Human Flower Project
Sidewalks of Delight
For 50 years, Harold Hoogasian’s flower stand bloomed in downtown San Francisco.
250 Post St.
San Francisco
Still from the film
Vertigo, 1958
Photo: Virtual Tour of “Vertigo”
Even a city as vibrant as San Francisco really has no heart, just veins: its pulsing streets.
That’s where Harold Hoogasian worked for more than 50 years. An Armenian immigrant who moved to the city as a ten year old boy, in 1928, Hoogasian sold flowers on the sidewalks and then set up his own curbside businesses. His flower stand at 250 Post St., just outside Gump’s department store, was a fragrant landmark of downtown San Francisco.
Hoogasian died June 9, at age 87.
Harold Hoogasian, 1918-2005
Harold Hoogasian, Jr. said his father “was a fixture at 250 Post…, a San Francisco character who always wore a suit and tie to work, a classy guy, a true gentleman always. He always said he was a member of the upper tier of the lower class.’’ Hoogasian senior operated several enterprises around the city and even ran for mayor; his descendants still run two flowers shops.
San Francisco is famous for its character. And the flower stand outside Gump’s, a splash of spontaneity and freshness in the city’s busy center, is just what elan is made of. In his spooky Valentine to San Francisco, Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock included a vignette at Hoogasian’s flower stand, where our nervous hero finds a blossom for his ladylove to wear.
Ten years ago, downtowners who considered the flower stand “an eyesore” tried to bump Hoogasian’s business into the alley around the corner. He fought back in court and prevailed.
Carl Nolte’s fine obituary in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle remarks, “The flower business, which essentially sells products that cheer people up, prospered in good times and bad.” Harold Hoogasian, fils, told Nolte, “My father always said that business was always best in an economic depression.’’
Likewise, both Hoogasian and Hitchcock saw how odd it is—and compelling—to come suddenly upon yellow chrysanthemums inside a foggy city.
Flower stand in San Francisco, 1940
Photo: America Hurrah