Collection Guide
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San Francisco Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering records,
SFH 458
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Table of contents
Title: Finding Aid to the San Francisco Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering Records
Date (inclusive): 1881-[1986?],
Date (bulk): 1908-1944
Identifier/Call Number: SFH 458
Creator:
San Francisco (Calif.). Public Works.
Creator:
San Francisco (Calif.). Dept. of Public Works.
Creator:
San Francisco (Calif.). Board of Public Works.
Creator:
San Francisco (Calif.). Bureau of Engineering.
Physical Description:
41 cubic feet
(43 boxes, 1 manuscripts box, 1 map folder)
Contributing Institution:
San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Abstract: Includes correspondence and project and subject files documenting public infrastructure construction in San Francisco, following
the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Physical Location: The collection is stored off site.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.
The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours. Collections that are stored off site should
be requested 48 hours in advance.
Photographs cannot be photocopied. Gloves are required when handling photographs.
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], San Francisco Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering Records (SFH 458), San Francisco
History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Transferred to the San Francisco City Archives from the San Francisco Department of Public Works. Additional materials transferred
on Jun 26, 2020.
See also San Francisco Department of Public Works Proposed San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridges Records (SFH 87); San Francisco
Department of City Planning Records (SFH 465); San Francisco Department of Public Works Photograph Collection (SFP 26);
San Francisco Municipal Reports;
and
Report on Progress of the Works Program in San Francisco,
January 1938.
See also the library's online public access catalog, particularly for departmental and bureau reports; and the San Francisco
History Center's subject files.
See also M.M (Michael Maurice) O'Shaughnessy Papers, BANC MSS 92/808 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
See also Marsden Manson Papers, BANC MSS C-B 416, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Processed by Tami J. Suzuki with preliminary processing by Shane Ebbert.
Some monographs were transferred to the library's book collection.
1989 Fact Book Summary, Redevelopment Program San Francisco
Annual Report of the Board of Public Works, City and County of San Francisco,
1912-13
Before the Committee on Public Lands of the United States Senate, Senate No. 2610,
San Francisco: James H. Barry Co., 1913
Hetch Hetchy Dam Site Hearing Before the Committee on the Public Lands... Part 2,
Washington DC: GPO, 1913
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Site, Hearing Before the Committee on Public Lands, United States Senate, Sixty-Third Congress, First
Session on H.R. 7207...
Washington DC: GPO, 1913
Official Grades of the Public Streets City & County of San Francisco, Duplicate Records, M-Z and Numbered Avenues and Numbered
Streets,
San Francisco, no date
Report of the Department of Public Works for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1901,
San Francisco
Report on Progress of the Works Program, Washington DC: Works Progress Administration, March 1937
San Francisco's Board of Public Works was created on January 8, 1900 by Article VI of the City Charter, directed by three
commissioners. The original four bureaus were: Engineering, Streets, Building, and Light and Water Services. The department
was initially tasked with organizing street construction and paving projects throughout the city.
According to the 1899-1900 report of the City Engineer, "Of the work urgently needed to be done by the city none is probably
of greater importance than the systemization of the sewerage and drainage works to fit existing and projected sewers into
the lines of main drainage and sewerage disposal, as proposed and adopted during the last year.
"This work, as well as the work of extending street line surveys, setting monuments and establishing grades for streets in
the outlying rapidly growing districts of the city (also urgently needed) is of a character not productive of revenue. All
work of this class will be pushed forward as fast as the available funds will permit."
The August 1902 annual report notes that the department "may be expected to take on larger dimensions and to comprise additional
bureaus, such as for a water system and municipal railways. It also notes expected growth of the City with incidental expansion
in street operations. The Bureau of Engineering is described as "concerned with the most important features of municipal material
interests." Furthermore, the bureau reports of the "coming ownership and administration by the City of all of the interests
classed under the head of Public Utilities."
C.E. Grunsky was San Francisco's first City Engineer.
Marsden Manson was the City Engineer from 1908 to 1912.
M.M. O'Shaughnessy was the City Engineer from 1912-1932.
Long known as the Department of Public Works or DPW, the agency is now known as San Francisco Public Works. It constructs,
manages, designs, maintains and repairs the city's public buildings and infrastructure.
These records include those from this same body under one previous name, San Francisco Board of Public Works, and one bureau
name, San Francisco Bureau of Engineering. The Board of Public Works was created in 1900. The Bureau of Engineering was one
of the four original bureaus. By 1902, the agency was also known as the Department of Public Works. As of 2014, the department
is called San Francisco Public Works.
This collection documents the building of infrastructure in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake, particularly during
the administrations of City Engineers Marsden Manson and M.M. O'Shaughnessy. Later records are mainly drawings of Recreation
and Parks Department projects. Includes correspondence, project reports, drawings, bids and specifications, surveys, articles,
and photographs. Of note are documents on the dismantling and removal of the relief model of the city. Documentation on the
Port of San Francisco, O'Shaughnessy Dam, and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir are not included.
Organized into four series: Series 1. Correspondence; Series 2. Project Files; Series 3. Subject Files; and Series 4. Legal
Files. Correspondence is organized into two subseries: Subseries 1A: Outgoing Correspondence; and Subseries 1B: Incoming Correspondence.
Project Files are organized into ten subseries: Subseries 2A: Street Work/Renovation; Subseries 2B: Sewers; Subseries 2C:
Bridges and Viaducts; Subseries 2D: Airport Development; Subseries 2E: South Basin-South Basin Canal Reclamation District;
Subseries 2F: Water Supply and Auxiliary Water Supply System; Subseries 2G: Transit Tunnels; Subseries 2H: Naval Base Sites;
Subseries 2I: Garbage Disposal; Subseries 2J: Parks, Playgrounds and Transportation; and Subseries 2K: Other Projects. Correspondence
is arranged chronologically. The majority of the rest of the collection is arranged alphabetically by subject.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Public Works -- California -- San Francisco.
Bridges -- California -- San Francisco.
Bridges -- California -- San Francisco Bay -- Design and construction.
Storm sewers -- California -- San Francisco.
Streets -- California -- San Francisco.
Tunnels -- California -- San Francisco -- Design and construction.
Photographic prints -- 1900-1940.
Mills Field Municipal Airport.
San Francisco (Calif.). Public Works -- Archives.
San Francisco (Calif.). Dept. of Public Works -- Archives.
San Francisco (Calif.). Board of Public Works -- Archives.
San Francisco (Calif.). Bureau of Engineering -- Archives.
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