HABSNo. CA-2724 Jewish Community Center of San Francisco 3200 California Street San Francisco San Francisco County California PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA Historic American Buildings Survey National Park Service Western Region Department of the Interior San Francisco, California 94107 HABs C.AL :;<o-sA HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDING SURVEY JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO HABS No. CA - 2724 Location: 3200 California Street (at Presidio Avenue) . San Francisco, San Francisco County, California 94118 - 1904 UTM Coordinates: 10-548750-4181850 Present Owner: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Present Occupant: Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Present Use: Vacant Significance The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco QCC SF) was formally incorporated in 1930. However, its roots go back to 1874 with the establishment of the city's first Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA). The JCC SF reflects a progressive period in American history that resulted in provision of services and facilities for the underprivileged, and/or for minority ethnic groups. The Jewish Community Center project reflected both national and local efforts to facilitate coordination and effective work among Jewish social, athletic, cultural and charitable organizations by gathering them under one roof. Nationwide the Jewish community was influential in group social work, helping to develop the profession of social workers, and a wide variety of inclusive charitable organizations. In the era spanning 1900 to 1940, Jewish leaders in many American cities promoted the local development of these community centers to serve their communities as a central location for public service organizations, and recreational and social venues. The JCC SF is not closely associated with any specific event in the history of San Francisco or community, nor with any one individual significant to the city, state or nation. However, it has provided important community services for nearly seven decades, and is associated with the history of the Jewish community in San Francisco and individuals who were involved in a wide range of activities and organizations that benefited the city. The JCC SF building is a 61,750 square foot, two-story structure constructed of reinforced concrete with a wood truss roof system, and features a central, gable roofed pavilion with its east­ west axis parallel to California Street, and two gable-roofed wings. Materials include Spanish clay tile roofing, stucco exterior finishes, and painted wood windows and doors. Interiors include stained wood doors and paneling and trim, plaster and ceramic tile finishes. Significant interior building elements include a lobby skylight, interior patio with ornamental metal staircase and a tile clad fountain, and exposed wood trusses in the gymnasium. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco HABS No. CA - 2724, page 2 The building design is an example of the work of the well known San Francisco architect, Arthur Brown Jr., and the associated local firm of Hyman & Appleton. Designed in a Mediterranean Style with Art Deco details, it is atypical in the context of Brown's well known Classical Revival styled buildings. The building is not as significant a design as that of the nearby synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, which was designed also by Brown. However, it represents a high level of finish on the exterior and within its primary public spaces. As a Mediterranean styled building, the J CC SF was typical of its era and surroundings, and it represents an eclectic design of the early twentieth century. Use of this style suggests the process of assimilation of European Jewish immigrants, and their direct efforts to secularize services and recreation to benefit the broader community. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco HABS No. CA - 2724, page 3 PART I: HISTORIC INFORMATION Jewish Immigration Patterns in the United States Jewish immigration to the United States, from the period of 1815 until 1900, included Jews from Germany and Central Europe, and those from areas later known as Russia, Romania, Lithuania, Byelorussia and the Ukraine. The peak years of German immigration were between 1848 and 1870, after which their numbers decreased. Most of the Jewish immigration from the 1900s until the 1930s came from Eastern Europe. The most recent immigration, during the 1980s and 1990s, consisted mostly ofJews from the former Soviet Union. The broad settlement patterns of American Jews in the United States follows that of other immigrant groups with the creation of immigrant neighborhoods. However, the concept of Americanization resulted in a rejection of the Ghetto. As with many other immigrarits, members of the upwardly mobile second generation often left immigrant neighborhoods for dispersed middle-class dwellings. American settlement patterns dominated the Jewish community just as they did throughout the nation, and many affiuent and middle-class Jews gradually moved to suburban areas or neighborhoods outside of dense city centers. Assimilation took on a special meaning in rejecting the traditional life in the old neighborhood.1 Jewish Immigrants in San Francisco The United States provided nineteenth centuty Jewish immigrants respite from economic stagnation and religious discrimination prevailing in Europe, and personal freedom for Russian immigrants arriving in the early and late 1900s. The fluid, entrepreneurial culture and social setting of America, and in the West in particular, afforded Jewish immigrants opportunities to define their Jewish identity in the United States free from entrenched traditional restraints and institutions. Without strong communal boundaries or rabbinical establishments to challenge innovation, new synagogues were left as virtual islands. The resulting progressive and reform movements helped create new networks of Jewish educational, organizational, and charitable organizations in the United States. 2 The early pattern ofJewish settlement in Northern California, and specifically in San Francisco, is unique. Jewish emigres from the 1830s to the mid-1800s came to America largely as a result of economic stagnation and the renewal of religious discrimination, bigotry and political bias. The 1849 California Gold Rush and promise of San Francisco's urban growth drew westward those Jewish emigrees already on the eastern seaboard as well as directly from Europe. Mainly from Bavaria and Poznan (present day Polish province), they composed a substantial part of San Francisco's general population, settling largely in the Central Wharf District. They became 1 Gurock, p. 247 - 250. 2 Robin, p. 73. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco HABS No. CA - 2724, page 4 actively involved in trade and commerce surrounding the mining industry. By the 1850s the only city in the United States to have a higher density of Jews was New York.3 San Francisco of the 1860s to 1870s, with its boomtown economy, allowed opportunities for motivated individuals. The city quickly entered into a state of vast growth and transition. Over the next forty plus years it underwent rapid urbanization and experienced a large increase in immigration. During this time the merchant elite consolidated economic and political power. Exclusive neighborhoods also emerged during this period, reinforcing class distinctions. San Francisco's foreign-born population was the largest among thirty-five principal cities in the United States during these decades. The two principal immigrant groups were Italians, and Eastern European Jews from Poland, Lithuania, Byelorussia, and the Ukraine. They settled mainly in the lower levels of Folsom and Howard Streets. However, a homogeneous Jewish district never materialized in the working class districts of San Francisco.' In the 1920s Jewish immigration stabilized, with some gains from those migrating from other parts of the country. In the early 1930s there were additional European emigres from Germany, Russia, and Eastern Europe. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Jewish population of San Francisco rapidly increased, with the majority settling in the Peninsula area, a southern suburb of San Francisco. This settlement pattern prompted creation of another Jewish Community Center in the central area of the Peninsula in 1949. Similar, but slower growth took place in Marin County, north of San Francisco. Suburban growth also led to establishment of the Jewish Community Center in San Rafael in 1948, which was then the only Jewish institution in the area for several years. Jews from the former Soviet Union made up most of the Jewish immigrants to San Francisco in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Targeted in their homelands by the government for both religion and ethnicity, many came to San Francisco because of the presence of its strong Jewish Community. Jewish Culture and Identity in San Francisco San Francisco was a city of relative equal opportunity for those with initiative and perseverance during the 1849 Gold Rush and subsequent boom era. Jews arriving in the rapidly growing and ethnically diverse city came mainly from the nationally homogeneous, but religiously diverse societies of Germany and Central Europe.6 They entered into the city's economic development in a manner that enabled private pursuit of success and emphasis on their cultural background, while avoiding tight immigrant neighborhoods and Ghettos. The Jewish press of San Francisco at this time highlighted "the unique cultural background" and economic growth ofJews in Northern California. Jews defined themselves