Today The Gate has been torn down and replaced with nondescript condos in the Ed Lee/Willie Brown Developer Kickback style of architecture that is sweeping the City. But the door stoop still had “Fairmont” spelled out in chicken wire tiles. By the time I moved here that building housed Betty Wong’s laundry service. It wouldn’t have been the only drug store on the block because three doors up at the southeast corner of Pine and Jones was the Fairmont Pharmacy. Probably in 1915 when it was first built. I’m guessing it would have been in the unit off the lobby which is now an (unoccupied) in-law apartment. Which would support stories I’ve heard that there was once a pharmacy in the building. The pilasters in my lobby are replicas of the Rod of Asclepius, the symbol for medicine. “When you’re being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like you’re leading the parade.”
