Hidden Treasure
Royal Globe Insurance Building
Royal Globe Insurance Building
201 Sansome Street
Architect: Howells & Stokes
A structure well suited to illustrate the wonderful curiosity of a great many of the older buildings of the downtown buildings which for the most part lack the distinction of the Royal Globe, but which still possess details of interest that are apt to be sadly lacking in new buildings of the second or third class. Built in 1909 to designs by Howells & Stokes, of New York, this Georgian-style buildings mixes red brick and white marble with dark green terra cotta. The eye can hardly escape the contrasts for the materials, and is inevitably drawn to the imposing entrance with the great marble clock supported by the unicorn and the lion above.
The lobby is of particular historical interest: the five carved marble door frames were originally part of the Torlonia Palace in Rome. (This Palace was built in 1680 by Carlo Fontana for the Bolognetti Family but dismantled to provide space for the Victor Emmanuel Monument.)
201 Sansome Street
Architect: Howells & Stokes
A structure well suited to illustrate the wonderful curiosity of a great many of the older buildings of the downtown buildings which for the most part lack the distinction of the Royal Globe, but which still possess details of interest that are apt to be sadly lacking in new buildings of the second or third class. Built in 1909 to designs by Howells & Stokes, of New York, this Georgian-style buildings mixes red brick and white marble with dark green terra cotta. The eye can hardly escape the contrasts for the materials, and is inevitably drawn to the imposing entrance with the great marble clock supported by the unicorn and the lion above.
The lobby is of particular historical interest: the five carved marble door frames were originally part of the Torlonia Palace in Rome. (This Palace was built in 1680 by Carlo Fontana for the Bolognetti Family but dismantled to provide space for the Victor Emmanuel Monument.)
Merchants Exchange
Merchants Exchange
465 California Street
Architect: Willis Polk
The tallest building in the financial district at the time of the 1906 earthquake was the Merchants Exchange. This fifteen-story, steel-frame structure, with Tennessee granite and brick sheathing, was designed by Willis Polk in 1903; it traces its ancestry back to a three-story brick building of 1851 located about two blocks north on Battery Street. The original Merchant Exchange furnished a library and meeting room and posted information on arriving ships and cargoes. The latter-day skyscraper was intended to provide some of the same services to the business community.
The great hall of the Exchange, now modified as a bank office, is still decorated with some of the best and most appropriate San Franciscan murals - paintings executed by William Coulter, a leading maritime artist of his place and time. Other touches of period architectural art can be seen in the bronze eagle heads and lamps of the exterior, designed by Julia Morgan. Miss Morgan can also be credited with the inspiring interior appointments.
The days are gone when the merchants of San Francisco gathered there over one thousand strong to approve the plans for the 1915 Exposition or to condemn the 1934 general strike, and the Merchants Exchange is now just another building. But the great glass-roofed foyer and the adjacent meeting hall are reminiscent of that former era.
Click Here> for the official website of the Merchant Exchange
465 California Street
Architect: Willis Polk
The tallest building in the financial district at the time of the 1906 earthquake was the Merchants Exchange. This fifteen-story, steel-frame structure, with Tennessee granite and brick sheathing, was designed by Willis Polk in 1903; it traces its ancestry back to a three-story brick building of 1851 located about two blocks north on Battery Street. The original Merchant Exchange furnished a library and meeting room and posted information on arriving ships and cargoes. The latter-day skyscraper was intended to provide some of the same services to the business community.
The great hall of the Exchange, now modified as a bank office, is still decorated with some of the best and most appropriate San Franciscan murals - paintings executed by William Coulter, a leading maritime artist of his place and time. Other touches of period architectural art can be seen in the bronze eagle heads and lamps of the exterior, designed by Julia Morgan. Miss Morgan can also be credited with the inspiring interior appointments.
The days are gone when the merchants of San Francisco gathered there over one thousand strong to approve the plans for the 1915 Exposition or to condemn the 1934 general strike, and the Merchants Exchange is now just another building. But the great glass-roofed foyer and the adjacent meeting hall are reminiscent of that former era.
Click Here> for the official website of the Merchant Exchange
The Monadnock Building
Monadnock Building (1907)
685 Market Street, Suite 550
Architect: Frederick H. Meyer
Construction on the exquisite Beaux-Art style Monadnock Building began in 1906. Before its west wall was even completed, the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire struck. Somehow the building managed to survive not only those calamities, but two separate attempts by the U.S. Army to destroy it with dynamite, hoping to create a firebreak that was intended to save the original Palace Hotel.
Hidden Treasure:
There is a twenty-four foot barrel-vaulted atrium lobby has outstanding Tieolo-inspired trompe l'oeil murals, featuring famous people from the city's past, by the Evans and Brown Co.
The theme of this mural is "San Francisco Renaissance." It is painted in the Renaissance Baroque style trompe l'oeil (which means to fool the eye) and chosen because the facade of this building was inspired by that period. That is why all these San Francisco and California characters are dressed in such costumes.
Click Here> to read more about these outstanding murals and the history of the building.