Ferry Building & the Embarcadero

The Tower That Outlasted Its Purpose

Stand where Market Street meets the water and look up. The clock tower above you is 245 feet of steel and brick, and the four dials facing north, south, east and west are each 22 feet across — large enough to be read from a ferry deck a quarter mile out. You will hear guides repeat that the tower was modeled on the Giralda, the bell tower of the Seville Cathedral. That story is wrong, and has been for a long time. No drawings, no letters, no contract in the architect's papers support it. The architect was A. Page Brown, and the plans were drawn up in 1892, six years before the building opened on July 13, 1898. Brown died before his terminal was finished, and never saw the crowds it was designed for. The resemblance is there; the inheritance is not. Count the four clock dials on the tower above you and read the hour from where you stand.