Grant Building
Unfinished History
by Chris Carlsson
The Grant Building at 1095 Market Street (at 7th)
Photo: courtesy Nate Berkowitz
The Grant Building during and after the 1906 earthquake. Note the old City Hall a block west of the Grant Building in the second photo.
The Grant Building, built in 1904, has ceramic walls 2.5 feet thick and withstood unscathed the earthquakes of 1906 and 1989. In Suite 210, Shaping San Francisco was conceived and created between 1994 and 1997, echoing an earlier "History Factory" on Market Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.
Warren Billings watch repair business card, Suite 205, Grant Building
Suite 205 was Warren Billings' watch repair business after his release from Folsom Prison in 1943 until he died in 1972.
The Grant Building in 2008, now shadowed by the new Federal Building at 7th and Mission, but still across from the old Odd Fellows Building.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
During the "dot-com" boomlet of 1999-2000, the building was purchased by Scott Seligman, which was soon followed by a 400% raise in rents. Tenants organized into a building-wide association to avoid the rent rise or eviction, and in a rare case of commercial tenant organizing, they succeeded in staving off the new owner's plans.