National Register of Historic Places #71000188
United States Post Office and Federal Building
7th and Mission Streets, San Francisco
Built 1893–1905 • Occupied 1905–1989 as San Francisco’s Main Post OfficeThis monumental Beaux-Arts masterpiece, designed by James Knox Taylor (Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury), is faced with Colusa sandstone over brick and crowned by a soaring granite-clad dome and corner towers. Its lavish interior — Carrara and African marble, hand-carved Italian walnut paneling, and frescoed courtrooms celebrating America’s Pacific conquests and ocean commerce — made it the most ornate public building west of the Mississippi, rivaled only by a few state capitols.
For 84 years (1905–1989) it served as San Francisco’s Main Post Office, with a grand public lobby open from 6:00 a.m. to midnight every day and a massive retail and PO-box operation that was the daily lifeline for tens of thousands of residents, businesses to businesses, and especially low-income and SRO-hotel dwellers in the Tenderloin and South of Market.
1906 Earthquake and Fire
Six months after opening, the building withstood the great earthquake and fire through the heroic efforts of postal workers and clerks who sealed vaults, plugged oil lines, rigged fire hoses, and piled wet sandbags against doors. The fire was confined to a few rooms, preserving irreplaceable federal records dating to the 1850s.
1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
On October 17, 1989, the building suffered catastrophic structural damage and was immediately red-tagged. Rather than undertake the costly seismic retrofit needed to keep it as a post office, the U.S. Postal Service permanently abandoned the site. All processing moved to 1300 Evans Avenue (Bayview), retail services were scattered, and the approximately 4,000 Civic Center-area PO boxes were eventually relocated — first to 101 Hyde Street (1991) and later elsewhere.The loss of this centrally located, 18-hour-a-day post office caused decades of hardship for seniors, immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, and low-income residents who relied on it for mail, General Delivery, Social Security checks, and as a safe social hub.
1990s–2000s Restoration
After demolition of later additions and an extensive $100 million+ renovation and seismic upgrade (1992–2007), the historic core reopened in stages — first as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1996–2007) and later incorporating other federal offices. The magnificent lobby and selected courtrooms are occasionally open for guided public tours arranged through the Ninth Circuit.
The building stands as a testament to architectural grandeur — and as a reminder that post-disaster decisions made without community voice can permanently sever a city’s most vulnerable residents from essential services they had enjoyed for generations.
Post Office Patrons
Fighting for accessible postal services since 1989
7th and Mission Streets, San Francisco
Built 1893–1905 • Occupied 1905–1989 as San Francisco’s Main Post OfficeThis monumental Beaux-Arts masterpiece, designed by James Knox Taylor (Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury), is faced with Colusa sandstone over brick and crowned by a soaring granite-clad dome and corner towers. Its lavish interior — Carrara and African marble, hand-carved Italian walnut paneling, and frescoed courtrooms celebrating America’s Pacific conquests and ocean commerce — made it the most ornate public building west of the Mississippi, rivaled only by a few state capitols.
For 84 years (1905–1989) it served as San Francisco’s Main Post Office, with a grand public lobby open from 6:00 a.m. to midnight every day and a massive retail and PO-box operation that was the daily lifeline for tens of thousands of residents, businesses to businesses, and especially low-income and SRO-hotel dwellers in the Tenderloin and South of Market.
1906 Earthquake and Fire
Six months after opening, the building withstood the great earthquake and fire through the heroic efforts of postal workers and clerks who sealed vaults, plugged oil lines, rigged fire hoses, and piled wet sandbags against doors. The fire was confined to a few rooms, preserving irreplaceable federal records dating to the 1850s.
1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
On October 17, 1989, the building suffered catastrophic structural damage and was immediately red-tagged. Rather than undertake the costly seismic retrofit needed to keep it as a post office, the U.S. Postal Service permanently abandoned the site. All processing moved to 1300 Evans Avenue (Bayview), retail services were scattered, and the approximately 4,000 Civic Center-area PO boxes were eventually relocated — first to 101 Hyde Street (1991) and later elsewhere.The loss of this centrally located, 18-hour-a-day post office caused decades of hardship for seniors, immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, and low-income residents who relied on it for mail, General Delivery, Social Security checks, and as a safe social hub.
1990s–2000s Restoration
After demolition of later additions and an extensive $100 million+ renovation and seismic upgrade (1992–2007), the historic core reopened in stages — first as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1996–2007) and later incorporating other federal offices. The magnificent lobby and selected courtrooms are occasionally open for guided public tours arranged through the Ninth Circuit.
The building stands as a testament to architectural grandeur — and as a reminder that post-disaster decisions made without community voice can permanently sever a city’s most vulnerable residents from essential services they had enjoyed for generations.
Post Office Patrons
Fighting for accessible postal services since 1989
