10 South Van Ness in the Civic Center is a two-story commercial building constructed in 1927 for a Buick dealership on the ground floor with a swing-era dance palace on the second. The El Patio Ballroom, later called the Carousel Ballroom, hosted big bands and could accommodate 3,000 patrons.
In 1968 the Carousel Ballroom was jointly leased by the Grateful Dead[1], Jefferson Airplane[2], Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Big Brother and the Holding Company[3] as a place to hold their concerts. This collective lasted for six months until music promotor Bill Graham[4], whose chief venue The Fillmore (at Geary and Fillmore) had become too small, took over the lease, changed the name to Fillmore West (though the Carousel Ballroom signage remained out front) and used it as his principal venue from 1968-1971. It became THE place to perform. The Grateful Dead played 64 concerts there. Janis Joplin sang with Big Brother and the Holding Company for the last time. The Who performed their entire rock opera Tommy. I found a list of the ten top concerts performed at Fillmore West and it included Aretha Franklin, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Elton John, Van Morrison, Miles Davis and the Allman Brothers.
Fillmore West closed at the end of a 5-day concert series on July 4, 1971 as arena venues became more prevalent and popular. There were 17 headline bands, with Boz Scaggs and Elvin Bishop performing on June 30th and Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival closing out the series on July 4th. The building was taken over by a Honda dealership which remained in business for decades. In June 2014 the building was bought by real estate developer Crescent Heights. In 2018 the building was leased by SVN West and reopened as an event space. The popular Virtual Van Gough exhibit was held there in 2019.
In 2019 Crescent Heights presented a proposal for a 55-story skyscraper at 10 South Van Ness that will become the 16th tallest building in the City. The building will be a mix of curtain-wall glass, stone and metal with 984 residential units, commercial space and parking. The project is still working its way through the approval process.
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[1] The Grateful Dead: story coming August 9th [2] Jefferson Airplane: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3744 [3] Big Brother and the Holding Company: https://thesanfrancsicophoenix.com/?p=5072 [4] Billy Graham: story coming February 28th
