The Phelan Building – Market and O’Farrell Streets, Financial District, San Francisco, California

Flatiron buildings are among the earliest skyscrapers. Their triangular shape was determined by real estate parcels created by diagonal streets, such as Market Street, that sliced through streets designed on a grid. They were named for their resemblance to clothes irons of the period. Situated at the prominent gore of Market and O’Farrell Streets at Grant, the eleven-story Phelan Building stretches 328 feet on the Market Street side alone and boasts 31,000 square feet, inspiring the 1907 Call headline "Huge Phelan Building Already a Landmark." It is one of the few remaining flatirons on Market Street.

Elected to "clean up City Hall," James Duval Phelan was responsible for several reforms during his term as mayor (1897-1902). In the years following the earthquake and fire he was also pivotal in bringing an end to the extortion, graft and corruption perpetrated by Abe Ruef and his puppet Mayor Eugene Schmitz. Phelan served as U.S. Senator from 1913 to 1919 and maintained his office on the 6th floor.

Phelan commissioned architect William Curlett to build this dignified flatiron on the site of his father’s (pioneer banker and capitalist James Phelan) earlier version. The original structure was destroyed in the 1906 fire and this gave Phelan an opportunity to express in steel, glass and glazed terra cotta his advocacies of the City Beautiful Movement and the Burnham Plan, both of which were scrapped by the city in the haste to rebuild after the earthquake. This impressive building is a masterpiece of Renaissance/Baroque ornamentation with a beautifully restored two-story white marble lobby.