Sherman's Bank in Jackson Square
Historical Essay
by Dr. Weirde
Bank of Lucas, Turner and Co. as it appears today
Photo: Shaping San Francisco
The Bank that General Sherman Built
Bank of Lucas, Turner & Company, 800-804 Montgomery Street. The construction of this bank, completed in 1853, was supervised by William Tecumseh Sherman, who later, in his career as a Civil War general, made history by laying waste to much of the state of Georgia. As the most destructive general in what was then the bloodiest war in human history — the first war in which mechanical means of mass slaughter were effectively employed—Sherman's name is still reviled in the South. Southerners visiting San Francisco may gaze upon this bank and bemoan Sherman's abandoning the business of construction for that of destruction.