773 Market St. S.F.

For those of you who follow the tool top site; you'll recall that we were lamenting the loss of access to Sanborn Fire Ins. maps. Thanks to a little reader participation and a couple of emails, we've regained very limited access to a few maps. Nothing like what we had, but S.F. ca. 1900 is better than nothing. That being said; in reference to ME's request for help regarding his token, please note the following;

This is what the block looked like  around the time of the Great Earthquake and Fire of April 18, 1906. Although refered to as the Call building (because his newspaper was headquartered within), the "skyscraper" was  formally named the Claus Spreckles Building.

The following Sanborn maps shows the relationship of the "token business" to the surrounding occupancies.

Last, but not least, is a view of the block shortly after 2PM on April 18th,1906. One resident named Charles Kendrick stated "…walking up Market Street. The sight I looked upon was appalling! Everywhere my eyes could reach were collapsed buildings, and the whole street was piled high with fallen bricks and masonry. And the South of Market area was ablaze on a wide front. …I saw little of the living — a soldier on horseback and two or three men scurrying in and out of still-standing buildings. But I saw more of the dead — half a dozen or more men who had been killed, evidently by collapsing walls, lying where they had been struck; and as there was no one to remove the bodies, they were undoubtedly cremated in the advancing flames."  No more billiards, at least for a while~