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City of Paris Dry Goods Co.
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City of Paris Dry Goods Co.
The City of Paris Dry Goods Company (later City of Paris) was one of San Francisco's important department stores from 1850 to 1972, located diagonally opposite Union Square. In the mid-20th century, it opened a few branches in other cities of the Bay Area. The main San Francisco store was demolished in 1980 after a lengthy preservation fight to build a new Neiman Marcus, but the store's original rotunda and glass dome were preserved and incorporated into the new design.
The store's history is rooted in the 1849 California Gold Rush. The company was founded by the brothers Felix and Emile Verdier in May 1850 when Emile arrived in the San Francisco Harbor from France on a chartered ship, the Ville de Paris (City of Paris), loaded with silks, laces, fine wines, champagne, and cognac. In France the brothers had owned a silk-stocking manufacturer operating in Nîmes and Paris. When the Ville de Paris anchored in San Francisco Bay, locals in skiffs quickly surrounded the ship, snapping up all the goods piecemeal then and there. Many purchases were made with bags of gold dust. Emile Verdier quickly returned to France for a second load, and when he reached San Francisco in 1851 he opened a small waterfront store at 152 Kearney Street called the City of Paris. The store's Latin motto (Fluctuat nec mergitur, "It floats and never sinks") was borrowed from the city seal of Paris.
The store's final and best-known location was a Beaux-Arts building designed by architect Clinton Day, built in 1896 on the corner of Geary and Stockton streets across from Union Square.
The Verdier family initially created a famous restaurant in Paris in 1839 La Maison Dorée by Louis Verdier and then the Etablissements Gaston Verdier (textile industry in France).
The San Diego branch of the City of Paris opened in 1886 in the Bancroft Building on the southeast corner of Fifth and G Streets in what is now the Gaslamp Quarter. The building was designed by San Francisco architect Clinton Day.
In the 1940s, City of Paris opened a branch in the outlying Vallejo, California, and other locations around the Bay Area.
French emigre Auguste Fusenot (French Consul in Los Angeles 1898–1907) arrived in the U.S. in 1873 and soon became a partner in the City of Paris Dry Goods Co. After learning the business, he founded the Ville de Paris department store on Broadway in Los Angeles in 1893. It later became the B. H. Dyas Co., and in the 1930s, it went out of business, its two locations becoming the Broadway Hollywood and Myer Siegel (downtown).
The historic sign in Oroville, CA was refurbished in November 2023.
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City of Paris Dry Goods Co.
The City of Paris Dry Goods Company (later City of Paris) was one of San Francisco's important department stores from 1850 to 1972, located diagonally opposite Union Square. In the mid-20th century, it opened a few branches in other cities of the Bay Area. The main San Francisco store was demolished in 1980 after a lengthy preservation fight to build a new Neiman Marcus, but the store's original rotunda and glass dome were preserved and incorporated into the new design.
The store's history is rooted in the 1849 California Gold Rush. The company was founded by the brothers Felix and Emile Verdier in May 1850 when Emile arrived in the San Francisco Harbor from France on a chartered ship, the Ville de Paris (City of Paris), loaded with silks, laces, fine wines, champagne, and cognac. In France the brothers had owned a silk-stocking manufacturer operating in Nîmes and Paris. When the Ville de Paris anchored in San Francisco Bay, locals in skiffs quickly surrounded the ship, snapping up all the goods piecemeal then and there. Many purchases were made with bags of gold dust. Emile Verdier quickly returned to France for a second load, and when he reached San Francisco in 1851 he opened a small waterfront store at 152 Kearney Street called the City of Paris. The store's Latin motto (Fluctuat nec mergitur, "It floats and never sinks") was borrowed from the city seal of Paris.
The store's final and best-known location was a Beaux-Arts building designed by architect Clinton Day, built in 1896 on the corner of Geary and Stockton streets across from Union Square.
The Verdier family initially created a famous restaurant in Paris in 1839 La Maison Dorée by Louis Verdier and then the Etablissements Gaston Verdier (textile industry in France).
The San Diego branch of the City of Paris opened in 1886 in the Bancroft Building on the southeast corner of Fifth and G Streets in what is now the Gaslamp Quarter. The building was designed by San Francisco architect Clinton Day.
In the 1940s, City of Paris opened a branch in the outlying Vallejo, California, and other locations around the Bay Area.
French emigre Auguste Fusenot (French Consul in Los Angeles 1898–1907) arrived in the U.S. in 1873 and soon became a partner in the City of Paris Dry Goods Co. After learning the business, he founded the Ville de Paris department store on Broadway in Los Angeles in 1893. It later became the B. H. Dyas Co., and in the 1930s, it went out of business, its two locations becoming the Broadway Hollywood and Myer Siegel (downtown).
The historic sign in Oroville, CA was refurbished in November 2023.
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