Norris had similarly scouted settings for his novel and chose the upstairs of a building on the corner of Polk and California street as McTeague 's dentist office , as well as many of the saloons and lunch counters in the area . Stroheim discovered that many of the locations that Norris had described , such as Polk Street , had been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , but he was able to find suitable period locations on Hayes and Laguna streets . For authenticity , Stroheim had no sets built in San Francisco and only redecorated existing locations , such as saloons , butcher shops , and wooden shacks , thus saving on construction costs
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Greed (1924 film)