You may have noticed these buildings in your town or during travels throughout the U.S. At one time, they were so common that they barely warranted attention. If you’re over fifty years old, they’re an indelible part of your memory.
These stores, with their graceful arches, stretch to the heavens. They’re called “marina-style” Safeways. A few of them are still Safeway stores, but their numbers are dwindling. Those that haven’t been torn down have been repurposed in other forms.
Born in The San Francisco Marina
The marina-style Safeway takes its name from The Marina District, a San Francisco neighborhood. The store is located at 15 Marina Blvd, between Marina Blvd and Buchanan and Laguna streets,
The Marina is a quieter, flatter, newer part of San Francisco, one that tourists don’t often put on their agenda unless they are going to the Palace of Fine Arts or travelling to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Designed by architects Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, the Marina Safeway opened in 1959.
Tile murals on the east side were created by John Garth and were meant to depict food being transported from four corners of the world.
Russian Connection
In September 1959, Soviet Union premier Nikita Khrushchev and his wife Nina Kukharchuk visited San Francisco. They stayed at the Mark Hopkins hotel. One morning, Khrushchev impulsively left the hotel for a stroll on California St. and later was driven down the Peninsula.
Kukharchuk separately visited Macy’s, Trader Vic’s, Pacific Heights, and the Vista Point at the Golden Gate Bridge. Returning to the city, Kukharchuk and her group made it into the Safeway parking lot, where she considered going into the store.
“But,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “she looked at the entourage of press cars following and decided against it.”
Pickup Heaven
The Marina Safeway is a locally famous pickup spot. In 1978, an “unmarried colleague and man-about-town” told the Sacramento Bee: “There’s a lotta young single shoppers. Lotta Porsches in the parking lot. Singles go there to check each other out, you know?”
It figures heavily in Armistead Maupin’s novel-series Tales of the City, when a woman tries to pick up a guy there but ends up meeting Michael Tolliver, a gay man. The Safeway was featured in 1993’s TV series of the same name.
Death and Rebirth
Few marina-style Safeways are still operated as Safeways. It’s estimated that there are five or fewer.
As of 2025, even the Marina Safeway itself has been slated for redevelopment as a 25-story, 790-unit apartment complex.
If you happen to be in Hamilton, Montana, you’ll discover a still-intact marina-style Safeway. There’s another in Butte, Montana, at the 310 Front St. address.
Most of the remaining ones have been redeveloped into auto parts stores, car dealerships, fitness clubs, thrift stores, churches, and in the case of one in Edmonds, Washington, a museum.
This 22,000-square-foot Safeway was redeveloped by Johnson Architecture & Planning and Delap Construction into The Cascadia Art Museum. Its twenty-six-foot-high curved glulam beams are still in place and fit perfectly with the museum’s Pacific Northwest location.
