Firehouse No. 15

Marguerite Redman Dorgeloh

San Francisco Engine Co. 15 was located at 2114 California St. and this lithograph was published in the California WPA.

Marguerite Redman Dorgeloh uses the contrasting white facade of a Victorian era firehouse against a moody night sky and buildings shrouded in shadow -- perhaps to portray the all-hours vigilance of the firefighter. The beams of the engine’s headlights glow softly from within the garage, and the adjoining apartments’ windows are dark as San Francisco quietly sleeps under a bank of heavy fog. Dorgeloh often depicted evening and night time scenes of the city she loved.

Marguerite Redman was born in Watsonville, California on December 14, 1890, daughter of a man that came west by wagon train in 1847. After returning to Missouri to marry he returned to California to pan for gold. Dorgeloh studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and the San Jose Teachers College. She spent most of her career in San Francisco. She married John Dorgleoh and, after their divorce, married A.E. Byron, MD. During these years she would often sign her work “Redman Byron”, which has created some confusion. She later signed her work “Dorgeloh” or “Redman Dorgeloh.”

During the Depression she worked for the WPA where she made fifty prints for the San Francisco Fine Arts Project (FAP). Her lithograph of the Van Ness Mansion appeared on front page of San Francisco News, November 6, 1941. Her images included many San Francisco landmarks and the Golden Gate Park area. During the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition she demonstrated lithography using stones as part of an FAP booth called ‘Art In Action.’ She also assisted with painting some of the murals in San Francisco’s Coit Tower. Though she signed her work “Dorgeloh” she personally preferred being called “Redman.” After the Depression she worked in the 1940s as an artist for a shipyard company.

Marguerite exhibited at the Paul Elder Gallery in San Francisco in 1929, the San Francisco Women Artists in 1931, the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939, and the San Francisco Artists Association in 1939.