The San Francisco Armory was designed by architects Woollett and Woollett in the Moorish Revival style and completed in 1914 as the San Francisco National Guard Armory and Arsenal. The building's crenellated walls, arched windows, and fortress-like massing were meant to project military strength. The National Guard used the building for drilling, storage, and training through two world wars. The armory also served as a venue for amateur boxing, hosting Golden Gloves tournaments that drew crowds from across the city. After the National Guard departed, the building sat largely vacant, its massive interior spaces too specialized for easy commercial conversion.

In 2006, Kink.com, an adult entertainment company, purchased the armory and used it as a studio and headquarters, sparking debate in the Mission District about the appropriate use of a historic building. The company invested in restoration of the building's architectural features while using its cavernous spaces as sound stages. In 2018, Kink moved its operations elsewhere, and the building was sold again. The new owners have worked to transform the armory into a community-oriented space hosting events, markets, and cultural programming, while preserving the building's distinctive architecture.

The armory sits at the intersection of 14th and Mission Streets, a crossroads that captures the Mission District's complexity. The neighborhood around it has cycled through waves of immigration, gentrification, and cultural evolution while the fortress-like building has remained, its crenellated walls impervious to change even as its contents have shifted with every era. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its Moorish arches and heavy masonry make it one of the most architecturally distinctive structures in San Francisco, a building designed for one purpose that has found meaning in a succession of completely different ones.