 Claycraft's "Cypress Tree" Design #1087, Map Ref. #51 |
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About the Tiles of the Marina District
The Marina District is built on the site of the 1915
Panama Pacific Exposition. The 1920s period was the high point in the use
of artistic tiles in California, and the Marina was developed mainly during
that decade. No other area in San Francisco offers so many decorative tile
installations in such close proximity. Two types of installations predominate
here: stair risers for single-family and duplex homes, and outside foyers
for apartment buildings. There are also decorative tiles and groups of
tiles set into some of the stucco facades. One company - S&S Tile Co.
of San Jose - dominated the "high end" market in San Francisco.
S&S did not distribute its product nationally, confining itself to
the Northern California marketplace. In addition to S&S, the Marina
contains tiles from several other manufacturers, mainly from California.
Some Practical Details
A TOUR MAP is available. The map is about 8" x 10" and is
available as a 171 kB gif image. Please note that
the map is formatted to print at 300 dpi and thus is much too large to view with
your web browser. To get a hard copy of the map for use during your walk, save
the file to your local system and print it. On most web browsers, this can be
accomplished by clicking on the map link above with the right mouse button, or
holding the shift key down as you click with the left mouse button.
PARKING is easiest in the large lot behind the Exploritorium. This PARKING area is shown on the right edge of the accompanying map. (This area is preferable simply because a 2-hour limit is enforced on the streets from Mon.-Fri. except for residents of the neighborhood whose cars display the proper sticker.)
Bring WARM CLOTHES, just in case! (Sometimes it is cooler here than elsewhere in the city, with wind off the Bay.)
FOOD is available only on the commercial strip of Chestnut St., between Fillmore and Divisidero, and on Buchanan St. near Marina Blvd.
PUBLIC BATHROOMS are available in the Exploritorium and in certain cafes on Chestnut St. and in two Parks & Recreation Dept. buildings shown on the map.
PLEASE RESPECT THE RESIDENTS' PRIVACY! Some of these sites bring the viewer into a "gray area" between public and private space. So please examine stairway tiles from the bottom, at the sidewalk, and resist the urge to climb up the stairs to reach the resident's doorstep. You will pass some tile installations that are not noted in the text. Many of the locked, interior lobbies also have tilework visible through the glass.
On With The Tour!
The STARTING POINT of this tour is directly across the street from the rebuilt Palace of Fine Arts which Bernard Maybeck originally built for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition. The Exploritorium, a famous "hands-on" science museum occupies the interior.
1. 3560 Baker (corner of Jefferson). (Please don't climb the steps to examine these tiles - the Tunisian tiles at site #43 can be examined at close range.) These stair risers display Tunisian tiles, decorated by the traditional method of painting ceramic colors with a brush. Tunisian tiles played a big role in the decoration of Spanish Colonial Revival houses of the 1920s - both because many of these imports were used and also because they influenced the work of tilemakers here. In fact several U.S. manufacturers made direct imitations. These tiles have the telltale marks which indicate that they were made in Tunisia: The face of each tile has three small blemishes, three scars in the glaze, arranged in a triangular pattern. These are the result of the tiles having been stacked into the kiln in piles, without the use of kiln furniture. They were laid flat, separated from each other only by small refractory "spurs" whose three points of contact produced the scarring. This very fuel-efficient method of firing has historically been used in several countries, but not in the U.S. in the 1920s.
2. 755 Marina Blvd. Tiles on the stair risers are decorated with neo-Mayan motifs. Mayan glyphs provided a source of imagery used by several tilemakers of the period. Some made faithful, literal copies of the originals, but here the designs were used loosely. 30th the riser tiles and the stair treads were made by the Muresque Tile Co. of Oakland (1925-1936). These tiles were intended mainly for the facing of fireplace mantels and hearths.
3. 675 Marina Blvd. These riser tiles employ another ready source of designs - heraldic symbols of medieval Europe. These tiles, by the Gladding, McBean Co., were designed mainly for use on floors. The colored glazes are confined to the recessed areas where they are protected from the abrasion of foot traffic. (Gladding, McBean has made all kinds of clay products in Lincoln from 1875 to the present. In 1923 they bought Tropico Potteries is Glendale and made a great deal of tile there, as well as at other Southern California factories which they operated prior to W.W.II.) Tunisian tiles are visible along the base of the back wall of the courtyard and around the door on the right.
4. 627 & 601 Marina Blvd. The tiles used in these two sites are quite similar. All were made by the S&S Tile Co. of San Jose (Solon & Schemmel, 1921-1936). The walkway at 601 Marina makes a nice transition between the public space and the private. The unglazed clay tiles set off the glazed ones to advantage. Look straight up to see more S&S tiles, facing the underside of the 2nd floor balcony.
5. 3025 Scott. Up a few steps is an entry courtyard to this apartment building, at the center of which is a tiled fountain with green ceramic frogs. This modest installation is rather worse for the wear, but it is included here because it is the only example we will see of the work of the California Faience Co. of Berkeley (c.1916-1930). California Faience is perhaps best known for having produced most of the decorative tiles used at Hearst's Castle at San Simeon.
6. 499 Marina Blvd. The fountain here is in the shape of a traditional Islamic 8-pointed star (although the seal atop it is not really a traditional part of that scheme). All tiles here and in the octagonal entry floor are by S&S, including the imitation Tunisian tiles on the outer wall of the fountain.
7. 222 Cervantes. The walkway and riser tiles visible through the gate are products of Stonelight Tile Co. of San Jose (1954 - present) which is a successor company to S&S.
8. 401 Avila. This S&S entry features accent tiles pressed from plaster molds which portray fishes, frogs, foliage and flowers.
9. 3750 Scott. The walls of this apartment house entry are finished with tiles by the Batchelder-Wilson Tile Co. Ernest Batchelder was an important figure in the Arts and Crafts movement in the U.S. and he made tiles in Pasadena and Los Angeles from 1909-1932.
10. 3665 Scott. The entry walls of this Art Deco apartment house feature fiery orange-red tiles by the Rossman Company. These represent their "Champleve" line, introduced in the autumn of 1929, just ahead of the stock market crash. By 1931 the company had gone bankrupt. The Rossman Company decorated the front of their warehouse with these same tiles, and that still stands at 1155 Harrison St. - a tribute to this bold plunge into modernist tile design. (The Rossman Company was founded in 1889 in New York City and for over 40 years was an important distributor of tiles of both foreign and domestic manufacture. In 1927 Rossman bought three tile manufacturers - Beaver Falls Art Tile Co. of Pennsylvania, and Perth Amboy Tile Works and Old Bridge Enamel Brick and Tile Co., both of New Jersey - and merged them to manufacture under the Rossman imprint.) The floor and lobby tiles here are by S&S.
11. 3636 Scott. The tiles on this entry wall are by the California Art Tile Co. (hereafter called "Cal Art Tile") of Richmond (1923-1956).
12. 1790-1792 Beach. Gladding, McBean pavers with recessed glaze decoration are seen again, here with some multi-color examples.
13. 1761 Beach. The decorative riser tiles are from Seville, Spain. These tiles represent the second most influential kind of imported tile (second to the Tunisian product) in the 1920s in California. Tiles like this are still being made. The standard size is 6"X12" and the color palette is black, white, brown, blue, and green. Colors tend to be somewhat harsh, unvarying in tone, and glassy. They illustrate the "cuenca" technique by which ridges are pressed into the clay to form separate pools for each glaze color. The designs are a somewhat rigid reworking of centuries' old Islamic patterns which were first executed, historically, as ceramic mosaics.
14. 1721-1723 and 1725-1727 Beach. Both duplex entries here use S&S tiles on the risers and fountains.
15. 15 Retiro. At the top of the facade, on either side, are tiles by Santa Monica Brick Co. of Santa Monica (1920s - 1930s), just above the 3rd floor window level. (Each side has the same group of four tiles - two different patterns - set diagonally.)
16. 55 Retiro. S&S tiles decorate the risers, and show a nice 'return' detail at the side edge of each step.
17. 7 Casa Way. These small floor tiles with their occasional decorative inserts appear to be from the "Florentine" series made by the Mueller Mosaic Co. of Trenton, N.J. (1908-1941).
18. 25 Casa Way. On these risers S&S tiles are mixed with those of Tudor Potteries of Los Angeles (1927-early 1930s) in the lower section; in the upper section - after a 90° turn - S&S and Tudor tiles are also mixed with those of the Hispano-Moresque Tile Co. of Los Angeles (c. late '20s - early '30s) and also Tunisian imports.
19. 2 Casa Way (corner of Retiro Way). Entry and planter tiles by Cal Art Tile, Richmond.
20. 3768 Fillmore. Duplex stairs, lavishly tiled using the products of Malibu, Taylor Tilery, S&S, and Santa Monica Brick Co. Originally both staircases were the same, however two of the risers on the left side have had their tiles replaced by new ones (undoubtedly due to damage to the originals).
21. 3764-3766 Fillmore. The accent panels overhead use tiles from Tudor Potteries. These seem to be slowly disintegrating, but in an earthy and picturesque way. The riser decos here are mostly by S&S.
22. 1490 Jefferson. The entry walls and floor are mid-'30s S&S tiles.
Cross To The North Side Of Fillmore St.
23. 3763-3765 & 3769-3771 Fillmore. Deco tiles on both staircases are by Malibu Potteries of Malibu (1926-1932).
24. 3731 Fillmore. These low entry walls use S&S tiles.
25. 3679-3681 & 3683-3685 Fillmore. Here again are Malibu tiles, on another pair of stairways.
26. 3675 Fillmore. A mid-'30s S&S entry.
27. 3655 Fillmore. Only a little remains, haphazardly set, of a once lavish doorway surround which was badly damaged in the '89 earthquake. Tiles are by D&M Tile Co. of Los Angeles (Davies & McDonald, c. 1927-1938).
Cross To The South Side Of Fillmore St.
28. 3670 Fillmore. Another entry composed of S&S tiles.
29. 1695 Beach. Another entry using S&S tiles. Here begins an interesting sequence of S&S entries which might be regarded as an "Art Deco / Arts and Crafts" mixture. In other words the tiles selected for "moderne" compositions still adhere to the basic tenets of Arts and Crafts tilemaking. The bodies are made from wet clay and thus show some warping and irregularity. Similarly the glazing is often mottled and not totally homogeneous in texture. In short they retain a "soft-edged" informality that contrasts with the high-tech, machine-perfect quality that would be normal for tiles in an Art Deco context.
30. 1690 Beach. Another S&S.
31. 1655-1657 & 1649-1651 Beach. The tiles which have rich, mainly green, glazes were made by Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, Ohio (1880 - 1956). These are single 6"X6" tiles which were originally made to be parts of larger scenes, of multi-tile mural panels. (In some cases portions of trees, mountains, and sky - or leaves and grape clusters - can be recognized.) These tiles were probably manufactured before 1910 but were not set here until 20 years later. Such anachronisms are not terribly rare; most likely the architect or developer had a chance to buy this odd lot of unused tiles and liked them. Coexisting with the Rookwood tiles are some S&S, some Tunisian, and some unidentified tiles.
32. 1631-1633 Beach. S&S tiles are mingled here with Taylor and other tiles of Southern California manufacture (perhaps including Malibu). Some help is needed to straighten out the proper identifications here.
33. 1601 Beach. Yet another S&S entry.
34. 1600 Beach. ...and yet another. Most of these tiles are given a minimal decorative treatment, compared to most of S&S' work. The caramel colored wall tiles are composed of a reddish clay bisque. The red is due to iron content. Typically the glaze, during firing, rolls down off the high ridges and lets the color of the iron burn through to slightly highlight the relief. This is characteristic of one technique associated with the studio potter, and it this highlights the variable interaction of clay and glaze, far from trying to conceal the basic "earthiness" of this material. (Actually we must add the caveat that potters have also formulated certain "breaking" glazes, which can mimic the reaction described above but without the clay playing an actual role.)
35. 3720 Webster. All but one of the (decorative tiles here are from the Woolenius Tile Co. of Berkeley (1927-1943). (The exception is the single orange tile, which is probably Tudor).
36. 1580 Beach. Another S&S entry. Again, see how modernism is given expression without really violating the Arts and Crafts spirit. (The elongated diamond-shaped floor tiles are sorted by color and set in a pattern that offers a subtle "op art" effect)
37. 3636-3638 Webster. A patchwork quilt of Malibu tiles make a frieze on the facade beneath the 2nd story windows.
38. 1695 North Point. An S&S entry featuring a "fishscale" pattern.
39. 1690 Bay. Here ends the series of S&S' "Arts and Crafts/Art Deco" compositions.
40. 1760-1762 Bay. On the risers are more of Rossman's modernist tiles. (The tiles on the low facing wall of the lower section of steps are unidentified as to maker.)
Note: This Is As Close As Our Route Will Take Us To The Commercial Strip On Chestnut St. If You Want To Make A Detour To Find Food, Film, Bathroom, Etc. This Is A Good Time To Go.
Follow The Map Carefully - There Is A Zig Zag Route Here.
41. 53-55 Toledo. This niche is surfaced with factory-made whiteware tiles, using shaped pieces to simulate the look of a curved back wall. (Another bit of "op art" tilework.)
42. 57-59 Toledo. The rich, vibrant colors of this niche are the product of CALCO (California Clay Products Company) of Los Angeles, the company established by Rufus Keeler before he went on to his greatest fame as director of Malibu Potteries. CALCO was founded in 1923, and Keeler went to Malibu in 1926. (Although CALCO continued to manufacture after Keeler departed these tiles were surely made during the years he was with the company.)
43. 85 Toledo. A Tunisian baseboard, somewhat a "minimalist" design for its genre. Here you can see and touch the points of scarring on the glazed face of the tiles (as discussed at site #1). Some individual tiles may not show three distinct points, but most will. After examining several tiles you will see a pretty consistent pattern.
44. 195 Alhambra. S&S floor and lobby.
45. 3420 Pierce. A single band of tiles under the front door is decorated in the style of Italian Renaissance ceramic painting which historically was done on a white tin glaze background. These tiles were probably made in Italy or Spain in the '20s or '30s.
46. 3432 Pierce. This is a modest example of tiles which are typical of the manufacture of Art Deco tiles. Unlike the S&S tiles we have looked at, these industrially made tiles are "dust-pressed", their body being what we call whiteware. They show neither the warpage of tiles made from wet clay nor any variations in the color or texture of the glazes.
47. 100 Capra. Entry tiles by Cal Art Tile.
48. 140-146 Capra. Duplex staircases with colorful riser tiles set on the diagonal. (A couple of the risers have had the original tiles replaced in recent years.) The manufacturer(s) of these tiles is not known --- so please let us know if you have any insights on the maker. (...perhaps Gladding, McBean imitating the style of Malibu??)
49. 196 Avila. Rossman riser decos.
50. 3560 Divisidero. This S&S frieze above and around the front door has an interesting way of blending into the surrounding brickwork. This installation was badly damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake and some of it was lost.
51. 2255 North Point. The large tiles which depict various scenes here are by Cal Art Tile Co. and the smaller decos are a mixture of Cal Art, CALCO, and Claycraft (Los Angeles c.1925-1934). (One Claycraft example is the tile pictured at the top of this page.)
52. 2290 North Point. Rossman decos on the walls. S&S and Malibu for the floor and lobby.
53. 3450 Broderick. This exuberant entry shows combinations rarely attempted. The pink liner tiles are from Claycraft. The orange is the ubiquitous color of the uranium glaze favored by several Los Angeles area tilemakers of the period. These orange tiles seem to be a sampler of the work of Taylor, Hispano-Moresque, and D&M Tile Co.
54. 2290-2292 Bay St. Staircase with riser tiles by S&S.
If You Are Tired Or Behind Schedule You Can Skip The Rest And Return Directly To Your Car Now.
55. 2200 Beach. An interesting composition of S&S tiles.
56. 3615 and 3636 Broderick. The decorative tiles at both these sites are from the Mosaic Tile Co. of Zanesville, Ohio (1894-1967). Spanish Colonial Revival architecture created a considerable market for appropriate tiles and these tiles are part of the Mosaic company's "Hispania" series which was directed at that market. These tiles were decorated by a more fully industrial process than most others we have seen. The designs were printed onto decals, using ceramic colors which became fixed to the tiles during firing. (A similar technique was widely used in England in the 1870s and 1880s - and it was in opposition to such mechanical production that the Arts and Crafts movement developed.)
57. 3650 Broderick. S&S entry, except for the 3"X3" decos on the floor which are by Gladding, McBean.
58. 1975-1977 Jefferson. These riser tiles appear to be by Hispano-Moresque or D&M. Most are direct copies of Tunisian tiles; however these southern California products tend to have brighter colors (especially the uranium orange). And the three points or glaze scars are lacking, of course.
59. 1945 Jefferson. A mid-'30s entry wall in which S&S decos are surrounded by the mottled field tiles of Cal Art.
60. 1935 Jefferson. S&S entry.
61. 1900 Jefferson. The modernist deco tiles in this entry are by Kraftile of Niles, now part of Fremont (1926-present).
62. 1970-1972 Jefferson. Most of the tiles here are S&S. One by Santa Monica Brick Co. stands out - on the bottom riser of the main staircase, second from left. A few tiles are unidentified.
This is the End of Our Tour
