RON HENGGELER

The Hibernia Bank at McAllister and Market

The Hibernia Bank was first organized in April 1859, in a little office at the corner of Jackson and Montgomery. Among the first depositors were Irish miners who had struck pay dirt in the California goldfields to the north. The Hibernia Bank accepted the miners' unminted gold and earned a reputation among them for courteous and efficient transactions, and eventually became known as "the people’s bank." Business increased apace and before long the bank moved to more spacious quarters at Montgomery and Post, but the institution’s extraordinary growth over the next two decades eventually demanded another change.

It was a fateful day when the Hibernia’s directors hired a relatively unknown architect named Albert Pissis to design a new building at the corner of McAllister and Jones. Completed in 1892, the Hibernia Bank Building captured the hearts of San Franciscans and ensured the fame of Albert Pissis, whose work would change the face of San Francisco in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Architect and Engineer reflected in 1909 that

. . . the (Hibernia Bank) became famous at once and marked an epoch in San Francisco architecture and placed its designer in tforefront of his profession, where he has remained ever since.
Indeed, so famous was the building that San Franciscans called it "The Paragon." The Hibernia Bank was one of the few buildings in the central city to survive the 1906 cataclysm, although it was damaged by the fire. As one of the City’s most popular and vital institutions, it was also one of the very first buildings to be restored.

The new Federal Building at 7th and Mission as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

Mural on Market Street as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

The distant green glassed Intercontinental Hotel at 5th and Howard as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

The new Federal Building at 7th and Mission as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

The view looking east in San Francisco as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

The new Federal Building at 7th and Mission as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

The new Federal Building at 7th and Mission as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel

The view looking southwest in San Francisco as seen from the rooftop of the Renoir Hotel