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Overview
The Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 was an unparalleled catastrophe in the history of San Francisco. More than 4.5 square miles of the city burned and crumbled into a windswept desert of desolation. This book is filled with remarkable images, from before the earthquake through the blaze and into the rebuilding.
With stories from survivors, and extensive photographs of sites from the waterfront in the east to Golden Gate Park in the west, the marina in the north to the Mission District in the south, readers can gain a vivid sense of this major historical event and how it affected one of America’s greatest cities.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781439642108 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 10/20/2018 |
| Series: | Images of America Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| Sales rank: | 580,713 |
| File size: | 27 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Pre-Earthquake And Fire
Early San Francisco seemed born to catastrophe, as disasters followed one after the other in the 1800s. Both fires and earthquakes were almost epidemic from the time of the city's founding to the ultimate devastation in 1906. Each catastrophe was followed by prompt rebuilding, with each rebuilding producing a new city better than the last. Earthquake, fire, and even plague could not stop its growth from 1847 to 1906.
Before the earthquake, San Francisco was by far the largest city west of Chicago and the ninth-largest city in the country, with a population of around 440,000. It was the largest port on the west coast, funneling the Pacific trade into the country and out. Large ethnic communities gave the city an international flavor. Many different newspapers and magazines were produced locally in many languages.
The best of everything was gathered together into one small corner of the world called San Francisco, which has four seasons, all of them spring. The early Chinese called it Gold Mountain, which was literally true, as gold was discovered on two separate occasions within the city itself.
Despite all of these qualities, the overwhelming lure of San Francisco since the Gold Rush has been San Franciscans. In 1908, historian Frank Morton Todd wrote, "Probably of all modern city communities, the San Franciscans are, as a class, the most careless, gay and free-spirited. Their most cherished right is the right to do as they please. They are known to be capable of hanging together in cliques, factions and parties, but their capacity for general concerted action had never been tested before 1906."
The original San Francisco City Hall was completely destroyed by the earthquake. Construction on the new city hall began in 1913 and was completed in 1915. The existing building was designed by Arthur Brown Jr.
Union Square is seen here in 1905, looking west from Stockton Street. In 1850, San Francisco mayor John White Geary presented 2.6 acres to the city. He left San Francisco in 1852, and the city council passed a resolution making it public property for all time. The tall building to the left is the St. Francis Hotel at Powell, Geary, and Post Streets. The statue, Victory, by Robert Ingersoll Aitken, is in the center of the square.
Rincon Hill is seen here in 1905 looking north to the Selby Smelting and Lead Company, on the southeast corner of First and Howard Streets. Some of the ore from the famous mines in California and Nevada was treated there.
The domes of the California Hotel on Bush Street near Kearny Street dominate this 1905 photograph. A chimney from the hotel fell on the neighboring fire station and fatally injured Fire Chief Dennis Sullivan. Goldberg, Brown and Company's warehouse is on the left. The Hopkins Institute of Art and the new Fairmont Hotel are in the distance.
Standing tall among the waterfront buildings in the distance in these two photographs is the Ferry Building, designed by architect Arthur Page Brown, who modeled it after Garalda Tower at the Cathedral of Seville.
The Call Building is seen here one day before the earthquake. Market Street is on the left and Third Street is on the other side of the Call Building.
This photograph shows city hall on April 17, 1906, the day before the earthquake.
O'Farrell Street is seen here right before the earthquake. The Call Building is in the distance. As the tallest building in San Francisco, at 18 stories, the Call Building is a good marker; look for it in subsequent photographs to figure out approximate locations.
This pre-earthquake and fire photograph looks east on Market Street to the Ferry Building. The world-famous Palace Hotel is on the right. This is the present location of the rebuilt Palace Hotel, at Market and New Montgomery Streets.
This photograph looks from Portsmouth Square at the Hall of Justice, on Kearny Street. Washington Street is on the left of the building. This building is another good marker to help navigate the ruins in later photographs.
CHAPTER 2Earthquake
The earthquake struck at 5:12:06 a.m., and fires immediately broke out. The shock was felt from Coos Bay, Oregon, to Los Angeles, and as far east as central Nevada, a total area of about 375,000 square miles, approximately half of which was in the Pacific Ocean. The region of destruction extended from the southern part of Fresno County to Eureka, about 400 miles away, and for a distance of 25 to 30 miles on either side of the fault zone. The distribution of intensity within the region of destruction was uneven.
Of course, all structures standing on or crossing the rift were destroyed or badly damaged. Many trees standing near the fault were either uprooted or broken off. Perhaps the most marked destruction of trees was near Loma Prieta in Santa Cruz County, where, according to Dr. John C. Branner of Stanford University, "The forest looked as though a swath had been cut through it two hundred feet in width." In just under a mile, Dr. Branner counted 345 earthquake cracks running in all directions.
The earthquake was so strong that sensitive seismographs around the bay were either knocked from their supports or the records went off the scale, so they gave no information as to the actual earthquake movements.
Destructive effects were greatest in the immediate neighborhood of the fault zone, but there were places many miles from the San Andreas Fault where the earthquake destruction was greater than in places nearer the fault. Intensified effects were found in the alluvial valley region, extending from San Jose to Healdsburg. Santa Rosa, 20 miles from the San Andreas Fault, sustained more damage, in proportion to its size, than any other city in the state.
This photograph was supporting evidence for someone's insurance company. It gives credence as to what occurred in this room on the morning of April 18, 1906. Many letters tell of the dust and the great sound. There is even one report of a person watching a power plant blow up through their window who could not hear the explosion because of all the noise in their house.
This wood-frame home had buckled floors and plaster stripped from the lath after the earthquake. Most people were in bed at the time of the earthquake, and a few even slept through it. Houses stood or fell depending on where they stood and what type of ground they were on.
This wood-frame building at Ninth and Brannan Streets was torn apart when the filled ground under it liquefied. In studies of the day, more people died in wood-frame buildings than in brick buildings.
The Valencia Hotel, at 718 Valencia Street in the Mission District, was a four-story building. The bottom part of the hotel collapsed forward, and the upper part of the building moved out into the street. The policeman who directed the rescue work reported that all of the people on the first and second floors were killed. Only eight people escaped the collapsed hotel.
Rescuers pulled rubble away board by board at the Wilcox House, at 109 Jessie Street, to save the trapped victims. The rescuers continued their efforts until they were driven away by fire.
This man, wearing a derby hat and a black suit, pulls his trunk full of his belongings with a rope. He had likely packed his trunk in a hurry, and he is on the move because he probably lost his home and possessions in the quake. His trunk must be heavy, for he is bending low in order to move it.
The house to the right has a sign nailed to its front appealing for lime, cement, and lumber. The owner is ready to begin repairing his home.
The buildings most subject to destruction in the 1906 earthquake were the wooden structures built on alluvial soil or landfill in the city's eastern half. The majority of those killed in the earthquake were in wooden, not brick, structures. The houses seen here later served as fuel for the conflagration that arose in the aftermath of the tremor.
Along Embarcadero Street, the crack of the earthquake is prominently seen. It is a little-known fact that bay water was actually thrown over the street as a result of the quake. The water progressed more than a block inland.
The facades of many buildings, especially wooden structures with brick face work, collapsed in the earthquake. Well-built brick buildings actually did very well in the earthquake, and many remain standing today. Even poorly built brick buildings usually just threw off part of a wall, which was dangerous to pedestrians but otherwise left the structure still standing and its inhabitants still alive.
Sidewalks and curbs were damaged by the liquefaction caused by the earthquake. There is an advertisement on the right for Max Wilhelmy & Co., a carpenter and builder on Eighteenth Street. This street damage was common in the flat areas of the Mission District. When buildings were rebuilt later, a survey found that the ground flowed like mud in that area, and property lines had to be redrawn.
Digging holes to bury belongings to recover later was a common practice. Many letters tell of putting silver and other property in yards to be dug up later.
The side of the Belvedere Music Hall was adjacent to this large business building with visible damage to its front. This was a common type of damage, as walls often peeled off and fell to the ground. It has become common knowledge not to leave a building during an earthquake, to avoid getting hit by falling rubble.
The earthquake shifted the tracks of the Presidio and Ferries cable line on Union Street near Steiner Street. This was fill land over a gully that had slipped out toward the bay. This photograph looks west.
CHAPTER 3Fire
San Francisco was destroyed by fire multiple times between 1849 and 1906. Initially, volunteers made up fire companies that responded to the fires. But, as the frontier town became a city, dependence on volunteers was no longer satisfactory. In 1866, the volunteer fire companies were abandoned in favor of a paid, professional fire department.
Despite this, from its founding, San Francisco was built to burn, and the fire department's chief, Dennis Sullivan, entertained no illusions about so-called fireproof buildings and the wide streets that were supposed to act as firebreaks. He was also aware of the poor water supply with low pressure in the fire hydrants, and the abandoned and deteriorated underground cistern system — a relic of the volunteer fire department days.
Spring Valley Water Company's system of mains for fire hydrants was considered barely adequate, and the 57 underground cisterns, left over from the Gold Rush days, were no longer considered by fire insurance companies to be a factor in fire protection. Many cisterns had been filled with trash and garbage, or utility companies had run pipes or conduits through them, although most still contained some water. On top of that, the locations of the cisterns were only known by the oldest San Francisco firefighters.
In 1906, firefighters were on duty 24 hours per day, in 10-day cycles with three days off per month. Firefighters could eat at home if it was near their assigned station, but they were required to sleep in the firehouse. However, most were not married and took up permanent residence in the firehouses. The uniformed strength of the San Francisco Fire Department on April 10, 1906 — the most accurate figure that can be found — was 575 men.
The amount of fire department manpower on duty on April 18, as well as the adequacy or inadequacy of the water system, is somewhat academic, because the department simply never had a chance. Too many disasters happened simultaneously: at exactly the same time that thousands of people were caught in wreckage, damage to fire stations trapped the engines and caused the horses to run away, and the telephone and fire alarm systems were destroyed. All of these factors would have exhausted, disorganized, and fragmented the resources of the San Francisco Fire Department, even if there had been no major fires.
Each station of the San Francisco Fire Department acted on its own, as communications from headquarters was out. From some stations, the horses fled and the men pulled out the steamers and got to work. Some reported that they had to make hard decisions about whether to rescue people trapped in collapsed buildings or fight the fire.
Fires were starting all over the city. At the time, with wood and coal stoves in most buildings, any building that fell immediately started a fire. The most fires occurred on fill or made ground, where there were more buildings down, but fires occurred in all sections of the city. This image shows the fire on Third Street heading toward Market Street.
Since the cable cars were not in service, many citizens walked on them to view the progress of the fire. Most people watched the fire not knowing where it would stop.
The dome of the city hall is seen here in the center, with fires from south of Market Street merging and progressing north into the downtown area. The fire on the far left was known as the Ham and Eggs fire, as it started from cooking inside a home.
The spreading fire is seen here heading north toward the North Beach area. There are maps showing the directions of various fires, which were at the mercy of the wind. As fires got larger, they developed their own wind. Many people wrote about the sound of air being sucked into the fires. Readings of the wind swirling around the fires from military ships near the shore showed gale force.
Crowds walk through the smoke towards the Ferry Building to get away from the city.
This south-facing photograph shows the fire crossing Market Street at Grant Avenue. Troops watch helplessly as Chinatown burns and the flames continue to advance, building by building. This same fire climbed Nob Hill that evening and destroyed the mansions of San Francisco's wealthiest citizens.
People watch the fire move from block to block. In letters, some people wrote about going home for meals and then coming back to the streets to watch the fire until it reached their own houses.
This photograph looks southeast from the Mark Hopkins Home on California Street at Mason Street, with the Call Building in the center. The tallest building west of Chicago at the time, the Call Building is still in use today. Note the chimneys down on the buildings on the bottom right. It was estimated that 90 percent of the chimneys in the city were damaged in the earthquake.
This fire is being fought with water from a fire department steamer. The hose lines are charged and a stream of water is seen in the distance. The stories of having no water to fight the fire are generally wrong. The battle to save what was left of San Francisco lasted seven hours. Delirious firefighters collapsed in the street, only to be dragged from danger by refugees. Others rolled in the gutters to keep their melted rubber burnout clothes from sticking to their bodies.
The Ferry Building is seen here, looking west from the bay. The building was known as the Statue of Liberty of the West, because before the completion of the bridges across San Francisco Bay, it was the gateway to the city. It was erected on a foundation of piles, and at its July 1898 opening, it was hailed as the most solidly constructed building in California.
In this southeast-facing photograph, firemen in the distance throw water on burning homes on Market Street, a few blocks from Castro Street. Note the large crowd cheering them on. The fire was stopped in this area by citizens tearing down homes so the fire could not spread.
As fires began to run together, people saw a need to leave. At first, they just left their local area, but the whole city seemed to be on fire. The Ferry Building and the ferries, where everyone attempted to go, were crowded for many days.
CHAPTER 4Aftermath
As soon as the flames died down, the great challenges of maintaining order, feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless began for the civil and military authorities. Although more than half the population had abandoned the city, thousands were left, stranded in their homes and in parks, military reservations, and the desolate western sand dunes.
San Francisco mayor Eugene Schmitz gave the approval to continue Gen. Frederick Funston's mobilization of the military in order to maintain order. Strict measures were enforced to guard against looting and to prevent outbreaks of pestilence. There was a need to establish camps, institute sanitary measures, and develop an orderly system of food distribution.
San Francisco's population was approximately 440,000 at the time of the earthquake. Southern Pacific's railroad evacuation alone accounted for the movement out of the city of more than half the population. Given that an additional 20,000 to 30,000 were evacuated by the Navy from the area of Fort Mason, it may have been one of the largest evacuations in history. It should be noted that these figures do not account for the passengers who fled the city by ferry. Oakland received the majority of people and cared for all it could, with those who could be forwarded to other places sent away on trains.
Between 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, and Sunday night, the Southern Pacific ran 129 trains, with more than 900 cars, to the main line and local and eastern points, carrying refugees from San Francisco free of charge. During the same period, a total of 739 trains, with 5,783 cars, were run from Oakland. The number of people carried exceeded 225,000.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "1906 San Francisco Earthquake"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Richard Hansen and Gladys Hansen.
Excerpted by permission of Arcadia Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright page,
Dedication,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
1. Pre-Earthquake and Fire,
2. Earthquake,
3. Fire,
4. Aftermath,
5. Cooking in the Streets,
6. Military,
7. Rebuilding,
8. Entertainment,
9. Injury, Death, and Disappearance,