Submitted by Kristi Wachter on
Sylvain Schnaittacher
About the Building
The Argonaut Club was a gentlemen's club founded in 1853 (as The Verein) by German and Jewish immigrants. The club quarters at Sutter and Grant were destroyed in the 1906 fire. In 1909, they began to occupy the second and third floors of their new home at the corner of Union Square.
The brick building has Renaissance revival ornamentation, including arched windows and belt cornices above and below the top story.
The upper attic story was added in 1920.
The Argonaut Club merged with the Concordia Club in 1939, and the combined club now makes its home on Van Ness.
The building at Powell and Post is currently home to Borders Books and, until recently, had a Disney story on the ground floor; earlier, the World Affairs Council of Northern California had offices at 421 Powell.
