Ghirardelli Square occupies the red-brick complex built between the 1890s and 1910s for the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, founded by Italian immigrant Domingo Ghirardelli in 1852. The company made chocolate here until 1962, when it moved production across the bay.
Rather than demolish the factory, a group led by William Matson Roth bought it and converted it into one of the first adaptive-reuse retail centers in the country, a model later copied across the United States. The illuminated Ghirardelli sign on the roof is a landmark, and an old-fashioned ice cream and chocolate shop still operates inside.
Part of a self-guided walking tour
