I've heard stories from Dean Biersch about when they moved into the Hills Brothers building.  There were coffee cans littered about the floor, there were rail docks where the front door is, big chutes in the ceiling where coffee beans were dropped down and packaged.

The Embarcadero had no Muni tracks in the middle of it as it does now.  There were empty lots where customers used to park and walk across the street to the brewery.

The neighborhood basically used to be empty.  Now the ground floor of the building is home to many businesses and most of the upstairs floors are taken up by the Gap.