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• Collection: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

• Title: Aquatic Park, Area bounded by Hyde Street and Van Ness Avenue on the East and West and the Aquatic Cove and Beach Street on the North and South, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA
• Other Title: San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
• Creator(s): Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
• Related Names:
     National Park Service
     Punnett, Parez and Hutchison
     Punnett, John
     Bakewell, John, Jr.
     Brown, Arthur, Jr.
     Bauer, John
     Bakewell, Brown and Bauer
     Weihe, Frick and Kruse
     Frick, Edward
     Cantrell, George
     Cotton, Horace
     Weihe, Ernest
     Kruse, Lawrence
     William Mooser and Company
     Mooser, William, I
     Mooser, Wiliam, II
     Mooser, William, III
     William Mooser & Sons
     Federal Art Project
     Glut, John
     Johnson, Sargent
     Hiler, Hilaire
     Ayer, Richard
     Dowley, Thomas
     Holmberg, Lawrence
     Medalie, Ann Sonja
     Staschen Triest, Shirley
     Rice O'Hanlon, Ann
     Harris, George
     Clark, Robert
     Bufano, Beniamino
     Grabow, T. M.
     California State Division of Beaches and Parks
     Blanchfield, Emmet
     Church, Thomas
     Quesada, George, Jr.
     McHugh, Owen
     San Francisco Motor Drayage Company
     J. P. Holland Inc.
     State Emergency Relief Administration
     Healy-Tibbitts Construction Company
     Meyer Brothers
     Adam Arras and Son
     Baum, Arthur W.
     Cagwin and Dorward
     Pardinas, Alfonso
     Kortum, Karl
     Sage, John B.
     Transwestern Construction
     Moffatt and Nichol Engineers
     Ghirardelli Company
     Aquatic Park Improvement Organization
     Southern Pacific Railroad Company
     State Belt Railroad
     North Beach Promotional Association
     Recreation League of San Francisco
     Vittoria Colonna Club
     U.S. Army
     Mooser
     Spring Valley Water Company
     M. B. McGowan Inc.
     White, Frank G.
     Hutchison, E. Elmore
     Gordon, Leo
     Gordon, Kenneth
     Schuman, Solly
     Harris, Barton
     San Francisco Senior Center
     Robinson, Elmore
     San Francisco Maritime State Historical Monument
     Blanchfield, Emmet
     Aquatic Park Bocce Ball Association
     San Francisco Board of Supervisors
     San Francisco Board of Park Commissioners
     San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park , sponsor
     Jackson, Robyn , sponsor
     Stevens, Christopher M , project manager
     Christianson, Justine , historian
     Croteau, Todd A , photographer
     Pierce, Ryan , field team
     McNatt, Jason W , field team
     Stevens, Christopher M , transmitter
• Date Created/Published: Documentation compiled after 2000
• Medium: Photo(s): 102
  Color Transparencies: 20
  Measured Drawing(s): 13
  Data Page(s): 62
  Photo Caption Page(s): 10
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html)
  
• Call Number: HALS CA-113
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
• Notes:
  • See also HABS CA-2225 (Aquatic Park Bathhouse) for additional documentation.
  • Significance: Aquatic Park is located on a sheltered cove of San Francisco Bay, flanked on the west by Fort Mason and on the east by Hyde Street Pier where the historic ships administered by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park are anchored. The current site is comprised of the original Aquatic Park (largely built by the Works Progress Administration), Municipal Pier, the Bocce Ball Courts at the southwest corner, Victorian Park to the east, and the cable car turnaround at the southeast corner. The story of the creation, development, and construction of San Francisco’s Aquatic Park is characterized by persistent advocacy by citizens groups, lack of funding, and tensions between public and private interests. Ultimately, citizen’s groups championing Progressive Era ideas of preserving outdoor space for public recreational use triumphed over private industrial development and military use. In the early twentieth century, groups of private citizens, like the Recreation League of San Francisco, and women’s groups, such as the Women’s Auxiliary of the Recreation League and the North Beach Vittoria Colonna Club, lobbied the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and effectively pushed several bond issues for funding the creation of an aquatic park at the site to public vote, although none were successfully passed. When the Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club, the Ariel Rowing Club (later the San Francisco Rowing Club before its 1977 closure), and the South End Boat Club (now the South End Rowing Club) were forced from their locations elsewhere in the city and established their boathouses at the site, they too joined the efforts to create a park. The advocacy of these groups in preserving the cove for recreation provided a significant counterpoint to the private industries already established in the area, the dumping activities taking place after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and the activity of the State Belt Railroad, who erected a trestle across the cove in 1914, among other development pressures. By the late 1910s, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors had begun acquiring the necessary land for a park in response to public demands. The board contracted with John Punnett to develop a general design of the park that would serve as the basis for a design competition in 1920. Architects John Bakewell, Arthur Brown, and John Bauer collaborated on the 1923 plan commissioned by the Board of Park Commissioners. Actual construction was delayed until the Works Progress Administration supplied the necessary $2 million in funding to make the park a reality. John Punnett was again retained to create the final plan of the park, while William Mooser III, descended from a long line of well-known San Francisco architects, designed the buildings in a Streamline Moderne style that complemented the waterfront location. The interior of the bathhouse, the centerpiece of the site, was finished as a Federal Art Project by a number of significant artists, including Hilaire Hiler, Sargent Johnson, and Beniamino Bufano. The landscaping complemented the modernity of Mooser’s designs for the bathhouse, bleachers, convenience stations, and loudspeakers, characterized by lawn with plantings defining the foundations of structures and curving pathways traversing the park. Yet even with federal funds, the project incurred delays and cost overruns, and it was eventually turned over incomplete to the city of San Francisco in 1939. World War II further delayed decisions about what to do with the park, but by 1950, Karl Kortum and the San Francisco Maritime Museum Association had identified the park and bathhouse as the ideal site for the museum. Although Kortum’s ambitious plans for a park dedicated to all forms of transportation were not fully realized, the San Francisco Maritime State Historical Park was established on Hyde Street Pier in 1956. Kortum also guided the development of the lots east of the original Aquatic Park at the Powell-Hyde-Street cable car turnaround into Victorian Park in the 1960s. In contrast to the modernism of the original Aquatic Park landscape, Victorian Park was inspired by the city’s Victorian architecture, reflected in the use of decorative iron work, cobblestone paving, and gardens. Aquatic Park is nationally significant, therefore, as a representative example of Progressive Era ideals about the importance of publicly-available recreational spaces within cities. In addition, Aquatic Park has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its masterful architectural and landscape design, the integrity of the Streamline Moderne buildings, the rareness of a complex of buildings designed in this style, and the bathhouse art work.
  • Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N100
  • Survey number: HALS CA-113
  • Building/structure dates: 1919-1939 Initial Construction
  • Building/structure dates: 1960-1961 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1962 Subsequent Work
  • National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 84001183
• Subjects:
  • landscape architects
  • landscapes
  • Streamline Moderne architectural elements
  • parks
  • recreation
  • Works Progress Administration
  • war (World War II)
  • swimming
  • boating
  • bathhouses
  • concrete buildings
  • railroad tracks
  • street railroad tracks
  • bleachers
  • promenades
  • drinking fountains
  • piers (marine landings)
  • deciduous trees
  • shrubs
  • lawns
  • evergreens
  • skylights
  • foundation plantings
  • beds (site elements)
  • benches
  • concrete benches
  • pavilions
  • curvilinear paths
  • railroad tunnels
  • reinforced concrete construction
  • bents
  • concrete parapets
  • street lights
  • sea walls
  • porthole windows
  • murals
  • bas-reliefs
  • mosaics
  • towers
  • gazebos
  • women
  • sports & recreation facilities
  • play (recreation)
  • people
• Place:
  • California--San Francisco County--San Francisco
• Latitude/Longitude: 37.806415, -122.423978
• Collections:
  • Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
• Part of: Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)
• Bookmark This Record:
     https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca4182/

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Call Number: HALS CA-113
• Medium: Photo(s): 102
  Color Transparencies: 20
  Measured Drawing(s): 13
  Data Page(s): 62
  Photo Caption Page(s): 10

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• Call Number: HALS CA-113
• Medium: Photo(s): 102
  Color Transparencies: 20
  Measured Drawing(s): 13
  Data Page(s): 62
  Photo Caption Page(s): 10

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