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If you’re a fan of The Maltese Falcon or appreciate all things noir, and you’re curious to learn more about Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco this is the guide for you.
Samuel Dashiell Hammett grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He left school at an early age and began working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency when he was just 21 years old. Hammett served in World War I where he contracted the Spanish flu and later tuberculosis, leaving him sickly for most of his life. While he was a patient at a hospital in Tacoma, Washington he met Josephine Dolan–a nurse who would later become his wife.
While Hammett didn’t divorce his wife until 1937, he began a thirty-year on again, off again relationship with playwright Lilian Hellman after meeting her in a Hollywood in 1931 when she was 24 and he was 36. They both became members of the Communist Party in the late 1930s. Hammett stopped writing completely in 1936.
Hammett would spend a lot of time living with Hellman in New York and dealing with sickness for the rest of his life. He enlisted in the Army during WWII where he edited an Army newspaper while stationed on the Aleutian Islands. He developed emphysema while there.
In the 1950s, during the Second Red Scare, he and Hellman both testified in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee and as a result were both blacklisted.
Hammett developed lung cancer in 1961 and only survived for a couple of months after the diagnosis before it took his life. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery just outside of Washington, DC.
Hammett lived in San Francisco for less than a decade from 1920-1929. Yet two of the five literary landmarks granted in the state of California by the Friends of Libraries USA–a part of the American Library Association–have been given to Hammett locales.
His 1930 detective novel, The Maltese Falcon, has been featured on multiple lists as one of the top 100 all-time best crime novels. Its 1941 film adaptation that starred Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor received three Academy Award nominations and launched Bogart’s career (just a year later he’d film Casablanca). The film was so significant the Library of Congress chose it as part of its first 25 films to be placed on the National Film Registry.
When the fog rolls in and the streets go quiet San Francisco can have a sinister appeal. This kind of atmosphere paired with Hammett’s detective background produced a perfect backdrop for spectacular crime novels. Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco is waiting to be discovered.
For more literary highlights on your trip to San Francisco don’t leave without seeing the top literary sites of the city, the best of the Beat Generation, Maya Angelou’s San Francisco, and of course make your way to City Lights Books.
THE BEST HIGHLIGHTS OF DASHIELL HAMMETT’S SAN FRANCISCO
Hotel Union Square (Currently Closed)
114 Powell Street
Once known as The Golden West Hotel, this (now closed) boutique property in the heart of Union Square was built in 1908 for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Hammett used this hotel on a couple of occasions:
First, it’s where he booked a room for his young bride, Josephine Dolan, before they were to be married in the summer of 1921. It was frowned upon for them to stay together before the wedding even though she was roughly six months pregnant with their first daughter at the time.
Later, Hammett would patronize the hotel again probably for The Golden Bubble speakeasy that was located beneath the hotel during the Prohibition Era (the original terrazzo flooring and wallpaper still remain though the 10,000 square foot space is now used for storage).
It’s also said that this space served as the location for where Hammett conducted much of his affair with his longtime partner, Lillian Hellman. In fact, her ghost is said to haunt the hotel–room 207 in particular–where her wraith opens and closes the bathroom door all night long.
Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral
660 California Street
It’s hard to walk through Chinatown and not notice how Old St. Mary’s feels just ever so slightly out of place. It’s a Roman Catholic Church made of brick (that was brought all the way around Cape Horn for construction) in the midst of Chinese grocers and restaurants and many many souvenir stores. But Old St. Mary’s has stood at this location since 1854–before Chinatown was Chinatown.
So close to the brothels of the Barbary Coast that the writing underneath the church’s clock face reads: “Son, observe the time and fly from Evil.” The cross street at California–now Grant Avenue–was originally called Dupont street but given its proximity to the underbelly of the city, it was renamed to reference the former president and Civil War general, Ulysses S. Grant.
The church survived the 1906 earthquake but its interior was absolutely gutted by the subsequent fires–so hot that they melted the church bells–and was remodeled in 1909. It was here on July 7, 1921 that Dashiel Hammett wed Josephine Dolan in the church’s rectory just three months before Josephine gave birth to their first daughter.
Albert S. Samuels Jewelers
Corner of 5th and Market Streets
For a short time in 1926 Hammett was a copywriter/ad manager for Albert S. Samuels Jewelers. The original building was located at the corner of 5th and Market streets and housed 40 jewelers, with the entire first floor serving as a showroom.
Hammett had answered an ad in the paper and was desperate for more money, as he had a second daughter on the way. Samuels paid him $350 a month which was roughly four times what he was previously making from his combined pension and stories for Black Mask magazine.
The job was wonderful and freeing for Hammett but short lived. With the extra cash flow, Hammett indulged too much in alcohol and speakeasies ended up in a pool of blood one day on the office floor–a result of contracting hepatitis mixed with a recurrence of his tuberculosis. He was forced to quit in early 1927.
A decade before Hammett joined the world of Samuels Jewelers, Albert S. Samuels purchased a large four-sided clock for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition that stood outside his store. When the store moved to 856 Market street in the early 1940s, the clock moved with it and has stood there ever since.
John’s Grill
63 Ellis Street
The first downtown restaurant to open after the great San Francisco earthquake, John’s Grill opened in 1908 just two blocks off of Union Square. It’s served dozens of politicians, Hollywood elite, and businesspeople such as Steve Jobs, Francis Ford Copola, Andy Warhol, Shirley Temple, and Hilary Clinton.
It’s always been a place for movers and shakers. But it really hit the map with a line from The Maltese Falcon describing detective Sam Spade at the grill: “went to John’s Grill, asked the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked potato, and sliced tomatoes, ate hurriedly, and was smoking a cigarette with his coffee when…” You can still order Sam Spade’s meal for a mere $44.95.
Look for the bird, the falcon that is, in a cabinet on the second floor. The current falcon is a replica of a replica. The first that sat perched here for decades was one of a few plaster replica props from the 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart. It was stolen from the restaurant in 2007 and even a $25,000 bounty couldn’t get it back.
The new bird was designed by the Academy of Art sculpture department and was unveiled to a room of nearly 100 fans, including Dashiell Hammett’s granddaughter, nine months after the theft.
There were two 45 pound falcons made for the 1941 film, one of which was actually used by Bogart while making the movie. This falcon sold at auction in 2013 for $4 million.
John’s Grill was the first literary landmark in San Francisco. Its plaque was presented by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library on June 27, 1997.
Dashiell Hammett Apartment
891 Post Street #401
Hammett lived in this apartment building deep in the Tenderloin between 1926 and 1929 when he penned his first three novels: Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), and what is considered to be his best work, The Maltese Falcon (1930). It is believed that Hammett’s anti-hero protagonist, detective Sam Spade, also lived at 891 Post Street.
Though there’s no data to prove what units Hammett and Spade lived in, it’s surmised that Spade’s apartment was based on Hammett’s, which was situated on the northwest corner of the fourth floor, or unit 401. The literary landmark plaque was erected in 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle branch of Friends of Libraries USA.
Please note: The Tenderloin neighborhood is an area of San Francisco where the fentanyl crisis is especially apparent. Please be aware.
The James Flood Building
870 Market Street
In the early 20th century, the Flood Building housed the local offices of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency where Hammet served as an operative from 1915-1922. Pinkerton dates back to 1850 and was once used as personal security for Abraham Lincoln.
Adjacent to the Powell Street cable car turntable, the Flood Building was completed in 1904 and is one of few in San Francisco to have survived the 1906 earthquake. It is one of the city’s designs by architect Albert Pissis.
Walk across the street and into the Westfield shopping center to view the stunning dome he created for the old Emporium department store. Pissis also designed The Mechanics’ Institute Library–a personal favorite.
TIP: Walk into the lobby of the James Flood building for display cases on San Francisco’s history. There is an additional “Maltese Falcon” prop from the film featured here. The placard reads that it is from the collection of John Konstantinis–the owner of John’s Grill. Does he own two?! I will need to do some detective work.
If you’re looking for an even more in-depth look at Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco, look no further than Don Herron. He’s been giving tours of Hammett’s San Francisco since 1977 and knows more than anyone in the city about this topic. However, at the time of this writing he’s paused his tours to take care of his health.
That’s the best of Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco! Think we missed something major? Let us know in the comments.
