The purple Victorian at 1712-1716 Fillmore Street carries two histories in one building. From 1949 to 1965, when it stood around the corner at 1690 Post, it housed Jimbo’s Bop City, the after-hours room where the Fillmore’s jazz era ran latest: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday all played its small back room after their paid gigs, sessions that ran toward dawn.
When redevelopment cleared Post Street, the building was physically moved here in 1980, one of the few structures saved. It then became the San Francisco home of Marcus Books, founded by Drs. Raye and Julian Richardson in 1960 and recognized as the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the United States. The San Francisco store closed in 2014 after an eviction fight; the Oakland store continues, and this building is a designated landmark for both legacies.
The stop is the sidewalk and the plaque-level knowledge: one moved Victorian holding the neighborhood’s whole arc.
