USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > San Francisco, a history of the Pacific coast metropolis, Volume II > Part 63
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The fire of 1906 had swept away all of the costly buildings on Nob hill ex- cepting the Fairmont hotel and the Flood mansion. The former being of steel frame construction its walls survived the flames, and it was restored internally, though at great cost. The Flood house was built of Connecticut brown stone, and while there was considerable spalling about the windows and doors the main con- struction was undisturbed. The property was sold by its owner, Miss Jane Flood, to the Pacific Union club, and that organization restored the building making ad- ditions to adapt it to its uses, and it now ranks as one of the finest club buildings in America. The University club, which had been housed on Sutter street before the fire secured a lot on the corner of Powell and California commanding a mag- nificent view of the bay, and erected a commodious and attractive home, being one of the first social organizations to completely rehabilitate itself. Later the Southern club built a home for itself on the south side of California street on the block be- tween Powell and Stockton, and the Y. M. C. A. erected a handsome new building to accommodate its membership. The wooden mansions of Stanford, Hopkins, Charles Crocker and David S. Colton, the glory of Nob hill when it first came into notice, were all destroyed, as were also the later constructions in the neighborhood in- cluding the residence of William H. Crocker, which adjoined that of his father. These two properties covered the block bounded by California, Sacramento, Taylor and Jones streets. Mr. Crocker and his sister, Mrs. Alexander of New York, made a gift of this land after the disaster to the Episcopal diocese of San Francisco for the purpose of erecting a cathedral, the construction of which was begun in 1912. The Hopkins mansion, which had passed into the possession of the San Francisco Art school by gift of its owner Mr. Searles, who had married the widow of Judge Hopkins, was restored after a fashion, but the site had not been covered with a structure worthy its position at the close of 1912. The property on which the Stan- ford mansion stood was part of the endowment of the Leland Stanford, Jr. university. In 1912 the construction of an immense apartment house was begun on this property, which was to take rank as the largest in the City.
Before the fire there was some uncertainty respecting the permanency of the down town location of the social clubs, and at times it was suggested that at some future day Van Ness avenue would be given the preference by such organizations. But the subject has not been revived since the conflagration. The Bohemian club, which had occupied the premises on the corner of Post and Grant avenue, lost all of its collection of valuable paintings and souvenirs, but its members were not disheartened by the calamity, and speedily studied out a plan of permanent re- habilitation. The club was the owner of a valuable lot on the corner of Post and Taylor streets, on which it had designed erecting a home. As soon as possible the plans were prepared and construction was begun. Meanwhile the club had oc-
Changes Wrought on Nob Hill
Social Clubs Rehoused in Handsome Buildings
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cupied quarters in a frame building erected immediately after the fire by the Palace Hotel Company, and which was popularly known as the "Little Palace." The new building of the club is commodious, and its rooms are well filled with art objects, but it will take a long time to gather a collection such as it owned before the disaster which embraced many souvenirs of visits made by some of the most distinguished men in the world. Immediately adjoining the Bohemian club on Post street, is the building erected by San Francisco's athletic organization, known as the Olympic club. It is an imposing edifice, possessing all the features and con- veniences of an athletic club, and ample provision is made for comfort as the club is well developed on its social side. The Jewish organizations of the City were quick to reinstate themselves, and all of them before the middle of 1912 were well housed. In addition to the clubs which had become well established before the conflagration, and whose presence was generally known to the community through more or less conspicuous buildings, new candidates for public attention arose after the fire. From the long array of associations, lodges, clubs and social organiza- tions which numbered over 500 in the middle of 1912, an imposing list of those promptly providing themselves with new quarters could be made, but it will have to be omitted. The handsome new hall of the Native Sons on Mason street dedi- cated in September, 1912, and the Odd Fellows hall on Market street occupied in the previous year cannot be overlooked, and mention of the imposing structure on Van Ness avenue in course of erection by the Masonic fraternity, and the at- tractive home of the Germans approaching completion on Polk street, cannot be neglected.
By actual count on the first of September, 1912, there were 291 apartment houses with over 15,000 rooms. In addition to these there were at the same time 516 hotels and 438 restaurants. At one time it was possible to speak of the hotel district in San Francisco and to define its boundaries with some precision. But great changes were wrought in this regard by the fire. The hotels of the first class, recognized as such alike by traveler and public, and whose position is unmistakably distinguished by their charges are located within a few blocks of what was the center in the Sixties, but pretentious buildings devoted to the ac- commodation of the transient guest may now be found blocks beyond what was regarded as the country in those days. If Lick, who devoted so much thought to the construction of the house which bore his name, or the builder of the Russ house, which like the Lick and the Occidental was located on Montgomery street, were to return from the shades, and were whisked about the City in an automobile they would find tall structures of seven, eight and nine and even more stories in locations which they would have found easier to describe by the names of the ranches which they knew in the early days than by naming the streets on which they are situated. But nevertheless they might felicitate themselves upon the fact that time and experience have not impaired the value of their judgment respecting the desirability of locating as near to what was the old cove of Yerba Buena as possible; for the greater number, by far, of hotels and restaurants were relocated after the fire in the district which they helped to improve. No one was forced in 1912 to seek a down town hostelry. He could, if he desired, find quarters that were as satisfactory in point of accommodation on Van Ness avenue or on Fillmore street, or in the Mission, once a well spaced row of adobes extending through the distance of a few blocks, but now a large built-up area whose principal street, passing over a viaduct
Hotels, Restaurants and Apartment Houses
SOUTHERN PACIFIC HOSPITAL
NEW HALL OF JUSTICE
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dedicated to the public use on the 22d of September, 1912, reaches out into a region over which the cattle of the padres roamed, and which until the eve of the fire was still largely devoted to market gardens.
But despite the fact that San Franciscans no longer hesitate on the score of mere distance to locate their homes in places miles from what was the old City's center the latter remains nearly as established in the early days. Its hotel and amusement districts have scarcely moved blocks, while its residential quarters have shifted miles, and promise to betake themselves to still more remote regions. There has, however, been a vast change in the established down town center which only the observant have noted. The Palace hotel was reerected on its old site and retains the name given it by Ralston, but the old time features which made it notable have all disappeared. The determination to tear down the original walls which might have been utilized in reconstruction was influenced by recognition of the changed tastes of the people. It cost the owners of the Market street property nearly $90,000 to wreck and remove the debris of the once leading hotel of the United States, a sum which might have been saved if the same notions respecting lofty ceilings and spacious rooms that obtained in 1876 had endured. Although the walls were as solid as the rock of Gibraltar they could not be adapted to the needs of a modern hotel, hence a wholly new building replaced the structure which was once Market street's most prominent monument. The change in hotels ex- tended much further than the details of construction. In the matter of interior decoration there was a vast improvement after the fire, not alone in the Palace, but in all hostelries catering for those with money, and the disposition to spend it liberally. Instead of the cold, bare walls, and the rather formal array of abso- lutely needed furniture, and simple "lace" curtains at the window, designers were called in to suggest modes of treatment of rooms and lounging places calculated to impress the traveler with the idea that in journeying he need not necessarily sacrifice all the comforts of a home.
The restaurants constructed after the fire responded to this increased taste for luxury. Their appointments were improved in many particulars. The leading cafes in many instances resumed business in their old locations in newly erected buildings, but after all there was nothing but the old name to remind the old time visitor of their former glories. The new generation of patrons had not inherited the devotion to the cuisine which was a characteristic of their predecessors who prided themselves on knowing just where to obtain a meal cooked in a certain fashion, and who not infrequently knew the name of the chef who excelled in the production of a favorite dish. The establishments which in the days before the fire were just comfortably large enough to permit that free and easy intimacy between patrons and managers which puts the lover of good living at his ease, had been superseded by big concerns in which a blaze of light, gilded ceilings, fine tableware and snowy napery were exchanged for the departed sociability. The Italian harper and violinist no longer twanged and scraped their instruments in convenient hallways on the second floor, and passed the hat around among the liberal diners; their places were taken by orchestras whose members discourse better music, but in different surroundings not at all reminiscent of the period, when the existence of a peculiarly San Franciscan atmosphere was discovered by poets, who still prefer to sing the glories of the past rather than exult over the restoration of the City.
Vol. II-28
Modernization of Hotels
Changes in Cafe' Life
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San
Franciscans and the San Francisco Atmosphere
That San Francisco before the fire possessed the subtle attraction known as "atmosphere" is conceded; whether the flames destroyed it as some have assumed is debatable. The New Yorker who visits the City is still disposed to admit that there are only two places in the United States which the census bureau recog- nizes as cities that deserve the appellation. He finds in the Pacific coast metrop- olis many of the peculiarities to which he is accustomed when at home in the borough of Manhattan. He has no difficulty in finding "lobster palaces" in which his favorite crustacean is served "a la Newburgh," although he soon learns that the flesh of the California crab exceeds it in delicacy; and he finds plenty of the night life to which he is accustomed at home. If he is observant he notes that the women on the streets are well dressed, and he concedes that they have claims to comeliness. He is not alone in rendering this verdict. A handsome woman may be accounted a good judge of beauty, and one of the handsomest that ever visited America, Adelaide Lee Neilson, when professional exigencies no longer called for compliments made the statement to a New York reporter that she had seen more really beautiful women in San Francisco than in any other city in the United States. The princess, whose admiration of the beauty of San Francisco's scenery has been quoted, was equally eulogistic in describing the charms of her sex as she found them in the remote Pacific coast metropolis and was indulgent enough to say that they had the manners of the ladies of European capitals. Of the men she spoke in terms of disappointment. Although her visit was paid in the Seventies she still expected to find the red shirted miner parading the streets but instead discovered that men dressed and comported themselves generally pretty much as their sex do in other American cities. In this regard the advancing years made little change in San Francisco. Its women and children have the fresh com- plexions which abundant opportunity for outdoor life confers, and the men pre- sent equal evidence of the benefits of an invigorating climate. The latter, how- ever, manifest no inclination to submit to the conventions of the cities where a growing leisure class prescribes three or four changes of raiment daily, and have no class that can claim to be "good dressers;" but they are generally well garbed, while the women have a strong predilection for fashionable garments, the dispo- sition not being confined to those in any walk of life, the shop girl not infrequently appearing on the streets in the latest style, and making as good an appearance as her wealthy sister who enjoys no advantage except in the matter of the costli- ness of the fabrics worn.
The shopping district in the closing years of the period with which this chapter deals was not greatly removed from its old location. Formerly, and immediately preceding the fire the most fashionable stores were found on Kearny street, and the procession of shoppers affected that thoroughfare and the north side of Market street, although there were several important shops in situations a little aside from the main line of travel. After the conflagration Grant avenne attained an impor- tance which it had not previously held, and Stockton street from Market to Post was made attractive by handsome display windows. The event had justified the prediction of those who were opposed to considering the possibility of Van Ness avenue being made the fashionable shopping district. As rapidly as the new build- ings down town were finished the concerns doing business on the avenue abandoned their temporary quarters, and in an incredibly brief space of time that thoroughfare lost the characteristic which ample show windows with displays of merchandise
The Old and the New Van Ness Avenue
H#
A NEW DEPARTURE IN BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE A life insurance company's building on the slope of Nob Hill
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imparts. The hurriedly constructed buildings were torn down, and some of a more substantial character, such as the Van Ness theater, which was built under the impression that the avenue was destined to become a center, met the same fate. There was no disposition shown by the owners of property on which handsome residences formerly existed to replace them except in a few instances. The residence of Claus Spreckels, by far the most costly on the avenue, and which was one of the few buildings on the west side to be destroyed, was restored at great expense, but the indications are that the old time prestige attaching to Van Ness avenue as a fashionable residence street has wholly departed. Instead it promises to at- tain importance as a great automobile center, and, as in the case of Upper Broad- way in New York, a favored location for high class apartment houses. The ex- tension of the civic center to the avenue, and the fact that the new city hall, while its principal facade will be on the park, will also have an attractive elevation on Van Ness may impart to the locality characteristics not foreseen or at least not much dwelt upon by those who planned the improvement.
The shopping center of San Francisco after reconstruction was made par- ticularly attractive by lavish expenditure upon fittings and by the great attention paid to the matter of window display. Within the boundaries of Kearny, Pow- ell, Market and Sutter there was before the end of 1911 a continuous line of win- dows in which the art of the cabinet maker vied with the magnificent displays of costly goods. The buildings all being new the harmony of the showing made by the shopkeepers is not disturbed as in other cities, where equally and even more elegant exhibits may be seen, by establishments lacking the up to date character- istics of San Francisco which was compelled by force of circumstances to be strictly modern. While the area lying within the boundaries mentioned is spoken of as the fashionable shopping district it by no means embraces the largest establishments. The south side of Market street enjoys the distinction of having the two largest department stores in San Francisco, the Emporium and Hale Brothers. The former of these establishments was reinstated in the building it had occupied previous to April, 1906, within three years of that date. The handsome facade of the structure was the only part that escaped destruction and was utilized in the resto- ration. As indicating the confidence of the concern in the future, and also the increased tendency towards luxury, it may be mentioned that the fittings of the new Emporium are all of mahogany and cost more than a quarter of a million dollars to install. The other store, that of Hale Brothers, was approaching com- pletion in the fall of 1912, and adds another to the handsome structures lining Market street, which was almost entirely rebuilt from Ferry to Eighth street before the close of the year. The department stores mentioned are rivaled in many particulars by those situated within the fashionable district and surpassed in some. The White House, one of the earliest to reestablish itself down town on Sutter street, the City of Paris, O'Connor and Moffit and a number of other establish- ments broadened their field of operations to conform to the modern idea of making it convenient for the purchaser to find what he wants in one place, and have cre- ated what may be called specialized department stores. This tendency to over- lap was exhibited in every retail mercantile line, even the jewelry concerns invading fields which were formerly held by the crockery merchant, who in turn has en- croached upon the formerly recognized specialties of the jeweler. An examination of the contents of these later establishments and the principal retail stores of the
Shopping Districts and Department Stores
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City would satisfy the most skeptical that San Francisco after the fire, if it really parted with its old time atmosphere, did not by any means modify its desire for beautiful things and objects of luxury of all sorts.
The Return to the Old Amusement Center
In the closing months of 1912 the person taking a survey of amusement con- ditions, and comparing them with those existing prior to 1906, would note that the theater center had reestablished itself in its old location, although, as was the case before the fire, something like a disposition to spread was still manifest. Im- mediately after the conflagration, as was noted in a previous chapter, three sub- stantial structures were erected for amusement purposes in the vicinity of Fillmore street-the Orpheum, the Alcazar, and the Princess. Before they were completed the barn-like building of the Chutes, then located on Fulton street opposite the park, was utilized by an opera company which gave several performances in a sufficiently satisfactory manner to attract audiences to that out of the way place. About the same time the Central theater, a hybrid structure, whose canvas roof suggested pioneer days, was opened and its improvised stage was occupied by various visiting companies, including an operatic organization. Meanwhile plans were made by the people connected with the San Francisco Hotel Company to es- tablish a theater in the down town district, and promoted the construction of the Columbia on Geary street near Mason. The new building regulations which required the practical isolation of theaters and halls in which large numbers of people gather were complied with in this modern structure which was wholly devoted to the purpose for which it was built. Its facade was decorated in a novel fashion, admired by some and condemned by others, but admitted by all to be suggestively Californian. The interior was given a rich and thoroughly modern aspect. The Orpheum soon followed the example and erected a new temple of vaudeville on its old O'Farrell street site. Its interior decoration surpassed that of the old house which made no pretensions architecturally. An Eastern rival of the established theatrical monopoly built the third down town house on Ellis street and named it after himself, the Cort. It was in every way externally and internally more at- tractive than any of the theaters destroyed in 1906. The Alcazar management in 1911 deserted the theater erected by it on the corner of Sutter and Steiner and took possession of a handsome new building on O'Farrell between Powell and Mason streets.
This down town movement by no means put a period to the amusement pretensions of the Fillmore street district. The abandoned houses were taken over by other caterers, and in the fall of 1912 the different temples of the drama were doing a flourishing business under new names. Their feature was cheap vaudeville combined with moving picture attractions. The development of the latter class of entertain- ment after the fire was very rapid, and numerous so called moving picture theaters sprung up all over town. Some of the more aspiring of these were located on Market street in Class A buildings, specially constructed for them, as were also a number of vaudeville concerns which combined moving pictures with acrobatic and other performances. The admission charges of these rivals of the Orpheum were much lower than those of the pioneer vaudeville house, and their patronage came from an entirely different class than that enjoyed by the O'Farrell street concern. The destruction of the Mechanics pavilion, which was in the burned district for a short time left the City without a place for large assemblages ex- cepting the Chutes amusement hall, but three or four big buildings of frame, de-
Amusements After the Fire
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ELJOKS
MARKET STREET, EAST FROM GRANT AVENUE, FOUR YEARS AFTER THE FIRE.
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void of architectural pretension inside or out, were speedily put up, and used for conventions, prize fights, concerts and fairs. One of these near the Pan Handle of the park was destroyed by fire, Dreamland, the Auditorium and the Coliseum, at the close of 1912 were still in existence, and their inconveniences and other drawbacks will probably be tolerated until the Auditorium, which is to adorn the civic center is built. The most remarkable development in amusement matters in San Francisco after the fire was that of the multiplication of moving picture shows, which, however, cannot be set down as peculiar to the City. The old time popularity of music has experienced no change, and while no great organization has visited the City since 1906, there have been frequent seasons of Italian opera of more or less merit. In 1911 a French company visited the City. The impres- sario and his backers made the blunder of rating their artists too highly, and of promising too much. There was a brilliant audience on the first night, but a wretched ballet which became a joke and the remoteness of the Valencia street theater from those parts of the City which contribute the most patronage resulted in disaster. Subsequently successful seasons were enjoyed by other companies, notably by the Lambardi organization which produced "Conchita" the first time in America. Numerous concerts given by prominent singers, foremost among them Tetrazzini, filled the spacious Dreamland rink on various occasions. The artist mentioned won her first success in America in a San Francisco place of amuse- ment, the Tivoli, a house which before the fire was wholly devoted to the presen- tation of various forms of opera, including Grand Italian. The troupe to which she belonged had met with failure in Mexico, and was induced by the manager of the Tivoli to visit San Francisco. The great talent of Tetrazzini was instantly recognized by the patrons of the house, and her fame soon reached the ears of Eastern impressarios, but not until her warm reception had attached her to the City. Subsequently she appeared in Covent Garden, London, and was acclaimed as the successor of Patti, and later she gained signal triumphs in New York and other Eastern cities.
The attachment she had formed for San Francisco endured, and after her reputation was internationally established she returned to San Francisco and re- deemed a promise she had made to sing on the public streets. This event oc- curred on Christmas Eve, 1909, in front of the "Chronicle" office on Market street, and resulted in assembling the densest crowd ever seen in the City. The night was balmy and the photographs of the immense assemblage, with the men un- covered as a tribute to the singer, were widely disseminated and reproduced in illustrated papers in America and Europe. Later by ordinance of the supervisors a tablet was placed on the Lotta fountain which stated that the gifted artist had publicly sung on that spot. This bit of historical inaccuracy was an intentional error, and deserves passing attention as its relation will help to understand the methods, and to some extent measure the influence of the press. The idea that the prima donna might be induced to sing publicly had its origin in the "Chronicle" office. Tetrazzini in one of her numerous legal difficulties in a moment of exas- peration, when told that she would not be permitted to sing in San Francisco, declared she would do so if she had to sing on the public street. It is doubtful whether she meant to keep her threat, but when the proposition was made to ler by a "Chronicle" reporter to do so she promptly acceded and in accordance with that promise she gave her great open air concert in front of the main entrance
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