The Women's Building (San Francisco)

"The Women's Building" redirects here. For similarly named structures, see Women's Building (disambiguation). United States historic place

Significant dates

The Women's Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
San Francisco Designated Landmark No. 178

The front of the San Francisco Women's Building in 2006.
Location	3543-18th Street, San Francisco, California, United States, U.S.
Coordinates	37°45′41″N 122°25′21″W / 37.761420°N 122.422619°W / 37.761420; -122.422619
Built	1910
Architect	August Reinhold Denke
NRHP reference No.	100002359
SFDL No.	178
Added to NRHP	April 30, 2018
Designated SFDL	March 1, 1985

The Women's Building is a women-led non-profit arts and education community center located in San Francisco, California. The center advocates self-determination, gender equality and social justice. The four-story building rents to multiple tenants and serves more than 20,000 women a year. The building has served as an event and meeting space since 1979, when it was purchased by the San Francisco Women's Center. The Center is shielded from rising real estate costs in the Mission District because it owns the building free and clear, having paid off the mortgage in 1995.

The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since April 30, 2018, under the name "The Women's Building". It has been listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since March 1, 1985.

History of The Women's Building

The four-story structure was built in 1910 by architect August Reinhold Denke, for the German Turnverein exercise movement. It retained the name Mission Turn Hall until 1935. Other organizations associated with various national or ethnic groups have also used the building, such as the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West. It also known as the Mission Turn-Verein Hall.

In 1935, the building was acquired by the Sons and Daughters of Norway, and was renamed as Dovre Hall. It received its current name in 1978 after being acquired by the Women's Center.

Background of Women's Center

The San Francisco Women's Center was organized in 1973. By 1974, the group hired its first full-time employee and had moved into a small storefront office. In 1976, difficulty in locating a venue for the national conference on Violence Against Women, which it was organizing with other women's groups, led the Center to search for a permanent space. Through 1978 and 1979, it raised funds to put down an initial $10,000 deposit, and then a $115,000 first payment toward the $535,000 purchase price of the building at 3543 18th Street.

"Becoming Visible: The First Black Lesbian Conference" was held at The Women's Building, from October 17 to 19, 1980. It has been credited as the first conference for African-American lesbian women.

Tracy Gary, one of the organizers of the Violence Against Women conference, and co-founder of The Women's Building, along with co-founder Marya Grambs and Women's Building staff member Carmen Vázquez, were interviewed in 1982 by Julia Randall for KPFA in recognition of the center's 3rd year of operations. The women discussed the difficulties of the early years and how the building was being used in 1982. Roma Guy and her partner Diane Jones were also among The Women's Building's co-founders.

In the first year of operation, The Women's Building was subject to two attacks: an arson fire that caused $50,000 worth of damage, and a pipe bomb set off on the front steps of the building.

In 1997, The Women's Building began to undergo a $5 million renovation prompted by mandatory seismic retrofitting to meet city standards. In the course of that effort, it evicted the Dovre Club, an Irish bar that had been in the corner of the building on 18th and Lapidge streets since 1979. The original owner of that bar had an oral agreement with the Women's Center that the bar could stay in place during his lifetime; after his death in 1997, the bar made an effort to remain but ultimately relocated.

In 2018, the Center received a $160,000 grant to retrofit the building's windows, after winning preservation funding in a contest for historical buildings.

MaestraPeace (1994) mural

A mural titled MaestraPeace (1994) covers the outside of The Women's Building as well as the interior entrance hall and stairway. It was painted by women artists, including Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes (cofounder of Precita Eyes Muralists Association), Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene Perez, along with their helpers and volunteers. It features images of female icons from history and fiction, and the names of more than 600 women written in calligraphy. According to the San Francisco Women's Center, "This spectacular mural is a culmination of a multi-cultural, multi-generation collaboration of seven women artists, and a colorful work of art that sings to our community."

Many of the original artists returned to the building for an update in 2000, an expansion to the inside of the building in 2010, and a major $130,000 restoration in 2012. That last restoration included a treatment process designed to preserve the colors of the mural for another 100 years.

References

"National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
^ "The Women's Building Homepage". San Francisco Women's Centers, Inc. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
^ Whiting, Sam (May 15, 2005). "More than a Building / Women's Building director Teresa Mejia on what shelter really means". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
Huber, Bridget (May 30, 2014). "Women's Building Turns 35". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
^ Accardi, Catherine (2012). San Francisco Landmarks. Arcadia Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 9780738595801.
"Women's Building, The". NPGallery Digital Asset Management System, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 2018.
"San Francisco Landmark #178: San Francisco Women's Building". noehill.com. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
^ "THE WOMEN'S BUILDING - FoundSF". www.foundsf.org. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
^ "Guide to the San Francisco Women's Building/Women's Centers Records, 1966, 1972-2001". Online Archive of California. 2002. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
^ Kyper, John. "Black Lesbians Meet in October." Coming Up: A Calendar of Events 1 (Oct. 1980): 1. Web.
Julia Randall, Host; Ginny Z. Berson (1982-05-06), Majority report, May 6, 1982: Judy Chicago, San Francisco Women's Building, Merle Woo, retrieved 2017-03-11{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Dana Getz (2017-01-03). "What Is Roma Guy Doing Now? The 'When We Rise' Activist Has An Inspiring Career". Bustle.com. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
"The Real-Life Gay Rights Activists of ABC's 'When We Rise'". Biography.com. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
^ Davis, Lisa (January 8, 1997). "A Tale of Two Bars". SF Weekly. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
Hoodline (2018-10-30). "The Women's Building wins $160K contest to replace its 108-year-old windows". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
"Historic Sites and Points of Interest in San Francisco". NoeHill in San Francisco. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
^ Hoke, Mateo (September 13, 2012). "Painters Scale Women's Building to Restore the "MaestraPeace" Mural". Retrieved March 7, 2015.
Hernandez, Peter (August 1, 2012). "Women's Strife Upheld in Mural Restoration". Retrieved March 7, 2015.

External links

Official website
San Francisco Landmark #178, as a San Francisco Designated Landmark
Guide to the San Francisco Women's Building/Women's Centers Records; finding aid for the historic records of the Women's Building (1972–2001) available to researchers at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.
Maestrapeace Artworks Records; finding aid for documentation on the creation of the Maestrapeace mural at the Women's Building available to researchers at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.

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