San Francisco Cable Car Museum

The Friends of the Cable Car Museum is nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of cable car history. Our goals are to continue to enhance the museum exhibits and strive to raise the public's awareness of the importance of the cable car to San Francisco, by reaching beyond the walls of 1201 Mason Street.

Cable Car Museum

an Francisco's three surviving cable car routes all operate out of this two-story brick building. Erected in 1907-08, this structure replaced a three-story brick powerhouse and car barn built in 1887-89 by the Ferries & Cliff House Railway and destroyed by the earthquake and fire in April 1906. The present edifice, constructed at a cost of $75,000, was built on the footings and foundations of the original building. The first floor houses the winding machinery for the three cables and their associated drive motors, converted from steam to electricity in 1911. A machine shop is also located on this floor. The cables enter and exit the building through a sheave vault located under the sidewalk at the southeast corner of the building. Tracks for car storage and repair, three car repair pits, and offices occupy the second floor. The powerhouse is built into the slope of a hill, so that the rear of the second floor opens onto a yard with several outbuildings, a turntable, and a number of tracks. The turntable is used to spot incoming cars onto the repair and storage tracks, and to direct outbound cars onto the street. The original building handled cars by means of transfer tables on the two upper floors instead of with a turntable. The building has undergone few major structural changes since 1907. In 1956-7, when the operation of the California Street cable was incorporated into the building, a concrete slab was poured over the former boiler pits along the south wall of the first floor. Incorporation of a museum and visitor's gallery in 1967 required construction of a mezzanine along the building's south wall. This work also included the conversion of the southernmost window on the Mason Street facade into a doorway providing access to the mezzanine. Other alterations made as a result of the museum include a decorative canopy at the building's southeast corner, the flagpoles on the roof, and various signs and fittings intended to convey a sense of the building's age and function.

Library of Congress

y the mid-1970s, time and constant use were overcoming maintenance efforts for the cable car system, and it was obviously becoming badly deteriorated. An engineering evaluation showed that a complete rehabilitation of the system would be necessary.

Beginning September 21, 1982, cable car service was suspended for nearly two years while work commenced under the Cable Car System Rehabilitation Program. Sixty-nine city blocks were involved, as old tracks and cable channels were removed. Heavier rails were introduced. Reinforced-concrete channels replaced the old brick ones. New turntables were built.

The Washington-Mason car barn and powerhouse was almost completely rebuilt. The exterior walls and chimney were retained and reinforced. The powerhouse was equipped with new motors, gearboxes, and strand-alarm systems.

The cable car fleet was also improved. Muni craftspeople repaired 11 California car and 26 Powell cars. One California car was rebuilt. The cars were repainted, rewired for 12-volt batteries, sides and ends were reinforced with sheet-metal, trucks and axles were rebuilt, and braking systems were modified.

The rehabilitation was completed in June of 1984, in time for the Democratic Party's national convention that summer. The California line re-opened Sunday, June 3rd. The dedication ceremony for the cable car barn was held on the 4th. On the following Sunday, June 10th, the Powell-Hyde line re-opened.

Thursday, June 21st, 1984, was the first of a four days of festivities celebrating the return of the cable cars. These began with a ribbon cutting ceremony at noon in Union Square, followed by a parade of cable cars up Powell Street, led by the U.S. Marine Corps Band.

Cable Car Museum / image RWH