"We Have the Meats!" Vogel Bros. Meat Co. of Chenery Street
For over 60 years, the Vogel name was recognized across San Francisco as a preferred grocery destination. During the Glen Park population boom after the 1906 earthquake, in the earliest years of our historic Glen Park Commercial Corridor, locals would be fortunate to count two members of the Vogel family as both proprietors and neighbors.
Born in Germany in 1860, Herman George Vogel was only 12 years old when he emigrated to the United States in 1872. The documentary record does not show when he arrived in San Francisco, but by 1880 he was employed as a waiter near Mission and 24th Streets. Two years later, he was trying his hand at breadmaking while his wife, Wilhelmina (“Minnie”) worked as a dressmaker. But by 1885, Herman had embarked on the career that would become his family's legacy. He first worked as a butcher at Golden City Market in North Beach, then in 1888 at the Mission Market located at Mission and 16th Streets. By 1892, Herman was confident enough to open his own butcher shop on San Bruno Road (now, Avenue) at Silver Street.
Between 1890 and 1904, the family of Herman and Minnie grew by a total of six – five boys and one girl. Following Herman's untimely death of unknown causes at the age of 46 in late 1906, Minnie took over his role as butcher at the San Bruno Avenue shop. This was a highly nontraditional occupation for a woman at that time and with six young mouths to feed, she must have picked up her late husband's knives and cleaver out of pure necessity. Later as adults, four of their sons, Walter (born 1890), Herman (born 1900), Oscar W. (born 1902), and Adolph (born 1904) would carry on Herman’s legacy with the aid of their cousin, August Vogel.
Himself a native of Germany, August Vogel was born in 1883 and emigrated to America in 1900. His whereabouts following his arrival in 1900 are unclear, but by 1907 he is working as a butcher (perhaps with his Aunt Minnie) and living on Chenery Street near Randall Street.
In 1908, Glen Park residents organized the Glen Park Volunteer Fire Company under the umbrella of the Glen Park Improvement Association, the first co-educational neighborhood association in San Francisco that was organized in 1907 by local saloonkeeper August Straub and resident Theodore Pinther. They were joined by the women of the Glen Park Outdoor Art League, founded in 1908 by Theodore’s wife, Johanna, who was also very active with the California Equal Suffrage Association. Johanna would co-lead the first march for woman’s suffrage in America later that year. Minnie Vogel became an active member.
With approximately 75 members in the fire company, Theodore Pinther was elected president and August Vogel as one of the company’s four directors. A lot for the firehouse was donated by the Crocker Estate Company at the corner of Diamond and Sussex streets, though the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of 1913-1915 shows the firehouse was located closer to Diamond and Moreland. Having received a donation of a hose cart from the San Francisco Fire Department with all the necessary firefighting accoutrement, the volunteers intended to protect Glen Park, Sunnyside, Fairmount, and the adjacent area of the Outer Mission.
In 1908, Glen Park had no less than three butchers: two were Otto Groebl on Diamond Street just north of Chenery, and Alman Kelting on Chenery near Miguel Street in a shop that he had just purchased from August Vogel. The third was Henderson & Vogel (Ernest F. Henderson and August Vogel) at 649 Chenery Street (today’s 683 Chenery Street) near Diamond Street. It is not clear when the newly formed partnership acquired the lot, but in early 1909, August Vogel had acquired an additional lot on Wilder Street immediately behind the storefront. In 1910, he deeded that lot to his Aunt Minnie as a gift.
The evolution of the Glen Park Commercial Corridor: (Top) Looking westerly along Chenery Street from Castro to Diamond Streets. The location of today's 683 Chenery Street is located on the left, about where the empty lot is seen. Beyond Diamond Street is Glen Park's oldest commercial structure on the left, former site of Glen Park Cleaners and now Soluna Yoga and Wellness, and the Gum Tree Grove that gave Glen Park its familiar moniker. Image from promotional material about Glen Park by Rivers Brothers Real Estate Agency, 1905, courtesy of the Society of California Pioneers; (Middle) Looking easterly on Chenery Street from just west of Diamond Street, 1927. The building that Henderson and Vogel likely constructed in 1909 is located on the right, where the first auto is parked. Image from the Photo Archive, San Francisco History Room, San Francisco Public Library, AAB-3300; (Bottom) Again looking easterly from Diamond Street in 1942, the building at 683 Chenery Street constructed by Adolph Vogel in 1929 is seen here adjacent and in-between the two parked cars on the right. Image courtesy of the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority Photo Archive.
In the 1910 US Census, 27-year-old August was residing on Mizpah Street between Sussex and Chenery with his wife Ellen, a native of Sweden and also 27 years of age, and his cousin Walter, the 20-year-old eldest son of Herman and Minnie Vogel. In keeping with the family’s chosen profession, Walter’s occupation was “butcher.” It appears that he may have relieved his mother of work responsibility and taken the reigns of the business on San Bruno Avenue, now named Vogel & Co.
By 1911, however, Henderson & Vogel is no longer listed in the city directory. Nor are there listings for Ernest F. Henderson or August Vogel, either as butchers or as residents of San Francisco. In fact, August and family had decided to up and move to Los Angeles where he established a meat market in Glendale. By 1920, his butcher shop was located in today’s historic downtown district of Los Angeles.
Just before World War I, Walter Vogel moved his butcher shop to the Outer Mission and by 1920, Minnie, now with her children well into their teenage years, is again listed as butcher at the San Bruno Avenue storefront.
By 1925, the meat business for the Vogel Family was expanding rapidly. Herman, Oscar and Walter Vogel were butchers at their storefront in the Outer Mission, and listed in bold print in the 1925 San Francisco Directory is, "Walter G. Vogel, President, Civic Center Market, Meats," a grocery located just a stone’s throw from the famous Crystal Palace at 8th and Market Streets. By 1926, Oscar and Herman had added a second location on Fillmore near Turk Street and one year after that, Walter had taken on the Fillmore Street location while still maintaining his Market Street business. Oscar and Herman also added a second shop in the Mission. Then in 1928, the Vogels suffered what must have been a tremendous loss for their family when their mother, Minnie, passed away.
The youngest Vogel, Adolph, was old enough to join the team in 1928 and was assigned his own shop at 649 Chenery, now 683 Chenery. He operated out of the family building on the lot they had acquired sometime around 1909, the very same address where Henderson & Vogel had been briefly located.
Then in September 1929, Walter and Oscar Vogel incorporated the Vogel Bros. Meat Co., Inc., with capital of $200,000 (about $3.8 million today). The company soon expanded into the Avenues. It was 23-year-old Adolph, likely financially supported by the new company, who tore down the original structure at 649 Chenery and built the Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean Revival style single-story building that continues to grace the Glen Park Commercial Corridor today.
Vogel Bros. Meat Co. continued to serve Glen Park and greater San Francisco until 1947 when the brothers dissolved the company. Adolph moved on to the “meat center” on Market Street, likely the “New” Civic Center Market. That grocery would permanently close in 1957. Oscar continued operating Vogel’s Quality Market on Lawton Street into the early 1950s.
In 1948, 683 (formerly 649) Chenery had become Albert’s Meats, and in 1951 Albert’s Market, operated by proprietor Albert Firpo. In 1957, Firpo moved his business to the new Diamond Super (formerly a Safeway Market) on the lot of today’s Gus’ Market at Diamond and Wilder (aka Canyon Market, and whose owners today also own 683 Chenery; Diamond Super was destroyed by fire in November 1998).
In 1958, 683 Chenery Street was listed as vacant and appears to have remained so until the opening of a laundromat in the mid-1970s, followed by the arrival of Diamond Pizza in 1977. When the pizzeria closed in early 2000, it was soon followed by Chenery Park Restaurant later that same year. The building became vacant for an extended period once again when Chenery Park suddenly closed in 2014 (in the link, see page 6; the closure remains a loss that is still lamented by Glen Park residents). At the time of this writing (August 2026) and after being vacant for another dozen years, Crescendo Music Studios will soon be opening at 683 Chenery in the nearly 100-year-old structure that has mostly been used for serving Glen Park's culinary needs.
In 2025 during demolition of the interior of 683 Chenery to prepare for the music studio, behind the drywall construction workers uncovered a beautiful green and yellow tile mosaic. Emblazoned with “Vogel Bros. Meat Co., Inc.,” it had once broadcast to local shoppers that they had entered a very fine establishment. The 96-year-old mosaic looked as fresh and new as it must have appeared when Adolph Vogel opened his new store in 1929. Sadly, this irreplaceable piece of retail history of the Glen Park Commercial Corridor met the same fate as the drywall and could not be reassembled.
In 1940, the San Francisco Chronicle heralded Oscar Vogel as a Progressive Leader: “Their manifold activities in varied lines have contributed largely to the city's welfare. During the last 50 years, San Francisco has seen a great many changes. The radio, the automobile, and the electric light, along with numerous other inventions that are today deemed indispensable, have come into general household use. However, during this long period of time, one thing has remained unchanged. That is the quality of service and performance that has been given by the Vogel Brothers. They may well be proud of their efforts in the chosen line and it is felt their record will continue on the same high plane and therefore merit continued support.”
The magnificent building at 683 Chenery Street is testament to the success, quality, and resilience not only of the Vogel Brothers but of all Glen Park merchants throughout the decades in this historic district of San Francisco.
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