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Mid-Market (also Central Market, and Market Street Theatre and Loft District) is a neighborhood,
historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...
and development area in
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 ...
. The neighborhood is bounded by Market Street to the north, 5th Street to the east,
Mission Street Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in Daly City and San Francisco, California that runs from Daly City's southern border to San Francisco's northeast waterfront. The street and San Francisco's Mission District through which ...
to the south, and
Van Ness Avenue Van Ness Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed in honor of the city's sixth mayor, James Van Ness. The main part of Van Ness Avenue runs from Market Str ...
to the west. There are many theaters in the district, most of which began as vaudeville theaters, include the
Warfield Warfield is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. In 2021 it had a population of 11,260. History Warfield was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement and is recorded in the Do ...
and
Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...
. With In 1906, Mid-Market was decimated by the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
, and over the next century, Mid-Market would rebuild itself. In the 21st century, Mid-Market has served as a major economic area for San Francisco. Mid-Market has contained the headquarters for
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
,
Block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
,
Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
,
Zendesk Zendesk, Inc. is an American company that provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) products related to customer support, sales, and other customer communications. The company was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007 and is headquartered in San Fr ...
,
Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
, and
Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (HDR) imaging. Dolby li ...
, as well as historic buildings, such as the
Old San Francisco Mint The Old San Francisco Mint (also Old United States Mint or simply Old Mint, nicknamed The Granite Lady) is a building that served as the location of the San Francisco branch of the United States Mint from 1874 until 1937. The building is one of ...
, the James R. Browning United States Courthouse, and the
San Francisco Federal Building The San Francisco Federal Building, formally the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, is an 18-story, building at the corner of Mission and 7th streets in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The federal building w ...
. Mid-Market is part of
California's 11th congressional district California's 11th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California represented by former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Before redistricting, the 11th district consisted of most of Contra Costa County, Ca ...
, as of 2021. The "Market Street Theatre and Loft District" was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on April 10, 1986, for the architecture, and its events and commerce history; and is listed as a
California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in the U.S. state of California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meetin ...
since 1986. It has twenty
contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...
and covers .


Geography

The Mid-Market redevelopment area is centered on Market Street starting at Fifth Street, ending at
Van Ness Avenue Van Ness Avenue is a north–south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Originally named Marlette Street, the street was renamed in honor of the city's sixth mayor, James Van Ness. The main part of Van Ness Avenue runs from Market Str ...
, and including a number of buildings down to
Mission Street Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in Daly City and San Francisco, California that runs from Daly City's southern border to San Francisco's northeast waterfront. The street and San Francisco's Mission District through which ...
. It effectively creates a sub-neighborhood of the Tenderloin,
SoMa Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...
, and
Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...
neighborhoods for the purpose of redeveloping the area. The historic district is roughly bounded by 982–1112 Market Street (NW side), 973–1105 Market Street (SW side). One Jones Street and 1–35 Taylor Street.


History


Early history

Decimated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, the entire neighborhood was quickly rebuilt and for decades served as vibrant portion of the Market Street corridor. Noted columnist
Herb Caen Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily columnist, column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuo ...
referred to the neighborhood as 'le grand
pissoir A pissoir (also known in French as a ) is a French invention, common in Europe, that provides a urinal in public space with a lightweight structure. The availability of pissoirs aims to reduce urination onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets. ...
' because of the amount of public urination, defecation, and vagrancy due to a consolidation and expansion of homeless social services in the area, starting in the mid-1980s.


Economic growth

Past initiatives such as sponsored street murals have had little effect in revitalizing the neighborhood and in 2011 the city government turned to tax incentives to encourage businesses to move to the area. It has a history of issues with public drug usage and homelessness, which has impacted businesses. The neighborhood was affected by the controversial "Twitter Tax Break" spearheaded in 2011 by Mayor
Ed Lee Edwin Mah Lee (May 5, 1952 – December 12, 2017) was an American politician and attorney who served as the 43rd Mayor of San Francisco from 2011 until his death in 2017. Born in Seattle to Chinese American parents, Lee was a member of the D ...
, which brought new companies and new construction to the neighborhood. The largest and most noteworthy of businesses in modern history has been
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, which moved into the old San Francisco Mart building (now known as
Market Square A market square (also known as a market place) is an urban square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world. A market square is an open area where market stalls are tradit ...
) at Ninth and Market streets in 2012. The move by Twitter was initially met with a great deal of controversy, while other businesses such as Zendesk quietly took advantage of the tax break and moved to the area. A number of arts groups, such as the Black Rock Arts Foundation, are working to move to Mid-Market. In October 2013,
Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
moved its headquarters to the mid-Market area, followed by
Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...
and
Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (Dolby Labs or simply Dolby) is a British-American technology corporation specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and high-dynamic-range television (HDR) imaging. Dolby li ...
.
Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
moved its corporate headquarters to Mid-Market in October 2019, in an area leased to Uber and Square. Equally transformative, and often attributed to the new density of tech headquarters in Mid-Market, has been the concurrent increase of residential buildings, most notably high-rise apartments and condominium towers.


Economic decline

Like the rest of downtown San Francisco, Mid-Market was hit badly by the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
in 2020 and the subsequent shift to
remote work Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...
. As of May 2024, the vacancy rate in the Mid-Market area had skyrocketed to 46%, according to CBRE research, which was significantly higher than the citywide vacancy rate of 36.7%. Sellers of real estate in the Mid-Market area were offering discounts as much as 70% from peak prices. A 16-story tower purchased for $62 million in 2016 went for only $6.5 million at a foreclosure auction in 2024.


List of notable buildings

* de Laveage Building (1906), 1023 Market Street * Delger Building (1907), 1001–1005 Market Street * Eastern Outfitting Co. Building (1909), 1017 Market Street; designed by
George Applegarth George Adrian Applegarth (1875 – 1972) was an American architect. Applegarth’s career included designing the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Clift Hotel (now The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel), and projects for the town of Clyde, ...
* Ede Building (1910), 1061 Market Street * Egyptian Theatre (1924), 1067–1071 Market Street * Federal Hotel (1912), 1083–1087 Market Street * Forrest Building (1908), 1053–1055 Market Street; designed by
George Applegarth George Adrian Applegarth (1875 – 1972) was an American architect. Applegarth’s career included designing the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Clift Hotel (now The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel), and projects for the town of Clyde, ...
* Globe Investment Company Building (1909), 1063 Market Street * Golden Gate Building (1906), 1028–1056 Market Street *
Golden Gate Theatre The Golden Gate Theatre is a performance venue located at 1 Taylor Street at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco, California, United States. It opened in 1922 as a vaudeville house and later was a major movie theater. In the 1960s ...
(1922), 1 Taylor Street; designed by G. Albert Lansburgh * Grant Building (1902), 1095–1097 Market Street * Hale Brothers Department Store (1900), 979–989 Market Street; NRHP-listed * Hibernia Bank Building (1889), 1 Jones Street; SFDL-listed, and designed by
Albert Pissis Albert Pissis (1852–1914) was a prolific Mexican-born American architect, of French and Mexican descent. He was active in San Francisco and had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. He is credited with introducing the Beaux- ...
* Hotel Shaw (1926), 1100–1112 Market Street * Odd Fellows Hall (1909), 6-26 Seventh Street * Prager's Department Store (1910), 1072–1098 Market Street * San Christian Building (1913), 1000-1016 Market Street * Sterling Building (1907), 1049 Market Street * Walker Building (1911), 1007–1009 Market Street *
Warfield Theatre The Warfield Theatre, colloquially called The Warfield, is a 2,300-seat music venue located in the Theatre District in downtown San Francisco, California, United States. It was built as a vaudeville theater and opened as the '' Loews Warfield'' ...
(1922), 982 Market Street * Wilson Building (1901), 1369 Post Street; designed by
Willis Polk Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw ...


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco __NOTOC__ This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco, California, United States. Latitude and longitude coordinates are provided for many National Register ...
*
California Historical Landmarks in San Francisco List table of the properties and districts — listed on the California Historical Landmarks — within City and County of San Francisco, California. *Note: ''Click the "Map of all coordinates" link to the right to view a Google map of all prope ...


References


External links

{{Authority control Neighborhoods in San Francisco Market Street (San Francisco) Chicago school architecture in California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco