Marines' Memorial Club

Last updated
Marines' Memorial Club
Marines' Memorial Hotel exterior 3.JPG
The Marines' Memorial Club and Hotel
Location map San Francisco Central.png
Red pog.svg
Marines' Memorial Club
Location within San Francisco
USA California location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Marines' Memorial Club
Marines' Memorial Club (California)
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Marines' Memorial Club
Marines' Memorial Club (the United States)
Former namesWestern Women's Club
General information
Architectural style Spanish Colonial-style
Address609 Sutter Street
Town or city San Francisco, California
Coordinates 37°47′20.05″N122°24′37.69″W / 37.7889028°N 122.4104694°W / 37.7889028; -122.4104694
Completed1926
OwnerMarines Memorial Association
Technical details
Floor count12

The Marines' Memorial Club in San Francisco, California at 609 Sutter Street (at Mason), is a 501(c)19 nonprofit veterans charity and private social club for United States Marines and other veterans of the United States Armed Forces. The nonprofit Marines' Memorial Association owns the large building in the Union Square neighborhood of San Francisco that houses a hotel, theater, restaurant/bar, sports club, special event facilities, library, museum, memorial, and a military history bookstore. [1] The facility was built as the Western Women's Club in 1926.

Contents

Western Women's Club

The Western Women's Club building [2] [3] [4] [5] is a 12-story Beaux-Arts-style building, designed by the firm of Walter Danforth Bliss and William Baker Faville, [6] and built in 1926. The Western Women's Club was a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The Western Women's Club building was bought by the Marines Memorial Association in 1947. [6] Western Women's Club had a later location at 111 O'Farrell Street. [7]

Marines' Memorial Club

As a port city, San Francisco has, since its founding by Spain, been associated with military personnel – especially the navy – and merchant mariners. During World War II it was a point of embarcation for many service personnel in for the Pacific Theatre. Those who passed through the city before deployment would remember their experience and return after the war. [8]

The Marines' Memorial was opened as a club for veterans of the Marines, although membership is open to all United States servicemembers. [9] Early in 1946, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Alexander A. Vandegrift, had proposed a "living memorial" to Marine casualties from the War in the Pacific. A group of Marines arranged to buy a building owned by a women's club at Mason Street and Sutter Street in San Francisco, [1] whose members they had met through their participation in the wartime WAVES program. [10] The club opened on November 10, 1946, the anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps. [11]

The theater predates the club, and was part of the original 1926 building. In its early days it hosted nationwide radio broadcasts by Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Frank Sinatra. It later housed the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, which produced plays by Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Bertolt Brecht. It was also the first home of the American Conservatory Theater. [12]

Today the association has 21,000 members from all branches of the United States military, NOAA, and the Public Health Service, mostly from California. [13]

Amenities

The Tribute Memorial Wall. Tribute-wall.jpg
The Tribute Memorial Wall.

The most noticeable features are a 650-seat repertory theater and a lobby display of military memorabilia, most notably the ship's bell from the USS San Francisco. [14] It also includes two restaurants (including the club's "Leatherneck Grill" steakhouse) and a Club One fitness center. The building also includes the Tribute Memorial Wall, a private memorial to American troops killed in the Iraq War and war in Afghanistan. [15] [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese-American service in World War II</span> Japanese Americans serving the United States in World War II

During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage. As the war progressed, many of the young Nisei, Japanese immigrants' children who were born with American citizenship, volunteered or were drafted to serve in the United States military. Japanese Americans served in all the branches of the United States Armed Forces, including the United States Merchant Marine. An estimated 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during World War II, of which 20,000 joined the Army. Approximately 800 were killed in action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern California</span> American geographic and cultural region

Northern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.

Brothers James Lloyd "Jim" Mitchell and Artie Jay Mitchell were American entrepreneurs. They operated in the pornography and striptease club business in San Francisco and other parts of California from 1969 until 1991 when Jim was convicted of killing Artie.

The Mission District, commonly known as the Mission, is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is derived from Mission San Francisco de Asís, built in 1776 by the Spanish. The Mission is historically one of the most notable centers of the city's Chicano/Mexican-American community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego</span> US Marine Corps base in San Diego, California, United States

Marine Corps Recruit DepotSan Diego is a United States Marine Corps military installation in San Diego, California. It lies between San Diego Bay and Interstate 5, adjacent to San Diego International Airport and the former Naval Training Center San Diego. MCRD San Diego's main mission is the initial training of enlisted male and female recruits living west of the Mississippi River. Over 21,000 recruits are trained each year. As of 2022, 1.5 million recruits have completed their boot camp training at the Depot. The Depot also is the home to the Marine Corps' Recruiter School and Drill Instructors School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japantown, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States

Japantown, also known historically as Japanese Town, is a neighborhood in the Western Addition district of San Francisco, California. Japantown comprises about six city blocks and is considered one of the largest and oldest ethnic enclaves in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Capitol Museum</span> Museum in Sacramento, California, United States

The California State Capitol Museum consists of a museum in and grounds around the California State Capitol in Sacramento, California, United States. The building has been the home of the California State Legislature since 1869. The State Capitol Museum has been a property in the California State Parks system since 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Addition, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood of San Francisco in California, United States

The Western Addition is a district in San Francisco, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery</span> Historic veterans cemetery in San Diego, California

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is a federal military cemetery in the city of San Diego, California. It is located on the grounds of the former Army coastal artillery station Fort Rosecrans and is administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. The cemetery is located approximately 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown San Diego, overlooking San Diego Bay and the city from one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other. Fort Rosecrans is named after William Starke Rosecrans, a Union general in the American Civil War. The cemetery was registered as California Historical Landmark #55 on December 6, 1932. The cemetery is spread out over 77.5 acres (31.4 ha) located on both sides of Catalina Blvd.

Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) is a general medical/surgical and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California. It was created by a merger of some of the city's longest established hospitals and currently operates three acute care campuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenderloin, San Francisco</span> Neighborhood in California, U.S.

The Tenderloin is a neighborhood in downtown San Francisco, in the flatlands on the southern slope of Nob Hill, situated between the Union Square shopping district to the northeast and the Civic Center office district to the southwest. Encompassing about 50 square blocks, it is historically bounded on the north by Geary Street, on the east by Mason Street, on the south by Market Street and on the west by Van Ness Avenue. The northern boundary with Lower Nob Hill has historically been set at Geary Boulevard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Van Ness Avenue</span> Avenue in San Francisco, California

Van Ness Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed in honor of the city's sixth mayor, James Van Ness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Pissis</span> Mexican-American architect

Albert Pissis (1852–1914) was a prolific Mexican-born American architect, of French and Mexican descent. He was active in San Francisco and had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. He is credited with introducing the Beaux-Arts architectural style to San Francisco, California, designing a number of important buildings in the city in the years before and after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunter–Dulin Building</span> Commercial offices in San Francisco, California

The Hunter–Dulin Building is a class A office building located at 111 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Nolte</span> American journalist

Carl Nolte is an American journalist. He writes the "Native Son" column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zulu Clements</span>

Zulu Clements was the president of the California Federation of Business & Professional Women's Clubs. She was the traffic manager for the Leslie Salt Co, and touted as "Woman Salt Baron".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Henry Jacobs</span> American architect

Alfred Henry Jacobs was an American architect. He designed theaters, hotels, residential, and religious buildings, primarily working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three of the buildings he designed are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He also worked as a watercolorist.

National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) is an American non-profit organization based in Japantown in San Francisco, California.

References

  1. 1 2 "About the Living Memorial". Marines' Memorial Association.
  2. Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration of Northern California (5 April 2011). San Francisco in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City by the Bay. University of California Press. ISBN   978-0-520-26880-7.
  3. "Western Women's Club". Card Cow . Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  4. "San Francisco ephemera collection". California Digital Library . calisphere . Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  5. "midpacific_volume40_issue3" (PDF). evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 15 April 2023. Western Women's Club, 609 Sutter St.
  6. 1 2 "In Our Rear View Mirror". 640 Heritage Preservation Foundation. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  7. "Madera Nurses Attend CSNA Council Meetin". Madera Tribune . California Digital Newspaper Collection. 8 April 1952. Retrieved 15 April 2023. The meeting was held in the Western Women's Club at 111 O'Farrell Street and at noon a luncheon was held.
  8. Carl Nolte (2007-10-04). "Snafus involving Marines in S.F. and Oakland have critics raving". San Francisco Chronicle.
  9. Carl Nolte (2006-05-29). "Revering those lost to wars:S.F. wall honors casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan". San Francisco Chronicle.
  10. Skye Jones. "Marines are welcome at the Marines Memorial".
  11. John Garvey (2007). San Francisco in World War II. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   978-0-7385-3050-5.
  12. "Marines' Memorial Theatre". Union Square Theaters.
  13. "Marines' Memorial Association". Marines' Memorial Association.
  14. "Ship's Bell". USS San Francisco Memorial Foundation.
  15. Carl Nolte (2008-03-16). "Examining the war in Iraq after 5 years". San Francisco Chronicle.
  16. Scott Lindlaw (2007-03-26). "Long before the shooting stops, Americans memorialize war dead". Associated Press.