230 Jones Street — A Look Back in Time

by Daryl Schilling

On June 9, 1925, the musicians of Local 6 opened their new headquarters at 230 Jones Street. The celebration lasted 5 days, beginning with a morning parade which included more than fifty automobiles carrying municipal officials from the Bay Area along with leaders in the Labor and Building Trades councils and other union organizations. Brass bands led divisions of the parade. According to one account, the parade was to include 6 bands of 50 pieces each and several floats.

Walter A. Weber, president of the Local, opened the building at noon and declared an “open house.” Then mayor, James Rolph, Jr., delivered the principal address of the opening ceremony. Besides the parade and the dedication exercises, the five days of celebration included the open house and reception, orchestra and band concerts, a ladies’ reception and card party, a banquet, entertainment by artists from leading theaters and cafes, and dances every night.

History. The musicians of the Bay Area made two rather short-lived attempts to organize — first in 1869 and then in 1874. In 1885 the organizers applied for and were given a charter in the National League of Musicians and the title of Musicians Mutual Protective Union, Local No. 10. On February 2, 1897, the local became part of the American Federation of Musicians and became Local No. 6. A mutually acceptable merger agreement between Local 6 and 669 took affect on April 1, 1960.

Buildings. Between 1885 and 1925, the union rented six offices, the first of which was located in a basement at Sutter and Kearny Streets behind Rathskeller’s Saloon. Then came a small office on Post Street near Grant. The next location was at 39 Fourth Street, behind what became the California Theater, followed by the Union Square Hall located on Post near Mason. Then there was a move to Powell Street above O’Farrell. This building was well-located, near all the theaters and cafes, but was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906. Lily Hall on Gough Street near Market then became the union’s temporary headquarters.

The union finally purchased a building at 68 Haight Street which served as its home for 18 years. The Haight Street location was very popular with the members and served the union well, but the union had grown so much by then that the building became inadequate. Also, there was a desire to be located downtown near the restaurants, theaters, hotels and dance halls.

230 Jones Street. “After an agitation for the past 10 years, the Union held a referendum vote of the entire membership at which it was overwhelmingly voted that we should seek a downtown location and make arrangements to build a new home in order that the membership might be better served.”

A Special Building committee, along with the Board of Directors of the Musicians’ Hall Association and the Board of Directors of the Musicians’ Union, saw the project through. The Committee “purchased the property on the east side of Jones Street between Eddy and Turk Streets, a lot 57.5 x 110 feet, a very valuable piece of property in the heart of the downtown district and is in the vicinity of every theater, hotel, cafe and dance pavilion, together with the main halls of the city. It is within five to ten minutes’ walk of these places of amusement, as well as within a ten minute ride of the Bay City ferries. The heart of our city is now at Sixth and Market Streets with the new Orpheum and Warfield Theater at this point and our new home is but two blocks from this location.”

The architect for the new building was Sylvian Schnaittacher, and suggestions of the local’s members were incorporated into the plans. Ground was broken on August 23, 1924. A bank loan of $75,000 was negotiated, “secured on the good standing of this organization in the community.”1 There was some strife regarding the use of union workers, but it was finally agreed that 100% of the work would be done by organized labor. The $125,000 new Musicians’ Union headquarters was opened to the members on June 9, 1925.

“The handsome new building is a steel brick concrete structure of four floors, the basement being a ten foot ceiling composed of fifty-five hundred square feet which will later be made into recreation rooms and club rooms; it also contains the engine room and vaults for records.

“The main floor consists of a foyer, cigar stand, elevator, beautiful meeting room and combination ball room. Members will use the hall to transact business during the day and at night this beautiful hall will be rented for balls, banquets or recitals. This hall also opens on the mezzanine floor, and both may be used as a unit, together with the ladies’ room, as well as the gentlemen’s room in the basement. The main floor also has two beautiful stores which will be rented to desirable enterprises. The foyer on the main floor is equipped with hat rooms, telephone exchange and five sound-proof telephone booths and drinking fountain.

“The mezzanine floor contains a small hall, offices of the Musicians’ Union and the other offices will be occupied by the Stage Hands’ Union.

“The top floor contains seven offices, three of which will be occupied by the Moving Picture Operators’ Union. The balance of the top floor is the club room of the Musicians’ Union and will house all card rooms, kitchen, lunch room, where all liquid refreshments and appetizing drinks will be sold. This club room will be under the able management of our popular member “Billy” Backstedt, and nothing but the best of eats and refreshments and first class service will be afforded the members.

“The new building has been equipped with elevator service, has extra heavy foundations to support the building of other stories at a later date. The club room is also built so that it can, if necessary, be made into eight offices or studios, in which case the whole basement of 5500 square feet could be made into a club room. This basement is equipped with fresh air ducts to change the air so that it will have proper ventilation at all times.

“Our new building is also a standing monument to the progress made to lift our members to a higher level of fraternalism, in order that they may enjoy a building which will meet every requirement for the transaction of their business, and afford them all the accommodations of a first class musical club.”

In time the building was remodeled so that the club room was in the back of the second floor, and the officers were in the front of that floor. For many years there were two elected telephone switchboard operators, the switchboard being located just outside the rehearsal hall on the main floor. (The switchboard was later moved to the second floor, to a booth outside the main door to the officers’ area.) The back of the second floor had been opened up for the club room and included a lounge, a pool hall and a card room (and for awhile, there were even slot machines). In the basement was a large restaurant, telephone booths, pool tables and a vault. The three storefronts of the union building contained Lud Toepfer’s woodwind shop, a barbershop run by Wilbur Sudmeier, and a beauty shop.

The members would come down to the union hall to socialize and to check in with the switchboard operator, especially on Saturdays. They hung around the union, waiting to be called out on jobs. (Work was so plentiful, it was said, that if you didn’t like a job, you could quit it and then go around the corner and get a new one!) Even those with jobs would show up just for the social aspect. The second floor lounge area was packed every weekend.

The restaurant in the basement remained open beyond the normal closing hours of the clubs, so musicians would gather there after their jobs. It was raided a few times in the after hours by the police One time, a member had brought his new wife and mother-in-law along, and the mother-in-law was one of those put in jail. The restaurant was given up when it couldn’t be financially sustained, and when no viable way to provide a second egress was found.

The final remodeling put the officers in the back of the second floor and the club room and rehearsal hall in front. Other unions had their offices on the third floor; theatrical unions had their offices on the third floor; the Theatrical Employees, the Theatrical Wardrobe Attendants, and the Stage Employees names are still on the doors of the now-abandoned offices. In 1994, the union leased its ground floor space to an adult day care center, and, in addition, has rented space to various other tenants over the years in order to raise income from the property.

In the sixties, the union bought a computer. It was so large that it had to be brought into the Treasurer’s office through a window on the second floor. No one wanted the computer because it was feared that quite a few jobs would be lost, so it was never used. After some years of resistance, the union incorporated the use of computers very successfully into its business operations.

For much of its history, the Musicians Union was quite powerful in the city. One union president was mayor, and the union had a mandatory seat on the Arts Commission. When 230 Jones was built, the union membership had grown steadily to 2500 members. The growth continued to a high of 5900 members in 1969. Since that time, membership has declined to the present level of about 2300 members, due to the changes in the music business.
 

1. Clarence H. King, Financial Secretary-Treasurer of Local No. 6, Progressive History of Local No. Six, American Federation of Musicians, 1925.
 

Many thanks to Wayne Allen for providing background information for this article.

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