Shipwright's Cottage is a historic house built c. 1875 and located at 900 Innes Avenue in India Basin, San Francisco, California. The building is part of a new city park, scheduled for completion in 2025. It is thought that the property has one of the only natural Bay shoreline remaining in San Francisco. Shipwright's Cottage has been listed as a

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alterations. ...

since May 9, 2008.

History

The house was originally occupied by

shipwrights Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

(or ship builders) that built

scow A scow is a smaller type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailing scows. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scows carried cargo in coastal waters and inland waterways, having an advantage for navigating shallow water or small harbours. S ...

schooners, from approximately 1875 until 1926. It was constructed by carpenter Jan Dirks, for Johnson J. Dircks who was born in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The structure was made with

fir wood Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to ...

, and in

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

and

Carpenter Gothic Carpenter Gothic, also sometimes called Carpenter's Gothic or Rural Gothic, is a North American architectural style-designation for an application of Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massing applied to wooden structures ...

architecture styles. It originally had a windmill on the 2.4 acre property, with a private waterfront view. From 1926 until 1961, the building served as the Anderson & Cristofani boatyard office. In the 1990s, the boatyard was shut down by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

for illegal

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

; and the house eventually was sold to neglectful owners and fell into disrepair. Famous boats built and repaired here included the ''Alma'' (1891) boat of the

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in San Francisco, California, United States. The park includes a fleet of historic vessels, a visitor center, a maritime museum, and a library/research facility. The park used to be r ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

-era Victory Launch boats, and possibly

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

's boat the Snark.

Modern-day

In 2008, the land at 900 Innes Street was donated by Joe Cassidy, a local developer, to the Tenderloin Housing Clinic for the purpose of building neighborhood housing. In September 2010, the abandoned house had a roof fire; which added city agencies to pressure the Tenderloin Housing Clinic to renovate the building. In 2014, the city of San Francisco purchased the house and the land. The Shipwright's Cottage was featured in the

Joe Talbot Joseph Lyle Talbot (born July 11, 1990) is an American filmmaker. His debut feature film, ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019), which he co-wrote and directed, won the Best Director prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The film i ...

film, ''

The Last Black Man in San Francisco ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' is a 2019 American drama film directed and produced by Joe Talbot in his directorial debut. He wrote the screenplay with Rob Richert and the story with Jimmie Fails, on whose life it is partly based. It s ...

'' (2019). In 2019, a US$25 million dollar grant from the

John Pritzker John A. Pritzker (born 1953), the grandson of A.N. Pritzker and son of Jay Pritzker, is an American billionaire and investor. He is a member of the Pritzker family. Early life and education Pritzker was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Mari ...

Family Fund was awarded to help create an 8 acre-park, encompassing the property. Construction for the city park will take place from 2020 until 2025, and it will surround the former boatyard, and include the newly-restored Shipwright's Cottage building, which will serve as the park's visitor's center.

References

{{Authority control San Francisco Designated Landmarks Shipyards in California Boatyards 1875 establishments in California Bayview–Hunters Point, San Francisco

History

Modern-day

See also

References