The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-24
1.-THE CALLS" NEW HOME,
Work of Preparing the Site for
the Foundation to Com
mence To-Day.
NEW ERA IN THE soUTHsIDE.
The People VIII Soon See the Most
MAGNIFICENT Tower Building In
the United States.

Work on the new home of THE CALL at
the corner of Market and Third streets
will commence this morning, and it will
be pushed uninterruptedly until San Fran
cisco's model magnificent structure is fin
ished.
Yesterday a gang of workmen under in
structions from Charles Wolfnger, fore
man for Contractor Buchanan, dug num-
Der of postholes to receive the posts on
which will be constructed the fence re-
quired by law to be erected in front OF
houses in course of construction for the
safety of pedestrians. That was the pre-
Iminary work, and it was watched all the
afternoon by great crowds OF people, who
declared that it was an earnest of the
intention of Claus Spreckels to carry out
his purpose of erecting the most striking
and artistic tower building in the United
States.
The inclined slope for teams has been
prepared from the southern Thlrd-street
end of the property TO the present level
below gra de, and this morning as many
men and teams as Contractor Buchanan
can conveniently work will be on hand to
commence clearing the site for the laying
of the substantial foundation on which
will rest the grand pile of iron, stone and
marble. The site will be leveled fifteen
feet below the official grade of the streets
named, and as soon as it is ready the lay
ers of concrete will go on with the work Of
preparing the most solid base ever put to-
gether for any building.
The soil is sand, and was part of the base
of sixty-foot sand hill that prior to 1852
was one OF the striking monuments OF the
then young City. At that time that por-
ton of San Francisco westward and south
ward was a portion of Pleasant Valley"
There were undulating sand hills and sand
dunes covered with oak, lockwood and wild
flowers. The site of the Nucleus building
was far below the present grade, and there
was in the center mOss-covered pond, the
home of the croaking bullfrogs. Rabbits
ran wild in the brush, and ducks were
hunted in a pond near the corner Of Fourth
and Howard streets.
Across Third street at Howard there was
an immense sand hill. That was before
Jim Estelle, the Warden of San Quentin
prison, built the first building of any pre-
tension south of Market street, with brick
from the prison-yard. 1t still stands on
the west side of Third street, south of
Howard, and runs down to the corner of
Tehama. Before that hill was cut down
to open the way to Folsom street, Third
street had been graded, after fashion, to
connect with the Mission plank road,
winch was On the line OF mlSSlOn street
and was the outlet TO the Mission Dolores.
AT that time, too, Sam Brannan built on
the site of the Grand Opera-house a row
of one-story, peak-roofed cottages that
were imported from the East in sections
and came around the Horn.
But when the City began to extend the
steam paddy was set to work to level the
obstructing sand hills, and an advancing,
enterprising civilization converted the
dreary sand hills into a living city, filed
with industrious workers.
A new era is now upon the City, and par
ticularly in the section described. THE
CALLS new building. which will adorn the
site upon which it stands, will be the first
of many handsome structures that in time
will be built along the line of Third street,
and replace the many that now are a dis
grace to the principal artery that leads to
the depot, to which thousands are forced
to go in order to leave the City for the
South and Southwest. And while 1T will
be the first, it no doubt for many years
will remain the grandest monument OF
architecture, having one front on the City s
main avenue and another on one of the
principal thoroughfares.