Re: Empty lots of Outside Lands

09/19/22 - posted by Denny

To research the history of that lot at the southwest corner of 25th Avenue and Noriega (1801 Noriega), I have checked the aerial photos that were done of San Francisco in 1938 (in the collection of the S.F. Public Library, available online), to see if a building occupied that site in 1938. The aerial photo shows that it was a vacant lot at that time. In fact, the entire south side of Noriega in that area and for many blocks to the west was entirely sand dunes!

Further Googling and using bing.com turned up a 1974 advertisement in the “help wanted” pages of the San Francisco Examiner, available at the website of newspapers.com

The following web page at newspapers.com has a reference to a business establishment at that Noriega St. address:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/460752488/

If you are not a subscriber to newspapers.com, you can click on that page where it says “show article text (OCR)” and click on the down arrow. It will then show the text of the newspaper page. The text is imperfect because it was created using OCR (optical character recognition), but is readable.

I found this advertisement on the page:

“Banking New Accounts Secretary for our Sunset office, must have experience in savings & loan, bank or other financial institutions. Good typing skills, front office appearance. Call Mr. Beal. 415-665-8511. California Federal Savings. 1801 Noriega St., San Francisco 94122. Equal opportunity employer.”

At newspapers.com, there are numerous other old Examiner pages with ads for California Federal Savings at 1801 Noriega St at 25th, including a 1975 ad touting certificate of deposit rates of 7.75%. (!)

However, the following ad appeared in the Examiner on March 9, 1983:

“Banking TELLER (SUNSET) Experience preferred. Call Into Orlamunder 415-665-8511. CALIFORNIA FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN 1900 Noriega St. San Francisco, Ca 94122 Equal Opportunity Employer.”

What, not 1801 but 1900 Noriega? (But they had the same phone number at the new location.)

1900 Noriega was built in 1975, according to public records. The building is currently occupied by Citibank. Citibank acquired the remnants of California Federal in 2002.

I have not been able to find out what caused Cal Fed to move a block west, or why the building at 1801 no longer exists. Something must have caused the disappearance of the building. Maybe some longtime residents of 25th Avenue know the story.

A planning application was filed in 2004 for a building with 11 residential units and ground-floor retail. Obviously that project was not built.

For now, at least, the lot has reverted to its prehistoric status as a sand dune! And a fine example, for now.