High School of Commerce

1. 1900

   Built.

2. 1910

   The four-storey steel-framed building with an unreinforced brick front was completed as the Newton J. Tharp Commercial High School — but on Grove Street, between Larkin and Polk, where it stood for three years before it was moved.

   San Francisco Department of City Planning, School of the Arts Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report, 1997.
3. 1913

   The Tharp Commercial High School building was moved from Grove Street to the corner of Fell and Franklin Streets, where it stands.

   San Francisco Department of City Planning, School of the Arts Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report, 1997.
4. 1926

   The Nourse Auditorium opened, part of the group of three wings added to the original Commercial High School building.

   San Francisco Department of City Planning, School of the Arts Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report, 1997.
5. 1926

   The High School of Commerce was built in reinforced concrete to designs by the city architect John Reid Jr., in an exuberant Spanish Colonial Revival with Churrigueresque detail drawn from the University of Salamanca — the only building of the Civic Center in that style: sheathed in terra cotta set with diamond-shaped green and pink tiles, its entrance flanked by corbels carved with grotesque figures of medieval men of learning, and built round a colonnaded central courtyard.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
6. 1927

   Built as the High School of Commerce, one of the public institutional buildings that spread west into Hayes Valley from the Civic Center.

   Market & Octavia Historic Context Statement, adopted 2007
7. 1935–1941

   The Works Progress Administration built an athletic field and grandstands for the High School of Commerce here. The school has since been demolished.

   San Francisco New Deal Historic Context Statement, adopted 2023
8. 1964

   Mark Twain High School, designed by architect Silvio P. Marraccini of Stone, Mulloy & Marraccini.

   Architecture, Planning & Preservation Professionals: A Collection of Biographies, adopted 2021
9. January 1967

   James A. Martin photographed the property.

   James A. Martin Color Slides of San Francisco (SFP 169), San Francisco Public Library
10. 1975

    The San Francisco Unified School District office, where teachers organised a protest outside a Board of Education meeting in 1975; the board went on to approve a non-discrimination policy by a unanimous vote on 17 June 1975.

    Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted by the Historic Preservation Commission November 18, 2015
11. 1980s

    Nourse Auditorium, which hosted regional and national conferences of gay and lesbian choruses in the 1980s.

    Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted by the Historic Preservation Commission November 18, 2015
12. December 6, 1981

    The High School of Commerce building was designated San Francisco City Landmark No. 140. It carries a summary rating of “2” in the 1976 city architectural survey.

    San Francisco Department of City Planning, School of the Arts Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report, 1997.
13. 1989

    Both buildings were severely damaged and red-tagged in the Loma Prieta earthquake, and the old High School of Commerce had seen little use since.

    San Francisco Department of City Planning, School of the Arts Master Plan: Draft Environmental Impact Report, 1997.
14. Aug 2002

    Issued Permit M21502 $$$ $462,500

    Street space.

15. Feb 2020

    Issued Permit 202002275550 $$$ $750,000

    Replacement of fire pump.

4 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits are omitted from the timeline. 1 expired permit is not shown. The Market & Octavia context statement describes a building of 1927 at this address; the assessor dates the building on this parcel to 1900.