Cadillac Hotel (San Francisco, California)
{{Short description|Historic building in California, US}}
{{Infobox historic site
| name = Cadillac Hotel
| built = {{Circa|1907|1908}}
| coordinates = {{Coord|37.783867|-122.413917|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin = San Francisco County#California
| architect = Meyer and O'Brien
| location = 366–394 Eddy Street,
San Francisco, California, U.S.
| built_for = Andrew A. Louderback
| image = Cadillac Hotel, San Francisco.png
| caption = image from ca. 1913
| designation1 = San Francisco
| designation1_date = January 6, 1985
| designation1_number = 176
}}
The Cadillac Hotel is a historic building from {{Circa|1907|1908}} in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California, U.S.. It was the first non-profit single-residence occupancy (SRO) hotel in the Western United States.{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Kerri |date=2021-01-19 |title=Landmark Tuesdays: The Cadillac Hotel |url=http://www.sfheritage.org/news/landmark-tuesdays-the-cadillac-hotel/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=San Francisco Heritage |language=en-US}} Since 2015, the first two floors of the building is the home to the Tenderloin Museum, a cultural history museum dedicated to the neighborhood.{{Cite web |last=Rosato Jr. |first=Joe |date=2015-08-06 |title=San Francisco's New Tenderloin Museum: Stories Beyond the Grit |url=https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-franciscos-new-tenderloin-museum-stories-beyond-the-grit/81714/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=NBC Bay Area |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=August 6, 2015 |title=New projects poised to finally reshape S.F.'s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2015/08/the-tenderloins-moment-of-truth.html |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=San Francisco Business Times}}{{Cite web |date=2015-07-17 |title=Tenderloin History Museum exhibits neighborhood's rich history |url=https://www.kron4.com/news/tenderloin-history-museum-exhibits-neighborhoods-rich-history/ |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=KRON4 |language=en-US}} It was called the A.A. Louderback Building, and nicknamed "The House of Welcome" during the early 20th-century.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DRIAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22a.a.+louderback%22+architect&pg=PA502 |title=Sunset: The Magazine of the Pacific and of All the Far West |date=1907 |publisher=Southern Pacific Company |volume=18 |pages=502 |language=en}}
The Cadillac Hotel has been listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since 1985;{{Cite web |title=San Francisco Landmark #176: Cadillac Hotel |url=https://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf176.asp |access-date=2024-01-14 |website=noehill.com}}{{Cite book |last=Accardi |first=Catherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVlNARtSe-AC&pg=PA34 |title=San Francisco Landmarks |date=2012 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-9580-1 |pages=34 |language=en}} and is part of the NRHP-listed Uptown Tenderloin Historic District since 2009.{{cite web |author= |date= |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Uptown Tenderloin Historic District |url={{NRHP url|id=08001407}} |accessdate=January 14, 2024 |publisher=National Park Service}} With {{NRHP url|id=08001407|photos=y|title=accompanying pictures}} The building also has a historical marker, erected by Uptown Tenderloin, Inc.{{Cite web |title=Cadillac Hotel |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=63863 |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=Historical Marker Database (HMDB) |language=en}}
History
The Cadillac Hotel was designed by architectural firm, Meyer and O'Brien (Frederick Herman Meyer and Michael Smith O'Brien) as a hotel for client Andrew A. Louderback (1831–1926).{{Cite web |last=Michelson |first=Alan |title=Cadillac Hotel, Tenderloin, San Francisco, CA |url=https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/1239/ |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD)}} It is a four-story steel beam building with reinforced brick, with a three-part design in a Renaissance Revival/Baroque Revival architectural style with the influence of Art Nouveau.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ZjS20M8HzEC |title=Older Americans in the Nation's Neighborhoods: Hearing Before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, Second Session .... |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |others=United States Congress Senate Special Committee on Aging |year=1979 |pages=161–166 |language=en}} In the early 19th-century, the building had 180 guest rooms, a ballroom, and the first floor had many retail stores.{{Cite web |last=Shaw |first=Randy |title=The Cadillac Hotel Shaped History of San Francisco |url=https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Cadillac_Hotel_Shaped_History_of_San_Francisco |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=FoundSF}} It was built right after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It pre-dated the majority of the residential building in the Tenderloin neighborhood, which occurred years later around the opening of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition of 1915.
From 1924 until 1992, the Cadillac Hotel housed the Newman's Gym, founded by Billy Newman. It was noted for being one of the oldest boxing facility in the country, and the practice space for Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, George Foreman, and Sugar Ray Robinson.
In the 1960s, businessman Donald Fisher owned the building, and stripped away many of the historical details from the architecture.
In the 1970s and 1980s, single-residence occupancy (SRO) and tenant rights activism grew, along with a desire to preserve the Tenderloin. Community activist Leroy Looper and Reality House West purchased the building in 1979, with the goal of creating housing for the homeless. Lopper rehabilitated the Cadillac Hotel building through the help of various grants, and housed some 160 tenants.
In 2015, Tenderloin Museum (formerly Tenderloin History Museum) moved into the ground floor of the building. The Cadillac operates as a "shelter plus care hotel" in modern-day. In 2023, the building made the news with the elevator breaking many times a year, and trapping vulnerable residents.{{Cite web |last=Sjostedt |first=David |date=2023-02-09 |title=SF's Worst Apartment Elevator Held Together by Zip Tie |url=https://sfstandard.com/2023/02/09/sfs-worst-supportive-housing-elevator-is-held-together-by-a-zip-tie/ |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=The San Francisco Standard |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2023-09-21 |title=Elevator issues causing problems for those living in San Francisco's residential hotels |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/elevator-issues-causing-problems-for-those-living-in-san-franciscos-residential-hotels/ |access-date=2024-01-15 |website=CBS San Francisco |language=en-US}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.cadillachotel.org/ Official website]
- [https://www.tenderloinmuseum.org/ Tenderloin Museum website]
- Video: [https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/190440 Newman's Gym] (August 16, 1974), from KPIX-TV and DIVA/SFSU
{{Authority control}}
Category:1900s architecture in the United States
Category:African-American history in San Francisco
Category:Boxing gyms and clubs in the United States
Category:Hotel buildings completed in 1908
Category:History of San Francisco
Category:San Francisco Designated Landmarks