Thursday's Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco

If anyone knows anything about Dashiell Hammett, it was probably gleaned from Jason Robards's Academy award-winning portrayal of him in the 1977 film, Julia. Less likely from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 film, Hammett. Most likely you either heard the name Sam Spade or Maltese Falcon, his most famous literary character and work of fiction.

Born in 1894, as a young man he worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency from 1915 to February 1922 and was an actual private eye. From his real gumshoe experience he published his first short story in 1922.

He only lived in San Francisco for six years, but during that time he wrote some of his most famous stories - including the Maltese Falcon. Like Alfred Hitchcock, who only made two films in San Francisco, Hammett’s work and style became synonymous with the city-by-the-bay. Private detective Sam Spade, a jaded man-of-few-words with a dark past, became an archetype in crime fiction.

San Francisco’s foggy atmosphere and dark alleys lent itself well to Hammett’s minimalist style and the city became a character of sorts in its own small manner. So much so that he incorporated real San Francisco locations into his stories.

The Hunter–Dulin Building at 111 Sutter Street is a real place most notably known as the location where Sam Spade and his fictional partner, Miles Archer, had their offices. But before Sam Spade opened his own agency he worked for Continental Operations, or “Continental Ops,” which was his fictionalized version of the real Pinkerton Detective Agency Hammett once worked for.

The Flood Building

Continental Ops, though not a real thing, had offices in the very real Flood Building at the foot of Powell Street where the cable car turns around. Sam Spade ate at the very real John’s Grill, which still occupies the first floor of the Flood Building today some one hundred plus years later and counting. In fact, John’s Grill displayed one of the four remaining Maltese Falcon statues made for the film and the legacy of the Maltese Falcone is very much part of their motif.

In 1988, San Francisco renamed 12 streets for famous literary figures, and he was one of them. He briefly lived on a one-block alley called Monroe Street, which has been renamed Dashiell Hammett Street. In an ironic twist of geographic fate, half a block from there is Burritt Street. This was the back alley where Miles Archer was shot, and which sets the chain of events of the Maltese Falcon into motion. Today there is a small plaque commemorating the fictional event.

The typewriter he used for many of his stories holds a special place in the History Room of the main branch of the San Francisco library.

Sixty-five years after his passing, Hammett’s legacy still looms large. He lived for many years at 891 Post Street, in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

In 2005, the Friends of Libraries, USA, commemorated and dedicated the site as a literary landmark. To this day, Dashiell Hammett’s apartment (Number 401) has been restored and its original design (with some of his real personal items) maintained for future generations to enjoy.