Pacific Rolling Mill Company

{{Multiple issues| {{more footnotes|date=May 2014}} {{More citations needed|date=January 2025}} }} {{Infobox company | name = Pacific Rolling Mill Company | logo = | logo_caption = | logo_upright =  | logo_alt = | type = Private | industry = Steel producing foundry | predecessor =  | founded = 1866 | founder =  | defunct =  | fate = | successor =  | hq_location_city = | hq_location_country = | area_served =  | key_people = | products = | owner =  | num_employees = | num_employees_year =  | parent = | website =  }}

The '''Pacific Rolling Mill Company''' was the [[Western United States|West]]’s first iron and steel producing foundry, founded in 1866,<ref>{{cite book|title=Master Hands in the Affairs of the Pacific Coast: Historical, Biographical and Descriptive. A Resumé of the Builders of Our Material Progress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TeE-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA260|year=1892|publisher=Western Historical and Publishing Company|pages=260–}}</ref><ref name="Shoup2010">{{cite book|last=Shoup|first=Laurence H.|title=Rulers and Rebels: A People's History of Early California, 1769-1901|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCe2CFvu--cC&pg=PA193|accessdate=30 May 2014|date=November 2010|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=9781450255905|pages=193–}}</ref> in [[San Francisco, California]]. (The company was also known as '''Pacific Rolling Mills''' and the two names were used interchangeably throughout its history.) Later in its life, through mergers, the company was transformed first into the Judson-Pacific Company, and then into Judson Pacific-Murphy Corporation. In its various guises, Pacific Rolling Mills has produced steel used during the construction of numerous famous buildings and landmarks in the West as well as a number of notable battleships.

== History == === Foundation === The company was organized on 10 May 1866<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://docs.ppsmixeduse.com/ppp/DEIR_References/2008_0320_kelley-et-al_potreropointhistoricdistrict.pdf | title=DISTRICT RECORD - Potrero Point Historic District | website=docs.ppsmixeduse.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230617112934/http://docs.ppsmixeduse.com/ppp/DEIR_References/2008_0320_kelley-et-al_potreropointhistoricdistrict.pdf | archive-date=2023-06-17}}</ref> by an august group of investors that included [[Darius Ogden Mills|D. O. Mills]], [[William Alvord]], and [[James G. Fair]]. Other large stockholders included [[Leland Stanford]], [[James Clair Flood|James Flood]], [[Alvinza Hayward]], and [[William Ralston]]. Also among the men associated with this pioneering venture was Patrick Noble who started as a clerk in 1868 and eventually served as an officer of the company. After the Pacific Rolling Mill's original operation closed at [[Potrero Point]], Patrick Noble reorganized and carried on the company at the foot of Potrero Hill, at 17th and Mississippi Streets. Noble's successor enterprise retained the same name as the original company and utilized much of the very same equipment that was first installed at Potrero Point. As documented in the book, ''A Romance of Steel in California'', the Pacific Rolling Mill Company was the genesis of a profound and remarkable pioneering steel-making operation whose work, heritage, and impact journeyed well into the 1950s:

<blockquote>This was the small but not humble beginning of a corporation that in the next three quarters of a century was to be one of the great builders of the West, constructing both the tools of peace and the engines of war, the wheels of transportation and the great members of bridges and office buildings and factories.</blockquote> ''(Source: A Romance of Steel in California, p. 9)''

=== Significance === While its predecessor plant at Potrero Point on the San Francisco Central Waterfront was clearly instrumental in the growth and industrial rise of the Bay Area and California in the period following the Civil War, the successor Pacific Rolling Mill firm in its nearby location in lower Potrero Hill is associated with the advent of steel frame buildings at the turn of the century and the increased popularity of this building method following the Great Fire of 1906. The infrastructure projects for San Francisco and California undertaken in the teens, 20s and 30s, and the build-up of the Bay Area's industrial capacity for the war effort in the 1940s are important not only to Potrero Hill and San Francisco, but also to the entire state of California, and indeed the nation.

The (partial) list of buildings, vessels, and structures listed below spanned decades of production by the Pacific Rolling Mill and its successor companies, the Judson-Pacific Company and the Judson Pacific-Murphy Corporation. The heritage of the Pacific Rolling Mill Company carried on in the executives, workers, and skilled expertise of each subsequent merged company. This legacy lasted well into the 1950s, and even the late 1960s. The four buildings at the 17th & Mississippi Streets site that constitute the last extant structures associated with this steel producer were part of a remarkable and unique story in which outstanding contributions to the history and culture of both San Francisco and California (indeed, the entire Western region) were made. The Pacific Rolling Mill, which began incrementally constructing the buildings at the turn of the 20th century, was a pioneering steel fabrication company led by the visionary Noble family. Patrick Noble and his senior executives created their business from the predecessor Pacific Rolling Mill located at Potrero Point and their legacy at the reorganized Pacific Rolling Mill in lower Potrero Hill continued in successive mergers of the company over an 80-year period.

Founder Patrick Noble died in October 1920. His son, Edward B. Noble, continued leading the company through successive mergers until retirement in 1945.

=== Notable works === Landmark buildings and structures that Pacific Rolling Mill Co. and its successor companies helped build include: * [[San Francisco Ferry Building]] (1898) * [[Grace Cathedral, San Francisco|Grace Cathedral]] (1934) * The hoists on the intake towers of [[Boulder Dam|Hoover (Boulder) Dam]] (1935) * The approach structures and substantial portions of the main spans of the [[Golden gate bridge|Golden Gate Bridge]] (1936) and The San Francisco [[Bay Bridge (California)|Bay Bridge]] (1934) * [[Shasta Dam]] (1937) * Buildings of the 1915 [[Panama Pacific Exposition]] * The [[Colorado River Aqueduct]] (1935) * The main [[San Francisco Public Library]] Building at the [[Civic Center, San Francisco|San Francisco Civic Center]] * The exhibit buildings and the Tower of The Sun at the [[Golden Gate International Exposition]] on [[Treasure Island, San Francisco|Treasure Island]] (1939) * The early [[Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences|San Francisco Chronicle Buildings]] (1889 & 1907) * [[Wheeler Hall]] and [[Doe Library]] at the [[UC Berkeley]] Campus (1916 & 1917) * The buildings of the [[Stanford University]] Campus * The [[Fairmont San Francisco|Fairmont Hotel]] (1905) * The [[Flood Building]] (1907) * The [[California State Capitol|State Capitol]] building in Sacramento (1907) * The [[St. Francis Hotel|Saint Francis Hotel]] (1907) * [[Bank of California Building (San Francisco)|Bank of California]] (1907) * A network of rural post offices and bridges linking up rural Northern California (1907–1940s) * Mission Savings Bank (1909) * The [[Cliff House (San Francisco, California)|Cliff House]] (1909) * The Y.M.C.A. building (1909) * The Anglo & London Paris National Bank (1909) * San Francisco's City and County Hospital, [[San Francisco General Hospital|San Francisco General]] (1909) * The original [[Standard Oil Building (San Francisco)|Standard Oil Building]] (1912) * [[Lowell High School (San Francisco)|Lowell High School]] (1913) * Bellaire Tower Apartment Building, San Francisco (1929) * A series of defense plants, electric traveling cranes, and mechanized landing craft for the war effort during World War II (1920s–1940s) * Clay Jones Apartments, San Francisco (1930) * San Francisco Veterans / War Memorial Building (1932) * San Francisco City and County Jail (1934) * Bank of America headquarters (1941) * Appraisers Building, San Francisco (1944) * San Francisco's Merchandise Market (1947) * The [[Richmond-San Rafael Bridge|Richmond – San Rafael Bridge]] (1955) * Telescope for the [[Lick Observatory]] (1959)

Pacific Rolling Mills has also produced steel that was used in the construction of a number of famous battleships, including:

* [[USS Olympia (C-6)|USS ''Olympia'']], Admiral [[George Dewey]]'s flagship at the [[Battle of Manila Bay]] during the [[Spanish–American War]] * [[USS Oregon (BB-3)|USS ''Oregon'']], which also saw action in the [[Spanish–American War]] * [[USS Charleston(C-2)|USS ''Charleston'']], which was the first US protected cruiser that was ever built * [[USS Wisconsin (BB-9)|USS ''Wisconsin'']] * [[USS San Francisco (C-5)|USS ''San Francisco'']] * [[USS Monterey (BM-6)|USS ''Monterey'']]

== References ==

{{Reflist}} * ''A Romance of Steel in California''. Judson Pacific-Murphy Corporation, 1946.

[[Category:1866 establishments in California]] [[Category:Manufacturing companies based in San Francisco]] [[Category:Foundries in the United States]] [[Category:Manufacturing companies based in California]] [[Category:Potrero Hill, San Francisco]]