Montgomery Block

You are approaching the site where the Montgomery Block once stood, a building that was famously dubbed Halleck's Folly when it was completed in 1853. Its builder, Henry Wager Halleck, insisted on constructing a four-story, fireproof office building at a time when San Francisco was essentially a collection of wooden shacks that burned down almost as fast as they were built. To support such a heavy structure on what was then unstable, sandy shoreline, engineers had to sink a massive, intricate raft of redwood logs and straw beneath the foundation. The design proved remarkably effective, as the building became the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River and stood as an impenetrable fortress during the city's frequent early fires.