Domenico (Domingo) Ghirardelli

With the recent sale of Ghirardelli Square to Jamestown, an Atlanta-based real estate investment firm, I thought it would be interesting to look at the life of the man who started the signature San Francisco business which was located where the Square now stands. The huge Ghirardelli 15-foot sign that stands above one of the 12 buildings on the Square marks the place where chocolate was once made (1894-1964). Although Ghirardelli Chocolate is no longer owned by the Ghirardelli family and is no longer a product that is produced in San Francisco, the buildings and sign have become a landmark of San Francisco and a part of San Francisco history. According to Jamestown, 12.4 million visitors come to the shopping complex each year, making it a popular tourist destination. With permission of its author, this biography is excerpted from “The Ghirardelli Story” by Sidney Lawrence (a descendant of Domingo Ghirardelli), published by the California Historical Society’s quarterly magazine, California History (Vol 81, No 2) in 2002. Lawrence, a member of Il Cenacolo, now lives in Washington DC.