MORE ABOUT THE LIFE & TIMES OF THE EUREKA LODGINGS SITE On Sunday, we posted two photos — one from 1888, another from c. 1900-1905 — that included views of a building on the site of the Eureka Lodgings, the boarding house at 624 Commercial Street where Emperor Norton lived from 1863 until his death in 1880. The building in question is the larger 4-story structure next door to the Empire House (636 Commercial), in the first photo here. In the 1860s, the shorter three-story structure two down from the Empire House — shown more clearly in the second photo here — was the home of the Morning Call (612 Commercial), the newspaper where Samuel Clemens (soon to to be known as Mark Twain) had a desk in 1864. :: :: :: It now is confirmed that the structure on the Eureka site (next door to the Empire House) is the Corps No. 1 building of the Salvation Army, who arrived in San Francisco in summer 1883 and quickly constructed this building, which opened late that year. Which begs the question: What happened to the Eureka Lodgings at 624 Commercial, between 1880 and its (presumable) demolition in 1883? The hotels last listing in the San Francisco (Langleys) directory — as Eureka Lodging House — is in the 1880 book. That also is the last year of the separate listing David Hutchinson, lodgings, 624 Commercial — for the landlord/proprietor of the Eureka. And its the last year in which there are a variety of listings for individuals residing at 624 Commercial. In the 1881 book (and after), there is no listing for the Eureka, no listing for a David Hutchinson in connection with the Eureka or 624 Commercial, and no listings for anyone residing at 624 Commercial. It appears that, in 1881, 1882 and 1883, there continued to be business tenants operating on the ground floor — including a Charles Sing, who is listed running a coffee saloon at 624 in 1882 and 1883. So, presumably, the building itself continued to stand until being replaced in late 1883 by the new Salvation Army building, with the new address of 632 Commercial, on the Eureka site. :: :: :: Both the Salvation Army building (on the old Eureka site) and the old Morning Call building — by then, numbered at 632 and 626, respectively — were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. It appears that the A. Lietz Company, a manufacturer of precision nautical instruments founded in 1882, quickly bought both sites. On the Morning Call site, Lietz built a new building — newly numbered 632/634 — which opened in 1907. This is the current 632 Commercial. Eleven years later, in 1918, Lietz built an annex — numbered 640/648 — on the Eureka site. These buildings are depicted in the third photograph here, which appeared in Lietzs 1919 catalog. :: :: :: In 1933, the fine printer Grabhorn Press bought and moved into the Lietz annex at 640/648 Commercial. In a 1968 interview with Ruth Teiser (RT), Grabhorn Press co-founder Robert Grabhorn (RG) remembered how it all went down: RG: [W]e decided we might buy a building. And we bought this place on Commercial Street, where we were until the war, 1942. You see, we bought this building from A. Lietz (this amused me) who made the navigation instruments. And they had built this building we were in for their war contracts in World War I. In 1942 they had another war contract, so they wanted that building back! RT: So you sold it back to them? RG: We said, You find us another building, or well find a building. In other words, they paid for the other building. Thats the one out on Sutter Street. :: :: :: Given that Grabhorn Press occupied the Lietz building at 648 Commercial — the Eureka site — for only nine years from 1933 to 1942, its a little curious that the current Empire Park at 648 initially was named Grabhorn Park, when it was created nearly fifty years later, in 1990. For how much longer did Lietz occupy its annex after reclaiming it in 1942? Were there other tenants after that? Other buildings? More mysteries — but fewer than there were...
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 02:03:30 +0000
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