Alfred Henry Jacobs

Alfred Henry Jacobs (1882 – December 14, 1954) was an American architect. He designed theaters, hotels, residential, and religious buildings, primarily working in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three of the buildings he designed are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He also worked as a watercolorist.

Early life and education 
Alfred Henry Jacobs was born in 1882 in San Francisco, California to Julius and Sarah Adler Jacobs. His father Julius Jacobs was born in Prussia in 1840 and immigrated to California in 1853. In 1898 he was appointed Assistant U.S. Treasurer, in charge of the Sub-Treasury in San Francisco. He was Jewish. He graduated high school from the California School of Mechanical Arts (now Lick-Wilmerding High School). 

Jacobs studied fine art at Mark Hopkins Art Institute (later known as San Francisco Art Institute) from 1897 until 1899. This was followed by mechanical engineering studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he graduated in 1903; and Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a B.S. degree in architecture in 1904 and an M.S. degree in architecture in 1905. He did further studies at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.

He married Lillian Wollenberg in 1908.

Career 
Back in San Francisco by 1907, he partnered with Walter Ratcliff and helped design the Berkeley Tennis Club (1908) in Berkeley, California. In 1909, he joined San Francisco's Fidelity Lodge, Number 120, Free and Accepted Masons of California and established his own firm.  

Jacobs gained emeritus membership status with the American Institute of Architects.

Death and legacy 
He died on December 14, 1954. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley has a collection of his papers, drawings, and photographs.

In August 2003 to January 2004, a solo exhibition titled "Alfred Henry Jacobs" at the Judah L. Magnes Museum (now known as the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at U.C. Berkeley) was held featuring his architectural drawings and related documents, his fine artwork, and photographs.

Work

Berkeley Tennis Club (1908), 2624 Hillegass Avenue, Berkeley, California; now a private home
Religious school house for Congregation Emanu-El (1910), 1337 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California; NRHP–listed; later known as the Grabhorn Press building
Herald Hotel (1910), 308 Eddy Street, San Francisco, California; part of the NRHP–listed Uptown Tenderloin Historic District
1244–1268 Sutter Street (1911), commercial building in Polk Gulch, San Francisco, California; later known as the Avalon Ballroom
Jacobs family's residence (1915), 80-21st Avenue, San Francisco, California
California Theatre (1916), 787–799 Market Street, San Francisco, California; renamed the State Theatre, and torn down in 1954
Winema Theater (1920), Main Street, Scotia, California; made with redwood lumber.
Granada Theater (1920–1921), 1066 Market Street, San Francisco, California; renamed the Paramount Theatre, dismantled in 1965
Homewood Terrace (1920–1921) Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home Society, San Francisco, California
Curran Theatre (1921–1922), 445 Geary Street, San Francisco, California
Ansel Adams childhood home (1929), 129-24th Avenue, San Francisco, California
Hotel Californian (1929; addition-only), 403 Taylor Street, San Francisco, California
Butterfield and Butterfield Auctioneer building, San Francisco, California
Memorial for the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum at the Home of Peace Cemetery, Colma, California
Pacific Hebrew Orphanage, North Ocean Boulevard, San Francisco, California; a Jewish orphanage now demolished

See also
Albert Pissis
Sylvain Schnaittacher

References

1882 births
1954 deaths
Architects from California
Jewish architects
20th-century American Jews

Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Architects from San Francisco
American people of Prussian descent
American people of German-Jewish descent
American watercolorists