Lost Department Stores of San Francisco

By Anne Evers Hitz

Book Overview

In the late nineteenth century, San Francisco's merchant princes built grand stores for a booming city, each with its own niche. For the eager clientele, a trip downtown meant dressing up--hats, gloves and stockings required--and going to Blum's for Coffe

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1540242420
• ISBN13: 9781540242426
• Release Date: March 2020
• Publisher: History Press Library Editions
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Meet the early visionary merchants that helped create Baghdad by the Bay in this jewel of a book.

This well organized, thoroughly researched book describes a slice in time of San Francisco and the late 19th and early to mid- 20th centuries. It identifies and portrays numerous vibrant personalities who made up the merchant royalty who imagined and created unique, elegant shopping palaces for the women of San Francisco and the Bay Area. Numerous well placed photographs illustrate and capture images of different periods in the city in that shopping neighborhood. From Young girlhood into middle age, I experienced the privilege of visiting San Francisco to look for that special prom dress, business suit, or sports outfit for important occasions. Each visit introduced me to diverse delights within and around each department store. This book successfully captures that total experience of sensory anticipation and satisfaction that the merchants aimed to deliver. The book places the reader in the geographical space surrounding San Francisco’s historic Union Square. And the charm of both that place and time was amplified by the distinctive qualities of individual department stores. This book grounds itself in history, personality, and the culture of a raw city, aspiring to elegance and respect, both before, and after the earthquake of 1906, which reduced most major buildings to rubble. The author also describes the eventual winding down of the original heady, exuberant, aspirational stylishness that characterized San Francisco’s original merchants. This book, though small, seriously reflects the ardor and industry that generated an aura and unique reputation for the magnetism of the city by the Golden Gate. It will reward all readers with a robust, rewarding backstory to San Francisco’s dynamic past.