Part of History

RAPAPORT... Over the past 150 years, Shreve & Co. has attained enviable status as the oldest retail store in San Francisco.

Situated in the same downtown location in its self-named building for the past century, Shreve & Co. is a 6,000-square-foot store that caters to a wide swath of San Francisco’s diverse populace and tourists.

Richard Horne, president of this venerable firm for 14 years, speaks of his San Francisco clientele as old friends. This is partly because Shreve’s event calendar is filled with activities that support the city and various charities, allowing ample opportunities for developing personal relationships with customers.

Another positive factor for fine jewelry sales is the overall style of San Franciscans, who are generally more conservative in dress than southern Californians. They typically wear traditional business suits, embellished with classic fine jewelry. It may not be the bling of Los Angeles, but the aura of quality and style count. Pearls and diamonds are especially popular.

DIAMONDS AND DESIGNER JEWELRY

At Shreve & Co., diamonds and diamond jewelry contribute about 50 percent to total sales, says Horne. The most popular qualities are G to H in color, VS to S1 clarity, but higher and lower grades are also offered. Average prices run the gamut from $5,000 up to $25,000, but customers are most concerned with better-quality diamonds, says Horne.

Name-brand diamonds do excite some interest and curiosity, but they are not the center of this retailer’s business. Roberto Coin’s Cento and Hearts On Fire are featured brands. For these and nonbranded diamonds, certificates are important, but it’s more important to let the customer decide on the diamond first and then offer the cert to complete the sale, explains Horne.

Designer jewelry brands include Italians Roberto Coin, Marco Bicego and Chimento, American brands David Yurman, Aaron Basha, Martin Flyer, Suna and Hearts On Fire and international names Mikimoto and Wellendorff. Status watches include Patek Philippe, Cartier, Baume & Mercier, Rolex, Harry Winston and Officine Panerai.

Shreve & Co. takes pride in the full-service menu it offers to its customers, says Horne. Included are appraisals for insurance replacement, generous upgrade and trade-in allowances and estate buying, in addition to jewelry, watch and clock repairs.

Shreve & Co., originally a silver producer, still sells items relating to its early history. One of the most notable items created by the silver manufacturing division was a sterling silver shovel used by U.S. President William H. Taft in 1911 to break ground for the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition, an event that introduced the city as a major financial center. The original shovel is currently on display in a San Francisco museum, but the retailer had made good use of its provenance by selling tiny silver shovel charms for more than a century.

DANCE CARD IS FILLED

Shreve’s event calendar is crowded with social and charitable events that benefit both national and local charities. In recent years, these have included the refurbishing of the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Ballet’s ENCORE! and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Typically, these events are orchestrated and planned by a collective group. The retailer’s salespeople call their clients, invitations are sent to the store’s mailing list and the charity sends invites to its patrons and local media.
Advertising is an important way to reach Shreve’s client base as well as the city’s many tourists. These include tie-ins with co-op vendors, print ads in local newspapers — usually found in the Sunday style sections — and radio ads.

Of particular note in 2006 was the retailer’s March anniversary celebration that was tied in with the city’s remembrance of the 1906 earthquake. San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom honored the retailer by proclaiming March 19, 2006, as “Shreve & Co. Day.” This distinction began with a nonstop three-day party and kicked off a busy schedule of special events and sponsorships throughout the year.


Sidebar: The Phoenix of San Francsico

In 1852, brothers George and Samuel Shreve set out from their home in New York, sailed around the tip of Panama and up the California coast to San Francisco, which at the time was a rapidly developing gold rush city. They established the Shreve Jewelry Store at the corner of Montgomery and Clay Streets, filling it with European fancy goods and California-manufactured jewelry. Soon, the new retailer began to design and manufacture fine-quality silver pieces, using native silver.

In 1894, following the deaths of the Shreve brothers, the store was incorporated as Shreve & Co., with George Rodman, the son of George Shreve, as president. The store now stood on Market Street, across from the Grand Palace Hotel, where it was patronized by the newly wealthy residents of the city.

In March 1906, Shreve & Co. moved to the ground floor of a newly constructed building at Post and Grant. The 11-story building was made using steel construction — the newest engineering technology of the time — and named the Shreve & Co. Building. A month later, the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 destroyed most of the city.

Amazingly, due to its construction, the building remained standing. James Murphy, who joined the company as a cash boy in 1894 and retired 74 years later as a vice-president, told about racing to the store to help secure as much merchandise as possible in the building’s fireproof vaults. They managed to pack more than $750,000 worth of jewels, watches and silverware in the vaults as fires raged through the city. When employees later returned to the ruins of the store, they found the safe was intact, but they were forced to wait three weeks before it cooled sufficiently to open. Aside from a few scorched records, everything was unharmed.

When World War I broke out, Shreve & Co. was converted to war production, manufacturing airplane parts for the government. The silversmiths traded their delicate jewelry-making tools for sledgehammers, but by the end of the war, Shreve & Co. returned to producing luxury goods.

Over succeeding years, the store changed hands several times. After many years of private ownership, the Dayton Hudson Corporation purchased Shreve & Co. in 1967. The corporation closed the silver factory, ending the career of California’s oldest silversmith and the last major regional silversmith in the United States.

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - February 2007. To subscribe click here.