• U. S. Custom House
• Fuller Company Glass Warehouse
• Hippodrome

The United States Custom House, at 555 Battery Street, occupies half of the block between Jackson and Washington streets. Not only does it provide a great contrast in size with the buildings we have been discussing above, but one can see some interesting contrasts in the handling of some of the same architectural devices. For instance, the alternating rounded and pointed pediments that are so prominent in the largest of the Hotaling buildings on Jackson Square are carried through the second floor of the Custom House as a major ornamental device.

Where the building tends to come off badly is in the degeneration of decorative detail into "decor." The otherwise chaste style of the building is spoiled by a profusion of eagles and shields that are out of scale even in this very large building. The Custom House was begun in 1906 and finished in 1911 by the architectural firm of Eames and Young, of St. Louis (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 55, 57).

At the [Transamerica] pyramid, turn right on Clay Street, then left on Battery and walk to Washington to find the former U. S. Custom House (68), another relic from the days when San Francisco was a bustling port. The building was planned by Eames and Young, St. Louis architects for other federal buildings. Construction started right after the 1906 earthquake but, because of labor shortages, was not completed until 1911. The building's foundation sits on the timbers of a gold rush period steamship that was tied up to a wharf at the same location. The squat granite structure is typically Renaissance style in its detailing, with an elaborate lobby and stairways in black and white marble (Wiley 2000: 60, 172).

Although most of the post-fire buildings downtown used stone sparingly, usually in combination with less expensive terra cotta, the federal government built for the ages, as in this Customs House building. Handsome decorative detail using patriotic symbols of authority enriches the exterior. The interior has generous public spaces, a handsome stairway and other fine details (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 46).

One of the most architecturally interesting of the waterfront buildings is 50 Green Street, built for the Fuller Paint Company in 1907. Here the theme of large first-floor arches is carried almost to a logical conclusion, giving the building a very light appearance. Most fortunately this fine building has been carefully remodeled to provide space for a number of businesses (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 65).

The Classical Revival Fuller Company Glass Warehouse was added to the National Register of Historical Places (Building #01001101) in 2001, with Willis Polk and George Alexander Wright credited as the architects. Historically, the building functioned as a manufacturing facility and warehouse; today it provides office space for various business firms.

Just one year after the earthquake, in 1907, an imaginative entrepreneur opened a dance-hall at 555 Pacific Avenue that dared San Franciscans not to come and celebrate their survival in its circus atmosphere. It passed through several owners until designer Alexander Girard turned it into a furniture display room in 1959.

Girard brought the old days back with "stop 'em dead" color combinations that the Barbary Coast had never seen. The circus-like arcade facade, with its beveled glass oval insets in swinging doors, the fan-lights, and the gilded dimpled rosettes, is not to be taken too seriously architecturally, but it is the best possible example of pointing up amusing and delightful details with unexpected color (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 57).

The original façade of the second Hippodrome at 555 Pacific (51) is still intact. Note the columns that become bare-breasted women, the only remnant of a naughty past (Wiley 2000: 251)