Paul T.
Yelp
"Yawn. Another old building..." Stop that! Right now! If you've seen City Hall, and the Opera House, you may think you've seen the grandest San Francisco has to offer.
You haven't.
This building was considered a bit over the top even by the standards of its day, when it opened in 1905. In 1906 it slipped five feet to the south---a bit into the buried marsh at the south end of its site, and had to be fixed up some. But, like the old Mint at 5th and Mission, this is the only other building in the 1906 fire zone to survive mostly intact (everything else that remained standing, like the Flood Building, was gutted by the fire). Very dedicated federal employees stayed in the building and battled flames on the north end that would eventually consume the Redwood Room, with wet postal sacks.
The Redwood Room was completely rebuilt as was.
The District Courts moved to the Federal Building on Golden Gate in 1966, and this building was restored in the early 1990s after damage from Loma Prieta. At that time various doomed courthouses across the country were salvaged for their bronze fixtures and carved wood doors, and they were brought west to the 9th Circuit Court where they have had a new life adding to the opulence of the original.
The heavily carved and richly ornamented ceilings are studded with incandescent light bulbs (as is Oakland City Hall, built ten years later) because back then incandescent bulbs were high tech and the whole idea of this building was to wow and impress visitors. One has to remember that SF was just finishing up on its own 25 year construction project at City Hall---begun in 1876---but that building mostly collapsed in 1906, and the world's largest hotel---the old Palace, was fatally damaged,and then gutted by the fire. Elegance abounded in 1905 San Francisco. And, when they added on to the building in 1933, George Kelham added to rather remarkably simple, yet still impressively grand Art Deco court rooms at the rear.
Of course, it's funny to read the historical placards and find that, according to the Feds, the Spanish founded the Mission, the Presidio, and the Pueblo of Yerba Buena. Actually, it was Mexico that founded the Pueblo of Yerba Buena---around today's Portsmouth Square in what is now Chinatown. Oh well.
Tours are on tuesdays only, twice a month, at 1pm. No reservations necessary and they are free. 60 minutes in length. Google the website for more information.
