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Overview

Banker John Parrott (1811-1884) lived in this Second Empire residence, c. 1855-1883. He owned Parrott's Block, one of San Francisco's earliest and most substantial office buildings.

Building History

John Parrott (1810-1884), arrived in San Francisco a wealthy man, having amassed a fortune while living in Mexico. His name appeared in San Francisco City Directory: for the Year Commencing October 1856, (p. 87), but may have arrived in 1855. (No city directory is available for that year.) Significant bank failures occurred in San Francisco during 1855, and this vacuum of stable lending institutions may have encouraged him to open his own banking extablishment just after this.

By 1856, John Parrott, proprietor of the John Parrott and Company, banking house, lived in the South of Market neigborhood, on "Folsom Street, between 2nd and 3rd Streets." (See San Francisco City Directory: for the Year Commencing October 1856, p. 87.) He kept this piece of property for the remainder of his life. Hawthorne Street was likely inserted between 2nd and 3rd after 1856. His residence was listed at 624 Folsom Street in 1861 and 620 Folsom in 1871. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1861, p. 269 and The San Francisco directory for the year commencing April, 1871, p. 476.)

Parrott maintained his banking operations in his granite Parrott Building 414-420 Montgomery Street, on the northwest corner of Montgomery and Sacramento Streets.

Beginning in 1859, Parrott also maintained a 377-acre country estate in San Mateo, CA, known as "Baywood," on which he raised thoroughbreds and livestock. (See San Francisco, California, City Directory, 1883, p. 835.)

Demolition

The Parrott House was lost in the Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906.

PCAD id: 21450