The Mother’s Building, also known as the Delia Fleishhacker Memorial Building, is a historic building that was once part of the

Fleishhacker Pool Fleishhacker Pool was a public saltwater swimming pool complex, located in the southwest corner of San Francisco, California, United States, next to the San Francisco Zoo at Sloat Boulevard and the Great Highway. Upon its completion in 1925, it w ...

and Fleishhacker Playfield and features

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

-era murals, built in 1925 and is presently located within the San Francisco Zoo and Gardens. The building has been listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark, since September 16, 2022; a listed

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

since December 31, 1979; and listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, since December 31, 1979.

History

The Mother’s Building was originally part of the Fleishhacker Pool and Fleishhacker Playfield, commissioned by

Herbert Fleishhacker Herbert Fleishhacker (November 2, 1872 – April 2, 1957), was an American businessman, civic leader and philanthropist. In 1924, he created and helped fund the Fleishhacker Pool in San Francisco, for many years the world's largest outdoor salt ...

, and Mortimer Fleishhacker; and built in 1925. It was in dedication to their late-mother, Delia Stern Fleishhacker. The Mother’s Building was originally located next to a large wading pool. It served as a lounge (with restrooms, nurseries, clinical rooms, and tea) for mothers with small children, no boys over the age of 6 were allowed inside. The wading pool was removed in the 1940s, and was replaced with a children's zoo by the 1960s. The building is a single room that was designed by American architect

George W. Kelham George William Kelham (1871–1936) was an American architect, he was most active in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biography Born in Manchester, Massachusetts, Kelham was educated at Harvard University and graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Art ...

. The style of the building is late 19th-century or early 20th-century

Italian Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ...

architecture. With The exterior features a red Mission tiled roof, and five arches with

Corinthian columns The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order w ...

and

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

Mosaics

The

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

's side walls are decorated with

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s created by Helen Bruton, Margaret Bruton, and Ester Bruton for the

Public Works of Art Project The Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was a New Deal program designed to employ artists that operated from 1933 to 1934. The program was headed by Edward Bruce, under the United States Treasury Department with funding from the Civil Works Admin ...

; with imagery of

Saint Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a Mysticism, mystic Italian Catholic Church, Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most vener ...

with animals, and another panel with children and animals. The Bruton sisters were originally from Alameda, California and had helped revitalize the art of decorative mosaics.

Murals

On the interior, there is wood paneling, with carved flower details around the door frames; and with four painted murals in the upper section depicting four scenes of

Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in t ...

and animals. The four interior murals were painted with

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

, which were begun in 1933 and completed in 1938, painted by

Helen Katharine Forbes Helen Katharine Forbes (February 3, 1891 – May 27, 1945) was a Californian artist and arts educator specializing in etching, murals and painting. She is best known for western landscapes, portrait paintings, and her murals with the Treasury Sect ...

and Dorothy Wagner Puccinelli for the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

. It is believed that the interior murals may be beyond the point of repairs as the paintings have faded, the walls have deteriorated in places, and some of the damages maybe due to the proximity to the ocean. However other WPA-era murals, such as those at

Beach Chalet The Beach Chalet is a historic two-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style building, located at the far western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The building is owned by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department; and the tenants are ...

and

Coit Tower Coit Tower is a tower in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, California, offering panoramic views over the city and the bay. The tower, in the city's Pioneer Park, was built between 1932 and 1933 using Lillie Hitchcock Coit's beq ...

have gone through restoration.

Zoo gift shop and visitors center

From 1973 until 2002, the Mother's Building served as a gift shop and visitors center for the zoo. The building is in need of seismic safe updates and the interior murals need restoration; more recently the room is only used for special events. The Mother’s Building is the only remaining structure from the Fleishhacker Pool and Fleishhacker Playfield complex. It is believed that the Mother's Building was the only west coast structure of this type.

References

{{Authority control San Francisco Designated Landmarks National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco Buildings and structures completed in 1925 Mediterranean Revival architecture in California Public art in California Art in San Francisco 1925 establishments in California California Historical Landmarks

History

Mosaics

Murals

Zoo gift shop and visitors center

See also

References