[Travels and Travelogues]
Updated and links checked: August 2001
Itinerary
[Reading time: 6 minutes]
SAN FRANCISCO VISITOR INFORMATION CENTER, Hallidie Plaza, lower level. Maps, brochures, and information. Web site
CABLE CAR TERMINUS, Powell and Market Sts. Starting point for two of three operating lines. System introduced in 1873. Tramlike vehicles designated national historic landmarks. Web site
MACY'S CALIFORNIA, 101 Stockton, northwest corner of O'Farrell. Ad hoc building formed out of an old one.Gothic facade faces Stockton and O'Farrell. 1968 brick-faced additions faced Geary and Union Square. Has useful public clock.
FAO SCHWARZ, 48 Stockton St., across from Macy's. Remarkable toy store.
NEIMAN-MARCUS, 150 Stockton, southeast corner of Geary. Harlequin-patterned, reddish Italian granite. Superb rotunda preserved from 1908 department store with pale-colored art glass dome depicting sailing ship. Skylit crystal display room on top floor offers view of city's old and new buildings.
I. MAGNIN & CO., 233 Geary, southwest corner of Stockton. Oldest San Francisco specialty store founded in 1876. Silver-foiled Cosmetic Hall on main floor. Lalique-chandeliered third floor, looks like glass plumes.
UNION SQUARE, between Stockton and Powell and Geary and Post. Derives name from pro-Union rallies held here in 1860s on eve of Civil War. Also is landscaped roof of five-level underground parking structure.
DEWEY MONUMENT, in center of park. Ninety-foot-tall monument commemorates Adm. Dewey's victory over Spanish Navy at Manila Bay in 1898, column capped by bronze and Victory bearing a trident and wreath.
SAKS FIFTH AVENUE, 384 Post, northwest corner of Powell. Round-cornered building. Central area crisscrossed by escalators going up to five levels.
ST. FRANCIS WESTIN HOTEL, southwest corner of Post and Powell. Built in 1904, gutted by fire in 1906. Larger, more luxorious residence opened in 1907. Second oldest hotel in city.
GEARY THEATER, 415 Geary St. Was home of American Conservatory for 25 seasons. Nearly ruined in 1989 earthquake. Reopened seven years later after renovation. Web site
CURRAN THEATER, 445 Geary. Noted for showcasing traveling companies of the "Best of Broadway." Web site
450 SUTTER BUILDING. Striking medical/dental office building. Handsome, Mayan-inspired designs on both interior and exterior surfaces of this 1930 terra-cotta-colored skyscraper.
GRAND HYATT SAN FRANCISCO, 345 Stockton. Fantasy fountain honors city's hills, bridges, and unusual architecture, plus a wonderworld of real and mythical creatures.
SAN FRANCISCO TICKET BOX OFFICE SERVICE, Stockton St. side of Union Square opposite Maiden Lane. Provides day-of-performance tickets at half price.
CAMPTON PLACE HOTEL, 340 Stockton. Opened in 1983 is ultimate in sumptious furnishings, quiet elegance, and superior service.
MAIDEN LANE, from Stockton to Kearny. In raffish Barbary Coast era, this red-light area reported at least one murder a week. Now a chic and costly mall, zany street musicians, artsy-craftsy people, and throngs of spectators.
140 MAIDEN LANE. Handsome brick structure is only Frank Lloyd Wright building in San Francisco. Said to have been a model for his designs for Guggenheim Museum in New York with circular interior ramp and skylights. Now Circle Gallery, showcase of contemporary artists.
Walk east on Geary to Kearny, turn left (north) to Post
CROCKER GALLERIA, 50 Post St. at Kearney. Imaginatively-designed three-level complex of fine dining and shopping establishments. Arcade canopied by glass vault 70 feet high and 275 feet long.
PACIFIC TELESIS CENTER, corner of Post and Kearney. Pink, granite-clad 38-story tower. Polished and rough-finished sheathing creates a checkerboard pattern.
MECHANICS INSTITUTE LIBRARY, 57-55 Post. Beaux Arts building houses subscription library formed by merger in 1906 of Mechanics Institute Library founded in 1854 and Mercantile Library founded in 1852. Both collections were destroyed in Great Fire. In lobby is fine 1909 painting which depicts Muses inspiring workers erecting a grand dome much like later Panama-Pacific International Exhibition.Web site
HALLIDIE BUILDING, 130-50 Sutter between Kearny and Montgomery. Centerpiece of one of the most beautiful blocks in downtown San Francisco. Built as an investment by University of California regents in 1918. Named for cable car inventor and university regent. Believed to be world's first all-glass, curtain-wall structure.
FORMER FRENCH BANK BUILDING, 110 Sutter at Trinity. Opulent, assured, very beautiful.
HUNTER-DULIN BUILDING, 111 Sutter at Montgomery. Stately castle in the air with copper-trimmed top.
RUSS BUILDING, 235 Montgomery between Pine and Bush. Called "The Skyscraper" when built in 1927. Until 1960s was city's tallest, 32 stories. Gothic design modeled after Chicago Tribune tower. Bronze elevator indicator with moving lights is informative and artistic, one of downtown's best kinetic sculptures.
MILLS BUILDING AND TOWER, 220 Montgomery. Outstanding prefire building in financial district. Ten-story, all-steel construction had its own electric plant. Original design of white marble and brick erected in 1891-92. Damage from 1906 fire was slight. Additions in 1914 and 1918. 22-story tower completed in 1931.
PACIFIC STOCK EXCHANGE, 301 Pine at Sansome. Dates from 1915.Monumental 1930 granite sculpture group, Earth's Fruitfulness and Man's Inventive Genius.
STOCK EXCHANGE TOWER, around corner at 155 Sansome St. 1930 modern classic. Features art-deco gold ceiling and black marble-walled entry.
CHEVRON/STANDARD OIL OF CALIFORNIA HEADQUARTERS, 225 Bush at Sansome. Top of building with corbelled cornice, attic, and red-tiled roof recalls Renaissance Florentine city palaces. Back facing Market St. has fine stairtower.
CITICORP CENTER, 1 Sansome at Sutter and Market. Forty-three stories. Courtyard graced by Star Girl figures dating from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition. Wraparound corner windows.
ONE BUSH/OLD CROWN-ZELLERBACH BUILDING, 1 Bush St. at Battery. First San Francisco building to be built on a plaza. Stainless steel wall fountain.
130 BUSH STREET. Twenty-foot-wide, 11-story, bay-windowed, Gothic revival skyscraper clad in intricate, cream-glazed terra cotta. One of three narrowest skyscrapers and looks like a hinge between two large neighbors.
SHELL BUILDING, 100 Bush St. at Battery. Graceful, artistic tower designed to emphasize its verticality. Abstract shell designs worked into ornaments.
SHAKLEE TERRACES, 444 Market St. between Bush and Front. Top of the tower is series of set-back, glassed-in terraces with trees looking out over San Francisco Bay.
388 MARKET, between Front and Pine. Jewel of late 1980s high-rise construction. Design fuses wedge and cylinder in a teardrop-shaped building rounded at both ends.
OLD FEDERAL RESERVE BANK, 400 Sansome at Sacramento. Restoration/adaptation. Three-story banking hall and banking lobby with mural refurbished as great public space with swank restaurant.
EMBARCADERO CENTER WEST, 225 Battery at Sacramento. Thirty-three-story tower with whittled top.
PARK HYATT HOTEL, 333 Battery at Clay. Built in 1988.
EMBARCADERO CENTER. Five blocks, six office towers, two major hotels, and some 175 retail shops, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, and galleries. High-rise residential towers and townhouse condos. Attractive landscaping.
PEDESTRIAN BRIDGES. Bridges link Embarcadero to Golden Gateway Center on north, site of Alcoa Building.
GOLDEN GATEWAY AND ALCOA BUILDING, north of Clay St. Fine Henry Moore sculpture, Knife Edge Figure, on west side of Alcoa Building.
3 EMBARCADERO CENTER, between Davis and Drumm. Thirty-four-ton steel Sky Tree.
101 CALIFORNIA STREET. Colossal 48-story cylinder.
HYATT REGENCY HOTEL, 5 Embarcadero Center, foot of California at Drumm. Enter hotel at California and Drumm corner, take escalator up two levels to lobby. Lobby is 300 feet long, 170 feet wide, 170 feet high. Four-story-high sphere of golden anodized-aluminum tubes float in reflecting pool.Twenty-story hanging garden. Running brook and full-sized ficus trees.
JUSTIN HERMAN PLAZA, in front of hotel. Broad, bricked, and planted square. Sculpture, Eclipse. Walk-through fountain (often doesn't work).Cross Embarcadero to Ferry Building FERRY BUILDING, at end of Market St. Bult in 1896. Clock tower is 230 feet high modeled after campanile of Seville's Cathedral. Waterfront promenade extends to Oakland Bay Bridge. Web site
CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF MINES AND GEOLOGY, Room 202, Ferry Bldg. Over 23,000 specimens make this collection both extensive and beautiful.Cross Embarcadero (west), turn left (south) on Steuart. RINCON BUILDING, near Ferry Building and bounded by Mission, Howard, Steuart, and Spear Sts. Once Rincon Annex to Post Office. 1930s deco-style post office has been preserved with murals. Soaring skylit atrium has dramatic 90-foot cascading water column. Restaurants and shops.
Return to Market St., turn left (west) WORLD OF ECONOMICS, Federal Reserve Bank, 101 Market St. Economics explained through videotapes, computer games, and electronic displays.
NEW MONTGOMERY STREET. Street was first attempt to pull city's downtown across Market St.
SHERATON-PALACE HOTEL, Market and New Montgomery. Opened in 1875, destroyed by earthquake in 1906, rebuilt in 1909, recently restored. Glass-domed Garden Court, original mosaic tile floors, well-sized paintings. Pied Piper Room has mural of Pied Piper of Hamelin. Historical collections displayed in cases along hotel's principal corridor.
HOUSE OF SHIELDS, 39 New Montgomery. House of Shields has an unchanged Edwardian bar and restaurant redolent of the turn-of-the-century city's strictly masculine downtown. Decorative white fixtures of draped women holding stalks of light bulbs.
Continue west on Market. SAN FRANCISCO CENTRE (sic), Market and 5th. Ten-level vertical shopping mall with a hundred shops. Building atrium capped by large glass-and-steel dome that opens when weather is good. Three pairs of wide, curved escalators, first of their kind in the U.S., link first floor levels of the complex. Web site
1/ Union Square - South of Market . 2/ Financial District - Chinatown
3/ Haight-Ashbury - Golden Gate Park . 4/ Mission District - Castro and Noe Valley
5/ Union Street - Pacific Heights - Japantown - Civic Center . 6/ Russian Hill - Nob Hill
7/ North Beach - Telegraph Hill . 8/ Northern Waterfront - Marina and Presidio