Gran Oriente Filipino

1. 1907

   Built as a three-storey wood-frame rooming house, designed by William L. Schmolle and valued at about $8,000 — among the first buildings put up in South Park after the 1906 fire: shared kitchen and common rooms downstairs, small rooms and shared baths above, lit by three skylit light wells.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
2. 1914

   The Hotel Maruichi, one of the Japanese hotels that lined the north side of South Park, occupied the building from about 1914 to 1917.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
3. 1920s

   One of the prominent Japanese establishments at South Park, alongside the Higoyo Hotel, the Biwako Baths and the Hotel Bo-Chow, in an enclave that formed after 1910 and dispersed to Japantown in the 1930s when the Japanese steamship lines moved to piers north of the Ferry Building.

   Central SoMa Historic Context Statement, adopted 2016
4. 1921

   Bought for $6,000 by Filipino merchant marines who pooled their earnings, and run as a 24-room boarding house and meeting place.

   South of Market Area Historic Context Statement, adopted 2011
5. 1927

   The skylights over the light wells were put in on the Board of Health's orders, with a new vestibule and four interior partitions taken out.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
6. 1930s

   The former Omiya Hotel was purchased by the Gran Oriente Filipino Masonic Lodge, and served as a meeting place and boarding house for members working in San Francisco and for farm workers from the Central Valley who visited at weekends. It is among the longest-held Filipino-owned cultural assets in San Francisco, and was put forward for San Francisco Landmark designation.

   Central SoMa Historic Context Statement, adopted 2016
7. 1935

   The Gran Oriente Filipino, a Filipino Masonic fraternal order, leased the building as its Grand Lodge and a residential hotel for Filipino men, at a time when Filipinos were shut out of white organisations and neighbourhoods; by 1945 four of its lodges met here, and it kept the building for more than eighty years.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
8. February 1948

   The Gran Oriente Filipino bought the building with a $4,000 loan from the seller, one of its first purchases once federal law let Filipino immigrants naturalise and so own property in California.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
9. September 1960

   A fire near the Southern Pacific depot damaged the roof and southwest wall, which the Gran Oriente Filipino repaired.

   National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
10. Apr 1986

    Permit 8604954 $$$ $42,000

    Provide new baseboard heating units for 23 rooms.

11. Jan 1989

    Permit 8901092 $$$ $5

    Bring building into code.

12. May 1989

    Permit 8907130 $$$ $5,000

    Install new shower room for dahi compliance.

13. Feb 1993

    Permit 9303210 $$$ $1,200

    Remodel kitchen-remove wall, install shelves, remove door.

14. May 2004

    Permit 200405275023 $$$ $1

    Renew expired permit application 200211010539-sprinkler work to comply with ordinance.

15. 2018

    The Gran Oriente Filipino sold the building to the nonprofit Mission Housing Development Corporation, to be kept as affordable housing.

    National Register of Historic Places nomination (draft), California Office of Historic Preservation
16. Dec 2019

    Permit 201912189921 $$$ $3,100,000

    Mayors office 13-01.rehab/renovation improvement for sing room occupancy, new interiors, new mep, new stairs, interior walls.exterior replacements. doors, paint windows in kind.

17. Feb 2020

    Permit 202002124214 $$$ $20,000

    Exploratory demolition to locate structural & utilites in advance of full demolition. no more than 500 sq feet. areas of destructive testing repair and patch in kind. no distruption of guest rooms. for future build out 2019-1218-9921.

18. Oct 2021

    Permit 202110271310 $$$ $1

    Revising #2019/1218/9921-s-5. changing fire alarm manufacturer from fahenhyt to silent knight do to supply issues. no changes in operation matrix or device locations.

19. Dec 2021

    Permit 202112063772 $$$ $2,575

    Evacuation map fabrication & installation. 7 total maps.

20. Dec 2021

    Permit 202112164534 $$$ $1

    As built change to 202110271310. changed facp from 6820 to 6808. adjusted nac circuits 5 & 6 to faps. removed sd low frequency bases, added low frequency horns to replace low requency sounder bases. changed calculations.

21. Aug 2022

    Permit 202208160590 $$$ $1

    Adm permit: 100% affordable to complete work under permit application 201912189921 s, s1, s2, s3 work remaining at south facade only: replace roofing and flashing. repair damage finishes and paint on exterior. repair existing windows.

22. Nov 2022

    Permit 202211166645 $$$ $50,000

    Revision to permit 201912189921. add full stucco replacement scope at the south elevation corner to corner.

23. Mar 2023

    Permit 202303284539 $$$ $45,000

    Revision to permit application 202211166645, replace hallow metal door at door 108 (storage rm) at lightwell & add guardrail/handrail at door 108 (storage rm).

2 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits are omitted from the timeline. 4 expired or cancelled permits are not shown. The statement dates the purchase to 1921; the page dates it to the 1930s. Accounts of this building differ: one has it as the former Omiya Hotel, bought in 1921 by Filipino merchant seamen or in the 1930s by the Gran Oriente Filipino; another puts the Omiya Hotel at 108 South Park Street, the Hotel Maruichi here from about 1914 to 1917, and the lodge leasing the building in 1935 and buying it in February 1948.