The Phelan Building is an 11-story office building located at 760 Market Street in the

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San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. It has a triangular shape, similar to the

Flatiron Building The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a 22-story, steel-framed triangular building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinke ...

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, with its tip at the meeting point of Market Street, O’Farrell Street, and Grant Avenue. It is a

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. The building was designed by William Curlett and built in 1908 by

James D. Phelan James Duval Phelan (April 20, 1861 – August 7, 1930) was an American politician, civic leader, and banker. He served as nonpartisan mayor of San Francisco from 1897 to 1902. As mayor he advocated municipally run utilities and tried to protect ...

on the place of the first, original Phelan Building, damaged by the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The original Phelan Building

The first Phelan Building was constructed in 1881 by James Phelan, the father of

. It was a 6-story, bay-windowed,

mansard A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

-roofed flatiron. The architect was John P. Gaynor, who also designed the original Palace Hotel. Despite being advertised as “thoroughly fire and earthquake proof”, the building was badly damaged in the 1906 post-earthquake fire, and its ruins were subsequently dynamited on April 20, 1906. Old Phelan Building.jpg, Original Phelan Building in 1888 Phelan Building after the earthquake on April 20, 1906.jpg, The ruins of the original building

The second Phelan Building

Work on the new Phelan Building began on October 7, 1907, and was completed on September 1, 1908, for retail stores, and the first day of 1909 for offices. It was one of the earliest office buildings to be rebuilt after the earthquake. The building's exterior features metal windows and is clad in cream glazed terra-cotta. The original steel structure was designed to accommodate 13 floors; eventually eleven were completed. At its opening, the building featured an

assembly hall An assembly hall is a hall to hold public meetings or meetings of an organization such as a school, church, or deliberative assembly. An example of the last case is the Assembly Hall (Washington, Mississippi) where the general assembly of the s ...

on the 11th floor, arcade stores on the second floor, and a basement café. For many decades, the Phelan Building was a ''de facto'' center for

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, hosting dozens of jewelers and a jewelry school. File:Phelan Building 2017.jpg, The Phelan Building in 2017 Phelan Building San Francisco 20050610.jpg, The tip of the building Inside Phelan Building, San Francisco.jpg, 7th floor of the Phelan Building in March 2014; the last floor in its original configuration at that point and not converted to open layout

The penthouse

An unusual feature of the building is a small penthouse. Originally adorned by a rooftop garden, it was used by James D. Phelan to entertain dignitaries. It served as a photography studio in the 1960s, and was abandoned some time in the 1980s.

Major past and current tenants

* George Haas & Sons, confectioner. The store was marketed as “the most beautiful candy shop in the country.” Their business also operated a tea room on the second floor. *

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References

External links