San Francisco, circa 1854, from The Annals of San Francisco, 1855

Fred Tobin's 1850 painting—reproduced on our 2005 calendar—depicts Yerba Buena Cove, Clark’s Point, and Telegraph Hill, as viewed from Rincon Point (near Harrison and Front streets). By 1855, as this map from The Annals of San Francisco shows, San Francisco's original shoreline was already undergoing a radical transformation. In 1898, the intersection of Market and East (now the Embarcadero) would become home to San Francisco’s landmark Ferry Building.

"Stand at the Ferry Building, looking up Market street, and imagine the beginning of the city that spreads before you. First of all you must realize that this point of observation would, in those days, have been offshore, on the shallow water of Yerba Buena Cove. To the right is the scarp of Telegraph Hill, from which ships coming through the Golden Gate were sighted, and to the left is the lesser Rincon Hill, which is being cut away to provide a light manufacturing district. These marked the headlands of the cove, and the waterfront curved inland as far as…Market and Battery streets." –from Fred Brandt and Andrew Y. Wood's Fascinating San Francisco, 1924.

This map is available as downloadable wallpaper.

More about Telegraph Hill.

Our 2005 Poster is available in our Steam Gear Store.