Rincon Annex - Murals That Reached Congress

Rincon Annex - Murals That Reached Congress

Photo: The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

Half a block from the strike corner stands the streamlined former Rincon Annex post office, finished in 1940. Inside its old lobby, Russian-born artist Anton Refregier painted 27 murals telling the history of California, from Native people and the missions through the Gold Rush, anti-Chinese riots, the 1906 fire and the 1934 waterfront strike.

He began in 1941, paused for the war and finished in 1948, just as the Cold War arrived. Critics attacked the murals for showing violence, labor conflict and the mistreatment of Chinese and Native Californians, and the fight reached Congress, where some members called for them to be destroyed. They survived, and when the building became part of the Rincon Center development in the 1980s, the lobby was preserved.

The murals line the walls of the old lobby along Mission Street. Check whether the building is open when you visit.

More on Wikipedia: Rincon Center · Anton Refregier

Stops on this tour

  1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
  2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
  3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
  4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
  5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
  6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
  7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
  8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
  9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
  10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
  11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
  12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
  13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
  14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom