288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915 ⌕
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Service building · South Gardens

Service Building

The exposition's working headquarters just inside the Fillmore Street gate: offices, hospital, guardroom, lost-and-found and the first building on the site.

The Service Building was the first exposition building to go up and the last to be given up. Its contract was let in October 1912, and on October 17 the first load of lumber for it was paraded through the city behind an automobile tractor. The crowd loved it, since it was the first physical proof that 'the dirt was really beginning to fly' (Todd). It was done by mid-February 1913. On February 18 the Architectural and Engineering Departments moved in, and the Division of Works left its downtown offices at Pine and Battery Streets to direct construction 'on the lot.'

By opening day it was 'as crowded as a tenement.' It held the offices of the Division of Works, the Director of Exhibits, the Division of Concessions and Admissions, the Comptroller, Special Days and Events, and the guards' headquarters and school. Its court held the lost-and-found office and a barred lock-up that was never used. The ground floor of the south wing became the emergency hospital, run by the U.S. Public Health Service with two motor ambulances and a medical library. Janitors, telephones, the exposition's garage and a bandstand just to the north all clustered around it.

After closing day the exposition kept it off the salvage market because it still needed the building. The divisions directing the exodus and the wrecking stayed on here for months, and a sales office for salvaged steel and lumber was run from it.

At a glance

  • Contract let October 16, 1912 to Fred Fisher (F. P. & L. F. Fischer) at $55,111 (Todd vols. 1–2); Todd elsewhere says the building 'cost over $75,000.'
  • A fire in its blue-printing room on August 19, 1914 caused about $1,200 in damage, mostly from water (Todd vol. 5).
  • On opening morning 400 young women cashiers mustered in the street in front of it for their station assignments (Todd vol. 2).
  • Dr. Woodward's hospital occupied 18 rooms on the ground floor of the south wing (Todd vol. 5).
  • It was one of the few buildings kept insured through the season (Todd vol. 5).

Afterward

Held back from the 1916 salvage sales for the exposition's own use during the wrecking (Todd vol. 5); its later removal is not detailed in the sources consulted. The site is now Marina District.

Where it stood

Service Building stood at about 37.80103 N, 122.43670 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →

Sources