Hundley Hardware Building

1. January 7, 1847

   O'Farrell petitions for the lot

   Jasper O'Farrell petitioned Acting Alcalde Hyde for the grant of the 100-vara lot.

   Angus Macfarlane, “Putting San Francisco on the Map, Part 1: A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma,” The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society, vol. 32, no. 1 (Summer 2021), pp. 8–29
2. January 17, 1847

   O'Farrell's lot granted

   Acting Alcalde Hyde granted Jasper O'Farrell's petition for a 100-vara lot on the north side of Mission Street, between 100-vara grants to Col. John C. Fremont and Alcalde Washington Bartlett.

   Angus Macfarlane, “Putting San Francisco on the Map, Part 1: A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma,” The Argonaut: Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society, vol. 32, no. 1 (Summer 2021), pp. 8–29
3. 1922

   Architect Andrew H. Knoll designed the two-story Renaissance Revival building on the site, built for the Phoenix Desk and Chair Company.

   SocketSite, “The Past, Present and Future for This Historical HQ”
4. 1926–1956

   The San Francisco Builders Exchange occupied the building.

   SocketSite, “The Past, Present and Future for This Historical HQ”
5. 1985

   Hundley Hardware Company's occupancy of the building ended.

   SocketSite, “The Past, Present and Future for This Historical HQ”
6. Mar 1986

   Permit 8603108 $$$ $15,500

   Parapets braced.

7. Mar 1990

   Permit 9005859 $$$ $30,000

   New handicap bathrooms; rotted stair and roll-up gate replaced.

8. May 21, 1993

   Purchased by the California Historical Society

   The California Historical Society purchased the building for $2 million and made it its headquarters, converting the basement under the Mission Street sidewalk into climate-controlled collection storage and adding seismic upgrades, a public research library, exhibition galleries and a bookstore.

   SocketSite, “The Past, Present and Future for This Historical HQ”
9. 2001

   The California Historical Society sold the parcel's transferable development rights, which limits any future redevelopment to repurposing the existing two-story building rather than building to the site's zoned height.

   SocketSite, “The Past, Present and Future for This Historical HQ”
10. Jun 2018

    Permit 201806202367 $$$ $13,000

    Cellular communication installed for the fire alarm system, a like-for-like replacement under a 2008 state fire marshal bulletin.

11. 2024

    Building sold

    The Society sold the building, by then vacated, for about $6.7 million to a limited liability company affiliated with the San Francisco Baking Institute.

    KQED, “153-Year-Old California Historical Society Closes, Transfers Collection to Stanford”
12. January 28, 2025

    California Historical Society closes

    The California Historical Society announced its permanent closure and the transfer of its collection to Stanford University, which holds it as the California History Collection.

    KQED, “153-Year-Old California Historical Society Closes, Transfers Collection to Stanford”

1 expired permit is omitted. Business addresses are usually deferred on this site; this page exists because the prompting source locates a resolvable 1847 land grant here, at the site of a named present-day building. The assessor's property_location and DBI's permit records both name this parcel 666 Mission Street. EAS separately carries 678 Mission Street with no parcel_number of its own, but 678 is the address the California Historical Society used for the same building during its 1993–2024 tenancy, on the same Mission Street frontage as 666. The building's use since its 2024 sale is not documented, nor what became of the two 100-vara lots the Argonaut names on either side of O'Farrell's grant.