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3001 Pacific: The End of an Era

“It was kind of strange to pass through the second floor to go to our offices on the third floor”, remembers Shahdan, “We used to always take the elevator rather than the stairs so as to not go traipsing into the family’s hallway.”

“The 1967 war earned us special police protection as we used to get threatening phone calls”, adds Shahdan. “Soon, diplomatic relations between Egypt and the U.S. were severed and the diplomatic mission had to leave within 48 hours. Being a local, I was the only one left to close the consulate with Mr. Fawzi. The movers forgot to pack the vacuum cleaner so I wound up owning it!”

A residential self-help organization for ex-convicts and former substance abusers known as the Delancey Street Foundation formally rented the building from the Egyptian authorities for $1,000 a month starting July 1971. The lease, which ended in early fall 1974, marked the beginning of Delancey’s presence in Pacific Heights, a move that caused much controversy among many of the neighborhood’s posh residents such as Gordon Getty, Danielle Steele, and John Traina.

In an email to EAS, Mimi Silbert, President, Board Chair & CEO of Delancey Street Foundation said: “When we left the Egyptian Consulate, we had just purchased an additional residence in Pacific Heights right around the corner which we called Estonia, so we walked as a large group to our new home to make the point clear that our presence in Pacific Heights was there to stay!”.

Ms. Silbert added: “We lived happily amongst our neighbors in Pacific Heights until we built our new home on the Embarcadero waterfront and moved in, in 1990. None of that would have been possible, had we not started with the initial rental of that beautiful brick consulate building on Pacific and Baker which we were so proud and excited to rent. You gave us an important start which now, almost 40 years later, has developed into an organization with 500 residents in San Francisco, 6 facilities around the country, and many replications around the world. I thank you for the privilege of our renting it and living there”.

Appointed Ambassador to the reopened Egyptian embassy in Washington DC in November 1973, Dr. Ashraf Ghorbal (1925-2005) soon called his Bay Area friends Tag Mansour and Wageeh Tawfik asking for their help in assessing the state of the consulate building after Delancey’s departure. The two drove to San Francisco on a weekend and came back to report the devastating sight of a structure which exhibited all the obvious signs of many years of neglect and abandonment.

Upon his arrival in 1974, Consul General Naguib Fakhry oversaw some renovations, but it was in 1979, during the term of his successor Consul General Salah ElDaour that the building got its first serious facelift. Under the supervision of his wife, Mrs. Sohayla ElDaour, W & J Sloane, the upscale San Francisco furniture store of that time, was hired to add the finishing touches to the residence’s long overdue transformation.

Almost thirty years later, thanks to the efforts of Ambassador Abdel Rahman Salah ElDin, the consulate building underwent massive renovations over a period of five years costing a considerable sum to the tune of 8 Million dollars. Its value is now estimated at close to 15 Million an it is still not known at this time if and when the property will be put up for sale.

A dozen different Consul Generals lived and worked at 3001 Pacific over the past fifty years, each bringing his own approach to the management and lifestyle of the diplomatic mission.

Today the distinguished house sits empty as does that special place in our hearts which was filled by its sheer existence. I can only hope that the people who sell 3001 Pacific realize that the historic and emotional value it holds is one which cannot be equated with money.

Egyptian Consul Generals who served at 3001 Pacific in San Francisco and approximate years of service:

1965-1967 ‘first name & wife name unknown’ Shabana

1974-1977 Naguib & Esmat Fakhry

1977-1979 Nabil & Monya Hamdi

1979-1982 Salah & Sohayla El Daour

1982-1986 Ismail & Ibtisam Abdel Mo’oty

1986-1990 Nabil & Nadia el Oraby

1990-1994 Samir & Madiha Mokhtar

1994-1999 Hagar ElEslambolly

1999-2004 Afaf El Mazariki

2004-2008 Adbel Rahman & Thoraya Salah ElDin

2008-Present Hesham & Dalia ElNakib

The news about the Egyptian Consulate’s move from San Francisco to Los Angeles by the summer of 2010 was met by the Egyptian community with mixed feelings ranging from extreme shock to mild surprise to total indifference.

Personally, the news didn’t bother me much at first. After all, the consulate relocation made perfect sense, considering how the Egyptian constituency in Southern California outnumbers by far its equivalent in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have also been told that this move has been the wish of many consulate officials since the early eighties, with many prominent Egyptian Americans in the Los Angeles area consistently advocating for it.

I was surprised however to realize that for a few days after I’d heard the news, I couldn’t brush away an overwhelming sense of loss. More than once, I stopped to ponder over the reasons behind this uneasy feeling which overpowered me at the mere thought of the consulate’s move. Last weekend, while driving on Pacific Avenue in San Francisco, it finally dawned on me. I parked in front of 3001 Pacific and got out of my car to admire the imposing building which for over 50 years was, to many Egyptians like me, a source of pride and the symbol of a beautiful and long gone era.

Built in 1906 on an 8,106 square feet lot, this three-story, twenty room brick Georgian revival house was designed by Walter Bliss (1872-1956) whose credits include the St. Francis Hotel in Union Square and the Corinthian-columned Bank of California at 400 California Street^1.

My attempts to trace the history of 3001 Pacific back to its original and subsequent owners since 1906 were hindered by the lack of time I could devote to conduct such research. A single trip to San Francisco’s assessor office confirmed some facts that date back to 1959. Going another fifty years prior to that date would have required longer sessions at City Hall and the San Francisco Library, carefully examining numerous microfiches as well as several other archived resources. Unfortunately I could not allocate that amount of time to this project, given my day job and my other responsibilities, but I made myself a promise to continue to update this article whenever possible so as to turn it into a tribute to a tiny piece of Egyptian history.

Rumors about the consulate building having once belonged to King Farouk of Egypt proved to be wrong. In fact, it was George Mardikian (1903-1977), an Armenian-American restaurateur and owner of the well-known Omar Khayyam restaurant on O’Farrell Street, who sold that house to the United Arab Republic on July 27, 1960 for $180,000.

Mrs. Shahdan ElShazly, a long time resident of San Francisco, worked for the Egyptian consulate from 1965 until its closure in 1967 as a consequence of the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel. Shahdan initially joined the team of Consul Kamal Abdel Rahman whom she believes might have been an interim consul at the time.

When Consul General Shabana arrived in 1966, he moved his family to the consulate building and converted the second floor into their living quarters.

REFERENCES:

¹ “Here today; San Francisco's architectural heritage” By Roger R. Olmsted (1968) - Sponsored by the Historic Sites Committee of the Junior League of San Francisco -- http://www.archive.org/details/heretodaysanfran00olms - page 40

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ARTICLE:

Mouchira ElGammal

Shahdan ElShazly

Joan Mansour

Hamdy Ossman

Mimi Silbert