San Francisco State Teacher's College

This campus occupies two blocks of a steep terraced hill in San Francisco's Hayes Valley. It was built from 1924 to 1935 for the San Francisco State Teachers' College from designs by the California State Architect. Four contributing buildings, Richardson Hall, Woods Hall, Woods Hall Annex and Middle Hall, are reinforced concrete with stucco walls, red Mission tile roofs and industrial windows, all in Spanish Colonial Revival style, with some Moderne touches in Richardson Hall. The buildings face inward toward a central open area, while plain exterior walls and a high retaining wall along Laguna Street give the complex a self-enclosed, cloister-like character. Bernard Maybeck produced an early scheme, but State Architect George B. McDougall simplified it into the built design. The campus trained teachers from 1924 until 1957, when it was transferred to the University of California as an extension center. Two WPA murals survive, and the buildings retain a high degree of integrity. A 1970s dental school building does not contribute.