A panoramic view of San Francisco spreads across albumen silver view published by Thomas Houseworth & Co., numbered 355 in their San Francisco series and dated 1870 on the mount. The vantage point is an elevated position at the corner of California and Powell Streets, directing the eye northeast across the city toward the bay. Tall-masted sailing vessels are visible in the distance, their rigging faint against the hazy silhouette of the hills beyond the waterfront.

In the foreground, a two-story Italianate residence anchors the composition, surrounded by a circular carriage drive planted with young cypresses and ornamental shrubs. Behind it, a dense grid of commercial and residential blocks recedes toward the waterfront, punctuated by church spires, flagpoles, and rooftop chimneys. A low clapboard outbuilding with a shed roof occupies the lower center of the frame.

Thomas Houseworth & Co. operated at 317 and 319 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, and received the highest prize, a bronze medal, at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867 for the superiority of their stereoscopic and mammoth photographic views of Pacific Coast scenery. The reverse of this card reproduces both faces of that medal on a pink ground.

The mount imprint reads "Thomas Houseworth & Co., San Francisco" on the right vertical border, with "San Francisco" in decorative script on the left. The lower right reads "355. Looking North-East, from corner of California and Powell streets."