Initial hours of operation are Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00am to 6:00pm. The museum is located at the Steuart Street F-line stop, half a block south of Market, catty-corner from the Ferry Building, in the wonderful Hotel Vitale building. The museum address is 77 Steuart Street (map).

Museum staff is headed by our manager, John Hogan. John comes to Market Street Railway from the Society of California Pioneers, where he managed their museum and shop at Fourth & Folsom Streets. John also has strong retail experience at Williams-Sonoma. John is assisted at the museum and shop by part-time staffers Don Detter and Peter Felton. Additionally, Market Street Railway director Alison Cant is organizing MSR volunteer docents to spend time at the museum and answer visitors' questions. Those interested in volunteering to be docents may do so here. Besides the historic artifacts, displays, and audio-visual presentations described below, the San Francisco Railway Museum features unique gifts, souvenirs, and memorabilia fully integrated into the display space with more arriving all the time.

Our 'flagship' merchandise line is Market Street Railway’s own Historic Travel Series—images that evoke the heyday of travel posters from the 1920s and 1930s. These images, created by San Francisco artists John Mattos and David Dugan, depict cable cars and historic streetcars in the context of the San Francisco neighborhoods they serve. This furthers Market Street Railway’s mission of educating the public to the value of historic transit to neighborhood vitality and to expansion of San Francisco’s vital visitor industry. These images are currently available as posters and note cards, and we expect to offer the images on other merchandise as well in coming months. Market Street Railway members will receive a 15% discount on all merchandise purchased at the museum as they do at our online store, where everyone can purchase items also available at the museum gift shop.

Opening exhibit
The opening exhibit at the new museum is titled Vehicles of Recovery: How San Francisco’s street railways led the City’s response to the 1906 earthquake and fire. Using rarely-seen photographs from Muni’s own archive, Grant Ute and the San Francisco Railway Archive group bring to life the vibrant transit operation—symbolized by cable cars on Market Street—that was devastated by cataclysm on April 18, 1906. The exhibit then weaves together the strands of heroism, determination, and corruption to show how a transformed transit system spearheaded recovery and framed the development of the San Francisco that came to be—influences that still shape our city today. This special exhibit is expected to run until Spring 2007.

Permanent features
The museum will permanently display a variety of artifacts telling the story of the City’s transportation history, including dash signs, fare boxes, even a famed Wiley ‘birdcage’ traffic signal, the peculiar way San Francisco’s intersections were controlled for decades. Dominating the display will be the replicated end of a Market Street Railway Co. ‘100-class’ streetcar, of which no originals survived. The streetcar display is expected to join the museum during its first year of operation, and when funding is available, will be expanded to include a working motorman’s cab where kids of all ages can learn how typical electric streetcars work. This will tie in with our future ‘Teaching Trolley’ project, which will feature an actual vintage streetcar operating in service on the lines, outfitted with an onboard educational curriculum that is also made available to schools and parents through a special section of our website.

To fulfill our goal of making this a '21st Century museum honoring 19th Century technology', much of the museum’s content will be virtual: video touchscreens where visitors can access a variety of material on demand, including historic motion picture footage and photographs; all the Museums In Motion displays posted on the streetcars themselves; and electronic versions of the special exhibits that have previously been mounted in the museum space.

More help needed
We need your help to fund the final features of the new museum. The recent challenge grant we have received (see below) currently allows donors to double the impact of their gift. Donations can be made here.

Challenge grants provided a big boost
Our fundraising received a major boost from two major challenge grants which were matched by other donors.

San Franciscan Galen Sarno led the way with a $50,000 challenge grant that showed remarkable generosity. A retired Muni engineer, Galen is a longtime Market Street Railway member with a deep commitment to the role of public transit in building livable cities. His dollar-for-dollar challenge grant sparked the final surge of matching donations that allowed us to open our doors.

Galen’s challenge grant also came with exquisite timing, as we had received the last necessary donations to match an earlier $30,000 challenge grant from Andy and Leslie Schilling, Bay Area business leaders and philanthropists.

The Schilling name is, of course, long associated with San Francisco history. A. Schilling & Co., founded in 1881, filled the corner of Second & Folsom Streets for many years with the aromas of its spice products and coffee. Historic downtown buildings near the F-line and Powell cable cars are among the business interests of Andy and Leslie, and both are strong supporters of a number of cultural, environmental, and educational organizations. For example, Andy Schilling is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, while Leslie was recently confirmed as a Regent of the University of California. Leslie also serves on Market Street Railway’s Advisory Board. We thank them, and Galen Sarno, deeply for their generous challenge grants.

As mentioned, however, while the museum is now open, there is still work to be done to achieve completion, so we urge our members and friends to consider making a new—or additional—donation to our campaign.

FedEx, MV Transportation, The Piers lead corporate effort
Our museum campaign has also received a strong boost from three corporate contributions of $10,000 each.

FedEx, a global transportation leader, has recently paid tribute to San Francisco historic transit in several ways. Last June, for the Transportation Day portion of UN World Environment Day 2005 activities, FedEx hosted a luncheon for mayors from around the world at the Cable Car Barn, calling attention to the 125-year history of non-polluting transport by this venerable technology, and introducing their hybrid urban delivery van as well. FedEx also sponsored the banners placed on New Orleans ‘Desire’ streetcar No. 952 last fall to raise donations to the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief.

MV Transportation got its start in San Francisco 31 years ago with the husband-and-wife team of Alex and Feysan Lodde, and one van. Today, MV is one of the leading passenger transportation contracting companies in North America, and the largest woman- and minority-owned passenger transportation firm in the nation. Feysan Lodde, who serves on Market Street Railway’s Advisory Board, has earned the reputation of a tireless giver to those in need in her hometown.

The Piers Project—led by San Francisco Waterfront Partners LLC, headed by Simon Snellgrove—is transforming the long-neglected Piers 1 1/2, 3, and 5 north of the Ferry Building into a vibrant complex of maritime uses, office space, restaurants and cafes, and public access. From a transportation point of view, this site is quite historic, for Pier 1 1/2 was the San Francisco terminal for the overnight steamboat service to Sacramento on the famed Delta King and Delta Queen (both of which survive today, the King permanently moored in Sacramento as a floating hotel; the Queen still gloriously chuffing along the Mississippi). The Pier 1 1/2 passenger waiting room for these great ships is being restored as part of the project, which opens later this year.