San Francisco Landmarks

San Francisco Landmark #266: Marcus Books and Jimbo's Bop City 25 January 2016
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San Francisco Landmark #266
Marcus Books and Jimbo's Bop City
1712 Fillmore Street
Built c1893

This Stick-Eastlake residence was originally located three blocks away at 1686-1690 Post Street. Along with its neighbors, it was moved here in 1978 when the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) was bulldozing much of the Western Addition.

Jimbo's Bop City operated from 1950 to 1965 in this building when it was still on Post Street. Bop City hosted Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and many others. Jimbo's Bop City, open between the hours of 2AM and 6AM, fostered the mingling of established musicians and amateurs, as well as a tolerance of social racial integration that was progressive for its time.

Its closure in 1965 was a result of changes in the music scene and in the surrounding neighborhood, which was devastated both residentially and economically by the actions of the SFRA.

Marcus Books moved into this building in 1980 after all of its previous locations were demolished by the SFRA.

Julian and Raye Richardson had established Success Printing Co. in 1947. Renamed Marcus Books in 1960, it was a space of Black community collectivity, empowerment and action. Changes on the local, national, and global scale throughout the 1960s and 1970s were experienced, addressed, adjusted to, discussed, and in many cases rejected from within the walls of this bookstore. Marcus Books was a haven for Black intellectualism in San Francisco.

Source: San Francisco Landmark Designation Report

Marcus Books was evicted from this building in 2014. At that time, it was the nation's oldest continuously operating Black-owned and Black-themed bookstore.

Before World War II, this was a Japanese-American neighborhood. In 1942, when Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps, the neighborhood became predominantly African-American.

Buildings that Moved

It's not just that the people of the American West are restless, the buildings themselves sometimes pack up and move when - for one reason or another - the neighborhood no longer suits them or the neighbors no longer want them or opportunity waits down the road.

And when buildings remain in place, they are often searching for their identities.

Acting Superintendent's Office, Yosemite
Alford-Nielson House, Ferndale
Alpine Hotel, Markleeville
Ashland Depot Hotel, Ashland, Oregon
Auburn Fire House No. 1, Auburn

Bagby Stationhouse, El Portal
Bayview Hotel, Aptos
Bridgeport Elementary School, Mono County
Calvary Presbyterian Church, Bolinas
Carter House, Ashland, Oregon
Christian Church, Gilroy
Choller Mansion, Virginia City, NV

Chuck's Railroad Room, Westwood
Colfax Freight Depot (Moved Twice), Colfax
Commodore Watkins House, Atherton
Coyle-Foster Barn, Shasta State Historic Park
Croll Building, Alameda

Dallam-Merritt House, San Francisco
Davis Creek Community Church, Davis Creek
Duatre's Store, Monterey
Errea House, Tehachapi
Fairwind, Eureka
First Baptist Church, Sonoma

Fort Bragg Storehouse and Commissary, Fort Bragg
Galarneaux House, Sacramento
Glass House, San Ramon
Glendale School (Moved Twice), Sparks, Nevada
Goleta Depot, Goleta

Gray's Station, Truckee
Hostess House, Palo Alto
Hodgdon Homestead Cabin, Yosemite
House at 2214 Clay Street, San Francisco
Hutton House, Saratoga

Independence Hall, Woodside
J & T Basque Restaurant, Gardnerville, NV
Jamestown Branch Jail (Moved Twice)
Jax Truckee Diner (Moved Twice), Truckee
Jorgensen Studio, Yosemite

King City Depot, King City
La Gloria Schoolhouse, King City
Lagunita Schoolhouse, Salinas
Lake Mansion (Moved Twice), Reno
Lathrop House, Redwood City

LeConte Memorial Lodge, Yosemite
Little Church on the Hill, Oakhurst
Mansion House Hotel, Watsonville
Marcus Books and Jimbo's Bop City, San Francisco
McCredie House, Central Point, Oregon

Meherin House, Pismo Beach
Mendocino Masonic Hall, Mendocino
Methodist Episcopal Church, Placerville
Migliavacca Mansion, Napa
Milton Masonic Hall, Milton

Moab Cabin, Moab, Utah
Mt. Buckingham School, Darrah Nevada-California-Oregon Railway Depot, Alturas
Old Log Jail (Moved Twice), Markleeville
Old Mammoth Saloon (Moved Twice), Mammoth Lakes

Old North San Juan School, North San Juan
Old St. Mary's Church, Rocklin
Old St. Patrick's Church (Moved Twice), San Francisco
Perry's Dry Goods, Gardnerville, NV
Phelps House (Moved Twice), San Francisco

Rengstorff House, Mountain View
Reno Arch (Moved Five Times), Reno
Roper House, Ashland, Oregon
San Rafael Improvement Club, San Rafael
St. James Catholic Church, Georgetown

Sylvester House , San Francisco
Tribune-Republic Building, San Luis Obispo
Tubbs Cordage Company, San Francisco
Tucker House, Martinez
Twenty Mile House, Cromberg

United Methodist Church, Nevada City
Webber House, Yountville
Wood House, Modesto
Yosemite Transportation Company
Yosemite Valley Chapel

Of the buildings and structures we have visited, the original Reno Arch holds the record for number of moves. It has been moved five times since it was built in 1926.

Jax Truckee Diner holds the distance title. The building moved from New Jersry to Pennsylvanis in 1948, then from Pennsylvania to Califonia in 1992.

Probably the most ambitious relocation occurred on July 4th 1904, when the Southern Pacific Railroad loaded most of the town of Wadsworth, Nevada, onto rail cars and transported the town thirty miles west to create a new town which became known as Sparks.

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