Shipwright's Cottage

The Shipwright's Cottage at 900 Innes Avenue stands as a rare survivor from the era when San Francisco's economy moved on water. Built in 1875 by a Dutch immigrant and carpenter named John Johnson Dirks, this small, wood-frame residence served as both a home and an office for the men who built the city's maritime fleet. During the late nineteenth century, India Basin was a bustling hub of shipwrighting, where workers crafted the flat-bottomed scow schooners that transported grain, lumber, and hay across the Bay and the Delta before roads and bridges connected the region.