Reid Brothers, architects

Elise Drexler

A prominent philanthropist and significant property owner in San Francisco during the early twentieth century, Elise A. Drexler is notable in San Francisco history for associations with the women's rights movement. She quietly undermined prescribed gender roles in San Francisco during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. She worked outside the women's club system as a philanthropist, and as a property owner she supported burgeoning tenant businesses, including A. P. Giannini's Bank of Italy (later Bank of America). She was a property developer and capitalist and was a public figure during her highly publicized court case challenging the practice of restricting the sale of a woman's inherited real property based on a woman's potential or former potential to produce offspring.

— lifted from a California State Parks landmark porfolio (Acrobat PDF, scroll down to page 16 for Colombo Building entry)

The original owner of the Garfield Building [938-942 Market Street], Elise Abigail Drexler is noted for being one of the first active woman landholders/developers in San Francisco. She was born in 1866 in Mendocino as the daughter of businessman William Kelly. She attended Mills College and later moved to San Francisco, where she had some social prominence. She began acquiring real estate under her own name in the early 1890s. In 1893, she wed Louis P. Drexler, a man twice her age who gained his fortune from a variety of industries. Upon his death in 1899, she inherited his entire estate, which she managed for over fifty years. As well as being an astute businesswoman, Mrs. Drexler also involved herself in local social causes including endowing the Convalescent Hospital and School for Crippled Children in Palo Alto. Mrs. Drexler died in 1951.

— swiped from 942 Market Street (developer's promo site for the renovated Garfield)

Colombo Building (1913), 1-21 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco

Reid Brothers projects for Mrs. Drexler

as far as I know, these are Reid Brothers projects: Drexler Estate Bldg. (1908, 938-942 Market, now the Garfield), Drexler & Preston Estates Bldg. (1910, 117-129 Post St.), Colombo Bldg. (1913, 1-21 Columbus, pictured above), Drexler Estate Bldg. (1910[?] Front & Clay, razed, now Embarcadero Center)

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