Officers' Club - Adobe Inside the Walls

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

At the south end of the Main Parade, the Presidio Officers' Club looks like a 1930s Mission Revival building, and mostly it is. But inside its walls is adobe from the Spanish and Mexican presidio, some of the oldest building material in San Francisco. Historians date the adobe to the late 1700s or early 1800s; it was damaged by earthquakes in 1808 and 1812 and patched again and again.

The first presidio was a square of adobe buildings around a central plaza, and archaeologists have traced its outline under the lawns and parking lots around you. American troops rebuilt the old commander's quarters, and by the 1880s it was serving as an officers' club.

Inside, a free heritage gallery tells the Presidio's story, and parts of the old adobe are exposed for visitors to see. Check current hours.

More on Wikipedia: Presidio of San Francisco

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