Posted 14 years ago
bayareamus…
(74 items)
Today I took a trip to the Rincon Post Office Annex, one of the truly forgotten gems in San Francisco. Calling it a post office would be a lie, however, as it hasn't carried mail since 1978. Today the building houses a cafeteria fit with all sorts restaurants that cater to the lunch breaks of suits. However, it still remains one of the most historic buildings in San Francisco.
It was erected in 1939 and today it is on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1979 it was made an official San Francisco City landmark.
Throughout the post office there is a series of 27 murals painted by Russian Anton Refregier. Refregier was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration, one of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs, to do the murals in 1941 and he was paid a whooping $26,000 (which was a ton--this was the end of the Great Depression). Because of the outbreak of World War the murals weren't completed until 1948, though they have been maintained beautifully to this day.
The first picture here shows the "Firm Mailing" window, which now looks into a Subway restaurant. What was firm mailing? Anyone know?
The second is the outside of the annex at 101 Spear Street. The third is the lock box window, and the fourth is a now defunct telephone booth.
If you want to see what the interior of this Rincon Post Office looked like in 1973, rent season two of "Streets of San Francisco," now out on DVD. In episode 20, "Inferno," a very young Michael Douglas and his older detective partner Karl Malden nab an arsonist getting cash out of a PO box here. He runs, and Douglas dives through one of the PO teller windows and chases him through the mail sorting equipment and out onto the back loading dock.
luv the telephone booth doors