In 1886 Michael Crowley purchased 1541 Montgomery Street on Telegraph Hil[1]l and built a two-story grocery store. He later sold the property to John Mini, who replaced the store with a family home that burned down in 1917. In 1923 Julius Roz (1869-1943) bought the property and built a restaurant that he named Julius’ Castle. Roz had immigrated to San Francisco in 1902, working in several restaurants in North Beach[2] before having enough money to hire architect Luigi “Louis” Mastropasqua. Mastropasqua designed a castle similar in style to Telegraph Hill’s former Layman’s Wooden Castle which had officially closed in 1903. The restaurant’s wood frame was built using redwood salvaged from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition[3]. It was a pink two story structure with pointed arched windows and medieval battlements. The interior had the feel of a Victorian parlor and offered spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay. Roz lived in an apartment above the restaurant with his wife, daughter and two dogs. Because Montgomery Street was so narrow, a roundabout was installed in 1931 at the restaurant’s entrance.
While Julius’ Castle was a 64-seat restaurant, it also operated as a speakeasy during Prohibition[4]. But even after Roz’s death in 1943, it was a leading San Francisco destination and patrons included Robert Redford, Cary Grant and the entire cast of The Empire Strikes Back. The 1951 film The House on Telegraph Hill was filmed there. After Roz’s death there were multiple owners until the restaurant finally closed in 2007. Its current owner, Paul Scott, bought the the property in 2012 and got City approval to reopen in 2017; however, due to a pending lawsuit brought by neighbors objecting to crowds and noise, the restaurant remains closed.
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[1] Telegraph Hill: story coming March 4th [2] North Beach: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5026 [3] 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition: story coming February 20th [4] James “Sunny Jim” Rolph and Prohibition: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5365
