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Old Chinese Telephone Exchange Review
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Old Chinese Telephone Exchange
- Address: Bank of Canton, 743 Washington St., Chinatown, San Francisco, CA | Map It
- Category: Architectural Sites
- Location: Chinatown
Fodor's Review:
After the 1906 earthquake, many Chinatown buildings were rebuilt in western style with pagoda roof and fancy balconies slapped on. This building -- today the Bank of Canton -- is the exception, an example of top-to-bottom Chinese architecture. The intricate three-tier pagoda was built in 1909. The exchange's operators were renowned for their prodigious memories, about which the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce boasted in 1914: "These girls respond all day with hardly a mistake to calls that are given (in English or one of five Chinese dialects) by the name of the subscriber instead of by his number -- a mental feat that would be practically impossible to most high-schooled American misses."
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