Overview

The Levi Strauss and Company clothing empire began as a dry goods store at 90 Sacramento Street by 1853. Strauss's first store remained at this address before moving to 62 Sacramento Street in 1856. This first store was about as old as Sacramento Street itself, construction on which began in 03/1852. (See LeCount and Strong's San Francisco City Directory for the Year 1854, p. 179.)

Building History

In 1854, Bavarian-born merchant Levi Strauss (né Löb Strauss, 1829–1902) operated his dry goods and clothing store at 90 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, CA. (See LeCount and Strong's San Francisco City Directory for the Year 1854, p. 129.) At this time, Levi operated a San Francisco branch of his family's New York-based wholesale dry goods company. He sold a variety of items at his early store, from to handkerchiefs to clothing to tents. He focused on items made of cloth, and he became a significant local distributor of various types of textiles. Strauss became an important Jewish-American pioneer in San Francisco, contributing to the construction of the city's first synagogue, Temple Emanu-El.

Latvian-born tailor Jacob William Davis (1831-1908), who resided in Reno, NV, invented a way of using copper rivets to strengthen his cotton duck work pants, and he worked with his cloth supplier, Strauss, to patent this invention by 1873. Their denim blue jeans would become one of America's most successful items of apparel and would spawn a company that continued to prosper in 2025.

PCAD id: 25843