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V. C. Morris Gift Shop

1940s architecture in the United StatesBuildings and structures completed in 1948Buildings and structures in San FranciscoFrank Lloyd Wright buildingsModernist architecture in California
San Francisco Designated LandmarksUnion Square, San Francisco
Moriss Gift Interior HABS CAL,38 SANFRA,160 7
Moriss Gift Interior HABS CAL,38 SANFRA,160 7

The V. C. Morris Gift Shop is located at 140 Maiden Lane in downtown San Francisco, California, United States, and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948. The store was used by Wright as a physical prototype, or proof of concept for the circular ramp at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.All of the built-in furniture is constructed out of black walnut, is original to the renovation, and was designed by Manuel Sandoval, who apprenticed and worked with Frank Lloyd Wright.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article V. C. Morris Gift Shop (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

V. C. Morris Gift Shop
Maiden Lane, San Francisco

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N 37.788315 ° E -122.405889 °
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V.C. Morris Gift Shop Building

Maiden Lane Maiden Lane
94107 San Francisco
California, United States
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Moriss Gift Interior HABS CAL,38 SANFRA,160 7
Moriss Gift Interior HABS CAL,38 SANFRA,160 7
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Nearby Places

Sutter Cinema

The Sutter Cinema was located on Sutter Street in downtown San Francisco, just off of fashionable Union Square and a few blocks from Chinatown. It was a walk-up, on the second floor 363 Sutter, occupying the space that had previously been one of America's premiere Chinese-owned night clubs, Charlie Low's Forbidden City, which featured dancer Coby Yee. The Sutter Cinema opened in 1970; the owner/manager, also cashier, was Sexual Freedom League member, and one of Janis Joplin's closest friends in high school, Arlene Elster. She was the first, if not the only, woman to operate an adult theater. The clientele was middle-class. Asian-Americans from nearby Chinatown also frequented the cinema because Elster was one of the few customers of the legendary Sam Wo restaurant to be on friendly terms with its notoriously abusive head waiter Edsel Ford Fong, who she provided with an ample supply of free passes. The Sutter Cinema was unique, because in pointed contrast to the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre, Elster was not primarily motivated by money. She was a member of the Sexual Freedom League, held a benefit for it at the cinema, and felt that her participation in the pornographic film industry was an opportunity to spread sexual freedom as well as earn a living. She was showing sex films out of a feeling that sex films should be shown: "the times now not only allow but require films like ours." She would only show in the theater films that pleased her, some made with her partner Lowell Pickett. "Sutter Cinema played films that Elster wanted to see, films in which woman possessed sexual desires and 'made it' just like men." Elster intended to show erotic films that showed more than a penis going into a vagina. She felt that "erotic film needed to be made of, by, and for men and women. Female orgasms need to be portrayed on the screen at an equal rate to male orgasms." "In December 1970, the cinema with Leo Productions sponsored a five-day erotic film festival toward this end" ("to elevate pornographic film to a higher level of respectability." (To accommodate the crowd, the festival was held at the 800-seat Presidio Theater, but a poster for it says "Sponsored by the Sutter Cinema.") Mary Rexroth's film Intersection (1971) had its premiere at the Sutter, where she also showed the Mary Rexroth film Cozy Cool (1971) and gay porn films. Mary Rexroth is the daughter of the late poet Kenneth Rexroth. The First International Erotic Film Festival gained a modicum of literary cache thanks to the presence of festival judges, critic Arthur Knight and erotic book publisher Maurice Girodias. As a result, the festival drew the attention of the producers and talent spotters of the Johnny Carson Show, who invited Elster to do a segment on the program, which aired in January, 1971. By 1975 Elster was disenchanted, because of police harassment (she was arrested 14 times, and paid a fine of $1000) and the lack of quality movies to show. From 1975 to 1976 she sublet the cinema, moved with her lesbian partner to Sonoma County, and, like Fred Halsted, operated a wholesale plant nursery. The cinema closed shortly after.

The White House (department store)

The White House was the first department store in San Francisco; it opened in 1854 and closed in 1965. It was originally named Davidson & Lane, then J.W. Davidson & Company, and finally, in 1870, when it moved to a large new building, took the name "The White House".The White House's long-time owner, Raphael Weill, was a prominent "philanthropist, epicure, and patron of the arts". Weill was a French Jew born in Phalsbourg, Lorraine, France. He arrived in San Francisco in 1853, joined the firm in 1855 at age 18, became a partner in 1858, and in 1885, became senior partner. He was a prominent member of the Bohemian Club, a founder of the French Library, and a patron of the French Hospital. He was an uncle of the founding brothers of Lazard Frères. Weill was appointed as a chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur in 1908. He died in 1920.In the 19th century, the company was known for its progressive treatment of its employees, closing at 6pm and on holidays, offering annual paid vacations, paid sick time, and commissions on sales.The Davidson & Lane Dry Goods Company originally opened in 1854 at the corner of Post and Grant. It moved to Kearny and Post on December 7, 1870, with the new name The White House. After that store burned down in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the third location, designed by Albert Pissis and clad in white terra cotta, was at Sutter and Grant, with street address 256 Grant Avenue. It closed on January 1, 1965, at which time it was housed in four buildings. After remaining vacant for several years, the main building reopened as a parking garage on the upper floors, with restaurants and retail stores including Tiffany & Co. and Peck and Peck at street level. As of 2021, the primary ground floor tenant is Banana Republic.