16 Jun 2026 11 min read Post to Park

Schlage Lock and 8,400 tons of steel

Seeing your smiling faces in the Presidio, a new chapter for Pacific Café, lock down the date to celebrate Schlage in Vis Valley

Special City love on the big screen at our June 4 gala at the Presidio Theatre. Cheers to all you subscribers!

Hello Special City members! Welcome aboard to the 43 of you getting a Special City email for the first time. Today we have:

Woody shares a heavy metal “where am I?” reveal
Kerri revisits a legacy business favorite looking for a new start
You probably have one of these: 100 years of the Schlage Lock site
A mosaic beauty in West Portal is a proposed District 7 landmark

Not a member of the Special City paid levels? Upgrade today and get all the news, all the time, including access to this whole email.

Let's do this!

But first, a short news round-up:

DL proposals are in!

On Friday, June 12, 2026, three invited teams delivered proposals to honor and reimagine SFH’s historic Doolan-Larson House and Storefronts. We look forward to diving into their ideas to serve the neighborhood, the city, and the cultural legacies embodied at the world famous intersection at Haight and Ashbury streets.

We will share summaries of their plans with you soon and look forward to your thoughts every step of the way.

Visit haightandashbury.org to read all about the Doolan-Larson Request for Proposal process.

Sole Position for Legacy Business Registry Program Eliminated

Readers of Special City know that SF Heritage is a strong supporter of San Francisco’s Legacy Business Program, the first preservation program of its kind in the nation dedicated to supporting longstanding businesses that contribute to our city’s history and cultural identity.

Graphic courtesy of the Ingleside Light. Inspired by an SF Heritage program, San Francisco’s Legacy Business Registry was created to support longtime businesses and nonprofits significant to the history or culture of the city.

Two weeks ago, we learned the program’s dedicated employee position had been eliminated, with its duties assigned across the staff of the Office of Small Business (OSB). Also announced was a reduction of the Legacy Business Stabilization Fund, the only direct financial support to businesses listed on the registry.

While OSB executive director Katy Tang has emailed legacy businesses that her office is “committed to continuing the Legacy Business Program,” SF Heritage is concerned for the future of this impactful and influential program.

We will dedicate more of our resources to assist legacy businesses and we will continue to advocate at the highest city levels for the Legacy Business Registry. Created by the voters of San Francisco, it has been emulated as an innovative anti-displacement tool by over a dozen other other cities including Chicago, San Antonio, Seattle, Denver, and Los Angeles.

Thank you!

Thanks to all who attended, supported, and promoted our gala program on June 4, 2026 at the beautiful Presidio Theatre. Our partnership with the Presidio Trust and the American Indian Cultural District was a celebration of transformative preservation and land stewardship work in the Presidio over the past 30 years to create a truly world-class San Francisco park.

In the words of one of our generous sponsors, “The event was a great reminder of the value of preserving historic places while creating vibrant spaces for future generations.”

Thank you to Terry Lorant Photography for the Presidio Theatre, Katherine Petrin, Arnie Lerner, and Chrissy Loader for many of these photos!

100 years of Schlage in Vis Valley

And a party with cake

What’s more common than a doorknob or a lock? We all have them, but did you know that German-born Walter Schlage pioneered what would become a global lock company right here in San Francisco? (Push button lock on a doorknob? He invented that.) After opening the first Schlage lock shop in the early 1920s, the company scaled-up to meet demand and moved to Visitacion Valley in 1926 and influenced life in that neighborhood for the rest of the century.

Illustration of the planned Schlage Lock factory complex on Bayshore Boulevard in 1925. (*San Francisco Examiner,* June 27, 1925). The site was likely chosen for its proximity to the Southern Pacific Railroad's Bayshore station to efficiently receive materials and ship merchandise.

The Schlage Lock Company’s factory complex along Bayshore Boulevard employed thousands of blue-collar workers and dominated the valley’s economy in the twentieth century.

0:00

/0:06

For years, the Visitacion Valley History Project has displayed Schlage locks and parapherenalia at their annual History Day. Kerri had lots of fun trying out Schlage door knobs at one of them!

In 1999, Schlage closed its Visitacion Valley factory and the site is now planned for redevelopment into Baylands North, a mixed-use community.

Although all the manufacturing buildings have been demolished, the original office building still stands at Bayshore and Blanken Avenue, saved by community advocacy from local groups including the Visitacion Valley History Project. (Co-founder Russel Morine recently served three years as an SFH board member.)

Dedication ceremony for the Schlage Lock factory and administration building with San Francisco mayor James Rolph, June 25, 1926. The administration building is all that remains of the factory campus. (Schlage Company photo.)

View to Schlage Locks administration building from Teddy and San Bruno avenues in 1941. (Jack Tillmany Collection, OpenSFHistory / wnp5.50043)

After sitting vacant for many years, the Schlage Lock office building at 2201 Bayshore Boulevard was restored in 2021-2022.

The building was finally restored and reopened in 2022. Today it serves as a community meeting space and the headquarters for the Baylands development company.

This Saturday, June 20, 2026, there will be a free party to celebrate 100 years of Schlage in Visitacion Valley. We are told that there will be CAKE!

Saturday, June 20, 2026 | 11 am – 1 pm | 2201 Bayshore, 94134 (ground floor community space)

Remarks and presentations at 11:30 am, followed by a film screening at noon