GRAFTON TYLER BROWN (1841 – 1918)—lithographer, viewmaker, mapmaker, printer, publisher, businessman, and artist—made a unique contribution to 19th-century San Francisco’s cultural landscape. His prodigious lithographic talent is manifest in views of Santa Rosa (for Kuchel and Dresel) and Virginia City (for Charles C. Kuchel), as well as views of Santa Clara and San Francisco (both collaborative efforts with Charles B. Gifford). G. T. Brown also contributed views to Moore & DePue’s 1878 Illustrated History of San Mateo County, California, securing his exalted position in the lithographic history of the West.

In 1872, G. T. Brown gave German immigrant Max Schmidt a job: “There was a colored man who had a lithograph establishment at 520 Clay street. He did business under the name of G. T. Brown & Co. Otto Schoening was his lithographer. Otto conceived a great liking for Max and gave him a stone to conjure with. Max had the thick, heavy hands of a sailorman, but he must have had some aptitude for lithography, for we find him going onward and upward.”–Elford Eddy, The Log of a Cabin Boy, printed by Schmidt Lithograph Company, 1922.

In 1882, Brown left San Francisco to explore the Cascade Mountains with the Canadian Geological Survey. The clock tower of Max Schmidt’s old lithograph company, at Second and Bryant, is familiar to Bay Bridge commuters. After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, it was built to hold water for the Schmidt Lithograph Company’s sprinkler system.

What happened to Anchor Brewing in 1906?