Colombo Building
7–33 Columbus Avenue
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1893
John F. Fugazi founded the Columbus Savings and Loan Society, the Banca Colombo, in the three-storey building then on this gore at 614 Washington Street — the first bank in North Beach. The building, owned by the Drexlers from at least 1894, held five shops, an office and a saloon below lodgings.
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October 17, 1904
Amadeo P. Giannini opened the Bank of Italy — later the Bank of America — in the Drexler Building on this site, having taken a lease over the whole building out from under the Columbus Savings and Loan Society, where he had been a director. Wright & Polk remodelled the premises for it, with W. T. Veitch & Brother as contractors, for $5,295. The bank stayed until the building burned in the earthquake fire.
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1913
The Drexler–Colombo Building, a reinforced concrete building with stores on the ground floor and offices above, to the design of the Reid Brothers.
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1913
Elise A. Drexler, the widowed philanthropist and property developer who had inherited the lot, built the Colombo Building to designs by James and Merritt Reid: two storeys and a basement of reinforced concrete on the triangular gore, with a rounded point, continuous cast-iron storefronts and ashlar-scored plaster, answering the Fugazi Bank building across Columbus Avenue. She built rather than sold because her husband's will forbade her to sell it.
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August 9, 1913
The building was let for five years at nearly $50,000. Site as recorded: The northwest corner of Washington Street and Columbus Avenue (formerly Montgomery Avenue), 142 by 96 feet, irregular.
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1924
A garage was dug out under the building, reached by a ramp cut through half a storefront bay on Washington Street; its basement runs out under both sidewalks.
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1976
The Colombo Building was rated “3” in the city's architectural inventory, and San Francisco Heritage rated it “B*”.
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1982
Recorded in the city's 1982 survey of North Beach, adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1999, as an individually listed resource.
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May 1984
The Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board recommended the Colombo Building for city landmark status. The city made no designation at the time.
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1996
The State Office of Historic Preservation agreed with the 1982 North Beach survey that the building may be eligible for the National Register on its own, and coded it “4S”.
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2002
Listed as San Francisco City Landmark No. 237 — Drexler-Colombo Building.
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January 31, 2008
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its association with Elise A. Drexler, whose career as a woman developer and capitalist in the Progressive Era it is the only surviving record of, and who gave the Bank of Italy its first home on this site.
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Sep 2008
Reroofing.
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Oct 2008
To finalize work under 200007316486.
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Oct 2008
To finalize work under 9924864.
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Jan 2011
Removal of electric sign for site repairs. replacement upon completion of work (under separate permit). general advertising signage.
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Nov 2011
Repair and refurbish storefront assemblies consistent with original building plans by removing non-original stone, tile, stucco & brick cladding, repair or replace in kind all damaged deteriorated or missing wood element, install new concrete curbs so all wood elements are above adj. sidewalk grade, install.
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Dec 2011
Erect an electric projecting double faced direct new sign.
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Dec 2012
To obtail final inspection for work approved under permit application 200906100171. all work is complete. special inspection required.
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Jan 2017
For admin purposes: change use from barber shop to tattoo shop. no construction, no work being performed.
1 nominal $1 street-space or sidewalk permit is omitted from the timeline. 9 expired or cancelled permits are not shown.
Nearby
- 4–36 Columbus Avenue Same street
- 53 Columbus Avenue Same street
- 636–640 Washington Street Same block
- 57–67 Columbus Avenue Same block
- 531 Jackson Street Same block
- 533–535 Jackson Street Same block
- 708–710 Montgomery Street Around the corner
- 712–714 Montgomery Street Around the corner