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Ghirardelli Square
Ghirardelli Square
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	Ghirardelli Square
Location:	San Francisco, CA
Coordinates:	37°48′20.53″N 122°25′18.46″W / 37.8057028°N 122.4217944°W
Architect:	Mooser,William S., Sr.; Mooser,William S.
Architectural style(s):	No Style Listed
Governing body:	Private
Added to NRHP:	April 29, 1982
NRHP Reference#:	82002249

Ghirardelli Square is a landmark with shops and restaurants in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco, California.

Ghirardelli Square once featured over 40 specialty shops and restaurants, in addition to the Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop, known for its world famous ice cream sundaes.

Ghirardelli Square is undergoing an extensive renovation. A luxury hotel and fractional ownership property by Fairmont now occupies many of the buildings in the square. Many of the specialty shops have closed or moved to other locations (inside or outside the square). In the main plaza there are new shops and restaurants including Kara's Cupcakes, Lola of North Beach, Lori's Diner, Cellar360, Crown & Crumpet Tea Salon, Elizabeth W, and Wattle Creek Winery. The square also recently opened a new children's day care center, Peekadoodle Kids' Club. Notably, Gary Danko will soon open a second restaurant within walking distance of his famous original San Francisco eatery. This new restaurant will be in the Mustard Building along with the Fairmont Heritage Place. [1][2]

Ghirardelli Square

Some of the original shops and restaurants still occupy the square, such as McCormick & Kuleto's restaurant.

In 1893, Domingo Ghirardelli purchased the entire city block in order to make it into the headquarters of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the early 1960s, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was bought by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company which moved the headquarters off-site to San Leandro and put the square up for sale.

San Franciscan William Roth and his mother bought the land in 1962 to prevent the square from being replaced with an apartment building. The Roths hired landscape architect Lawrence Halprin^[2] and Wurster Bernardi and Emmons to convert the square and its historic brick structures to an integrated restaurant and retail complex, the first major adaptive re-use project in the United States. It opened in 1964. In order to preserve Ghirardelli Square for future generations, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.