Bank of Canton

One of Historic Chinatown's Originals

Description

From 1847-1849, this was the site of the first newspaper in San Francisco, The California Star, published by Sam Brannan. The Bank of Canton was originally built to house the Chinese Telephone Exchange in 1909 after the first building was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. The female telephone operators who worked here each spoke not only English but also five dialects of Chinese. They also memorized the names of every one of their customers because in Chinatown people would want to be connected to a name, as it was considered to be rude to refer to a human being as a number. Therefore, to tell people with the same name apart, they also knew all of their addresses and job titles. The Telephone Exchange was closed in 1949, and the Bank of Canton took over the site in 1960. The building is a whimsical landmark and a historical part of Chinatown.