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Overview

This was the third location of the Fulton Iron Works, established in 1855 in San Francisco, CA. It operated here from about 1877 until 1893, when it moved to the northern San Francisco neighborhood of Harbor View, close to shipbuilding businesses.

Building History

Born in Worcester, MA in 1826, Daniel B. Hinckley first came to California in 1850, where he, an uncle and an elder brother set up a foundry. This business lasted a short time, before Hinckley returned East for 18 months. In 1855, he and other associates established the first Fulton Foundry in a mid-block location on Davis Street, between Sacramento and California Streets in 1855. Two years later, he rented space on 1st Street for another foundry and machine shop. Daniel E. Hayes migrated to CA in 1858, and obtained work with the Fulton Foundry soon thereafter as a bookkeeper, and, by 1863, as a one-eighth partner. Hayes would increase his stake to one-fourth, and then to one-third by about 1877.

In 1867, the concern was known as the "Fulton Foundry and Machine Works," and was owned by Hinckley, along with Hayes, Leon C. Marshutz, and James Brands. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1867, p. 250.) The San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1877 (p. 429), indicated that the Hinckley and Marshutz owned the foundry, with no mention of Hayes. This may have been an oversight, as Hayes was listed for many years as a partner in other city directories.

In 1877, another partner joined, James Spiers. Spiers merged a boiler works in which he had owned a share for a decade, McAfie, Spiers and Company, into the Fulton concern in that year. Spiers headed the mechanical engineering end of the business, his talents combining well with those of Hinckley and Hayes. As described in 1892, the Fulton complex consisted of "...a foundry, machine shop, boiler shop, pattern shop, etc., the plant covering a full block in length and half a block in width." (See SCV History.com, "5-Stamp Mill, Red Rover Mine," accessed 01/18/2019. The information on the Fulton Iron Works came from "The Bay of San Francisco,"[Chicago:Lewis Publishing Co. 1892], vol. 1., p. 506-507.)

In 1883, the Fulton Iron Works had its one at 207-213 Fremont Street, and another at 309-315 Howard Street. Its administrative office was sited at 220 Fremont. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1883, p. 462.) In 1892, the office was at 213 Fremont Street and, according to an 1892 advertisement, it produced stamp mills, amalgamating pans, settlers, furnaces, retorts, rock breakers, concentrators, ore feeders, stationary engines, marine engines, pulverizers, Llewellyn Iron Works heaters (under license), Huntington Roller Mill and Manufacturing mills (under license), hoisting works, ore buckets, water buckets, cages and mining cars. The Bay of San Francisco summarized the company's business: "The range of manufacture embraces every class of machinery made of iron and steel, but the firm devote special attention to the construction of machinery for steam-ships and for milling and mining purposes. They build double, triple and quadruple expansion steam engines, high and low pressure marine engines for stern-wheel steamers, beam engines for ferry steamers, Corliss engines and miscellaneous machinery. During the past five years they have manufactured engines and boilers for some ninety vessels, and have built a number of ships complete, including hulls and machinery. Quartz-mills, concentrators, all kinds of hoisting and pumping machinery and appliances for mines, and sawmill and cable railway machinery are constructed by the Fulton Iron Works. The company has half a million dollars invested in their plant and business, employ 400 skilled workmen and do a business of a million dollars a year." (See "Fulton Iron Works" and "Daniel B. Hinckley," "The Bay of San Francisco,"[Chicago:Lewis Publishing Co. 1892], pp. 506-507.) In sum, this versatile business focused on serving CA clients in the shipping, milling and mining businesses.

This third foundry burned in a fire in 1892. In the aftermath, the San Francisco Callreported: "It is now announced that the proprietors of the Fulton Iron Works, who, after their foundry was destroyed by fire, determined to rebuild at Baden, then went over to Oakland and accepted a $10,000 bonus to build there, have purchased five acres of land near Harbor View from Senator Fair, and will build their works there. It is said that the plans for the new building will be drawn up as soon as possible and building commenced as early as practicable. The bargain has not yet been closed, but all the necessary papers have been drawn up, and they are not being gone over, the title is being searched and everything will be concluded today. If the works are located on the site, which is very near to the Seaside Gardens, they will be very convenient for ship-builders." (See "The Fulton Iron Works," San Franciso Call, vol. 72, no. 126, 10/04/1892, p. 2.)

In 1893, the Fulton Iron Works moved from its South of Market location to the sparsely populated Harbor View neighborhood on the city's north side. At the time of its move, Harbor View was transitioning from a marshy tideland to a patchy residential and industrial section, interspersed with refuse dumps. The area was dredged to provide more taxable real estate for the city. In 1902, the Fulton Iron Works suffered a serious fire. A more serious threat to its operation came about a decade later. In the early 1910s, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition selected this area over Golden Gate Park as the site of its 1915 exhbition. (See Abigail M. Markwyn, Empress San Francsico: The Pacific Rim, the Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific-International Exposition, [Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2014], pp. 65-67.) The Fulton Iron Works, like other industrial concerns, principally in ship-building, were forced to vacate the area for other, less desireable locations.

Demolition

The Fulton Iron Works #3 burned in a fire in 1892.

PCAD id: 22648