The building at Four Fifty Sutter, which has housed medical and dental offices for almost one hundred years, was the brainchild of an eccentric dentist, Francis Edward Morgan, Jr. Morgan wanted a building dedicated solely to dentistry, and the project was headed by renowned San Francisco architect Timothy Pflueger.&nbsp; Pfleuger wanted a building that was different than virtually every other structure in the United States--a building with little to no European influences. The building he designed--which was then the second-largest in the city and perhaps the largest medical building in the world at the time--is considered an Art Deco masterpiece. Four Fifty Sutter is also remarkable for its heavy use of Mayan symbolism. Among the building's stunning design elements are its Mayan bas-relielf spandrels on the exterior, as well as the remarkable lobby. The lobby is remarkable for its inverted gold pyramid ceiling, which is meant to evoke the image of a Mayan pyramid. The massive elevator doors are made of dark bronze. Mayan symbolism is used throughout the building's lobby, but much of that symbolism is lost on the casual observer.&nbsp; Four Fifty Sutter opened in 1929, just days before the stock market crash. It was last skyscraper built in the city until the building boom of the postwar years. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

An article that offers a possibly interpretation for the building's Mayan symbolism.

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Offices used by dentists and doctors are usually relatively bland and nondescript. That is not the case with Four Fifty Sutter, a remarkable Art Deco structure built specifically to house dentist offices. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Four Fifty Sutter Building 

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This walking tour includes historic buildings, hotels, retail outlets, and landmarks surrounding San Francisco's most famous public square. Part of the city's original 1847 urban design plan, this square earned its name little over a decade later when numeorus pro-Union demonstrations and rallies were held at the square as the nation headed to war.

The St. Francis Hotel has been an integral part of San Francisco culture and lore from the day it opened its doors. The hotel was built by Charles Crocker and his prominent circle of friends. They envisioned San Francisco as a "Paris of the West," and studied grand hotels in the major cities of Europe for inspiration. The original hotel--two twelve-story towers--opened in 1904, at a cost of $2.5 million. The hotel was immediately popular, and became a hub of the city's artistic and literary life. Two years after it opened, however, San Francisco was devastated by the 1906 earthquake. The building's structure withstood the earthquake, but the ensuing fire destroyed the hotel's interior. The hotel reopened in late 1907, and the grand Magneta clock was placed in the lobby to mark the event. For more than a century, San Franciscans have told each other "Meet me at the clock." Another wing was added to the hotel in 1908, and other additions followed. These additions made the St. Francis the largest hotel on the West Coast at that time. In the 1910s and 1920s, the St. Francis became one of the most fashionable hotels in the city, with a large following among celebrities and public figures. Among the hotel's many notable guests were President Woodrow Wilson, former president Theodore Roosevelt, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Tom Mix, Cecil B. DeMille, and many others. According to legend, John Barrymore was in bed with a female guest at the time of the 1906 earthquake, but initially attributed the rumbling and swaying walls to passion. If famous guests were a boon for the hotel, they also occasionally came with a cost. One of Hollywood's first great scandals grew out of an event at the St. Francis in 1921. Comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle threw a Labor Day party in a suite of rooms at the hotel. Arbuckle summoned a doctor to his room to report that a young woman, Virginia Rappe, was ill. The young actress died days later, and a friend of hers claimed that Arbuckle raped the woman. Her testimony was considered unreliable, and Arbuckle was tried three times; the first two trials resulted in a hung jury and he was acquitted in the third trial. The scandal did lasting damage to Arbuckle, however; his career never recovered. Interestingly, the singer and performer Al Jolson died of a heart attack in 1950, in the same suite of rooms made infamous by Fatty Arbuckle.&nbsp; The St. Francis was nearly the site of another famous death in 1975, when a woman named Sara Jane Moore fired two shots at President Gerald Ford as he exited the hotel. A bystander, who happened to be a former Marine, grabbed Moore's arm as she fired the second time, possibly saving Ford's life.&nbsp; In 1972, a 32-story tower was added to the St. Francis, making the hotel one of the largest in the city.&nbsp;

Few hotels can boast the storied history of the St. Francis. Built in 1904, the hotel survived the 1906 earthquake, has hosted numerous celebrities and other luminaries, and has seen more than a few scandals over its long career.

St. Francis Hotel 

The city of San Francisco's two public squares were&nbsp;in its original city plan of 1847. This public square became known as&nbsp;Union Square about the time of the Civil War-reportedly owing to pro-Union parades and&nbsp;rallies that occurred at the square. After the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of the city, developers remade&nbsp;Union Square into a shopping district&nbsp;anchored by the reconstructed Hotel Saint Francis which survived the earthquake but had to be completely gutted. The Spanish American War of 1898 and the Philippine War were milestones in America's
expansionist role in the world.&nbsp;Although the U.S. declared victory in the Spanish-American
War, Filipino insurgents continued to fight for their independence – this time,
against the United States. That conflict – the Philippine-American War – began
in 1899 and lasted until the U.S. military quelled the rebellion in 1902.
Again, U.S. troops were deployed through the Presidio in San Francisco. Thus,
in both the Spanish-American War and the Philippine - American War, military
personnel were sent through one former Spanish colony (San Francisco) to fight
military personnel in another former Spanish colony (the Philippines). 

In the year following the conclusion of the
Philippine-American War, the “Dewey Monument”, a collaboration of sculptor
Robert Aitken and architect Newton Tharp, was dedicated in San Francisco’s
Union Square. The monument commemorates Admiral George Dewey’s defeat of the
Spanish in Manilla Bay in the Philippines, and celebrates the American victory
in the Spanish-American War.

San Francisco was a major naval port and point of departure for American sailors on their way to the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. In honor of these men, the city decided to redesign the center of Union Square and build a monument to commemorate Admiral Dewey's victory over the Spanish fleet at Manila during that war. The monument features a 79-foot tall granite shaft topped by a pedestal and a bronzed figure of a woman representing both liberty and victory. The woman holds a trident and a laurel wreath, symbolizing both naval strength and victory. President Roosevelt traveled to San Francisco and dedicated the monument on May, 14, 1903.

Dewey Monument, Union Square

The company dates back to the arrival of the Ville de Paris, a chartered ship operated by Felix Verdier. News of the ship's arrival caused such a commotion among the wealthy residents of the city that Verdier found the vessel surrounded by smaller boats&nbsp;in the San Francisco Bay. Verdier sold his entire&nbsp;cargo in the bay itself, with shoppers paying for merchandise with cash or gold&nbsp;aboard the ship before loading their purchases into their waiting rowboats and returning to the shore. Recognizing the demand for luxury goods in the booming city, Verdier quickly returned, establishing a waterfront&nbsp;store in 1851. Nine years later, the company operated out of the Occidental Hotel.&nbsp; Verdier named his business the City of Paris Dry Goods Company in honor of the ship he had used in 1850 and as a reminder that he was the premiere importer of European luxury items.&nbsp;In 1896, the company opened a new store at this location. After the building had been damaged as a result of fires spread during the&nbsp;1906 earthquake, management decided to redesign the sales floor around an opulent rotunda capped by a dome made of stained glass. As part of their celebration for the re-opening of the store in 1909, the company placed a large Christmas tree in the middle of the rotunda. Other department stores around the nation would follow this trend.&nbsp; Like most other downtown department stores, the City of Paris ceased to be profitable by the late 1960s and management announced their plan to close the store in 1971. The Hawaii-based department store chain Liberty House attempted to operate out of this location for a couple of years&nbsp;but likewise decided to close the business. In 1974, Neiman Marcus purchased the property and&nbsp;announced their intention to build a new store at the location. Over the next few years, concerned citizens attempted to thwart Neiman Marcus's plan. Although the building was recognized as a California Historical Landmark and was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Neiman Marcus's property rights. The company demolished the City of Paris building in 1981.

Established in 1850 as a mercantile business, the City of Paris was San Francisco's oldest department store before its closure in the early 1970s. The local chain's headquarters and the signature store was established at this location in 1896, one of the original upscale Union Square department stores that replaced the previous residential area. The building survived the earthquake and fire of 1906, while the building weathered the Great Depression. However, the store fell victim to the nationwide trend of local department store closures and announced their departure in 1971. Despite several attempts to save the historic building, including a case heard before the California Supreme Court, the building was demolished in 1981 to create room for the current Neiman Marcus department store. As a result of the preservation fight, Neiman Marcus agreed to save the old department store's glass dome and incorporate the City of Paris' signature rotunda into their building. 

City of Paris Department Store, 1850-1972

The building was operated by&nbsp;Mr. and Mrs. V .C. Morris until their deaths in the early 1960s. The building was restored in 1998 by Aaron Green, a former associate of Wright. Xanadu Gallery, which closed in August 2015, later spent a significant sum to restore the building to Wright's vision.&nbsp;The arch entrance way was built in the Romanesque style, which according to Wright enticed those that passed by into his shop. Beyond the arch is a glass tunnel atrium, and then on to the spiraling interior.&nbsp;In the February 1950 edition of&nbsp;Architectural Forum, Elizabeth B. Mock wrote of the building:<blockquote>"Inside [one] finds release in the world of undreamed fantasy, all gold and gray and white, dominated by a ramp that spirals up like a Jacobos ladder - or a wave checked in its break - toward light that filters through a translucent screen of plastic disks and half-bubbles, clustered in brass tubing and suspended beneath skylights.The circular spiral of the ramp is the pervading theme, developed in endless variation: reduced to disk or hole, elongated as cylinder or tube, blown into domes and spheres. Shapes of mass and void become complex, involute, as these basic forms cut through each other ln space and light, yet it is all so vigorously organized that the total effect is one of singleness, breadth and peace. The visitor tends to extend his pleasure from the building to the wares displayed in the satiny Black walnut cases and the circular wall niches. His transformation into a customer is accomplished with dignity and dispatch."</blockquote>

Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the interior of the V.C. Morris Building in 1948. Wright's only San Francisco project, the store interior is most significant for its circular ramp which became Wright's prototype for the famous circular staircase within the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The exterior is relatively simple in its geometry, but the interior was revolutionary at the time with its curving ramp leading from the ground floor to a circular mezzanine. The extensive remodel of the store interior is interesting because V. C. Morris did not own the building and his store, which sold silverware and wedding gifts could not have justified the expense of the project. The building was restored in 1998 and operated as an art gallery. Once again, the considerable expense dedicated to the interior of the building cost far more than could be recovered and the art gallery eventually closed. As of the spring of 2017, the building is vacant but the building has been purchased by an international men's clothing line as their first West Coast retail outlet. 

V.C. Morris Building

The new Phelan Building, located at the corner of Market and O'Farrell Streets and Gran avenue, is a class A steel cage construction. It is built on the site of the former "old" Phelan Building which was a well known San Francisco landmark for over 25 years. The building has an internal are of 31 thousand square feet, with a 328 feet frontage on Market Street.&nbsp;The building bears the name of one of the most prominent San Franciscan families. The original building, constructed by James Phelan,&nbsp;&nbsp;was only six storys high&nbsp;and had bay windows and a mansard rood. As with much of the city, the structure was destroyed in the fires of 1906, although it was replaced quite quickly with the building you see here today. Once constructed it became one of the most important and prominent office structures in the city, and fit in well with Phelan's advocacy for the City Beautiful Movement. The two monumental front facing sides of the building would become great sights for those travelling to the city's retail district. At the time of building, the new Phelan building was quite possibly the tallest structure in the city, with its beautiful cream terracotta facade visible on the horizon.&nbsp;James Duval Phelan is the man responsible for the building. He was a well-educated son of a banker and capitalist who spent much of his youth travelling. He eventually rose to prominence as a public servant and benefactor, ultimately serving as mayor of the city from 1897 to 1902 and bringing in positive municipal reforms. He rose again, serving as&nbsp;a US senator during the First World War. Phelan was a big advocate of the arts and often supported local artists and entertainers at his villas in Los Gatos and Pacific Heights.The architect of the Phelan Building was William Curlett, one of the most famous of San Francisco's Victoria-era architects. He was born in Ireland in 1846 and moved to San Francisco in 1871 at the age of 25. By the turn of the century Curlett had become a sought after architect, and was responsible for designing the Mutual Savings Bank in 1902, the Shreve in 1905 and the Head Building&nbsp;in 1909. During his later years he moved to Los Angeles and became the President of the State Board of Architects for California.&nbsp;The building was sold in 2016&nbsp;to the Hotung family from Hong Kong for $375 million.&nbsp;

Built by James Phelan in 1907 to replace the previous flatiron building that stood in this location for 25 years until the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the Phelan building is one of San Francisco's leading architectural landmarks. 

Phelan Building

In 1875,&nbsp;Vaudeville actress Lotta Crabtree, who rose to fame while living in&nbsp;San Fransisco, gifted her city&nbsp;with a beautiful fountain. This fountain&nbsp;would become an important landmark in&nbsp;San Fransisco. Crabtree, one of the highest paid entertainers of her time,&nbsp;got her start during the Gold Rush days,&nbsp;when she would dance on barrels in saloons for miners who would throw gold nuggets at her feet. Said to posses "the most beautiful ankle in the world," she was famous for her red hair, dark eyes, and her dances. She was especially known for the "Spider Dance, involving bodily gyrations intended to indicate shaking off of imaginary spiders and entangling spider webs."1 Crabtree purchased the fountain from a catalogue and had it sent from Philadelphia to San Fransisco, where it was dedicated on September 9, 1875.&nbsp; In the early morning of April 18, 1906, a massive earthquake rocked northern California, its forces and resulting fires&nbsp;destroying most of San Fransisco and killing up to 3,000 people.&nbsp;In the aftermath,&nbsp;Lotta's Fountain became a meeting point for survivors looking for loved ones and for work. Bulletin boards surrounded&nbsp;the fountain for&nbsp;survivors to communicate with one another, some receiving answers and others not.&nbsp;Thereafter, the&nbsp;fountain represented&nbsp;not only singer Lotta Crabtree, but thousands of lives lost in the earthquake. In 1915, Crabtree made her first public visit to the fountain, laying a breath at the base of the fountain.&nbsp; Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Lotta's Fountain has remained an important landmark in San Fransisco, especially for remembering the earthquake. A number of singers and musicians&nbsp;have performed at the fountain.&nbsp;On Christmas Eve, 1910, Italian soprano singer&nbsp;Luisa Tetrazzini, who also found success in San Fransisco, performed at the fountain to a crowd of around 250,000. In the following years, violinists Jan Kubelik and Misha Elman also entertained thousands at separate performances. It became tradition to remember the earthquake every April by gathering at the fountain. This historic&nbsp;cast iron fountain features an eight-foot columnn topped with an ornate light fixture. Mounted on the base of the columnn is a bronze relief plaque featuring a bust portrait of Luisa Tetrazzini.&nbsp;The middle section is decorated with floral embellishments and two relief medallions depicting scenes of San Francisco. One of the medallions depicts a schooner ship. The second medallion depicts gold rush miners digging for gold. The third medallion, originally symbolizing agriculture, was replaced in 1916 with a plaque commemorating an elongated columnn at the top of the fountain that reached the new height of Market Street; this columnn has since been removed and the fountain refurbished to its 1875 condition.&nbsp;Below the medallions, on all four corners of the fountain, are lion's heads. Four semicircular fountain basins jut out from the sides of the fountain near the base, each basin with a spigot in the form of a griffin's head. Originally, there were tin cups chained next to each basin, but they no longer exist. The fountain rests on a granite base. Lotta's Fountain has been restored twice, once&nbsp;as part of the $24.5 million beautification&nbsp;of Market Street and the second time in 1998, which got the water running through the fountain again. In being named after Lotta Crabtree and featuring a bronze relief of Luisa Tetrazzini, the fountain is one of only a few works of public art that represents women in San Fransisco, which will hopefully change as new initiatives to create public art honoring women are underway. The fountain's&nbsp;connection to the 1906 earthquake remains strong, as each April 18 at 5:18 am, crowds gather to remember the victims, survivors, and heroes of this historic moment.&nbsp;

"The closest thing to ground zero" after the 1906 earthquake was Lotta's Fountain, at the intersection of Kearny, Geary, and Market Streets. The fountain was gifted to the city by Lotta Crabtree, a Vaudeville actress. It was originally situated at Third, Market and Kearny, but was relocated a short distance to its present location during the 1974 Market Street renovation. After a devastating earthquake struck San Fransisco in 1906, survivors used the fountain as a meeting point to find lost loved ones and work. Today, the fountain is one of the oldest remaining monuments in the city and is a reminder of San Francisco's rich and diverse history.

Lotta's Fountain

Banker and entrepreneur William Chapman Ralston, in his desire to turn the young boom-town of San Francisco into a world-class city, built the Palace Hotel in 1875. The hotel took its inspiration from some of the most beautiful hotels in Europe. With 755 guest rooms, the hotel was the largest in the western United States at that time. Perhaps the hotel's most striking feature was its massive, skylighted lobby, which looked up to seven stories of columnned balconies.&nbsp; The Palace Hotel was one of the city's most popular destinations for the next thirty years and frequently hosted celebrities and business and political leaders. The 1906 earthquake marked the end of the hotel, however. Although the Palace survived the quake itself, the ensuing fires left the building--which was believed to be virtually fireproof--a burned-out ruin. While the hotel was being razed and plans developed to rebuild, a two-story structure referred to as the "Baby Palace Hotel" was built nearby. Almost four years after the destruction of the original hotel, the new Palace Hotel opened on December 19, 1909, at the site of the original Palace. The new Palace's exterior is far less grand than the original, but its interior is as opulent as its predecessor's. The rebuilt Palace was as popular as the original and hosted a who's who of San Francisco society as well as a number of presidents and other dignitaries.&nbsp; On August 2, 1923, one of the hotel's famous guests died suddenly, under what some believed to be mysterious circumstances. President Warren G. Harding checked into the eighth floor Presidential Suite with his wife days earlier during a speaking tour of the western states. Harding, who was never especially healthy, contracted pneumonia during the trip but was expected to make a recovery. He died suddenly on August as his wife read a news article to him. Given Harding's many scandals and extramarital affairs, a number of people suspected that the President was murdered by poison. Though he most likely died from a heart attack, Florence Harding's refusal to allow an autopsy fueled rumors that persisted for years.&nbsp; In 1989, the Palace underwent a thorough renovation and was closed for a year-and-a-half until the work was completed. Another extensive renovation took place in 2015.&nbsp; The Palace Hotel is a San Francisco Designated Landmark.

The Palace Hotel and Garden Court Room has occupied the space on the corner of Market and New Montgomery Streets since 1875. The original Palace Hotel was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake although it was eventually rebuilt in 1909. In addition to hosting numerous celebrities over its long career, the Palace is also famous for being the site of President Warren Harding's death.

Palace Hotel and Garden Court Room

The San Francisco Call began publication under the title The Morning Call in 1856 and became a popular newspaper for its illustrations, political cartoons, and photographs. Mark Twain even wrote for the paper during the year of 1964. It was renamed the San Francisco Call in 1895 when it was bought by Claus Spreckels, who had gained his wealth in the sugar industry. When Michael de Young, owner and founder of the San Francisco Chronicle, criticized the Spreckels family for the poor working conditions of their plantations, a feud resulted. In 1884, Claus Spreckels' son, Adolph, shot and wounded de Young; when Claus bought the Call eleven years later, it was for the purpose of driving the Chronicle out of business.In 1898, construction was completed on the first Call Building, designed by the architectural firm of the Reid Brothers, along with engineer Charles Strobe, the inventor of the Z-bar steel design. Canadian-born James and Merritt Reid designed many San Francisco buildings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Call Building (also known as the Spreckels Building and now known as Central Tower) was the first skyscraper in the city. During the 1906 earthquake, heat from nearby fires shattered the windows of the building's third floor and caused a blast of flame to destroy much of the interior, though the structure remained intact and was later refurbished.However, after the Call merged with the Evening Post in 1913, the headquarters of the newspaper were moved to a new building (the Montgomery or Call-Post building), also designed by the Reid Brothers and completed in 1914. The paper merged yet again in 1929 to become the San Francisco Bulletin, and again in 1959 when it was renamed the News Call-Bulletin. The San Francisco Examiner bought out the paper in 1965. The Montgomery was converted into a residential building, with a seismic retrofit and redesigned interior.Historic Marker Inscription:This classic landmark building was built in 1914 as the headquarters for the San Francisco Call, a leading newspaper of its time. / This building was restored and re-dedicated as modern homes and shops by a committed team of developers, architects, contractors, engineers and craftsmen. It is our wish that all who live and work here in the 21st Century and beyond will continue to love and appreciate The Montgomery as much as we did./ February, 2008 / New Urban Properties, LLC / and / The Montgomery Team

The Montgomery, which stands on a corner, features two nearly identical facades. Designed by the Reid Brothers and completed in 1914, the building was the headquarters of one of San Francisco's leading newspapers, the San Francisco Call (published under various names from 1856-1965). After an interior redesign, the building has been converted into condominiums.

Union Square San Francisco Walking Tour

Four Fifty Sutter Building

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information