Musee Mecanique Gets New Home at Pier 45

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and supervisors Tony Hall and Aaron Peskin dedicated a new space at Pier 45 Dec. 20 to house the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and the Musee Mecanique.

The move to Pier 45, which has remained empty since a seismic upgrade following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, is a temporary solution for both the Musee Mecanique and the Historical Society. In the summer of 2002, Hall sponsored legislation permitting temporary use of Pier 45 for the Musee Mecanique and Museum of the City of San Francisco. The legislation was co-sponsored by Peskin and passed unanimously at the SF Board of Supervisors.

The Musee Mecanique was located at The Cliff House until it was recently displaced by seismic retrofitting and remodeling work at the site. The Musee Mecanique is expected to move back to The Cliff House complex once its rehabilitation work is completed in 2005.

The San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, which currently operates an exhibition space in the South Light Court at City Hall, is searching for a permanent headquarters in San Francisco. The directors at the port of San Francisco agreed to lease space to the non-profit group for two-and-a-half years while the port and Bay Center determine the viability of a Bay Center project for long-term use at Pier 45.

The new exhibition space for the museum totals 10,000 square feet and will house just a fraction of the thousands of historic objects in the society's possession. The organization currently has a proposal pending with the City to renovate and take possession of more than 70,000 square feet of space in the historic Old Mint, located at Fifth and Mission streets, to be restored as a museum and visitor center.

"I'm happy to have been able to assist the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and the Musee Mecanique to find a suitable temporary location," Hall said. "Through a cooperative effort from the port and my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, citizens and visitors alike will be able to view these wonderful pieces of San Francisco history."

Admission to the Musee Mecanique and the Museum of the City of San Francisco is free. The exhibition space will open daily at 10 a.m. More information on the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society can be found at the websites www.sfhistory.org or www.sfmuseum.org.