600 Front Street

1. 1874

   Italian-American growers' and dealers' associations built a wood-frame Colombo Market on the block bounded by Front, Davis, Jackson and Clark streets, the first enclosed wholesale produce market in San Francisco, replacing the open-air street market on Sansome Street.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
2. 1875

   Michael Perata, a Genoese farmer and commission merchant, ran a vegetable business from stalls 23-24 in the Colombo Market until 1891.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
3. May 21, 1891

   The San Francisco Call predicted the decaying wooden Colombo Market, then sinking into the bay fill, would not survive the year.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
4. 1894

   The Zeille family, owners of the site, built a $50,000 Italian Renaissance brick market in place of the wooden one and leased it to the growers for $950 a month: two stories with terra cotta trim on Front and Davis streets, stores below, workers' flats and an assembly hall above, a large central arch on each street front leading to an open driveway, and one-story arcades of stalls on the sides.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
5. 1904

   Produce district businesses asked the Board of Works to replace the cobblestones in front of the Colombo Market with smooth bituminous paving that could be kept clean.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
6. 1906

   The earthquake and fires destroyed most of the Colombo Market along with the rest of the produce district.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
7. 1906

   The market was rebuilt on its old footprint from salvaged ruins, keeping the open drive aisle through arches on Front and Davis streets; most of the Front Street facade, including the surviving arch, dates from this reconstruction, and the second story was not rebuilt.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
8. March 1908

   A banquet set on tables down the middle of Front Street, attended by the mayor, supervisors and 37 foreign consuls, celebrated the produce merchants for cleaning up the market streets.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
9. June 17, 1910

   A grand jury indicted seven directors of the Protective Society of Gardeners and Ranchers, headquartered in the Colombo Market, for conspiring to fix vegetable prices.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
10. April 3, 1913

    The District Attorney dismissed the 1910 price-fixing indictment against the Colombo Market growers' society.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
11. 1915

    A photograph shows the Front Street front reduced to the arch alone, with newer storefront windows and transoms in place of the other arches.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
12. 1922

    The Colombo Market raised its wholesale vegetable prices, setting off a dispute with the 1,400-member Retail Fruit Dealers Association, who turned to Sacramento Valley growers.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
13. January 1955

    The Board of Supervisors designated the produce district, the Colombo Market included, a redevelopment area.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
14. 1959

    The Front operated here between 1959 and 1961, one of the North Beach bars and restaurants the city's survey identifies as significant in San Francisco's LGBTQ history.

    North Beach Historic Context Statement, adopted 2022
15. 1959

    Photographs show the arch still working as a market entrance, looking much as it had since 1906, shortly before the rest of the building came down.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
16. 1960

    Sasaki, Walker and Associates drew plans for a park on the Colombo Market site as part of the Golden Gateway redevelopment, keeping one structural bay of the market as a freestanding entrance arch.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
17. 1963

    The Redevelopment Agency demolished the Colombo Market and the surrounding produce district blocks for the Golden Gateway Center, sparing only the Front Street arch; the last produce merchants had moved out.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
18. June 11, 1967

    A newspaper caption described the old brick arch as salvaged as a memento of the produce district that once filled the site.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
19. Feb 2016

    Disapproved Permit 201602129484 $$$ $32,000

    Install new atm machine/electrical line with canopy. remove door. build wall around atm. ** maher: n/a **.

20. Feb 2016

    Disapproved Permit 201602129488 $$$ $1,000

    Sign on canopy. ** maher: n/a **.

21. March 7, 2023

    The Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution initiating landmark designation of the Colombo Market Arch.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
22. June 21, 2023

    The Historic Preservation Commission held a hearing and recommended the arch for landmark designation.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
23. October 3, 2023

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 311, Colombo Market Arch.

    SF Planning, landmark designation

2 expired permits are omitted. Sydney Walton Square is dated both to 1960 and to after the market was demolished around 1963.