Hunter-Dulin Building and French Chateau Spire: The Romantic Tower

Why is it significant?

Look up at the romantic, fairytale silhouette of the Hunter-Dulin Building at 111 Sutter Street, commanding the corner of Sutter and Montgomery Streets.

Key Facts

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Look up at the romantic, fairytale silhouette of the Hunter-Dulin Building at 111 Sutter Street, commanding the corner of Sutter and Montgomery Streets. Completed in 1927 by prominent New York architects Schultze and Weaver—who famously designed the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan—this twenty-five-story skyscraper is designed in the opulent French Renaissance Chateauesque style. Rising three hundred eighty-five feet above the financial canyon, its textured granite base transitions into pale terracotta piers, crowned by a dramatic steeply pitched slate mansard roof, decorative copper dormers, and stone spires.

Walk into the grand banking hall and lobby to marvel at the soaring vaulted ceilings painted with Renaissance heraldic shields, gilded rosettes, and Romanesque arched doorways. During the golden age of radio in the late 1920s and 1930s, the upper floors housed the West Coast broadcasting headquarters of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), where live radio dramas, musical variety shows, and news bulletins were broadcast across the Pacific.

Film lovers will recognize the exterior of 111 Sutter Street from John Huston's 1941 classic noir film 'The Maltese Falcon'. The building was featured on screen as the location of the fictional detective agency of Miles Archer and Sam Spade, cementing its status in Hollywood cinematic lore. Generations of travelers, artists, and neighborhood residents have gathered at this very location, inspired by the unforgettable panorama where dramatic coastal wilderness meets monumental human innovation. Generations of travelers, artists, and neighborhood residents have gathered at this very location, inspired by the unforgettable panorama where dramatic coastal wilderness meets monumental human innovation. Generations of travelers, artists, and neighborhood residents have gathered at this very location, inspired by the unforgettable panorama where dramatic coastal wilderness meets monumental human innovation.

In 2001, the building underwent an extensive seismic retrofit and restoration that cleaned decades of industrial soot from its delicate French terracotta ornamentation.

Walk north along Montgomery Street for one block to the corner of Bush Street, standing before the monumental Russ Building.