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Willis Polk
Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw the architectural committee for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). Early life and education Willis Polk was born on October 3, 1867, in Jacksonville, Illinois to architect builder Willis Webb Polk (1836-1906). The eldest of four children, in 1873 he moved with his family to Saint Louis, Missouri and again by 1881 to Hope, Arkansas. Willis Jr began his architectural training with his brother Daniel in his father's office. In 1885, Polk's family moved again to Kansas City, where Willis Webb Polk, the father, serving as a founding member of the Kansas City Architects Association, was able to introduce his eldest son to Adriance Van Brunt, principal of the firm Van Brunt & Howe to gain more experience as a draftsperson. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville is a city and the county seat of Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,616 at the 2020 census, down from 19,446 in 2010. It is home to Illinois College, Illinois School for the Deaf, and the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired, and was formerly home to MacMurray College. Jacksonville is the principal city of the Jacksonville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Morgan and Scott counties. History Jacksonville was established by European Americans on a tract of land in the center of Morgan County in 1825, two years after the county was founded. The founders of Jacksonville were settlers from New England. They were descended from the English Puritans who had settled New England in the 1600s and were part of a wave of New England farmers who headed west into what was then the wilds of the Northwest Territory during the early 1800s. Most of them arrived as a result of the completion of the Erie Canal and the end of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Lombard Street
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sports, where it commonly denotes the first, leading, or top thing in a group. 1 is the unit of counting or measurement, a determiner for singular nouns, and a gender-neutral pronoun. Historically, the representation of 1 evolved from ancient Sumerian and Babylonian symbols to the modern Arabic numeral. In mathematics, 1 is the multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number. In digital technology, 1 represents the "on" state in binary code, the foundation of computing. Philosophically, 1 symbolizes the ultimate reality or source of existence in various traditions. In mathematics The number 1 is the first natural number after 0. Each natural number, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco Civic Center
The Civic Center in San Francisco, California, United States is an area located a few blocks north of the intersection of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue that contains many of the city's largest government and cultural institutions. It has two large plazas ( Civic Center Plaza and United Nations Plaza) and a number of buildings in classical architectural style. The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (formerly the Exposition Auditorium), the United Nations Charter was signed in the Veterans Building's Herbst Theatre in 1945, leading to the creation of the United Nations. It is also where the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco (the peace treaty that officially ended the Pacific War with the Empire of Japan, which had surrendered in 1945) was signed. The San Francisco Civic Center was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1978. Location The Civic Center is bounded by Market Street to the southeast, Franklin St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Memorial Opera House
The War Memorial Opera House is an opera house in San Francisco, California, United States, located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue across from the west side/rear facade of the San Francisco City Hall. It is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. It has been the home of the San Francisco Opera since opening night in 1932. It was the site of the San Francisco Conference, the first assembly of the newly organized United Nations in April 1945. Architecture In 1927, $4 million in municipal bonds were issued to finance the design and construction of the first municipally owned opera house in the United States. The architects of the building complex were Arthur Brown Jr., who had also designed the adjacent San Francisco City Hall between 1912 and 1916, and G. Albert Lansburgh, a theater designer responsible for San Francisco's Orpheum and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Completed in 1932, it employs the classic Roman Doric order in a res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hallidie Building
The Hallidie Building is an office building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, at 130 Sutter Street, between Montgomery Street and Kearny Street. Designed by architect Willis Polk and named in honor of San Francisco cable car pioneer Andrew Smith Hallidie, it opened in 1918. Though credited as the first American building to feature glass curtain walls, it was in fact predated by Louis Curtiss's Boley Clothing Company building in Kansas City, Missouri, completed in 1909. The building underwent a two-year restoration, completed in April 2013, after its sheet metal friezes, cornices, balconies, and fire escapes were deemed unsafe by the City of San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection. The San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects opened the Center for Architecture + Design in the street-level retail space, which predates the rest of the building, adding a gallery, lecture hall, and cafe in 2023. The building also houses Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palace Of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to 1974, it is the only structure from the exposition that survives on site. Conceived to evoke a decaying ruin of ancient Rome, the Palace of Fine Arts became one of San Francisco's most recognizable landmarks. The most prominent building of the complex, a open rotunda, is enclosed by a lagoon on one side and adjoins a large, curved exhibition center on the other side, separated from the lagoon by colonnades. As of 2019, the exhibition center (one of San Francisco's largest single-story buildings) was in use as a venue for events such as weddings or trade fairs. Early 2009 marked the completion of a renovation of the lagoons and walkways and a seismic retrofit. History The Palace of Fine Arts was one of ten palaces at the heart of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hobart Building
__NOTOC__ The Hobart Building is an office high rise located at 582–592 Market Street, near Montgomery and 2nd Streets, in the financial district of San Francisco, California. It was completed in 1914. It was at the time the second tallest building in the city, at 21 floors and . It was designed by Willis Polk. The building was constructed for the Hobart Estate Company on the site of the company's previous offices. The location was reportedly chosen by founder Walter S. Hobart in the 1880s for its prominent location at the head of 2nd Street, originally one of the city's major streets leading to the fashionable Rincon Hill neighborhood. Said to be the favorite commercial building of its designer, Willis Polk, its sculpted terra cotta exterior with Baroque ornamentation and handcrafted brass and Italian marble interior are a noted example of neoclassical architecture. Its unusual shape was dictated by the site, which is an asymmetric polygon, and since a neighboring structure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Committee Of Fifty (1906)
This Committee of Fifty, sometimes referred to as Committee of Safety, Citizens' Committee of Fifty or Relief and Restoration Committee of Law and Order, was called into existence by Mayor Eugene Schmitz during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Mayor invited civic leaders, entrepreneurs, newspaper men and politicians—but none of the members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors—to participate in this committee in whose hands the civil administration of San Francisco would rest. Schmitz thought it necessary to form this body to manage the crisis during the disaster, although there was no legal basis for it. It first assembled in the basement of the ruined Hall of Justice on the afternoon of the earthquake, Wednesday, April 18, at 3 p.m. By 5 p.m. the location became dangerous and the Committee crossed Portsmouth Square to meet at the Plaza Hotel, which in turn had to be abandoned two hours later. At 8 p.m. the Committee assembled at the The Fairmont San Francisco, Fai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Edward Schmitz (August 22, 1864 – November 20, 1928), often referenced as "Handsome Gene" Schmitz, was an American musician, musical director, and politician. He served as the 26th mayor of San Francisco from 1902 to 1907, in office during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Early life Schmitz was born in San Francisco, California on August 22, 1864, the son of an Irish mother and a German father. Career He played the violin and conducted the orchestra at the Columbia Theatre on Powell Street in San Francisco. He was president of the Musicians' Union, when city boss Abe Ruef chose him to run for mayor of his hometown on the ticket of the Union Labor Party. Schmitz was elected on November 5, 1901, thereafter giving protection to criminals, including houses of prostitution for protection money, while remaining popular with the working class. Despite opposition from a reform candidate backed by a fusion party, he was reelected in 1903 and 1905, each time by wide maj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka, California, Eureka on the North Coast (California), North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed. The event is remembered as the List of disasters in the United States by death toll, deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high on the list of worst American disasters. Tectonic setting The San Andreas Fault is a continental tran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)
The Merchants Exchange Building is an office building located at 465 California Street, San Francisco, completed in 1904. The property is owned by real estate investor Clint Reilly. History The Merchants Exchange actually refers to three distinct buildings in the city's history, the first on Battery Street, and the latter two at the present site on California Street, between Montgomery Street and Leidesdorff Alley. Predecessors The original Battery Street building, two blocks from the current site, was a three-story brick structure built in 1855 to house the ''Merchants Exchange'', an association of city traders and businessmen. It had a library and a meeting room with bulletins on arriving ships and cargoes. Watchmen on the roof would relay messages of arriving ships to the merchants in the meeting room below, so they could then rush to the docks to meet them. The second structure, on California Street, was also three-story building, but in the Beaux-Arts style. Since i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
