SF History Night: The Emporium Department Store | SF
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St. Philip’s Church | 725 Diamond Street, San Francisco, CA
Event Details
Submitted by the Event Organizer
SF History Night | Pacific Heights
The San Francisco History Association hosts monthly talks which explore our city’s enchanting history in depth.
Each month, a local history expert hosts a themed talk usually accompanied by a slide show with light refreshments.
The Emporium—“California’s Largest, America’s Grandest Store”— was a major shopping destination on San Francisco’s Market Street for a century,from 1896 to 1996. Shoppers flocked to the mid-price store with its beautiful dome and bandstand. Patrons could find anything at the Emporium, from jewelry to stoves, and it was a meeting place for friends to enjoy tea while listening to the Emporium Orchestra.
Founded in 1897 as the Emporium and Golden Rule Bazaar, the store flourished until the disastrous 1906 earthquake. Once it re-opened in 1908, it dominated shopping downtown until mid-century. Today it is the site of the Westfield Mall.
Author and freelance writer Anne Evers Hitz, a fifth-generation San Franciscan and a great-great-granddaughter of one of the Emporium’s founders, F. W. Dohrmann, has gathered together images from libraries and private collections to tell the Emporium story. Her book, Emporium Department Store, was published by Arcadia Publishing in its Images of America series in late 2014.
Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.
Cost: $5*
