Flood Building

James C. Flood Building
James C. Flood Building
	Flood Building in 2017
	James C. Flood Bldg. Location within San Francisco County James C. Flood Bldg. James C. Flood Bldg. (California) James C. Flood Bldg. James C. Flood Bldg. (the United States)
Alternative names	James L. Flood Building; 870 Market Street
General information
Type	Commercial offices; Retail space
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Location	870 Market Street ; San Francisco, California
Coordinates	37°47′06″N122°24′27″W / 37.7849°N 122.4074°W
Completed	1904
Cost	US$1.5 million
Owner	The James C. Flood Family Mary E Stebbins Trust
Management	Wilson Meany Sullivan
Technical details
Structural system	Steel frame
Floor count	12
Floor area	293,000 sq ft (27,200 m2)
Lifts/elevators	5
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Albert Pissis
Developer	James L. Flood
San Francisco Designated Landmark
Designated	1982
Reference no.	154
References

Last updated December 15, 2024

The Flood Building is a 12-story highrise in the downtown shopping district of San Francisco, California. It is located at 870 Market Street on the corner of Powell Street, next to the Powell Street cable car turntable, Hallidie Plaza, and the Powell Street BART Station entrance. Designed by Albert Pissis and completed in 1904 for James L. Flood, son of millionaire James Clair Flood, it is one of the few major buildings in San Francisco that survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. As of 2024^[update], it is still owned by the Flood family.^[3]

Building

John King, the architecture critic of the San Francisco Chronicle , has described the Flood Building as "twelve stories of orderly pomp with a rounded prow that commands the corner of Powell and Market Streets ... Every detail is rooted and right, from the tall storefronts that beckon cable car daytrippers to the baroque cliff of the sandstone façade with its deep-chiseled windows."^[4]^[5] Baroque revival in style, it is a steel-frame building clad in grey Colusa sandstone. A lobby with red marble columns traverses the building from Market to Ellis Street. The wedge-shaped office floors surround a lightwell; the corridors have white marble flooring and veined white marble walls, and have retained their wooden doors with openable transom windows.^[3]

It became a San Francisco landmark in 1982.^[1]^[6]

History

The site formerly housed Baldwin's Hotel and Theatre, which was destroyed by fire in 1898.^[3]^[6] It was later purchased by James L. Flood, who constructed the building as a tribute to his father, James Clair Flood, the Comstock Lode millionaire).^[6] Designed by Albert Pissis, it opened in 1904 as San Francisco's largest building.^[3] In 1906, it was one of the few major buildings to survive the San Francisco earthquake and the fire that followed;^[3] full restoration of the interior took two years.^[6]

By World War II, the building had become medical and dental offices.^[6] In 1950, the Flood family accepted a proposal from the F. W. Woolworth Company to replace it with a modern three-story store, which would revert to the family on the expiration of a 50-year lease. Instead, after the tenants had been evicted in preparation for demolition, the building was requisitioned by the Navy for logistics purposes during the Korean War, reverting to the Flood family after the war ended in 1953. The Navy returned the retail floors to the family, and in 1952 Woolworth's opened a store in the basement and on the first and second floors, on a 40-year lease.^[3]^[6]^[7]

The building was renovated in the 1990s^[3]^[8] at a cost of $15 million, and a bust of James L. Flood by his daughter Mary Ellen Flood Stebbins was installed in the lobby.^[7]

Tenants

The Southern Pacific Railroad company had its headquarters in the Flood Building from 1907 until 1917 when it moved to its own building, now at One Market Plaza.^[9]

The Pinkerton Detective Agency had an office on the third floor, where it employed the novelist Dashiell Hammett as an operative; Hammett located his fictional Continental Detective Agency in the building.^[10]

Other office tenants have included the Teamsters and the Internal Revenue Service.^[6] On the afternoon of January 27, 1975, the second anniversary of the ceasefire of the Vietnam War, demonstrators staged a takeover of the Consulate of South Vietnam, located above Woolworths.^[11]^[12] Until 2002, the building housed the consulate of Mexico; in 2003, eight consulates remained,^[6] in 2020, two, those of Nicaragua and Chile.^[7] In 2024, the Market Street Railway and Circus Bella have their offices there.^[3]

From 1952 to 1993 the Woolworth's store at the base of the Flood Building was the largest in the chain; its size was then reduced, occupying only the basement level, and it closed in 1997.^[8] More recently, flagship stores for Gap, Urban Outfitters, and Anthropologie have been located in the building's retail space. The Gap store closed in 2020;^[3]^[13]As of July 2024^[update], Following COVID-19, Urban Outfitters is the only first-floor retail tenant, and there are a number of office vacancies.^[3]

Related Research Articles

Union Square is a 2.6-acre (1.1-hectare) public plaza bordered by Geary, Powell, Post, and Stockton Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. "Union Square" also refers to the central shopping, hotel, and theater district surrounding the plaza for several blocks. The area got its name because it was once used for Thomas Starr King rallies and support for the Union Army during the American Civil War, earning its designation as a California Historical Landmark.

The Financial District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States, that serves as its main central business district and had 372,829 jobs according to U.S. census tracts as of 2012-2016. It is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law firms, insurance companies, real estate firms, savings and loan banks, and other financial institutions. Multiple Fortune 500 companies headquartered in San Francisco have their offices in the Financial District, including Wells Fargo, Salesforce, and Gap.

Emporium Centre San Francisco is a shopping mall located in San Francisco, California, United States. Best known by its former name, San Francisco Centre, it is anchored by Bloomingdale's. It connects directly to the Powell Street station via an underground entrance on the concourse floor.

The Emporium, from 1880 to 1995 Emporium-Capwell, was a mid-line department store chain headquartered in San Francisco, California, which operated for 100 years—from 1896 to 1996. The flagship location on San Francisco's Market Street was a destination shopping location for decades, and several branch stores operated in the various suburbs of the Bay Area. The Emporium and its sister department store chains were acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1995, and many converted to Macy's locations.

301 Mission Street is a high-rise residential building in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. A mixed-use, primarily residential high rise, it is the tallest residential building and the 6th-tallest overall in San Francisco. In May 2016, residents were informed the main tower was both sinking and tilting, resulting in several lawsuits concerning repair costs and whether the existence of the tilt had been withheld from buyers.

One Sansome Street, also known as Citigroup Center, is an office skyscraper located at the intersection of Sutter and Sansome Streets in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, United States, near Market Street. The 168 m (551 ft), 41 floor, 587,473 sq ft (54,578.0 m²) office tower was completed in 1984.

One Market Plaza is a complex of three office buildings at 1 Market Street along the San Francisco Embarcadero. The historic 11-story Southern Pacific Building, also known as "The Landmark", was completed in 1916, and incorporated into the development in 1976 that includes the 43-storey 172 metres Spear Tower, and the 27-storey, 111 metres Steuart Tower. At over 1.5 billion pounds, the complex is considered the heaviest development in San Francisco.

The Russ Building is a Neo-Gothic office tower located in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. It was designed by architect George W. Kelham, who was responsible for many of San Francisco's other prominent high-rise buildings in the 1920s. The 133-metre (436 ft) building was completed in 1927 and had 32 floors as well as the city's first indoor parking garage. It was the tallest building in San Francisco from 1927 to 1964 and one of the most prominent, along with its 133-metre (436 ft) "twin", the PacBell Building to the south.

Two Embarcadero Center is an office skyscraper located off The Embarcadero in the financial district of San Francisco, California. The 126 m (413 ft), 30-story tower, completed in 1974 is part of the Embarcadero Center, a complex of seven towers, of which two are hotels. Twin-tower Three Embarcadero Center is the same height, but has one additional floor.

The Hobart Building is an office high rise located at 582–592 Market Street, near Montgomery and 2nd Streets, in the financial district of San Francisco, California. It was completed in 1914. It was at the time the second tallest building in the city, at 21 floors and 87 m (285 ft). It was designed by Willis Polk.

Central Tower is a 91 m (299 ft) 21-story office building at Market and Third Streets in San Francisco, California. The building has undergone numerous renovations since its completion in 1898 as the Call Building. It was later known as the Spreckels Building.

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-Arts architectural style to San Francisco, California, designing a number of important buildings in the city in the years before and after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

100 St Georges Terrace is a 24-storey skyscraper located at 100 St Georges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia.

The Southern Pacific Building is one of three office buildings comprising One Market Plaza along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California. The historic 11-story, 65-metre (213 ft) building, also known as "The Landmark", was started in 1916 and completed in 1917.

Colony Square is a mixed-use development and sub-district in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, located on Peachtree Street in between 14th and 15th Streets. The oldest high-rise development in Midtown, the sub-district was built between 1969 and 1975, with Henri Jova of Jova/Daniels/Busby serving as principal architect. It was the first mixed-use development in the Southeast.

Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story supertall skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based software company. The building is 1,070 feet (326 m) tall, with a top roof height of 970 feet (296 m). Designed by César Pelli and developed by Hines Interests Limited Partnership and Boston Properties, it was the last building designed by Pelli to be completed in his lifetime. As of 2024, Salesforce Tower is the tallest building in San Francisco and the second-tallest building both in California and west of the Mississippi River after the 1,100-foot (335 m) Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles.

222 Second Street is a 370-foot (110 m) office skyscraper in the South of Market District of San Francisco, California. It is under lease by social networking company LinkedIn.

456 Montgomery Plaza is a 379 ft (116 m), 26-story class-A office skyscraper on Montgomery Street in the Financial District of San Francisco, California.

33 Tehama was a luxury residential apartment complex in South of Market, San Francisco, California. The building is 380 feet (120 m) tall, 35 stories, and contains 403 residential units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The White House (department store)</span> San Francisco department store, 1854–1965

The White House was the first department store in San Francisco; it opened in 1854 and closed in 1965. It was originally named Davidson & Lane, then J.W. Davidson & Company, and finally, in 1870, when it moved to a large new building, took the name "The White House".

References

1 2 "City of San Francisco Designated Landmarks". City of San Francisco. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014.
↑ "Emporis building ID 118775". Emporis . Archived from the original on March 7, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 John King (July 26, 2024). "S.F.'s Flood Building is a 120-year-old icon. Now it's facing its toughest challenge in decades". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
↑ John King (February 15, 2009). "Flood Building: Every detail is rooted, right". San Francisco Chronicle.
↑ John King (2011). Cityscapes: San Francisco and its Buildings. Heyday. ISBN 978-1597141543.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Patricia Yollin (July 4, 2003). "Flood of Memories". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
1 2 3 Steve Rubenstein (February 22, 2020). "San Francisco's James Flood, descendant of Silver King, dies at 80". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
1 2 Kenneth Howe (July 18, 1997). "Dime Store Era Comes To an End / Woolworth closing 400 outlets". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
↑ Don L. Hofsommer (1986). The Southern Pacific, 1981–1985. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-60344-127-8.
↑ Audrey Medina (January 16, 2011). "5 places for finding the stuff of film noir". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
↑ The Conspiracy, magazine of the National Lawyers Guild, Volume 5, Number 4, page 6, March 1975, San Francisco, CA, https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/p15932coll8/id/15581/
↑ (1975, January 28). San Francisco Chronicle, p. 1. Available from NewsBank: San Francisco Chronicle Historical Archive: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=EANX-NB&docref=image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40EANX-NB-1516A427EC6F7C28%402442441-151473F7E8B8BA5C%400-151473F7E8B8BA5C%40.
↑ Shwanika Narayan (August 18, 2020). "Most San Francisco Gap stores close permanently, including Market Street flagship". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

External links

Media related to Flood Building at Wikimedia Commons
Official website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[SFLandmark-1] 1 2 "City of San Francisco Designated Landmarks". City of San Francisco. Archived from the original on March 25, 2014.

[2] "Emporis building ID 118775". Emporis . Archived from the original on March 7, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

[challenge-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 John King (July 26, 2024). "S.F.'s Flood Building is a 120-year-old icon. Now it's facing its toughest challenge in decades". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

[4] John King (February 15, 2009). "Flood Building: Every detail is rooted, right". San Francisco Chronicle.

[5] John King (2011). Cityscapes: San Francisco and its Buildings. Heyday. ISBN 978-1597141543.

[Mem-6] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Patricia Yollin (July 4, 2003). "Flood of Memories". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

[obit-7] 1 2 3 Steve Rubenstein (February 22, 2020). "San Francisco's James Flood, descendant of Silver King, dies at 80". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

[Woolies-8] 1 2 Kenneth Howe (July 18, 1997). "Dime Store Era Comes To an End / Woolworth closing 400 outlets". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

[9] Don L. Hofsommer (1986). The Southern Pacific, 1981–1985. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-60344-127-8.

[10] Audrey Medina (January 16, 2011). "5 places for finding the stuff of film noir". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

[11] The Conspiracy, magazine of the National Lawyers Guild, Volume 5, Number 4, page 6, March 1975, San Francisco, CA, https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/p15932coll8/id/15581/

[12] (1975, January 28). San Francisco Chronicle, p. 1. Available from NewsBank: San Francisco Chronicle Historical Archive: https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=EANX-NB&docref=image/v2%3A142051F45F422A02%40EANX-NB-1516A427EC6F7C28%402442441-151473F7E8B8BA5C%400-151473F7E8B8BA5C%40.

[13] Shwanika Narayan (August 18, 2020). "Most San Francisco Gap stores close permanently, including Market Street flagship". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 27, 2024.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]