National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco: Ferry Station Post Office
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26 May 2008
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26 May 2008
The prominent trim on the brick building is trompe l'oeil, not real stone.
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26 May 2008
Ferry Station Post Office
AKA Agriculture Building
101 The Embarcadero
Built 1915
The Mediterranean-style Ferry Station Post Office was designed by A. A. Pyle of the State Department of Engineering and served as San Francisco's central post office from 1915 to 1925. Mail arrived by boat and was distributed by streetcar.
The two-story steel-frame building is supported by piles in the bay. Brick cladding, terracotta trim, a granite base, a copper cornice, wood casement windows, and iron doors in cast iron casings are among the variety of materials used in the exterior of this building.
From 1925 until 1933, the building was occupied by offices for transportation companies. In 1933, the State Department of Agriculture moved in.
When we photographed the building in 2008, it housed San Francisco's main Amtrak station, but no train stops here. Buses carry passengers across San Francisco Bay to depots in Oakland and Emeryville.
The building contributes to the Port of San Francisco Embarcadero Historic District which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.