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Finding Aid to the St. Francis Square Cooperative, Inc. collection,
1957-2015,
SFH 62
SFH 62
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Table of contents
Title: St. Francis Square Cooperative, Inc. collection
Date (inclusive): 1957-2015
Collection Identifier: SFH 62
Creator:
St. Francis Square Cooperative Inc.
Physical Description:
5 cartons
(5 cubic feet)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Abstract: Cooperative records and publications that were distributed to shareholders by the board of directors, manager, and committees,
together with additional articles, clippings, and other materials collected by shareholder, archivist and donor Carol Cuénod.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English.
The collection is open for research.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
[Identification of item], St. Francis Square Cooperative, Inc. Collection (SFH 62), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco
Public Library.
Donated by Carol Cuénod on Feb. 11, 2010. This collection represents these distributed papers which several shareholders have
donated. They were collected by the following members:
- Miriam Rothschild
- Shareholder from 1963-2000 (deceased)
- Jean Littlejohn
- Shareholder from 1963-2008 (deceased)
- Norman Young
- Shareholder from 1963-current
- Howard "Duke" Rideaux
- Shareholder from 1963-current
- Carol Cuénod
- Shareholder from 1963-2015 (deceased)
- Yayoi Tsukahara
- Shareholder from 1963-2013 (deceased)
In addition, selected documents as well as newspaper clippings were copied from the Anne Rand Memorial Library at the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) International Headquarters.
In 2021, Rita Alderucci donated additional materials that had been maintained by her mother, Carol Cuénod.
Additional newsletters and board minutes were donated by John Tsukahara in 2016.
There are approximately 1.5 cubic feet of records held at the ILWU Archives at the Anne Rand Research Library that document
the initial proposal; the process before the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, which approved and awarded the proposal of
the ILWU-PMA Pension Fund; and ongoing documents and correspondence from the construction, sales period and early years of
St. Francis Square Cooperative.
Carol Cuénod completed the processing of this collection in 2010. Tami J. Suzuki processed additional materials in 2021 and
2022.
St. Francis Square Cooperative, Inc. is a moderate-income housing development completed in 1963 as part of San Francisco's
Western Addition Redevelopment A-1 Program. The A-1 Redevelopment Program, which was funded by the Federal Housing Administration,
began in the mid-1950s with families and businesses being removed by eminet domain and properties being bulldozed. The first
action in the heart of the demolition area was to widen Geary Street to an eight lane expressway to move traffic through the
Fillmore into the Richmond District, with tunnels under Fillmore St. and Presidio/Masonic. The dislocated families and businesses
were scattered with no foreseeable ability to return, for the cleared land lay fallow for several years.
As part of this program, three blocks were set aside for garden apartments that eventually became the St. Francis Square Cooperative.
Construction of the co-op was sponsored by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)/Pacific Maritime Association
(PMA) Pension Fund. The idea for the co-op was conceived and developed by Louis Goldblatt, who was the ILWU International
Secretary-Treasurer at the time. The principal business of the Pacific Maritime Association is to negotiate and administer
maritime labor agreements in conjunction with the ILWU. In the 1950s, they negotiated a pension plan supervised by trustees
from the ILWU and the PMA.
The ILWU-PMA Pension Fund trustees created a separate corporate entity for purposes of efficient supervision over the building
of St. Francis Square. It became the official sponsor of the project, with William Glazier as the first president and Louis
Goldblatt the second. The entity, called the ILWU Longshoremen Redevelopment Corporation, put together proposals to the ILWU-PMA
in May of 1960 and the Western Addition Redevelopment Project in June of 1960. Hal Dunleavy and Associates served as the coordinator
for this project.
Construction was financed under Section 221 (d) (3) of the U.S. Housing Code, which provided a 40-year mortgage at the subsidized
rate of 3-1/8% and operated under a Regulatory Agreement of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA later changed to the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)). Construction began in 1962 and was complete in 1963. The cooperative consists
of 299 apartments in twelve three-story buildings, oriented around shared landscaped courtyards. Marquis & Stoller were the
architects and Lawrence Halprin & Associates were landscape consultants.
Ownership in the cooperative is achieved by purchasing a share of the Corporation from the seller, which, after signing an
occupancy agreement, entitles the new shareholder(s) to occupy an apartment. Residents are sometimes referred to as "cooperators,"
and residents abbreviate the development as "SFSQ." Each year, St. Francis Square Cooperative Inc. elects a board of directors,
which is responsible for staffing and operations. The board holds open meetings each month and distributes its minutes to
all shareholders. The board also appoints many committees to help carry out the co-op's financial, social, and special activities.
Communication to members from the board, committees and management is by a weekly newsletter and flyers distributed to all
members.
Sources: Cuénod, C. "Redevelopment A-1 and Origin of St. Francis Square" (http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Redevelopment_A-1_and_Origin_of_St._Francis_Square),
retrieved from
Shaping San Francisco website on 14 March 2012.
"Western Addition A-1" (http://www.sfredevelopment.org/index.aspx?page=64), retrieved from San Francisco Redevelopment website
on 14 March 2012.
Cooperative records and publications that were distributed to shareholders by the board of directors, manager, and committees,
together with additional articles, clippings, and other materials collected by shareholder, archivist, and donor Carol Cuénod.
Cooperative records include bylaws, minutes, financial reports, and committee records. Publications include a nearly-complete
run of the St. Francis Square Cooperative's official publication
Circling the Square
(1966-2014), issues of the
Friday Flyer
(1983-2005, 2007, 2009-2010, and 2012-2013), and a member distributed flyer called
The St. Francis Flyer
(1964-1965), which covers events related to a recall of the board of directors. Except for the run of the official newsletter,
Circling the Square,
most of the folders in this series hold broken runs, i.e. a collection of similar documents, such as meeting minutes or reports,
with some issues missing.
Materials received in 2021 included
Circling the Square
newsletter artwork and photographs, 1981-1999. Included is an index of photos published in the twentieth anniversary booklet
as well as in newsletters published from 1983 to February 1996. There is also documentation of the fiftieth anniversary exhibition
held at the San Francisco Public Library.
Of particular interest are background materials on the formation, construction, and development of the cooperative These include
records relating to the Western Addition Redevelopment Project in 1964, which resulted in land being set aside for the development
of the cooperative; and records concerning the Cooperative's original loan agreement with the Federal Housing Administration
(later named the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD). Records detailing the Cooperative's transition to
a market-rate cooperative leading up to and following its repayment of their HUD mortgage in 2004 are also included.
This collection is arranged into seven series; Series 1: Founding Documents; Series 2: Administration and Finance; Series
3: Committees; Series 4: Transition to Market-Rate Cooperative; Series 5: Members; Series 6: Communications, News Articles
and Publications; and Series 7: Awards and Studies.
Board minutes, originally found in St. Francis Square Cooperative Inc.'s
Friday Flyer,
have been removed and placed in Series 2.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
St. Francis Square Cooperative Inc. -- Archives.
Housing, Cooperative.
Housing Development--California--San Francisco.
International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union -- History.
Japantown (San Francisco, Calif.)--History.
Pacific Maritime Association.
Redevelopment, Urban--San Francisco.
St. Francis Square Cooperative.
Urban renewal--California--San Francisco.
Western Addition (San Francisco, Calif.)--History.