Jan 29, 1975
U.S. Customhouse - National Register of Historic Places
Statement of Significance: The handsome 1911 granite-faced Custom House was the first large building on which construction started in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and one of the few surviving good examples of late Renaissance federal architecture in the west. ' The sober taste, fine materials and workmanship of exteriors and interiors, and the state of preservation are unusual; relatively few changes have been made to degrade it aesthetically. A neo-classical custom house was demolished to clear the site, and grading was under way when the fire broke out. Ground was broken July 29, 1906, but the unprecedented amount of building caused a labor shortage and it was 1911 before completed and occupied. The concrete foundations of the steel-framed building rest on timbers taken from the hull of the steamship Georgian, a vessel that in Gold Rush days had been deserted and was drawn up to the Washington St. wharf. The commission for the design was won in a competition by the St. Louis architects William S. Fames and Thomas C. Young; Fames was then president, of the American Institute of Architects, and his firm had designed other federal buildings. A splendid architectural feature is the ample central lobby with marble stairs at the north and south ends, especially fine at the main level where the symmetrical double stairs with open well, high ceilings with plaster work, and a baroque pattern outlined in the white marble floor distinguish the elegant space. Another architectural accomplishment is the Deputy Collector's office on the main floor; curved end walls with round-arched doors flanked by pilasters; the groined ceiling, painted in abstract floral patterns; two skylights. For the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition, A. L. Cooper painted murals on the end walls: "The Panama Canal and its Construction," and "San Francisco Harbor." Other notable details: ornamental plaster work, bron2ie wall lamps in lobbies, furniture designed by the architect in the custom’s administrative office, and a frieze and marble fire place in the same room.
U.S. Customhouse - National Register of Historic Places
Statement of Significance: The handsome 1911 granite-faced Custom House was the first large building on which construction started in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and one of the few surviving good examples of late Renaissance federal architecture in the west. ' The sober taste, fine materials and workmanship of exteriors and interiors, and the state of preservation are unusual; relatively few changes have been made to degrade it aesthetically. A neo-classical custom house was demolished to clear the site, and grading was under way when the fire broke out. Ground was broken July 29, 1906, but the unprecedented amount of building caused a labor shortage and it was 1911 before completed and occupied. The concrete foundations of the steel-framed building rest on timbers taken from the hull of the steamship Georgian, a vessel that in Gold Rush days had been deserted and was drawn up to the Washington St. wharf. The commission for the design was won in a competition by the St. Louis architects William S. Fames and Thomas C. Young; Fames was then president, of the American Institute of Architects, and his firm had designed other federal buildings. A splendid architectural feature is the ample central lobby with marble stairs at the north and south ends, especially fine at the main level where the symmetrical double stairs with open well, high ceilings with plaster work, and a baroque pattern outlined in the white marble floor distinguish the elegant space. Another architectural accomplishment is the Deputy Collector's office on the main floor; curved end walls with round-arched doors flanked by pilasters; the groined ceiling, painted in abstract floral patterns; two skylights. For the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition, A. L. Cooper painted murals on the end walls: "The Panama Canal and its Construction," and "San Francisco Harbor." Other notable details: ornamental plaster work, bron2ie wall lamps in lobbies, furniture designed by the architect in the custom’s administrative office, and a frieze and marble fire place in the same room.
Jan 29, 1975
Posted Date
Apr 13, 2022
Historical Record Date
Jan 29, 1975
Source Name
United States Department of Interior - National Park Service
