Produce Market
Unfinished History
The old Colombo Market gate, still standing today as the ivy-encrusted entry to the park in the picture at bottom.
The old produce market once occupied part of today's downtown, the areas near the docks stretching northward from the Ferry Building. You can see the low-rise buildings going off this 1947 photo to the top and right (west and north), and the produce market started right in that area. More photos below.
Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA
Galli Fruit Company
Photo: C.S. Snyder
Produce Market at Washington and Davis Streets, mid-1950s.
Photo: C.S. Snyder
These are the produce market owners who tried to fight the city's redevelopment plans for the site of the market. Joe Carcione is the young man 4th from the left, who later became TV's Greengrocer.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
Looking north on Davis near Washington. The tall building in distance with the cupola style top is the Matson Building, while the one next to it on the right is the Pacific, Gas and Electric Building. Today this view is blocked by the Embarcadero Center and other highrises.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
In these days the old produce market was the heart of Italian San Francisco, dominated by families from Genoa and the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland, Ticino. Local Italians led the founding of the Farmers' Market in 1943 at Market and Duboce, in part to overcome bottlenecks in distribution of locally grown produce during WWII.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
View westward on Washington from apx. Davis in the mid-1950s.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library
Same view west on Washington of the Golden Gateway Apartments and the edge of the INS building (center rear). This was the former site of the downtown produce market.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
The former site of the produce market in downtown is now a modern office development and the small park area.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
--Chris Carlsson
