A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

The view, circa 1900, over the San Francisco business district: Call Building in the center, Palace Hotel, Chronicle and Examiner on the left, Temple Emanu-El on the right

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

San Francisco city center ruins after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. They were still standing, despite being damaged: (1) Cole Building, now the central tower; (2) The Palace Hotel, now the Sheraton Palace Hotel; (3) Building Sheriff; (4) Emporium Department Store; (5) Flood Building.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Consider the streets of Powell and Market after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Flood building (right), Call Building and Emporium can be seen.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Market Street in San Francisco, all illuminated as a great white road to the NSJ’s Golden Jubilee, September 1900. The lighted structure is Call Call.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Looking at O’Farrell Street with Market Street in the background after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. The call building is on the cutting edge.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

The San Francisco Chronicle building is at the corner of Market and Kearny St. In the year 1895.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Hurst destroyed building after 1906 earthquake and fire.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

The Hurst Building, home of the San Francisco exam, lit up in 1899 to welcome home forces from the Spanish-American War.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Schematic diagram of 1895 in San Francisco Call comparing its skyscraper which will soon be opening the size of three of the tallest buildings in San Francisco. Of course it was much bigger.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Smoke can be seen coming from the Hurst building after the 1906 earthquake. The building was destroyed by fire.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Hearst building rubble on the third and market after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

June 1890 San Francisco Chronicle showcases its new office building on Market Street.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Picture 1904 of Market Street with the Chronicle building above the clock.

A brief history of a silly, expensive, and sometimes stupid skyscraper war

Smoke and flame flowed from the Call building after the 1906 earthquake. The structure was destroyed.

14/14 slice

The first salvo of the skyscraper war in San Francisco was launched – quite literally – by Adolf B.

Spreckels, the diabetic nephew of Klaus, was assigned to his father, and evidence later suggests that more than just something is wrong. So when M.H. De Young wrote of the San Francisco Chronicle in 1884 that the Spreckels Sugar Company could deceive investors, as Adolf fell into a deadly anger.

Early in the evening on November 19, 1884, Sprinkles de Jong followed to the Chronicle Building. De Jong was pushing to open a swinging gate in the back room when he heard someone screaming in his name. When he turned around, Spreckels opened fire.

De Young was struck several times in the trunk and barely survived the encounter. Speckels was charged with murder, but was later proven guilty of insanity. Thus, remarkably, the life of two of San Francisco’s richest men lasted.

For de Young, life meant expanding his empire, which he did in great style in 1890 when he opened the first skyscraper in San Francisco, the Chronicle Building. Ten stories high and almost obnoxious clock tower, it was the tallest building ever built on the West Coast.

This, of course, annoyed the Spreckels family who decided, as did the tremors, sometimes with astonishingly massive and gigantic gold, spending millions buying newspaper companies and building a huge building in their honor.

—

The skyscraper war in San Francisco was absurd, absurd and so brief, that in less than two decades it would be entirely nullified by the 1906 earthquake.

But Halson’s days were wonderful. The building was first built in Chronicle Building, which celebrated its opening in Market and Kearny with a massive 60-page memorial spread – the largest ever in the state.

The newspaper pointed out that the Chronicle Building was “the first and current building in San Francisco at present”, praising the temple’s lack of demonstration while also boasting of “tall tower projections”, “hanging balconies” and “handsome carving”.

A week later, Chronicle magazine ran another memorial section, this section is full of quotes from people and organizations who enjoyed the first memorial section.

And the headline stated, “They all liked it,” because it was such a wonderful, informative paper and not stuffed.

Spreckels undoubtedly disagreed, and they were in a plan to take the city’s top news. A few years after the Chronicle building opened, Adolf’s brother John bought The Morning Call. Her name was changed to San Francisco Call, and she almost immediately started work on her new home – the largest skyscraper soon to be in town.

“Chronicle was the first thing San Francisco called“ modern sky detectors. ”Soon followed the Mills and Crocker buildings. I wrote the call in 1895 and all these stories will now hide many stories.

The plans were amazing. It was 100 feet high from the Chronicle building, and completely dominates the San Francisco skyline from whatever direction you look. On the 13th and 14th floors were newspaper offices. Three “fast-moving” lifts transported visitors to the top floor restaurant. Passers-by in the market and the third can look at the basement press, resulting in crowded copies to be picked up by news newspapers.

In anticipation of the opening of the building, the call ran a special self-section entitled “Everyone praises it: everyone talks about it.” Dozens of random quotes from San Franciscan (all male) followed by politicians and police officers, almost all of whom somehow indicated the building was better than Chronicles.

One quote quoted: “Unique is a much offensive word, but it certainly can be used to compare this magnificent and luxurious structure with modern structures in any part of the world.”

“I’ve seen some buildings, but nothing pleases the eye, and nothing as cool and luxurious as the CALL Building,” added J. Wittier.

John McComb said, “I think it’s a weird chastity and a beautiful design for such a building.”

Whether it was chaste or not in the eye of the beholder, it achieved incredible success once it opened in 1898. For tourists and San Franciscans alike, it has become one of the city’s most visited attractions. Entertainment seekers can spend the afternoon in it, eating in a high-altitude restaurant for lunch before descending to the office levels to see the newspaper being made.

Hence, you may be wondering where their largest newspaper writer, William Randolph Hirst, fits. He does, but not until 1897.

That year, the notorious owner of the San Francisco examiner announced that he was building his shrine to the press, located between the Call and Chronicle buildings. For a while, rumors spread that he was planning a tower to bypass both. But Hurst needed to think nationally – he had newspapers across the country, all of which needed major headquarters. Instead, he has provided some money for large East Coast projects, and the examiner’s house will take a more modest form.

But the humble is relative – and craftsmanship is not what Hearst is best known for. The examiner’s coverage did not open the building any inconvenience as he now has the best building in the city.

On seven floors, the Hurst Building was much smaller than Call or Chronicle, but the examiner reassured readers that he had nothing of the characteristic weight of massive structures that … had no suitable place in subtropical California.

Instead of the ornate Baroque styles of his competitors, the Hearst Building is decorated in a Spanish Renaissance style. It had cool white halls, terra-cotta details, a tiled roof and red and yellow touches. The newspaper pointed out that the building was “superior to everyone on this coast”, and is “the most handsome and well-equipped newspaper building in the world.”

But the newspaper, as it became known, had less than a decade to destroy. On April 18, 1906, the earthquake struck. The three buildings survived the initial shock, but then fire started spreading through the city center. By evening, Market Street all the way to the seventh had one single flame wall. The interior of the Call building was burned from top to bottom, resulting in a flow of smoke and licking of flame like a deadly fountain.

Next door, two Chronicle buildings were burned for hours. By the time the fire caught fire, a newspaper row broke out.

—

But if there could have been an upward trend of destruction, then that was journalistic harmony.

Deprived of their palaces, staff at Examiner, Chronicle, and Call were moved across San Francisco Bay to Oakland Tribune offices. There, they published a joint paper, as one team to inform and assist the citizens of the Gulf region in those terrible days.

When the smoke faded, the newspaper row was not the same. The Chronicle building was rebuilt, but the company moved to Fifth and Mission in the early 1920s. The call moved to 74 New Montgomery Street, where it remained until it was purchased by the examiner in the 1960s. The examiner returned to his home on the third market; Hurst rebuilt the offices as a 13-storey high-rise.

All three original buildings exist in some form today. The Hurst building looks like after the earthquake. The call building cannot be recognized; today, it is a dim 21-storey office building known as the Central Tower.

And Chronicle Building, no doubt, M. De Young is pleased to become the luxury Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences is the clock tower.

Katie Dodd is a Senior Digital Editor at SFGATE. Email her: [email protected].

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