July 1, 2001: A Romanesque bank building stands at the former site of Henry Mayo Newhall's auction house in San Francisco.
Henry Newhall came West from Massachusetts during the gold rush and found his
fortune in the auction business. When he bought out his partners in 1852 he changed
the name of the firm from Hall, Martin & Co. to H.M. Newhall & Co., handling all
manner of mercantile goods that were shipped into San Francisco from the Orient.
Henry used some of his wealth to purchase five former Mexican land grants in the 1870s,
including the Rancho San Francisco — not to be confused with his home city of San Francisco.
The 48,000-acre rancho comprised the western Santa Clarita Valley.
Upon Henry's 1882 death, his San Francisco businesses were split up.
Sons Edwin and Walter established Newhall's Sons & Co. Auctioneers and Commission
Merchants to carry on what had become a family trade. Their business survived just two
years, until 1884 or 1885.
The sons' business, and most likely
H.M. Newhall & Co. and Hall, Martin & Co. before it, was located here, in a "fire-proof
store" at 309, 311 and 313 Sansome St., at the corner of Halleck, just north of California Street.
Today there is no more 309-313 Sansome; the space is occupied by the Bank of California,
the white building.
(This
photo looks south down Sansome. Halleck is really just a mid-block alleyway that cuts between the white
bank building and the tan
building at 343 Sansome.)
When the first Bank of California building at this location opened in 1867, apparently it was next door to the
Newhall auction house. By 1906, when the bank was preparing to expand, the Newhall auction house
was already out of business. Whether it was the bank expansion or the famous earthquake
of the same year that leveled
the building(s) at 309-313 Sansome St., something did; today (2001) the 1908 bank building has taken over the space.
An old plaque on the bank building reads as follows:
The Bank of California opened for business July 5, 1864, at the southwest
corner of Washington and Battery streets. In 1865 construction was begun on a new home at California
and Sansome (this location) which was occupied June 27, 1867. The bank outgrew these quarters
and in January 1906 moved to a temporary location at California and Leidesdorff while
the present building was being erected. Construction was about to begin when the earthquake
and fire occurred April 18, 1906. Work was resumed after the emergency and the bank returned to
this site September 8, 1908.
Photo by Leon Worden.
