USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
A Great Wave of Prosperity
Eastern Criticisms and Predic- tions
824
SAN FRANCISCO
Evil Results from Mixing Commerce and Morality
The effect which might have been produced by sober criticism of the danger to a community of disregarding the necessity of keeping its civilization on a high plane was lost by treating the subject as though the main consideration was the material advancement of the City. The purely commercial argument that con- donation of vice, and the abuse of the taxpayers' interest by making public office a vehicle for extortion would repel decent people, and thus impede growth and commercial prosperity, was exultingly . answered by the men assailed, who pointed to the rapid increase of population, and the continuous expansion of busi- ness, and accepting the critic's commercial standard of measurement, they applied it to the existing condition and boldly claimed that it was produced by the party whose representatives were derided as incompetent and denounced as venal. It was a demoralizing view and the defense was confusing and succeeded measurably in diminishing criticism and fear. There were plenty who unhesitatingly affirmed that San Francisco need not shrink from a comparison with any other city in the country, and who were quite ready to accept as necessary many things which they knew to be evils, but which they had come to believe were impossible of eradica- tion or reform. Looking about them and seeing the many evidences which a com- plex civilization presents of earnest endeavor to promote the common good they were ready to scorn the fault finder, or at least to regard him with indifference. And indeed there seemed some justification for the resentment when the instru- mentalities for good were paraded and set over against the shortcomings, and there was ground for the assumption that they far outweighed the derelictions of the community. A mere statistical presentation of the varied activities of the City on the eve of the fire, if it had been the only surviving record of the disaster, in the hands of a historian writing a hundred years hence would permit him to assert with positiveness that it must have been inhabited by earnest people who mixed the serious with the pleasurable. To mark a terminating point, and for purposes of future comparison, the dry details of the stage reached by San Fran- cisco on the eve of its temporary arrestment of progress is recited. It will be found that they embrace many suggestive items which will enable the contem- plative to infer and the studious to conclude that the Pacific coast metropolis was in many respects what in the slang of the period was termed an "up to date" com- munity, while in others it was obviously deficient.
Of public buildings the municipality was provided with a city hall, a hall of justice, a county hospital, a county jail, an alms house, a hall of records, and the federal government had erected a mint, a postoffice, a custom house, an appraiser's building, a subtreasury and a marine hospital. The custom house, the subtreasury and the marine hospital were not modern buildings, and were on the eve of being replaced with structures worthy the importance of the City. The mint was a sub- stantial edifice, built in the classic style many years earlier, and the postoffice was comparatively new. The city hall, whose construction was begun in the early Seventies, and was not finished until late in the Nineties was illy adapted to the uses to which it was put, but it has cost between six and seven million dollars, and with its lofty dome presented an imposing appearance and was satisfactory to those who were not over critical. Of places of amusement there was no lack, although curiously enough the number was not much greater than could have been found in the City twenty years earlier. The list embraced the Alcazar on O'Far- rell street, the Bush street, on the street of that name, the California, also on Bush
Publie Buildings and Other Resorts
825
SAN FRANCISCO
street, the Columbia on Powell street, the Grove on the street of that name near Polk, the Majestic on Market street near Eighth, the Central in the same neigh- borhood, the Orpheum at 119 O'Farrell street, the Tivoli, on the corner of Eddy and Mason, and the Olympic Music hall. There was also a Chinese temple of the drama in which regular performances were given, and which enjoyed in addition to the patronage of the Orientals that of many visiting strangers. There were also numerous minor places, chiefly located in basements, some of which were euphe- mistically described as music halls, and others as "dives." The list of resorts was not a long one, but it indicated that this side of life was not wholly neglected, and that there was plenty of opportunity for outdoor diversion and sightseeing. There was Golden Gate park with its ample grounds planted wth rare trees and abun- dantly provided with lawns, rosaries and flower gardens, and containing within its boundaries the Midwinter Memorial Museum, children's playground, statuary, fountains and many miles of driveway. The Cliff house, and the adjoining Sutro Heights, and the baths constructed by Sutro also presented their attractions. For the sportively inclined, Central park. Ingleside Coursing park and the race track of that name presented allurements, while the Olympic Club for the benefit of its numerous members maintained extensive grounds. In the way of museums the Academy of Sciences offered an attractive exhibit, more visited by strangers than local sightseers, as was the case at the mint, whose interesting features were al- most unknown to denizens of the City, but were never overlooked by the tourist. There was also the nucleus of an art gallery honsed in the Searles mansion, which had been turned over to the Art Association by its owner, but it also, on account of its comparative inaccessibility, perched as it was on the brow of Nob hill, was better known by name to San Franciscans than appreciated.
The framer of this list of resorts might have included many other objects worthy the attention of the visiting stranger, but probably failed to do so because their enumeration would merely have emphasized the fact that San Francisco was not lacking in those features which contribute to the makeup of the complex social organization described as a city. He might for instance, have dwelt on the fact that included in the more than 70,000 structures of all sorts which were built on the hills, and which filled the level places of San Francisco, there were more than 170 churches and synagogues large and small in which the Christians and Jews worshiped, and that there were temples in which idolatrons Orientals made of- ferings to hideous images. Numerically the Catholics maintained the lead, their houses of worship described as churches aggregating 29, in addition to which they maintained 20 chapels in various institutions. The Methodists were provided with 24, the Presbyterians with 19, the Congregationalists with 16, the Episcopalians with 15, the Baptists with 10, the Lutherans with 9, the Unitarians with 2 and Swedenborgians and other sects, less strong in numbers, made up the remainder. The Jews had 12 synagogues, two of them imposing structures, architecturally creditable, and the Catholics embraced in their list of churches St. Mary's ca- thedral on Van Ness avenue, their first edifice of that character in the City having been turned over to the Paulist fathers, the diocese having outgrown it.
The temples of the money changers scarcely deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as those in which worshippers assemble, but architecturally they were as apt to impose themselves on the attention of the observant. There were forty-two of them of all kinds, ranging in attractiveness from the early classical
Churches Before the Fire
Social Activities at Opening of 1906
826
SAN FRANCISCO
home of the Bank of California, and the iron front of the Anglo California, to the more modern affair whose principal display was made on ample plate glass windows in the shape of gilt lettering. Of libraries there were nine worth men- tioning, none, however, conspicuously housed, the Public library being assigned to a wing in the city hall, and the Mechanics' institute collection was in a build- ing whose exterior proclaimed commercial rather than literary uses. Of public and private schools, colleges and academies, institutes, etc., there was a formidable number. Free education was provided in 85 separate buildings, the most of which, however, were constructed of wood, but additions were being made to the limited number of substantial edifices with modern conveniences when the conflagration arrested the work. Of private schools, academies, etc., there were 31, and in the latter list was included the imposing group of buildings erected by the Jesuit fathers on the corner of Van Ness and Hayes. The number of halls devoted to the requirements of the City sounds formidable, but by actual count there were 106 of all kinds, ranging from that in the Masonic temple and the various com- manderies, to the provision made in less pretentious buildings in all parts of the City. This suggests the social activity produced by the existence of 121 benefit associations; 31 literary and scientific societies; 88 clubs, social and serious; 89 trades unions and an astonishing number of lodges, chambers, councils, groves, etc., of the multitudinous orders, a mere mention of whose names makes a for- midable presentation. There were Masons, Odd Fellows, Foresters, Ancient Order of Hibernians, United Workmen, Elks, Daughters of the American Revolution, Native Sons and Native Daughters, Grand Army of the Republic, Red Men, Bnai Brith, Kesher Shel Barzel, American Mechanics, Knights of Honor, Knights of the Golden Eagle, Knights of the Red Branch, The National Union, Chosen Friends, Sons of Hermann, Sons of St. George, Royal Arcanum, Sons of the American Revolution, Sons of Veterans, Sons of Jacob, Ancient Order of Druids, Woodmen of the World, Temperance and Bands of Hope. Some of these thirty or more orders had as many as a score of meeting places scattered throughout the City, and the membership exceeded, according to one authority, over 130,000.
Reference has been made to the humane activities in a preceding chapter, but it would be an omission of a serious character to fail to note that there were 52 hospitals and eleven medical colleges. The major number of the hospitals were private institutions, but some of them were as liberally provided with beds as the more pretentious quasi public affairs devoted to the caring for the sick, and many of them, owing to the standing of the medical practitioners who supervised their affairs enjoyed a wide reputation which drew patients to them from all parts of the coast. The number of hotels had increased so greatly that their enumeration in the telephone book required pages. The chief of those in the long list were the Palace, the California, the St. Francis, the Occidental, the Lick and the Russ. Family hotels had multiplied greatly, and many of them soared higher than caution suggested considering that they were built of wood. The modern apartment house was beginning to attain popularity, and there were several large ones in the district between Van Ness avenue and the bay. A few within the fire limits were constructed of materials popularly regarded as noninflammable, but many of them were built of the assumedly slow-burning redwood. Of so- called fireproof buildings there were numerous specimens, a few being carried up in the air to a height of seventeen stories, but the major part averaged seven
Character of Buildings Before the Fire
827
SAN FRANCISCO
or eight stories. Some of these modernly constructed office buildings were of a size comparable to those of the larger cities of the East, as for instance the Merchants Exchange and the Mills building which covered large areas. But by far the major part of the buildings in the business district were constructed of brick or stone with a forest of woodwork in their interiors. In some cases iron beams and girders were employed, but more with a view of adding strength than of assuring protection against fire. With few exceptions the tens of thousands of houses de- voted to residential purposes were of wood, the persistent belief in the fire resist- ing qualities of redwood, and the cheapness of that material deciding its use.
For the protection of this vast number of inflammable buildings the taxpayers paid handsomely, and they were confident that the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually expended on their fire department provided ample security. Oc- casionally the underwriters would protest against this exhibition of over confi- dence, and the premiums exacted by them suggested that they were not entirely satisfied, although the fire department was admittedly excellent, and had on nu- merous occasions exhibited its ability to cope with difficult and menacing situations. There was no doubt in the mind of any San Franciscan that the 41 steam engines, the nine trucks, the numerous chemical engines, monitor batteries and towers manned by a force constantly on duty would be equal to any occasion, and the most pessimistic individual in the community would scarcely have ventured to sug- gest the possibility of an uncontrollable conflagration. They had seen the depart- ment deal with fires of considerable magnitude, such as that which destroyed the Baldwin hotel and they had watched without uneasiness the efforts to confine the flames which destroyed the big building on Market street which housed the print- ing plant of the Bancroft History publications, and the largest stock of books on the Pacific coast. They had also witnessed the suppression of menacing fires on the water front, and had learned to have perfect confidence in the ability of the department to cope with any emergency that might arise. There had been complaints at times of insufficient water pressure in certain parts of the City, but they were set down to the disposition of the firemen to find fault. On the night of April 17, 1906, had there been a meeting of the fire commissioners, and had the subject of the fire limits been mooted, there would have been the usual pooh poohing at the suggestion of danger, and property owners would have arisen in numbers to demonstrate that there was no reason for their extension, and that to do so would work an unbearable hardship on poor men by compelling them to build houses of more costly materials.
On the night of April 17, 1906, thoughts of trouble of any kind were far from the minds of the people of San Francisco. There was no premonition of danger. A season of grand opera had begun on Monday night, and on Tuesday night the Opera House, which had been temporarily restored for the purpose for which it was originally designed, was filled from pit to dome with a brilliant audi- ence to hear the leading organization of the country. San Francisco society was in attendance resplendent in elaborate toilets and flashing jewels. The opera was "Carmen," and Caruso and Fremstad appeared in the leading roles. The older generation instituted comparisons between the audience and that of the Patti season a score of years earlier, and their juniors listened tolerantly but incredulously to statements which seemed to them at variance with the facts. Differences were noted, and the departed glories of the Opera House, which had Vol. II-23
Opposition to Extension of Fire Limits
The Last Performance at the Grand Opera House
828
SAN FRANCISCO
long been surrendered to the production of the most lurid melodrama, were des- canted upon, and the imperative necessity of providing an academy of music nearer to the fashionable center was the subject of conversation in the lobbies. There were also allusions to the growing number of automobiles in the long string of vehicles which stretched a block and a half from the entrance to the Opera House, but the carriage drawn by horses was still- greatly in evidence, and no one would have ventured to predict that the new mode of locomotion would almost entirely supersede the old in the course of three or four years. After the opera the fashionable restaurants were crowded by those who had taken the precaution to reserve places; for such as had not done so there was no room. The spectacle in these resorts was almost as brilliant as that witnessed in the Opera House, and the critic who sought for a text to enlarge upon the propensity of San Fran- ciscans to give themselves over to pleasure could have found it in the obvious enjoyment of those present whose desire for music had to be gratified by supple- mental performances in order to heighten the epicurean delights of a late supper.
But while those in the social swim in their inclusive way assumed that "all San Francisco" was present, there were only some two or three thousand out of the more than four hundred thousand inhabitants of the City within the hearing of Caruso and Fremstad's voices that night. The remainder were occupied after the manner of sedate people of other cities. Some who were not on the inside amused themselves watching the procession of carriages driving up to the doors of the Opera House and depositing their living freight. Of spectators of that kind there were almost as many as of the sort whose means permitted them to enter the show, the street opposite the Opera House being densely packed by sightseers com- posed in the main of the merely curious who enjoy a spectacle of any sort, and of a few who fed the canker sore of envy by gazing on showy equipages and sump- tuously garbed women, attended by decorously attired men. But this is only a part of a big picture. It is the high light on the canvas, and it strikes the eye first. It does not tell the story, only the whole composition can do that. If a his- torian at some future day, when the reformer has realized his hope, and the world has become perfect, takes a retrospect of the opening years of the twentieth cen- tury, and sees in this fashionable demonstration an analogy to the condition that existed in ancient Corinth he will blunder. He will have overlooked the fact that while a couple of thousand people were enjoying the strains of Bizet's charming composition, there were several hundred thousands who were engaged in the more serious activities of life. Many men with benevolent purpose were assembled; nurses were hovering about the beds of the patients in the numerous hospitals of the City, and in the homes of its citizens ; plans for new charities were being discussed; civic reformers were wrestling with the problems which a reckless municipal admin- istration was creating, and studying methods of securing honesty in local govern- ment and thousands of heads of families were in their homes resting from the toils of the day.
They all retired, the good and the bad, unconscious of the danger. So far as the records show no one indulged in the familiar if unwarranted meteorological as- sumption that it seemed like earthquake weather. There had not been any seismic manifestations for some time, and if there had been a tremor, one of the sort which the visitor to San Francisco needs to have identified for him, and the memory of which he usually treasures up as a unique experience, it would have passed un-
The Night Before the Disaster
No Warning of Impending Danger
Temporary Central Theater, Market Street. A Tent Behind a False Front was One of the Makeshifts after the Fire.
Temporary Palace Hotel, after the Fire. First Permanent Theater, the Colonial, now the Savoy, to be Erected after the Fire. Mutual Life Insurance Building in Ruins, after the Fire. A Nine-story Scaffolding was Erected to Permit Access to the Vaults.
ד
829
SAN FRANCISCO
noticed for San Franciscans had come to the belief that there was no harm in earth- quakes. There were few, comparatively speaking, who had passed through the experience of 1868, and those who had were firmly convinced that the injury suffered on that occasion was wholly due to poor construction. The opinion was justified by the facts, but those who maintained and expressed it were disposed to overlook the wilful disregard of the necessity of careful construction and cheer- fully witnessed repetitions of early blunders. But there had been nothing re- cently to arouse the cautious, or to stir the indifferent. Those who sought their pillows humming refrains from Carmen, and the others who had wooed sleep at an earlier hour than the late revelers, were alike oblivious of the rude awakening that awaited them in the early morning. It was an exaggerated instance of the unex- pected happening; and it brought in its train many woes that might have been omitted if consideration of the possibility of their occurring had not persistently been avoided.
The first intimation of disaster was the disaster itself. According to the rec- ords of the seismograph of the observatory of the University of California the earth began to tremble at twelve minutes and six seconds after five a. m., Pacific standard time, and the vibrations lasted for one minute and five seconds. The markings on the strip by the needle showed a variation in the violence of the tremors, but the people who experienced them, less attuned than the delicate instrument to the accu- rate indication of such phenomena, felt that they were increasing with each moment. They scarcely needed the confirmation of the scientists who later told them that they rated it IX in the Rossi-Farel scale of earthquake intensities. They knew with- out further apprisal that San Francisco had passed through a terrific ordeal, and those who were not too terrified, as soon as the shaking ceased began to investigate the extent of the calamity. It would be possible to secure a thousand descriptions of the impressions created by the shocks, and of the extraordinary effects they pro- duced, but none would be more striking than an accurate presentation of the number of persons who before the earth had fairly resumed its ordinary quiet were attempting to measure the results of the damage, and were mentally speculating on the methods to be adopted to effect reparation. In all the accounts we have of similar disasters in other countries the dominant note is despair. The artists who have pictured the earthquakes of antiquity, and those of more recent times, have given us a spectacle of wringing hands, and people in attitudes of woe, but few such scenes were witnessed in San Francisco on the eventful morning of April 18, 1906. That there was terror, that many thought the end of the world was at hand, that others bitterly reflected on the possible consequences of the calamity in its relation to the future growth of the City there can be no doubt; but of that help- lessness which is significant of absence of resourcefulness there was little or no sign in the first few minutes after the great shock. The streets in the residential districts were promptly filled with hastily attired people roused from their early slumbers, and many of them exhibited trepidation, but there was a sufficient leaven of balance to avert panic.
There has been gathered a vast quantity of data embracing the personal ex- periences of observers, so much indeed that those called upon to deal with it have found some difficulty in the work of assimilation. It would be a vain task to at- tempt it; a hundred volumes could be written filled with tragic, interesting and even amusing incident, but this vast amount of matter if presented would not convey to
Effects of the Shock on a Sleeping City
Varied Experiences but no Panic
830
SAN FRANCISCO
the mind a more forceful impression of the actualities, or of the feelings of the involuntary actors in the astounding drama suddenly staged by Nature, than a few well chosen adjectives, and the recital of bare statistics. Every person in the City had his peculiar experience, but differing as these experiences did in detail they are easily blended into a composite picture whose main features were motion and noise. For years after the event one of the chief topics of conversation when men met socially was the recital of the striking things observed, but their assemblage could serve no useful purpose. That bric-a-brac fell with resounding crash in every house; that the faces of pictures suspended by long cords were turned to the wall; that book cases toppled over, and that considerable destruction was wrought in residences where there were things to destroy, and in which no pre- cautions were taken against unusual disturbances, could be inferred properly by the non participant. But it would be impossible for any one who had not deliberately observed conditions to pay adequate tribute to the calmness which asserted itself from the beginning. There were some who with the object of utilizing their knowledge had closely noted the temper of the people and they unite in asserting that the seismic disturbance would have been forgotten as soon as the damage could be repaired if the real disaster had not followed close on the heels of the earth- quake.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.