Ethereum

Highrise #81

Collection

Highrises

Description

**Central Tower** **Art by:** Chris Hytha **Story by:** Mark Houser Once the city's most famous skyscraper, this highrise was rendered unrecognizable by a 1938 Art Deco redesign that replaced its baroque dome with a new six-story top. A lobby display of bronze doorknobs emblazoned with "CS” are the only clue to its former identity as the Claus Spreckels Building. The German immigrant ran a grocery store and a brewery before opening a sugar refinery. With relentless focus, Spreckels built an empire of cane plantations in Hawaii, beet fields in California, factories, ships, and railroads to supply West Coast tables with sugar. When the San Francisco Chronicle alleged stock fraud, Spreckels's outraged son Adolph burst into its newsroom and shot the editor, Michael de Young. The victim survived, the assailant got away with a temporary insanity plea, and the rivalry intensified. Spreckels bought the San Francisco Call and built it a new headquarters overshadowing the Chronicle building across the street. The Call's tower rode out the 1906 earthquake intact but gutted by fire. It was restored and the presses rolled again, but Spreckels's oldest son, John, preferred San Diego and eventually sold the paper to Michael de Young. Adolph and his wife, Alma, avenged the family honor by building an art museum to dwarf de Young's, but he parried with an expansion; today cooler heads have combined the two institutions.

Traits

Style

Art Deco

City

San Francisco

Region

West