USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 42
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The United Railroads after entering into possession of the various lines formerly operated by the Market Street Cable Company, the Omnibus Cable Company, the Park and Cliff line, the Powell street line, the Park and Ocean road, the Ferries and Cliff road and the Sutter street railway attempted to pursue a conciliatory policy. They did not urgently press the proposition to substitute the overhead trolley on Market street, but they put forth numerous arguments in advocacy of such a course, and urged the unsuitability of an under- Vol. II-19
Beginning of Hostility to United Railroads
Conciliatory Policy of United Railroads
764
SAN FRANCISCO
ground system for San Francisco whose topographical conditions differed greatly from those of the two Eastern cities where that method of electric traction was in vogue. It was perfectly clear that there was no intention to accede to the demand for an underground electric system on Market street, and the least astute observer had no difficulty in recognizing that a policy of wearing out antagonism had been entered upon by the corporation. Meanwhile, however, it was making extensive demonstrations of the utility of the trolley and illustrating its argument that it was desirable to make the entire street railway system symmetrical, so that the rolling stock of the company could be used to the greatest advantage, and for the convenience of the public. This attitude was seized upon to keep the dissat- isfaction alive, and the attacks on the refusal to provide an underground system on Market street were supplemented by assaults on the extension of the trolley on other thoroughfares. Opposition was made to the substitution of the trolley on the zigzag road which had been started as a horse car line and had been con- verted into a cable before the consolidation. There were harrowing prophecies that the sharp curves would prove deadly, if the overhead trolley were used, and other faults were found. It may be well to mention in this connection that none of these predictions were realized, and that no accidents whatever have occurred at the particular points denominated "death curves."
To these difficulties and not to any conviction that municipal operation of railways would prove either desirable or profitable to the community can be traced the movement to take over the Geary street line on the expiration of its franchise and operate it municipally. The first effort to that end was made at an election held on the 2d of December, 1902, when a proposition to issue bonds to the amount of $700,000 failed to receive the necessary two-thirds vote. There was, however, a majority in favor of the undertaking, the affirmative vote being 15,071 and 11,331 against. The crudest possible motions prevailed concerning con- struction. It was proposed to utilize the conduit in which the cable traveled for the installation of the underground trolley, and it was believed that the old road- bed constructed twenty-five years earlier could be adapted to the new system. Extravagant promises of improvement upon the service afforded by the existing roads were made, and it was promised that the equipment should be superior to any with which San Franciscans had theretofore been familiar. In the ensuing year, on October 8th, a second attempt was made to authorize an indebtedness of $710,000 for the construction of the road. It also failed, the vote being 14,351 for and 10,790 against. At both of these elections scarcely more than one-third of the citizens of San Francisco eligible to vote cast their ballots. After the second failure in 1903 no further attempt was made to revive the project of building and operating the Geary street road until 1909. In the meantime the City permitted the continued operation of the line under its original ownership, the consideration being the payment of a fixed proportion of the gross receipts into the treasury, the arrangement being terminable at the option of the munici- pality. No effort was made by the company to improve its service, but despite the fact that the rolling stock was poor, and that the cable traveled slowly, the line enjoyed considerable patronage during the many years that it was operated under lease, and on two occasions while strikes were in progress on the United Railroads system it carried as many passengers as during the palmiest days of its existence.
Attempts to Secure a Municipal Railway
COLDBERG, BOWEN & CO. GROCERS WINE
THE FIRE BURNING IN THE BANKING AND COMMERCIAL DISTRICT View down Pine Street from Grant Avenue
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765
SAN FRANCISCO
The first year after the United Railroads Company took possession of the system which bears its name there were 124,864,380 passengers carried by its lines; in 1905 this number had increased to 141,337,840. The gross earnings of the company in the latter year were $7,066,892 and the net $3,449,071. The outlook for greater increases in the near future was exceptionally good, and the fact brought about a recrudescence of the criticism which had been temporarily quieted. The growing prosperity of the City, and the tendency of the population to spread over wide areas, were forcing themselves on the attention of local cap- italists and making them keenly alive to the fact that they had permitted great opportunities for profit to pass out of their hands into those of outsiders. Al- though the agitation for municipal operation of the Geary street road had in a measure abated, there were still occasional articles in the press urging the idea that the taking over of all public service corporations by the City would prove a panacea for all the woes of San Francisco. There had, however, been a change of opinion in some quarters, and in 1905 men who had formerly been strong ad- vocates of municipal ownership reached the conclusion that the best mode of serving the public would be by competition, and to that end a scheme was projected the outcome of which, had it been carried into execution, would have given the City a rival street railway system. It was asserted at the time by some that the purpose of the projectors was not what it appeared to be on the surface, and that in reality the threatened rivalry was part of a plan to break down the invading holding company, and secure possession of the United Railways. Although alle- gations of this character were openly made, and the fact that the strongest capital- ist of the local financial coterie had successfully carried through at least two opera- tions of a like character, there was no doubt in the mind of the community respect- ing the integrity of the projectors, and when they declared their intention of apply- ing for a franchise or franchises which would enable them to create a rival system the announcement was received with general satisfaction.
There was no good ground for distrusting the purposes of the proposed rival system other than that mentioned. At the time San Francisco was in the throes of a great real estate movement; buildings were springing up in every direction; the City was spreading over the entire area embraced within the limits assigned to it by the Consolidation Act, and its people were finding their way into neighboring counties which were being provided with better transportation facilities. Nothing seemed clearer to the discerning than the probability that in the near future there would have to be a great addition to the means of getting about, and no reason sug- gested itself why two systems would not be better than a monopoly by a single company, and that composed of outsiders. Although pains had been taken to make rivalry difficult by the device of "corkscrew" routes, and by occupying two streets for a line where one would have sufficed, and been more convenient for patrons, there still remained enough thoroughfares to permit the construction of a complete system which could be made to serve the public as effectively as that already occupy- ing the field. In view of these facts it is somewhat extraordinary that instead of furnishing tangible evidence of carrying out the projected enterprise, those back of it appeared to think it necessary to cripple the existing system and to place ob- stacles in the way of its extension.
The rapid growth of population after 1900 made it imperatively necessary that there should be many additions made to the lines already operating. The real estate
Creation of a Rival System Threatened
No Obstacle in the Way of Rivalry
Population Growth and Activity
766
SAN FRANCISCO
records reflect this need in a positive manner. For a number of years after the sand lot troubles in 1877, although the people had not lost confidence, property was inac- tive and sales of realty had greatly lessened in volume. In 1875 the transactions aggregated over thirty-five millions. In the ensuing year they fell off over ten mil- lions and in 1877 there was another diminution. Every successive year witnessed a big drop, and in 1879 the total sales amounted to only $10,318,744. In 1885 they had increased a trifle, the aggregate being $13,134,354. After that year there was an expansion until 1890, when the figures of fifteen years earlier were passed, the total sales being $36,545,887. This improvement did not endure long. After 1890 there was a steady decline in the volume of sales until 1898 when the low water mark of 1879 was almost touched, the aggregate of transactions amounting to only $10,747,102. After 1898 a remarkable change occurred. In 1901 the sales were nearly three times as great as in 1898, reaching $29,147,969 ; in the ensuing year they nearly doubled, aggregating $47,396,512, and in 1905 they footed up $74,926,065, more than seven-fold the volume of seven years earlier. The building operations of the period were no less significant of prosperity than the trade in real estate. In 1895 the estimated cost of structures erected was $5,639,942; in 1898 it had fallen to $3,490,603. The increase after 1898 was very rapid. In 1900 buildings to the valne of $6,390,205 were put up; two years later the amount was doubled, the building operations representing an expenditure of $14,289,938 and in 1905 this total was enlarged to $20,111,861.
Building operations during the period of rapid increase were not confined to any section of the City. In the business district the replacement of structures still serv- iceable by others more substantial and of larger proportions was in progress, but the most noteworthy development was in the residential districts already existing, and in new sections which four or five years earlier were regarded as suburban local- ities. During the five years following 1888 building associations became very popu- lar and many new companies were formed. They were mostly conducted on the gross premium plan and their methods tended to greatly stimulate construction, espe- cially in neighborhoods where lots could be bought cheaply. In 1894 the gross assets of these associations aggregated $12,025,979 and the loans to members $10,954,648. Installments and paid up stock in that year were reported at $7,849,- 436, and the apportioned earnings were $2,406,657. About this time, however, the system received a serious setback through the failure of a contractor named Landers, whose transactions involved some twenty different associations. This trouble occurred in 1894-5. There were then 67 building societies. The number in 1905 had fallen to 48, and the volume of their business was greatly diminished, the apportioned earnings which were $2,406,657 in 1894 dropping to $1,239,878 in 1905. These promoters of thrift never regained their popularity in the City after the failure of the speculative contractor whose plunging propensities were largely due to the departure from the purely cooperative plan which characterized build- ings associations when first started in Philadelphia. The benefits of these associa- tions were greatly modified in San Francisco by the admission to membership of persons who had no intention of building or borrowing from the club, but merely sought a profitable investment for spare funds. This practice resulted in unduly stimulating borrowing by members who were unable to carry out their agreement when financial troubles arrested the progress of the City.
Building and Loan Associations
FIRE BURNING ON MARKET STREET, NEAR THIRD
767
SAN FRANCISCO
Concurrent with the unorganized effort to improve the appearance of the City, which manifested itself in a greater attention to architectural effect in the construc- tion of private residences and public buildings, there was formed in 1904 "The Association for the Improvement and Adornment of San Francisco." It was organized on the 1st of January of that year with James D. Phelan as president and soon attained a membership of over 400. The main object of the association was to promote in every practicable way the beautifying of the streets, public build- ings, parks, squares and public places of San Francisco; to bring to the attention of the officials and people of the City the best methods for instituting artistic munici- pal betterments ; to stimulate the sentiment of civic pride in the improvement and care of public property ; to suggest quasi public enterprises, and, in short, to make San Francisco a more agreeable city in which to live, and finally to discover and indicate the ways and means by which all these results might be attained. As a preliminary step to the accomplishment of the association's purposes, D. H. Burnham, the well known architect whose plans for the improvement of Washington, Cleveland, Chi- cago and Manila had made his name familiar to the nation, was invited to direct and execute a comprehensive plan for the adornment of the City. The result of the movement was an extended examination of the possibilities of improvement and development by Mr. Burnham who made a report which was published toward the close of the year 1905. It outlined a scheme of parks, streets and public grounds, and was profusely illustrated with diagrams and sketches of suggested improve- ments which were designed on a most liberal scale, and "for all time." In a preface Mr. Burnham admonished his readers that "while prudence holds up a warning fin- ger, we must not forget what San Francisco has become in fifty years and what it is still further destined to become."
The recommendations of Mr. Burnham were numerous and went much further than the most optimistic believed could be carried out in any American city, but they were accepted as a basis or starting point from which to work in the attempt to make San Francisco the most beautiful city in America. The San Franciscan of today when he surveys the mooted plans of Mr. Burnham will be inclined to regard them as incapable of realization, but the men back of the movement did not consider them visionary. The foremost suggestion in relation to the formation of a civic center took powerful hold on the imagination of the people, and it is now in a fair way of being realized. It was Mr. Burnham's opinion that "in a city as large as San Francisco is destined to be no central place will be adequate for the grouping of the public buildings. The civic center will therefore develop," he said, "in the form of a number of sub centers having for location the intersection of radial arteries with the perimeter of distribution," and at each of these intersections "there should be public places." The rectangular system of streets fastened on the City in the early days constituted an insuperable obstacle to the carrying out of the compre- hensive plan of Mr. Burnham. The outlay which would have been required to conform to his suggestions would have been enormous, and would have imposed a burden on the community which probably would have retarded instead of contribut- ing to its advancement.
As the suggestions of Mr. Burnham have been, or are being acted upon in a modified form it will be interesting to reproduce the most salient of them. That they should have been seriously considered at the time they were made testifies that the spirit of optimism was very pronounced in San Francisco. One of his centers
Plans for a City Beautiful
Architect Burnham's Recommenda- tions
Civle Center Plans in 1905
768
SAN FRANCISCO
contemplated a grouping of the city hall, court of justice, the custom house, ap- praiser's building, state building, United States government building and post- office in one place. A second set of groupings he suggested should comprise a library building, opera house, concert hall, municipal theater, academy of art, technical and industrial school, museum of art, museum of natural history, acad- emy of music, exhibition hall and assembly hall. These buildings, he urged, "should be composed in esthetic and economic relation, and should face on the perimeter of distribution, and on the radial arteries within, and in particular on the public places formed by their intersection, and should have on all sides extensive set- tings contributing to public rest and adapted to celebrations, fetes, etc." An outer boulevard following the sea wall, with public piers for recreation, a yacht and boat harbor, and vast bathing places both inclosed and open were included in the scheme. There were numerous other suggestions, among them an approach to California street hill, a connection of Divisadero street with Corbett avenue, a thoroughfare to radiate from the Pan Handle of the park at Baker street, diagonal arteries in the Sunset district, parking through the Sunset district, a parkway between Twenty-third and Alvarado streets, a Mission boulevard, a reconstruction of the principal arteries of the Mission, an Islais creek place, a tunnel through Ashbury Heights, Hillside streets instead of direct approaches where the grades are steep, Telegraph hill to be terraced and to plant the inaccessible streets; Russian hill to be terraced and planted in order that the driveway become as nearly as possible a parkway; Pacific Heights to be treated in a similar fashion; Lone Mountain to be left intact, the base only to be planted; Twin Peaks group to be approached with a continuous drive to the 800 foot level; the extension of Market street by grades around Twin Peaks, sweeping down into Lake Merced valley, to be joined at various levels by roads from the Mission, Western Addition, etc .; Portrero Heights to be encircled by a continuous roadway; the conversion of the city burying ground into a park; an amphitheater for Twin Peaks around which were to be grouped buildings for the accommodation of various branches of intellectual and artistic pursuits. A little open air theater after the ancient Greek style was included in this part of the scheme. Last but not least in this long list of projected improvements was the extension of the Pan Handle of the park to Market street at Van Ness avenue. The proposition embraced the taking of an entire block along a direct line with existing extension, the new parkway being bounded by Oak and Fell streets whose grades as a working roadway were to be left almost intact. According to this plan the Pan Handle would meet Market street at Van Ness avenue, "And the crossing of these three great thoroughfares," he said, "naturally indicated the center of the City. Acordingly this junction was to be a spacious concourse from which wide thoroughfares would radiate in all directions." The widening of Eighth street was also recommended, and it was suggested that the latter thoroughfare should be made broader, the result to be slowly attained by establishing new frontage lines.
The disaster of 1906 followed too closely upon the publication of this report to permit the expression of a judgment of the spirit in which it was received. At the time it was issued the community was on the crest of a wave of prosperity and inclined to hail with favor any suggestions which would stimulate the movement to make the City attractive. Mr. Burnham's plan in a measure disarmed criticism by the saving clause that the vast changes outlined were not to be effected in a day, but might require a half a century for their accomplishment. There were carpers, how-
Criticism of the Burnham Plans
The Call-Chronicle-Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1906.
EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE: SAN FRANCISCO IN RUINS
DEATH AND DESTRUCTION HAVE BEEN THE FATE OF SAN FRANCISCO. SHAKEN BY A TEMBLOR AT $4 O'CLOCK YESTERDAY MORNING, THE SHOCK LASTING 4 SECONDI AND SCOURGED BY FLAMES THAT BAGED DIAMETRICALLY IN ALL DIRECTIONS, THE CITY IS A MASS OF SMOULDERING RUINL AT SIX O'CLOCK LAST EVENING THE FLAMES SEEM- HOLY PLAYINO WITH INCREASED VIGOR THREATENED TO DESTROY EUCH RECTIONS AS THEIR PURT HAD SHARED DURING THE EARLIER PORTION OF THE DAY. BUILDING TICEIR VATN IN A TRIANGUAR CIRCUIT FROM THE START IN THE EARLY MORNING, THEY JOCKEYED AS THE DAT WANED, LEFT THE ROFINESS SECTION, WHICH THEY HAD ENTIRELY DE VASTATED, AND SKIPPED IN A DOZEN DIRECTIONS TO THE RESIDENCE PORTIONS AS NIGHT FELL THEY HAD MADE THEIR WAY OVEX INTO THE NORTH BEACH SECTION AND SPRINGING ANEW TO THE SOUTH THEY REACHED OUT ALONG THE SHIPPING SECTION DOWN THE WAY ENORE OVER THE HILLS AND ACROSS TOWARD THIRD AND TOWNSEND STREETE. WAREHOUSES. WHOLESALE HOUSES AND MANUFACTURING CONCERNS FELL IN THEIR PAYH. THIS COMPLETED THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENTIRE DISTRICT KNOWN AS THE "SOUTH OF MARKET STREET," HOW FAR THEY ARE REACHING TO THE SOUTH ACROSS THE CHANNEL CANNOT BE TOLD AF THIS PART OF THE CITY IS IHUT OPP FROM SAN FRANCISCO PAPERS.
AFTER DARKNESS THOUSANDS OF THE HOMELESS WERE MAKING THEIR WAY WITH THEIR BLANKETS AND ICANT PROVISIONS TO GOLDEX GATE PARK AND THE BEACH TO FIND SHELTER THOME IN THE HOMES ON THE HILLS JUET HOWTH OF THE HAYES VALLEY WRECKED SECTION FILED THEIR BELONGINGS IN THE STREETS AND EXPRESS WAG- ONS AND AUTOMOBILES WERE HAULING THE THINGS AWAY TO THE EPARSELY SETTLED REGIONS, EVERYBODY IN SAN FRANCISCO IS PREPARED TO LEAVE THE CITY. FOX THE RELIEF JE FIRM THAT BAN PRANCISCO WILL NIG TOTALLY DESTROYED
DOWNTOWN EVERYTHING IS EUIN NOT A HURINESS HOUSE STANDI THEATRES AME CRUMBLED INTO KLAPS. FACTOMIKE AND COMMISSION HOUSES !!!
THEIR FORMER SITEL ALL OF THE NEWSPAPER FLANTS HAYE SEEN KENDERED USELESS. THE "CALL" AND THE "EXAMINER" BUILDINGS, EXCLUDING THE
"CALL'S" EDITORIAL ROOMS ON STBYENSON STREET BEING ENTIRELY DESTROYED.
SHOULDERINO' ON
IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THE LOSS IN SAN FRANCISCO WILL REACH FROM THEREDLION TO $:00.000.000. THESE FIGURES ARE IN THE ROUGH AND NOTHING CAN BE TOLD UNTIL. PARTIAL ACCOUNTING IS TAKEN.
ON EVERY SITO THERE YAS DEATH AND SUFFERING YESTERDAY. HUNDREDS WERE INJURED, KITHY YURNKD, CRUSHED OR STRUCK NY FALLING PIECES FROM THE AUILO. IN- AND ONfulltig Tly WIR WHUB/ON, THE OPOPERATING YASLE AT MECHANIOS' PAVILION, IMPROVISED AL A HỒINTAL PON THE CƠMPONY KHU CARE OF X ỐI THE THỊURED THE NUMBER OF DEAD IS NOT KNOWY AUT IT IS ESTIMATED THAT AT LEAST SI HET THEIR DEATH IN THE HORROR
AT MINE O'CLOCK, UNDER A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT ROCLEVELT, THE CITY WAS PLACED UNDER MARTIAL LAW. HUNDREDS OF TROOPS PATROLLED THE STREETS AND DROVE THE CROWDS RACK. WHILE HUNDREDS HORE WERE SET AT WORN ASSISTING THE FIRE AND POLICE DEPARTMENTS THE STRICTEST ORDERS WERE 1ISDED, AND IN TRUE MILITARY SPIRIT THE SOLDIERS OSEYED OURING THE AFTERNOON THREE THIEVES WET THEIR DEATH HYRIFLE BULLETS WHILE AT WORK IN THE RUINS THE CURIOL'S WERE DRIVEN BACK AT THE SPEARTS OF THE HORSES THAT THE CAVALRYMEN BODE AND ALL THE CROWDS WERE FORCED FROM THE LEVEL DISTRICT TO THE HILLY SECTION SE- YOND TO THE NORTH
THE WATER SUPPLY WAS ENTIRELY CUT OFF, AND MAY BE IT WAS JUST AS WELL, PON THE LINES OF FIRE OXPARTMENT WOULD HAVE SEEN ABSOLUTELY USELESS AT ANY STAGE ASSISTANT CHIEF DOUGHERTY SUPERVISIO THE WORK OF HIS MEN AND LAFLY IN THE WORKINO IT WAR KEEN THAT THE ONLY POSSIBLE CHANCE TO SAVE THE CITY LAT IN EFFORT TO CHECK THE FLAMES BY THE USE OF DYNAMITE. DURING THE DAY A PLAET COULD BE HEARD IN ANY RECTION AT INTEBYALS OF ONLY A FEW MINUTES, AND BUILD. INGS NOT DESTROYED BY FIRE WERK BLOW) TO ATOMS. NOT THROUGH: THE GAPS MADE THE FLAMES JUMPED AND ALTHOUGH THE FAILURES OF THE HEROIC EFFORTS OF THE PO- LICK FIREMEN AND SOLDIERS WERK AT TIMES SICKENING, THE WORK WAS CONTINUKO WITH A DESPERATION THAT WILL LIVE AS ONE OF THE FEATURES OF THE TERRIBLE DISAL TER. MEN WORKED LIKE FIENDE TO COMBAT THE LAUGHING, KOARING, ONRUSHING FIRE DEMON.
NO HOPE LEFT FOR SAFETY OF ANY BUILDINGS
BLOW BUILDINGS WHOLE CITY CHURCH OF SAINT MAYOR CONFERS UP TO CHECK IS ABLAZE IGNATIUS IS DESTROYED FLAMES
WITH MILITARY AND CITIZENS
At 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon 30 tupresrttativo cierra el
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The magnificent church mở San Francisco arn tho Mayer, the Chief of Police und the Dattel College từ Bu Iguarias en de Sures Editary authoribes to the police office on the basement of (the Bat of Justice. They trở been rummenes thither by Map-
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¿o Schumsitz early in the formsoon, the fateful possibckties of the
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