OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Overview

This four-story, brick-faced Colonial Revival town house was erected for the Knights of Pythias fraternal order between 1909 and 1911.

Building History

The cornerstone for this Class C Knights of Pythias Building was laid on 07/17/1910, with completion occurring nearly a year later on 05/01/1911. A dedication ceremony for the $80,000 building occurred on 05/12/1911. The building had 10 lodge rooms. The basement contained a 70-foot by 35-foot banquet hall seating 500. There was also a grill room and kitchen-buffet. The first floor contained a Ladies' Parlor and a 700-person auditorium measuring 80 feet by 45 feet. Four storefronts faced the Valencia Street side. On the top floor, a 58-foot by 43-foot social hall could serve 400 guests. Guests reached the upper floors by stair or a 15-person electric elevator.

The Salvation Army occupied the four-story building until 1989. After the Loma Prieta Earthquake, the charitable organization moved out and the building was rehabbed into housing during the 1990s.

Building Notes

Fraternal organizations in 1910 had a degree of social importance hard to understand nearly one hundred years later. At the cornerstone laying ceremony on 07/17/1910 both the Governor of California, James Norris Gillett (1860-1937), and Mayor of San Francisco, Patrick Henry McCarthy (1863-1933), presided, backed by retinues of uniformed Knights and city police. The symbols and personnel of public and private power structures intermingled in an open display of unity, each reinforcing the other. The San Francisco Call described the activities: "With a solemn and impressive ritualistic program, the Knights of Pythias, in the presence of more than 1,500 persons, yesterday laid the cornerstone of the Knights of Pythias castle, to be erected at Hermann and Valencia streets. Governor Gillett delvered the oration of the day. The ceremonies of the afternoon opened at the Fairmont hotel, where Governor Gillett, a member of the order, was met by the delegation of grand officers and escorted by five automobiles to the junction of Van Ness avenue and Market street, Four companies of the uniform rank of the Knights of Pythias and a platoon of police stood by to salute. Preceded by a band, they then escorted the governor, Mayor P.H. McCarthy and the grand officers to the building site. The cornerstone laying was on the Hermann street side of the partly constructed building. A platform draped in the national colors had been provided with seats for hundreds of guests." (See "1,500 See Laying of Cornerstone," San Francisco Call, 07/18/1910, p. 3.) The description of the elaborate ritual went on for paragraphs in this Call article, underscoring the perceived importance of the group to the general public.