[1] Designed by Irvin Goldstine for contractor John "Jack" S. Malloch and his publisher son, John Rolph Malloch, the building was used as a filming location in 1947's Dark Passage, a noir work starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

They determined to build an apartment which would provide them with fine dwellings and also with income from the rental units it held.

[2][3] The building site is on a steep hill, so the street-level entrance at the upper edge of the property is not the lowest floor.

Ellison oversaw construction of the primarily wooden frame structure, built atop a foundation and two utility floors made of reinforced concrete to meet exacting state requirements for stability.

[2][4] Muralist Alfred Du Pont (also known as Dupont) was hired to design images to decorate the exterior.

Du Pont produced two 40-foot (12 m) high silvery figures in sgraffito, or raised plaster, on the western facade of the building, and a third on the north side.

Scalloped steel railings line the central staircase which is anchored by a glass brick column.

The Mallochs successfully argued that their structure stepped back in progression up the slope of Telegraph Hill so that the top floor was not directly above the garage.

In 1937, the two Malloch men moved into the two penthouse suites in the 12-unit apartment building, collecting rent from the other 10 tenants.

In the film, Humphrey Bogart, playing an escaped prisoner, is invited by Lauren Bacall into her apartment unit, Number 10 on the third floor of the Malloch Building.