History and Hope For The Mother's Building

Not sure how many readers have had the pleasure of viewing the inside of the Mother's Building, but the murals depicting Noah's Ark were a favorite of mine as a child, and up until it was closed.  I taped a 360 ° video of the room, being used as the gift shop, not long before it closed.  Wish I knew where that footage was.  

A three quarter view of the main room interior can be seen in this photo from sfchronicle.com

I miss being able to view that artwork and the mosaics at the entrance, especially the one of St Francis.  After the inside of the building was closed, the outside was still accessible for a time.  

Closing the Mother's Building was sad, because it's a significant part of the Zoo's history.  What has become even sadder is that it was left to deteriorate, with no apparent upkeep.  I value history, and letting it fall into dispair is shameful.  

Anyone interested in the history and mural/building restoration progress of the Mothers Building at the Zoo, give a view to the first eighteen minutes of this March 2023 video.

https://m.facebook.com/video.php/video_id=1006793866955797

I met the presenter, Richard Rothman at a Joint Zoo Mtg over twelve yrs ago.  He's been working since then to get the place restored and reopened.  He has a Facebook group, Friends of the Mother's Building at the San Francisco Zoo.  It was on his group I found this video.

I was prompted to revisit his group by a post on the Facebook group SF Ocean Beach: Fulton to Fleishhackers, from Mother's Day, that I just saw this weekend, thus this post. 

Coincidently, I very recently had a conversation with a staffer at the Zoo about the Mother's Building. I was told it was allegedly in shambles and the roof could cave at any time.  That would be the ruining blow to the murals.  It's always bothered me that the Zoo just let it go.  I hope that report is over exaggerated and there is still a chance it can be saved.  The City's Rec and Park Department should have taken an immediate interest in preserving this piece of history.  Shame on them.  Unfortunately, its not surprising, they take no interest in the Zoo, even though they are supposed to be a managing entity, they have proven to just not care about anything that has to do with the Zoo.  They can say they do, but their actions have shown they don't.

The person I was talking to didn't seem to think the Building had Landmark status when I mentioned it.  I did a search and found that the Mother's Building was indeed named a City Landmark in October 2022.  Hopefully this Historical status will aid in moving forward to repairing and restoring this iconic building.

There are many articles about the Mother's Building online, here are a couple reports about the Landmark status.

https://www.sfheritage.org/news/mothers-building-on-path-to-city-landmark-status/

https://sfrichmondreview.com/2022/10/11/mothers-building-at-sf-zoo-named-a-city-landmark/

As stated in my opening, the last thing this space was used for was as the previous gift shop.  Other media mentions, have included what future uses could be.  None seem appropriate.  I have always thought it would be a good spot for a Zoo History Museum.  Glass cases holding memorabilia, historical videos shown, etc. Coincidentially, in that video Richard Rothman mentions it being used as a Museum.  If it does reopen, I do hope it's used to showcase history.  Many years ago, I was aghast when I heard Director Peterson allegedly wanted to use it for offices if it ever got repaired.  Good Grief, that would really be a mismanagement of a gem like the Mother's Building.  I sure hope that was a myth and never happens.

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