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Overview

The San Francisco architect William Curlett designed this office building for the Shreve and Company jewelry company, completed in 1905. The Shreve Company opened for business in this location in 03/1906, one month before the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906.

Building Notes

The Shreve Building, completed in 03/1906, housed, from the beginning, a Shreve and Company jewelry store on its first floor, where it continued to operate as of 2014. A month after construction finished, the Earthquake of 04/18/1906 and days of subsequent fires leveled much of San Francisco, but the Shreve Building, composed of a cutting-edge steel frame, withstood the shock and firestorm. Architect William Curlett (1846-1914) insulated the steel framing members with 3-inch thick hollow tile on floors 3-12 and coated the beams in concrete on floors one and two. The floors were also formed of concrete, further resisting the fire's advance.

The Shreve Building web site stated of the 1906 earthquake in 2017: "The Shreve Building was completed in 1905 and in March of 1906, Shreve & Company moved to the ground floor of the building. Pacific Telephone and Telegraph moved into the third and fourth floors in April. Their stay would be interrupted by the earthquake and fire that raged through the heart of San Francisco on April 18, 1906. The fire would go on for three days. One story mentions loyal Shreve & Company employees rushing to lock away valuable items in the vault, thus protecting the store's assets from the fire that ravaged downtown. Upon returning to the charred ruins of the store, the employees found the safe intact, but had to wait three weeks before it cooled sufficiently to open. Aside from a few scorched records, everything was unharmed!" (See Shreve Building, "History," accessed 04/06/2017.)

Alteration

Although structurally sound, the building underwent a renovation after the fire, replacing scorched wooden members and replacing windows and mechanical systems.

PCAD id: 3080