam engine which powered an endless cable that ran continuously, sliding over rollers in an underground trench. A grip attached to the underside of the cable car enabled the driver (or gripman) to release the moving cable, thereby controlling the car. The cable car was an instant success and horse car lines were replaced with this new mode of transportation between 1876 and 1889. Cities throughout the country raced to install cable lines in an effort to modernize and make their public transit systems more efficient.

Electric Rail
By 1891 a new form of transit, the electric rail, had come to San Francisco, further transforming the city’s transit system and connecting the city to the surrounding suburbs. On April 27, 1892, the first electric line in San Francisco opened for business -The San Francisco and San Mateo Railroad Company (SF & SMR), incorporated by brothers Isaac and Behrend Joost in 1891. The line ran from Second and Market Streets via Stewart, Harrison, Fourteenth Street, Guerrero, San Jose Avenue, Thirtieth Street, Chenery, back to San Jose, and then to Daly Hill (now Daly City). An additional branch line running between 18th and Guerrero Streets and Golden Gate Park opened on November 25,1894.

Unable to meet expenses, bondholders of The San Francisco and San Mateo Railroad Company forced foreclosure. Reorganization of the company took place on April 11, 1896, under the name “San Francisco & San Mateo Electric Railroad Company” (SF & SM ER); and, it was administered by Adolph and John Spreckels, the sons of prominent California businessman John D. Spreckels.’ To meet the increasing demand for electric car service, the SF & SM ER purchased another 30 rail cars in 1900. The company was fast outgrowing its original car house and barn on Sunnyside Avenue (now Monterey Boulevard).

Under the ownership of the Spreckels, the SF & SM ER purchased the block of land, bounded by San Jose Avenue, Linadilla Avenue (now Niagra Avenue), Delano Street, and Geneva Avenue, for the construction of a new complex to replace the Sunnyside Avenue facilities. Construction of the Geneva Complex commenced on July 14, 1900. The new complex consisted of the main two-story Office Building, and the adjoining twenty-track, single-story car barn, as well as a series of small buildings (blacksmith shop, machine shop, paint shop, and storage facilities) constructed along the southern end of the property. The power station at the Sunnyside Avenue facility remained in operation until the Power House was built at the Geneva site in 1903. The entire complex was known as the Elkton Shops and Yard, or the Geneva Avenue Shops. These shops were used for the heavy overhauling and rehabilitation efforts performed on the equipment, as well as for the manufacturing of new equipment. Additionally, this complex provided power to the rail lines and housed administration facilities. Only the Office Building and the Power House remain of the SF & SM ER's original facilities on Geneva Avenue.

In 1897 a campaign had begun to create an interurban line, by extending San Francisco’s original electric rail line southward along the peninsula to San Mateo. Surveys of the proposed route were conducted between 1899 and 1900.’® The final franchise for the extension was granted on May 12,1900; and construction of the extension began on January 25, 1901.

On May 13, 1901, the SF&SM ER was purchased for 1.6 million dollars by the Baltimore Syndicate, an East Coast railway company managed by Alexander Brown and Company.’ Upon purchasing the line, the Baltimore Syndicate bought five new cars and commenced with overall upgrades. The Baltimore Syndicate proceeded to merge with the Sutter Street Railway and the San Francisco and San Mateo Electric Railway to form United Railroads of San Francisco (URR), which was incorporated March 2, 1902. URR assumed control of all the city’s independent street railway companies, with the exception of the California Street Cable, the Geary Street Cable Car, and the Presidio and Ferries Railway. This incorporation continued to operate as the United Railroads of San Francisco until April 9, 1921.

Soon after assuming control of the city’s railway companies, URR began the work necessary to complete the San Mateo extension. The first car to arrive in San Mateo was line car number 0301 on December 26, 1902.’^ The large interurban cars, which ran on this line, were built at the Laclede Plant in St. Louis. Twenty cars, measuring 45 feet and 9 inches in length were purchased to run on the interurban line. On August 1,1903, the first through service on an interurban car traveled from Fifth and Market in San Francisco to San Mateo. This trip took approximately 75 minutes to complete. Sixteen classic interurban streetcars were later purchased and stationed at the Geneva Complex. These sixteen cars were the largest electric vehicles in the city, measuring over 52 feet in length and weighing 75,640 pounds. Due to their size, they became known as the “Big Subs.” These streetcars had wood interiors with leather seats. The large interurbans served the San Mateo lines and remained in operation until 1923.’ After twelve years in storage, the last “Big Sub” was dismantled and burned in 1935. The #40 interurban line would continue to run from Fifth and Mission Streets to San Mateo until 1948.

Car lines which operated out of the Geneva Complex included;
• Route #10—Glen Park-Guerrero St.
• Route #12—Ingleside
• Route #18—Mission
• Route #26—Daly City via Guerrero St.
• Route #40—San Mateo Interurban
• Route—South San Francisco local line
• Route—Visitation line

In addition to the standard car lines, there was a special funeral car service from the Geneva Complex to San Francisco’s principal cemeteries in Colma, on a spur running of the San Mateo interurban line. This fleet consisted of three finely appointed electric cars built for the sole function of transporting funeral attendees to Colma. The front section of these cars had a compartment for transporting coffins, and chairs for mourners were located in the rear. The funeral car service ran out of the car barn located at the Geneva Complex until March 24, 1916.

Electric lines, as the most modern and efficient means of travel, had been the most desired means of transport in urban America from the early 1890s. San Francisco city leaders desired to have electric power for the city’s lines to be distributed by means of underground conduit, in order to hide the unsightly electrical power lines. United Railroads refused to expend the funds necessary to lay underground lines and remained at odds with the city regarding this issue until the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, when the extent of damage caused by the earthquake made it necessary to quickly remove damaged cable lines and install new rail systems and power lines.

The earthquake and subsequent fire of April 18,1906 disrupted all street railway systems in the city for the following seven months. The Geneva Complex suffered some damage, as evident from a quote in the San Mateo Car House Day Book of April 18, 1906: “Geneva Avenue Substation walls were cracked from the roof to the foundation. Also, offices and car sheds. Tracks in car sheds were spread causing about 20 cars to drop between tracks.’’^^ No cars ran from the Geneva Complex until one month later, when limited car service was reinstated on May 6, 1906. By May 10th, service had returned to an almost regular schedule. The physical damage to the Geneva Complex took longer to address. The second story brick walls at the northeast corner of the Office Building sustained damage during the earthquake; and temporary repairs, in the form of wood framing and tarpaper, were soon carried out. These temporary repairs remain in place to this day. The Power House sustained more severe damage, which was not fully repaired until 1910. Additionally, a wood bracing system was installed at the windows along San Jose Avenue; and it was not removed until circa 1947.

It became apparent that public municipal transportation was a crucial component of the earthquake recovery effort. To expedite rail service, the city's Board of Supervisors passed an emergency measure giving URR a permit for the temporary installation of overhead wires on Market Street and permission to convert the Sutter Street and the 9“’-PolkLarkin lines to electric operation. Overhead wires remain as the primary source of power for the city’s streetcar and bus lines to this day. Patrick Calhoun, the URR President, also took the opportunity to eliminate most of the unwanted cable car systems damaged in the 1906 disaster. With cable car use waning, electric streetcars became more popular and the infrastructure for these systems needed to be expanded.

In 1913, a proposition was passed to extend the city-owned and operated Municipal Railway. The extension, in conjunction with the new form of transportation - the jitney bus - introduced in 1914, caused a decrease in ridership for the privately-owned URR and continued financial problems for the company. By 1919, a Reorganization Committee composed of holders of the United Railroads securities formed and forced the foreclosure of URR. A new company, the Market Street Railway Company (MSR), was organized on February 16, 1921 for the next twenty-four years, the MSR managed the electric rail lines, with the Geneva Complex serving as the central location for electric rail in San Francisco. The “Big Subs” were retired with this change in management. Other modifications included: lengthening the city streetcars to just over 48 feet; enclosing the platforms to allow “pay as you enter” fare collection; installing electric heaters, cushioned leather seats, and air gongs; and creating smoking sections. Under the MSR’s ownership, the Geneva Complex housed the first bus fleet for the City of San Francisco. Bus service began in April 1926, with a fleet consisting of half a dozen buses. With the closure of the 28"’ and Valencia Car Barn in 1939, the #14-Daly City line was relocated to the Geneva Complex. When the 24"’ Street Barn was converted to bus use, the operation of the #9 Valencia and #11-Mission-24"’ Street lines was also relocated to the Geneva Complex. With these changes, more cars were operated from the Geneva Complex than from any other car house in the history of the city’s electric car era.

On September 29, 1944, the MSR, including the San Mateo interurban line, was purchased by the City of San Francisco for 7.2 million dollars, and thus became part of the San Francisco’s Municipal Railway (MUNI) system. The Geneva Complex was included in this transfer to city ownership. Between 1945 and 1949, all MSR streetcar lines were replaced with motor or trolley coaches under MUNI’s modernization program.

The Geneva Office Building, the Power House, and the car barn -the last remaining car barn from which electric cars operated on the Pacific Coast -remained in use until their closure in 1982, housing all extant MUNI 1 street car lines (light rail vehicle lines J, K, L, M, and N), as well as all remaining rail service equipment. The car barn was demolished in the mid-1980s. On January 26, 1986, the Office Building was officially listed as City Landmark #180. The Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board’s final case report attributed the Office Building’s significance to its association with The San Francisco and San Mateo Railroad Company, which allowed for development of the city’s western neighborhoods, and its association with the 1917 Carmen’s Strike (described in the following paragraphs).

Ownership of the Office Building and Power House was transferred to the city’s Recreation and Park Department in 2004. The buildings are presently unoccupied, but remain as the last physical reminders of the San Francisco’s first electric railroad company.