Fairmont Ghirardelli Square resides within Fisherman’s Wharf, one of San Francisco’s most revered neighborhoods. It draws its name from the wealth of fishing trollies that once inhabited the region in great numbers at in the latter-half of the 19th century. Italian immigrants operated the fleet of green, lateen-rigged sailboats that filled the area, with many bearing the name of Saint Peter—the Patron Saint of Fishermen. Passengers on nearby steamers recalled hearing melodic renditions of the song “Verdi” emanating from the fishing vessels as they passed, which acted as a form of communication among the ships in the area’s normally dense fog. The work was tough and not particularly financially rewarding, since most fishermen made only two to three dollars a week. But they provided a source of pride, nonetheless, as it took great skill to navigate the rough waters throughout the San Francisco Bay. The sailboats gradually disappeared in favor of more technologically advanced gas-powered boats as the Gilded Age reached its zenith. Known as “Monterey Hull” ships, their small, noisy engines provided a new iconic sound that came to characterize Fisherman’s Wharf. The introduction of the new boats enabled the fishermen—now in their second generation—to work out on the water for much longer periods of time. It also gave their vessels more strength to carry back unprecedented amounts of freshly caught wildlife.

As petroleum-fueled machines and large dockyards appeared in Fisherman’s Wharf, dozens of warehouses and seafood markets emerged along the streets directly behind them. The economic proliferation that defined late 19th-century San Francisco had reached the area, leading to its rapid urbanization. But the dramatic San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 greatly affected the area, just like the rest of the city. As such, Fisherman’s Wharf underwent another period of development in the years leading up to World War I. Much of the reconstruction projects were driven by the Panama—Pacific International Exposition, which had selected the neighborhood to host the site of its 1915 annual conference. The land was subsequently sold to private developers once the exposition ended, who set about creating a series of brand new residential and commercial structures. Further expansions to the area occurred in the 1930s, following the completion of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Civic leaders specifically widened Lombard Street in order to accommodate the traffic coming from the bridge. The heavy travel along the road soon lead to its transformation into a strip of roadside motels. Those businesses acted as the catalyst that turned Fisherman’s Wharf into one of the city’s main cultural attractions. Nonetheless, Fisherman’s Wharf maintains a high number of its historic structures from the early 20th century, giving it a historic character unlike many of San Francisco’s many other neighborhoods.

Listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, Ghirardelli Square is a massive, historic commercial complex just moments away from Fisherman’s Wharf. The first buildings to inhabit the space was an industrial building known as the Pioneer Woolen Mills, which debuted for the first time in 1858. Operated by a company of merchants, Heynemann, Pick and Company, the complex was a wooden structure that housed the very first woolen mill on the entire West Coast. Not only that, but the Pioneer Woolen Mills were also one of the first factories founded in all of California. The mill itself produced the local coarse-woven goods, creating a lucrative business model that saw wool products made cheap and efficiently. The business was incredibly active, operating with 16 looms powered by a coal-fired steam engine. But when the structure burned down in 1861, it was replaced by Swiss-born architect William S. Mooser. The new mill structure stood four-stories tall and extended for some 150 feet. Its layout was rather simplistic, with nor dramatic ornamentations save for the cornice line along the rooftop. Mooser specifically developed its entire faced with locally manufactured red brick that was laid in American bond. Business only continued to grow. It became so prosperous that the mill had expanded to own some 130 looms by the beginning of the 1880s. But a dramatic drop in business resulted in the mill shuttering its doors completely in 1889.

Eventually, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company purchased the Pioneer Woolen Mills in 1892. The company had leased a portion of the building a decade prior for the purpose of housing its corporate offices. Over time, though, the Ghirardellis moved portions of its manufacturing operations into the facility, although they quickly ran out of space. As such, the Ghirardelli family decided to completely overhaul the complex so that it was better suited for industrial production. They quickly started acquiring all the other neighboring structures on the block, with the hope of melding them together to for a massive new factory complex. For the project, they hired local architect William S. Mooser, Jr., who was the son of the same architect who reconstructed the Pioneer Woolen Mills some 30 years ago. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, “the complex achieved architectural distinction and became a mode of factory design.” The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company would occupy the space until the middle of the 20th century, when it vacated the premises for a more modern plant in San Leandro. William M. Roth worked with his mother, Lurline Matson Roth, to save the structure upon its abandonment The Roths hired the architectural firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons—as well as landscape architect Lawrence Halprin—to convert the location into a commercial facility known as “Ghirardelli Square.” The U.S. Department of the Interior has even identified their work on the facility as a “prototype of commercial adaptive re-use.” The destination has since attracted dozens of new businesses ever since, including the magnificent Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square, in 2008.

The specific architecture that currently defines the hotel’s portion of Ghirardelli Square can best be described as “Modernist.” Modernist architecture—otherwise known as “modernism”—originally emerged in the early 20th century as a response to the continued industrialization of Western society in the abstract. Perhaps some of the best known architects to establish this line of thought were Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The philosophical design principle embraced the ideals of function, simplicity, and rationality, as a way to reject the previous traditional aesthetics of the Victorian Age. But architects also believed that the ostentatious architectural forms of the century prior had failed to address rising social concerns born of industrialization, and desired to create simplistic, yet sleek, structures that conveyed a sense of communal purpose. As such, Modernist architecture specifically called for the elimination of ornamentation from the exterior of a building’s outward appearance, instead adopting a steel frame lined with large windows and open entryways. Building materials such as concrete and metal became commonplace, for they represented the idea of modern technological progress. Furthermore, Modernist architects made explicit use of vertical lines and rectangular shapes to showcase a sense of symmetry. Inside, Modernist buildings featured wide, open spaces filled with natural light that represented practicality and comfort. And despite its early origins, Modernism continues to be among the most extensively used architectural styles today.