Designed by San Francisco architect Thomas J. Welsh, the Pioneer Trunk Factory is a rare example of a factory completely constructed of wood and ornamented with Italianate architectural detail. Surviving remarkably unaltered into the present, the structures were rehabilitated for commercial use as offices in 1985 and 1986.

Located just west of the area destroyed in the 1906 fire, the Pioneer Trunk Factory is an example of the wood construction industrial buildings that were once typical of the Mission District and the area south of Market Street. The factory is much larger and has a more elaborate architectural expression than comparable wood-frame, industrial structures.

Though commonly used in domestic architecture of the 1870s and 1880s, the Italianate style is unusual in utilitarian factory buildings from the turn of the century. The stylistic details may have been used to make the buildings more compatible with the residential character of the area.

In terms of context, only the wood-frame Levi Strauss & Co. factory, 250 Valencia Street, resembles the Malm factory. The Strauss factory, designed by architect Albert Pissis and built in 1906, was of fairly modest design before its 1970 restoration and additions.

Excerpted from the NRHP Nomination Form