The Phelan Building is an 11-story office building located at 760

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. It has a triangular shape, similar to the

Flatiron Building The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, steel-framed landmarked building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the eponymous Flatiron District neighborhood of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, with its tip at the meeting point of

, O’Farrell Street, and Grant Avenue. It is a

San Francisco Designated Landmark This is a list of San Francisco Designated Landmarks. In 1967, the city of San Francisco, California adopted Article 10 of the Planning Code, providing the city with the authority to designate and protect landmarks from inappropriate alterations. ...

. 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 a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

-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 st ...

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

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...

, 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 Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

. 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 George Haas & Sons was a confectioner in San Francisco, California. George Haas established his first candy factory and store, where he made some 200 varieties of candies, in 1868. After selling the business in 1880 he opened a new business two yea ...

, 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. *

Medium (website) Medium is an American online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation. The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professio ...

Credit Karma Credit Karma is an American multinational personal finance company founded in 2007, which has been a brand of Intuit since December 2020. It is best known as a free credit and financial management platform, but its features also include monitor ...

Flexport Flexport Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on supply chain management and logistics, including order management, trade financing, insurance, freight forwarding and customs brokerage. The company is headquartered in San Fra ...

* Opower

References

External links

Mr. Phelan’s buildingHistorical photographs of both Phelan Buildings at the SF Public Library siteThe original 1908 brochure
{{Financial District, San Francisco Office buildings in San Francisco Financial District, San Francisco Market Street (San Francisco) Office buildings completed in 1908 San Francisco Designated Landmarks 1900s architecture in the United States Buildings and structures burned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake 1908 establishments in California