• Hotaling Building
• Stiefvater Bldg.
• Engine Company #1 Firehouse
• Cargo West Warehouse
• Hotel
• Cowell family warehouse
• Merchants Ice and Cold Storage Co.
• Mosaic works
• Italian Swiss Colony Warehouse
• Sentinel Building

The impression conveyed by the renovated Jackson Square is that of liveable urbanism. The two-and three-story brick buildings let light into the street and in no way overpower the pedestrian. Yet this is no "main street" setting; it is distinctly and consciously metropolitan.

One elegant Jackson Square building is the former A. P. Hotaling warehouse at 451-461 Jackson Street. A fine example of the Italianate style popular in San Francisco business blocks of the '60's and '70's, the Hotaling warehouse employs the powerful Baroque device of alternating pointed and arched window pediments. The ornamental pillars of the first floor are of a cast-iron pattern produced by a San Francisco works. All of the windows were once fitted with iron shutters, the heavy brick construction and shuttered openings comprising "fire-proofing" in that day. (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 52; Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 47)

In 1866, Anson Parson Hotaling built 455 Jackson (11) as headquarters for his extensive business interests, which included liquor, real estate, and trade. Its cast iron façade and iron shutters are typical of early fireproof buildings (Wiley 2000: 151).

Stiefvater Bldg. A photograph dated 1867 shows the high round arches of this former wine warehouse. Solidly constructed of brick (partially-faced with cement), with foundations of stones which had served as ship ballast, the building served as a wholesale bakery supply house for many years (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 251).

Demolished since 1969 (Personal observation-05.12.05).

An exceedingly elegant building is the former house of Engine Company #1, at 449 Pacific Avenue. This Italian Renaissance-style firehouse, with Tuscan columns and pilasters surmounting the large Roman arch, has very pleasingly balanced proportions. It was build in 1877 although the present facade is post-1906, and the building, which now houses an art gallery and an advertising agency, is still redolent of the romance of the oldtime fire department (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 57-58).

As part of the [Levi Strauss Plaza] complex, the architects [Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum] restored the Cargo West Warehouse (5) on the northwest corner of Battery and Union.... The Cargo West Warehouse was built in 1907 to provide offices for a lumberyard with lodgings upstairs (Wiley 2000: 242).

Also commendable is the rehabilitation of two older warehouse buildings, the Italian Swiss Colony Building (1903, Hemenway & Miller) and the 1879 Cargo West Building at Battery and Union (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 53).

A small red brick building of considerable quality stands on the northwest corner of Battery and Union. The building may date from 1874, though the earliest reliable photographic evidence available does not place it any earlier than 1880. It has been used as a seamen's hotel and saloon during most of its years. Dwarfed by the large warehouses all around it, yet looking stately and clean of line, this little building shows off its good brickwork and good proportions very well. The interior has been restored by the present owners so as to show off the brick work from the inside as well as the outside (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 65).

Although possibly dating to 1878, this sensitively remodeled building is commonly thought to have been built after the fire. It subsequently served as a hotel and now houses an architectural firm (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 284).

The distinctive red brick warehouse at 1075 Front Street was built in 1892 (gutted in 1906 and subsequently rebuilt) for the Cowell family of Santa Cruz and has been used until recently to store quarried materials. The most unusual features of the building are the cast iron shutters and the complementary massive iron doors at street level (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 65).

A powerful expression of brick construction is seen in the building occupied by the Merchants Ice and Cold Storage Co. at Battery and Lombard Streets. The owners moved into the existing building in 1896, and though the building does not appear to be substantially older than this, it is entirely possible that evidence of a much older structure uncovered during various remodelings relates to the Greenwich Dock Warehouse. In the horse-and-buggy days, drays drove right into the building through the wide arches, and one can see the ruts their iron tires wore in the stone paving of the floor. To some extent the majesty of this great brick pile has been injured by the placement of square (and outsized) aluminum frame windows wherever it was desired to install modern office space (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 65).

The arched ground floor windows and overall chaste effect make this building compatible with its neighbor at 710. This building once housed a mosaic works (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 293).

Another very strong brick warehouse, dating from about 1898, is at 1265 Battery Street. Like the Merchants building, this structure is characterized by the repetition of massive arches. But the use of pilasters with Ionic capitals and other "downtown" architectural devices robs it of some of the elegant simplicity of the former building (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 65).

The Italian Swiss Colony Warehouse was built in 1903 to increase the wine maker's storage capacity, a mark of the success of Andrea Sbarboro's 1,500-acre wine-making operation at Asti in Sonoma County (Wiley 2000: 243-44).

A benchmark in corporate headquarters design, this lowrise complex [Levi Plaza] of brick buildings is scenographically composed to enhance the view of Telegraph Hill and even incorporate it as borrowed scenery. The well-orchestrated site plan integrates the buildings with the landscaped plaza and provides a sweeping suburban park across Battery that is the most luxuriously appointed corporate front yard in town. The fountains are the latest in Lawrence Halprin's line of Sierra mountainscape tour de forces. Also commendable is the rehabilitation of two older warehouse buildings, the Italian Swiss Colony Building (1903, Hemenway & Miller) and the 1879 Cargo West Building at Battery and Union (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 53).

The Columbus Tower, 920 Kearny Street, originally called the Sentinel Building, is a fine example of the renovation of an old office building to modern standards. Built in 1907 to the design of Field & Kohlberg, this little brick flatiron with its white glazed surface is associated with memory of the dubious "Boss" of early twentieth-century San Francisco, Abe Ruef, who seems to have been associated in promoting the building and had his offices there after he was paroled from San Quentin in 1915 (Olmsted and Watkins 1969: 58).

Walk south on Kearny and notice the Columbus Tower (46) (1905) by Field and Kohlberg at the corner of Kearny and Columbus. In recent years filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola bought the building, hence the Niebaum Coppola Café on the ground floor (Wiley 2000: 250)

An eye-catching landmark for those coming downtown, the building is owned by Frances Ford Coppola (Woodbridge and Woodbridge 1992: 48).