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Found Remnants / Architecture

Exposition Auditorium
Located at 99 Grove on the south side of San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, this structure, now called the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, was the first building of the Exposition to be opened to the public, and is the only “original” building from the Exposition still standing. This distinction is often incorrectly attributed to the more glamorous Palace of Fine Arts, but in 1968 “The Palace” was stripped to its iron framework and the collonade and rotunda which stood before it were torn down. After extensive renovation of the interior, including the construction of a theatre, the framework was reclad minus its decoration, and the rotunda along with a major portion of the collonade were replicated in concrete.[See, Palace of Fine Arts].

While the interior of Exposition Auditorium has seen major renovations, and its exterior urns have been removed as an earthquake precaution, its appearance has remained essentially unaltered for more than 85 years, and its function today is much the same as it was during the Exposition period.

Built at a cost of just over one million dollars, the auditorium was a gift to the City of San Francisco from the Exposition. This was actually a cooperative venture with the city purchasing the land and paying over $200,000 for the granite facade on the north face of the structure and the Exposition paying more than a half million dollars in construction costs. Still, this amounted to a very generous gift from the Exposition to the city of San Francisco. They went still further donating the $40,000 Festival Organ to the city and having it moved and installed in Civic Auditorium at an additional cost of over $20,000 which included $7,400 dollars worth of new pipes, and a major overhaul of the acoustical characteristics of the auditorium.

Exposition Auditorium was dedicated on December 30, 1914 followed by a costume ball on January 9, 1915 celebrating the opening of the facility to the general public. A crowd estimated at over 17,000 attended these festivities which continued well into the early hours of the morning. During the period of the Exposition, more than 400 conventions were conducted within its precincts along with scores of recitals and symphony concerts.

The Auditorium has been used for a wide variety of functions over the years. It hosted the 1920 Democratic National Convention and in 1923 became the first home of the San Francisco Opera. Ella Fitzgerald along with other jazz greats have performed on its stage, the Golden State Warriors of the NBA once called it home, Elvis and Janis sang there as did The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and The Rolling Stones in the 1960s. My most vivid memory of “The Civic” is of an extremely hot Saturday afternoon in the early 80s watching my two kids devour some very sticky cotton candy while The Cole Bros. Circus gave a performance in its un-air-conditioned confines.

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