For over forty years this terminal was the gateway to San Francisco, one of the busiest transit hubs in the world; up to 170 boats a day used its wharves. Although the building is now a gourmet food hall, it still evokes images of the city's maritime past. The long horizontal lines of its wings, which resemble Romanc vaulted halls, continue the smooth sweep of the Bay. The clocktower, consisting of a four-stage belfry culminating in a cupola, introduces sea and city. It is modeled after the Giralda of the Cathedral of Seville, another great port city, whose tower makes a gradual transition from a square shaft to a skyward cylindrical cupola. The tower and twin Peaks provide fitting bookends for Market Street.
Arthur Page Brown
1896