‘Wall Street of the West’

The “Wall Street of the West” was what they used to call Montgomery Street, but the COVID Pandemic and the amount of empty office space has, at least temporarily, made that expression a thing of the past. I took a walk along Montgomery Street over the Holidays to take some pictures, and I’m posting them on New Year’s Eve. To quote Abraham Lincoln, (well, he might have liked my blog) “it is altogether fitting and proper” that I post these on this day, because Montgomery street used to be ground zero for New Year’s Eve celebrating in the white collar world of Downtown San Francisco. (Thumbnail images)

  

We’ll start out looking north along Montgomery Street from across Market Street at New Montgomery Street in 1939. The building on the far left has been demolished and the building behind it has been reduced to two stories. The behind behind those is the Hunter-Dulin Building where it’s generally believed Sam Spade’s office was in the ‘Maltese Falcon’. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Looking north along Montgomery Street across Post Street in 1939. Post Street doesn’t cut across to Market Street here anymore. The building in the background is the Russ Building, the tallest building in San Francisco in 1939. You can see a portion of it in my picture. (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Looking back toward Market Street and the Palace Hotel in 1910: (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

 

Looking northwest toward Sutter Street at Montgomery in 1939: (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

The Wells Fargo Building at Montgomery and Sutter Street in 1973: I don’t think that it’s stretching the point to say that this isn’t a bad comparison. Ta da boom! (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Looking down Pine Street toward Market Street in 1924: Two of the buildings on the near right and the Matson Shipping and PG&E Buildings on Market Street in the far center are still around. (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Approaching California and looking back toward Market Street in 1939: (UC Berkeley Library Archives)

  

Montgomery at California Street, the epicenter, and that’s probably not a good descriptive word to use lightly in San Francisco, of Wall Street of the West in 1953: (San Francisco Library Digital Archives)

  

Back down near Market Street for a little New Year’s Eve celebrating in the late 1950s or early 1960s: It was customary up until the 1990s for office workers to throw ticker tape and calendars out of their windows in Downtown San Francisco, and everywhere else, on New Years Eve. (SF Chronicle)

  

Montgomery and Bush Streets in the 1950s: (SF Chronicle)

  

Montgomery at Sacramento Street in 1981: New Year’s Day was cleanup day in Downtown San Francisco, and Happy New Year! (SF Chronicle)