The Ghosts in 401

How does Dashiell Hammett fan William Arney know he's living in Hammett's old apartment? Simple: detective work.

Comments (0) By Mark Athitakis Wednesday, Apr 11 2001

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- In the novel, Sam Spade lives on Post Street near downtown, as does Arney.

- In one scene, Sam Spade tells a visiting group of con men that it's a three-story drop to the ground. Apartment 401 is on the fourth floor.

Anthony Pidgeon

Apartment Life: William Arney, with talismans of a former tenant.

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- Spade also says the only way out is past the bathroom door. Same with 401.

- Spade hears the sound of the elevator opening and closing, and the sound of policemen's footsteps. 401 is near enough to the elevator to make that reasonable.

- Apartment 401 is the only unit in the building that matches these criteria.

Arney, an architect by trade, has checked the building plans, talked with neighbors, and bent the ear of the building manager to sniff out his theory. "Of course [The Maltese Falcon] is a work of fiction," Arney says, "but of all the apartments in the building, this one fits the best." After figuring that, best as anyone can guess, he lives in Dash Hammett's old apartment, Arney has proceeded to ... keep quiet. "I didn't want to make a lot of noise about it," he says. "There's a little altruism about it, and I wasn't wanting to seek a lot of attention. I also didn't want my landlord to think it was valuable and get rid of me somehow."

Instead, he's made the place his renovation project: fixing the floorboards, installing a ceiling light, stripping paint off the window frames, and rehabilitating an old frosted-glass door he found in the basement to its former glory. He invested in a desk and padded rocking chair, which are mentioned often in the book. An early chapter of Falconmentions an alarm clock on top of a copy of Celebrated Criminal Cases of America, and Arney has both the clock and the book. He couldn't keep this a secret forever, so a few years ago he joined up with a Dashiell Hammett walking tour, hosted by longtime Hammett scholar Don Herron, correcting Herron when he pointed to the wrong apartment window. "Actually, the apartment isn't there," Arney told him, pointing in the right direction. "It's over there. I know, because I live there, and if you come up at the same time next week I can show it to you." Since then, a few dozen tourists from around the country have found themselves traveling up the Brigid O'Shaughnessy memorial elevator to Arney's home.

Herron, for his part, can't say with absolute conviction that 401 is the right apartment; he says he's heard tell of a Hammett-penned letter that cites 401, but he has never seen it himself, either in his personal research or while he was helping on the Selected Lettersproject. Still, he argues, The Maltese Falcon is as good a source as any to prove Arney right. "It certainly matches the descriptions," he says. "If it's Sam Spade's apartment, it has to be Dashiell Hammett's apartment."

891 Post wasn't the last place in San Francisco Hammett lived. In late 1929 he briefly moved up from the Tenderloin flats to the Nob Hill glamour of 1155 Leavenworth. But soon after, he was gone for New York City to enjoy the fame that The Maltese Falconbrought him. There, he'd write his last novel, The Thin Man, about a former detective who calls San Francisco home but, between the alcohol and the intrigues of New York, can't seem to find his way back.