Brooks Hall (originally Civic Center Exhibit Hall, nicknamed Mole Hall and Gopher Palace) is a disused 90,000-square-foot event space underneath Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco.
It was built in late 1950s for the cost of $4,500,000, and dedicated on April 11, 1958. It was named after Thomas A. Brooks, a chief administrative officer of city and county of San Francisco, who retired the same year the building was dedicated.
Brooks Hall became home to events such as the Harvest Festival, the San Francisco Gift Show, and West Coast Computer Faire. It was also where Apple hosted the first Macworld convention in 1985, and many subsequent ones. (Contrary to popular belief, the 1968 Mother of All Demos wasn't held at Brooks Hall, but in a nearby Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.) But while before 1981 the auditorium and Brooks Hall were used as the city's primary convention center, after that date Brooks Hall suffered because of competition from more modern event spaces such as Moscone Center, Fashion Center (later Zynga headquarters), and the Marriott Hotel.
The space was closed to the public in 1993 because of the construction of the new Main Library, and hasn't reopened as of 2018. Ideas for its reuse involved a computer museum, an antiques mart, an expansion of the nearby parking garage, a food hall, or a performance hall. As of 2015, Brooks Hall is used as an impromptu storage for historical artifacts and library books, as well as a pipe organ manufactured for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition.
Video Brooks Hall
External links
- Photos of opening day from SF Public Library
- Photos of construction from SF Public Library
- Further photos of construction from SF Public Library
Maps Brooks Hall
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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