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Overview

The A.L. Bancroft and Company bookmaking business stood at 723 Market Street in 1870. It was operated by brothers Albert L. Bancroft and Hubert Howe Bancroft, the latter one of California's greatest historians and book collectors of the nineteenth century.

Building History

Hubert Howe Bancroft (1832-1918), born in Granville, OH, near Columbus, came to CA to sell books in 03/1852. He developed a thriving business, H.H. Bancroft and Company, selling books and stationery. In 1868, he left the business to pursue his deep interests in history, ethnology and book collecting. His brother Albert Little Bancroft (1840-1914) renamed the business A.L. Bancroft and Company and erected this large manufacturing plant in 1869-1870.

A detailed description of the A.L. Bancroft and Company Building in San Francisco appeared in The San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871: “This handsome structure, on the south side of Market Street between Third and Fourth, was commenced in 1869, and completed and opened for business in July, 1870. The building is massive and, at the same time, graceful in appearance, its lofty and peculiarly ornamented front being one of the chief attractions of the street. In dimensions it has a front of 75 feet on Market Street, running through to Stevenson Street where, with a slight L, it has a frontage of 80 feet. Its altitude, from foundation to front cornice, is 100 feet, and it is divided into five stories and basement. The necessity of great strength has been observed in the construction, the walls being of brick and the first story of the front of iron. The window casings are of iron, and iron pillars cast in pleasing patterns five strength and beauty to the front. The top is crowned with a bold, projecting cornice, from which protrude eight figures, two representing Punch, two Squibob, and the others images of fancy, altogether unique and attractive. The strong brick walls inclose a hall-way and divide the building through the center, the eastern portion being occupied as a book and publishing house of A.L. Bancroft & Co., and the western portion as a furniture store and for other purposes. Through the center of the main rooms, which extend from street to street, a distance of one hundred and seventy feet, are rows of iron pillars, thirteen in each, and they are repeated through three stories, making seventy-eight in all, the three upper portions have wooden pillars. The establishment of A.L. Bancroft & Co. comprises all of the different departments of bookmaking, and it has the reputation of being one of the most complete of its character in the United States. The cost of the building was $140,000.” (See The San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871, [San Francisco: Henry G. Langley, 1871], p. 23.)

Building Notes

Albert L. Bancroft resided on the west side of Franklin Street, between Pine and California Streets. (See The San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871, [San Francisco: Henry G. Langley, 1871], p. 83.)

H.H. Bancroft erected a splendid new house nearby to that of his brother in 1869-1870 on the southwest corner of California and Franklin Streets. (See The San Francisco Directory for the Year Commencing April, 1871, [San Francisco: Henry G. Langley, 1871], p. 83.)

Demolition

The A.L. Bancroft and Company Building burned in a fire in 1886.

PCAD id: 23887