wnp27.50286

Geary & Van Ness

January 1, 1947

View northeast across Geary St. toward Van Ness Ave. Municipal Railway (Muni) C-line Streetcar #7. Almond Blossom Restaurant (later Tommy's Joynt) at right. The Almond Blossom became Tommy's Joynt in June 1951 when famous SF singer Tommy Harris, who ran his first Tommy's Joynt five blocks east at 645 Geary from 1940 to 1946, bought the Almond Blossom from Al Pollack. (PF) Ernest Ingold Chevrolet dealership across Van Ness, and Richelieu Hotel. Mercury dealership at left. Birdcage traffic signal.

from: Peter Field email: pfield1@comcast.net message: David: use as much or as little of this as you like: The Almond Blossom became Tommy's Joynt in June 1951 when famous SF singer Tommy Harris, who ran his first Tommy's Joynt five blocks east at 645 Geary from 1940 to 1946, bought the Almond Blossom from Al Pollack and reopened it as Tommy's Joynt a couple of years after he closed and sold his second club, the House of Harris at 555 Sutter (opened after the first Tommy's Joynt closed), because of tax problems. The Van Ness and Geary building was constructed by a woman (name unknown) in 1895 as The Martinet, a very toney bachelor's lodging house with a Whist club in the storefront space.(“Rooms To Let,” SF CH, 4/30/1895, 11; “A Bachelor’s Paradise,” SF Call, 11/10/1895, 17) It was run under a succession of owners and opened to families in 1904. In June 1906 it was remodeled as the Hotel Martinet (that block being unscathed by the fire), later the Martinet Hotel, and the Martinet Apartments, this last in 1924. It was the Mullanay Apartments in 1958, after which the lodgings address no longer appeared in the city directories. Sometime after that the upper three stories were razed, leaving just the storefronts on the first floor. (WNP also has more frontal photos of the building at 67.0617; 67.0610; 25.5455)