When I travel, sometimes I’ll start wandering without any real aim. I just want to see firsthand what a neighborhood is like. But quite often I’ll stumble across something that turns out to be a destination in its own right. Today I found an obscure plaque on a building and learned that I was in San Francisco’s original center for auto sales and service. Van Ness Avenue was San Francisco’s Auto Row from the 1910s – 1980s. Buildings along Van Ness that have been repurposed for other uses retain a distinctive style because they were originally designed to meet the very specific requirements of selling and servicing cars.
Economics and growth of the San Francisco Bay Area led to the decline of the auto business along Van Ness, but there are still a few dealerships and garages in the neighborhood.
BevMo! at 1301-1305 Van Ness, built in 1911-12, was originally a Goodyear tire dealership. Next door, Nissan Infiniti of San Francisco at 1395 Van Ness occupies the sales and service building that the Willys-Overland Motor Company opened in 1914. (Jeep traces its history to Willys-Overland. When I stocked parts in the 1980’s for an American Motors dealership, a few still came in boxes with the Willys logo).
A Tesla showroom now occupies the building constructed in 1937 for Ernest Ingold Chevrolet. This was the last building erected as a new car dealership in the Van Ness corridor.
This San Francisco Chronicle photo shows the original appearance of the building. This is the only Art Deco style building on Van Ness. Classical buildings dominated Auto Row.
I got the detailed information about the buildings I photographed last week from this 2010 architectural survey conducted for San Francisco’s city planning department. It goes into considerable depth on the history of Auto Row. It’s an interesting read for anyone curious about auto history.