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 alteration ...

since May 9, 2008.

History

The house was originally occupied by

shipwrights Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces i ...

(or ship builders) that built

scow A scow is a smaller type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailboat, 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 ha ...

schooners, from approximately 1875 until 1926. It was constructed by carpenter and shipwright Jan Janse Dirks, (later Americanized to John Johnson Dirks) who was born in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Dirks lived in the cottage with his family until 1892 when he retired from shipbuilding. Among the scow schooners he and his sons built at the adjacent boatyard were the ''Master Mariner'' (1876), the ''Wavelet'' (1878) and the ''Paul and Willie'' (1884). The cottage structure was made with fir wood, 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 combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

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 architecture, Gothic Revival architectural detailing and picturesque massin ...

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 agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

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 d ...

; and the house eventually was sold to neglectful owners and fell into disrepair. Famous boats built and repaired in India Basin boatyards include the scow schooner ''Alma'' (1891), now located at 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. Formerly referred to ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

-era Victory Launch boats, and possibly

Jack London John Griffith London (; 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 t ...

'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 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 ...

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

John Pritzker John A. Pritzker (born 1953) is an American billionaire and investor. He is a member of the Pritzker family, the grandson of A.N. Pritzker and son of Jay Pritzker. 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