The Presidio is one of the largest and most ambitious historic preservation projects underway in the United States.

The Presidio’s historic buildings represent the nation’s most comprehensive collection of military architecture, dating from the Civil War through the Cold War, including homes and barracks that reflect how the military social hierarchy and domestic life evolved in the Presidio. Fundamental to the strategy for funding the Presidio is rehabilitating its historic buildings for leasing.

The Trust and its partners are transforming historic homes, as well as batteries, barracks, office buildings, warehouses, and other facilities for a variety of new activities (learn who’s here by visiting the Directory). Since the Trust began work in 1998, hundreds of historic buildings have been preserved. Trust is also repairing and modernizing the park’s non-historic structures, including hundreds of houses and apartments.

The Highest Standards

Because the Presidio is a National Historic Landmark District, great care is taken in the revitalization of historic buildings. The rehabilitation of Presidio buildings conforms to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. These guidelines protect the Presidio's National Historic Landmark District designation while allowing for upgrades and improvements (such as accessibility for the disabled) that prepare the buildings for modern uses. The Trust also makes a considerable effort to rehabilitate structures according to green building principles which incorporate environmentally sensitive materials and design.

Major Projects

Rehabilitated buildings have become traditional residences as well as schools, dance and yoga studios, restaurants, and archives, and a film centre. A few select projects are highlighted below.

Building 210: Bank and Post Office

Over its 100-plus years of use, Presidio Building 210 has been a military guard house, a post office, a bank, and a property management office. Prominently located at the base of the parade ground, the building is an architectural anchor of the Main Post. When restoration became essential, Trust planners and architects based their work on archival photos and drawings. “We wanted to retain the building’s historic character, and to restore the porch that was part of the original building,” said Chandler McCoy, project manager. “The new porch is a faithful reproduction of the original that was built in 1899.” Building 210 is now shared by two tenants, the U.S. Post Office and First Republic Bank. The building has recovered its historic image and original orientation to the parade ground, and has also been adapted and upgraded to meet the needs of our time. Its restored interior finishes do not reveal the embedded structural steel, sprinklers, fire detection systems and other elements that have been added to make the building safe, code-compliant, and ADA compliant. “An historic building has been rehabilitated and given new life for the 21st century,” McCoy said. “This is the essence of stewardship.”

Building 35: Bay School of San Francisco

Built in 1912 as a cavalry barracks, Building 35 was later a bakers’ and cooks’ barracks, before becoming the headquarters for the Ninth Corps Area, responsible for all Army facilities in the western states. Ultimately, Building 35 became Western Defense Command Headquarters after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was here that, in 1942, General John L. DeWitt carried out the executive order resulting in the internment of 110,000 West Coast Japanese and Japanese-American citizens. In 2005 the building was reinvented as the Bay School of San Francisco, the Bay Area’s newest independent high school. The building underwent a complete rehabilitation to make it useful for classroom space, while protecting its historic character. For more, visit the Bay School website.

Building 86/87

Buildings 86 and 87 were built in 1862 and first occupied by the cavalry. They may be the oldest surviving Army barracks west of the Rockies. In 2006, the Presidio Trust completed a $3.5 million rehabilitation of the historic barracks that included seismic, new building systems, and accessibility improvements. The historic fabric was retained including the old sash windows, which were painted brown. The principal change was the construction of an elevator and entry structure between the two barracks. The building is now used as office space by variety of small organizations.

Pilots’ Row

The Pilots’ Row neighborhood consists of 13 World War I-era homes with sweeping views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. The homes served as officers’ quarter for the pilots of Crissy Air Field during the 1920s. A $3 million restoration project upgraded these historic homes, now occupied with a new generation of families, from top to bottom. The effort also benefited from a Restore America grant from the Home and Garden TV network.