1000 Van Ness Avenue
Garage
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1906
Residential buildings stood on the site until the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed them; the 1913 Sanborn map shows the Van Ness frontage still vacant.
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1920
Recorded in the city's survey of the Van Ness Avenue automobile corridor as built for use as an auto showroom. Dated 1920–1921. Designed by Weeks and Day for the Cadillac dealership of Don Lee. It was monumental in scale and luxurious in detail, and pulled the centre of the showroom trade several blocks south.
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1921
Cadillac dealerships occupied the building into the 1960s. Its integrity survived its conversion into a cinema.
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November 20, 1921
Ready for occupancy, built for $600,000: eight storeys of reinforced concrete on mushroom-capital columns, 120 by 206.5 feet, whose double-height showroom has hand-painted Mexican tile, a coffered polychrome ceiling and a double stair modelled on one in Burgos Cathedral, behind a terra cotta front with the Cadillac crest over the door.
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1926
The radio station KFRC broadcast from the building for thirty-one years, from 1926 until 1957.
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1955
The sheet-metal cornice was taken down, and in the 1950s the terra cotta blocks over the main door bearing Don Lee's name were replaced with blocks reading CADILLAC.
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March 14, 1964
Two hundred demonstrators organised by the local NAACP chapter picketed the Don Lee Cadillac dealership here on 14 March 1964, part of the Auto Row employment campaign; 107 were arrested. Seven of the dealership's 258 employees were Black.
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May 1981
Additions alterations or repairs.
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July 10, 1982
Declared City Landmark No. 152 with effect from 10 July 1982.
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Apr 1996
Restore and remodel exist. building.
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1998
Built by Lindgren Company.
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1998
Rehabilitated: the plain east wall, built to be knocked out, was removed for an eight-storey addition to Polk Street holding a fourteen-screen cinema; the showroom became the cinema lobby, the upper garage floors became flats, and the lost cornice was replicated in fibreglass.
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Oct 1999
1st phase (venture frogs project), construct office space.
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Jan 2000
T/i const. of 2752 sq ft.
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May 2000
Oti-1 2nd floor el, me, l/s/sp.
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May 2000
Oti-2 2nd floor el, me.
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October 28, 2001
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the largest of Auto Row's showrooms and one of its three finest, and an early San Francisco use of mushroom-column concrete construction.
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Feb 2003
Install a newself serve restaurant; work incl newpartitions, lighting, ducting & casework.
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Dec 2008
Accessibility upgrade work, additional strobes, door way push/pull clearances, handrail adjustments, correction for protruding objects, ramp running and cross slope corrections, no mep. life safety (fire alarm/sprinkler) under seperate permit.
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Nov 2009
Holly's restaurant. reinstall commercial kitchen equipments, new dumb waiter, ticket booth, new entry, bar, stage, single rest room.
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2010
Evaluated in the city's survey of the Van Ness Avenue automobile corridor and given California Register status code 3CS — individually eligible for the California Register, under Criteria 1, 2 and 3.
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Sep 2011
Remodel existing health club, including dividing existing large exercise room to 4 smaller exercise rooms. replace plumbing fixtures and tiles - 3rd and floor.
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Jul 2017
Theater auditorium #3 interior remodel. provide nw electrical. & mechanical. for nw project system in booth & nw speakers in the auditorium. nw projector/view port windows. nw row platforms, stair & knee walls for new recliner seating and new finishes in the audiorium. nw interior auditorium entry & signage.
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Aug 2018
Installation of 12 new ev chargers, 1200a 480v, 4w main switchboard, (12) sae level 3 electric vehicle charger.
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Dec 2018
Remodel of 14 screen cinema. remodel includes auditoriums, lobby, box office services, lounge, concession, facility rooms, storages and restrooms as reqd per code.
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Mar 2020
Install (9) level 3 evs e chargers and (1) level 2 charger & require electrical equipment.
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Apr 2024
Pinning terra cotta on exterior of building as identified location by civil engineer. all three sides of building.
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Jul 2025
Reroofing with hot works: tear off existing roofing and insulation system. intall poly iso, install a tapered insulation system and a new cool roof modified bitumen. using certain feed flintlatic coolstar. sr=.70, te=.85. 44, 400 sq ft.
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Dec 2025
Apple cinemas: existing 14 screen reseat including new finishes and decorative lighting. new concessions on level 2. new bar on level 4.
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Jun 2026
Replacement of existing garage exhaust and supply air fans with new of same flow. add variable frequency drives to fan motors and replace existing monitoring system.
DBI holds 153 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 153. 11 of them are nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permits. 7 expired or cancelled permits are not shown. The assessor's roll gives 1998; this address is recorded as built 1920. The survey dates this building to 1920–1921; the assessor's 2025 roll gives the parcel a year built of 1998. Recorded, not reconciled. The 2025 assessor's roll gives this parcel a build year of 1998, which is the rehabilitation of the 1921 building rather than a new one.
Nearby
- 945–999 Van Ness Avenue Same street
- 1040–1090 Van Ness Avenue Same street
- 901 Polk Street Same block
- 1029–1035 Geary Street Same block
- 845 Polk Street Around the corner
- 921–925 O'Farrell Street Around the corner
- 843 Polk Street Around the corner