The San Francisco Arsenal , also known as the San Francisco National Guard Armory , the Armory and simply Arsenal is a historic building in San Francisco , California .
| Arsenal | |
| Arsenal San Francisco | |
|---|---|
| The san francisco armory | |
 | |
| A country |  USA |
| San Francisco | |
| Architectural style | neo-Mauritanian |
| Founding date | |
| Building | 1912 - 1914 years |
| Site | |
The building was built in 1912-1914 to replace the old building of the National Guard arsenal, which was destroyed in 1906 by an earthquake [1] . The new building was stylized as an old castle with elements of Neo-Mauritanian style . In addition to its main functions, it also served as a venue for sporting events, primarily boxing fights, for which a special arena was set up in the building. This arena was one of the most famous boxing venues in the US West Coast.
During the general strike that took place in San Francisco in 1934 (also known as “Bloody Thursday”), during which 6 people died and more than a hundred were arrested, the arsenal building served as a reference point for the National Guard, which was engaged in suppressing speeches. In 1976, the National Guard transferred the armory to Fort Fanston and the old arsenal building was no longer used for its intended purpose.
In 1978, 2 years after the building ceased to be an arsenal, it was entered into the National Register of Historic Places of the USA [2] . Despite this, the next thirty years it was not used at all (except for the fact that it was used by the team of George Lucas when working on some scenes of Star Wars [3] ), therefore it became dilapidated and more and more needed to be restored every year. Proposals for the sale of a building for particular needs met with opposition due to the fact that in order to use it for customers, one way or another would have to significantly change the design of a legally protected building. At the end of 2006, the arsenal was bought for 14 and a half million dollars by the Kink.com studio, specializing in BDSM pornography. For the filming of porn no serious redevelopment was required; The content of the films of the studio - as a rule, these are scenes of torture, violence and bullying, the dark atmosphere of a castle-style building was the best fit.
The deal triggered a massive public discussion in San Francisco, and a protest rally was held in front of the building in early February 2007. However, special public hearings organized by the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, did not reveal any violations of the law during the sale transaction [4] . The building has become the location of the main film studios.
Since then, the San Francisco Arsenal Building has been the Kink.com porn studio for more than a decade. Excursions were also held in the building, and the restored boxing match room was used for various events [5] .