San Francisco’s Market Street

By Marques Vickers

Market Street forms the vertebrae of San Francisco. First surveyed in 1847 by Jasper O’Farrell, the boulevard was laid out to provide a transition between two opposing grids. Intended to become the city’s main and widest thoroughfare, it rapidly became the busiest.

In the mid 19th century, San Francisco was regarded as the most developed western American outpost of urbanity, sophistication and refinement. By the conclusion of the century, its reputation rivaled many East Coast cities. Market Street became the base for cable car and horse car lines providing service along the local commercial corridor and connections to distant transfer destinations.

The 1906 catastrophic San Francisco Earthquake and Fire briefly halted development. During the reconstruction, the Market Street cable car lines would be entirely removed and replaced by electric streetcars. Automobiles would replace streetcars. During the 1970s, the introduction of the subterranean Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) alleviated some of the traffic congestion.

This edition is an architectural survey of Market Street’s historical and contemporary buildings accompanied by historical profiles. The narrative begins from the Embarcadero until the Tenderloin district.

Architectural Properties Photographed:
“Cupid’s Span”, The Embarcadero and Folsom Streets
The Embarcadero, Piers 1, 11⁄2, 3 and 5
Hyatt Regency Hotel, 5 Embarcadero Center
Robert Frost Memorial Plaque, California and Drumm
Landmark Building, 1 Market
Federal Reserve Bank Building, 101 Market
One California Building, 1 California
Mattson Building, 245 Market
101 California Building
Pacific Gas and Electric Building, 77 Beale
333 Market Building
388 Market Building
Liberty Bell Slot Machine Marker, 406 Market
425 Market Building
One Front Building
Mechanics Monument, Market at Battery and Bush
Central Plaza, 455 Market
One Bush Building
Battery Bridge Public Art, Between Market and Bush
First Market Tower, 525 Market
525 Market Fountain
American Trust Bank Building, 532 Market
Flat Iron Building, 544 Market
550 Market Building
554 Market Building
Patrick & Company, 560 Market
Chancery Building, 562-566 Market
570-572 Market Building
Market Center Building, 555-575 Market
The Finance Building, 576-580 Market
581-585 Market Building
Hobart Building, 582 Market
595 Market Building
West Coast Life Building, 601-605 Market Building
607-611 Market Building
Metropolis Trust Building, 625 Market
44 Montgomery Building
California Admission Day Memorial, Market and Montgomery
One Montgomery Tower, 120 Kearny
One Post Building
652-660 Market Building
De Young Building, 690 Market
Lotte Crabtree Fountain, Market and Geary and Kearny
Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery
Monadnock Building, 685 Market
One Kearny Building
Hearst Building, 5 Third
Mutual Savings Bank Building, 700-716 Market
Central Tower, 701-705 Market
711-713 Market Building
717 Market Building
720 Market Building
721 Market Building
722-742 Market Building
Bancroft Building, 731 Market
Union Trust Building, 744 Market
Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, 757-765 Market
Savings Union Branch of Security Pacific National Bank, 1 Grant
Phelan Building, 760-784 Market
Humboldt Saving Bank Building, 785 Market
799 Market Building
2 Stockton Building
Hotel Zelos, 12 Fourth
James Bong Building, 825-833 Market
California Savings Bank Building, 830 Market
Parrot Building/The Emporium, 835 Market
838-842 Market Street
856 Market Building
James Flood Building, 870 Market
Hallidie Plaza, Public Square at Powell Station
901 Market Building
One Hallidie Plaza
944 Market Building
Bank of America Building, One Powell

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marques Vickers
• Release date: Jan 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215961810

Marques Vickers

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions. He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86. Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com. Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography. His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism. He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

Book preview

Cupid’s Span Public Art Installation

The Embarcadero and Folsom Street

Cupid’s Span is an expansive public art installation created in 2002 by artists Claes Oldenburg and wife Coosje van Bruggen. The 70-foot-high sculpture depicts a partially drawn bow and portion of an arrow implanted in the earth. Fashioned out of fiberglass and steel, the sculpture was installed in the newly constructed Rincon Park adjacent to the Embarcadero. The artists claimed their inspiration was drawn from San Francisco’s reputation for permissiveness and the homeport of Eros, the Greek god of love and sex.

Prior to the selection of the work, the San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s rejected a controversial proposal to install sculptor Buster Simpson’s plan for an enormous elevated foot to be positioned in the identical location. The sculpture would have been a 18-foot tall hollow work fashioned out of one-inch-thick stainless steel, extended by its toes, rising out of the bay as it faced west. The edifice was envisioned to be lit up at night with a pulsating light timed to the rhythms of a lighthouse.

Cupid’s Span has evolved into a popular photographic icon for locals and visitors touring the city.

The Embarcadero Complex

Piers 1, 1 ½, 3 and 5

The Embarcadero is the Spanish word for Embankment and forms the eastern waterfront Port of San Francisco. The complex is built upon reclaimed land stretching along a three-mile engineered seawall. The cove continued to become filled in upon San Francisco’s growth and expansion. The Embarcadero was constructed on the land above Piers 1-5, devoted principally to inland trade and transport.

The towering ferry building was designed in 1892 by American architect A. Page Brown in the Beaux-Arts architectural style. Currently under restoration, the structure was officially opened in 1898. The building replaced a wood-constructed predecessor elevated on the same site originally in 1875. It would become that era’s largest project within the city. The iconic clock tower was reputedly modeled after the 12th-century Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain. The expansive length of the building on dual frontages contains an arched arcade.

The building serviced as a commuter terminal for Eastbay and Marin County residents traveling into San Francisco. It also served as the connection and termination point for the transcontinental rail lines of the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe and Western Pacific Railways.

During the catastrophic April 18, 1906 earthquake and fire, the clock timepiece halted at the initial moment of the disaster of 5:12 a.m. The 7.9 magnitude quake destroyed significant sectors of the downtown. The ferry building and Embarcadero complex suffered minimal damage due to well-constructed