Infant Shelter (San Francisco Conservatory of Music)

1. 1928–1929

   Built for $125,000 as the Infant Shelter, an orphanage and nursery founded as a charitable day nursery at 512 Minna Street and moved after the fire to a wooden building at 1025 Shotwell, whose directors were all women; designed by Louis Christian Mullgardt — one of his two surviving institutional buildings, its entrance recalling his vanished Court of Ages at the Panama-Pacific Exposition — and dedicated in November 1929 with sixty beds for infants, toddlers and kindergarten children.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
2. January 1957

   The San Francisco Conservatory of Music — founded as a piano school by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodghead, and later led by Ernest Bloch — opened here after buying the building when the Infant Shelter, down to twenty children, closed in 1954.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
3. August 19, 1964

   Photographed.

   San Francisco Subjects Photograph Collection (SFP 162), San Francisco Public Library
4. 1972-1976

   Between 1972 and 1976 the Conservatory added a 340-seat auditorium, classrooms and 45 off-street parking spaces; a planned garage, library and recital hall were not built.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
5. January 6, 1972

   Part of the site was vacant; the rest held the San Francisco Conservatory of Music buildings and a house on the 20th Avenue frontage that the Conservatory owned and used. The existing Conservatory building had about 10,000 square feet of floor area and no on-site parking. The City Planning Commission approved, with conditions, expanding the Conservatory with a major addition of classrooms, practice rooms, a multi-purpose room and a ground-floor garage, requiring about 50 parking spaces, a 5-foot south setback and Commission review of final plans.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
6. March 1, 1973

   The San Francisco Conservatory of Music occupied an irregular parcel with 203 feet on 19th Avenue, 240 feet on Ortega Street and 190 feet on 20th Avenue. The City Planning Commission unanimously approved, with three conditions, an amendment of Resolution 6798 so the Conservatory's new parking garage would take its access from Ortega Street rather than 19th Avenue, with parking raised from 32 to 50 spaces.

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
7. November 7, 1974

   The San Francisco Conservatory of Music had demolished its recital hall and most of its larger classrooms, and had already dug a large excavation for underground parking that was now to be partly filled. The City Planning Commission unanimously approved, with conditions, a revised Conservatory expansion that dropped the underground parking and southwest wing and added two lots on 19th Avenue for a total of 45 open, landscaped parking spaces (Resolution 7267).

   San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
8. 1975

   Built.

9. 1975

   The Conservatory added a south wing with two auditoriums for public recitals.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
10. August 11, 1977

    The San Francisco Conservatory of Music occupied a site of about 1.3 acres, with about 180 collegiate students, 100 in an adult extension programme and 300 aged 3 to 18 in its preparatory programme.

    San Francisco City Planning Commission minutes, San Francisco Public Library (Internet Archive)
11. Mar 1988

    Permit 8803944 $$$ $800,000

    Vertical addition.

12. Jun 1991

    Permit 9111299 $$$ $30,000

    Reroofing.

13. 2002

    The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, founded in 1917, operated here with about 270 collegiate and 350 preparatory students.

    San Francisco Planning Department, The San Francisco Conservatory of Music at 50 Oak Street: Initial Study, 2002.
14. 2004

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 242, Infant Shelter (San Francisco Conservatory of Music).

    SF Planning, landmark designation
15. Jul 2006

    Issued Permit 200607146612 $$$ $50,000

    Grading.

16. Jul 2006

    Permit 200607146610 $$$ $15,000

    Convert first floors bathrooms to ada accessible, convert 2nd floor hallway into new classroom & new office and maintain 1-hr rated egress corridor. add 1 hr-rated partition & doors at existing east stairwell. install new rolldown smoke doors at elevator doors on each levels. no exterior work. no change.

17. Dec 2006

    Issued Permit 200612089450 $$$ $50,000

    Interior soft demolition; basement, 1st & 2nd floor; demolish walls as shown on floor plan, remove a coustical tile ceiling & crid @ 1st floor of 1928 building. section only. all of 2nd floor; all gyp bd. ceilings in 1928 building section to be removed except @ historical main lobby; all gyp bd ceiling @.

18. Mar 2007

    Permit 200703146238 $$$ $1,200,000

    Basement 1st and 2nd floor; demolition, remodel and restoration of interior space at 1st and 2nd floor; basement scope update toilet room accessories and remodel of exit stair to meet curent building code requiremnt. sets include building architecturals structural electrical t-24.

19. May 2007

    Issued Permit 200705171538 $$$ $173,000

    Fire sprinklers. basement = 11 spkr hds. 1st floor = 207 spkr hds. 2nd floor = 168 spkr hds. total 386 spkr hds.

20. Sep 2020

    Withdrawn Permit 202009093818 $$$ $20,000

    Enclose an office in existing hallway. install new wall door & mini split condenser.

21. Oct 2020

    Permit 202010106319 $$$ $170,000

    Building an exterior climbing wall.

22. Feb 2021

    Issued Permit 202102265517 $$$ $410,000

    Construct stormwater bmps including 1 new lined rain garden, a cistern, and permeable pavement. new landscaping along the western, northern, and eastern edges of the campus. exterior work includeds excavation, disconnecting and capping downspouts, new underdrains, new irrigation system, trenching to.

23. Jul 2021

    Permit 202107063775 $$$ $50,000

    Convert existing boardroom to two separate offices.

24. Jul 2021

    Permit 202107063771 $$$ $15,000

    Create office room adjacent to main lobby. install 4 fire rated doors at library and 1 interior door between office at 2nd floor.

25. Nov 2021

    Permit 202111041802 $$$ $226,017

    Reroofing.

26. Mar 2023

    Permit 202303133597 $$$ $5,500

    New fixed rated transparant wall. installation in existing office.

27. Jul 2023

    Permit 202307182384 $$$ $63,000

    Scope includes removal of moisture damaged existing floor slab on grade to edge of walls in 2 rooms (class #117 & multi purpose room #129) on the 1st fl; installation of new concrete slab over 15-mil x-treeme wood below slab vapor barrier membrane. provide polished concrete finish in both rooms.

28. Aug 2023

    Permit 202308073852 $$$ $37,219

    Remove existing facp and replace with new notifier facp, replace existing annunciator with new color touch screen display, provide new class gateway which will connect thru a csm cellular data connection.

29. Nov 2024

    Permit 202411195309 $$$ $400,000

    1611 sq ft pavilion in existing courtyard (partial enclosure). new curtain wall and bifold doors at existing lobby. demolition planting beds/ new pavers set in sand. new egress path from ne corner of courtyard to 19th ave. mechanical and electrical under deferred permit.

30. Feb 2025

    Permit 202502200648 $$$ $17,000

    Ref 202411195309- new fire sprinkler to the courtyard addition by connecting to existing sprinkler system installed per n7pa13.

31. Apr 2025

    Permit 202504114234 $$$ $5,000

    Derferred electrical permit for new 1611 sq ft pavilion in existing courtyard (partial enclosure) ref: permit#202411195309.

32. May 2025

    Permit 202505287412 $$$ $30,000

    In kind replacement of existing wood windows sashes existing frames to remain. (street visible), on north, east, and west elevation.

33. May 2026

    Issued Permit 202605151368 $$$ $75,000

    Basement: remodel of existing activities room in basement. demolition existing storage room/closet. demolition existing wall, new wall with doors. relocate existing furnace.

DBI holds 62 permits for this parcel, most of them tenant improvements on individual floors. The timeline shows the 24 largest by stated cost, plus the earliest on file; the DBI query in the sources below returns all 62. 6 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 3 expired or cancelled permits are not shown. The assessor dates the building to 1975, after this photograph was taken. The study that records the conservatory's occupancy is filed under assessor block 834 — the block of its proposed new site on Oak Street — while this parcel is on block 2115. The building is dated 1928–1929 in its landmark designation; the assessor's roll gives 1975.