Rincon Center (Rincon Annex Post Office)

Rincon Center stands on what was once a hidden cove and a hill at the water's edge, a landscape that was significantly altered when the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was constructed. The building you see began its life in 1940 as the Rincon Annex, a high-volume federal post office designed in the Streamline Moderne style. Its architect, Gilbert Stanley Underwood, was better known for creating iconic national park lodges, but here he applied those same modernist sensibilities to a massive industrial facility intended to serve the city’s bustling waterfront. When you step inside, you are entering a space that was once the site of a fierce political battle. The lobby features twenty-seven murals depicting the history of California, commissioned during the final days of the New Deal. The artist, Anton Refregier, spent years working on these walls, but the paintings became a target during the McCarthy era. Because the artwork highlighted the struggles of labor unions and included scenes of social unrest, some legislators denounced the murals as Communist propaganda and campaigned for their complete destruction. The murals survived only after intense public pressure, and today, they remain under the protection of the National Register of Historic Places, serving as a reminder of a time when public art was considered powerful enough to threaten national security.