Oldest Block in San Francisco

[Andrea Jesse]

https://www.sfgate.com/obscuresf/article/The-history-of-the-oldest-block-in-san-francisco-17648695.php

Here’s a walk through the history of one of the oldest blocks in San Francisco: five buildings the national register of historic places calls “the only physical reminders of the city's beginnings.”

The two-story black and brick building at 722 Montgomery – currently the home of a high-end outdoor clothing shop – was built into the mud of the old bay shoreline around 1851. The New Orleans-style structure started out as a cigar warehouse but soon became the Melodeon Theater, a short-lived concert hall. According to a 1960s city planning document, when 722 Montgomery was a theater, tunnels connected the hall to others across the alley. The Melodeon is most known for providing a stage to Lotta Crabtree, one of the most famous, and wealthiest, entertainers in 19th century America.

Born in New York City, Crabtree moved to California after word of gold spread east in 1851. After some years touring mining camps in the Sierra foothills to entertain miners with her banjo, Crabtree settled in San Francisco in 1856, where she entertained the men of the Barbary Coast to huge fanfare on Montgomery Street. In 1864 she moved back to the East Coast to continue her career, which eventually made her the highest-paid actress in America. Crabtree’s scampish performances, including stuffing coins in her stockings and twisting her fingers in her dimples, left such a mark on San Francisco that the city honored her with a fountain on the corner of Market and Kearny.

That landmark is maybe most famous for providing a emergency meeting point for residents during the 1906 earthquake and fire. For over a century, at 5.12 a.m. on April 18, survivors of the quake would gather at the fountain to mark the anniversary. (The last survivor of the earthquake, William Del Monte, a three-month-old baby during the quake, died in 2016.)

Beyond housing the theater where Crabtree wowed the young men of the young city, 722 Montgomery Street was also home to the lavish offices of Melvin Belli, one of the most famous lawyers in America.

If San Francisco made the national evening news for any reason in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Belli was likely somewhere in the shot. The larger-than-life character represented everyone from Chuck Berry to Muhammad Ali out of his Montgomery Street office that was decorated like a “high end Victorian bordello,” according to one report.

Belli helped the Rolling Stones stage one of the must disastrous rock concerts of all time there, and defended Jack Ruby, the man who shot the man who shot JFK. While not in court or on the television, he spent his days in the offices of this storied Montgomery block, where he was once delivered a personal letter from the Zodiac Killer.

Currently home to a swanky cocktail bar and art gallery, in the 1850s and ‘60s, 712 Montgomery was a busy immigration station handling the influx of tens of thousands of men to the new city. In later years it housed a liquor store, a dry goods store and wine merchants. While the building’s history lacks the famous residents of some of its neighbors, it did make the front pages in 1909 for a bloody, and deadly, street battle.

The feud started on when two Sicilian brothers, Luigi and Antonio Ballangiero, found their cousin and “mortal enemy,” Vincenzio Ballangiero, on Montgomery Street. The Italian plasterers alleged that Vincenzio had stolen their tools some days earlier.

“Luigi and Vincenzio flew at each other’s throats and reeled about the sidewalk, locked in a close embrace,” The Call reported. “They fell against the window of a dry goods store at 714 Montgomery, crashing through it, and then fought down to a position in front of C. Cavllo’s grocery.”

Vincenzio Ballangiero then drew his revolver and shot his cousin Luigi dead in front of Luigi's brother, Antonio. In attempting to avenge his brother’s death, Antonio fired a shot at Vincenzio, missed his target and hit an very unlucky Italian grandma, Rosa Baglietto, who was walking her five grandchildren a block and a half away. Papers say the bullet “sped 400 feet” before hitting her in the neck.

Antonio was then “captured by a crowd,” as Vincenzio made his escape on foot down Taylor Street, a block west.