State of California & The Resources Agency Primary # DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # DISTRICT RECORD Trinomial Page 1 of 32 *NRHP Status Code *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Potrero Point Historic District D1. Historic Name Potrero Point/Lower Potrero D2. Common Name: Central Waterfront *D3. Detailed Description (Discuss coherence of the district, its setting, visual characteristics, and minor features. List all elements of district.): The Potrero Point Historic District (also referred to as the Central Waterfront) is located in the Potrero Hill district of San Francisco on the western side of San Francisco Bay in the City of San Francisco between Mission Creek on the north and Islais Creek to the south. The approximately 500-acre area is more precisely described as a roughly rectangular district bounded by Sixteenth Street to the north, San Francisco Bay to the east, Islais Creek to the south, and U.S. Interstate 280 to the west. The area measures approximately 1.3 miles from north to south, and approximately 0.6 miles wide from east to west. (See Continuation Sheet, Pg. 2) *D4. Boundary Description (Describe limits of district and attach map showing boundary and district elements.): The Potrero Point (Central Waterfront) area is enclosed within a rectangle formed by the following streets and natural features: Beginning at the northwest corner of Pennsylvania and Sixteenth streets, the northern boundary of the area extends east along Sixteenth Street into San Francisco Bay. The boundary turns ninety degrees and heads south through the bay encompassing the entirety of Piers 70 and 80. At Islais Creek Channel, the boundary makes a ninety degree turn and heads west along the southern shore of the channel. At the western end of Islais Creek Channel, the boundary shifts north and proceeds along Pennsylvania Street until it reaches the point of beginning. (See Continuation Sheet, Pg. 9) *D5. Boundary Justification: The boundaries of the Central Waterfront area were selected on the basis of common historical patterns and events, as well as physical continuity. The western boundary—Pennsylvania Street—marks the western end of the area historically known as “Lower Potrero.” West of Pennsylvania Street the land becomes much steeper, and industrial uses give way to residential. I-280 and the former Southern Pacific commuter railroad tracks (now Caltrain), which are both located immediately east of Pennsylvania Street, create another formidable boundary. Sixteenth Street—the northern boundary—marks the approximate location of the southern shore of Mission Bay, a natural water feature that historically divided the Potrero District from the South of Market area and downtown San Francisco. Mission Bay was filled in the 1890s and early 1910s, and until recently was the location of massive rail yards. Its historical use, street pattern, and development patterns were quite different from the Central Waterfront. (See Continuation Sheet, Pg. 11) D6. Significance: Theme Industrial Development and Settlement Area San Francisco Central Waterfront Period of Significance 1872-1958 Applicable Criteria 1, 3 (Discuss district's importance in terms of its historical context as defined by theme, period of significance, and geographic scope. Also address the integrity of the district as a whole.) The Central Waterfront, inclusive of Pier 70, the proposed Third Street Industrial District, and the Dogpatch Historic District appears significant under Criterion 1 (Events) for association with the industrial development of the City of San Francisco from 1872 to 1958. The Central Waterfront Historic District contains a significant concentration of mixed-use industrial properties, associated residential and commercial properties, and civic infrastructure oriented to water, railroad, and road transportation. The district was the epicenter of major industrial production beginning in the late 1850s, and continuing through the end of World War II. During the World Wars, the Central Waterfront was a centerpiece of the single-largest shipbuilding region in the Western United States (and briefly, the world), employing up to 18,500 workers at the height of World War II. The district also includes one of the only surviving grouping of workers’ housing located adjacent to industrial sites in the City of San Francisco: the Dogpatch neighborhood. The Central Waterfront contains some of the most significant industrial buildings and structures in the West, primarily the historic industrial buildings and structures at Pier 70 associated with Bethlehem Steel and the earlier Union Iron Works. Elements of other important industrial facilities, including PG & E’s Station A, the Western Sugar Refinery and the American Can Company, remain substantially intact. (See Continuation Sheet, Pg. 12) *D7. References (Give full citations including the names and addresses of any informants, where possible.) [See Continuation Sheet, Pg. 31] *D8. Evaluator: Christopher VerPlanck, Rebecca Fogel, and Rich Sucré Date: March 2008 Affiliation and Kelley & VerPlanck and Page & Turnbull, Inc., 724 Pine Street, San Francisco, CA 94108 Address: DPR 523D (1/95) *Required information State of California & The Resources Agency Primary# DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial Page 2 of 32 *Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Potrero Point Historic District *Recorded by: Kelley & VerPlanck and Page & Turnbull *Date March 2008 ⌧ Continuation Update D3. Detailed Description (continued) The existing topography of the Central Waterfront area is low and relatively flats—largely the product of extensive blasting, cutting, and filling operations. The land rises gently toward the west from San Francisco Bay, ranging from 5 feet above sea level at the Bay to a maximum of 25 feet near Interstate 280. One notable exception to the generally level topography is “Irish Hill,” an 80 foot, rocky promontory located east of Illinois Street, between Twentieth and Humboldt streets. A remnant of the eastern spur of Potrero Hill that once occupied the area, the small serpentine hillock looms over a paved parking lot between Pier 70 and the PG & E Potrero Station. Most of the modern shoreline of the Central Waterfront is the result of cutting and filling operations that took place during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Of the total land area, approximately one-third consists of solid bedrock, with two-thirds representing filled land.1 Water-related landscape features include the abandoned remains of piers and shipways at Pier 70 and Warm Water Cove, the latter named for the heated industrial discharge of the PG&E Potrero Station. Islais Creek Channel, a more recent manmade intervention in the landscape of the Central Waterfront, forms the southern boundary of the study area. The waterfront has an irregular shoreline created by fill and pier construction. Major piers include the irregularly-shaped Pier 70 at the north end of the shoreline, lined with ship ways, wharves, and drydocks; and the filled expanse of the container shipping facility at Pier 80, located at the southern end of the Central Waterfront, opened in 1967. Other manmade features include the trench and railroad tunnel network built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1904, and the I-280 right-of-way that transects the western part of the neighborhood.2 Development and vehicular and pedestrian circulation in the Central Waterfront area follows a standard American grid street pattern with named streets running north-south and numbered streets running east-west. According to the Wackenruder Map, the street network of the Potrero district was laid out as early as 1861, although many remained as “paper streets,” meaning that they were ungraded and unpaved well into the early twentieth century. Most of the numbered east-west streets dead-end east of Illinois Street, where major industrial properties occupy the waterfront. Kentucky (Third) Street, laid out in 1867 and widened in 1938, forms the main north-south artery through the area. The rest of the north-south streets are named for states, like rest of the Potrero district. The east-west streets of the Potrero district, originally named for California counties, were changed to numbered streets in the early 20th century to match the naming convention of streets in the adjoining Mission and South of Market districts.3 With the exception of the residential enclave of Dogpatch, production, distribution, and repair uses dominate the Central Waterfront area. The most significant industries were historically concentrated along the waterfront, including the former Union Iron Works/Bethlehem Steel San Francisco Yard facility at Pier 70; the Pacific Gas & Electric facility at the foot of Humboldt Street; and the remnants of the Western Sugar Refinery at the foot of Twenty-Third Street. Smaller industrial and commercial properties that support waterfront industrial activity fill the street grid west of the waterfront, particularly within a linear section between Illinois and Third streets and in the filled area south of Twenty-Third Street. Commercial corridors are clustered at the intersections of Twenty-Second and Third streets and Twentieth and Third streets. A compact residential neighborhood of approximately eighty properties, commonly known as Dogpatch, is located near the center of the Central Waterfront, running along Minnesota and Tennessee streets between Mariposa and Twenty-Third streets. Although residential and commercial uses are present,