San Francisco Armory
- Year
- 1912
- Style
- Moorish / Mudéjar
- City
- San Francisco, CA
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The San Francisco Armory rose in 1912-1914 on part of the old Woodward's Gardens site in the Mission District, built to replace the city's previous armory in the Western Addition after that building was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Its castellated, Moorish Revival silhouette announced a National Guard fortress, though the building also doubled as a public venue, hosting 1920s prizefights. In 1934 it served as the Guard's stronghold during the suppression of the General Strike's Bloody Thursday. It closed as an armory in 1976.
the building
Castellated Moorish facade. The armory's Moorish Revival detailing gives it a castle-like, fortified appearance, a style chosen to project military authority rather than civic ornament, and one that still dominates its stretch of Mission Street today.
the style
Moorish Revival was an unusual choice for a National Guard building, its castellated towers and horseshoe-arched openings borrowing from medieval fortress imagery to give a modern arsenal the look of an impregnable stronghold.
More on Moorish / Mudéjarsignificance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Armory is tied to one of San Francisco's most violent labor confrontations: it served as the National Guard's base during the suppression of the 1934 General Strike, including the Bloody Thursday clashes. It has been owned by SF Armory LLC, an affiliate of AJ Capital Partners, since 2018.
nearby
- Trinity Presbyterian Church
- San Francisco Mint building
- Mission San Francisco de Asís
- Charles Dietle House
- War Memorial Opera House
- San Francisco City Hall