Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Turn right at Kearny Street and walk
the short block to Maiden Lane. Turn
left onto it.
8
Maiden Lane
If you were here 125 years ago, you'd
find a thoroughfare for prostitution
(hence, the winking name—its original
name was Morton Street) along Maiden
Lane. It has risen substantially in the
world. Today, it's a desirable address for
top-of-the-line labels and boutiques.
Once strictly for ladies of the evening,
it's now the domain of trophy wives.
Halfway down this block on the
right, stop in front of the tan, brick,
windowless edifice with fanned brick-
work around its doorway. This building,
built in 1948, was Frank Lloyd Wright's
only San Francisco effort. Today it
houses a fine-arts dealer specializing in
Asian antiquities (it welcomes visitors),
and has a ramped interior that even
those who aren't students of architecture
can recognize as clearly a forerunner to
Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New
York City.
Walk to the end of Maiden Lane to
Stockton Street. A park is directly in
front of you. Turn left to the intersec-
tion of Geary Street.
9
Union Square
Unlike New York City's Union Square,
an important plaza which was named
for the fact that it sits at the confluence,
or union, of several major avenues, this
one was named just before the Civil
War to demonstrate support for the
Union of American States—California
was never a slave state. The granite
Corinthian column in the middle, the
Dewey Monument, was dedicated in
1903 by Teddy Roosevelt to commem-
orate the war dead of the Spanish-
American war, and it somehow made it
through the 1906 disasters untoppled.
But both Union Squares were and are
including the original 1909 commis-
sion for $6,000. That was money well
spent: The artwork is now worth
around $2.5 million. Rooms upstairs,
for their part, go for around $400 a
night.
Exit the hotel at Market Street and
turn left.
7
Lotta's Fountain
A little further on, at 703 Market St.,
the stone tower was built in 1898 as the
fantastically ornate Call Building, and,
for a few years, it was the tallest build-
ing west of the Mississippi and a sym-
bol of the city. But during the '06 fire,
it burned from the top down. Watching
it go was, for many locals, a confirma-
tion that their wonderful and powerful
city was doomed. Because of a steel
frame, the shell of the Call survived
enough to be filled in again, albeit
without its domed top and most of its
ornamentation. Today's it's the rather
boring Spreckels Building, named for a
magnate of the old days.
Cross Market to check out the little
column at the confluence of Market,
Geary, and Kearny streets. It's Lotta's
Fountain. The sign here would lead you
to believe that the reason to cherish this
column is because a once-famous opera
singer performed here one day in 1910,
but in fact, this is the oldest monument
in the city, erected in 1875 as a gift by
a singer and dancer, Lotta Crabtree,
who rose to fame performing for gold
miners. And for many years, this inter-
section was so much considered the
center of town that its three major
newspapers were headquartered here;
survivors of the '06 quake also met here
annually until there were none left
alive. Today, sadly, this once-central
icon, although recently rehabilitated,
has sunk into obscurity with locals. It
is, though, on the National Register of
Historic Places.
