The Ferry Building opened on July 13, 1898. Architect A. Page Brown designed it in a Beaux-Arts style, and its tower is 245 feet tall.
The clock was made in 1898 by E. Howard of Boston. Each dial is 22 feet across. It was once the world's largest wind-up mechanical dial clock, but it is now powered by electricity.
The building survived the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes with little damage. A freeway built in the late 1950s had hidden it from Market Street. The 1989 quake damaged that freeway, and it was fully gone by 1992, opening the waterfront again.