From Hallidie Plaza to the waterfront, Market Street traces the southern edge of the FINANCIAL DISTRICT, San Francisco’s patch of banks and other trade-related businesses, which hold court in buildings that consitute a veritable hodgepodge of architectural styles and periods, from Palladian piles to postmodern redoubts. Scattered between the investment companies are the copy centers and computer boutiques that serve the offices above, with an occasional restaurant of note, usually set up in alleyways, like those tucked off the corner of Kearney and Pine streets. San Francisco’s movers and shakers distinguish themselves from the rest of the American financial community on the last business day of the year, when local custom dictates that office workers throw their desk calendar pages out of the window. Standing on the street and looking skywards, the scene is reminiscent of a ticker-tape parade – not to be missed if you’re in town for Christmas and New Year. On Friday evenings year round, the bars buzz with relieved workers, but after 7pm and on weekends, the Financial District is nearly deserted.



Predictably, the district’s sights are themed around money. For a hands-on grasp of modern finance, the World of Economics Gallery in the Federal Reserve Bank, 101 Market St (Mon–Fri 9am–6pm), is unbeatable: computer games allow you to engineer your own inflationary disasters, while exhibits detail recent scandals and triumphs. Outside the bank is the starting point of the California Street cable-car line, which leads you out of the Financial District, past Chinatown and up to Nob Hill, though it is a more thrilling ride back down, swooping from quiet mansions into a sea of bustling high-rises.

Just off California Street, the Wells Fargo History Museum, at 420 Montgomery St (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; free), traces the less glamorous origins of San Francisco’s big money, right from the days of the Gold Rush, through exhibits of mining equipment, gold nuggets, photographs, and a genuine retired stagecoach. Across Montgomery, the Ionic columns and robust stone details of the 1922 Security Pacific Bank, at Montgomery and California, are thoroughly overpowered by the ominous hulk of the Bank of America headquarters (California’s biggest financial institution) across California Street. Though not the tallest, this broad-shouldered monolith of dark-red granite dominates the San Francisco skyline and has divided the city into fans and those who would like to see it razed to the ground. Finished in 1971, it challenged the city not only with its size, but also with the startling contrast of its hue – San Francisco used to be known as “a city of white” – but with time it has assimilated well and even become the subject of admiration. At the top of the building is the handsome Carnelian Room which is a great place to go for drinks and sweeping vistas, though be warned – this is a jacket-and-tie affair.

Surprisingly, some fine art is tucked away in hidden corners of the district. Several blocks north, the Merchants’ Exchange Building at 465 California St was designed by Willis Polk and has a series of nineteenth-century marine paintings by Irish painter William Coulter. At the entrance of its Grain Exchange Hall are four huge columns, beyond which the six vast oil canvases depict the history of San Francisco as a seaport. This room was the original center of commercial life in the city, monitoring the comings and goings of every Pacific Coast ship. It was also the place where shippers, warehousemen and traders would gather to do their bidding.

Just south of here, the imposing Pacific Stock Exchange sits at the corner of Pine and Sansome streets, though you’ll have to make do with viewing its grand pillared entrance, since it closed its doors to traders in 2000, opting to begin an electronic exchange system.

Two other interesting museums hide amidst the caverns of commerce: the Pacific Heritage Museum, at 608 Commercial St (Tues–Sat 10am–4pm; free), exhibits Asian art in the former US Subtreasury Building, now beautifully sky-lit and fronting a bench-lined inland avenue that used to be San Francisco’s longest pier.

Another retreat from the charging midday throngs is the Crocker Galleria rooftop garden at 50 Post St near Market Street. Skip the three floors of expensive boutiques and opt for a sack lunch amidst the office workers who enjoy theirs here.