San Francisco and thereabout 1902
The business District
In former days the fear of earthquakes, together with the cheapness of wood, made people, as a rule, to construct low frame buildings. Now that the matter has been tested and earthquakes found to be far less destructive than the thunder storms of the East, tall stone buildings are no longer tabooed.
This was written four years before 1906. The earthquake and fire destroyed everything shown here. The Call Building was fifteen stories high. It withstood the earthquake well, but fire did it in.