It may not be the first place San Franciscans think about going for their fresh bread these days, but Boudin Bakery is one of the remaining vestiges of San Francisco's "49er" days in the early Gold Rush.

A stalwart, for tourists anyway, at Fisherman's Wharf, Boudin Bakery turns 175 years old this year, having been founded as a bakery in North Beach in 1849. It joins Tadich Grill in celebrating that milestone, though Tadich arguably was "born" when John Tadich bought and renamed it in 1887, and it was more of a coffee stand when it was founded under a different name in 1849.

Boudin French Bakery, as it was called, was founded by Isidore Boudin, who came to San Francisco from Burgundy, France, from a family of master boulangers there. Legend has it that Boudin was given some sourdough starter, or "mother dough," from another prospector he met — sourdough bread was already popular among the miners coming through town — and he used it, along with his French technique, to create loaves that were a big hit with customers.

The generally accepted wisdom is that, apart from a scarce few who struck gold fortunes early on, the vast majority of men who came to San Francisco in search of fortune ended up with very little. And the ones who actually made sustainable fortunes from that era were the ones selling the pickaxes, panning supplies, the jeans (Levi's), and the food that these gold seekers needed while they were in town.

Isidore Boudin — pronounced "boo-denh" in his native France, but "boo-deen" in his adopted home — grew his business as the city's population quickly grew. SF had just around 20,000 residents in 1849, but there were around 50,000 people here by 1853, just four years later, when Boudin French Bakery moved into 319 Dupont Street (now Grant Avenue) in North Beach.

Boudin remained a bachelor until he was 37 years old, at which point he married 21-year-old Marie Louise Erni, who went by Louise, in 1873. In that era, as the company website recounts, fresh Boudin loaves were delivered by horsedrawn carriages to homes around San Francisco. "Customers added a nail to their front door and the baker would slam the loaf onto the nail, thus announcing the bread had arrived."

The couple ran the bakery on Dupont Street together until Isidore Boudin's death 14 years later, in 1887. And Louise and her teenage daughter Lucie then ran the bakery together, relocating to larger digs at 815 Broadway in 1890.

Louise and Lucie Boudin at the bakery on Broadway in the 1890s. Photo courtesy of Boudin Bakery

That location would last until 1906, when it would end up destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, and Louise Boudin would then relocate baking operations to where they remain today, at 399 10th Avenue, at Geary, in the Richmond District.

As the legend goes, during the fire, Louise grabbed a wooden bucket that had the mother starter in it, and fled — saving this starter, which has been fed every day for 175 years, that was the core of the business.

Louise would eventually pass away at age 69 in 1921, and both she and Isidore Boudin are buried in Colma.

The bakery changed hands over time, and was bought by a bakery employee, Italian baker Steven Giraudo, in 1941, and Giraudo was instrumental in maintaining the tradition of wild-yeast fermentation at the operation as commercial yeasts and other processes became more common in the 1950s and 60s. Giraudo ended up selling it in 1993 to what was known as the San Francisco French Bread Company — a result of a 1983 merger with Oakland-based Colombo Baking — and Giraudo's grandson, Daniel, ultimately reacquired the business in 2002. Boudin bread is now sold at Costco and elsewhere, and there are a couple dozen bakery cafes around California.

Owner Steve Giraudo with some loaves in an undated photo.

Boudin Bakery opened a small location at Fisherman's Wharf in 1975, but that was replaced by the current flagship "Baker's Hall" at the Wharf, which opened in 2005 along with Boudin Bistro.

And while other companies have come along that have continued to put San Francisco bread on the national and international map — notably Acme in the 1980s, and Tartine in the 2000s — it Boudin that truly created what the country came to know as San Francisco sourdough.

As this essay on FoundSF explains, the strains of yeast and bacteria that are specific to San Francisco's foggy microclimate would later be dubbed Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. And these wild cultures, which have given rise to newer, crustier artisan breads, are largely similar to what gave birth to Boudin's French-style sour loaves back in 1849.