The San Francisco directory: embracing a general directory of residents and a business directory : also, a directory of streets, 1879 , Part 10

Author: Langely, Henry G
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: San Francisco : Francis, Valentine & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

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Exhaustive surveys, looking to the building of water works to be owned by the city, by Col- onel Mendell, of the United States Engineer Corps, under the direction of the Board of Water Commissioners created by the act of the Legislature of 1876, were made in 1876 and 1877. Some nine different schemes were presented as the result, but the City and County Attorney giving an opinion against the power of the city to contract outside of the Peninsula, all further proceedings looking to the erection of new works were abandoned and overtures were made for the purchase of the Spring Valley system.

Finding it impossible to agree upon a price, the Commissioners made a formal condemnation of the Spring Valley Works, and appointed Messrs. James R. Kelly, Patrick Crowley, and Dr. J. L. Meares as a Board of Arbitration, to assess and award damages for the property condemned.

Pending their action, a bill was introduced and passed through the lower House'of the Leg- islature of 1878, authorizing the purchase of the Spring Valley Works by the city, the price fixed in the bill being $15,500,000. The manifest injustice of these figures, so utterly beyond the real value of the property in question, awakened such a storm of indignation and brought forth so vehement a protest from the people of the city, that the bill never was pressed to a passage. Since that time no further steps in the matter of the arbitration have been taken. A very gen- eral sentiment is, however, gradually manifesting itself in the community looking to the establishment of a right on the part of the city over the rates as well as property of water com- panies.

Public Libraries.

THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE contains thirty-three thousand volumes, of which about fifteen hundred were added during the past year. This Library is the official depository of the Reports of the Patent Office at Washington ; it also possesses the English Patent Reports, some three thousand volumes, which were presented by the British Government, and is the only set on this Coast. It occupies a three-story brick building, owned by the Institute, on the south side of Post Street, between Montgomery and Kearny. The Mechanics' Industrial fairs are held under the auspices of the Mechanics' Institute for the benefit of this Library. The Thirteenth Industrial Fair was opened August 13, 1878, and continued for a period of thirty-two days. Expenditures, $20,904.24. The receipts : From admissions, $37,289.65 ; privileges, $3,855.90, total $41,145.55-gain $20,241.31.

The building occupied by the Institute is valued at $135,000, books and fixtures $48,000. The ground floor is used for stores ; first floor for general library and reading-room ; second floor, reading-rooms for newspapers, periodicals, etc., and chess rooms. This Library is now

BEAMISH, Shirt Manufacturer, Nucleus Building, Market, cor. Third.

Home Insurance Company of Columbus, Ohio; HUTCHINSON & MANN, Agents, north-east cor. California and Sansome Sts.

ANDERSON & RANDOLPH, Jewelers, 101 Montgomery St.

SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY.

opened on Sundays as well as week days until nine o'clock P. M. The present membership is about seventeen hundred.

THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY has two thousand members. This Library contains about fifty thousand volumes, of which seventeen hundred were added during the past year. About eighty- five thousand volumes are taken from the Library yearly, averaging about forty to each subrcriber; This Library building is on the north side of Bush Street, between Sansom and Montgomery. It is three stories high, with basement and attic. On the first floor is the library, reading, reference library, ladies' reading-room, parlor, trustees' room, chess and smoking-rooms, writing-room, museum, etc. In addition to the library, there are all the English and American magazines, the Eastern and the leading Foreign newspapers. The terms of subscription are one dollar iniation fee, and three dollars quarterly dues. Strangers are invited to visit the rooms.

THE ODD FELLOWS' LIBRARY, located in the Odd Fellows' Building, 325 Montgomery Street, contains thirty-four thousand volumes. It contains many valuable works on the early history of the Pacific Coast, was organized in 1854, is open only to members of the order, and is supported by pro rata assessments on the lodges of the city. Members of the order other than those belonging to city lodges are entitled to its privileges on payment of a small subscription. Its annual circulation exceeds one hundred thousand volumes.

THE FRENCH PUBLIC LIBRARY, established by the Ligue Nationale Française, at 120 Sutter Street, near Kearny, has in all ten thousand volumes of French books, the largest collection of the kind on our Continent. It will be open every afternoon and evening, except Sunday.

THE LAW LIBRARY, located in Montgomery Block, contains about twenty thousand volumes of standard legal authorities, decisions, reports, etc. The library is supported by payments received for life membership certificates, annual and semi-annual subscription fees, and a docket fee of one dollar for every case instituted in the District Courts of this city. The receipts from these sources during the past year amounted to about $4,000. The Library is open every day, Sunday, holidays, and dies non not excepted, from nine o'clock A. M. until ten P. M. State, Federal and Municipal officers are entitled to its privileges.

THE SAN FRANCISCO VEREIN, located on the corner of Sutter and Dupont Streets, is a private social club. Its elegant rooms were fitted up at an expense of $75,000. It has a library of twenty thousand volumes, embracing the works of the most eminent German historians, statesmen, psychologists and litterateurs.

THE PEOPLES' FREE LIBRARY, authorized by an act of the last Legislature, is yet in abeyance. The provisions of the act creating this library authorizes the Board of Supervisors for the City and County, to levy a tax of one mill on the dollar, in each year, for its creation, maintenance and enlargement, and names as the original trustees, Messrs. John S. Hagar, Geo. H. Rogers, Irving M. Scott, R. J. Tobin, E. D. Sawyer, John H. Wise, A. J. Moulder, Louis Sloss, A. S. Hallidie, C. C. Terrell and Henry George. This provision is deemed to be ample security for a prospect of a library equal to any in the United States, in time. The Board of Supervisors have appropriated $24,000, for expenditure during the present fiscal year, with which a purchase of fifteen thousand volumes will be made as a nucleus. The officers of the Board of Trustees are George!H. Rogers, president, and Henry George, secretary. Pacific Hall, located on the north side of Bush Street, between Kearny and Dupont, has recently been selected for temporary occupancy.

THE WORKINGMENS' FREE LIBRARY .- This library was formally organized on the 9th day of February of the present year, under the auspices of the Workingmens' Party of California, and is located for the present in commodious rooms at 861 Market Street. Although just started, this library by generous donations has already secured over one thousand volumes, It is supported by monthly payments of fifty centsf rom subscribers, while its benefits, as its name implies, are free to all. Its officers are : H. M. Moore, president; J. J. Flynn, secretary ; W. T. Sullivan, financial secretary; P. Murphy, Treasurer.

Public Schools.

San Francisco has sixty-one public schools, in which six hundred and seventy-two teachers are employed, seventy-four of them being men, and five hundred and ninety-eight being women. There are fifty-six principals, of whom forty-one are not required to teach classes. During the last fiscal year, $674,047.84 was expended for teachers' salaries-an increase of $74,659.48 over the previous year. The city school tax was 16.62-100 cents on each $100. The school census shows that the number of children in the city between the ages of six and seventeen who are entitled to attend school was fifty-two thousand one hundred and eighty-two, an increase of two thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight over that of the previous year. The total enrollment was as follows: In the High Schools, one thousand two hundred and nineteen; in the Grammar Schools, fourteen thousand four hundred and forty-eight; in the Primary Schools, nineteen thousand four hundred and six; in the evening schools, three thousand five hundred and ninety-nine.

Number of children under seventeen years of age, eighty thousand two hundred and eighty- eight; increase from July 1, 1877 to June 30, 1878, forty-three. The total expenditures for the fiscal year were $989,258.99; the increase for the year being $256,934.82. The estimated value of school property is as follows : School sites, $1,630,000; school buildings, $875,000; school furniture, $170,000; libraries, $12,000; apparatus, $24,000. Total valuation of school property, $2,711,000.

BULLOCK & JONES, 105 Montgomery St., Importers Martin's Canes and Umbrellas.

Steinway Hall, GRAY'S MUSIC STORE, 117 Post St.

Cutlery at GEO. LOOMIS' Plaza Stores, 706 to 716 Kearny St.

PROGRESS OF THE CITY.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS .- There are about one hundred private schools in the city, varying from the small family school of five or six scholars to the large college with four or five hundred. The number of scholars reported to the Census Marshal in June, 1878, was six thousand five. hundred and fifty-one, a decrease from the preceding year of four hundred and forty-three.

An organization, known as the Public Kindergarten Society, was effected in July last for the purpose of establishing a free kindergarten system for the benefit of the children of the poor of the city, under the auspices of Dr. Felix Adler. Members pay one dollar monthly, and life memberships are secured by the payment of $100. The instruction will be entirely secular. It is expected that the society will be able to carry its project into successful operation during the coming year. Its directors are Messrs. S. Heydenfeldt, F. Schünemann Pott, S. Nickelsburg, Joseph W. Winans and F. MacCrellish, and Mrs. H. Behrend, Mrs. Müser, Mrs. L. Gottig and Miss Malwedel.

THE HASTINGS COLLEGE OF THE LAW .- This institution, which is in connection with, and under the auspices of the University of California, is a creation of the past year, and owes its formation to the munificence of Judge S. C. Hastings, who endowed it with a free gift of $100,000. The Act of the Legislature establishing the College authorizes the Board of Super- visors of San Francisco to provide suitable rooms in this city, and makes it mandatory upon the Law Library Association to extend its benefits to the students of the College. It is intended to ultimately provide accommodations for this College in the New City Hall. It is now located in the Assembly Room of the Society of California Pioneers, 808 Montgomery Street. The number of students is one hundred and ten. The officers are, John Norton Pomeroy, L.L. D., Professor of Municipal Law ; S. Clinton Hastings, Dean, and Charles P. Hastings, Registrar. Office of dean and registrar, room 2, Court Block 636 Clay Street.

Health Department.

A review of the report of J. L. Meares, M. D., Health Officer, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878, shows four thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven deaths against six thousand one hundred and seventy of the preceding year, a decrease of one thousand one hundred and ninety-three. This decrease is accounted for by the existence of the small pox and diphtheria epidemics during the former year, and the abatement of a large number of nuisances, including the obliteration of many ponds of stagnant water and marshes by filling in. Estimating the population at three hundred thousand, the death-rate was sixteen and fifty-nine one-hundredths, a decrease of three and ninety-seven one-hundredths from that of the preceding year. This is the lowest mortality rate recorded in the history of the Department, and is less than that of most of the large cities of our country. The proportion of deaths from zymotic diseases is still unreasonably large, but it is expected that this undue proportion will disappear with the perfection of our sewage and drainage systems.

Hospitals.

San Francisco's high standard in the matter of eleemosynary provision for its sick has suffered no diminution during the year. Early in her history, the rivalry which existed among the different nationalities that made her population cosmopolitan, lead to the establishment of large and well supported hospitals by the French, German and Italian citizens among us, all of which, although especially designed for the care of their own countrymen, are open to any who can pay a moderate charge for their advantages. In addition, there are several private hospitals supported by private charity, among which may be noted the State Woman's Hospital, on Twelfth Street near Howard, the San Francisco Female Hospital, 930 Clay Street, and the Foundling, 913 Tyler Street, the latter, as its name indicates, being for the shelter and care of abandoned and unfortunate infants. St. Lukes, Hospital, under the auspices of the Epis- copalians of the city, is situated on San Jose Avenue, near Twenty-seventh Street. St. Mary's Hospital, under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy, occupies an elevated and pleasant site on Rincon Hill. The French Hospital is situated on Bryant Street, between Fifth and Sixth, and the Italian Hospital on the corner of Twenty-eighth and Noe. The new German Hospital is an increase to the hospital accomodations of the city during the year. It was built to replace the old building, located on Brannan Street, which was destroyed by fire in 1876, and is located on the corner of Fourteenth and Noe Streets. The grounds embrace the four blocks bounded by Fourteenth, Ridley, Noe and Castro Streets, are thickly studded with cedar, fir and eucalyptus trees, and are in process of improvement to an extent which will render them one of the attractions of the city. The building was formally opened February 22, 1878, is three stories in height in the main part, with two two-story wings on each side. It cost a little over $200,000, and has accomodations for three hundred patients.

Manufactures.

From the detailed report of A. Badlam, Esq., City and County Assessor, made to the Surveyor-General in July, 1878, the following statistics of the mechanical and manufacturing industries of the city, for the year 1877, have been compiled : Number of manufactories, seven hundred and ninety-six; number of hands employed, twenty-five thousand two hundred and three, of which about four thousand were women and boys under sixteen years of age; aggregate value of manufactured products, $53,433,492. The detailed figures for 1878 have not as yet been compiled, although careful estimates place the aggregate production at from $45,000,000

BEAMISH has always on hand every variety of Underwear.

New Orleans Insurance Association, HUTCHINSON & MANN, Agents, north-east cor. California and Sansome Sts.

ANDERSON & RANDOLPH, Jewelers, 101 Montgomery St.

SAN FRANCISCO DIRECTORY.

to $48,000,000, a reduction from the previous year owing to the general depression and reduction in values. In boots and shoes there has been in 1878 a material increase, the products being $2,700,000, against about $2,000,000 for 1877. This industry includes fifty-six factories, exclusive of the four or five hundred small shops, and furnishes about one half of the manu- factured goods handled in our market. This proportion would be materially improved but for the disrepute brought upon our home manufactures by the inroads into the trade which have been made by the large number of Chinese workmen producing heavy lines of inferior goods. Some of the Jarger establishments have endeavored to relieve this situation by the employment of mixed white and Chinese labor, but the mutual antipathy of the two races has rendered it almost impossible.

There has also been a steady increase in the amount of cheap clothing manufactured, the Chinese still absorbing all of the lower grades of products. The number of hands employed exceeds four thousand, and the value of products, $3,000,000. Dress goods for gentlemen's wear have also been made to an extent never before known. In cigars, the production has been for the year 108,339,975, against 107,299,665 in 1877. Large amounts of Eastern cigars were thrown upon our market during the year under cover of the Chinese cry, and values much depressed in consequence, but many of our larger establishments having dispensed with their Chinese help, and using better stock in their productions, the California made cigars are gradually recovering their lost ground.

Our flouring mills produced during the year breadstuffs to the amount of $2,800,000, and our two sugar refineries an aggregate of products reaching $5,500,000.

In our foundry, boiler, and iron works some decrease has been felt, about twelve hundred men being employed, with manufactures reaching $2,750,000. Our iron works enjoy almost the monopoly of the mining machinery manufacture, almost all the machinery for the mines of Cal- ifornia, Nevada and Arizona being made here, as well as the greater part of that ordered for South American mines. As a specimen of the immensity of the works constructed for these purposes, the engine built by the Union Iron Works, of this city, for the Yellow Jacket mine may be cited. This engine, with its boilers, pumps and gear weighs 1,200 tons, is of 1,500 horse power, and cost $300,000, and was completed in February, 1878, having furnished work in its construction to about five hundred skilled artisans for several months.

Our woolen mills report about the same production for 1878 as 1877. Number of hands em- ployed, seven hundred. Value of productions, $1,500,000. During the year the Mission Woolen Mills, in competition against Eastern bidders, secured a Government contract amounting to over $250,000.

Prominent among our varied manufacturing interests may be noted the Selby Smelting and Lead Works and Shot Tower. This establishment, besides being the only one on the Pacific Coast, manufactures almost the total product in the lead line consumed on the Coast. It em- ploys in the aggregate about two hundred and fifty men, and its manufactures for the past year reached $1,400,000. Considerable activity has been imparted to its business by the development of a large demand for lead from China, promising to create almost a new trade by bringing into value the baser products of our mines, which have heretofore been neglected on account of lack of demand. In wire work the California Wire Works Company have to report the manufacture of about eight hundred thousand feet of wire rope during the year. This company makes a specialty of the manufacture of heavy wire rope, and during the period of their existence have supplied almost all the wants of our mines, street railroads and shipping, besides making large quantities for export.

A detailed statement of all the manufacturing institutions of our city would include in its scope almost the entire list of articles known to commerce. New establishments for the propa- gation of new industries are but the legitimate fruits of the continued development of our natural resources, and these resources varying to an extent which includes almost all mineral, vegetable, and agricultural products, enforce the necessity and desirability of all classes of manufacture.

Banking and Finance.

There were, on the Ist day of July, 1878, one hundred and two offices for the transaction of banking business in this State, of which fifty-six were commercial banks, twenty-eight savings banks, nine National Gold Banks, and nine private bankers. Excluding the private bankers, from whom no returns have been made public, the aggregate capital of the banks amounted to $41,909,598 ; deposits, $102,604,204 ; reserve fund, $9,984,819; total, $153,498,621, to which add estimated amount held by private bankers, insurance companies, brokers, etc., $18,000,000, making a total for the State of $171,498,621. Of these, San Francisco has twenty-five incor- porated banks and nine private bankers, wliose aggregate capital, inclusive of that held by insurance companies, brokers, etc., amounted to about $132,000,000. The capital and reserve fund of the savings banks of this city, June 30, 1878, amounted to $3,879,700, deposits $57,734,600 ; number of depositors, sixty-six thousand four hundred and eighty-seven, or an average for each of $927.

The dividends paid by local corporations, as far as the same have been reported for the year 1878, amounted to $26,649,300 as against $34,366,800 for 1877-decrease $5,717,500. These figures do not include the figures of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Of the amount

BULLOCK & JONES, 105 Montgomery Street, Novelties in Neck Wear.

HENRY STEIL, ARTIST TAILOR, Occid ntal Hotel, 237 Bush Street.

Perfumes and Toilet Waters at GEO. LOOMIS', 706 to 716 Kearny St

PROGRESS 0 F THE CITY. 33

paid in dividends, the mining companies contributed $18,234,700 against $23,971,600 in 1877- decrease $5,726,900 ; so that, aside from the mining companies, an increase in local profits of $9,400 has been developed. The decrease in mining stock dividends is more than accounted for by the stoppage of dividends by the Bonanza mines, the Consolidated Virginia paying its last dividend for 1878 in June, and the California in August, the total amount paid by these two mines being $12,900,000 against $20,160,000 in 1877. The total assessments returned delinquent to stock boards for the year was $12,736,000-an increase over 1877 of $1,138,000.

The act approved March 30, 1878, providing for the appointment of Bank Commissioners and prescribing their duties, went into effect May 16, 1878, by the appointment by the Governor of Messrs. Evan J. Coleman, of San Francisco, Robert Watt, of San Rafael, and James T. Murphy, of San Jose, Commissioners. Examinations were commenced in August, and as a result of their labors the Masonic Savings and Loan Bank closed August 22, 1878, the Farmer's and Mechanic's Savings Bank closed September 5, 1878, and the French Savings and Loan Society closed September 17, 1878, the Director General, Gustave Mahé, committing suicide on that date in consequence of discoveries made by the Commissioners. The losses to depositors in the first two instances promises to be but a small per cent., while the French bank will, it is thought, be able to pay its depositors seventy per cent. ; it has since been reorganized, and will continue business.

The Odd Fellows' Savings Bank was examined in October, the Commissioners finding a surplus, although a meagre one, in favor of the depositors. During January of the present year, however, the directors by an order passed the dividend for the term ending December 31, 1878. The Commissioners, disputing their right to pass the dividend, directed the bank to rescind the order. In consequence of this decision the bank decided to go into liquidation. It is stated that no losses to depositors will result from its close.

The results of the operations of the Bank Commissioners have been most salutary, and although a nominal reduction in our banking capital has been effected thereby, it has been accompanied with the greater compensation of an assured confidence in the remaining institutions which have withstood the test of their scrutiny.

During the past year the operations of the San Francisco Clearing House represent a total of $715,266,300; $689,746,700 being for gold, and $25,519,600, silver exchanges.

City and County Bonded Debt, June 30, 1878.

Issued in

By the

Payable in

Pr. ct.

Payable in

Annual Sinking Fund

Bonds in Circulation

1858.

City and County

1888

San Francisco

About $42,000

$542,000

1862-3

City and County for San José Railroad.

1877-8

San Francisco

2,000

1863.

City and County for City Slip

1883

San Francisco

424,500

1864

City and County for City Slip

1884

San Francisco

11,000

1864

Central Pacific R. R. Co ....

1894

San Francisco

About 20,000

377,000

1865.

Western Pacific R. R. Co

1895

San Francisco

About 13,000

250,000

1866-7.

School Department .

1881

San Francisco

About

18,000

197,000

1867

Judgment.

1887

San Francisco

About

17,000

246,000

1870

School Department.

1890

San Francisco

About 15,000

285,000

1872

Hospital.

1891

San Francisco

About 10,000

170,000

1872

School Department .

1882

San Francisco

About 10,500

100,000

1873

Hospital .

1893

San Francisco

2,000

40,000

1874.

Park Improvement

1904

San Francisco

125,000

1874.

House of Correction

1894

San Francisco

150,000

1874.

School Department

1894

San Francisco

200,000

1875.

Park Improvement.

1904

San Francisco

125,000

1875-6.

City Hall.

1899

San Francisco

About 33,000

750,000

Totals .:

$227,000

$4,219,500

Funded debt, June 30, 1878, $4,219,500. Cash in Treasury (various sinking funds), $911,- 373. Actual debt, $3,308,127.

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The San Francisco directory: embracing a general directory of residents and a business directory : also, a directory of streets, 1879 , Part 10

Author: Langely, Henry G Publication date: 1879 Publisher: San Francisco : Francis, Valentine & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Langely, Henry G
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: San Francisco : Francis, Valentine & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196