Popular Vote winner First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley

photo by: Daniel Parks

November 17, 2006

2006 Partners in Preservation: San Francisco Bay Area

Congratulations to the American Express Partners in Preservation grant recipients and to the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley for winning the popular vote. Thank you to the American Express Partners in Preservation recognition grant recipients for their participation in the initiative and commitment to preservation efforts.

American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have updates on the 13 San Francisco Bay Area historic sites that received grants as part of the company’s $1 million commitment to preservation efforts in the Bay Area. Many of the American Express Partners in Preservation grant award winners have already completed their projects.

In addition, American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation gave a $5,000 award to each of the remaining 12 Partners in Preservation sites in recognition of their participation in the initiative and their commitment to preservation efforts.

Partners in Preservation thanks you for your participation and encourages you to continue exploring our site and to spread the word about preservation in your community.

Participating Places

Angel Island Immigration Station
Angel Island

From 1910 through 1940, Angel Island was the West Coast entry point for over one million immigrants from the Pacific Rim. This “Ellis Island of the West” used its grant for structural repairs and a new roof for the World War II-era mess hall.

Bayview Opera House
4705 3rd Stree, San Francisco, CA 94124

Built in 1888 as part of a Masonic Temple, this San Francisco landmark is the city’s first and oldest opera house. Its history reflects that of the Bayview-Hunters Point community, which has fought to keep the significant building from being demolished. The 300-seat theater is a vital community meeting place for the Bayview neighborhood. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation aided the restoration of the theater’s woodwork, proscenium arch and balcony.

Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704

Designed by renowned California architect Julia Morgan and opened as The Berkeley Women’s Club in 1930, this National Register-listed site evokes the history of America’s Women’s Club Movement. Berkeley’s “Little Castle” is notable for its rich Romanesque/Gothic-inspired design that combines grand public spaces with an eclectic exterior that enriches the streetscape. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation helped facilitate the restoration of the grand entrance, windows gates and decorative elements.

Casa Grande
21350 Almaden Road, New Almaden, CA 95042

This 1855 Federal Revival-style brick building maintains a mining museum that tells the story of the New Alameda Quicksilver Mine District. The Partners in Preservation grant was used to restore the exterior of the building, including window and door reconstruction and replacement of the roof, gutters and downspouts.

Cleveland Cascade Park
Between 2250-2300 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland, CA 94606

In 1923, the Park’s main attraction was an elaborate cascading fountain with colored lights. The fountain, filled in and planted with rosemary since the 1950s, was rediscovered by the Oakland community in 2004. The grant money received from Partners in Preservation was used to help return this spectacular water feature to its original operating condition.

Fallon Building (San Francisco LGBT Center)
1800 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Built in 1894, the Queen Anne-style Fallon Building survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and marks the furthest edge of the Great Fire’s devastation on Market Street. Funding was used for exterior repainting, repair and illumination of the Fallon Building. The project was completed in November 2008.

First Church of Christ, Scientist
2619 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, 94704

Winner of the popular vote! Since 1910, famed architect Bernard Maybeck’s spectacular Arts and Crafts-style church has stood in the heart of Berkeley. The top vote-winner of 25 Bay Area sites selected to participate in the inaugural year of the Partners in Preservation program. It was awarded the highest grant of $118,000 to seismically upgrade the Sunday School, a 1929 project of Maybeck and his student, Henry Gutterson. The seismic upgrade was completed at the end of May 2008 and the Church now utilizes the space for regular Sunday School Services.

Fox Oakland Theater
1807 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94612

Built in 1928, the Fox Oakland Theater is one of America’s finest Art Deco movie palaces. Its restoration is vital for downtown Oakland. The Partners in Preservation grant is being used to restore the Art Deco ticket booth at the main entrance of the theater. The theater reopened in February 2009 and now is the flagship live music venue for Another Planet Entertainment.

Haas Lilienthal House
2007 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Built in 1886, this impressive Queen Anne-style building is the only intact private home of the period that is regularly open as a museum with authentic furniture and artifacts. Funding was used to provide enhanced accessibility, seismic strengthening and to carry out repairs to the roof and exterior. The project was completed in October 2008.

Hakone Gardens
21000 Big Basin Way, Saratoga, CA 95070

Beautiful Hakone Gardens, located in the hills above Saratoga, has been called one of the most authentic Japanese gardens in America. Hakone was designed and built in 1915 in strict accordance with traditional Japanese principles. Nearly all of Hakone’s historic buildings, wisteria pavilions, lanterns, bridges and gates are original, but the gracious gardens are now showing their age. Grant money from Partners in Preservation was used to restore Hakone’s 90-year old Moon Viewing House (Upper House) and the Lower House, built in 1922.

Japanese YWCA Building
1830 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Celebrated architect Julia Morgan designed this homage to Japanese architecture in 1932. The only documented pre-war community building built by and for Japanese-American women, the building was in need of exterior repairs, structural updating, a new roof, as well as new windows and tiles. Rehabilitation of the historic structure was completed in July 2008.

Lyford House
376 Greenwood Beach Road, Tiburon, CA 94920

At the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary, the Lyford House, a 1876 Victorian, Gothic-style residence, proudly stands as one of Marin’s oldest and most spectacularly situated homes. The house, which overlooks Richardson Bay, serves as a museum to the work of artist John James Audubon, while the surrounding land and bay serves as a wildlife sanctuary. After storm damage in 2005, the Center used grant money received from Partners in Preservation to weatherproof and restore the building’s exterior and to rewire the building to better accommodate educational programs that take place on the premises.

Maritime Child Care Center (Rosie the Riveter NHP)
Richmond, CA

Built during World War II as a nursery school for the children of Kaiser Shipyard’s female employees, this was the first publicly funded childcare center in the U.S. As part of the innovative Rosie the Riveter WWII/Home Front National Historical Park, grant money from Partners in Preservation was used to rehabilitate the building as an interpretive history center.

Murphy Windmill
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

Built in 1905 as a companion to the Park’s 1902 Dutch Windmill, the Murphy (South) Windmill helped power the irrigation system that transformed sand dunes into what we now know as Golden Gate Park. At 95 feet high it is the largest windmill of its kind in the world, its sails spanning an amazing 114 feet. The grant received from Partners in Preservation was used to refurbish its cap and restore the tower as part of a strong community and international effort to restore this remarkable resource.

Outdoor Art Club
1 West Blithedale Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941

The Outdoor Art Club was founded over a century ago by 35 community-minded women to preserve Mill Valley’s natural setting and nurture its civic culture. Clubmembers selected famed architect Bernard Maybeck to design the 1904 rustic clubhouse that stands today. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation helped facilitate the replacement of the exterior siding of the clubhouse to match the original 1904 hand-split redwood barn shake.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse Station
210 Pigeon Point Road, HWY 1, Pascadero, CA 94060

Thought to be the oldest lighthouse remaining on the West Coast and one of the tallest lighthouses in America, Pigeon Point boasts a renowned Fresnel lens comprised of over 1,000 prisms. The Partners in Preservation grant was used to restore the historic windows and doors, damaged by years of storms and exposure to salty sea air. The project was completed in November 2008.

Richmond Municipal Natatorium
1 East Richmond Avenue, Richmond, CA 94801

Locally known as “The Plunge”, this 1925 structure houses one of the largest salt water pools in the world. Due to seismic safety concerns, it closed in 2001. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation facilitated critical seismic retrofitting.

Roxie Film Center
3117 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Built soon after the 1906 earthquake, the Roxie is San Francisco’s oldest operating movie theater and one of a handful of surviving single-screen cinemas in the city. Over time, the theater has established an unparalleled reputation for showing daring and provocative independent films. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation was used to restore historic elements and to help preserve San Francisco’s cinematic history.

San Francisco Streetcar #798
San Francisco, CA

Public transportation by streetcar was fundamental in shaping San Francisco’s urban fabric in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This streetcar is the lone survivor of the 250 streetcars built in the city between 1923 and 1931. Public transportation by streetcar was fundamental in shaping San Francisco’s urban fabric in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This streetcar is the lone survivor of the 250 streetcars built in the city between 1923 and 1931. The car’s interior has been meticulously restored, but a thorough mechanical overhaul was needed to return Car #798 to operating condition. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation were used for this purpose so in can serve new generations of riders on Muni’s popular F-line along Market Street and The Embarcadero.

San Mateo Courthouse
Redwood City, CA

The stained glass dome of this 1910 Renaissance Revival-style Courthouse, once the largest on a public building on the West Coast, dominates the Redwood City skyline. Unquestionably the most historic public building in San Mateo County, the County Courthouse is also notable for the unusually fine craftsmanship of its stone carving, ironwork and mosaics. Grant money received from Partners in Preservation facilitated repair of water damage to the dome and column restoration.

Saint Peter’s Chapel
Mare Island Historic Park, CA

Completed in 1901 to provide a non-denominational house of worship for the Mare Island Naval Shipyard community, Saint Peter’s is the oldest naval chapel west of the Mississippi. An outstanding example of Victorian Gothic architecture, the 200-seat chapel features exquisitely detailed brass and woodwork, along with 29 stained glass windows, some of which are works of the Tiffany studio. Grant money from Partners in Preservation was used to restore the windows and the rest of the Chapel to its former glory.

Spreckels Temple of Music (GG Park Bandshell)
Hawagawa Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA

Located in Golden Gate Park’s Music Concourse and built in 1900, this beloved band shell has two colonnades of impressive ionic colums. Spreckels Temple’s exterior stone, roof and rosettes were restored and the waterproofing system was redesigned using the Partners in Preservation grant. The project was completed in September 2008.

Tenderloin Façade & Neon Sign Improvement
San Francisco, CA

Measured in dollars, San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is not wealthy, yet it is one of the most culturally and architecturally rich neighborhoods of the city. It is home not just to a thriving Vietnamese community, but also to some of the city’s most notable historic hotels and apartment buildings, many featuring original neon signs. Ten historically significant buildings were selected for facade improvements. This project would heighten and restore the Tenderloin’s architectural character.

Tilden Park Carousel
Tilden East Bay Regional Park

Each year 150,000 visitors enjoy this 1911 Herschell-Spillman “Menagerie Edition” carousel, one of two originals still operating. The Partners in Preservation grant was used to restore the hand-carved and painted animals, to replace the wood floor, and to repair the irreplaceable band organs. The project was completed in October 2008.

Tomales Town Hall
27150 Shoreline Highway (Hwy One), Tomales, CA 94971

One of the oldest continuously used public halls in California, this building played a significant and active role in Tomales’ past – and is a mainstay of the rural West Marin village today. To ensure its continued role in town history, funds were needed for a partial new foundation and new retaining walls for storm damage control. With the Partners in Preservation grant, the project was completed in November 2008.

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization, works to save America’s historic places. Savingplaces.org

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