All the deets from Peter Lawrence Kane
But at least this building isn’t falling apart on the sidewalk anymore. Leave us travel all the way back to aught-nine:
See where some bricks used to be, way up high?
Here’s where some of them landed on the sidewalk of the west side of Jones Street:
Do you ever want worried-looking police captains and firefighting battalion chiefs hanging out in front of your building in front of yellow tape? No, you do not:
It was bird poo what hurt drainage what then caused damage to the building causing pieces to fall – that was the “pigeon theory” back in 2009.
Ah, memories:
“…Hibernia Bank at 1 Jones Street, completed in 1892, was exceptionally advanced, not only for San Francisco but for the country at large. It appeared a year before the Chicago Columbian Exposition swept the nation with renewed appreciation for classical grandeur and order. With its crisp and dignified detailing, its scholarly composition and white Sierra granite walls, capped with a then-gilded dome, the bank appeared like a manifesto near the incoherent City Hall and the adjacent jumble of brick and wood commercial structures. 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 the forefront of his profession, where he has remained ever since. The building from the first to last shows no sign whatever of immaturity.”
