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Building History

Architect Henry Haight Meyers (1867-1943) of Percy and Polk, Architects, supervised the construction of this complex, an early steel-frame and reinforced concrete building in 1901. The skyscraper was sheathed in Colusa Sandstone, quarried in Colusa County, CA. Miraculously, it survived the 04/1906 Earthquake and Fire with minimal damage to its lowest two floors. At least one other building in the immediate vicinity, the Mercantile Trust Bank of San Francisco at 464 California (next door to the east), also survived the 1906 Quake and Fire with relatively minor damage. The bank never shut down and did not have to open a temporary facility elsewhere.

San Francisco architect Willis J. Polk (1867-1924) oversaw the reconstruction following the fire.

The building was known as the "Kohl Building" after physician and realty mogul Charles Frederick Kohl (1863-1921) purchased it from Alvinza Hayward's estate in 1904. A former maid, Adele Verge (born c. 1876 in France), would shoot Kohl in the chest with a derringer outside the Grant Building in San Francisco on 06/08/1911, but he survived for 10 more years. Over time, Kohl became increasingly depressed and paranoid, and, when he heard of Verge's release from a mental institution in France, he fatally shot himself on 11/23/1921 at Pebble Beach Lodge in Monterey County, CA. (See “Kohl” [obituary], San Francisco Call, vol. 110, no. 121, 11/25/1921, p.21.)

Building Notes

The Hayward Building, like many of the first two decades of the 20th century, was configured in an H-shape to enable light courts to provide daylight and ventilation to a maximum number of offices.

C. Frederick Kohl had his office in Room #1020 of the Kohl Building in 1909. (See Crocker-Langley Company’s San Francisco City Directory, 1909, p. 913.)

In 1909, the Atkins, Kroll and Company, a dealer in antimony, occupied Room #323 of the Kohl Building. (See Crocker-Langley Company’s San Francisco City Directory, 1909, p. 1708.)

In 2020, the Hayward/Kohl Building had 217 rooms and 22 bathrooms. It covered a 10.062-square-foot lot and contained 99,510 square feet of interior space. Land and structure had an assessed value of $77,500,000 in 2020.