Remember the good old shopping days of SF? No, we're not talking about when Valencia wasn't home to multiple places selling $300+ shoes, we're talking about the golden era of San Francisco department stores, almost all of which are lost to the sands of time.

But not completely lost! Not if the San Francisco History Association has anything to say about it. And they'll have plenty to say about it tonight, when Therese Poletti, local journalist and author of Art Deco San Francisco will "present a brief history of SF’s merchant princes and princesses and the department stores they founded."

Poletti is expected to cover once grand San Francisco institutions like "The Emporium, Roos Brothers, City of Paris, Hastings, H. Liebes, I. Magnin, Joseph Magnin, Ransohoff’s, O’Connor Moffett (now Macy’s), and Gump’s."

According to the History Association, this Poletti will discuss "the stores’ founders and specialties, the architecture and grand interiors, as well as the death of the family-owned department store."

Just think, after this event you might finally get some of the references in Carl Nolte's columns for the Chronicle! That might be worth the trip, alone.

What: Grand Emporiums of Old San Francisco
When: Doors open at 7 PM, program begins 7:45 PM
Where: St. Philip's Church, 725 Diamond Street (between Elizabeth Street & 24th Street)
Cost: $5, paid at the door

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