Ghirardelli Square

The story

A failed Gold Rush miner turned his disappointment into America's third-oldest chocolate company, housed in a former Civil War uniform factory that became the nation's first adaptive reuse project.

Everything that was here

• 1852–present · still open

  Ghirardelli SquareShopping Complex

  A failed Gold Rush miner turned his disappointment into America's third-oldest chocolate company, housed in a former Civil War uniform factory that became the nation's first adaptive reuse project.

  See the map in 1853 →
• 1852–1964

  Ghirardelli Chocolate FactoryFactory

  A Genoa confectioner's apprentice chased the Gold Rush to San Francisco and built America's longest continuously operating chocolate company.

  See the map in 1853 →

Nearby history