4701–4705 Third Street
Building
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October 1884
Built by local Masons
Local Masons built the South San Francisco Opera House as a community centre and lodge house.
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1888
The South San Francisco Opera House, designed by architect Henry Geilfuss.
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May 30, 1888
South San Francisco Masonic Lodge No. 212 laid the cornerstone of its hall and, beside it, an opera house for the neighbourhood, designed by Henry Geilfuss in a blend of Italianate, Gothic, Eastlake and Stick with Cornelius E. Dunshee as master builder: a wood-framed hall about 50 by 100 feet with its entrance on Newcomb Avenue. The lot, both buildings and their furnishings came to about $25,000, the opera house's share about $10,000; both buildings were dedicated a year to the day later.
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October 24, 1888
The Opera House opened to the public with a performance of John W. Sherman's Phantasma.
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1900
Built by Cornelius E. Dunshee.
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1954
Gene K. Walker's Hunters Point Project Committee asked the San Francisco Housing Authority for $12,000 to buy the building and rehabilitate it as a community recreation centre. The bid failed, but it drew citywide attention to the conditions African American residents were living in on Hunters Point ridge.
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November 1965
The Masons having sold the building that year, the Bayview Neighborhood Community Center moved in, using the hall for performances, an anti-poverty programme and the Neighborhood Youth Corps, until 1967.
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1966
The Bayview Neighborhood Community Center moved in from its first home at 1201–05 Mendell Street.
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September 28, 1966
On the second day of the uprising that followed the police killing of 16-year-old Matthew Johnson, the community center here was at the centre of the violence: the night before, Mayor John Shelley and Police Chief Thomas Cahill had been driven out of a meeting in it, and on the 28th police fired on the building, from whose windows shots and petrol bombs had come, injuring seven people.
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August 8, 1968
The South San Francisco Opera House was built in 1888 as a theater and had since served many purposes. The City Planning Commission approved designating the South San Francisco Opera House a city landmark, with the owner's consent; the designation covers the exterior only.
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October 28, 1968
Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 8, after vandalism and an arson attempt had left it in danger.
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January 16, 1969
The City Planning Commission authorized the Director of Planning to prepare a federal Historic Preservation grant application to acquire and restore the South San Francisco Opera House.
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October 14, 1971
The City Planning Commission authorized the Director of Planning to take the steps needed to acquire the South San Francisco Opera House for restoration, after a federal grant for its acquisition and restoration was approved.
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November 4, 1971
By 4 November 1971, the Finance Committee of the Board of Supervisors had approved, and recommended to the full Board, acquiring the South San Francisco Opera House site for historical landmark preservation and community open space at a price of $150,000.
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December 9, 1971
The South San Francisco Opera House was owned by the City, having been bought with Urban Beautification Program funds.
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1977
An $800,000 rehabilitation by the architects Gerson/Overstreet, paid for by federal and city money, was finished: a stage extension, seismic strengthening, a new south wall and plazas, with Mendell Street closed to traffic beside it; the Masonic hall next door had been demolished beforehand. The campaign to save the building was led by Ruth Williams, who raised the money to hire Harry Overstreet.
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1995
The Board of Supervisors renamed it the Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theater, for the neighbourhood advocate who had saved it from demolition thirty years before.
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Jun 2002
Rooting repairs & hvac (furnace replacement).
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Nov 2002
Rev#200206199473 to delete add altermate#1 furnace f-1 improvements ( new grilles, baloncing & t st.
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March 21, 2011
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a rare non-residential work of Henry Geilfuss, a community hall and theatre in continuous use since 1888.
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Dec 2013
Accessible site path, hardscape and lavoscape in provements, existing out door stage and seating, building renovation; accessible upgrades main entrance @ main level, addition accessible restroom at lower level, accessible access to stage, water proofing of s wall, balcovt structural upgrades.
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Jul 2014
Replacement and reroute of existing 4" fire sprinkler underground fire service of the main on newcomb st with new 6" fire service off of 8" main on 3rd st.
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Dec 2015
Add & expand the fire alarm system to cover critical area of the building. 4 pull stations, 21 notifications. referenced ti 2013.1224.5004.
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Nov 2016
Emergency panel replacement and remove and replace initiation devices.
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Jul 2017
As built for fire inspection request for final under app#201407181601.
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Sep 2020
Replace wood floor in auditorium in kind. refinish wooden stage, floor, stairs and landings. resurface flooring in classroom and 2 dressing room with 3/8" wood recovered from auditorium floor. no exterior work.
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Jan 2021
Installation of facade lighting & controls. title 24 compliance.
2 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits are omitted from the timeline. The assessor's roll gives 1900; this address is recorded as built 1888. The building is addressed 1601 Newcomb Avenue in its landmark designation and in every survey of it; the assessor and EAS carry the corner parcel as 4701–4705 Third Street. The assessor dates the building 1900; the 2010 survey dates it 1884. Most pre-1906 buildings in the district carry a default assessor date of 1900, because the city's building records were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The opera house's building is dated October 1884 in one entry here; its cornerstone was laid on 30 May 1888. The Bayview Neighborhood Community Center's move into the building is dated 1966 in one entry here and November 1965 in another.
Nearby
- 4700–4704 Third Street Same street
- 4726–4728 Third Street Same street
- 4742–4744 Third Street Same block
- 1628 Oakdale Avenue Same block
- 1675–1677 Newcomb Avenue Same block
- 1606 Newcomb Avenue Around the corner
- 1582 Newcomb Avenue Around the corner
- 1429 Mendell Street Around the corner