The four-story building was erected in 1853 by Henry Wager Halleck, later general in chief of the Union Army in the Civil War, in the "Barbary Coast" red-light district.

[1] It also hosted many frequenters of Coppa's restaurant, site of Goops murals, and illustrious visitors, among them The Crowd literary group, Jack London, George Sterling, Lola Montez, Lotta Crabtree, Gelett Burgess (and 'Les Jeunes'), Maynard Dixon, Frank Norris, Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, the Edwin Booths, and Mark Twain.

[1] The Montgomery Block was demolished in 1959, even though a preservation movement had begun to emerge in San Francisco.

[8] Author Helen Holdredge said "it is incredible to me that San Franciscans should be so little regardful of their past - every room of that building is filled with history".

At his inauguration as Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 1998, Lawrence Ferlinghetti mentioned "the classic old Montgomery Block building, the most famous literary and artistic structure in the West".