Map of Residential Neighborhoods in the Presidio

View Housing in The Presidio in a larger map

Photo Essay - A Sample of Historic Buildings in the Presidio

Building 50. the Officers’ Club. The Officers’ Club is the oldest building in the Presidio and is the largest surviving Spanish Colonial military building in California. The building was built

between 1776 and 1824. Today the buildings is rented as event space and is the current home of the National Park Service’s visitor center.

Building 102 was once a men’s barracks. It was built in 1895. After the transition from military post to national park the building was used for a time as the National Park Service’s visitor center. They moved out and into the officers club in order to do retrofitting on building 102. However, the cost of the retrofitting became too expensive. Plans for the building are now on hold.

Building 36 was constructed in 1886. The army built two of these Italianate style barracks. One of the buildings was removed in 1912 to make room for new buildings. Building 36 is currently serving as the Presidio Graduate School.

Building 59 was constructed in 1885 in the Queen Anne style, which was imported from England during the mid nineteenth century. It was constructed as officer’s quarters for an officer with a family. The house is currently a residential home.

Building 45, Chapel of Our Lady, was originally constructed in 1864 but was redone in 1952 and 1970. The building is still a religious structure.

Building 1016 was constructed in 1899 as the administration building for the general hospital. It is currently leased out to nonresidential organizations.

Building 1007 was built in 1901 as women’s barracks. It is currently used as government offices.

Building 225 was constructed in 1910 as a storehouse. It was built in the Utilitarian style. This style often employed inexpensive materials and limited applied details. The function of the building usually dictated the style. The building is still used for storage.

Pilot’s Row home. The houses in the Pilot’s Row neighborhood, located directly across from Golden Gate Bridge, were built in 1921. The 13 houses were constructed in the Colonial revival style to accommodate pilots who were based at Crissy Field. They are currently residential homes.

Building 1204 was built in 1910. It is a good example of a Presidio building in the Mission Revival style. It was originally built as enlisted men’s barracks.

Building 1450 was constructed in 1942 as part of the War World II building campaign in the Presidio. It was originally a radio transmitter and warhead supply shop built to serve the coastal defense batteries.

Frank Dean Talks about Historic Preservation

On Nov 18 at the Old Presidio Golf Club Frank Dean, a superintendent of the National Golden Gate Recreation Area spoke to a small audience on the role of the National Park Service in historic preservation and in education in history at national parks and the challenges it faces.

While the talk focused on the treatment of historical properties by the National Park Service on a largerscale the audience seemed more interested the Presidio Trust’s plans for development as well as the National Park Service’s role in the Presidio.

The Presidio Historical Association hosted the talk, which began with an introduction by the association’s president, Gary Widman. Widman made an announcement that the Presidio Trust is still planning on building a hotel in the main post area as well as tearing down the bowling center and building something new in its location.

Dean, who 30 years ago gave tours of the Presidio as an interpretive park ranger, has found himself coming full circle to again work in the same location.

Dean said that working with the Presidio Trust has been a unique process. Noting that they have a different mission then the National Park Service and that they have to cover their costs. The park service was given Area A, which includes Crissy Field and they were given interpretation, park rangers explaining the history of the park, they also have formal programs in place. However Dean says that he “would like to spice it up a bit.”

He said that the Presidio Trust wants to see an agreement in broad terms about what will happen at a site, but the National Park Service whose opinion holds some weight needs more information, “ we can’t approve anything without knowing more.”

As far as main post planning goes Dean said, “keep it constructive, keep it positive.”

Lucia Bogatay, a member of the audience, asked if the Presidio Trust were to give the Presidio back to the park service, would they want it back?

Dean replied by saying that, “it looks good, I don’t always agree with them [the Presidio Trust] but they have done good things.” He continued by saying that the trust has legal flexibilities that the National Park service does not have.

To questions about creating a modern visitor center in the Presidio Dean responded by saying that they need to get back to the main post. A visitor center was located in building 102 on the main post but they moved out for retrofitting, which became too expensive. The visitor center for the Presidio is temporarily located in the Officer’s Club.

Dean also spoke about there being 12 national registered properties, 739 historical structures and 61 archeological sites within the National Golden Gate Recreation Area, which includes the Presidio.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

The newly opened Walt Disney Family Museum, located in a wonderfully restored building in the Presidio, is an experience for all ages. While it focuses mainly on the life of Walt Disney and seems designed for older visitors there are still plenty of interactive exhibits to keep the attention of children.

The museum takes you step by step through the life of Walt Disney. It features a War World 1 era ambulance similar to the one Disney drove during his time volunteering for the Red Cross, the earliest known drawings of Mickey Mouse, family photographs of the Disneys, various cameras used by Disney including a multiplane camera, a full wall with stills from the animation “Steamboat Willie,” and a Disneyland model.

The building is located in one of the old barracks in the Main Post area of the Presidio. In a row of six barracks the museum is the only one in use and the only one that has been fully restored and modernized. The buildings were built sometime between 1895 and 1909. From the outside the building looks basically untouched, however on the inside few of the elements are original. The museum proves that restoration of the historical buildings is possible but at a high price, the project budget was $52 million.

The museum also houses a theatre. From Nov 1-20 they will be screening “Sleeping Beauty” three times daily. On the Nov 14^th the San Francisco International Animation Festival will be screening the Alice Comedies. The Alice Comedies are short films featuring a live action girl placed in a cartoon that were created by Disney from 1923 to 1927.

The museum contains 10 galleries on 2 floors. Each gallery recounts a different phase of Walt Disney’s life and career. Plan to spend at least a full afternoon or morning exploring the exhibits. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Monday.

For more information see the museum's website.

Presidio Bowling Center Faces Uncertain Future

Five-year-old Jude Sol’s favorite thing about bowling at the Presidio Bowling Center is “knocking down the pins.” However, the fate of the Presidio Bowling Center is as uncertain as his knocking down all the pins; it is possible that the center will lose its lease in order to make room for new development.

The Presidio Trust has plans to transform the Main Post area of San Francisco’s Presidio, where the Presidio Bowling Center is located, to revive its historical past. Recently those plans have included replacing the Bowling Center with a contemporary art museum proposed by Donald Fisher, the co-founder of Gap Inc, to house his large art collection.

Darrell Herbert, the general manager of the Presidio Bowling Center, said the community rallied behind the center by signing petitions saying that residents were not interested in seeing a museum built in the location. During the summer, Fisher withdrew his proposal for the art museum. While the Presidio Bowling Center remains open on a month-to month lease as the Presidio trust continues with its Main Post planning, the fate of the center remains uncertain.

Dana Polk, the Presidio Trust spokesperson, said, “We just don’t know, it’s too early to say at this point.” about future plans for the Bowling Center’s location.

Victor Meyerhoff, owner of the Presidio Bowling Center, said that he has been talking with the trust about moving to a different location within the Presidio. He submitted a proposal to move to one of the old airplane hangers on Crissy Field but he said, “they don’t like our proposal. Basically I think it comes down to dollars and it is very expensive to retrofit one of those buildings.”

Polk said that the Presidio Trust appreciates the center being within the Presidio and is working with Meyerhoff to find a new location. However, Meyerhoff said he does not feel that the Presidio Trust at this time is very committed to keeping the center in the Presidio.

“The Presidio really wants to get market rent for any of their buildings here, they don’t see all of the intangible values to keeping bowling in the Presidio, they want to get the same amount of rent that they would get for putting an office building here and so that is the difficult part, we can’t generate that much revenue,” Meyerhoff said.

“The trend in the bowling industry right now is to make a bowling nightclub and so the bowling is really the secondary part of it,” said Meyerhoff. “It is more like a club with high-end food and beverage, but it doesn’t cater to kids and families, it caters to 21 to 35-year-olds that have a lot of disposable income. That’s not why I got into the business and that’s not why I want to stay in the business.”

Herbert coaches a youth bowling league which travels all around the world to compete in tournaments. “We travel to different cities, different states and different countries to bowl for scholarship money,” said Herbert. “Our next big tournament coming up is in Las Vegas. It’s a huge tournament that they offer every year and you have kids from all over all the country coming to bowl this tournament for over $70,000 in scholarships.”

The Bowling Center has a deli and a grill, offering inexpensive snacks and meals. It also has 50 different kinds of beer and various different types of wine. John Jurinek was in the Bowling Center to get a quick bite to eat and said, “I haven’t been here in about two months, we thought they were going to close, we drove by and I said ‘hey, it’s still open.’”

Bowling has been in the Presidio for almost 100 years, since 1912, according to Meyerhoff. The building where the bowling center is currently located was originally owned by the military when it opened in 1989. Mary Anne Sarrzin, who was visiting the center with her husband and young son remembers when the military operated the bowling center since her father was in the military. “Now we can come here at night on a date or with our son during the day,” she said.

“Anybody can play [bowl] and anybody can win, it’s really a neat sport for that reason,” Meyerhoff said. “We are open 365 days a year, you can do it when it rains you can do it when it’s sunny. There really is no limit, anybody can come bowling.”

A Map of Current and Future Scenic Overlooks in the Presidio

Scenic overlooks are typically in a high place, somewhere where people can gather and admire the scenery or take pictures. The Presidio National Park as many such places, though a few are still under going construction. This map shows the locations of both existing overlooks and the sites of future overlooks.

View Current and Future Scenic Overlooks in the Presidio in a larger map

*For more information see presidio.gov

A 3-DAY, 60 MILE WALK IN SEARCH OF A CURE

Tonight, Oct. 2 ,2009, Crissy Field looks like an army camp, but the tents are pink and the soldiers are those fighting to cure breast cancer.

Men and Women from around the country have come to San Francisco this weekend to participate in The Breast Cancer 3-day walk benefiting the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

“My New Year’s resolution was to be a part of something bigger then myself,” said Samantha Allen, who is walking in honor of her friend Becky Stevens who died after being diagnosed with breast cancer and bone cancer.

Walkers have been asked to raise a minimum of $2,300 each and some teams which were honored at the camp show on Friday night after the first day of walking had raised as much as $87,000. One individual woman, Corey Foley, raised over $36,000.

Despite the somber topic of the fundraiser and the chilly weather the participants seemed in high spirits during the camp show Friday night, proud of what they are doing and what they have already accomplished. Some participants wore prink costumes and the host cracked jokes as she explained the logistics of the camp. Participants did Karaoke, which they called the 3-Day Rock Stars, one woman sang “I Will Survive” and in the middle of her song she removed and threw a pink sparkly bra.

Not long ago “they wouldn’t print breast cancer in the paper, now you have boobs on your baseball caps,” said the host, “we have come a long way.” Since the 3-day walks began in 2004 almost $500 million has been raised.

“I have friends who that have had breast cancer. Some have made it, some haven’t,” said Angela Barber, a crewmember. Barber has participated in the event for the last four years, twice as a walker and twice as a crewmember. “Some of these women have breast cancer and some are survivors.” Barber described the closing ceremonies as being a truly emotional event, everyone is proud of what they have accomplished, “the survivors walk in last and everyone starts crying.”

The walkers began their journey with an opening ceremony at the Cow Palace, walked along the Great Highway, past Baker Beach, along part of the coastal trail and under the Golden Gate Bridge to Crissy Field, a total of 18.2 miles.

On the second day the walkers will cross the Golden Gate Bridge and walk through Sausalito and Mill Valley along the San Francisco Bay Trail. During the third and final day of walking the participants will walk through various San Francisco neighborhoods including the Marina District, Laurel Heights, the Financial District, Haight Ashbury, Civic Center and China Town before the closing ceremonies at Marina Green. In total the walkers will have covered 60 miles.