Anderson Hall, Haight Street Entrance — San Francisco State College
About This Item
Anderson Hall at San Francisco State College’s Haight and Buchanan campus, including its Haight Street entrance. The Spanish-influenced façade featured a prominent arched portal decorated with a Works Progress Administration mosaic by artist Maxine Albro. Installed in the 1930s, the mosaic depicted a boy reading among native California plants and animals and was composed of 29 different types of marble. Anderson Hall was one of the principal academic buildings on the Buchanan Street campus established after the 1906 earthquake destroyed the original Powell Street site. The Haight Street entrance served as a primary access point to the campus prior to relocation to the Lake Merced site in the early 1950s.
- Identifier
- TP-ATA-1310
- Context
During the 1930s, New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration contributed to campus improvements, including public art installations like Maxine Albro’s mosaic at Anderson Hall. These additions reflected San Francisco State’s growing institutional identity during the interwar years. Anderson Hall was one of the principal academic buildings on the Buchanan Street campus and served generations of students before the College’s move to the Lake Merced site in 1953.
A typed note found with the negative reads: “A view of Anderson Hall today. This building is no longer in use. It is, however, in fair condition.” The wording suggests the photograph was taken after the Buchanan Street campus had been vacated, likely in the mid- to late-1950s, when Anderson Hall stood unused but structurally intact.
Credits: Some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.
- Geographic Coverage
- San Francisco, CA
- Type
- Still Image
- Format
- Source
- San Francisco State University Archives
- Rights
- Public
- Views
- 135