Congregation Sha'ar Zahav

290 Dolores Street · Eureka Valley

2 stories
8,432 ft²
2,940 ft² lot area
2 residential units
16 rooms
5 bathrooms
Wood frame
Zoned RH-3
Historic resource
Sold June 27, 1997

Land$244,306

Improvements$997,592

Total assessed$1,241,898

37.7649, −122.4267 Street View appears here once a Google Maps embed key is configured.

1917

Built.
Sep 1997

Permit 9717548 $$$ $480,000

Remodel existingfuneral home to a synagogue; rmve portion of roof.
Sep 1997

Permit 9718349 $$$ $20,000

Soft demolition only-demolish finish plumbing, non-bearing walls.
1998

Congregation Sha’ar Zahav moved into this former funeral home at the corner of 16th Street.

SF Planning, landmark designation
Mar 1998

Permit 9803667 $$$ $1

Please ref. ap9717548 dated 9/9/97 permit844097 ssd. 3/2/98.
Mar 1998

Permit 9805161 $$$ $29,000

Underground and avove ground fire sprinkler system.
Apr 1998

Permit 9806418 $$$ $9,000

Fire alarm on 1st & 2nd level only.
Aug 1999

Permit 9918301 $$$ $1

Revise permit application 9805161-sprinkler modification.
Jul 2021

Permit 202107124126 $$$ $34,000

Reroofing.
Jun 2026

Filed Permit 202606233783 $$$ $30,000

Voluntary strengthening in the crawl space. add plywood shear walls with concrete grade beams.

4 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits are omitted from the timeline.

Mission Dolores Neighborhood Historic Context Statement, adopted 2022

Survey findingRecommended for further evaluation as a potential city landmark

StyleCraftsman

Identified in the Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco for its association with the Jewish LGBTQ community, under the theme 'Building LGBT Communities 1960s–1990s'. Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, reportedly the first LGBTQ Jewish congregation formed in San Francisco, occupied several temporary spaces from 1977 before settling here permanently in 1998; the building functioned as a funeral home until at least 1996. Drawn from a Planning Department DPR Primary Record of 2002. The Alert Alley district is defined here too, as a collection of vernacular, Italianate, Classical Revival and Queen Anne buildings, most of them of 1890–1910, illustrating the neighbourhood's shift from small single-family construction to larger multi-family construction after 1906; it is centred on Alert Alley, which was Albert Alley until 1909. The district summaries and map the survey-findings chapter says are attached are not in the adopted file, so it names no contributors.

Historic district

Alert Alley Early Residential

Significant 1890–1910

Eligible for the California Register
Not on the National Register
Not a city landmark district

Nearby

279–283 Dolores Street Same street
Holy Family Day Home Same street
3310–3312 16th Street Same block
3314–3320 16th Street Same block
266–270 Dolores Street Same block
260–264 Dolores Street Same block
3321 16th Street Around the corner
St. Matthew's Church Around the corner