[1] In the 1870s, Montgomery Street South was established in its place as the southern extension of Montgomery Street, one of the main thoroughfares in San Francisco's Financial District, running north from Market to Telegraph Hill.

The extension was strongly supported by businessman and Bank of California founder William Ralston – who started the construction of the original Palace Hotel, at the time the largest hotel in the Western United States – in an effort to expand San Francisco's business district to the yet undeveloped area south of Market.

[2][3] Ralston's original plans to connect Montgomery Street to the waterfront failed due to the unwillingness of two property owners (governor Milton Latham and shipping baron John Parrott) to sell their mansions on Rincon Hill, which is why Montgomery Street South never got past Howard Street.

Among the companies headquartered on New Montgomery Street are OpenTable, Trulia, the Wikimedia Foundation, Lumosity, Terracotta, and, as of fall 2013,[6] Yelp.

New Montgomery Street is home to the main campus of the Academy of Art University.