The epicenter of the Hollister earthquake (Mt=5.1) of November 28, 1974, is located near the center of an 81-line trilateration network which has been surveyed annually since 1971. Five lines in the neighborhood of the epicenter were surveyed just 2 days before the earthquake, and two other lines nearby were surveyed 48 days earlier. Although some of these measurements suggest a possible preearthquake anomaly in line length, the anomaly is within the uncertainty in measurement. A comparison of the most recent preearthquake survey (June 1974) and the most immediate postearthquake survey (December 1974 to January 1975) of the entire network indicates a uniform linear contraction of about 0.8 ppm. This is most reasonably attributed to survey error even though a systematic error of that magnitude is unexpected. We conclude that no demonstrable preseismic or coseismic deformation was detected and suggest that an upper limit for these phenomena is less than 1 ppm in line length. A reasonable dislocation model for the Hollister earthquake yields coseismic changes in line length not greater than a few parts in 107, well below the limit of detection in Geodolite surveys.