Building History

This Gold Rush era structure was first built in either 1849 or 1850, but burned in a fire of 1851, one of several series conflagrations that plagued San Francisco between 1849 and 1855. In the 19th century, many early fortunes were made selling tobacco and sweets of all kinds to miners, as well as liquor and hardware. The building was rebuilt during 1851 utilizing the same foundations and brick walls. It first functioned as Langerman's Tobacco and Sugar Warehouse by about 1856. During the period 1857 through 06/1858, the Melodeon Theatre briefly functioned her. The City of San Francisco landsmarks application said of the building's early history: "“The theatre closed June 1858: during this short period, the famed Lotta Crabtree performed here. The stage door was in the alley to the rear. Tunnels led from this building to others across the alley. They are now blocked off. The building is built upon the original raft of planks, 6 to 8 inches thick (and to a depth of 8 feet), laid as a foundation in the mud of what was then an arm of the bay; and it is said that the tides still rise and fall in the elevator shaft. This filled ground extends to the intersection of Montgomery and Jackson Streets, and slightly to the west."

Commission merchants and an auctioneer occupied the space during the 1860s, while a Turkish bath business moved in the following decade. A therapeutic business employing hydrotherapy took over for the Turkish bath during the 1880s. It functioned as a clothing manufacturing facility in the 1920s as well as a warehouse for storing paper.

In 1959, the well-known defense and product liability attorney Melvin Belli (1907-1996) purchased the building, and would subsequently purchase an adjoining property. During Belli’s ownership, he stripped the building to its structural essence: “The chief alterations made have been decorative: the plaster covering the old red brick has been removed; a cast iron frame running around the top and sides of some windows has been exposed. A wrought iron gate from New Orleans was added. The heavy cast iron pillars on the facade are also said to have come from New Orleans as part of the original building. The interior columns are thought to be ship’s masts. Some of the heavy ceiling beams are originals. The floors are double, and between upper and lower planks on each, they are fireproofed with sand or with terra cotta. The brick of the walls is of two types: a hard-fired one and thought to have been brought round the Horn from New York; the other, soft-fired, and made in Sacramento. Window boxes and their Philadelphia Fireworks have been added in the renovation of 1959-1960. There is an open courtyard between this building and the adjacent one, also owned by Mr. Belli. Shutters of the building are now wooden, replacing the original iron ones.”