OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Overview

The Union Trust Company Headquarters #1 stood on the northeast corner of Market and Montgomery Street beginning in 1893. (See Langley San Francisco Directory for the Year 1893, p. 1394.) The building occupied a prominent position across the street from the extraordinary Gothic Revival Masonic Building Lodge #2, erected in 1861, and the 1891 Crocker Building at 600 Market Street.

Building History

The Bavaria-born banker Isaias W. Hellman (1842-1920), who spent much of his life funding infrastructure projects and other large-scale works in and around Los Angeles, moved to San Francisco, CA, to manage the Nevada Bank, itself founded by Comstock Lode silver barons. In 1890, the Nevada Bank was in perilous economic condition, and Hellman saw a financial opportunity good enough to uproot himself from Southern CA. This entity operated under his control as the Nevada Bank between 1890 and 1898 and as the Nevada National Bank between 1898 and 1905. While in San Francisco, Hellman also founded the Union Trust Company in 1893, the state's first trust company. (See Jewish Virtual Library.org, "Isaias W. Hellman (1842-1920)," accessed 08/07/2025.) A trust company acts as an individual or entity's fiduciary agent, managing assets for long-term gain, while a bank takes in deposits and lends for more everyday financial needs.

Building Notes

The Union Trust Building #1 had seven stories, and an elevation consisting of four vertical sections. The highrise's corner facing Montgomery and Market Streets was rounded. Its ornamentation was notably Neoclassical, a departure from the Queen Anne and Romanesque styling of the 1880s. While it utilzed a more purely Neoclassical ornamental vocabulary, its profusion of ornamentation followed generally along with the era's preference for variety and complexity.

Demolition

The Union Trust Company Headquarters #1 was destroyed in the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-20/1906. In 2025, a small building housing Fidelity Investments occupied part of the site.

PCAD id: 25815