San Francisco - United Commercial Bank (formerly Bank of Canton)

The pagoda-like building on the corner of Grant Avenue and Washington Street is at present occupied by the Bank of Canton. It was built in 1909 as the Chinatown telephone office. From 1894 to 1949 there was a Chinese language telephone service which operated independently of the central San Francisco exchange; calls were put through manually. In 1847 the first San Francisco newspaper, the "California Star", was printed here.