The second most common building type in the district, dwellings were built for one family or in some cases as boarding houses and are relatively inconspicuous. At one or two stories they are smaller than the predominant building type -- the flat. The majority of them were built on alleys or at the rear of lots with flats in front blocking the view from the street. The large number of dwellings in North Beach is evident on Sanborn maps and in aerial photographs. Those dwellings that face the streets and alleys are like dwellings in other parts of San Francisco in the period of reconstruction after the earthquake and fire -- one-story and two-story wood buildings with modest ornamentation. While they would appear to be like others in the number and arrangement of rooms, not enough is known about them to say what the interiors are like except that typically they had four or five rooms and were plastered inside, at a cost of $850 to $2,000. (San Francisco Call, 22 January 1908, p. 4) *An example is presented below in the plans for a two floor dwelling at 776 Union Street.