AKA: Harkness Memorial Hospital, San Francisco, CA
Structure Type: built works - public buildings - hospitals
Designers: Barrett and Hilp, Contractors (firm); Coffey, Alfred I., Architect (firm); Patterson, Daniel J., Architect (firm); J. Frank Barrett (building contractor); Alfred Ignatius Coffey (architect); Harold Hilp Sr. (building contractor); Daniel James Patterson (architect)
Dates: constructed 1906-1908
Building History
This tri-partite, fire-proof hospital with the Neo-Classical facade replaced the first facility that burned in the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, 04/18/1906. The Upjohn pharmaceutical family purchased the hospital (after it lost money for years), rechristening it "Harkness Memorial Hospital" soon after buying it in 1968. Harkness, too, lost huge amounts of money, and the building was reused as senior housing.
Building Notes
The Southern Pacific Railroad also maintained hospitals in Tucson, AZ, and Houston, TX, for its multitudes of injured employees.
The City of San Francisco Landmark numbers for the Southern Pacific Hospital and the Oakley Residence have been reversed on some lists of the city's landmarks. Wikipedia, for example, reversed the listing numbers, while the City of San Francisco has the hospital as #192, not #191. (Thank you to Carlos Fernandez-Gray for pointing out this error in PCAD, in an email to the author, 12/13/2018.)
Alteration
Architects Alfred I. Coffey and Martin J. Rist created a six-story and basement Class A addition to the Southern Pacific Hospital in 1930-1931. The Western Architect and Engineer noted of this addition: "Plans have been completed by Alfred I. Coffey and Martin J. Rist, associated architects, Phelan Building, San Francisco, for a new wing to the Southern Pacific Hospital at Baker and Fell streets, San Francisco. Construction will be steel frame, concrete walls and floors and brick exterior. There will be accommodations for one hundred and twenty patients." (See "Southern Pacific Hospital," Western Architect and Engineer, vols. 100-101, p. lxxvii.) Another article in the same magazine on p. 109, said: "Contract for the work has been awarded to Barrett and Hilp for $450,000 plus a fee."
San Francisco Historic Landmark (Listed 1989-03-08): 192
National Register of Historic Places: 89000319 NRHP Images (pdf) NHRP Registration Form (pdf)
PCAD id: 7009