Union Square, the square of Victory

In front of you is the commercial heart of San Francisco. The square was set aside as public space in 1850, but its name came a decade later: huge pro-Union rallies were held here on the eve of and during the Civil War, when it was far from clear which way California would lean.

1Victory and her model

The central column is the Dewey Monument, dedicated in 1903 to celebrate Admiral George Dewey's naval victory at Manila Bay in 1898, during the Spanish-American War. The figure on top, Victory, was sculpted by Robert Aitken, and his model was Alma de Bretteville, a young woman who soon afterwards married sugar magnate Adolph Spreckels and went on to become one of the city's great patrons of the arts.

2Fire and rebuilding

The St. Francis Hotel, on the west side, opened in 1904 and was gutted by the 1906 fire. It was rebuilt and became the city's grand meeting place once again. Beneath your feet there's another curiosity: the underground garage, designed by Timothy Pflueger and completed in 1941, was billed as one of the first in the world built under a public square.

At Christmas a giant tree and an ice rink go up here; the rest of the year, the square is where shoppers and strollers meet.

3What to look for

• Victory, on top of the column, with her trident.
• The facade of the Westin St. Francis, on the Powell Street side.
• The cable car climbing Powell Street beside the square.