1881 Pine Street
Pacific Heights · San Francisco, CA 94109
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1914
The Buddhist Church of San Francisco, which grew out of a Young Men's Buddhist Association formed in 1898 and took its name in 1905, moved here in 1914 from 1617 Gough Street. San Francisco became the headquarters of the Buddhist Mission of North America the same year.
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1935
A new temple was begun in 1935, paid for by members and by districts outside San Francisco: the San Francisco Japanese Carpenter's Association built it to a design by the architect Gentoko Shimamoto, with a dome, or stupa, holding relics of the Buddha given by the King of Siam.
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1942
The Buddhist church's premises stored household belongings for interned Japanese American families during the war, and part of the building served as a hostel into 1946.
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Sep 1986
Remove loose & broken stucco; check for damages.
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Oct 1986
Replace exist wood exit doors with new solid core birch door.
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Jul 2002
Reroofing.
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2009
Recorded in the city's 2009 survey of Japantown as a church in a Classical style, among the older churches clustered near the Pine and Octavia intersection.
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Feb 2010
4th floor-replace 2 windows in kind. existing single paned aliminum sliding windows to be replace with double paned insulated vinyl clad windows. no change in size. windows not visible from street.
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Jun 2011
Remove/dispose of ceiling areas. install 5/8" sheetrock.
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May 2017
Reroofing.
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Apr 2022
Per assessor's record, document address 442 austin st to three units apartmen.
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Aug 2023
Reroofing.
2 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits are omitted from the timeline.
The city's Japantown context statement puts the start of the new temple in 1935; the assessor's roll and Planning's historic resource survey both record 1937. Not yet documented: the architect and builder, the early tenants and the date of the last recorded sale. Submit an update