The San Francisco Directory, 1874, Part 6

Author:
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: San Francisco : Langley, Henry G.
Number of Pages: 1128

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COAST LINES STEAMSHIPS .- In addition to the steamships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., which stop at stated periods at the principal ports between this city and Panama, there are several lines which make regular trips to the different ports north of San Diego, the most important of which is that of Goodall, Nelson & Perkins. This line was inaugurated in 1864 with a single steamship, the Santa Cruz. It has since grown to its present proportions by the sagacity and efficient management of its projectors. Every port from San Diego as far north as Tomales Bay, Marin Co., is visited regularly by one or more of the steamships connected with this line, by means of which the products of the different valleys contiguous to the coast can always be made available to meet the demands of this market. This advantage, it is claimed, gives the steamships of this line an aggregate of freight exceeding that of any other

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PROGRESS OF THE CITY.

line on this coast. Number of steamships employed, nine, all screw, with an aggregate capacity of four thousand seven hundred tons. The Oregon Steamship Co. dispatch steamships regularly to Portland, Oregon, and Sitka, Alaska. Number of steamships employed, three; aggregate capacity, three thousand five hundred tons. The business of this line is of growing importance to the commercial interests of this port, as it affords the only direct and speedy means of communicating with the ports of Oregon and Alaska. The Colorado Steam Navi- gation Co. dispatch a steamship every twenty days for the Colorado River and ports on the Mexican Coast. By the facilities afforded by this line communication is secured with several important ports on the Southern Coast, and the extensive region of country bordering on the Colorado River, including a large section of Southern Utah. Two screw steamships, Montana and Newbern, are employed in the service of this line. Two steamships, owned by different parties, make regular trips to Humboldt. The trade in this direction has increased threefold since the establishment of this route. A line of two steamships of five hundred tons each has been established between this city and Coos Bay, for the purpose of bringing the product of the coal mines in the vicinity of the latter place to this market ; ample accommodations are also provided for freight and passengers. Communication with Victoria, V. I., is maintained by the steamship Prince Alfred, which makes semi-monthly trips, carrying the mails between the two ports, for which a subsidy is paid by the British Government.

Shipping and Lumber Trade.

PRICE OF LUMBER-COST OF BUILDING, ETC .- Lumber and other building materials are cheap in San Francisco. Annexed are the present rates adopted by the Lumber Dealers' Exchange: Puget Sound lumber (rough), $20 per M feet ; flooring and stepping, $30 ; three and four-inch street planks, $17; laths, $3.25; rough redwood, $20 per M; surface and tongued and grooved (first quality), $32.50; second quality, tongued and grooved, $22.50. These rates favor the buyer. Carpenters are at present paid $2.50 to $4 per day.

THE SHIPPING AND LUMBER TRADE OF THIS PORT .- Three thousand six hundred and forty-seven vessels, of all classes and flags, arrived in the port of San Francisco during the year 1873. These represented a total tonnage of one million two hundred and ninety-three thousand three hundred and ninety-eight tons. Three thousand and thirty-four of these arrivals were American vessels from domestic ports, having a tonnage of seven hundred and thirty-four thousand one hundred and twenty tons; two hundred and sixty-three, with an aggregate of two hundred and ninety thousand three hundred and thirty-four tons, were American vessels from foreign ports ; three hundred and sixteen, of two hundred and sixty- one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven tons, were foreign vessels from foreign ports ; eleven, of one thousand one hundred and fourteen tons, were American vessels from miscel- laneous fishing voyages ; one foreign vessel, of one hundred and eighty tons, from a similar voyage ; twenty American vessels, of five thousand four hundred and ninety-five tons, from whaling voyages ; and two foreign vessels, of three hundred and ninety-eight tons, from sim- ilar voyages -- aggregating the above total of arrivals and tonnage-three thousand six hundred and forty-seven vessels, of one million two hundred and ninety-three thousand three hundred and ninety-eight tons. Domestic Atlantic ports are represented by seventy of the above arriv- als, having an aggregate tonnage of eighty-seven thousand seven hundred and thirty tons ; and domestic Pacific ports by two thousand nine hundred and sixty-four vessels, of a total tonnage of six hundred and forty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-eight tons. The freight charges on the cargoes imported by both domestic and foreign vessels in 1873 amounted to $4,531,959. The tonnage entering this port during the past year has been increased by fifty-six thousand four hundred and fifty-one tons since the date of our last issue. The total duties paid to Government on the cargoes of the above vessels for 1873 was $7,873,460.86.

The importance of one of the leading interests of this port (the lumber trade) is best shown by the total exports of that article for the past year. The number of feet sent to foreign coun- tries in 1873 was seventeen million four hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred and eighty- seven, having a total value of $350,024.

PACIFIC COAST BUSINESS DIRECTORY contains Addresses of over 50,000 Merchanta.

The Income of the ETNA INS. CO. of Hartford amounts to nearly 817,000 per Day, Henry Carlton Jr., Agent, 14 Merchants' Exchange, S. F."

KENNEDY'S INSURANCE AGENCY, Fire, Marine, and Life, 411 California St.

SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY.

The foreign shipments of lumber made direct from the mill ports of our Northern Pacific Coast, during the same period, amounted in all to fifty millions of feet. The total amount of Puget Sound and Oregon pine lumber (both rough and dressed), laid down in San Francisco, for 1873, aggregated one hundred and five million three hundred and seventy-four thousand and seventy-eight feet. The addition of the redwood, fir, cedar, laurel, spruce, and maple lumber received at this port in the same time, makes the total lumber receipts of San Francisco for 1873 aggregate two hundred and three million three hundred and twenty-nine thousand four hundred and forty-one feet.

A very fair percentage of the lumber cut on this coast during the year has been utilized at home in the construction of vessels for our coasting trade. Vessels of this class are in many instances built immediately at the mill-ports of Oregon, Puget Sound, etc., San Francisco only leading in the number turned out, in consequence of the greater facilities for construction obtainable here. In the business of providing both light and heavy spars for vessels of all sizes, this coast is fast asserting its superiority. For length, straightness, durability, elasticity, and freedom from natural blemishes, as well as the facility with which it can be worked, the fir produced by the forests of our Northern Pacific possessions, is second to none in the world. The admiration excited abroad by the unusual continuous length and strength of the spars of the ship Three Brothers, and other vessels fitted out here, is gaining for the fir grown upon this coast a deserved popularity among naval architects.

THE GROWTH AND MANUFACTURE OF DOMESTIC TOBACCO .- Among the recently organized industries of San Francisco, the curing and manufacture of California-raised tobacco at Gilroy, is beginning to assume a very prominent place. The Consolidated Tobacco Company now employs over one hundred hands in the manufacture of cigars, who turn out an average of fifty thousand per week. Besides the cigars made, this company also manufactures about six thou- sand pounds of home-grown tobacco every week. Twenty-two men are engaged in this branch of the business alone, one half of whom are Chinese. At this date they are all working on the new crop, which is said to be superior to that raised in any preceding year. As experience in local tobacco culture increases, each succeeding crop proves superior to its predecessor. Good judges of raw and manufactured tobacco pronounce last year's California article to be fully equal, when properly cured, to imported tobacco from Cuba, and to far exceed in quality that imported to this city from Manila and other Asiatic countries. This tobacco-manufacturing industry bids fair, therefore, to make San Francisco an active and successful rival to foreign cities hitherto noted for an almost exclusive monopoly of this trade. Besides cigars, the com- pany referred to produces smoking tobacco of native growth fully equal to the best brands im- ported. We understand it is their intention to commence the manufacture of all grades of chewing tobacco. We also learn that this company proposes to plant six hundred acres of tobacco this season, from which over one million pounds of cured product may be safely anticipated.

The Theaters of San Francisco.

The theaters and other places of public amusement in this city are both numerous and well patronized. The class of dramas, comedies, burlesques, etc., enacted at these houses is gen- erally of a high order of excellence-at least in so far as good stock and star acting in their rendition and the style of stage presentation can be said to make them so. Indeed, theater- goers and newspaper critics here are so fastidious and hard to please that managers are sure to lose money in the attempt to cater to the public taste with anything short of the best talent obtainable. The comparatively short time now taken to reach the Pacific Coast from the large cities of the Atlantic States renders the engagement of fresh faces and accompanying novelties in the theatrical line an easy matter to enterprising managers. The selections for this market, however, must be made judiciously. There is probably no city in the world in which an actor or actress sooner finds his or her true level than in San Francisco. No amount of preparatory trumpeting, newspaper puffery, and printer's ink, prior to arrival, seems to influence the public verdict here in regard to an actor's merits or the reverse ; all depends on the manner in which he acquits himself on his first appearance. Theatrical people and public

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C P.VAN SCHAACK & CO., 708, 712, 714, and 716 Kearny St., Importers and Jobbera

PROGRESS OF THE CITY.

lecturers often come here with a very mistaken notion of the intellectual status of the audiences before whom they are to appear. The result is that the visits of many such turn out complete failures, as far as any additions to either their fame or their purse are concerned, and they leave our shores thoroughly disgusted with the experience involved in their lack of power to please people so critical as Californians generally are. On the other hand, it not unfrequently happens that a San Francisco-made actor or actress, who has played here for years compara- tively unnoticed, perhaps, at one of our minor theaters, goes East and is suddenly transformed into a public pet and a star of the first magnitude. These somewhat erratic differences in public judgment on either side of the continent can perhaps best be reconciled by those who make such matters their study. We merely record the fact.

THE CALIFORNIA THEATER .- This is the largest theater in the State, and in the class of performances, the merit of the actors engaged, and the average public patronage bestowed upon it, is, comparatively, second to no theater in the Union. It was built in 1869, at a cost of about $125,000. It is located on the north side of Bush Street, between Kearny and Dupont, and covers a lot one hundred and sixty-five feet front by one hundred and thirty-seven and a half feet deep. The stage has a depth of seventy feet by a width of seventy-two feet; the audi- torium is seventy feet deep and sixty-two feet wide ; two thousand two hundred people can be comfortably seated in the house at one time. The management is under the charge of Mr. John McCullough, proprietor, and Mr. Barton Hill, manager. The interior is divided into dress circle, parquette, family circle, and gallery ; $1 is charged for seats in the two former, and fifty and twenty-five cents for seats in the two latter.

In addition to the above well-known places of public amusement, San Francisco is well supplied with minor theaters, melodeons, concert halls, lecture rooms, etc., more particular mention of which is not requisite. These are all well patronized in the respective uses to which they are devoted.

THE OPERA HOUSE .- This favorite theater occupies a large lot on the north side of Bush Street, between Montgomery and Kearny. It has been open for public performances a little over a year, and is capable of comfortably seating twelve hundred people. It is owned and controlled by Mr. Thomas Maguire, the well-known California pioneer manager, whose career in that capacity and the theatrical history of the Pacific Coast are almost identical. His business tact and knowledge of the tastes of our theater-going public ranks him as the most suc- cessful theatrical manager we have ever had in California. The interior of the Opera House is divided into dress circle, parquette, and family circle ; $1 is the price of admission to the two former, and fifty cents is charged for seats in the latter. The people engaged at the Opera House, in all capacities, generally averages from thirty to thirty-five persons. The range of performances presented is almost as versatile as the various actors who take part therein, and embraces opera, comedy, extravaganza, minstrelsy, etc., in uninterrupted succession during the whole year.

MAGUIRE'S NEW THEATER .- This popular house of public amusement is also situated on Bush Street, directly opposite the Opera House. It stands on a lot sixty-eight feet front by one hundred and thirty-seven feet deep, and is capable of seating sixteen hundred spectators. Mr. Thomas Maguire, its sole proprietor and manager, has recently rebuilt and opened this theater, which is one of the most elegant and attractive places of amusement in the city, and it is his intention to present a class of performances which will include the entire range of his managerial experience. The view of the stage from all parts of the auditorium is uninterrupted, and the acoustic properties are unexcelled by any other theater on this Coast. The auditorium is divided into dress circle, parquette, and balcony, and the prices of admission are one dollar and fifty cents, respectively. From forty to fifty people of all grades of ability generally constitute the strength of the company engaged at this theater.

" OPERA HOUSE AND ART BUILDING ASSOCIATION."-The structure thus designated is situated on Mission Street, one hundred and fifteen feet west of Third. It covers an area of one hundred and ten feet in front by two hundred and seventy-five feet in depth. Its erection

PACIFIC COAST BUSINESS DIRECTORY, 1874-6, H. G. Langley, Pub'r, S. F. Price $5.

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L. W. KENNEDY, General Insurance Agent, Fire, Marine, and Life, 411 California St.

SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY.

was commenced in August last and rapidly pushed forward until the second story was reached, in December last. Financial embarrassments then interrupted further progress. Arrangements have since been entered into by the Association for the final completion of the building, and it is confidently predicted that it will be formally opened to the public in October of the present year. The building will be one of the largest of its kind in the United States, covering the entire lot, one hundred and ten by two hundred and seventy-five feet in size. It will be three stories high, and composed entirely of brick and iron. In addition to the main auditorium, the building will embrace a second public hall, art gallery, stores, studios, base- ments, cellars, etc. The theater itself will be one of the largest and most complete on the continent. The interior will be divided into four successive tiers, which will have a seating capacity for over two thousand five hundred persons, and will be characterized by elaborate elegance and comfort in every detail of modern improvement. When finished, this magnifi- cent house is to be devoted to the rendition of grand opera and the higher grade of standard dramas. The location is one of the best in the city for this purpose, being in the immediate vicinity of all the principal hotels and public buildings. The entire cost of the building will be $250,000; it is owned by an incorporated company, with a capital stock of $300,000, divided into three thousand shares, of the par value of $100 each. The building is already leased and will rent for $3,000 per month.

THE PALACE AMPHITHEATER AND GRAND CIRCUS .- Equestrian performances have always been a favorite class of amusement with the San Francisco public. The circus, with its gorgeous paraphernalia, daring feats of horsemanship, and acrobatic skill has an irresisti- ble fascination for the rising generation everywhere, but here the parents and guardians of that hopeful portion of humanity seem to enjoy the delights of the hippodrome with as much zest as the boys and girls whom they are supposed to accompany thither as protectors. Hitherto in San Francisco the gratification of both old and young in this respect has been somewhat desultory and uncertain, and, when they have had a circus to attend, its pleasures have been enjoyed with the drawback of an uncomfortable canvas tent as a covering to the scenes of the arena. Their tastes in the future, however, are to be permanently and comfortably satisfied. That irrepressible giant among showmen, Mr. John Wilson, has recently erected a costly and substantial wooden amphitheater at the corner of New Montgomery and Mission streets, which he promises to keep open nightly as one of the permanent public amusement resorts of the city. This establishment was opened for the first time on January 26, 1874, and was built expressly for the purposes of a circus and amphitheater, in the old Roman sense of those terms. Its sole proprietor and manager is Mr. John Wilson, and its erection cost him over $20,000. The structure covers a lot one hundred and twenty-five feet on Mission Street by one hundred and sixty feet on New Montgomery ; the interior is one hundred feet square, and the arena forty feet in diameter. The auditorium is divided into two parts, the dress and family circles, the former being elaborately furnished with oak chairs, upholstered in red morocco. In the rear of this circle there are fifteen private boxes, elegantly fitted. Connected with the main build- ing are magnificent show-stables, containing the carefully trained and well appointed stud of horses and ponies. These stables are fitted with every convenience, and are open to public inspection during each performance. Manager Wilson has been very successful in his venture since he opened the establishment, and the large troupe of star performers he has constantly engaged promises hopefully for the treasury in the future. The equestrian director is the famous Omar Kingsley (Ella Zoyara), and the able treasurer of the establishment is Mr. John Thomson.

WOODWARD'S GARDENS .- Perhaps the cheapest and most popular place of public amuse- ment on the Pacific coast is the beautiful park known by this name. A visit to it combines both recreation and education-the former by its endless sources of amusement for all sexes and ages, and by the beautiful manner in which its grounds are cultivated and ornamented; the latter by the opportunity it affords for the study of art, natural history, and botany, in its menageries, aquarium, aviaries, picture galleries, conservatories, etc. These gardens are bounded by

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PROGRESS OF THE CITY.

Mission, Valencia, Thirteenth, and Fifteenth streets. Four of the principal lines of city street cars pass close to them, one of them belonging to the proprietor and known as the City Rail- road. The number of visitors to Woodward's Gardens during the year 1873 is given at 580,000. The price of admission to this delightful resort, including participation in all its pleasures, only costs the visitor twenty-five cents.

THE CITY GARDENS .- This resort is a vigorous rival to Woodward's Gardens for the patronage of the recreation-loving public. The class of attractions presented in it are somewhat akin to those offered at Woodward's, so far as theatrical representations, balloon ascensions, balls, natural wonders, etc., are concerned. The grounds are beautifully laid out and highly orna- mented with shade trees, shrubbery, fancy arbors, etc. They are bounded by Folsom, Harri- son, Eleventh, and Twelfth streets. These gardens are extensively patronized by pleasure parties generally. The charge for admission at all times is twenty-five cents.

THE PARKS AND PLEASURE RESORTS OF SAN FRANCISCO .- If this city cannot boast of such parks as the New York Central, the London Regent's, or the Paris Bois de Boulogne, it can point with pride to the fact that a view of the Pacific Ocean, from shore to horizon, may be had from its Golden Gate and other parks. This fact alone, from a hygienic and asthetic standpoint, is worth countless acres of inland pleasure grounds, however mature the vegeta- tion and elaborate the artificial ornamentation bestowed upon them. In the Golden Gate Park there are one thousand and eighteen acres of land, and in the avenue leading to it there are twenty-four acres more, making a total area of one thousand and forty-two acres. Of these, two hundred and ninety acres are now susceptible of cultivation, and the remainder, extending west to the ocean beach, can and will all be reclaimed to vegetation within a few years, by expedients adopted by the Park Commissioners, and at present being successfully demonstrated. The plans now being carried out for the improvement of Golden Gate Park will, in a few years, give to San Franciscans a finished pleasure ground commensurate with the population of the city. That portion of the park at present adorned with trees, shrubs, romantic mounds, and first-class macadamized roads, is nearly two miles in extent. The present Park Commission- ers have made a most economical and praiseworthy use of the money placed at their disposal by the Legislature, in the reclamation and ornamentation of the park itself, and the various approaches to it. The equestrian and pedestrian visitor can now enjoy over four miles of wide macadamized roads for driving and walking. About twenty thousand forest and other trees have already been planted, and one hundred and eighty men are at present employed in a vigorous prosecution of the objects contemplated to render the park worthy of the name. The total disbursements for this purpose by the Commissioners, from August 1, 1870, to December 1, 1873, was $250,000. The last Legislature authorized an additional issue of $250,000 in bonds, for carrying on the work, of which $125,000 are now on the market. The Commissioners, feeling the necessity of concentrating their resources on the principal park, have as yet paid but little attention to Buena Vista Park, which, however, will not be much longer neglected. The fine prospects of bay and city scenery which it presents will, together with its other natural advantages, make it a most popular resort. The small park around Mountain Lake, as an indispensable feature to the general plan, will also be improved before long, and Congress will also, almost certainly, grant the use of the most of the Presidio Military Reservation to the city for the purposes of a park. It will, therefore, be seen that San Francisco is in process of being liberally and well supplied with desirable places of out-door recreation.

DRIVES IN THE VICINITY .- There are probably few cities that have more grand and beau- tiful views, fine scenery, and more attractive drives than are to be found in the immediate vicinity of San Francisco. Take, for instance, the Point Lobos Road to the Cliff House, where you see the broad Pacific spread before you " in the morning like a vast sheet of silver, and in the evening like one vast mass of molten gold ;" from thence to the Ocean View and Driving Park over the toll road which sweeps around the curve of the ocean beach, and for your homeward trip take the Central Road over the Mission hills to the city, and you will have viewed a few of the attractive spots in this vicinity.

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The San Francisco Directory, 1874, Part 6

Author: Publication date: 1874 Publisher: San Francisco : Langley, Henry G. Number of Pages: 1128

Author:
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: San Francisco : Langley, Henry G.
Number of Pages: 1128