HomeMy WebLinkAboutAppendix 4.04-2, Preliminary Assessment of Potential Historic DistrictAppendix 4.4-2:
Preliminary Assessment of Potential Historic District
Preliminary Assessment of Potential Historic District i August 2021
ICF 00082.20
City of South San Francisco
Preliminary Assessment of Potential Historic District
August 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section Page
Section A Introduction .......................................................................................................... A-1
A.1 Purpose .............................................................................................................. A-1
Section B Methodology ........................................................................................................ B-1
B.1 Assessment Assumptions ................................................................................... B-1
B.2 Research Methods .............................................................................................. B-1
Section C Historic Context .................................................................................................... C-1
C.1 South San Francisco Industrial History ............................................................... C-1
C.2 Chronology of Major Events ............................................................................... C-8
C.3 20th Century Industrial Architecture ................................................................... C-9
Section D Potential District Parameters ................................................................................ D-1
D.1 Potential District Area ....................................................................................... D-1
D.2 Period of Significance ........................................................................................ D-3
D.3 Potential District Character ............................................................................... D-3
Section E Research Questions ............................................................................................... E-1
E.1 Supplemental Historic Research ......................................................................... E-1
E.2 Refining the Broad Parameters........................................................................... E-1
E.3 Criteria for Evaluating Significance ..................................................................... E-2
E.4 Additional Significance Thresholds ..................................................................... E-2
E.5 Identifying Contributing Properties .................................................................... E-2
E.6 An Assessment of Integrity ................................................................................. E-3
Section F Preparers ................................................................................................................ F-1
Section G Bibliography ......................................................................................................... G-1
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Section A
Introduction
This report provides a preliminary assessment of a potential historic district located in the City of
South San Francisco (City). South San Francisco is recognized and embraced as the “Industrial City,”
and the potential historic district is associated with the City’s 19th and 20th century industrial
development and heritage. This assessment was initiated as part of the Draft Environmental Impact
Report (EIR) analysis for the Southline Specific Plan project (project), prepared by ICF in 2021 for
purposes of evaluating the project’s potential impacts to historical resources. Under the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a historical resource includes buildings, sites, structures, objects,
or districts, which may have historical, pre-historical, architectural, archaeological, cultural, or
scientific importance. In the course of preparing the Draft EIR for the Southline Specific Plan project,
ICF historians and architectural historians identified information indicating the presence of the
potential historic district that is the subject of this report.
A.1 Purpose
The purpose of this document is to inform the analysis of potential historic resource impacts related
to implementation of the project as analyzed in the Southline Specific Plan Draft EIR. This document
provides a general preliminary assessment of the historical significance of the potential historic
district. It examines the broad characteristics that would qualify the potential district as a CEQA
historical resource. It does not constitute a complete historic district evaluation, which would be
beyond the scope of information required to evaluate the project’s potential impacts. The
parameters outlined in this assessment are intentionally broad in order to provide conservative
conclusions both as to the boundary of the potential district and the significance criteria utilized to
identify potentially contributing elements. These parameters may be used as a starting point for a
complete evaluation of the potential historic district in the future should the City decide to
undertake a complete evaluation as part of its General Plan update or at a future time. The presence
of a qualifying historic district can only be confirmed by a complete historic district evaluation,
which could confirm or modify the findings of this assessment. The City retains discretion as to
whether it will proceed with further assessment at a future date, unrelated to the project. Refer to
Section E for additional criteria that should be considered in a complete historic district evaluation.
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Section B
Methodology
B.1 Assessment Assumptions
This potential historic district assessment is based on the following assumptions, which are
intentionally conservative given the preliminary nature of this research. These assumptions would
need to be further confirmed and refined at a later date in order to complete a full historic district
evaluation:
⚫ A potential historic district associated with the City’s industrial development is present.
⚫ Thresholds of eligibility for potential contributing properties within the district are broad, and
can be refined based on additional research and definition collected as part of a complete
historic district evaluation.
⚫ The potential district area is large and may need to be narrowed and refined as part of a
complete historic district evaluation (Figure 1).
⚫ All industrial development within the potential district area has the potential to contribute to
the potential district.
⚫ The period of significance for the potential district spans a broad period and could be narrowed
and refined as part of a complete historic district evaluation.
⚫ The potential district does not intersect with the residential neighborhoods in the City.
⚫ The potential district retains sufficient historic integrity to convey its historical significance.
B.2 Research Methods
Research was conducted for this assessment using available online resources such as ancestry.com,
digital newspaper archives, academic journal articles, DavidRumsey.com (historical map collection),
historicaerials.com, maps from the United States Geological Survey, historical aerials from the
collections of University of California Santa Barbara, and fire insurance maps produced by the
Sanborn Map Company.
The assessment was also informed by research conducted for the Southline Specific Plan EIR on 16
individual buildings within the Southline Specific Plan area. Specifically, ICF architectural historians
reviewed available building permits and directory information compiled by the City’s public library
for the buildings to determine building age, alterations, ownership, and occupancy over time.
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Section C
Historic Context
C.1 South San Francisco Industrial History
South San Francisco’s industrial history began in the 1890s when the South San Francisco Land and
Improvement Company acquired land from what was part of Henry Miller and Charles Lux’s vast
empire to build stockyards, meat packing facilities, and a company town. Since those beginnings, the
meat packing industry has given way to steel, metals and construction, manufacturing, chemicals,
and eventually biotechnology. Development within the City resulting from each industry gradually
influenced the other industries and shaped the overall profile of South San Francisco as it exists
today.
South San Francisco industrial history can be broadly separated into two eras, a pre-World War II
era defined by meat packing, steel production, ship building, and heavy manufacturing (often driven
by war production), and a post-World War II era, defined by the chemical industry, light
manufacturing and construction technologies (driven by post-war expansion and suburbanization),
and biotechnology.
C.1.1 Pre-World War II Industry
Industrial development in the pre-World War II era in South San Francisco was shaped by the City’s
geographical proximity to the San Francisco Bay and to markets in San Francisco. The meat, steel,
and manufacturing industries served markets in the growing metropolis and provided the materials
for the rebuilding of the City after the 1906 earthquake. As South San Francisco developed more
towards heavy industry, it began attracting businesses previously located in San Francisco.
The Meat Industry and the Founding of the Industrial City
South San Francisco’s first large industry was launched when Gustavus Swift, the meat magnate who
developed the first refrigerated freight car, visited the area in 1887 with the aim of establishing
meat packing houses and an industrial suburb in San Mateo County. He selected a location near
Baden, the village built around Charles Lux’s ranch. The location had several advantages for Swift’s
operation: it was close enough to San Francisco to reach the City’s markets, but far enough away to
ensure commercial and political independence from the City. In addition, South San Francisco was
geographically situated in a way which would mitigate the noxious fumes and effluents generated by
industry.
In 1891, the area, which Swift named South San Francisco, began filling with workers from
“Butchertown,” located to the north in San Francisco’s Bayview Neighborhood, who were moving
into the City’s industrial suburbs (Blum 1984). The South San Francisco Land and Improvement
Company, which Swift and investors had incorporated for this new venture, added stockyards, an
abattoir, and water works to their 82-acre property. The company dredged a shipping channel and
hired J. A. Worthen, a civil engineer, to survey, sub-divide, and grade the streets in the commercial,
residential, and industrial areas of town, making it more attractive for other businesses and
residents to relocate to the area. As population and industry expanded, meat packing developed
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spin-off industries in South San Francisco, including tanneries, wool pulleries, and fertilizer plants,
with many of the businesses relocating from San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.
The Selby Smelting and Lead Company & Incorporation
The Selby Smelting and Lead Company paved the way for the metallurgical industries in South San
Francisco. Thomas H. Selby began his iron business in 1849, working out of a tent in gold-rush era
San Francisco (San Francisco Examiner 1901). By 1865, he had constructed a lead smelter at the foot
of Hyde Street and a 200-foot-tall shot tower (used for making lead ammunition and ballast) on
Howard Street. Selby also owned and operated the first major chemical plant on the West Coast
among the tenements in the South of Market Area (Brechin 1999). Selby became a prominent man in
San Francisco and one the largest dealers of iron and steel. He served as mayor between 1869 and
1871 and was considered as a candidate for California Governor (St. Johnsbury Caledonian 1875).
However, in 1875, four years after the end of his mayoral term, Thomas Selby died and his business
properties were combined as the Selby Smelting and Lead Company, owned and operated by his son
Prentiss Selby, and his son-in-law A.J. Ralson, with significant investment from California’s mining
magnates (San Francisco Examiner 1901).
In 1906, the Selby Smelting and Lead Company planned to relocate to South San Francisco and
purchased land on San Bruno Point for the construction of a copper smelter (Blum 1984). By 1907,
property owners and others concerned about the health impacts of smelter fumes began organizing
to block the proposed facility. Under pressure from these interests, the San Mateo County Board of
Supervisors passed an ordinance in 1908 prohibiting the smelter. In response, the South San
Francisco Improvement Club (which represented many major land and industrial interests)
proposed to incorporate South San Francisco, thus removing the City from the county’s jurisdiction
and permitting the smelter to be constructed. They succeeded, and the City of South San Francisco
incorporated in 1908, exempting the City from the ordinance; however, the smelter was never built.
In 1910, the South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company sued the Selby Smelting and
Lead Company, claiming that the Land Company cleared a townsite, laid a railroad, and put in water
connections to facilitate the Selby Company’s original plans but then never completed the project
(San Francisco Examiner 1910). Yet the incorporation of the City along with the improvements at
the site made the area more amenable for other industrial uses which soon followed, allowing the
City’s development to rapidly expand. By the 1920s, South San Francisco was already celebrating its
heavy industry, installing the first sign on Sign Hill reading “SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE
INDUSTRIAL CITY” in 1923, and replacing it with sixty-foot high concrete letters in 1929 (Bamburg
ND).
Steel Production and Wartime Expansion
Steel production began in South San Francisco in 1903 when the Pacific Jupiter Steel Company
established the first steel casting plant west of St. Louis on San Bruno Point. The company produced
industrial mining equipment, including gold dredgers, anchors, and rock crusher shoes, along with
gears and pinions (Blum 1984). In 1909, Pacific Coast Steel opened its rolling mills just north of the
Pacific Jupiter Steel Company, producing millions of tons of reinforcing steel for large infrastructure
projects, railroad bridges, and buildings. Soon the Pacific Coast Steel Company became the most
complete steel making plant on the west coast, converting pig iron and local scrap into steel for its
own rolling mills, and employing up to 1,000 workers on five acres of their 20-acre tract (San
Francisco Call 1911). In 1923, Pacific Coast Steel was expanding in other cities, installing a docks
and terminals at its Long Beach harbor property (Long Beach Telegram 1923) and in 1929, Pacific
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Coast Steel was taken over by Bethlehem Steel. Under the new ownership, the South San Francisco
plant remained busy in the following decades (the Bee 1974). In 1943, Bethlehem Steel was hiring
mill helpers, hearth stockers, and yard laborers in support of the war effort at its South San
Francisco plant (San Francisco Examiner 1943:39).
The steel, metals, and materials industries received a boost from defense spending during both
world wars. With South San Francisco’s population doubling as defense workers poured into the
City during WWII, the Federal Government built temporary worker housing at several locations. The
developments were cheaply constructed and densely packed. Lindenville, a 720-unit development
for 4,200 people, was constructed between Victory and Railroad Avenues as a series of barrack-like
row units (Bamburg ND; Kious ND).
Related Manufacturing Businesses
With close proximity to steel producing facilities, and with the 1907 opening of a rail line on the
western edge of the factory district, San Bruno Point began attracting other related metal workers
and industrial manufacturers, often making a similar exodus from San Francisco.
The group of new businesses included the Doak Sheet Metal Company, which began operating at San
Bruno Point circa 1911. David P. Doak, president of the Doak Sheet Metal Company, also served as
vice president of the Standard Corrugated Pipe Company (Berkeley Gazette 1911; San Francisco Call
1911), which employed 25 metal workers at their South San Francisco plant. The Doak Sheet Metal
Company pursued City contracts for metal culverts as far away as Stockton (Evening Mail 1911).
The Meese & Gottfried Company relocated their San Francisco works in 1911 to become another
addition to the growing number of industrial manufacturers moving their operations to San Bruno
Point (San Francisco Call 1911). Incorporated in 1898, the Meese & Gottfried Company produced
gears, pulleys, and power transmission equipment for industrial work sites (The Record-Union
1898; Archive Grid 2021). While new to San Bruno Point, Meese & Gottfried Company’s board of
directors included Jesse W. Lillienthal, a San Francisco attorney for the Northwestern Pacific
Railroad Company, who had been among the original investors in Swift’s South San Francisco Land
and Improvement Company (Santa Rosa Republican 1909). The Lillienthals were a prominent San
Francisco family whose wealth derived from selling grains as well as ownership of Crown
Distilleries, a wholesale liquor business (Blum 1984). Lillienthal also served as president of the
United Railways of San Francisco (The Oregon Daily Journal 1913) and was president of San
Francisco Council of the Boys Scouts of America (San Francisco Examiner 1919). Constant Meese,
director and company name-sake, began his career as a manufacturer of ice plant equipment
(Bakersfield Morning Echo 1903), before becoming vice-president of the National Association of
Manufacturers (New York Tribune 1920), as well as the international director of the Altrurians
(Sacramento Bee 1927), a benevolent organization of Christian Socialists inspired by the novels of
William Dean Howells (Budd 1956). Company directorship was also shared with Charles C. Volberg,
partner in Schlueter & Volberg carpet merchants and founder of Alameda Building and Load
Association (Gustine Standard 1916).
The E. H. Edwards Wire Rope Company started in San Francisco on Howard Street in 1913 but
relocated to San Bruno Point and by 1925 was fully established in South San Francisco. The
company manufactured wire rope used in fish trapping, lumber, petroleum, and the construction
industries. The South San Francisco location allowed the company to use raw material from the
nearby Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and Bethlehem Steel (San Francisco Examiner 1953b).
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During the post-WWII period, the company continued to increase in sales volume, and diversified its
product line into wire for furniture and spring manufacturers as well as steel hangers and tie wire
for box crates. By the mid-1950s, the E. H. Edwards Wire Rope Company was expanding its South
San Francisco plant with a 3,600 square foot office building and two strand machines for making
core rope (San Francisco Examiner 1953b).
Ship Building
The proximity to the water and steel rolling mills made San Bruno Point a suitable area for
shipbuilding, and the industry expanded with the United States entry into World War I. In 1917,
Schaw-Batcher Company was awarded a government contract to construct an Emergency Fleet of
eighteen 8,800-ton steamer ships and purchased 172 acres in South San Francisco to create a
shipyard. This massive undertaking required improvements, including the dredging of a 6,000-foot
canal. The shipyard became a large employer in the City, producing on average one ship a month at
the plant, and employing between 2,000 and 3,000 workers (San Francisco Examiner 1917). The
launching of a completed steamer ship was a community event, with thousands gathering at the
shipyards to watch the launch to the accompaniment of a brass band. The freighters were crucial to
the war effort and were often illustrated with jingoistic phrases. The freighter Nantahalz was
launched with “Another nail in the Kaiser’s coffin. This is the keel plate for the next hell” written in
white letters on the side of the ship (Santa Barbara Daily News 1918). By 1920, the Schaw-Batcher
plant had completed the last of the eighteen steamers required for the government contract and
rumors were circulating that the plant was closing (Long Beach Telegram 1920). However, by 1939,
the promise of shipbuilding returning to South San Francisco was reignited as plant owners
submitted another bid to the federal government with the country was again facing conflict in
Europe (The Times 1939).
Building Materials and Ceramics
South San Francisco also developed construction materials businesses beginning in the mid-1890s,
when the Baden Brick Factory, the Molath Brick Company, and the South San Francisco Lumber
Company established themselves in the City (Bamburg ND). The Steiger Brothers Pottery Works,
who moved to an 8-acre parcel on San Bruno Point after a fire at their San Jose plant, renamed
themselves the Steiger Terra Cotta and Pottery Works, and created many of the distinctive
terracotta details on San Francisco buildings, including the Monadnock Building and the Ghirardelli
Chocolate Factory. W. P. Fuller and Company’s established a lead and color works on a one-acre
tidewater parcel, which grew to be the largest paint and varnish works on the West Coast (Blum
1984). Demand for construction materials continued to grow through both world wars and took off
with the suburbanization of California. Vannucci Brothers Concrete Construction Company
maintained a South San Francisco office while supplying concrete for the development of California’s
massive freeway system (San Francisco Examiner 1966:56).
C.1.2 Post-World War II Industry
In 1955, when Governor Goodwin Knight presented the “Man of Industry” award in front of 400
civic and industrial leaders he said, “For better or for worse, San Mateo county has made its choice
for industry. You have voted to see smokestacks rather than geraniums.” (The Times [San Mateo]
1955:1). However, his choice of recipient – M.W. Reece, vice-president of the South San Francisco’s
Reinhold Chemical Corporation – illustrated a transition away from the smokestacks which had
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defined the City through two world wars and towards the emergence of chemical manufacturers,
light industry, distribution centers, and office parks. The “industrial city” was giving way to more
light industry plants (like Stuart Manufacturing, Sun Tube Corp., Sees Candy, and Ray Winther Co.)
as well as distribution business connected to the San Francisco International Airport, which was
constructed in 1953 (City of South San Francisco 2020). By the 1960s, heavy industry in South San
Francisco was already winding down (City of South San Francisco 2020).
Tanneries
The Poetsch & Peterson Tannery connects South San Francisco’s pre-WWII meat packing industry
(in their use of hides) to the later development of a chemicals industry. In 1883, German-born
Herman Poetsch and his Swedish partner Gustave Peterson chose San Francisco’s Mission District,
at Harrison and Army Street (present day Caesar Chavez Street), for the location of their tanning
business. At the time, the area was largely industrial with close proximity to butcher shops and
animal markets that supplied hides to the fledgling business. Poetsch & Peterson employed workers
from Italy, Greece, Germany, and the Guadalajara region of Mexico to produce a leather called latigo,
used for boots, shoes, and machinery (San Francisco Examiner 1985:157). Herman and Ella A.
Poetsch had three sons - William (b. 1888), Herman (b. 1891), Albert (b. 1892), and a daughter - all
of whom carried on the business of Poetsch & Peterson when Herman Sr. passed away in 1929 (San
Francisco Examiner 1953a:10). William Poetsch, the eldest son, taught himself the chemical
formulas necessary for the production of their distinct brand of leather, handwriting them in a series
of notebooks which he kept until the late 80s. Poetsch & Peterson continued to operate in San
Francisco through WWI – in which Albert served in the Navy – and through the 1930s. WWII
brought difficulties to Poetsch & Peterson as leather was on the government list of goods embargoed
for military use, leaving hides in short supply (San Francisco Examiner 1985:157). In 1943, Poetsch
& Peterson relocated to 325 South Maple Avenue in South San Francisco. The South San Francisco
location allowed Poetsch & Peterson more space and provided closer proximity to the
slaughterhouses and ancillary businesses upon which Poetsch & Peterson depended.
Following the war, union activity brought on a series of strike actions in many South San Francisco
industries, including a 1947 Butcher’s Union No. 508 strike over pay increases (The Times [San
Mateo] 1947:15) and an Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen’s Union strike (San
Francisco Examiner 1947:6) which impacted Poetsch & Peterson. However, Poetsch & Peterson
were able to resolve the conflicts with its unions and through the 1950s and 1960s, production
increased at the tannery, but business really took off beginning in the mid-1970s when fashion
choices created high demand for latigo bags and sandals. At their height, Poetsch & Peterson were a
$1.2 million a year business employing approximately 100 union workers. However, the
combination of foreign competition, stricter environmental regulations, and South San Francisco’s
push for more “clean” industrial parks ultimately shuttered the business by the mid-1980s (San
Francisco Examiner 1985:157). At that point, they were the last tannery on the peninsula.
The Decline of Heavy Industry
After the WWII, most of the temporary housing units at Lindenville were demolished. Likewise, by
the 1950s the big players in the region were considering moves to other locations. The best example
to illustrate the trend is Bethlehem Steel, who began to focus away from its South San Francisco
plant and towards its facilities in Los Angeles and Seattle (Blum 1984). In the early 1960s, the plant
made efforts to modernize its equipment, installing a new roll threader capable producing 40 rods
per minute (San Francisco Examiner 1960) and a “non-shaking bag house” smog control device (San
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Francisco Examiner 1961). However, by 1962, steel making mostly ceased in South San Francisco,
and Bethlehem Steel closed down its last operation in 1977 (Blum 1984). In 1981, the Bethlehem
Steel building was torn down (City of South San Francisco 2020).
Chemicals
South San Francisco’s chemical industry began developing in the mid-1930s but expanded in the
City in the post-WWII era, when Klix, Gamlen, and E.F. Houghton & Company relocated to the City. In
1935, the South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company won out against Los Angeles
County in enticing the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company to purchase a seven-acre area on Linden
Avenue (including the parcel within the Southline Specific Plan area containing 160 South Linden
Avenue) to construct a varnish and lacquer plant (San Francisco Examiner 1935:4) which was
constructed by 1940. Meanwhile, other chemical companies were establishing local facilities on the
west coast, often in the Bayview district of San Francisco. In 1935, the Gamlen Chemical Company,
founded by Harry Gamlen, a Canadian-born engineer and inventor, began its operations in San
Francisco (San Francisco Examiner 1973:41). E.F. Houghton & Co, a Pennsylvania chemical
corporation specializing in industrial lubricants, mining lubricants, textile processing oils, tannery
oils, and heat treating products, also located in San Francisco at Quint Street and Davidson Avenue
(Oakland Tribune 1942:30).
Following WWII, many of the light industry and chemical businesses located in San Francisco Bay
View began to relocate to South San Francisco to take advantage of the large industrial yards now
available for non-war time production. In 1949, du Pont expanded a further 5.8 acres in South San
Francisco, occupying a corner of Dollar and Tanforan Avenues no longer used for war production to
expand its west coast business operations. The post war boom brought demand for chemical
products such as finishes for consumer products like cars, ships, and refrigerators (The Times [San
Mateo] 1940:4). In 1951, Klix Chemical Company moved from San Francisco to South San Francisco
(The Times 1956). By the mid-1950s, Gamlen Chemical had relocated to 321 Victory Avenue (The
Times [San Mateo] 1955:1) and E. I. du Pont de Nemours Paint was expanding at 160 South Linden
Avenue. In 1958, the City of South San Francisco reported a record year for building permits,
doubling the previous year’s amount (The Times [San Mateo] 1958:15). E.F. Houghton & Company
opened their 300,000 square-foot manufacturing plant, laboratory, office building and storage yard,
at the site of the former American Brake Shoe Company at 54 Tanforan Avenue in 1960 (The Times
[San Mateo] 1960:11) and were soon launching a new line of aluminum lubricants (The Times [San
Mateo] 1963:24). The 1960s also found Merk and Company’s Marine Magnesium Plant expanding in
the City (City of South San Francisco 2020).
By the mid-1970s, E. F. Houghton & Company were hiring local chemistry and physics graduates and
becoming something of an industry thought-leader, employing Gerald Loeb – the “Wizard of Wall
Street”, a financial author credited with predicting the 1929 stock market crash- as a senior
consultant (The Times [San Mateo] 1972a: 21). Gamlen Chemical also expanded operations in the
City during the 1970s, constructing a 2-story, 7,200-square foot international headquarters which
would house its technical, customer service, and electronic data processing staff (The Times [San
Mateo] 1972b:21) and later expanded its central marketing and development operations (The Times
[San Mateo] 1975: 25).
Industry in South San Francisco took a further turn in the 1970s, when venture capitalist Robert A.
Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer formed Genentech, a company pioneering
recombinant DNA technology (Genentech 2021). The pair located their headquarters in South San
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Francisco’s San Bruno Point, where a century earlier Gustavus Swift’s meat packing plants once
stood. Genentech’s biotechnological discoveries allowed for the production of biological molecules
in large fermentation tanks, akin to what is used to make beer. Rather than the traditional method of
extracting molecules from plants and animals (for instance, insulin was harvested from cow and pig
pancreases), biotechnology allowed for the mass production of these molecules in these enormous
and highly sophisticated fermentation tanks (Labiotech.eu 2021). The turn toward biotechnologies
illustrates a move away from the chemical manufacturing that defined the post-WWII era, and
toward a new and different form of manufacturing and innovation.
C.1.3 Summary of Known Industries Historically Located in
South San Francisco by Type
Metallurgical Industries
⚫ Bethlehem Steel
⚫ Metal and Thermite Corporation
⚫ Pacific Coast Steel
⚫ Pacific Jupiter Steel Company
⚫ Superior Electrocast Foundry Co
⚫ The Selby Smelting and Lead Company
⚫ Wildberg Bros Smelting and Refining Co
⚫ Colorado Fuel and Iron
Meat Packing
⚫ Swift and Company
⚫ Western Meat Company
Manufacturing
⚫ American Brake Shoe and Foundry
⚫ Doak Sheet Metal company
⚫ E. H. Edwards Co.
⚫ Edward Wire Rope Co
⚫ Enterprise Foundry Company
⚫ Meese & Gottfried Company
⚫ Pacific Car and Equipment Company
⚫ The Prestolie Co Inc
⚫ Poetsch & Peterson Tannery
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Ship Building
⚫ Schaw-Batcher Company
Chemicals
⚫ E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company
⚫ E.F. Houghton & Company
⚫ Gamlen Chemical
⚫ Klix Chemical
⚫ Marine Magnesium Products Corp.
⚫ Sun Chemicals Corporation
⚫ W. P. Fuller and Company’s lead and color works
Building Supplies/ Construction Materials
⚫ South City Lumber and Supply
⚫ Steiger Brothers Pottery Works
⚫ Vannucci Brothers Concrete
C.2 Chronology of Major Events
Date Timeline
1862 San Francisco and San Jose Railroad line constructed from San Francisco to the south.
1887 Baden, a village built around Charles Lux’s ranch in South San Francisco, is chosen as site
for Swift’s industrial company town.
1890 South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company buys up 3,400 acres of land.
1891 J. A. Worthen, a civil engineer, lays out, surveys, and sub-divides, and grades streets and
alleys in the commercial, residential, and industrial areas of town.
1892 The Baden meat-packing plant opens (eighty-two acres including stockyards and related
facilities).
1893 Steiger Brothers Pottery Works opens on San Bruno Point (8 acres), closes in 1896.
1894 The Baden meat plant, stockyards, and related facilities are incorporated as Western
Meat Company.
1898 W. P. Fuller and Company’s Lead and Color Works (one-acre tidewater site at San Bruno
Point).
1903 The Pacific Jupiter Steel Company establishes first steel casting plant on San Bruno Point.
1906 Selby Smelting and Lead Company purchases a parcel of land for a smelter at San Bruno
Point.
1907 New rail line (Bay Shore Cut Off) to South San Francisco runs past western edge of the
factory district.
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Date Timeline
1908 San Mateo County Board of Supervisors passes ordinance preventing smelter. City of
South San Francisco is incorporated, bypassing ordinance and allowing smelter.
1909 Pacific Coast Steel opens rolling mills (taken over by Bethlehem Steel in 1929).
1911 Manufacturing companies locate to South San Francisco, including the Pacific Car and
Equipment Company, the Meese & Gottfried Company, and the Doak Sheet Metal
Company.
1917 The Schaw-Batcher Company acquires property for a shipyard.
1925 E. H. Edwards Wire Rope Company fully established on San Bruno Point.
1939 Schaw-Batcher bids for construction of additional ocean liners.
1940 Du Pont constructs chemical plant at 160 South Linden Avenue.
1943 Poetsch & Peterson Tannery moves to South San Francisco.
1948 Hunt foods leaves South San Francisco for Hayward after a warehouse fire.
1949 Du Pont expands another 5.8 acres at corner of Dollar and Tanforan.
1949 Schaw-Batcher Co taken over by United States Steel Corporation.
1951 Klix Chemical company relocates to South San Francisco.
1954 San Francisco International Airport terminal opens to large crowds.
1955 Gamlen Chemical relocates to South San Francisco.
1957 Bethlehem Steel moves focus of operations from South San Francisco plant to Los Angeles
and Seattle.
1958 South San Francisco has a record year for building permits.
1959 South San Francisco businesses form a traffic club to coordinate transportation and
shipping.
1960 E.F. Houghton & Company opens manufacturing plant, laboratory, office building and
storage yard in South San Francisco.
1961 Bethlehem steel installs air pollution control devices.
1972 Gamlen Chemical expands South San Francisco operations, adding international
headquarters.
1977 Bethlehem Steel closes down its last operation in South San Francisco.
1978 Genentech moves to South San Francisco.
Source: Chronology Period Plans were created by ICF, 2021. See Bibliography for research sources.
C.3 20th Century Industrial Architecture
The forms of industrial buildings have historically reflected their functions. Industrial buildings have
housed a myriad of uses which include printing, manufacturing, food processing, and warehousing
in the early 20th century, as well as later light-industrial functions such as auto repair in the post-
World War II era (Page & Turnbull, Inc. 2009:90). The production processes conducted inside have
determined the buildings’ design and organization, in which exterior ornament remained
subordinate to more utilitarian concerns.
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Improvements in building materials and techniques over time have affected industrial form through
allowing for bigger and highly functional industrial buildings. Following earlier load-bearing brick
construction, reinforced concrete provided for new innovation in industrial building design during
the early 20th century. Builders and owners remained wary of reinforced concrete construction
until its benefits were clearly revealed when representative buildings survived major earthquakes
and fires. Employing reinforced concrete in the design of a new type of industrial production
building—the automobile factory—Detroit’s Albert Kahn distinguished himself as the first
significant 20th century American industrial architect. Establishing a new precedent for industrial
design, Kahn worked in close consultation with production experts and engineers to fit the massive
hyper-functional building to the needs of the manufacturing process. Kahn’s design principles
influenced industrial design throughout the early and mid-20th century. His principles included
building configurations that included administrative wings, parking lots, and landscape setbacks
fronting shed, sawtooth, or convex-roofed factories so as to obstruct their visibility from streets and
highways (Bradley 1999:156–58; Munce 1960:40; Rappaport 2004:433).
Other early techniques were exemplified by design accomplishments overseas. Peter Behrens and
Mies van der Rohe created a new steel and glass curtain wall system for a turbine factory in Berlin in
1908–1909 that maximized natural lighting, freely exposing the building’s steel skeletal framing,
that proved highly influential in the field of industrial building design. Only a few years after its
construction, industrial buildings widely implemented the steel industrial sash window system
(SurveyLA 2018: 198). Over the next several decades, innovations in prefabrication and framing
enabled the design of industrial buildings that appeared lighter and incorporated more windows on
both exterior facades and roofs (Martinson 2009:283; Rappaport 2004:433).
During World War II, the design of industrial production buildings began to shift away from
maximization of natural lighting and ventilation. As Bradley explains, “the new model was based on
the utilization of artificial lighting, air-conditioning, and forced air circulation to optimize working
conditions in structures with few openings” (Bradley 1999:4). Industrial building design in the post-
World War II era was characterized by a proliferation of sprawling one-story factory buildings, a
product of wartime production that responded to demand for low-cost construction and the
increasingly horizontal orientation of production processes. As architectural historian Nina
Rappaport explains, “the one-story shed-type building allowed for larger machines and more
flexible and open floor plans for the new horizontal assembly-line production, which could then be
shifted easily to the truck- and train-based transportation systems, with train lines running close to
or even through a manufacturing plant.”
During this period in the United States, manufacturing industries also began to relocate from urban
cores to booming suburbs or other peripheral zones of new development. Even in the face of a
changing industrial environment, the new factory facilities continued to reflect some of the planning
principles pioneered by Kahn in the early 20th century, including roof forms, setbacks, parking
areas, and minimal to non-existent architectural ornament. However, emerging corporate emphasis
on teamwork and organizational psychology led to the introduction of post-war amenities such as
cafeterias, athletic facilities, and lounges for workers, as well as a trend away from the earlier
separation of administrative offices from factory production spaces.
Throughout the 20th century, the priority of industrial architectural design has remained rooted in
efficiency and profit. Industrial processes and products are constantly refined to maximize return on
investment. Consequently, industrial properties are frequently altered to accommodate new product
manufacturing processes or updated technologies. Full or partial demolition is commonplace,
City of South San Francisco
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resulting in industrial areas characterized by buildings with widely varying dates of construction
and reflecting different industries and contexts over time.
C.3.1 Key Characteristics
This section extrapolates the description above and summarizes it in bullet points. If a building or
structure exhibits multiple characteristics included in this list, it likely exhibits industrial
architecture. These characteristics include but are not limited to:
Buildings and Structures
⚫ rectangular footprint;
⚫ 1-5 stories in height with emphasis on horizontal massing (1 story buildings gained in
prevalence following WWII);
⚫ boxed, simple massing that accommodates additions;
⚫ raised foundation with loading docks;
⚫ flexible, open floor plans;
⚫ roll-up doors for vehicular use, especially in post-WWII construction;
⚫ loading docks;
⚫ smokestacks;
⚫ bays of large industrial sash windows, skylights, or monitor glazing in older buildings that
emphasized natural light and ventilation;
⚫ steel industrial sash window systems;
⚫ minimal fenestration or lack of windows in post-WWII buildings;
⚫ utilitarian style, often with no ornamentation;
⚫ brick or reinforced concrete construction;
⚫ prefabricated construction;
⚫ roof forms including flat roofs, sawtooth roofs, shed roofs, monitor roofs, or convex-roofs;
⚫ cladding of brick, corrugated metal, or wood boards;
⚫ exposed metal piping or ducting;
⚫ administrative wings in pre-WWII construction;
⚫ cafeterias, athletic facilities, and lounges for workers in post-war construction;
Site Features
⚫ expansive onsite surface paving for parking, loading, or other industrial purposes;
⚫ auxiliary site structures such as storage tanks or sheds, trestles, rail spurs, and pump houses;
⚫ landscaped setbacks near administrative entrance or on street-facing façades;
⚫ proximity to urban markets and transportation infrastructure (i.e. docks or wharves, canals,
highways, and railroads).
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Section D
Potential District Parameters
The following framework provides broad parameters for understanding the extent of the potential
historic district in South San Francisco.
D.1 Potential District Area
Industrial development in South San Francisco can be broadly mapped over time. Early industrial
development, including stock yards and meat processing, was principally concentrated in the
vicinity of San Bruno Point. Shipbuilding developed in South San Francisco in 1917 in connection
with the first World War and centered around the Oyster Point area. As additional industry
relocated to the City from San Francisco and the Southern Pacific Railroad expanded throughout the
region, industrial development densified and moved south along Linden Avenue towards the
Southline Specific Plan area. Following World War II chemical manufacturing and other types of
light industrial development expanded east again, across the SPRR track, to infill former marshland.
The nature of the industry impacted the character of the built environment. The areas in orange in
Figure 1 below represent the full extent of industrial expansion in South San Francisco, which, for
purposes of this preliminary assessment, represent the full extent of the potential historic district
area comprising roughly 1,840 acres.
Potential contributing properties are likely to have been built during the historic period within this
general area. The exact boundary, size, and number and locations of contributing properties within
the potential historic district are unknown; a complete historic district evaluation would be required
to identify these features. It is likely that the boundary would be refined as part of a full historic
district evaluation, once date of construction, significance, and integrity for individual parcels or
properties are assessed further.
As shown in Figure 2, the majority of the project site falls within the potential district area, while
some off-site improvements located in San Bruno are outside of the potential district area; note that
the off-site improvement areas do not contain any structures and therefore do not contain any
potential contributors to the potential historic district. Properties within the Specific Plan area that
could contribute to the potential historic district area are shown in Table 1.
Recognizing that the character of the potential district area varies greatly on either side of the U.S.
101 freeway, the area has been further divided into Zone 1, located west of the freeway and totaling
approximately 470 acres, and Zone 2, located east of the freeway and totaling approximately 1,370
acres (refer to Figure 1). The levels of integrity likely differ between Zone 1 and Zone 2 due to the
different types of industry that operated in each location in the past, and the presence of more
recent development that has affected the industrial character east of the freeway. Generally
speaking, Zone 1, which includes the Lindenville area, may be more likely to have retained integrity
than Zone 2, which has been more heavily developed with biotechnology uses since the 1970s. (See
Section E.6 for additional discussion of integrity.) Should the City decide to undertake a complete
evaluation as part of its General Plan update or at a future time, this distinction between Zone 1 and
Zone 2 should be carefully weighed in defining the parameters of any historic district.
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Figure 1. The areas in orange (inclusive of both Zone 1 and Zone 2) represent the total
approximate area where industrial development occurred in South San Francisco during the
historic period. Source: ICF, 2021.
Figure 2. The majority of the project site falls within the potential district area; some off-site
improvements located in San Bruno are outside of the potential district area. Source: ICF, 2021.
City of South San Francisco
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Table 1. Southline Specific Plan Area property information. This table includes the potential
historic district contributors within the proposed Specific Plan boundary. Source: ICF, 2021.
APN Address Use Type Location on Parcel Year Built
014-250-090 30 Tanforan Ave.* Administrative office Southwest corner 1963
40 Tanforan Ave.* Industrial warehouse Center c. 1956
337 S. Maple Ave. Industrial warehouse Northeast corner c. 1965
339 S. Maple Ave. Industrial warehouse Northeast corner 1959
014-250-080 50 Tanforan Ave.* Industrial warehouse West boundary 1959
014-250-050 54 Tanforan Ave.* Industrial warehouse Center c. 1943
014-241-030 240 Dollar Ave.* Industrial factory Center c. 1943/
1956/1965
180 Linden Ave.* Industrial warehouse West boundary 1956/1982
014-241-040 160 S. Linden
Ave.*
Chemical plant Southeast corner 1940/1958
160 S. Linden
Ave.*
Ancillary building Southeast corner c. 1940
325 S. Maple Ave. Industrial warehouse Southwest corner 1946/1957
* Property addresses marked with an asterisk symbol are located partially or fully within the Phase 1 site.
D.2 Period of Significance
Industrial development in South San Francisco began in 1890 with meat packing and stockyards.
Steel production, manufacturing, and shipbuilding arrived during the first half of the 20th century,
while chemicals, warehousing, and other light industry proliferated in the post-WWII era.
When Genentech moved into South San Francisco in 1978 it marked a new era of development in the
City. Neighborhoods that had been historically occupied by heavy industry began to see commercial
and office development instead. As such, potential contributing properties are likely to have been
built between 1890 and 1978.
D.3 Potential District Character
Properties that contribute to the district would exhibit physical characteristics that are typical of
industrial development in the region. It is unlikely that the earliest industrial building types (such as
tanneries, stockyards, or pulleries) remain extant due to continual development in the City during
the 20th century. However, facilities that house production, distribution and repair activities often
exhibit the characteristics that are outlined under Section C.3 of this assessment. These industrial
properties typically lack highly stylized ornament and are focused on functionality instead.
Industrial building types in South San Francisco include but are not limited to:
⚫ Warehouses
⚫ foundries
⚫ factories
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⚫ manufacturing facilities
⚫ processing plants
⚫ chemical plants
⚫ auto shops
Site features indicating industrial use may include but are not limited to:
⚫ Administrative wings
⚫ loading docks
⚫ rail spurs
⚫ storage tanks
⚫ pump houses
⚫ minimally landscaped setbacks
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Section E
Research Questions
The broad parameters presented in Section D set the stage for understanding a potential historic
district relating to industrial development in South San Francisco. These parameters will need to be
further researched and refined in order to provide a complete historic district evaluation.
The research questions below outline areas where further investigation is warranted and highlight
specific metrics that would be included in a complete historic district evaluation. Excellent guidance
on how to approach these research questions, including how to evaluate a property within its
historic context and understanding the aspects of integrity, is outlined in the National Park Service’s
National Register Bulletin 15: How To Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation 1997).
E.1 Supplemental Historic Research
Information gaps remain relating to City-wide industrial development in South San Francisco. For
example, the following events and trends may have had an influence on the industrial character of
the City: local zoning, establishment and expansion of San Francisco International Airport, the
Southern Pacific Railroad (SPRR), and socio-economic influences. A better understanding of these
trends, among others, would inform the assessment of historical integrity and could influence
modifications to the potential district boundary or period of significance in a complete historic
district evaluation.
E.2 Refining the Broad Parameters
The thresholds used for identifying whether a property may contribute to the district as described
in this assessment are limited to:
⚫ general potential district area;
⚫ a broad historic era that aligns with heavy industrial development;
⚫ a list of localized property types and site features that characterize industrial development.
Within these parameters further refinement is required to complete a complete historic district
evaluation. For instance, supplemental historic research could determine a narrower district
boundary than what is illustrated under Section D.1, based on integrity and prevalence of building
types. Further research may also determine that not enough extant buildings are present from the
earliest phase of development (meat packing and stockyards) to represent that era, and the
boundary and period of significance could be refined to align with the onset of shipbuilding in South
San Francisco instead.
City of South San Francisco
Research Questions
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E.3 Criteria for Evaluating Significance
Following supplemental historic research and a re-assessment of the potential district parameters, a
complete historic district evaluation should include a full evaluation for historic significance under
the National or California register criteria.
The National and California registers of historic properties include evaluation criteria that identify
the range of resources and levels of significance that quality properties for listing. The criteria are
written broadly to recognize the wide variety of historic properties associated with pre-history and
history and provide for a conservative analysis. They include:
⚫ Properties that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad
patterns of our history.
⚫ Properties that are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.
⚫ Properties that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of
construction; represent the work of a master; possess high artistic values; or represent a
significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.
⚫ Properties that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or
history.
E.4 Additional Significance Thresholds
As noted above, the thresholds used in this assessment to determine if a property may contribute to
the potential district are broad in order to provide for a conservative analysis. To complete a full
historic district evaluation, additional significance factors relating to industrial development should
be considered. Additional factors would include analysis of the influence of specific industries or
industrialists in South San Francisco. It is likely that certain industries or industrialists had a heavier
hand in the development of the City than others (e.g., companies that had larger impacts because
they located their headquarters in South San Francisco as opposed to elsewhere, or companies that
engineered new products or new technologies that influenced industrial production in the City). An
understanding of what contributed to the development of the region within its industrial context is
an important factor in clarifying its historic significance.
E.5 Identifying Contributing Properties
A historic district possesses a concentration of linked properties (sites, buildings, structures, etc.)
that are associated through their shared history and in some cases, physical characteristics. A
complete historic district evaluation that looks at industrial heritage in South San Francisco should
include a list of properties that share an association with the City’s industrial development, and
contribute to the significance, eligibility, and integrity of the district.
Properties that are likely to contribute to the potential district would be determined through
collecting an initial data set using the broad parameters outlined in this assessment. The research
questions listed above would then help narrow down the data set to a final list of properties using
refined criteria and assessment.
City of South San Francisco
Research Questions
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E.6 An Assessment of Integrity
This preliminary assessment assumes that the potential historic district retains sufficient integrity
to convey its historic significance under one or more of the criteria outlined above. A full assessment
of integrity would provide further clarity regarding this assumption. It would also help to narrow
the district parameters, as prescribed under Section E.2, which may have the effect of limiting the
area of the potential historic district and reducing the number of properties included therein.
To assess integrity, the National Park Service recognizes seven aspects or qualities that, considered
together, define historic integrity. To retain integrity, a historically significant property (i.e., a
historic district) must possess enough of the following qualities to convey the reasons for its
significance: Location, Design, Setting, Materials, Workmanship, Feeling, and Association.
The historic district in South San Francisco would need to retain enough properties that are
associated with the City’s industrial development (as defined by the parameters in Section 2 and the
criteria referenced above) to physically convey that history. Some aspects of integrity may be more
important than others.
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Section F
Preparers
Gretchen Hilyard Boyce (Senior Advisor), has 15 years of experience in cultural resources
compliance for private and agency clients includes: managing large-scale cultural resource surveys;
preparing National/California register evaluations, cultural landscape assessments, and
CEQA/NEPA/Section 106 technical documentation; evaluating projects for compliance with the
Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and project impacts under CEQA/NEPA. Prior to joining ICF,
Ms. Hilyard Boyce was a Preservation Technical Specialist with the San Francisco Planning
Department. Her specialty in cultural landscapes demonstrates her unique big-picture perspective
on cultural resource management and bridges the divide between traditional built, cultural and
natural resource practices. Gretchen received a B.A. in architectural history from the University of
Virginia and an M.S. in historic preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. Gretchen teaches
adult continuing education courses in historic preservation and landscapes and has spoken widely
at professional conferences and trainings. She was a co-author of the National Park Service Cultural
Landscapes Inventory Professional Procedures Guide (2009). Gretchen exceeds the Secretary of the
Interiors professional qualification standards for architectural history and history.
Eleanor Cox (Technical Review) is an architectural historian and senior historic preservation
specialist with more than nine years of professional experience in cultural resources management.
Ms. Cox holds a Master of Science degree in historic preservation from Columbia University in the
City of New York and a certificate in cultural landscape preservation and management from UC
Berkeley Extension. She has technical experience in report production and stakeholder consultation
and has served as lead historian or project manager on multiple historic resource surveys that
included evaluation and documentation work under Section 106 of the NHPA and CEQA. Eleanor
exceeds the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards in the areas of history
and architectural history.
Patrick Maley (Historian) is a Senior Environmental Planner with 12 years of experience working
with private and public sector clients researching, writing, and editing sections of California
Environmental Quality Act/National Environmental Policy Act (CEQA/NEPA) documents,
performing built resources surveys, conducting property research, and writing historical contexts as
well as DPR 523A and 523B forms. Patrick is a thorough and comprehensive writer and researcher
with strong analytical skills. Patrick meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification
Standards in the area of history.
Alex Ryder (Historian) is an historic preservation specialist with a multidisciplinary background.
He is experienced in evaluating the eligibility of both built and archeological resources for the
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), Washington Historic Register (WHR), and the California
Register of Historic Resources (CRHR). He has strong geospatial analysis skills and is proficient with
a number of geographic information system (GIS) software platforms. He meets the Secretary of
Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards for History.
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Section G
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