The Van Ness Temples of Culture Celebrate 90 Years - SFHS January 2023 Program

With author James Haas
Building a municipal opera house was the goal of many San Francisco leaders. It took twenty years, was proposed at several locations, had funding problems, morphed into a War Memorial and a Veterans Building, and generated much controversy-your typical San Francisco story. On October 15, 1932, the War Memorial Opera House opened to a gala performance of Tosca and has been a grand home for San Francisco culture ever since.
James Haas is a native San Franciscan and a retired lawyer. For nearly forty years he has endeavored to improve and complete San Francisco’s magnificent Civic Center. During those years he found that few people knew the significance or history of Civic Center. Consequently, he wrote The San Francisco Civic Center, A History of the Design, Controversies and Realization of a City Beautiful Masterpiece, published by the University of Nevada Press (you can purchase a copy at the SFHS website: sfhistory.org/shop-sfhs/books-for-sale/). He lives in an apartment overlooking the City Hall dome.
This program was live-streamed on January 10, 2023 from the SFHS Museum in San Francisco. Please subscribe to our channel to learn more about the history of San Francisco:
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