A crowd of men gather in front of a storefront, believed to be a general merchandise store with wares displayed in the window and along sidewalk. The location of this photograph has been identified as the 800 block of Clay Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood based on another wider view of Clay St. held by the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library. flkr commentator Doug Chan writes “at the northwest corner of Clay and Dupont was a general merchandise store identified by a 801 Dupont St. address.” This is located at the far right side of this photograph, near the telephone pole. On the second floor above the men and at far right on the corner of the building are signs for the dental offices of Dr. Charles S. Lee, listed in the 1901 Crocker-Langley San Francisco directory with an address of 806 Dupont Street, the next street over from Clay. Corner sign on second floor states: Chas. S. Lee. Dentist. Modern Styles  All Work Guaranteed. 806 Dupont St. (and?) Clay St. (perhaps these were additional dental treatment rooms for Dr. Lee across from his main Dupont St. office?)

Believed to have been taken ca. 1901, along with other known dated examples by the artist, this is a very early example of documentary street photography by Sigismund Blumann, who had only begun taking photographs seriously the year before while living in San Francisco.