San Francisco City Hall 1906-04-20

1 clue in this photo

1Demolition core

A steel cage under an intact dome

The 1906 photo of City Hall shows a bare steel cage under the intact dome. Free-standing columns hold up an entablature, brick walls show behind them, and a horse and buggy give the scale.

The questionIf grand civic buildings had steel and brick cores, what did the fair palaces have inside?

Photo: Walter Curran Mendenhall · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco 1915 San Francisco City Hall Case file

Same kind of clue, elsewhere

Demolition core · Omaha 1898All of it goneAre there foundation remains under Kountze Park, and has anyone dug for them?

Demolition core · St. Louis 19041,500 buildings, almost none leftWhere did all that material go?

Demolition coreDanvers 2006: a crane to bring it downIf taking it down needed modern machinery, how was it built with horses?

Demolition coreA Euston Arch column from a canalWhere else did demolished stone end up, and what was taken out of the record?

Demolition coreBoston 1872: shells of stoneWhat did the fires clear, and what was put back?

All clues others missed →