Columbus Tower (San Francisco)
| Columbus Tower | |
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A view of Columbus Tower
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Location within San Francisco County
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| Alternative names | Sentinel Building Flatiron Building |
| General information | |
| Type | Mixed-used |
| Location | 916 Kearny Street San Francisco, California |
| Coordinates | 37°47′47″N 122°24′18″W / 37.7964°N 122.4049°WCoordinates: 37°47′47″N 122°24′18″W / 37.7964°N 122.4049°W |
| Completed | 1907 |
| Owner | Albert & Connie Der Family Trust |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 8 |
| Floor area | 22,700 sq ft (2,110 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Salfield & Kohlberg |
| Developer | Abe Ruef |
| Designated | 1970 |
| Reference no. | 33 |
| References | |
Columbus Tower, also known as the Sentinel Building is a mixed-used building in San Francisco, California, completed in 1907. The distinctive copper-green Flatiron style structure is bounded by Columbus Avenue, Kearny Street and Jackson Street, straddling the North Beach, Chinatown, and Financial districts of the city. Much of the building is occupied by film studio American Zoetrope, and the ground floor houses a cafe named after the company. The Sentinel Building is San Francisco Designated Landmark No. 33.
Despite the 1907 finish, building work had begun before the San Francisco earthquake the previous year, but extensive damage to the building site, and the rest of the city, slowed down the construction considerably. For a relatively small building such as Sentinel Building, with the extensive workforce available in San Francisco at that time, taking more than a year to complete the building was slightly longer than would have been expected.
The top floor initially housed the headquarters of the notorious Abe Ruef, a local political figure at the time.
Around 1949, the nightclub hungry i, which would become very influential in the history of stand-up comedy in the US, was opened as a 83-seat venue in the Sentinel Building's basement by Eric Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1951. After operating it as a venue for folk singers including Stan Wilson, Banducci began hiring comedians in 1953 with Mort Sahl, encouraging them to express themselves freely. Their success caused queues around the block, until Banducci moved the hungry i to a different nearby location on Jackson Street in 1954.
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