Montgomery Block
Encyclopedia
The Montgomery Block was San Francisco's first fireproof and earthquake resistant building. It was located at 628 Montgomery Street, on the south-east corner of the intersection of Montgomery and Washington streets.
It was erected in 1853 by Henry Wager Halleck
, later general in chief of the Union Army
in the Civil War
. As locals endearingly refer to it, the Monkey Block was for a hundred years headquarters for many outstanding lawyers, financiers, writers, actors, and artists. Its tenants included artists and writers of all kind and it also hosted many illustrious visitors, among them Jack London
, George Sterling
, Lola Montez
, Lotta Crabtree
, Gelett Burgess
, Maynard Dixon
, Frank Norris
, Ambrose Bierce
, Bret Harte
, the Booths and Mark Twain
.
For a time, it was the largest building west of Mississippi
. At a cost of US$3 million it was considered the engineering marvel of its time, the first major structure erected on the marshy sand bordering the east side of Montgomery Street
at Washington Street. Rising from its deep basement, this block-square building boasted two inner courts, masonry
walls more than two feet thick, salons, libraries and billiards parlors protected by heavy iron shutters at every window to prevent destruction from fire that ravaged so many American cities in the 19th century. The 'largest and safest' office building on the Coast originally attracted lawyers, engineers, judges, scientists, business and professional men.
The foundation, excavated by Chinese laborers, was built on top of a huge raft of layered redwood logs and a layer of 12 x12 ship's planking. Critics thought it would either sink in the tidal mudflat or be rafted away on a high tide. The building incorporated cement from England, glass from Belgium, France and Germany, iron fittings, beams, doors and balconies brought around the Horn from Philadelphia, and 1,747,800 bricks. It took 14 months to complete and was at first dubbed the "Washington Block."
called the Montgomery Block home. Many of the earliest land disputes between Spanish and Mexican land grant
holders and American squatters were resolved by lawyers and judges ensconced in the Montgomery Block. Numerous early California
legislators and politicians worked out of the Montgomery Block.
James King of William (his father's first name), editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin, was shot in the street out front, and died in room 207 of the Montgomery Block on May 14, 1856 after being shot by James P. Casey, a city supervisor who felt slighted by King's anti-corruption crusading journalism. Casey was lynched a few days after King's death by a reborn Vigilance committee
.
In the 1860s Mark Twain met a San Francisco fireman named Tom Sawyer in the Montgomery Block sauna. It was home in 1911 to exiled Dr. Sun Yat-sen
who, working with Wong Sam Ark, wrote the Chinese constitution that was later installed after the fall of the Qing Dynasty
. One of the oldest masonry structures in San Francisco, the building escaped destruction in the fire of 1906. It is claimed, by E Clampus Vitus
among others, that the drink Pisco punch
was invented in the Bank Exchange Bar in the first floor of the Montgomery block.
From the 1890s to the 1940s it was an important literary bohemian rendezvous possibly because the Montgomery Block provided office space for the San Francisco Argonaut
, for which people like Bierce, Harte, Twain and others wrote. Artists filled its galleries and rented cheap studio space after the building became less exclusive in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In the basement, among the many hangouts, was one that went by the name of Coppa's.
During the 1906 earthquake and fire
, a tenant named Oliver Perry Stidger, son of pioneers, stood his ground with a pistol and declared he would shoot any man in the demolition squad who came to blow up the building in order to halt the flames. He asked for thirty minutes and a small area of the downtown was saved from the fire.
The Montgomery Block in San Francisco, the heart of America's "Barbary Coast
" — was a magnet to artistic souls for decades. In his inaugural speech as Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 1998, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
made reference to "the classic old Montgomery Block building, the most famous literary and artistic structure in the West."
The Montgomery Block was demolished in 1959, even though a preservation movement had begun to emerge in San Francisco. It is remembered for its historic importance as a bohemian center of the city. The Montgomery Block was replaced by a parking lot and later, the Transamerica Pyramid
.
It was erected in 1853 by Henry Wager Halleck
Henry Wager Halleck
Henry Wager Halleck was a United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer. A noted expert in military studies, he was known by a nickname that became derogatory, "Old Brains." He was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer...
, later general in chief of the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
in the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. As locals endearingly refer to it, the Monkey Block was for a hundred years headquarters for many outstanding lawyers, financiers, writers, actors, and artists. Its tenants included artists and writers of all kind and it also hosted many illustrious visitors, among them Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...
, Lola Montez
Lola Montez
Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld , better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld. She used her influence to institute liberal...
, Lotta Crabtree
Lotta Crabtree
Lotta Mignon Crabtree was an American actress, entertainer and comedian. She was also a significant philanthropist....
, Gelett Burgess
Gelett Burgess
Frank Gelett Burgess was an artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. An important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclastic little magazine, The Lark, he is best known as a writer of nonsense verse...
, Maynard Dixon
Maynard Dixon
Maynard Dixon was a 20th-century American artist whose body of work focused on the American West. He was married for a time to American photographer Dorothea Lange.-Biography:...
, Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
, Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
, Bret Harte
Bret Harte
Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
, the Booths and Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
.
Structure and safety
Originally, the four stories Montgomery Block was the tallest building in the West when it was built in 1853. It was designed by architect G.P. Cummings. San Franciscans called it "Halleck's Folly" because it was built on a raft of redwood logs that had been bolted together in a deeply excavated basement on the edge of the bay (which was right at Montgomery St. at that time).For a time, it was the largest building west of Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. At a cost of US$3 million it was considered the engineering marvel of its time, the first major structure erected on the marshy sand bordering the east side of Montgomery Street
Montgomery Street
Montgomery Street is a north-south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, in the United States.It runs about 16 blocks from the Telegraph Hill neighborhood south through downtown, terminating at Market Street. South of Columbus Avenue, Montgomery Street runs through the heart of San Francisco's...
at Washington Street. Rising from its deep basement, this block-square building boasted two inner courts, masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
walls more than two feet thick, salons, libraries and billiards parlors protected by heavy iron shutters at every window to prevent destruction from fire that ravaged so many American cities in the 19th century. The 'largest and safest' office building on the Coast originally attracted lawyers, engineers, judges, scientists, business and professional men.
The foundation, excavated by Chinese laborers, was built on top of a huge raft of layered redwood logs and a layer of 12 x12 ship's planking. Critics thought it would either sink in the tidal mudflat or be rafted away on a high tide. The building incorporated cement from England, glass from Belgium, France and Germany, iron fittings, beams, doors and balconies brought around the Horn from Philadelphia, and 1,747,800 bricks. It took 14 months to complete and was at first dubbed the "Washington Block."
History
In its earliest days, newly affluent "Silver Kings" of the Comstock LodeComstock Lode
The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
called the Montgomery Block home. Many of the earliest land disputes between Spanish and Mexican land grant
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
holders and American squatters were resolved by lawyers and judges ensconced in the Montgomery Block. Numerous early California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
legislators and politicians worked out of the Montgomery Block.
James King of William (his father's first name), editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin, was shot in the street out front, and died in room 207 of the Montgomery Block on May 14, 1856 after being shot by James P. Casey, a city supervisor who felt slighted by King's anti-corruption crusading journalism. Casey was lynched a few days after King's death by a reborn Vigilance committee
Vigilance committee
A vigilance committee was a group formed of private citizens to administer law and order where they considered governmental structures to be inadequate. The term is commonly associated with the frontier areas of the American West in the mid-19th century, where groups attacked cattle rustlers and...
.
In the 1860s Mark Twain met a San Francisco fireman named Tom Sawyer in the Montgomery Block sauna. It was home in 1911 to exiled Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
who, working with Wong Sam Ark, wrote the Chinese constitution that was later installed after the fall of the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. One of the oldest masonry structures in San Francisco, the building escaped destruction in the fire of 1906. It is claimed, by E Clampus Vitus
E Clampus Vitus
The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus is a fraternal organization dedicated to the study and preservation of Western heritage, especially the history of the Mother Lode and gold mining regions of the area...
among others, that the drink Pisco punch
Pisco punch
Pisco punch was an alcoholic beverage invented by Duncan Nicol at a bar named Bank Exchange at the end of the 19th century, in San Francisco, California...
was invented in the Bank Exchange Bar in the first floor of the Montgomery block.
From the 1890s to the 1940s it was an important literary bohemian rendezvous possibly because the Montgomery Block provided office space for the San Francisco Argonaut
The Argonaut
The Argonaut was a literary journal based in San Francisco, California that ran from 1877 to 1893, founded and published by Frank M. Pixley. The magazine was known for containing strong political Americanism combined with art and literature...
, for which people like Bierce, Harte, Twain and others wrote. Artists filled its galleries and rented cheap studio space after the building became less exclusive in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In the basement, among the many hangouts, was one that went by the name of Coppa's.
During the 1906 earthquake and fire
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
, a tenant named Oliver Perry Stidger, son of pioneers, stood his ground with a pistol and declared he would shoot any man in the demolition squad who came to blow up the building in order to halt the flames. He asked for thirty minutes and a small area of the downtown was saved from the fire.
The Montgomery Block in San Francisco, the heart of America's "Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast, San Francisco, California
Barbary Coast was a red-light district in old San Francisco, California. Geographically it constituted nine blocks bounded by Montgomery Street, Washington Street, Stockton Street, and Broadway...
" — was a magnet to artistic souls for decades. In his inaugural speech as Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 1998, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
made reference to "the classic old Montgomery Block building, the most famous literary and artistic structure in the West."
The Montgomery Block was demolished in 1959, even though a preservation movement had begun to emerge in San Francisco. It is remembered for its historic importance as a bohemian center of the city. The Montgomery Block was replaced by a parking lot and later, the Transamerica Pyramid
Transamerica Pyramid
The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline and one of its most iconic. Although the building no longer houses the headquarters of the Transamerica Corporation, it is still strongly associated with the company and is depicted in the company's logo...
.