RON HENGGELER

A view from the St Francis

Mechanics Monument on Market street

Shards from the Belli Building work site

San Francisco Landmark #9
Belli Building
722 Montgomery Street Between Washington and Jackson
Built 1851

The Belli Building has been vacant since it was damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake on 17 October 1989.

For more about the relics and the site, see:

http://www.ronhenggeler.com/History/yerba_buena/yerba_buena_index.htm

The Embarcadero

A view from the St Francis

The Embarcadero

The Embarcadero

Dewey Monument in Union Square

Coit Tower seen from Pier 39

Pier 39

In 1986, Pampanito was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared to be a National Historic Landmark.

She is now owned and operated by the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association and is moored at Pier 45 in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf area, where she is open for visiting.

USS Pampanito was turned into a memorial and museum at San Francisco on 21 November 1975, transferred to the Maritime Park Association (formerly the National Maritime Museum Association) on 20 May 1976, and opened to the public on 15 March 1982.

USS Pampanito (SS-383/AGSS-383), a Balao-class submarine, was a United States Navy ship, the only one named for the pompano fish. She completed six war patrols from 1944 to 1945 and served as a Naval Reserve Training ship from 1960 to 1971. She is now a National Historic Landmark, preserved as a memorial and museum ship in the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association located at Fisherman's Wharf.

Relics from the Belli Building site

Originally built in 1849 or 1850 and destroyed by fire in 1851, the Belli Building was immediately rebuilt, using the old walls and foundations. The building is built upon the original raft of planks, six to eight inches thick and to a depth of eight feet laid as a foundation in the mud of what was then Yerba Buena Cove. It is said that the tides still rise and fall in the elevator shaft.
The building was first known as Langerman's Tobacco and Segar Warehouse then the Melodeon Theatre where Lotta Crabtree performed. The stage door was in the alley to the rear. Tunnels, which are now blocked off, led to buildings across the alley.

 

Relics from the Belli Building site

After the theater, tenants in the 1860's included commission merchants and an auctioneer. In the early 1870's the building housed a Turkish bath. In the 1880's a medical establishment, using hydrotherapy, continued to operate the baths. From the 1920's onward it was used as a paper warehouse and also as a garment factory.

In 1959, the building was acquired by Melvin Belli and converted to law offices for his firm. The chief alterations were decorative: plaster covering brick was removed; a cast iron frame running around the top and sides of some windows was exposed, and a wrought iron gate from New Orleans was added.

Relics from the Belli Building site

After the theater, tenants in the 1860's included commission merchants and an auctioneer. In the early 1870's the building housed a Turkish bath. In the 1880's a medical establishment, using hydrotherapy, continued to operate the baths. From the 1920's onward it was used as a paper warehouse and also as a garment factory.

In 1959, the building was acquired by Melvin Belli and converted to law offices for his firm. The chief alterations were decorative: plaster covering brick was removed; a cast iron frame running around the top and sides of some windows was exposed, and a wrought iron gate from New Orleans was added.