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SAN  FRANCISCO 

The  Bay  and  Its  Cities 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE  BAY  AND  ITS  CITIES 

THE  SUN  LIBRARY 


Compiled  by  Workers 

oj  the  Work  Projects  Administration 
in  Northern  California 


AMERICAN  GUIDE  SERIES 


I  LLU  STR ATED 


Sponsored  by  the  City  and  County  of  San  Francisco 
HASTINGS   HOUSE  •  Publishers  •  NEW  YORK 


MCM  X  L 


FIRST   PUBLISHED   IN    1940 


CALIFORNIA  STATE  DEPARTMENT  OF  EDUCATION 

Official  sponsor  of  the  Northern 
California  Writers'  Projects 

FEDERAL  WORKS  AGENCY 
JOHN  M.  CARMODY,  Administrator 

WORK  PROJECTS  ADMINISTRATION 

F.  C.  HARRINGTON,  Commissioner 

FLORENCE  KERR,  Assistant  Commissioner 

WILLIAM  R.  LAWSON,  Administrator  for  Northern  California 


COPYRIGHT    I94O  BY 

THE  CITY  AND  COUNTY  OF  SAN   FRANCISCO 
PRINTED  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES  OF  AMERICA 

All  rights  are  reserved,  including  the  rights  to  reproduce 
this  book  or  parts  thereof  in  any  form. 


KXZKZ^^^^ 


Preface 


So  many  books  have  been  written  about  San  Francisco  and  its  neigh- 
bor cities  around  San  Francisco  Bay  that  the  writing  of  still  another 
may  seem  to  call  for  explanation.  But  for  all  those  who  have  shared  in 
the  compilation  and  editing  of  this  book — research  workers,  reporters, 
writers,  editors,  and  supervisors  of  the  Northern  California  Writers' 
Project  in  San  Francisco  and  Oakland — it  needs  no  apology.  All 
throughout  the  long  labor  of  preparing  it  they  have  realized  only  too 
keenly  how  much  remains  to  be  written  about  a  city  whose  history  has 
been  the  stuff  of  legend  since  its  beginning — how  much  remained  before 
it  was  written  and  still  remains  afterward.  For  this  book,  although  we 
have  crowded  between  its  covers  uncounted  thousands  of  those  facts 
which  go  to  make  up  the  story  of  a  great  metropolitan  center — names 
and  dates,  descriptions  of  places  and  people,  tales  and  anecdotes  and  even 
some  myths — still  leaves  much  of  the  story  untold,  as  any  book  must. 
But  the  book  will  have  accomplished  its  purpose  if  what  it  leaves  unsaid 
the  reader  will  want  to  know. 

During  the  preparation  of  this  volume,  Margaret  Wilkins  acted  as 
State  Editorial  Supervisor,  Paul  Johnson  as  State  Research  Supervisor, 
and  Willis  Foster  as  Oakland  District  Supervisor.  Wallace  Boyle, 
Charles  Coppock,  S.  S.  Greenleaf,  and  Dorothy  Wagner  served  as  edi- 
tors; Juanita  Turner  and  Gordon  Williams  as  research  editors.  Al- 
though virtually  the  entire  San  Francisco,  Oakland,  and  San  Rafael 
staffs  shared  in  the  compilation  of  the  book,  the  writing  of  the  final 
manuscript  was  done  largely  by  Jackson  Barber,  Dean  Beshlich,  Marc 
Bliss,  Madeline  Gleason,  Gladys  Pittman,  Thomas  Ray,  Kenneth  Rex- 
roth,  and  Dorothy  Van  Ghent  of  the  San  Francisco  staff  and  Porter 
Chaffee,  Henry  Darnell,  Frances  Garoutte,  Howard  Hoffman,  Ethel 
Manning,  and  Thomas  Patterson  of  the  Oakland  staff.  Much  of  the 
section  "North  of  the  Bay"  is  the  work  of  Cora  Vernon  Lee,  Sacra- 
mento District  Supervisor.  We  are  indebted  for  the  essay  "Before  the 
Footlights"  to  Lawrence  Estavan,  Supervisor  of  the  History  of  the  San 
Francisco  Theater  Project.  The  index  was  compiled  by  Max  Loewen- 
thal  and  the  bibliography  by  W.  Stanley.  The  maps  were  prepared  by 


VI        PREFACE 

George  Hill  and  J.  H.  Marion  and  some  of  the  photographs  by  Theo- 
dore Baron,  James  Hall,  and  Howard  Hoffman  of  the  project  staff. 

For  their  generous  cooperation  in  reading  and  criticizing  various 
chapters,  we  are  particularly  indebted  to  Dr.  Herbert  E.  Bolton,  Chair- 
man, Department  of  History,  University  of  California ;  Alfred  Franken- 
stein, Music  and  Art  Editor,  San  Francisco  Chronicle;  Clyde  Healy, 
Assistant  City  Engineer,  San  Francisco;  Joseph  Henry  Jackson,  Book 
Editor,  San  Francisco  Chronicle;  Dr.  Alfred  L.  Kroeber,  Department 
of  Anthropology,  University  of  California;  Cornel  Lengyel,  Supervisor, 
History  of  Music  Project,  Work  Projects  Administration;  Charles 
Lindstrom,  Assistant  Curator,  San  Francisco  Museum  of  Art;  George 
Mullaney,  Director  of  Publications,  San  Francisco  Board  of  Education ; 
George  Pettit,  Assistant  to  the  President,  University  of  California ;  Dr. 
Frank  Fenton,  San  Francisco  State  College;  M.  Sprague,  Associate 
Meteorologist,  United  States  Weather  Bureau ;  Dr.  George  R.  Stewart, 
Jr.,  Associate  Professor  of  English,  University  of  California ;  Dr.  Theo- 
dore E.  Treutlein,  San  Francisco  State  College;  C.  M.  Wheeler,  Vice- 
President,  McCormick  Steamship  Company. 

We  are  extremely  grateful  for  the  assistance  provided  by  the  follow- 
ing librarians:  Robert  Rae  and  his  assistants,  Mary  A.  Byrne,  Jessica 
Fredericks,  Edith  Mau,  Elinor  Sturgis,  of  the  San  Francisco  Public 
Library;  Mary  O.  Carmody  and  Helen  Bryant  of  the  Mechanics'- 
Mercantile  Library;  Dr.  Herbert  Priestley  and  Edna  Parratt  of  the 
Bancroft  Library;  Richard  Taggert  of  the  University  of  California 
Library;  John  B.  Kaiser  and  Mabel  W.  Thomas  of  the  Oakland  Public 
Library ;  Susan  T.  Smith  of  the  Berkeley  Public  Library ;  Jane  I.  Curtis 
and  Theodora  T.  Larsen  of  the  Alameda  Public  Library ;  Mary  Barmby 
of  the  Alameda  County  Library;  Edith  Daley  of  the  San  Jose  Public 
Library ;  Virginia  Vail  of  the  Marin  County  Library ;  and  Jessie  A.  Lea 
of  the  Martinez  Public  Library.  We  also  are  grateful  to  the  librarians 
of  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  Marjorie  D.  Brown  and  Dorothy  M. 
Frisch;  of  the  San  Francisco  Call-Bulletin,  Stuart  Rasmussen;  of  the 
San  Francisco  Examiner,  Dwight  Newton,  for  their  help. 

Of  the  many  organizations  and  public  agencies  which  assisted  us,  we 
are  especially  indebted  to  the  Alameda  City  Clerk's  and  City  Auditor's 
offices;  Alameda  County  Development  Association;  California  Histori- 
cal Society;  California  State  Automobile  Association;  California  State 
Board  of  Education,  Board  of  Harbor  Commissioners,  Division  of 
Mines,  Fish  and  Game  Commission,  and  Park  Commission;  Cali- 
fornians,  Inc. ;  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  of  Alameda,  Berkeley,  Oak- 
land, San  Francisco,  San  Jose,  Santa  Rosa,  and  Sonoma;  Contra  Costa 
County  Development  Association ;  Marvelous  Marin,  Inc. ;  National 
Automobile  Club;  Northern  California  Hotel  Association;  Oakland 


PREFACE        Vll 

Park  Commission;  Pacific  Coast  Labor  Bureau;  Redwood  Empire  Asso- 
ciation; San  Francisco  City  and  County  Board  of  Education,  Board  of 
Health,  Assessor's  Office,  M.  H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum,  Palace 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  Park  Commission,  Police  Department,  and 
Recreation  Commission ;  San  Francisco  Convention  and  Tourist  Bureau ; 
San  Francisco  Hotel  Association ;  Shell  Travel  Bureau ;  Society  of  Cali- 
fornia Pioneers ;  Southern  Pacific  News  Bureau ;  Standard  Oil  Company 
of  California;  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  Department  of 
Agriculture,  National  Park  Service,  and  Travel  Bureau;  and  the  Wine 
Institute  of  California. 

For  special  assistance  we  are  indebted  to  Harris  Allen  of  the  Federal 
Housing  Authority;  Joseph  Allen,  State  Supervisor,  Northern  Cali- 
fornia Art  Project;  W.  N.  Burkhardt,  Editor-in-chief,  San  Francisco 
News;  Joseph  Gumming,  President,  Downtown  Association;  A.  C. 
Dearborn,  United  States  Travel  Bureau;  Ignatius  Dwyer,  Deputy 
Registrar  of  Voters,  City  and  County  of  San  Francisco;  Luisa  Vallejo 
Emparan;  William  A.  Gaw,  California  School  of  Fine  Arts;  Wanda 
Hannah;  G.  Lansing  Hurd,  Secretary,  Santa  Rosa  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce; Chingwah  Lee,  editor,  Chinese  Digest;  Major  Truman  Martin, 
Press  Relations  Officer,  Ninth  Corps  Area,  United  States  Army;  E.  P. 
Meadows,  Supervisor,  Project  10945,  Work  Projects  Administration; 
Irving  Morrow;  Laura  Bride  Powers;  Robert  Sibley,  Executive  Man- 
ager, Associated  Students  of  the  University  of  California;  Charles 
Stewart;  John  Swett,  Jr.;  Edward  van  Ribbink,  editor,  Oakland 
Tribune  Year  Book;  James  J.  Walsh;  Eric  Walter,  Assistant  Super- 
intendent, Golden  Gate  Park. 

WALTER  MCELROY,  State  Supervisor 


^^ 


Contents 


Page 

PREFACE  V 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS xiii 

LIST  OF  MAPS xvii 

/.   Gateway  to  the  West 

THE  BAY  AND  THE  LAND 3 

The  Opening  of  the   Gate 4 

Earth  and  Water 6 

The  Climate 9 

Wild  Life 10 

A  FRONTIER  TO  CONQUER 13 

Natives  of  the  Country 14 

The  White  Men  Came l6 

Yankee  Invasion 21 

EMPORIUM  OF  A  NEW  WORLD ...  29 

World  Port 30 

Smokestacks  Around  the  Bay 35 

Engineering  Enterprise 4O 

GOLDEN  ERA 48 

Centers  of  Learning .  4° 

Argonauts  of  Letters 5& 

Art  and  Artists 65 

CALENDAR  OF  ANNUAL  EVENTS 75 

ix 


X        CONTENTS 

//.  "The  City" 

Page 

GENERAL  INFORMATION 81 

Hotel   and  Other  Accommodations 84 

Restaurants •  86 

Sports -  87 

Churches '      •       •'       •       •       •       -       •  9° 

SAN  FRANCISCANS:  1940 93 

THE  CITY'S  GROWTH 96 

The  Village  of  Yerba  Buena   (1835-1848)        .       .       •       •       •   .    •  9& 

Capital  of  the  Gold  Coast  (1848-1856)     ........  98 

Bonanza   (1856-1875) IO3 

Big  City   (1875-1906) 105 

Rising  Phoenix   (1906-1940) Jo8 

SAN  FRANCISCANS  AT  WORK 112 

Wall  Street  of  the  West H4 

Labor's  Thousands I2O 

SOCIAL  HERITAGE     .      .      .      .      . 127 

High  Life  and  Low  Life 127 

Before  the  Footlights 135 

Music  Makers 140 

San  Francisco  Goes  to  Church 145 

Gentlemen  of  the  Press I5O 

///.  Around  the  World  in  San  Francisco 

Civic  CENTER 161 

METROPOLITAN  SCENE 174 

LANDMARKS  OF  THE  OLD  TOWN 204 

CHINATOWN  .                                         220 


CONTENTS  XI 
Page 

LATIN  QUARTER:  TELEGRAPH  HILL  AND  NORTH  BEACH     .      .  236 

LORDS  OF  THE  HILLTOPS     ........      ...  252 

EMBARCADERO      ..............  260 

SOUTH  OF  MARKET  .      .      .  .    ..........  271 

WESTERN  ADDITION  .............  282 

RIM  OF  THE  GOLDEN  GATE     .      .      .      .      .....      .  304 

GOLDEN  GATE  PARK     ............  329 

IF.  Around  the  Bay 

THE  HARBOR  AND  ITS  ISLANDS     .........  357 

The  Farallones     .............  359 

Alcatraz  ...............  3^2 

Angel  Island         .............  364 

Yerba  Buena         .............  366 

Treasure  Island  ............. 


EAST  BAY:  CITIES  AND  BACK  COUNTRY  .......  371 

Oakland  ...............  375 

Berkeley  ...............  393 

Alameda         ..............  408 

East  Bay  Tour  1         .....       .......  414 

East  Bay  Tour  2         ...........       .  425 

NORTH  BAY  ...............  435 

North  Bay  Tour  .............  435 

DOWN  THE  PENINSULA  ............  460 

Peninsula  Tour    .............  461 

SAN  JOSE        .  .............  486 

V  '.  Appendices 

A  CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  SAN  FRANCISCO  BAY  REGION     .      .      .  495 

A  SELECT  READING  LIST     ...........  501 

INDEX  .................  505 


Illustrations 


Page 
I.     BAY  REGION:  TODAY  AND  YESTERDAY  Between  44  and  45 


The  Bay  and  its  Cities 

Copyright,  Gabriel  Moulin 
Golden  Gate  Bridged  by  World's 
Tallest,  Longest  Span 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Con- 
vention   and    Tourist    Bu- 
reau 
Peninsula  Cliffs 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Pen- 
insula, Inc. 
Orchards  Carpet  the  Valleys 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

Mount    Tamalpais    Looms    over 
Marin  County 

Courtesy   Marvelous   Marin, 

Inc. 
The  Presidio  in  1816 

Drawing  by  Louis  Choris 


Graveyard,  Mission  Dolores 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Northernmost  Mission  at  Sonoma 
(1824) 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

Russian     Chapel     at     Fort     Ross 
(1812) 
Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Vallejo's  Casa  Grande  near  Peta- 
luma 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

Pedro  Font's  Map  of  San  Fran- 
cisco Bay  (1777) 

Copyright,    Regents    of    Uni- 
versity of  California 


II.     INDUSTRY:  ARTS:  LEARNING 


Between  106  and  107 


Mural     by     Diego     Rivera,     San 
Francisco  Stock  Exchange 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Mu- 
seum of  Art 

Golden  Gate  Bridge  Under  Con- 
struction 

Courtesy  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany 

Water     and     Power     from     the 
Sierra:  O'Shaughnessy  Dam 
Courtesy    San    Francisco 

Water  Dept. 

Steamers  Drydocked  in  Oakland 
Courtesy     San     Francisco 

Chamber   of  Commerce 
Giant     Towers     Carry      165,000 
Volts   Across    Carquinez    Strait 
Courtesy     Pacific     Gas     and 
Electric  Company 


Oil  for  the  World  at  Point  Rich- 
mond 

Courtesy    San    Francisco 

Chamber  of  Commerce 
Sugar      Refining      at      Carquinez 
Strait 

Courtesy  C.  &  H.  Sugar  Re- 
fining Corp. 

Stanford  Chapel  from  the  Quad, 
Palo  Alto 

Courtesy    State    Chamber    of 

Commerce 

Mills  College  Art  Gallery,  Oak- 
land 

Courtesy  Mills  College 
Lick    Observatory    of    University 
of  California,  Mt.  Hamilton 
Courtesy   Californians  Inc. 


XIV       ILLUSTRATIONS 

II.     INDUSTRY:  ARTS:  LEARNING—  continued  Page 

Sather  Gate,   University  of   Cali-          Sun     Yat     Sen,     in     St.     Mary's 
fornia  Square — Memorial     by     Benia- 

Northern  California  Writers'  mino  Bufano 

Project  Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 


III.     SAN  FRANCISCO'S  BY-GONE  DAYS         Between  136  and  137 


American   Flag  Raised   at  Yerba 
Buena    (1846) 

Courtesy   Wells  Fargo  Bank 

&   Union   Trust  Company 
Yerba  Buena  Cove  Crowded  with 
Ships   (1849) 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Business  District  in  1852 

Courtesy  San  Francisco   Ex- 
aminer 

Execution     by     Second     Vigilance 
Committee    (1856) 

Courtesy   Wells  Fargo  Bank 

&   Union   Trust  Company 
Panorama  From  Russian  Hill 
Courtesy  George  Fanning 
Abandoned   Ships   on  Waterfront 
Prior  to  1851 

Copyright,  Martin  Behrman 
The  First  Cable  Train  (1873) 

Courtesy  J.  W.  Harris 
Shipbuilding     South     of     Rincon 
Point   (1865) 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 


Greenwich  Street  Cable  Car 
Climbing  Telegraph  Hill 
(1884) 

Martin  Behrman   Collection 
Vallejo    Street    Wharf    in    Early 
Sixties 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Cliff  House  (1866) 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Barbary  Coast  (1914) 

Courtesy  James  Hall 
Great     Fire     of     1906:     Looking 
Down   Kearny    Street   Toward 
Market 

Courtesy    San    Francisco 

Chronicle 
Aftermath  of  the  Great  Fire 

Courtesy    San    Francisco 

Chronicle 

Ruins  of  Old  St.  Mary's  Church 
(1906) 

Courtesy     Old     St.     Mary's 
Church 


IV.    DOWNTOWN 

City  Hall 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 
Exposition  Auditorium 

Courtesy    U.   S.    Travel  Bu- 
reau 

San  Francisco's  Jagged  Terraces 
from  the  Bay 

Copyright,  Gabriel  Moulin 
Skyline  from  a  Sky  Window 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 
Market  Street  at  5:15 

Northern  California  Writers' 
Project 


Between  198  and  199 

Labor    Day    Parade    up    Market 
Street 

Courtesy    San    Francisco 

Chronicle 

A  Five  Minute  Walk  from  Busi- 
ness District 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 
Four-Fifty    Sutter    Building    and 

Sir  Francis  Drake  Hotel 
Portsmouth  Plaza 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 
Assn. 


ILLUSTRATIONS       XV 


IV.     DOWNTOWN— continued 
Montgomery  Block 

Northern    California   Art 
Project 


Page 

Monument  to  Robert  Louis   Ste- 
venson, in  Portsmouth  Plaza 
Courtesy   Calif ornians  Inc. 


V.    STREET  SCENES 

California  Street  Still  Challenges 
the  Cable  Car 

Courtesy    State    Chamber    of 

Commerce 

Chinese  New  Year  Celebration 
Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Chinese  Children  at  Thanksgiving 
Playground  Party 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Rec- 
reation Commission 
Grant  Avenue 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 
Fisherman's  Wharf 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Con- 
vention and  Tourist  Bu- 
reau 


Between  260  and  261 

Fisherman's  Wharf 

Courtesy   Californians  Inc. 
SS.  Peter  and  Paul  Church 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Pacific  Union  Club,  Mark  Hop- 
kins and  Fairmont  Hotels  on 
Nob  Hill 

Octagonal  House  on  Russian 
Hill,  built  in  1854 

Northern   California  Art 

Project 
Pacific  Heights 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Telegraph  Hill  from  the  Precipi- 
tous Side 

Northern  California  Writers' 
Project 


VI.    THE  CITY'S  SIGHTS 

Ferry  Building  and  Boats 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Ships  at  Dock 

Northern    California  Art 

Project 
Highway  and  Ocean  Beach 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

Panama  Pacific  International  Ex- 
position   (1915) 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

Sutro  Heights 
Aquatic  Park 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Con- 
vention and  Tourist  Bu- 
reau 

M.  H.  De  Young  Memorial  Mu- 
seum, Golden  Gate  Park 

Northern  California  Writers' 
Project 


Between  322  and  323 

Mission  Dolores 

Courtesy  Californians  Inc. 
Carpenters'  Gothic 

Northern    California   Art 

Project 
Bay  Windows  Catch  the  Sun 

Northern    California   Art 

Project 

The  Pride  of  Antiquarians  (En- 
gine Company  No.  15 — 2150 
California  Street) 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

U.  S.  S.  California  in  Drydock  at 
Hunter's  Point 

Courtesy  State  Board  of  Har- 
bor Commissioners 
Sea  Island  Sugar  Refinery 

Courtesy    Sea    Island    Sugar 
Company 


XVI       ILLUSTRATIONS 


VII.    ACROSS  THE  BAY 

Pacified,  Goddess  of  Two  Expo- 
sitions— Sculpture  by  Ralph 
Stackpole 

Courtesy  Golden  Gate  Inter- 
national Exposition 
Clipper   in   Flight   over  Treasure 
Island 

Clyde  H.  Sunderland  Photo 
Fountain     of     Western     Waters, 
Golden  Gate  Exposition 

Courtesy  Golden  Gate  Inter- 
national Exposition 
Evening  Star,  in  the  Court  of  the 
Moon 

Courtesy  Golden  Gate  Inter- 
national Exposition 
Oakland    Business    District    from 
Lake  Merritt 

Courtesy    Oakland    Post-En- 
quirer 
Oakland 

Courtesy    State    Chamber    of 
Commerce 


VIII.    NORTH  AND  SOUTH  OF 

From  Skyline  Boulevard  the  Hills 
Unfold  to  the  Sea 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Pen- 
insula Inc. 

Montalvo  Foundation  of  San 
Francisco  Art  Association  near 
Saratoga 

Courtesy  Montalvo   Founda- 
tion 

Skyline  Dam  and  Boulevard  at 
Crystal  Springs  Lakes 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Pen- 
insula Inc. 
Pigeon  Point  Lighthouse 

Courtesy  San  Francisco  Pen- 
insula Inc. 

Raccoon  Strait  from  Sausalito, 
Marin  Countv 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 
Assn. 


Page 

Between  416  and  417 
University    of    California    in    the 
Seventies 

Courtesy    Odkland    Post-En- 
quirer 

Airview,  University  of  California 
Courtesy    State    Chamber    of 

Commerce 

Oakland    Long   Wharf,    Built   in 
1871 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Oakland     Wharf     Terminal     of 
Central  Pacific  (1878) 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Big     Wheeled     Newark      (1877- 
1921) 

Courtesy  Southern  Pacific 
Home     of     Derelicts — Ships     and 
Human   Beings 

Howard   B.    Hoffman   Photo 

Mission   San  Jose   de   Guadalupe 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Vineyard  in   Livemore  Valley 
Courtesy  Wine  Institute 

THE  GOLDEN  GATE 

Between  478  and  479 
Muir    Woods     National     Monu- 
ment,   Marin   County 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

In  Petrified  Forest  near  Calistoga 
Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 
Russian  River  Playground 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 
State  Capitol    (1853),  Benicia 

Northern  California  Writers' 

Project 

Home  of  Luther  Burbank,  Santa 
Rosa 

Courtesy     Redwood     Empire 

Assn. 

Dirigible  Hangar,  Moffett  Field, 
Sunnyvale 

Courtesy   San   Jose    Chamber 
of  Commerce 


mSBXS®^^ 


Map. 


Page 
TOUR  KEY  MAP,  VICINITY  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO  ....      158-59 

SAN  FRANCISCO'S  Civic  CENTER 166 

DOWNTOWN   SAN   FRANCISCO    .      . 181 

CHINATOWN  AND  OLD  TOWN 210 

LATIN  QUARTER  AND  HILLTOPS 244 

SAN  FRANCISCO  KEY  MAP 267 

PRESIDIO, 287 

GOLDEN  GATE  PARK 336 

EAST  BAY  KEY  MAP 372-373 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 403 

STANFORD  UNIVERSITY  AND  VICINITY 474 


xvu 


xzxxxxx<<&^^^ 

PART  I 
Gateway  to  the  West 

•&<&&^^^^^ 


The  Bay  and  the  Land 

".  .  .  an   immense   arm    of   the   sea,    or   an    estuary,   which   pene- 
trated into  the  land  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  .  .  ." 

— PADRE  JUAN  CRESPI 


WHEN  the  first  settlers,  led  by  Lieutenant  Jose  Joaquin  Moraga, 
arrived  June  27,  1776,  on  the  site  of  San  Francisco,  the  Amer- 
ican people  were  yet  to  declare  themselves  a  Nation — though 
within  seven  days  they  would  do  so,  3,000  miles  away  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  Seven  decades  would  pass  before  the  heirs  of  '76  would  raise 
their  flag  on  this  site.  Two  years  more,  and  the  name  of  San  Francisco 
would  go  round  the  world. 

It  "never  was  a  village" — this  had  been  its  proud  boast.  Where 
barren  sand  dunes,  marshes,  and  brackish  lagoons  had  surrounded  an 
abandoned  mission  and  a  decaying  fort  with  rusty  cannon,  San  Francisco 
sprang  into  life  overnight — a  lusty,  brawling  he-man  town  of  tents  and 
deserted  ships.  Business,  mushroomlike,  flourished  in  mud-deep  streets. 
Almost  before  it  had  achieved  a  corporate  identity,  San  Francisco  was  a 
metropolis— to  be  named  in  the  same  breath  with  Boston  or  Buenos 
Aires,  Stockholm  or  Shanghai. 

When  the  other  cities  of  the  Coast  were  still  hamlets  in  forest  clear- 
ings or  desert  cow-towns,  San  Francisco  was  "The  City."  It  is  "The 
City"  still.  Massed  on  the  tip  of  its  Peninsula,  its  skyscrapers  tower 
skyward  from  the  peaks  of  the  highest  hills:  great  shafts  of  concrete 
banked  in  swirling  billows  of  white  mist  when  the  fogs  move  in  from 
the  sea — glittering  with  pinpoints  of  reflected  light  from  their  countless 
windows  when  the  sun  shines  from  a  clear  blue  sky.  Crowding  on  each 
other,  the  hills  rear  their  endless  terraces  of  buildings,  descending  to  the 
water's  edge  like  steps,  cleft  by  streets  that  strike  up  the  steepest  slopes 
and  plunge  down  the  deepest  valleys  with  reckless  fidelity  to  their 
straight  and  narrow  paths. 

Around  the  curving  Peninsula's  tip  jut  widespread  fingers  that  are 
piers  harboring  their  great  ships.  Soaring  to  heights  greater  than  the 
hilltop  skyscrapers,  the  girders  of  the  bridge  towers  lift  their  slim  steel 
spans  high  above  the  smokestacks  of  passing  ships.  Over  their  suspended 
roadbeds  traffic  streams  across  the  racing  tides  of  the  Golden  Gate  to 
the  bluffs  and  thicket-choked  gullies  of  the  Marin  shore  and  across  the 
Bay's  wide  sweep  of  gray-green  water  to  the  mainland.  There,  on  the 

3 


4  SAN     FRANCISCO 

eastern  shores  of  the  Bay,  rising  like  the  tiers  of  a  vast  amphitheater  to 
wooded  crests,  spread  mile  after  mile  of  buildings — homes  and  schools, 
business  blocks  and  factories.  And  on  every  side  the  age-old  hills — vivid 
with  the  green  of  fresh-growing  grass  after  winter  rains,  sere  and  brown 
in  summer — encircle  the  blue  water :  wilderness  neighbor  to  the  city. 

THE  OPENING  OF  THE  GATE 

If  some  titanic  convulsion  of  the  earth  were  to  drain  San  Francisco 
Bay  of  all  its  waters,  it  would  look  merely  like  one  of  those  shallow, 
hill-rimmed  valleys  which  stretch  away  from  its  upper  and  lower 
reaches.  Through  a  gap  in  the  chain  of  hills  along  its  eastern  edge,  a 
great  river  would  pour  into  its  upper  end  and,  winding  southward,  flood 
out  to  sea  through  a  deep  gorge  hollowed  in  the  coastal  range.  Within 
the  recent  geologic  past  the  Bay  was  just  such  a  valley,  the  Golden  Gate 
such  a  river  canyon.  But  as  time  went  on,  the  valley  sank  until  ocean 
waters  came  flooding  through  the  Gate  to  submerge  all  but  the  peaks 
of  its  hills.  Last  of  all  in  the  long  series  of  the  earth's  transformations 
from  which  emerged  that  part  of  the  planet  known  as  California  was 
the  Bay's  creation.  But  the  geologic  upheavals  destined  to  open  the 
Golden  Gate  had  begun  long  before. 

West  of  today's  Pacific  shore,  perhaps  500  million  years  ago,  rose  a 
land  mass  extending  into  what  is  now  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Where  the 
Sierra  Nevada  now  rises  is  thought  to  have  been  a  low  land  mass, 
lapped  on  the  Nevada  side  by  an  inland  sea.  As  the  eons  passed,  this 
great  basin  sea  advanced  westward  into  California,  retreated  and  ad- 
vanced again,  until  by  200  million  years  ago  it  may  have  reached  as  far 
as  the  site  of  Monterey — well  over  toward  that  westward-lying  coast 
along  the  ocean. 

Eventually  the  ocean  itself  found  its  way  into  the  watery  area  that 
later  was  to  become  California.  The  western  land  mass  probably  was 
cut  off  from  the  mainland,  forming  an  elongated  island  of  which  the 
present  Farallon  Islands  were  a  part.  Eastward  lay  a  submerged  trough, 
and  into  this  trough  sediment  was  continually  draining  from  the  island's 
slopes.  To  the  incredible  depth  of  over  three  miles  the  sediment  was 
laid  down  in  the  water,  slowly  solidifying.  From  this  trough  was  later 
elevated  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula,  its  foundations  partly  composed 
of  the  thick  deposits  which  drained  from  the  westward  island. 

And  then  began  that  long  series  of  geologic  events  which  finally  re- 
sulted in  the  emergence  of  the  coastline  of  California.  Between  120  and 
150  million  years  ago  the  ridges  of  both  the  Coast  Range  and  the  Sierra 
Nevada  were  pushed  up.  Unlike  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  was  to 
maintain  its  general  structure  despite  erosion,  the  Coast  Range  rose  from 
the  inland  sea -only  to  sink  again.  At  least  three  times  the  ocean  en- 


THE     BAY     AND     THE     LAND  5 

gulfed  the  region  between  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  the  westward  island 
and  advanced  to  the  foothills  of  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

At  a  point  about  36  million  years  ago,  the  picture  of  California 
begins  to  emerge  in  clearer  detail.  On  the  eastern  border  is  the  wall  of 
the  Sierra,  following  about  the  same  direction  as  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury, but  lower,  less  rugged,  its  slopes  covered  with  luxuriant  vegetation. 
Still  under  water,  the  center  of  the  State  is  a  great  inland  sound,  extend- 
ing far  enough  westward  to  submerge  the  site  of  San  Francisco.  A  long 
island  stretches  northwest  from  the  present  vicinity  of  Salinas.  Islands 
are  scattered  in  the  sound. 

For  many  million  years  the  geography  of  this  California  changed 
little;  but  great  activity  was  brewing  in  the  earth.  Far  offshore  the 
bottom  of  the  sea  was  sinking.  As  it  sank,  the  land  along  the  coast  was 
thrust  upwards,  buckling  under  the  pressure.  All  of  California  was 
rising,  but  the  extra  thrust  upon  its  western  edge  caused  a  slip  along 
which  occurred  a  sidewise  movement  of  at  least  700  feet  and  possibly 
as  much  as  20  miles.  Along  this  same  fault,  extending  from  Point 
Arena  south  to  the  Mojave  Desert,  there  was  to  be  a  shift  of  about  eight 
feet  in  the  year  A.D.  1906,  which  would  cause  a  great  disturbance  in 
the  city  of  San  Francisco.  (Because  the  rock  mass  is  broken  along  the 
fault,  any  abnormal  strain  within  the  earth  is  apt  to  be  taken  up  there; 
such  movements  occur  frequently,  but  rarely  displace  the  surface  more 
than  two-tenths  of  an  inch.)  The  same  thrusts  that  were  to  cause  the 
San  Francisco  Peninsula's  earthquake  fault  also  helped  to  lift  it  above 
the  sea.  There  was  pronounced  folding  of  the  Coast  Range  at  this 
time,  not  only  on  the  Peninsula,  but  along  the  line  of  the  Berkeley  Hills. 

About  one  million  years  ago  the  Great  Valley  was  becoming  filled 
with  sediment.  Brackish  water  still  covered  part  of  the  valley;  it 
drained,  not  through  the  Golden  Gate,  which  did  not  yet  exist,  but 
through  various  other  outlets;  one  at  the  Russian  River  and  another  at 
Monterey  Bay.  The  San  Francisco-Marin  area  probably  was  separated 
from  the  mainland  by  marshes,  so  shallow  that  they  could  be  crossed  by 
the  primitive  elephant  (whose  fossils  have  been  found  near  Menlo 
Park).  The  last  great  uplift  raised  the  Sierra  Nevada  Range  to  a  height 
of  4,000  feet  above  its  present  elevation ;  the  Coast  Range  shared  in  this 
uplift. 

Most  recent  of  California's  important  geological  events  have  been 
those  which  formed  San  Francisco  Bay  and  the  Golden  Gate.  As  the 
marshes  along  the  coast  and  farther  inland  dried,  continued  folding  in 
the  Coast  Range  blocked  off  the  drainage  of  the  Great  Valley  through 
the  Russian  River  and  Monterey  Bay,  forcing  the  rivers  to  find  another 
outlet.  They  converged  in  a  new  course  through  a  canyon  north  of  the 
Berkeley  Hills  at  what  is  now  Carquinez  Strait,  thence  down  through  a 


6  SAN     FRANCISCO 

valley,   and  finally  through  the  mountains  that  extended   up  the   San 
Francisco  Peninsula  and  northward  into  Marin  County. 

However  solid  the  earth  may  have  seemed  beneath  the  feet  of  the 
first  human  inhabitants  when  they  came  (probably  between  30  and  40 
centuries  ago)  to  hunt  game  and  pick  wild  fruit  in  the  coastal  valley 
behind  the  river's  mouth,  it  was  sinking  imperceptibly.  The  sea  cliffs  to 
the  west  were  tilting  upward  on  their  outer  side;  but  every  year  the 
floor  of  the  coastal  valley  was  a  little  lower.  As  fast  as  the  sea  cliffs 
rose,  the  river  scoured  deeper  its  channel  through  them,  thus  gradually 
carving  down  the  sides  of  the  Golden  Gate.  Then  finally  came  a  time 
when  the  floor  of  the  coastal  valley  sank  beneath  sea  level.  The  ocean 
flooded  through  the  mouth  of  the  river  over  400  square  miles  of  the 
Indians'  hunting  ground.  The  land  would  go  on  sinking  until  the  very 
shell  mounds  which  the  first  settlers  left  behind  them  on  dry  land  were 
lapped  by  the  tides;  and  yet  as  it  sank,  the  rivers  would  lay  down  their 
rich  silt,  torn  from  mountain  sides  and  lowlands  of  the  Central  Valley 
basin,  over  the  bottom  of  the  Bay.  So  was  made,  for  how  long  no  one 
can  tell,  the  harbor  known  today  as  San  Francisco  Bay. 

EARTH  AND  WATER 

Midway  in  the  great  chain  of  mountain  ridges  that  stretches  along 
the  continent's  edge  down  the  southeast-tending  California  coast  is  a 
narrow  gap.  Between  its  steep  headlands  the  long  Pacific  rollers,  break- 
ing in  spray  against  the  cliffs  to  north  and  south,  pour  in  swift  tides. 
As  the  headlands  recede  on  either  side,  an  expanse  of  water  opens  out, 
stretching  eastward  to  low,  gently  sloping  hills.  To  the  north,  wooded 
peaks  rise  steeply  above  bluffs  close  at  hand;  to  the  northeast,  barren 
capes  guard  a  distant  strait.  Southward  a  sheet  of  water  extends  farther 
than  a  man  can  see,  between  marsh-edged  flat  lands.  Here,  where  ocean 
tides  roll  in  over  a  valley  long  sunk  below  sea  level,  salt  water  mingles 
with  fresh,  is  muddied  with  the  yellow  silt  of  rivers,  pouring  into  the 
Bay's  upper  reaches.  At  either  end,  sloping  valleys  walled  like  the  Bay 
between  ranges  of  hills  that  parallel  each  other,  east  and  west,  spill  their 
creeks  into  it.  Among  the  encircling  hills,  sloughs  and  canyons  twist  to 
the  water's  edge. 

So  well  hidden  from  the  sea  beyond  its  narrow  gateway  by  moun- 
tainous coastal  walls  that  exploring  navigators  passed  it  by  for  more 
than  two  centuries,  San  Francisco  Bay  is  one  of  the  world's  largest 
landlocked  harbors.  Measured  along  a  straight  line  from  the  mouth  of 
Sonoma  Creek  in  the  north  to  the  mouth  of  Coyote  Creek  in  the  south, 
it  is  approximately  60  miles  long  and  measures  14  miles  at  its  greatest 
width.  Its  outlet  to  the  sea,  the  Golden  Gate,  is  three  miles  long  and, 
at  its  widest  point,  a  mile  wide.  In  all,  the  Bay  covers  an  area  of  a 


THE     BAY     AND     THE     LAND  7 

little  more  than  400  square  miles.  Although  more, than  70  per  cent  of 
its  area  is  less  than  18  feet  deep,  it  reaches  a  depth  of  from  100  to  140 
feet  in  its  central  part  and  of  357  feet  in  the  main  channel  of  the 
Golden  Gate.  North  of  its  narrowest  point,  the  strait  between  Points 
San  Pedro  and  San  Pablo — where  it  is  known  as  San  Pablo  Bay — the 
water  is  shallower. 

Into  San  Pablo  Bay  empties  the  drainage  of  the  valleys  to  the  north 
and  the  hinterland  to  the  east.  Petaluma,  Sonoma,  and  Napa  Creeks 
pour  in  from  the  north.  Through  narrow  Carquinez  Strait,  six  miles 
long,  joining  San  Pablo  Bay  with  shallow  Suisun  Bay  to  the  east,  pour 
the  combined  waters  of  California's  two  great  rivers,  the  Sacramento 
and  the  San  Joaquin,  which  drain  the  Central  Valley  and  the  Sierra 
Nevada's  western  slopes.  The  gorge  cut  by  the  silt-laden  river  waters, 
winding  out  to  sea  through  the  succession  of  bays  and  straits,  can  be 
traced  by  the  yellow  stream  that  crosses  the  Bay's  blue  ripples.  The 
river's  ancient  delta,  built  up  through  the  ages  before  the  ocean  broke 
through  the  Golden  Gate,  has  been  traced  as  far  out  to  sea  as  the 
Farallon  Islands,  23  miles  off  Point  Bonita. 

The  peaks  of  low  hills  once  rising  from  the  drowned  valley's  floor 
are  islands  now.  Opposite  the  Golden  Gate,  rocky  Alcatraz  (130  alt.) 
rises  abruptly  from  the  swift  tides.  Northward,  divided  by  narrow 
straits  from  the  coves  and  inlets  of  the  Marin  shore,  rise  green-clad 
Angel  (782  alt.)  and  Belvedere  (350  alt.).  A  little  to  the  southeast 
the  rugged  hump  of  Yerba  Buena  (343  alt.)  appears  almost  midway 
across  the  Bay. 

From  opposite  sides  of  the  Golden  Gate  the  sheer  bluffs  at  land's  end 
of  the  San  Francisco  and  Marin  Peninsulas  face  each  other.  The 
narrow  hilly  strip  of  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula  stretches  30  miles 
southward  from  the  Golden  Gate  between  Bay  and  ocean,  tapering  in 
width  from  7  miles  at  its  tip  to  approximately  21  where  it  merges  with 
the  mainland.  On  the  Bay  side  it  is  bordered  with  mud  flats  and  salt 
marshes;  on  the  ocean,  with  rugged  cliffs  and  sandy  beaches.  The  tip 
of  the  Peninsula,  walled  off  from  the  south  by  the  steep  narrow  ridge  of 
San  Bruno  Mountain  (1,315  alt.),  is  a  rough  square  with  jagged  out- 
lines, scored  haphazardly  by  rocky  hills  and  winding  valleys,  once  a 
rolling  waste  of  sand  dunes  and  marsh-girt  lagoons.  In  the  center  of 
this  area  rises  a  dominant  crescent-shaped  range,  culminating  in  Twin 
Peaks  (904  alt.),  Mount  Davidson  (916  alt.),  and  Mount  Sutro  (909 
alt.).  Southward  spreads  a  zone  of  billowing  hills,  merging  into  San 
Bruno  Mountain.  Beyond  troughlike  Merced  Valley,  cutting  from 
Bay  to  ocean  parallel  with  San  Bruno  Mountain,  the  Peninsula  is 
scored  with  parallel  ridges  running  north  and  south — among  them, 
Buriburi  Ridge  (700  alt.),  the  Sawyer  Ridge  (about  1,200  alt.),  and 
Montara  Mountain  (1,952  alt.).  Between  the  Buriburi  and  Sawyer 


8  SAN     FRANCISCO 

Ridges  lies  a  1 5-mile- long  segment  of  the  San  Andreas  Rift  Valley, 
following  the  course  of  the  San  Andreas  earthquake  fault.  Farther 
south  the  Santa  Cruz  Mountains,  of  which  these  Peninsula  ridges  are 
the  northern  offshoots,  lift  their  wooded  slopes  to  greater  heights.  Some 
80  miles  from  the  tip  of  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula  they  taper  off  into 
low  hills  where  Monterey  Bay  cuts  its  crescent  line  into  the  coast. 

The  Golden  Gate  is  but  a  narrow  break  in  the  great  mountain  chain 
of  the  Coast  Range,  which  continues  northwest  up  the  Marin  Peninsula 
under  the  name  of  the  Bolinas  Ridge.  An  irregularly  shaped,  deeply 
and  intricately  dissected  mountain  mass,  the  Marin  Peninsula  is  criss- 
crossed by  ridges  radiating  from  its  highest  point,  at  the  southern  end 
of  the  Bolinas  Ridge — Mount  Tamalpais  (2,604  alt.).  The  deep 
canyons  that  scar  the  flanks  of  the  ridges  widen  into  gently  sloping 
valleys  merging  with  salt  marshes  on  the  Bay  side;  on  the  ocean  side 
they  twist  tortuously  to  the  sea,  where  the  hillsides  end  abruptly  in 
sheer  cliffs.  Paralleling  the  Bolinas  Ridge  on  the  west  is  the  long 
narrow  valley  which  follows  the  course  of  the  San  Andreas  fault.  Its 
northern  reaches  are  filled  with  the  waters  of  marsh-bordered  Tomales 
Bay,  extending  southeastward  like  a  thin  finger,  laid  along  a  line  as 
straight  as  if  it  had  been  sheared  off  with  a  knife.  To  the  west,  hilly, 
triangular  Point  Reyes  Peninsula  juts  into  the  ocean  like  a  plowshare, 
sheltering  behind  its  long  promontory  curving  Drake's  Bay  with  its 
white-faced  cliffs  like  the  chalk  cliffs  at  Dover.  East  of  the  Marin 
Peninsula's  hilly  mass  the  flat  reaches  of  Sonoma  and  Napa  Valleys 
merge  into  tule  marshes  at  the  Bay's  edge,  divided  from  each  other  by 
the  gentle  slopes  of  the  mountains. 

Along  the  Bay's  eastern  shore,  beyond  the  narrow  coastal  plain, 
stretches  the  serrated  skyline  of  the  Berkeley  Hills,  culminating  in  Bald 
Peak  (1,930  alt.)  ;  and  behind,  across  a  line  of  narrow,  shallow  valleys, 
rise  the  rugged  crests  of  a  parallel  ridge  culminating  in  Rocky  Ridge 
(2,000  alt.).  To  the  east,  broad  flat  Ygnacio  Valley  extends  north  to 
the  shores  of  Suisun  Bay  and  south  into  the  narrow,  level  San  Ramon 
Valley.  From  the  valley's  edge  steep  slopes  rise  in  long  sweeping  lines 
to  the  summit  of  Mount  Diablo  (3,849  alt.).  To  the  south,  San 
Ramon  Valley  meets  narrow,  4O-mile-long  Livermore  Valley.  Beyond, 
the  ridges  of  the  Mount  Diablo  Range  extend  to  meet  the  Mount  Ham- 
ilton Range,  paralleling  the  Peninsula  ridges  and  the  Santa  Cruz  Moun- 
tains across  the  Bay. 

South  of  the  Bay's  southern  tip,  the  fertile  plains  of  the  Santa  Clara 
Valley  extend  for  70  miles  between  the  walls  of  the  Mount  Hamilton 
(4,029  alt.)  Range  and  the  Santa  Cruz  Mountains,  15  miles  apart — a 
long,  narrow  extension  of  that  same  valley  whose  upper  reaches,  now 
submerged,  are,  the  Bay  itself.  From  the  marshes  of  the  Bay's  southern 


THE     BAY     AND     THE     LAND  9 

end,  the  valley  floor  slopes  upward  gradually  toward  the  south,  where 
offshoots  of  the  two  mountain  ranges  curve  inward  and  enclose  it. 


THE  CLIMATE 

The  Bay  of  San  Francisco  and  its  shores  share  with  the  rest  of  the 
Coast  the  moderate  climate  which  it  owes  chiefly  to  the  prevailing  winds 
off  the  Pacific.  Because  of  the  break  in  the  coast  line  the  region  has  a 
climate  even  milder  than  enjoyed  elsewhere  along  the  Coast,  because  it 
receives  more  than  its  share  of  ocean-cooled  air  currents,  sucked  in  by 
forced  draft  through  the  Golden  Gate.  Their  deflection  in  various 
directions  by  the  hills  gives  contingent  sections  widely  differing  weather. 

At  the  tip  of  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula,  the  mean  annual  tem- 
perature is  56.4°  F. ;  the  mean  temperature  of  the  coldest  month, 
January,  is  50°  F.  and  of  the  warmest  month,  September,  61.5°  F.  But 
just  northward  across  the  Gate,  mean  temperatures  are  approximately 
five  degrees  lower  in  winter  and  five  degrees  higher  in  summer.  Cold 
months  are  likewise  colder  and  warm  ones  warmer  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Bay  and  down  the  Peninsula.  The  average  annual  rainfall  at 
Kentfield  in  Marin  County,  less  than  15  miles  north  of  the  Gate,  is 
more  than  twice  that  of  San  Francisco — 45.33  inches  as  against  21.85 
inches.  South  of  the  city,  rainfall  decreases  progressively,  reaching  an 
average  of  15  inches  at  San  Jose. 

Although  the  tip  of  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula  enjoys  sunshine  for 
an  average  of  66  per  cent  of  all  the  daylight  hours  in  the  year,  it  has 
acquired  a  more  celebrated  reputation  for  its  fogs.  They  are  of  two 
principal  varieties.  Tule  fog,  a  winter  phenomenon,  consists  of  low- 
hanging  clouds  of  condensed  vapor  which  drift  about  the  Bay  in  serpen- 
tine fashion,  sometimes  blanketing  completely  one  section  of  city  or  Bay 
while  another  is  bright  with  sunlight.  Most  prevalent  is  the  white  fog 
which  forms  off  the  headlands  on  either  side  of  the  Golden  Gate  and 
drifts  inland  as  the  temperature  rises  inland  in  the  warm  valley  section 
of  the  State.  This  fog  forms  in  huge  blankets,  averaging  about  1,700 
feet  thick,  sometimes  shrouding  the  entire  tip  of  the  Peninsula  and 
spreading  across  the  Bay  to  its  eastern  shore. 

The  Bay  region,  like  most  of  the  California  coast,  knows  two  seasons 
— the  wet  and  the  dry — and  throughout  much  of  the  area  the  difference 
in  average  temperatures  between  them  is  seldom  more  than  ten  degrees. 
Even  this  slight  difference  is  usually  nullified  by  cooling  breezes  off  the 
ocean  which  take  the  sting  out  of  summer  heat.  At  the  tip  of  the  San 
Francisco  Peninsula  early  autumn  is  actually  warmer  than  summer — 
for  summer  is  the  season  of  fogs.  Only  the  rains,  which  come  between 
October  and  May,  call  more  than  momentary  attention  to  the  change 
in  seasons. 


IO         SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  temperature,  rainfall,  and  even  the  winds  follow  predictable 
cycles,  permitting  residents  to  fall  into  a  pattern  of  adaptations,  less 
pronounced  than  those  required  by  four  seasons,  but  quite  as  regular. 
The  weather's  summer  schedule  is  particularly  dependable.  A  San 
Franciscan  knows,  almost  to  a  certainty,  that  he  will  waken  on  a  July 
morning  in  a  world  of  light,  bright  fog  and  little  wind.  By  noon  the 
sun  will  be  shining,  and  still  will  shine  at  midafternoon,  though  pres- 
ently it  will  be  hidden  by  the  billows  of  white  vapor  that  tumble  over 
the  hills  and  through  the  Gate.  Within  an  hour  a  stiff  salt  breeze  will 
be  driving  this  fog,  like  a  band  of  frantic  wraiths,  through  hills  and 
valleys;  but  the  wind  will  be  dying  and  the  fog  dispersing  by  half  past 
seven.  With  the  lengthening  of  night  will  come  a  softness,  lightness, 
and  clarity  in  the  air  which  makes  sleep  seem  a  dullard's  habit. 

WILD  LIFE 

Simple  and  clear  was  the  pattern  of  vegetation  around  San  Fran- 
cisco Bay  before  the  coming  of  the  white  man.  Along  the  coast,  in  the 
region  of  greatest  winter  rain  and  heaviest  summer  fog,  were  the  red- 
wood forests,  extending  almost  without  interruption  from  southern 
Oregon  to  San  Francisco  Bay  and  continuing  south  in  canyons  and  other 
fog  traps  to  the  coast  below  Carmel.  The  grass  and  oak  savannah 
extended  eastward  to  the  Sacramento  Valley  and  along  the  floors  of  the 
principal  inter-mountain  valleys  of  the  Coast  Range.  A  thicket  of  low- 
growing  chaparral  clothed  the  interior  ranges  and  the  dry  southern 
slopes.  Fringing  the  Bay  were  marshes  choked  with  tule  rushes. 

Conspicuous  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  outlines  of  the  three 
major  types  of  vegetation.  Much  of  the  forest  has  been  replaced  by 
grass,  brush,  or  crops;  the  early  grassland  area  is  occupied  by  cultivated 
land.  However,  the  region  is  fortunate  to  possess  many  game  preserves, 
water  districts,  and  other  sections  where  natural  conditions  still  prevail 
and  many  more  that  are  being  restored.  The  residents  are  making  a 
start  toward  restriction  of  destructive  lumbering,  bad  range  manage- 
ment, poor  fire  control,  and  unregulated  killing  of  game  and  fish. 

Typical  virgin  areas  of  forest  are  preserved  in  Muir  Woods  Na- 
tional Monument  and  Santa  Cruz  Redwood  Park.  Here  are  trees, 
many  from  1,000  to  2,ooo  years  old,  rising  300  feet  or  more  with 
diameters  of  12  to  1 6  feet.  Their  clean,  gently  tapering  shafts,  clothed 
with  thick,  purplish,  massively  fluted  bark,  rise  uninterrupted  by 
branches  for  approximately  a  third  of  their  height.  The  foliage  is  deli- 
cate and  feathery,  but  dense  enough  to  keep  perpetual  twilight  on  the 
forest  floor.  Scattered  among  the  great  columns  are  smaller  trees: 
broad-leaf  maple,  madrone,  golden  chinquapin,  and  California  laurel. 
In  separate  stajids,  usually  along  the  ridges  at  the  inner  margin  of  the 


THE     BAY     AND     THE     LAND          II 

fog  belt,  is  found  the  somber,  massive  Douglas  fir.  Forming  close 
thickets  are  huckleberries,  azaleas,  rhododendrons,  California  buckthorn 
(the  dried  bark  of  which  is  medicinal  cascara  sagrada),  salal,  wild  cur- 
rants and  gooseberries,  salmon-  and  thimble-berries,  and  elder.  And  in 
the  damper  shade,  watered  by  the  fog  which  the  trees  precipitate, 
Woodwardia  and  sword  ferns  give  cover  to  mosses,  dogtooth  violets, 
true  violets,  wild  ginger,  redwood  sorrel,  trillium,  fritillaria,  clintonia, 
and  the  pungent  yerba  buena  which  gave  San  Francisco  its  first  Spanish 
name. 

The  redwood  forest  and  its  associated  meadows  and  streams  are 
particularly  rich  in  animal  life;  raccoons,  skunks,  wild  cats,  woodrats, 
and  weasels  are  fairly  common.  As  is  natural  in  so  deep  a  forest,  birds 
are  not  conspicuous.  Those  most  often  seen  are  the  varied  and  hermit 
thrushes,  quail,  flycatchers,  California  tanagers,  robins,  various  sparrows 
and  warblers. 

The  chaparral  formation  in  California  is  remarkable,  both  for  its 
high  degree  of  development  and  for  its  numerous  methods  of  adjustment 
to  the  long  dry  summers,  wet  winters,  periodic  fires,  and  intense  sun- 
shine. Its  root  systems  are  often  extensive;  its  leaves  protect  themselves 
from  excessive  evaporation  by  turning  their  broad  surfaces  away  from 
the  sun,  by  growing  in  small,  needle-like  shapes,  and  by  resorting  to 
other  devices  such  as  thick  skins,  coatings  of  fuzz,  exudations  of  resin, 
and  restriction  in  the  number  of  "pores."  Many  typical  shrubs  have 
the  ability  to  sprout  after  fires  from  the  root's  crown.  Others  seed 
profusely  and  grow  vigorously  in  burnt-over  soil.  The  most  wide- 
spread members  of  the  chaparral  are  the  various  species  of  ceanothus, 
used  by  the  Indians  for  soap;  manzanita,  with  white  bell-like  blossoms, 
red  or  chocolate  bark,  neat  oval  leaves;  California  buckeye,  which 
blooms  in  heavy  clusters  and  bears  fig-shaped  fruits;  chamise  (aden- 
ostoma)  ;  chaparral  pea;  many  dwarf  oaks;  and  yerba  santa,  with  pale 
lavender  flowers  and  leaves  spotted  with  resin. 

The  chaparral  was  the  home  of  the  extinct  California  grizzly  and 
the  now  rarely  seen  California  condor.  Typical  of  both  chaparral  and 
grasslands  are  the  brush  rabbit,  coyote,  gray  fox,  various  rats  and  mice, 
pocket  gophers,  and  moles.  Some  of  the  more  distinctive  birds  are  the 
California  jay,  stellar  jay,  California  thrasher,  Anna  hummingbird, 
house  finch,  mourning  dove,  and  valley  quail.  Hawks,  owls,  and 
buzzards  are  very  common. 

Formerly  the  savannah  was  covered  with  a  thick  sod  of  perennial 
grasses;  today  it  is  dominated  by  the  aggressive  annual  wild  oat,  a 
Spanish  importation.  However,  the  spring  still  brings  a  flourishing 
abundance  of  California  poppies,  lupines,  nemophilas,  cream  cups, 
brodiaea,  owl's  clover,  Indian  paintbrushes,  irises,  shooting  stars,  and 
many  composites. 


I2SANFRANCISCO 

One  of  the  region's  most  interesting  natural  environments  is  the 
marshy  border  of  the  sloughs  and  estuaries  where  willows  and  cotton- 
woods  grow.  Wading  birds  are  numerous;  also  the  great  blue  heron, 
night  heron,  bittern,  egret,  and  snowy  egret.  The  estuaries,  filled  with 
tule  rushes,  are  favorite  nesting  places  for  pelicans,  coots  and  ducks, 
wrens,  red-winged  blackbirds,  and  many  warblers. 

Along  the  seacoast  too,  there  is  a  distinct  community  of  wild  life. 
Gulls,  terns,  cormorants,  and  brown  and  white  pelicans  congregate  in 
numbers.  Hair  seals  and  sea  lions  are  still  abundant,  though  the  fur 
seal  has  disappeared. 

Offshore,  all  along  the  Pacific  Coast  of  North  America,  grow  great 
beds  of  brown  kelp,  plants  which  in  some  cases  are  as  large  as  redwood 
trees.  This  dense  marine  thicket  provides  shelter  for  a  host  of  small 
fish,  many  of  them  valuable  for  food.  Perch  and  rock  and  torn  cod  are 
typical  species.  Other  ocean  fishes  found  fresh  in  San  Francisco  mar- 
kets are  sea  bass,  various  flatfish,  halibut,  and  salmon.  Crab,  abalone, 
clams,  shrimp,  and  oysters  (both  native  and  planted)  are  the  principal 
shellfish.  Bay  and  river  fishes  include  shad,  steelhead,  striped  bass, 
and  several  species  of  native  and  imported  trout. 

In  1940  the  San  Francisco  Bay  communities  are  as  close  as  any  urban 
area  in  the  United  States  to  primitive  landscapes.  At  distances  but 
little  farther  than  city  limits  are  forests,  thickets  of  chaparral,  and  tule 
marshes,  so  wild  that  any  explorer  but  the  more  experienced  woodsman 
might  easily  imagine  himself  the  region's  first  inhabitant. 


A  Frontier  to  Conquer 

"The  hills  were  wardens   of  the  far-sought  gold 
And  streams  were  glad  in  valleys  unprofaned  .  .  ." 
— GEORGE  STERLING,  The  Homing  of  Drake 

FROM  the  chalk-white  bluffs  of  the  bay  sheltered  by  Point  Reyes, 
the  coast-dwelling  natives  saw  with  amazement  an  immense  ob- 
ject borne  on  billowing  wings  loom  out  of  the  mist  at  sea  on  June 
17  (Julian  Calendar),  1579.  The  man  whom  they  sent  the  next  day 
to  reconnoiter  paddled  back  excitedly  to  tell  of  living  beings,  white  of 
skin  and  bearded,  aboard  this  apparition.  Concluding  that  these  visitors 
were  no  less  than  spirits  returned  from  the  dead,  the  Indians  timorously 
kept  their  distance,  prepared  to  make — if  necessary — proper  obeisance. 
For  three  days  longer  the  spirits  remained  in  their  abode,  which  rested 
on  the  water,  its  wings  folded.  On  the  third  day  it  moved  in  toward 
the  shore,  and  the  spirits  landed. 

So  came  the  first  white  men  to  set  foot  in  the  region  of  San  Fran- 
cisco Bay — men  of  Francis  Drake's  company  in  the  Golden  Hinde.  They 
had  left  England  a  year  and  a  half  earlier  in  company  with  four  other 
ships,  bound  round  the  world  in  the  service  of  Queen  Elizabeth  to 
plunder  the  ships  and  cities  of  her  enemy,  Philip  II  of  Spain.  Now  only 
the  flagship  remained. 

After  two  days  ashore,  they  were  visited  by  the  awed  inhabitants  of 
the  country,  who  brought  gifts  of  feathers  and  tobacco.  "This  country 
our  Generall  named  Albion"  the  chaplain  wrote,  both  because  "of  the 
white  bancks  and  cliffes"  and  in  order  that  "it  might  haue  some  affinity, 
euen  in  name  also,  with  our  own  country  .  .  ."  And  before  Drake's 
five  weeks'  stay  had  ended,  he  recorded  further,  "our  Generall  caused  to 
be  set  vp  a  monument  of  our  being  there,  as  also  of  her  maiesties  and 
successors  right  and  title  to  that  kingdom ;  namely,  a  plate  of  brasse,  fast 
nailed  to  a  great  and  firme  post;  whereon  is  engrauen  her  graces  name, 
and  the  day  and  yeare  of  our  arriuall  there,  and  of  the  free  giuing  vp 
of  the  prouince  and  kingdom,  both  by  the  king  and  people,  into  her 
maiesties  hands  .  .  ."  Thus  having  established  his  Queen's  title  to  a 
new  kingdom  on  the  other  side  of  the  world,  Francis  Drake  lifted 
anchor  on  July  23  and  sailed  away.  The  Indians  were  grief-stricken. 
As  night  fell,  they  lighted  beacon  fires  on  the  hills. 

13 


14         SAN     FRANCISCO 

NATIVES  OF  THE  COUNTRY 

In  the  Indians'  geography  the  only  land  that  lay  beyond  the  smooth 
disc  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  was  the  island  where  dwelled  their  dead.  The 
Bay  itself  was  to  them  no  "harbor,"  for  their  small  tule  rafts  never 
carried  cargoes  out  the  Golden  Gate.  Even  the  pass  through  the  Coast 
Range  at  Carquinez  Strait,  to  which  stagecoach  and  railroad,  as  surely 
as  the  rivers,  finally  were  to  gravitate,  had  no  great  importance  to  a 
fleet  brown  foot  that  daily  climbed  the  mountain  barrier  for  rabbits.  In 
all  those  ways  that  the  contours  of  the  region  were  to  influence  the 
welfare  of  white  inhabitants,  the  Indians  were  affected  little.  But  for 
other  reasons  the  Bay  environment  impressed  its  pattern  upon  them. 

It  was  the  Bay  that  set  the  sleepy  rhythm  of  the  Indians'  days.  It 
determined,  first,  the  location  of  their  villages.  A  few  groups  lived  on 
the  ocean  front  and  a  few  more  on  the  banks  of  streams  among  the 
wooded  hills,  but  most  of  them  settled  at  the  mouths  of  estuaries,  on  the 
Bay  beaches.  There  the  struggle  for  existence  almost  was  reduced  to 
reaching  out  a  hand  for  supplies  that  the  waters  laid  upon  their  door- 
steps :  for  mussels,  soft-shell  clams,  and  seaweed,  and  the  driftwood  used 
to  cook  them.  The  marine  vertebrates  swam  so  close  to  shore  that  the 
Indians  could  run  into  the  waters  and  catch  them — a  feat  noted  by 
Drake. 

In  developing  their  handicrafts,  the  Indians  were  influenced  by  the 
abundance  of  tule  grass  in  the  marshes.  They  made  no  pottery,  but 
from  woody  stems  and  fibers  they  constructed  water-tight  baskets,  often 
decorated  with  shell  beads,  which  they  used  as  cooking  utensils.  Their 
houses  were  circular  structures  of  poles  usually  tied  together  at  the  top 
and  thatched  with  brush  or  tule  matting.  Rushes  were  used,  too,  for 
the  short  flaps  worn  as  skirts  by  the  women,  though  occasionally  these 
garments  were  made  of  deerskin  or  of  bark  fiber.  The  men  generally 
went  entirely  naked,  except  in  the  early  morning  when  they  sometimes 
plastered  themselves  with  a  coating  of  thick  mud  for  warmth. 

On  the  basis  of  their  crafts,  mythology,  or  language,  the  California 
Indians  can  be  classified  in  large  groups,  but  such  inter-relationships 
were  involuntary.  The  intense  particularism  of  local  communities  gave 
rise  to  marked  variations,  even  between  closely  related  groups.  In  small 
villages,  usually  comprising  about  15  families  each,  lived  the  Indians 
of  the  Bay  region.  Each  village  claimed  a  well-defined  territory  with 
seasonal  campsites  reserved  for  its  own  use.  If  a  deer  hunt  or  a  sum- 
mer wandering  took  its  inhabitants  as  far  as  50  miles,  the  racial  brothers 
they  encountered  might  be  wholly  alien  to  them  and  their  dialects  in- 
comprehensible. However,  although  they  recognized  no  allegiance 
beyond  that  which  they  paid  to  their  village  chief,  the  peoples  of  the 
Bay  region  were  all  of  one  linguistic  family,  the  Penutian.  The  greater 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         15 

part  of  the  Bay  area  was  occupied  by  the  Costanoan,  whose  territory 
included  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula,  the  coast  country  as  far  south  as 
Point  Sur,  and  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Bay  as  far  inland  as  the  Mount 
Diablo  Range.  North  of  the  Bay,  as  far  east  as  the  Sonoma  Valley 
and  as  far  north  as  the  Russian  River,  lived  the  Coast  Miwok.  East- 
ward, beyond  the  Sonoma  Valley,  the  Wintun  held  the  shores  of  San 
Pablo  and  Suisun  Bays. 

Among  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  no  others  are  known  who  kept 
so  long  unchanged  their  ways  of  living  and  thinking.  During  the  last 
30  to  40  centuries  when  western  civilization  was  making  its  cyclical 
and  labored  rise,  time  stood  still  for  the  Bay  Indians.  Early  white 
visitors  remarked  that  these  natives  were  squalid  and  listless.  However, 
most  such  observers  had  seen  them  after  the  mission  system  had  begun 
forcing  upon  them  an  alien  civilization.  In  1579  Drake's  men  had 
noted  that  the  Miwok  Indians  handled  their  bows  and  arrows  "very 
skilfully,"  that  their  spokesman  was  "using  sich  violent  Gestures,  and 
so  strong  a  Voice,  and  speaking  so  fast  that  he  was  quite  out  of  Breath," 
and  that  these  Indians  "run  very  swiftly,  and  long,  and  seldom  go  any 
other  Pace.  .  .  ."  It  was  after  40  years  of  mission  rule,  in  1816,  that 
the  Frenchman  Louis  Choris  described  the  apathy  of  the  San  Francisco 
Costanoan:  "I  have  never  seen  one  laugh.  I  have  never  seen  one  look 
one  in  the  face." 

Apathetic  though  they  may  have  seemed  to  white  men  who  could 
not  understand  their  failure  to  take  up  arms  in  their  own  defense,  still 
they  were  not  lacking  in  sensitivity,  for  they  gave  lyrical  expression  to 
their  feeling  for  the  environment  in  their  mythology  and  songs.  In  the 
beginning,  the  Costanoan  told  each  other,  waters  covered  all  of  the 
earth  except  the  summit  of  Mount  Diablo.  There  lived  a  coyote,  a 
humming  bird,  and  an  eagle,  and  as  the  waters  receded  these  three,  but 
chiefly  Coyote,  created  the  world.  Their  myths  about  Coyote's  subse- 
quent adventures  are  a  mixture  of  ribald  humor  and  idealism.  The 
Indians  worshipped  the  sun  with  offerings,  and  held  sacred  the  towering 
redwood  trees.  To  the  Coast  Miwok,  Mount  Tamalpais,  whose  long 
eastward  slope  resembles  the  figure  of  a  sleeping  woman,  was  the  human 
bride  of  the  sun  god,  who  fell  from  his  arms  as  he  was  trying  to  carry 
her  to  his  celestial  world.  When  summer  fog  wrapped  the  figure,  the 
Indians  told  each  other  that  this  was  her  fleecy  blanket,  made  by  the 
god  from  his  tears. 

Even  critical  white  observers  found  the  Costanoan  songs  peculiarly 
pleasing.  In  some  of  them  the  singers  tried  to  express  the  sensibilities 
of  small  woodland  animals — of  the  wood-rat,  for  instance: 

"I  dream  of  you, 
I   dream  of  you  jumping. 
Rabbit,    jack-rabbit    and    quail    .   .    ." 


l6        SAN     FRANCISCO 

Apparently  they  were  aware  that  their  Bay  and  its  peninsulas  were  the 
dramatic  western  boundary  of  a  great  land,  for  another  of  their  songs 
began  : 

"Dancing  on  the  brink  of  the  world  .  .  ." 

Such  imagery  suggests  that  the  native  singers  were  not  wholly 
apathetic  and  morose.  When  the  white  man  came,  to  prove  that  their 
coast  was  not  the  world's  brink  and  to  put  an  end  forever  to  the  danc- 
ing, apathy  may  not  have  been  the  only  reason  they  did  not  laugh. 

THE  WHITE  MEN  CAME 

Grim,  medieval  Carlos  V  of  Spain — uncertain  of  his  geography,  but 
with  his  black  eyes  fixed  on  galleons  bearing  spices  and  treasure  across 
the  vast  Pacific — had  ordered  Hernando  Cortez,  in  the  course  of  the 
expedition  on  which  he  set  forth  in  1532,  to  "seek  a  natural  port  well 
north  of  New  Spain"  where  "my  navigators  may  find  refuge,  refit  and 
rest."  From  such  a  safe  harbor,  far  up  the  unexplored  California  coast, 
His  Most  Catholic  Majesty  had  hoped  that  "they  may  then  continue 
the  voyage  from  Manila  to  Acapulco  with  a  greater  degree  of  safety 
from  the  enemies  of  my  country." 

Spanish  navigators  required  227  years  to  carry  out  this  royal  decree; 
and  even  then,  it  was  not  his  Majesty's  sailors  but  rather  his  soldiers,  led 
by  Don  Caspar  de  Portola,  who  early  in  November  of  1769  first  dis- 
covered the  great  landlocked  anchorage  now  known  as  San  Francisco 
Bay.  Not  even  Portola,  to  whom  the  glory  has  gone,  was  the  first 
actually  to  see  that  body  of  inland  water  large  enough  to  contain  "all 
the  ships  of  Spain."  From  the  summit  of  the  Montara  Ridge  Don 
Caspar  himself  saw  no  more  than  the  Gulf  of  the  Farallones  and, 
purple  in  the  distance,  the  long  headland  which  the  navigator  Sebastian 
Vizcaino,  in  1603,  had  named  Punta  de  los  Reyes  (Sp.,  King's  Point). 
It  fell  to  soldiers  of  his  expedition  whose  names  with  one  exception  are 
unknown  to  look  first  on  San  Francisco  Bay. 

Finding  on  the  jagged  shoreline  no  resemblance  to  the  huge  and 
sheltered  bay  described  by  Vizcaino  in  1603,  Portola's  party  had  fol- 
lowed the  shore  of  Monterey  Bay  without  recognizing  it  to  the  mouth 
of  the  San  Lorenzo  River,  present  site  of  Santa  Cruz.  Pushing  on 
through  redwood  trees,  over  ridges,  arroyos,  and  creeks,  they  trudged 
past  Half  Moon  Bay.  Rising  before  them  in  the  October  rain  they  saw 
the  rocky  barrier  of  Montara  Ridge,  and  at  its  base  made  their  camp. 
The  next  day  being  clear,  they  surveyed  from  the  summit  of  Point  San 
Pedro  the  far-off  purple  cape  of  Point  Reyes. 

Gazing  at  the  distant  headland  christened  in  honor  of  the  Three 
Wise  Men  of  the  East  who  had  brought  gold  and  frankincense  and 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         Ij 

myrrh  to  the  infant  Jesus,  Don  Gaspar  decided  it  might  be  worthwhile 
to  search  the  intervening  coastline  for  that  Puerto  de  San  Francisco 
which  shipwrecked  Cermeno  had  happened  upon  in  1595.  Portola 
therefore  put  one  of  his  scouts,  Sergeant  Jose  Francisco  Ortega,  in 
charge  of  a  party  of  ten,  presumably  to  explore  the  region  as  far  north 
as  Point  Reyes. 

Sergeant  Ortega's  little  band  of  soldiers  never  reached  their  rather 
ambiguous  goal.  Precisely  what  they  did,  where  they  went,  and  what 
they  saw  are  mysteries  which  still  tantalize  the  imagination  of  his- 
torians. Some  authorities  have  advanced  the  theory  that  Ortega's  prog- 
ress northward  was  halted  by  the  Golden  Gate,  for  which  reason  he 
must  have  been  the  first  to  look  into  San  Francisco  Bay  from  the  vicinity 
of  Point  Lobos.  However  probable,  the  theory  is  pure  conjecture  based 
mainly  on  the  fact  that  the  exploring  party,  in  the  three  days  it  was 
given  to  accomplish  its  purpose,  had  sufficient  time  to  traverse  the 
Peninsula  to  its  end.  The  diary  kept  by  Padre  Juan  Crespi,  chronicler 
of  Portola's  expedition,  gives  scant  information  on  this  vexing  possi- 
bility. And  his  diary,  overburdened  as  it  is  by  the  padre's  preoccupa- 
tion with  the  needs  of  Portola's  men  suffering  from  scurvy  and  diarrhea, 
is  the  only  reliable  record  of  these  events. 

The  San  Francisco  Peninsula's  abundance  of  roots,  acorns,  grass- 
hoppers, sparrows,  and  squirrels  may  have  been  responsible  for  the 
tameness  of  the  aborigines,  but  it  hardly  served  to  supply  the  lack  of 
red  meat  and  green  vegetables  which  had  brought  Portola's  men  to  the 
point  of  starvation.  It  was  therefore  mainly  a  desperate  abdominal 
urge  which  drove  them  on  to  some  rather  extensive  exploration  of  the 
area  around  San  Francisco  Bay — exploration  which  would  later  result 
in  the  establishment  of  the  northernmost  outpost  of  Spanish  civilization 
in  the  New  World. 

According  to  Padre  Crespi's  diary,  which  is  corroborated  by  Miguel 
Costanso,  Portola's  engineer,  the  second  exploring  party  was  allotted 
four  days  for  their  itinerary  and  "their  ration  of  flour  to  keep  off  hunger 
for  that  time."  They  started  on  the  afternoon  of  November  7.  On  the 
night  of  November  10,  wrote  Crespi,  "the  explorers  returned,  very  sad, 
and  no  longer  believing  in  the  report  of  the  heathen,  which  they  con- 
fessed they  had  not  understood.  They  said  that  all  the  territory  which 
they  had  examined  to  the  northeast  and  north  was  impassable  because 
of  the  scarcity  of  pasture  and  especially  because  of  the  ferocity  and  ill- 
temper  of  the  heathen,  who  received  them  angrily  and  tried  to  stop  their 
passage.  They  said  also  that  they  had  seen  another  estuary  of  equal 
magnitude  and  extent  with  the  one  which  we  had  in  sight  and  with 
which  it  is  communicated,  but  that  in  order  to  go  around  it  one  would 
have  to  travel  many  leagues;  and  that  they  saw  no  signs  that  might 


l8        SAN     FRANCISCO 

indicate  the  proximity  of  the  port  where  it  terminates,  and  that  the 
mountains  were  rough  and  difficult." 

So  well  does  Crespi's  description  apply  to  the  contra  costa  (Sp., 
opposite  shore),  it  is  fairly  obvious  that  this  exploring  party  discovered 
San  Pablo  Bay,  probably  from  the  rugged  shoreline  of  Pinole  Point,  at 
that  time  inhabited  by  the  Wintun  Indians,  who  later  proved  a  menace 
to  Spanish  settlers  north  of  San  Francisco  Bay.  Their  failure  to  report 
having  seen  the  Golden  Gate  indicates  that  they  may  have  travelled 
inland,  possibly  up  the  Moraga  Valley.  Certain  it  is  that  famished  as 
they  were,  and  presumably  mounted  on  mules  equally  famished,  they 
took  the  easiest  route  they  could  find. 

Discouraged  by  their  inability  to  reach  the  entrance  of  what  they 
still  believed  was  the  port  of  Monterey,  in  the  vicinity  of  Point  Reyes, 
Portola's  expedition  began  the  long  trek  homeward  to  San  Diego.  The 
whole  course  of  their  explorations  had  been  determined  by  their  first 
view  of  the  Gulf  of  the  Farallones,  which  tallied  with  Cabrera  Bueno's 
description  of  the  old  Port  of  San  Francisco,  derived  originally  from 
reports  of  Spanish  galleons  dropping  anchor  there  for  wood  and  water 
some  200  years  before.  Even  if  they  had  been  able  to  see  the  Golden 
Gate  from  Point  San  Pedro,  however,  it  is  doubtful  that  they  would 
have  followed  a  different  course,  so  convinced  were  they  that  Point 
Reyes  was  the  headland  of  a  great  arm  of  the  sea  extending  inland  east 
of  the  rocky  peninsula  shaped  like  a  plowshare  which  lies  between 
Bolinas  Lagoon  and  Tomales  Bay. 

Padre  Junipero  Serra,  father  superior  of  the  Franciscan  missionaries 
in  California — lean,  ascetic,  sometimes  merciless,  but  a  more  efficient 
administrator  than  most  secular  representatives  of  Spain  in  the  New 
World — came  north  by  ship  the  following  year  (1770)  to  establish  a 
mission  on  Monterey  Bay,  discovered  finally  at  the  cost  of  a  second 
expedition.  Even  before  the  founding  of  this  future  capital  of  Alta 
California,  Serra  had  insisted  that  surely  one  of  the  projected  missions 
in  the  territory  should  be  dedicated  to  the  patron  saint  of  his  order.  To 
this  the  Visitador-General,  Don  Jose  de  Galvez,  had  answered  dryly: 
"If  St.  Francis  wants  a  mission,  let  him  show  us  his  port  and  we  will 
found  one."  Now  that  Portola  had  been  led  by  Divine  Grace  to  St. 
Francis'  port,  it  became  an  obvious  duty  to  establish  a  mission  there 
without  delay. 

Hence,  in  the  spring  of  1772,  Portola's  young  lieutenant,  Pedro 
Fages,  and  Padre  Crespi  led  a  party  of  12  soldiers  from  Mission  San 
Carlos  Borromeo  (now  Carmel  Mission)  to  select  a  suitable  site  for 
the  new  mission  near  the  entrance  to  what  was  now  called  the  Port  of 
Our  Father  St.  Francis.  The  Fages  expedition  proceeded  up  the  Salinas 
and  Santa  Clara  Valleys,  and  northward  around  the  eastern  shore  of 
San  Francisco  Bay.  From  the  present  site  of  Oakland,  which  they 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         19 

passed  on  March  27,  they  must  have  had  a  fair  view  of  the  Golden 
Gate.  Next  day,  from  the  hills  below  which  Berkeley  now  stands,  they 
saw  through  the  Golden  Gate  the  peaks  of  the  southeast  Farallon 
Islands  rising  on  the  horizon.  Though  Costanso  later  claimed  that 
Portola's  men  were  the  first  to  see  the  famous  strait,  the  honor  doubtless 
belongs  to  the  Fages  party. 

From  the  Richmond  Hills  the  explorers  travelled  northward  to  the 
south  shore  of  San  Pablo  Bay  a  few  miles  east  of  San  Pablo  Point  and 
then  eastward  past  Carquinez  Strait  to  the  present  site  of  Martinez. 
They  skirted  Suisun  Bay  and  followed  the  south  bank  of  the  San 
Joaquin  River  almost  to  where  Antioch  now  stands.  Finding  the  San 
Joaquin  too  wide  to  cross,  the  Fages  party  decided  to  return  to  Mon- 
terey. On  their  homeward  journey  they  passed  through  the  Pacheco 
Valley,  west  of  Mount  Diablo  through  the  San  Ramon  Valley,  and 
down  through  Alameda  Canyon  to  the  site  of  the  future  Mission  San 
Jose.  From  their  camp  near  the  present  village  of  Milpitas  they  con- 
tinued down  the  old  trail  to  Monterey  which,  beaten  by  the  pack  trains 
of  the  explorers  who  came  after  them,  was  to  extend  the  great  Camino 
Real  (Sp.,  King's  Highway)  from  Mexico  to  the  northernmost  limits 
of  the  Spanish  Empire. 

The  new  Spanish  viceroy  at  Mexico  City,  farsighted  Antonio 
Bucareli,  was  determined,  at  the  risk  of  losing  one  of  his  clumsy  little 
ships  on  the  dangerous  California  coast,  to  settle  for  once  and  for  all 
the  question  of  San  Francisco  Bay.  He  therefore  sent  Lieutenant  Juan 
Manuel  de  Ayala  on  the  San  Carlos  with  instructions  to  make  a  further 
survey  of  the  Gulf  of  the  Farallones.  As  darkness  fell  on  August  5, 
1775,  the  San  Carlos,  having  sent  a  launch  ahead  to  find  anchorage, 
sailed  cautiously  through  the  Golden  Gate  and  anchored  for  the  night. 
On  August  7  it  moved  to  a  new  anchorage  on  the  north  side  of  Raccoon 
Strait  and  a  week  later  to  another  in  Hospital  Cove  ofif  Angel  Island. 

The  hardy  band  of  settlers  whom  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza  led 
through  incredible  hardships  all  the  way  overland  from  Tubac  in 
Sonora  province  had  arrived  on  the  present  site  of  San  Francisco  with 
a  platoon  of  soldiers  and  two  priests  by  the  time  the  San  Carlos  sailed 
a  second  time  through  the  Golden  Gate.  With  the  assistance  of  the 
ship's  carpenters  and  crew,  Lieutenant  Jose  Joaquin  Moraga's  soldiers 
were  able,  on  September  17,  1776,  to  raise  the  standard  of  Carlos  III 
of  Spain  over  the  quarters  of  the  comandante  (commander)  in  the 
Presidio.  The  occasion  was  celebrated  with  a  high  mass,  the  firing  of 
cannon,  and  the  chanting  of  a  fervent  Te  Deum. 

The  opening  and  dedication  of  the  new  Mission  San  Francisco  de 
Asis  (later  known  as  Mission  Dolores)  on  the  grass-clad  slope  near  a 
small  lake,  dolefully  named  by  the  padres  Laguna  de  los  Dolores  (Lake 
of  Sorrows),  was  delayed  until  October  8,  1776  because  of  the  absence 


2O         SAN     FRANCISCO 

of  Moraga  on  an  exploring  expedition.  Moraga's  expedition  observed 
the  feast-day  of  Saint  Francis  by  proving  conclusively  that  the  Golden 
Gate  was  the  only  entrance  to  San  Francisco  Bay.  "At  length,"  ex- 
claimed Padre  Serra  on  his  arrival  at  the  new  mission  the  following 
year,  "our  Father  St.  Francis  has  advanced  the  sacred  cross  ...  to  the 
very  last  extremity  of  California;  to  go  further  requires  ships." 

Unfortunately,  St.  Francis'  new  mission  lacked  adjacent  arable  land. 
Anza's  poverty-stricken  settlers,  and  the  few  who  came  after  them,  soon 
found  the  fertile  Santa  Clara  Valley  to  the  south  more  suitable  for  them 
than  the  wind-swept,  flea-infested  sandy  wastes  of  the  area  dedicated  to 
their  patron  saint.  Therefore,  on  January  12,  1777,  the  new  Mission 
Santa  Clara  was  founded  down  the  peninsula.  And  three  miles  south 
of  it  arose  the  first  purely  civil  settlement  in  California — the  pueblo 
(town)  of  San  Jose. 

Before  the  close  of  the  century  two  more  Franciscan  missions  had 
been  established  in  the  Bay  area:  Mission  Santa  Cruz,  on  August  28, 
1791,  and  Mission  San  Jose  de  Guadalupe,  on  June  n,  1797.  The 
lands  which  reminded  Anza's  settlers  of  the  fertile  valleys  of  Valencia 
soon  brought  prosperity  to  these  adobe  outposts  of  Catholicism;  their 
baptismal  fonts  grew  muddy  with  the  dirt  of  Indians  saved  from  the 
wrath  of  God.  Only  by  slow  degrees,  however,  did  the  reluctant 
aborigines  desert  their  mud  huts  and  childlike  savage  habits  for  the 
adobe  barracks,  the  lengthy  prayers  and  hard  work  of  the  missions. 
Though  the  padres  occasionally  lost  patience  and  punished  petty  crimes 
with  rawhide  when  sweet  words  were  of  no  avail,  they  did  not  generally 
ill  treat  their  converts.  On  the  whole  the  condition  of  the  Indians  was 
improved  by  their  strange  new  masters  in  cassocks  with  shaved  heads 
whose  God  hung  nailed  upon  a  cross.  Of  course,  they  learned  to  speak 
Spanish  and  did  the  manual  labor  of  plowing  and  harvesting;  they  ex- 
celled in  handicraft  and  later  as  herders  of  cattle  and  sheep.  By  1800 
intermarriage  had  produced  many  mestizos  (half-breeds)  among  the 
30,000  Indians  converted  by  the  Bay  region  missions.  Within  the  fol- 
lowing decade,  however,  the  neophytes  were  decimated  by  measles  and 
smallpox  epidemics. 

Alarmed  by  the  catastrophic  mortality,  which  was  threatening  the 
mission  with  extinction,  the  fathers  transferred  a  number  of  neophytes 
to  the  more  salubrious  climate  of  the  north  Bay  region.  The  experi- 
ment proved  successful;  the  health  of  these  invalids  was  greatly  im- 
proved. On  December  14,  1817,  the  asistencia  (chapel)  of  San  Rafael 
was  founded  at  the  present  site  of  the  town  of  San  Rafael.  Young 
Padre  Jose  Altimira  planned  a  more  radical  solution  to  the  problem, 
namely,  complete  abandonment  of  Mission  Dolores  and  transference  of 
its  neophytes  along  with  those  at  San  Rafael  to  a  new  mission  at  Sonoma. 
Accordingly  Mission  San  Francisco  Solano  was  founded  in  1823 — with- 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         21 

out,  however,  the  authorization  of  church  dignitaries,  who  objected.  A 
compromise  was  reached,  permitting  the  new  mission  and  Mission 
Dolores  and  San  Rafael  as  well  to  remain.  It  was  to  be  the  last  mission 
founded  in  Alta  California. 

Even  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  when  trade  with 
foreigners  was  declared  illegal,  alcaldes  (mayors)  and  comandantes 
averted  their  eyes  from  the  illicit  traffic  with  American  whalers  and 
traders  who  brought  oil,  tea,  textiles,  silk,  and  household  utensils  in 
exchange  for  hides  and  agricultural  products  piled  up  in  the  storehouse 
of  the  missions.  Rezanof's  unromantic  followers  who  settled  around 
Fort  Ross  on  Bodega  Bay,  and  whom  Governor  Pablo  de  Sola  dis- 
trusted, were  being  welcomed  to  Yerba  Buena  Cove  with  urbane  polite- 
ness in  1821 — while  the  viceregal  regime  in  Mexico  City  was  being 
overthrown.  The  interregnum  of  General  Agustin  Iturbide's  regency, 
immediately  succeeded  by  the  short-lived  Empire  of  Mexico,  passed 
almost  unobserved  by  the  Emperor's  subjects  in  Alta  California;  and 
news  of  the  institution  of  a  republican  regime,  which  reached  the  terri- 
tory in  January,  1824,  was  received  without  much  enthusiasm.  At  Mis- 
sion Dolores,  Father  Estenaja  delivered  a  sermon  praising  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  new  Republic  of  Mexico  and  said  a  mass  for  its  future 
greatness.  The  Presidio  guns  were  fired,  a  few  cheers  went  up;  and 
when  the  echoes  of  the  celebration  had  died  away  across  the  great  Bay, 
the  straggling  settlement  relaxed  into  its  accustomed  siesta. 

YANKEE  INVASION 

The  Bay  region,  despite  a  half  century  of  misrule  that  combined 
paternalism  with  neglect,  had  attained  economic  independence  when  on 
March  26,  1825,  Alta  California  formally  was  declared  a  province  of 
the  Mexican  Republic.  The  decade  which  would  elapse  before  the 
secularization  of  the  missions  was  to  witness  the  heyday  of  Hispano- 
Mexican  colonization  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Mission  San  Jose  in  1825  owned  62,000  head  of  cattle,  as  many 
sheep,  and  other  livestock;  in  1828  Mission  Santa  Clara  had,  besides 
other  livestock,  14,500  head  of  cattle  and  15,500  sheep.  Mission 
Dolores'  economic  importance  was,  however,  eclipsed  by  the  cove  of 
Yerba  Buena  to  which  the  Bay  area  missions  and  ranchos  brought  their 
produce  in  oxcarts  for  trade  with  foreign  ships.  Besides  their  great 
herds,  which  furnished  the  hides  and  tallow  sought  by  European  and 
American  traders,  the  missions  owned  vast  fields  planted  in  wheat  and 
maize  and  other  crops  primarily  for  domestic  consumption.  Cloth,  a 
coarse  kind  of  serge,  was  woven  from  wool;  and  the  aguardiente 
(brandy)  distilled  from  the  vineyards  of  Mission  San  Jose  was  the 
delight  of  foreign  visitors.  The  missions,  designed  originally  to  form 


22         SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  nuclei  of  pueblos  and  intended  to  relinquish  control  of  their  Indian 
convert-citizens  to  the  civil  authority,  had  become  so  wealthy  by  1830 
that  they  were  reluctant  to  fulfill  a  destiny  which  would  deprive  them 
of  their  power. 

This  system  of  monastic  feudalism  was  likewise  perpetuated  by  the 
vast  ranchos,  ranging  from  one-half  to  more  than  sixteen  square  leagues 
(a  league  being  equal  to  about  4,438  acres),  granted  by  Spanish  gov- 
ernors to  soldiers  of  the  Portola  and  Fages  expeditions.  During  the 
years  of  Mexican  rule  grants  were  also  made  to  Americans  and  other 
foreigners  who  showed  a  disposition  to  settle  the  country  in  a  neigh- 
borly manner.  Rancho  San  Antonio,  the  48,ooo-acre  domain  within 
whose  former  boundaries  now  stand  the  cities  of  Alameda,  Albany, 
Berkeley,  Emeryville,  Oakland,  Piedmont,  and  San  Leandro,  and  Las 
Pulgas  (the  fleas),  the  35,ooo-acre  rancho  granted  in  1795  on  which 
stand  almost  as  many  Peninsula  towns,  were  typical  of  these  feudal 
estates.  Here,  in  their  adobe  ranch  houses,  the  lordly  dons  entertained 
friends  and  relatives  with  lavish  hospitality.  They  were  grateful  for 
the  luxuries  brought  to  Yerba  Buena  Cove  by  foreign  traders  whose 
followers  would  one  day  dispossess  them. 

When  the  missions  were  secularized  about  1834,  the  great  land- 
owners came  into  possession  of  most  of  the  mission  lands — and  of  their 
Indian  charges  as  well.  The  plan  had  been  that  the  mission  communities 
should  be  organized  as  towns,  enough  land  set  aside  for  the  support  of 
the  clergy,  and  the  surplus  divided  among  the  Indians.  But  to  the 
administrators  appointed  by  the  government,  rather  than  to  the  Indians, 
went  the  greater  part  of  the  flocks  and  herds  and  grain  fields.  Relieved 
from  the  discipline  of  the  monks,  the  freed  neophytes  were  the  easy 
prey  of  gamblers  and  thieves.  Without  any  direction,  spiritual  or  eco- 
nomic, they  became  scattered  on  the  great  ranches  whose  owners  under 
Mexican  grants  were  getting  control  of  the  best  of  the  lands  in  the  coast 
valleys.  All  the  while  tuberculosis  and  smallpox  and  a  declining  birth 
rate  were  steadily  reducing  their  numbers.  The  state  of  affairs  at  the 
Mission  Dolores  was  typical.  The  pueblo  did  not  develop  into  a  pros- 
perous town.  Padre  Rafael  de  Jesus  Moreno  pointed  out  that  the 
commissioner  was  acting  for  his  own  advantage  rather  than  for  the 
good  of  the  Indians.  Likewise  there  were  charges  and  countercharges 
at  Santa  Clara,  San  Jose  and  the  other  missions  around  the  Bay.  All  of 
them  fell  into  neglect  and  decay.  There  were  only  50  Indians  at  San 
Francisco  when  the  French  explorer  and  scientist,  Duflot  de  Mofras, 
was  there  in  1841. 

International  rivalries  meanwhile  were  shaping  the  future  of  Alta 
California  and  the  Bay  area.  Fort  Ross,  less  than  100  miles  north  of 
the  Bay,  was  developing  into  something  more  formidable  than  an  out- 
post of  Russian  hunters  of  seal  and  sea  otter  who  chased  their  prey  from 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         23 

the  Farallon  Islands  right  into  San  Francisco  Bay.  Representatives  of 
Britain's  Hudson's  Bay  Trading  Company,  who  came  to  make  surveys 
of  the  Boy  region  and  to  twit  the  comandante  of  Yerba  Buena's 
presidio  on  the  sad  state  of  his  defenses,  had  a  knowing  political  gleam 
in  their  eyes. 

Least  suspect  of  all  were  the  Americans.  Unlike  some  other  for- 
eigners settling  in  the  Bay  region,  they  assumed  no  official  character 
which  could  be  construed  as  representing  aggressive  designs  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States.  The  majority  of  Yankee  immigrants,  in  fact, 
adopted  unhesitatingly  the  religion  and  customs  of  the  Mexicans;  they 
renounced  their  American  citizenship  and  married  into  leading  Mexican 
families.  Not  for  some  years  after  the  first  trappers  had  begun  to  cross 
the  Sierra  were  the  Yankees  regarded  by  Mexican  authorities  with 
suspicion  such  as  the  Russian  incursion  into  the  Bay  area  had  received 
since  1812. 

Secure  behind  their  stockades  and  twelve  brass  cannons  at  Fort  Ross, 
the  Russians  ignored  repeated  orders  to  leave  the  country.  As  early  as 
1817  Governor  Pablo  Vicente  de  Sola  had  reported  to  his  superiors  in 
Mexico  City  that  he  could  not  drive  them  out  with  the  forces  at  his 
command,  whose  weapons  were  effective  only  against  Indians  armed 
with  bows  and  arrows.  Now  that  Mexico  was  an  independent  nation 
she  no  longer  had  protection  from  the  Spanish  navy,  and  no  supply  ships 
had  arrived  at  Yerba  Buena  since  1811.  Captain  William  Shaler, 
describing  San  Francisco  Bay  in  1805,  found  the  entrance  defended  only 
"by  a  battery  on  which  are  mounted  some  brass  pounders,  which  afford 
only  the  show  of  defense ;  and  the  place  could  make  no  resistance  against 
the  smallest  military  force  .  .  ."  The  Castillo  de  San  Joaquin,  here 
described,  was  not  improved  by  subsequent  decades  of  neglect. 

Whether  or  not  the  provincial  authorities  recognized  the  fact,  from 
1823  onward  the  American  government  had  entered  into  the  long-range 
struggle  of  world  powers  for  control  of  Alta  California.  Concern  over 
Russian  inroads  into  the  Bay  region  prompted  Andrew  Jackson's  ad- 
ministration to  undertake  negotiations  with  the  Mexican  government 
for  acquisition  of  Alta  California.  What  "Old  Hickory"  had  his  eye 
on  was  that  portion  of  Mexican  territory  north  of  the  37th  parallel, 
including  San  Francisco  Bay,  which  had  been  described  to  him  as  "a 
most  desirable  place  of  resort  for  our  numerous  whaling  vessels  ...  in 
the  Pacific,  far  superior  to  any  to  which  they  now  have  access."  The 
$3>5OO,ooo  which  Jackson  offered  Mexico's  President  Santa  Anna  was, 
however,  refused;  and  the  American  government's  subsequent  attempts 
to  bring  the  Mexicans  to  terms  met  with  no  better  success. 

American  citizens  meanwhile  were  far  from  idle.  From  frontier 
settlements  in  Missouri,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  trappers  and  fur 
traders  in  coonskin  caps  and  greasy  buckskin  had  been  threading  their 


24        SAN     FRANCISCO 

way  across  the  plains  and  mountains  of  the  West.  First  of  these  restless 
Yankees  to  reach  Alta  California  by  an  overland  route  was  Jedediah 
Smith.  In  the  fall  of  1826  this  "Pathfinder  of  the  Sierras"  had  opened 
the  way  for  American  settlement  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin 
Valleys.  That  his  presence  in  the  Bay  region  was  unwelcome  is  ap- 
parent from  the  fact  that,  on  his  arrival  at  Mission  San  Jose,  Padre 
Narciso  Duran  locked  him  in  an  outhouse;  and  upon  his  release  Gov- 
ernor Jose  Maria  de  Echeandia  gave  him  two  months  to  get  his  fur 
traders  out  of  the  country. 

The  feudal  rancheros  had  no  great  interest  in  encouraging  trade 
and  industry,  but  under  Governor  Jose  Figueroa's  liberal  regime  San 
Francisco  Bay  was  declared  a  port  of  entry  and,  in  1835,  the  pueblo  of 
Yerba  Buena  was  laid  out  on  the  cove.  Appointment  of  a  harbormaster 
and  lifting  of  restrictions  on  trade  with  foreign  shipping  opened  for  the 
Bay  area  a  decade  of  friendly  relations  between  Mexicans  and  Yankee 
settlers  which  might  eventually  have  resulted  in  peaceful  annexation  of 
California  by  the  United  States.  The  appointment  of  Thomas  O. 
Larkin  as  United  States  Consul  to  Alta  California  in  1843  was  made, 
apparently,  to  encourage  the  Californios  to  sever  their  ties  with  Mexico 
and  seek  protection  under  the  American  flag. 

The  loss  of  Texas  to  Sam  Houston's  rebellious  settlers  in  1836  left 
the  regime  in  Mexico  City  in  too  perilous  a  state  to  cope  with  the 
political  intrigue  among  its  representatives  in  Alta  California ;  and  some 
of  these  began  to  depend  upon  certain  foreign  elements  in  the  province 
to  maintain  their  despotic  rule  against  rival  officials  and  a  citizenry 
from  which  arose  the  rumblings  of  revolt.  Their  most  powerful  aide 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  Bay  area  was  Johann  Augustus  Sutter,  Swiss  immi- 
grant and  adventurer  extraordinary,  who  had  established  a  settlement 
in  the  Sacramento  Valley.  At  Sutter's  Fort  were  welcomed  the  Amer- 
ican immigrant  trains  whose  oxcarts  came  straggling  down  through 
passes  in  the  high  Sierra  after  1841. 

In  1841,  when  the  Russians  decided  to  withdraw  from  Fort  Ross, 
Sutter  had  acquired  all  their  territory  around  Bodega  Bay.  In  return 
for  assisting  General  Mariano  Guadalupe  Vallejo,  comandante  of 
Sonoma,  to  disperse  the  roving  brigands  which  General  Manuel  Michel- 
torena  brought  with  him  from  Mexico  when  he  came  to  displace  Gov- 
ernor Juan  Bautista  Alvarado  at  Monterey  in  1842,  the  redoubtable 
Sutter  was  left  unmolested  to  play  off  one  rival  official  against  another. 
Even  when  this  "Lord  of  the  Marches"  threatened  to  "proclaim  Cali- 
fornia a  Republic  independent  of  Mexico"  if  he  were  not  given  leave 
to  do  as  he  pleased,  Vallejo  dared  not  break  off  friendly  relations  with 
him.  He  wrote  unhappily  at  the  time,  when  American  immigration  was 
filling  the  Bay  area  with  Yankee  settlers,  that  "the  only  certainty  is 
that  Californfans  will  die,"  and  again,  "I  dare  not  assure  myself  that 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         25 

California  will  be  saved."  He  drew  what  consolation  he  could  from  the 
fact  that  Sutter  had  prevented  further  encroachment  of  the  British  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company  and  kept  his  political  rival,  Juan  Bautista  Alvarado, 
at  a  safe  distance;  but  he  saw  the  Americans  taking  over  the  country. 

When  the  first  overland  party  from  Missouri  arrived  at  the  ranch 
of  Dr.  John  Marsh  near  Mount  Diablo  in  November  1841,  they  were 
permitted  to  settle  unmolested.  Governor  Micheltorena  had  orders  to 
put  a  stop  to  all  immigration;  but  his  disreputable  army  had  made  him 
unpopular  and  he  was  dependent  on  American  support  to  put  down  the 
conspiracies  of  rival  officials  who  openly  defied  his  authority.  Further- 
more, the  crafty  Alvarado  had  left  the  treasury  of  the  province  empty  ; 
and  the  secularization  of  the  missions  in  1834  nad  already  destroyed 
the  source  of  funds  by  which  presidio  garrisons  had  been  maintained. 
To  aggravate  this  precarious  situation  even  more,  the  American  and 
British  consuls  in  Monterey  were  keeping  their  respective  governments 
informed  of  the  events  leading  to  a  crisis  in  which  intervention  of  some 
sort  would  decide  the  future  of  the  territory. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  California  and  the  Bay  region  when, 
in  December  1845,  Captain  John  Charles  Fremont  entered  the  prov- 
ince. As  United  States  topographical  engineer  in  command  of  two 
previous  expeditions  sent  to  survey  California's  natural  resources,  Fre- 
mont was  received  on  January  27,  1846  in  Monterey  without  serious 
misgivings  by  Mexican  authorities,  who  gave  him  permission  to  obtain 
supplies  pending  his  promised  departure  into  Oregon.  Little  more  than 
a  month  later,  however,  Fremont's  followers  joined  him  near  San  Jose, 
marched  across  the  Santa  Clara  Valley  and  through  the  Santa  Cruz 
Mountains,  and  camped  near  Monterey. 

Promptly  ordered  to  leave  the  country,  Fremont  made  a  show  of 
resistance,  swearing  that  "if  we  are  hemmed  in  and  assaulted  we  will 
die,  every  man  of  us  under  the  flag  of  our  country."  Being  neither 
hemmed  in  nor  assaulted,  Fremont's  party  withdrew  up  the  Sacramento 
Valley  to  Sutter's  Fort  and  proceeded  north  toward  Oregon.  His  mar- 
tial depredations  caused  Larkin  to  petition  Consul  John  Parrott  at 
Mazatlan  to  send  a  warship  to  Monterey. 

Whether  acting  on  secret  orders  received  from  the  United  States 
State  Department  or  on  his  own  initiative,  Fremont  suddenly  retraced 
his  steps  and  set  up  headquarters  at  Marysville  Buttes  in  the  Sierra  foot- 
hills. From  here  a  party  of  about  a  dozen  Yankee  hunters  and  trappers 
— in  command  of  Ezekiel  Merritt,  a  settler  from  Rancho  Barranca 
Colorado  (Red  Bluff) — was  ordered  by  Fremont  to  seize  170  horses 
being  taken  from  Sonoma  to  Santa  Clara  by  a  party  of  Castro's  men. 
The  captured  animals  having  been  delivered  to  Fremont's  new  camp  on 
the  Bear  River,  Merritt's  party  of  20  marauders  crossed  the  hills  into 
Napa  Valley,  where  they  were  joined  by  12  or  13  recruits. 


26        SAN     FRANCISCO 

At  daybreak  on  June  14,  General  Mariano  G.  Vallejo  in  his  house 
at  Sonoma  was  roused  without  warning  by  this  little  band  of  men  and 
called  upon  to  surrender.  Somewhat  puzzled,  but  courteous  as  always, 
he  invited  them  in.  On  being  informed  that  they  were  acting  under 
Fremont's  orders,  he  proceeded  to  wine  and  dine  his  callers  to  the 
point  of  stupor  while  terms  of  surrender  were  being  discussed.  At 
length  the  captors  were  able  to  agree  on  a  declaration  to  which  three 
of  them  put  their  names — Ezekial  Merritt,  Robert  Semple,  and  William 
Fallon.  They  presented  it  to  Vallejo:  "We,  the  undersigned  having 
resolved  to  establish  a  government  upon  republican  principles,  in  con- 
nection with  others  of  our  fellow-citizens,  and  having  taken  up  arms  to 
support  it,  we  have  taken  three  Mexican  officers  as  prisoners:  Gen.  M. 
G.  Vallejo,  Lieut.  Col.  Victor  Prudhon  and  Capt.  Salvador  Vallejo." 
But  dissension  then  broke  the  ranks  of  the  insurrectionists,  frightened 
by  the  magnitude  of  their  exploit.  William  B.  Ide,  a  Yankee  settler 
with  the  gift  of  oratory,  saved  the  day.  Cried  he:  "I  will  lay  my  bones 
here  before  I  will  take  upon  myself  the  ignominy  of  commencing  an 
honorable  work  and  then  flee  like  cowards,  like  thieves,  when  no  enemy 
is  in  sight.  In  vain  will  you  say  you  had  honorable  motives.  Who  will 
believe  it?  Flee  this  day,  and  the  longest  life  cannot  wear  out  your 
disgrace!  .  .  .  We  are  robbers,  or  we  must  be  conquerors!" 

Taking  possession  of  the  pueblo  without  opposition,  the  rebels  im- 
patiently hauled  down  the  Mexican  flag.  It  occurred  to  them  that  a 
new  flag  was  needed  to  replace  it.  On  a  piece  of  homespun  to  which 
was  attached  a  strip  of  red  flannel  they  painted  a  red  star  and  the 
crude  figure  of  a  grizzly  bear.  "My  countrymen,"  orated  Lieutenant 
Henry  L.  Ford  as  the  new  standard  was  hoisted  up  the  flagpole,  "we 
have  taken  upon  ourselves  a  damned  big  contract."  But  the  insurgents' 
chosen  leader,  William  B.  Ide,  who  promptly  dubbed  himself  "Com- 
mander-in-chief" and  later  "President  of  the  California  Republic,"  was 
undaunted.  He  invited  "all  peaceable  and  good  citizens  of  Califor- 
nia ...  to  repair  to  my  camp  at  Sonoma,  without  delay,  to  assist  us  in 
establishing  and  perpetuating  a  Republican  government,  which  shall 
secure  to  all  civil  and  religious  liberty,  which  shall  encourage  virtue 
and  literature ;  which  shall  leave  unshackled  by  fetters,  agriculture,  com- 
merce and  manufactures." 

Though  Fremont  would  admit  no  direct  responsibility  for  the  "Bear 
Flag"  rebellion,  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  Jacob  Leese,  Vallejo's  brother- 
in-law,  because  he  was  a  "bad  man";  and  according  to  Leese's  account, 
he  also  threatened  to  hang  Sutter  for  demanding  that  consideration  be 
shown  a  man  of  Vallejo's  pro-American  sympathies.  It  was  generally 
assumed,  by  both  Yankee  settlers  and  Califomios  in  the  Bay  region, 
that  Fremont  was  in  command  of  a  movement  to  seize  the  territory. 

General  Castro,  learning  of  the  affair  at  Sonoma,  sent  a  force  of 


A     FRONTIER     TO     CONQUER         27 

50  or  60  men  under  Joaquin  de  la  Torre  to  attack  the  "Bears."  March- 
ing northward  from  San  Rafael,  De  la  Torre's  contingent  was  joined 
by  Juan  Padilla's  roving  bandits.  On  the  morning  of  June  24,  1846, 
the  California*  were  attacked  at  the  Olompali  Rancho  near  Petaluma  by 
17  or  1 8  men  under  Lieutenant  Henry  L.  Ford.  After  a  charge  in 
which  one  of  De  la  Torre's  men  was  killed  and  several  wounded  by 
Ford's  riflemen,  the  Calif ornios  retired  and  the  Americans  returned  to 
Sonoma. 

Until  this  first  battle  of  the  war  Fremont  had  taken  no  open  part 
in  the  events  which  his  presence  doubtless  had  precipitated.  Now, 
however,  as  he  says  in  his  Memoirs,  "I  have  decided  that  it  was  for  me 
to  govern  events  rather  than  to  be  governed  by  them.  I  represent  the 
Army  and  the  Flag  of  the  United  States."  Furthermore  he  realized 
that  "at  last  the  time  had  come  when  England  must  not  get  a  foothold; 
that  we  must  be  first.  I  was  to  act,  discreetly  but  positively."  And 
act  he  did,  though  neither  he  nor  his  Mexican  opponents  were  as  yet 
aware  that  their  respective  countries  were  already  at  war  below  the 
Rio  Grande. 

Arriving  at  Sonoma  on  June  25,  Fremont  assumed  command  of  the 
Bears  and  with  a  combined  force  of  130  men  marched  to  meet  De  la 
Torre's  detachment  at  San  Rafael.  Here  occurred  an  incident  which 
ever  since  has  blemished  Fremont's  reputation.  This  was  the  murder 
of  three  innocent  Californios — the  twin  sons  of  Yerba  Buena's  first 
alcalde,  Francisco  de  Haro,  and  old  Don  Jose  Berryesa,  father  of  the 
alcalde  of  Sonoma  who  was  then  among  Fremont's  prisoners  at  Sutter's 
Fort.  On  being  informed  by  Kit  Carson  that  these  three  were  about 
to  land  from  a  boat  at  Point  San  Pedro,  Fremont  is  reported  to  have 
said :  "I  have  no  room  for  prisoners."  Kit  Carson,  G.  P.  Swift,  and 
one  of  Fremont's  trappers  shot  down  the  three  unarmed  men. 

Outnumbered  and  badly  armed,  De  la  Torre's  forces  fled  across  the 
Bay  to  join  Jose  Castro's  at  Santa  Clara.  Following  Fremont's  raid 
on  the  old  Castillo  de  San  Joaquin,  Dr.  Robert  Semple,  participant  in 
the  Bear  Flag  affair  at  Sonoma,  led  ten  men  on  a  foray  into  Yerba 
Buena  which  captured  Robert  Ridley,  ex-factor  of  the  local  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  post. 

After  thus  putting  down  all  military  resistance  of  the  Californios 
in  the  Bay  region  Fremont  returned  to  Sonoma  to  declare  the  inde- 
pendence of  California  and  place  the  country  under  martial  law  for 
the  duration  of  the  conflict.  While  continuing  "in  pursuit  of  Castro" 
in  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento  (actually  Castro  already  had  begun  his 
retreat  southward  from  Santa  Clara),  Fremont  received  news  that  the 
United  States  naval  commander  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  Commodore  John 
D.  Sloat,  had  raised  the  American  flag  at  Monterey  and  had  ordered 
the  U.S.S.  Portsmouth  to  do  likewise  at  Yerba  Buena.  Thenceforth 


28         SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  Bay  region  heard  only  distant  rumblings  as  the  Yankee  invasion 
progressed  southward  with  mild  skirmishes  in  the  Salinas  Valley,  to  end 
at  last  in  a  decisive  victory  for  the  Americans  at  San  Gabriel,  January 
8-9,  1847- 

The  Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  February  2,  1848,  gave  Cali- 
fornia to  the  United  States.  The  Bay  region's  Bear  Flag  war  was  only 
an  incident  in  the  hasty  transfer  of  a  vast  territory  from  one  nation 
to  another.  But  it  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era,  and  the  end 
of  an  old  one.  And  Jose  Castro  himself,  comandante-general  of  the 
forces  of  the  north  in  the  struggle  of  the  Calif ornios  against  the  Yankee 
invaders,  foresaw  in  some  degree  what  that  new  era  would  be  like 
when  he  told  an  assembly  at  Monterey:  "These  Americans  are  so  con- 
triving that  some  day  they  will  build  ladders  to  touch  the  sky,  and 
once  in  the  heavens  they  will  change  the  whole  face  of  the  universe 
and  even  the  color  of  the  stars." 


Emporium  of  a  New 


".  .  .  San  Francisco  .  .  .  the  sole  emporium  of  a  new  world, 
the  awakened  Pacific  .  .    " 

—  RICHARD  HENRY  DANA 


HARDLY  had  the  dead  hand  of  Mexican  rule  been  lifted  from 
the  Bay  region  when  the  Gold  Rush  struck  it  like  a  hurricane. 
The  thousands  who  flocked  to  the  shores  of  San  Francisco 
Bay  in  1848  at  first  asked  little.  But  when  the  excitement  died  down 
the  little  gold  frontier  town  had  become  a  city,  and  its  people  demanded 
much:  wharves,  and  dry  paved  streets;  homes  and  stores,  with  firm 
foundations  on  which  to  build  them;  and  a  transportation  system  that 
would  encompass  not  only  the  land  about  the  Bay,  but  the  Bay  itself. 
Almost  overnight  the  fleet  of  steamers  and  sailing  ships  which  glutted 
with  the  manufactured  products  of  Eastern  merchants  the  wharves  of 
San  Francisco,  Stockton,  and  Sacramento  established  the  Bay's  mari- 
time supremacy  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Mining  camps  developed  into  towns  and  cities  amid  the  rich  agri- 
cultural lands  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  valleys;  and  around 
the  old  pueblos  of  San  Jose  and  Santa  Clara  the  vast  ranches  of  the 
Mexicans  and  Spaniards  became  orchards,  fields,  and  vineyards.  From 
these,  and  from  the  soil  of  Sonoma  County,  from  Napa  Valley  and 
from  the  counties  of  the  contra  costa,  would  come  the  "green  gold" 
which  a  vast  system  of  canneries  and  packing  houses  now  prepares  for 
distribution  all  over  the  world.  To  supply  this  populous  hinterland 
with  commodities,  and  to  bring  down  to  the  harbors  of  the  Bay  its  tons 
of  exports,  a  network  of  railroads  and  highways,  bridges  .and  improved 
inland  waterways  had  to  be  established.  Throughout  almost  a  century 
Bay  region  industrialists,  farmers,  and  shippers  have  had  to  struggle 
with  problems  of  engineering  to  overcome  deficiencies  in  an  area  other- 
wise ideally  suited  to  the  building  of  prosperous  communities  and  metro- 
politan centers. 

For  all  its  magnificence  and  its  utility,  San  Francisco  Bay  was, 
until  completion  of  its  two  great  bridges,  an  obstacle  to  transportation 
which  prevented  development  of  large  sections  of  Marin  County;  and 
it  isolated  the  industrial  centers  of  the  East  Bay  from  financial  and 
distribution  facilities  of  San  Francisco.  Phenomenally  rapid  as  its 
progress  has  been,  this  new  unity,  which  engineering  has  accomplished, 
assures  a  future  of  more  intense  and  orderly  development  for  all  com- 
munities of  the  Bay  region. 

29 


3O         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Today,  the  San  Francisco  Bay  region  is  the  market  place  and  work- 
shop for  a  population  of  nearly  2,000,000  people — a  great  harbor  ringed 
with  factory  smokestacks,  sheltering  vessels  from  all  ports  of  the  globe, 
terminus  of  transcontinental  railroads  and  airlines  and  home  base  of 
the  Pacific  Clippers  flying  to  the  Orient.  Ranking  second  in  value  of 
water-borne  commerce  of  all  United  States  ports,  the  San  Francisco 
Bay  area  has  become  the  Pacific  Coast's  largest  distribution  center  and 
the  West's  financial  capital.  Among  30  industrial  areas  of  the  Nation, 
it  ranked  sixth  as  a  manufacturing  center,  with  an  industrial  output 
of  more  than  $800,000,000  in  1935.  Its  wholesale  trade  volume  of 
$*> 353,7 JO  for  the  same  year  was  larger  than  the  value  of  its  water- 
borne  commerce;  and  the  value  of  its  retail  trade  was  half  as  large. 

WORLD  PORT 

John  Masefield's  "dirty  British  coaster  with  salt-caked  smokestacks" 
is  but  one  of  the  myriad  craft,  from  nations  all  over  the  world,  which 
have  come  and  gone  through  the  Golden  Gate  since  Lieutenant  Manuel 
de  Ayala's  little  San  Carlos  first  dropped  anchor  in  San  Francisco  Bay 
in  1775.  Across  the  racing  tides  of  that  narrow  channel  have  swept 
the  white  sails  of  the  clipper  ships  that  brought  the  Argonauts ;  through 
it  have  steamed  sidewheelers  and  modern  freighters,  sleek  liners  and 
palatial  yachts,  naval  armadas  and  army  transports;  and  casting  brief 
shadows  of  the  future  upon  it,  and  upon  the  mighty  bridge  which  spans 
the  strait,  the  silver  wings  of  clipper  planes  go  soaring  out  across  the 
Pacific. 

The  pioneer  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company's  i,ooo-ton  side- 
wheeler,  California,  already  had  sailed  from  New  York  for  the  Pacific 
Coast  by  way  of  Cape  Horn,  with  no  passengers,  when  the  news  of 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  reached  the  East.  When  the  Cali- 
fornia anchored  at  Panama  on  January  30,  1849,  she  found  hundreds 
of  frenzied  gold-hunters  who  had  made  their  way  across  the  Isthmus 
awaiting  her.  On  February  28,  topheavy  with  several  times  her  capacity 
of  loo  passengers,  she  steamed  through  the  Golden  Gate — the  first 
vessel  to  round  Cape  Horn  under  her  own  steam  and  sail  into  the  Bay 
of  San  Francisco.  Pacific  Mail  promptly  hurried  completion  of  two 
sister  ships;  but  these  were  not  enough.  Its  fleet  rapidly  grew  to  29 
steamships  destined  to  carry  175,000  people  to  San  Francisco  within 
:a  decade. 

During  the  height  of  the  Gold  Rush,  however,  demand  so  far  out- 
distanced supply  in  the  maritime  industry  that  chaos  reigned,  retarding 
for  several  years  development  of  regular  and  systematic  commercial 
facilities.  The  rapid  increase  in  population — from  about  860  to  almost 
42,000  by  the  end  of  1852  in  San  Francisco  alone — brought  a  wide  and 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         31 

insistent  demand  for  manufactured  goods,  tools,  machinery  and  food 
products  which  undeveloped  local  industry  could  not  supply.  Eastern 
shippers,  without  accurate  knowledge  of  local  requirements,  sent  tons 
of  merchandise  for  which  San  Francisco  could  find  no  use.  The  market 
was  glutted ;  prices  crashed ;  goods  of  every  description  were  left  to  rot 
in  the  holds  of  ships,  on  the  wharves,  and  in  the  city  streets.  Fully  as 
demoralizing  to  maritime  commerce  was  the  wholesale  desertion  of 
ship's  crews,  who  joined  the  wild  rush  to  the  mines.  San  Francisco 
Bay  in  the  early  fifties  presented  a  sight  seldom  seen  in  the  history  of 
the  world:  a  veritable  forest  of  masts  rising  from  hundreds  of  aban- 
doned ships. 

With  the  gradual  stabilization  of  trading  conditions,  however,  mari- 
time commerce  was  revived  until  the  rapid  increase  in  shipping  made 
necessary  the  immediate  building  of  extensive  piers  and  docking  facilities. 
Prior  to  the  Gold  Rush  all  cargoes  had  been  lightered  ashore  in  small 
boats,  usually  to  the  rocky  promontory  of  Clark's  Point  at  the  foot 
of  Telegraph  Hill.  When  in  the  winter  of  1848  the  revenue  steamer 
James  K.  Polk  was  run  aground  at  the  present  intersection  of  Vallejo 
and  Battery  Streets — at  that  time  part  of  the  water  front — the  narrow 
gangplank  laid  from  deck  to  shore  was  considered  a  distinct  advance 
in  harbor  facilities.  The  brig  Belfast  was  the  first  vessel  to  unload  at 
a  pier:  she  docked  in  1848  at  the  newly  completed  Broadway  Wharf — a 
board  structure  ten  feet  wide.  Others  were  soon  built.  By  October 
1850,  6,000  feet  of  wharfage  had  been  constructed  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,- 
ooo.  As  the  tidal  flats  were  filled  in,  the  piers  were  extended:  Com- 
mercial Wharf,  at  first  extending  only  30  feet  into  waters  only  two 
feet  deep,  became  Long  Wharf  as  it  was  lengthened  to  400  feet  to  pro- 
vide docking  facilities  for  deep  water  shipping. 

During  the  boom  years  of  the  1 850*5  competition  between  Eastern 
shippers  became  so  sharp  that  a  type  of  sailing  vessel  faster  than  the 
old  schooners  and  barques  constructed  on  the  lines  of  whaling  ships 
had  to  be  built.  Between  1850  and  1854,  J6o  fast  clipper  ships  were 
launched  on  the  Eastern  seaboard  to  supply  the  demand  for  speed  and 
more  speed  to  the  Pacific  Coast. 

"On  to  the  mines"  was  the  order  of  the  day  for  both  passengers  and 
cargoes  landed  on  San  Francisco's  water  front.  The  fastest  way  to  the 
mines  was  by  water — through  San  Pablo  Bay,  Carquinez  Strait,  and 
Suisun  Bay,  and  up  the  San  Joaquin  River  to  Stockton,  or  up  the  Sacra- 
mento to  the  town  named  for  it.  The  first  steamboat  in  the  Bay,  the 
37-foot  sidewheeler  Sitka,  imported  in  sections  from  the  Russian  settle- 
ment at  Sitka,  Alaska,  and  reassembled,  had  already  attempted  the  trip 
to  Sacramento,  requiring  six  days  and  seven  hours.  Vessels  better 
equipped  for  the  journey  were  soon  imported.  Meanwhile,  lighter  craft 
were  pressed  into  traveling  service.  Since  1835,  when  William  A. 


32         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Richardson  had  begun  operating  two  3Oton  schooners  with  Indian 
crews  to  transport  the  produce  of  missions  and  ranches  from  San  Fran- 
cisco and  San  Jose  to  trading  vessels  anchored  in  the  Bay,  a  variety  of 
small  vessels  had  plied  the  waters  inside  the  Golden  Gate.  In  1850 
Captain  Thomas  Gray's  propeller  steamer  Kangaroo  began  the  first 
regular  run,  twice  weekly,  between  San  Francisco  and  San  Antonio 
Landing  (now  Oakland)  in  the  East  Bay.  On  September  2,  1863,  the 
San  Francisco  and  Oakland  Railroad  Company,  first  in  the  Bay  region, 
began  running  the  Contra  Costa  six  times  daily  from  its  Oakland 
wharf  to  Broadway  Wharf  in  San  Francisco;  and  the  following  year, 
the  San  Francisco  and  Alameda  Railroad  Company  inaugurated  train- 
ferry  service  from  Alameda  Wharf  with  the  Sophie  McLane.  At  the 
Alameda  Wharf,  on  September  6,  1869,  the  steamer  Alameda  took  on 
the  first  boatload  of  passengers  arriving  on  the  Pacific  Coast  by  trans- 
continental railroad. 

After  the  opening  of  ferry  slips  at  the  two-mile  Oakland  Long 
Wharf  in  1871  and  at  a  new  San  Fransisco  passenger  station  at  the 
foot  of  Market  Street  four  years  later,  the  ferry  fleet  grew  rapidly  in 
size.  In  1879  the  world's  largest  ferry,  the  Solano,  began  transport- 
ing whole  railroad  trains  across  Suisun  Bay  from  Benicia  to  Port  Costa. 
The  ferry  system  was  extended  until  by  1930  the  43  boats  operating 
between  San  Francisco  and  Oakland,  Alameda,  Berkeley,  Sausalito,  and 
Vallejo  comprised  the  largest  transportation  enterprise  of  its  kind  in  the 
world;  in  that  year  they  carried  a  total  of  more  than  40,000,000  pas- 
sengers. 

The  lifting  of  the  Mexican  regime's  restrictive  measures  against 
foreign  trading  brought  the  Pacific  whalers  to  San  Francisco.  As  early 
as  1800,  whaling  vessels  had  begun  to  anchor  in  sheltered  Richardson's 
Bay,  then  known  as  Whaler's  Bay,  off  the  site  of  Sausalito,  where  they 
took  on  wood  and  water.  The  first  captain  of  the  port,  shrewd  William 
A.  Richardson,  had  collected  fees  for  piloting  the  whalers  to  their 
anchorage.  But  Mexican  regulations  and  tariffs  forced  the  whaling 
industry  to  base  its  operations  in  the  Sandwich  Islands.  After  Ameri- 
can occupation,  San  Francisco  merchants,  foreseeing  profits  to  be  gained 
from  yearly  outfitting  of  the  whalers  and  their  crews,  made  hardy  efforts 
to  center  the  industry  here.  They  succeeded  to  such  an  extent  that  by 
1865  a  total  of  34  whalers,  with  a  combined  tonnage  of  11,000  tons,, 
anchored  in  the  Bay. 

As  late  as  1888,  San  Francisco  was  still  Pacific  Coast  whaling  head- 
quarters. But  the  whaling  fleet  dwindled  rapidly  after  1900 — as  tug- 
boats for  pursuit  ("killer"  ships)  and  steam-driven  processing  plants 
(factory  ships)  supplanted  sailing  vessels — until  in  1938  the  California 
Whaling  Company,  sole  survivor  in  the  industry,  called  in  for  the  last 
time  its  remaining  ships. 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         33 

Within  two  decades  after  the  building  of  its  first  wharf,  the  tip  of 
the  San  Francisco  Peninsula  was  saw-toothed  with  piers.  The  water 
front  had  been  pushed  into  the  Bay  as  the  shallow  waters  of  Yerba 
Buena  Cove  were  filled  in.  In  1873,  two  years  after  control  of  the 
San  Francisco  water  front  had  been  acquired  by  the  State,  the  con- 
struction of  a  great  sea  wall  was  begun  by  the  State  Board  of  Harbor 
Commissioners;  and  in  1878,  the  aoo-foot  wide  Embarcadero  was  laid 
out.  San  Francisco's  great  era  of  maritime  commerce  was  entering  into 
the  full  stride  of  its  phenomenal  development. 

While  shovels  and  picks  and  gold  pans  rusted  in  thousands  of  back 
yards,  the  State  turned  from  gold  mining  to  agriculture  and  manufac- 
turing. Sacramento  and  Stockton,  great  mining  centers  during  the 
Gold  Rush,  became  agricultural  capitals  of  northern  California.  The 
two  great  rivers  sweeping  inland  to  these  cities  became  arteries  of  com- 
merce. Barges  and  river  boats  stopped  at  numberless  docks  and  land- 
ings to  pick  up  the  diversified  products  of  the  rich  land  that  swept  for 
miles  on  either  side  of  the  broad  rivers.  And  the  products  of  the  great 
agricultural  hinterland,  flowing  into  San  Francisco  Bay,  contributed 
heavily  to  its  export  trade.  From  1860  to  1875  exports  from  San 
Francisco  grew  in  value  from  $8,532,439  to  $33,554,o8i.  By  1889 
the  figure  had  increased  to  $47,274,090  and  imports  had  grown  corre- 
spondingly in  value. 

The  era  of  the  clipper  ships,  which  had  abandoned  the  San  Fran- 
cisco run  and  entered  the  China  trade,  had  given  way  to  a  new  phase 
of  shipping  which  called  for  the  transport  of  heavy  industrial  products 
and  for  the  expansion  of  foreign  trade.  Successors  to  the  clipper  ships 
were  square-rigged  sailing  vessels,  sturdily  built,  with  spacious  holds, 
for  carrying  heavy  cargoes  of  freight,  fish,  and  agricultural  products. 
Only  when  displaced  by  the  fast  freight  steamers  of  the  late  nineteenth 
century  did  the  square-riggers  pass  from  the  shipping  lanes  and  from 
San  Francisco  Bay.  The  ships  of  the  Alaska  Packers'  fleet,  last  of  these 
great  windjammers,  were  dismantled  early  in  the  I93o's.  Meanwhile 
the  first  of  the  roving  cargo  carriers  known  as  "tramp  steamers"  had 
passed  through  the  Golden  Gate  in  1874.  By  the  end  of  the  following 
year  more  than  30  of  these  vessels  had  arrived.  Their  number  increased 
rapidly  until  the  rise  late  in  the  century  of  the  great  modern  steam- 
ship lines,  which  absorbed  the  independent  shippers  who  had  dominated 
the  pioneer  era.  By  the  middle  1870*8  the  growth  of  logging  camps  and 
sawmills  in  the  timber  regions  of  the  State  had  also  created  a  demand 
for  large  fleets  of  freighters. 

Regular  monthly  service  for  freight  and  passengers  was  established 
between  San  Francisco  and  the  Orient  in  1867  by  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Company,  which  had  for  several  years  prior  been  transport- 
ing thousands  of  Chinese  coolies  to  supply  the  demand  for  cheap  labor 


34         SAN     FRANCISCO 

during  the  building  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad.  By  1878  the 
Pacific  Mail  had  established  regular  sailings  to  Honolulu,  carrying 
merchandise  which  was  exchanged  for  raw  sugar,  pineapples,  coffee,  and 
hides.  Five  years  later  the  Oceanic  Steamship  Company  entered  this 
lucrative  field  of  trade,  and  in  1885  extended  its  service  to  the  ports  of 
Australia  and  New  Zealand.  Within  the  following  decade  the  names 
of  William  Matson  and  Robert  Dollar  were  becoming  known  in  mari- 
time circles.  As  sea-borne  commerce  expanded  during  the  last  two 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  other  lines  developed.  Among  these 
pioneers  of  American  shipping  on  the  Pacific  Coast  were  the  American- 
Hawaiian,  United  Fruit,  and  Panama-Pacific  Lines.  The  Kosmos  Line, 
later  absorbed  by  the  Hamburg- American  Steamship  Company,  inaugu- 
rated the  first  monthly  sailings  to  Hamburg  and  other  European  ports 
in  1899.  By  1916  the  American-Hawaiian  Steamship  Company's  fleet 
of  26  steamers  with  a  capacity  of  296,000  tons  was  said  to  be  the  largest 
tonnage  under  single  ownership  operating  under  the  flag  of  the  United 
States. 

When  the  Panama  Canal  was  opened  in  July  1914,  the  maritime 
commerce  of  San  Francisco  Bay  entered  its  modern  epoch  of  expansion. 
Along  San  Francisco's  Embarcadero,  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  at 
the  end  of  1939,  were  represented  almost  200  steamship  companies 
whose  vessels,  both  of  domestic  and  foreign  registry,  called  at  nearly 
every  port  of  the  seven  seas.  Of  these,  at  least  half  were  engaged  in 
coastwise,  intercoastal,  or  transatlantic  trade  service  (via  Panama 
Canal)  ;  the  others  trade  with  Mexico  and  Latin  America,  Hawaii, 
Australia  and  the  Orient,  the  African  coasts,  or  offered  round-the- 
world  passenger  service.  From  Puget  Sound  to  Madagascar  are 
known  the  huge  dollar-sign  insignia  of  Dollar  Steamship  Company  ships 
(lately  superseded  by  the  spread  eagle  of  the  American  President  Lines), 
the  blue-and-white  smokestacks  of  California  and  Hawaiian,  and  the 
Matson  Line's  substantial  "M."  No  less  familiar  to  San  Franciscans 
and  other  Bay  region  residents  are  neat  Dutch  liners  and  freighters 
bound  for  Rotterdam  or  Antwerp  out  of  Batavia  in  the  East  Indies,  for 
which  San  Francisco  was  a  regular  port-of-call.  The  ships  of  Japan, 
British  ships  from  India  and  east  African  ports,  ships  from  the  Scan- 
dinavian countries  and  the  Balkans  were  seen  alongside  piers  of  San 
Francisco's  water  front  or  in  other  harbors  around  the  Bay.  Most 
commonplace  of  all,  however,  are  those  coastwise  freighters  which  butt 
in  and  out  of  ports  all  the  way  from  Vancouver  to  Valparaiso. 

Among  San  Francisco's  chief  imports  today  are  copra,  sugar,  coffee, 
and  vegetable  oils;  paper  and  burlap;  fertilizer  and  nitrates.  Chief 
exports  are  petroleum  products;  canned,  dried,  and  fresh  fruit;  lumber; 
flour  and  rice;  canned  and  cured  fish;  explosives  and  manufactured 
goods.  BetweeJi  1926  and  1936  San  Francisco  shipped  63  per  cent  of 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         35 

the  total  volume  of  canned,  and  70  per  cent  of  the  dried,  fruit  exported 
from  the  Nation.  In  return  for  the  goods  which  it  ships  away,  San 
Francisco  Bay  receives  from  the  whole  Pacific  Basin  its  products  for 
distribution  throughout  the  West.  Of  the  35,000,000  tons  of  inbound 
and  outbound  cargo  cleared  by  California  ports  in  1935,  San  Francisco 
Bay  handled  17,000,000.  In  total  commerce  it  ranked  fourth  among 
all  commercial  centers  in  the  country. 

The  Port  of  San  Francisco  is  much  more  than  the  17^2  miles  of 
berthing  space  which  flank  San  Francisco's  Ferry  Building  on  either 
side.  Actually  it  consists  of  the  series  of  bays  extending  northeast  from 
the  Golden  Gate  to  the  confluence  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin 
Rivers  and  southward  almost  to  San  Jose.  Harbor  facilities  are  sup- 
plied by  the  half-dozen  cities  and  industrial  centers  scattered  along  100 
miles  of  shoreline  enclosing  450  square  miles  of  water.  These  ports 
within  a  port  are  as  interdependent  as  are  the  economies  of  the  different 
cities  and  towns  of  the  Bay  region. 

Thus  a  vessel  in  from  the  Hawaiian  Islands  may  discharge  pineapple 
at  San  Francisco  and  raw  sugar  at  Crockett  before  proceeding  to  the 
Port  of  Oakland  to  take  on  a  cargo  of  canned  and  dried  fruits  for  the 
Orient,  or  a  coastwise  vessel  up  from  Nicaragua  or  Honduras  with  a 
hold  full  of  green  coffee  will  unload  at  San  Francisco  before  crossing 
to  Oakland  for  automobiles  for  South  or  Central  America.  A  tanker 
coming  in  through  the  Gate  may  steam  directly  to  the  Standard  Oil 
docks  at  Richmond,  or  the  Shell  pier  at  Martinez;  or  it  may  make  for 
the  Selby  Smelting  Company's  wharf  at  Selby. 

An  air  view  of  San  Francisco  Bay's  littoral — its  miles  of  public 
and  private  wharfage;  its  manifold  industrial  plants  crowding  the 
water's  edge;  its  deep-water  anchorage  for  warships;  its  airports  and 
islands  and  dockyards — will  alone  reveal  the  stupendous  picture  of  this 
port.  And  in  October  1936  travelers  to  and  from  San  Francisco  Bay 
were  provided  with  such  a  view  when  Pan-American  Airways  launched 
the  first  transpacific  commercial  passenger  flight  to  Manila.  To  the 
historic  roll  call  of  ships  which  have  sailed  through  the  Golden  Gate — 
San  Carlos,  California,  Flying  Cloud,  galleons  and  square-riggers, 
whalers  and  tramp  steamers — was  added  one  more  name :  China  Clipper. 

SMOKESTACKS  AROUND  THE  BAY 

Less  than  a  century  spans  the  interval  between  the  primitive  looms 
and  forges,  kilns  and  winepresses  of  the  missions  around  the  Bay  and 
the  giant  factories,  shipbuilding  yards,  and  refineries  with  their  soaring 
smokestacks  that  congregate  about  the  water's  edge  today.  Where 
cattle  grazed  the  lonely  hills — almost  within  the  memory  of  living 
men — furnishing  hides  for  the  illicit  trade  with  Yankee  sea  captains, 


36         SAN     FRANCISCO 

now  rise  Contra  Costa's  sugar  and  oil  refineries,  steel  mills,  explosive 
and  chemical  plants.  Where  whaling  boats  embarked  from  San  Antonio 
Landing  to  carry  wild  fowl,  bear,  and  deer  across  the  Bay  to  market, 
now  spreads  the  East  Bay's  crowded  belt  of  canneries  and  factories. 
And  where  whalers  and  hide  traders  once  tied  up  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water,  San  Francisco's  printing  and  coffee  roasting  plants,  meat- 
packing and  canning  establishments  crowd  to  the  shore. 

The  infant  city  by  the  Golden  Gate  grew  rich  overnight  as  indus- 
tries sprang  up  to  supply  and  outfit  the  Gold  Rush  population.  Within 
little  more  than  a  decade  after  Stephen  Smith  had  established  his  steam- 
powered  grist-  and  sawmill — California's  first — at  Bodega  in  1843,  San 
Francisco  had  built  stagecoach  and  wagon  factories,  flour  mills,  and 
breweries.  Boot  and  shoe  factories  and  plants  for  the  grading  and 
manufacture  of  wool  endeavored  to  fill  the  need  for  clothing  and  blan- 
kets. As  was  natural  in  a  city  which  was  in  the  habit  of  burning  down 
two  or  three  times  a  year,  lumber  mills  flourished.  To  supply  the 
miners'  demands  for  picks  and  shovels  and  pans,  the  Donahue  Brothers 
established  their  foundry  (later  the  Union  Iron  Works)  as  early  as 
1849.  Since  metal  was  scarce,  San  Francisco's  pioneer  machine  shops 
and  iron  moulders  were  soon  hammering  iron  wagon  wheel  rims  and 
harness  chains  into  miners'  tools. 

After  the  overland  railroad  began  providing  transportation  to  and 
from  the  East  for  both  freight  and  passengers  in  1869,  San  Francisco's 
industries  expanded  rapidly.  The  development  of  quartz  mining  and 
the  growth  of  large-scale  agriculture  spurred  the  manufacture  of  mining 
and  milling  equipment.  Other  leading  industries  during  this  era,  in 
order  of  importance,  were  breweries  and  malt  houses,  sash  and  blind 
mills,  boot  and  shoe  factories,  tin-ware  manufacturing,  flour  milling, 
and  wool  grading  and  manufacture.  Of  lesser  importance  were  the  tan- 
neries, coffee  and  spice  processors  (now  one  of  the  city's  leading  indus- 
tries), rolling  mills,  box  factories,  soap  works,  cracker  factories,  and 
packing  plants.  Over  all,  annual  industrial  output  for  the  two  decades 
of  1870-90  rose  from  $22,000,000  to  $120,000,000. 

The  rapidly  expanding  mining  industry  had  created  a  tremendous 
demand  for  special  mining  machinery.  By  1860  San  Francisco  had  14 
foundries  and  machine  shops  employing  222  men  and  turning  out  nearly 
$1,250,000  worth  of  products  annually.  With  the  development  of 
quartz  mining  and  the  growth  of  mining  in  Nevada,  it  became  the  un- 
disputed Western  capital  for  mining  machinery.  But  mine  machinery 
did  not  long  remain  the  sole  concern  of  local  industry  and  soon,  with 
typical  audacity,  the  comparatively  inexperienced  machine  shops  of  San 
Francisco  blithely  were  turning  out  such  complex  pieces  of  workmanship 
as  railway  locomotives,  flour  mills,  steamships  and  lesser  objects  of 
everyday  utility.  By  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century,  San  Francisco's 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         37 

machine  shops  constituted  an  industry  of  international  stature,  supply- 
ing flour-milling  machinery  and  equipment  for  the  entire  Pacific  area, 
including  such  widely  separated  places  as  South  and  Central  America, 
Japan,  China,  Mexico,  New  Zealand,  Siberia,  and  Australia. 

When  the  miners  turned  away  from  the  creeks  and  climbed  the  hills 
to  follow  the  quartz  ledges,  they  needed  explosives.  It  was  in  San 
Francisco  in  1867  that  Julius  Bandmann  took  over  exclusive  rights  to 
manufacture  dynamite  under  the  Nobel  patents.  At  his  plant  in  Rock 
Canyon  he  put  together  and  discharged  two  pounds  of  dynamite — the 
first,  so  far  as  can  be  determined,  ever  to  be  manufactured  in  the 
United  States.  In  1888  he  moved  his  plant  to  Contra  Costa  County, 
where  it  became  the  Giant  Corporation,  a  subsidiary  of  the  Atlas  Cor- 
poration. As  the  West  began  tearing  down  whole  mountains  to  dam 
rivers  and  blasting  highways  along  granite  cliffs,  other  explosive  manu- 
facturing plants  were  opened — the  Hercules  at  Pinole  and  the  Trojan 
at  Oakland. 

In  1865  Thomas  Selby,  a  San  Francisco  hardware  merchant,  built  a 
tall  tower  at  First  and  Howard  Streets  for  the  purpose  of  dropping 
lead  shot.  But  the  lead  ore,  mined  in  California  and  Nevada,  had  first 
to  make  the  long  trip  to  Europe  for  smelting.  Selby  began  to  smelt  the 
ore  himself  in  a  small  plant  in  North  Beach.  The  business  grew  and 
he  moved,  first  to  Black  Point,  then  to  Contra  Costa  County.  In  1905 
the  Selby  plant  was  taken  over  by  the  American  Smelting  Company.  Its 
tall  chimney  can  be  seen  for  miles  around.  Some  of  the  ore  from  the 
famous  mines  of  California  and  Nevada  has  been  treated  there — anti- 
mony, lead,  silver,  and  gold,  including  all  of  the  latter  two  metals 
needed  by  the  United  States  Mint  in  San  Francisco. 

Another  industry  which  had  gained  an  early  foothold  in  San  Fran- 
cisco was  sugar  refining.  The  story  of  how  a  German  immigrant  boy, 
Claus  Spreckels,  graduated  from  his  small  San  Francisco  grocery  busi- 
ness to  become  a  millionaire  sugar  tycoon  is  typical  of  the  swashbuckling 
manner  in  which  many  robust  San  Francisco  pioneers  acquired  fortune 
and  fame.  Captain  Cook,  discovering  the  Sandwich  Islands — later  the 
Hawaiian  Islands — in  1788,  commented  on  the  size  and  fine  quality  of 
the  sugar  cane  he  found  growing  there.  Until  Spreckels  became  inter- 
ested, all  the  cane  from  the  Islands  passed  through  San  Francisco  on 
its  way  to  the  East  to  be  refined.  Acquiring  an  early  interest  in 
Hawaiian  plantation  lands  when  he  won  part  of  the  island  of  Mauai 
in  a  poker  game  with  Kalakaua,  the  island  king,  Spreckels  built  a 
refinery  here  in  1863.  Dissatisfied  with  results,  he  sold  out  and  went 
to  Germany,  France,  Austria,  and  Belgium  to  study  the  latest  methods 
of  refining.  Returning  to  San  Francisco,  he  built  a  second  refinery. 
In  1882  he  moved  his  plant  to  the  water  front  at  the  foot  of  Twenty- 
third  Street,  where  ships  from  the  Islands  could  unload  the  cane 


38         SAN     FRANCISCO 

directly  into  the  refinery.  There  he  installed  improved  methods  of  refin- 
ing. It  is  this  plant,  enlarged  and  reorganized,  which  today  is  the 
home  of  the  Western  Sugar  Refinery. 

The  California  and  Hawaiian  Sugar  Refinery  at  Crockett  in  Contra 
Costa  County,  a  comparatively  late  comer,  has  developed  into  a  giant 
corporation  that  grows,  mills,  refines,  and  distributes — as  sugar  and 
sugar  products — nearly  80  per  cent  of  all  the  cane  that  comes  from  the 
Hawaiian  Islands. 

Men  who  had  come  to  dig  gold  in  California  had  remained  to  farm. 
Soon  California's  fertile  inland  acres  were  sprouting  the  "green  gold" 
for  which  the  State  was  to  become  world  famous.  Even  before  the 
great  wheat  farms  of  the  1 870*5  and  i88o's  had  been  supplanted  by  fruit 
and  vegetable  ranches,  a  few  men  had  foreseen  that  this  "green  gold" 
might  be  shipped  to  the  whole  world  if  only  it  could  be  preserved  against 
perishability,  and  packaged. 

In  1854  Daniel  R.  Provost,  member  of  an  Eastern  fruit  preserving 
firm,  had  stepped  ashore  in  San  Francisco  to  represent  his  company  here. 
He  rented  a  small  building  on  Washington  Street,  where  he  repacked 
Eastern  jellies  in  small  glass  containers.  Two  years  later  he  enlarged 
the  business  and  began  to  make  preserves  and  jellies  from  California 
fruits.  This  was  the  first  time  native  fruit  had  been  preserved  commer- 
cially on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Francis  Cutting  came  three  years  later.  He  went  into  the  fruit  and 
vegetable-preserving  business  on  Sacramento  Street,  where  his  unusual 
window  displays  attracted  hungry  customers.  He  added  tomatoes  to 
his  line  of  products  and  in  1860  received  a  shipment  of  Mason  jars 
which  were  well  received  in  San  Francisco.  People  began  to  refer  to 
San  Francisco  as  a  fruit-packing  center. 

In  1862  Cutting  received  from  Balitmore  his  first  shipment  of  tin 
plate,  at  a  cost  of  $16  a  box.  That  year  he  shipped  California  canned 
fruit  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  in  New  York  City,  to  the  Continental 
Hotel  in  Philadelphia  and  to  the  Parker  House  in  Boston.  He  canned 
5,400  cases  of  California  fruit  in  1862.  California's  giant  canning 
industry  was  born.  In  1899  eleven  pioneer  companies  merged  to  become 
the  California  Fruit  Canners  Association.  The  industry  expanded 
rapidly. 

San  Francisco  developed  a  luxury  line  of  fruits  and  vegetables  put 
up  in  glass  containers  and  the  Illinois  Glass  Company  arrived  in  Oak- 
land to  provide  the  jars.  Typical  of  the  canning  industry  today  is  the 
California  Packing  Corporation — Calpak — which  owns  71  canneries, 
warehouses,  and  dried  fruit  plants,  and  many  thousands  of  acres  of  fer- 
tile California  lands.  In  the  delta  region,  where  the  two  great  rivers 
empty  into  the  Bay,  Calpak  owns  9,000  acres,  5,000  of  which  are  planted 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLp         39 

to  asparagus.    According  to  a  1937  census  the  product  of  Bay  area  can- 
neries that  year  was  valued  at  $49,920,161. 

Despite  the  fact  that  no  oil  is  produced  within  300  miles  of  the 
Bay,  the  center  of  its  oil.  industry,  Contra  Costa  County,  has  developed, 
in  the  brief  interval  since  a  China-bound  steamer  sailed  west  with  a 
cargo  of  oil  in  1894,  mt°  the  clearing  house  for  one-eighth  of  the  entire 
world's  supply  of  gasoline  and  petroleum  products.  All  the  way  from 
the  San  Joaquin  Valley's  southern  end,  where  oil  was  discovered  late 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  pipes  were  laid  to  connect  with  Bay  shore 
refineries.  Standard  Oil  was  the  first  of  the  large  companies  to  build 
one;  its  Richmond  plant  was  opened  soon  after  the  first  ferry  connec- 
tion was  made  with  San  Francisco.  It  put  out  one  of  the  early  wharves 
at  Point  Orient,  linking  the  East  Bay  directly  with  the  Far  East  by 
means  of  its  tankers.  Today  four  of  the  world's  largest  refineries  over- 
look the  water  from  San  Pablo  Bay's  southern  shore. 

Sugar,  canning,  oil — these  are  the  Bay  region's  industrial  giants. 
For  the  most  part,  their  operations  are  centered  across  the  Bay  from 
San  Francisco.  Long  the  West's  chief  industrial  center,  San  Francisco 
had  passed  its  zenith  as  a  manufacturing  city  by  the  turn  of  the  century. 
In  its  place,  the  East  Bay  came  forward  as  factories  found  industrial 
sites  cheaper  and  rail  connections  more  convenient  on  the  mainland. 
The  city  of  San  Francisco  itself  assumed  its  present  role  of  financial 
and  marketing  center  for  an  industrial  area  embracing  the  whole  Bay 
region — that  of  front  office  for  the  plants  across  the  water.  Although 
outranked  in  economic  importance  by  both  wholesale  and  retail  trade, 
manufacturing  nevertheless  contributed  22  per  cent  of  the  city's  annual 
pay  roll  in  1935.  As  befits  a  commercial  and  financial  center,  the 
printing  and  publishing  industry — important  ever  since  the  Pacific 
Coast's  first  power  press  was  set  up  in  April  1850 — leads  all  the  rest, 
with  an  output  valued  in  1937  at  more  than  $40,000,000.  The  city's 
next  most  important  industries  are  those  of  food-processing — the  coffee 
and  spice  (by  far  the  most  important),  bread  and  bakery  products,  meat 
packing,  and  canned  fruit  and  vegetable  industries. 

Along  the  shores  of  Alameda  and  Contra  Costa  Counties  stretches 
an  industrial  belt  of  bewildering  complexity.  At  Emeryville,  for  in- 
stance, are  situated  no  less  than  35  concerns  of  national  reputation, 
with  products  ranging  from  light  globes  to  corsets,  from  canned  fruit 
to  preserved  dog  food.  Oakland  is  coming  to  be  known  as  the  "Detroit 
of  the  West,"  for  Eastern  automotive  tycoons,  to  pare  transportation 
costs,  have  built  their  assembly  plants  here.  There  are  three  General 
Motors  plants  in  Oakland,  a  Ford  plant  in  Richmond,  and  a  Chrysler 
plant  in  San  Leandro.  Fageol  trucks  of  Oakland  are  found  high  up 
among  the  mines  of  the  Andes  Mountains ;  huge  tractors  built  by  the 
Caterpillar  Tractor  Company  of  San  Leandro  are  shipped  all  over  the 


4O         SAN     FRANCISCO 

world.  In  1921  the  Atlas  Imperial  Diesel  Engine  Company  of  Oak- 
land built  the  first  solid  injection  marine  Diesel  engine  to  be  manufac- 
tured with  commercial  success  in  America.  The  Union  Diesel  Engine 
Company,  which  has  been  building  gas  engines,  since  1885,  supplies  the 
means  of  motive  power  for  boats  of  the  United  States  Navy,  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Fisheries,  and  of  the  Arctic  Patrol  of  the  Canadian 
Northwest  Mounted  Police.  The  4OO-acre  plant  of  the  Bay  region's 
steel  center,  Pittsburg,  recalling  the  giant  mills  of  its  Pennsylvania 
namesake,  provides  steel  for  many  of  the  West's  biggest  construction 
jobs.  Organized  in  1910  by  a  group  of  San  Francisco  financiers,  Colum- 
bia Steel  (now  a  subsidiary  of  United  States  Steel)  owns  its  own  coal 
and  iron  mines,  blast  furnaces  and  coke  ovens  in  Utah. 

In  1940,  only  a  few  years  short  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of 
gold's  discovery,  more  than  3,000  industrial  plants  crowd  the  shores  of 
San  Francisco  Bay,  employing  nearly  90,000  workers  and  producing 
goods  valued  at  more  than  $1,000,000,000.  Almost  71  per  cent  of 
central  California's  population  of  3,000,000  people  live  within  a  75- 
mile  radius  of  San  Francisco — still  the  hub  of  a  great  marketing  area 
as  it  was  in  Gold  Rush  days.  Now  as  then  it  is  the  San  Francisco  Bay 
region's  job  to  supply  their  needs — and  now,  too,  the  needs  of  millions 
more  beyond  the  horizons  of  a  wider  expanse,  the  whole  Pacific. 

ENGINEERING  ENTERPRISE 

The  discovery  of  gold  brought  thousands  clamoring  to  the  muddy 
shores  of  the  shallow  indentation  known  as  Yerba  Buena  Cove,  which 
extended  in  an  arc  from  the  foot  of  Telegraph  Hill  to  the  present 
Montgomery  Street  and  around  to  the  foot  of  Rincon  Hill.  One  of 
the  first  acts  of  the  newcomers  as  a  corporate  body  was  to  begin  grad- 
ing away  the  sand  hills  along  Market  Street  and  dumping  them  into 
the  mud  flats  of  the  cove.  The  project  was  many  years  in  completion. 
Before  it  was  finished,  about  1873,  they  had  already  begun  building  a 
sea  wall  several  blocks  east  of  the  shoreline  so  that  ships  could  unload 
directly  upon  the  wharves  without  the  aid  of  a  lighter. 

The  construction  of  the  sea  wall,  a  stupendous  project  for  its  time, 
took  many  decades  to  complete.  A  trench  60  feet  wide  was  dredged 
along  the  line  of  the  proposed  water  front,  and  tons  of  rock  blasted 
from  Telegraph  Hill  were  dumped  into  it  from  lighters  and  scows. 
The  rocks  were  allowed  to  seek  bed-rock  of  their  own  free  weight; 
when  settling  ceased,  a  layer  of  concrete  two  feet  thick  and  ten  feet 
wide  was  laid  on  top  of  the  resulting  embankment. 

While  this  work  was  going  on,  the  reclamation  of  the  mud-flats 
and  shallows  of  the  original  cove  was  progressing.  Some  of  the  city's 
lesser  hills  were  dumped  bodily  into  the  area  between  the  old  water 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         4! 

front  and  the  new  sea  wall  until  the  business  and  financial  district  of 
lower  Market  Street — everything  east  of  Montgomery  Street — arose 
from  the  sea. 

Agitation  for  rail  connections  to  link  the  Bay  with  the  outside 
world  had  begun  as  early  as  1849.  By  1851,  $100,000  worth  of 
stock  had  been  sold  for  a  projected  line  between  San  Francisco  and 
San  Jose.  Three  successive  companies  achieved  little;  but  the  fourth 
not  only  reached  Menlo  Park,  but  extended  its  line  down  the  Peninsula 
to  San  Jose  and  was  completed  January  16,  1864.  September  of  1863 
had  seen  completion  of  the  San  Francisco  and  Oakland  Railroad  Com- 
pany's line  from  downtown  Oakland  to  the  Oakland  ferry  wharf. 

Meanwhile,  San  Francisco's  "Big  Four"  were  pushing  their  Central 
Pacific  rails  over  the  mountains  to  join  the  Union  Pacific  in  Utah.  The 
first  transcontinental  railroad,  completed  in  May  1869,  extended  only 
as  far  west  as  Sacramento.  But  the  "Big  Four,"  determined  that 
San  Francisco  should  be  the  focal  point  of  a  country-wide  network  of 
railroad  lines,  systematically  acquired  control  over  every  means  of  entry 
to  the  Bay  region  from  all  directions.  Having  bought  a  short  railroad 
between  Sacramento  and  San  Jose,  they  built  a  branch  to  Oakland, 
purchased  the  two  local  roads  connecting  Oakland  and  Alameda  with 
the  East  Bay  water  front ;  and  taking  over  another  line  between  Sacra- 
mento and  Vallejo,  they  extended  it  to  Benicia,  where  they  inaugurated 
ferry  service  to  carry  their  trains  across  Suisun  Bay,  installing  the 
world's  largest  ferryboat  for  the  purpose.  Finally  they  bought  the  San 
Francisco  and  San  Jose  Line.  The  Bay  was  encompassed  by  the  tracks 
of  the  "Big  Four." 

"The  railroad  has  furnished  the  backing  for  a  great  city,"  reported 
the  San  Francisco  Bulletin,  "and  the  need  now  is  for  a  thousand  miles 
of  local  railroads  in  California."  The  four  went  about  answering  the 
need.  They  completed  a  line  southward  to  Los  Angeles  through  the 
San  Joaquin  Valley  on  September  5,  1876.  Their  monopoly  of  rail 
transportation  was  unchallenged  until  completion  in  1898  of  a  compet- 
ing line  financed  by  popular  subscription,  which  was  sold  in  the  same 
year  to  the  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  Railroad  Company.  The 
"Big  Four,"  meanwhile,  were  gradually  extending  the  original  San 
Francisco  and  San  Jose  line  until  in  1901  it  stretched  all  the  way  down 
the  coast  to  Los  Angeles.  On  August  22,  1910  the  Western  Pacific 
line  from  Oakland  through  Niles  Canyon,  Stockton,  Sacramento,  and 
the  Feather  River  Canyon  to  Salt  Lake  City  was  opened  to  traffic. 
By  joint  agreement  in  1904  the  Southern  Pacific  and  the  Santa  Fe 
began  consolidating  a  group  of  short  lines  in  the  northern  coast  coun- 
ties— including  the  San  Francisco  and  North  Pacific  from  Tiburon  to 
Sherwood  and  the  North  Shore  from  Sausalito  to  Cazadero — into  one 


42         SAN     FRANCISCO 

line  extending  from  the  tip  of  the  Marin  Peninsula  northward  to  Trini- 
dad, near  Humboldt  Bay,  finally  opened  November  17,  1914. 

Meanwhile  a  growing  San  Francisco  had  spread  beyond  the  limits 
set  for  it  in  the  imagination  of  its  first  settlers.  Tycoons  of  mine, 
ship,  and  railroad  began  to  build  grotesque,  grey  wooden  mansions, 
tired-looking  beneath  their  burdens  of  architectural  bric-a-brac,  on  the 
city's  highest  elevations.  They  then  were  confronted  with  a  new,  and 
purely  local,  problem  of  transportation — that  of  devising  a  vehicle  capa- 
ble of  surmounting  hills  too  steep  for  horses.  The  result  was  the  inven- 
tion, by  local  manufacturer  Andrew  S.  Hallidie,  of  the  cable  car.  The 
inaugural  trip  of  the  first  car,  over  the  newly  laid  line  on  Clay  Street 
between  Kearny  and  Jones  Streets,  was  a  civic  event.  On  the  morning 
of  August  2,  1873,  the  unfinished  car  was  sent  down  the  hill  and  back. 
That  afternoon  a  public  trial  trip  was  made:  many  people  climbed  into 
and  upon  the  car,  which  was  intended  to  hold  only  14,  but  in  spite 
of  the  overload,  it  literally  made  the  grade.  Thirty  days  afterward 
the  line  was  put  into  regular  operation.  The  principle  of  cable  traction 
was  not  new.  The  crowning  engineering  achievement  lay  in  adapting 
it  to  street  transportation — in  solving  the  problem  of  how  to  make  a 
moving  cable  follow  the  contour  of  the  street  and  how  to  devise  a  grip 
which  could  not  tear  the  cable  apart  by  too  sudden  a  jerk.  The  cars 
promised  in  their  day  to  become  the  prevailing  type  of  public  convey- 
ance in  all  of  America's  larger  cities.  They  still  survive  in  the  city 
of  their  birth,  an  antique  touch  in  a  streamlined  world. 

Before  introduction  of  the  cable  car,  horse  cars  and  omnibuses  had 
been  the  prevailing  means  of  street  transportation.  The  first  such  line, 
starting  in  1852,  had  been  the  "Yellow  Line,"  a  half-hourly  omnibus 
service  which  carried  18  passengers  at  a  fare  of  50^  apiece  from  Clay 
and  Kearny  Streets  out  the  Mission  Street  plank  toll  road  to  Mission 
Dolores.  In  1862  the  first  street  railroad  on  the  Pacific  Coast  had 
begun  providing  service  from  North  Beach  to  South  Park.  A  steam 
railway  began  operation  on  Market  Street  in  1863,  but  sand  and  rain 
repeatedly  filled  the  cuts,  and  omnibuses  constantly  obstructed  the  tracks 
and  in  1867  horse  cars  were  substituted.  Even  after  cable  car  tracks 
were  installed  on  Market  Street  (hence  the  name  "South  of  the  Slot" 
for  the  district  south  of  Market)  a  horse  car  line  paralleled  them  until 
1906.  An  electric  line  was  in  operation  on  Eddy  Street  as  early  as 
1900.  In  1902  began  the  unification  of  all  the  city's  lines,  except  the 
California  Street  cable,  into  one  system,  predecessor  of  today's  Market 
Street  Railway  Company.  The  first  line  in  the  long-planned  Municipal 
Railway— first  city-owned  street  railway  system  in  the  United  States 
and  second  in  the  world — was  the  Geary  Street,  put  into  operation  in 
1912.  There  are  now  378.35  miles  of  street  railway  and  bus  lines  in 
San  Francisco. 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         43 

On  September  n,  1853,  the  consciously  progressive  city  by  the 
Golden  Gate  had  made  another — and  very  different — stride  toward 
conquering  the  distances  that  lay  between  the  communities  of  men.  On 
that  date  was  opened  for  use  the  first  electric  telegraph  on  the  Pacific 
slope,  connecting  the  San  Francisco  Merchants'  Exchange  with  six-mile- 
distant  Point  Lobos.  It  was  built  to  announce  the  arrival  of  vessels 
at  the  Gate  (previously  signalled  to  the  town  by  the  arms  of  the  giant 
semaphore  atop  Telegraph  Hill).  Two  days  later,  James  Gamble 
started  out  from  San  Francisco  with  a  party  of  six  men  to  put  up  wire 
for  the  California  State  Telegraph  Company,  which  had  obtained  a 
franchise  from  the  Legislature  for  a  telegraph  from  San  Francisco  to 
Marysville  by  way  of  San  Jose,  Stockton,  and  Sacramento.  On  Sep- 
tember 25th  the  wire  was  in  place.  On  October  24,  1861,  the  first 
direct  messages  between  New  York  and  San  Francisco  passed  over  the 
wires  of  the  first  transcontinental  telegraph  line. 

One  year  after  Alexander  Graham  Bell  had  invented  the  telephone, 
in  1876,  Frederick  Marriott,  Sr.,  publisher  of  the  San  Francisco  News- 
Letter,  had  a  wire  installed  between  his  office  and  his  home.  In  Febru- 
ary 1878  the  American  Speaking  Telephone  Company  began  regular 
service  with  18  subscribers.  Soon  afterwards  the  National  Bell  Tele- 
phone Company  offered  competition.  The  early  switchboard  consisted 
of  two  boards  affixed  to  the  wall,  each  with  a  row  of  brass  clips  into 
which  holes  were  drilled  to  receive  the  plugs  making  the  connections. 
In  the  National  Bell  Telephone  Company's  office,  bells  above  these 
boards  notified  the  operator  of  a  call.  Since  the  bells  sounded  exactly 
alike,  however,  a  string  had  to  be  attached  to  each  bell  tapper  and  a 
cork  to  each  string;  the  antics  of  the  cork  called  the  attention  of  the 
operator  to  the  line  that  demanded  attention. 

On  January  25,  1915,  the  first  transcontinental  telephone  line  was 
opened.  Dr.  Alexander  Graham  Bell  in  New  York  spoke  to  his  former 
employee,  Thomas  Watson,  in  San  Francisco,  repeating  his  sentence  of 
an  even  more  memorable  occasion:  "Mr.  Watson,  come  here,  I  want 
you!"  In  December  1938,  San  Francisco  had  282,204  telephones — 
more  connections  per  capita  of  population  than  any  United  States  city 
except  Washington,  D.  C. 

A  still  greater  stride  in  communication  was  made  on  December  13, 
1902,  when  the  shore  end  of  the  first  transpacific  cable  was  laid  in 
San  Francisco  by  the  Commercial  Pacific  Cable  Company  (organized 
in  1883  by  Comstock  king  John  W.  Mackay). 

A  more  homely  problem — a  vexatious  one  for  San  Francisco  since 
1849 — was  that  of  its  water  supply.  In  early  years  water  had  been 
brought  from  Marin  County  on  rafts  and  retailed  at  a  dollar  a  bucket. 
Throughout  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  local  sources  of 
supply  were  exploited  by  private  companies.  When  these  failed  to  keep 


44         SAN     FRANCISCO 

pace  with  the  requirements  of  the  rapidly  growing  metropolis,  the  City 
and  County  of  San  Francisco  began  in  1914,  after  a  long  and  bitter 
struggle  with  monopolistic  interests,  the  construction  of  the  Hetch- 
Hetchy  system. 

Heart  of  the  system  is  O'Shaughnessy  Dam,  towering  430  feet  high 
across  the  granite-walled  course  of  the  Tuolomne  River,  high  in  the 
Sierra  Nevada  in  Yosemite  National  Park.  The  mountain  waters  im- 
pounded are  piped  to  San  Francisco  by  gravity  through  tunnels  and 
steel  pipes  over  163  miles  of  mountains  and  valleys.  Besides  the  main 
dam  and  reservoir  at  Hetch-Hetchy,  the  system  includes  a  number  of 
subsidiary  storage  reservoirs  and  power  stations  with  a  combined  capac- 
ity of  more  than  150,000  horse  power.  The  dam  was  completed  in 
1923,  the  aqueduct  in  1934. 

The  East  Bay,  too,  had  been  faced  with  a  similar  situation  regarding 
its  water.  From  several  wells  in  the  vicinity  and  the  surface  run-off 
of  San  Pablo  and  San  Leandro  Creeks  the  region  long  had  drawn  a 
water  supply  whose  quality  was  impaired  by  the  inflow  of  salt  water 
from  the  Bay  and  whose  quantity  was  estimated  at  about  one-sixth  of 
that  soon  to  be  required.  In  the  same  year  the  O'Shaughnessy  Dam 
was  completed  to  impound  waters  for  thirsty  San  Franciscans,  the  East 
Bay  Municipal  Utility  District  was  organized.  Eight  years  later  it  had 
completed  the  358-foot-high  Pardee  Dam  on  the  Mokelumne  River  in 
the  Sierra  foothills,  a  93.8-mile  aqueduct,  two  subsidiary  aqueducts,  and 
auxiliary  storage  reservoirs. 

Long  before  the  waters  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  were  generating  power 
to  light  the  homes  of  the  Bay  region — on  the  evening  of  July  4,  1876 — 
Reverend  Father  Joseph  M.  Neri  presented  electricity  to  San  Fran- 
ciscans, operating  on  the  roof  of  St.  Ignatius  College  three  large  French 
arc  searchlights  with  an  old  generator  that  had  seen  service  during  the 
siege  of  Paris  in  1871.  This  was  an  occasion  surpassing  even  the  light- 
ing of  the  city's  first  gas  lamps  on  February  n,  1854 — illumination 
provided  by  gas  manufactured  from  Australian  coal  by  the  San  Fran- 
cisco Gas  Company  (first  of  its  kind  on  the  Pacific  Coast). 

George  H.  Roe,  a  local  money  broker  whose  interest  in  electricity 
had  been  aroused  when  he  found  himself  owner  of  a  dynamo  taken 
as  security  for  a  loan,  organized  in  1879  the  California  Electric  Light 
Company  and  erected  a  generating  station  on  a  small  lot  near  the 
corner  of  Fourth  and  Market  Streets.  Early  consumers  paid  $10  a 
week  for  2,ooo  candlepower  of  light — which  was  turned  off  promptly  at 
midnight.  By  1900  a  number  of  other  companies  had  been  organized. 
Through  a  merger  of  two  of  the  largest,  in  1905,  was  incorporated 
the  Pacific  Gas  and  Electric  Company,  which  now  operates  four  steam- 
electric  generating  stations  in  San  Francisco  and  two  in  Oakland.  Now 
the  third  largest  public  utilities  system  in  the  United  States,  P.G.  and 


&KK&3&^^ 


Bay  Region:    Today  and  Yesterday 


^ 


- 


i 


Gabriel  Moulin 


THE  BAY  AND  ITS  CITIES 


GOLDEN  GATE  BRIDGED  BY  WORLD'S  TALLEST,  LONGEST  SPAN 

L 


' 


PENINSULA  CLIFFS 


•' 


ORCHARDS  CARPET  THE  VALLEYS 


MOUNT  TAMALPIS  LOOMS  OVER  MARIN  COUNTY 


THE  PRESIDIO  IN  1816 


Drawing  by  Louis  Choris 


*      *v 


•  ~ 


GRAVEYARD,  MISSION  DOLORES 


NORTHERNMOST  MISSION  AT  SONOMA  (1824) 


RUSSIAN  CHAPEL  AT  FORT  ROSS  (1812 


VALLEJO'S  CASA  GRANDE  NEAR  PETALUMA 


fcfi 


tF  Perru/  Fom  fecit    Tutuu™   *m,o  /777 


©  Regents  of  University  of  California 
PEDRO  FONT'S  MAP  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO  BAY  (1777) 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         45 

E.  serves  an  area  of  89,000  square  miles  on  the  Central  Pacific  Coast. 
It  controls  49  hydroelectric  generating  plants  and  ten  steam  generating 
plants,  all  interconnected,  with  a  total  installed  capacity  of  1,676,902 
horsepower.  Radiating  from  hydroelectric  generating  stations  installed 
on  30  different  streams  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  supporting  steam  pow- 
erhouses, the  electric  system  forms  an  interconnected  network  of  trans- 
mission and  distribution  lines  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  more  than 
500  miles  in  length. 

In  the  meantime,  San  Francisco's  hills  again  had  proven  to  be — and 
this  time  literally — stumbling  blocks  to  the  city's  progress;  for,  as  they 
halted  further  expansion,  the  town  became  cramped  for  space.  Answer 
to  the  new  problem  was  the  construction  of  a  series  of  five  railway 
tunnels  known  as  the  Bay  Shore  Cutoff;  completed  in  1907,  they 
brought  the  Peninsula  towns  within  commuting  distance  of  "the  city" 
and  opened  up  a  large  new  residential  area.  In  1915  the  city's  North 
Beach  section  was  made  more  easily  accessible  by  a  tunnel  driven  through 
Nob  Hill  on  Stockton  Street.  Two  years  later  the  completion  of  the 
2 ^4-mile  Twin  Peaks  Tunnel  provided  a  short-cut  to  the  district  west 
of  Twin  Peaks,  doubled  the  city's  potential  residential  area,  and  brought 
a  rich  financial  return  to  property  owners,  business  men,  and  real  estate 
promoters.  Another  tunnel  was  bored  to  carry  streetcars  under  Buena 
Vista  Heights. 

By  the  third  decade  of  the  twentieth  century  the  fast-growing  East 
Bay  communities  were  confronted,  as  San  Francisco  had  been,  by  the 
need  of  making  similar  improvements  on  nature.  In  1928  a  $4,496,000 
automobile  and  pedestrian  tube  was  laid  beneath  the  Oakland  Estuary 
to  connect  Oakland  with  the  island  city,  Alameda.  The  Posey  Tube 
(named  for  its  designer  and  engineer)  is  unusual  in  that  it  is  con- 
structed of  twelve  prefabricated  tubular  sections,  37  feet  in  outer  diam- 
eter, which  were  "corked,"  towed  across  the  Bay,  and  sunk  into  a  great 
trench  dredged  on  the  bottom  of  the  estuary.  The  center  one  of  the 
tube's  three  horizontal  sections  accommodates  traffic;  the  lowest  is  a 
fresh  air  duct;  the  uppermost,  an  outlet  for  foul  air. 

More  than  1,000  men  toiled  three  years  to  build  the  impressive 
Broadway  Tunnel  connecting  East  Bay  cities  with  Contra  Costa 
County,  which  cost  $4,500,000  before  its  completion  in  1937.  This 
twin-bore  automobile  and  pedestrian  tunnel,  an  extension  of  Oakland's 
main  thoroughfare,  has  two  additional  lateral  approaches  from  Berkeley 
and  East  Oakland.  A  clover-leaf  obviates  the  crossing  of  traffic  lanes. 
By  day,  "twilight  zones"  at  each  portal  accustom  the  drivers'  eyes  to 
the  change  from  natural  to  artificial  light. 

But  when  engineers  had  created  a  city  where  mud  flats  had  been,  had 
surmounted  the  hills  of  that  city  and  the  hills  and  valleys  of  the  region 
beyond,  had  learned  to  talk  over  miles  of  wires  and  harnessed  mountain 


46         SAN     FRANCISCO 

streams  to  provide  drinking  water  and  electricity  for  a  people,  they  had 
still  to  span  the  great  body  of  water  on  whose  shores  the  people  lived. 
Not  until  1927  was  the  Bay  first  bridged  when  the  narrowest  width 
at  its  extreme  southern  end  was  crossed  by  the  Dumbarton  Drawbridge, 
connecting  San  Mateo  and  Alameda  Counties. 

Carquinez  Strait,  the  narrow  entrance  from  San  Pablo  Bay  to 
Suisun  Bay,  was  next  to  be  spanned.  Carquinez  Bridge  is  a  tribute  to 
the  imagination  and  determination  of  two  business  men — Avon  Hanford 
and  Oscar  Klatt.  In  1923  their  company  secured  a  toll  bridge  franchise 
and — despite  the  admonitions  of  engineer  and  layman  that  the  water 
was  too  deep  and  swift  to  permit  a  bridge  at  the  site — construction 
was  begun.  In  1927  the  $8,000,000  structure  was  opened  to  traffic. 
The  great  double  pier  rests  on  sandstone  and  blue  clay  at  a  depth  of 
135  feet  below  mean  water  level,  over  which  the  steel  construction 
towers,  for  four-fifths  of  a  mile,  314  feet  above  the  strait. 

March  3,  1929,  saw  completion  of  what  was  then  the  longest  high- 
way bridge  in  the  world — the  twelve-mile  San  Mateo  Toll  Bridge, 
crossing  seven  miles  of  water  a  few  miles  north  of  the  Dumbarton 
Bridge.  The  movable,  3O3-foot,  i,ioo-ton  center  steel  span — erected 
in  South  San  Francisco  and  floated  by  barge  to  its  resting  place — can 
be  raised  135  feet  above  water  level. 

The  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  was  opened  in  November, 
1936.  It  has  six  lanes  for  automobile  traffic  on  its  upper  deck;  three 
lanes  for  truck  and  bus  traffic  and  two  tracks  for  electric  trains,  on  its 
lower.  Its  length  is  12  miles,  including  approaches.  Clearance  above 
water  at  the  central  pier  is  216  feet,  sufficient  to  clear  the  mast  of 
the  largest  ships.  The  west  crossing — between  San  Francisco  and  Yerba 
Buena  Island — consisting  of  two  suspension  bridges  anchored  in  the 
center  to  a  concrete  pier,  is  unique  in  bridge  construction;  it  is  so  built 
that  the  roadway  forms  a  single  smooth  arc.  Connecting  the  east  and 
west  crossings  is  the  largest  diameter  tunnel  in  the  world,  blasted 
through  Yerba  Buena  Island's  140  acres  of  rock.  It  is  76  feet  wide 
and  58  feet  high;  through  it  an  upright  four-story  building  could  be 
towed.  Three  pioneer  tunnels  were  bored  through  the  rock  and  then 
broken  out  until  they  became  one  horseshoe-shaped  excavation.  A  via- 
duct was  built  20  feet  above  the  floor  of  the  tunnel  to  carry  the  six-lane 
automobile  boulevard;  beneath  it  pass  electric  trains  and  trucks.  The 
extraordinary  depth  of  the  bedrock  to  which  concrete  supports  for  the 
towers  had  to  be  sunk  through  water  and  clay  presented  bridge  builders 
with  an  exceptional  problem.  To  solve  the  problem,  engineers  devised 
a  new  system  of  lowering  the  domed  caissons,  controlled  by  compressed 
air.  In  the  case  of  the  east  tower  pier  of  the  east  crossing,  bedrock 
lay  at  such  a  depth  that  it  could  not  be  reached.  The  foundations  were 
laid  at  a  depth  greater  than  any  ever  before  attained  in  bridge  building. 


EMPORIUM     OF     A     NEW     WORLD         47 

Six  months  after  the  opening  of  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay 
Bridge,  San  Francisco  was  linked  to  the  northern  Bay  shore  by  the 
world's  longest  single  span,  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge.  It  measures 
4,200  feet  between  the  two  towers  and  8,940  feet  in  all.  Its  towers 
rise  746  feet  above  high  tide ;  its  center  span,  220  feet  above  low  water. 
The  tops  of  the  towers  rise  above  the  waters  of  the  Golden  Gate  to  the 
height  of  a  65-story  building.  Most  spectacular  feat  in  the  bridge's 
construction  was  the  building  of  the  south  tower's  foundation.  Be- 
cause of  the  swift  tidal  flow  at  this  point,  spanning  the  Golden  Gate 
had  long  been  considered  impossible.  Working  on  barges  tossed  con- 
tinually by  swells  as  high  as  15  feet,  seasick  workmen  built  from  bed- 
rock a  huge  concrete  fender  completely  enclosing  the  site.  Inside  this 
fender,  which  later  became  part  of  the  structure,  caissons  were  sunk. 

When  the  two  towers  were  finished,  workmen  clambering  along 
catwalks  strung  between  them  spun  the  giant  cables  from  tower  to 
tower.  Into  the  spinning  of  each  of  the  cables  (which  measure  36^ 
inches  in  diameter)  went  27,572  strands  of  wire  no  thicker  than  a  lead 
pencil.  To  support  them,  each  tower  has  to  carry  a  vertical  load  of 
210,000,000  pounds  from  each  cable  and  each  shore  anchorage  block 
to  withstand  a  pull  of  63,000,000  pounds.  From  these  cables  the  bridge 
was  suspended  by  traveler  derricks  invented  to  perform  jobs  of  this  kind. 

At  about  the  time  the  two  bridges  were  being  woven  into  the  Bay 
region's  design  of  living,  Treasure  Island  was  rising  from  the  rocky 
shoals  just  north  of  Yerba  Buena  Island.  An  outline  of  the  island-to-be 
was  drawn  in  tons  of  quarried  rock.  Inside  it  were  dumped  20,000,000 
tons  of  sand  and  mud  dredged  from  the  bottom  of  the  Bay.  When  the 
job  was  completed  a  4OO-acre  island,  cleaned  of  salt  by  a  leaching  proc- 
ess, had  replaced  the  shoals  once  feared  by  seamen.  Built  to  support 
the  $50,000,000  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition,  Treasure  Island 
is  destined  to  become,  when  the  Exposition  closes,  a  terminal  for  the 
graceful  Pacific  Clippers  that  fly  to  Hawaii,  the  Philippines  and  the 
Orient. 


Golden  Era 


"Mind  before  mines  ought  to  be  the  motto  .  ,  .  of  every  edu- 
cated  Calif  ornian." 

—Reverend  H.  W.  Bellows 


TO  THINK  of  its  power  and  influence,"  marveled  Horace  Greeley 
at  San  Francisco's  pioneer  literary  journal,  the  Golden  Era, 
"when  the  population  is  so  sparse  and  the  mail  facilities  so  poor." 
The  Eras  youthful  founders,  Rollin  M.  Dagget,  who  was  only  nineteen 
years  old  when  he  arrived  on  the  Coast,  and  J.  MacDonough  Foard, 
who  was  only  twenty-one,  had  followed  Greeley's  own  advice:  "Go 
West,  young  man !"  The  phenomenal  success  of  their  attempt  to  spread 
enlightenment  on  such  matters  as  education,  literature,  and  the  fine  arts 
through  the  Era's  columns,  beginning  in  1852  when  the  infant  city 
could  not  yet  supply  itself  with  even  the  common  necessities  of  life,  was 
indicative  of  that  hunger  for  all  the  arts  and  refinements  of  civilization 
which  inspired  the  Argonauts  almost  as  much,  it  would  seem,  as  the 
quest  for  gold.  "To  encourage  virtue  and  literature"  had  been  one 
of  the  announced  objectives  of  the  founders  of  the  Bear  Flag  Republic 
in  1846.  Certain  it  is  that  "virtue  and  literature" — and  art,  and  learn- 
ing, and  architecture — have  received  rare  encouragement  in  the  cities 
around  San  Francisco  Bay.  Even  the  earliest  saloons  insisted  on  hang- 
ing paintings  on  their  walls  and  providing  musicales  for  their  patrons! 
The  Gold  Rush  may  have  swept  San  Francisco's  first  public  school- 
master, Thomas  Douglas,  off  to  the  mines  six  weeks  after  he  called 
his  first  class  to  order,  but  countless  others  who  took  his  place  would 
demonstrate  a  steadier  adherence  to  the  motto  the  Reverend  Bellows 
framed  for  "every  educated  Californian." 

CENTERS  OF  LEARNING 

To  trace  the  pioneer  impetus  in  the  educational  field  is  like  watch- 
ing the  man  in  the  old  story  who  brought  water  on  mule-back  from 
the  ocean  to  the  Colorado  River.  One  disbelieves,  and  yet  one  sees 
the  thing  happening:  individual  after  individual  carrying  obstacles 
before  him  that  look  insurmountable,  impelled  by  nothing  but  his  own 
belief  and  courage.  There  is  Colonel  Thomas  J.  Nevins,  who  first 
revealed  to  the  Common  Council  of  San  Francisco  that  children  were 
among  the  products  of  the  gold-bearing  State.  The  council,  in  those 
days  when  only  the  color  of  gold  could  put  a  man  in  action,  was  inclined 

48 


GOLDEN     ERA         49 

to  distrust  Colonel  Nevins'  report  until  he  thrust  under  their  noses  a 
census  of  his  own  taking,  and  illustrated  it  by  samples  of  both  sexes. 
The  result  was  an  ordinance  for  the  establishing  of  the  free  common 
school  system.  That  was  in  1851.  Nevins  had  earlier,  of  his  own 
accord,  set  up  a  school  in  Happy  Valley,  south  of  Market  Street,  and 
could  be  seen  each  day  following  an  express  wagon  along  San  Francisco 
streets,  gathering  up  children  and  expressing  them  to  the  Happy  Valley 
schoolhouse.  And  even  earlier  yet,  Yale  graduate  Thomas  Douglas  had 
opened  on  April  3,  1848  California's  first  public  school  in  a  small  shack 
on  Portsmouth  Square,  beginning  with  six  pupils,  whom  he  taught  until 
the  Gold  Rush,  following  shortly  afterward,  bore  him  off  to  the  mines. 

There  is  John  G.  Pelton,  who  came  around  Cape  Horn  from  Ando- 
ver,  Massachusetts,  determined  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  public  school 
system  in  the  illiterate  West.  Pelton  even  brought  a  school  bell  with 
him,  which  was  tied  to  the  mast  and  rang  the  watches  on  the  tedious 
voyage  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  He  arrived  with  $1.50  in  his 
pockets,  not  enough  to  remove  books,  globes,  maps,  and  bell  from  the 
sandy  beach  where  they  had  been  landed.  Some  unnamed  visionary 
rescued  him  and  his  wife.  As  soon  as  a  boarding  house  opened  by  Mrs. 
Pelton  was  under  way,  he  started  a  free  school  in  the  basement  of  the 
Baptist  Church. 

Writes  John  Swett,  who  became  principal  of  one  of  the  schools 
established  after  the  ordinance  of  1851:  "This  school  [the  Rincon 
School]  was  ...  in  a  small  rented  house  planted  in  the  middle  of  a 
sandbank  on  the  corner  of  First  and  Folsom  Streets.  .  .  .  There  was 
neither  a  blackboard  nor  map.  .  .  .  The  only  apparatus  consisted  of  a 
wooden  water  pail  and  a  battered  tin  dipper,  from  which  the  children 
drank  water  brought  from  a  well  not  far  distant,  the  owner  of  which 
allowed  the  boys  to  draw  one  bucket  of  water  a  day."  An  early  teacher 
is  pictured  scooping  the  drifted  sand  from  under  the  pot  outside  his 
tent  door,  proceeding  to  boil  his  potatoes  and  brew  his  kettle  of  tea  for 
a  solitary  supper  after  his  day's  work. 

Ambitious  in  the  face  of  difficulties  is  a  list  of  geography  questions 
propounded  by  an  early  school  board  president  who  prided  himself  on 
being  able  to  teach  more  in  one  day^than  any  teacher  in  San  Francisco. 
The  questions  were  (i)  name  all  the  rivers  of  the  globe;  (2)  name  all 
the  bays,  gulfs,  seas,  lakes  and  other  bodies  of  water  on  the  globe;  (3) 
name  all  the  countries  of  the  world;  (4)  name  all  the  cities  of  the  world. 
It  is  told  that  when  a  young  man  from  Texas  had  worried  through  the 
questions  in  arithmetic  and  had  come  to  these  on  geography,  he  examined 
them  carefully,  then  walked  up  to  the  chairman's  table  and  handed  them 
to  him,  saying,  "If  the  Board  wants  me  to  prepare  a  primary  geography, 
they  must  pay  me  for  it." 

The  first  kindergarten  was  opened  in   September    1863,   by   "Pro- 


5O         SAN     FRANCISCO 

fessor"  Charles  and  Madame  Weil,  at  41  South  Park  Street.  Schools 
sprang  up  quickly  in  imitation  of  the  first  successful  private  children's 
school,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century  there  were  easily  a  hundred  of 
them  in  the  city.  Child  education,  however,  did  not  receive  mature 
attention  until  the  advent  of  Miss  Emma  Marwedel  in  1878.  Miss 
Marwedel  was  one  of  the  earliest  child  educators  in  the  East  to  teach 
story-telling  and  drawing  to  children,  and  she  left  a  highly  successful 
school  in  the  Nation's  capital  to  organize  a  kindergarten  in  Los  Angeles. 
During  this  period  of  teaching  and  training  she  instructed  Kate  Douglas 
Wiggin  in  kindergarten  work. 

Later  Miss  Marwedel  and  Mrs.  Wiggin  were  associated  in  conduct- 
ing San  Francisco's  famous  Silver  Street  Kindergarten,  parent  institu- 
tion of  all  Pacific  Coast  kindergartens.  It  was  located  in  the  notorious 
Tar  Flat  district  around  Second  and  Harrison  Streets  where  ".  .  .  life 
is  sodden  and  aimless  .  .  .  children  are  often  born  of  drunken  mothers, 
and  show  deformities  and  mental  deficiencies  and  inherited  diseases  .  .  . 
kindergarten  teachers  in  their  visiting  sometimes  find  mothers  helpless 
with  drink  .  .  ." 

Fighting  against  such  conditions,  Miss  Marwedel  and  Mrs.  Wiggin 
taught  the  ever-increasing  classes  games,  music,  and  the  elements  of 
cultural  education,  and  with  the  help  of  other  assistants  made  their 
school  one  of  the  most  active  educational  forces  in  the  history  of  West- 
ern child  training.  When  Mrs.  Wiggin  later  gained  international  fame 
by  writing  such  books  as  Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook  Farm  and  Mrs.  Wiggs 
of  the  Cabbage  Patch,  she  continued  the  crusade  for  child  education.  In 
San  Francisco  during  her  last  few  hours  of  intolerable  illness,  Miss 
Marwedel  said  to  followers:  "Have  faith  in  the  kindergarten  ...  I 
believe  in  its  power  to  reform  the  world." 

Jean  Parker,  who  believed  the  education  of  a  child  should  include 
more  than  arithmetic,  history,  grammar,  and  other  basic  studies,  first 
introduced  useful  and  practical  accomplishments — such  as  domestic 
science  classes,  school  luncheons,  girls'  and  boys'  clubs,  manual  arts,  and 
physical  culture — to  California  juvenile  education.  The  Jean  Parker 
Grammar  School  in  San  Francisco  not  only  follows  her  now-famous 
"learning  by  doing"  method,  but  is  a  living  memorial  to  the  woman 
about  whom  was  said:  "She  knew  the  new  education  before  it  poured  in 
a  beneficent  flood  over  the  land,  and  she  created  while  others  evolved 
laboratory  schemes  of  advancement  .  .  ." 

The  rise  of  colleges  and  universities  followed  the  same  impulse 
which  broke  through  the  apathy  of  a  raw  and  materialistic  civilization 
to  establish  the  common  schools.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Bay,  at  a 
time  when  Oakland  was  a  cluster  of  houses  and  Berkeley  but  an  expanse 
of  neighboring  fields,  when  the  first  transcontinental  railroad  had  not 
reached  California,  and  Tiburcio  Vasquez  was  harassing  honest  men  in 


GOLDEN     ERA         51 

the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  the  University  of  California  was  opened  in 
1868. 

Leland  Stanford  came  to  California  in  1852,  penniless,  to  sell  salt 
pork  and  miners'  sieves  in  a  store  at  Michigan  Bluff.  After  a  while  he 
was  able  to  bring  his  wife  out  from  the  East,  and  for  a  time  they  made 
their  own  furniture  from  drygoods  boxes — but  only  for  a  time.  On  a 
November  morning  in  1885,  Senator  and  Mrs.  Stanford  gathered  a 
group  of  men  in  their  Nob  Hill  home  in  San  Francisco  and  presented 
to  them  the  founding  grant  of  Stanford  University.  Without  ostenta- 
tion and  seemingly  the  least  impressed  of  all  present,  the  Senator  deeded 
over  to  this  board  of  trustees  83,200  acres  of  the  richest  farmlands  in 
California,  and  declared  his  intention  of  bequeathing  to  the  institution 
the  bulk  of  his  estate,  then  estimated  at  $30,000,000.  The  world 
gasped.  Never  before  had  an  educational  institution  come  into  exist- 
ence on  foundations  so  munificent.  But  that  was  the  least  cause  for 
astonishment.  There  was  not  even  a  flag  stop  where  the  doors  of  the 
university  were  to  open,  nothing  but  unbroken  stretches  of  grain.  Fur- 
thermore, the  university  at  Berkeley  had  not  yet  reached  the  400  mark 
in  its  graduating  classes,  and,  as  the  New  York  Mail  and  Express  re- 
marked, the  need  for  another  university  at  such  close  quarters  was  about 
as  urgent  as  for  "an  asylum  of  decayed  sea  captains  in  Switzerland." 

Nevertheless,  the  very  daring  of  the  enterprise,  and  the  beauty  and 
fitness  of  the  Romanesque  buildings  as  they  arose,  arcade  on  arcade, 
against  the  low  tawny  hills,  together  with  the  word  broadcast  by  Dr. 
David  Starr  Jordan,  "The  winds  of  freedom  blow!",  drew  a  student 
body  of  465  in  the  first  year.  Among  that  first  generation  were  Herbert 
Hoover,  Ray  Lyman  Wilbur,  Vernon  Kellogg,  Holbrook  Blinn,  Will 
and  Wallace  Irwin,  and  Charles  K.  Field.  It  was  Senator  Stanford's 
idea  that  the  university  he  had  founded  should  be  a  place  for  specializa- 
tion, with  the  primary  emphasis  on  usefulness.  In  terms  of  this  ideal 
the  growth  of  the  university  has  been  molded,  with  the  gradual  elimina- 
tion of  work  of  general  and  elementary  nature  and  the  expansion  of 
research  and  graduate  studies.  On  the  other  hand,  Mrs.  Stanford's 
insistence  was  on  the  spirit  of  democracy,  an  objective  aided  by  the  fact 
that  both  students  and  faculty  were  necessarily  resident  on  the  campus, 
from  the  very  earliest  days  when  the  great  iron  triangle  sounded  for 
communal  "Grub!"  As  a  consequence,  it  has  become  a  Stanford  claim 
that  no  student  can  consider  his  college  career  a  success  if,  when  he 
graduates,  he  is  not  known  by  his  first  name  to  at  least  three  professors. 

But  pioneer  education  was  not  reserved  for  men  only.  On  an  acre- 
age in  the  foothills  of  Alameda  County,  ideals  of  manners  and  "lady- 
hood" were  taught  young  women  who  had  no  designation  to  set  beside 
their  names  but  some  vague  territorial  address  such  as  "Nevada."  In  a 
society  founded  by  adventurers,  this  was  indeed  stemming  the  stream. 


52         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Dr.  Cyrus  Taggart  Mills  had  reached  California  in  the  i86o's,  then  a 
man  of  middle  age,  his  only  fortune  a  small  one  acquired  by  missionary 
toil  and  close  saving.  Purchasing  the  ground  where  Mills  College  now 
stands,  he  transported  to  it  Benicia  Seminary,  and  under  mansard  roof 
and  cupola  "beautifully  frescoed"  within  with  well-meaning  cherubs, 
garlands  of  roses,  and  be-ribboned  musical  instruments,  Dr.  Mills  and 
his  wife  taught  the  daughters  of  miners  "to  spell  correctly,  to  read 
naturally,  to  write  legibly,  and  to  converse  intelligently." 

Numerous  other  educational  institutions  arose  during  the  20  years 
after  Mrs.  Olive  Mann  Isbell  taught  her  youngsters  in  a  stable  where 
she  saw  her  wedding  handkerchief  used  as  a  flag  of  truce  to  the  Mexi- 
cans. In  1850  the  Sisters  of  St.  Dominic  opened  St.  Catherine's 
Academy  at  Benicia;  today  as  the  Dominican  College  of  San  Rafael,  it 
is  particularly  noted  for  its  school  of  music.  The  University  of  San 
Francisco  had  its  beginning  five  years  later  as  St.  Ignatius  College,  built 
on  land  described  as  "the  sand  dunes  near  the  little  town  of  San  Fran- 
cisco"— the  present  site  of  the  Emporium.  In  1863  Archbishop  Alemany 
founded  St.  Mary's  College,  since  transferred  from  San  Francisco  to 
Oakland  and  more  recently  to  Moraga. 

It  is  primarily  in  scientific  discovery  that  the  pioneer  spirit  now 
evinces  itself,  and  it  is  in  science  that  California  scholars  have  made 
their  greatest  mark.  In  the  Radiation  Laboratory  of  the  University  of 
California  stands  a  gigantic  contrivance  that  looks  like  a  Brobdingnagian 
cheese,  but  has  been  compared  more  appropriately  to  a  huge  machine 
gun.  This  cyclotron  Dr.  E.  O.  Lawrence  directs  against  atoms — objects 
so  small  that  the  entire  population  of  the  world  would  require  10,000 
years  to  count  the  number  of  them  in  a  drop  of  water.  Before  Dr. 
Lawrence's  experiments  the  only  bullets  powerful  enough,  and  at  the 
same  time  tiny  enough,  to  crack  through  the  nucleus  of  the  atom  were 
the  natural  emanations  of  radium,  an  extremely  expensive  commodity 
and  one  available  in  very  small  quantity.  By  means  of  the  cyclotron 
the  nuclei  of  a  special  type  of  hydrogen  atom  may  be  utilized  for  the 
same  purpose.  These  nuclei,  fired  at  the  rate  of  a  hundred  thousand 
billion  a  second  against  whatever  element  is  exposed  to  the  machine, 
satisfy  both  the  necessity  for  tremendous  force  and  the  necessity  for 
infinitesimal  smallness. 

The  reason  for  this  vindictive  effort  to  break  up  the  innocent  atom 
lies  in  the  tremendous  energies  released  by  the  cracking  open  of  the 
atomic  nuclei,  energies  which  are  the  most  tantalizing  forces  known  to 
man.  Already  the  atoms  of  all  the  available  (some  30  different) 
elements  have  been  blasted  by  the  stream  of  so-called  "deuterons" 
emitted  by  the  machine.  The  rearrangement  in  pattern  and  size  of  the 
atomic  nuclei  of  these  elements  has  resulted  in  the  realization  of  the  old 
dream  of  the  alchemists — the  transmutation  of  one  element  into  another, 


GOLDEN     ERA         53 

of  platinum  into  iridium  and  gold,  of  bismuth  into  polonium  and  lead. 
It  has  resulted  also  in  the  creation  of  substances  never  yet  found  in 
nature,  substances  whose  common  characteristic  is  the  fact  that  they  are 
all  radio-active.  Several  of  these  new  forms  show  promise  in  the  treat- 
ment of  certain  radio  sensitive  diseases.  Even  more  sensational  is  the 
liberation  of  the  "neutron  ray,"  a  ray  similar  to  X-ray  but  far  more 
effective  in  the  treatment  of  tumorous  and  cancerous  tissue,  and  now 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  promising  developments  in  the  scientific 
fight  against  cancer. 

Dr.  Ernest  Linwood  Walker,  quiet  and  sincere  student,  professor  of 
tropical  medicine  in  the  University  of  California  Medical  School,  some 
years  ago  swept  aside  the  veil  of  superstition  and  fear  which  for  thou- 
sands of  years  had  blinded  men  to  the  real  nature  of  leprosy.  He  was 
able  to  identify  the  bacterium  cultivable  from  leprosy  as  a  soil-growing 
organism,  and  he  suggests,  as  an  alternative  hypothesis  to  contagion,  the 
entrance  of  this  soil  bacterium  into  the  human  body  through  soil-con- 
taminated wounds  as  the  primary  mode  of  infection  in  leprosy.  Wild 
rats  are  subject  to  a  leprosy-like  disease,  from  which  the  same  soil 
organism  can  be  cultivated  and  for  which  a  similar  mode  of  infection  is 
suggested.  No  longer  were  bells  to  be  rung  as  the  leper  approached,  and 
the  dreadful  cry,  "Unclean!"  go  from  mouth  to  mouth. 

A  housewife  who  opens  a  can  of  peaches  is  protected  by  a  long  series 
of  intensive  researches  carried  on  in  the  university  laboratories.  Dr. 
Carl  Meyer  and  his  assistants,  after  working  on  the  subject  of  botulism 
(food  poisoning),  were  able  to  reduce  poisoning  from  commercially 
packed  foods  to  the  extent  that  now  there  is  actually  more  danger  from 
foods  preserved  in  the  home. 

In  the  Engineering  Materials  Laboratory,  preparatory  to  the  build- 
ing of  Hoover  Dam,  concrete  was  accorded  unusual  attention.  It  was 
tested  by  delicate  instruments,  in  turn  lovingly  coddled  and  lovingly 
smashed  and  given  ideal  conditions  and  the  worst  conditions — in  order 
that  one  of  the  engineering  projects  of  the  modern  world  might  guard 
the  waters  of  the  Colorado  River.  Within  adiabatic  calorimeters — cork- 
lined  rooms  with  doors  like  those  of  the  refrigerator  of  a  butcher  shop 
— samples  of  various  types  of  concrete  were  housed  in  cylindrical  com- 
partments; electrical  resistance  thermometers  were  imbedded  in  the 
concrete.  The  concrete  was  tested  under  various  stages  of  dampness, 
with  and  without  loads ;  its  strength  was  measured  in  a  universal  testing 
machine  of  4,ooo,ooo-pound  capacity.  Its  durability  was  gauged  under 
artificial  weather  conditions  duplicating  those  to  which  the  dam  would 
be  subjected.  This  testing  laboratory  has  been  concerned  in  an  advisory 
capacity  with  engineering  projects  including  the  Colorado  River  Aque- 
duct into  Los  Angeles,  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge,  the 


54         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Golden  Gate  Bridge,  Pine  Canyon  Dam,  and  Oakland's  Broadway 
Tunnel. 

At  Stanford  University  aeronautical  research  has  been  carried  on 
since  the  eve  of  America's  entry  into  the  World  War,  when  Professors 
Durand  and  Lesley  built  their  wind  tunnel  on  the  campus  and  started 
experimentation  with  airplane  propellers  on  reduced  scale  models.  This 
was  real  pioneering,  for  the  problems  were  then  virtually  unattacked. 
Stanford  is  now  recognized  as  the  leading  center  in  the  United  States 
for  propeller  research. 

In  the  same  way  that  research  is  integrated  with  the  commercial  life 
of  the  State,  so  also  is  it  integrated  with  the  life  of  California  farmers, 
returning  to  them  millions  of  dollars,  saved  through  improved  agri- 
cultural methods.  In  more  than  one  curious  instance,  experiments 
carried  on  for  the  benefit  of  agriculture  have  had  their  effects  in  a  totally 
different  field  of  industry.  When  Charles  B.  Lipman,  now  Dean  of 
the  Graduate  Division,  and  Dr.  Aaron  Gordon  were  engaged  in  the 
problem  of  treating  pear-blight  by  injecting  a  poisonous  solution  in  the 
trunks  of  the  trees,  it  was  hoped  the  solution  would  act  on  the  bacteria 
causing  the  blight.  Unfortunately  it  was  not  successful  with  pear  trees, 
but  it  was  remarkably  successful  with  telephone  poles.  The  problem 
now  became  a  totally  different  one,  that  of  protecting  piles  and  timbers, 
used  in  marine  construction  and  by  power  companies,  from  the  depreda- 
tions of  various  types  of  borers.  The  process,  which  is  like  embalming, 
consists  in  injection  of  the  poisonous  solution  into  the  circulatory  system 
of  the  living  tree  or  cut  pole.  Practical  tests  on  telephone  poles  and 
piles  before  they  are  cut  have  shown  it  to  be  a  cheap  and  efficient  method 
of  protecting  them  from  marauding  organisms,  fungi,  and  molds. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  values  immediately  accessible  and  easily 
visualized  by  the  layman  who  is  interested  in  "results"  from  the  State's 
educational  system.  Yet  even  in  the  liberal  arts  department,  there  is 
the  eternal  individual  with  warmly  giving  hands  and  heart  fixed  on  the 
future.  Josiah  Royce,  one  of  the  truly  great  "great  men"  who  have 
come  from  the  University  of  California,  speaks  of  climbing  around 
under  the  eaves  of  Bacon  Hall,  where  the  books  belonging  to  the  old 
College  of  California  were  stored.  There,  where  deep  dust  stood  on 
ancient  theological  and  scientific  treatises,  he  gathered,  according  to  his 
own  statement,  the  most  profound  intellectual  impressions  of  his  life. 

The  immense  collections  of  the  present  University  Library  came  into 
being,  step  by  step,  with  the  gifts  of  individuals  who  had  felt  a  similar 
debt  to  "book-learning."  One  of  the  most  delightful  of  these  collections 
is  lodged  in  the  Morrison  Library,  on  the  ground  floor  of  the  building. 
The  story  of  its  foundation  parallels  Walter  Scott's  preface  to  Quentin 
Dttrward.  Just  as  Sir  Walter  was  introduced  by  the  fantastic  Marquis 
de  Hautlieu,  with  many  apologies  for  tattered  tapestry  and  tenant  owls. 


GOLDEN     ERA         55 

to  the  turret  room  of  a  ruined  castle  where  were  deposited  "the  precious 
relics  of  a  most  splendid  library,"  so,  demurring  in  housewifely  fashion 
for  the  untidiness  of  the  attic,  the  widow  of  Alexander  F.  Morrison 
led  her  guests,  one  evening  after  dinner,  to  a  garret  lit  up  like  an 
Aladdin's  cave  with  the  splendor  of  15,000  books  which  she  wished  to 
give  to  the  university  as  a  memorial  to  her  husband.  These  books,  so 
vital  a  part  of  her  own  life,  were  not  to  be  swallowed  in  the  catacombs 
of  the  stacks,  but  were  to  form  a  room  of  their  own  where  students,  sans 
notebooks,  might  genuinely  recreate  themselves  intellectually. 

The  Bancroft  Library  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
individual  collections,  and  becomes  each  year  increasingly  the  center  of 
research  for  students  of  the  history  of  the  Pacific  Slope  and  Hispanic 
America.  Scholars  in  constantly  larger  numbers  come  from  the  East 
and  abroad  to  consult  these  rich  manuscripts  and  printed  materials. 
Similarly  unique  in  its  own  field  is  the  Hoover  Library  on  War,  Revolu- 
tion, and  Peace,  at  Stanford,  containing  documents  relating  to  the 
World  War — government  reports,  unofficial  publications,  periodicals, 
books,  pamphlets,  and  manuscripts,  some  of  so  confidential  a  nature  that 
they  will  not  be  available  for  use  for  40  years. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  degree  of  civilization  attained  by  any  nation 
may  be  estimated  from  the  provision  it  makes  for  study  of  the  stars. 
Certainly,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  no  one  has  ever  asked  that  Li<~fc 
Observatory  show  its  credentials  in  the  shape  of  "practical"  benefits. 
The  discovery  of  a  fifth  moon  in  Jupiter  or  a  shadowy  duplicate  streak 
across  Mars  has  satisfied  the  public  mind  as  much  as  an  honest  piece  of 
cement  or  the  last  meal  of  a  mealy-bug  issuing  from  the  university 
laboratories.  This  tolerance  for  sidereal  phenomena  is,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  good  deal  more  respectable  than  the  tolerance  which  James  Lick 
himself  felt  for  starry  matters.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  "had  never 
looked  through  anything  larger  than  a  ship's  spy-glass,"  and  when  he 
was  consulted  at  his  Alviso  flour  mill  in  1887  on  the  subject  of  a  univer- 
sity foundation  for  scientific  studies,  he  "listened  patiently,  but  it  made 
no  more  impression  on  him  than  on  the  fruit  trees"  he  was  walking 
under.  Yet  he  founded — for  what  reason  no  one  can  surmise — the 
observatory  on  Mount  Hamilton,  one  of  the  seven  branches  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California.  There,  in  the  base  of  the  pier  on  which  the 
observatory  rests,  rests  also  the  body  of  James  Lick. 

And  there,  through  telescopes  a  good  deal  larger  than  a  ship's  spy- 
glass, have  been  discovered  the  several  satellites  of  Jupiter  additional  to 
the  four  discovered  by  Galileo  in  1610.  There  have  occurred  the  first 
great  successes  in  photographing  comets  and  the  Milky  Way,  teaching 
more  about  the  structure,  formation,  and  dissolution  of  the  comet's  tail 
than  had  been  learned  in  all  previous  time.  There  the  sulky  steps  of 
the  young  blue  stars  have  been  measured,  the  staid  stride  of  the  middle- 


56         SAN     FRANCISCO 

aged  yellow  stars,  and  the  fine  gallop  of  the  old  red  stars.  There  the 
advance  through  space  of  our  own  solar  system  has  been  set  at  12.2  miles 
per  second  in  the  direction  of  the  constellation  of  Hercules.  Whether 
this  would  have  meant  much  or  little  to  James  Lick,  no  one  can  say, 
for  he  "wot  not  of  it"  under  his  fruit  trees  at  Alviso. 

Notoriously  unexciting  as  is  the  history  of  education,  the  hardihood 
of  those  first  California  educators — considered  now  from  a  safe  distance 
in  time — seems  no  less  awe-inspiring  than  the  hardihood  of  their  con- 
temporaries who  forged  across  the  Sierra  Nevada,  seeking  gold.  For 
the  apathy  they  faced  and  overcame  was  no  less  cold  and  cruel  than  the 
Sierra.  Nevertheless  they  opened  school  in  stable  and  tent.  And  it  is 
still  their  day — the  day  of  the  pioneer — in  the  halls  now  decently  clad 
with  stucco  and  adorned  with  drinking  fountains,  while  the  chimes  of 
Berkeley's  Campanile  proclaim  the  international  frontiers  of  education, 
ringing  out,  slowly  and  liquidly,  a  tune  from  Heine  or  an  old  English 
carol  or  "The  Goden  Bear." 

ARGONAUTS  OF  LETTERS 

In  1864  an  earthquake  damaged  San  Francisco  but  left  Oakland 
unharmed.  Discussion  ensued  as  to  the  reason  for  Oakland's  invulnera- 
bi*ity.  Bret  Harte,  citing  "Schwappelfurt,  the  celebrated  German 
geologist,"  endeavored  to  explain  the  singular  fact  by  suggesting  that 
there  are  some  things  the  earth  cannot  swallow.  Whether  Harte's 
affection  for  Oakland  was  paralleled  by  a  similar  affection  for  San  Fran- 
cisco is  a  question;  he  was  given  a  job  in  the  mint  so  that  he  could 
write  stones,  but  as  soon  as  he  had  written  the  stories  he  left  and  went 
to  wear  his  green  gloves  in  Boston  and  to  part  his  Dundreary  whiskers 
in  London. 

Bret  Harte  is  not  the  only  writer  who,  wearing  the  local  label, 
conducted  himself  with  an  astonishing  resistance  toward  this  geographi- 
cal section.  Harte  left  it  bodily.  Mark  Twain,  Joaquin  Miller,  and 
others  found  the  city's  frank  money  grubbing  and  social  vulgarity  unbear- 
able. Boston  and  New  York,  London  and  Paris  seemed  to  offer  a  more 
soothing  atmosphere  for  artistic  nerves  jangled  by  such  excesses  of  gross 
materialism.  And  yet  Harte  endowed  California  with  its  earliest 
literary  prestige.  He  discovered  and  romanticized  the  Argonauts,  at  a 
time  when  it  could  be  said  of  the  urban  intellectuals  of  whom  he  was 
one,  that,  like  the  Hangtown  girls, 

"They're    dreadful    shy    of    forty-niners, 
Turn  their  noses  up  at  miners." 

And  there  is  ironic  justice  in  the  fact  that  once  he  had  created  the  Argo- 
naut of  California-  fiction,  he  tucked  up  his  mustachios  and  departed. 


GOLDEN     ERA         57 

It  is  the  California  setting,  particularly  the  setting  of  San  Francisco 
— its  place  on  the  sea,  facing  the  Orient,  with  its  back  to  the  mines — 
which  alone  has  inspired  in  its  writers  a  continuity  of  tradition.  The 
region  gave  elbow  room  for  the  unpredictable  expansion  of  certain  indi- 
vidual writers,  elbow  room  they  would  not  have  had  elsewhere.  The 
effect  has  been  what  some  critics  call  the  "virility"  of  Californian  litera- 
ture. This  is  the  one  tradition  to  which  it  is  possible  to  point — the 
defining  effect  of  the  region  on  its  writers. 

San  Francisco's  literary  beginnings  were  its  pioneer  journals — the 
first  of  which,  the  Golden  Era,  was  founded  in  1852  by  J.  MacDonough 
Foard  and  Rollin  M.  Daggett.  In  March  1857  the  Golden  Era 
printed  a  slight,  sentimental  poem,  "The  Valentine,"  signed  "Bret." 
Its  author  followed  with  more  verses  and  sketches.  Another  contributor 
was  Samuel  Langhorne  Clemens,  a  young  Missourian,  signing  himself 
Mark  Twain.  The  two  men  met  soon  after  May  1864,  while  Clemens 
was  employed  on  the  Call,  which  shared  a  building  with  the  local 
United  States  Mint.  Later  Harte  became  temporary  editor  of  the 
Californian,  and  engaged  Clemens  to  write  regularly  for  the  publication. 
Harte  laid  the  foundation  for  Western  romance,  and  Twain  crystallized 
Western  humor. 

Harte  played  the  more  irrational,  the  more  unpredictable  part,  and 
in  this  way  the  more  truly  "Californian"  part ;  for  scarcely  a  year  before 
the  appearance  of  The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,  he  was  writing  editorials 
(as  editor  of  The  Overland  Monthly)  on  the  unromantic  ugliness  of 
such  place  names  as  Poker  Flat  and  Red  Dog  Gulch,  advising  young 
writers  to  steer  away  from  the  appellation  "honest  miner,"  since  "the 
less  said  about  the  motives  of  some  of  our  pioneers  the  better;  very 
many  were  more  concerned  in  getting  away  from  where  they  were,  than 
in  going  to  any  particular  place."  And  in  his  editorial  in  the  second 
number  of  The  Overland  Monthly  he  prophesied  that  it  would  be  300 
years  before  the  red  shirts  of  the  pioneers  would  become  romantic  and 
their  high  boots  heroic.  One  of  the  worst  of  prophets,  he  had  just 
finished  writing  the  story  that  would  do  more  than  anything  else  to 
make  the  red  shirts  romantic  and  the  high  boots  heroic.  It  was  con- 
tained in  the  same  issue. 

The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp  had  more  than  its  author's  own  resist- 
ance to  his  environment  to  overcome.  The  resistance  of  proofreader 
and  printer  was  so  strenuous  that  it  was  almost  still-born — and  Amer- 
ican local-color  with  it.  Cherokee  Sal's  profession  shocked  the  young 
lady  who  read  proof.  A  reference  to  obstetrics  threw  her  into  hysterics. 

And  finally  Kentuck's  exclamation  over  the  baby — "The  d d  little 

cuss!" — brought  her  hurriedly  to  the  printer,  who  shared  her  appalled 
conviction  that  the  story  should  never  see  the  light.  Dictatorial  inter- 
ference alone  saved  it  for  the  August  number  of  the  Overland.  What 


58         SAN     FR  A  N  C  I  S  C  O 

happened  then  was  a  publishing  miracle,  which  brought  offers  from  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  a  letter  from  Charles  Dickens,  and  an  announcement 
from  Henry  Adams  that  there  was  just  one  hopeful  thing  in  a  hopeless 
world — Bret  Harte. 

Harte  is  usually  associated  with  the  Argonauts  of  '49  and  '50, 
whereas  he  is  a  writer  of  the  later  fifties  and  the  sixties,  writing  of 
"the  disused  ditches,  the  scarred  flats,  the  discarded  levels,  ruined  flumes, 
and  roofless  cabins."  His  Yuba  Bill  he  very  probably  rode  beside,  on 
some  dusty  stagecoach,  but  as  he  himself  says  in  A  Lonely  Ride:  "The 
road  from  Wingdam  to  Slumgullion  (that  is,  in  the  heart  of  the  mining 
country)  knew  no  other  banditti  than  the  regularly  licensed  hotel- 
keepers."  Harte's  Indians  were  the  Indians  whose  carcasses  he  saw 
floated  by  the  raft-load  down  to  Uniontown  after  a  cutthroat  revel  of 
some  upstanding  citizens  inspired  by  whisky  and  manifest  destiny.  His 
"heathen  Chinee,"  who  "for  ways  that  are  dark  and  for  tricks  that  are 
vain"  was  so  very  peculiar,  was  one  of  the  unfortunates  who  were  being 
attacked  with  all  the  violence  of  anti-oriental  chauvinism. 

California  "romance"  and  California  "savagery"  of  the  sort  that 
appeared  in  Harte's  writing  give  striking  point  to  the  story  told  by 
Mark  Twain  of  how  Harte  drew  the  railroad  tracks  under  the  grizzly 
bear  for  the  Overland'*  title-page.  A  grizzly,  the  old  grizzly  that  had 
been  the  State's  totem  ever  since  the  Bear  Flag  days,  had  been  selected 
as  emblem  for  the  Overland  Monthly.  The  grizzly  was  drawn,  en- 
graved and  printed,  but  he  seemed  a  very  lonely  bear.  "As  a  bear,  he 
was  a  success — he  was  a  good  bear — "  says  Mark.  "But  then,  he  was 
an  objectless  bear — a  bear  that  meant  nothing  in  particular  .  .  .  simply 
stood  there  snarling  over  his  shoulder  at  nothing  .  .  .  But  presently 
Harte  took  a  pencil  and  drew  these  two  simple  lines  under  his  feet  and 
behold  he  was  a  magnificent  success!  the  ancient  symbol  of  California 
savagery  snarling  at  the  approaching  type  of  high  and  progressive  Civil- 
ization, the  first  Overland  locomotive!"  This,  however,  was  not  the 
only  significance  of  the  symbol,  as  Harte  would  prove  by  his  almost 
immediate  departure  down  those  tracks  for  an  Eldorado  that  lay  in  the 
opposite  direction,  the  direction  of  the  East  and  Europe.  He  left  Cali- 
fornia's "savagery"  to  John  Muir,  in  whose  gentle  hands  the  mining 
camps  were  erased  from  the  mountains;  and  California's  "high  and 
progressive  Civilization"  to  Henry  George,  whose  Progress  and  Poverty 
was  to  issue  from  San  Francisco. 

The  unshorn  gentry  of  the  mining  towns  had  at  first  provoked  satire 
among  San  Francisco  wits,  and  then,  by  Harte's  unpredicted  gesture, 
romance.  But  satire  remained  a  strong  undercurrent.  Twain's  de- 
scription of  the  celebrated  jumping  frog  of  Calaveras  County  might  be 
a  typically  monstrous  understatement  for  the  "honest  miner"  himself: 
"You  never  see  a«frog  so  modest  and  straightfor'ard  as  he  was,  for  all 


GOLDEN     ERA         59 

he  was  so  gifted.  And  when  it  come  to  fair  and  square  jumping  on  a 
dead  level,  he  could  get  over  more  ground  at  one  straddle  than  any 
animal  of  his  breed  you  ever  see."  Twain,  who  had  adopted  his 
pseudonym  in  1863,  mounted  as  a  humorist  on  the  back  of  this  frog,  for 
he  wrote  the  sketch  and  won  his  first  fame  all  in  one  leap.  He  remained 
in  California  from  May  1864  until  December  1866,  and  worked  on  the 
San  Francisco  Morning  Call  for  a  few  months.  Of  the  writers  with 
whom  he  had  contact,  most  were  humorists :  it  was  the  typical  humor  of 
the  Comstock  Lode  era  that  crystallized  in  his  style  at  this  time — 
coupling  the  tall  tale  of  the  barroom  with  excessive  understatement. 
By  the  time  he  left  California,  his  popularity  in  the  East  had  become 
enormous.  And  like  Harte,  he  sought  those  greener  pastures. 

Besides  Harte  and  Mark  Twain,  the  Golden  Era,  the  Californian, 
and  the  Overland  had  other  contributors  whose  fame  spread  beyond  the 
local  boundaries.  Prentice  Mulford's  rollicking  satire  of  frontier  heroics 
found  great  favor.  Charles  Warren  Stoddard,  the  poet,  a  close  friend 
of  Harte,  later  became  the  celebrated  author  of  South  Sea  Idyls  and 
The  Lepers  of  Molokai.  Ina  Coolbrith,  who  contributed  poems  to  the 
Californian  under  Harte's  editorship,  was  many  years  afterward  named 
the  "poet  laureate"  of  California.  Songs  from  the  Golden  Gate  con- 
tains many  of  her  finest  lyrics.  Another  distinguished  contributor  was 
Edward  Rowland  Sill,  author  of  The  Hermitage  and  other  volumes  of 
verse. 

Joaquin  (Cincinnatus  Heine)  Miller,  "the  Poet  of  the  Sierras," 
was  deeply  impressed  by  the  city's  literary  atmosphere  when  he  first 
came  to  San  Francisco  as  a  young  man.  "I  have  seen  the  world  well 
since,"  he  said  many  years  later,  discussing  the  Golden  Era,  "yet  those 
carpeted  parlors,  with  Joe  Lawrence  and  his  brilliant  satellites,  outshine 
all  things  else,  as  I  turn  to  look  back."  His  name,  Joaquin — replacing 
the  ridiculous  Cincinnatus  Heine — was  derived  from  Joaquin  Murrieta, 
the  Mexican  outlaw  in  California.  Miller's  fame,  however,  originated 
not  in  San  Francisco  but  in  London,  where  he  became  a  nine  days' 
wonder  as  a  fiery  poet  and  a  convincing  representative  of  the  "Wild 
West,"  with  his  high  top  boots,  red  flannel  shirt,  a  sombrero,  and  his 
long  hair  falling,  Indian-fashion,  upon  his  shoulders.  In  his  grandilo- 
quent poetry  he  celebrated  the  deeds  of  pioneers,  Indians,  and  bandits 
amid  the  natural  marvels  of  the  West.  Except  for  "Columbus,"  which 
is  still  in  the  school  boy's  repertoire,  he  is  remembered  today  for  his 
attitudes  rather  than  for  his  verse.  In  his  hilltop  eyrie,  "The  Hights" 
(sic)j  overlooking  Oakland,  he  settled  down,  after  his  wanderings 
abroad,  to  practice  his  odd  histrionics  until  his  death  in  1913. 

Ambrose  Bierce  was  another  who  found  elbowroom  for  the  develop- 
ment of  an  even  more  intense  individuality,  but  the  stamp  of  the  region 
upon  him  was  of  a  different  sort.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  he  was  a 


6O         SAN     FRANCISCO 

literary  figure,  the  local  literary  figure,  and  the  years  which  he  domi- 
nated stretched  into  an  era  vastly  different  from  the  era  of  the  Argonauts 
as  the  "unutterably  gorgeous"  society  of  the  i86o's  gave  way  to  the 
sand-lot  crusades  of  "the  terrible  seventies."  This  was  the  era  of  novels 
such  as  On  the  Verge,  abounding  in  voluptuous  ladies  at  the  pianoforte, 
and  in  French  quotations;  of  the  poets  such  as  Richard  Realf,  whose 
record  for  bigamy  won  as  much  sympathy  as  his  record  for  bad  verse; 
of  essays  on  Petrarch  and  of  editions  of  Heredia.  It  was  the  era  of  the 
false  front,  and  it  showed  even  worse  propensities  in  the  eighties — Greek 
porticos  flanked  by  bay  windows,  Corinthian  columns  leading  up  flights 
of  ^  wooden  steps,  conical  towers,  and  Queen  Anne  flourishes.  From 
Nob  Hill  to  Barbary  Coast,  barbarism  and  greed  destroyed  the  possi- 
bility of  good  work  in  the  arts. 

This  was  Ambrose  Bierce's  domain.  He  declared  himself  in  1877 
with  the  first  issue  of  the  Argonaut:  "It  is  my  intention,"  he  said,  "to 
purify  journalism  in  this  town  by  instructing  such  writers  as  it  is  worth 
while  to  instruct,  and  assassinating  those  that  it  is  not."  His  column, 
appearing  consecutively  from  1868  to  1900,  was  a  vivid  experience  in 
the  lives  of  innumerable  Westerners.  He  had  deliberately  set  himself 
the  task  of  direct  attack  on  individuals.  It  was  his  moral  function,  and 
possibly  the  only  function  open  to  him  in  his  time  and  in  San  Francisco. 
His  style  he  had  acquired  in  the  beaver-hat  age,  an  age  of  gesture  and 
flourish;  and  he  patched  it  together  with  ideas  of  "elegance"  gained  in 
London,  and  delivered  his  opinions  with  a  bludgeon-like  ponderosity 
suitable  for  denting  the  pates  of  a  hoodlum  citizenry.  He  himself 
summed  up  his  literary  proclivities  in  a  fable:  "A  rattlesnake  came 
home  to  its  brood  to  die — I  have  been  bitten  by  the  editor  of  a  partisan 
journal,  it  said." 

Irony  indeed — and  poetic  justice,  perhaps — in  the  career  of  this 
Titan  who  had  San  Francisco  for  his  malfeasant  Olympus,  is  the  very 
name  of  the  column  which  carried  his  "homicidal  paragraphs" :  Prattle. 
Another  irony  is  his  mysterious  end  in  Mexico,  trailed  by  apocryphal 
tales  of  an  old  man  shot  by  a  firing  squad.  Still  another  is  the  end  met 
by  those  disciples  who  called  him  "Master" — Herman  Scheffauer,  who 
took  his  own  life  in  a  Berlin  hotel,  and  George  Sterling,  who  com- 
mitted suicide  in  San  Francisco's  Bohemian  Club.  But  these  futilities 
cannot  be  laid  at  Bierce's  door,  by  calling  him,  as  some  critics  have  done, 
a  "death  man."  The  style  of  the  time,  in  a  community  of  contradic- 
tions, was  morbid.  Bierce's  own  style,  if  it  is  measured  in  terms  of  the 
resistance  he  put  up  to  those  contradictions,  was  one  of  tremendous 
vitality. 

To  combat  those  same  contradictions  required  even  more  vitality  of 
Bierce's  successors.  From  an  Oakland  cannery,  where  ten  hours  a  day 
of  taut  nerves  prevented  a  moment's  attention  to  the  frequent  victims 


GOLDEN     ERA         6l 

who  had  their  fingers  snapped  off  by  the  machinery,  Jack  London  was 
graduated  to  become  "the  prince  of  the  oyster  pirates."  He  has  indi- 
cated the  reason  for  his  choice  of  a  profession:  "Every  raid  .  .  .  was  a 
felony.  The  penalty  was  state  imprisonment,  the  stripes  and  the  lock- 
step.  And  what  of  that  ?  The  men  in  stripes  worked  a  shorter  day  than 
I  at  my  machine."  With  Whiskey  Bob,  Joe  Goose,  Nicky  the  Greek, 
Soup  and  Stew  Kennedy,  Clam  Bart,  Irish  and  Oyster  Kelly,  Patsy 
Haggerty,  Harmonica  Joe,  Hell  and  Blazes,  and  young  Scratch  Nelson 
of  the  monumental  shoulders,  he  discovered  the  social  conditions  which 
fecundated  his  talent.  Having  nearly  forfeited  his  life  to  a  Chinese 
shrimp  poacher  who  marooned  him  on  an  island  off  the  Marin  shore — a 
story  he  tells  in  Tales  of  the  Fish  Patrol — he  learned  enough  wit  to  leave 
oyster  pirating  and  seek  the  primitive  salt  in  a  three-topmast  schooner 
bound  for  a  larger  universe. 

The  Sea-Wolf,  The  Call  of  the  Wild— these  titles  indicate  not 
only  London's  place  in  space,  on  a  bay  crowded  with  ships  that  offered 
adventure  far  from  "the  man-city  and  its  snarling  roar" ;  they  indicate 
also  his  place  in  time,  when  the  romantic  gesturer  had  to  turn  from 
Oscar  Wilde's  hothouse,  and  go  hunting  with  "huskies"  on  the  last  big 
hunt  before  the  world  closed  up  its  frontiers.  Lonf don  came  back  from 
the  South  Seas  and  wrote  of  nut-brown  queens,  who  sat  on  swan-skins 
and  greeted  a  chance  traveler  thus:  "Stranger,  I  reckon  you're  sure  the 
first  white  man  that  ever  set  foot  in  this  valley.  Set  down  an'  talk  a 
spell,  and  then  we'll  have  a  bite  to  eat.  Which  way  might  you  be 
comin'  ?"  And  of  primitive  Teutons  in  the  clothes  of  James  Ward  of 
Ward,  Knowles  and  Company,  who  dictated  to  their  stenographers  by 
day  and  chased  coyotes  on  the  hills  of  Mill  Valley  by  night. 

But  California's  most  spectacular  and  widely  read  California  author 
was  much  more  than  a  romantic  gesturer.  London's  social  philosophy 
was  direct  and  radical.  And  the  themes  he  dealt  with  were  those  of 
elemental  physical  conflict.  In  the  handling  of  swift  action  he  has 
scarcely  been  surpassed.  Superlatively  strong  men  stalk  through  his 
books,  which  were  based  directly  on  his  own  experiences.  Martin  Eden 
and  John  Barleycorn  are  semi-fictionized  accounts  of  his  own  life, 
alternating  between  infantile  romanticism  and  profound  disillusionment. 
Mostly  self-educated,  he  wrote,  in  16  years,  43  volumes,  besides  acting 
as  war  correspondent  and  cruising  in  his  yacht,  the  Snark.  He  died  at 
his  ranch  in  Glen  Ellen,  California,  in  1916,  of  uremia. 

He  had  long  been  a  victim  of  ill  health,  disappointments  at  the 
hands  of  his  friends,  overwork  in  order  to  maintain  a  large  establish- 
ment, and  that  battle  against  drink  described  in  John  Barleycorn.  As  a 
voice  of  his  time  and  region,  a  spinner  of  yarns,  a  furious  prophet, 
London  is  remembered  by  an  audience  probably  larger  than  that  of  any 
other  American  author. 


62         SAN     FRANCISCO 

In  this  period,  Frank  Norris  comes  closest  to  the  accent  of  greatness. 
And  misses  it.  While  London  wrote  of  James  Ward,  who  puzzled 
philologists  at  the  University  of  California  by  his  chants  in  primitive 
Germanic,  Norris  wrote  of  McTeague  of  McTeague's  Dental  Parlors, 
whose  ambition  was  to  have  projecting  from  the  corner  window  over 
Polk  Street  "a  huge  gilded  tooth,  a  molar  with  enormous  prongs,  some- 
thing gorgeous  and  attractive."  While  London  wrote  of  Klondike 
huskies,  Norris  wrote  of  B  Street  Station: 

"Near  the  station  a  bit  of  fence  painted  with  a  cigar  advertisement  reeled 
over  into  the  mud,  while  under  its  lee  lay  an  abandoned  gravel  wagon  with 
dished  wheels  .  .  .  Across  the  flats,  at  the  fringe  of  the  town,  were  the  dump 
heaps,  the  figures  of  a  few  Chinese  ragpickers  moving  over  them  .  .  .  Across 
the  railroad  tracks,  to  seaward,  one  saw  the  long  stretch  of  black  mud  bank 
left  bare  by  the  tide,  which  was  far  out,  nearly  half  a  mile.  Clouds  of  sea- 
gulls were  forever  rising  and  settling  upon  this  mud  bank;  a  wrecked  and 
abandoned  wharf  crawled  over  it  on  tottering  legs;  close  in  an  old  sailboat 
lay  canted  on  her  bilge  .  .  ." 

In  the  dynamic  fictions  of  Frank  Norris  and  Jack  London  an  aware- 
ness of  social  forces  is  more  evident  than  in  any  earlier  Western  writing. 
Norris,  who  came  to  California  from  Chicago  at  fourteen  years  of  age, 
laid  his  early  novels,  Blix,  Vandover  and  the  Brute,  and  McTeague ,  in 
San  Francisco.  The  essence  of  the  city's  life — at  North  Beach,  Tele- 
graph Hill,  Nob  Hill,  Russian  Hill,  the  Polk  Street  district — is  reflected, 
although  not  without  certain  youthful  exaggeration,  in  their  pages. 
Norris  determined  to  explore,  on  a  large  scale,  the  economic  mainsprings 
of  society.  The  Octopus  and  The  Pit  were  the  two  first  volumes  of  an 
intended  trilogy,  "The  Epic  of  Wheat."  In  The  Octopus  is  depicted 
the  stranglehold  of  a  railroad  on  California  wheat  growers  and  the 
entire  State.  The  Pit  is  placed  in  Chicago,  the  world's  wheat  market. 
The  third  volume,  The  Wolj,  to  have  been  an  account  of  the  consumers 
of  wheat  the  world  over,  was  never  written.  In  the  midst  of  his 
ambitious  plans,  Norris  died  at  the  age  of  32.  Although  marred  by 
melodramatic  excesses,  a  confusing  tinge  of  mysticism,  and  an  apparent 
lack  of  clear  understanding  of  the  issues  involved,  his  novels,  in  their 
search  for  truth,  in  their  tone,  stand  as  distinguished  landmarks  at  the 
threshold  of  the  era  of  realism  in  American  letters. 

The  society  which  London  attacked  with  merciless  fury  and  Norris 
probed  with  surgical  ruthlessness  was  gently  scolded  in  The  Lark,  edited 
by  Gelett  Burgess  in  the  nineties,  which  for  the  whole  of  its  two  years 
sustained  a  wondrous  buoyancy.  It  was  read  throughout  the  country, 
though  Burgess  often  mocked  the  staid  with  such  ditties  as : 

"I  love  to  go  to  Lectures, 
And  make  the  Audience  Stare, 
By  walking  'round  upon  their  heads, 
And    spoiling   People's    hair!" 


GOLDEN     ERA         63 

Conventional  readers  tolerated  his  nonsense  because  Burgess  always 
kept  it  "clean"  and  because  it  was  young  as  they  never  had  been  young ; 
its  more  sophisticated  comments  escaped  them,  being  whispered,  as 
Albert  Parry  says,  "in  exquisite  innuendo."  Its  chief  contributors  were 
Ernest  Peixotto,  Bruce  Porter,  Florence  Lundborg,  Carolyn  Wells, 
Yone  Noguchi — besides  Burgess,  whose  "Purple  Cow"  classic  first  ap- 
peared in  its  pages.  The  New  York  Times  nicknamed  the  group  Les 
Jeunes.  It  was  abandoned  while  still  thriving  and  making  money  be- 
cause, as  Burgess  wrote  to  Carolyn  Wells,  "I  wanted  it  to  die  young 
and  in  its  full  freshness."  Its  whole  staff,  except  Noguchi,  moved  to 
New  York.  But  Burgess  remembered  San  Francisco,  for  in  The  Heart 
Line  he  satirized  both  practitioners  and  victims  of  palmistry  and  astrol- 
ogy, cults  which  have  always  thrived  in  a  city  where  so  many  have  lived 
dangerously. 

After  the  turn  of  the  century  an  increasing  number  of  young  San 
Franciscans  hoping  for  a  career  in  literature  yearned  toward  the  cultural 
centers  in  the  East  and  Europe;  but  many  still  received  their  impetus 
from  the  local  scene.  "The  Man  With  the  Hoe,"  published  in  a  San 
Francisco  newspaper,  made  famous  overnight  the  young  San  Jose  poet, 
Edwin  Markham.  The  coterie  of  writers  who  frequently  met  at  Papa 
Coppa's  restaurant  during  the  years  just  preceding  the  earthquake  and 
fire  of  1906  included  Jack  London,  Wallace  and  Will  Irwin,  the  short- 
story  writer  James  Hopper,  the  imperious  and  aging  Ambrose  Bierce 
and  his  two  brilliant  pupils,  poets  Herman  Scheffauer  and  George 
Sterling.  Having  learned  from  Bierce  nothing  of  that  writer's  Swiftian 
vigor  but  only  his  magniloquence,  Sterling  was  invoking  in  such  volumes 
as  The  Testimony  of  the  Suns  a  Platonic  idea  of  California  scenery, 
largely  in  the  colors  of  purple  and  crystal.  The  Irwins  each  celebrated 
the  Chinatown  of  the  pre-fire  era — Will  in  Pictures  of  Old  Chinatown 
and  Wallace  in  Chinatown  Ballads;  after  the  fire,  Will  wrote  a  requiem 
for  "The  City  That  Was,"  while  Wallace,  who  had  gained  his  early 
fame  with  such  verses  as  Love  Sonnets  of  a  Hoodlum,  turned  to  novel 
writing. 

Charles  Caldwell  Dobie,  26  at  the  time  of  the  fire — when  he  helped 
his  mother  transport  the  family  treasures  beyond  the  reach  of  the  flames 
— was  later  to  describe  the  more  picturesque  aspects  of  the  city  as  it  had 
been  in  San  Francisco :  A  Pageant,  San  Francisco  Tales,  and  San  Fran- 
cisco's Chinatown.  Another  of  those  for  whom  the  "days  of  old,  days 
of  gold"  have  provided  a  rich  vein  to  tap  for  literary  purposes  is  Stewart 
Edward  White,  author  of  The  Gray  Dawn  and  The  Forty-Niners. 

Even  before  the  turn  of  the  century  Gertrude  Atherton's  literary 
explorations  had  been  leading  her  back  to  California's  Spanish  begin- 
nings. She  wrote  of  Magdalena  Yorba,  half-Spanish  and  born  tongue- 
tied,  and  of  her  father,  Don  Roberto,  a  bank  president,  who  practiced 


64         SAN     FRANCISCO 

"hip-hip-hooray!"  in  his  study  and  hanged  himself  with  the  American 
flag.  From  the  Spanish  period,  which  she  celebrated  in  The  Dooms- 
woman,  The  Calif  ornians,  The  Splendid  Idle  Forties,  and  Rezanov,  she 
went  on  to  the  American  era  in  Ancestors  and  Patience  Spar  hawk,  and 
then,  having  covered  California,  shifted  to  Montana,  Greece  and  Africa. 
Rezanov,  love  story  of  the  visiting  Russian  officer  and  the  San  Francisco 
Presidio  comandante's  daughter,  probably  has  remained  her  most  popu- 
lar novel.  In  Adventures  of  a  Novelist  (1932)  she  looks  back  on 
the  five  decades  of  her  literary  career. 

Charles  Norris,  like  his  brother  Frank,  writes  "to  make  people 
think."  Characteristic  of  his  novels — conceived  on  a  less  ample  scale 
than  those  of  his  brother — are  Brass,  an  attempt  to  present  different 
phases  of  "what  we  understand  by  marriage";  Pig-Iron,  concerned  with 
the  materialistic  influence  on  American  life;  and  Bricks  Without  Straw, 
dealing  with  the  ever  recurring  battle  of  ideals  between  parents  and 
children.  His  wife,  Kathleen  Norris,  who  in  her  early  youth  was  a  San 
Francisco  newspaper  woman  and  a  contributor  to  local  periodicals,  com- 
pletes the  noted  family;  since  her  first  published  volume,  Mother 
(1911),  which  went  into  numerous  editions,  she  has  written  almost  50 
novels,  all  observing  the  proprieties  of  middle-class  family  life. 

Even  Gertrude  Stein,  when  she  turned  to  description  of  the  local 
scene  in  The  Making  of  Americans,  wrote  of  a  vanished  yesterday — of 
her  girlhood  in  an  old-fashioned  house  with  verandas  amid  the  tangled 
rambler  roses  and  eucalyptus  trees  of  suburban  Oakland.  But  the  post- 
war writers  have  now  been  succeeded  by  post-post-war  writers  who  have 
put  nostalgia  behind  them.  William  Saroyan  might  have  been  born 
anywhere — anywhere  that  there  was  a  colony  of  Armenians — but  he 
happens  to  have  been  born  in  the  San  Joaquin  Valley,  and  the  majority 
of  his  earlier  stories  reflect  his  goings  to  and  fro  about  the  rich  valley 
earth  and  that  much  of  the  cosmos  located  between  Carl  Street,  San 
Francisco,  and  the  Civic  Center. 

"I  want  you  to  know,"  he  writes,  "that  it  is  very  cold  in  San  Fran- 
cisco today,  and  that  I  am  freezing  .  .  ."  Or  he  tries  it  on  another 
tack:  "I  am  out  here  in  the  far  West,  in  San  Francisco,  in  a  small  room 
on  Carl  Street,  writing  a  letter  to  common  people,  telling  them  in  simple 
language  things  they  already  know."  Out  of  these  trivia — blue  fingers 
for  the  writer,  things  they  already  know  for  the  readers — comes  Theo- 
dore Badal,  the  Assyrian  barber  on  Third  Street;  comes  young  "Iowa," 
gone  north  with  his  yellow  hair  and  hope ;  comes  the  daring  young  man 
himself,  turning  his  "lost  face  to  the  empty  sky." 

John  Steinbeck  has  been  gathering  California  local  color  all  his  life 
and  has  turned  it  to  account  in  several  books,  most  powerfully  and 
angrily  in  his  recent  novel,  The  Grapes  of  Wrath.  In  a  curious — but 
perhaps  not  an  Accidental — way,  Saroyan  and  Steinbeck  recall  "with 


GOLDEN     ERA         65 

variations"  some  of  the  earlier  phases  of  literature  in  the  region.  The 
he-man  of  the  1890'$  is  re-born  in  William  Saroyan,  born  with  the 
proper  cosmopolitan  note  of  Armenian  hair  and  with  the  genuine  mid- 
century  stamp  of  a  depression-starvation  appetite.  A  virility  less  flam- 
boyant than  Jack  London's — because  it  had  no  Klondikes  in  which  to 
exercise — none  the  less  manifests  itself  in  the  immediacy  of  Saroyan's 
style,  in  his  simple,  undetailed  human  sympathies.  And  finally,  John 
Steinbeck  has  made  as  disturbing  a  figure  in  the  Nation's  literary  scene 
as  any  California  writer  by  bringing  to  its  culmination  that  "local-color" 
fiction  for  which  Bret  Harte — and  California  literature  along  with  him 
— became  famous. 

ART  AND  ARTISTS 

Of  all  Apollo's  embattled  stepchildren  who  have  attempted  to  create 
works  of  artistic  value  amid  the  Bay  region's  turbulent  economic  de- 
velopment, few  have  achieved  so  much  as  its  painters  and  sculptors. 
Enormous  is  the  variety  of  their  work — much  of  it  derivative  and 
mediocre,  some  of  it  distinguished  by  originality.  If  theirs  is  not  yet  a 
tradition  of  masterpieces,  they  nevertheless  have  put  behind  them  almost 
a  century  of  aesthetic  ferment,  of  tireless  experimentation. 

San  Franciscans,  whatever  their  qualifications  for  aesthetic  judg- 
ment, have  always  been  outspoken  critics  of  their  city's  art  and  artists. 
Before  a  monument  may  be  erected  or  a  mural  finished,  citizens  from 
the  mayor  downwards  must  have  their  say.  A  minority  opinion  recently 
delivered  by  members  of  the  Art  Commission — the  city's  final  arbiter  of 
art  works  and  public  buildings — condemned  the  proposed  erection  of 
Beniamino  Bufano's  gigantic  statue  of  St.  Francis  on  Twin  Peaks.  "It 
looks  like  a  holdup,"  they  said  of  the  design  for  this  156-foot  figure  of 
stainless  steel  with  arms  upraised  in  supplication;  and  local  factions 
were  aroused  anew  by  a  syndicated  columnist's  Nation-wide  crusade 
against  what  he  termed  "God-awful  statuary"  as  represented  by  Bufano's 
unorthodox  model.  This  controversy  had  been  preceded  by  the  public 
turmoil  attending  the  painting  of  murals  in  the  Coit  Tower,  which  was 
marked  by  political  tail-twisting  such  as  Diego  Rivera  practiced  on  his 
patrons  in  his  Rockefeller  Center  murals  in  New  York.  To  bring  this 
hectic  tradition  up  to  date,  Hilaire  Hiler  threatened  to  leave  uncom- 
pleted his  murals  in  the  lobby  of  Aquatic  Park  unless  plans  were  aban- 
doned to  install  furniture  not  in  keeping  with  his  decorative  motif.  The 
files  of  the  Alia  California,  the  Wasp,  the  Overland  Monthly,  and  the 
News-Letter  offer  plentiful  testimony,  in  saltier  epithets  of  earlier 
decades,  that  such  controversies  are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  present 
generation. 

The  plastic  arts  have  been  a  product  and  a  reflection  of  the  cultural 


66         SAN     FRANCISCO 

growth  of  the  Bay  region,  and  of  San  Francisco  in  particular.  As  the 
rough-and-ready  decades  of  the  Gold  Rush  passed,  a  kind  of  poker-faced 
conservatism  settled  on  the  metropolis  dominated  by  the  bonanza  mil- 
lionaires. Its  culture  froze  in  the  urbane,  ornamental,  shock-proof  mold 
of  the  i88o's  and  remained  always  slightly  out-of-date  until  rejuvenated 
after  the  calamity  of  1906.  Its  painters,  depending  wholly  on  the 
patronage  of  a  nouveau  riche  society,  offered  productions  acceptable  to 
a  clientele  whose  tastes  were  dictated  by  extravagant  notions  that  had 
nothing  to  do  with  art.  In  their  imitation  villas  and  chateaux  the 
families  of  the  bonanza  elite  wanted  interior  decoration  that  would  be 
"elegant"  and  dazzling  and  grand,  something  flamboyant  enough  to 
impart  an  overwhelming  impression  of  social  prestige.  Whenever  these 
"cultural  accoutrements"  could  not  be  produced  locally  in  sufficient 
quantity,  all  Europe  was  ransacked  for  an  astonishing  assortment  of 
paintings,  sculpture,  stained  glass,  tapestries,  furniture,  and  bric-a-brac. 
The  result,  as  that  gaudy  generation's  sophisticated  and  refined  descend- 
ants laughingly  acknowledge,  was  hideous  and  absurd. 

For  those  Bay  region  artists  who  had  to  put  up  with  such  nonsense 
this  was  an  environment  that  sorely  tested  their  professional  integrity. 
But  despite  the  perversion  of  public  taste,  which  characterized  American 
life  generally  during  the  nineteenth  century,  the  majority  of  the  Bay 
region's  painters  and  sculptors  devoted  themselves  to  their  work  with 
uncompromising  sincerity.  And  eventually,  out  of  all  the  mass  of 
spurious  importations,  were  established  those  collections  and  exhibitions 
of  both  European  and  native  art  by  which  the  public  has  been  educated 
to  appreciate  the  significance  of  local  craftsmen  and  their  colleagues 
abroad.  Out  of  the  aesthetic  confusion  of  the  bonanza  era  have  evolved 
those  art  schools  and  museums  which  have  helped  to  create  a  new 
synthesis  of  the  welter  of  artistic  influences. 

If,  as  John  P.  Young's  history  of  San  Francisco  points  out,  most  of 
the  city's  literati  in  the  i86o's  ignored  the  local  scene,  "no  such  accusa- 
tion can  be  brought  against  the  painters  of  the  period,  for  their  subjects 
were  almost  wholly  Californian."  Pioneer  of  this  California  School 
was  the  artist  of  whom  the  Alia  California's  discerning  critic  observed: 
"Few  men  dare  paint  flesh,  against  a  pink  cushion,  Nahl  has  dared,  and 
won  (  !)"  This  was  with  reference  to  Charles  Christian  Nahl's  (1818- 
75)  three  separate  renderings  of  The  Rape  of  the  Sabine  Women. 
Painted  in  the  pseudo-classical  manner  of  the  Diisseldorf  School,  this 
romantic  work  was  long  considered  his  masterpiece.  Unfortunately  for 
his  reputation,  many  of  his  more  relevant  and  minutely  authentic  studies 
of  Gold  Rush  scenes  have  either  been  scattered  among  private  collections 
or  lost.  Though  the  M.  H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum  contains 
some  of  his  paintings,  his  most  representative  works,  including  The 
Fandango  and  Sunday  at  the  Mines,  are  in  the  E.  B.  Crocker  Art  Gal- 


GOLDEN     ERA         67 

lery  at  Sacramento.  Descendant  of  a  long  line  of  German  artists,  Nahl 
was  indebted  to  his  ancestry  for  what  talent  he  had.  In  subject  matter 
and  technique  he  was  influenced  by  the  classic  revival  and  by  his  early 
studies  under  Horace  Vernet  in  Paris. 

Expert  draughtsman  that  he  was,  Nahl  revealed  in  his  canvases  a 
love  of  detail  for  its  own  sake  which  make  them  primarily  exercises  in 
careful  documentation :  genre  paintings  in  which  the  sitter  for  a  portrait, 
accompanied  by  his  favorite  domestic  animals,  appears  against  a  bucolic 
background  of  his  own  countryside.  His  restless  energy  and  versatility 
enabled  him  to  make  hundreds  of  drawings  for  engravers,  supplying 
popular  demands  for  illustrations  depicting  Gold  Rush  scenes.  His 
designs  for  the  18  woodcuts  in  Alonzo  Delano's  The  Idle  and  Indus- 
trious Miner,  a  Tale  of  California  Life  are  a  marvel  of  draughtmanship 
which  enliven  with  droll  humor  that  collection  of  melodramatic  verses. 
"It  was  inevitable,"  says  Eugen  Neuhaus  in  his  appraisal  of  Nahl,  "that 
a  man  of  his  innate  endowments  and  extraordinary  powers  of  observa- 
tion should  be  inspired  to  depict  in  his  own  medium  ...  the  early 
California  glorified  by  Bret  Harte  .  .  .  ;  and  it  is  from  these  pictorial 
records  that  we  today  get  by  far  the  best  idea  of  those  stirring  times. 
.  .  .  The  Nahl  who  will  live  in  the  annals  of  art  is  not  the  painter  of 
remote,  academic  historical  scenes;  it  is  the  artist  of  the  life  in  the  Cali- 
fornia mines,  as  lived  by  an  adventurous,  polyglot  society  of  Americans, 
Indians,  Mexicans,  and  Europeans,  of  which  he  himself  was  a  part." 

Painting  in  California  would  have  remained  a  purely  provincial  art 
had  not  the  literature  of  the  Gold  Rush  with  its  wondrous  accounts  of 
the  natural  scenery  of  the  West  publicized  for  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and 
for  Europe  the  Sierra  Nevada's  fabulous  grandeur.  To  the  "increasing 
astonishment  and  reverential  awe  and  rapture"  of  millions  of  Americans, 
the  "California  School"  arose  to  rival  those  landscape  painters  who  were 
glorifying  the  Hudson  River  Valley.  Prodigious  as  these  Hudson  River 
wonders  appeared,  they  presumably  could  be  put  to  shame  by  more 
gigantic  representations  of  the  "magnificent  scenery  of  that  marvellous 
region,  where  the  roar  of  the  cataract  and  the  roll  of  the  thunder 
reverberate  like  the  tread  of  the  countless  millions  who  evermore  march 
to  the  westward." 

If  today  the  vast  landscapes  painted  by  Albert  Bierstadt  (1830 
1902)  seem  impressive  only  in  size,  they  nevertheless  furnish  a  com- 
mentary on  the  popular  taste  which  once  acclaimed  them  as  masterpieces. 
Their  depiction  of  cyclopean  gorges  and  mountain  peaks — with  every 
detail,  down  to  the  minutest  leaf  and  pebble,  described  with  an  exacti- 
tude approaching  photography — have  also  a  certain  expansive  gusto 
which  must  have  appealed  to  a  public  thrilled  by  the  first  full  flowering 
of  its  national  spirit.  Bierstadt,  born  in  Diisseldorf  and  brought  to 
America  as  a  child,  came  West  with  General  Lander's  expedition  of 


68         SAN     FRANCISCO 

1858.  His  Rocky  Mountains,  a  huge  canvas  of  ponderous  detail  and 
uncertain  perspective,  "threw  the  people  into  an  ecstasy  of  delight"  and 
he  "bounded  at  one  step  to  celebrity."  S.  G.  W.  Benjamin,  whose  Art 
in  America  confutes  some  of  the  prevailing  artistic  credos  of  his  genera- 
tion, remarks  that  since  Bierstadt  was  "naturally  an  artist  of  great 
ability  and  large  resources,"  he  "might  easily  have  maintained  a  reputa- 
tion as  such  if  he  had  not  grafted  on  the  sensationalism  of  Diisseldorf 
a  greater  ambition  for  notoriety  and  money  than  for  success  in  pure  art." 

Bierstadt's  contemporary,  who  succeeded  him  as  "artist  in  waiting  to 
the  Yosemite  Valley,"  was  Thomas  Hill  (1829-1908).  Beginning  his 
career  as  a  coach  painter,  Hill  depicted  panoramic  views  of  entire  moun- 
tain ranges  which  constituted  the  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  California 
School's  approach  to  landscape  painting.  His  celebrity,  like  Bierstadt's, 
was  spectacular;  but  today  the  works  of  these  two  boosters  of  Western 
natural  scenery  are  looked  upon  as  curiosities  of  a  fabulous  epoch. 

The  reputation  of  Thomas  Moran  (1837-1926)  has  suffered  less 
from  the  refinement  of  popular  taste  than  either  of  these  flamboyant 
representatives  of  the  California  School.  Having  studied  abroad,  he 
enriched  his  canvases  with  the  influence  of  Turner.  If  in  his  own  time 
his  works  received  less  vociferous  acclaim  than  inferior  productions,  his 
solid  talent  is  today  being  appreciated.  With  William  Keith's,  the  land- 
scapes of  Moran  represent  the  best  accomplishments — almost  the  sum 
and  substance — of  the  California  School. 

Like  Bierstadt,  Hill,  and  Moran,  Toby  Edward  Rosenthal  (1848- 
1916)  achieved  celebrity  abroad.  Born  in  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  he 
studied  in  San  Francisco  with  the  Mexican  painter,  Fortunate  Arriola, 
in  Munich  at  the  Royal  Academy,  and  with  Raupp  and  Piloty.  After 
gaining  local  fame,  he  maintained  a  studio  in  Munich,  where  he  turned 
out  excellent  examples  of  the  solid  craftsmanship,  the  minuteness  of 
literal  detail,  the  sentiment  and  the  "homely  philosophy"  of  the  Munich 
school  of  genre  painters.  His  method  of  painting  was  laborious, 
scholarly;  he  spent  three  years  in  literary  research,  travel,  and  sketching 
to  produce  a  single  canvas,  The  Trial  of  Constance  de  Beverley  (illus- 
trating Scott's  Marmion),  now  in  the  possession  of  Stanford  University. 
"I  have  spared,"  he  wrote  in  1882  while  at  work  on  it,  "no  labor,  time, 
nor  money  in  my  endeavour  to  make  Marmion  my  greatest  work,"  and 
the  remark  reveals  his  attitude  toward  painting;  to  him,  it  was  related  to 
archeology,  literature,  philosophy.  Only  incidentally,  however,  can 
Rosenthal  be  considered  a  Bay  region  painter.  His  The  Cardinal's 
Portrait  and  the  Seine  Madonna,  both  at  the  California  Palace  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  keep  his  curious  local  reputation  alive. 

It  was  only  natural,  once  the  novelty  of  wealth  had  begun  to  wear 
off  and  a  new  generation  had  been  born  to  inherit  it,  that  the  patrons 
of  art  should  take  their  cultural  ambitions  less  casually.  It  was  in- 


GOLDEN     ERA         69 

evitable,  too,  that  artists  of  the  Bay  area  should  forsake  the  old  methods 
and  adopt  the  technique  of  the  Barbizon  School — exemplified  by  such 
painters  as  Corot  and  Millet,  who  strove  to  render  nature  in  her  aspects 
of  light  and  air  rather  than  in  pictorial  detail.  Yet  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco painters  who  came  under  the  influence  of  the  forerunners  of  Im- 
pressionism, only  one  seems  to  have  gained  a  lasting  distinction. 

William  Keith  (1838-1911),  born  in  Scotland,  came  to  California 
in  1859.  Eschewing  the  colossal  marvels  so  loved  by  Bierstadt  and  Hill, 
he  translated  the  more  benign  aspects  of  the  lower  altitudes  into  turgid, 
dreamy  landscapes,  painted  with  the  molasses-like  impasto  that  was  a 
fault  common  to  the  Diisseldorf  School,  resulting  from  the  use  of 
bitumen.  He  was  content  to  paint  brooding  and  tranquil  landscapes — 
the  interplay  of  light  and  shade  in  groves  of  live  oaks,  forest  glades, 
hillsides,  and  brooks.  His  style  relates  him  somewhat  to  the  Barbizon 
school ;  his  lyric  tranquillity,  to  George  Inness,  who  wTas  his  intimate 
friend.  His  ambition,  like  Vincent  Van  Gogh's,  was  to  achieve  with 
paint  the  effect  of  music.  Often  he  succeeded.  Unfortunately,  his  use 
of  bitumen  to  achieve  subtlety  of  tone  has  caused  many  of  the  paintings 
to  fade  into  indistinctness.  Keith  was  the  only  California  painter  to 
whom  a  whole  room  was  devoted  in  the  United  States  section  of  the 
Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition's  Fine  Arts  Galleries,  yet  until 
recently  he  has  remained  almost  unknown  outside  the  State.  At  the 
Keith  Memorial  Gallery  in  St.  Mary's  College  at  Moraga  and  at  the 
Bohemian  Club  in  San  Francisco  are  many  of  his  paintings. 

The  influence  of  Keith  was  strong  on  the  minor  painters  who  banded 
together  in  the  Bohemian  Club  after  its  foundation  in  1872.  Little  of 
the  California  sunlight  is  reflected  in  Arthur  Mathews'  somber  work, 
but  his  murals  in  the  Mechanics'-Mercantile  Library,  in  the  Lane  Medi- 
cal Library,  and  in  the  Masonic  Temple  illustrate  an  architect's  sense 
of  values.  Typical  of  Gottardo  Piazzoni's  conventionalized  California 
seacoast  and  hill  country  landscapes  are  his  Public  Library  murals,  sub- 
dued in  tone.  A  sincere  and  accomplished  landscapist,  Xavier  TVIartinez 
settled  in  Piedmont  to  paint  the  quiet  beauties  of  the  East  Bay  hill 
country  in  a  number  of  canvases  owned  by  the  Oakland  Art  Gallery. 
Other  Bohemians  were  Bruce  Porter,  architect  and  mural  painter; 
Charles  Dickman  and  Henry  Joseph  Breuer,  landscapists. 

Twenty-three  local  artists  organized  in  1871  the  San  Francisco  Art 
Association  and  the  following  year  opened  headquarters  in  a  loft-like 
gallery  over  a  market,  where  as  a  visitor  to  their  spring  exhibitions  put 
it,  "Art  was  pervaded  with  the  aroma  of  fish  and  the  sound  of  the 
butcher's  cleaver  was  heard."  With  a  collection  of  casts  of  classic 
statuary — the  gift  of  the  Republic  of  France  to  this  gallant  undertaking 
of  culture  in  the  Far  West — the  association  opened  its  school  in  1874 
with  Virgil  Williams  as  master.  From  such  humble  beginnings  the 


7O         SAN     FRANCISCO 

association  was  elevated  when  Edward  F.  Searles,  who  had  married 
Mark  Hopkins'  widow,  presented  it  in  1893  with  the  Nob  Hill  castle 
of  the  railroad  tycoon.  The  house  was  described  by  Amelia  Ransome 
Neville  as  "a  mess  of  anachronisms.  One  entered  portals  of  a  feudal 
castle  to  pass  into  the  court  of  a  doge's  palace,  all  carved  Italian  walnut 
with  a  gallery  around  the  second  story  where  murals  of  Venetian  scenes 
were  set  between  the  arches.  These  were  the  work  of  Jules  Tavernier, 
French  artist,  who  stopped  in  California  after  a  trip  to  the  South  Seas, 
where  he  painted  long  before  Gaugin."  In  gratitude,  the  association 
named  its  school  the  Mark  Hopkins  Institute  of  Art. 

The  first  California  sculptor  whose  name  reached  beyond  the  State 
was  Douglas  Tilden  (18601935)  who,  himself  deaf  from  the  age  of 
five,  studied  in  Paris  with  the  deaf-mute  sculptor  Paul  Chopin.  At 
intersections  along  San  Francisco's  Market  Street,  the  heroic-style  com- 
memorative monuments  for  which  he  was  famous  overlook  the  passing 
traffic — the  Mechanics'  Monument  with  its  three  brawny  artisans  strain- 
ing to  force  a  huge  mechanical  punch  through  a  plate  of  metal,  the 
Native  Sons'  Monument  with  its  bronze  miner  waving  a  flag,  the 
Spanish  War  Monument  with  its  young  soldier  marching  beside  an 
equestrian  Victory.  Public  parks  and  squares  are  plentifully  adorned 
with  the  sculpture  of  such  pupils  of  Tilden's  as  Robert  Ingersoll  Aitken 
(1878 — ),  sculptor  of  the  Victory  Monument  in  Union  Square  and 
the  William  McKinley  Monument  in  Golden  Gate  Park,  and  M.  Earl 
Cummings  (1876-1936),  sculptor  of  the  Hall  McAllister  Monument 
beside  the  City  Hall  and  the  Robert  Burns  Monument  in  Golden  Gate 
Park. 

To  the  rest  of  the  country  until  recent  years,  however,  Tilden's  self- 
taught  younger  contemporary,  Arthur  Putnam  (1873-1930),  was  almost 
the  personification  of  California  sculpture.  From  youthful  experience 
in  riding,  driving  cattle,  working  in  the  forest,  and  laboring  in  a  South 
San  Francisco  slaughterhouse,  Putnam  gained  a  remarkable  knowledge 
of  animal  life,  tamed  and  untamed.  Masterful  in  composition,  his 
bronze  lions,  leopards,  and  pumas  show  close  observation,  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  animal  anatomy,  and  a  sensitive  feeling  for  rhythm  and 
movement.  His  figures  of  children,  rabbits,  and  fish  equal  in  charm  his 
savage  subjects.  Among  his  best  known  works  are  The  Snarling  Jaguar 
in  New  York's  Metropolitan  Museum  and  The  Death  in  the  Boston 
Museum.  The  California  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  has  a  collec- 
tion of  130  of  his  works. 

At  the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  in  1915  (where 
Putnam  was  represented  only  by  an  ornate  mermaid  fountain  modelled 
from  his  designs — described  by  Sheldon  Cheney  as  "typical  of  the  fine 
strength  of  his  work,  and  at  the  same  time  appealing  by  the  grace  of  its 
sinuous  lines")  one  of  his  students,  Ralph  Stackpole,  was  exhibiting  a 


GOLDEN     ERA         71 

variety  of  sculpture,  including  The  Man  with  a  Pick,  which  was  "justly 
admired  as  a  sincere  portrayal  of  a  simple  laboring  type,"  and  an  un- 
named kneeling  figure  by  the  Palace  of  Fine  Arts  lagoon,  "one  of  the 
most  appealing  bits  of  all  the  Exposition  sculpture,  well  expressing  devo- 
tion and  reverence."  Another  young  San  Francisco  sculptor  represented 
was  Haig  Patigian,  whose  bas-relief  friezes  and  four  nude  male  figures 
— Steam  Power,  Invention,  Electricity,  and  Imagination — for  the  Palace 
of  Machinery  served  "to  carry  out  the  sense  of  immensity  and  strength 
that  characterizes  the  entire  building,"  although  "lacking  the  refinement 
that  would  make  them  interesting  as  something  besides  vigorous  types." 

The  wealth  of  sculpture  and  painting  displayed  at  the  1915  exposi- 
tion was  to  "focus  the  artistic  expression"  of  San  Francisco  Bay  region 
artists  as  the  art  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  had  done  for 
the  artists  of  the  Nation.  The  "far-reaching  effect"  of  the  Panama- 
Pacific  Exposition,  wrote  Cheney,  was  to  show  "the  immense  value  of 
coordination  of  all  the  arts  .  .  .  The  great  thing  here  is  the  complete 
harmony  of  purpose,  of  design,  and  of  color,  in  the  combined  work  of 
architects,  sculptors,  painters,  and  landscape  gardeners."  It  had  the 
farther-reaching  effect,  perhaps,  of  educating  public  taste  to  the  point 
where  for  the  first  time  local  artists  could  begin  to  expect  informed 
criticism  of  their  work. 

Judging  "the  first  definite  exposition  of  the  new  point  of  view 
crystallized  by  the  influence  of  the  Panama-Pacific  International  Expo- 
sition," a  critic  of  the  San  Francisco  Art  Association's  Forty-second 
Annual  Exhibition  was  pleased  to  note  that  at  last  "the  noble  lines  of 
the  California  hills  are  being  painted  without  pseudo-idealistic,  romantic 
preconceptions."  Comparing  the  canvases  on  view  at  the  latter  exhibi- 
tion with  "previous  Western  'animals',"  a  critic  in  The  International 
Studio  found  "almost  no  vestige  of  the  'brown  sauce'  school  of  yester- 
day" and  little  which  was  "reminiscent  of  Keith,  Whistler,  and  the 
Barbizon  School — three  influences  which,  but  a  very  short  time  ago, 
dominated  the  California  annual  exhibitions." 

In  the  exposition's  Palace  of  Fine  Arts,  the  French  section  had 
exhibited  "a  number  of  examples  of  the  new  and  ultra-new  schools,  from 
Monet  and  Degas  to  Redon  and  Puy."  During  the  quarter-century 
interval  before  San  Francisco  staged  its  next  exposition,  local  artists 
began  to  modify  their  styles  under  influences  even  more  revolutionary — 
Cezanne,  Van  Gogh,  Picasso,  Rousseau,  di  Chirico,  Dali,  and  the  other 
godfathers  of  modern  art.  Among  others,  Lucien  Labaudt  and  Jane 
Berlandina  were  successful  in  grafting  the  best  traditions  of  French  art 
upon  the  local  heritage.  Some  of  the  influences  were  first-hand  ones. 
Henri  Matisse,  for  example,  spent  some  time  in  San  Francisco  painting 
the  Steinhart  Aquarium's  tropical  fish.  Foujita  came  to  teach  some  of 
modern  Japanese  art's  pellucid  quality  to  a  group  which  was  naturally 


72         SAN     FRANCISCO 

receptive  to  an  oriental  treatment  of  local  materials.  When  the  Mexi- 
can muralist,  Diego  Rivera,  came  to  paint  frescoes  for  the  San  Francisco 
Stock  Exchange  and  the  California  School  of  Fine  Arts,  his  influence  on 
many  of  the  local  painters — Victor  Arnautoff,  Ralph  Stackpole,  and 
Bernard  Zakheim,  among  others — was  tremendous.  The  visit  of  Ger- 
man exile  Hans  Hoffman,  the  Munich  abstractionist,  to  teach  summer 
classes  at  the  University  of  California  greatly  inspired  a  group  of  the 
younger  East  Bay  artists,  including  Vaclav  Vytlacil,  Beckford  Young, 
Edgar  Dorsey  Taylor,  and  Florence  Swift.  Hoffman  became  virtually 
the  spiritual  godfather  of  the  East  Bay  group. 

Even  the  California  School  of  Fine  Arts  (as  the  Mark  Hopkins 
Institute  of  Art  had  been  renamed  upon  its  removal  to  new  quarters  on 
Russian  Hill  in  1926),  which  had  hitherto  exhibited  an  academic  bias, 
responded  suddenly  to  the  new  influences.  Feeling  that  the  kind  of 
painting  they  had  learned  abroad  from  followers  of  impressionism  or 
pointillism,  of  Puvis  de  Chavannes  and  Maurice  Denis,  offered  no 
further  promise  of  development,  many  of  the  painters  associated  with 
the  school  became  devotees  of  Cezanne.  Two  of  these,  Lee  Randolph 
and  Spencer  Macky,  studied  briefly  in  Paris  in  1926  under  Andre  Lhote, 
teacher  and  exponent  of  Cezanne's  methods.  The  courses  given  here  by 
Arnold  Blanch  and  Maurice  Sterne  furthered  the  spread  of  modern 
influences.  Meticulous  craftsmen,  the  painters  associated  with  the 
School  of  Fine  Arts  have  come  to  be  characterized,  as  a  group,  by  a  style 
variously  described  as  neo-classicism  and  modern  realism.  Characteristic 
of  the  group  were  the  late  Rinaldo  Cuneo  and  the  late  Frank  Van 
Sloun.  Otis  Oldfield,  Randolph,  and  Macky  are  still  associated  with  it. 
Ray  Boynton,  formerly  a  member  of  this  group,  is  now  teaching  at  the 
University  of  California. 

Aside  from  a  series  of  exhibitions  held  at  the  Palace  of  Fine  Arts 
following  the  1915  exposition,  no  public  galleries  presented  really  com- 
prehensive collections  of  foreign  masterpieces  until  1930.  Lloyd  Le 
Page  Rollins,  appointed  director  of  San  Francisco's  California  Palace  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor,  then  made  it  his  policy  to  secure  traveling  exhibits 
of  international  importance.  After  his  resignation  in  1933  his  policies 
were  continued,  with  certain  unavoidable  reservations,  by  Dr.  Walter 
Heil.  In  1935  the  San  Francisco  Art  Museum  in  the  Civic  Center  was 
opened  under  the  competent,  dynamic  leadership  of  Dr.  Grace  McCann 
Morley.  It  has  become  a  living  center  of  education  and  appreciation  of 
modern  art.  The  response  of  the  public  has  been  remarkable;  attend- 
ance figures  at  the  shows  brought  from  New  York  by  the  museum  have 
approached,  and  in  some  instances  exceeded,  those  of  the  larger  city. 

During  the  depression  the  earliest  large  government-supported  mural 
job.  the  decoration  of  Coit  Tower,  undertaken  by  the  Civil  Works 
Administration  m  1933,  was  a  co-operative  endeavor  involving  a  number 


GOLDEN     ERA         73 

of  San  Francisco's  best-known  artists,  including  Ralph  Stackpole,  Ber- 
nard Zakheim,  Lucien  Labaudt,  Victor  Arnautoff,  Otis  Oldfield, 
Rinaldo  Cuneo,  John  Langley  Howard,  William  Hesthal,  Jane  Ber- 
landina,  Ray  Boynton,  and  Maxine  Albro.  The  murals,  which  show 
principally  the  influence  of  Diego  Rivera,  are  as  a  whole  distinguished 
by  a  high  level  of  craftsmanship.  The  WPA  Art  Project's  decoration 
of  the  Aquatic  Park  Casino  lobby,  the  work  of  Hilaire  Hiler  and  his 
associates,  is,  to  date,  one  of  the  major  accomplishments  of  the  WPA 
Art  Program  in  the  West  and  one  of  its  stellar  achievements  nationally. 
It  is  significant  that  people  come  daily  to  the  building  simply  to  look  at 
the  radiant  fish  depicted  upon  these  walls  and  marvel  at  the  technique 
by  which  they  are  made  to  seem  not  at  rest,  but  alive  with  graceful 
movement. 

Of  Matthew  Barnes,  a  San  Francisco  painter  whose  genius  is  now 
finally  achieving  national  recognition,  William  Saroyan  once  wrote  in 
the  San  Francisco  Call-Bulletin:  "As  he  sees  it,  the  world  is  a  place 
where  all  who  live  are  no  more  than  visitors  ...  A  lonely  place. 
Earth  and  sea  and  sky,  mountain  and  plain  and  tree.  Sun  and  Moon. 
And  then  the  places  of  men:  road  and  gate  and  house  .  .  .  City  and 
streets  and  the  immortal  visitor  of  the  earth:  yourself.  Only  when 
Matthew  Barnes  paints  these  places  and  things  they  begin  to  mean  just 
a  little  more  than  they  used  to  mean."  The  ultimate  sources  of  Barnes' 
terrifying  nocturnes,  of  the  eerie  realism  of  such  studies  as  his  Crime  in 
Concrete,  lie  in  childhood  memories  of  Scottish  folklore  (he  was  born 
in  Ayrshire  in  1886)  no  less  than  in  San  Francisco  streets  seen  through 
swirling  fog  and  incandescent  lamplight : 

".  .  .  ghasties  and  ghoulies  and  four-legged  beasties, 
And  things  that  go  'whoosh'  in  the  night  .  .  ." 

Known  for  his  "Westerns,"  vividly  delineating  such  subjects  as  the 
cattle  ranch,  wild  mustangs,  the  red  raw  canyons,  is  Maynard  Dixon. 
Examples  of  his  mural  decorations  appear  at  the  San  Francisco  Water 
Department,  the  Kit  Carson  Grill,  the  United  States  Building  and 
Loan  Association,  and  the  "Room  of  the  Dons"  in  the  Mark  Hopkins 
Hotel. 

One  of  the  most  disconcerting  of  painters  is  Bernard  Zakheim,  whose 
paintings  are  crudely  drawn,  beautifully  designed,  at  once  complex  and 
brutal — somewhat  resembling  the  work  of  Jose  Clemente  Orozco.  He 
has  done  a  number  of  large  murals  for  both  public  and  private  buildings, 
among  the  best  known  of  which  are  those  in  Coit  Tower,  in  the  Jewish 
Community  Center,  and  at  the  University  of  California  Medical  School. 

Ralph  Stackpole  has  been  an  influence  of  tremendous  value  on 
younger  men;  he  is  responsible  for  a  notable  local  school  of  sculpture. 
Stackpole  adapts  the  earthy  simplicity  of  Mayan  art  to  themes  which 


74         SAN     FRANCISCO 

are  modern  but  nearly  always  elemental.  Strong  simple  masses,  figures 
with  big  hands,  big  hips,  big  feet — these  are  typical  of  his  technique. 
His  stylized,  truly  heroic  proletarian  figures  cut  in  granite  on  bastions 
beside  the  entrance  of  the  San  Francisco  Stock  Exchange  show  his 
tendency  to  make  sculpture  an  appurtenance  of  architecture.  A  domi- 
nant feature  of  the  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition  was  his 
gigantic  figure,  Pacifica. 

Beniamino  Bufano  has  been  at  work  for  more  than  a  decade  on  a 
statue  even  more  tremendous — his  St.  Francis,  which  has  become  almost 
a  San  Francisco  legend.  Bufano's  use  of  color,  of  stainless  steel,  and 
other  unorthodox  media  in  his  sculpture  exhibits  a  daring  which  has 
gained  him  world-wide  renown.  An  excellent  example  of  his  work  is 
the  majestic  Sun  Yat  Sen,  in  stainless  steel  with  a  head  of  rose  granite, 
which  stands  in  St.  Mary's  Square  in  Chinatown. 

The  bas-reliefs — seen  on  the  facade  of  the  Aquatic  Park  Casino — 
and  wood  carvings  of  Sargent  Johnson  are  simple  and  decorative,  treat- 
ing the  human  figure  somewhat  abstractly  but  without  violent  distortion. 
Other  notable  sculptors  include  Ruth  Cravath,  Adeline  Kent,  and 
Robert  Howard,  all  represented  by  bas-reliefs  at  the  San  Francisco 
Stock  Exchange. 

Since  the  late  i93O5s  a  group  of  East  Bay  artists — followers  of  the 
somewhat  forbiddingly  named  Mural  Conceptualist  movement — has 
attempted  to  express  a  functional  inter-relationship  between  the  arts  of 
painting,  design,  and  architecture.  This  new  idea  seems  likely  to  enter 
the  lives  of  more  people  in  a  more  direct  way  than  any  artistic  develop- 
ment since  the  principles  of  functionalism  were  formulated.  To  the 
small  home-owner  this  may  mean  that  the  materials  of  which  a  house  is 
built  can  have  a  quality  more  interesting  than  that  of  keeping  out  the 
elements.  A  hitherto  blank  wall,  for  example,  may  be  enlivened  by  a 
decoration  of  common  bricks  incised  and  arranged  in  ingenious  patterns. 
Deserting  the  studio,  the  conceptualists  work  with  architects,  carpenters, 
and  masons ;  and  their  materials  are  the  materials  of  the  building  trades : 
concrete,  metals,  the  new  plastics,  and  many  kinds  of  glass. 

All  this  renascence  of  the  plastic  arts  in  the  Bay  region,  while  con- 
stituting a  local  "school"  only  in  a  geographical  sense,  exhibits  a  progres- 
sive spirit  which  is  in  the  best  traditions  of  European  and  American  art. 
The  standard  of  criticism  and  appreciation,  among  the  public  generally 
and  in  the  local  press,  has  been  raised  immeasurably.  Encouraging  is 
the  atmosphere  of  healthy,  if  sometimes  violent,  discussion  now  going 
on  among  the  artists  and  their  public  over  problems  of  aesthetics  and 
technique.  There  is  hope  for  a  sound  cultural  tradition  when  people 
can  get  excited  and  angry  and  form  factions  about  the  sanity  and  signifi- 
cance of  Georges  Braque's  The  Yellow  Cloth. 


Calendar  of  Events 


(Note:    "nfd"   means   no   fixed  date] 


Jan.   i 

nfd 
nfd 

nfd 

or  Feb.  nfd 

Feb.  22 

3rd  wk. 

Mar.  17 

nfd 

or  Apr.  nfd 

or  Apr.  nfd 

or  Apr.  nfd 
or  Apr.  nfd 
or  Apr.  nfd 
or  Apr.  nfd 
or  Apr.  nfd 

Apr.  6 
6 

ist  2  wks. 
nfd 

nfd 

nfd 
nfd 


San  Francisco 

San  Francisco 
San  Francisco 

Oakland 

San  Francisco 

Campbell 
Cloverdale 

San  Francisco 

Saratoga 

Niles 

Petaluma 

Lincoln  Park, 

Alameda 
Cragmont  Park, 

Berkeley 
Mount  Davidson, 

San   Francisco 
San  Rafael  Hill, 

San  Rafael 
Saratoga  Summit, 

Saratoga 

Presidio,  San 
Francisco 

Hamilton  Field, 
San  Rafael 

South  San  Fran- 
cisco 

San  Francisco 
and  Oakland 

Kentfield 

Oakland 

San  Francisco 

75 


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Army  Day  (Review) 
Army  Day  (Air  Circus) 

Interstate  Livestock  and  Baby 

Beef  Show 
Baseball  Season  Opens 

Annual  Pistol  Shoot 

Food  Show 

Spring  Yacht  Regatta 


76 


SAN     FRANCISCO 


nfd 


Golden  Gate  Park, 
San  Francisco 


nfd 

San  Francisco 

and  May  nfd 

Mira  Monte  Park, 

Kentfield 

or  May  nfd 

Kentfield 

or  May  nfd 

Napa 

or  May  nfd 

Oakland 

or  May  nfd 

Sebastopol 

or  May  nfd 

San  Rafael 

May  i 

Golden  Gate  Park, 

San  Francisco 

i 

San  Anselmo 

12-19 

Calero  Reservoir, 

Santa  Clara  Co. 

16-17 

San  Jose 

3rd  wk. 

Lincoln  Park, 

Alameda 

3rd  wk. 

San  Jose 

3rd  Sun. 

Mount  Tamalpais 

30 

Lake  Merritt, 

Oakland 

30 

San  Francisco 

nfd 

Calistoga 

nfd 

Hayward 

nfd 

Oakland 

nfd 

Redwood  City 

nfd 

Richmond 

nfd 

San  Rafael 

nfd 

St.  Helena 

or  June  nfd 

Madrone 

June  1st  wk. 

Martinez 

1st  wk. 

Oakland 

ist  wk. 

Santa  Rosa 

and  wk. 

Livermore 

3rd  wk. 

Shellville 

24 

Alameda 

nfd 

Brentwood 

nfd 

Martinez 

nfd 

Oakland 

nfd 

San  Mateo 

nfd 

San  Rafael 

Japanese   Cherry  Blossom  Fes- 
tival 

Wild  Flower  Show 
Iris  Blooming  Season 

Tamalpais  Center  Flower 

Show 

Spring  Flower  Show 
California  Spring  Garden  Show 
Blossom  Festival 
Annual  Art  Exhibit 

Children's  May  Day  Festival 

May  Day  Festival 
Motorboat  Regatta 

Hobby  Fair 

May  Day  Celebration 

Fiesta  de  las  Rosas 
Mountain  Theater  Play 
Memorial   Day   Motorboat 

Regatta 

Memorial  Day  Parade 
Kiddies'  Play  Day  Parade 
Rodeo 

Mills  College  Horse  Show 
Pet  Parade 

Fiesta  and  Horse  Show 
Horse  Show 

Napa  County  4  H  Club  Fair 
Rodeo 

Early  Days  Fiesta 

Sportsmen's  Carnival 

Rodeo 

Rodeo 

Sonoma  Rodeo 

Scandinavian  Midsummer  Day 

Celebration 
Apricot  Festival 
Soap  Box  Derby 
Gladiolus  Show 
Gymkhana  Club  Horse  Show 
Dog  Show 


CALENDAR     OF     EVENTS 


77 


July  ist  wk. 

Calistoga 

4 

Fairfax 

4 

Lake  Merritt, 

Oakland 

4 

San  Francisco 

14 

San  Francisco 

nfd 

San  Francisco 

or  Aug.  nfd 

Petaluma 

Silverado  Fair  and  Horse  Show 

Celebration,  Horse  Show 

Fireworks  and  Motorboat  Re- 
gatta 

Fireworks 

Bastille  Day  Celebration 

Soap  Box  Derby 

Sonoma-Marin  Agricultural 
Fair 


Aug.  2nd  wk. 
4th  wk. 

3 1 -Sept.  2 

nfd 

nfd 

nfd 
nfd 
nfd 
nfd 


Atherton 
Pleasanton 

Gilroy 
Antioch 
Berkeley  Yacht 

Harbor 
San  Francisco 
San  Francisco 
San  Leandro 
Santa  Rosa 


or  Sept.  nfd     Pittsburg 


Sept.  9 


1st  wk. 
3rd  wk. 

nfd 
nfd 

nfd 
nfd 

nfd 
nfd 
nfd 

or  Oct.  nfd 
or  Oct.  nfd 


Oct.  12 


12 

3rd  wk. 

31 


Throughout  Bay 

Area 

San  Francisco 
Bay  Meadows 

Benicia 
Berkeley 

Napa 

Lake  Merritt, 

Oakland 
Richardson  Bay 
St.  Helena 
San  Jose 

San  Jose 
San  Rafael 

Lake  Merritt, 

Oakland 
San  Francisco 
San  Francisco 

Petaluma 


San  Mateo  Horse  Show 
Alameda  County  Fair  and 

Fiesta  del  Vino 
Round-Up  and  Gymkhana 
Contra  Costa  County  Fair 
Berkeley  Regatta 

Harbor  Day 

Dahlia  and  Flower  Show 

Dahlia  Show 

Sonoma  County  Fair  and  Horse 

Show 
Western  Horse  Show 

Admission  Day  Celebration 

Labor  Day  Parade 

San  Mateo  County  Fiesta  and 
Rodeo 

Old  Timers'  Celebration 

Pacific  Coast  Tennis  Cham- 
pionship Tournament 

Fall  Flower  Show 

Outboard  Motor  Races 

Yacht  Regatta 
Vintage  Festival 
Fiesta  de  las  Rosas  Golf  Tour- 
nament 

Santa  Clara  Valley  Fair 
Old  San  Rafael  Days  Fiesta 

Columbus  Day  Festival  and 
Motorboat  Regatta 

Columbus  Day  Festival 

Grand  National  Livestock  Ex- 
position 

Parade  of  the  Witches 


S A  N     FRAN  CISCO 


nfd 
nfd 
nfd 
nfd 

Nov.  ii 

ii 
ii 
ii 

nfd 


nfd 
nfd 

Dec.  ist  wk. 
14 

25 

4th  wk. 

4th  wk. 

nfd 
nfd 


Bay  Meadows 
San  Francisco 
San  Francisco 
Watsonville 

Mill  Valley 

Oakland 
San  Francisco 
Santa  Rosa 

Berkeley,  Even 

Years 
Palo  Alto,  Odd 

Years 
Hayward 

San  Francisco 


Oakland 
Santa  Rosa 


Oakland 
San  Francisco 
Piedmont 

San  Francisco 

Santa  Rosa 
St.  Helena 


Opening  Horse  Racing  Season 
Opening  Grand  Opera  Season 
Opening  Symphony  Season 
Santa  Cruz  County  Fair 

Marin   County  Armistice   Day 

Celebration 
Armistice  Day  Parade 
Armistice  Day  Parade 
Sonoma  County  Armistice  Day 

Celebration 
California-Stanford  Big  Game 


Winter  Poultry,  Pigeon,  Ban- 
tam, and  Rabbit  Show 

Santa  Clara-St.  Mary's  Foot- 
ball Game 

Cat  Show 

Lighting  of  Cedar  of  Lebanon 
Tree  Marking  Luther  Bur- 
bank's  Grave 

Christmas  Pageant 

New  Year's  Eve  Celebration 

Outdoor  Christmas  Tree  Dis- 
play 

Outdoor  Christmas  Tree  Dis- 
play 

Christmas  Fiesta 

Christmas  Festival 


PART  II 
;  "The  City" 

<&<88&&^^^^ 


General  Information 


Information  Service:  Better  Business  Bureau,  15  Stockton  St.  Cali- 
fornia State  Automobile  Assn.  (A.  A.  A.),  150  Van  Ness  Ave.  Calif or- 
nians,  Inc.,  703  Market  St.  National  Auto  Club,  228  Pine  St.  Red- 
wood Empire  Assn.,  85  Post  St.  San  Francisco  Chamber  of  Commerce, 
333  Pine  St.  San  Francisco  Hotel  Assn.,  821  Market  St.  Shell 
Travel  Bureau,  102  Bush  St.  State  Chamber  of  Commerce,  350  Bush 
St.  State  Dept.  of  Motor  Vehicles,  160  Van  Ness  Ave.  S.  State 
Park  Commission,  417  Montgomery  St.  Travelers'  Aid,  Ferry  Bldg. 
U.  S.  Forest  Service,  760  Market  St.  U.  S.  Travel  Bureau,  461 
Market  St.  Out-of-town  telephone  directories  at:  Telephone  Bldg., 
444  Bush  St.,  and  pay  stations,  104  Powell  St.;  Emporium,  835  Market 
St.;  Roos  Bros.,  O'Farrell  St.  entrance  (near  Stockton  St.)  ;  and  several 
hotels.  Reference  library  information  bureaus  (limited  service)  :  Call- 
Bulletin,  Examiner,  News.  For  correct  time  call  ROchester  8900. 

Railroad  Stations:  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe  Ry.,  bus  connec- 
tions at  44~4th  St. ;  ticket  office,  235  Geary  St.  Northwestern  Pacific 
R.  R.,  Ferry  Bldg.;  ticket  office,  65  Market  St.  Southern  Pacific  R.  R., 
Ferry  Bldg.  Sacramento  Northern  Ry.,  Bay  Bridge  Terminal,  1st  and 
Mission  Sts.  Southern  Pacific  R.  R.,  3rd  and  Townsend  Sts.,  and 
Ferry  Bldg.;  main  ticket  office,  65  Geary  St.  Western  Pacific  R.  R., 
Ferry  Bldg. ;  ticket  office,  287  Geary  St. 

Bus  Stations:  Abbott  Lines,  85~4th  St.  Airline  Bus  Co.,  55~5th  St.; 
main  office,  1188  Harrison  St.  All  American  Bus  Lines,  Inc.,  40  Eddy 
St.  Dollar  Bus  Lines,  781  Market  St.  Pacific  Greyhound  Lines,  75- 
5th  St.  Burlington  Trailways,  Gibson  Lines,  Key  System,  Napa  Val- 
ley Bus  Co.,  National  Trailways  System,  River  Auto  Stages  Co., 
Sacramento  Northern,  and  Santa  Fe  Trailways  Bus  System  (main  office, 
85-5 th  St.),  44-4th  St. 

Sightseeing  Buses:  Gray  Line,  781  Market  St.  Several  private 
limousine  stands  near  Union  Square. 

Airports:  Municipal  Airport  (Mills  Field),  13  m.  S.  on  US  101 
Bypass,  for  United  Airlines  and  TWA.  Treasure  Island  for  Pan 
American  Airways;  office,  427  Post  St.  Taxis  to  Municipal  Airport, 
$3.oo-$3.5O;  time  30  min. 

8l 


82         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Taxis:     25^  first  1/3  m.,  10^'  each  additional  2/5  m. 

Streetcars  and  Buses:  Local:  California  St.  Cable  Ry.,  5$,  Market 
St.  Ry.,  7^,  Municipal  Ry.,  5$;  free  transfers.  Jitneys  (privately 
owned)  from  downtown  to  County  line,  10^.  Interurban:  Trans-Bay 
electric  trains  to  East  Bay,  21^,  round  trip  42^.  Market  St.  Ry. 
down  Peninsula  to  San  Mateo,  25^.  Pacific  Greyhound  and  North- 
western Pacific  to  Marin  County  cities.  Southern  Pacific  to  southern 
Peninsula  cities. 

Bridges:  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  approaches:  5th  and 
Bryant  Sts.  and  Fremont  and  Harrison  Sts. ;  toll  25^  (i  to  5  passen- 
gers), 5^  for  each  additional  passenger;  no  pedestrians.  Golden  Gate 
Bridge  approaches:  Marina  Blvd.  and  Baker  St.,  Lombard  and  Brod- 
erick  Sts.,  Lake  St.  and  Park  Presidio  Blvd.  (Presidio  Tunnel);  toll 
50^  (i  to  5  passengers),  5^  for  each  additional  passenger;  pedestrians 
10^  within  turnstiles. 

Piers:  Embarcadero,  foot  of  Market  St.  For  travel  information  con- 
sult travel  bureaus  or  steamship  companies. 

Traffic  Regulations:  Speed  limit  25  m.p.h.  in  business  and  residential 
districts.  No  U-turn  in  business  district.  No  left-turn  on  Market  St. 
east  of  Van  Ness  Ave.  No  parking  on  Market  St.  7  a.m. -6  p.m.  No 
parking  in  central  traffic  district  (bounded  by  Mission  and  California 
Sts.,  1st  and  Taylor  Sts.)  8-9:30  a.m.  and  4:30-6  p.m.  Parking  limit 
varies  (see  street  signs).  Right-turn  against  red  light  outside  business 
district  after  full  stop  and  if  pedestrian  lane  is  clear. 

Radio  Stations:  KSFO  (CBS,  560  kc.),  639  Market  St.  KPO 
(NBC  red  network,  680  kc.),  and  KGO  (NBC  blue  network,  790 
kc.),  in  Sutter  St.  KROW  (some  NBC  broadcasts,  930  kc.),  505 
Geary  St.  KFRC  (Don  Lee  Mutual  Broadcasting  System,  610  kc.), 
1000  Van  Ness  Ave.  KJBS  (Northern  California  Broadcasting  Sys- 
tem, 1070  kc.),  1470  Pine  St.  KSAN  (McClatchy  Broadcasting  Sys- 
tem, 1420  kc.),  1355  Market  St.  KYA  (1230  kc.),  5~3rd  St. 

Motion  Picture  Houses  (only  doiuntown  theaters  are  listed.  Box 
offices  are  o'pen  approximately  from  II  a.m.  to  10  p.m.,  except  Sat. 
when  first-run  houses  have  midnight  showings)  :  First-Run:  Fox,  1350 
Market  St.;  Paramount,  1966  Market  St.;  St.  Francis,  965  Market 
St.;  Warfield,  988  Market  St.;  Golden  Gate  (with  vaudeville),  Golden 
Gate  Ave.  and  Taylor  St. ;  Orpheum,  Market  and  Hyde  Sts. ;  United 
Artists,  1077  Market  St.  Second-Run  (only  the  larger  theaters  are 


GENERAL     INFORMATION         83 

listed) :  California,  4th  and  Market  Sts. ;  Davies,  934  Market  St.;  New 
Embassy,  1125  Market  St.  Newsreel:  Telenews,  Market  St.  near 
Powell  St.;  The  Newsreel,  980  Market  St.  Foreign  Language:  Clay, 
2261  Fillmore  St.;  Larkin,  816  Larkin  St.;  Princess,  1584  Church  St.; 
Verdi,  644  Broadway;  Vogue,  3290  Sacramento  St. 

Legitimate  Theaters:     Curran,  445  Geary  St.;  Geary,  407  Geary  St. 

Amateur  and  Little  Theaters:  Andre  Ferrier  Art  Theater,  1470 
Washington  St.,  productions  in  French;  Children's  Theater  Associa- 
tion, High  School  of  Commerce  Auditorium;  Fairmont  Hotel,  950 
Mason  St. ;  Girl's  Club,  362  Capp  St. ;  Jewish  Community  Playhouse, 
California  St.  and  Presidio  Ave. ;  Theater  Arts  Colony,  1725  Washing- 
ton St.;  Wayfarers  Playhouse,  1740  Clay  St. 

Burlesque  Theaters:  Capitol  Follies,  50  Ellis  St.;  Kearny,  825  Kearny 
St.;  Liberty,  649  Broadway. 

Concert  Halls:  Civic  Auditorium,  Grove  St.  between  Polk  and  Larkin 
Sts.;  Community  Playhouse,  609  Sutter  St.;  Opera  House  (War  Me- 
morial), Van  Ness  Ave.  at  Grove  St.;  Scottish  Rite  Auditorium,  Van 
Ness  Ave.  at  Sutter  St.;  Veteran's  Building  (War  Memorial),  Van 
Ness  Ave.  at  McAllister  St. 

Dance  Halls  (The  following  list  includes  only  public  dance  halls.  One 
also  may  dance  at  the  larger  hotels,  in  many  night  clubs,  and  at  fraternal 
halls):  Avalon  Ball  Room,  1268  Sutter  St.,  open  8-12:30  nightly 
except  Mon.  and  Wed.,  8-1  Sat.,  popular  and  old-fashioned  dances. 
Knights  of  Columbus  Hall,  150  Golden  Gate  Ave.,  Sat.  nights  only, 
8-12:30,  modern  and  old-fashioned  dancing.  Wolohan's  Ball  Room, 
1319  Market  St.,  open  8-12  Sun.,  Mon.,  Wed.,  Fri.;  8-12:30  Sat.  El 
Patio  Ball  Room,  1545  Market  St.,  open  8-12:30  nightly  except  Mon. 
and  Wed. 

Night  Clubs  (Clubs  close  at  2  a.m.  It  is  illegal  to  sell  liquor  between 
2  and  6  a.m.):  Alabam,  i82oA  Post  St.,  Negro;  short  orders,  a  la 
carte;  dancing. 

Bal  Tabarin,  1025  Columbus  Ave.,  dinner,  floor  show,  dancing. 
Beachcomber,  142  Francisco  St.;  dinner,  floor  shows  Wed.,  Fri.,  Sat. 
Chinese  Sky  Room,  605   Pine   St. ;  Chinese ;  dinner ;  floor  show  Sat. ; 
dancing. 

Finocchio's,  506  Broadway;  no  dinner;  floor  show  (female  imperson- 
ators). 


84         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Forbidden  City,  363  Sutter  St. ;  Chinese ;  minimum  charge ;  dinner,  all- 
Chinese  floor  show;  no  dinner  nor  floor  show  on  Sun. 
John's    Rendezvous,    50    Osgood    PL ;    minimum    charge ;    floor    show, 
dancing. 

La  Conga,  525  Pacific  St.;  Cuban;  dinner,  floor  show. 
La  Fiesta,  553  Bay  St.;  marimba  band;  dinner,  floor  show;  closed  Mon. 
Lido,  915  Columbus  Ave. ;  luncheon  dances,  Thurs.  1-4  p.m.,  Sat.  1-4 
p.m. ;  minimum  charge ;  dinner,  dancing,  floor  show ;  closed  Tues. 
Moderne,  555  Sutter  St.;  minimum  charge;  dinner,  floor  show. 
Monaco,  560  Pacific  St. ;  dinner,  floor  show. 

Music  Box,  859  O'Farrell  St.;  minimum  charge;  dinner,  floor  show. 
Roberts-at-the-Beach,  2200  Great  Highway;  dinner,  dancing. 
Royal  Hawaiian,  960  Bush  St.;  minimum  charge;  dinner,  floor  show; 
closed  Mon. 

Sinaloa,  1416  Powell  St.;  dinner,  floor  show. 
South  Seas,  540  Sutter  St.;  dinner,  entertainment. 
Streets  of  Paris,  54  Mason  St. ;  dinner,  entertainment ;  closed  Sun. 
Tahitian  Hut,  99  Broadway;  dinner,  all-Tahitian  floor  show. 
Three  Six  Five,  365  Market  St.;  minimum  charge;  dinner,  floor  show. 
Tiny's  Embassy,  2766  Taylor  St. ;  minimum  charge ;  dinner,  floor  show. 

HOTEL  AND  OTHER  ACCOMMODATIONS 

San  Francisco  has  1,326  hotels  and  rooming  houses — more  per  capita, 
it  is  said,  than  any  other  city  in  the  world.  The  following  list  is  con- 
fined to  hotels  in  the  area  bounded  by  Market  Street  on  the  south,  Bush 
Street  on  the  north,  Grant  Avenue  on  the  east,  and  Larkin  Street  on 
the  west.  Space  limitation  forbids  inclusion  of  hundreds  of  lower-price 
hotels. 

Luxury-Class  Hotels:  Clift,  495  Geary  St.;  Fairmont,  950  Mason 
St.;  Mark  Hopkins,  999  California  St.;  Palace,  639  Market  St.;  St. 
Francis,  335  Powell  St. ;  Sir  Francis  Drake,  450  Powell  St. 

Medium-Rate  Hotels:  Alexander  Hamilton,  631  O'Farrell  St.;  Am- 
bassador, 55  Mason  St.;  Baldwin,  321  Grant  Ave.;  Bellevue,  505  Geary 
St.;  Beresford,  635  Sutter  St.;  Biltmore,  735  Taylor  St.;  Bristol,  56 
Mason  St.;  Californian,  405  Taylor  St.;  Canterbury,  750  Sutter  St.; 
Carlton,  1075  Sutter  St.;  Cartwright,  524  Sutter  St.;  Casa  Nova,  354 
O'Farrell  St.;  Cecil,  545  Post  St.;  Chancellor,  433  Powell  St.;  Colo- 
nial, 650  Bush  St.;  Commodore,  825  Sutter  St.;  Cordova,  521  Post  St.; 
Court,  555  Bush  St.;  Crane,  245  Powell  St.;  Dalt,  34  Turk  St.;  Daven- 
port, 540  Jones  St.;  Devonshire,  335  Stockton  St.;  Drake- Wiltshire, 
340  Stockton  St.;  El  Cortez,  550  Geary  St. 


GENERAL     INFORMATION         85 

Empire,  100  McAllister  St.;  Fielding,  386  Geary  St.;  Franciscan,  350 
Geary  St.  ;  Gaylord,  620  Jones  St.  ;  Glen  Royal,  940  Sutter  St.  ;  Golden 
State,  114  Powell  St.;  Harvard,  685  Ellis  St.;  Herald,  308  Eddy  St.; 
Herbert,  161  Powell  St.;  King  George,  334  Mason  St.;  LaFayette, 
240  Hyde  St.;  LaSalle,  225  Hyde  St.;  Lyric,  140  Jones  St.;  Manx,  225 
Powell  St.;  Mark  Twain,  345  Taylor  St.;  Maurice,  761  Post  St.; 
Mayflower,  975  Bush  St.;  New  Continental,  127  Ellis  St.;  Olympic, 
230  Eddy  St.;  Oxford,  16  Turk  St. 

Padre,  241  Jones  St.;  Palomar,  364  O'Farrell  St.;  Plaza,  310  Post  St.; 
Powell,  17  Powell  St.;  Roosevelt,  240  Jones  St.;  San  Carlos,  811  Geary 
St.;  Senate,  467  Turk  St.;  Senator,  519  Ellis  St.;  Shaw,  1112  Market 
St.;  Sheldon,  629  Post  St.;  Somerton,  440  Geary  St.;  Springer,  615 
Taylor  St.  ;  Stewart,  353  Geary  St.  ;  Stratford,  242  Powell  St.  ;  Sussex, 
701  Sutter  St.;  Travelers,  255  O'Farrell  St.;  Vanderbilt,  221  Mason 
St.;  Victoria,  598  Bush  St.;  Virginia,  312  Mason  St.;  Washington, 
342  Grant  Ave.;  Whitcomb,  1231  Market  St.;  Willard,  161  Ellis  St.; 
Worth,  641  Post  St. 

Hotels  for  Women:  Emanu-El  Sisterhood,  300  Page  St.;  Evangeline 
Residence,  44  McAllister  St.;  Women's  Hotel,  642  Jones  St.  The 
following  rent  by  the  week  only:  Girls'  Friendly  Society  Lodge,  1590 
Sutter  St.;  Girls'  Recreation  Home  Club,  557  Van  Ness  Ave.,  S.; 
Glide,  322  Ellis  St.;  Mary  Elizabeth  Inn,  1040  Bush  St.;  St.  Mar- 
garet's Club,  1499  California  St. 

Apartment  Hotels  (The  following  list  includes  only  those  offering 
weekly  accommodations):  Clifton,  520  Taylor  St.;  El  Cortez,  550 
Geary  St.;  Huntington,  1075  California  St.;  Keystone,  1369  Hyde  St.; 
Worth,  745  Hyde  St. 


Y.M.C.A/S  and  Y.W.C.A.'S:  Y.M.C.A.,  220  Golden  Gate  Ave.; 
Y.M.C.A.  Hotel  (for  men,  women,  and  families),  351  Turk  St.; 
Y.M.C.A.  Chinese  Branch,  855  Sacramento  St.;  Y.M.C.A.  Army  and 
Navy  Branch,  166  Embarcadero. 

Y.W.C.A.,  620  Sutter  St.;  Y.W.C.A.  Chinese  Branch,  965  Clay  St.; 
Y.W.C.A.  Japanese  Branch  (women  under  35  only),  1830  Sutter  St. 

Tourist  Camps:  Marina  Motel,  2576  Lombard  St.;  Ocean  Park 
Motor  Court,  46th  and  Wawona  Sts.  ;  San  Francisco  Auto  Court,  701 
Sunnydale  Ave.  Other  courts  are  located  south  of  the  city  limits  on 
US  101,  US  101  Bypass,  and  State  I. 


86         SAN     FRANCISCO 

RESTAURANTS 

(Each  establishment  has  a  public  or  service  bar  unless  otherwise  stated.} 

Downtown:  Bay  City  Grill,  45  Turk  St.,  a  la  carte;  Bernstein's  Fish 
Grotto,  123  Powell  St.;  Bit  of  Sweden,  560  Sutter  St.;  Blue  Lagoon, 
153  Maiden  Lane;  Breen's,  7i-3rd  St.,  a  la  carte;  Cairo  (Armenian), 
77~4th  St.,  a  la  carte,  no  liquor;  California  Inn  (German),  600  Turk 
St.;  Charles  Fashion  Grill  (Italian),  243  O'Farrell  St.;  Collins  & 
Wheeland,  347  Montgomery  St.;  Diller's  Hungarian  Kosher  Style,  126 
Turk  St.,  beer  and  wine;  Famous  RKO  Grill,  35  Taylor  St.;  Fly  Trap, 
73  Sutter  St.;  Forbidden  City  (Chinese  and  American),  363  Sutter  St., 
closed  Sun.;  Girard's  French,  65  Ellis  St.;  Golden  Pheasant,  Powell 
at  Geary  St.;  Hawaiian  Paradise,  67A-ist  St.;  Jacinto  (Mexican), 
67  Turk  St.,  wine;  John's  Grill,  63  Ellis  St.;  Kit  Carson,  395  Geary 
St.;  La  Buvette,  134  Maiden  Lane;  Louis'  Fashion  (French-Italian), 
526  Market  St.;  Madrid  (Spanish),  165  O'FarreH  St.,  wine;  Maison 
Paul,  1214  Market  St.;  Marconi  (French-Italian),  241  Pine  St.;  Mario 
&  Frank's  (Italian),  225  California  St.,  closed  Sun.;  Mayes  Oyster 
House,  531  California  St.,  a  la  carte;  Mayfair,  116  Maiden  Lane,  no 
liquor;  Omar  Khayyam  (Armenian),  196  O'Farrell  St.;  Oyster  Loaf, 
30  Kearny  St.;  Pierre's  (French),  447  Pine  St.;  Pig'nWhistle,  33 
Powell  St.,  621  Market  St.,  130  Post  St.  and  1032  Market  St.;  Prizer's 
Hungarian  Kosher,  89  Turk  St. ;  Roundhouse,  Toll  Plaza,  Golden  Gate 
Bridge,  beer;  Russian  Tea  Room,  326  Sutter  St.,  closed  Mon.,  wine  and 
beer;  Ruth's,  333  Sutter  St.,  health  food,  no  liquor;  Solari's,  354  Geary 
St.;  St.  Julian  (French),  140  Battery  St.;  Temple  Bar,  25  Tillman 
PL;  Three  Musketeers  (German),  200  Hyde  St. 

Historic  San  Francisco:  Blue  Fox  (Italian),  659  Merchant  St.;  Jack's 
(French),  615  Sacramento  St.;  Manger  (Italian),  611  Washington 
St.;  Old  Grotto  (Italian),  545  Washington  St.;  Schroeder's  (German), 
in  Front  St.;  Tadich  Grill,  545  Clay  St.;  William  Tell  (German- 
Swiss),  630  Clay  St.,  dancing  nightly. 

Chinatown:  Cathay  House,  718  California  St.;  Far  East,  631  Grant 
Ave. ;  Hang  Far  Low,  723  Grant  Ave.,  beer;  Lotus  Bowl,  626  Grant 
Ave.,  no  liquor;  Manila  (Filipino),  606  Jackson  St.,  no  liquor;  Shangai 
Low,  532  Grant  Ave.;  Sun  Hung  Heung,  744  Washington  St.;  Tao 
Tao,  675  Jackson  St. ;  Universal,  824  Washington  St.,  wine  and  beer ; 
Yamato  Hotel  (Japanese),  717  California  St.,  sake  and  beer;  Yamato, 
562  Grant  Ave.;  Yee  Jun's,  834  Washington  St.,  beer. 

North  Beach:  Aquatic  Park  Casino,  foot  of  Polk  St.;  Backyard 
(Italian),  1024  Kearny  St.;  Ernie's  (Italian  and  French),  847  Mont- 


GENERAL     INFORMATION         87 

gomery  St.;  Globe  (Spanish,  French  and  Italian),  771  Broadway; 
House  That  Jack  Built  (Costa  Rican),  2014  Grant  Ave. ;  Jai-Alai 
(Basque),  895  Pacific  St.;  Julius  Castle  (Italian),  302  Greenwich  St.; 
John's  Rendezvous,  50  Osgood  PL;  Hotel  Espanol  (Basque),  719 
Broadway;  La  Favorite  (French),  825  Pacific  St.;  Lucca's  (Italian), 
405  Francisco  St.;  Lupo's  Pizzeria  (Italian),  1942  Kearny  St.;  New 
Joe's  (Italian),  536  Broadway,  wine  and  beer;  New  Tivoli  (French- 
Italian),  1438  Grant  Ave.;  Ripley's  (French),  846  Jackson  St.;  Riviera 
(French-Italian),  Union  and  Stockton  Sts. ;  Shadows,  1349  Mont- 
gomery St.,  closed  Mon. ;  Sinaloa  (Mexican),  1416  Powell  St.;  Va- 
nessi's  (Italian),  498  Broadway;  Veneto's  (Italian),  389  Bay  St.; 
Xochimilco  (Mexican),  1350  Powell  St. 

International  Settlement:  La  Conga  (Mexican-Spanish),  523  Pacific 
St.;  Monaco  (French-Italian),  560  Pacific  St.;  Rice  Bowl  (Chinese), 
555  Pacific  St. 

Fisherman  s  Wharf:  Fisherman's  Grotto,  9  Fisherman's  Wharf;  Joe 
Di  Maggio's,  Fisherman's  Wharf;  Neptune  Fish  Grotto,  2737  Taylor 
St.;  Pop-Eye  Fish  Grotto,  2770  Taylor  St. 

Western  Addition:  Cherryland  Sukiyaki  (Japanese  and  American), 
1650  Post  St.,  sake  and  beer;  El  Portal,  8th  Ave.  and  Fulton  St.; 
Grison's  Chicken  House,  2050  Van  Ness  Ave. ;  Grison's  Steak  and  Chop 
House,  Van  Ness  and  Pacific  Aves. ;  Jack's  Tavern  ( Negro — Southern 
cooking),  1931  Sutter  St.;  Russian  (private  residence),  1850  Geary  St., 
open  4-8  p.m.  weekdays,  9  a.m.-i  p.m.  Sun.,  no  liquor;  Salad  Bowl, 
5616  Geary  St.;  Swedish  Applied  Arts  Sveagard,  2016  Pacific  St.,  open 
to  public  7  p.m.  Thurs.  and  Fri.  by  reservation,  no  liquor;  Tenkatsu 
Mikayi  (Japanese),  1762  Buchanan  St.,  sake  and  wine. 

Beach:  Cliff  House,  Point  Lobos  Ave.  (overlooking  Seal  Rocks)  ; 
Topsy's  Roost  (Southern  cooking),  660  Great  Highway,  open  Fri., 
Sat.,  and  Sun.  nights;  Robert's,  220  Great  Highway. 

SPORTS 

For  information,  or  further  information,  about  archery,  baseball,  basketball, 
cricket,  cycling,  flycasting,  football,  handball,  harness  horse  racing,  horseshoe 
pitching,  lawn  bowling,  polo,  riding,  softball,  and  tennis,  see  GOLDEN  GATE 
PARK. 

Badminton:  Burke  Gymnasium,  2350  Geary  St.;  Palace  of  Fine  Arts, 
Baker  St.  near  Marina  Blvd. 

Baseball:  Seals  Stadium,  Bryant  and  i6th  Sts.  (Pacific  Coast  League)  ; 
season,  Apr.  1st  to  Sept.  I5th. 


88         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Basketball:     Y.M.C.A.,  Golden  Gate  Ave.  and  Leavenworth  St. 

Billiards  (Only  downtown  parlors  listed} :  California  Billiard  Parlor, 
1028  Market  St.;  Cochran  and  Palm  Billiard  Palace,  924  Market  St.; 
Ferry  Pool  Room,  82  Embarcadero;  Harvard  Billiard  and  Pool  Parlor, 
36  Kearny  St. ;  San  Francisco  Billiard  Parlor,  949  Market  St. ;  Wal- 
dorf Billiard  Parlor,  165  Eddy  St.;  Wright's  Billiard  Palace,  82 
Ellis  St. 

Bowling:  Bagdad  Bowling  Alleys,  1641  Ellis  St.;  Fillmore  Recreation 
Bowling  Dome,  1515  Eddy  St.;  Golden  Gate  Recreation,  115  Jones 
St.;  Hub  Bowling  Alley,  1671  Market  St.;  Powell  Street  Recreation, 
115  Powell  St.;  Rialto  Bowling  Bowl,  80  Ellis  St.  Bowling  greens 
and  facilities  for  public  bowling  are  maintained  by  the  city  at  Funston 
Field,  in  the  Marina ;  at  Julius  Kahn  Playground,  Pacific  Ave.  between 
Spruce  and  Laurel  Sts. ;  and  at  Rossi  Playground,  Arguello  Blvd.  at 
Anza  St. 

Boxing:  Civic  Auditorium,  Grove  and  Larkin  Sts. ;  National  Hall, 
1975  Mission  St.;  Coliseum  Bowl,  45-1  ith  St. 

Cricket:     Julius  Kahn  Playground. 

Cycling:  Bicycle-renting  establishments,  Great  Highway  and  Wawona 
Sts.,  near  Fleishhacker  Pool;  3214  Fillmore  St.;  1823  Haight  St.; 
2218  and  222O  Lombard  St.;  638,  672,  780  and  854  Stanyan  St. 
Cycling  permitted  on  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge;  toll-charge  10^  per 
cyclist. 

Fishing:  Lake  Merced,  free;  Municipal  Pier  at  Aquatic  Park,  N. 
end  of  Van  Ness  Ave.,  free;  Water-front  piers  and  Mission  Rock  near 
foot  of  Third  St.,  free. 

Football:     Roberts  Field,  I5th  and  Valencia  Sts. 

Golf:  Harding  Park  Municipal  Golf  Course,  36th  Ave.  at  Sunset 
Blvd.;  18  holes  and  6-hole  practice  course;  75^  weekdays,  $1.00  Sat., 
Sun.,  holidays;  monthly  ticket  $3.00.  Ingleside  Public  Golf  Course, 
Junipero  Serra  Blvd.  and  19th  Ave.;  18  holes;  75^  Mon.-Fri.,  $1.25 
Sun.,  holidays;  Sat.,  75^  before  u,  $1.25  11-4,  50^  after  4;  monthly 
$3.00.  Lincoln  Park  Municipal  Golf  Links,  33rd  Ave.  and  Clement 
St.;  1 8  holes;  50^  weekdays,  75^  Sat.,  Sun.,  holidays. 

Private  Golf  Courses:  Olympic  Club  Golf  Course  (Lakeside  Golf 
Club),  Skyline  Blvd.  Presidio  Golf  Club,  in  the  Presidio  (U.  S. 


GENERAL     INFORMATION         89 

Military  Reservation).  San  Francisco  Golf  and  Country  Club,  Juni- 
pero  Serra  Blvd. 

Gymnasiums:  Burke  Gymnasium,  2350  Geary  St.;  Y.M.C.A.,  22O 
Golden  Gate  Ave.;  Young  Men's  Institute,  50  Oak  St.;  Y.W.C.A., 
620  Sutter  St. 

Handball:     Burke  Gymnasium;  Y.M.C.A.,  220  Golden  Gate  Ave. 

Ice  Hockey:  Winterland,  Steiner  and  Post  Sts. ;  occasional  series  of 
games. 

Ice  Skating:  Sutro  Baths  and  Ice  Rink,  Point  Lobos  Ave.  near  Great 
Highway;  25^  afternoons,  35^  eve.  and  Sun.;  15$  extra  for  skates, 
children's  skates  free  afternoons  except  Sun.  Winterland,  Steiner  and 
Post  Sts.;  40^  mornings,  55^  eve.;  25^  extra  for  skates. 

Riding:  Bakers  Beach  and  the  Presidio,  Hunter's  Point,  John  Mc- 
Laren Park,  Lake  Merced,  and  Ocean  Beach.  Average  charge  for 
horses  $1.50  first  hour,  75^  each  additional  hour.  Riding  Clubs  and 
Academies.  Hunter's  Point  Stables,  415  Galvez  St.;  Bay  View  Stables, 
950  Palou  Ave.;  Paramount  Riding  Academy,  317  Broderick  St.; 
Roberts  Beach  Riding  Academy,  2232-481!!  Ave.;  St.  Francis  Riding 
School,  7Oi-7th  Ave.;  San  Francisco  Riding  School,  734  Stanyan  St.; 
Lake  Merced  Riding  Club,  Mission  Riding  Club,  Hollywood  Riding 
Stable,  in  Colma  (just  south  of  city  limits). 

Roller  Skating:  Ambassador,  Fillmore  and  Geary  Sts.;  open  2-5  p.m., 
7:30-10:30  p.m.;  adm. :  women  25^,  men  35^,  10^  less  for  men  bring- 
ing own  skates.  Burke  Gymnasium,  Sat.  and  Sun.  afternoons,  and 
every  evening;  adm.  25^.  Civic  Auditorium,  occasional  six-day  derbys. 

Rugby  Football:     Ewing  Field,  Masonic  Ave.  and  Anza  St. 

Sheet  and  Trap  Shooting:  Lake  Merced  Field,  Skyline  Blvd.;  com- 
petitions, usually  Sun. 

Softball:  Margaret  S.  Hayward  Playground,  Golden  Gate  Ave.  and 
Gough  Sts.  (night  play)  ;  Roberts  Field,  I5th  and  Valencia  Sts.  (night 
play). 

Swimming:  Municipal  Outdoor  Pools  (open  Apr.  i-Oct.  31)  :  Fleish- 
hacker  Pool,  Sloat  Blvd.  and  Great  Highway;  adm.  25^,  children  15$. 
Mission  Pool  (children  only),  I9th  and  Angelica  Sts.;  adm.  5^.  North 


9O        SAN     FRANCISCO 

Beach  Pool  (children  only),  Lombard  and  Mason  Sts. ;  adm.  5^.  Pri- 
vately Owned  Pools.  Crystal  Plunge  and  Baths,  Lombard  and  Taylor 
Sts.  Fairmont  Plunge,  950  Mason  St.  Sutro  Baths,  Point  Lobos  Ave. 
near  Great  Highway.  Y.M.C.A.,  220  Golden  Gate  Ave.  Y.W.C.A., 
620  Sutter  St.  Surf  Bathing.  Aquatic  Park,  foot  of  Polk  St.  Ocean 
Beach  (undertow  dangerous). 

Tennis:  Municipal  courts  at  44  recreation  centers.  Among  them  are : 
Clement  Courts  (4),  3Oth  Ave.  near  Clement  St.;  Crocker-Amazon 
Playground  (6),  Geneva  Ave.  and  Moscow  St.;  Funston  Playground 
(4),  Chestnut  and  Buchanan  Sts.;  Jefferson  Square  (4),  Golden  Gate 
Ave.  and  Gough  St.;  Julius  Kahn  Playground  (4),  Pacific  Ave.  be- 
tween Spruce  and  Laurel  Sts.;  Richmond  Tennis  Courts  (5),  8th  Ave. 
between  Clement  and  California  Sts.;  all  free.  Fine  Arts  Courts  (18), 
foot  of  Lyon  St.;  $1.00  per  hour  per  court,  day  or  night. 

Water  Polo:  Crystal  Plunge  and  Baths,  Lombard  and  Taylor  Sts.; 
Fairmont  Plunge,  950  Mason  St.;  Fleishhacker  Pool,  Sloat  Blvd.  and 
Great  Highway. 

Wrestling:  Civic  Auditorium,  Grove  and  Larkin  Sts.;  Y.M.C.A., 
Golden  Gate  Ave.  and  Leavenworth  St. 

Yachting:  Municipal  Yacht  Harbor,  Marina  Blvd.  between  Pierce 
and  Baker  Sts. 

CHURCHES 

(Only   representative   churches   of   most   denominations   are   listed   below.) 

Baptist:  Chinese  Baptist  Mission,  15  Waverly  PL;  First,  Waller  and 
Octavia  Sts. ;  First  Russian,  904  Rhode  Island  St. ;  Hamilton  Square, 
1975  Post  St. 

Buddhist:  Hongwanji  Buddhist  Mission  of  North  America,  1881  Pine 
St.;  Nichiren,  1860  Buchanan  St.;  Sokoji  Mission,  1881  Bush  St. 

Christian:     First,  Duboce  and  Noe  Sts.;  West  Side,  2520  Bush  St. 

Christian  Science:  First  Church,  1700  Franklin  St.;  Fifth  Church, 
450  O'Farrell  St.;  Seventh  Church,  940  Powell  St. 

Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints:  Mission  Ward,  2668 
Mission  St.;  San  Francisco  Ward,  1649  Hayes  St. 

Congregational-Methodist:  Chinese,  21  Brenham  PL;  Grace  United 
Church  of  the  Mission,  21  st  and  Capp  Sts.;  Park  Presidio  United,  4319 
Geary  St. ;  Temple,  Post  and  Mason  Sts. 


GENERAL     INFORMATION         9! 

Episcopal:  Church  of  the  Advent,  261  Fell  St.;  Grace  Cathedral,  1122 
California  St.;  St.  Francis,  San  Fernando  Way  at  Ocean  Ave. ;  St. 
Luke's,  1750  Van  Ness  Ave.;  Seamen's  Church  Institute,  58  Clay  St.; 
Trinity,  Bush  and  Gough  Sts. 

Evangelical  and  Reformed:  Bethel,  2005  I5th  St.;  St.  John's  Com- 
munity, 2041  Larkin  St. 

Free  Methodist:     Free  Methodist,  985  Golden  Gate  Ave. 

Greek  Orthodox:  United  Greek  Church  of  the  Annunciation,  245 
Valencia  St.;  Holy  Trinity,  345~7th  St. 

Hebrew  Reformed:  Congregation  Emanu-El,  Arguello  Blvd.  and  Lake 
St. ;  Congregation  Sherith  Israel,  2010  Webster  St. 

Hebrew  Orthodox:  Congregation  Anshi  Sfard,  1140  Golden  Gate 
Ave.;  Congregation  Beth  Israel,  1839  Geary  St.;  Congregation  Ohabai 
Sholome,  35i-4th  Ave. 

Lutheran:  Anzar  Danish  Evangelical,  152  Church  St.;  Ebenezer 
Evangelical,  200  Dolores  St.;  First  English,  Geary  St.  between  Gough 
and  Octavia  Sts.;  First  Finnish  Evangelical,  I4th  and  Belcher  Sts.; 
Norwegian,  615  Dolores  St. 

Methodist:  First,  Larkin  and  Clay  Sts.;  Glide  Memorial,  322  Ellis 
St.;  Japanese,  1359  Pine  St.;  St.  John's  Italian,  756  Union  St.;  United 
German,  240  Page  St. 

Presbyterian:  Calvary,  2501  Fillmore  St.;  Chinese,  925  Stockton  St.; 
First,  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Sacramento  St, ;  Mizpah  (Spanish),  725 
Folsom  St.;  Welsh,  449-14^  St. 

Roman  Catholic:  Church  of  the  Nativity  (Slavonian),  240  Fell  St.; 
Holy  Family  Chinese  Mission,  902  Stockton  St. ;  Mission  Dolores,  300 
Dolores  St.;  Notre  Dame  des  Victoires  (French),  566  Bush  St.; 
Nuestra  Senora  de  Guadalupe  (Spanish),  Broadway  and  Mason  Sts.; 
Old  St.  Mary's  (Paulist),  California  St.  and  Grant  Ave.;  St.  Anne's, 
810  Judah  St.;  St.  Boniface  (Franciscan),  151  Golden  Gate  Ave.;  St. 
Dominic's  (Dominican),  1901  Steiner  St.;  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  620 
Vallejo  St.;  St.  Ignatius  (Jesuit),  Fulton  St.  and  Parker  Ave.;  St. 
Mary's  Cathedral,  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  O'Farrell  St.;  St.  Patrick's, 
750  Mission  St.;  SS.  Peter  and  Paul  (Italian),  650  Filbert  St. 

Russian  Orthodox:  Holy  Trinity  Cathedral,  Van  Ness  Ave.  and 
Green  St.;  Holy  Virgin,  Fulton  St.  near  Fillmore  St. 


92         SAN     FRANCISCO 

Salvation  Army :  Chinatown,  Waverly  PL  and  Sacramento  St. ;  San 
Francisco  Citadel,  95  McCoppin  St.;  Waterfront,  38  Commercial  St. 

Seventh  Day  Adventist:  Central,  California  and  Broderick  Sts. ;  Rus- 
sian, 878  Rhode  Island  St.;  Tabernacle  (Negro),  Bush  and  Baker  Sts. 

Unitarian:     First,  Franklin  and  Geary  Sts. 

United  Presbyterian:  First,  1455  Golden  Gate  Ave. ;  Stewart  Memo- 
rial (Second  United),  1076  Guerrero  St. 

Miscellaneous:  Apostolic  Faith  Mission,  749  Market  St.;  Art  of  Liv- 
ing, 609  Sutter  St.;  Bahai  Assembly,  620  Sutter  St.,  in  Y.W.C.A.; 
Bethel  Full  Gospel  Assembly,  3811  Mission  St.;  Church  of  Christ, 
302  Jules  Ave.;  Church  of  God,  3718  Army  St.;  Father  Divine  Peace 
Mission,  821  Pacific  Ave.;  First  Russian  Molakan,  841  Carolian  St.; 
Glad  Tidings  Temple,  1441  Ellis  St.;  "I  Am,"  133  Powell  St.;  Light- 
house Full  Gospel  Mission  (Negro),  1905  Sutter  St.;  New  Jerusalem 
(Swedenborgian),  2107  Lyon  St.;  Rosicrucian  Brotherhood  AMORC, 
1655  Post  St.;  Society  of  Progressive  Spiritualists,  2126  Sutter  St.; 
Sufi  Movement,  545  Sutter  St.;  Theosophical  Society,  414  Mason  St., 
Native  Sons  Bldg.;  Unity  Temple,  126  Post  St.;  Vedanta  Society, 
Webster  and  Filbert  Sts. ;  Volunteers  of  America,  23O-9th  St. 


San  Franciscans: 


"Nowhere  in  America  is  there  less  in  evidence  the  cold  theo- 
loffical  eye,  the  cautious  hand  withheld,  the  lifted  eyebrow,  the 
distrust  of  playfulness  .  .  " 

— GEORGE  WEST 


TO  SHARE  with  San  Franciscans  their  feeling  for  the  city's  elu- 
sive identity — that  prevailing  atmosphere  which  is  to  San  Fran- 
cisco what  dynamic  tempo  is  to  New  York,  what  Old  World 
charm  is  to  New  Orleans — a  visitor  does  best  to  wander  about  its  streets. 
The  city  has  a  look  of  incredible  venerability.  What  remains  of  the 
old  San  Francisco — the  roaring  boom  town  of  the  Argonauts,  the 
Barbary  Coast,  and  the  bonanza  days — consists  mainly  of  a  handful  of 
once  proud  business  buildings,  crumbling  and  obscure,  that  somehow 
belie  their  conversion  to  modern  usage  by  their  appearance  of  having 
withstood  the  passage  of  an  era  of  violence  and  romance.  Elsewhere, 
in  those  parts  of  the  city  which  survived  the  calamity  of  1906,  row  on 
row  of  Eastlake  wooden  houses — with  their  bay  windows,  corner  tur- 
rets, and  fantastic  scrollwork — are  reminders  of  a  fabulous  past.  But 
although  San  Francisco  is  more  profoundly  steeped  in  a  tempestuous 
history  than  any  other  American  city  of  its  age  of  development,  few 
landmarks  of  that  history  remain;  the  city,  for  the  most  part,  is  the 
city  that  rose  from  the  debris  of  earthquake  and  fire.  Even  the  rebuilt 
sections  have  a  look  of  weathered  age.  Nor  do  those  sprawling  resi- 
dential districts — real  estate  developments  of  more  recent  years — long 
escape  the  mellow  tarnish  of  wind  and  weather.  The  very  streets, 
cutting  over  hill  and  down  valley  with  resolute  forthrightness,  are  memo- 
rials to  the  men  of  the  Gold  Rush,  whose  roughshod  surveys  determined 
the  city's  main  features,  imposing  on  traffic  a  series  of  permanent  incon- 
veniences which  are  nevertheless  excused  for  the  dramatic  vistas  they 
provide.  And  the  old-fashioned  cable  cars  that  lurch  and  sway  with 
clanging  bell  up  and  down  their  precipitous  slopes  have  long  since 
brought  to  street  transportation  a  spirit  of.  almost  festive  novelty  which 
it  enjoys  probably  nowhere  else. 

A  tradition  which  has  behind  it  the  most  hectic  and  glamorous 
epoch  of  American  pioneering  is  still  the  factor  which  determines  much 
of  the  city's  enigmatic  charm  and  governs  many  of  those  political,  eco- 
nomic, and  cultural  phenomena  by  which  San  Franciscans  continue  to 
astonish  the  world.  Every  principle  of  American  democracy  has  been 
tested  here,  and  what  has  emerged  is  a  kind  of  collective  wisdom  by 

93 


94         SAN     FRANCISCO 

which  public  affairs  may  be  administered  with  a  minimum  of  inter- 
ference with  personal  liberty.  The  average  San  Franciscan  still  adheres 
to  the  pioneer  concept  of  government:  the  less  of  it  the  better.  His 
Argonaut  forbears  tried  to  do  without  it  altogether,  but  found  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  social  evils  which  nothing  short  of  a  harsh  popular 
tribunal  could  eradicate.  Their  subsequent  experience  with  municipal 
administrations,  reformist  and  otherwise,  led  them  finally  to  devise  a 
city  charter  of  such  elaborate  checks  and  balances  that  corruption  on 
a  grand  scale  was  forestalled.  By  resounding  majorities  bond  issues  of 
a  dubious  nature  are  voted  down,  but  not  appropriations  for  education, 
for  parks  and  playgrounds — or  for  expositions  and  bridges. 

What  is  supremely  important  to  San  Franciscans  is  that  they  be  let 
alone  to  think  and  act  as  they  please.  Here  the  accent  has  always  been 
on  living,  and  however  much  the  city  has  changed  in  other  ways,  1940 
sees  no  let-up  in  that  vigorous  search  for  experience  by  which  San 
Franciscans  have  been  enriching  their  lives  since  1850.  The  difference 
nowadays  lies  in  a  certain  refinement  of  critical  faculties  which  is  hav- 
ing its  effect  on  all  phases  of  the  city's  social  life.  The  crowds  who 
attend  concerts  and  art  exhibits,  movies  and  cabarets,  theatrical  per- 
formances and  the  opera  constitute  audiences  whose  verdict  is  some- 
thing to  be  respected.  What  San  Franciscans  like  they  applaud  with 
a  sensitive  and  overwhelming  enthusiasm;  what  they  believe  will  not 
please  them  they  simply  avoid.  Rather  than  have  a  mediocre  theater 
of  their  own,  they  still  attend  dramatic  performances  imported  from 
New  York.  The  cuisine  of  their  hotels  and  restaurants  is  still  re- 
nowned the  world  over;  and  every  San  Franciscan  is  something  of  art 
epicure.  The  thousand-and-one  treasures  of  the  city's  shops  find  a 
sophisticated  response  among  San  Franciscans  to  whom  luxuries  are, 
and  always  have  been,  aids  to  graceful  living  rather  than  the  accoutre- 
ments of  fashion.  All  sorts  of  exotic  importations,  brought  in  by  the 
city's  various  ethnic  groups,  contribute  to  the  fun  of  being  a  San  Fran- 
ciscan. This  universal  delight  in  just  being  alive  here,  which  has 
amazed  so  many  outsiders,  has  its  source  very  largely  in  a  certain  play- 
fulness of  spirit — a  natural  gusto — by  which  rich  and  poor  alike  are 
able  to  draw  from  some  simple  experience  (a  ride  on  a  cable  car  or  a 
dinner  at  Solari's)  a  sense  of  joie  de  vivre. 

The  Genteel  Tradition  was  never  able  to  take  root  here.  The 
virile  ethics  of  the  Argonauts  forbade  it.  San  Franciscans  have  always 
shown  an  almost  universal  disregard  for  the  haughtier  privileges  of  great 
wealth.  Nob  Hill  was  not  a  social  success:  the  city's  sense  of  humor, 
its  love  of  gaiety,  its  unfailing  urbanity  have  excluded  aristocratic  exclu- 
siveness.  Its  absentee  aristocracy  (descendants  of  the  bonanza  mil- 
lionaires who  have  retired  to  estates  down  the  Peninsula  or  in  the 
Marin  hills)  continue  to  make  "The  City"  the  hub  of  their  social 


SAN    FRANCISCANS:    1940      95 

whirl;  but  San  Francisco  itself  has  no  recognizable  "four  hundred." 
The  city  has  not  a  single  public  place  where  formal  attire  is  obligatory  ; 
almost  the  only  social  requirements  are  that  one  hold  one's  liquor  well 
and  behave  like  a  gentleman — or  a  lady.  The  predominance  of  highly 
skilled  workers,  professional  people,  and  technicians  in  its  population — 
inevitable  in  a  city  which  is  much  more  a  commercial  than  an  industrial 
center — determines  the  social  standard,  outweighing  even  the  labor 
movement's  more  highly  publicized  influence.  But  the  middle-class 
influence  is  modified,  not  only  by  labor's  strength,  but  also  by  the  effects 
of  the  city's  polyglot  mixture  of  nationalities — its  vast  number  of  people 
who  have  come  from  every  country  under  the  sun,  and  while  becoming 
citizens  in  all  respects,  have  retained  nonetheless  the  customs  of  their 
homelands. 

The  best  way  to  insult  a  San  Franciscan  is  to  slap  him  on  the  back. 
Whatever  violates  his  natural  urbanity  receives  a  chilly  response.  Like 
his  Argonaut  predecessors  he  continues  to  form  friendships  and  choose 
business  associates  in  the  "partner"  tradition  of  the  Gold  Rush.  This 
delicate  social  process,  which  has  repelled  countless  newcomers,  has 
resulted  in  a  population  for  whom  individuality  is  the  keynote;  and 
those  of  a  more  gregarious  nature  quickly  retire  to  places  where  their 
back-slapping  propensities  will  be  appreciated.  Despite  this  unkind  form 
of  social  selectivity,  San  Francisco  is  constantly  acquiring  new  citizens 
from  every  state  of  the  Union  and  from  abroad.  Those  who  remain 
partake  inevitably  of  the  city's  social  tradition;  and  so  profoundly  will 
it  affect  them  that,  though  they  may  journey  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
this  place  will  always  be  home  to  them.  The  citizen  of  San  Francisco 
is  a  citizen  of  the  world. 


The  City*  s  Growth 

"The  Yankees  are  a  wonderful  people,  wonderful.  Wherever 
they  go  they  make  improvements.  If  they  were  to  emigrate  in 
larffe  numbers  to.  hell  itself,  they  would  somehow  manage  to 
change  the  climate." 

— GENERAL  MARIANO  G.  VALLEJO   (to  President  Lincoln). 


A'  THE  crossroads  of  the  great  migrations  of  antiquity  arose  such 
cities  as  that  magical  pandemonium  the  Argonauts  inhabited: 
Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  Jericho.    Although  the  sin  and  splendor 
of  the  bonanza  epoch  have  long  since  given  way  to  the  iron  age  of 
corporate  industrialism,  the  successors  of  the  Argonauts  have  striven 
mightily  to  retain  their  heritage  of  hilarious  action.     Somehow  it  is  all 
here,  chastened  and  dispersed,   but  no  less  explosive  than  in  the  era 
before  "The  Fire":  the  vigorous  delight  in  living,  the  susceptibility  to 
tremendous  projects,  the  vengeful  spirit  of  the  Vigilantes,  the  profound 
sophistication  and  the  capacity  for  Homeric  laughter. 

THE  VILLAGE  OF  YERBA  BUENA  (1835-1848) 

Dusty,  fleabitten  little  Yerba  Buena  was  in  1835  an  insignificant 
outpost  long  frequented  by  roving  seafarers,  Russians,  and  a  few  non- 
descript traders  who  smelled  of  hides  and  tallow.  But  for  four  redwood 
posts  covered  with  a  ship's  foresail  which  De  Haro's  harbormaster, 
William  Antonio  Richardson,  erected  on  "La  Calle"  in  1835,  San  Fran- 
cisco's original  site  was  little  more  than  a  waste  of  sand  and  chaparral 
sloping  down  to  a  beach  and  a  small  lagoon.  El  Parage  de  Yerba 
Buena  (The  Little  Valley  of  the  Good  Herb)  it  had  been  named  long 
before,  because  of  the  aromatic  vine  (Micromeria  Chamissonis)  found 
in  the  underbrush  there. 

Richardson,  young  master  mariner  who  had  deserted  the  British 
whaler  Orion  in  1822,  was  appointed  Captain  of  the  Port  of  San  Fran- 
cisco by  Governor  Pablo  Vicente  de  Sola  in  1835  when  the  Bay  was 
declared  a  port  of  entry.  Stocking  his  huge  tent  with  wheat,  hides, 
and  vegetables,  trader  Richardson  soon  supplemented  his  official  duties 
by  raising  two  sunken  schooners  which  he  put  into  service  transporting 
rancho  products  from  one  end  of  the  Bay  to  the  other  at  somewhat 
exorbitant  rates. 

Democratic  self-government,  of  the  bureaucratic  sort  decreed  by  the 
Mexican  Republic,  came  to  Yerba  Buena  before  the  town  itself  arrived. 
Citizens  of  the  partido  (civil  district)  of  San  Francisco,  on  Governor 

96 


THE     CITY     S     GROWTH         97 

Jose  Figueroa's  orders,  assembled  in  the  Presidio  on  December  7,  1834 
to  choose  electors  for  the  ayuntamiento  (district  council).  On  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday  Don  Francisco  de  Haro  was  elected  to  the  ayuntamiento 
as  alcalde  for  the  projected  pueblo  of  Yerba  Buena.  As  a  gesture, 
toward  establishing  the  town,  Don  Francisco  marked  out  on  the  ground, 
from  the  site  of  Yerba  Buena  to  the  Presidio,  La  Calle  de  la  Fundacion 
(Foundation  Street)  and  retired  thereafter  to  Mission  Dolores  to  look 
after  private  matters. 

Richardson,  on  July  I,  1836,  suddenly  acquired  a  neighbor  as  re- 
sourceful as  himself — one  equipped  to  do  business  in  really  sumptuous 
style.  Jacob  Primer  Leese,  Ohio-born  partner  in  a  Monterey  mercan- 
tile firm,  sailed  into  the  cove  aboard  the  barque  Don  Quixote  with  a 
$12,000  cargo  of  merchandise,  a  six-piece  orchestra,  and  enough  lumber 
to  erect  a  mansion.  By  July  4,  on  a  lot  adjoining  Richardson's  prop- 
erty, the  amazing  Mr.  Leese  had  thrown  up  a  frame  house  60  feet 
long,  and  25  feet  wide.  Borrowing  two  six-pounders  from  the  Presidio 
and  decking  his  domestic  barn  with  bunting  from  ships  in  the  cove, 
Leese  summoned  all  leading  Mexican  families  north  of  the  Bay  to  an 
Independence  Day  celebration — which  lasted  two  days  and  a  night. 

Among  the  guests  at  Leese's  patriotic  housewarming  had  been  Cap- 
tain Jean  Jacques  Vioget,  of  the  Peruvian  brig  Delmira,  who  was  also 
a  surveyor  and  a  lively  man  with  a  fiddle.  In  the  autumn  of  1839  this 
versatile  Swiss  was  commissioned  by  Alcalde  de  Haro  to  make  the  first 
survey  of  Yerba  Buena.  By  1840  on  the  west  side  of  Montgomery 
Street,  between  Clay  and  Sacramento  Streets,  next  door  to  the  new 
Hudson's  Bay  Company's  post  and  saloon  he  was  serving  ship's  captains, 
supercargoes,  merchants,  and  clerks  in  a  tavern. 

Thirty  families,  in  1841,  comprised  the  village  population.  The 
most  impressive  house  was  that  of  Nathan  Spear,  who  was  running  the 
Bay  area's  only  flour  mill.  Jacob  Leese  had  now  transferred  his  busi- 
ness to  Sonoma.  Richardson  was  living  across  the  Bay  on  his  huge 
Rancho  Saucelito,  where  he  continued  to  collect  customs  and  pocket  the 
funds,  claiming  that  his  salary  as  harbor  master  was  not  paid  and  that 
he  had  no  other  source  of  income. 

Governor  Juan  B.  Alvarado's  decrees,  restricting  trade  with  for- 
eigners after  1841,  drove  the  American  whalers  from  San  Francisco  Bay 
to  a  new  headquarters  in  the  Sandwich  Islands;  and  by  1844,  outrivaled 
by  the  port  of  Honolulu,  Yerba  Buena  had  fallen  back  into  obscurity. 
Though  that  same  year  saw  the  election  of  its  first  American-born 
alcalde,  William  Sturges  Hinckley,  the  village  continued  to  languish. 

The  mock-heroics  of  "Pathfinder"  John  Charles  Fremont's  raid  on 
the  Castillo  de  San  Joaquin  were  Yerba  Buena's  first  warning  of  im- 
pending change.  Slipping  over  from  Sausalito  on  July  I,  1846,  the 
Yankee  adventurer  spiked  the  dismantled  guns  of  the  old  fort.  ("So  far 


98         SAN     FRANCISCO 

as  can  be  known,"  says  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  "not  one  of  the  ten 
cannons  offered  the  slightest  resistance.")  Thereafter,  for  a  week,  the 
habitues  of  Vioget's  hangout  gave  themselves  up  to  warlike  gossip,  for- 
getting to  play  billiards. 

Suddenly,  on  July  9,  the  U.S.S.  Portsmouth  quietly  dropped  anchor 
in  Yerba  Buena's  cove.  The  villagers — unaware  of  Commodore  Sloat's 
flotilla  off  Monterey — were  disturbed  at  breakfast  by  a  roll  of  drums 
and  a  flurry  of  fifes.  When  they  rushed  to  the  Plaza,  Captain  John  B. 
Montgomery's  70  sailors  and  marines  were  running  up  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  on  Mexico's  flagpole  atop  the  adobe  Custom  House.  Down  in 
the  cove  the  Portsmouth's  21 -gun  salute  rumbled  into  history  across  San 
Francisco  Bay. 

Captain  Montgomery  on  August  26  appointed  Lieutenant  Washing- 
ton Allen  Bartlett  first  alcalde  of  Yerba  Buena  under  the  American 
flag.  On  September  15  Bartlett  was  confirmed  in  office  by  popular  vote, 
with  the  same  powers  enjoyed  by  his  Mexican  predecessors.  His  first 
important  decree  ordered  revision  of  Vioget's  survey,  which  had  served 
to  locate  building  lots  since  1839.  Jasper  O'Farrell,  civil  engineer  em- 
ployed for  the  job,  discovered  in  1847  tnat  the  Swiss  tavern-keeper's 
streets  intersected  at  two  and  a  half  degrees  from  a  right  angle.  His 
prompt  correction  of  this  error,  known  as  "O'Farrell's  Swing,"  left 
building  frontage  and  vacant  lots  projecting  somewhat  beyond  the 
theoretically  proper  lines  of  nonexistent  curbstones. 

On  the  last  day  of  July  1846,  Samuel  Brannan,  the  bombastic  Mor- 
mon Elder,  sailed  in  through  the  Golden  Gate  aboard  the  Brooklyn 
with  his  well-armed  flock  of  Latter-day  Saints,  a  hold  crammed  with 
farmer's  tools,  two  flour  mills,  and  a  printing  press.  The  Mormons 
provided  all  that  was  necessary  to  pull  Yerba  Buena  out  of  its  rut  once 
more.  Within  a  year  that  place  which  had  baffled  the  urbane  and 
mystical  Spaniards  for  three-quarters  of  a  century  would  appear  on  the 
map  of  Alta  California.  Two  years  later  the  name  of  San  Francisco 
would  be  blazoned  in  gold  on  the  map  of  the  world. 

CAPITAL  OF  THE  GOLD  COAST  (1848-1856) 

"To  this  Gate  I  gave  the  name  of  'Chrysopylae'  or  Golden  Gate  for 
the  same  reason  that  the  harbor  of  Byzantium  was  called  'Chrysoceras,' 
or  Golden  Horn."  Thus  Fremont,  after  gazing  at  the  Bay's  entrance 
from  a  Contra  Costa  peak,  adorned  his  report  to  the  United  States 
Congress  with  an  erudite  flourish.  Little  did  he  suspect  how  literal 
was  to  be  the  name  he  had  given  to  that  famous  strait. 

When  Brannan's  Mormon  battalion  landed  at  Yerba  Buena  in  the 
summer  of  1846,  the  village  had  50  or  60  inhabitants.  Sam's  passengers 
and  crew  swelled  its  population  by  nearly  six-fold.  The  Plaza,  newly 


THE     CITYS     GROWTH         99 

named  Portsmouth  Square,  already  had  its  fringe  of  gambling  houses,  a 
hotel  and  a  saloon,  and  its  nucleus  of  rough  characters. 

Brannan's  bull-throated  oratory  and  domineering  personality  enabled 
him  to  assume  leadership  of  the  town's  affairs.  Within  a  year  he  had 
performed  the  first  marriage  and  preached  the  first  sermon  under  Amer- 
ican rule,  seen  to  the  holding  of  the  first  jury  trial,  established  the  first 
newspaper,  and  sunk  all  his  money  in  Yerba  Buena  real  estate.  In  his 
California  Star,  on  January  30,  1847,  appeared  Alcalde  Bartlett's  ordi- 
nance which  cut  the  ground  from  under  the  scheme  of  Thomas  Larkia 
and  General  Vallejo  to  adopt  the  name  "San  Francisco"  for  a  rival 
townsite  on  Carquinez  Strait.  "It  is  Hereby  Ordained,"  said  the 
ordinance's  clinching  paragraph,  "that  the  name  of  San  Francisco  shall 
hereafter  be  used  in  all  official  communications  and  public  documents,, 
or  records  appertaining  to  the  town  [of  Yerba  Buena]." 

Whatever  Sam  Brannan's  original  intentions — ostensibly  he  had 
brought  his  cargo  of  Saints  around  Cape  Horn  to  establish  for  Brigham. 
Young  a  Mormon  commonwealth  in  California — he  soon  fell  somewhat 
from  grace  with  his  followers — and  with  Alcalde  Bartlett.  The  fiery 
Elder  was  too  deeply  involved  financially,  however,  to  move  on  to- 
greener  pastures;  and  though  his  paper's  editor  had  been  rolled  down 
Portsmouth  Square  in  a  barrel  for  lukewarm  local  patriotism,  Sam 
supported  a  campaign  for  public  education  which  resulted  in  establish- 
ment of  San  Francisco's  first  school — a  frame  house  on  Portsmouth 
Square  which  also  served  successively  as  town-hall,  church,  and  jail. 
His  own  contribution  to  the  spirit  of  progress  was  a  special  edition  of 
the  Star  of  which  2,000  copies,  carried  by  horse-borne  courier,  boosted 
California  all  the  way  to  the  Mississippi  Valley. 

The  arrival,  in  the  spring  of  1847,  of  Colonel  J.  D.  Stevenson's- 
disbanded  regiment  of  New  York  volunteers  in  the  Mexican  War — 
"Bowery  Boys"  schooled  in  the  spread-eagle  Americanism  of  New 
York's  Tammany  Hall — so  inspired  Sam  Brannan  with  faith  in  Cali- 
fornia's future  that  he  decided  to  strike  out  eastward,  meet  Brigham 
Young's  stranded  pilgrims,  and  lead  them  into  the  Promised  Land. 
This  the  patriarchal  Brigham  had  already  found  in  Salt  Lake  Valley, 
however,  and  Sam  had  to  retrace  his  steps  to  California.  Angry  and 
disgusted,  he  forgot  about  San  Francisco  and  decided,  in  the  autumn  of 
1847,  to  set  up  a  store  at  Sutter's  Fort  and  help  the  lord  of  New 
Helvetia  build  a  sawmill  on  the  south  fork  of  the  American  River  near 
the  present  site  of  Coloma.  When  gold  was  discovered  in  Sutter's- 
millrace  on  January  24,  1848,  Elder  Sam  Brannan  re-assumed  his 
authority  over  Mormon  miners  in  the  vicinity  and  began  collecting  "the 
Lord's  tithes"  from  them.  To  the  apostle  sent  to  him  to  claim  this  illicit 
revenue  Sam  retorted:  "You  go  back  and  tell  Brigham  that  I'll  give  up- 


SUN 


the  Lord's  money  when  he  gives  me  |\FC£  V*  s*gne<OR^Mf  Lord,  and 
no  sooner!" 

Meanwhile,  in  San  Francisco,  Brannan's  own  newspaper  was  ridicul- 
ing persistent  rumors  of  rich  gold  strikes  in  the  Sierra  foothills.  Sud- 
denly the  Stars  owner  himself  rushed  into  town  with  a  whisky  flask  full 
of  the  yellow  flakes  and  confounded  loiterers  in  Portsmouth  Square  with 
yells  of.  "Gold!  Gold!  Gold  from  the  American  River!"  Of  the 
town's  900  inhabitants,  only  seven  were  left  behind  when  the  renegade 
Mormon  with  the  bland  face  and  side-whiskers  led  the  first  rush  to  the 
diggings. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  gold  dust  came  down 
the  Sacramento  during  June  and  July  of  1848.  When  news  of  this 
reached  Mexican  and  South  American  ports  via  vessels  from  Honolulu, 
fortune-hunters  in  thousands  swarmed  aboard  ships  bound  up  the  Coast. 
By  New  Year's  Day,  1849,  6,000  miners  were  at  the  diggings.  San 
Francisco  was  a  cantonment  of  tents  with  a  population  of  2,000  excited 
transients. 

On  February  28,  1849,  the  California,  first  steamship  to  sail  through 
the  Golden  Gate,  arrived  with  her  hold  packed  with  gold-seekers  from 
New  Orleans  taken  on  at  Panama  and  her  hurricane  deck  swarming 
with  Peruvians,  Chilenos  and  Mexicans.  Greeted  by  San  Franciscans 
with  wild  cheering  and  by  five  American  warships  in  the  Bay  with 
broadside  salutes,  the  Pacific  Mail  steamer  was  promptly  deserted  both 
by  passengers  and  crew  in  their  headlong  flight  to  the  mines. 

Already  embroiled  in  the  slavery  issue,  the  Federal  government 
virtually  left  California  to  its  own  devices  for  the  next  four  years.  The 
ambiguous  powers  of  San  Francisco's  ayuntamiento  were  openly  flouted 
by  the  inrush  of  fortune-hunters.  Many  of  the  town's  merchants,  who 
had  been  quietly  getting  rich,  soon  found  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  a 
lawless  mob.  Sam  Brannan  took  the  chaotic  situation  in  his  stride:  he 
returned  promptly  and  did  a  thriving  business  selling  tacks,  canvas,  and 
redwood  scantlings  to  the  tent-dwellers  who  spread  out  over  the  sand- 
hills "like  the  camp  of  an  army." 

The  remnants  of  Colonel  Stevenson's  regiment  soon  abandoned  the 
hard  toil  of  the  placers  and  returned  to  the  city,  there  to  style  themselves 
Regulators  and  enter  the  employ  of  shipowners  as  a  police  force  to  track 
down  runaway  sailors.  In  outlandish  uniforms,  with  fiddle,  fife,  and 
drum,  they  soon  earned  the  name  "Hounds"  for  their  penchant  for 
"hounding"  Mexicans,  Peruvians,  and  others  of  darker  skin  to  whom 
they  denied  all  rights  in  this  land  "preserved  by  nature  for  Americans 
only,  who  possess  noble  hearts."  On  the  night  of  July  15,  1849,  these 
hoodlums  raided  the  Chilean  quarter;  in  that  scene  of  pillage  and  gen- 
eral mayhem,  one  woman  was  murdered  and  a  Hound  stabbed  with  a 
bowie  knife.  ••-•. 


THE     CITY'S     GROWTH       IOI 

Alcalde  T.  M.  Leavenworth,  having  neither  the  legal  power  nor 
the  courage  to  make  an  arrest,  let  the  incident  pass;  but  the  town's 
leading  merchants  had  had  enough  of  lawlessness.  Led  by  Sam  Bran- 
nan,  who  stood  hurling  invective  at  the  Hounds  from  the  rooftop  of  the 
alcalde  s  office  in  Portsmouth  Square,  San  Francisco's  first  forces  of  law 
and  order  were  mobilized.  Leavenworth  himself  was  compelled  to 
give  them  some  kind  of  legal  sanction.  By  sunset  19  of  the  Hounds  had 
been  run  down.  Next  day  a  grand  jury  indicted  all  19  for  conspiracy 
"to  commit  riot,  rape,  and  murder."  None  of  these  proceedings,  of 
course,  had  any  legal  status  in  California.  The  verdict  was  banishment 
from  the  territory,  but  although  the  Hounds  disbanded — and  the  law- 
and-order  men  also — the  convicted  men  could  not  be  deported ;  and  San 
Francisco's  underworld  continued  to  wage  a  stealthy  warfare  against 
the  whole  community. 

W.  T.  "War-Is-Hell"  Sherman  presents  in  his  Memoirs  a  graphic 
picture  of  the  riotous  Gold  Rush  metropolis  during  the  wet  winter  of 
1849  and  the  spring  of  1850:  "Montgomery  Street  had  been  filled  up 
with  brush  and  clay  and  I  always  dreaded  to  ride  on  horseback  along 
it.  ...  The  rider  was  likely  to  be  thrown  and  drowned  in  the  mud." 
Kearny  Street  was  impassable,  "not  even  jackassable,"  except  where  it 
was  paved  for  25  yards  with  sacks  of  flour  and  bran,  tobacco,  stoves, 
and  a  piano.  Drunks,  known  to  stumble  into  the  mire,  would  suffocate 
before  rescue  could  arrive. 

Portsmouth  Square,  ringed  round  on  three  sides  by  saloons  and  gam- 
bling dens,  was  a  bedlam  that  roared  night  and  day.  Except  for  the 
city's  merchants  and  a  few  other  stationary  inhabitants,  the  population 
was  forever  shuttling  back  and  forth  between  the  city  and  the  gold 
camps.  In  the  period  from  Christmas  Eve,  1849,  to  June  22,  1851,  San 
Francisco's  ramshackle  architecture  was  leveled  by  six  successive  fires. 
Not  until  after  the  fifth  of  these  conflagrations  did  responsible  citizens 
manage  to  lay  charges  of  incendiarism  against  the  Hounds'  successors, 
the  Sydney  Ducks. 

On  June  9,  1851,  the  first  Vigilance  Committee  was  organized  in 
the  office  of  Sam  Brannan,  who  became  its  president.  Two  days  later, 
for  the  theft  of  a  small  safe,  John  Jenkins  swung  in  the  moonlight  from 
a  gable  of  the  old  Customhouse  on  Porthmouth  Square.  By  July  i  the 
Vigilantes  were  so  well  organized  that  the  city's  homicide  rate — which 
nevertheless  was  to  include  1,000  murders  between  1849  and  1856 — 
declined  temporarily.  Among  the  reputable  element,  however,  duels 
were  common  occurrences.  Streets  and  gambling  resorts  were  almost 
daily  the  scenes  of  casual  gunfire. 

On  assuming  office  in  1850  Mayor  John  W.  Geary  had  warned  the 
City  Council  that  ".  .  .  we  are  without  a  dollar  in  the  public  treasury, 
and  it  is  to  be  feared  the  city  is  greatly  in  debt.  ...  In  short,  you  are 


IO2      SAN     FRANCISCO 

without  a  single  requisite  ...  for  the  protection  of  property,  or  for 
the  maintenance  of  order."  The  warning  had  little  effect.  When  the 
public  debt  had  risen  to  $840,000,  it  was  repudiated.  Municipal  offi- 
cials, honest  and  otherwise,  continued  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  Barbary 
Coast  machine  which  put  them  in  office.  Sam  Brannan  could  drum  up 
a  lynching  as  well  as  any  rabble-rouser,  but  he  was  no  match  for  those 
Tammany  politicians  whose  wardheelers  stuffed  ballot  boxes,  paid  out 
patronage  and  bribes,  and  terrorized  voters  at  the  polls.  The  influx  of 
ticket-of-leave  men — ex-convicts  from  Australia  locally  known  as  Sydney 
Ducks — had  brought  on  a  crime  wave  of-  alarming  violence. 

The  rich  yield  of  the  placers  began  to  run  out  in  1854.  San  Fran- 
cisco went  as  wild  in  financial  panic  as  it  had  been  amid  the  inflation 
after  1849.  One  of  the  victims  of  the  depression,  James  King  of 
William,  vented  his  chagrin  over  bad  luck  on  the  city's  corrupt  politi- 
cians through  editorials  in  a  newspaper  he  established  for  the  purpose. 
For  his  scalping  pen,  the  editor  of  the  Evening  Bulletin  was  shot  down 
one  day  on  Montgomery  Street  by  city  supervisor  James  P.  Casey. 

Already  incensed  by  the  failure  of  a  jury  to  convict  the  slayer  of 
U.  S.  Marshal  William  H.  Richardson — one  Charles  Cora,  a  gambler, 
who  had  resented  Richardson's  public  snubbing  of  his  bagnio-keeping 
mistress — those  San  Franciscans  grown  weary  of  lawless  ways  quietly 
formed  the  second  Vigilance  Committee.  Under  the  leadership  of  mer- 
chant William  T.  Coleman  it  went  about  its  business  with  less  fanfare, 
but  more  efficiency,  than  the  Committee  of  1851.  Upon  the  day  of 
James  King  of  William's  funeral,  the  bodies  of  Cora  and  Casey  dangled 
from  second-story  windows  of  a  building  on  Sacramento  Street,  later 
known  as  Fort  Gunnybags. 

Since  California's  admission  to  the  Union  in  1850  the  new  State  had 
made  some  progress  toward  stable  government.  However,  the  militia 
recruited  in  San  Francisco  on  orders  from  the  governor  to  take  over  the 
extra-legal  power  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  was  defied  with  armed 
resistance.  By  1856  the  Vigilantes  had  enrolled  most  of  W.  T.  Sher- 
man's militiamen  within  their  ranks.  At  the  height  of  its  power  the 
Committee  numbered  9,000  men :  a  military  body  composed  of  infantry, 
artillery,  and  cavalry  detachments.  After  an  altercation  with  one  of  its 
officers  a  State  Supreme  Court  judge,  David  S.  Terry,  was  held  in  Fort 
Gunnybags,  pending  recovery  of  the  victim  of  his  bowie  knife.  During 
the  life  of  the  committee,  there  had  been  four  executions,  and  some  30 
undesirables  had  been  banished  from  the  State. 

On  August  1 8,  1856,  the  Vigilance  Committee  disbanded  volun- 
tarily. Respect  for  law  and  order,  which  a  corrupt  government  had 
failed  to  inspire,  was  thus  established  by  a  popular  instrument  without 
legal  authority.  From  the  work  of  this  "lawless"  body  sprang  the 
People's  Party  which  swept  the  municipal  election  of  1857  mt<>  tne 


THE     CITY    «     GROWTH       IO3 

hands  of  men  for  whom  honesty,  aside  from  being  the  best  policy,  was  a 
proviso  of  health  and  longevity. 


BONANZA   (1856-1875) 

San  Francisco's  population  of  50,000 — at  no  time  during  the  i85o's 
did  it  exceed  this  figure — had  been  perched  on  the  bandwagon  of  the 
Gold  Rush  for  five  miraculous  years.  The  roulette  wheel  was  the 
symbol  of  its  whole  economy.  When  the  stream  of  yellow  metal  ceased 
to  pour  down  upon  the  town,  however,  the  stakes  of  gamblers  and 
speculators  alike  vanished  into  thin  air.  The  crash  dealt  the  relatively 
small,  highly  organized  community  a  stunning  blow.  Inbound  shipping 
decreased  by  half  from  1853  to  1857;  liabilities  of  bankrupt  firms 
totaled  more  than  $8,000,000.  Nearly  half  the  city's  population  was 
unemployed. 

In  February  and  March  of  1855  Stockton  and  Los  Angeles  papers 
printed  a  number  of  sensational  letters  giving  details  of  a  purported  rich 
strike  on  the  Kern  River.  Thousands  of  people  abandoned  rich  claims 
and  steady  employment  in  the  rush  to  the  new  El  Dorado.  Additional 
thousands  were  preparing  to  follow  when  letters  from  the  area  brought 
the  discouraging  news  that  there  was  not  work  for  more  than  100  men. 
The  unemployment  burden  was  considerably  lightened  in  1858,  how- 
ever, when  towards  the  end  of  summer,  18,000  men  joined  in  a  wild 
exodus  to  British  Columbia's  newly  discovered  Frazier  River  mines. 
With  recovery  came  increased  commercial  activity;  and  demands  from 
growing  agricultural  districts  for  articles  of  domestic  and  foreign  manu- 
facture laid  the  foundation  of  San  Francisco's  industrial  prosperity. 
More  than  $4,000,000  a  month  in  gold,  besides,  was  being  shipped  out 
through  the  Golden  Gate  before  the  beginning  of  1859. 

The  national  controversy  over  slavery  was  rapidly  dividing  Cali- 
fornians  into  Secessionists  and  patriots  loyal  to  the  Union.  As  the 
"irreconcilable  conflict"  approached  a  crisis,  it  became  apparent  that  the 
State  might  join  the  Southern  cause.  Among  San  Franciscans  this 
political  cleavage  was  the  occasion  for  personal  feuds  in  which  damaging 
accusations  and  unprintable  remarks  led  logically  to  "shooting  it  out." 
Consequently  when  California's  champion  against  slavery  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  David  C.  Broderick,  cast  aspersions  upon  Secessionist 
Judge  David  S.  Terry,  chief  justice  of  the  State  Supreme  Court,  the 
latter  promptly  challenged  the  somber-faced  Senator  to  a  duel.  Brod- 
erick was  killed;  30,000  San  Franciscans  attended  his  funeral;  Terry 
was  ostracized,  and  the  Senator's  martyrdom  crystallized  Union  senti- 
ment among  the  city's  predominantly  Yankee  population. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  election  to  the  Presidency  was  acclaimed  by  San 
Francisco's  Union  sympathizers  with  wild  demonstrations  in  the  streets. 


IO4      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Huge  mass  meetings  were  addressed  by  Senator  Edward  Baker  and 
Unitarian  minister  Thomas  Starr  King,  both  of  whom  toured  the  State 
for  the  Union  cause.  Brigadier-General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  in 
command  of  the  Presidio  and  the  Department  of  the  Pacific,  was  dis- 
placed by  General  E.  V.  Sumner  following  charges  that  Johnston  was 
in  league  with  Senator  William  M.  Gwin  to  turn  over  California's 
armed  forces  to  the  Confederacy.  Sumner's  arrest  of  Gwin  left  the 
State's  Secessionists  without  leadership,  and  their  conspiracy  collapsed. 

With  California  won  for  the  North,  San  Francisco  proceeded  to 
develop  its  commerce  and  industry,  in  virtual  isolation  from  the  War 
between  the  States.  Its  most  substantial  contribution  to  the  Union  cause 
was  the  $566,790.66  in  gold  sent  to  the  United  States  Sanitary  Com- 
mission for  aid  to  the  sick  and  wounded  among  the  Northern  troops. 

The  slump  in  gold  production  after  1860  found  compensation  in  the 
growth  of  new  industries  and  increasing  trade.  The  Nation's  treaty 
with  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  permitting  free  entry  of  raw  sugar,  resulted 
in  the  establishment  of  San  Francisco's  first  refinery.  The  development 
of  transportation  brought  increasing  prosperity  to  sawmills,  foundries, 
and  other  enterprises  spreading  rapidly  over  the  Bay  area.  On  October 
24,  1 86 1,  San  Francisco  and  New  York  were  connected  by  telegraph. 
That  same  year  a  young  engineer,  Theodore  Dehone  Judah,  finally 
convinced  a  small  group  of  businessmen  that  a  railroad  could  be  built 
across  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

The  possibility  of  transporting  the  fabulous  silver  deposits  of 
Nevada's  Comstock  Lode  to  San  Francisco  by  rail  inspired  even  the 
least  imaginative  of  the  city's  entrepreneurs.  Charles  Crocker,  Mark 
Hopkins,  Leland  Stanford,  and  Collis  P.  Huntington — Sacramento 
merchants  with  a  bare  $50,000  among  them — saw  in  Judah's  plan  their 
chance  to  corner  for  themselves  the  wealth  of  California's  growing 
commerce.  Prototypes  of  San  Francisco's  later  financial  giants,  the 
predestined  "Big  Four"  organized  the  Central  Pacific  Company  of  Cali- 
fornia on  June  28,  1861.  President  Lincoln's  signing  of  the  Pacific 
Railroad  Bill  a  year  later  was  the  signal  for  the  eight-year  race  between 
the  Central  and  the  Union  Pacific  to  join  the  rails  of  the  Nation's  first 
transcontinental  railroad. 

The  completion  of  this  epical  undertaking  in  1869,  though  it  meant 
the  end  of  San  Francisco's  splendid  isolation  from  the  national  economy, 
was  no  occasion  for  jubilance.  The  "terrible  seventies"  were  imme- 
diately ahead.  A  goodly  portion  of  the  65,ooo-odd  Chinese  coolies 
whom  Crocker  and  his  associates  had  imported  to  build  the  Central 
Pacific's  roadbed  came  drifting  back  into  the  city  to  compete  with  job- 
less whites.  Gold  production  in  the  State's  placer  mines,  over  $44,000,- 
ooo  annually  until  1860,  had  shrunk  by  1870  to  $15,000,000;  and 
unemployment  once  more  became  a  source  of  unrest  that  flared  up  with 


THE    CITY'S    GROWTH     io5 

increasing  violence.  The  titanic  struggle  between  the  Bank  of  Cali- 
fornia and  its  rivals  in  Virginia  City  was  a  speculator's  nightmare  in 
which  the  brokerage  firms  of  Leidesdorff  Street  were  mobbed  by  suckers 
rich  and  poor  who  sank  savings  and  borrowed  funds  in  "California" 
and  "Consolidated  Virginia."  Not  until  the  crash  of  the  Bank  of 
California  in  August,  1875,  did  the  gambling  frenzy  reminiscent  of  the 
Gold  Rush  fitfully  subside.  When  by  1877  the  nightmare  was  over  at 
last,  carefree  San  Francisco's  "Golden  Age"  was  irretrievably  gone. 

With  the  advent  of  hard  times  the  labor  unions,  into  which  practi- 
cally every  trade  in  the  city  had  been  organized  during  the  decade  after 
1865,  carried  their  powerful  economic  struggles  into  the  political  field. 
The  rising  Workingmen's  Party  began  holding  great  mass  meetings 
where  an  Irish  drayman,  Dennis  Kearney,  delivered  inflammatory 
harangues  which  soon  made  Elm  the  leader  of  a  widespread  movement 
to  exclude  the  Chinese  from  industries  employing  white  labor.  By 
1879,  however,  the  Workingmen's  Party  was  coming  under  the  control 
of  cooler  heads;  and  its  delegates  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
that  year  brought  to  Sacramento  a  program  of  constructive  proposals, 
several  of  which  were  adopted. 

For  his  outspoken  charges  against  local  political  conditions  and  for 
his  advocacy  of  the  workingmen's  cause,  Isaac  S.  Kalloch,  a  Baptist 
minister  of  considerable  oratorical  ability,  became  a  candidate  for  mayor 
of  San  Francisco  that  same  year.  His  bitterest  opponents  were  the  De 
Young  brothers,  owners  and  editors  of  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle, 
who  waged  a  highly  personal  war  of  words  with  Kalloch  until  the 
latter's  blistering  riposte  finale  caused  Charles  de  Young  to  blaze  away 
at  him  with  a  pistol.  Not  fatally  wounded,  Kalloch  was  enthusiastically 
elected;  but  the  feud  went  on  until,  on  the  evening  of  April  23,  1880, 
Kalloch's  son  forestalled  further  damage  to  his  father's  battered  reputa- 
tion by  fatally  shooting  De  Young.  With  public  sentiment  in  his  favor, 
young  Kalloch  was  acquitted. 

BIG  CITY   (1875-1906) 

The  city's  configuration,  minus  only  its  outlying  residential  districts, 
is  already  apparent  in  Currier  and  Ives'  The  City  of  San  Francisco — 
1878  (a  bird's-eye  view).  The  gospel  of  bigness  which  William  C. 
Ralston  "the  Magnificent"  had  preached  by  lavish  example  had  caught 
the  city's  imagination.  An  unkempt  metropolis  whose  nocturnal  thor- 
oughfares were  still  murky  with  gaslight,  a  patchwork  of  paved  and 
cobbled  streets  with  plank  sidewalks,  San  Francisco,  by  1885,  had  ended 
the  first  decade  of  its  expansive  modern  phase.  The  decade  preceding 
the  panic  of  1893  was  one  of  general  prosperity  in  which  "The  Rail- 
road" was  able  to  gain  control  of  the  city  through  the  machinations  of 


IO6      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Chris  Buckley,  blind  political  boss  in  its  pay,  while  depositors  of  savings 
banks  viewed  their  accounts  with  satisfaction. 

San  Francisco's  population  was  nearly  300,000  when,  in  1893,  a 
Nation-wide  depression  caused  the  closing  of  18  local  banks.  Hundreds 
of  the  city's  unemployed,  forming  a  local  contingent  of  "Coxey's  Army," 
set  out  for  Washington  to  demand  Federal  aid.  The  following  year 
the  Mid-winter  Fair,  designed  to  facilitate  business  revival,  was  par- 
tially successful.  But  the  Southern  Pacific's  monopoly  of  transportation 
still  prevented  any  substantial  recovery. 

When  the  Bank  of  California's  old  enemy,  Adolph  Sutro,  was 
elected  mayor  of  San  Francisco  in  1894,  the  long-drawn-out  struggle  to 
break  the  power  of  "The  Railroad"  began.  The  public  still  believed, 
however,  that  the  prosperity  of  the  community  depended  on  the  success 
of  the  "Corporation" — and  that  the  Corporation  depended  for  success 
on  special  privilege — and  Sutro's  battle  against  the  Southern  Pacific  was 
doomed  to  be  a  solitary  and  thankless  feud.  His  successor  in  office, 
James  D.  Phelan,  was  somewhat  more  successful.  Despite  opposition 
from  the  railroad's  political  machine,  Phelan  in  May  1898  obtained 
ratification  of  a  new  charter  which  was  considered  a  model  for  progres- 
sive municipal  government.  In  an  attempt  to  beautify  the  city,  numer- 
ous parks  and  public  playgrounds  were  established,  and  so  popular  had 
the  "city  beautiful"  movement  become  by  1899  that  $18,000,000  had 
been  voted  for  public  improvements.  In  his  third  and  last  term  as 
mayor,  however,  Phelan  lost  his  popularity  by  attempting  to  break  a 
city-wide  strike  of  teamsters. 

Out  of  this  prolonged  and  violent  teamsters'  strike  of  1901  arose 
the  Union  Labor  Party.  In  the  election  of  1902  its  candidate  for 
mayor,  Eugene  E.  Schmitz  of  the  Musicians'  Union,  was  elected  by  a 
sizeable  majority.  Though  Schmitz  himself  seems  to  have  had  honor- 
able intentions,  he  soon  came  under  the  dominance  of  Abraham  Ruef, 
shrewdest  of  the  city's  long  succession  of  political  bosses.  It  became 
common  knowledge  within  the  next  four  years  that  the  entire  structure 
of  municipal  government  was  worm-eaten  with  graft. 

For  50  years  San  Francisco's  tenderloin  had  been  a  haven  for  crim- 
inals and  prostitutes  of  every  sort;  and  it  had  its  own  crude  laws,  its 
definite  social  gradations.  Here,  in  an  area  roughly  bounded  by  Clay 
Street,  Grant  Avenue,  Broadway,  and  the  water  front,  was  that 
infamous  quarter  named  by  seafarers  for  those  pirate-infested  shores  of 
North  Africa:  the  Barbary  Coast.  On  November  28,  1869,  the  San 
Francisco  Call  had  deplored  the  fact  that  the  region  abounded  in 
"scenes  of  wretchedness  and  pollution  unparallelled  on  this  side  of  the 
great  mountains" ;  but  since  its  denizens  preyed  chiefly  upon  each  other 
and  on  such  victims  as  were  foolish  enough  to  venture  among  them,  the 
municipal  authorities  let  them  go  to  the  devil  in  their  own  way.  Leaders 


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MURAL  BY  DIEGO  RIVERA,  SAN  FRANCISCO  STOCK  EXCHANGE 


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STEAMERS  DRYDOCKED  IN  OAKLAND 


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MILLS  COLLEGE  ART  GALLERY,  OAKLAND 


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LICK  OBSERVATORY.  MOUNT  HAMILTON 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


SATHER  GATE 


MEMORIAL  BY  BEN  I  AM  O  BUFANO 
SUN  YAT  SEN,  IN  ST.  MARY'S  SQUARE 


THE    CITY'S    GROWTH     icy 

of  the  Barbary  Coast's  gang  of  hoodlums — criminal  descendants  of  the 
Hounds  and  the  Sydney  Ducks  of  Gold  Rush  times — forced  profits  from 
the  myriad  resorts  of  vice,  and  in  their  turn  paid  protection  money  to 
the  political  machine  which  was  exacting  tribute  from  respectable  San 
Franciscans  in  other  ways. 

"The  Wickedest  City  in  the  World"  it  might  be;  but  its  flourishing 
vice  traffic  and  its  scandalous  misgovernment  notwithstanding,  San 
Francisco  in  1906  had  attained  the  stature  of  undisputed  metropolis  of 
the  Pacific  Coast.  With  a  population  of  nearly  400,000,  with  its  great 
hotels  and  churches  and  commercial  establishments — its  numerous  fine 
schools,  libraries,  and  hospitals — the  city  by  the  Golden  Gate  was  a 
recognized  world  center  of  trade  and  finance  and  a  gay  capital  of  inter- 
national society  on  a  par  with  London,  New  York,  and  Paris. 

Five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  April  18,  1906,  and  all  was  well. 
The  majority  of  the  city's  population  was  peacefully  asleep.  "Families 
of  artisans  and  mechanics  living  in  homes  and  lodging  houses  south  of 
Market  Street  were  be-stirring  themselves.  Oil  stoves  were  lighted  and 
smoke  was  lazily  curling  out  of  kitchen  chimneys  .  .  .  when  at  thirteen 
minutes  past  the  hour,  the  deeps  of  the  earth,  far  down  under  the 
foundations  of  the  city,  began  to  rumble  and  vibrate."  Instantly  the 
whole  community  was  awake,  transfixed  and  speechless  with  alarm. 
"The  earth  tremors  increased  in  violence  .  .  .  there  was  a  sickening 
sensation  as  if  everything  were  toppling.  Plaster  poured  from  ceilings 
.  .  .  heavy  furniture  moved  about  banged  upon  the  floor;  and  then  the 
brick  walls  gave  way  .  .  .  Tall  structures,  ribbed  and  rocked  with 
steel,  swayed  like  trees  in  a  wind-storm,  but  stood  triumphant  at  the 
end  with  scarce  a  brick  or  stone  displaced." 

Such,  in  Charles  Keeler's  description,  was  the  first  impact  of  the 
earthquake.  It  lasted  only  48  seconds.  Few  persons,  outside  the  down- 
town business  district,  had  any  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  calamity  which 
had  befallen  the  city.  Certainly  no  one  dreamed  that  this  was  to  be  but 
the  prelude  to  its  destruction.  The  crowds  of  bewildered  citizens  who 
rushed  out  into  the  streets  in  their  night-clothing,  seeing  no  more  than 
some  fallen  masonry  and  sniffing  the  pall  of  dust,  straggled  back  to  their 
rooms  to  wash  their  faces  and  get  decently  dressed. 

Well-constructed  buildings  were  hardly  damaged  at  all.  The  most 
appalling  ruin  was  that  of  the  great  City  Hall,  on  which  $7,000,000  of 
public  funds  had  been  squandered.  But  San  Francisco  was  90  per  cent 
frame,  a  larger  portion  of  wooden  buildings  than  any  city  in  the  United 
States.  Old  lodging  houses  of  the  laboring  poor,  in  the  congested  area 
south  of  Market  Street,  bore  the  full  brunt  of  the  shock;  and  as  these 
toppled  over  upon  countless  screaming  victims,  fires  from  overturned 
stoves  within  the  wreckage  blazed  up  in  a  score  of  widely  separated 
places.  A  terrific  explosion  shook  the  area:  the  city's  gas  works  had 


IO8      SAN     FRANCISCO 

blown  up.  No  alarms  were  struck  owing  to  complete  breakdown  of  the 
fire  alarm  system,  and  as  fire  engines  went  clanging  through  the  streets, 
a  huge  cloud  of  smoke  rose  over  all  the  southern  section  of  the  city. 

Crowds  of  anxious  spectators  and  the  horde  of  refugees  from  the 
burning  district  were  amazed  at  the  sight  of  artillery  troops  and  caissons 
from  the  Presidio  rumbling  down  Montgomery  Street.  The  sound  of 
muffled  explosions,  coming  from  the  edge  of  the  approaching  wall  of 
flame,  confirmed  the  rumor  that  water  mains  had  been  disrupted  by  the 
earthquake,  and  that  dynamite  was  being  used  in  a  desperate  attempt  to 
save  the  city.  As  the  day  advanced  the  fire  swept  along  the  water  front, 
leaped  across  Market  Street.  By  nightfall  Chinatown  and  all  the  busi- 
ness district  was  ablaze.  The  South  of  Market  area  was  a  charred  and 
smouldering  ruin.  Endless  streams  of  refugees  fled  to  the  hilltops  or 
westward  to  Golden  Gate  Park. 

By  nightfall  of  the  second  day,  with  the  raging  inferno  moving 
steadily  westward  as  if  to  engulf  the  entire  city,  a  last  stand  was  made 
by  the  army  of  fire  fighters  at  Van  Ness  Avenue.  With  charges  of 
dynamite  they  blasted  to  heaps  of  rubbish  the  long  line  of  mansions 
forming  that  wide  thoroughfare's  eastern  facade.  The  heartbreaking 
destruction,  at  last,  turned  the  tide.  Not  until  Saturday  morning,  April 
21,  however,  did  the  fire  finally  burn  itself  out  among  the  scattered 
houses  of  North  Beach.  The  center  of  the  city — an  area  of  512  blocks 
containing  a  total  of  28,188  buildings  great  and  small — had  been  de- 
molished in  72  hours.  Property  losses  amounted  to  $500,000,000. 
Three  hundred  and  fifteen  bodies  were  recovered  from  the  debris  and 
ashes;  352  persons  remained  unaccounted  for.  In  the  Presidio,  in 
Golden  Gate  Park,  and  in  parks  and  lots  outside  the  burned  area  more 
than  250,000  homeless  citizens  were  encamped;  and  100,000  more  had 
fled  to  safety  across  the  Bay  or  down  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula. 

RISING  PHOENIX  (1906-1940) 

To  all  intents  and  purposes,  though  never  by  actual  proclamation 
of  the  mayor,  the  city  was  under  martial  law  from  the  morning  of  the 
earthquake  until  about  the  middle  of  May.  Besides  Federal  troops 
and  a  naval  patrol,  State  militia  and  the  local  police  force,  a  citizen's 
committee  appointed  by  Mayor  Schmitz  patrolled  the  city;  and  on  his 
authority  these  various  law-enforcing  bodies  were  instructed  to  "shoot 
to  KILL  any  and  all  persons  found  engaged  in  looting  or  in  the  Com- 
mission of  Any  Other  Crime."  That  remarkable  propensity  for  bring- 
ing order  out  of  the  howling  chaos — or,  as  Josiah  Royce  puts  it,  that 
American  genius  for  self-government — was  never  better  demonstrated 
than  during  the  weeks  of  feverish  reconstruction  which  followed  the 
calamity.  Despite  the  enormity  of  the  disaster,  it  had  the  salutary  effect 


109 

of  reducing  all  classes  and  condition  of  men  to  the  common  denominator 
of  the  breadline,  wherein  the  goodnatured  camaraderie  of  the  early  days 
of  '49  was  suddenly  restored. 

For  two  months  following  the  earthquake  and  fire  the  hitherto 
diverse  and  antagonistic  social  elements  worked  together  in  jovial  ac- 
cord, and  San  Francisco  was  the  best-behaved  city  in  America.  Night 
and  day  the  labor  of  clearing  away  the  rubbish,  of  laying  new  founda- 
tions, went  on  at  a  lively  pace.  With  the  opening  of  a  thousand 
makeshift  saloons,  however,  the  city  fell  from  grace;  within  three 
months  83  criminal  offenses  were  committed  and  some  6,000  pistol  per- 
mits were  issued  for  defense  of  persons  and  property. 

The  ashes  of  San  Francisco  were  hardly  cool  when  the  drive  to 
"clean  up  the  city"  that  was  interrupted  by  the  disaster  was  resumed. 
Public-spirited  citizens  led  by  ex-Mayor  James  Phelan  and  Rudolph 
Spreckels  led  the  attack  against  "the  System"  of  Abe  Ruef,  the  munici- 
pal government,  and  the  Southern  Pacific  Company's  subsidiary,  the 
United  Railways.  The  graft  investigation  opened  with  charges  that 
city  officials  had  granted  the  United  Railways  a  monopoly  of  streetcar 
franchises  in  exchange  for  bribes,  thus  preventing  the  $11,000,000 
municipal  railway  organized  by  Spreckels  and  Phelan  from  operating 
traction  lines  in  competition  with  the  private  company. 

Assisted  by  Fremont  Older,  crusading  editor  of  the  Bulletin,  and 
attorney  Francis  J.  Heney,  prosecutor  of  Oregon's  infamous  land 
frauds,  the  graft  investigators  established  not  only  the  bribe-taking  of 
city  supervisors  in  the  matter  of  railway  franchises  but  also  brought  to 
light  the  complicity  of  these  officials  in  aiding  private  corporations  to 
gain  control  of  municipal  public  utilities.  Testimony  of  the  18  super- 
visors, who  were  promised  immunity  for  confessions  when  faced  with 
proof  of  their  guilt,  convicted  Abe  Ruef  and  put  Mayor  Schmitz 
behind  bars. 

Despite  all  this  name-calling  and  legal  violence  the  work  of  rebuild- 
ing the  city  went  steadily  on.  The  $175,000,000  paid  to  holders  of 
insurance  policies  furnished  a  substantial  impetus  to  rehabilitation. 
Within  the  year  following  the  disaster  construction  amounting  to  more 
than  $80,000,000  was  undertaken.  By  1909  construction  figures  had 
reached  $150,000,000;  and  the  devastated  area  was  almost  completely 
rebuilt  by  the  end  of  the  year. 

Reformist  Mayor  Edward  Robeson  Taylor,  who  had  succeeded  the 
unlucky  Schmitz,  was  displaced  in  the  election  of  1909  by  the  Union 
Labor  Party's  candidate,  P.  H.  McCarthy.  Despite  apparent  collapse 
of  the  campaign  against  the  "Interests,"  the  sentiment  for  reform  had 
permeated  the  whole  State;  and  the  election  of  Hiram  Johnson  to  the 
governorship  saw  the  appointment  of  a  Railroad  Commission  that 
smashed  the  power  of  the  Southern  Pacific's  machine  which  had  domi- 


IIO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

nated  California  for  almost  half  a  century.  Following  the  election  of 
James  Rolph,  Jr.,  in  1911,  the  Union  Labor  Party  went  into  a  decline. 
It  is,  however,  still  the  political  arm  of  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  and  endorses  candidates  but  does  not  run  its  own  slate. 

Consistently  returned  to  office  for  the  next  2O  years,  "Sunny  Jim" 
Rolph  was  a  prince  of  glad-handers  in  high-heeled  polished  boots,  ten- 
gallon  hats,  and  Palm  Beach  suits  who  brought  to  San  Francisco  a 
bizarre  policy  of  goodwill  that  was  the  outward  symbol  of  confidence 
and  prosperity.  His  prolonged  administration  saw  the  extension  of 
streets  into  residential  districts  beyond  the  hills,  electrification  of  street 
railways  and  extended  municipal  ownership  of  public  utilities;  the 
successful  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition;  the  hysteria  pre- 
ceding American  entrance  into  the  World  War  and  the  speculative 
boom  of  the  early  J2o's;  the  eclipse  of  social  conviviality  in  the  morbid 
Prohibition  days  of  bad  gin,  sex,  and  jazz. 

When  the  State's  Red  Light  Abatement  Act  and  the  revoking  of 
dance-hall  licenses  finally  brought  to  an  end  in  1917  the  long  career  of 
the  Barbary  Coast,  old-timers  watched  its  passing  with  aching  hearts. 
Pride  in  the  splendor  of  the  rising  city,  however,  turned  the  eyes  of  San 
Franciscans  to  the  future  as  great  hotels,  lofty  apartment  houses,  and 
skyscrapers  brought  to  the  truncated  skyline  the  aspect  of  a  massive 
American  metropolis.  Thrilling  tribute  to  a  three-quarter  century  of 
progress  was  the  city's  Diamond  Jubilee  of  1925,  when  the  Nation's 
naval  forces — forming  a  procession  25  miles  in  length — steamed  in 
through  the  Golden  Gate. 

The  Nation-wide  financial  crisis  of  1929  did  not  immediately  check 
San  Francisco's  business  boom,  and  public  improvements  continued.  In 
1930  its  population  passed  the  634,000  mark.  The  great  Hetch-Hetchy 
dam  in  the  high  Sierras  was  nearing  completion,  and  pending  availability 
of  its  resources  of  light  and  power  the  city  augmented  its  public  utilities 
by  purchasing  the  Spring  Valley  Water  Company.  Municipal  govern- 
ment cast  off  its  outmoded  legal  garment  and  clothed  itself  in  the  shining 
armor  of  a  new  charter.  Even  the  onslaught  of  the  depression  which 
struck  the  city  in  1932,  while  it  brought  on  a  decline  in  shipping  and 
industry  and  threw  some  70,000  workers  out  of  employment,  delayed 
only  for  another  year  the  initial  construction  of  the  San  Francisco-Oak- 
land Bay  Bridge.  The  city's  sound  financial  and  business  structure 
enabled  it  to  emerge  with  losses  less  serious  than  those  of  any  other 
major  American  city. 

The  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition  of  1939-40,  planned  as 
a  "Pageant  of  the  Pacific"  to  celebrate  the  completion  of  the  two  great 
bridges  across  the  Bay  and  the  Golden  Gate,  was  attended  in  1939  by 
10,496,203  visiters;  it  gave  to  the  Bay  area  the  impetus  needed  to  raise 


THE     CITY     S     GROWTH       III 


San  Francisco  business  indices  to  pre-depression  levels.  Even  more  vast 
and  incalculable  appear  the  cultural  influences  which  may  be  derived 
from  this  ''World's  Fair  of  the  West"  in  the  new  era  of  increasing 
relations  with  the  nations  of  the  Pacific  and  the  western  hemisphere. 


San  Franciscans  at  Work 


"No  occupation  was  considered  at  all  derogatory  .  .  .  Every 
kind  of  business,  custom,  and  employment,  was  solicited  .  .  .  the 
field  was  open,  and  every  one  was  striving  for  what  seemed  to  be 
within  the  reach  of  all — a  foremost  rank  in  his  own  sphere," 

— J.  D.  BORTHWICK    (1857) 

WJ3EN  the  first  streaks  of  dawn  scatter  the  night,  San  Francisco 
awakes,  not  to  the  march  of  early  morning  factory  workers, 
but  to  the  whir  of  limousines  speeding  brokers  to  the  Stock 
Exchange.  For  in  San  Francisco,  because  of  the  difference  between 
Pacific  and  Atlantic  time,  they  must  be  at  work  by  six  of  a  summer 
morning  to  be  on  the  floor  of  the  Exchange  when  Wall  Street  begins 
trading.  In  winter,  when  daylight  saving  has  been  discontinued  in  the 
East,  the  San  Francisco  broker  may  sleep  on  hour  later. 

But  the  stock  brokers  are  not  the  earliest  risers.  At  two  in  the 
morning  the  area  east  of  Montgomery  Street  and  the  financial  district 
already  has  begun  filling,  the  narrow  streets  rumbling  to  the  heavy 
wheels  of  trucks  bringing  fresh  fruits  and  vegetables  from  Peninsula 
truck  farms  and  valley  ranches  to  the  wholesale  produce  markets.  And 
in  North  Beach  the  crab  fishermen  are  hurrying  to  the  wharf,  anxious 
to  push  their  small  boats  through  the  Gate  on  an  acquiescent  tide. 

When  the  siren  at  the  Ferry  Building  sounds  eight  o'clock  the  water 
front  comes  suddenly  to  life.  Longshoremen  surge  through  steel-jawed 
pier  doors,  teamsters  and  trucks  at  their  heels.  As  loading  and  discharg- 
ing of  cargo  proceeds  in  the  nearby  warehouses  some  eight  to  ten  thou- 
sand warehousemen  sort,  check,  and  pile  the  thousands  of  tons  of 
merchandise  for  storage,  transshipment,  or  distribution.  Here,  on  or 
near  the  water  front,  congregate  the  crews  of  the  many  vessels  from 
tugboats  to  passenger  liners — sailors  and  marine  engineers,  radio 
telegraphers  and  bargemen,  firemen,  oilers,  and  watertenders.  Masters, 
mates  and  pilots,  cooks  and  stewards  join  the  groups  clambering  aboard 
the  ships  at  dock. 

Here  too  are  the  shoreworkers :  the  maritime  jitney  drivers  hauling 
trucks  of  cargo  from  pier  to  pier,  the  sealers  who  scrape  and  paint  the 
hulls  and  tanks  and  holds  of  the  ships,  the  lumber  handlers  who  pile  and 
unpile  the  millions  of  feet  of  lumber  unloaded  by  steam  schooners. 
Marine  machinists  and  boilermakers,  shipbuilders  and  wharfbuilders, 
watchmen,  checkers,  and  maritime  office  employees — all  of  these  come 
to  work  in  thetcity  within  a  city  that  is  San  Francisco's  Embarcadero. 

As  the  men  and  women  who  haunt  the  silent  office  buildings  at  night 

112 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK      113 

climb  aboard  outbound  streetcars  at  dawn  and  stare  sleepily  out  of 
windows,  yawning,  anxious  only  to  get  home,  the  trickle  of  white-collar 
workers  which  will  soon  become  a  river  of  humanity  is  already  flowing 
from  the  opposite  direction.  Soon  the  cars  are  packed  with  office  work- 
ers, doctors,  lawyers,  stenographers,  and  salespeople,  who  populate  the 
downtown  area  and  line  lunch  counters  behind  steam-covered  windows, 
seeking  the  morning  cup  of  coffee.  Down  the  California  Street  hill 
come  the  bulging  cable  cars  to  disgorge  their  human  cargoes  into  the 
financial  district — cars  locally  dubbed  " Stenographers'  Specials,"  loaded 
with  the  female  office  workers  whom  eastern  columnists  have  called  "the 
most  beautiful  working-girls  in  the  world."  Warehousemen,  factory 
workers,  printers  mingle  with  the  white-collar  workers,  clutching 
transfers,  smoking,  hurrying  to  the  job.  The  stream  of  humanity  mov- 
ing east  is  joined  by  another,  the  commuters  coming  from  the  Bay 
Bridge  train  terminal,  overcoated,  packing  rumpled  newspapers,  books, 
and  purses.  From  the  ferries  and  bridges — from  Marin  County,  Oak- 
land, Berkeley,  Alameda,  and  Peninsula  towns — they  come.  As  they 
pour  into  the  doorways  of  department  stores,  shops,  and  office  buildings, 
there  comes  to  the  observer  the  significance  of  statistics  which  say  that 
in  San  Francisco  the  ratio  of  white-collar  workers  to  manual  workers  is 
more  than  that  of  any  other  American  city. 

Meanwhile  along  the  southern  shore  of  the  city  proceeds  the  in- 
pouring  of  the  stockyard  and  industrial  workers,  the  men  who  sweat  in 
the  freight  sheds,  the  sugar  refinery  in  Butchertown,  and  the  fish  reduc- 
tion plant;  who  toil  in  the  railway  repair  shops,  the  shipyards  and  dry- 
docks,  the  foundries,  the  steel  and  wire  and  pipe  industries,  the  drab 
cement  and  gravel  plants.  Here  more  than  anywhere  else  in  San  Fran- 
cisco comes  the  impression  of  the  trek  to  work  of  a  grimy  march  of  men 
to  the  music  of  necessity — men  totaling  more  than  68,000,  equaling  in 
numbers  those  employed  in  wholesale  and  retail  trade. 

Among  the  city's  250,000  gainfully  employed  workers,  the  greatest 
concentration  occurs  in  about  equal  proportion  in  the  manufacturing 
industries,  in  the  retail  and  wholesale  trades,  and  in  transportation  and 
communication.  With  an  estimated  50,000  dependent  upon  direct  mari- 
time activities,  the  balance  are  engaged  in  the  innumerable  pursuits  of  a 
commercial,  financial,  and  distributing  center.  More  than  21,441  are 
engaged  in  real  estate,  insurance,  and  finance;  32,565  in  service  estab- 
lishments; and  24,642  in  professional  and  semi-professional  pursuits. 

As  the  morning  wears  on,  the  newsboys  shout  raucously.  The 
owners  of  flower  stands  pack  bright,  dripping  carnations  and  gardenias 
in  colorful  rows  along  the  sidewalks.  Suddenly  the  newsboys  are  silent, 
waiting  later  editions  and  blacker  headlines.  The  buildings  spew  forth 
their  crowds  to  seek  a  quick  lunch  in  drug  store,  cafeteria,  and 
restaurant. 


114      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Women  shoppers  throng  Market  Street  after  lunch,  peering  into 
store  windows.  Uniformed  ushers  and  doormen  stand  idly  by  box  offices, 
awaiting  matinee  crowds.  Finally,  the  sun  ducks  behind  the  office  build- 
ings, and  the  homeward  rush  begins. 

As  day  merges  into  night,  neon  lights  flash  on.  Cocktail  lounges 
begin  to  fill ;  darkness  brings  a  dinner  rush.  Musicians  and  entertainers, 
waitresses  and  night  cooks  scurry  through  alley  entrances  to  the  centers 
of  the  city's  night  life.  Taxis  move  from  hotel  to  night  club,  from 
restaurant  to  bar.  Life  becomes  a  rising  tide,  hidden  behind  frosted 
glass,  pulsing  to  the  blare  of  nickel  phonographs  or  the  fevered  tunes  of 
swing  bands. 

And  then  at  two  a.  m.  the  lights  go  out;  stools  and  tables  are 
stacked;  doors  are  closed.  Musicians  and  dancers,  kitchen  help  and 
customers,  going  home  through  dark  and  empty  streets,  hear  the  swish 
of  street-cleaning  trucks.  The  flare  of  an  electric  welder  busy  at  a 
street  intersection  flashes  through  the  night.  Soon  come  the  white  milk 
trucks  converging  to  their  distribution  points,  and  the  mountainous 
garbage  vans  clattering  from  restaurant  back  doors  loaded  for  suburban 
pig  farms.  Already  stirring  are  the  produce  workers  and  fishermen 
whose  work  is  about  to  begin. 

So  the  day  ends  and  begins  again,  and  time  has  drawn  another  24- 
hour  circle  around  the  city  and  its  workers. 

WALL  STREET  OF  THE  WEST 

San  Francisco's  Montgomery  Street,  "Wall  Street  of  the  West," 
runs  north  from  Market  Street  between  tall,  austere  office  buildings,  a 
canyon  of  high  finance.  What  men  say  in  offices,  staid  restaurants,  and 
soft-lighted  bars  along  Montgomery  Street  is  passed  on  by  the  ticker 
tapes  of  the  Nation,  is  translated  into  the  languages  and  dialects  of 
Mexico,  South  America,  Australia,  the  Orient.  Great  farms,  stagger- 
ing lumber  resources,  Hawaiian  sugar  and  Guatemalan  coffee  planta- 
tions, broad  oil  fields  with  their  forests  of  derricks,  Alaskan  fish  canneries 
and  some  of  the  largest  fruit  canneries  in  the  world,  shipping  lines  that 
encircle  the  globe,  mines  and  power  plants — the  life  blood  of  all  these  is 
regulated  in  Montgomery  Street's  board  rooms  and  brokerage  firms. 

Up  the  street  toward  the  Plaza  in  May,  1848,  out  of  breath  and 
dusty  after  his  trip  from  the  diggings,  hurried  Sam  Brannan.  Within 
five  years  he  would  become  California's  first  millionaire — and  Mont- 
gomery Street  would  be  lined  with  bankers'  offices.  As  gold  dust  began 
coming  down  the  Sacramento,  some  means  for  handling  it  had  to  be 
found.  The  first  requisites  were  scales  and  a  safe,  to  weigh  and  store 
the  precious  metal;  and  so  storekeepers  were  the  first  bankers.  Soon 
merchants,  assayers,  and  express  companies  were  buying  up  gold  dust  in 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK       115 

exchange  for  drafts  on  Eastern  banks.  And  before  the  end  of  the  year, 
Stephen  A.  Wright  had  opened  his  Miners'  Bank  with  an  advertised 
capital  of  $200,000  and  was  collecting  interest  of  from  8  to  15  per  cent 
a  month  on  real  estate  loans.  He  was  soon  competing  with  others: 
Henry  M.  Naglee;  Lucas  Turner  and  Company,  represented  by  Wil- 
liam Tecumseh  Sherman — and  even  the  Rothschilds. 

Rich  in  gold,  San  Francisco  nonetheless  found  itself  poor  in  money. 
A  pinch  of  gold  dust  substituted  for  a  dollar;  a  "bit  piece"  of  dollar- 
length  gold  wire  (divided  into  eight  parts),  for  smaller  coins — "two 
bits,"  "four  bits,"  "six  bits."  The  coins  of  every  nation  were  pressed  into 
service,  at  a  rate  of  exchange  based  on  their  size.  English  shillings, 
French  francs,  and  Mexican  double-reals  were  as  acceptable  as  Amer- 
ican quarters.  Peruvian  doubloons,  Spanish  pesetas,  Austrian  zwanzi- 
gers,  Dutch  florins,  Indian  rupees  changed  hands  regularly.  Even  the 
price  of  gold  fluctuated  from  $8  to  $16  an  ounce  until  1851,  when  it 
was  stabilized  at  $16.  In  the  absence  of  a  mint,  assay  offices  began  to 
coin  5-,  10-,  2O-,  and  25-dollar  slugs;  at  one  time  14  such  private  mints 
were  operating.  Their  coins  varied  widely  in  value,  ranging  from  the 
Pacific  Company's  $10  gold  pieces,  worth  $7.86,  to  Kohler  and  Com- 
pany's, worth  $10.10.  Not  until  1854,  when  the  United  States  Mint 
was  opened,  were  standards  for  coinage  fixed. 

The  methods  of  Joseph  C.  Palmer  of  Palmer,  Cook  and  Company, 
express  agents  who  became  bankers  in  1851,  reflected  the  spirit  of  the 
times.  It  is  said  a  depositor  once  wanted  to  withdraw  $28,000  from 
his  account  with  the  firm.  Palmer's  consent  was  necessary.  The  de- 
positor found  him  in  a  lumber  yard  a  mile  from  the  bank.  Neither 
pencil  nor  paper  nor  pen  was  available.  Palmer  picked  up  a  shingle  and 
on  it,  with  a  piece  of  red  chalk,  wrote  a  check  for  $28,000  which  was 
readily  accepted  at  the  bank. 

The  express  companies  did  a  land-office  business  shipping  gold  to 
the  east,  receiving  deposits,  selling  drafts  and  making  loans.  Outstand- 
ing among  them  was  Wells  Fargo,  a  name  still  familiar  throughout  the 
West.  As  early  as  1852  this  firm  was  selling  exchange  on  53  different 
cities  in  the  country.  In  many  California  mining  or  ghost  mining  towns 
Wells  Fargo  scales  on  which  millions  of  dollars  in  gold  dust  have  been 
weighed  are  still  on  exhibit.  The  company  became  a  bank  in  1866, 
operating  its  banking  activities  in  conjunction  with  its  express  business 
until  1878,  when  the  two  branches  were  separated. 

The  Gold  Rush  boom  had  so  far  overreached  itself  by  1854  that  a 
crisis  in  mercantile  affairs  developed  which  steadily  grew  worse  until 
the  "Black  Friday"  of  February  23,  1855,  began  a  financial  panic  which 
forced  20  of  the  42  banking  firms  to  shut  their  doors  forever.  Real 
estate  values  slumped.  Bankruptcies  increased  from  77  in  1854  to  197 
in  1855.  "Honest"  Harry  Meiggs,  city  alderman,  fled  to  Chile,  leav- 


Il6      SAN     FRANCISCO 

ing  behind  $800,000  worth  of  bad  debts,  impartially  distributed  among 
the  financial  houses  of  the  city,  which  were  secured  only  by  forged  city 
warrants.  Palmer,  Cook  and  Company  failed  with  a  loss  of  $3,500,000. 

When  in  1859  the  flow  of  colossal  riches  from  the  silver  deposits  of 
Nevada  mines  began,  however,  a  new  era  commenced  which  established 
San  Francisco  finally  as  financial  center  of  the  West.  When  the  Fed- 
eral government  and  all  of  the  Eastern  banks  left  the  gold  standard  in 
1862,  William  C.  Ralston  convinced  San  Francisco's  business  men  that 
California  must  stay  on  gold.  He  pointed  out  that  the  Union  would 
need  gold,  which  they  could  ship  to  the  East  and  exchange  for  green- 
backs. As  greenback  values  dropped — before  the  war  was  ended  a  gold 
dollar  was  worth  two  greenbacks — the  merchants  and  investors  profited 
handsomely. 

As  mining  activities  went  on  booming,  San  Francisco  became  again 
the  turbulent  city  of  the  Gold  Rush,  but  no  longer  was  it  necessary  for 
a  man  to  dig  in  the  earth  to  make  his  poke.  Fortunes  were  made  daily 
— and  lost  as  easily — in  mining  stocks.  In  1862  forty  men  united  to 
organize  the  San  Francisco  Stock  and  Exchange  Board. 

In  the  second  year  of  the  war,  when  President  Lincoln  signed  the 
Pacific  Railroad  Bill,  the  "Big  Four"  began  laying  the  tracks  of  the 
Central  Pacific  eastward. 

The  Comstock  Lode  was  pouring  wealth  into  San  Francisco,  and 
William  C.  Ralston  had  a  finger  in  the  most  important  of  the  mines. 
On  July  5,  1864,  his  Bank  of  California  opened  with  D.  O.  Mills  as 
president.  For  more  than  ten  years  it  was  to  be  the  power  back  of  the 
greatest  undertakings  in  the  West.  Bank  money  developed  the  Com- 
stock Lode — and  the  Lode  repayed  more  than  abundantly.  When  the 
"Big  Four"  were  blocked  in  their  efforts  to  put  the  railroad  through, 
Ralston  loaned  them  bank  money  on  their  personal  notes,  and  assumed 
personal  responsibility  for  their  debts. 

The  collapse  of  the  short  boom  in  real  estate  prices  which  followed 
the  driving  of  the  last  spike  in  the  transcontinental  railroad  in  May, 
1869,  left  Ralston  holding  much  property  in  the  Montgomery  Street 
extension  south  of  Market.  When  it  began  to  appear  that  the  Com- 
stock Lode,  in  which  millions  of  the  Bank  of  California's  deposits  had 
been  sunk,  was  worn  out,  rumors  started  that  threatened  to  cause  a  run 
on  the  bank.  In  September,  1869,  the  night  before  the  run  was  ex- 
pected, Ralston  managed  a  stunt  which  has  never  been  duplicated. 
During  the  night,  Ashbury  Harpending  and  a  man  named  Dore, 
exchanged  five  tons  of  gold  with  the  United  States  Sub-Treasury  for 
coined  money.  These  men  carried  this  load  by  hand  throughout  the 
night.  In  the  morning,  when  the  run  began,  Ralston  was  able  to  put 
on  the  tables,  in  sight  of  the  depositors,  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  coined 
money.  The  panic  stopped  almost  as  soon  as  it  had  started. 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK       117 

During  1865  and  1866,  the  mines  seemed  to  have  played  out  as  one 
by  one  they  reached  the  end  of  visible  ore.  Adolph  Sutro,  a  German- 
Jewish  emigrant,  conceived  the  idea  of  building  a  tunnel  under  the 
Comstock  Lode  to  drain  flooded  shafts  and  to  reach  ore  that  was  too 
deep  for  the  mining  methods  of  that  time.  Ralston  at  first  was  im- 
pressed, but  the  "Ring"  was  afraid  of  anyone's  else  cutting  in  on  the 
rich  profits  of  the  mines.  Ultimately  Sutro  had  to  fight  the  whole 
Bank  of  California  ring  to  put  the  Sutro  Tunnel  through.  His  epic 
nine-year  struggle  against  the  Bank  was  the  beginning  of  the  fall  of 
Ralston's  empire. 

By  1870,  according  to  popular  opinion,  the  Comstock  had  reached 
bottom  rock,  and  there  seemed  little  chance  of  further  veins  being  dis- 
covered. But  several  astute  miners  were  quietly  buying  up  the  stock 
of  several  of  the  mines.  John  Jones  and  Alvinza  Hayward  got  the 
Crown  Point  Mine  away  from  the  "Ring."  In  1872  two  young  mining 
men,  John  W.  Mackay  and  James  G.  Fair,  who  had  worked  in  the 
Comstock  mines,  formed  an  association  with  James  G.  Flood  and  Wil- 
liam S.  O'Brien,  San  Francisco  saloon  keepers  who  for  years  had  dabbled 
in  mining  stocks.  For  less  than  $100,000,  the  quartet  quietly  obtained 
control  of  the  California  and  the  Consolidated  Virginia,  two  mines 
which  had  yet  shown  little  promise.  The  discovery  of  a  few  veins 
started  the  stock  market  booming.  By  1872,  stocks  which  had  been 
listed  at  $10  a  share  were  bringing  hundreds.  Consolidated  Virginia 
jumped  from  $160  to  $710.  San  Francisco  went  stock-gambling  mad. 
Nowhere  could  one  hear  anything  but  names  of  mines  and  stocks — Ken- 
tuck,  Yellow  Jacket,  Crown  Point,  Consolidated  Virginia,  Ophir, 
Gould  and  Curry,  Savage.  Again  the  feeling  that  the  riches  under  the 
Lode  were  inexhaustible  swept  San  Francisco. 

Then,  like  a  flaming  comet  over  the  horizon  of  Montgomery  Street, 
blazed  the  news  that  the  "Nevada  Four's"  two  mines,  known  as  the 
Big  Bonanza,  covered  the  richest  vein  of  ore  in  the  Comstock  Lode. 
Mackay,  Fair,  Flood,  and  O'Brien  had  already  taken  the  precaution  of 
buying  up  all  available  stock  before  releasing  the  news.  Holding  un- 
limited funds,  they  settled  down  to  relentless  warfare  with  Ralston  and 
the  Bank  of  California.  The  objective  was  control  of  the  incredibly 
rich  Comstock  mines.  The  physical  properties  lay  elsewhere  but  the 
blows  were  struck  on  the  exchanges  of  San  Francisco's  Wall  Street  of 
the  West. 

As  the  struggle  proceeded,  San  Francisco  was  swept  by  an  un- 
precedented frenzy  of  speculation.  Gambling  tables  in  the  city  were 
practically  deserted.  On  the  street  curbs  in  the  financial  district  women 
brokers,  dubbed  "mudhens,"  hawked  stock  of  all  descriptions.  Women 
wearing  diamonds  and  expensive  clothes  joined  the  morning  crowds 
flocking  to  the  exchanges. 


Il8      SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  downfall  of  Ralston  in  1875  brought  financial  San  Francisco 
down  with  him.  Resolved  to  break  the  Bank  of  California,  the  Nevada 
Four  planned  to  open  a  rival  bank.  Ralston  meanwhile  was  seeking 
control  of  the  Ophir  mine,  valued  fictitiously  at  $31,000,000,  in  the 
belief  that  it  covered  part  of  the  Big  Bonanza.  James  Keene,  presiding 
member  of  the  Stock  Exchange,  quietly  bought  large  blocks  of  Ophir 
stock  for  him.  "Lucky"  Baldwin,  hearing  the  stock  was  in  great  de- 
mand, secured  many  shares  which  he  sold,  netting  himself  a  nice  profit 
of  millions.  Ralston  alone  was  overloaded  with  Ophir  stock  when  it 
was  disclosed  that  the  mine  was  an  empty  hole.  William  Sharon, 
Ralston's  right  hand  man,  had  known — and  quietly  unloaded  his  shares 
in  the  mine,  neglecting  to  tell  Ralston.  In  February,  1875  a  rumor 
swept  the  city  that  the  Big  Bonanza  had  given  out,  and  the  stock  market 
crashed.  The  drop  in  market  values  shook  the  Bank  of  California.  It 
began  to  be  rumored  that  the  bank  was  unsound,  and  that  Ralston  was 
to  blame  because  of  his  speculations.  The  new  Bank  of  Nevada  with- 
drew cash  deposits  from  the  leading  banks  of  San  Francisco,  in  order  to 
open  its  own  doors  with  a  $5,000,000  reserve  in  actual  coin.  The  with- 
drawals sent  most  of  the  banks  to  the  edge  of  insolvency.  Ralston  began 
to  sell  his  holdings  wherever  possible  in  order  to  raise  money.  On 
August  26,  1875,  after  weeks  of  crashing  values  in  mine  shares  and  an 
exhausting  run,  the  Bank  of  California  closed  its  doors. 

The  next  day  Ralston,  as  was  his  habit,  went  swimming.  His 
drowned  body  was  found  in  the  Bay  off  North  Beach. 

The  failure  of  the  Bank  of  California  for  a  time  stopped  all  trading 
on  the  Exchange.  The  bank  was  reorganized  by  D.  O.  Mills  and 
William  Sharon,  who  had  profited  heavily  by  sale  of  Ophir  stock.  But 
when  it  reopened,  it  found  the  Bank  of  Nevada,  opened  a  few  days  later 
by  the  Nevada  Four,  already  dominant  in  San  Francisco. 

Montgomery  Street's  era  of  crusading  capitalists  had  come  to  an 
end.  In  the  period  that  followed,  high  finance  pursued  a  steadier 
course.  In  1875  the  San  Francisco  Clearing  House,  first  in  the  State, 
was  organized;  before  the  year  had  passed  it  was  fifth  in  importance  in 
the  United  States.  The  year  1877  saw  the  establishment  of  a  State 
Board  of  Bank  Commissioners,  despite  terrific  opposition.  In  1882  the 
present  San  Francisco  Stock  Exchange  was  established.  The  year  fol- 
lowing, Charles  Crocker  organized  the  banking  firm  of  Crocker- Wool- 
worth  and  Company,  which  today  is  the  Crocker  First  National.  The 
1884  depression  in  the  Eastern  States  was  scarcely  felt  in  San  Francisco, 
but  closer  financial  ties  brought  the  effects  of  the  1893  panic  to  Mont- 
gomery Street  within  a  few  months  of  the  time  it  was  felt  in  New 
York. 

The  fire  of  1906  was  the  occasion  for  the  rise  of  another  spectacular 
figure.  Since  19^4,  A.  P.  Giannini,  a  commission  merchant  who  had 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK      IIQ 

retired  with  a  comfortable  income  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  had  been 
trying  out  his  banking  theories  in  the  Bank  of  Italy  (now  the  Bank  of 
America),  which  he  and  his  step-father  had  founded.  Giannini  was 
able  to  turn  the  disaster  of  1906  to  his  advantage  when  he  managed  to 
remove  the  assets  and  records  from  his  bank  before  the  advancing  fire 
reached  them.  They  were  hauled  to  his  San  Mateo  home  in  wagons 
from  his  step-father's  commission  warehouse  and  camouflaged  with  a 
heap  of  fruits  and  vegetables.  The  Bank  of  Italy  was  the  first  in  the 
city  to  be  re-opened. 

In  1909,  Giannini  launched  a  drive  to  create  a  State-wide  system 
of  branch  banks  on  the  theory  that  branch  banking  was  the  best  safe- 
guard against  failure  of  banks  in  single-crop  or  single-industry  regions 
because  they  served  to  spread  the  risk.  His  streamlined  advertising 
campaign  with  full-page  advertisements  in  the  newspapers  was  un- 
precedented in  banking  history.  He  added  bank  after  bank  to  his 
chain. 

When  the  Federal  Reserve  System  was  established  by  Congress  in 

1913,  San  Francisco  was  selected  as  center  for  the  Twelfth  Federal 
Reserve  District.     Established  in  the  following  year,  the  San  Francisco 
Federal  Reserve  Bank  by  1939  had  a  membership  of  282  of  the  574 
banks  in  operation  in  the  twelfth  district  comprising  an  area  including 
California,  Oregon,  Washington,  Utah,  Idaho,  Nevada,  and  most  of 
Arizona.     Its  resources  have  grown  from  $1,965,555,000  in  December, 

1914,  to  little  short  of  $6,000,000,000  in  1939. 

Of  the  vast  financial  network  comprising  present-day  San  Fran- 
cisco's citadels  of  business,  the  Wells  Fargo  Bank  and  Union  Trust 
Company — Wells  Fargo  merged  with  the  Nevada  National  Bank  in 
1905  and  with  the  Union  Trust  Company  in  1924 — and  the  Hibernia 
Savings  and  Loan  Society  alone  have  had  uninterrupted  existence  since 
the  feverish  days  in  which  they  were  founded.  But  San  Francisco 
remains  the  financial  capital  of  the  West.  Six  of  its  21  banking  firms 
are  listed  among  the  50  largest  in  the  country.  The  Bank  of  America, 
operating  506  branch  banks  throughout  the  West,  ranks  as  the  Nation's 
fourth  largest  financial  corporation;  its  earnings  in  1938  were  $10,000,- 
ooo  greater  than  those  of  any  other  banking  institution  in  the  country. 
Only  one  San  Francisco  bank  has  failed  in  more  than  30  years,  and  that 
one,  a  branch  of  the  Bank  of  Canton,  collapsed  during  a  monetary  crisis 
of  the  Chinese  Revolution  in  1926.  Following  the  stock  market  crash 
of  1929,  the  leading  bankers  of  San  Francisco  met  and  pledged  a 
revolving  fund  of  $100,000,000  to  protect  the  city's  banks  against 
failure,  with  the  result  that  not  one  cent  was  lost  to  depositors.  Con- 
stantly seeking  new  outlets  for  investment  the  city's  financial  institutions 
have  increasingly  assumed  closer  control  of  industry  and  agriculture,  of 
shipping  and  transportation. 


I2O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

San  Francisco's  bank  clearings  for  1938  totaled  $7,000,000,000, 
fifth  highest  in  the  United  States.  Its  per  capita  wealth  is  the  highest 
in  the  country. 

LABOR'S  THOUSANDS 

San  Francisco  workers  are  proud  of  their  unions  and  jealous  of 
union  welfare.  Employers  estimate  that  half  the  population  of  San 
Francisco  consists  of  union  members  and  their  families.  All  major 
West  Coast  union  organizations  maintain  offices  or  headquarters  in  the 
city.  There  are  an  extensive  inter-union  sports  movement  and  a  junior 
union  movement  for  the  children  of  union  men.  The  newspaper  guilds- 
men,  the  warehousemen,  the  longshoremen,  the  bartenders,  and  the 
waiters  and  waitresses,  among  others,  hold  annual  grand  balls  that  are 
attended  by  thousands.  The  labor  press,  steeped  in  tradition,  has  a 
large  following  of  readers.  The  CIO  broadcasts  a  radio  labor  news 
program  that  is  popular  with  AFL  and  CIO  members  alike.  Despite 
the  division  between  American  Federation  of  Labor  and  Congress  of 
Industrial  Organizations,  union  men  of  both  groups  intermix  freely. 

Today  industry-wide  agreements  arrived  at  by  bargaining  over  the 
round  table  are  becoming  fairly  common  in  the  Bay  area,  particularly 
in  the  water-front  industry,  where  both  labor  and  employers  are  strongly 
organized.  Sometimes  these  conferences  are  as  dramatic  in  their  own 
way  as  the  strikes  or  lockouts  which  they  often  supplant.  Union  men 
and  employers,  at  the  appointed  hour,  crowd  into  the  room,  which  more 
often  than  not  is  located  in  one  of  the  city's  most  modern  office  build- 
ings. Opponents  may  exchange  guarded  jokes.  Brief  cases  are  tossed 
on  a  table  liberally  supplied  with  ash  trays.  Debate  is  conducted  with 
an  alertness  that  demands  frequent  nervous  lighting  of  cigar  or  cigaret. 
The  press  is  often  admitted.  If  an  agreement  is  reached,  its  terms 
become  big  news,  splashed  at  once  across  the  front  pages  of  the  city's 
newspapers.  When  there  is  a  deadlock,  newspaper  editors  offer  their 
own  alternatives  in  front  page  editorials.  Citizens  write  letters  to  their 
favorite  papers  suggesting  solutions  which  are  printed  in  the  public 
forum  columns.  Columnists  and  radio  commentators  discuss  the  issues. 
Heated  debates  break  out  on  the  early  morning  streetcars. 

Twice  in  recent  years  a  water-front  dispute  has  been  taken  to  the 
general  public  by  means  of  "town  meetings"  held  in  the  Civic  Audi- 
torium and  attended  by  thousands.  There  employers  and  union  repre- 
sentatives debated  from  the  platform  and  their  talks  were  broadcast 
over  extensive  radio  hookups.  The  audience  often  was  as  partisan  as 
the  chief  participants,  but  a  general  good  humor  prevailed. 

The  city's  union  consciousness  had  its  beginning  in  the  days  of  the 
Gold  Rush.  "There  are  evidences  of  such  early  trade  union  activity  in 
San  Francisco,"  writes  Lucille  Eaves,  "that  one  is  tempted  to  believe 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK       121 

that  the  craftsmen  met  each  other  on  the  way  to  California  and  agreed 
to  unite."  At  least  one  instance  proves  the  point:  in  1864,  when  the 
Employers'  Association  of  San  Francisco,  attempting  to  smash  a  strike 
of  iron  molders,  wired  East  for  strikebreakers,  the  unions  dispatched 
representatives  to  Panama  who  met  the  men  hired  to  take  their  jobs; 
when  the  ship  docked  in  San  Francisco  all  walked  ashore  as  union 
brothers.  Among  the  men  who  came  to  San  Francisco  were  many  from 
countries  of  Europe  where  the  struggle  for  unions  already  had  been  in 
progress  for  many  long  years. 

To  combat  an  exorbitant  cost  of  living,  the  unorganized  carpenters 
and  joiners  struck  in  1849,  demanding  a  wage  increase,  which  they  won. 
Before  a  year  had  passed  the  San  Francisco  Typographical  Society  had 
been  organized  as  the  first  bona  fide  trade  union  on  the  coast.  Team- 
sters, musicians,  riggers  and  stevedores,  and  building  trades  workers 
soon  followed  suit.  These  early  unions,  organized  on  the  basis  of  im- 
mediate demands,  appeared  and  disappeared  in  bewildering  variety  until 
the  campaigns  for  the  eight-hour  day  and  against  the  competition  of 
cheap  Chinese  labor  supplied  rallying  points  around  which  all  could 
unite  with  some  degree  of  permanence. 

The  Chinese,  accustomed  to  a  low  standard  of  existence  in  their 
homeland,  were  employed  here  in  many  trades  at  a  wage  much  lower 
than  the  Occidentals  could  afford  to  accept.  The  thousands  of  coolies 
who  helped  build  the  first  railroad  across  the  American  continent  were 
paid  as  little  as  $30  a  month.  When  the  railroad  was  completed,  they 
flocked  to  San  Francisco.  In  1872  it  was  estimated  they  comprised 
nearly  half  of  all  the  factory  workers  in  the  city.  Occidental  workers 
feared  and  resented  the  competition  of  this  cheap  labor.  To  combat  it, 
they  joined  in  an  anti-Chinese  campaign  that  sometimes  found  outlet  in 
violence.  It  led  finally  to  adoption  of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  by 
the  State  legislature  in  the  i88o's.  Although  anti-Chinese  sentiment 
was  widespread  for  many  years  after,  the  admission  of  Chinese  to  mem- 
bership in  a  number  of  unions  during  recent  years  has  marked  its  passing. 
A  strike  here  of  Chinese  girls,  members  of  the  International  Ladies 
Garment  Workers  Union,  gained  Nation-wide  notice  in  1937  when  the 
attractive  and  dainty  women  pickets  were  pictured  in  the  press  of  the 
country. 

Out  of  the  turbulence  of  the  anti-Chinese  movement  arose  Dennis 
Kearney,  one-time  vigilante  and  opportunist  extraordinary.  For  a  time 
his  violent  talks,  made  on  the  sand  lots  in  what  is  now  the  Civic  Center, 
captured  the  imagination  of  thousands.  Opposed  to  him  was  a  sincere 
young  Irishman,  a  Fenian  exile,  named  Frank  Roney.  The  group 
around  Roney  succeeded  in  discrediting  Kearney,  who  retired  to  private 
trade  to  be  heard  from  no  more.  But  Roney  continued  an  active  mem- 


122      SAN     FRANCISCO 

her  of  the  trade  union  movement  for  many  years.  He  organized  the 
Seamen's  Protective  Association  and  became  its  president. 

Largely  because  of  Roney's  work  the  Trades  Assembly,  a  city-wide 
group,  succeeded  in  doubling  its  membership.  His  plan  of  organizing 
unions  into  trade  councils  was  later  to  be  adopted  on  a  national  scale  by 
the  AFL.  When  the  Trades  Assembly  sent  delegates  to  a  convention 
of  the  Federated  Trades  and  Labor  Union  of  the  United  States  (which 
later  became  the  American  Federation  of  Labor),  held  in  1881,  San 
Francisco  labor  for  the  first  time  became  affiliated  with  an  organization 
national  in  scope. 

Always  the  lot  of  American  seamen  had  been  a  hard  one,  and  San 
Francisco  was  known  as  one  of  the  world's  toughest  ports.  It  was 
common  for  a  seaman  ashore  after  a  long  trip,  his  wages  in  his  pocket, 
to  buy  a  drink  at  one  of  the  many  saloons — and  wake  up  next  morning 
aboard  a  vessel  bound  for  Shanghai.  The  practice  of  kidnapping  was  so 
common  that  the  term  "shanghai"  was  applied  to  it.  Against  such 
abuses  the  Seamen's  Protective  Association  fought. 

A  fight  against  wage  cuts  in  1885  resulted  in  formation  of  the  Coast 
Seamen's  Union.  From  this  organization  came  the  ascetic  Norwegian, 
Andrew  Furuseth.  Emotional,  sharp-featured,  and  extremely  energetic, 
Furuseth,  who  later  was  known  simply  as  "Old  Andy,"  spent  most  of 
his  life  with  the  seamen.  He  was  credited  with  knowing  more  about 
sea  law  than  any  other  man  alive.  In  his  later  years  he  helped  unite 
American  seamen  into  the  International  Seamen's  Union,  comprising 
sailors,  firemen,  and  cooks  and  stewards.  Aided  by  Senator  Robert  M. 
LaFollette  in  1915,  he  succeeded  in  securing  passage  of  the  Seamen's 
Act,  a  Magna  Carta  of  liberation  for  these  men. 

The  Employers'  and  Manufacturers'  Association  of  San  Francisco, 
newly  organized,  opposed  unionization  in  a  campaign  that  took  real 
effect  as  the  depression  of  1893  reached  its  depths.  As  union  member- 
ship dropped  to  a  mere  4,500,  at  least  35,000  jobless  workers  tramped 
the  streets  of  the  city  in  search  of  food  and  work.  In  1894  tne  Amer- 
ican Railway  Unions  struck  against  the  Pullman  Company  in  Chicago. 
Trains  stopped  and  trans-Bay  ferry  service  was  paralyzed  for  ten  days. 
Federal  troops  marched  into  San  Francisco.  In  Oakland  citizens  raided 
roundhouses  to  extinguish  fires  in  the  locomotives.  At  this  time,  too, 
the  Bay  area  contingent  of  the  famous  Coxey's  Army  was  organized. 
Under  the  command  of  "General"  Charles  T.  Kelley  the  unemployed 
army,  credited  with  superior  discipline,  sought  refuge  for  a  few  days  in 
Oakland,  then  started  on  the  long  box-car  ride  across  the  continent. 

Meanwhile  the  men  on  the  water  front  had  organized  the  City 
Front  Federation.  Several  times  before  similar  federations  had  been 
organized,  notably  the  Wharf  and  Wave  Federation  in  1888  and  the 
City  Front  Labojr  Council  in  1891.  But  the  City  Front  Federation 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK       123 

was  the  strongest  yet  to  be  formed;  it  was,  in  fact,  one  of  the  best- 
organized  groups  of  its  kind  in  the  country  at  that  time.  As  the  depres- 
sion gradually  became  history,  other  union  groups  began  to  show  signs 
of  life.  Particularly  in  the  building  trades  did  the  organizing  campaign 
show  results.  In  December,  1900,  the  Central  Labor  Council  called  a 
convention  of  California  unions  at  which  a  State  Federation  of  Labor 
was  formed.  At  the  same  time  a  State  Building  Trades  Council  was 
set  up  with  P.  H.  McCarthy  as  president,  an  office  he  held  continuously 
until  1922.  Employers,  too,  were  organizing.  They  built  a  new  asso- 
ciation, raised  a  huge  war  chest,  and  instituted  a  boycott  against  re- 
calcitrants who  recognized  union  groups.  The  new  association  operated 
secretly. 

In  1901  trouble  developed  between  the  teamsters  and  the  Draymen's 
Association  that  rapidly  developed  into  a  lockout.  When  the  City 
Front  Federation  came  to  the  aid  of  the  teamsters,  Bay  area  traffic  was 
tied  up.  After  a  deadlock  lasting  two  months,  Governor  Henry  T. 
Gage  came  to  San  Francisco  and  arranged  a  meeting  between  employers 
and  workers.  A  compromise  was  effected  within  an  hour,  the  terms  of 
which  never  were  made  public.  The  teamsters  became  a  powerful 
segment  of  organized  labor.  Under  the  leadership  of  a  broad-shouldered 
Irishman,  Michael  Casey,  they  branched  out  into  fields  hitherto  un- 
touched by  unions.  But  the  City  Front  Federation,  wracked  by  in- 
ternal dissension,  declined  in  importance.  Sailors,  however,  emerged  in 
possession  of  a  new  agreement  with  shipowners. 

The  labor  unions,  angered  by  what  they  considered  unnecessary 
police  violence  during  the  teamster  struggle,  formed  the  Union  Labor 
Party.  Aided  by  Father  Yorke,  Catholic  priest  and  intimate  friend  of 
Jack  London,  the  new  party  succeeded  in  gaining  the  election  of  Eugene 
Schmitz,  a  member  of  the  Musicians'  Union,  as  mayor.  Three  labor 
men  were  elected  to  the  Board  of  Supervisors.  But  Schmitz  became  the 
puppet  of  Abe  Ruef,  shrewd  political  boss,  and  graft,  corruption  and 
bribery  flourished.  Ruef,  Schmitz,  and  the  supervisors  were  indicted 
by  the  grand  jury  in  a  reform  wave  that  followed  the  1906  earthquake. 
Ruef  went  to  prison,  but  his  henchmen  and  backers  went  free.  Patrick 
Calhoun,  head  of  the  street  railway  corporation,  which  had  been  im- 
plicated in  the  bribery  exposures,  engineered  a  strike  of  the  streetcar 
workers.  Andrew  Furuseth,  Mike  Casey,  and  Fremont  Older  attempted 
to  halt  the  strike  but  were  unsuccessful.  When  Calhoun  imported 
strikebreakers  who  terrorized  the  carmen,  it  appeared  he  had  saved  the 
city,  an  impression  he  deliberately  had  set  out  to  create.  The  carmen's 
union  was  demoralized. 

Meanwhile  P.  H.  McCarthy  of  the  building  trades  unions  had 
forged  to  the  front.  In  1909  he  was  elected  mayor.  Under  his  leader- 
ship the  Building  Trades  Council  built  its  own  mills  and  enforced  a 


124      SAN     FRANCISCO 

boycott  against  mills  outside  the  city,  mills  with  wage  rates  lower  than 
those  of  San  Francisco. 

When  the  longshoremen  struck  in  1916  for  higher  wages,  the  em- 
ployers and  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  organized  the  Law  and  Order 
Committee  and  issued  a  lengthy  manifesto  calling  for  unity  of  San 
Francisco's  citizens.  The  Law  and  Order  Committee  succeeded  in 
getting  the  city  to  pass  an  anti-picketing  ordinance.  Meanwhile,  the 
war  in  Europe  had  begun  to  affect  this  country,  which  at  the  same  time 
was  engaged  in  a  punitive  expedition  against  Mexico.  The  atmosphere 
was  tense.  As  anti-German  sentiment  grew,  people  were  seeing  spies 
behind  every  telephone.  The  city  planned  to  hold  a  parade  in  favor  of 
preparedness. 

The  parade,  held  July  22,  1916,  had  hardly  gotten  under  way  when 
a  bomb  exploded  at  Steuart  and  Market  Streets,  killing  ten  persons  and 
injuring  many  more.  Newspapers  demanded  the  arrest  of  those  guilty 
of  the  outrage.  Among  those  arrested  were  Thomas  J.  Mooney  and 
Warren  K.  Billings,  both  of  whom  were  convicted. 

Labor  in  California  and  throughout  the  United  States  was  convinced 
that  the  two  men  were  innocent.  When  repeated  protests  of  world-wide 
scope  caused  President  Woodrow  Wilson  to  request  Governor  William 
D.  Stevens  to  exercise  leniency,  Mooney's  death  sentence  was  commuted 
to  one  of  life  imprisonment.  Later  investigations  disclosed  irregularity  in 
the  conduct  of  the  trial,  in  the  handling  and  testimony  of  witnesses,  and 
in  the  treatment  of  the  jury.  Judge  Griffin,  in  whose  court  the  trial  had 
been  held,  declared  in  1929:  "The  Mooney  case  is  one  of  the  dirtiest1 
jobs  ever  put  over  and  I  resent  the  fact  that  my  court  was  used  for  such 
a  contemptible  piece  of  work."  As  time  wore  on  Mooney — and  Billings 
— became,  for  labor,  symbols  of  injustice,  until  Governor  Culbert  Olson, 
fulfilling  a  campaign  promise,  was  able  to  pardon  Mooney  and  aid  in 
securing  the  release  of  Billings. 

In  1921  San  Francisco  employers  again  drew  closer  together,  form- 
ing the  Industrial  Association.  The  building  trades  unions  lost  ground 
when  faced  with  the  strong  opposition  of  the  new  employer  group. 
Metal  trades  workers  and  seamen  lost  strikes  in  1921;  carpenters,  in 
1926.  Longshoremen,  since  1919,  had  been  obligated  to  become  mem- 
bers of  the  Longshoremen's  Association  of  San  Francisco,  an  organiza- 
tion they  considered  to  be  under  employer  domination.  They  called  it 
the  "Blue  Book  Union,"  deriving  the  name  from  the  color  of  the 
membership  books.  The  Industrial  Association  maintained  an  employ- 
ment office,  a  hotel  for  non-union  workers,  and  a  training  school  for 
non-union  plasterers,  bricklayers,  plumbers,  and  carpenters.  The  only 
labor  organizations  that  did  not  suffer  from  the  general  intertia  that 
swept  the  city's  trade  union  movement  during  this  period  were  the 
Railway  Brotherhoods.  A  Brotherhood  bank  was  established  in  San. 


SAN     FRANCISCANS     AT     WORK      125 

Francisco  which  merged  with  a  non-labor  bank  after  the  collapse  of  the 
national  Brotherhood's  banking  system. 

The  depression  beginning  in  1929  further  weakened  the  organized 
labor  movement  until  union  sentiment  began  to  revive  with  the  passage 
of  the  National  Recovery  Act.  The  men  on  the  water  front  were 
among  the  first  to  take  advantage  of  Section  y-a  of  the  act,  dealing  with 
labor  organization.  The  longshoremen  secured  a  charter  under  the 
International  Longshoremen's  Association  of  the  AFL  and,  spurred  by 
the  pungent  criticism  and  organizational  appeals  of  an  anonymously 
sponsored  mimeograph  bulletin,  fully  90  per  cent  of  the  dock  workers 
joined  the  ILA.  Harry  Bridges,  wiry  Australian  longshoreman,  came 
to  the  front  as  a  leader  and  spokesman  for  the  new  group.  A  coastwise 
longshoremen's  convention  was  held  in  1934  and  demands  were  made 
upon  the  shipowners.  Subsequently  a  strike  vote  was  taken. 

On  the  morning  of  May  9  longshoremen  in  San  Francisco  and  other 
Coast  ports  walked  off  the  docks  in  what  was  to  be  one  of  the  most 
dramatic  struggles  in  the  history  of  West  Coast  labor.  On  May  13 
the  teamsters,  despite  opposition  of  their  leadership,  voted  unanimously 
against  hauling  cargo  to  or  from  the  docks.  On  May  15  the  seamen 
joined  the  strike,  presenting  their  own  demands  to  the  employers;  licensed 
officers  followed  suit.  The  newspapers  reported  that  on  May  15,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Pacific  Coast  ports,  not  a  freighter  left 
port.  Events  were  rapidly  approaching  a  climax  when  the  Industrial 
Association  announced  to  the  public  that  the  port  would  be  opened  on 
July  5- 

As  the  morning  of  July  5  dawned,  strikers  and  police  massed  in  great 
numbers  at  the  pier  from  which  cargo  was  to  be  hauled  by  non-union 
truck  drivers.  The  pickets  who  attempted  to  approach  the  pier  were 
forced  back  repeatedly  by  police.  At  Rincon  Hill  south  of  Market 
Street  a  pitched  battle  occurred  between  police  and  strikers.  Two 
strikers  were  killed  during  the  day  and  many  were  taken  to  the  hospital 
suffering  from  wounds  and  tear  gas.  A  few  hours  later  the  National 
Guard  moved  into  the  city  and  took  over  the  water  front. 

July  5,  now  memorialized  by  the  water-front  unions  each  year  under 
the  name  of  "Bloody  Thursday,"  crystallized  sentiment  for  a  city-wide 
general  strike  in  sympathy  with  the  maritime  unions.  Union  after  union 
voted  to  go  out.  On  July  17,  first  day  of  the  general  strike,  it  was 
estimated  that  127,000  San  Francisco  workers  had  left  their  jobs.  A 
peculiar  silence  descended  upon  the  city.  Market  Street,  usually  one 
of  the  busiest  streets  in  the  Nation,  appeared  deserted. 

The  general  strike  was  ended  July  20  at  the  instance  of  the  Central 
Labor  Council  and  thousands  returned  to  their  jobs.  The  water-front 
unions  remained  on  strike  for  several  days  until  their  demands  were 
given  over  to  mediation.  Eventually  they  gained  greatly  improved 


126      SAN     FRANCISCO 

working  conditions  and,  what  was  most  important  from  their  point  of 
view,  union  hiring  halls.  A  second  maritime  strike  which  tied  up  ship- 
ping along  the  entire  coast  in  1936  was  ended  in  the  first  week  of  the 
new  year  with  further  improved  working  conditions. 

The  organization  of  the  Congress  of  Industrial  Organizations  in 
1935  found  San  Francisco  sentiment  divided.  The  longshoremen  and 
their  affiliates  voted  to  join  the  new  group,  of  which  Harry  Bridges 
was  later  made  West  Coast  Director.  The  seamen  were  split;  some 
preferred  to  remain  with  the  AFL,  some  for  a  while  maintained  an 
independent  status,  and  some  joined  the  CIO.  The  effects  of  the  split 
were  felt  in  the  bitter  partisanship  which  appeared  in  the  Maritime 
Federation  of  the  Pacific,  organized  following  the  1934  strike.  But  a 
strong  and  deeply  rooted  sentiment  for  unity  in  times  of  crisis  prevented 
disintegration. 

During  the  1938  gubernatorial  campaign  in  California  organized 
labor  united  in  San  Francisco,  pointing  the  way  for  the  rest  of  the  State 
in  supporting  candidates  and  issues  favorable  to  the  unions.  Culbert 
Olson,  the  union-backed  candidate,  won  the  election.  A  State  anti- 
picketing  measure  was  voted  down  by  a  large  majority.  John  F.  Shelley, 
president  of  the  AFL  Central  Labor  Council,  who  was  elected  State 
senator  from  San  Francisco,  perhaps  described  the  position  of  organized 
labor  in  the  Bay  area  when  he  said :  "When  San  Francisco  labor  is  faced 
with  a  concrete  issue,  it  will  unite." 

In  1939  the  major  employers  of  the  city  organized  an  Employers' 
Council  for  the  purpose  of  dealing  unitedly  with  the  unions.  When 
Almon  E.  Roth,  chosen  to  head  the  group,  took  over  his  duties,  he  told 
the  newspapers  that  "San  Francisco  actually  has  had  fewer  strikes  and 
labor  disturbances  in  recent  years  than  most  American  cities  of  com- 
parable size." 


Social  Heritage 


"San  Francisco  knows  how." 

— PRESIDENT   WILLIAM    HOWARD    TAFT 


OF  ALL  the  arts  San  Franciscans  have  practiced,  the  one  they 
have  most  nearly  perfected  is  the  art  of  living,  but  hedonism 
is  only  one  of  the  elements  of  which  San  Francisco's  civilized 
social  tradition  is  compounded.     Omar  Khayyam's  "Take  the  Cash  and 
let  the  Credit  go"  has  been  as  freely  accepted  for  a  motto,  perhaps,  as 
his  "jug  of  wine"  and  "loaf  of  bread" — and  more  freely  than  the  spirit- 
ual precepts  of  the  city's  official  patron,  the  gentle  St.  Francis. 

Yet  all  through  this  materialism  runs  a  fugitive  thread  of  humani- 
tarian tenderness;  a  reverence  for  culture,  often  uncritical;  a  funda- 
mental urbanity.  Every  viewpoint  has  had  its  say  in  the  city's  long 
succession  of  journals  and  newspapers.  Enriched  also  by  this  democratic 
quality  is  the  whole  history  of  the  city's  devotion  to  the  theater,  to  musi- 
cal performances  and  art  exhibits,  to  restaurants  and  cabarets  and  bars. 
Where  so  much  of  living  has  vitalized  a  popular  culture,  the  social 
heritage  is  bound  to  have  a  special  richness. 

HIGH  LIFE  AND  LOW  LIFE 

A  "sort  of  world's  show  of  humanity" — such  was  that  San  Francisco1 
which  so  impressed  the  visiting  Britisher,  J.  D.  Borthwick,  in  1851, 
with  its  "immense  amount  of  vitality  compressed  into  a  small  compass." 
Around  the  same  table  in  the  gambling  saloons  he  found  "well-dressed, 
respectable-looking  men,  and,  alongside  of  them,  rough  miners  fresh 
from  the  diggings,  with  well-filled  buckskin  purses,  dirty  old  flannel 
shirts,  and  shapeless  hats;  jolly  tars  half-seas  over  .  .  .  Mexicans 
wrapped  up  in  their  blankets  smoking  cigaritas  .  .  .  Frenchmen  in 
their  blouses  smoking  black  pipes;  and  little  urchins,  or  little  scamps 
rather,  ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  smoking  cigars  as  big  as  them- 
selves .  .  ."  Along  the  streets,  old  miners  were  to  be  seen  loafing  about 
"in  all  the  glory  of  mining  costume  .  .  .  Troops  of  newly  arrived  • 
Frenchmen  marched  along  .  .  .  their  persons  hung  around  with  tin 
cups,  frying-pans,  coffee-pots,  and  other  culinary  utensils  .  .  .  Crowds 
of  Chinamen  were  also  to  be  seen,  bound  for  the  diggings,  under  gigan- 
tic basket-hats  .  .  ." 

After  the  first  rush  to  the  mines,  most  of  this  mob  of  immigrants 
returned  to  San  Francisco  to  stay.     Careless  of  the  professions  to  which 

12  7 


128       SAN     FRANCISCO 

they  had  been  trained,  doctors  and  dentists  became  draymen,  barbers, 
or  shoeblacks.  Lawyers  and  brokers  turned  waiters  or  auctioneers  or 
butchers;  merchants  became  laborers  and  laborers,  merchants.  Any  and 
all  of  them  kept  lodginghouses  and  gambling  saloons,  speculated  in  real 
estate  and  merchandise — always  ready  to  embark  on  some  new  enter- 
prise. 

Not  without  reason  did  the  Argonauts  boast  that  no  coward  ever 
started  for  California  and  no  weakling  ever  got  there.  The  Gold  Rush 
was  composed  almost  entirely  of  young  men,  many  in  their  'teens,  with 
a  lust  for  adventure  as  strong  as  their  lust  for  fortune.  In  this  adven- 
turers' paradise,  ladies  of  joy  reveled  in  a  degree  of  latitude  rarely 
heard  of  in  American  history.  While  cribs  and  brothels  catered  to  the 
unfastidious,  more  sumptuous  parlors  enticed  the  discriminating.  When 
"the  Countess,"  San  Francisco's  leading  courtesan  of  1849,  opened  her 
establishment,  she  sent  cards  of  invitation  to  the  town's  leading  citizens, 
not  excluding  the  clergy.  Full  dress  was  the  rule  at  this  fasionable 
rendezvous,  and  six  ounces  of  gold  dust,  or  $96,  was  the  price  of  an 
evening's  entertainment. 

Any  talents  used  to  entertain  the  public  were  handsomely  appre- 
ciated. Dr.  D.  G.  Robinson,  part-owner  of  the  Dramatic  Museum, 
was  elected  alderman  in  1851  to  reward  him  for  the  pleasure  he  had 
given  by  renditions  of  his  "Random  Rhymes."  No  one  thought  it 
strange  in  1849  when  the  Commissioner  of  Deeds,  Stephen  C.  Massett, 
resigned  from  his  job  to  compose  songs  and  to  give  recitations  and 
imitations.  A  strolling  piper  with  "cymbal,  triangle,  accordion  and 
bass-drum"  gathered  a  "harvest,"  and  "Dancing  Billy"  earned  enough 
to  buy  drinks  all  around  each  time  he  stopped,  and  was  able  to  pay  his 
musician  $50  an  hour.  The  musicians  "blew  and  scraped,  thrummed 
and  drummed,  jingled  and  banged  throughout  the  live-long  day  and 
night." 

In  every  saloon  were  tables  for  monte  and  other  card  games,  or  for 
rondo  and  roulette  and  chuck-a-luck.  Gambling  facilities  were  the  main 
source  of  revenue  in  all  hotels.  Merchants  had  to  bid  against  their 
operators  for  places  to  do  business;  the  resorts  spilled  over  onto  the 
wharves.  Most  of  the  gold  which  miners  brought  to  town  made  its 
final  disappearance  over  the  tables,  for  the  men  had  a  superstition  that 
it  was  bad  luck  not  to  be  flat  broke  when  they  started  back  to  the  mines. 

In  1853,  the  editors  of  the  Christian  Advocate  made  a  survey  of  the 
town  and  "found,  by  actual  count,  the  whole  number  of  places  where 
liquor  is  sold  in  this  city  to  be  five  hundred  and  thirty-seven."  Of 
these,  125  places  did  not  even  "keep  an  onion  to  modify  the  traffic." 
Forty-eight  were  "dance-houses  and  such  like,  where  Chinese,  Mexi- 
cans, Chilean,  and  other  foreign  women  are  assembled."  Contemporary 
writers  describe  the  saloons  as  "glittering  like  fairy  palaces."  The 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE      I2Q 

outlying  taverns  were  spoken  of  with  no  less  warmth:  "A  jolly  place 
to  lounge  in  easy,  ricketty,  old  China  cane  chairs  and  on  bulgy  old 
sofas"  was  MacClaren's,  on  the  lane  to  the  Mission.  Little  inns  with 
similar  charm  were  strung  along  all  the  rural  roads. 

On  Sunday,  the  Spanish  village  at  the  Mission  was  aglitter  with 
the  silver  trappings  of  hitched  horses,  whose  owners,  having  ridden  out 
from  the  commercial  settlement,  were  spending  the  day  in  the  Spanish 
taverns.  The  Russ  Gardens,  along  the  Mission  Road,  were  taken  over 
on  holidays  and  Sundays  by  national  groups  who  "leaped,  balanced  and 
twirled,  danced,  sang,  smoked  and  made  merry." 

Though  the  1850*5  saw  no  abatement  in  gambling,  drinking,  and 
carousing,  the  more  discriminating  element  of  the  population  was  gradu- 
ally withdrawing  from  the  more  popular  saloons  and  restaurants.  New 
hotels  and  cafes  were  being  established  to  meet  their  demands.  The 
Parker  House  with  its  elegant  appointments,  its  apple  toddy,  and  its 
painting  of  Eugenia  and  Her  Maids  of  Honor,  vied  for  popularity  with 
the  Pisco  Punch  and  the  Samson  and  Delilah  of  the  Bank  Exchange. 
Around  these,  the  Tehama,  and  the  St.  Francis  gathered  those  who 
were  groping  toward  refinement  and  that  privacy  which  their  lack  of 
homes  denied  them.  Private  gambling  dens  were  set  up  and  a  process 
of  social  selection  began. 

Steve  Whipple's  gambling  house  on  Commercial  Street  was  trans- 
formed, in  1850,  into  the  first  gentlemen's  club,  its  clientele  girded  in 
swallowtails  and  flashing  diamond  cuff  links.  Such  devices  for  "draw- 
ing the  line"  were  not  without  painful  consequences  to  that  spirit  of 
camaraderie  which  the  average  forty-niner  had  naively  come  to  expect  of 
his  fellow  men.  An  anecdote  of  this  period  tells  of  a  miner,  wearing 
the  rough  clothes  of  the  "diggings,"  who  wandered  inside  and  was 
politely  informed  by  a  waiter  that  he  had  strayed  into  a  private  club. 

"A  private  club,  eh?"  retorted  the  miner.  "Well,  this  used  to  be 
Steve  Whipple's  place  and  I  see  the  same  old  crowd  around!" 

Nevertheless,  San  Francisco's  leading  citizens  were  determined  to 
create  some  kind  of  orderly  and  civilized  social  pattern;  and  this  tre- 
mendous task  was  finally  solved  by  elevating  the  saloon,  the  cafe,  and 
the  theatre  to  places  of  social  distinction.  Even  before  1851  there  had 
been  attempts  to  stage  decorous  balls  and  parties  where  "fancy  dress" 
was  required,  but  even  the  most  successful  of  these  affairs  could  not 
attract  more  than  25  ladies.  A  record  was  set  in  June,  1851,  by  the 
attendance  of  30  fair  maidens  at  the  first  of  a  series  of  soirees  given  at 
the  St.  Francis;  and  when  60  ladies  showed  up  at  the  July  soiree,  the 
newspapers  commended  the  St.  Francis  for  the  "social  service"  it  had 
rendered. 

But  this  hotel  (which  also  first  introduced  bed  sheets  to  the  city) 
was  to  be  the  scene  of  an  even  greater  triumph.  This  was  a  grand  ball 


I3O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

organized  by  the  Monumental  Six,  the  city's  first  company  of  volunteer 
firemen,  at  which  no  less  than  500  ladies  were  present.  It  was  said 
that  California  was  ransacked  for  this  array  of  femininity,  and  that 
some  of  them  were  brought  by  pony  express  from  as  far  east  as  St. 
Joseph,  Missouri.  The  press  declared  that  at  last  "the  elements  were 
resolving  themselves  into  social  order." 

Since  the  brilliance  of  this  affair  was  not  immediately  repeated,  the 
process  of  social  cohesion  threatened  to  give  way  once  more  to  the  rough- 
shod individualism  of  the  forty-niners.  Even  the  respectable  women  of 
San  Francisco  complained  of  the  high  cost  of  party  dresses  and  avoided 
going  out  into  the  muddy  and  rat-infested  streets.  The  men  started 
attending  the  theater,  but  it  offered  little  attraction.  The  rainy  season 
set  in  and  brought  monotony  to  the  city  which,  until  then,  had  never 
known  a  dull  moment. 

In  this  social  emergency,  some  enterprising  individuals  hit  upon  the 
idea  of  presenting  a  series  of  "promenade  concerts."  "A  large  crowd 
was  present  on  the  first  evening,  but  .  .  .  there  were  no  ladies  present 
to  join  in  the  ball  at  the  close  of  the  concert;  and  such  a  scene  as  was 
presented  when  the  dancing  commenced  beggars  description.  .  .  .  The 
music  commenced;  it  was  a  polka;  but  no  one  liked  to  venture.  At 
last  two  individuals,  evidently  determined  to  start  the  thing,  ladies  or 
no  ladies,  grappled  each  other  in  the  usual  way  .  .  .  and  commenced 
stumping  it  through  the  crowd  and  around  the  hall  ...  As  dance- 
after  dance  was  announced  more  and  more  joined  in,  until  ...  the 
whole  floor  [was]  covered  with  cotillions  composed  entirely  of  men, 
with  hats  on,  balancing  to  each  other,  chassezing,  everyone  heartily 
enjoying  the  exhilarating  dance  .  .  ."  Whether  or  not  the  affair  was  a 
"failure,"  as  McCabe's  Journal  called  it,  the  promenade  concerts  were 
abandoned. 

What  civic-minded  San  Franciscans  could  never  quite  accomplish 
in  the  battle  for  social  cohesion  was  brought  about  by  natural  and  dire 
necessity.  As  a  result  of  the  conflagrations  that  had  almost  destroyed 
the  city  on  six  successive  occasions,  there  had  sprung  up  a  number  of 
companies  of  volunteer  firemen,  to  which  it  was  generally  considered 
an  honor  to  belong.  A  parade  of  San  Francisco's  firemen  was  the  occa- 
sion for  the  whole  State  to  go  on  a  Roman  holiday.  Preceded  by  blar- 
ing bands  and  the  gleaming  engines  decked  with  flags,  the  parades 
stretched  a  mile  in  length.  Each  fireman  marched  proudly  to  the 
martial  music,  attired  magnificently  in  his  red  shirt  and  white  muffler, 
his  shiny  black  helmet,  and  his  trousers  upheld  by  a  broad  black  belt. 
Each  firehouse,  on  parade  days,  was  thrown  open  to  the  public.  The 
city's  leading  breweries  gave  kegs  of  beer,  and  other  firms  donated 
crackers,  cheese,  and  sandwiches. 

The   engine   hduses   themselves   were   furnished   as   lavishly   as   the 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       13! 

hotels  and  restaurants  of  the  later  fifties.  Howard  Engine,  to  which 
Sam  Brannan  gave  allegiance,  was  one  of  the  most  splendid  of  them 
all  and  was  especially  noted  for  the  brilliance  of  its  social  functions. 
The  Monumental  Six  and  the  High  Toned  Twelve  might  boast  more 
elegant  houses,  but  the  "Social  Three,"  as  Howard  Engine  was  popu- 
larly known,  had  the  only  glee  club  and  the  first  piano.  Long  after- 
wards, San  Franciscans  recalled  with  pride  that  magnificent  dinner  the 
"Social  Three"  once  gave  for  the  visiting  firemen  from  Sacramento. 
The  menu  on  that  occasion,  still  preserved  in  the  M.  H.  de  Young 
Museum,  was  "of  cream  satin,  a  foot  and  a  half  long  and  a  foot  wide, 
highly  embossed,  and  elaborately  decorated  in  red,  pink,  and  blue,  the 
work  of  the  finest  ornamental  printers  in  the  city." 

So  rapidly  did  the  city  grow  that  by  1856  all  its  aspects  of  intol- 
erable crudity  had  disappeared.  Plank  sidewalks  brought  a  measure  of 
safety  to  pedestrians,  and  substantial  new  buildings  were  going  up  in 
every  street.  The  custom  of  promenading  took  hold  on  everyone;  and 
Montgomery  Street  became  for  the  next  30  years  an  avenue  filled  with 
the  endless  pageantry  that  was  old  San  Francisco. 

It  was  a  gay  and  motley  crowd  that  paraded  there  every  day  of  the 
week  in  the  1850*8  and  i86o's — a  crowd  utterly  democratic  and  uncon- 
ventional. From  the  fashionable  quarter  at  California  and  Stockton 
streets  came  the  wives  and  daughters  of  San  Francisco's  wealthy  set. 
"Tall,  finely  proportioned  women  with  bold,  flashing  eyes  and  dazzling 
white  skin"  came  from  the  half-world  of  Pike  Street  (now  Waverly 
Place).  Lola  Montez  was  known  to  pass  along  this  street,  her  bold 
admirers  kept  at  a  distance  by  the  riding-whip  she  carried.  Men  were 
still  in  the  majority;  bankers,  judges,  lawyers,  merchants,  stock  brokers, 
gamblers — all  wearing  silk  hats,  Prince  Albert  coats,  ruffled  shirts,  fancy 
waistcoats,  and  trousers  fitted  below  the  knee  to  display  the  highly 
polished  boot. 

Mingling  with  this  passing  show  were  strange  public  characters 
whom  everyone  accepted  as  part  of  the  parade.  "George  Washington" 
Coombs,  who  imagined  himself  to  be  the  father  of  his  country,  paraded 
the  streets  in  coat,  waistcoat,  and  breeches  of  black  velvet,  low  shoes 
with  heavy  black  buckles,  black  silk  stockings,  and  a  cocked  hat.  The 
tall  disdainful  figure  of  "The  Great  Unknown,"  clad  in  the  height  of 
fashion  and  impenetrable  mystery,  was  the  cynosure  for  all  eyes,  but 
never  was  he  known  to  stop  or  talk  to  anyone  in  the  years  he  followed 
this  solitary  course.  The  street  beggars,  "Old  Misery"  (also  known 
as  the  "Gutter  Snipe")  and  "Old  Rosey"  each  morning  appeared,  gath- 
ering odds  and  ends  from  refuse  cans — "Old  Rosey"  always  wearing  a 
flower,  usually  a  rose,  in  his  dirty  coat  lapel.  There  were  also  the  two 
remarkable  mongrels,  "Bummer"  and  "Lazarus,"  whose  relationship 


132      SAN     FRANCISCO 

transcended  ordinary  animal  affection;  together  they  trotted  the  same 
course  as  the  paraders. 

Also  allowed  a  certain  patronage  was  Oofty  Goofty,  the  "Wild 
Man  of  Borneo"  in  a  sideshow,  who  walked  the  sidewalks  of  the  Bar- 
bary  Coast,  in  a  garb  of  fur  and  feathers,  and  emitted  weird  animal 
cries.  Later  he  launched  into  new  fields,  allowing  anyone  to  kick  him 
for  10^,  hit  him  with  a  cane  or  billiard  cue  for  25^,  with  a  baseball 
bat  for  50^.  When  the  great  pugilist  John  L.  Sullivan  tried  his  luck 
with  the  bat,  Oofty  Goofty  was  sent  to  the  hospital  with  a  fractured 
spine.  After  his  recuperation,  he  engaged  in  freak  shows  as  the  com- 
panion and  lover  of  "Big  Bertha." 

The  era  was  a  heyday  of  street  preachers:  evenings  and  Sunday 
mornings  would  find  "Old  Orthodox"  and  "Hallelujah  Cox"  deliver- 
ing orations  to  accumulating  multitudes.  Stalking  them  would  be  "Old 
Crisis,"  a  vitriolic  freethinker  of  the  times,  who  would  mount  the 
rostrum  when  they  had  vacated.  The  itinerant  patent-medicine  dis- 
tributors also  did  a  thriving  business.  Of  these,  the  "King  of  Pain," 
attired  in  scarlet  underwear,  a  heavy  velour  robe,  and  a  stovepipe  hat 
decorated  with  ostrich  feathers,  rode  in  a  black  coach  drawn  by  six 
white  horses.  Found  daily  on  the  sidewalks  around  the  financial  dis- 
trict was  a  greasy  figure,  old  and  lonely,  displaying  a  large  banner 
reading,  "Money  King,  You  Can  Borrow  Money  Cheap";  he  charged 
his  borrowers  exorbitant  rates  of  interest. 

Last,  but  by  no  means  least,  came  the  Emperor  Norton  attired  in 
his  blue  Army  uniform  with  its  brass  buttons  and  gold  braid  and  his 
plumed  beaver  hat.  Everybody  knew  and  liked  this  mildly  insane  little 
Englishman,  who,  after  heavy  financial  reverses  had  wrecked  his  mind, 
styled  himself  "Norton  I,  Emperor  of  North  America  and  Protector 
of  Mexico."  For  two  decades,  traveling  from  one  part  of  the  city  to 
another,  he  saw  to  it  that  policemen  were  on  duty,  that  sidewalks  were 
unobstructed,  that  various  city  ordinances  were  enforced.  He  visited 
and  inspected  all  buildings  in  process  of  construction.  The  newspapers 
solemnly  published  the  proclamations  of  this  kindly  old  man,  and  his 
correspondence  with  European  statesman.  When  in  need  of  funds,  he 
issued  50^  bonds,  supplied  by  an  obliging  printer,  which  were  honored 
by  banks,  restaurants,  and  stores.  His  funeral,  in  1880,  was  one  of  the 
most  impressive  of  the  times,  with  more  than  30,000  attending  the  cere- 
mony in  the  old  Masonic  Cemetery.  When,  only  a  few  years  ago,  his 
remains  were  removed  to  Woodlawn  Cemetery,  down  the  Peninsula, 
an  infantry  detachment  fired  a  military  salute,  and  "taps"  were  blown 
over  his  grave. 

The  "golden  sixties"  saw  the  flowering  of  a  Western  culture, 
wherein  the  uncouth,  violent  San  Francisco  of  Gold  Rush  days  evolved 
to  the  tune  of  Strauss  waltzes  and  polite  salutations  from  carriage  win- 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       133 

dows;  and  the  grand  social  events  of  the  Civil  War  period  brought 
to  the  Oriental  Hotel,  the  Lick  House,  and  the  St.  Francis  a  social 
pageantry,  splendid  and  refined.  The  tobacco-spitting,  gun-toting  forty- 
niner  was  being  taken  in  hand  by  such  arbiters  of  propriety  as  Mrs. 
Hall  McAllister  and  Mrs.  John  Parrott.  Nouveau  riche  citizens  of 
Northern  sympathies  were  succumbing  to  the  gracious  mode  of  living 
taught  by  the  Secessionists.  The  aristocratic  Southern  set,  which  in- 
sisted on  a  certain  formality,  could,  however,  always  forgive  those  who 
violated  its  discipline  with  charm  and  wit  and  good  taste.  Gradually 
the  fashionable  parade  of  carriages  outshone  the  promenade  of  Mont- 
gomery Street;  and  the  exodus  toward  Market  Street  began,  which 
was  to  erase  the  most  distinguished  feature  of  San  Francisco  as  the 
city  of  the  Argonauts.  But  it  was  in  the  large  ball  rooms  of  private 
homes  that  the  magnificence  of  San  Francisco's  social  life  was  shown 
to  best  advantage.  Here,  seemingly  oblivious  of  the  civil  strife,  San 
Franciscans  gave  full  rein  to  their  natural  gaiety. 

The  completion  of  the  transcontinental  railroad  put  an  end  to  the 
splendid  isolation  in  which  San  Franciscans  had  reveled  for  two  decades. 
Soon  the  fantastic  wooden  castles  of  the  Big  Four  were  to  rise  on  the 
summit  of  Nob  Hill,  to  announce  to  an  astonished  citizenry  that  San 
Francisco  was  at  last  an  American  city.  "California  has  annexed  the 
United  States"  was  the  prevailing  opinion,  but  it  was  only  the  final 
and  defiant  expression  of  the  pioneer  spirit  that  refused  to  admit  its 
heyday  was  over.  With  money  running  plentifully,  society  in  the  seven- 
ties and  eighties  was  tempted  to  relax,  to  catch  what  lavish  silver-toned 
enjoyment  emerged  from  its  pompous  realm. 

Marking  the  first  official  get-together  of  writers,  artists,  and  dilet- 
tantes, the  Bohemian  Club  was  founded  in  1872,  with  quarters  on  Pine 
Street  above  the  California  Market.  Under  the  guidance  of  art-loving 
Raphael  Weill,  the  club  opened  its  portals  to  Sarah  Bernhardt  and 
Coquelin  the  Elder  and,  later,  entertained  with  elegant  breakfasts, 
luncheons,  and  dinners  in  the  Red  Room  of  its  building  at  Post  and 
Taylor  streets.  Other  notables  sampling  the  Bohemian  Club's  correct 
and  charming  hospitality,  which  was  acknowledged  to  speak  for  all 
San  Francisco,  were  Nellie  Melba,  Ellen  Terry,  Rudyard  Kipling, 
Henry  Irving,  Helena  Modjeska,  and  Ignace  Paderewski. 

During  this  era  and  the  "Gay  Nineties"  San  Francisco  was  to 
achieve  its  reputation  as  "The  Wickedest  City  in  the  World."  The 
potbellied  little  champagne  salesman,  Ned  Greenway,  led  society  through 
the  artful  steps  of  the  cotillion.  Sprightly  Lillie  Hitchcock,  as  honorary 
member  of  the  San  Francisco  Fire  Department,  aroused  disapproving 
thrills  among  smart  matrons  by  wearing  the  resplendent  badge  pre- 
sented her  by  the  Knickerbocker  5.  Returning  from  entertainment  fur- 
nished in  the  rose-tinged  Poodle  Dog  at  Bush  and  Dupont  Streets  or 


134      SAN     FRANCISCO 

from  Delmonico's,  famous  for  its  soundproof  rooms  and  discreet  waiters, 
railroad  builders  and  Comstock  financiers  chatted  of  rare  vintages  and 
made  inward  plans  for  "private"  suppers. 

Along  the  Barbary  Coast,  the  underworld  whirled  in  fantastic  steps 
to  the  rhythmic  tunes  of  banging  pianos,  banjos,  tom-toms,  and  blaring 
brass  horns.  It  was  the  era  of  checkered  suits,  derby  hats,  and  bright 
turtleneck  sweaters.  The  police  patrolled  the  district  in  pairs.  Assisted 
by  honky-tonk  pianos  grinding  out  "Franky  and  Johnny,"  gamblers 
fleeced  their  victims  with  inscrutable  calm.  From  Barbary  Coast  dives 
to  the  Hotel  St.  Francis  came  the  banjo,  with  Herman  Heller  as  orches- 
tra leader,  soon  to  be  followed  by  Art  Hickman's  introduction  of  the 
saxophone,  which  would  bring  jazz  to  the  modern  era. 

It  was  into  this  phantasmagoric  atmosphere  that  Arnold  Genthe 
brought  Anna  Pavlowa  on  a  slumming  tour.  At  the  Olympia,  a  glit- 
tering dance  hall,  she  watched  the  rhythmic  sway  of  the  dancers.  Fas- 
cinated, soon  she  and  her  partner  were  on  the  floor.  No  one  noticed 
them,  no  one  knew  who  they  were.  Feeling  the  barbaric  swing  of  the 
music,  they  soon  were  lost  in  the  oblivion  of  the  time-beats  of  the 
orchestra.  One  couple  after  another  noticed  them  and  stepped  off  the 
floor  to  watch.  Soon  they  were  the  only  dancers  left  on  the  floor, 
the  other  dancers  forming  a  circle  around  the  room,  astonished,  spell- 
bound. The  music  stopped,  Pavlowa  and  her  partner  were  finished, 
there  was  a  moment  of  silence.  Then  came  a  thunderous  burst  of  ap- 
plause, a  stamping  of  feet,  a  hurling  of  caps.  The  air  was  filled  with 
yells  of  "More!"  Pavlowa  was  in  tears. 

San  Francisco  "remembered"  the  sinking  of  the  battleship  Maine 
with  characteristic  gusto  in  1898.  While  transports  clogged  the  Bay, 
the  boys  in  blue  camped  in  the  Presidio  hills  and  daily  marched  down 
Market  Street  to  the  troopships  to  the  tunes  of  "There'll  Be  a  Hot 
Time  in  the  Old  Town  Tonight"  and  "Coon,  Coon,  Coon,  Ah  Wish 
Mah  Color  Would  Fade."  The  Spanish  War  to  San  Franciscans  was 
almost  one  continuous  fiesta.  Too  late  for  the  war,  the  battleship 
Oregon  steamed  into  the  Bay  to  celebrate  the  victory.  Public  sub- 
scription erected  a  monument  to  Admiral  Dewey  in  Union  Square. 

Soon  the  "ridiculous"  horseless  carriage  was  snorting  along  the  roads 
in  Golden  Gate  Park ;  later  it  ventured  timorously  downtown  to  frighten 
the  bearded  or  bustled  citizens,  who  viewed  the  "newfangled  contrap- 
tion" only  to  maintain  that  horse  and  cable  cars  "were  fast  enough." 

Near  the  corner  of  Powell  and  Market  streets,  in  1914,  stood  some 
of  the  most  famous  of  the  cabarets  and  taverns  in  the  West.  On 
Powell  Street  were  the  Odeon,  the  Portola  Louvre,  and  the  Techau 
Tavern.  Around  the  corner  was  the  Indoor  Yacht  Club.  On  Mason 
Street  flourished  the  Black  Cat,  the  Pousse  Cafe,  and  Marquard's,  and 
within  walking  distance  were  famous  bars,  such  as  the  Waldorf  and  the 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       135 

Orpheum,  and  innumerable  foreign  restaurants.  While  the  graft  inves- 
tigation scandals  of  1906  had  forced  the  toning  down  of  the  city's  night 
life,  it  was  not  until  the  war  years  and  the  advent  of  Prohibition  that 
the  death  knell  of  San  Francisco's  gaiety  was  sounded. 

Most  of  the  cabarets  closed,  never  again  to  reopen.  San  Franciscans 
disdained  grape  juice  and  patronized  the  bootlegger;  they  escaped,  how- 
ever, the  curse  of  the  gangster,  who  in  most  cities  crept  in  with  tem- 
perance. The  Odeon  became  a  cafeteria,  as  did  the  Portola  Louvre. 
The  Techau  Tavern  became  a  candy  store ;  Marquard's  became  a  coffee 
shop.  Over  old  San  Francisco,  twilight  had  fallen,  from  which  it  never 
would  emerge.  San  Francisco  would  be  the  same  city  when  the  era 
of  sobriety  came  at  last  to  its  end,  but,  like  wine  in  a  bottle  once  opened, 
then  corked  and  laid  away,  its  flavor  would  be  gone. 

BEFORE  THE  FOOTLIGHTS 

Through  the  ingenuous  emotions  of  a  child  of  the  eighties,  a  famous 
San  Franciscan  has  tried  to  lay  a  finger  on  the  special  and  intrinsic 
values  that  have  caused  San  Francisco  to  be  considered  a  great  theater 
city:  "Actors  in  those  days  liked  to  go  out  to  the  Coast,  and  as  it  was 
expensive  to  get  back  and  not  expensive  to  stay  there  they  stayed  .  .  . 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  .  .  .  was  very  nearly  my  first  play  ...  Then  I 
enormously  remember  Booth  playing  Hamlet  but  there  again  the  only 
thing  I  noticed  ...  is  his  lying  at  the  Queen's  feet  during  the  play  .  .  . 
although  I  knew  there  was  a  play  going  on  there,  that  is  the  little  play. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  I  first  felt  two  things  going  on  at  one  time." 

The  theater-goer  here  probing  back  into  her  childhood  was  a  long- 
time resident  of  San  Francisco — Gertrude  Stein — later  associated  with 
the  stage  herself  as  the  author  of  Four  Saints  in  Five  Acts.  And  the 
conclusion  she  draws  may  be  extended  to  all  the  theater-goers  and  actors 
of  San  Francisco,  who  have  never  lost  the  feeling  of  two  things  going 
on  at  one  time:  that  active  co-operation  of  audience  and  actor. 

The  Americans  who  came  with  their  banjos  ringing  to  the  tune  of 
"O  Susanna!"  were  not  content  for  long  with  wandering  minstrelsy. 
By  the  middle  of  1849,  they  had  lined  their  pockets  with  gold,  were 
dressed  up,  and  wanted  some  place  to  go.  In  an  abandoned  school- 
house,  from  which  the  teacher  and  trustees  had  departed  for  the  mines, 
on  June  22,  1849,  Stephen  C.  Massett,  "a  stout  red-faced  little  English- 
man," adventurer  and  entertainer  who  also  called  himself  "Jeems  Pipes 
of  Pipesville,"  gave  a  one-man  performance  of  songs  and  impersona- 
tions, for  which  the  miners  were  happy  to  pay  him  more  than  $500. 
Following  Massett  came  the  first  professional  company — "h"-dropping 
Australians — who  presented  on  January  16,  1850,  Sheridan  Knowles' 
touching  drama,  The  Wife.  The  excellence  of  this  performance  may 


136      SAN     FRANCISCO 

be  judged  from  the  leading  lady's  speech,  quoted  from  another  play, 
The  Bandit  Chief:  "  'is  'eart  is  as  'ard  as  a  stone — and  I'd  rayther  take 
a  basilisk  and  wrap  'is  cold  fangs  around  me,  than  surrender  meself 
to  the  cold  himbraces  of  a  'eartless  villain!"  The  theater  was  filled 
with  curious,  excitable  miners,  who  paid  as  high  as  $5  for  admission. 
Yet  the  miners  soon  learned  to  order  such  hams  out  of  town  at  the 
pistol  point. 

The  circus  had  already  come  to  town,  even  preceding  the  Aus- 
tralians. Wandering  by  way  of  Callao  and  Lima,  the  enterprising 
Joseph  A.  Rowe  brought  his  troop  to  a  lot  on  Kearny  Street,  opening 
October  29,  1849.  Here  materialized  a  curious  phenomenon,  the  alter- 
nation of  circus  performances  with  the  tragedies  of  Shakespeare.  Rowe 
on  February  4,  1850,  put  on  Othello — the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
Shakespearean  performances. 

The  early  i85o's  were  noted  for  a  series  of  off-stage  tragedies  that 
periodically  snuffed  out  the  stage  performances.  Six  disastrous  fires 
brought  theater  buildings  down  with  the  rest  of  the  city.  In  the  period 
from  1850  to  1860,  there  were  three  Jenny  Linds,  two  Americans, 
two  Metropolitans,  two  Adelphis,  to  say  nothing  of  structures  not 
rebuilt — the  Dramatic  Museum,  the  National,  the  Theatre  of  Arts, 
the  Lyceum,  and  countless  others.  But  with  pioneer  courage  the  city 
rebuilt. 

And  struggling  through  these  fires  to  make  theater  history  in  San 
Francisco  were  Tom  Maguire  and  Dr.  David  G.  "Yankee"  Robinson — 
utterly  unlike  except  for  their  power  as  impresarios.  With  Dr.  Robin- 
son came  the  first  crude  stagecraft  and  the  first  real  satires  on  the  local 
scene.  On  July  4,  1850,  he  opened  his  Dramatic  Museum  on  Cali- 
fornia Street,  with  a  localized  adaptation  of  Seeing  the  Elephant,  a 
popular  circus  deception.  He  started  the  first  dramatic  school  in  San 
Francisco.  An  actor  himself  and  a  kind  of  playsmith,  he  was  the 
life-blood  of  his  theater.  One  of  his  plays,  The  Reformed  Drunkard, 
has  had  many  revivals  under  the  title  Ten  Nights  in  a  Barroom. 

Beginning  as  an  illiterate  cab  driver,  gambler,  and  saloon  keeper, 
Tom  Maguire  came  to  be  one  of  the  country's  great  impresarios.  This 
man,  like  the  city  itself,  was  fiery,  good-natured,  both  acquisitive  and 
generous;  ignorant,  uncouth,  eager  for  novelty  and  yet  animated  by 
a  childlike  passion  to  be  a  patron  of  "culture."  Sleight-of-hand  artists, 
opera  singers,  sensational  melodramas,  jugglers,  minstrels,  Shakespeare, 
leg-shows:  all  these  succeeded  each  other  swiftly  at  Maguire's  Opera 
House  during  its  eighteen  years  of  existence.  The  only  man  comparable 
to  him  in  his  time  was  P.  T.  Barnum. 

The  roaring  fifties  saw  a  cavalcade  of  exits  and  entrances  on  the 
San  Francisco  stage:  James  Stark,  that  ambitious  young  tragedian; 
Mrs.  Sarah  Kirb^  Stark,  his  wife,  and  a  noted  actress-manager;  the 


San  Francisco*  s  By-gone  Days 


<&<&x^^ 


. 


AMERICAN  FLAG  RAISED  AT  YERBA  BUENA  (1846) 


YERBA  BUENA  COVE  CROWDED  WITH  SHIPS  (1849) 


PANORAMA  FROM  RUSSIAN  HILL 


George  Fanning 


EXECUTION  BY  THE  SECOND  VIGILANCE  COMMITTEE  (1856) 


BUSINESS  DISTRICT  IN  1852 


ABANDONED  SHIPS  ON  WATERFRONT  PRIOR  TO  1851 


THE  FIRST  CABLE  TRAIN  H873) 


.  W.  Harris 


SHIPBUILDING  SOUTH  OF  RINCON  POINT  (1865) 


GREENWICH  STREET  CABLE  CAR  CLIMBING  TELEGRAPH  HILL  (1884) 


VALLEJO  STREET  WHARF  IN  EARLY  SIXTIES 


•BF 

CLIFF  HOUSE  (1866) 


James  Hall 


BARBARY  COAST  (1914) 


t 


i 


LOOKING  DOWN  KEARNY  STREET  TOWARD  MARKET 
GREAT  FIRE  OF  1906 


AFTERMATH 


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r  H|M  m  ii  t  finm  n  i< 
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Tin  ii'  ti  irt 


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RUINS  OF  OLD  ST.'  MARY'S  CHURCH  (1906) 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       137 

prolific  and  talented  Chapman  family,  headed  by  William,  Caroline 
and  George;  the  perennial  Mrs.  Judah  as  Juliet's  nurse;  and  the  un- 
surpassed family  of  Booth,  magniloquent  Junius  Brutus  and  the  adoles- 
cent Edwin.  The  "Sensation  Era"  of  the  i86o's  brought  Lola  Montez, 
Adah  Isaacs  Menken,  and  Lotta  Crabtree,  those  glamor  girls  of  the 
Gold  Coast.  And  late  in  the  i86o's  came  Emily  Melville,  of  musical 
comedy  fame,  whose  subdued  style  of  the  French  school  usurped  the 
place  of  the  "sensation"  manner. 

It  was  the  "Sensation  Era"  which  saw  the  rise  of  the  melodeons  or 
variety  houses,  whose  insouciance  and  camaraderie  of  atmosphere  were 
to  be  found  nowhere  else  but  in  San  Francisco.  They  reflected  the  life 
of  the  city  as  the  more  respectable,  more  resplendent  theaters  did  not. 
The  girls  who  so  cavorted  might  be  found  variously  at  the  Bella  Union, 
Gilbert's,  and  the  other  melodeons,  in  such  extravaganzas  as  The  British 
Blondes,  The  Black  Crook,  The  Black  Rook,  or  The  Black  Rook  with 
a  Crook. 

The  "big  time"  theaters  of  the  city  came  and  went,  and  the  "inqui- 
tous"  Bella  Union  outlived  them  all,  impudently  mocking  the  preten- 
sions of  the  great.  There  were  other  melodeons:  the  Alhambra  (later 
the  Bush  Street  Theatre)  ;  Gilbert's  Melodeon  (later  the  Olympic)  ; 
the  Temple  of  Music  (later  the  Standard);  Buckley's  Adelphi;  the 
Pacific  Melodeon  and  hosts  of  others  of  less  importance.  But  of  all 
these  the  Bella  Union  was  the  prototype.  In  the  burlesques  was  the 
healthy  spirit  of  satire;  the  minstrels  alone  had  the  temerity  to  deflate 
the  balloon  pretensions  of  the  tycoon  age.  Many  of  the  performers  are 
still  remembered:  Lotta  Crabtree,  Joe  Murphy  "The  Great,"  Joseph 
and  Jeff  de  Angelis,  Eddie  Foy,  Ned  Harrigan,  Eliza  Biscaccianti,  Ned 
Buckley,  James  Herne,  and  the  incomparable  Harry  Courtaine.  A 
periodic  drunkard,  irresponsible,  incurable,  the  despair  of  managers  and 
the  delight  of  audiences,  Courtaine  always  returned  and  was  always 
forgiven  because  there  was  no  performer  like  him  in  the  city. 

The  curtain  went  up  on  a  new  era,  when  William  C.  Ralston 
opened  his  new  California  Theater  in  1869.  In  the  audience  were 
Bret  Harte,  Leland  Stanford,  James  Fair,  James  Flood,  John  Mackay, 
and  Emperor  Norton.  The  name  of  the  play  was  Money.  A  Bulletin 
reporter  said  rapturously  of  the  drop  curtain:  ".  .  .  the  lookers-on  were 
held  breathless  .  .  .  with  a  thrill  of  surprised  delight  .  .  ."  No  less 
thrilling  had  been  the  scene  outside  the  building,  where  grandes  dames 
in  full  silk  gowns  had  been  met  by  the  host,  Lawrence  Barrett.  Pres- 
ently they  heard  from  his  lips  the  dedicatory  poem — a  rapturous  in- 
coherency  from  the  pen  of  Bret  Harte. 

The  building  of  the  California  Theater  was  the  signal  for  Tom 
Maguire's  decline.  The  actors  for  whom  Ralston  built  this  sumptuous 
house,  John  McCullough  and  Lawrence  Barrett,  had  both,  ironically 


138      SAN     FRANCISCO 

enough,  been  brought  to  San  Francisco  by  Maguire.  When  his  Opera 
House,  on  Washington  Street,  now  "out  of  the  way,"  was  destroyed 
in  1873,  along  with  its  rival  Metropolitan,  Maguire  took  over  two 
theaters  in  the  Bush  Street  district.  But  the  old  magic  touch  was  gone. 
Ralston 's  entry  into  the  theatrical  world  was  the  sign  for  other  wealthy 
men  to  follow.  In  1876  E.  J.  "Lucky"  Baldwin  built  the  Baldwin 
Academy  of  Music.  Maguire,  finding  it  harder  to  raise  capital  than 
in  the  old  reckless  days,  became  manager  of  Baldwin's  Academy;  but, 
in  1882,  he  threw  up  the  sponge  and  departed  for  the  East,  never  to 
return.  With  him  departed  an  era. 

Later  houses  were  chiefly  notable  for  their  actor-managers,  the  excel- 
lent stock  companies  which  played  there,  and  the  world-famous  actors 
who  appeared:  Edwin  Booth,  Lawrence  Barrett,  Adelaide  Neilson, 
Helena  Modjeska,  John  Drew,  Maurice  Barrymore,  and  a  host  of 
others.  San  Francisco  was,  and  long  remained,  the  only  city  in  the 
United  States,  outside  of  New  York,  where  a  high-salaried  player  could 
be  assured  a  long  and  lucrative  stay. 

Probably  the  most  dramatic  incident  in  the  history  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco theater  attended  the  production  of  The  Passion  Play  at  the  Grand 
Opera  House  in  1879.  Written  by  Salmi  Morse,  a  Jew,  it  was  an- 
nounced for  March  8  and  9,  with  James  O'Neill,  a  Catholic,  as  the 
Christus.  A  storm  of  protest  followed — mostly  from  clergymen — and 
the  Board  of  Supervisors  threatened  to  prohibit  the  performance.  They 
were  forestalled  by  the  production  of  the  play  on  March  3.  Riots 
broke  out  which  threatened  the  safety  of  any  recognizable  Jew  appear- 
ing on  the  streets.  The  production  of  the  play  continued,  however, 
with  interruptions,  until  April  21,  when  Morse  withdrew  it  "in  defer- 
ence to  public  opinion."  The  storm  so  affected  him  that  a  few  months 
later  he  took  his  own  life  in  New  York. 

The  end  of  the  century  saw  David  Belasco,  a  humble  prompter 
at  the  Baldwin  Theatre,  laying  the  foundation  for  his  career.  It  saw 
little  Maude  Adams,  aged  nine,  in  Fairfax;  Lillian  Russell,  a  youthful 
unknown,  in  Sparks  at  the  Standard ;  and  Maurice  Barrymore's  talented 
daughter,  Ethel,  with  a  company  including  John  Drew.  Adelina  Patti 
came  to  count  out  her  $5,coo  in  cash  every  night  before  going  on  the 
stage,  and  Sarah  Bernhardt,  cooing,  cursing,  and  dying  in  130  roles; 
Anna  Held  augmented  her  theatrical  prestige  with  publicity  about 
beauty  baths  in  milk;  and  Edith  Crane,  who  appeared  as  Trilby,  had 
full-sized  photographs  of  her  number  3  shoes  published  in  the  San  Fran- 
cisco papers.  And  that  same  Mauve  Decade  saw  Henry  Irving  and 
Ellen  Terry;  a  very  risque  play  at  the  Baldwin  entitled  Lady  Winder- 
mere  s  Fan;  and  Blanche  Bates  in  The  Darling  of  the  Gods.  Marie 
Dressier  came  to  dance  the  buck  and  wing,  and  Harry  Houdini  to  make 
his  mystifying  escapes. 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       139 

All  but  one  of  the  city's  theaters,  both  elegant  and  rowdy,  were 
eliminated  at  a  single  stroke  by  the  fire  of  1906.  By  that  time  the  early 
millionaire  angels  were  dying  and  leaving  their  money  to  more  sedate 
institutions  such  as  art  galleries,  so  the  local  drama  began  its  struggle 
back  with  less  assistance  than  it  had  enjoyed  before.  The  possibility 
of  its  recovering  an  important  place  in  the  life  of  San  Franciscans  was 
doomed  by  the  advent  of  moving  pictures.  Since  then  there  have  been 
many  nights  when  no  curtain  rose  anywhere  in  a  once-great  theatrical 
town. 

In  most  of  San  Francisco's  schools  and  recreation  centers,  however, 
amateur  casts  are  unceasingly  busy  learning  lines,  making  costumes,  and 
staging  performances.  Hundreds  of  young  San  Franciscans  have  an 
exceptional  appreciation  for  the  drama  because  Maxwell  Anderson, 
hoarding  a  trunkful  of  unproduced  plays,  put  them  through  their  Shake- 
speare at  Polytechnic  High.  Many  have  worked  with  Dan  Totheroh 
in  the  Mountain  Play  on  Mount  Tamalpais.  Babies  make  their  first 
acquaintance  with  the  theater  in  fairy  stories  staged  by  The  Children's 
Theater  Association. 

The  Theater  Union,  a  permanent  amateur  organization  of  the 
socially  conscious  type,  staged  John  Steinbeck's  Of  Mice  and  Men  in 
their  Green  Street  Theater  in  the  Latin  Quarter,  long  before  that  play 
became  a  hit  on  Broadway.  In  the  fine  little  theater  in  Lincoln  Park 
overlooking  the  Golden  Gate,  Maestro  Guilo  presents  rarely  heard 
opera  bouffe.  Jack  Thomas'  Wayfarers  have  an  esthetic  slant;  Barney 
Gould's  Civic  Repertory  Theater  plays  in  the  Theater  of  the  Golden 
Bough.  The  Federal  Theater,  too,  until  closed  by  Congressional  law, 
presented  such  successes  as  Run  Little  Chilian  and  The  Swing  Mikado. 

In  every  section  of  the  city  amateur  performances  may  be  seen  regu- 
larly in  Russian,  German,  Yiddish,  Italian,  Spanish,  Greek,  Arabic, 
Czech,  Finnish,  Polish,  Japanese.  Of  professional  interest  are  the 
French  and  Chinese  theaters.  The  Gaite  Franchise,  or  Theatre  d'Art, 
of  Andre  Ferrier,  at  1470  Washington  Street,  is  the  only  permanent 
French  theater  in  America.  San  Francisco's  Chinese  theater  was  pro- 
fessional from  the  outset,  and  it  set  out  very  early — in  the  i85o's.  Two 
Chinese  theaters  now  operate  in  San  Francisco,  the  Great  China  and 
the  Mandarin — the  only  two  in  America — and  companies  still  come 
from  China  to  San  Francisco  under  special  permit. 

For  San  Franciscans  the  theater  has  never  been  a  shrine  for  the 
cult  of  indifrerentism.  Many  were  the  nights  when  Lola  Montez 
heard  cries  of  "Bravo" ;  and  many  were  the  nights  when  she  was  pelted 
with  vegetables.  The  spontaneity  of  theater  audiences  continues  to 
draw  comment  from  both  sides  of  the  footlights.  John  Hobart  of  the 
San  Francisco  Chronicle  has  stated  succinctly  San  Francisco's  distinc- 
tion as  a  theater  city :  "New  York  audiences  are  quick,  but  easily  bored ; 


I4O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

in  Chicago,  they  are  over-boisterous;  in  Boston,  they  are  over-refined; 
in  Los  Angeles,  they  are  merely  inattentive.  But  in  San  Francisco  the 
rapport  between  the  people  out  front  and  the  players  behind  the  foot- 
lights is  ideal,  for  there  is  stimulation  both  ways,  and  a  kind  of  elec- 
tricity results." 

MUSIC  MAKERS 

In  one  of  San  Francisco's  gambling  saloons,  the  El  Dorado,  a  female 
violinist,  "tasking  her  talent  and  strength  of  muscle,"  alternated  musical 
offerings  with  exhibitions  of  gymnastic  skill.  At  the  Bella  Union  five 
Mexicans  strummed  the  melodies  of  Spain.  At  the  Aguila  de  Ora  a 
group  of  well-trained  Negroes  gave  the  city's  first  performance  of 
spirituals.  Meanwhile,  from  lesser  bars  and  shanties  issued  a  cacophony 
of  singing,  stomping,  and  melodeon-playing. 

This  was  the  town  with  hundreds  of  suicides  a  year,  the  town  that 
stopped  a  theatrical  performance  to  listen  to  an  infant  crying  in  the 
audience.  It  was  the  town  of  Australia's  exiled  convicts,  of  professors 
turned  bootblacks,  of  a  peanut  vendor  wearing  a  jurists's  robes.  Men 
outnumbered  women  twelve  to  one,  had  built  a  hundred  honky-tonks 
but  only  one  school.  Here  was  humanity  suspended  in  an  emotional 
vacuum — or  what  would  have  been  a  vacuum  but  for  the  lady  gymnast 
tripping  from  trapeze  to  violin  and  the  Negroes  harmoniously  invoking 
glory.  The  demand  for  music  was  furious — and  furiously  it  was  sup- 
plied. Eventually  normal  living  conditions  were  established;  but  the 
stimulus  of  music  had  been  accepted  as  one  of  the  permanent  neces- 
sities. 

The  Gold  Rush  ballads  had  a  tranquil  prelude  in  the  Gregorian 
chant  taught  by  the  Franciscan  friars  to  the  mission  Indians.  An  ob- 
server, visiting  one  of  the  missions  in  later  years,  spoke  of  these  choirs: 
"The  Indians  troop  together,  their  bright  dresses  contrasting  with  their 
dark  and  melancholy  faces  .  .  .  They  pronounce  the  Latin  so  correctly 
that  I  could  follow  the  music  as  they  sang  .  .  ."  The  friars  next  taught 
the  Indians  to  play  the  violin,  'cello,  flute,  guitar,  cymbal,  and  triangle, 
and  their  neophytes  surprised  them  by  producing  a  lyrical  rhythm  unlike 
either  the  religious  or  secular. 

Meanwhile,  the  Spaniards  on  their  ranchos  accompanied  the  day's 
activities  with  singing.  In  the  midst  of  weaving,  cooking,  planting, 
and  riding,  the  rancheros  found  time  to  celebrate  at  seed  time  as  well 
as  at  harvest;  they  danced  at  all  three  meals.  But  the  Spaniards'  lively 
and  nostalgic  airs  were  destined  to  be  silenced  by  lusty  throats  crying 
for  gold. 

As  early  as  1849,  the  city's  cafes  began  to  cater  to  their  patrons' 
diverse  musical  tastes.  At  the  El  Dorado,  an  orchestra  "played  with- 
out cessation  music  ranging  from  Mendelssohn  and  Strauss  to  the  latest 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       14! 

dance  trot";  and  Charley  Schultz,  who  enticed  customers  into  the  Bella 
Union  with  his  violin  and  singing,  brought  to  San  Francisco  the  Hawai- 
ian tune,  "Aloha,"  to  which  he  sang,  "You  Never  Miss  Your  Sainted 
Mother  'Till  She's  Dead  and  Gone  to  Heaven." 

More  to  the  miners'  liking  were  songs  that  celebrated  their  own 
exploits,  like  "The  Days  of  Old,  the  Days  of  Gold,  and  the  Days  of 
'49,"  first  sung  by  Charles  Benzel  (known  on  the  stage  as  Charles 
Rhodes),  who  came  with  the  Argonauts.  Another  favorite  was  "A 
Ripping  Trip,"  sung  to  the  tune  of  "Pop  Goes  the  Weasel" : 

"You  go   aboard   a   leaky  boat 

And  sail  for  San  Francisco. 
You've   got  to   pump   to   keep   her   afloat, 

You've  got  that  by  jingo. 
The   engine    soon   begins   to   squeak, 

But  nary  a  thing  to  oil  her; 
Impossible  to  stop  the  leak, 

Rip  goes  the  boiler." 

Other  concerns  of  the  miners  were  chronicled  with  "The  Happy 
Miner,"  "The  Lousy  Miner,"  "Prospecting  Dream,"  "The  Railroad 
Cars  Are  Coming,"  "What  the  Engines  Said,"  "What  Was  Your  Name 
in  the  States?"  These  ballads  were  supplemented  by  songs  brought 
from  foreign  homelands. 

But  many  citizens  soon  demanded  more  cultivated  fare.  San  Fran- 
cisco's first  concert  was  performed  at  the  California  Exchange  on 
Monday  afternoon,  December  22,  1850 — an  exquisite  execution  of 
the  classics  on  a  trombone  by  Signor  Lobero.  Shortly  after  this  the 
Louisiana  Saloon  gave  a  concert.  But  the  attempt  to  uplift  was  only 
half  successful;  later  the  Alta  California  felt  it  necessary  to  admonish 
the  audience:  "We  would  respectfully  advise  gentlemen,  if  they  must 
expectorate  tobacco  juice  in  church  or  at  the  theatre  that  they  .  .  .  eject 
it  upon  their  own  boots  and  pantaloons  .  .  ."  The  Arcade  Saloon  an- 
nounced a  series  of  "Promenade  Concerts  a  la  Julien."  The  Bella 
Union  countered  with  the  following  invitation :  "Grand  vocal  Concert 
with  Accompaniment — to  the  lovers  of  Music  of  Both  Sexes — " 

The  Germans  of  San  Francisco  contributed  their  substantial  talents 
to  the  city's  musical  development.  Turnverein  organizations  became  the 
center  and  stimulus  of  choral  societies;  by  1853,  four  German  singing 
societies  were  in  full  swing  and  had  held  their  first  May  Day  festival. 

Miska  Hauser,  Hungarian  violinist,  originated  the  first  chamber 
music  group.  His  own  words,  appearing  in  his  collected  letters,  tell  the 
story:  "The  Quartett  which  I  organized  so  laboriously  gave  me  for  a 
long  time  more  pleasure  than  all  the  gold  in  California  ...  the  Quar- 
tett in  its  perfection  as  Beethoven  saw  it,  this  mental  Quadrologue  of 
equally  attuned  souls.  .  .  .  My  viola  player  died  of  indigestion — and 


142       SAN     FRANCISCO 

for  some  time  I  will  miss  the  purest  of  all  Musical  pleasures.  .  .  .  Too 
bad  that  the  other  three  were  not  solely  satisfied  with  the  harmonies  of 
the  Beethoven  Quartett.  They  want  a  more  harmonic  attribute  of  $15 
each  for  two  hours.  .  .  ." 

Mr.  Hauser  may  have  had  some  difficulty  in  sustaining  enthusiasm 
among  his  attuned  souls,  but,  in  the  fifties  and  sixties,  opera  burst  the 
town  wide  open.  Eliza  Biscaccianti,  Catherine  Hayes,  and  Madam 
Anna  Bishop  gave  the  city  its  first  reputation  as  an  opera-loving  com- 
munity. When  Biscaccianti  opened  her  first  opera  season  on  March  22, 
1852,  at  the  American  Theatre,  there  were  more  calls  for  conveyances 
than  the  city  could  provide.  According  to  the  Alta  California  of  March 
24:  ".  .  .  the  evening  marked  an  era  in  the  musical,  social  and  fashion- 
able progress  of  the  city."  Despite  such  appreciation,  Mme.  Biscacci- 
anti returned  to  San  Francisco  six  years  later  to  find  that  her  place  had 
been  taken  by  Kate  Hayes,  press-agented  as  the  "Swan  of  Erin." 

San  Francisco  lionized  these  singers  in  a  manner  befitting  the 
legendary  heroines  whose  lives  they  portrayed.  When  Madam  Biscacci- 
anti sang  Rossini's  Stabat  Mater,  "Fire  companies  came  out  in  full 
uniform  to  honor  her  and  on  one  occasion  their  enthusiasm  was  so  great 
they  unhitched  the  horses  from  her  carriage  and  pulled  her  to  her  hotel." 
To  Miss  Hayes  also  the  volunteer  firemen  gave  undeniable  proof  of 
their  delight. 

How  the  firemen  found  time  from  drilling,  fighting  fires,  and 
attending  luminaries  to  make  music  of  their  own  is  a  record  of  in- 
genuity. Several  companies,  however,  gave  band  concerts  both  in  and 
outside  the  city.  Many  other  amateur  groups  often  augmented  pro- 
fessional offerings.  Instrumental  ensembles  and  singing  societies  were 
formed  by  immigrants  from  France,  Great  Britain,  Switzerland,  and  a 
little  later  by  Italians,  Finns,  and  other  Scandinavians.  Professional 
musicians,  amateurs,  and  audiences  were  en  rapport  during  the  invigorat- 
ing epoch  of  the  Gold  Rush.  Thus,  by  1860,  a  rich  musical  tradition 
was  well  on  its  way  to  becoming  permanent. 

The  development  of  symphony  music  was  given  its  initial  impulse  by 
Rudolph  Herold,  pianist  and  conductor,  who  came  to  California  in  1852 
as  accompanist  to  Catherine  Hayes.  The  first  of  Herold's  concerts  of 
notable  magnitude  occurred  in  1865,  when  he  conducted  an  orchestra  of 
60  pieces  at  a  benefit  concert  for  the  widows  and  children  of  two  musi- 
cians. In  1874  he  began  his  annual  series  of  symphony  concerts  with 
an  orchestra  of  50  pieces,  continued,  with  no  financial  succor  to  speak 
of,  until  1880.  After  Herold's  retirement,  symphony  concerts  were 
given  more  or  less  regularly  under  such  conductors  as  Louis  Homeier, 
Gustav  Hinrichs,  and  Fritz  Scheel.  Scheel,  who  later  founded  the 
Philadelphia  Orchestra,  was  a  musician  of  genius,  esteemed  by  such 
renowned  contemporaries  as  Brahms,  Tchaikovski,  and  Von  Biilow. 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       143 

No  American  theater  did  so  much  to  popularize  opera  as  the  Tivoli, 
best  remembered  of  all  San  Francisco's  theaters,  which  Joe  Kreling 
opened  as  a  beer  garden  in  1875,  with  a  ten-piece  orchestra  and  Tyrolean 
singers.  Rebuilt  in  1879,  it  became  the  Tivoli  Opera  House.  Its  career 
began  happily  with  Gilbert  and  Sullivan's  Pinafore,  which  ran  for  84 
nights.  For  26  years  thereafter  it  gave  12  months  of  opera  each  year, 
never  closing  its  doors,  except  when  it  was  being  rebuilt  in  1904:  a 
record  in  the  history  of  the  American  theater.  For  eight  months  of  the 
year  light  opera — Gilbert  and  Sullivan,  Offenbach,  Van  Suppe,  Lecoq — 
was  performed,  and  for  four  months,  grand  opera,  principally  French 
and  Italian,  occasionally  Wagner.  From  the  Tivoli  chorus  rose  Alice 
Nielson,  the  celebrated  prima  donna. 

William  H.  Leahy,  familiarly  known  as  "Doc,"  who  became  man- 
ager of  the  Tivoli  in  1893,  was  a  keen  judge  of  musical  talent.  His 
greatest  "find"  was  Luisa  Tetrazzini,  whom  he  discovered  while  visiting 
Mexico  City,  where  she  was  a  member  of  a  stranded  opera  company. 
In  1905  Tetrazzini  made  her  San  Francisco  debut  at  the  Tivoli  as 
Gilda  in  Rigoletto  and  became  forthwith  the  best-beloved  singer  in  the 
city.  When  San  Francisco  was  rebuilt  after  the  earthquake  and  fire  of 
1906  (as  was  the  Tivoli),  Tetrazzini  returned  to  sing  in  the  street,  in 
front  of  the  Chronicle  office  at  Lotta's  fountain,  on  Christmas  Eve, 
1909.  Jamming  the  streets  in  five  directions  was  the  densest  crowd 
ever  seen  in  the  city.  She  also  sang  at  the  fourth  Tivoli,  opened  in 
1913.  But  the  heyday  of  the  famous  theater  was  over;  and  on  Novem- 
ber 23,  1913,  it  gave  its  last  operatic  performance  with  Leoncavallo 
conducting  his  own  /  Pagliacci. 

How  permanent  was  the  city's  musical  tradition  was  proved  some 
75  years  later,  when  the  citizens  of  San  Francisco  made  their  symphony 
orchestra  the  first  and  only  one  in  the  Nation  to  be  assisted  regularly 
with  public  money.  Since  its  debut  concert  in  1911,  the  San  Francisco 
Symphony  had  enjoyed  more  than  local  respect,  under  the  successive 
direction  of  Henry  Hadley,  Alfred  Hertz,  Basil  Cameron,  Issay  Do- 
browen,  and  Pierre  Monteux.  But  during  the  1934-35  season,  condi- 
tions became  so  acute  that  of  the  playing  personnel  only  the  director, 
concert-master,  and  solo  'cellist  remained.  The  situation  was  remedied 
by  taxpayers  who  gave  a  half-cent  of  every  dollar  that  found  its  way 
into  the  municipal  coffers. 

Pierre  Monteux,  conductor  since  1935,  an  ex-associate  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  and  a  former  conductor  of  the  Boston  Symphony  and 
several  European  organizations,  has  done  much  to  reaffirm  the  orchestra's 
position.  Beginning  in  1937,  tne  season — curtailed  during  the  depres- 
sion— was  increased  to  12  concert  pairs,  carrying  over  18  weeks.  The 
San  Francisco  Symphony  was  the  first  major  orchestra  to  admit  women 
to  the  playing  personnel.  It  has  also  taken  an  interest  in  such  youthful 


144      SAN     FRANCISCO 

prodigies  as  Yehudi  Menuhin,  Ruggiero  Ricci,  Grisha  Goluboff,  and 
Ruth  Slenczynski. 

The  San  Francisco  Opera  Association  owes  its  existence  largely  to 
Gaetano  Merola,  its  general  director,  who  came  to  California  with  an 
organization  headed  by  Fortune  Gallo,  one  of  the  many  traveling  com- 
panies that  visited  San  Francisco  following  the  twilight  of  the  Tivoli. 
The  present  San  Francisco  Opera  Company  made  its  inaugural  bow 
before  the  public  in  September,  1923,  in  the  cavernous  Civic  Auditorium, 
originally  built  for  convention  purposes.  In  1932,  after  20  years  of 
personal  and  political  wrangling,  the  War  Memorial  Opera  House — 
first  municipal  opera  house  in  the  United  States — was  completed. 

The  season  at  the  present  time  is  divided  into  a  regular  subscription 
series  of  n  performances  and  a  popular  Saturday  night  series  of  three. 
In  its  17  years  of  existence,  the  San  Francisco  Opera  Company  has 
produced  no  single  star  of  the  first  magnitude  from  its  own  ranks,  but 
it  has  imported  such  singers  as  Lawrence  Tibbett,  Lotte  Lehman,  Lily 
Pons,  Elizabeth  Rethberg,  Kirsten  Flagstad,  Lauritz  Melchior,  and 
Giovanni  Martinelli.  The  popular-priced  San  Carlos  Opera  Company's 
performances,  during  the  unfashionable  late  winter  months,  invariably 
sell  out. 

The  "quadrologue  of  equally  attuned  souls"  that  Miska  Hauser 
tried  vainly  to  keep  together  is  come  to  life  in  the  present  San  Fran- 
cisco String  Quartet,  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  earlier  Persinger,  Hecht, 
and  Abas  ensembles,  which  played  for  many  years  in  and  near  San 
Francisco.  The  San  Francisco  String  Quartet  has  held  the  leading  posi- 
tion among  the  city's  chamber  music  artists  since  1934. 

The  Northern  California  Music  Project  in  San  Francisco  (formerly 
the  Federal  Music  Project),  now  under  the  direction  of  Nathan  Abas, 
not  only  has  performed  standard  choral  and  symphonic  works,  but  has 
resurrected  with  acute  musical  vigilance  the  opera  bouffe,  so  popular 
with  Europeans.  Erich  Weiler  has  given  the  operas  English  librettos, 
their  humor  pointed  up  with  modern  colloquialisms ;  and  the  artists  have 
caught  their  spirit  of  hilarious  pasquinade.  The  project  also  maintains 
a  free  school  of  musical  instruction  for  those  unable  to  afford  private 
training. 

Gaston  Usigli,  who  directs  the  Bach  festival  each  summer  at  Carmel, 
has  been  heard  as  guest-conductor  with  the  project's  orchestra,  as  has 
Dr.  Antonia  Brico,  one  of  the  few  women  in  the  world  to  wield  a  baton 
effectively.  Arnold  Schonberg  directed  the  orchestra  in  the  San  Fran- 
cisco premiere  of  his  own  tone  poem,  Pelleas  and  Melisande.  San 
Franciscans  had  to  wait  for  the  project  orchestra's  performances  to  hear 
Dmitri  Shostakovich's  First  Symphony,  and  Paul  Hindemith's  Mathis 
der  Maler.  The  project's  chorus,  as  well  as  its  orchestra,  has  composed 
its  programs  with  imagination  and  initiative.  But  perhaps  the  most 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE      145 

significant  value  of  these  musical  organizations  has  been  the  opportunity 
they  have  given  San  Francisco  composers  and  audiences  to  appraise 
music  written  locally.  Exciting  events  were  the  world  premieres  of 
Ernst  Bacon's  Country  Roads  (Unpaved),  Nino  Gomel's  The  Conquest 
of  Percy,  and  Tomo  Yagodka's  Sonata  for  Piano  and  Orchestra. 

The  impact  of  the  modern  environment  on  the  sensibilities  of  the 
artist  has  seldom  been  better  expressed  than  by  San  Francisco's  Henry 
Cowell.  Though  most  audiences  have  been  staggered,  technically 
trained  composers  recognize  the  theoretical  value  of  Cowell's  contribu- 
tion to  modern  music.  In  the  Marin  hills  overlooking  the  city,  Ernest 
Bloch  composed  his  rhapsody  America,  while  serving  as  director  of  the 
San  Francisco  Conservatory  of  Music.  Ray  Green  and  Lew  Harrison, 
local  exponents  of  the  modern  experimental  school,  have  written  instru- 
mental music  and  brilliant  compositions  for  dance  groups.  John  St. 
Edmunds,  composer  of  nearly  400  songs  somewhat  more  traditional  in 
technique,  received  in  1937  tne  Columbia  University  Beams  Prize. 

To  many,  the  Barbary  Coast's  unbroken  hum  of  melodeon,  piano, 
Mexican  orchestra,  and  singer  was  only  San  Francisco's  brawling  night 
voice.  But  one  man  caught  in  these  sounds  the  musical  implications  of 
a  future  rhythm.  This  man  was  Ferdinand  Rudolph  van  Grofe — Ferde 
Grofe — incomparable  arranger  of  jazz,  composer  of  Grand  Canyon 
Suite  and  other  notable  interpretations  of  the  American  scene.  As  an 
extra  piano  player  on  call  at  the  Old  Hippodrome  and  Thalia,  Barbary 
Coast  resorts,  he  recorded  in  his  mind  a  medley  of  folk  songs,  Negro 
dance  tunes,  and  sailor's  chanties.  "The  new  music  in  the  air  along 
Pacific  Street  .  .  .  did  something  to  me!" 

When  Grofe  left  the  Barbary  Coast  to  play  the  piano  with  Art 
Hickman's  band  at  the  St.  Francis  Hotel,  the  tvvo  arranged  music  that 
was  different  and  sparkling.  Other  orchestra  leaders  who  played  in  San 
Francisco — Paul  Whiteman,  Rudy  Seiger,  and  Paul  Ash — became  con- 
spicuous exponents  of  this  new  music.  Recent  band  leaders  who  have 
taken  off  from  San  Francisco  on  their  musical  flights  include  Paul  Pen- 
darvis,  Dick  Aurandt,  Frank  Castle,  Carl  Ravazza,  and  Ran  Wilde. 

Home  music  makers  in  San  Francisco  often  aspire  to  the  highest 
professional  standards.  Amateur  groups  frequently  meet  to  forget  the 
tensions  of  the  day  in  the  sanity  of  Brahms  or  Bach,  or  in  the  work  of 
local  composers.  Both  the  playing  and  the  composing  are  marked  with 
a  strong  beat  of  self-reliance,  in  whose  echo  can  be  heard  the  promise  of 
San  Francisco's  musical  future. 


SAN  FRANCISCO  GOES  TO  CHURCH 

For  60  years  before  the  founding  of  Yerba  Buena,  the  padres  of 
Mission  Dolores  heard  their  Indian  converts  recite  the  Doctrina  Chris- 


146      SAN     FRANCISCO 

tiana,  watched  their  Mexican  parishioners  lumbering  over  the  sand  hills 
in  oxcarts  to  celebrate  saints'  feast  days.  And  hardly  had  the  first 
Argonauts  pitched  their  tents  around  Portsmouth  Square  before  a 
Protestant  clergyman  rose  to  deliver  the  doctrine  of  Methodism.  Today 
nearly  300  churches,  representing  more  than  50  denominations,  exert  a 
vast  influence  over  the  lives  of  thousands  of  San  Franciscans.  Many 
were  founded  amid  the  turbulence  of  the  Gold  Rush,  others  in  the  era 
of  industrial  expansion.  Some  have  accepted  high  responsibilities  in  the 
city's  struggles  for  public  order.  Issues  of  the  Civil  War,  of  State  and 
municipal  politics  were  declared  from  their  pulpits. 

Sam  Brannan's  Latter-Day  Saints  assembled  in  harbor  master  Wil- 
liam A.  Richardson's  "Casa  Grande"  in  1847,  but  internal  dissension — 
and  the  Gold  Rush — soon  caused  them  to  lose  their  influence.  Through- 
out the  winter  of  1848  Elihu  Anthony,  a  layman,  preached  to  packed 
audiences  in  the  Public  Institute.  His  rival,  who  drew  a  like  number 
of  listeners  to  this  town  meeting-house  in  the  Plaza,  was  the  Reverend 
Timothy  Dwight  Hunt,  a  Congregationalist  missionary  who  followed 
his  Argonaut  flock  from  the  Sandwich  Islands.  On  his  arrival  in  San 
Francisco,  an  enthusiastic  citizenry  elected  him  chaplain  of  the  city 
for  one  year  at  a  salary  of  $2,000. 

Gold-mad  San  Francisco  offered  opportunities  for  conversion  only  to 
such  heroic  missionaries  as  that  Reverend  William  "California"  Tay- 
lor, who  conducted  open-air  meetings  on  Portsmouth  Square  in  1849 
and  became  the  most  renowned  of  the  city's  host  of  street  preachers. 
This  resourceful  Methodist's  approach  to  the  adamantine  hearts  of  his 
listeners  he  described  later  in  his  memoirs :  "Now  should  a  poor  preacher 
presume  to  go  into  their  midst,  and  interfere  with  their  business,  by 
thrilling  every  house  with  the  songs  of  Zion  and  the  peals  of  Gospel 
truth,  he  would  be  likely  to  wake  up  the  lion  in  his  lair.  ...  I  selected 
for  my  pulpit  a  carpenter's  work-bench,  which  stood  in  front  of  one  of 
the  largest  gambling  houses  in  the  city.  I  got  Mrs.  Taylor  and  another 
lady  or  two  comfortably  seated,  in  the  care  of  a  good  brother,  and  taking 
the  stand,  I  sung  on  a  high  key,  'Hear  the  royal  proclamation,  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation',  .  .  ."  The  good  Reverend  Taylor's  summons 
brought  people  tumbling  out  of  saloons  and  dancehalls  "as  though  they 
had  heard  the  cry  'Fire!'  'Fire!'  'Fire!'"  Many  remained  to  listen 
with  respect. 

In  1854,  the  Reverend  William  Anderson  Scott,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
preached  his  first  sermon  in  San  Francisco  to  a  crowd  in  a  dancehall. 
Neighboring  resorts  closed  during  the  services,  while  bartenders,  card- 
dealers,  and  female  entertainers  flocked  to  hear  this  scholarly  Presby- 
terian from  one  of  New  Orleans'  largest  churches.  Subsequent  meet- 
ings resulted  in  the  construction  in  1854  of  a  church  on  Bush  Street, 
in  a  district  then  notorious  for  its  dancehalls,  gambling  saloons,  and  dens 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       1 47 

of  vice.  In  1869  this  neighborhood  became  so  boisterous  that  the  con- 
gregation had  to  seek  a  new  home.  But  the  Reverend  Dr.  Scott  was  no 
longer  on  hand  to  lead  them.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  he  had 
preached  the  right  of  secession  to  an  outraged  membership,  while  a  mob 
of  Northerners  stormed  the  front  door  of  his  church.  Spirited  out  a 
rear  exit  by  a  loyal  female  supporter,  he  was  whisked  away  in  a  carriage 
to  a  ship  that  took  him  to  safety  in  New  York. 

Among  claimants  to  the  honor  of  having  erected  the  city's  first 
Protestant  church,  Baptists  point  with  pride  to  that  makeshift  affair  of 
lumber  and  sailcloth  into  which  the  Reverend  Osgood  C.  Wheeler  led 
his  little  flock  in  March,  1849.  The  Baptist  pastor  closed  his  sermon 
in  the  spring  of  that  year  with  a  prediction  of  the  city's  great  commer- 
cial future,  urging  his  listeners  to  build  an  organization  able  to  cope 
with  so  portentous  a  destiny.  The  Baptists  were  to  prove  equal  to  their 
obligations  when  the  Reverend  Isaac  S.  Kalloch  headed  the  reform 
movement  that  elected  him  mayor  in  1879. 

Meanwhile  the  six  loyal  followers  of  the  Reverend  Albert  Williams, 
a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  had  met  in  a  tent  and  laid  plans  for  establish- 
ing a  church  of  their  own.  When  the  prefabricated  place  of  worship 
arrived  from  the  East  and  was  dedicated,  thirty-two  ladies  attended  the 
proceedings,  much  to  the  amazement  of  the  male  population. 

Just  as  the  Gold  Rush  offered  opportunities  for  every  profession,  it 
welcomed  every  creed.  In  such  an  atmosphere  the  timid  religionist  was 
as  lost  as  the  timid  gambler,  but  for  the  resourceful  there  was  a  place. 
When  the  luckless  miner  or  workman  had  nowhere  else  to  turn,  he  could 
find  a  champion  of  his  rights  in  the  pastor  of  some  friendly  church. 
Even  the  last  hours  of  the  Vigilantes'  victims  were  cheered  by  spiritual 
consolation. 

Of  the  Protestant  sects  which  have  accepted  leadership  in  public 
affairs,  none  has  had  so  decisive  an  influence  on  San  Francisco  and  the 
State  as  the  Unitarians.  This  denomination,  during  the  critical  period 
of  the  Civil  War,  had  as  its  Abolitionist  representative  in  California  the 
fiery  young  evangelist,  Thomas  Starr  King.  He  was  only  35  when,  in 
1860,  he  took  over  the  pastorate  of  San  Francisco's  Unitarian  Church. 
David  Broderick,  leading  opponent  of  the  State's  powerful  secessionist 
minority,  had  been  killed  the  previous  year;  and  Colonel  E.  D.  Baker, 
having  been  elected  United  States  Senator  from  Oregon,  had  left  Cali- 
fornia with  a  ringing  appeal  for  the  election  of  Lincoln.  Thus  the  task 
of  holding  the  State  in  the  Union  column  fell  on  the  frail  shoulders  of 
the  young  preacher  from  Boston,  whose  personal  charm  and  spellbinding 
oratory  were  instrumental  in  saving  California  with  the  election  of 
Leland  Stanford  as  governor  in  1861.  King's  death  four  years  later 
was  due  to  his  strenuous  efforts  collecting  funds  for  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission,  the  Red  Cross  of  the  Northern  armies. 


148      SAN     FRANCISCO 

While  Lincoln  hesitated  to  proclaim  the  issue  of  freedom  for  the 
slaves,  Thomas  Starr  King  appealed  with  Abolitionist  fervor:  "O  that 
the  President  would  soon  speak  that  electric  sentence, — inspiration  to 
the  loyal  North,  doom  to  the  traitorous  aristocracy  whose  cup  of  guilt 
is  full!"  That  King's  idealism  went  beyond  the  issues  of  his  day  is 
revealed  in  his  lectures  in  defense  of  both  the  Chinese  in  California  and 
those  white  laborers  whose  hand  was  raised  against  them. 

The  Nation  observed  King's  passing  with  the  firing  of  minute  guns 
in  the  Bay;  flags  hung  at  half  mast  on  foreign  vessels  in  the  Bay,  on 
consulates  and  all  public  buildings  in  San  Francisco.  In  1927  the 
California  Legislature  bracketed  his  name  with  Junipero  Serra's,  and, 
with  the  $10,000  appropriated  for  the  purpose  in  1913,  erected  com- 
panion statues  of  these  two  official  California  heroes  in  Statuary  Hall, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

The  Episcopal  Church  can  lay  claim  to  the  most  romantic  origin  of 
all  local  religious  institutions.  Its  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  used 
for  the  first  time  on  American  soil  by  the  Golden  Hinde's  chaplain 
Francis  Fletcher,  in  the  service  held  on  the  shore  of  Drake's  Bay  on 
June  17,  1579  (old  style).  Two  hundred  and  seventy  years 
later,  in  1849,  the  Reverend  Flavel  Scott  Mines  from  Virginia  estab- 
lished Trinity  Church ;  and  in  the  same  year  Grace  Church  was  founded. 
When  Bishop  Kip,  in  1863,  placed  his  Episcopal  Chair  in  the  latter,  he 
thereby  made  it  the  first  Episcopal  cathedral  in  the  United  States.  Per- 
haps no  other  religious  leader  in  the  city's  history  has  occupied  quite  such 
social  prominence  as  was  accorded  Bishop  Kip.  To  a  gay  generation  he 
represented  a  serenity  of  faith  and  a  Christian  liberalism  in  which  the 
innocent  frivolities  of  social  life  might  be  reconciled  with  religion.  His 
successor,  Bishop  Nichols,  lived  to  see  the  realization  of  his  dream  of  a 
cathedral  which,  when  finally  completed,  would  be  worthy  of  his 
church's  ancient  tradition.  After  the  1906  fire,  which  destroyed  the 
original  Grace  Cathedral,  wealthy  families  donated  sites  of  their  charred 
mansions  on  Nob  Hill  to  the  Episcopal  diocese;  and  in  1910  the  corner- 
stone of  the  present  majestic  Grace  Cathedral  was  laid. 

To  Gold  Rush  San  Francisco  also  came  leaders  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  faith;  and  the  establishment  of  American  rule  offered  an 
opportunity  for  the  Catholic  diocese  in  Oregon  to  found  a  pastorate  of 
the  Jesuit  Order  in  San  Francisco.  That  the  prospects  for  this  venture 
were  more  of  a  challenge  than  an  invitation  is  clear  from  the  record 
kept  by  a  colleague  of  that  Father  Langlois  who,  in  1849,  arrived  to 
plant  his  faith  "on  the  longed-for  shores  of  what  goes  under  the  name 
of  San  Francisco  but  which  whether  it  should  be  called  the  mad-house 
or  Babylon  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine  .  .  ."  So  hopeless  appeared  all 
but  a  handful  of  French-Canadians  among  the  Argonauts  that  the  good 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       149 

Father  resolved  to  depend  on  these  few  strayed  parishioners  to  form  the 
nucleus  of  his  congregation. 

With  the  establishment  of  Bishop  Joseph  Sadoc  Alemany's  diocese  at 
Monterey,  however,  and  the  early  arrival  in  San  Francisco  of  Father 
Maginnis  to  aid  in  the  work,  Father  Langlois  was  able  to  say  Mass  and 
baptize  the  first  convert  in  a  new  parish  chapel.  Soon  after  the  arrival 
from  Ireland,  in  1853  and  1854,  of  several  Sisters  of  Mercy,  the  city's 
first  parochial  school  had  enrolled  300  pupils.  Once  St.  Patrick's 
Church  was  established,  the  firm  foundation  was  laid  for  the  progress 
of  Catholicism  in  San  Francisco.  On  Christmas  Day,  1854,  St.  Mary's 
Church  was  dedicated  as  the  cathedral  seat  of  newly  consecrated  Arch- 
bishop Alemany,  whose  spiritual  domain  included  California  and 
Nevada. 

Despite  its  history  of  missionary  achievements  antedating  the  signing 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  Catholic  Church  in  San  Fran- 
cisco had  to  start  from  scratch,  after  the  80  years  of  comparative  pros- 
perity in  which  Mission  Dolores  had  shared.  Though  title  to  the  land 
and  buildings  of  Mission  Dolores  was  not  restored  to  the  Church  until 
1860,  it  was  occupied  almost  continuously  by  Franciscan  or  Picpus 
Fathers  between  the  date  of  its  secularization  (1833)  and  the  advent  of 
American  rule.  The  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  Diocesan  Seminary,  operated 
at  Mission  Dolores  between  1853  and  1866,  was  a  pioneer  in  the  revival 
of  education ;  but  its  efforts  to  teach  white  children  resemble  the  arduous 
pedagogy  of  the  colonial  period.  Thus  matters  stood  until,  in  1855,  the 
Jesuits  began  the  establishment  of  the  College  of  St.  Ignatius,  from 
which  the  present  University  of  San  Francisco  has  grown.  However 
great  the  debt  owed  by  Catholicism  to  the  missions  and  to  Junipero 
Serra,  the  church  in  San  Francisco  has  derived  its  present  prosperity 
from  the  Gold  Rush  and  bonanza  wealth  in  which  it  shared. 

Two  of  the  city's  Hebrew  congregations  first  assembled  near  Ports- 
mouth Square  in  1849.  Temple  Emanu-El,  founded  by  German  Jews, 
and  Temple  Sherith  Israel,  whose  original  congregation  was  composed 
mainly  of  English  and  Polish  elements,  constitute  today  San  Francisco's 
chief  citadels  of  reformist  Judaism.  These  congregations  provide  mag- 
nificent and  modern  cultural  centers  for  the  city's  liberal  Jewry.  Rabbi 
Nieto,  leader  of  Sherith  Israel  congregation  for  32  years,  played  a  prom- 
inent part  in  the  restoration  of  the  city  after  1906.  His  advocacy  of 
welfare  facilities  in  connection  with  synagogues  resulted  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  "Temple  Centers"  throughout  the  Nation.  Today  in  San 
Francisco  the  Jews  share  with  the  Catholics,  in  institutions  for  public 
welfare  which  they  have  separately  established,  a  major  responsibility 
for  the  city's  orphans  and  aged  and  destitute ;  most  of  the  city's  hospitals 
owe  their  origin  and  maintenance  to  Catholic  or  Hebrew  congregations. 

Especially  characteristic  of  San  Francisco  is  a  host  of  lesser  sects. 


I5O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

From  few  city  directories  could  be  compiled  such  a  list  of  denomi- 
nations and  churches  as  this:  Seventh  Day  Adventists  (both  Greek 
and  Chinese),  Mexican  Baptists,  Buddhists  (American  and  Japanese), 
Molokans  (Russian  Christians),  Armenian  Congregationalists,  the 
Christian  Spiritualist  Church,  the  Father  Divine  Peace  Mission,  the 
Glad  Tidings  Temple,  the  Golden  Rule  Spiritualist  Church,  Jehovah's 
Witnesses  (Negro),  the  Rosicrucian  Brotherhood,  the  Society  of  Pro- 
gressive Spiritualists,  the  Spanish  Pentecostal  Church,  the  Theosophists' 
United  Lodge,  the  Tin  How  Temple  (Chinese),  and  the  Vedanta 
Society. 

From  San  Francisco's  diverse  population,  tens  of  thousands  (50,000 
in  1940)  each  Easter  morning  make  the  difficult  pilgrimage  up  the  city's 
highest  hill,  Mount  Davidson,  to  worship  at  the  foot  of  the  great  cross 
on  the  peak.  And,  here,  all  forget  their  differences  of  creed  in  a  com- 
mon reverence  to  that  religious  spirit  which  has  remained  a  social  force 
since  the  city's  earliest  days. 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  PRESS 

"Some  contend,"  said  Yerba  Buena's  first  newspaper  in  1847,  "that 
there  are  really  no  laws  in  force  here,  but  the  divine  law  and  the  law 
of  nature;  while  others  are  of  the  opinion  that  there  are  laws  in  force 
here  if  they  could  only  be  found."  This  polite  apology  for  a  state  of 
anarchy  may  have  caused  some  speculation  among  readers  of  Sam  Bran- 
nan's  California  Star,  but  it  foretold  nothing  of  the  militant  and  decisive 
role  journalism  was  to  play  for  half  a  century  in  the  public  affairs  of 
San  Francisco. 

More  indicative  of  this  role  was  California's  pioneer  newspaper,  the 
Californian,  established  in  Monterey  in  1846  and  removed  to  Yerba 
Buena  a  year  later.  Its  editor  and  publisher,  when  it  became  the  Stars 
competitor,  was  that  formidable  Robert  Semple  who  had  helped  lead 
the  Bear  Flag  revolt  and  published  manifestoes  of  the  American  occupa- 
tion. Hardly,  however,  had  Brannan's  little  sheet  begun  to  ridicule  the 
Calif  or  nians  mild  reports  of  "Gold  Mine  Found"  and  "Doc"  Semple's 
patriotic  oratory,  when  news  from  Sutter's  mill  race  caused  both  papers 
to  suspend  publication.  Their  publishers  and  printers  joined  the  stam- 
pede to  the  diggings. 

Late  in  1848,  Edward  C.  Kemble  acquired  the  Star,  of  which  he 
had  been  editor  when  its  weekly  circulation  "outside  town  and  other 
parts  of  the  globe"  was  a  hundred  copies ;  and,  soon  after,  he  bought  the 
defunct  Californian  and  combined  the  two  papers  under  the  name  Star 
and  Californian.  With  two  new  associates,  printers  from  New  York, 
Kemble  issued  in  January,  1849,  the  Alta  California,  which  became 
San  Francisco's  leading  source  of  news  for  the  next  30  years.  Not  until 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE      151 

1891  did  ft  finally  pass  from  the  scene,  having  published,  in  its  time, 
the  letters  written  from  Europe  by  Mark  Twain  in  the  i86o's  that 
were  compiled  in  Innocents  Abroad.  Among  its  managing  editors  was 
Frank  Soule,  co-author  of  the  Annals  of  San  Francisco. 

The  growth  of  rival  journals,  which  by  1850  forced  the  Alta  to 
become  the  first  daily,  continued  throughout  the  decade  with  a  luxuri- 
ance propagated  by  political  factionalism  and  homesickness  among  the 
immigrant  population.  Not  to  be  outdone,  the  Daily  Journal  of  Com- 
merce was  issuing  daily  editions  within  24  hours  after  its  elder  rival 
began  doing  so.  Before  the  end  of  1850,  daily  editions  of  The  Herald f 
the  Public  Balance,  the  Evening  Picayune,  the  California  Courier,  and 
the  California  Illustrated  Times  had  appeared. 

Despite  the  high  mortality  of  the  press  of  the  Gold  Rush  era, 
Kemble  in  1858  listed  132  periodicals  as  having  appeared  in  San  Fran- 
cisco since  1850.  Only  dailies  to  survive  the  decade,  however,  were  the 
Alta  and  The  Herald. 

That  the  majority  of  these  organs  were  rather  journals  of  opinion 
than  newspapers  is  not  surprising.  Crime,  gold  strikes,  and  other  sensa- 
tional matters  were  so  much  the  subjects  of  common  knowledge  that  the 
press  had  to  search  far  and  wide  for  news  of  interest  to  its  readers. 
The  huge  influx  of  immigrants  from  Eastern  communities  compelled 
numerous  San  Francisco  papers  to  employ  correspondents  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  who  dispatched  bulletins  by  the  steamers  that  brought  also 
large  batches  of  Eastern  newspapers.  The  Overland  Stage,  reducing 
communication  between  St.  Louis  and  San  Francisco  to  21  days  after 
1858,  somewhat  improved  news-gathering  facilities;  and  when  a  tele- 
graph line  was  strung  in  1861,  news  of  national  significance  was  avail- 
able. The  quality  of  printing,  with  the  introduction  of  the  Hoe 
cylindrical  press  in  the  1850*5,  likewise  was  improved;  and  by  1860  a 
grade  of  paper  better  than  foolscap  was  obtainable. 

Editorials  and  classified  advertising,  however,  continued  to  be  the 
main  features  of  weeklies  and  dailies  alike.  Though  articles  were 
rarely  signed,  the  style  of  each  editor  was  instantly  recognizable  to 
readers  who,  according  to  John  P.  Young's  History  of  Journalism  in 
San  Francisco,  "looked  not  so  much  for  intelligence  as  to  see  who  was 
being  lambasted."  This  highly  personal  tone  was  employed  also  by 
editors  of  less  slanderous  journals,  such  as  the  columnist  of  the  Golden 
Era  who  addressed  his  correspondents  by  their  initials  and  gave  fatherly 
advice.  Perhaps  this  friendly  policy  had  something  to  do  with  making 
the  Golden  Era  the  city's  leading  weekly  for  30  years  after  its  estab- 
lishment in  1854. 

In  the  San  Francisco  of  the  Gold  Rush  era,  newspaper  editors  had 
to  be  printers,  writers  of  verse,  and  hurlers  of  insults;  they  had  to  take 
sides  in  political  controversies,  during  which  their  opponents  might  at 


152      SAN     FRANCISCO 

any  moment  attack  them  in  a  fist  fight  or  challenge  them  to  a  duel. 
Catherine  Coffin  Phillips,  in  her  history  of  Portsmouth  Square,  states 
that  above  one  editor's  desk  was  hung  this  laconic  placard:  "Subscrip- 
tions Received  From  9  to  4;  Challenges  From  n  to  12  only." 

Bitterness  over  the  slavery  issue  was  the  cause  of  frequent  brawls 
and  armed  encounters.  Duels  were  of  such  common  occurrence  that 
newspapers  mentioned  them  only  in  passing,  unless  they  involved  prom- 
inent persons.  A.  C.  Russell,  an  editor  on  the  staff  of  the  Alta  Cali- 
fornia, having  escaped  harm  in  a  duel  with  pistols,  was  subsequently 
stabbed  in  an  "affair  of  honor"  fought  with  bowie  knives.  The  Alta's 
managing  editor,  Edward  Gilbert,  was  killed  in  1852  by  a  henchman  of 
Governor  John  Bigler,  who  defended  his  boss  against  an  item  intended 
to  make  him  appear  ridiculous.  In  that  same  year,  the  Alta's  support 
of  David  Broderick,  campaigning  for  election  to  the  State  Senate  on  an 
anti-slavery  platform,  caused  the  wounding  of  another  of  its  editors  by 
an  editor  of  the  pro-slavery  Times  and  Transcript.  An  editor  of  The 
Herald,  a  daily  fighting  corruption  in  municipal  politics,  was  shot  in 
the  leg  by  a  city  supervisor.  James  King  of  William  (a  distinction 
invented  to  avoid  confusion  with  other  James  Kings),  who  founded  the 
Evening  Bulletin  in  1855,  did  not  survive  his  first  encounter  with  a 
spokesman  for  the  embattled  politicians.  His  death,  from  a  wound 
inflicted  by  the  supervisor  who  was  editor  of  the  Sunday  Times,  was, 
however,  the  signal  for  mobilization  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  of 
1856.  The  office  of  the  Morning  Herald,  the  Alias  most  potent  rival, 
was  stormed  by  a  mob,  who  burned  its  editions  in  the  streets  for  oppos- 
ing the  committee's  work. 

The  close  of  the  Civil  War  saw  the  establishment  of  the  only  two 
morning  dailies  that  have  survived  since  1 865 :  the  San  Francisco 
Examiner  and  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle.  The  Dramatic  Chronicle, 
edited  by  two  brothers  in  their  teens,  was  so  well  received  after  "scoop- 
ing" the  news  of  Lincoln's  death  that  Charles  and  M.  H.  de  Young,  in 
1868,  were  able  to  transform  it  into  the  daily  Morning  Chronicle.  For 
the  next  15  years,  under  the  management  of  the  belligerent  Charles,  the 
Chronicle  entertained  its  readers  with  scandal  and  political  onslaughts, 
while  its  editor  defended  himself  in  duels  and  libel  suits.  Following  a 
bitter  campaign  against  the  Workingman's  Party  and  its  candidate  for 
mayor  in  1879,  Charles  de  Young  was  killed;  and  for  the  next  45  years 
the  Chronicle  was  under  the  direction  of  his  younger  brother.  Through- 
out his  long  career,  M.  H.  de  Young,  through  his  managing  editor, 
John  P.  Young,  made  his  paper  a  force  for  political  conservatism  and 
social  order.  Follower  of  an  anti-slavery  tradition,  the  Chronicle 
remained  staunchly  Republican,  its  viewpoint  attracting  to  its  staff  such 
writers  as  Will  and  Wallace  Irwin  and  Franklin  K.  Lane,  who  was 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  under  President  Wilson.  Not  until  the  1930*5, 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE      153 

however,  did  it  suddenly  recapture,  under  the  management  of  young 
Paul  Smith,  the  sophisticated  quality  of  its  earliest  editions. 

Leading  rival  of  the  Chronicle  for  morning  circulation,  William 
Randolph  Hearst's  Examiner  was  founded  on  the  ruins  of  the  pro- 
slavery  Democratic  Press,  which  a  mob,  provoked  by  news  of  President 
Lincoln's  assassination,  had  wrecked  beyond  repair.  Despite  popular 
indignation,  the  staff  of  the  Democratic  Press  was  carried  over  intact  to 
the  Daily  Examiner.  From  its  appearance  on  June  12,  1865,  until  a 
wealthy  miner  named  George  Hearst  bought  it  in  1880,  the  Examiner 
defended  the  interests  of  Southern  Democrats  who  remained  entrenched 
in  California  politics.  With  its  transfer  to  young  William  Randolph 
Hearst  in  1887,  however,  began  that  sensational  career  which  made  the 
Examiner  s  owner  a  storm  center  of  American  journalism  for  50  years. 

With  bonanza  millions  at  his  disposal,  and  a  genius  for  showman- 
ship, Hearst  gathered  together  a  staff  that  included  some  of  the  best 
newspaper  talent  that  money  could  buy.  S.  S.  (Sam)  Chamberlain, 
protege  of  James  Gordon  Bennett  and  founder  of  the  first  American 
newspaper  in  Paris,  became  managing  editor.  The  daring  resourceful- 
ness of  the  Examiner  s  reporters  delighted  its  readers  and  filled  its 
rivals,  especially  the  Chronicle,  with  alarm.  Unheard-of  was  its  print- 
ing of  two  full  pages  of  cablegrams  from  Vienna,  relating  the  mysterious 
death  of  Crown  Prince  Rudolph  of  Austria  and  the  Baroness  Marie 
Vetsera.  Examiner  correspondents  dispatched  news  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  Announced  with  glaring  headlines  and  illustrated  with 
photographs,  this  dramatization  of  the  news  caught  the  imagination  of 
the  public.  To  the  reporting  of  local  news  the  Examiner  brought 
innovations  no  less  startling.  One  of  its  editorial  writers,  the  cynical 
Arthur  McEwen,  once  remarked  that  reporters  risked  their  necks  for 
the  sake  of  a  story  to  make  the  public  exclaim:  "Gee  whiz!" 

Jack  London  was  on  the  Examiner  s  brilliant  staff  in  the  closing 
decades  of  the  last  century.  The  modern  comic  strip  was  born  as 
cartoonists  James  Swinnerton,  Bud  Fisher,  Rube  Goldberg,  R.  Dirks, 
and  Homer  Davenport  labored  side  by  side  creating  the  "Katzenjammer 
Kids,"  "Little  Jimmy,"  and  "Mutt  and  Jeff"  (created  by  Fisher  from 
habitues  of  the  old  Tanforan  Race  Track).  Ambrose  Bierce's  "Prattle" 
made  him  the  most  feared  of  the  Examiner's  columnists.  One  of  his 
malevolent  verses,  predicting  the  assassination  of  President  William 
McKinley,  was  interpreted  afterwards  as  an  incitation  to  the  act.  This 
gave  the  popularity  of  the  Hearst  papers  a  setback,  but  Hearst  was 
already  on  the  way  toward  establishing  his  powerful  chain.  Though 
the  Examiner  remains  one  of  the  leading  newspapers  on  the  Coast,  it  has 
long  since  dropped  its  original  pro-labor  policy.  Vanished  also  from 
its  offices  is  that  droll  atmosphere  wherein  Hearst  himself  "would 


154      SAN     FRANCISCO 

sometimes  preface  his  remarks  to  his  editors  by  dancing  a  jig  ..." 
And  not  since  H.  D.  ("Petey")  Bigelow  wangled  an  interview  out  of 
three  train  robbers  in  a  mountain  hideout  has  the  Examiner  found  a 
sensation  to  equal  either  that  story  or  its  author. 

Of  the  city's  two  surviving  afternoon  dailies,  the  Call-Bulletin  has 
the  longer  history.  Its  ancestor,  James  King  of  William's  militant 
Bulletin,  fought  corruption  in  politics  and  finance  for  half  a  century. 
It  was  saved  from  oblivion  in  1859,  three  years  after  its  first  editor's 
untimely  death,  by  a  publisher  from  New  Orleans,  G.  K.  Fitch,  who 
later  sold  half  his  interest  to  Loring  Pickering.  Soon  afterwards,  the 
partners  acquired  the  Morning  Call,  a  cooperative  paper  issued  by  a 
group  of  printers  claiming  to  be  "men  without  frills."  Fitch  became 
editor  of  the  Bulletin;  Pickering,  of  the  Call.  Though  both  papers  were 
published  under  the  same  roof  and  ownership,  their  policies  were  de- 
liberately antithetical.  At  a  time  when  violent  taking  of  sides  was 
evidence  of  red  blood,  Pickering's  Call  dared  to  be  nonpartisan.  Not 
less  outrageous  than  its  objective  reporting  was  its  society  page,  on 
which  the  doings  of  "the  Colonel's  lady  and  Mrs.  O'Grady"  were 
chronicled  side  by  side.  For  30  years  Fitch  kept  the  Bulletin  alive  with 
caustic  editorials  and  reportage  in  the  crusading  spirit  of  its  founder. 
He  fought  waste  in  municipal  administration  and  gambling  on  the  stock 
exchange,  assailed  big  corporations,  and  attacked  political  corruption  in 
both  Democratic  and  Republican  parties. 

When,  in  1897,  the  Bulletin  became  the  property  of  R.  A.  Crothers, 
it  engaged  as  managing  editor  a  hard-working  journalist  from  Wis- 
consin, whose  name  was  to  be  associated  with  San  Francisco  for  the  next 
two  decades.  Fremont  Older  had  come  West  with  an  ambition  to  "be 
like  Horace  Greeley,"  and  while  he  introduced  in  the  Bulletin  all  the 
sensational  tricks  of  "yellow  journalism,"  he  was  genuinely  motivated 
by  hatred  of  injustice  and  ardor  for  decency  in  public  affairs.  Banner 
headlines,  cartoons  of  politicians  in  striped  uniforms,  and  editorials 
solidly  documented  and  barbed  with  irony  revealed  the  corruption  of 
the  Ruef-Schmitz  machine.  Triumph  of  the  graft  prosecutions  made 
Older  so  popular  that  he  was  able  to  name  the  reform  candidate  who 
was  elected  mayor.  The  Bulletin 's  subsequent  aid  to  Hiram  Johnson 
enabled  him  to  break  the  railroad  monopoly  and  win  the  gubernatorial 
race  of  1910.  Older's  discovery  of  perjured  evidence  in  the  Thomas 
Mooney  case,  which  led  him  to  denounce  the  prosecution,  failed  to  meet 
with  such  popular  acclaim,  however.  Rather  than  agree  to  the  milder 
policy  advised  by  Crothers,  Older  resigned  from  the  Bulletin  in  1918. 
.Until  its  merger  with  the  Bulletin  in  1929,  he  was  managing  editor  of 
the  Call  and  Post  and  thereafter,  until  his  death  in  1935,  of  the  com- 
bined Call-Bulletin,  which  became  another  link  in  the  Hearst  chain. 
The  merger  of  the  two  papers  brought  an  end  to  the  Post,  which  since 


SOCIAL     HERITAGE       155 

1871  had  been  first  the  mouthpiece  of  Henry  George  of  Single  Tax 
fame  and  then  spokesman  for  the  United  Railways. 

The  city's  other  afternoon  daily,  the  San  Francisco  News,  was 
founded,  in  the  spring  of  1903,  as  the  i8th  link  in  the  Scripps-Howard 
chain.  It  adhered  to  Scripps'  declared  intention  "to  put  into  the  homes 
of  workers  who  had  little  time  to  read,  honest,  fearless  thought  im- 
partially incorruptible  by  social,  political,  or  financial  influences."  Issued 
originally  as  the  Daily  News  from  a  mouldy  little  office  " South  of  the 
Slot,"  its  penny  editions  were  eagerly  bought  by  workingmen.  As  late 
as  1919,  a  strike  of  railroad  yardmen,  though  outlawed  by  union  leaders, 
was  headlined  with  the  caption :  "Starvation  Pay  is  Cause  of  Strike  Men 
Say."  A  boxed  resume  enlarged  upon  this  theme. 

In  1923,  the  News  (now  under  Roy  Howard  and  the  United  Press) 
acquired  a  new  managing  editor,  W.  N.  Burkhart,  and  in  1930  moved 
to  its  present  plant  on  Mission  Street.  Its  pro-labor  policy  became  less 
uncompromising,  and  it  "saw  both  sides"  of  the  struggle  over  municipal 
ownership  of  public  utilities.  Thus  it  was  able  to  cross  the  social 
equator  of  Market  Street  without  losing  its  circulation  in  "the  Mis- 
sion." Where  the  Bill  of  Rights  is  at  stake,  however,  the  News  fore- 
goes the  sweetness  of  compromise.  In  this,  it  manages  to  preserve  that 
pioneer  integrity  which  died  hard  in  San  Francisco,  when,  as  elsewhere, 
in  William  Allen  White's  words,  "the  trade  which  became  a  profession 
turned  into  a  business  and  there  it  is  today." 


PART  III 
Around  the  IVorld  in  San  Francisco 

&&x&^^^^ 


Civic  Center 


"Above  all  the  dome,  seen  so  often  like  that  of  St.  Paul's  but 
dimly  through  the  fog" 

— MAURICE  BARING 


SAN  FRANCISCO'S  Civic  Center  constitutes  a  Beaux  Arts 
monument  to  the  city's  cultural  tradition,  its  achievements  in 
democratic  government,  and  its  proud  position  among  the  com- 
mercial centers  of  the  Nation.  Dominated  by  the  massive,  symmetrical 
pile  of  the  City  Hall — whose  dome,  surmounted  by  a  gilded  lantern, 
soars  high  above  the  city — the  wide  plaza  with  its  fountains,  its  trim 
shrubbery  and  acacias,  its  central  concourse  paved  with  red  brick  has 
been  for  the  last  quarter-century  the  focal  point  for  all  public  demon- 
strations. The  Civic  Center  has  been  the  scene  of  welcome  for  so  many 
celebrities  and  so  many  parades  that  henceforth — as  Charles  Caldwell 
Dobie  has  suggested — it  is  likely  to  become  the  most  popular  and  his- 
toric of  the  city's  landmarks. 

The  present  group  of  eight  buildings,  built  of  California  granite  in 
variations  of  the  massive  style  of  the  French  Renaissance,  is  an  example 
of  city  planning  to  contradict  the  city's  once-famous  reputation  for 
letting  things  run  wild.  One  by  one  these  substantial  structures  have 
risen  on  those  blocks  within  the  apex  of  that  angle  formed  by  the  con- 
vergence of  Market  Street  and  Van  Ness  Avenue  which  was  cleared  of 
debris  and  ashes  after  1906.  The  $8,000,000  bond  issue  voted  in  1912 
laid  the  foundation  for  the  project.  As  further  funds  become  available 
and  a  need  for  new  units  arises,  other  structures  will  be  added.  Perhaps 
in  time  the  dream  of  the  Civic  Center's  original  designer,  D.  H.  Burn- 
ham,  will  be  realized  by  the  extension  of  its  monumental  plan  to  include 
the  entire  city. 

Municipal  government  in  San  Francisco  was  not  always  so  well- 
housed  or  so  well-ordered.  For  more  than  a  half-century  after  1776 
the  seat  of  local  government  was  a  tiny  dirt-floored  two-room  hut,  home 
of  the  military  comandante  at  the  Presidio.  Here  in  1834  met  the 
voters  of  the  district  of  San  Francisco  to  decide  on  eleven  electors — who 
later  chose  the  first  ayuntamiento  (town  council),  consisting  of  an 
alcalde,  two  regidores,  and  a  syndico.  These  officials  entered  upon  their 
duties  on  January  I,  1835.  In  1839  the  council  was  abolished.  When 
the  State  came  under  American  rule  in  1846  Lieutenant  Washington 
A.  Bartlett  of  the  United  States  Navy  was  appointed  alcalde.  Publicly 
charged  in  1847  with  misappropriating  town  funds  (amounting  to 

161 


1 62      SAN     FRANCISCO 

$750),  he  was  acquitted  but  nevertheless  was  withdrawn  to  the  Navy. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  common  council  of  six  members  elected  a  few 
months  later — which  first  convened  in  September  1847 — tne  alcalde 
was  permitted  to  preside  over,  but  not  participate  in,  the  discussion. 
The  governmental  situation  was  so  confused  that  the  editor  of  the 
California  Star  complained  plaintively,  "we  have  alcaldes  all  over  .  .  . 
who  claim  jurisdiction  over  all  matters  for  difference  between  citizens." 

There  were  to  be  many  complaints,  more  vociferous,  before  the 
government  of  the  growing  town  became  orderly  and  predictable.  At 
one  time  no  less  than  three  councils  each  claimed  sole  right  to  govern. 
In  1847  an  ordinance  provided  that  two  constables  should  "strictly 
enforce  the  law"  and  "receive  for  the  service  of  any  unit  or  other 
process,  one  dollar,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  fines  imposed  upon  cases." 
In  1848  an  ordinance  was  passed  ordering  the  seizure  of  all  money 
found  on  gambling  tables,  the  money  to  go  into  the  town  coffers,  but  in 
that  same  year  the  lure  of  gold  drained  the  town  of  so  many  inhabitants 
that  at  one  time  not  a  single  officer  with  civil  authority  remained.  Only 
158  people  were  on  hand  to  cast  votes  at  the  election  held  in  October 
to  reestablish  some  kind  of  civic  administration.  Too  impatient  to  wait 
for  the  reestablishment  of  State  government,  the  people  met  at  a  public 
mass  meeting  in  February  1849,  organized  the  Legislative  Assembly,  and 
proceeded  merrily  to  make  their  own  laws.  The  Assembly  met  35  times 
before  it  was  dissolved  on  June  4  by  decree  of  the  military  governor  of 
the  State,  General  Bennet  Riley.  At  an  election  held  on  August  I, 
1,516  votes  were  cast,  all  for  John  W.  Geary  for  alcalde.  Later  that 
month  the  ayuntamiento  purchased  the  first  public  building  under  the 
American  regime — the  brig  Euphemia,  which  it  converted  into  a  jail. 

Anticipating  by  more  than  four  months  California's  admission  to 
the  Union,  the  city  was  incorporated  April  15,  1850.  Under  the  charter 
adopted  by  the  already  functioning  State  legislature,  a  mayor,  recorder, 
and  council  of  aldermen  were  elected  on  May  I.  The  police  depart- 
ment was  enlarged — but  "not  to  exceed  75  men" — and  a  fire  department 
headed  by  a  chief  engineer  was  established. 

At  its  first  meeting  on  May  9  the  council  members  promptly  rifled 
the  treasury  by  voting  to  pay  the  mayor,  recorder,  marshal,  and  city 
attorney  annual  salaries  of  $10,000  and  other  officials  including  them- 
selves, $4,000  to  $6,000.  Later  in  the  year,  anticipating  the  celebration 
of  the  admission  of  the  State  into  the  Union,  they  each  awarded  them- 
selves a  handsome  gold  medal  to  cost  $150,  the  expense  to  be  borne  by 
the  city.  Unfortunately  the  medals  were  not  completed  in  time  for 
the  celebration ;  when  they  did  arrive,  the  town  fell  into  such  an  uproar 
that  the  councilmen  prudently  paid  for  the  medals  out  of  their  own 
pockets  and  promptly  melted  them  into  "honest  bullion."  Despite  this, 
sacrifice,  the  city  was  $1,000,000  in  debt  before  the  end  of  the  year. 


CIVIC     CENTER       163 

The  adoption  of  a  new  charter  by  the  Legislature  in  1851  did  little 
to  halt  the  extravagance  of  the  officials  or  the  depredations  of  the 
increasing  criminal  element.  But  the  Consolidation  Act  passed  by  the 
State  Legislature  in  the  same  year,  which  authorized  merger  of  the 
City  and  County  of  San  Francisco,  creating  a  Board  of  Supervisors  to 
replace  the  double  board  of  aldermen  provided  for  by  the  charter  of 
1851,  served  to  establish  a  more  stable  civic  government.  It  was  to  be 
San  Francisco's  organic  law  for  44  years.  When  the  heat  of  the 
vigilante  movement  had  subsided,  a  reform  movement  headed  by  the 
People's  Party  gained  power  and  held  it  long  enough  to  put  compara- 
tively capable  men  into  office. 

When  the  old  city  hall  burned  down,  the  idea  of  transforming  the 
Plaza  into  a  reputable  center  of  municipal  government  moved  the 
council,  in  1852,  to  purchase  the  Jenny  Lind  Theater,  at  Washington 
and  Kearny  Streets,  for  a  new  seat.  So  exorbitant  was  the  $200,000 
paid  for  the  theater,  however,  that  a  storm  of  public  criticism  broke  out. 
But  the  building  had  to  serve.  In  1865  the  Board  of  Supervisors 
refused  to  pay  the  city's  gas  bill.  The  company  promptly  removed  its 
lanterns  from  the  street  posts  and  turned  off  the  gas  at  the  city  hall. 
That  evening  the  city  fathers,  each  carrying  a  flickering  candle,  stum- 
bled upstairs  to  discuss  the  lighting  situation. 

Finally,  in  1870,  construction  was  begun  on  a  new  city  hall  "away 
out  on  Larkin  Street"  at  a  site  then  known  as  Yerba  Buena  Park  (now 
the  site  of  the  Public  Library).  Originally  a  tangle  of  chaparral,  this 
tract  had  become  in  1850  Yerba  Buena  Cemetery.  Economy  was  the 
watchword.  The  city  fathers  planned  construction  on  the  installment 
basis,  paying  each  installment  out  of  an  annual  special  tax  levy.  But 
the  piecemeal  method  of  construction  boosted  costs  to  more  than  $7,000,- 
OOO,  far  beyond  original  estimates,  and  delayed  completion  for  many 
years.  As  the  city  grew  it  became  apparent  that  the  Consolidation  Act 
no  longer  sufficed  to  serve  its  needs.  Twice  James  Phelan,  who  headed 
the  reform  movement  that  swept  him  into  the  mayor's  chair  in  1897, 
attempted,  with  the  aid  of  a  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  to  secure 
adoption  of  a  new  charter,  but  without  success.  But  in  1900  the  elec- 
torate accepted  at  last  a  freeholders'  charter  which  loosened  the  State 
Legislature's  grip  on  municipal  affairs,  outlined  a  definite  policy  of 
municipal  ownership  of  public  utilities,  and  substituted  civil  service  for 
the  spoils  system  in  civic  administration. 

But  the  new  charter  was  not  enough  to  protect  the  city  government 
from  the  Ruef-Schmitz  ring,  into  whose  hands  it  fell  in  1902.  When 
the  old  city  hall  came  tumbling  down  in  less  than  60  seconds  at  the 
first  shock  of  the  earthquake  on  April  18,  1906,  municipal  wrath  gave 
impetus  to  the  already  gathering  movement  for  cleaning  house.  In 
1908  a  supervisors'  committee  solemnly  reported  that  "so  far  the  most 


164      SAN     FRANCISCO 

rigid  inspection  of  the  standing  and  fallen  walls  .  .  .  have  (sic)  failed 
to  disclose  any  large  voids  or  enclosed  boxes,  barrels  or  wheelbarrows 
that  have  been  told  in  many  an  old  tale  as  evidence  of  lax  supervision 
and  contractors'  deceits."  But  many  San  Franciscans  went  on  believing 
"many  an  old  tale."  And  when  they  decided  to  build  a  new  city  hall, 
they  were  determined  that  its  occupants  should  be  more  worthy  of  the 
public  trust  and  more  responsible  for  the  public  welfare. 

The  urgency  of  rebuilding  the  ruined  city  defeated  the  city  planning 
efforts  of  Daniel  H.  Burnham,  whose  vision  of  a  system  of  great  boule- 
vards encircling  and  radiating  from  the  intersection  of  Market  Street 
and  Van  Ness  Avenue  (and  the  extension  of  the  Golden  Gate  Park 
panhandle)  was  not  to  be  realized,  but  when  the  city  began,  in  1912,  to 
plan  for  the  Panama-Pacific  Exposition,  a  part  of  the  scheme  was  revived 
in  modified  form.  A  permanent  staff  of  architects  for  the  Civic  Center 
(John  Galen  Howard,  Frederick  H.  Meyer,  and  John  Reid,  Jr.)  was 
appointed  and  a  bond  issue  of  $8,800,000  voted  for  purchase  of  land  and 
construction  of  buildings. 

Under  the  municipal  ownership  provisions  of  the  new  charter, 
Mayor  Phelan's  dream  of  "a  clean  and  beautiful  City"  began  to  be 
realized.  San  Francisco  became  the  first  large  municipality  in  the 
Nation  to  establish  a  city-owned  street  railway  system,  which  opened 
December  28,  1912.  Under  the  supervision  of  veteran  City  Engi- 
neer Michael  Maurice  O'Shaughnessy,  construction  was  begun  at  Hetch 
Hetchy  of  the  great  dam  which  bears  his  name  and  of  the  1 68-mile 
aqueduct  which  brings  Tuolumne  River  water  to  the  city.  The  work 
continued  over  the  next  two  decades  until  1934.  In  I9I3»  under 
O'Shaughnessy's  direction,  the  first  comprehensive  system  of  boulevards 
was  formulated.  In  1927  the  San  Francisco  Municipal  Airport  was 
opened.  By  1940,  the  city-owned  utilities  system  was  valued  at  ap- 
proximately $167,000,000. 

Meanwhile  the  park  system  was  increased  to  a  total  of  45  parks 
covering  3,170  acres  (one-ninth  of  the  city's  area).  Since  the  establish- 
ment in  1907  of  a  Playground  Commission  (since  1932  the  Recreation 
Commission),  municipal  playgrounds  have  increased  to  a  total  of  45 
(exclusive  of  28  school  playgrounds),  where  during  the  fiscal  year 
1937-38  nearly  4,500,000  persons  participated  in  such  activities  as 
athletics,  gardening,  handicrafts,  music,  and  dramatics.  The  San  Fran- 
cisco Unified  School  District  in  the  same  fiscal  year  (its  87th)  was 
operating  102  public  schools,  including  ten  junior  high  and  eight  high 
schools  and  a  junior  college,  enrolling  an  average  of  81,297  students. 
The  library  system  was  extended  to  a  total  of  22  branches  serving 
130,000  persons.  The  M.  H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum  and  the 
California  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  a  city-subsidized  symphony 
orchestra  and  the  only  city-owned  opera  house  in  the  Nation,  San  Fran- 


CIVIC     CENTER       165 

cisco  Yacht  Harbor,  Aquatic  Park,  and  the  municipal  Fleishhacker  Zoo 
— all  added  to  San  Francisco's  attractions.  And  meanwhile,  as  San 
Francisco  became  a  more  healthful  and  attractive  city,  it  also  was 
becoming  a  safer  one.  Its  decreasing  crime  rate — between  1938  and 
1940  it  was  the  only  large  city  to  register  a  decrease — attested  to  the 
efficiency  of  its  police  department;  a  study  of  86  cities  made  in  1935 
showed  that  San  Francisco,  although  nth  among  American  com- 
munities in  population,  stood  2Oth  in  number  of  robberies  and  35th  in 
homicides. 

Just  as  the  city  had  outgrown  the  Consolidation  Act  of  1856,  drawn 
up  for  a  city  of  40,000,  so  it  outgrew  the  freeholders'  charter  of  1900, 
drawn  up  for  a  city  of  325,000.  Beginning  as  a  comparatively  short 
document,  the  old  charter  had  grown  by  process  of  amendment  to  304 
pages  of  articles,  chapters,  and  subdivisions.  In  1930  the  voters  elected 
a  board  of  15  freeholders  to  frame  a  new  charter.  Having  studied  the 
various  forms  of  municipal  government,  the  freeholders  formulated  a 
"strong  mayor"  plan  which  was  adopted  in  March  1931  and  put  into 
operation  in  January  1932,  under  the  administration  of  Angelo  J.  Rossi. 
Under  the  new  charter  the  mayor — writes  Chief  Administrative  Officer 
Alfred  J  Cleary — is  made  "a  strong  and  responsible  executive,  with 
the  power  of  appointment  of  the  principal  officials  and  members  of 
boards."  Officials  whose  duties  are  primarily  governmental  (policy- 
making)  were  continued  in  elective  positions;  those  whose  duties  are 
primarily  ministerial  (carrying  out  policies),  in  appointive  positions. 
To  the  Chief  Administrative  Officer  was  entrusted  responsibility  for 
supervision  of  departments  headed  by  the  latter  and  for  long-range 
planning;  to  the  Controller,  responsibility  for  financial  planning,  man- 
agement, and  control.  Under  the  new  charter's  provisions,  the  city's 
business  must  be  conducted  on  a  cash  basis  and  its  budget  balanced 
annually.  An  eleven-member  Board  of  Supervisors  was  retained  as  the 
legislative  branch  of  government  and  relieved  of  administrative  duties. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

i.  Dominating  the  Civic  Center,  the  CITY  HALL,  Van  Ness  Ave., 
Polk,  McAllister,  and  Grove  Sts.,  lifts  its  gold-embellished  dome  308 
feet  above  ground  level — 16  feet  2^  inches  higher  than  the  National 
Capitol  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  as  Mayor  James  Rolph  used  to  boast. 
It  was  Rolph  who  broke  ground  for  the  new  structure  with  a  silver 
spade  April  5,  1913.  Second  unit  of  the  Civic  Center  to  be  completed, 
the  City  Hall  was  dedicated  December  28,  1915,  having  cost  $3,500,- 
ooo.  In  the  great  rotunda  under  the  dome,  Rolph  welcomed  the  world, 
receiving  a  long  procession  of  celebrated  visitors:  the  King  and  Queen 
of  Belgium,  Queen  Marie  of  Rumania,  Eamon  de  Valera,  William 


1 66      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Howard  Taft  and  Woodrow  Wilson.  Here  San  Francisco  made  merry 
all  night  long  to  celebrate  the  Armistice  in  1918.  Here  the  funeral  of 
President  Warren  G.  Harding  took  place  in  1923,  and  here,  in  1934, 
Rolph  himself  lay  in  state. 

Of  gray  California  granite  with  blue  and  gold  burnished  ironwork, 
the  building  conforms  to  the  French  Renaissance  style  of  the  Louis  XIV 
period,  its  east  and  west  facades  consisting  each  of  a  central  pediment 
supported  by  Doric  pillars  and  flanked  on  either  side  by  Doric  colon- 
nades. Rising  four  stories  high  and  covering  two  city  blocks,  it  was 


SAN  FRANCISCO'S 
CIVIC  CENTER 


designed  by  architects  John  Bakewell,  Jr.  and  Arthur  Brown,  Jr.  as  a 
hollow  rectangle,  408  by  285  feet,  enclosing  a  square  centerpiece  covered 
by  the  dome. 

On  the  Polk  Street  pediment,  the  symbolic  statuary  represents  San 
Francisco  standing  between  the  riches  of  California  and  Commerce  and 
Navigation;  on  the  Van  Ness  Avenue  pediment,  Wisdom  between  the 
Arts,  Learning,  and  Truth  and  Industry  and  Labor.  The  interior, 
with  its  marble  tile  flooring,  is  lavishly  finished  in  California  marble, 
Indiana  sandstone,  and  Eastern  oak.  Grouped  around  the  great  central 
court  are  the  offices  of  the  Registrar,  Tax  Collector,  and  Assessor.  From 
the  center  of  the  lobby  a  wide  marble  staircase  leads  to  the  second-floor 
gallery,  off  which  are  the  Mayor's  office  and  the  chamber  of  the  Board 
of  Supervisors.,  Similar  galleries  overlook  the  court  from  the  third  and 
fourth  floors.  The  vast  dome,  112  feet  in  diameter,  weighs  approxi- 


CIVIC     CENTER       167 

mately  90,000  tons  and  will  withstand  a  wind  load  of  30  pounds  per 
square  foot. 

On  the  fourth  floor  is  the  SAN  FRANCISCO  LAW  LIBRARY  (open. 
Mon.-Sat.  9  a.m.- 1 0:45  p.m.,,  Sun.  10:30-4:30),  a  free,  city-supported, 
reference  and  circulating  library  of  about  30,000  volumes. 

Near  the  Polk  Street  entrance  is  a  bronze  STATUE  OF  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN  (Haig  Patigian,  sculptor),  seated  in  meditative  pose,  one  hand 
resting  on  his  knee.  Facing  the  street  named  for  him  is  a  bronze 
STATUE  OF  HALL  MCALLISTER  (Earl  Cummings,  sculptor),  a  dis- 
tinguished pioneer  attorney. 

2.  The  CIVIC  CENTER  PLAZA,  Grove,  Polk,  McAllister,  and 
Larkin  Sts.,  with  its  broad  red  brick  walks,   its   fountains  playing  in 
circular  pools,  its  great  flocks  of  pigeons,  its  flowerbeds  and  box  hedges, 
is  surrounded  by  a  row  of  acacia  trees  and  lined,  along  Larkin  Street, 
by  flagstaffs. 

3.  Since  the   CIVIC  AUDITORIUM,   Grove   St.  between   Polk 
and  Larkin  Sts.,  was  presented  to  the  city  by  the  Panama-Pacific  Inter- 
national  Exposition,   events   as   diverse   as   political   rallies,    automobile 
shows,  balls,  prize  fights,  operas,  symphony  concerts,  bicycle  races,  and 
circuses  have  been  held  here.     Memorable  have  been  the  "Town  Meet- 
ings," where  employers  and  union  men  met  in  amicable  debate;  the 
"dime"  symphony  concerts  of  the  WPA  Music  Project;  monster  mass 
meetings  demanding  freedom  for  Tom  Mooney;  the  National  conven- 
tions of  the  Democratic  Party  in  1920  and  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  in  1934;  and  Max  Reinhardt's  presentation  of  The  Miracle, 
for  which  the  main  auditorium  was  converted  into  a  gigantic  cathedral. 
Designed  by  Arthur  Brown,  Jr.,  the  structure  is  four  stories  high,  with 
a    facade   of    California    granite   ornamented    in    carved    stone    and    a 
pyramidal   tile   roof   topped   by  a   great   tile-covered   octagonal    dome. 
Besides  the  main  auditorium,  seating  10,000,  and  the  two  companion 
auditoriums — Polk  Hall  and  Larkin  Hall,  each  seating  1,200 — which 
flank  it,  it  contains  21  smaller  halls  and  twelve  committee  rooms.    Over- 
hanging the  vast  arena,    187   by  200  feet,  which  can   be  enlarged  to 
include  the  two  companion  halls  or  diminished  by  use  of  electrically 
operated  curtains,  is  a  spectacular  canvas  canopy  painted  to  simulate  sky 
and  clouds,  bordered  by  Gleb  and  Peter  Ilyin's  mural  insets.     From 
three  sides  great  balconies  overlook  the  go-foot  stage.    The  four-manual 
console  of  the  great  organ  controls  the  six  distinct  parts:  great,  swell, 
choir,  solo,  pedal,  and  echo  organs.     The  largest  pipe  is  32  feet  long 
and  20  inches  in  diameter. 

4.  The   city's   public   health    supervision   centers   in   the    four-story 
HEALTH    CENTER   BUILDING    (open   weekdays   8-5),   corner 
Grove  and  Polk  Sts.,  erected  in  1931-32.     It  houses  various  clinics,  the 


l68      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Central  Emergency  Hospital,  and  offices  of  the  Health  Department  of 
the  Bureau  of  Inspection. 

5.  Twin  structures — the  OPERA  HOUSE  (open  weekdays  10-4), 
NW.  corner  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Grove  St.,  and  the  Veterans'  Building 
(see  below) — form  the  War  Memorial  of  San  Francisco,  erected  in 
1932  as  a  tribute  to  the  city's  war  dead.     The  buildings  are  similar  in 
external  appearance,  patterned  in  classic  style  to  conform  with  other 
Civic  Center  structures.     Against  the  rusticated  terra  cotta  of  their 
facades,  rising  from  granite  bases  and  steps  and  surmounted  by  mansard 
roofs,  are  placed  free-standing  granite  columns. 

This,  the  Nation's  only  municipally-owned  opera  house  (Arthur 
Brown,  Jr.,  architect;  G.  Albert  Lansburgh,  associate),  represented  the 
achievement  of  years  of  struggle  by  San  Francisco  music  lovers  for  an 
ise  of  theipewn.  It  was  opened  on  October  15,  1932  with 
Lily  PonsWnginjjXTojcj).  The  auditorium,  seating  3,285  persons,  is 
ratecL  '1  he  floor  of  the  orchestra  pit  can  be  raised  and 
lowered.  The  stage  is  131  feet  wide,  83  feet  deep,  and  120  feet  from 
floor  to  roof.  At  the  3O-foot-long  switchboard,  all  the  lighting  com- 
binations required  for  an  entire  performance  can  be  set  in  advance  and 
released  in  proper  order  by  the  throwing  of  a  single  switch. 

6.  Beyond  massive  gilt-trimmed  iron  fences  stretch  the  green  lawns 
of   MEMORIAL   COURT,    separating   the   Opera    House   and   the 
Veterans'    Building.      Severely    formal,    it   was    designed    by   Thomas 
Church  with  planting  in  long  flat  masses  to  conform  to  its  architectural 
setting. 

7.  The  four-story  VETERANS'   BUILDING    (open  8  a.m.   to 
indefinite  hour),  SW.  corner  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  McAllister  St.,  houses 
over  ico  veterans'  organizations.     From  the  vestibule  on  the  main  floor 
of   the   building    (Arthur   Brown,   Jr.,   architect),    a   long,   columned 
Trophy  Gallery  with  cast  stone  walls,  vaulted  ceiling,  and  marble  floor 
leads  to  the  Souvenir  Gallery.     Here  the  coffered  ceiling  and  stone 
walls  give  quiet  sanctuary  to  a  display  of  military  medals  and  souvenirs. 
Over  a  granite  cenotaph  with  a  bronze  urn  containing  earth  from  four 
American   cemeteries   in   France,   a   light   burns   perpetually.      In   the 
auditorium,  seating  1,106  persons,  arched  panels  between  the  pilasters 
of  the  side  walls  contain  eight  murals  by  Frank  Brangwyn  depicting 
earth,  air,  fire,  and  water.     The  maple  floor  can  be  tilted  to  afford  a 
clear  view  of  the  stage  or  levelled  into  a  dance  floor.     On  the  second 
floor  is  the  genealogical  library  of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution. 
The  corridors  on  both  second  and  third  floors  are  lined  with  meeting 
and  lodge  rooms. 

The  13  galleries  of  the  SAN  FRANCISCO  MUSEUM  OF  ART  (open 
weekdays  12  m.-io  p.m.;  Sun.  7-5),  on  the  fourth  floor,  are  gained  by 
elevator  from  the  McAllister  Street  side.  The  permanent  collection  of 


CIVIC     CENTER       169 

painting  and  sculpture  is  predominantly  the  work  of  modern  artists 
including  Van  Gogh,  Cezanne,  Matisse,  Hofer,  Bracque,  Roualt,  and 
Picasso.  The  Diego  Rivera  collection,  not  on  display  at  present  (1940), 
is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  United  States.  There  are  frequent 
loan  exhibits  of  the  work  of  contemporary  artists.  Here  also  are  an  art 
library  and  lecture  room.  The  San  Francisco  Art  Association  opened 
the  museum  in  1935  with  Dr.  Grace  McCann  Morley  as  director. 

8.  The  STATE  BUILDING  ANNEX,  515  Van  Ness  Ave.,  a  six- 
story   building,   houses   offices   of   the   California   Nautical    School;   of 
several  divisions  of  the  Departments  of   Education  and  of   Industrial 
Relations ;  and  of  the  Department  of  Professional  and  Vocational  Stand- 
ards.    Here  also  is  the  Hastings  College  of  Law  (University  of  Cali- 
fornia), founded  and  endowed  in   1878  by  Serrano  Clinton  Hastings, 
first  Chief  Justice  of  the  California  Supreme  Court. 

9.  In   two-story   PIONEER   HALL,    456   McAllister   St.    (open 
Mon.-Fri.  10-4;  Sat.  10-12),  occupied  jointly  since  June,  1938  by  the 
Society  of  California  Pioneers  and  the  California  Historical  Society,  an 
exhibit   of  firearms,   mining  implements,    and   poker   chips   keeps   alive 
memories   of   the   days   of   '49.      The    Society   of    California   Pioneers, 
founded  in  1850,  limits  its  membership  to  direct  descendants  of  the  early 
settlers.    The  California  Historical  Society,  founded  in  1852,  publishes 
books,  pamphlets,  and  a  quarterly  on  Western  history.    The  two  organ- 
izations  maintain   libraries   of   some   40,000  volumes   and   own   many 
manuscripts,  documents,  and  historic  prints  and  illustrations  concerning 
California. 

10.  The  block-long,  five-story  granite  STATE  BUILDING,  Mc- 
Allister, Polk,  and  Larkin  Sts.,  in  the  Italian  Renaissance  style,  was 
built  in  1926  at  a  cost  of  $1,800,000.     It  houses  offices  of  the  Governor 
and  Attorney  General  and  other  divisions  of  the  State  government. 

1 1 .  A  ragged  senate  of  unemployed  philosophers  gathers  daily  along 
the  "wailing  wall'  by  the  south  entrance  of  the  SAN  FRANCISCO 
PUBLIC   LIBRARY,    Fulton,    Larkin,    and    McAllister    Sts.    (open 
weekdays  g  a.m.-io  p.m.;  Sun.  1:30-$  p.m.).     Around  the  corner,  Leo 
Lentelli's  imperturbable  heroic-size  statues  symbolizing  Art,  Literature, 
Philosophy,  Science,  and  Law,  posed  between  Ionic  columns,  wear  a 
calmer  mien.     Across  the  granite  facade  are  carved  the  words:  "May 
this  structure,  throned  on  imperishable  books,  be  maintained  and  cher- 
ished from  generation  to  generation  for  the  improvement  and  delight  of 
mankind."     The  140,000  books  on  which  the  library  was  "throned"  in 
1906,  however,  were  unfortunately  no  more  imperishable  than  was  the 
old  City  Hall's  McAllister  Street  wing,  in  whose  wreckage  they  were 
destroyed.     For  the  design  of  its  new  home,  the  architect,  George  W. 
Kelham,  selected  Italian  Renaissance  as  "seeming  best  to  represent  the 
scholarly    atmosphere    which    a    library    should    attempt    to    convey." 


1 70      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Ground  was  broken  in  March,  1915  and  dedication  ceremonies  held 
February  15,  1917.  Of  the  $1,152,000  expended  on  construction  and 
equipment,  $375,000  was  contributed  by  Andrew  Carnegie  (he  con- 
tributed a  like  amount  for  construction  of  branch  library  buildings). 

The  board  of  trustees  who  organized  the  library  in  1878  boasted 
among  its  n  members  Andrew  S.  Hallidie  (inventor  of  the  cable  car) 
and  at  least  one  renowned  writer — Henry  George,  author  of  Progress 
and  Poverty.  With  an  appropriation  of  $24,000  from  the  Board  of 
Supervisors,  the  trustees  bought  6,000  books,  installed  them  in  a  rented 
hall,  and  invited  the  public  to  come  and  read  (but  not  to  borrow)  them. 
The  library  opened  its  doors  June  7,  1879.  During  the  third  fiscal 
year,  when  books  were  first  circulated,  10,500  persons  held  cards.  The 
number  had  almost  tripled  by  the  eve  of  the  library's  destruction  in  the 
wreckage  of  the  City  Hall,  where  it  had  been  installed  in  1888.  With 
about  25,000  volumes,  returned  from  homes  and  branches  after  the 
disaster,  it  continued  operations  in  temporary  quarters.  The  library's 
collection  had  grown  by  1940  to  520,000  volumes,  the  number  of  card 
holders  to  140,000,  and  the  annual  circulation  to  more  than  4,000,000. 
Besides  the  main  library,  the  system  includes  21  branch  libraries  and  5 
deposit  stations. 

From  the  main  entrance  vestibule,  where  a  bronze  bust  of  Edward 
Robeson  Taylor,  who  was  both  poet  and  mayor  (1907-10),  stands  in 
an  alcove,  a  corridor  leads  to  the  exhibit  hall,  juvenile  rooms,  and  news- 
paper room  along  the  south  side  of  the  building.  A  monumental  stair- 
case rises  to  the  high-ceilinged  delivery  room,  on  the  second  floor,  finished 
— like  both  the  entrance  vestibule  and  the  staircase — in  soft  beige- 
colored  Roman  travertine  and  an  imitation  travertine  made  locally. 
The  main  reading  room,  opening  from  it,  extends  along  the  south  side, 
leading  to  the  Max  John  Kuhl  Memorial  Room.  Above  the  desk  in 
the  reading  room  is  Pioneers  Arriving  in  the  West,  one  of  two  large 
murals  by  Frank  Vincent  Du  Mond  painted  for  the  Panama-Pacific 
International  Exposition.  From  the  head  of  the  staircase,  colonnaded 
galleries — on  whose  walls  are  Gottardo  Piazzoni's  murals  of  the  Cali- 
fornia landscape,  in  low-keyed  blues  and  browns — lead  to  the  reference 
room  and  art  library  along  the  west  front.  Both  the  reading  and  the 
reference  rooms  are  finished  with  cork-tiled  flooring,  dark  oak  wood- 
work, and  painted  beam  ceilings.  On  the  east  wall  of  the  reference 
room  is  Du  Mond's  mural,  Pioneers  Leaving  the  East.  On  the  third 
floor  are  the  periodical  room,  music  library,  assembly  room,  patent  room, 
secretary's  office,  and  Phelan  Memorial  Room.  Along  the  north  side  of 
the  building  are  the  stacks. 

The  library's  collection  is  notable  chiefly  in  the  fields  of  music,  fine 
arts,  costume;  and  world  literature.  The  music  library,  containing 
7,400  volumes  of  music,  8,000  pieces  of  sheet  music,  and  5,000  pictures, 


CIVIC     CENTER       IJI 

is  one  of  the  largest  in  the  United  States.  In  the  Max  John  Kuhl 
Memorial  Collection  of  examples  of  fine  printing  and  bookbinding  are 
books  from  the  presses  of  such  San  Francisco  typographical  artists  as 
Helen  Gentry,  John  Henry  Nash,  and  Edwin  Grabhorn.  The  collec- 
tion includes  a  Kelmscott  Chaucer,  an  Asbendene  Spenser,  and  a  Dove's 
Press  English  Bible.  The  collection  of  Californiana,  housed  in  a  room 
made  possible  by  James  D.  Phelan,  who  willed  $10,000  for  establish- 
ment of  the  Phelan  Memorial  Room,  contains  manuscripts,  autographs, 
and  first  editions  of  California  authors  including  Bret  Harte,  Mark 
Twain,  Joaquin  Miller,  Ina  Coolbrith,  Ambrose  Bierce,  Jack  London, 
George  Sterling,  and  Gertrude  Atherton. 

On  condition  that  they  never  be  removed  from  San  Francisco,  the 
heirs  of  Adolph  Sutro — San  Francisco  mining  engineer,  philanthropist, 
and  one-time  mayor — presented  in  1913  to  the  State  from  his  private 
library  70,000  volumes  which  escaped  the  fire  of  1906.  This  collection, 
now  in  the  SUTRO  BRANCH  OF  THE  CALIFORNIA  STATE  LIBRARY  (loan 
desk  and  catalogue  N.  end  of  reference  room)  is  open  to  qualified 
scholars.  It  includes  45  of  the  3,000  incunabula  in  the  original  collec- 
tion, among  which  are  the  letters  of  St.  Jerome  printed  by  Peter 
Schoefrer  in  1470.  In  the  collection  of  many  thousand  Spanish  and 
Mexican  books  are  a  compilation  of  Mexican  laws  published  in  1548 
and  42  volumes  bearing  American  imprints  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
There  are  copies  of  the  first,  second,  third,  and  fourth  folios  of  Shake- 
speare and  first  and  second  folios  of  Ben  Jonson.  The  religious  works 
include  the  prayer  books  of  James  I  and  Charles  II  and  a  Bible  used 
by  Father  Junipero  Serra.  Well-known  to  Hebrew  scholars  is  the 
collection  of  Hebrew  manuscripts  obtained  in  Jerusalem,  at  least  one 
of  which — a  9O-foot  scroll,  probably  of  sheepskin — is  attributed  to 
Maimonides.  The  library  also  owns  a  notable  collection  of  pamphlets 
on  biographical,  political,  and  religious  subjects — Latin,  German,  Mexi- 
can, Spanish,  and  English — of  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and  nine- 
teenth centuries,  including  the  thousands  of  English  pamphlets,  docu- 
ments, and  parliamentary  journals  collected  by  Lord  Macaulay  in  writing 
his  history  of  England. 

12.  Women  air  their  babies  and  exercise  their  dogs,  schoolboys  play 
football,  and  down-and-outers  snatch  a  bit  of  sun  and  sleep  on  MAR- 
SHALL SQUARE,  Grove,  Larkin,  Hyde,  and  Fulton  Sts.,  named  for 
James  W.  Marshall,  discoverer  of  gold  in  California.  The  last  of  the 
coffins  was  removed  from  the  sandy  graves  of  the  old  cemetery  here  in 
1870.  During  the  following  decade  the  "sand  lots"  were  the  meeting 
place  for  gatherings  addressed  by  fakirs,  phrenologists,  and  socialists. 
Unemployed  workmen  applauded  the  harangues  of  an  Irish  drayman 
with  shouts  of  "The  Chinese  must  go — Dennis  Kearney  tells  us  so!" 


172      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Sixty  years  later,  in  the  depression  of  the  1 930*3,  the  unemployed  met 
here  again  in  great  mass  meetings. 

13.  The  PIONEER  MONUMENT,  Grove,  Hyde,  and  Market 
Sts.,  keeps  alive  the  memory  of  James  Lick,  who  came  to  San  Francisco 
in  1847  and  died  a  multimillionaire  in  1876.     He  left  the  city  a  bequest 
of  $3,000,000,  of  which  his  will  earmarked  $100,000  for   "statuary 
emblematic  of  the  significant  epochs  in  the  history  of  California  .  .  ." 
The  Pioneer  Monument  (Frank  Happersberger,  sculptor),  whose  cor- 
nerstone was  laid   September    10,    1894,   is   a  great  central   pediment 
upholding  a  bronze  figure  symbolizing  California,  with  her  spear  and 
shield  and  bear,   from  whose  base  project  four  piers,  each  supporting 
subsidiary  statuary:  Early  Days,  Plenty,  In  '4.9,  and  Commerce.     The 
central  pedestal  is  ornamented  with  four  bronze  bas-reliefs — depicting 
immigrants  scaling  the  Sierra,  traders  bargaining  with  the  Indians,  cow- 
boys lassoing  a  steer,  and  California  under  the  rule  of  the  Mexicans 
and  the  Americans — and  with  five  relief  portraits  of  James  Lick,  John 
Charles  Fremont,  Francis  Drake,  Junipero  Serra,  and  Johann  August 
Sutter. 

14.  The  grayish- white  granite  walls  of  the  massive  five-story,  block- 
square  FEDERAL  BUILDING,   Hyde,   Fulton,   McAllister,   and   Leaven- 
worth  Sts.  (open  8-$  Mon.-Fri.;  8-1  Sat.),  newest  of  the  Civic  Center 
group,  was  completed  in  1936  at  a  cost  of  $3,000,000  (Arthur  Brown, 
Jr.,  architect).     Its  422  rooms  house  approximately  1,275  employees  of 
33  divisions  of  the  Federal  government. 

15.  Situated  just  outside  the  orbit  of  the  Civic  Center,  the  weathered 
four-story    UNITED    STATES    COURTHOUSE    AND    POST- 
OFFICE  BUILDING  (open  6  a.m.-i2  p.m.),  NE.  corner  Seventh  and 
Mission  Sts.,  glittered  in  new  white  granite  grandeur  late  in   1905. 
The  building  on  its  foundation  of  piling  withstood  the  earthquake  and 
fire  of  the  following  year,  but  the  sidewalk  and  street — built  over  the 
bed  of  a  former  stream — sank  several  feet,  and  the  building  now  obvi- 
ously stands  higher  than  the  original  sidewalk  level.     Having  withstood 
the  flames,  it  was  easily  refurbished.    The  building,  designed  in  Italian 
Renaissance  style  by  James  Knox  Taylor,  cost  $2,500,000,   to  which 
$450,000  was  added  for  improvements  after  1906.     (In  1933  a  $750,000 
annex  was  added.)     After  Congress  had  appropriated  the  original  funds, 
the  price  of  steel  dropped  sharply  below  original  estimates  and  in  the 
absence  of  any  law  providing  for  its  return  to  the  Treasury,  the  surplus 
was   spent   in   lavish   interior   decorations.      Not   only  were    Carrara, 
Pavonezza,  Sienna,  and  Numidian  marble  imported  but  skilled  Italian 
artisans  were  imported  with  them  to  install  the  verd  antique  trimmings 
of  the  corridors,   the  elaborate  mosaics   of   the  columns   and   vaulted 
ceilings.     The'  court  chambers  were  panelled  in  California  curly  red- 
wood, Mexican  Prima  Vera  mahogany,  antique  oak,  and  East  Indian 


CIVIC     CENTER       173 

mahogany,  and  immense  ornate  fireplaces  (which  never  have  been  used) 
were  installed. 

San  Francisco's  central  post  office,  with  its  financial  and  executive 
offices,  occupies  the  first  floor.  On  the  second  floor  are  the  offices  of 
the  Railway  and  Air  Mail  Services;  district  chief  clerks  of  the  third 
and  fourth  post  office  districts  and  superintendent  of  the  eighth  divi- 
sion; and  Post  Office  Inspector  in  Charge,  whose  department  includes 
Arizona,  California,  and  Nevada;  Hawaii,  Guam,  and  Samoa. 

The  United  States  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals,  on  the  third  floor, 
has  the  widest  territorial  jurisdiction  of  any  circuit  court  in  the  Nation, 
hearing  cases  from  Arizona,  California,  Idaho,  Montana,  Oregon,  and 
Washington,  from  Alaska  and  Hawaii,  and  from  the  United  State  extra- 
territorial court  in  Shanghai.  Here  also  are  the  chambers  of  the  United 
States  District  Courts  and  the  offices  of  divisions  of  the  Department  of 
Justice,  of  the  Mineral  Production  and  Economics  Division  of  the 
Bureau  of  Mines,  and  of  the  Naturalization  Service. 

A  far  cry  from  these  splendid  marble  corridors  was  the  city's  first 
post  office,  the  frame  building  housing  C.  L.  Ross  and  Company's  New 
York  Store  at  Washington  and  Montgomery  Streets,  where  in  April, 
1849  postmaster  John  White  Geary  removed  a  pane  of  glass  from  the 
front  window  and  began  dealing  out  the  5,000  letters  he  had  brought 
with  him  on  the  Oregon.  Following  the  arrival  of  the  fortnightly  mail 
steamer  from  Panama,  wrote  the  British  traveler,  J.  D.  Borthwick,  in 
1851,  "a  dense  crowd  of  people  collected,  almost  blocking  up  the  two 
streets  which  gave  access  to  the  post-office.  .  .  .  Smoking  and  chewing 
tobacco  were  great  aids  in  passing  the  time,  and  many  came  provided 
with  books  and  newspapers.  ...  A  man's  place  in  the  line  .  .  .  like 
any  other  piece  of  property  .  .  .  was  bought  and  sold  .  .  .  Ten  or  fifteen 
dollars  were  frequently  paid  for  a  good  position  .  .  .  There  was  one 
window  devoted  exclusively  to  the  use  of  foreigners  .  .  .  and  here  a 
polyglot  individual  .  .  .  answered  the  demands  of  all  European  nations, 
and  held  communication  with  Chinamen,  Sandwich  Islanders,  and  all 
the  stray  specimens  of  humanity  from  unknown  parts  of  the  earth." 

"Steamer  Day,"  the  beginning  and  middle  of  each  month,  which 
brought  not  only  the  mail  but  also  the  Eastern  papers — only  source  of 
news  of  the  outside  world — became  a  San  Francisco  institution.  For 
a  week  the  population  prepared  its  letters  and  its  gold  dust — of  which 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  were  shipped  East — for  the  fortnightly  out- 
going steamer.  Even  after  1858,  when  the  Overland  Stage  Line  to  St. 
Louis  began  carrying  eight  mails  each  month  and  the  Pony  Express  to 
St.  Joseph  two  a  week,  the  custom  continued,  and  business  men  paid 
their  accounts  on  Steamer  Day.  Not  until  the  i88o's  did  the  cus- 
tom end. 


Metropolitan  Scene 

"There  are  just  three  big  cities  In  the  United  States  that  are 
'story  cities' — New  York,  of  course,  New  Orleans,  and  best  of  the 
lot  San  Francisco." 

— FRANK  NORRIS 


TIMES  SQUARE  and  Picadilly  Circus  recall  the  metropolitan 
grandeur  of  New  York  and  London.  Although  San  Francisco 
has  no  single  spectacular  landmark  by  which  the  world  may 
identify  it,  the  greatest  cities  have  long  since  welcomed  it  into  their 
company.  Portsmouth  Square,  the  Palace  Hotel,  and  the  Ferry  Build- 
ing, which  served  successively  as  symbols  of  civic  vanity,  no  longer 
resound  with  much  more  public  clamor  than  many  another  plaza,  hos- 
telry, or  terminal.  Only  Market  Street  accents  for  the  casual  observer 
San  Francisco's  metropolitan  character. 

Southwestward  from  the  Ferry  Building  to  Twin  Peaks  Tunnel, 
Market  Street's  wide,  unswerving  diagonal  bisects  the  city.  To  Market 
Street,  as  to  Rome,  lead  all  downtown  streets,  converging  from  north, 
southeast,  and  west  at  wedge-shaped  intersections  where  traffic  tangles 
bewilderingly.  Northward,  where  slopes  rise  steeply  to  hilltops,  are 
shops,  clubs,  theaters,  office  buildings,  luxury  hotels,  and  apartment 
houses — the  center  of  San  Francisco's  commercial  activities  and  vortex 
of  its  social  whirl.  Southward — in  what  is  still  "South  of  the  Slot" 
to  old-timers — abruptly  begin  the  row  upon  row  of  pawn  shops,  fly- 
specked  restaurants,  and  shabby  lodginghouses  that  stretch  over  level 
ground  to  the  warehouses,  factories,  and  railroad  yards  along  the  Bay's 
edge. 

Jasper  O'Farrell's  survey,  a  century  ago,  laid  the  foundation  for 
Market  Street's  development.  Long  before  the  forty-niners  paved  it 
with  planks,  the  tallow  and  hides  of  Peninsula  ranches  rolled  down  its 
rutted  trail  in  Mexican  oxcarts  to  Yerba  Buena  Cove.  Hundred-wr« 
lots  along  the  street's  southern  side  were  considered  ideal  business  loca- 
tions ;  and  the  width  of  the  thoroughfare  determined  its  future.  Steam- 
cars,  in  the  iSyo's  and  i88o's,  brought  along  it  passengers  to  be  de- 
posited in  frock  coats  and  crinolines  before  the  Palace  Hotel.  Before 
the  disaster  of  1906,  cable  cars  went  careening  up  the  street,  like 
diminutive  galleons  riding  on  waves  of  basalt  pavement  whose  sand 
foundation  sank  unevenly  beneath  the  traffic. 

A  hundred  and  twenty  feet  wide,  Market  Street  epitomizes  Western 
spaciousness.  At  its  upper  end  soar  the  crests  of  Twin  Peaks,  green 

174 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       175 

with  grass  in  spring.  Flooded  with  sunlight  on  clear  days,  it  contrasts 
sharply  with  the  dingy  canyons  of  neighboring  streets  devised  for  shop- 
ping and  finance.  After  dark,  gleaming  with  neon  fluorescence  of 
lighted  signboards,  it  is  a  broad  white  way.  Thanks  to  the  fire  of 
1906,  which  piled  the  thoroughfare  high  with  debris  of  baroque  mon- 
strosities, its  contours  are  obstructed  by  few  grotesque  domes  and 
fantastic  facades,  once  the  pride  of  the  bonanza  generation.  With  its 
streamlined  array  of  neon  signs,  movie-theater  marquees,  neat  awnings, 
and  gleaming  windowglass,  Market  Street's  predominant  tone  is  one 
of  settled  progress  housed  in  masonry  and  concrete. 

To  millions  of  visitors  who  have  ventured  through  the  portals  of  the 
Ferry  Building  at  its  southern  end  to  set  foot  for  the  first  time  in  the 
city  of  St.  Francis,  Market  Street  must  have  seemed  a  little  frightening. 
After  a  calm  leisurely  ferryboat  voyage  from  the  main  railroad  ter- 
minals across  the  Bay,  the  visitor  plunged  into  what  was  obviously  a 
traffic  engineer's  nightmare.  A  huge  three-track  trolley  loop — encircling 
a  forlorn  plot  of  bush  and  grass — routes  a  succession  of  clanging  electric 
juggernauts  past  the  Ferry  Building  and  back  up  Market  Street.  Un- 
fortunately for  streetcar  riders,  Market  Street  is  wide  enough  to  accom- 
modate four  tracks — a  pair  for  each  of  the  city's  two  systems.  Boarding 
cars  which  ride  the  inner  pair  calls  for  a  dauntlessness  peculiar  to  San 
Francisco  pedestrians.  When  two  cars  come  thundering  abreast  down 
the  tracks,  the  cautious  commuter  waits  for  both  to  stop,  then  darts 
around  the  back  of  the  outside  car  to  board  the  inside  one;  but  hardier 
souls  take  a  firm  stand  in  the  narrow  gap  between  tracks,  breathing  in 
as  two  cars  roar  by  on  either  side.  Market  Street  at  five  o'clock  on  a 
workday  afternoon  is  a  deafening  concourse  of  streetcars  plunging 
through  swirling  eddies  of  pedestrians,  passengers  bulging  from  doors 
and  agile  youths  swarming  over  rear  fenders. 

Along  both  its  upper  and  lower  reaches,  Market  Street  has  little  of 
that  dynamic  tempo  which  marks  its  middle  stretch.  The  first  few 
blocks  southwest  of  the  Ferry  Building  pass  between  low  buildings — 
railroad  and  steamship  offices,  nautical  supply  stores,  transient  hotels — 
before  skyscrapers  begin  flinging  lofty  heads  heavenward.  Beyond  the 
reach  of  shoppers,  this  section  is  never  crowded;  late  at  night,  it  is 
gloomy  and  deserted  except  for  an  occasional  streetcar,  a  lone  roisterer, 
or  a  solitary  patrolman.  Where  it  skirts  the  Civic  Center  on  its  south- 
westward  route,  the  solid  phalanx  of  office  buildings,  theaters  and  stores 
begins  to  show  gaps,  thinning  into  strings  of  paint  stores,  second-hand 
book  shops,  and  parking  lots,  until  the  black  mouth  of  Twin  Peaks 
Tunnel  swallows  the  streetcar  tracks.  That  Market  Street  along  whose 
broad  sidewalks  moves  the  informal  pageant  of  San  Franciscans  on 
parade  comprises  nine  blocks  between  Hyde  Street  on  the  west  and 
Montgomery  Street  on  the  east. 


176      SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  windswept  corner  at  Powell  and  Market  begins  a  gay,  devil- 
may-care  street  that  has  for  better  than  half  a  century  fascinated  and 
delighted  both  native  and  visitor.  Unlike  the  tiny  slow  cable  cars  that 
clang  up  and  down  the  Powell  Street  hill  to  be  reversed  on'  the  turn- 
table at  Market  Street,  life  always  has  run  fast  and  a  little  loose  along 
this  narrow  urban  canyon.  On  the  east  corner  of  Powell  and  Market 
stood  the  Baldwin  Theater,  housed  within  a  hideously  ornate  hotel 
of  the  period.  Around  the  corner  on  Eddy  Street  was  the  Tivoli 
Theater,  where  patrons  sat  at  tables  and  ate  and  sipped  refreshments 
while  watching  the  performance.  Although  the  fire  of  1906  razed 
the  entire  area,  Powell  Street  and  environs  maintained  their  reputation 
by  immediately  rebuilding.  The  district  became  known  as  the  "Up- 
town Tenderloin."  Until  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  relegated  pleas- 
ure spots  to  back  rooms,  it  was  replete  with  lively  restaurants,  saloons, 
and  cabarets — whose  names  make  older  residents  yearn  for  the  "good 
old  days."  Techau  Tavern  stood  on  the  site  of  the  present  bank  at  the 
southwest  corner  of  Powell  and  Eddy;  the  Portola  Louvre,  across  the 
street.  Around  the  corner  at  35  Ellis  Street  was  the  Heidleberg  Inn, 
and  at  168  O'Farrell  Street,  the  famous  old  Tait-Zinkand  cabaret, 
across  from  the  Orpheum  Theater  where  vaudeville  was  born.  Fabu- 
lous Tessie  Wall  kept  her  red  plush  and  gilt  bagnio  on  the  southwest 
corner  of  Powell  and  O'Farrell  Streets — Tessie  Wall,  who  reigned 
before  Prohibition  as  "Queen  of  the  Tenderloin,"  whose  answer  to  her 
husband,  gambler  Frank  Daroux,  when  he  asked  her  to  move  to  a 
suburban  home  in  San  Mateo  is  still  quoted:  "San  Mateo!  Why  I'd 
rather  be  an  electric  light  pole  on  Powell  Street  than  own  all  of  the 
county."  Mason  Street,  one  block  west  of  Powell,  was  the  "White 
Way,"  sparkling  with  the  lights  of  Kelly's  place,  Jimmy  Stacks'  cabaret, 
the  later  Poodle  Dog,  and  Billy  Lyons'  saloon,  "the  Bucket  of  Blood." 

Powell  Street,  now  relieved  of  suggested  rowdiness  by  smart  hotels, 
shops,  and  bars,  has  outlived  its  past.  The  hilarious  uptown  tenderloin 
which  rivalled  the  Barbary  Coast  has  receded  to  streets  immediately 
west.  This  newer,  downtown  tenderloin  is  a  district  of  subdued  gaiety 
that  awakens  at  nightfall — a  region  of  apartment  houses  and  hotels, 
corner  groceries  and  restaurants,  small  night  clubs  and  bars,  gambling 
lofts,  bookmakers'  hideouts,  and  other  fleshpots  of  the  unparticular. 
Techau's,  the  dine-and-dance  place  renowned  for  "an  appearance  of 
Saturnalia,"  is  today  the  name  of  an  ultra-modern  cocktail  bar  at 
another  Powell  Street  address.  The  old  Portola-Louvre  at  Powell 
and  Market — described  as  "that  which  takes  the  rest  out  of  restaurant 
and  puts  the  din  in  dinner" — is  now  a  quiet  cafeteria  more  modestly 
named.  Whatever  remains  of  the  great  tradition  of  such  theaters  as 
the  Baldwin  is  .preserved  at  the  city's  only  two  legitimate  houses,  on 
Geary  Street  west  of  Powell. 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       177 

Between  Geary  and  Post  Streets,  where  Powell  Street  begins  its 
climb  up  Nob  Hill — that  climb  which  leads  it  up,  up,  and  up  to  where 
stood  gaudy  mansions  of  the  bonanza  "nabobs" — the  solemn  gray-green 
stone  facade  of  the  St.  Francis  Hotel  faces  eastward  over  the  sloping 
green  turf  and  venerable  palms  of  Union  Square.  Here  the  benches 
are  packed  the  day  long  with  successful  men  and  failures  feeding  pan- 
handling pigeons  or  humming  together  at  one  of  the  semi-weekly  WPA 
Music  Project's  noonday  concerts.  Clerks  and  nurses,  salesmen  and 
stenographers,  eat  their  lunches  on  the  grass.  Chinese  boys  scurry  along 
the  paths,  shouldering  bootblack  kits,  alert  for  dusty  shoes.  Along  the 
wrought-iron  picket  fence  on  the  south  side,  drivers  of  long  limousines 
lounge  in  their  cars,  waiting  for  sightseeing  customers. 

Union  Square  is  the  heart  of  that  area  of  shops  and  hotels  which 
represents  to  an  international  clientele  and  to  San  Franciscans  the  city's 
traditional  demand  for  quality.  Here  department  stores  have  for  so 
many  decades  been  custodians  of  public  taste — their  founders  being 
patrons  of  the  arts  and  bon  vivants — that  their  very  buildings  are  con- 
sidered public  institutions.  Along  Grant  Avenue,  Geary,  Stockton, 
Post,  and  O'Farrell  Streets,  the  gleaming  windows  of  perfume  and 
jewelry  shops,  travel  bureaus,  art  goods  and  book  stores,  apparel  and 
furniture  shops  entice  throngs  of  shoppers.  Near  these  stores  flower- 
vendors  have  the  sidewalk  stands  so  dear  to  San  Franciscans.  Along 
Sutter  Street  are  offered  rugs  from  India  and  Afghanistan,  books,  art 
objects  from  Europe  and  the  Orient,  household  fixtures  and  antiques. 
Here  San  Franciscans  pay  gas  bills  and  see  dentists,  and  here  are  the 
commercial  art  galleries. 

Kearny  Street  is  the  shopping  district's  eastern  boundary.  At  its 
wide,  windy  intersection  with  Market  Street  the  new  San  Francisco 
meets  the  old.  Glowering  down  upon  Lotta's  Fountain  stands  the  un- 
gainly red-brick  De  Young  Building  (San  Francisco's  first  "sky- 
scraper"), and  facing  it  across  the  intersection  is  the  modernized  tower 
of  the  old  Spreckels  Building.  "Cape  Horn"  the  city's  rounders  dubbed 
this  breezy  crossing,  back  in  the  era  of  free  lunches  and  beer  for  the 
common  run  and  champagne  for  the  elite.  Here  lounged  young  wastrels 
whose  delight  it  was  to  observe  the  skirts  of  passing  damsels  wafted 
knee-high  by  sudden  gusts. 

"All  bluffs  are  called  on  Kearny  Street,"  wrote  Gelett  Burgess. 
Running  north  from  Market  Street  to  the  Barbary  Coast,  it  was  an 
avenue  of  honky-tonks  and  saloons  frequented  by  racetrack  tipsters  and 
other  shady  professionals.  On  election  nights  it  was  the  scene  of  torch- 
light parades  and  brass  bands.  Of  early  theaters,  the  Bush,  the  Stand- 
ard, and  the  California  were  situated  near  Bush  and  Kearny  Streets. 
Among  the  restaurants  that  gave  San  Francisco  a  name  were  the  Maison 
Doree  on  Kearny  between  Bush  and  Sutter  Streets,  the  Maison  Rich, 


178      SAN     FRANCISCO 

a  block  west  at  Grant  Avenue  and  Geary  Streets,  the  Poodle  Dog  at 
Grant  Avenue  and  Bush  Street,  and  Tortoni's,  two  blocks  west  at 
O'Farrell  and  Stockton  Streets.  All  served  French  dinners  that  were 
gastronomical  delights  to  a  city  that  always  has  known  how  to  eat. 
Another  famous  restaurant  was  Marchand's,  at  Grant  Avenue  and  a 
little  two-block  alley  called  Maiden  Lane.  Now  chaste  and  obscure, 
Maiden  Lane  has  been  renamed  a  half-dozen  times,  but  the  original 
name  sticks,  inducing  a  wry  smile  from  old-timers  who  remember  when 
its  "maidens"  were  ladies  of  little  or  no  virtue. 

The  inglorious  past  is  slipping  fast  from  Kearny  Street.  Stream- 
lined clothing  establishments  for  men,  smart  shops,  and  cocktail  bars 
are  marching  northward  against  the  tawdry  remains  of  an  era  of  archi- 
tectural horror  and  moral  obliquity.  Its  awakening  comes  late  but  it 
comes  with  a  vengeance.  A  few  blocks  northward  its  businesses  and 
buildings  decline  in  class  and  size  to  pawnshops,  bailbond  offices,  and 
the  hangouts  of  dapper,  black-haired  Filipinos. 

Not  even  the  most  farseeing  mind  could  have  imagined,  in  San 
Francisco's  toddling  days,  the  narrow  canyon  between  skyscrapers  that 
is  present-day  Montgomery  Street.  Being  then  the  water  front,  it  was 
the  city's  doorstep  to  the  world.  The  doorstep  was  gradually  moved 
eastward  as  filled-in  land  pushed  back  the  Bay  waters,  but  San  Fran- 
cisco went  on  doing  business  in  the  original  location.  Into  Mont- 
gomery— and  later  Kearny  Street,  one  block  west — were  compressed 
most  of  what  the  city  possessed — banks,  customhouse,  post  office,  busi- 
ness houses,  newspaper  offices,  dance  and  gambling  halls,  theaters,  livery 
stables,  saloons,  and  restaurants.  The  streets  were  ungraded.  Kearny 
was  paved  with  sticks  and  stones,  bits  of  tin,  and  old  hatch  coverings 
from  ships  that  had  tramped  the  world.  The  going  was  difficult,  if  not 
downright  dangerous,  for  both  pedestrian  and  rider.  In  1849  the  site 
of  the  Palace  Hotel's  present  magnificence,  across  from  the  southern  end 
of  Montgomery  Street,  was  Happy  Valley — host  to  a  tent  settlement 
of  poor  immigrants.  Market  Street  was  a  dream  in  the  brain  of  young 
Jasper  O'Farrell,  who  was  to  engineer  San  Francisco's  street  design. 

Montgomery  Street  has  thrown  off  its  old  boisterous  and  willful 
ways.  Neat  and  austere  between  sheer  walls  of  stone,  glass,  and  terra 
cotta,  it  is  visible  evidence  of  San  Francisco's  financial  hegemony  over 
the  far  West.  But  the  past  that  dies  hard  in  San  Francisco  still  lingers 
on.  Old-fashioned  and  with  clanging  bell,  the  cable  cars  go  lurching 
through  the  cross  streets  that  intersect  Montgomery,  past  insurance 
companies  and  foreign  consulates.  All  day  the  street's  great  office  struc- 
tures are  beehives,  humming  with  business;  its  sidewalks  are  populated 
with  businessmen  carrying  briefcases,  and  lined  with  parked  shiny  auto- 
mobiles. But  at  dark,  when  the  skyscrapers  are  deserted  but  for  their 
watchmen  and  scrubwomen,  the  deep  canyons  are  black  and  silent,  and 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       179 

the  clank  of  cables,  pulling  their  freight  uphill  toward  the  lighted  hotels 
and  apartment  houses  atop  Nob  Hill,  echoes  in  the  stillness. 


POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1 6.  Looming  over  the  Civic  Center  and  uptown  San  Francisco,  the 
soaring  shaft  of  the  28-story  HOTEL  EMPIRE,  NW.  corner  Leaven- 
worth  and  McAllister  Sts.,  embodies  the  spirit  of  a  new  era  rising  from 
the  old,  like  the  Phoenix  of  the  municipal  seal.    Built  through  the  united 
efforts  of  the  city's  Methodist  churches,  it  was  opened  in  the  late  I92o's 
as  the  William  Taylor  Church  and  Hotel,  named  for  the  noted  street 
preacher  of  the  1850*5,  since  it  housed  a  built-in  Methodist  Church. 

17.  Founded  a  decade  after  '49  by  John  Sullivan,  the  HIBERNIA 
SAVINGS  AND  LOAN  SOCIETY  (open  10-3),  NW.  corner  Mc- 
Allister and  Jones  Sts.,  has  survived  eight  decades  of  prosperity  and 
panic  to  become  one  of  San  Francisco's  oldest  banks.     Its  classic,  one- 
story  building   (Albert  Pissis,  architect) — whose  granite  facades  were 
gleaming  white  when  finished  in  1892  but  have  been  weathered  to  a 
dull  gray — survived  even  the  fire  of  1906.     It  is  topped  by  a  gilded 
dome  surmounting  the  Corinthian  colonnade  which  rises  at  the  head 
of  the  curved  granite  steps  of  the  corner  entrance.     Inside,   marble 
pilasters  spring  from  a  floor  inlaid  with  mosaic  to  represent  a  mariner's 
compass  card. 

1 8.  The  bronze  angel  atop  the  NATIVE  SONS  MONUMENT, 
Market,  Turk,  and  Mason  Sts.,  holds  aloft  a  book  inscribed  with  the 
date  of  California's  admission  to  the  Union:  September  9,  1850.    Beside 
the  granite  shaft  a  youthful  miner  shouldering  a  pick,  armed  with  the 
holstered  six-shooter  of  his  day,  waves  an  American  flag.    Gift  of  James 
D.  Phelan,  the  monument  (Douglas  Tilden,  sculptor)  was  unveiled  on 
Admission  Day,  1897. 

19.  The  austere  UNITED   STATES  BRANCH   MINT    (not 
open),   NW.  corner  Fifth  and   Mission   Sts.,   now  houses   temporary 
offices  of  various  departments  of  the  Federal  government.     Its  basement 
walls  of  Rocklin  granite  and  upper  facades  of  mottled  British  Columbia 
bluestone,   its  pyramidal  flight  of  granite  steps  climbing  to   a   portico 
of  Doric  columns  are  blackened  with  grime.     Built  in  1870-73  to  sup- 
plant the  first  branch  mint,  established  in  1854  on  Commercial  Street, 
the  $2,000,000  structure    (A.  B.   Mullett,  architect)    was  itself  sup- 
planted in  1937  by  a  still  newer  mint.     In  1906,  while  flames  gnawed 
at  its  barred  and  iron-shuttered  windows,   mint   employees   aided   by 
soldiers  fought  a  seven-hour  battle  with  a  one-inch  fire  hose  and  saved 
$200,000,000  from  destruction.     One-third  of  the  Nation's  entire  gold 
reserve  was  housed  here  in  1934. 

20.  "Industrial  Gothic"  is  the  three-story  CHRONICLE  BUILD- 


l8o      SAN     FRANCISCO 

ING  (visitors  shown  through  plant  by  appointment},  SW.  corner  Fifth 
and  Mission  Sts.,  with  tall  arched  windows  and  high  corner  clock 
tower.  A  morning  paper  with  a  circulation  of  approximately  110,000, 
the  Chronicle  issues  five  regular  editions  daily,  the  first  appearing  on 
the  streets  at  about  half  past  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

21.  On  the  highest  assessed  piece  of  land  in  the  city  is  San  Fran- 
cisco's largest   department   store,   THE   EMPORIUM    (open    9:45- 
5'>2$))  835  Market  St.     The  massive,  gray  sandstone  facade,  its  three 
arched   entrances  opening  onto   a  quarter-block-long  arcade,   is   orna- 
mented with  columns  in  half-relief  rising  from  the  fourth-story  level  to 
the  balustrade  at  the  roof  edge.     Inside,  an  immense  glass-domed  ro- 
tunda,  no  feet  in  diameter  and   no  feet  high,  ringed  by  a  pillared 
gallery,  rises  through  four  stories  to  the  roof  garden.    Its  present  build- 
ing, replacing  one  built  in  1896  and  destroyed  by  the  1906  fire,  stands 
on  the  site  of  St.  Ignatius  College,  now  the  University  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

22.  Traffic  waits  goodnaturedly  at   the   CABLE   CAR  TURN- 
TABLE, Market,  Powell,  and  Eddy  Sts.,  where  a  careening  southbound 
car  comes  to  a  halt  every  few  minutes,  while  conductor  and  grip  man 
dismount  and  push  the  car  around  until  it  faces  north. 

23.  Traces  of  discoloration  in  the  sandstone  near  the  entrances  of 
the  FLOOD  BUILDING,  NE.  corner  Market  and  Powell  Sts.,  recall 
the  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906,  which  broke  windows  and  blackened 
the  walls  of  the  structure  a  year  after  its  completion.     Named   for 
bonanza  king  James  C.  Flood,  the  building  stands  on  the  site  of  the 
Baldwin    Hotel    and    Theater,    built    by    his    contemporary,    E.    J. 
("Lucky")    Baldwin  in   1876-77  and  destroyed  by  fire  in   1898.     Of 
gray  sandstone,  the  12-story  structure  is  wedge-shaped  to  fit  the  site, 
its  two  facades  converging  in  a  rounded  corner  ornamented  with  col- 
umns in  half-relief. 

24.  Head  office  of  the  Nation's  fourth  largest  bank  is  the  BANK 
OF  AMERICA    (open   Mon.-Fri.    10-3,   Sat.    10-12),    NW.   corner 
Market  and  Powell  Sts.,  whose  resources  topped  $1,500,000,000  at  the 
end  of  1939.     "Statewide  organization,  Worldwide  scope"  is  the  motto 
carved  beneath  Giovanni  Portanova's  bas-relief,  personifying  the  bank 
as  a  female  figure  enthroned  between  a  Mercury   (commerce)    and  a 
Ceres  (agriculture),  above  the  corner  entrance.    The  seven-story  struc- 
ture, faced  with  white  granite  and  decorated  with  Corinthian  pilasters, 
was  erected  in  1920. 

25.  A  grassy  haven  in  the  midst  of  the  downtown  bustle,  UNION 
SQUARE,  Powell,  Geary,  Post,  and  Stockton  Sts.,  spreads  2.6  acres 
of  green  lawns  around  the  97-foot-high  granite  shaft  of  the  NAVAL 
MONUMENT  (Robert  Ingersoll  Aitken,  sculptor),  whose  bronze  female 
Victory,  armed  with  wreath  and  trident,  commemorates  "the  Victory 


DOWNTOWN  SAN  FRANCISCO 


1 82      SAN     FRANCISCO 

of  the  American  Navy  under  Commodore  George  Dewey  at  Manila 
Bay,  May  First,  MDCCCXCVIII."  President  William  McKinley  broke 
ground  for  the  monument  in  1901  and  President  Theodore  Roosevelt 
dedicated  it  in  1903.  Union  Square  was  presented  to  the  city  in  1850 
by  Mayor  John  White  Geary.  Mass  meetings  held  here  on  the  eve  of 
the  Civil  War  by  Northerners  demonstrating  their  loyalty  to  the  Union 
gave  the  square  its  name. 

26.  The  ST.  FRANCIS  HOTEL,  Powell,  Geary,  and  Post  Sts., 
is   the    14-story,   block-long,   steel-and-concrete   successor   to   the   hotel 
opened  here  in   1904  and  razed  in   1906.     The  building   (Bliss  and 
Faville,  architects),  is  an  adaption  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  style  to 
the  modern  skyscraper.     Its  main  facade,  weathered  a  somber   gray, 
has  three  wings,  the  central  one  flanked  above  the  second  story  by  deep 
open  courts  separating  it  from  the  others.     The  spacious  lobby  with 
vaulted  ceiling  and  Corinthian  columns  is  one  of  the  city's  most  popular 
meeting  places.     Near  the  entrance  to  the  Mural  Room,   under  the 
great  Austrian  clock  which  controls  50  smaller  clocks  throughout  the 
building,  under-graduates  from  Stanford  and  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia— who  sometimes  refer  to  the  hotel  as  "The  Frantic" — have  kept 
appointments   for   three   decades.      In   the   Mural   Room    (named   for 
Albert  Herter's  seven  murals,  The  Gifts  of  the  Old  World  to  the  New} , 
whose  black  columns,  mirrored  walls,  and  blue  and  gold  ceiling  provide 
a  pleasant  setting,  socialites  have  met  for  two  decades  to  dine,  dance, 
and  attend   Monday  luncheons  and   fashion   reviews.     Occupying  an 
entire  wall  of  the  largest  of  the  hotel's  banquet  and  meeting  rooms,  the 
Colonial  Ballroom,  is  Albert  Herter's  mural  portraying  American  Colo- 
nial life. 

On  the  second  floor  are  the  headquarters  and  library  of  the  COM- 
MONWEALTH CLUB  (open  to  members  and  certified  students  Mon.-Fri. 
9-5,  Sat.  8:30-12),  founded  in  1903  by  Edward  F.  Adams  of  the 
Chronicle.  The  club's  motto  is  "Get  the  Facts" — and  it  maintains  a 
permanent  fund  of  $270,000  for  research  in  subjects  of  public  interest. 
More  than  1,500  distinguished  visitors  have  addressed  the  club  during 
its  career. 

27.  The  modern  1 7-story  white-brick  and  stone  CLIFT  HOTEL, 
495  Geary  St.,  was  opened  in  1915  by  attorney  Frederick  Clift.    Three 
new  stories  and  an  additional  wing  were  added  in  1926.     Lobbies  and 
public  rooms  are  combined  Spanish  and  Italian  Renaissance  with  high 
beamed  ceilings.     The  Redwood  Room  is  panelled  with  highly  bur- 
nished 2,ooo-year-old  California  redwood  and  its  3O-foot  bar  is  made 
entirely  of  redwood  burl. 

28.  "Weaving  spiders   come   not   here"   admonishes   an   inscription 
over  the  Taylor  Street  entrance  of  the  five-story  red  brick  Italian  Renais- 
sance home  of 'the  BOHEMIAN  CLUB   (private),  NE.  corner  Post 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       183 

and  Taylor  Sts.,  erected  in  1934.  Across  J.  J.  Mora's  bronze  bas-relief 
on  the  Post  Street  facade  troop  a  procession  of  Bret  Harte's  characters. 
The  club  grew  in  1872  from  informal  Sunday  breakfasts  at  the  home 
of  James  Bowman,  editorial  writer  on  the  Chronicle.  Artist  friends 
sketched  so  freely  on  Mrs.  Bowman's  tablecloths  her  husband  decided 
that  San  Francisco  intellectuals  needed  an  official  club. 

For  the  first  few  years,  quarters  were  shared  with  another  club, 
The  Jolly  Corks.  The  atmosphere  was  casual,  the  furnishings  meager. 
Members  who  complained  of  the  lack  of  tables  and  chairs  were  reminded 
that  "when  a  man  gets  tired  of  holding  his  drink  all  he  has  to  do  is  to 
swallow  it."  The  club's  monthly  "High  Jinks" — their  name  derived 
supposedly  from  Sir  Walter  Scott's  Guy  Mannering — were  debates 
followed  by  suppers.  The  more  or  less  serious  "High  Jinks"  (later 
burlesqued  by  "Low  Jinks")  were  sometimes  exciting  occasions.  The 
story  persists  that  one  speaker  opened  his  manuscript  to  show  a  wicked- 
looking  revolver,  which  he  placed  on  the  table  in  front  of  him,  saying: 
"This  is  to  shoot  the  first  Bohemian  galoot  who  stirs  from  his  seat 
before  I  end  this  paper."  In  1877  the  Bohemians  moved  into  quarters 
of  their  own  on  Pine  Street.  Among  the  honorary  members  elected  to 
the  club  have  been  Mark  Twain,  Bret  Harte,  and  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes. 

The  Bohemian  Club  now  has  a  world-wide  membership  of  about 
2,000  and  a  waiting  list  of  hundreds.  Once  a  year  they  come  together 
for  a  midsummer  frolic  in  the  club's  Bohemian  Grove,  where  an  origi- 
nal play  has  been  produced  since  1880,  when  the  first  Midsummer  Jinks 
— an  open-air  picnic  accompanied  by  speeches  and  celebrations — was 
held. 

29.  The  winged  "O"  of  the  OLYMPIC  CLUB    (private),  524 
Post  St.,  oldest  amateur  athletic  organization  in  the  United  States,  has 
been  worn  by  many  star  athletes,  including  "Gentleman  Jim"  Corbett, 
the  San  Francisco  bank  clerk  who  became  world's  heavyweight  cham- 
pion after  practice  as  the  club's  boxing  instructor,  and  Sid  Cavill,  one 
of  a  famous  family  of  Australian  swimmers,  who  introduced  the  Aus- 
tralian crawl  to  America  as  the  club's  swimming  instructor.     Nucleus 
of  the   Olympic  Club,   formed   May  6,    1860,   was  the   group  which 
Charles  and  Arthur  Nahl  invited  to  use  the  gymnastic  apparatus  they 
had  assembled  in  their  Taylor  Street  backyard.     The  organization  now 
has  5,000  members.     The  five-story  brick  clubhouse  is  equipped  with  a 
gymnasium,  a  solarium,  squash  and  handball  courts,  an  indoor  track, 
a  billiard  room,  a  marble  plunge  piped  with  ocean  water,  dining  halls,  a 
library,  and  a  lounge. 

30.  The     Corinthian  -  pillared     FIRST     CONGREGATIONAL 
METHODIST  TEMPLE,   SE.  corner  Mason  and   Post   Sts.,  was 
founded  in  1849  in  the  schoolhouse  on  the  Plaza,  led  by  a  missionary 


184      SAN     FRANCISCO 

from  Hawaii,  the  Reverend  T.  Dwight  Hunt.  Having  outgrown  the 
frame  structure  built  at  Jackson  and  Virginia  Streets  in  1850,  the  con- 
gregation spent  $57,000  raised  largely  by  pew  rentals  on  a  structure  at 
Dupont  (Grant  Avenue)  and  California  Streets.  In  1872  it  moved 
into  a  tall-spired  red  brick  Gothic  Church  on  the  present  site,  and  in 
1915  into  the  present  building;  here  it  was  joined  in  1937  by  the 
Temple  Methodist  Church,  which  gave  up  its  William  Taylor  Church. 

31.  The  eight-story  red  brick  and  buff  tile  NATIVE  SONS  OF 
THE  GOLDEN  WEST  BUILDING  (open  daily  7  a.m.- 12  p.m.}, 
414-30  Mason   St.,   houses  an  organization   founded  in    1875.     J.  J. 
Mora's  terra  cotta  bas-reliefs  between  the  upper  windows  depict  epochs 
in  pioneer  history.    Above  the  entrance  are  bas-relief  portraits  of  Juni- 
pero  Serra,  John  Charles  Fremont,  and  John  D.  Sloat.     Around  the 
balcony  of  the  auditorium,  which  seats  1,250,  are  intaglios  portraying 
California  writers. 

The  (fourth-floor)  FRENCH  LIBRARY  (open  1-6,  7-9;  fee,  50$ 
monthly),  conducted  by  L'Alliance  Franchise,  the  largest  French  library 
in  the  United  States,  contains  21,000  volumes.  It  was  founded  in  1874 
as  the  Bibliotheque  de  la  Ligue  National  Franchise,  under  the  patronage 
of  Raphael  Weill,  through  the  efforts  of  a  society  of  French  residents 
formed  after  1871  to  protest  appropriation  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  by 
Germany. 

32.  Against  the  dark  panelling  of  the  JOHN  HOWELL  BOOK 
SHOP  (open  9-5:30),  434  Post  St.,  gleam  the  rich  colors  of  the  rare 
old  volumes  which  line  the  walls.     The  collection  is  especially  rich  in 
early  Californiana  and  Elizabethan  literature.     Beyond  the  main  room, 
a  large  studio  displays  the  West's  largest  collection  of  rare  Bibles.     It 
includes  a  Venetian  Latin  Bible  printed  in  1478;  the  Bible  printed  by 
John  Pruss  at  Strassburg  in  1486,  one  of  four  in  America;  one  of  the 
nine  copies  of  the  first  issue  of  the  Martin  Luther  Bible,  printed  at 
Wittenberg  in  1540-41 ;  the  Great  "She"  Bible  of  1611 ;  and  the  family 
Bible  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  hand-ruled  in  red.    Also  displayed  is  the  first 
American  edition  of  the  Koran,  printed  in  1806.     On  the  wall  is  a  rare 
parchment  containing  24  panels  painted  by   a   Buddhist  priest   which 
depict  the  story  of  Buddhist  worship. 

33.  NEWBEGIN'S  BOOK  SHOP  (open  8:30-6),  358  Post  St., 
was  founded  in  1889  by  John  J.  Newbegin,  friend  of  Ambrose  Bierce, 
Ina  Coolbrith,  Jack  London,  and  George  Sterling.     Mr.  Newbegin  is 
an  authority  on  rare  books;  his  collection  of  material  dealing  with  ship- 
ping is  said  to  be  the  world's  largest. 

34.  The  vertical  lines  of  the  22-story  SIR   FRANCIS   DRAKE 
HOTEL,    450   Powell    St.,   culminate   in   a   six-story,    set-back   tower 
overlooking  city^and  Bay.     The  structure  (Weeks  and  Day,  architects) 
was  completed  in   1928.     Four  great  panels  by  local  muralist   S.  W. 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       185 

Bergman,  depicting  the  visit  of  Sir  Francis  Drake  to  the  Marin  shores, 
decorate  the  English  Renaissance  lobby.  Name  bands  play  nightly  in 
the  Persian  Room,  whose  low  illuminated  ceiling  plays  changing  lights 
on  the  Persian  murals  of  A.  B.  Heinsbergen. 

35.  Looming  in  monumental  grandeur  above  the  business  district, 
the  FOUR-FIFTY  SUTTER  BUILDING,  450  Sutter  St.,  rises— a 
massive  shaft  with  rounded  corners,  faced  in  fawn-colored  stone — 25 
stories  above  the  street.     A  striking  adaptation  of  Mayan  motifs  t'o  func- 
tional design,  the  structure  (Timothy  L.  Pflueger,  architect),  completed 
in  1930,  required  more  than  two  years  and  $4,000,000  to  build.     Its 
wide  entrance,  topped  by  a  four-story  grilled  window  in  a  tree-like 
Mayan  design,  is  in  nice  proportion  to  the  facade's  severe  lines.     Large 
windows,  flush  with  the  exterior,  flood  the  offices  with  light — especially 
the  corner  suites,  which  have  six  bay  windows.     The  building  provides 
its  tenants — doctors,  dentists,  pharmacists,  laboratory  technicians,   and 
others  of  allied  professions — with  a  solarium,  a  doctors'  lounge,  and  a 
i,ooo-car  garage. 

36.  December,  1914  saw  completion  of  the  $656,000  STOCKTON 
STREET  TUNNEL  (Michael  O'Shaughnessy,  engineer),  boring  911 
feet  through  Nob  Hill  from  Bush  almost  to  Sacramento  Street  to  con- 
nect downtown  San  Francisco  with  Chinatown  and  North  Beach.    The 
tunnel  is  36  feet  wide  and  19  feet  high;  sodium  vapor  lights  were  in- 
stalled in  1939. 

37-  NOTRE  DAME  DES  VICTOIRES  (Our  Lady  of  Vic- 
tories), 566  Bush  St.,  serves  San  Francisco's  French  colony.  The 
church,  completed  in  1913,  is  of  Byzantine  and  French  Renaissance 
architecture,  constructed  of  brick  with  groined  twin  towers  and  high 
arched  stained-glass  windows. 

38.  Since  23-year-old  Leander  S.  Sherman  in  1870  bought  the  shop 
where   he   had   been   employed   to    repair   music   boxes,    SHERMAN, 
CLAY  AND  COMPANY,  SW.  corner  Kearny  and  Sutter  Sts.,  has 
ministered  to  the  city's  musical  wants.     Since  the   1 870*5,  the  firm — 
known   as   Sherman,    Hyde,    and   Company   until    Major   C.    C.    Clay 
bought  out  F.  A.  Hyde's  original  interest — has  been  selling  music  lovers 
their  supplies  and  tickets  to  concerts  and  recitals. 

39.  let   on   parle  Francais    (French   spoken   here)    was  the   legend 
which    Messrs.    Davidson    and    Lane,    founders    of    THE    WHITE 
HOUSE    (open  9:45-5:25),  Grant  Ave.,  Sutter,  and  Post  Sts.,  hung 
in  the  window  of  their  small  shop  on  the  water  front  when  they  hired 
1 8-year-old  Raphael  Weill  as  a  clerk  in   1854.     When  Richard  Lane 
went  into  gold  mining  in  1858,  young  Weill  took  his  place  as  partner 
of  J.  W.  Davidson  and  Company.     As  San  Francisco  grew  rich,  the 
store  began  to  dazzle  shoppers  with  costly  and  daring  Paris  importations. 
When   Raphael   Weill   asked   one   of   the   newspapers    for   a    full-page 


1 86      SAN     FRANCISCO 

advertisement,  he  was  indignantly  refused.  "What  does  he  think  we're 
running,  a  signboard  or  a  newspaper?"  demanded  the  editor.  "He  gets 
two  columns,  no  more!"  But  Weill  got  his  full-page  advertisement, 
the  first  in  the  history  of  the  retail  business. 

When  the  store  moved  to  its  own  three-story  brick  building  at 
Kearny  and  Post  Streets,  Weill  persuaded  his  partner  to  name  it  after 
the  famous  Maison  Blanche  in  Paris.  By  1900,  when  The  White 
House  was  outfitting  the  women  of  the  city  in  high-button  shoes  and 
ostrich  boas  and  filling  homes  with  sofa  pillows  and  table  throws,  its 
fame  had  spread  up  and  down  the  Coast.  The  1906  fire  reduced  it  to 
a  heap  of  ashes.  Weill  promptly  wired  New  York  for  carloads  of 
merchandise,  which  he  distributed  to  5,000  women.  Having  vowed 
that  he  would  not  shave  until  the  store  reopened,  he  let  his  beard  grow 
for  three  months  while  quarters  on  Van  Ness  Avenue  were  prepared. 
When  the  present  five-story  structure,  faced  with  white  terra  cotta 
(Albert  Pissis,  architect)  opened  March  15,  1909,  jt  was  one  of  the 
first  to  reopen  in  the  old  shopping  section.  Weill  lived  to  see  the  store 
overflow  into  two  adjoining  buildings  before  his  death  in  1920  at  the 
age  of  84. 

Philanthropist,  epicure,  and  patron  of  the  arts,  Weill  left  his  impress 
on  the  organization.  Employees  celebrate  his  birthday  annually  and 
the  store  still  closes  on  the  birthday  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  whom  he 
greatly  admired.  In  the  street-floor  MEMORIAL  OFFICE  (open  business 
hours),  which  Weill  set  aside  as  a  place  to  greet  his  old  friends,  fresh 
flowers  are  still  placed  among  the  honors  heaped  on  Weill:  old  photo- 
graphs, citations,  and  plaques — a  little  museum  of  old  San  Francisco. 

40.  Around  the  show  windows  of  the  florists'  shop  of  PODESTA 
AND  BALDOCCHI  (open  weekdays  8-6,  Sun.  S-n  a.m.),  224  Grant 
Ave.,  passersby  cluster  to  admire  flaunting  sprays  of  rare  orchids,  ex- 
quisite   lilies,    or    rich-textured    camellias,    arranged    with    spectacular 
artistry  among  many  kinds  of  blossoms.     In  the  early  spring,  the  shop 
is  embowered  in  pink  and  white  flowering  branches  of  fruit  trees;  at 
other  seasons,  in  great  masses  of  trailing  greenery. 

41.  One  of  the  Nation's  oldest  jewelry  establishments,  SHREVE 
AND  COMPANY  (open  9-5),  NW.  corner  Grant  Ave.  and  Post  St., 
have  been  dealing  in  precious  stones  and  rare  objects  of  gold  and  silver 
since  1852.     It  is  the  only  large  downtown  store  still  operating  whose 
advertisement  appeared  in  the  San  Francisco  City  Directory  of  1856 — 
when  its  address  was  No.  139  Montgomery  St. 

42.  Book  and  art  lovers  frequent  PAUL  ELDER  AND  COM- 
PANY  (open  9-5:30),  239  Post  St.,  established  in  1898.     Elder  not 
only  sells  current  literature,   rare  editions,   and  used  books  in  a  shop 

whose  Gothic  decorative  motifs  were  suggested  by  Bernard  Maybeck — 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       187 

designer  of  the  Palace  of  Fine  Arts — but  also  presents  lectures,  dramatic 
readings,  and  book  and  art  exhibits  in  the  second-floor  galleries. 

43.  To  collectors  the  world  over,  the  name  of  S.  G.  GUMP  AND 
COMPANY    (open  9:45-5:25},  250  Post   St.,   means  jade,   but   the 
firm's  agents  have  scoured  the  world  for  more  than  jade.     Show  rooms 
are  styled  to  conform  with  the  rare  objects  they  contain.     Since  Solo- 
mon and  Gustave  Gump  founded  the  firm  in  1865,  it  has  grown  into 
an  institution  whose  buyers  gather  items  for  collectors  throughout  the 
Nation.     In  its  show  rooms  are  displayed  modern  china,  pottery,  glass, 
linens,  silverware,  and  jewelry;  silks,  brocades,   and  velvets;   Siamese 
and  Cambodian  sculpture;  porcelain  and  cloisonne,   rich-textured  tap- 
estries, bronze  temple  bells,  hardwood  screens  ornamented  with  jade, 
and  rugs  from  Chinese  palaces  acquired  after  the  overthrow  of   the 
Manchu  government.     In  the  Jade  Room  all  of  the  eight  colors  and 
45  shades  of  the  stone  are  represented,  including  the  rarest,  that  most 
nearly  resembling  emerald;  pink,  so  rare  that  only  small  pieces  have 
been  found;  and  spinach  green,  a  dark  tone  flecked  with  black,  used  for 
large  decorative  pieces.     The  collection  of  tomb  jade,  recovered  from 
mounds  in  which  mandarins  were  interred,  includes  pieces  2,000  years 
old.     The  Jade  Room  also  contains  figurines  carved  of  ivory,  crystal, 
rose  quartz,  white  and  pink  coral,  rhinoceros  horn,  and  semiprecious 
stones. 

44.  Fluctuat  nee  Mergitur  (It  floats  and  never  sinks),  Paris'  own 
municipal  motto,  has  been  the  slogan  of  the  CITY  OF  PARIS  (open 
9:45-5:25},  SE.  corner  Stockton  and  Geary  Sts.,  since  the  spring  of 
1850,  when  Felix  Verdier  hung  up — over  an  edifice  constructed  largely 
of  packing  cases  the  sign: 

"LA  VILLE  DE  PARIS 
Felix  Verdier,  Proprietor 
Fluctuat  nee  Mergitur" 

The  motto  was  appropriate,  for  the  contents  of  "La  Ville  de  Paris" 
had  been  afloat  ever  since  Verdier  had  left  France  in  a  ship  whose  cargo 
he  bought  with  profits  from  his  silk-stocking  factory  at  Nimes.  (A 
republican,  he  had  preferred  exile  to  the  new  emperor.)  Destroyed  sev- 
eral times  by  fire,  the  store  moved  each  time  to  larger  quarters.  When 
Felix  was  succeeded,  at  his  death  in  the  late  i86o's,  by  his  son  Gaston, 
it  was  moved  into  its  own  building  at  Geary  Street  and  Grant  Avenue. 
It  came  to  its  present  location  in  1896. 

Twenty-four-year-old  Paul  Verdier  had  scarcely  taken  over  in  1906 
when  the  building  was  destroyed.  First  store  in  town  to  reopen,  it 
resumed  business  in  a  mansion  on  Van  Ness  Avenue.  The  present  six- 
story  building — with  its  glass  dome  rising  above  balconies,  its  Louis 


l88      SAN     FRANCISCO 

XVI  window  frames  of  white  enamel  and  carved,  gilded  wood — was 
opened  in  the  spring  of  1909.  At  the  peak  of  the  dome  appear  the 
original  crest  of  Paris,  a  ship  in  full  sail,  and  the  motto.  Author  of 
A  History  of  Wine,  Paul  Verdier  personally  selects  the  more  than 
1,000  choice  vintages  which  stock  the  cellars. 

45.  When   the   NATHAN-DOHRMANN    COMPANY    (open 
9:45-5:2$),  SW.  corner  Stockton  and  Geary  Sts.,  opened  in  1850  (as 
Blumenthal  and  Hirsch),  it  sold  mining  equipment.     By  1886,  when 
Bernard  Nathan,  manager  since  the  founder's  death,  took  as  his  partner 
Frederick  W.  Dohrmann,  the  firm  was  stocking  oil  lamps,  basins,  ewers, 
and  shaving  mugs.    Still  managed  by  descendants  of  Nathan  and  Dohr- 
mann, it  now  sells  wares  and  utensils  of  all  descriptions. 

46.  In   a   studio  penthouse   the   COURVOISIER   GALLERIES 
(open  9-5:30),  133  Geary  St.,  present  shows  of  contemporary  American 
and  foreign  art.    Founded  as  an  art  shop  in  1902  by  Ephraim  B.  Cour- 
voisier,  the  business  was  burned  out  in  1906.     Courvoisier  recouped  his 
losses  by  restoring  the   fire-damaged  paintings   of  wealthy   collectors. 
The  friend  of  such  artists  as  Charles  Rollo  Peters,  Thomas  Hill,  and 
William  Keith,  he  developed  a  large  clientele  which  followed  him  even 
when  reverses  forced  him  for  a  while  to  a  Kearny  Street  alley.     The 
firm  was  taken  over  by  his  son  in  1927.     After  its  exhibition  in  1938 
of  the  original  water  colors  on  celluloid  for  Walt  Disney's  Snow  White 
and  the  Seven  Dwarfs,  it  acquired  the  exclusive  agency  for  sale  of  the 
originals  from  Disney's  future  productions. 

47.  Behind  a  shining  all-glass  three-story  facade,  the  ANGELO  J. 
ROSSI    COMPANY    (open   weekdays   8-6:30,  Sun.   8-12   a.m.),   45 
Grant  Ave.,  streamlined  florist's  establishment  owned  by  the  Mayor  of 
San  Francisco,  displays  masses  of  fragrant  bloom  against  mirrored  walls. 

48.  A  neo-Gothic  eight-story  building  houses  O'CONNOR,  MOF- 
FATT  AND  COMPANY  (open  9:45-5:25),  NW.  corner  O'Farrell 
and  Stockton  Sts.,  founded  in  1866  by  Bryan  O'Connor,  newly  arrived 
from  Australia.     O'Connor  was  so  impressed  with  the  city's  prosperity 
that  he  sent  to  Melbourne  for  his  friend,  George  Moffatt.     Since  the 
death  of  O'Connor  and  retirement  of  Moffatt  in  1887,  tne  business  has 
been  carried  on  by  descendants  of  the  first  employees.     The  original 
dry-goods  store  moved  in  1929  to  its  present  building  and  expanded, 
becoming  a  department  store. 

49.  Young  Adolphe  Roos,  who  founded  the  clothing  firm  of  ROOS 
BROTHERS    (open   9:45-5:25),   NE.  corner   Stockton   and   Market 
Sts.,  arrived  in  San  Francisco  from  France  in  time  for  the  stampede  to 
the  Virginia  City   (Nevada)    mines,  where  he  made  his  stake  by  out- 
fitting miners.     Returning  to  San  Francisco,  he  sent  for  his  younger 
brother,  Achille;  together  they  opened  the  first  Roos  Brothers  store  on 
Leidesdorff  Street  in  1865.     Since  1908  the  firm,  now  guided  by  the 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       1 89 

founder's  son,  Robert  Roos,  has  occupied  its  present  five-story  building. 
Remodeled  (1936-38)  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,000  (J.  S.  Fairweather, 
building  architect;  Albert  R.  Williams,  interior  architect),  it  was  trans- 
formed into  a  series  of  individually  designed  shops,  its  street  entrances 
equipped  with  doors  automatically  opened  by  electric  beams  and  its 
interiors  with  fluorescent  illumination  simulating  daylight.  The  vari- 
ous shops  are  panelled  with  rare  woods — hairwood  from  the  British 
Isles,  Yuba  wood  from  Australia,  Jenisero  from  Central  America;  in 
one  shop  is  a  mosaic  in  which  more  than  48  varieties  are  used. 

50.  Largest  daily  circulation  in  the  city  is  boasted  by  the  paper 
published  in  the  SAN  FRANCISCO  NEWS  BUILDING  (visitors 
shown  through  plant  by  appointment),  812  Mission  St.,  whose  twelve 
presses  grind  out  eight  regular  editions  daily.     The  first  edition  is  re- 
leased at  1 1  a.m.,  the  last  at  5  .-30  p.m.     The  paper  is  one  of  the  Scripps- 
Howard  chain. 

51.  The  i8-story  gray-green  HUMBOLDT  BANK  BUILDING, 
785  Market  St.,  capped  by  a  fantastically  adorned  dome,  was  built  in 
1907  (Meyer  and  O'Brien,  architects).     Under  construction  when  the 
earthquake  and  fire  destroyed  it,  it  was  completely  rebuilt — the  first 
architectural   contract  placed   after   the   disaster.      Bronze   doors   lead 
into  the  banking  room  of  the  Bank  of  America   (open  Mon.-Fri.  10- 
3:30,  Sat.    10-12),   ornate  with  white   Ionic  columns,   warm    Sienna 
marbles,  and  buff  mosaic  floor. 

52.  The    domed,    granite    AMERICAN    TRUST    COMPANY 
BUILDING    (Savings    Union    Office;    open    10-3   Mon.-Fri.,    10-12 
Sat.),  NW.  corner  Market  St.,  Grant  Ave.,  and  O'Farrell  St.,  was 
erected   in    1910.     The   pediment   above   the   Ionic-pillared   portico   is 
adorned  with  Haig  Patigian's  bas-reliefs  of  the  head  of  Liberty  between 
flying  eagles    (based  on  Augustus  St.   Gauden's  design  for  $20  gold 
pieces).     Corinthian  columns,  Travernelle  marble  pilasters,  and  Caen 
stone  walls  lend  richness  to  the  65-foot-high  banking  room.    The  Ameri- 
can Trust  Company  was  formed  through  successive  mergers  of  older 
institutions,  one  of  which,  the  Savings  Union  Bank  and  Trust  Com- 
pany, was  the  city's  oldest  surviving  savings  bank,  dating  back  to  foun- 
dation of  the  San  Francisco  Accumulating  Fund  Association  in  1854. 

53-  The  ageing  six-story  buff-brick  BANCROFT  BUILDING, 
731  Market  St.,  is  named  for  the  Bancroft  brothers — historian  Hubert 
Howe  and  publisher  Albert  L. — who  conducted  in  its  five-story  prede- 
cessor (second  brick  building  erected  on  Market  Street)  a  book-selling 
and  publishing  firm.  In  partnership  with  George  L.  Kenny,  Hubert 
Howe  Bancroft  previously  had  gone  into  the  book-selling  business  in 
quarters  on  Montgomery  Street.  Joining  the  firm,  his  brother  Albert 
planned  the  new  Market  Street  office  building,  opened  in  1870.  In 
1875  the  firm  announced:  "Bancroft's  Historical  Library  is  the  basis 


I9O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

of  important  scientific  and  descriptive  works  of  a  local  nature,  and 
maps  or  books  of  reference  relating  to  the  Pacific  Coast."  In  the  same 
year  appeared  the  first  of  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft's  histories,  Volume  I 
of  his  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Coast  of  North  America.  In  the 
fifth-floor  publishing  department,  Bancroft  went  ahead  with  his  pro- 
digious labors  of  compiling  in  detail  the  history  of  all  Western  America. 
One  of  the  pioneers  of  mass  production  methods  in  literature,  he  directed 
a  large  staff  of  anonymous  collaborators.  In  1884  he  published  the  first 
of  his  seven  volumes  on  the  history  of  California — carrying  a  list  of 
quoted  authorities  66  pages  long.  Before  his  death  in  1918,  he  had 
accumulated  a  library  of  500  or  more  rare  manuscripts  and  60,000 
volumes,  now  housed  in  the  Bancroft  Library  at  the  University  of 
California. 

54.  The  22-story  steel-and-concrete  CENTRAL  TOWER,   SW. 
corner    Market    and   Third    Sts.,    defies    detection    as    the    old    Claus 
Spreckels  Building.     It  was  remodeled  along  functional  lines  in  1938. 
The  simply  decorated  entrance  relieves  the  severity  of  the  unornamented 
vertical  shaft  with  its  six-story  tower.     In  the  lobby,   the  walls  are 
vitriolite  brick.     In  1895  Claus  Spreckels  bought  the  site  and  erected 
a  ig-story  building  in  which  the  Call  was  published  for  a  time.     Dur- 
ing the  Spanish-American  War,  a  cannon  thundered  news  of  American 
victories  from  the  roof.    Only  bright  spot  in  a  darkened  and  devastated 
area,  during  the  days  after  April  18,  1906,  was  the  light  kept  burning 
in  the  partly  destroyed  cupola.     In  its  report  the  Geological  Survey 
said  "the  general  behavior  of  this  structure  demonstrates  that  high  build- 
ings subject  to  earthquake  can  be  erected  with  safety  even  on  sand 
foundations." 

55.  The  12-story  HEARST  BUILDING   (visitors  conducted  on 
two-hour  tour  J-Q  p.m.),  SE.  corner  Market  and  Third  Sts.,  of  white 
terra  cotta  with  polychrome  ornamentation,  houses  the  San  Francisco 
Examiner,  first  paper  in  the  Hearst  chain.    The  first  of  its  five  regular 
daily  editions  appears  on  the  streets  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
On  this  site  was  the  Nucleus  Hotel,  first  brick  building  on  Market 
Street,  which  surprised  everyone — contrary  to  the  woeful  predictions 
of  skeptics — by  surviving  the  earthquake  of  1868  almost  unscathed. 

56.  Beloved   to   old-timers   is   LOTTA'S    FOUNTAIN,    corner 
Market,  Geary,  and  Kearny  Sts.,  the  cast-iron  shaft  presented  to  the  city 
in   1875  by  little  laughing,  black-eyed  Lotta  Crabtree,  who  won  the 
adoration  of  San  Francisco  in  the  era  of  gallantry  and  easy  money  that 
followed  the  age  of  gold.    The  24-foot  fountain  within  its  granite  base, 
conventional  lion  heads,  and  brass  medallions  depicting  California  scenes 
is  commonplace,  but  its  donor  was  one  of  the  sensational  personages  of 
the  last  century. 

In   1853  when   Lola  Montez  visited  Rabbit  Creek,  a  small  gold 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       19! 

camp  near  Grass  Valley,  she  taught  singing  and  dancing  to  the  eight- 
year-old  daughter  of  one  of  the  prospectors.  Not  long  afterward  her 
pupil  made  a  sensational  first  appearance  in  a  Sierra  mining  town:  gold 
as  well  as  applause  was  showered  upon  the  young  Lotta  by  generous 
Argonauts.  Her  subsequent  debut  in  San  Francisco  was  no  less  encour- 
aging. At  the  age  of  17  she  appeared  on  the  New  York  stage,  and  at 
44  she  retired.  Fortunate  real  estate  investments  augmented  her  for- 
tune, which  at  her  death  (1924)  exceeded  $4,000,000.  After  her 
retirement  her  fountain  was  neglected,  and  its  site,  a  busy  downtown 
intersection,  became  known  as  Newspaper  Square  from  the  large  number 
of  newsboys  who  congregated  there.  In  1910,  however,  another — and 
perhaps  a  greater — singer  brought  Lotta's  Fountain  once  more  into 
prominence.  At  midnight  on  Christmas  Eve,  hushed  thousands  massed 
as  Louisa  Tetrazzini  sang  "The  Last  Rose  of  Summer"  beside  the 
fountain.  In  remembrance  of  the  event,  a  bas-relief  portrait  of  the 
singer  by  Haig  Patigian  was  added  to  the  monument. 

57.  When  the  De  Young  brothers,  proprietors  of  the  San  Francisco 
Chronicle,   decided   in    1890   to   put   up   the   ten-story    red    brick   DE 
YOUNG  BUILDING,  NE.  corner  Market,  Geary,  and  Kearny  Sts., 
they  were  considered  optimistic.     On  a  site  then  rather  far  west  of  the 
business  district,   they  proposed  to  erect  a  steel-frame  structure — the 
first  in  San  Francisco.     Chicago  architects  Burnham  and  Root  designed 
an  edifice  whose  simple   lines   reveal   the   Romanesque   style   of   their 
teacher,    Henry   Hobson   Richardson.     Wiseacres  were  convinced   the 
structure  would  not  survive  an  earthquake — but  the  disaster  of   1906 
proved  them  to  be  wrong.    A  1 7-story  annex  just  completed  at  the  time 
was  repaired  and  the  interior  of  the  original  structure  rebuilt.     Here, 
until  1924,  was  the  home  of  the  Chronicle. 

58.  One  of  the   dozen  sidewalk  booths  shaded  by  gay  umbrellas 
which  enliven  the  streets  of  the  shopping  district  is  the  FLOWER 
STAND,  Market,  Geary,  and  Kearny  Sts.,  standing  on  the  location 
where  the  first  flower  vendors  stood  in  the  i88o's.    When  the  De  Young 
Building  was  erected,  Michael  de  Young  allowed  the  vendors — most 
of  whom  were  boys  of  Italian,  Belgian,  Irish,  or  Armenian  descent — 
to  sell  their  flowers  in  front  of  the  building,  protecting  them  from  the 
policemen.     The  curbside  stands  were  first  licensed  in   1904.     All  at- 
tempts to  suppress  them  have  been  halted  by  storms  of  protest  from 
press  and  public.    Their  wares  change  with  the  seasons — from  January, 
when   the   first   frilled   golden-yellow   daffodils   and   great   armfuls   of 
feathery  acacia  with  its  fluffy  tassels  make  their  appearance,  to  Decem- 
ber, when  hosts  of  flaming  crimson  poinsettias  and  great  bunches  of 
scarlet  toyon  berries  herald  the  advent  of  the  holidays. 

59.  The  original   PALACE   HOTEL,   Market  and   New  Mont- 
gomery Sts.,  was   (according  to  Oscar  Lewis  and  Carroll  Hall)    "at 


192      SAN     FRANCISCO 

least  four  times  too  large  for  its  period  and  place,  but  the  town  had 
never  had  a  sense  of  proportion  and  no  one  was  disturbed."  Least 
disturbed  was  its  builder,  William  C.  Ralston.  This  "world's  grandest 
hotel"  would  cover  two  and  one-half  acres ;  it  would  soar  to  the  impres- 
sive height  of  seven  stories  and  contain  800  rooms;  its  marble-paved, 
glass-roofed  Grand  Court  (about  which  the  rectangular  structure  was 
designed)  would  face  Montgomery  Street  through  an  arched  driveway; 
artesian  wells  drilled  on  the  spot  would  supply  its  storage  reservoirs 
with  760,000  gallons  of  water;  its  rooms  would  contain  "noiseless" 
water  closets  and  gadgets  designed  to  make  life  at  the  Palace  effortless 
and  luxurious. 

But  three  years'  advance  publicity  satiated  even  a  town  reared  on 
superlatives,  and  before  the  hotel  opened  San  Franciscans  had  chuckled 
at  the  announcement  of  local  columnist  "Derrick  Dodd" :  "The  statis- 
tician of  the  News  Letter  estimates  the  ground  covered  ...  to  be  eleven 
hundred  and  fifty-four  square  miles,  six  yards,  two  inches  ...  A  con- 
tract is  already  given  out  for  the  construction  of  a  flume  from  the 
Yosemite  to  conduct  the  Bridal  Veil  fall  thither,  and  which  it  is  de- 
signed to  have  pour  over  the  east  front.  .  .  .  The  beds  are  made  with 
Swiss  watch  springs  and  stuffed  with  camel's  hair,  each  single  hair 
costing  eleven  cents.  .  .  .  There  are  thirty-four  elevators  in  all — four 
for  passengers,  ten  for  baggage  and  twenty  for  mixed  drinks.  Each 
elevator  contains  a  piano  and  a  bowling  alley  .  .  ."  Of  the  dining  room 
the  News  Letter  predicted:  "All  the  entrees  will  be  sprinkled  with 
gold  dust  .  .  ." 

For  once,  San  Francisco  was  to  be  treated  to  reality  that  exceeded 
even  the  exaggerations  of  its  humorists.  Ralston,  desirous  of  develop- 
ing local  industries,  financed  many  factories  to  supply  the  hotel's  needs 
until  his  cautious  associate,  Senator  William  Sharon,  finally  asked:  "If 
you  are  going  a  buy  a  foundry  for  a  nail,  a  ranch  for  a  plank,  and  a 
manufactory  to  build  furniture,  where  is  this  going  to  end?"  Ralston 
continued  to  pour  millions  into  the  structure — and  died  before  its  com- 
pletion, owing  the  Bank  of  California  $4,000,000.  Sharon,  who  had 
wondered  "where  it  was  going  to  end,"  found  himself  in  possession  of 
the  hotel. 

Through  the  doors  of  the  Palace,  opened  in  October  1875,  passed 
"the  great,  the  near-great,  and  the  merely  flamboyant  .  .  .  bonanza 
kings  and  royalty  alike  .  .  .  Grant,  Sheridan,  and  Sherman  were  feasted 
in  the  banquet  halls;  and  the  Friday  night  Cotillion  Club  danced  .  .  . 
in  the  ballroom  .  .  ."  Here  the  graceful  manners  of  Oscar  Wilde 
charmed  a  local  "lady  reporter,"  and  James  J.  Jeffries  gave  a  champagne 
party  for  a  sweater-clad  coterie.  Here  royalty  was  impressed  (said 
Brazil's  emperor,  Dom  Pedro  II,  in  1876:  "Nothing  makes  me  ashamed 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       193 

of  Brazil  so  much  as  the  Palace  Hotel.")  and  royalty  died  (King  David 
Kalahaua  of  Hawaii,  January  20,  1891). 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Palace  played  host  to  the 
world.  As  its  marble  halls  became  less  fabulous  its  reputation  grew 
more  so.  Tales  related  of  its  "great  and  near-great"  were  echoed  in  a 
hundred  cities.  Climax  to  them  all  were  the  stories  told  of  the  early 
morning  of  April  18,  1906  when  the  hotel's  scores  of  guests  were  shaken 
violently  from  slumber  and  sent  wide-eyed  into  debris-strewn  streets. 
Among  the  most  alarmed  was  Enrico  Caruso;  the  great  tenor  joined 
fellow  members  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  carrying  a  portrait 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  wearing  a  towel  about  his  famous  throat. 
Although  it  suffered  only  minor  interior  damage  by  the  'quake,  the 
Palace  succumbed,  its  elaborate  fire-fighting  system  useless  against  the 
raging  inferno. 

Rebuilt  in  1909  on  the  same  site,  the  present  eight-story  tan-brick 
and  terra  cotta  structure  is  in  the  Beaux  Art  tradition.  There  are  low 
grills  at  the  windows  and  several  ornate  iron  balconies.  The  eighth 
floor  is  surmounted  by  an  elaborate  frieze.  Reminders  of  the  past  are 
a  porte  cochere  on  the  site  of  the  carriage  entrance  to  the  Grand  Court, 
facing  (across  the  lobby)  the  present  glass-roofed  Palm  Court;  the 
Comstock  Room,  a  duplicate  of  the  room  wherein  the  "Nevada  Four" 
opened  their  poker  sessions  with  a  "take-out"  of  $75,000  in  ivory  chips; 
the  Happy  Valley  cocktail  lounge  with  its  Sotomayor  murals  of  Lotta 
Crabtree  and  "Emperor"  Norton;  and  the  Pied  Piper  Buffet  (for  men) 
with  its  mahogany  fixtures  and  Maxfield  Parrish  painting  (modeled  by 
Maude  Adams).  No  less  illustrious  than  the  guests  of  the  old  Palace 
have  been  the  patrons  of  the  new.  In  1923  the  hotel  was  the  saddened 
host  to  Warren  G.  Harding,  who  died  in  the  presidential  suite. 

A  corridor  leads  from  the  Palace  lobby  to  the  studios  of  KSFO 
(entrance  at  140  Jessie  St.),  constructed  in  1938  at  a  cost  of  $400,000. 
The  interior  is  effectively  decorated  in  soft  blues  and  grays  highlighted 
by  chromium  trim.  A  circular  staircase  leads  to  the  second-floor  recep- 
tion lounge,  executive  offices,  master  control  room,  and  broadcasting 
studios.  The  third  floor  is  devoted  to  the  engineering,  script,  music, 
art  and  advertising  departments. 

To  prevent  vibration,  each  studio  is  suspended  on  springs,  with 
walls  and  ceilings  constructed  so  as  to  form  no  parallel  lines,  thus 
eliminating  echoes.  A  layer  of  spun  glass  fibre  underlying  perforated 
walls  soundproofs  each  studio. 

60.  San  Francisco's  oldest  surviving  newspaper,  the  Call-Bulletin, 
is  published  at  the  CALL  BUILDING  (visitors  shown  through  plant 
by  appointment),  74  New  Montgomery  St.,  its  presses  turning  out  four 
daily  editions  (the  first  appears  about  10.45  a.m.)  with  an  average  cir- 
culation of  110,000. 


1 94      SAN     FRANCISCO 

61.  The  gray  stone  walls,  sometimes  floodlighted  in  gleaming  yellow 
splendor  by  night,  of  the  monolithic  PACIFIC  TELEPHONE  AND 
TELEGRAPH  BUILDING,  140  New  Montgomery  St.,  enclose  the 
head  offices  of  a  telephone  network  embracing  all  the  far  West.   Largest 
building  on  the  Pacific  Coast  devoted  to  one  firm's  exclusive  use  at  the 
time  of  its  completion  in   1925,  it  was  built  at  a  cost  of  $3,000,000 
(J.  R.  Miller,  T.  L.  Pflueger,  and  A.  A.  Cantin,  architects).     From 
each  of  the  four  facades  of  its  four-story  tower,  two  huge  stone  eagles 
survey  the  city  from  their  26-story  perches.     The  terra  cotta  facade, 
with  its  lofty  piers  and  mullions  tapering  upward  in   Gothic   effect, 
cloaks  but  does  not  hide  the  structural  lines.     The  building's  210,000 
square  feet  of  floor  space  provide  working  room  for  2,000  employees. 

62.  A  monument  to  San  Francisco's  early-day  regard  for  learning 
is   the    nine-story   MECHANICS    INSTITUTE    BUILDING,    57 
Post  St.,  erected  in  1910  (Albert  Pissis,  architect),  which  houses  the 
Mechanics-Mercantile   Library    (open   weekdays  9  a.m.-io  p.m.,  Sun. 
1-5).     On  December  n,  1854,  a  group  of  citizens  met  in  the  tax  col- 
lector's office  to  found  a  Mechanics'  Institute  for  the  advancement  of 
the  mechanic  arts  and  sciences;  and  on  March  6,   1855,  they  adopted 
a  constitution  providing  for  "the  establishment  of  a  library,   reading 
room,  the  collection  of  a  cabinet,  scientific  apparatus,  works  of  art,  and 
for  other  literary  and  scientific  purposes."    With  four  books  presented 
by  one  S.  Bugbee — The  Bible,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
an  Encyclopaedia  of  Architecture,  and   Curtis  on   Conveyancing — the 
library  began  its  activities  in  June,  1855. 

Progress  of  the  association  began  with  the  inauguration  of  annual 
Mechanics'  and  Manufacturers'  Fairs,  September  7,  1857,  m  a  pavilion 
on  Montgomery  Street  between  Post  and  Sutter  Streets.  As  the  fairs 
became  civic  events  of  prime  importance,  one  sprawling  wooden  pavilion 
after  another  was  built  to  house  them — six  in  all,  of  which  the  third 
and  fourth  occupied  Union  Square;  the  fifth,  Eighth  Street  between 
Mission  and  Market  Streets;  and  the  sixth,  the  site  of  the  Civic  Audi- 
torium. The  last  of  the  fairs  was  held  in  1899. 

In  1866  the  Institute  built  its  first  structure  on  the  present  site. 
By  1872  it  had  collected  a  library  of  17,239  volumes.  In  January, 
1906  it  merged  with  the  Mercantile  Library  Association,  organized  in 
1852  by  a  group  of  merchants.  The  merger  of  the  two  associations, 
whose  combined  library  numbered  200,000  volumes,  had  scarcely  been 
affected,  however,  when  the  fire  of  1906  destroyed  books,  equipment, 
and  building.  Hard  hit,  the  Institute  nevertheless  had  acquired  a  new 
library  of  40,000  volumes  by  1912,  when  it  realized  from  the  sale  of 
its  pavilion  lot  to  the  city  the  sum  of  $700,000.  Its  present  (1940) 
collection  of  195,000  volumes  is  especially  notable  in  the  fields  of  science 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       IQ5 

and  technology.     The  Mechanics'  Institute  also  provides  for  its  mem- 
bers a  chess  and  checker  room  and  a  lecture  series. 

63.  The    is-story    CROCKER    FIRST    NATIONAL    BANK, 
NW.  corner  Post  and  Montgomery  Sts.,  stands  on  the  site  of  the  old 
Masonic  Temple.     Oldest  national  bank  in  California,  it  is  a  merger 
of  the  First  National  Bank,  opened  in  1871  with  James  D.  Phelan  as 
president,  and  the  Crocker  National  Bank,  organized  in  1883  by  Charles 
Crocker  (one  of  the  "Big  Four").     The  two  banks  were  consolidated 
in  1926.     Of  Italian  Renaissance  style,  its  entrance  is  distinguished  by 
a  rotunda  supported  on  granite  pillars    (Willis  Polk  and   Company, 
architects). 

64.  Prosaic  monument  to  a  story-book  past  is  the  12-story  granite 
NEVADA  BANK  BUILDING,  NE.  corner  Montgomery  and  Mar- 
ket Sts.,  housing  the  Wells  Fargo  Bank  and  Union  Trust  Company. 
A  lively  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  West  is  the  story  of  its  parent 
institution,  Wells  Fargo  and  Company.    A  year  before  its  incorporation 
in  New  York  the  express  firm  was  buying  and  selling  "dust,"  receiving 
deposits,  and  selling  exchange.     One  of  the  few  institutions  to  survive 
the  "Black  Friday"  of  February  1855,  it  operated  its  banking  business 
until  1878  in  conjunction  with  its  express  activities.    In  1905  the  Wells 
Fargo  Bank  was  consolidated  with  the  Nevada  Bank  and  in  1924,  with 
the  Union  Trust  Company.     The  present  building,  built  in  1894,  was 
raised  to  a  height  of  ten  stories  in   1903  and  to  twelve  in   1907-08. 
The  History  Room  on  the  tenth  floor  houses  a  historical  library  and  a 
museum  of  pioneer  relics  including  a  stagecoach,  veteran  of  the  Over- 
land Trail;  the  golden  spike  which  Leland  Stanford  drove  at  Promon- 
tory, Utah,  in  1869;  and  a  gold  scale  that  weighed  $55,000,000  worth 
of  the  gold  dust  mined  in  the  Mother  Lode. 

65.  The    neo-Gothic,    gable-roofed    ONE    ELEVEN    SUTTER 
BUILDING,  SW.  corner  Montgomery  and  Sutter  Sts.,  since  1927  has 
reared  its  buff-colored  terra  cotta  facades  22  stories  above  a  site  which 
was  worth  $300  when  James  Lick  bought  it  and  $175,000  when  he 
died.    The  marble-inlaid  lobby  and  corridors  of  the  interior  (Schultze 
and  Weaver,  architects) — the  pillars  adorned  with   green  and  white 
Verde  Antique  from  Greece,  the  lobby  floor  with  Hungarian  red,  the 
corridor   floors   with    Italian   Botticino,   Tennessee    pink,    and    Belgian 
black  marbles — rival  the  luxurious  interior  of  the  Lick  House,  which 
Lick  built  here  in  1862.     The  latter  hostelry  boasted  $1,000  gas  chan- 
deliers,   mirrored   walls,    and    mosaic   floors   of    rare    imported   woods. 
Trained  as  a  cabinet-maker,  the  eccentric  millionaire  finished  with  his 
own  hands  the  woodwork  of  the  luxurious  banquet  hall. 

The  building  houses  offices  and  studios  of  the  National  Broadcasting 
Company's  stations  KGO  and  KPO  (open  8:30  a.m.-n  p.m.).  On  the 
second  and  third  floors  are  the  reception  lobby,  executive  and  business 


196      SAN     FRANCISCO 

offices,  and  production  departments.  The  broadcasting  studios,  each 
with  its  own  control  room  and  monitor's  booth,  occupy  the  2ist  and 
22nd  stones.  Sharing  these  top  floors  respectively  are  the  music  library, 
largest  of  its  kind  west  of  New  York,  and  the  master  control  room, 
distributor  for  incoming  broadcasts. 

66.  Because   of   well-balanced   construction,    the    1 6-story   ALEX- 
ANDER BUILDING,   SW.  corner  Montgomery  and  Bush   Sts.,   a 
simple  shaft  faced  in  buff-colored  brick  and  terra  cotta  whose  vertical 
lines  give  it  a  towering  grace,  is  considered  ideal  for  studies  of  earth- 
quake stresses  on  skyscrapers.      Seismographs  installed   at   top,   center, 
and  bottom  of  the  structure  by  the  U.  S.  Geodetic  Survey  furnish  re- 
search data  for  the  University  of  California  and  Stanford  University. 
The  building  was  erected  in  1921   (Lewis  Hobart,  architect). 

67.  "The  Monument  to   1929" — thus  have  financial  circles,  since 
the  stock  market  crash,  referred  to  the  three-story  granite  SAN  FRAN- 
CISCO CURB  EXCHANGE  BUILDING,  350  Bush  St.   (J.  R. 
Miller  and  T.  L.  Pflueger,  architects).     Scene  of  the  frenzied  specula- 
tion of  the  1920*8,  it  housed  the  San  Francisco  Mining  Exchange  until 
1928,  when  it  was  taken  over  by  the  newly  organized  San  Francisco 
Curb  Exchange.     Remodeled  in  1938,  when  the  Curb  Exchange  was 
absorbed  by  the  San  Francisco  Stock  Exchange,  it  now  houses  the  Cali- 
fornia State  Chamber  of  Commerce. 

68.  "An  example  to  all  Western  architects  of  a  model  office  build- 
ing," wrote  Ernest  Peixotto  in  1893  of  the  MILLS  BUILDING,  220 
Montgomery  Street,   built  in    1891    for  banker   Darius   Ogden   Mills 
(Burnham  and  Root,  architects).     "It  is  an  architectural  composition, 
and  not  mere  walls  pierced  by  window  openings  ...  It  consists  of  a 
two-story  basement  of  Inyo  marble,  carrying  a  buff  brick  super-structure 
of  seven  stories,  crowned  by  a  two-story  attic.     The  angle  piers  .  .  . 
are  massive  and  sufficient;  between  them  piers  spring  from  the  third 
story,  crowned  in  the  eighth  by  arches  .  .   .  The  effect  of  height  is 
strengthened  by  the  strongly  marked  lines  of  the  piers  .  .  .  The  focus 
for  ornament  is  the   Montgomery  Street  entrance,  which   rises  to   an 
arch  ...  as  large  and  ample  as  it  should  be  .  .  ."     So  sound  was  the 
building's  construction  that  it  survived  the  fire  of  1906  with  little  dam- 
age to  its  exterior.    Adhering  to  the  original  design,  Willis  Polk  super- 
vised its  restoration  in  1908  and  the  erection  of  additions  in  1914  and 
1918.     When  the  adjoining  22-story  MILLS  TOWER   (entrance  at 
220  Bush  St.) — to  which  all  but  the  second  of  the  older  building's  ten 
floors  have  direct  access — was  erected  in  1931,  architect  Lewis  Hobart 
also  followed  Burnham's  design.     The  same  buff-colored  pressed  brick 
especially  manufactured  for  the  original  building  was  used  on  its  facade. 
The  combined  buildings  contain  1,300  offices  and  350,000  feet  of  floor 
space. 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       197 

On  the  site  of  the  Mills  Building  in  the  i86o's  stood  Platt's  Hall, 
a  great  square  auditorium  where  people  flocked  for  lectures,  concerts, 
and  political  conventions.  On  its  stage,  Thomas  Starr  King  lifted 
Bret  Harte  from  obscurity  by  reading  his  poem,  "The  Reveille." 
Among  the  attractions  which  drew  crowds  were  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
and  General  Tom  Thumb  and  his  wife. 

69.  Largest   office   building  on   the    Pacific   Coast,   the   block-long 
RUSS  BUILDING,  235  Montgomery  St.,  stands  on  the  ground  where 
Christian  Russ,  in  1847,  established  a  residence  for  his  family  of  twelve. 
Here  in   1861   the  owner  of  Russ'  Gardens  built  the  Russ  House,  a 
hotel  long  favored  by  farmers,  miners  and  merchants.     Still  owned  by 
his  heirs,  its  site,  nine  decades  after  Russ  acquired  it  at  auction  for 
$37-5°>  was  assessed  at  $675,000.     Construction  of  today's  $5,500,000 
skyscraper,  begun  in  July,   1926,  was  completed  in  September,    1927. 
Modernized  Gothic,  the  massive,  sandy-hued  edifice  rises  31  stories,  its 
three  wings  deployed  in  the  shape  of  an  "E"    (George  W.  Kelham, 
architect).     Its   1,370  offices,  comprising  335,245  square  feet  of  floor 
space,  house  3,500  persons.     With  its  4OO-car  garage  and  its  eleventh- 
story  complete  shopping  department,  the  building  provides  its  personnel 
with  every  service  from  a  Public  Library  branch  to  a  language  transla- 
tion bureau. 

70.  The   15-story  FINANCIAL  CENTER  BUILDING,   NW. 
corner  Montgomery  and  California  Sts.,  marks  the  SITE  OF  THE 
PARROTT   BUILDING.     The   latter,   San   Francisco's  first  stone 
structure,  was  built  in  1852  by  Chinese  masons  of  granite  blocks  quar- 
ried in  China.    When  the  Chinese  struck  for  higher  pay  they  won  their 
demands  because  no  other  available  workers  could  read  the  markings 
on  the  blocks.     The  old  building  survived  earthquake  and  fire  but  was 
torn  down  in  1926  when  the  present  skyscraper  was  built. 

71.  Ten  lofty  granite  Tuscan  columns  flanked  by  massive  pylons 
dominate  the  temple-like  Pine  Street  facade  of  the  SAN  FRANCISCO 
STOCK  EXCHANGE  BUILDING   (open  Mon.-Fri.  7-2:30,  Sat. 
7-77),  SW.  corner  Pine  and  Sansome  Sts.   (public  entrance  155  San- 
some  St.).    The  pylons,  carved  by  Ralph  Stackpole,  symbolizing  Mother 
Earth's  fruitfulness  and  Man's  inventive  genius,  stand  on  either  side 
of  the  steps.     Above  the  Pine  Street  wing,  which  houses  the  Trading 
Room    (members  only),   rises  the   12-story  gray  granite  tower  of  the 
administration   wing.      Above   its    doorway,    carved    in    high    relief,    is 
Stackpole's  The  Progress  of  Man,  and  on  the  lintel,  a  sculptured  eagle 
with  outstretched  wings.    The  walls  of  the  public  lobby  are  inlaid  with 
dusky  red  Levanto  marble  and  the  ceiling  with  gold  leaf  in  a  geometric 
star  design.     A  marble  stairway  ascends  to  the  visitors'  gallery  over- 
looking the  Trading  Room. 

Above  the  high  windows  of  east  and  west  walls  of  the  Trading 


198      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Room  are  Robert  Boardman  Howard's  two  groups  of  three  sculptured 
panels — one  portraying  development  of  electric  power ;  the  other,  devel- 
opment of  gas  power.  Along  north  and  south  walls  extend  the  quota- 
tion boards,  their  markers'  galleries  equipped  with  ticker  receiving 
instruments  and  headset  telephones.  Beneath,  an  annunciator  signal 
system  summons  members  to  their  booths  along  the  sides  of  the  room. 
At  the  center  of  the  brown  rubber-tiled  trading  floor  is  stationed  the 
telegraph  ticker  transmitting  station,  which  sends  reports  of  every  trans- 
action to  brokers'  offices  along  the  Pacific  Coast.  Around  it  are  sta- 
tioned four  oak-panelled  hollow  enclosures  for  nine  trading  posts,  each 
equipped  with  electrically  synchronized  stamping  devices  that  indicate 
the  time  of  every  order  to  a  tenth  of  a  minute.  Essential  to  the  rapid 
handling  of  orders  is  the  telephone  exchange,  busiest  in  San  Francisco, 
which  handles  an  estimated  total  of  5,000  calls  per  hour  of  trading. 
It  can  handle  1,800  calls  at  one  time,  with  a  peak  capacity  of  180,000 
words  per  minute. 

The  ninth  floor  of  the  administration  wing  houses  headquarters  of 
the  Governing  Board  and  exchange  officials.  The  solid  oak  door  to  the 
walnut-panelled  Governing  Board  room  is  carved  with  a  bas-relief  by 
Robert  Boardman  Howard  depicting  the  steps  in  construction  of  a 
building.  The  Lunch  Club  quarters  (not  open  to  the  public)  on  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  floors  are  decorated  with  frescoes  by  Diego  Rivera 
depicting  California  history. 

In  the  basement  of  a  building  a  block  northward,  the  Stock  and 
Bond  Exchange  was  organized  September  18,  1882,  by  19  pioneer 
brokers.  It  succeeded  several  earlier  exchanges,  of  which  the  first,  the 
San  Francisco  Stock  and  Exchange  Board  (contemporaneously  referred 
to  as  "The  Forty  Thieves"),  had  been  established  in  1862.  Since 
1882  the  present  exchange  has  stopped  functioning  as  the  pulse  of  busi- 
ness life  on  the  Pacific  Coast  on  only  three  occasions:  April  18,  1906, 
because  of  the  earthquake  and  fire;  July  31,  1914,  because  of  the  World 
War;  and  March  2-14,  1933,  because  of  the  National  bank  holiday. 
Its  memberships,  which  sold  for  $50  in  1882  and  rose  to  an  all-time 
high  of  $225,000  in  1928,  today  sell  for  varying  sums,  the  most  recent 
sale  price  having  been  $16,500. 

72.  The  BANK  OF  CALIFORNIA  (open  Mon.-Fri.  10-3,  Sat. 
10-12),  NW.  corner  Sansome  and  California  Sts.,  was  erected  in  1908 
(Bliss  and  Faville,  architects).  The  gray  granite  building  has  tall  and 
finely  proportioned  Corinthian  colonnades.  The  immense  banking  room, 
112  feet  long  and  54  feet  high,  faced  in  Tennessee  marble,  resembles 
a  Roman  basilica.  In  the  rear  on  either  side  of  a  large  clock  are  carved 
marble  lions  (Arthur  Putnam,  sculptor).  Less  subdued  in  its  magnifi- 
cence was  the  .palatial  edifice  erected  on  this  site  to  house  the  bank  in 
1867,  three  years  after  its  establishment  with  Darius  Ogden  Mills  as 


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PORTSMOUTH  PLAZA 


MONTGOMERY  BLOCK 


TO  RE/K 
ROBERT 


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MONUMENT  TO  ROBERT  LOUTS  STEVENSON,  IN  PORTSMOUTH  PLAZA 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE       199 

president  and  William  C.  Ralston  as  cashier.  To  clear  the  site  they 
moved  the  Tehama  House — which  humorist  "John  Phoenix"  celebrated 
in  A  Legend  of  the  Tehama  House — a  popular  hostelry  among  Mexican 
rancheros  and  military  and  naval  officers.  Ralston  built  a  handsome 
two-story  structure  with  tall  arched  windows  surmounted  by  medallions 
and  framed  in  marble  columns,  a  cornice  crowned  with  a  stone  balus- 
trade supporting  fretted  vases,  doors  and  balcony  railings  of  bronze, 
and  a  burnished  copper  roof.  For  a  decade  the  bank  was  the  financial 
colossus  of  all  the  territory  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  reached 
into  Nevada,  during  the  Comstock  Lode  boom,  to  establish  four  branch 
banks.  When  the  collapse  of  the  silver  boom  brought  it  crashing  from 
financial  dominance  in  1875,  the  whole  State  was  shaken.  But  the 
reorganized  bank  survived  and  grew,  taking  over  in  1905  the  London 
and  San  Francisco  Bank,  Ltd.,  with  branches  in  Oregon  and  Wash- 
ington. 

A  glass  case  in  the  main  office  contains  the  scales  on  which  Darius 
Ogden  Mills  weighed  some  $50,000,000  of  miners'  gold  in  the  tent 
which  he  set  up  at  Columbia  in  1849,  before  coming  to  San  Francisco 
to  become  president  of  Ralston's  bank. 

73.  Venerable  home  of  a  parent  organization  of  the  San  Francisco 
Chamber  of  Commerce  was  the  1 4-story  MERCHANTS'  EX- 
CHANGE BUILDING,  NE.  corner  California  and  Sansome  Sts. 
Here  until  1911  the  city's  moguls  of  industry  and  agriculture  congre- 
gated to  regulate  and  put  through  huge  deals  in  hay,  grain,  and  ship- 
ping. In  bonanza  days  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  used  to  haunt  the 
Exchange's  central  board  room,  where  he  found  material — in  such  men 
as  John  D.  Spreckels — for  heroes  of  The  Wreckers. 

Since  1851  the  main-floor  MARINE  EXCHANGE  (always  open)  has 
operated  continuously  except  during  1906  and  though  much  of  its 
romantic  element  was  lost  with  the  passing  of  sailing  ships,  its  function 
remains  virtually  the  same.  Outgrowth  of  the  old  Merchants'  Ex- 
change and  Reading  Room  established  in  1849  by  Messrs.  Sweeny  and 
Baugh,  who  operated  the  signal  station  on  Telegraph  Hill,  the  Exchange 
is  connected  with  lookout  stations  which  report  every  movement  of 
local  shipping.  It  receives  and  compiles  complete  information  from 
every  Pacific  Coast  vessel  from  start  to  finish  of  every  voyage.  Files 
on  the  Exchange's  mezzanine  floor  record  launchings,  cargoes,  crews, 
disasters,  sales,  weather  reports — all  marine  information  required  by 
shippers,  ship  owners,  ship  chandlers,  warehousemen,  exporters,  and 
importers.  Before  the  advent  of  the  telephone  a  messenger  boy  on  horse- 
back rushed  news  of  incoming  ships  from  the  Exchange  to  the  city's 
major  hotels. 

At  one  end  of  the  Exchange,  beneath  an  arch  set  at  right  angles 
to  the  south  wall,  hangs  the  original  Vigilance  Committee  bell  which 


2OO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

hung  on  top  of  Fort  Gunnybags  in  1856.  The  bell,  which  once  tolled 
the  death  knell  of  Cora  and  Gasey,  now  clangs  to  announce  to  the 
Exchange  some  mishap  to  a  ship  whose  home  port  is  San  Francisco. 

Though  grain,  shipping,  insurance,  and  similar  firms  still  occupy 
this  building,  which  survived  the  fire  of  1906,  its  chief  interest  lies  in 
such  features  as  evoke  its  past.  Something  of  its  lusty  social  tradition 
survives  in  the  Commercial  Club  occupying  three  top  stories  and  in 
the  Merchants'  Exchange  Club  in  the  basement.  Reminiscent  of  other 
days  are  Nils  Hagerup's  paintings  on  walls  of  the  main  lobby  depicting 
Amundsen's  explorations  in  the  Gjoa  and  W.  A.  Coulter's  ships  in  port 
and  at  sea.  The  latter's  huge  painting  of  the  San  Francisco  fire  hangs, 
draped  with  red  velvet,  in  the  billiard  room  of  the  Merchants'  Ex- 
change Club. 

74.  From  ground  above  the  hulls  of  long-buried  sailing  ships,  the 
FEDERAL    RESERVE    BANK    (open    Mon.-Fri.    8:30-4:30,    Sat. 
8:30-1},  NE.  corner  Sansome  and  Sacramento  Sts.,  rears  its  eight  white 
granite  Ionic  columns,  rising  up  three  of  its  seven  stories  to  a  classic 
pediment   (George  W.  Kelham,  architect).     When  steam  shovels  ex- 
cavated the  basement  vaults  in   1922,  they  exposed  the  oaken  skeleton 
of  the  city's  first  prison,  the  brig  Euphemia,  moored  at  Long  Wharf  in 
the    1 850'$.     The   Sansome    Street   entrance   leads   into   a   Travertine 
marble  lobby  with  murals  by  Jules  Guerin.     From  the  Battery  Street 
side,  ramps  descend  to  the  vaults,  where  trucks  discharge  treasure  for 
deposit  behind  36-ton  doors,  under  the  hawk-eyed  gaze  of  guards. 

75.  By  day,  bathed  in  sunlight,  the  3O-story  SHELL  BUILDING, 
NW.  corner  Battery  and  Bush  Sts.,  San  Francisco  headquarters  of  the 
Shell  Oil  Company  empire,  is  a  buff,  tapering  shaft;  by  night,  flood- 
light-swept, a  tower  looming  in  amber  radiance.     Its  Bush  Street  en- 
trance is  enriched  with  a  filigree  design  in  marble  and  bronze.     Erected 
in  1929  (George  W.  Kelham,  architect),  it  broke  Pacific  Coast  records 
for  rapid  construction,  rising  three  stories  each  week. 

76.  With   heroic   vigor,    the   bronze   figures   of   the    DONAHUE 
MONUMENT,  Battery,  Bush,  and   Market  Sts.    (Douglas  Tilden, 
sculptor) — five  brawny,   half-naked  workmen,   struggling  to   force   by 
lever  a   mechanical   punch   through  plate  metal — are   poised   on   their 
granite  base,  in  a  triangular  pedestrian  island.     Executed  in  1899,  the 
monument  is  James  Mervyn  Donahue's  memorial  to  his  father,  Peter 
Donahue,   founder  of   San   Francisco's  first  iron   foundry,   first   street 
railway,  and  first  gas  company.     A  bronze  plaque  etched  with  a  map 
in  the  pavement  at  its  base  marks  the  shoreline  as  it  was  before  Yerba 
Buena  Cove  was  filled  in,  when  Market  Street  from  this  point  north- 
east was  a  i,ooo-foot  wharf. 

77.  On  what  was  the  shifting  sand  of  a  Yerba  Buena  beach  lot 
towers  the  22-story,  gray  granite  STANDARD  OIL  BUILDING, 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE      2OI 

SW.  corner  Sansome  and  Bush  Sts.,  erected  in  1921  (George  W.  Kel- 
ham,  architect).  Its  cornice-overhung  facade,  the  upper  stories  adorned 
with  Doric  columns,  is  a  modern  adaptation  of  the  Florentine  style. 
The  two-story  vaulted  entrance  leads  into  an  ornate  lobby  of  bronze 
and  marble. 

78.  To  trace  the  origins  of  the  ANGLO   CALIFORNIA  NA- 
TIONAL BANK  (open  Mon.-Fri.  10-3,  Sat.  10-12),  i  Sansome  St., 
is   to   follow  the   ramifications   of   international   finance.      One   of   its 
parent  institutions,  the  Anglo  Californian  Bank,  Limited,  organized  in 
London  in  1873,  took  over  the  San  Francisco  branch  of  J.  and  W.  Selig- 
man  and  Company  of  New  York,  London,  Paris,  and  Frankfurt.   Three 
years  later  Lazard  Freres,  silk  importers  and  exchange  dealers  of  New 
York,  London,  and  Paris,  opened  a  San  Francisco  branch,  out  of  which 
grew,  in   1884,  the  London,   Paris,   and  American   Bank,   Limited,  of 
Great  Britain.     The  two  were  consolidated  in  1909  under  the  latter 
name  and  a  new  bank,  the  Anglo-Californian  Trust  Company,  emerged 
to  handle  the  older  bank's  savings  business.    The  Fleishhacker  brothers, 
Herbert  and  Mortimer,  gained  financial  prominence  as  presidents  of 
the  two  institutions.     By  1920  the  Anglo-Californian  Trust  Company 
had  absorbed  four  San  Francisco  banks,  and  by   1928  it  had  opened 
eight  local  branches.     From  the  merger  of  the  two  Fleishhacker  banks 
in    1932  came  today's  Anglo   California   National   Bank,   which   soon 
reached  into  the  rest  of  the  State.     By   1939 — when  the  number  of 
banks  absorbed  by  it  and  its  parent  institutions  had  grown  to  15 — it  was 
operating  branches  from  Redding  in  the  north  to  Bakersfield  in  the 
south. 

79.  Of  the  thousands  of  commuters  who  once  poured  daily  through 
the  Ferry  Building,  for  six  decades  San  Francisco's  chief  gateway  from 
the  east,  most  now  enter  the  city  through  the  BRIDGE  TERMINAL 
BUILDING,   Mission,  First,  and  Fremont  Sts.     The  low-spreading 
three-story  steel-and-concrete  structure,  completed  in  1939  at  a  cost  of 
$2,300,000,  is  the  terminal  for  electric  interurban  trains  carrying  pas- 
sengers over  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  to  the  East  Bay. 
Through   the   terminal   pass   an   estimated   number   of   60,000   persons 
daily,  21,000,000  annually.     During  the  rush  hour,  between  4:45  and 
5  :45  p.m.,  when  37  trains  arrive  and  depart,  the  building  resounds  with 
the  din  of  shouting  newsboys,  taxi  barkers,  and  streetcars  clanging  up 
the  wide  ramp  from  First  and  Mission  Streets  to  discharge  passengers  at 
the  entrance.     Ramps  and  stairways  ascend  to  the  loading  platforms 
which  separate  the  three  pairs  of  tracks.    To  diminish  noise,  the  rails  are 
laid  on  timber  ties  embedded  in  concrete  which   rests  on  a   two-inch 
insulated  cushion.     A  viaduct  carries  the  trains  high  above  streets  and 
buildings  onto  the  lower  bridge  deck.    Their  speed  is  governed  by  a  code 
picked  from  the  tracks  by  a  receiver  attached  near  the  front  axles  and 


2O2      SAN     FRANCISCO 

transmitted  to  an  indicator  in  the  motorman's  cab.  If  the  motorman 
fails  to  slow  down  within  two  and  one-half  seconds  after  a  warning 
bell  indicates  a  slower  speed,  the  train  automatically  stops. 

80.  Exponent  of  fine  printing  is  the  firm  of  TAYLOR  AND  TAY- 
LOR, 404  Mission  St.,  established  in  1896  by  Edward  DeWitt  Taylor, 
who,  since  the  death  of  his  brother  and  co-partner  (Henry  H.  Taylor) 
in  1937,  remains  sole  owner.     Types,  Borders  &  Miscellany  of  Taylor 
&f  Taylor,  included  in  the  American  Institute  of  Graphic  Arts'  "Fifty 
Books  of  the  Year"  for  1940,  has  been  described  by  Oscar  Lewis  as 
having  a  "classical  simplicity  of  typographical  design."     Besides  limited 
editions  of  Californiana,  catalogs  for  art  exhibits,  and  items  for  various 
cultural  institutions,  Taylor  and  Taylor  are  printers  of  much  distinctive 
commercial  advertising.    Edward  Taylor  gained  local  fame  for  his  work 
in  the  installation  of  the  Denham  cost-finding  system  among  the  print- 
ing trades  of  the  Bay  region. 

In  the  firm's  composing  room  stands  an  ornamental  Columbian  hand 
press  (1818),  a  reminder  of  Taylor's  first  printing  venture  in  1882:  The 
Observer — a  journal  "devoted  to  general  literature  and  the  interests  ot 
the  Western  Addition." 

The  firm's  typographical  library  contains  two  centuries  of  European 
type  specimens  and  examples  of  fine  printing  from  the  fifteenth  century 
to  the  present.  Included  are  such  rare  editions  as  the  Kelmscott  Chaucer 
from  the  press  of  William  Morris  and  one  of  the  world's  most  compre- 
hensive collections  of  the  works  of  Homer. 

81.  On  wooden  piles  driven  into  the  mud  of  what  was  Yerba  Buena 
Cove  rest  the  17  steel-and-concrete  stories  of  the  PACIFIC  GAS  AND 
ELECTRIC  BUILDING,  245  Market  St.,  headquarters  of  the  Na- 
tion's third  largest  utilities  system,  which  originated  with  Peter  Dona- 
hue's gas  company  (1852)  and  the  California  Electric  Light  Company 
(1879),  both  Pacific  Coast  pioneers.     Designed  by  John  M.  Bakewell, 
the  building  was  opened  in  March,  1925.     Over  the  three-story  arched 
entrance   is   Edgar  Walter's  bas-relief   symbolizing  the   application   of 
electric  power  to  man's  needs.     The  granite  keystones  of  the  first-story 
arches,  carved  by  the  same  sculptor,   represent   the   rugged   mountain 
country   whose    rushing   torrents   have    been    tapped    for   hydroelectric 
power. 

82.  Memorial  to  the  company's  founder,  Swedish  sea  captain  Wil- 
liam Matson,  is  the  Viking  vessel  in  bas-relief  above  the  main  entrance 
of  the  1 6-story  MATSON  NAVIGATION  COMPANY  BUILD- 
ING, 215  Market  St.     Into  Hilo,  Hawaii,  in  1882,  Matson  sailed  his 
2OO-ton  schooner,  the  Emma  Claudine.     His  line  grew  from  one  vessel 
to  a  great  fleet  of  freighters  transporting  the  sugar  and  the  pineapple  of 
the  Islands  to  the  Pacific  Coast.    When  financial  ties  linked  the  Matson 
line  with  the  "Big  Five"  who  controlled  Hawaiian  sugar,  the  company 


METROPOLITAN     SCENE      2O3 

achieved  a  monopoly  of  Hawaiian  shipping.  In  1925  its  general  man- 
ager, Matson's  son-in-law,  William  P.  Roth,  built  the  $7,500,000  luxury 
liner,  Malolo,  to  carry  tourists  to  the  Islands;  began  construction  there 
of  a  luxury  hotel,  the  Royal  Hawaiian ;  and  inaugurated  a  Nation-wide 
advertising  campaign  to  popularize  "The  Paradise  of  the  Pacific."  Hav- 
ing bought  out  two  competing  lines,  he  constructed  three  more  liners — 
the  Lurline  for  the  Hawaiian  service  and  the  Mariposa  and  Monterey 
for  service  to  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  Beside  the  headquarters  of 
the  Matson  shipping  and  real  estate  empire,  the  Matson  Building  houses 
the  offices  of  four  of  the  firms  comprising  the  so-called  "Big  Five"  which 
dominate  finance,  trade,  transportation,  and  utilities  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands. 

83.  The  ten-story  SOUTHERN  PACIFIC  BUILDING,  65 
Market  St.,  constructed  in  1917,  is  headquarters  for  the  railroad  system 
inaugurated  by  the  "Big  Four's"  Central  Pacific  in  1869.  The  build- 
ing's 506,000  tons  of  steel  and  concrete  (Bliss  and  Faville,  architects) 
rest  on  60  miles  of  cedar  piling.  It  stands  on  the  SITE  OF  THE  PRE- 
PAREDNESS DAY  PARADE  BOMBING,  where  ten  persons  were  killed  July 
22,  1916,  in  an  explosion  which  led  to  the  conviction  and  imprisonment 
of  Thomas  Mooney  and  Warren  K.  Billings. 


Landmarks  of  the  Old  Town 

"Cities,  like  men,  have  their  birth,  growth  and  maturer  years. 
Some  are  born  Titans,  and  from  the  beginning  promise  to  be 
mighty  in  their  deeds,  however  wilful  and  destructive." 

— The  Annals   of  San  Francisco    (1852) 

THE  MARVEL  is  not  that  so  little  but  that  so  much  of  the  city's 
venerable  and  homely  architecture  has  escaped  time's  vicissitudes 
—  of  which  not  the  least  was  the  fire  of  1906.  Recalling  the 
great  fire  of  1851 — in  which  the  El  Dorado  gambling  saloon  was  saved 
by  the  citizenry's  desperate  stand — one  may  suppose  that  the  area  around 
Portsmouth  Square  was  spared,  less  by  a  shift  of  wind,  than  by  San 
Franciscans  stubbornly  defending  the  cradle  of  their  traditions.  Unlike 
the  carefully  preserved  Vieux  Carre  of  New  Orleans,  however,  it  sur- 
vives, not  through  care,  but  through  sheer  neglect. 

On  the  muddy  shores  of  a  little  cove  at  the  southeastern  base  of  a 
rocky  hill  (Telegraph  Hill),  San  Francisco  was  born.  A  short  distance 
inland,  Francisco  de  Haro  marked  out  his  Calle  de  la  Fundacion,  skirt- 
ing the  shore  on  its  way  north-northwest  over  the  hill  toward  the  Pre- 
sidio (along  the  present  Grant  Avenue).  Just  north  of  Washington 
and  Montgomery  streets  was  an  inlet  from  which  the  shoreline  ran 
diagonally  southeast  to  Rincon  Hill  (western  terminus  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco-Oakland Bay  Bridge).  From  the  rocky  headland  north  of  the 
inlet,  first  called  Punta  del  Embarcadero  and  later  Clark's  Point  (now 
the  intersection  of  Battery  Street  and  Broadway),  William  S.  Clark 
built  the  first  pile  wharf  in  1847.  The  line  of  anchorage  was  the  pres- 
ent Battery  Street,  where  the  Russians  loaded  grain  and  meat  for  their 
Alaskan  colonies,  where  the  frigate  Artemisia — first  French  ship  to  enter 
the  Bay — anchored  in  1827,  and  the  San  Luis — first  American  warship 
to  enter  the  harbor — in  1841.  When  the  warship  Portsmouth  dropped 
anchor  July  8,  1846,  Captain  John  B.  Montgomery  disembarked  at 
what  is  now  the  southeast  corner  of  Montgomery  and  Clay  streets  (see 
plaque  on  Bank  of  America  Building,  552  Montgomery  St.).  The 
Plaza  (later  Portsmouth  Square)  was  only  500  feet  west  of  the  water's 
edge. 

West  of  the  Plaza,  facing  the  Calle  de  la  Fundacion  between  the 
two  cross  streets  (now  Clay  and  Washington  streets)  which  ran  east- 
ward to  the  line  of  Montgomery  Street  along  the  water's  edge,  "the 
first  tenement"  (reports  The  Annals  of  San  Francisco)  had  been  "con- 
structed in  the  year  1835  by  Captain  W.  R.  Richardson,  and  up  to  the 

204 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN      2O5 

year  1846,  there  might  not  be  more  than  twenty  or  thirty  houses  of  all 
descriptions  in  the  place."  Richardson's  dwelling  (see  plaque  between 
823  and  827  Grant  Avenue)  was  "a  large  tent,  supported  on  four  red- 
wood posts  and  covered  with  a  ship's  foresail."  Near  by  on  July  4, 
1836,  Jacob  Primer  Leese  completed  Yerba  Buena's  first  permanent 
dwelling — "a  rather  grand  structure,  being  made  of  frame  sixty  feet 
long  and  twenty-five  feet  broad."  (The  plaque  at  the  southwest  corner 
of  Clay  Street  and  Grant  Avenue  states  incorrectly  that  here  Leese 
"erected  the  first  building  in  San  Francisco,"  birthplace  of  "the  first 
white  child  in  San  Francisco  .  .  .  April  15,  1838."  The  first  building 
was  erected  at  the  Presidio  in  1776,  and  the  first  white  child  was  born 
at  the  site  of  Mission  Dolores  August  10,  1776.)  Not  to  be  outdone  by 
Leese,  Richardson  erected  his  adobe  "Casa  Grande." 

Soon  after  United  States  conquest,  Americans  had  built  a  sprawling 
town  on  the  cove;  by  1847  there  were  "22  shanties,  31  frame  houses, 
and  26  adobe  dwellings."  City  Engineer  Jasper  O'Farrell  laid  out  the 
streets  in  checkerboard  fashion,  swinging  De  Haro's  Calle  de  la  Funda- 
cion  into  line  with  the  north-and-south  streets,  and  extending  the  town's 
limits  far  beyond  the  district  surveyed  by  Jean  Vioget  in  1839  (bounded 
by  Montgomery,  Dupont,  Pacific,  and  Sacramento  Streets) — westward 
to  Leavenworth  Street,  north  to  Francisco,  south  to  Post,  and  southeast 
beyond  Market  Street.  The  year  1848  marked  the  first  building  boom. 
According  to  The  Annals  of  San  Francisco,  "A  vacant  lot  ...  was 
offered  the  day  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  [Broadway]  wharf  for 
$5,000,  but  there  were  no  buyers.  The  next  day  the  same  lot  sold 
readily  at  $10,000."  Long  before  lots  could  be  surveyed,  the  area  was 
"overspread  with  a  multitude  of  canvas,  blanket  and  bough  covered 
tents, — the  bay  was  alive  with  shipping  .  .  ." 

The  community  soon  pushed  eastward  beyond  the  shore  line,  sup- 
porting itself  with  piles  above  the  water  and  over  rubble  dumped  into 
the  tidal  flats.  Most  of  Commercial  Street  was  then  Long  Wharf,  built 
2,000  feet  into  the  Bay  from  Leidesdorff  Street  in  1850.  A  narrow 
plank  walk,  connecting  Long  Wharf  with  the  Sacramento  Street  pier, 
was  the  beginning  of  Sansome  Street.  Into  abandoned  ships,  dragged 
inland  and  secured  from  the  tides,  moved  merchants  and  lodgers.  Of 
these  vessels,  perhaps  the  most  famous  was  the  windjammer  Niantic — 
one  of  the  first  to  sail  through  the  Golden  Gate  after  1849 — abandoned 
by  crew  and  passengers  bound  for  the  "diggin's."  Doors  were  cut,  the 
hold  was  partitioned  into  warehouses,  and  offices  were  built  on  deck. 
When  the  superstructure  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1851,  the  Niantic 
Hotel  (replaced  in  1872  by  the  Niantic  Block)  was  erected  on  the  site 
(see  plaque  at  ~NW .  corner  Clay  and  Sansome  Sts.).  Among  other 
vessels  claimed  were  the  General  Harrison,  at  the  northwest  corner  of 


2O6      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Clay  and  Battery  streets,  and  the  Apollo,  at  the  northwest  corner  of 
Sacramento  and  Battery  streets. 

On  Christmas  Eve,  1849,  fire  destroyed  the  ramshackle  city.  By 
May  4,  1851,  it  had  been  burned  five  times.  So  reluctant  were  men  to 
invest  in  San  Francisco  building  enterprises  that  the  East  Bay  enjoyed  a 
tremendous  growth.  To  restore  local  confidence,  bankers  and  realtors 
combined  to  erect  fire-  and  earthquake-proof  buildings.  First  was  the 
Parrott  Block,  built  of  granite  blocks  imported — cut  and  dressed — from 
China,  on  the  present  site  of  the  Financial  Center  building  at  the  north- 
west corner  of  Montgomery  and  California  streets.  Along  Montgomery 
and  adjoining  streets  arose  a  series  of  office  buildings — solid,  dignified, 
well-proportioned — which  still  remain. 

The  life  of  the  town  for  more  than  three  decades  revolved  around 
San  Francisco's  first  "Civic  Center,"  Portsmouth  Square — the  Plaza  of 
Mexican  days.  At  its  northwest  corner  stood  Yerba  Buena's  govern- 
ment building,  the  adobe  Customhouse,  where  Captain  John  B.  Mont- 
gomery quartered  his  troops  in  1846.  Authorized  by  the  Mexican 
Government  in  1844,  the  four-room,  attic-crowned  structure  with 
veranda  on  three  sides,  was  not  finished  at  the  time.  Soon  afterwards 
occupied  by  the  alcalde  and  the  tax  collector,  it  became  the  seat  of  city 
government.  (From  the  beams  of  the  south  veranda,  in  1851,  the  first 
Vigilance  Committee  hanged  the  thief,  John  Jenkins.)  At  the  behest 
of  the  newcomers  from  the  Portsmouth,  Captain  John  Vioget,  the  town's 
first  surveyor,  changed  the  name  of  his  Vioget  House,  the  town's  first 
hotel,  to  Portsmouth  House.  In  the  bar  and  billiard  saloon  of  the 
wooden  building,  at  the  southeastern  corner  of  Clay  and  Kearny  streets, 
hung  Vioget's  original  map.  Across  the  street  on  the  southwest  corner 
was  the  long,  one-story  adobe  store  and  home  of  William  Alexander 
Leidesdorff,  the  pioneer  business  man  from  the  Danish  West  Indies,  of 
mixed  Negro  and  Danish  blood,  who  was  the  American  Vice-Consul 
under  Mexican  rule.  At  the  first  United  States  election  held  here  on 
September  15,  1846,  Lieutenant  Washington  A.  Bartlett  was  chosen 
alcalde.  Leidesdorff's  house  was  transformed  in  November  by  John  H. 
Brown  into  a  hotel,  later  known  as  the  City  Hotel.  On  the  west  side 
of  the  square  was  built  in  1847  the  first  public  schoolhouse,  which  soon 
served  also  as  jail,  courthouse,  church,  and  town  hall,  grandiloquently 
called  the  "Public  Institute." 

Around  Portsmouth  Square  clustered  in  the  early  i85o's  the  noisy 
saloons,  theaters,  and  gambling  houses  of  the  city's  first  bawdy  amuse- 
ment zone.  Not  only  the  first  public  schoolhouse  and  the  first  hotel,  but 
also  the  first  theater  faced  the  plaza :  Washington  Hall,  on  Washington 
Street  along  the  north  side,  where  the  city's  first  play  was  presented  in 
January,  1850.  In  the  same  block  were  built  the  Monumental  Engine 
House  No.  6,  and  the  Bella  Union  Melodeon.  The  famous  Maguire's 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN      2O7 

Opera  House  (see  Social  Heritage:  Before  the  Footlights)  rose  on  the 
east  side  of  the  square.  To  the  east,  on  the  site  of  the  present  Hall  of 
Justice,  were  the  rowdy  Eldorado  gambling  house  and  the  Parker 
House,  which  became  the  Jenny  Lind  Theatre  in  1850  and  the  first 
permanent  City  Hall  two  years  later. 

Today  the  cradle  of  old  San  Francisco  is  a  half-mile  inland.  Its 
ageing  landmarks,  hemmed  in  by  Chinatown  and  North  Beach  on  the 
north  and  west,  by  the  financial  and  commission  districts  on  the  south 
and  east,  are  all  but  overlooked.  Persistent  indeed  must  be  the  observer 
who  can  discover  the  few  remaining  landmarks  of  the  vanished  village 
of  Yerba  Buena. 

Montgomery  Street,  the  water  front  of  '49,  commercial  artery  of 
the  roaring  boom  town,  relaxed  into  a  bohemian  quarter  long  before 
1906;  artists'  studios  still  occupy  buildings  which  housed  journalists  and 
bankers,  gamblers  and  merchants  and  bartenders,  miners  and  sailors  and 
stagecoach  qjivers.  Realtors,  printers,  lawyers,  and  pawnbrokers  occupy 
outmoded  structures  wherein  their  forbears  speculated  on  fabulous 
"deals"  in  a  boom  era.  Here,  Chinese,  Filipinos,  Italians,  Frenchmen, 
all  sorts  of  Americans,  still  congregate  and  engage  in  business.  But 
sailors  from  the  seven  seas  gather  no  more  on  the  slope  of  Portsmouth 
Square. 

Something  of  the  relative  simplicity  of  the  Argonauts — not  the  gaudy 
pretentiousness  of  their  bonanza  successors — survives  in  those  old  build- 
ings with  square  cornices  and  simple  facades,  whose  cornerstones  were 
laid  upon  redwood  piling  and  filled-in  land  during  1849  and  the  early 
1 850*8.  A  few  bronze  plaques  here  and  there  are  all  that  identify  San 
Francisco's  memorable  landmarks  of  the  Gold  Rush  era.  A  few  names 
of  defunct  firms,  in  obscure  letters  across  weatherbeaten  facades,  tell 
legends  which  only  those  knowing  the  city's  lore  may  fully  comprehend. 
A  few  steep  and  narrow  streets,  a  quiet  plaza,  an  odor  of  decay,  and  a 
few  scattered  relics  are  all  that  remain  of  that  once  crowded  area. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

84.  Upon  the  green,  sloping  lawns  of  PORTSMOUTH  PLAZA, 
Kearny,  Clay,  and  Washington  Sts.,  Candelario  Miramontes,  who 
resided  at  the  Presidio,  raised  potatoes  in  the  early  1 830*5.  When  the 
plot  became  a  plaza  is  not  known.  Until  1854,  when  it  was  graded  and 
paved,  it  had  been  graced  only  with  a  speakers'  platform  and  a  cowpen. 
Most  of  the  stirring  events  from  the  1840'$  to  the  i86o's  took  place  here 
— processions,  flag  raisings,  lynchings,  May  Day  fetes.  When  news  of 
the  death  of  Henry  Clay  was  received,  all  the  buildings  surrounding  the 
plaza  were  draped  in  black.  To  hear  Colonel  E.  D.  Baker's  funeral 
oration  here  for  Senator  David  Broderick  (fatally  wounded  in  a  duel 


2O8      SAN     FRANCISCO 

September  13,  1859,  by  Judge  David  S.  Terry)  30,000  people  gathered. 
From  1850  to  1870  the  square  was  headquarters  for  public  hacks  and  the 
omnibus  which  ran  from  North  Beach  to  South  Park.  In  1873  crowds 
gathered  to  gape  at  Andrew  Hallidie's  pioneer  cable  car  climbing  the 
hill  on  its  first  trip  from  the  terminus  at  Clay  and  Kearny  streets. 
Before  1880  the  square  ceased  to  be  the  center  of  civic  gravity,  as  the 
business  district  moved  south  and  west.  Into  abandoned  buildings  moved 
the  Chinese  on  the  west  and  north,  the  habitues  of  the  Barbary  Coast  to 
the  northeast,  the  residents  of  the  Latin  Quarter  on  the  east.  Here 
terrified  Chinese  ran  about  beating  gongs  to  scare  off  the  fire  demons 
during  the  earthquake  and  conflagration  of  1906;  here  came  exhausted 
fire  fighters  to  rest  among  milling  refugees;  here  shallow  graves  held 
the  dead;  and  thousands  camped  during  reconstruction.  The  Board  of 
Supervisors,  in  December,  1927,  restored  the  square's  Spanish  designa- 
tion of  "plaza." 

Under  the  boughs  of  three  slender  poplars  stands  the  RQBERT  Louis 
STEVENSON  MONUMENT,  the  first  shrine  ever  erected  to  the  memory  of 
the  man  who  sought  the  sunshine  here  in  1879.  A  simple  granite  shaft 
surmounted  by  a  bronze  galleon  in  full  sail,  the  Hispaniola  of  Treasure 
Island  (Bruce  Porter,  architect;  George  Piper,  sculptor),  the  monu- 
ment is  inscribed  with  an  excerpt  from  Stevenson's  "Christmas  Sermon." 
Around  it  are  clumps  of  purple  Scotch  heather. 

Near  the  square's  northwest  corner,  the  MONTGOMERY  FLAG  POLE 
marks  the  site  on  which  Captain  John  B.  Montgomery  first  raised  the 
United  States  flag,  July  9,  1846.  Erected  in  1924  by  the  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution,  it  has  at  its  base  a  plaque  inscribed  in  com- 
memoration of  the  event. 

85.  On  historic  ground  stands  the  HALL  OF  JUSTICE,  SE.  cor- 
ner Kearny  and  Washington  Sts.,  facing  Portsmouth  Plaza.  Here  stood 
the  famous  Eldorado  gambling  house,  and  here,  too,  was  Dennison's 
Exchange  Saloon,  where  the  first  official  Democratic  Party  meeting  was 
held  October  25,  1849,  and  where  the  first  of  the  city's  fires  broke  out 
two  months  later.  Destroyed  in  this  fire,  the  Parker  House  next  door, 
built  by  Robert  A.  Parker  and  John  H.  Brown,  was  rebuilt — only  to  be 
twice  burned  again.  Destroyed  a  third  time  in  1851,  the  year  after 
Thomas  Maguire  had  converted  it  into  the  Jenny  Lind  Theater,  it  was 
reconstructed.  When  a  fifth  fire  reduced  it  to  ashes  in  the  same  year,  it 
was  replaced  by  the  third  Jenny  Lind  Theater,  built  of  stone.  This  the 
city  purchased  in  1852  for  a  City  Hall  (see  Civic  Center),  to  which  it 
annexed  the  four-story  building  on  the  site  of  the  Eldorado  for  a  Hall 
of  Records.  Razed  in  1895,  tne  two  buildings  were  replaced  by  the 
first  Hall  of  Justice,  which  in  turn  was  replaced  after  1906  by  the 
present  somber  gray-stone  structure  (Newton  J.  Tharp,  architect), 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN      2O9 

housing  the  city  police  department  and  courts,  Superior  Court  criminal 
division,  city  prison,  and  morgue. 


S.  on  Kearny  St.  to  Commercial  St.,  E.  from  Kearny  on  Commecrial. 

86.  "To  take  some  worthy  works  that  are  in  danger  of  extinction 
and  perpetuate  them  in  suitable  form"  is  the  aim  of  the  GRAB  HORN 
PRESS,   642   Commercial   St.,  as  stated  by  Edwin  Grabhorn.      Since 
1919  he  and  his  brother  Robert — whom  the  English  book  expert,  George 
Jones,   has   declared   the   world's  greatest   printers — have   been   issuing 
their  rare  and  valuable  books  in  San  Francisco.     Of  the  books  which 
first  gave  them  renown,  their  edition  of  Walt  Whitman's  Leaves  of 
Grass,  illustrated  with  Valenti  Angelo's  woodcuts,  is  especially  remem- 
bered.   They  have  reproduced  such  items  as  New  Helvetia.    Diary.    A 
record  of  events  kept  by  John  A.  Suiter  £2°  his  clerks,  at  New  Helvetia, 
California,  from  September  9,   184$  to  May  25,   1848    (1939);   and 
Naval  Sketches  of  the   War  in   California,  reproducing  28   drawings 
made  in  1846-47  by  William  H.  Meyers,  gunner  on  the  U.S.  Sloop-of- 
war  Dale   (1939).     Each  year  since  1919,  at  least  one  of  their  books 
(in  1939,  three)  has  been  chosen  by  the  American  Institute  of  Graphic 
Arts  as  one  of  the  50  best  books  published  in  the  United  States.     The 
ground-floor  office  of  the  old  two-story  brick  building  is  a  repository  of 
Grabhorn  publications  and  historic  photographs,  prints,  and  posters  dat- 
ing from  Gold  Rush  days. 

87.  The  massive  first-story  walls  of  the  UNITED  STATES  SUB- 
TREASURY  BUILDING,  608  Commercial  St.,  erected  in  1875-77 
on  the  SITE  OF  THE  FIRST  UNITED  STATES  BRANCH  MINT,  have  resisted 
earthquake,  fire,  and  dynamite.     Of  the  original  structure's  three  stories 
of  red  brick,  erected  over  the  mint's  steel-lined  vaults,  only  the  first 
remains,   now   roofed   over,   its   square   red-brick   columns   crowned   by 
weathered  gray  curlicues.    The  basement  houses  still  the  old  vaults  with 
their  steel-lined  walls  and  intricate  locks. 

Here,  in  what  was  the  young  city's  financial  district,  the  United 
States  Government  in  1852  purchased  the  property  of  Curtiss,  Ferry 
and  Ward,  Assayers,  for  $335,000,  and  reconstructed  the  building  as  a 
fireproof,  three-story  brick  structure.  On  April  3,  1854  San  Francisco's 
first  mint  was  opened,  equipped  to  issue  $100,000  worth  of  currency 
daily.  By  1887  San  Francisco  had  coined  $242,000,000 — almost  half  as 
much  money  as  the  Philadelphia  mint  had  issued  since  1793.  As  early 
as  1859,  the  first  mint  proved  to  be  far  too  small;  and,  finally,  the  old 
building  was  razed,  following  completion  of  a  second  mint,  in  1874. 

In  1877  the  new  United  States  Subtreasury  was  opened  on  the  site 
of  the  first  mint.  In  April,  1906,  the  structure  was  dynamited  in  an 
effort  to  halt  the  flames.  Unshaken  by  the  blast,  the  3O-inch-thick 


2IO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

first-story  walls  also  withstood  the  fire,  as  did  the  basement  vaults, 
which  were  crammed  with  $13,000,000  in  gold.  When,  in  1915, 
the  subtreasury  was  moved  to  its  new  building  on  the  site  of  the  San 
Francisco  Stock  Exchange,  the  old  building  was  taken  over  by  private 
firms. 

88.  At  the  heart  of  the  old  financial  center  stands  the  B.  DAVID- 
SON BUILDING,  NW.  corner  Montgomery  and  Commercial  Sts., 


MERCHANT  I  I    I 

EZ3I 


CHINATOWN  Points  of  Interest  ll° 
OLD  TOWN  Points  of  Interest    ((90 


whose  first  story  was  built  soon  after  the  fire  of  May  4,  1851  for 
merchant  William  D.  M.  Howard.  A  few  years  later,  two  more  stories 
were  added.  On  the  walls  of  the  first-floor  tobacco  shop  are  pictures  of 
the  structure  taken  in  Gold  Rush  days.  The  iron  vaults,  where  pioneer 
bankers  stored  their  treasure,  remain  in  the  basement — so  stoutly  con- 
structed that  they  long  defied  attempts  to  open  them  for  the  present 
owner. 

In  excavating  a  sewer  along  the  Commercial  Street  side,  in   1854, 
workmen  uncovered  a  coffin  with  a  glass-covered  aperture  in  its  lid, 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN      211 

through  which  could  be  discerned  a  man's  features.  A  coroner's  exam- 
ination revealed  that  the  man  was  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  agent, 
William  Glenn  Rae,  son-in-law  of  Chief  Factor  John  McLoughlin. 
Arriving  at  Yerba  Buena  in  August,  1841,  Rae  opened  his  post  in  the 
store  room,  with  $10,000  worth  of  goods.  To  rebels  against  Governor 
Manuel  Micheltorena  in  1844,  he  furnished  $15,000  worth  of  stores 
and  munitions.  Worried  over  collapse  of  the  revolt  and  fearing  punish- 
ment, Rae  took  to  drinking  heavily.  On  January  19,  1845  he  shot  him- 
self. He  was  buried  in  the  garden  outside  his  house. 

When  the  Americans  took  California  in  1846,  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  sold  its  property  to  the  merchants  and  realtors,  Mellus,  How- 
ard and  Company.  Seeing  a  prosperous  future  for  San  Francisco,  the 
Rothschilds  of  London  authorized  Benjamin  Davidson  to  open  an  agency 
for  their  banking  firm.  Of  the  five  banking  firms  which,  according  to 
the  Annals  of  San  Francisco,  were  operating  in  the  city  at  the  end  of 

1849,  three  were  situated  on  Leese's  old  loo-vara  frontage — Davidson; 
Thomas  Wells  and  Company;  and  James  King  of  William.     Early  in 

1850,  when  Long  Wharf  opened  into  Montgomery  Street,  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  old  post  was  the  United  States  Hotel. 

When  all  of  the  old  building  but  Leese's  original  adobe  kitchen  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1851,  William  Howard  had  the  room  roofed  with 
Australian  bricks  by  Chinese  laborers.  Soon  Howard  erected  a  new 
brick  structure  (now  the  first  story  of  the  present  B.  Davidson  Build- 
ing), into  which  moved  the  Rothschilds'  agent. 

N.  from  Commercial  St.  on  Montgomery  St. 

89.  Oldest  business  building  in   San   Francisco  is  the  BOLTON 
AND  BARRON  BUILDING,  NW.  corner  Montgomery  and  Mer- 
chant Sts.,  a  three-story  fortress-like  edifice,  with  rusty  iron  fire-escapes 
hanging  wearily  from  its  flat  roof.    Built  in  1849,  its  brick  and  cast-iron 
walls  withstood  successive  fires.    Today,  geraniums  peep  from  boxes  in 
the  deep-set  windows  of  upper-floor  studio  apartments,   and  a  gaudy 
black-tile  facade  adorns  the  ground-floor  tavern. 

90.  "Halleck's  Folly"  and  "The  Floating  Fortress,"  people  called 
the  four-story  MONTGOMERY  BLOCK,  Montgomery,  Merchant, 
and  Washington  Sts.,  when  Henry  W.  Halleck  (later  General-in-chief 
of  the  Union  Army)  began  building  it  in  1853.    Wiseacres  predicted  it 
either  would  sink  into  the  ooze  of  the  tidelands  or  float  across  the  Bay 
on  its  foundation  of  redwood  logs.     But  the  structure  is  still  in  good 
repair,  though  shorn  of  its  heavy  iron  shutters,  the  carved  portrait  heads 
which   adorned   its  facade,   and  the  wrought-iron  balcony  which   ran 
along  its  second  story. 

Conceiving  of  a  building  constructed  upon  military  lines,   Halleck 


212      SAN     FRANCISCO 

consulted  architect  G.  P.  Cummings;  together  they  drew  up  a  design 
combining  the  principles  of  the  fortress  with  those  of  the  Florentine 
court:  four  connecting  buildings  around  a  courtyard.  The  four  build- 
ings were  then  linked  by  wrought-iron  bands  and  adjustable  turnbuckles 
inserted  between  the  floor  levels.  The  building  defied  every  accepted 
principle  of  construction. 

Dedicated  as  the  Washington  Block  on  December  23,  1853,  it  was 
the  largest  building  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  It  was  popularly  called  the 
Montgomery  Block,  and  its  builders  officially  changed  the  name  the 
following  year.  Within  the  year  it  was  San  Francisco's  legal  center, 
housing  the  city's  first  law  library.  Most  of  the  Adams  Express  Com- 
pany's gold  bullion  was  placed  in  the  basement  vaults.  The  second  floor 
housed  a  huge  billiard  parlor.  Here  were  the  offices  of  the  Pacific  and 
Atlantic  Railroad,  of  the  United  States  Engineers  Corps,  of  the  Alta 
California  and  the  Daily  Herald.  For  30  years,  the  block  housed  the 
portion  of  Adolph  Sutro's  library  (now  in  the  San  Francisco  Public 
Library)  that  escaped  the  1906  fire. 

As  James  King  of  William  lay  dying  in  one  of  the  rooms  in  1856, 
prominent  citizens  organized  the  Vigilance  Committee  that  hanged  his 
assassin,  James  P.  Casey.  King  was  shot  in  front  of  the  Bank  Exchange 
Saloon  on  the  ground  floor,  where  brokers  did  business  until  establish- 
ment of  a  stock  exchange  in  1862. 

On  that  April  morning  in  1906,  when  flames  were  bearing  down 
upon  the  block,  soldiers  stood  powder  kegs  against  the  walls,  ready  to 
blast  a  fire-break.  Oliver  Perry  Stidger,  agent  for  the  building,  begged 
them  to  wait,  appealing  to  their  civic  pride  in  an  impassioned  speech. 
Soon  the  danger  had  passed.  Since  this  was  the  only  downtown  office 
building  undamaged  by  the  fire,  it  again  became  a  center  of  business 
activity. 

In  the  1 890*5  various  artists  of  the  West  had  begun  setting  up  their 
studios  in  the  Montgomery  Block.  With  them  came  Frank  Norris, 
Kathleen  and  Charles  Norris,  George  Sterling,  and  Charles  Caldwell 
Dobie.  Known  affectionately  as  the  "Monkey  Block"  today,  the  old 
building  consists  largely  of  offices  converted  into  studios. 

91.  The    SHIP    BUILDING,    716-18-20    Montgomery    St.,    sup- 
posedly owes  its  origin  to  the  gold-seeking  master  and  crew  of  the  Geor- 
gean,  who  deserted  her  in  the  spring  of  '49.     The  schooner  lay  aban- 
doned in  the  mud  near  Sansome  Street,  her  cargo  of  Kentucky  "Twist" 
(chewing  tobacco)  and  New  Orleans  cotton  molding  and  unsold,  until 
a  speculator  claimed  salvage  rights  and  beached  her  on  the  present  site. 
Today  the  supposed  "foc'sle  head"  of  the  old  schooner  houses  a  Chinese 
laundry  and  a  plumbing  shop ;  the  second  floor,  artist's  studios. 

92.  Gay  blades  haunted  the  MELODEON  THEATER  BUILD- 
ING, 722-24  Montgomery  St.,  awaiting  companions  for  a  "bird-and- 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN       213 

bottle"  supper.  Opening  December  15,  1857,  the  Melodeon  drew  sea- 
faring men  and  miners,  who  delighted  in  its  musical  and  minstrel 
shows.  After  the  Melodeon  closed  about  1858,  the  hall  was  rented 
infrequently  to  various  groups.  Here  in  1883,  according  to  Disturnell's 
Strangers'  Guide  to  San  Francisco  and  Vicinity,  was  the  "extensive 
bathing  establishment  of  Dr.  Justin  Gates.  .  .  .  Special  apartments  have 
been  nicely  fitted  up  for  ladies  and  families." 

93.  San    Francisco's    oldest    sign,    hanging    from    the    GENELLA 
BUILDING,   728   Montgomery  St.,   states  in   faded  black  and  gold 
letters  that  "H.  and  W.  Pierce  .  .  .  Loans  and  Commissions"  once  did 
business  here,  exchanging  paper  and  coins  for  gold  bullion.     The  struc- 
ture was  built  about  1854  by  Joseph  Genella,  who  dealt  in  chinaware  in 
an  upstairs  room.     On  the  second  floor  the  International  Order  of  Odd 
Fellows  had  its  first  hall,  where  Yerba  Buena  Lodge  No.  15  met  every 
Thursday  evening.     Since  the  early  1920*5,  the  second  floor  has  housed 
PERRY  DILLEY'S  PUPPET  THEATER,  which  presents  an  annual  season 
of  performances,  beginning  usually  in  April.     Dilley  creates  all  of  his 
own  figures,  designs  and  paints  his  sets,  writes  the  musical  scores,  and 
re-writes  classical  and  modern  plays  to  suit  his  medium. 

94.  Named  for  the  first  of  San  Francisco's  literary  periodicals,  the 
GOLDEN  ERA  BUILDING,  732-34  Montgomery  St.,  housed  on  its 
second  floor  for  more  than  two  years  the  weekly  established  in  Decem- 
ber, 1852,  by  youthful  J.  Macdonough  Foard  and  Rollin  M.  Daggett 
(see  Golden  Era:  Argonauts  of  Letters}.     Its  circulation  among  a  Gold 
Rush  populace,  starved  for  reading  matter,  grew  enormously.   A  "weekly 
family  paper,"  it  was  devoted  to  "Literature,  Agriculture,  The  Mining 
Interest,  Local  and  Foreign  News,  Commerce,  Education,  Morals,  and 
Amusements."     On  March  I,   1857,  appeared  a  poem  by  an  unknown 
author,  "The  Valentine" — first  preserved  published  work  of  Bret  Harte. 
Among  other  contributors  were   Ina   Coolbrith,   Thomas   Starr   King, 
Joaquin  Miller,  Mark  Twain,  and  Charles  Warren  Stoddard.     It  sur- 
vived nearly  four  decades.     Beneath  the  Era's  original  offices,  on  the 
ground    floor,    was   Vernon's    Hall,    rented    to    fraternal    societies    and 
theatrical  troupes;  today  it  houses  a  Chinese  broom  factory.     The  Eras 
old  rooms  are  now  artists'  studios. 

95.  Disguised  beneath  its  cream  stucco  finish  and  its  gay  red  and 
blue  canopies,  the  PIOCHE  AND  BAYERQUE  BUILDING,  SE. 
corner    Montgomery   and   Jackson    Sts.,    now   occupied    by   an    Italian 
restaurant,  is  the  same  structure  that  was  erected  in  1853  by  the  pioneer 
merchants  and  bankers,  F.  L.  A.  Pioche  and  J.  B.  Bayerque.     It  stands 
on  the  SITE  OF  THE  FIRST  BRIDGE,  a  sturdy  wooden  structure — the 
town's    first    public    improvement — which    alcalde    William     Sturgis 
Hinckley  constructed  in  1844,  oyer  the  long-vanished  slough  connecting 
the  Laguna   Salada    (Sp.,   salty  lagoon)    with   the   Bay,   thus  enabling 


214      SAN     FRANCISCO 

people  to  cross  to  Clarke's  Point.  In  the  Pioche  and  Bayerque  Building 
were  housed  the  offices  of  the  city's  first  street  railroad,  of  which  both 
Pioche  and  Bayerque  were  directors.  Horses  drew  the  first  car  up 
Market  Street  on  July  4,  1860  (soon  replaced  by  steam). 

96.  Not  since  1857  has  the  LUCAS,  TURNER  AND  COM- 
PANY BANK  BUILDING,  NE.  corner  Montgomery  and  Jackson 
Sts.,  housed  banking  offices.     When  the  firm  of  Lucas,  Turner  and 
Company,  a  branch  of  a  St.  Louis  bank,  desired  property  on  which  to 
erect  its  own  building  in  1853,  William  Tecumseh  Sherman,  then  the 
resident  manager  and  a  partner  in  the  firm,  found  (he  later  wrote)  that 
"the  only  place  then  available  on  Montgomery  Street,  the  Wall  Street 
of  San  Francisco,  was  a  lot  .  .  .  60x62  feet  .  .  ."     For  this  he  paid 
$32,000,  then  contracted  for  "a  three-story  brick  building,  with  finished 
basement,   for  about  $50,000."     As  manager  of  the  new  institution, 
Sherman  was  overprudent.     He  refused  to  allow  the  occasional  over- 
drafts his  depositors  demanded  and  declined  to  grant  credit  except  on 
the  soundest  securities.    Finally  in  1857  the  bank  closed. 

W ' .  from  Montgomery  St.  on  Jackson  St.  to  Columbus  Ave.;  NW.  from 
Jackson  on  Columbus  to  Pacific  St.;  E.  from  Columbus  on  Pacific. 

97.  The   "Terrific    Street"   of   the    i89o's— that   block   of    Pacific 
Street,  SITE  OF  THE  BARBARY  COAST,  running  east  from  the 
once-famous   "Seven    Points"   where    Pacific,    Columbus   Avenue,    and 
Kearny  Street  intersect — is  set  off  now  at  each  end  by  concrete  arches 
labelled    "INTERNATIONAL    SETTLEMENT."      As    Barbary 
Coast  it  was  known  round  the  world  for  half  a  century,  more  notorious 
than  London's  Limehouse,  Marseilles'  water  front,  or  Port  Said's  Arab 
Town.     The  enterprise  of  Pierino  Gavello,  restaurateur  and  capitalist, 
is  today's  "International  Settlement,"  developed  in   1939,  streamlined 
with  the  stucco  facades  and  gleaming  windows.    Where  gambling  halls, 
saloons,  beer  dens,  dance  halls,  and  brothels  once  crowded  side  by  side, 
a  Chinese  restaurant,  a  night  club  and  cocktail  bar,  a  Latin  American 
cafe,  and  an  antique  shop  now  appear. 

One  resort  of  the  old  "Coast"  remains  in  business — TAR'S,  592 
Pacific  St.,  the  former  Parente's  saloon  (newly  painted  and  decorated), 
whose  walls  are  still  plastered  from  floor  to  ceiling  with  Parente's 
famous  collection  of  prize-fight  pictures — including  champions  from 
James  Figg,  bare-knuckle  artist  of  1719,  to  Joe  Louis,  1940  title  holder. 

"Give  it  a  wide  berth,  as  you  value  your  life,"  warned  the  New 
Overland  Tourist  of  Barbary  Coast  in  1878,  describing  "the  precise 
locality,  so  that  our  readers  may  keep  away."  Since  the  i86o's  it  had 
worn  the  name  Barbary  Coast,  derived  probably  from  sailors'  memories 
of  the  dives  of  North  Africa.  But  even  in  the  early  i85o's,  when  the 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN      215 

neighborhood  was  Sydney  Town,  inhabited  by  Australian  outlaws 
known  as  "Sydney  Ducks,"  the  "upper  part  of  Pacific  Street,  after 
dark" — reported  the  San  Francisco  Herald — "was  crowded  by  thieves, 
gamblers,  low  women,  drunken  sailors  and  similar  characters  .  .  .' 
The  block  bounded  by  Kearny,  Montgomery,  and  Broadway  was  known 
as  Devil's  Acre,  and  its  Kearny  Street  side  as  Battle  Row  (here  stood 
the  Slaughterhouse,  later  renamed  the  Morgue).  The  district  con- 
tributed a  new  word,  "hoodlum,"  applying  it  to  the  young  ruffians  who 
roamed  the  "Coast"  armed  with  bludgeons,  knives,  or  iron  knuckles  (it 
is  thought  that  the  word  comes  from  "huddle  'em!"  the  cry  of  the  boys 
as  they  advanced  on  a  victim).  So  too  the  expression  "to  shanghai" 
originated  here. 

The  employment  of  women  in  the  "Coast's"  resorts  was  strictly 
forbidden  by  law  as  early  as  1869,  but  the  "Coast"  paid  no  heed. 
Besides  the  brothels  of  three  types — cribs,  cow-yards,  and  parlor  houses, 
all  advertised  by  red  lights  and  some  even  by  signboards — the  district 
contained  call  houses,  cheap  lodgings  patronized  by  street-walkers, 
bagnios  over  saloons  and  dance-halls,  where  variety  show  performers 
entertained  between  acts.  Among  the  most  renowned  of  the  "Coast's" 
attractions  in  the  1870*5  were  the  "Little  Lost  Chicken,"  a  diminutive 
girl  who  concluded  her  songs  by  bursting  into  tears  (and  picked  the 
pockets  of  her  admirers)  ;  the  "Waddling  Duck,"  an  immensely  fat 
woman;  "Lady  Jane  Grey,"  who  decked  herself  in  a  cardboard  coronet, 
convinced  she  was  of  noble  birth ;  the  "Dancing  Heifer"  and  the  "Gal- 
loping Cow,"  whose  sister  act  made  the  boards  of  the  stage  creak. 
"Cowboy  Maggie"  Kelly,  a  large  blond  known  as  "The  Queen  of  the 
Barbary  Coast,"  was  proprietress,  and  bouncer,  of  the  Cowboy's  Rest. 

Wiped  out  in  1906,  the  Barbary  Coast  was  revived  for  another 
decade  of  gaudy  life.  "The  quarter  did  what  every  courtesan  does  who 
finds  her  charms  and  her  following  on  the  wane,"  wrote  Charles  Cald- 
well  Dobie.  "It  decided  to  capitalize  its  previous  reputation,  buy  a  new 
false  front  and  an  extra  pot  of  rouge.  The  result  was  a  tough  quarter 
maintained  largely  for  the  purpose  of  shocking  tourists  from  the  Chatau- 
qua  circuit."  Almost  every  dance  hall  put  on  a  good  show  for  the 
benefit  of  gaping  visitors  in  "slummers'  galleries."  "Take  me  to  see  the 
Barbary  Coast,"  said  John  Masefield — and  he  was  taken,  as  was  nearly 
every  other  visiting  celebrity,  including  Sarah  Bernhardt  and  Anna 
Pavlowa. 

"The  most  famous,  as  well  as  the  most  infamous"  of  the  resorts, 
reminisced  photographer  Arnold  Genthe,  "was  the  Olympia,  a  vast 
'palace'  of  gilt  and  tinsel  with  a  great  circular  space  in  the  center  and 
around  it  a  raised  platform  with  booths  for  spectators  .  .  .  Below  us 
on  the  floor  ...  a  medley  of  degenerate  humanity  whirled  around  us 
in  weird  dance  steps."  Of  the  same  description  was  the  Midway  (down- 


2l6      SAN     FRANCISCO 

stairs  at  587  Pacific  Street) — a  training  ground  for  vaudeville  acts — its 
walls  decorated  with  large  murals  by  an  unknown  Italian  artist. 

The  Seattle  Concert  Hall  (574  Pacific  Street),  later  known  as 
Spider  Kelly's,  first  important  resort  to  reopen  after  the  fire,  won  local 
fame  for  its  "key  racket."  On  the  promise  of  keeping  a  rendezvous 
after  work,  the  dance-hall  girls  sold,  for  five  dollars,  the  keys  to  their 
rooms;  the  dupes  wandered  about  until  morning,  vainly  seeking  doors 
their  keys  would  fit.  The  "slummers'  gallery"  of  the  Hippodrome 
(570  Pacific  Street)  was  crowded  nightly  by  visitors.  Chief  claim  to 
fame  of  the  Moulin  Rouge  (540  Pacific  Street)  were  Arthur  Putnam's 
sculptured  panels  on  its  facade,  depicting  figures  of  complete  nudity 
until  churchwomen  forced  the  sculptor  to  drape  the  ladies. 

No  resort  was  better-known  than  Lew  Purcell's  So  Different  Saloon 
(520  Pacific  Street),  a  Negro  dance  hall,  where  the  "Turkey  Trot"  is 
said  to  have  originated.  The  Thalia  (5141/2  Pacific  Street),  on  whose 
immense  rectangular  floor  the  "Texas  Tommy"  was  first  danced,  lured 
patrons  with  a  sidewalk  band  concert  every  evening.  The  Thalia's 
piece  de  resistance  was  hootclty-kootchy  dancer  Eva  Rowland. 

But  the  Barbary  Coast's  assets  as  a  tourist  attraction  did  not  out- 
weigh its  liabilities  as  a  crime  center.  The  Police  Commission's  revoca- 
tion of  dance-hall  licenses  in  1913  was  a  hard  blow,  but  the  "Coast" 
recovered,  and  two  years  later  licenses  had  to  be  revoked  again.  The 
Thalia  went  on  operating  as  a  dancing  academy.  Once  more  liquor 
permits  were  cancelled.  As  late  as  1921,  Police  Chief  Daniel  J.  O'Brien 
thought  it  necessary  to  forbid  slumming  parties  in  the  area — but  the 
Barbary  Coast  was  dead. 

S.  from  Pacific  St.  on  Montgomery  St.  to  Jackson  St.;  E.  fro?n  Mont- 
gomery on  Jackson. 

98.  Once  noted  for  its  paintings  and  well-stocked  library,  the  iron- 
shuttered   HOTALING   BUILDING,    SE.   corner   Jackson    St.   and 
Hotaling  PL,  housed  the  warehouses  and  stables  of  the  Hotaling  dis- 
tillery.    Narrow  Hotaling  Place,  running  south  to  Washington  Street, 
was  known  as  Jones'  Alley  between    1847   a°d    1910.      Loaded   drays 
rumbled    over    the    planked    street    to    the    Broadway    wharf;    heavily 
guarded  express  coaches  of  the  Wells  Fargo  and  Company  bore  their 
cargoes  to  sailing  ships;  and  under  the  dim  gaslights  silk-hatted  dandies 
waited   in   hansom   cabs   for   the   beauties   from   the    Melodeon.      The 
Hotaling  Building  survived  the  fire  of   1906  almost  unscathed. 

99.  The  hulls  of  abandoned  ships  were  piled  into  the  mud  flats  of 
Jackson  Slough  to  make  solid  footing  for  the  three-story  brick  PHOE- 
NIX BUILDING,  SW.  corner  Jackson  and  Sansome  Sts.,  which  from 
1858  to  1895  housed  the  factory  of  Domingo  Ghirardelli,  pioneer  choco- 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN      217 

late  manufacturer  (see  Rim  of  the  Golden  Gate).  Survivor  of  the 
1906  fire,  it  hides  its  smoked  and  weathered  facade  under  a  thick  coat 
of  buff  paint. 


S.  from  Jackson  St.  on  Sansome  St. 

100.  Reared  from  the  mud  on  a  brick  and  pile  foundation,  GOV- 
ERNMENT HOUSE,  NW.  corner  Sansome  and  Washington  Sts., 
was  constructed  some  time  before  1853,  when  it  was  known  as  Armory 
Hall.     The  Golden  Era  in  February  of  that  year  carried  an  advertise- 
ment of  "Buckley's  Original  New  Orleans  Serenaders."     Known  there- 
after as  the  Olympic  Theater,  the  hall  led,  according  to  the  Annals  of 
San  Francisco,  "a  brief  and  sickly  existence."    After  1860,  the  building 
appeared  in  city  directories  as  the  "Government  House  Lodgings."    For 
a  time  Adolph  Sutro  lived  in  one  of  its  furnished  rooms. 

Still  illuminated  by  gas,  Government  House  shows  its  age.  The 
first  floor  was  forced  underground  when  Sansome  Street  was  regraded 
early  in  the  present  century ;  its  basement  rooms  are  now  entered  through 
narrow  stairways  leading  from  iron  trap  doors  in  the  sidewalk.  Shorn 
of  its  once  ornate  cornices,  which  began  to  crumble,  the  facade  is  shabby, 
its  faded  green  paint  and  grey  plaster  cracked  and  peeling. 

The  oldest  drugstore  in  the  city,  ALEXANDER  McBoYLE  AND 
COMPANY,  still  housed  on  the  ground  floor  of  Government  House,  was 
opened  in  1866.  McBoyle,  although  not  a  dentist,  managed  to  fill  a 
window  of  his  curious  shop  waist-deep  with  the  extracted  teeth  of  sea- 
farers. Grateful  seamen  repaid  with  curios  and  treasures  from  other 
lands  and  with  ship  models,  painstakingly  carved  and  fitted.  While 
other  druggists  beckoned  to  the  public  with  green  and  red  globes,  Mc- 
Boyle drew  three  times  the  trade  with  a  display  of  model  ships  sailing 
in  the  sea  of  teeth.  He  compounded  for  years  the  bulk  of  medicines 
shipped  to  the  Orient.  The  present  owners  have  retained  a  few  faded 
pictures  of  sailing  ships,  and  they  sell  Alexander  McBoyle's  "Abolition 
Oil,"  to  alleviate  sprains  and  bruises,  mixed  according  to  the  original 
formula. 

101.  Oldest  structure  still  used  by  the  Federal  Government  in  San 
Francisco  is  the  five-story  brick  and  wrought-iron  UNITED  STATES 
APPRAISERS  BUILDING,  Sansome,  Jackson,  and  Washington  Sts., 
erected   (1874-81)   as  one  of  the  Army  Engineer  Corps'  most  boasted 
construction  achievements.     Here,  until  after  1850,  the  tides  lapped  at 
the  narrow  row  of  piles  marking  the  line  of  present  Sansome  Street. 
"Upon  the  head  of  these  piles,"  recalled  Barry  and  Patten,  "was  nailed 
a  narrow  plank  walk  .  .  .  without  rail  or  protection  of  any  kind  ... 
pedestrians  passed  and  repassed  in  the  dark,  foggy  nights,  singing  and 


2l8      SAN     FRANCISCO 

rollicking,  as  unconcernedly  as  if  their  path  was  broad  Market 
Street  .  .  ." 

On  piles  projecting  eastward  from  what  is  now  the  corner  of  San- 
some  and  Washington  streets  stood  the  wooden  shanty  where  in  August, 
1850,  Pedar  Sather  and  Edward  W.  Church — joined  nine  months  later 
by  Francis  M.  Drexel  of  Philadelphia — opened  a  bank.  When  fire 
destroyed  the  structure,  their  safe  fell  into  the  water;  it  was  fished  up, 
however,  and  installed  in  a  new  building  at  the  end  of  Long  Wharf. 
(The  only  bank  in  the  city  founded  as  early  as  1850  to  see  the  twentieth 
century,  it  was  reorganized  in  1897  as  tne  San  Francisco  National  Bank 
and  finally  absorbed  by  the  Bank  of  California  in  1920.) 

Into  the  blue  mud  of  the  old  cove  bottom,  Army  engineers  in  1874 
began  driving  8o-foot  piles,  over  which  they  laid  a  seven-foot  thickness 
of  "rip-rapped"  concrete.  On  this  foundation  they  erected  the  three- 
foot-thick  walls  of  the  Appraisers  Building.  The  roof,  fabricated  of 
wrought  iron  in  the  manner  of  a  truss  bridge,  rested  on  the  outside 
walls,  supporting  a  heavy  slate  covering.  The  90  offices  had  hardwood 
doors  and  bronze  hardware.  The  hydraulic  elevator  with  ornately 
carved  cage,  installed  in  1878,  the  first  passenger  elevator  on  the  Pacific 
Coast,  is  still  in  use. 

Having  survived  the  1906  earthquake,  the  building  was  threatened 
by  the  fire  but  saved  by  the  Navy.  From  two  tugs  anchored  below 
Washington  Street,  sea  water  was  pumped  through  fire  lines  to  save  the 
old  structure.  In  1909,  mud  began  to  ooze  from  beneath  its  founda- 
tions into  a  sewer  excavation  along  Sansome  Street;  the  southwest 
corner  sank  1 1  inches,  but  the  structure  remained  intact. 

In  the  Appraisers  Building,  dutiable  imports  were  appraised  and 
stored  for  payment  of  duty  until  1940,  when  the  structure  was  ordered 
razed  to  make  way  for  a  new  1 5-story  building. 

E.  from  Sansome  St.  on  Washington  St.  to  Battery  St.;  N.  from  Wash- 
ington on  Battery. 

102.  The  UNITED  STATES  CUSTOMHOUSE  (open 
9-4:30),  Battery,  Washington,  and  Jackson  Sts.,  has  occupied  this  site 
for  more  than  75  years;  but  the  block-long,  five-story  edifice  of  Raymond 
granite,  its  interior  resplendent  with  marble  and  oak,  erected  (1906-11) 
at  a  cost  of  $1,600,000,  is  a  far  cry  from  the  three-story  customhouse 
and  post  office,  built  of  cement-plastered  brick  in  1854,  which  stood 
here  until  1903.  The  town's  first  customhouse  on  the  Plaza  was  aban- 
doned in  1849;  it  survived — its  porch  railings  carved  by  the  jacknives 
of  Yankee  newcomers — until  1851,  outlasting  the  second,  William 
Heath  Davis'  four-story  structure  with  its  white-painted  balconies,  to 
which  the  collector  of  the  port  had  removed  his  offices. 


LANDMARKS     OF     THE     OLD     TOWN       2IQ 

From  the  ruins  of  this  second  customhouse,  nearly  $1,000,000  in 
specie  was  rescued  from  a  large  safe,  which  had  preserved  it  from  the 
flames.  The  removal  of  the  treasure  by  the  collector  of  the  customs,  T. 
Butler  King,  "created  some  little  excitement  and  much  laughter,"  as  the 
Annals  of  San  Francisco  reported.  "Some  thirty  gigantic,  thick-bearded 
fellows,  who  were  armed  with  carbines,  revolvers  and  sabres,  surrounded 
the  cars  containing  the  specie,  while  the  Honorable  T.  Butler  King 
stood  aloft  on  a  pile  of  ruins  with  a  huge  'Colt'  in  one  hand  and  a 
bludgeon  in  the  other  .  .  .  The  extraordinary  procession  proceeded 
slowly  .  .  .  Mr.  King  marching,  like  a  proud  drum-major,  at  the  head 
.  .  .  peals  of  laughter  and  cries  of  ironical  applause  accompanied  the 
brave  defenders  of  'Uncle  Sam's'  interests  to  the  end  of  their  perilous 
march.  ,  ,  ." 


Chinatown 


"Wherever,  in  any  channel  of  the  Seven  Seas,  two  world-wan- 
derers met  and  talked  about  the  City  of  Many  Adventures,  China- 
town ran  like  a  thread  through  their  reminiscences." 

— WILL  IRWIN 


A  QUARTER  of  old  Canton,  transplanted  and  transformed, 
neither  quite  oriental  nor  wholly  occidental,  San  Francisco's 
Chinatown  yields  to  the  ways  of  the  West  while  continuing  to 
venerate  a  native  civilization  as  ancient  as  the  Pyramids.  Grant  Ave- 
nue, its  main  thoroughfare,  leads  northward  from  Bush  Street  through 
a  veritable  city-within-a-city — alien  in  appearance  to  all  the  rest  of  San 
Francisco — hemmed  within  boundaries  kept  by  tacit  agreement  with 
municipal  authorities  for  almost  a  century. 

Chinatown  enjoys  a  measure  of  civil  autonomy  unique  among  San 
Francisco's  foreign  sections.  Though  police  protection,  public  education, 
and  public  health  are  directed  by  municipal  authorities,  local  affairs  are 
controlled  largely  by  the  powerful  Chinese  Six  Companies.  Labor  rela- 
tions, family  regulation,  traditional  customs,  and  commercial  activities 
are  the  province  of  this  unusual  body. 

Along  Grant  Avenue  bright  display  windows,  neon  signs,  and  glazed 
tile  form  a  foreground  wholly  modern  for  merchandise  which  conforms 
to  the  age-old  pattern  of  China's  craftsmen.  The  street's  smart  cocktail 
lounges  defy  ancestral  gods  by  adding  American  swing  to  the  induce- 
ments of  oriental  atmosphere  and  native  waitresses  in  brocaded  gowns; 
its  fashionable  cafes,  while  they  serve  genuine  native  foods,  advertise 
more  familiar  dishes.  Beneath  the  pagoda-like  cornices,  electric  chop 
suey  signs  perpetuate  the  popular  notion  that  this  dish,  imported  from 
the  Atlantic  seaboard,  is  something  more  exotic  than  its  name — the 
Chinese  word  for  hash — indicates.  Side  by  side  with  curio  shops  offer- 
ing inexpensive  articles  of  oriental  design  are  bazaars,  wherein  the 
discerning  may  buy  objects  genuine  and  costly.  Within  recent  years, 
however,  many  sources  of  supply  have  been  cut  off  by  the  Japanese 
occupation  of  China.  Scattered  along  Grant  Avenue  also  are  Japanese- 
owned  shops  that  sell  goods  manufactured  in  Japan. 

Grant  Avenue's  commercial  area  is  only  the  bland  and  somewhat 
cynical  face  the  settlement  turns  to  the  world.  More  oriental  are  the 
avenue's  northern  reaches  and  the  streets  that  run  crosswise  from  Nob 
Hill  to  Chinatown's  eastern  boundary,  Kearny  Street.  Along  these 
congested  sidewalks,  among  cheap  shops  and  restaurants,  are  the  market 

220 


CHINATOWN      221 

places  whose  distinctive  sounds  and  odors  give  Chinatown  its  atmosphere 
of  the  unchanging  East.  A  curious  bazaar  of  foodstuffs  are  the  poultry 
markets,  the  displays  of  dried  and  pickled  fish,  and  the  odoriferous  tubs 
of  snails  along  the  curbstones.  Roast  ducks  packed  in  rice ;  roast  ducks 
from  Canton,  glazed  with  a  salty  wax — many  of  them  flattened  as  if 
starched  and  ironed — hang  in  golden  rows  in  grocery  stores ;  and  beside 
them  are  whole  hogs — steaming  hot  from  the  barbecue  pits — from  which 
portions  are  cut  and  sent  to  Chinatown's  dinner  tables.  Eels  and  octopi, 
shark,  and  other  unusual  sea  foods  are  displayed  in  the  many  fish  mar- 
kets. Bakery  windows  are  crowded  with  cakes  of  almost  limitless 
variety,  of  which  even  the  most  common  are  decorative  and  of  evasive 
flavor.  The  vegetables  of  Chinatown  are  a  marvel  to  the  stranger: 
string  beans  slender  as  blades  of  grass  and  12  to  14  inches  long;  peas 
with  sweet,  tender  edible  pods;  and  many  Chinese  greens.  Bitter  melons 
to  be  added  to  soups,  fuzzy  melons  resembling  cactus  fruit,  bamboo 
shoots,  bean  sprouts,  and  lotus  roots  hang  festooned  in  market  windows. 
The  artistry  of  the  oriental  cook  is  nowhere  in  the  Western  world 
better  demonstrated  than  in  San  Francisco's  Chinatown.  In  the  numer- 
ous and  inexpensive  little  Chinese  restaurants  that  crowd  the  slopes  of 
Jackson,  Clay,  and  Washington  streets  above  and  below  Grant  Avenue, 
the  occidental  dines  with  relish  on  the  meats  and  vegetables  he  has  looked 
upon  with  disfavor  in  the  markets  around  the  corner. 

About  half  Chinatown's  population  of  16,000  are  immigrants  from 
the  mother  country,  many  of  whom  still  cling  to  the  ancient  customs 
and  ancestral  religion.  Amid  the  modern  throng  appear  in  diminishing 
number  those  who  still  conform  to  the  age-old  styles  of  dress.  Little  old 
women  pass  by,  their  shiny  black  hair  brushed  tightly  back  and  knotted, 
their  black  pantaloons  showing  beneath  black  gowns;  and  benign  old 
men  in  loose  jackets  and  black  skullcaps.  The  upper-class  women  of 
the  old  generation  reveal  their  bound  feet — the  "golden  lilies"  of  Chinese 
literature — beneath  the  long  narrow  native  costume  covered  by  a  coat 
of  American  make.  Upon  rare  occasions,  dignified  Chinese  gentlemen 
gracefully  thread  their  way  through  the  crowded  streets  in  elegant 
custom-tailored  attire,  leisurely  wielding  fans. 

Young  Chinatown  preserves  its  language  and  the  more  democratic 
of  its  national  customs,  while  adopting  the  dress,  the  slang,  and  the 
commercial  methods  of  its  American  compatriots.  Grant  Avenue  is  its 
creation.  The  shops  of  its  elders,  where  the  abacus  is  still  used  for 
calculation,  are  being  forced  to  the  side-streets.  Even  the  little  wall- 
shops,  where  for  generations  dreamy-eyed  old  men  sitting  in  the  sun 
have  reluctantly  bestirred  themselves  to  sell  occasional  bags  of  candied 
melon,  ginger,  or  lichee  nuts,  are  being  taken  over  by  alert  youngsters, 
who  have  stocked  these  narrow  tables  and  outdoor  shelves  with  souvenirs 
for  the  tourist. 


222      SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  children  of  Chinatown,  most  modern  element  of  all,  are  benefit- 
ing most  by  the  inroads  of  the  West.  Education  is  one  of  the  colony's 
primary  interests.  Besides  its  regular  public  grade  school,  Chinatown 
has  a  dozen  or  more  public  and  private  schools.  The  children,  expert 
negotiators  of  traffic,  scamper  in  small  bands  from  sidewalk  to  sidewalk 
on  shopping  tours  for  their  parents.  Children  of  the  poorer  families 
swarm  the  sidewalks  nightly,  armed  with  shoe-shine  kits.  Many  of  the 
older  boys  spend  their  evenings  at  the  Chinese  Y.M.C.A. ;  and  many  of 
the  girls  (whose  families  allow  them  to  accept  modern  ways),  at  the 
Y.W.C.A.  Chinese  youth  of  both  sexes  frequent  the  various  family 
clubs.  Fong-Fong's  on  Grant  Avenue  (a  soda  fountain,  lunchroom, 
and  bakery)  is  a  widely  patronized  "Joe-College"  hangout. 

Old  Chinatown  watches  with  silent  disapproval  the  departure  of  its 
youth  and  its  children  from  the  ancient  customs,  brought  here  from 
Canton  and  preserved  inviolate  for  three-quarters  of  a  century.  And 
Chinatown's  elders  still  maintain  customs  of  oriental  feudalism,  long 
since  abandoned  throughout  China. 

Though  practically  every  religion  has  built  churches  and  gained 
adherents  here,  the  native  Chinese  temples,  or  joss  houses,  are  still 
centers  of  Chinatown's  spiritual  life.  (The  word  "joss"  is  a  corruption 
of  Diosj  Portuguese  word  for  God,  which  the  Cantonese  learned  from 
early  Portuguese  traders  at  Macao.)  Many  of  the  furnishings  have  a 
history  intimately  associated  with  the  Chinese  immigration,  during  the 
Gold  Rush,  to  this  land  they  called  Gum  Sahn  (Golden  Hills). 

Barometers  of  public  sentiment  in  Chinatown  are  the  sidewalk 
bulletins  before  the  shops  of  its  five  newspapers.  If  the  oblong  strips  of 
Chinese  characters  denote  light  news  of  local  interest,  a  lively  chattering 
ensues;  but  let  the  bulletins  be  of  more  serious  import,  concerned  per- 
haps with  events  in  their  embattled  homeland,  and  silence  settles  over 
the  groups  of  50  or  more,  as  each  man  reads  and  goes  his  way  without 
a  word  of  comment. 

The  one  ancient  festival  in  which  all  Chinatown  is  united  annually 
is  the  Chinese  New  Year,  celebrated — according  to  the  lunar  calendar 
and  the  ancient  philosophy  of  Tung-Fang-So — on  the  first  day  of  the 
new  moon  after  the  sun  enters  the  sign  of  Aquarius  (between  January 
20  and  February  20).  This  is  the  occasion  to  propitiate  the  gods  and 
banish  the  evil  spirits  abroad  each  Yuen  Tan  (New  Year's  Day).  It 
is  also  the  season  for  the  cancellation  of  debts,  during  which  failure  to 
meet  obligations  is  considered  a  confession  of  inability  to  do  so. 

The  first  day  of  the  new  year,  Yuen  Jih  (Day  of  Beginnings),  often 
is  called  the  "Three  Beginnings" — the  start  of  the  year,  of  the  month, 
and  of  the  season.  On  the  eve  of  Yuen  Jih,  joyous  throngs  crowd  the 
streets  of  Chinatpwn.  Gay  lanterns  sway  in  a  blue  haze  of  gunpowder 
smoke;  a  barrage  of  firecrackers  continues  far  into  the  night.  Houses 


CHINATOWN      223 

must  be  cleaned  thoroughly  before  midnight;  then  brooms  are  hidden 
until  dark  of  the  following  day — for  sweeping  during  the  ensuing  day- 
light hours  brushes  all  luck  out  of  the  house  for  the  entire  year.  No 
one  sleeps  on  New  Year's  Eve;  even  the  youngest  children  are  awake 
until  two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Incense  burns  throughout 
the  colony  to  invite  the  good  spirits. 

The  only  food  served  on  this  birthday  of  Confucius  is  gai  gum  choy, 
a  meatless  stew  eaten  after  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  Day  of 
Beginnings,  and  oranges,  which  have  been  arranged  in  perfect  pyramids 
for  days  in  anticipation.  Throughout  New  Year  week  the  children  of 
the  household  will  be  unusually  dutiful,  for  this  is  the  season  of  the  "red 
package."  These  packages,  wrapped  in  red  paper  and  containing  silver 
coins,  all  unmarried  children — regardless  of  age — are  entitled  to  receive 
from  each  visitor  to  the  home. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  new  year,  as  on  the  first,  no  meat  is  served, 
for  this  day  is  dedicated  to  worship  of  Ta'ai  Shen  (God  of  Wealth). 
But  from  the  third  day  onward,  feasting  and  merrymaking  are  un- 
restrained, as  pastries,  sweet  cakes,  and  candies  are  set  out  to  satisfy  the 
proverbial  Kitchen  God  when  he  makes  his  annual  report  on  family 
behavior. 

The  festivities  end  usually  on  the  seventh  day  (Day  of  Human 
Beginnings)  with  the  Dance  of  the  Dragon.  Unless  events  worthy  of 
a  highly  spectacular  celebration  have  occurred  during  the  year,  the  Lion 
of  Buddha  substitutes  for  the  traditional  dragon.  The  lion  requires  but 
two  men  to  operate;  the  dragon,  trailing  innumerable  yards  of  tinsel 
and  colored  silk,  must  be  borne  along  Grant  Avenue  on  the  stooping 
shoulders  of  from  10  to  50  persons.  Since  its  first  appearance  here  in 
1850,  the  dragon  has  been  Chinatown's  official  protector.  Homes  and 
stores  are  decorated  with  green  vegetables  and  red  packages  to  attract 
his  attention,  for  where  he  dances  prosperity  remains  throughout  the 
year.  As  the  glittering  monster  weaves  his  way  from  sidewalk  to  side- 
walk, coins,  wrapped  in  lettuce  leaves  or  red  papers  and  suspended  from 
doors  and  windows  by  strings,  are  snatched  by  an  alert  hand  that  darts 
from  beneath  the  dragon's  gaping  jaws. 

Chinatown  today  is  the  Chinatown  that  was  rebuilt  after  1906;  the 
dim,  narrow  alleys  so  famed  in  melodrama  are  as  safe  now  as  brightly 
lighted  Grant  Avenue.  But  it  occupies  still  little  more  than  the  cramped 
space  in  which  the  Chinese  of  Gold  Rush  days  settled.  The  American 
brig  Eagle,  in  the  spring  of  1848,  brought  San  Francisco's  first  three 
Chinese  immigrants,  two  men  and  a  woman.  Clipper  ships  in  the  China 
trade  during  the  following  decade  brought  25,000  coolies  and  peasants 
from  Kwangtung  Province.  Eager  to  escape  the  famine  succeeding  the 
disastrous  Tai  Ping  rebellion,  and  lured  by  prospects  of  sudden  wealth, 
they  arrived  to  do  the  menial  work  of  the  Gold  Rush.  Though  many 


224      SAN     FRANCISCO 

went  to  the  mines,  the  majority  settled  in  San  Francisco.  Despite  the 
racial  hostility  they  faced,  they  early  became  sellers  of  wares  imported 
from  China,  peddlers  of  fresh  vegetables,  fishermen,  servants,  gamblers, 
and  real  estate  owners. 

As  the  Yankee  first  settlers,  following  the  expanding  water  front  in 
the  1850*5,  moved  down  the  slope  toward  Montgomery  Street,  the 
Chinese  inherited  their  abandoned  locations  adjoining  Portsmouth 
Square.  Because  of  their  value  as  laborers  in  the  boom  years  when 
white  labor  was  at  a  premium,  they  were  allowed  to  entrench  themselves 
in  what  was  known  to  be  an  ideal  residential  district  sheltered  from 
wind  and  fog.  The  growing  commercial  district  below  Kearny  Street 
formed  the  colony's  eastern  barrier;  to  the  north  Pacific  Street's  course 
between  the  Presidio  and  the  water  front  was  a  natural  boundary ;  south 
of  California  Street,  almost  in  the  shadow  of  Old  St.  Mary's  Church, 
was  a  white  demi-monde  dominated  by  French  prostitutes;  along  the 
higher  slope  of  what  is  now  Nob  Hill,  Stockton  Street's  respectable 
residential  quarter  forbade  encroachment  farther  west.  Destroyed  by 
the  successive  conflagrations  of  the  iSso's  and  i86o's,  Chinatown  rose 
repeatedly  on  old  foundations  that  no  sufficient  majority  of  San  Fran- 
ciscans cared  to  reclaim. 

Old  Chinatown  had  neither  the  native  architecture  nor  the  glitter 
of  lights  characteristic  of  its  streets  today.  Dim  lanterns,  hung  on  the 
iron  balconies  of  tenements,  furnished  by  night  the  only  illumination, 
until  gaslights  brought  their  flickering  radiance.  Overcrowding  com- 
pelled the  Chinese  to  enlarge  their  quarters  with  cellars  which  were  to 
add  many  a  legend  to  the  colony's  ill  repute.  Even  before  its  traffic  in 
vice  and  its  tong  wars  reached  the  alarming  proportions  of  the  iSyo's, 
i88o's,  and  1890*5,  Chinatown  was  a  stage  set  for  criminal  drama — a 
place  of  eerie  shadows  and  flitting  figures,  of  blind  alleys  and  obscure 
passageways,  of  quiet  stabbings  and  casual  gunfire. 

Subjected  to  increasing  racial  discrimination,  the  Chinese  inherited 
the  full  measure  of  stigma  that  had  been  visited  only  incidentally  upon 
the  Hounds  and  Sydney  Coves.  When,  during  the  building  of  the 
Central  Pacific  Railroad,  additional  thousands  were  imported  by  the 
Big  Four  to  swell  the  already  unwelcome  horde  of  competitors  with 
white  labor,  "Crocker's  pets"  became  the  objects  of  abuse  throughout 
California.  Dennis  Kearney's  sand-lot  Workingmen's  Party  drove  the 
hapless  orientals  from  factories,  burned  their  laundries,  and  threatened 
their  white  employers  with  violence. 

The  resulting  Chinese  Exclusion  Act  of  1882  made  no  provision, 
however,  for  deportation  of  Chinese  lawfully  within  the  country;  and 
San  Francisco's  "Little  China"  remained  to  outlive  half  a  century  of 
agitation  against  .it.  But  the  exclusion  of  orientals  from  their  former 
respectable  pursuits  made  them  more  than  ever  the  prey  of  criminal 


CHINATOWN       225 

elements.  From  the  bonanza  days  until  1906,  the  district  was  synony- 
mous with  the  Barbary  Coast.  The  two  decades  between  1906  and 
1927  (when  the  last  tong  war  occurred)  were  required  to  eliminate  its 
opium  dens,  its  vice  and  gambling  rackets,  and  its  menace  to  public 
health. 

The  municipal  czardoms  of  "Blind  Chris"  Buckley  and  Abe  Ruef 
subjected  Chinatown  to  domination  by  their  oriental  henchman,  Fong 
Chong — better  known  as  "Little  Pete" — and  his  blackmailing  society, 
Gi  Sin  Seer.  Little  Pete  operated  in  a  Chinatown  where  rival  tongs 
fought  over  the  profits  of  a  vice  traffic  as  old  as  the  colony  itself.  In  its 
most  flourishing  days,  thousands  of  slave  girls  with  bound  feet  were 
crowded  into  brothels  along  Grant  Avenue — then  the  notorious  Dupont 
Street — and  adjacent  alleys.  The  bloodiest  of  the  tong  feuds,  lasting  7 
years  and  costing  60  lives,  was  fought  over  "Lily-Foot"  Wan  Len, 
queen  of  the  slave  girls.  It  was  Little  Pete's  Gi  Sin  Seer  and  a  rival 
outfit  of  similar  hired  assassins,  Bo  Sin  Seer,  which  finally  settled  the 
enmities  of  this  oriental  underworld  and  opened  the  way  for  China- 
town's modern  phase. 

For  his  bribing  activities  in  the  case  of  Lee  Chuck,  one  of  his 
hatchetmen  whose  ready  six-shooter  sent  a  rival  sprawling  in  Spofford 
Alley,  Little  Pete  served  five  years  in  San  Quentin  Penitentiary.  Once 
back  in  his  old  haunts,  he  began  extending  his  activities  beyond  the 
confines  of  Chinatown.  His  gang  cleaned  up  $100,000  in  a  racetrack 
swindle,  which  made  enemies  who  swore  to  get  him  the  instant  he 
should  appear  without  his  usual  bodyguard  of  white  men.  Their  chance 
came  in  January,  1897.  Impatient  to  learn  the  latest  racetrack  results, 
Little  Pete  entered  a  Waverley  Place  barber  shop  without  his  body- 
guard and  paused  to  have  his  forehead  shaved,  his  queue  plaited,  and 
his  ears  cleaned  of  wax.  Then,  "Two  figures  as  swift  and  black  as 
crows  dart  from  nowhere  into  the  doorway.  There  is  a  crackle  of 
sound  like  the  sputtering  of  a  string  of  firecrackers  ushering  in  the  New 
Year:  Little  Pete  falls  forward  in  a  crimson  pool  .  .  ." 

In  true  gangster  tradition,  Little  Pete's  cohorts  attempted  to  give 
him  a  magnificent  funeral.  After  two  hours  of  intricate  last  rites, 
performed  by  four  priests  from  his  favorite  joss  house,  his  casket  was 
placed  in  a  resplendent  hearse  drawn  by  six  black-draped  white  horses. 
Hired  mourners  preceded  the  hearse,  burning  joss  sticks  and  wildly 
beating  the  air  with  uplifted  arms.  From  a  carriage,  four  Chinese 
busily  tossed  out  bits  of  paper  punched  with  square  holes — to  confuse 
the  devils  seeking  to  make  off  with  the  spirit  of  the  departed.  The 
fantastic  cortege,  led  by  a  popular  orchestra  playing  the  funeral  march 
from  Saul,  proceeded  through  streets  lined  with  spectators  to  the  Chinese 
Cemetery  down  the  Peninsula.  Here  a  mob  of  onlookers — not  hood- 
lums, but  respectable  San  Franciscans  indignant  over  losing  bets  on  race 


226      SAN     FRANCISCO 

horses  doped  by  Pete's  henchmen — greeted  priests  and  mourners  with 
hoots  and  clods  of  earth.  The  Chinese  were  compelled  to  haul  the  coffin 
back  to  the  city  where,  at  the  old  Chinese  cemetery  Little  Pete's  remains 
were  interred  pending  arrangements  for  shipment  to  China.  The 
wagonloads  of  roast  pig,  duck,  cakes,  tea,  and  gin  left  beside  the  grave 
were  guzzled  by  the  crowd  of  white  onlookers. 

The  Chinatown  of  Little  Pete  and  his  rival  tongs  was  the  China- 
town that  shared  with  the  Barbary  Coast  a  worldwide  notoriety.  But 
always  there  was  the  sober,  industrious  Chinatown  of  respectable  mer- 
chants and  hard-working  coolies ;  of  ancient  native  customs  and  religion ; 
and  of  traditional  family  life.  Quietly  this  larger  element  was  accumu- 
lating wealth,  gradually  co-operating  with  the  Protestant  and  Catholic 
missions,  and — after  1906 — with  the  city's  police.  When  it  became 
necessary  to  erect  the  new  Chinatown  upon  the  charred  foundations  of 
the  old,  Chinese  capital  and  enterprise  accomplished  the  task  promptly 
and  with  good  taste.  The  colony's  southern  boundary  was  extended  to 
Bush  Street,  claiming  the  block  now  occupied  by  St.  Mary's  Square. 

The  last  three  decades  have  seen  varieus  improvements  on  the  dis- 
trict's sudden  reconstruction  after  1906.  But  not  until  recent  years  has 
its  past — assiduously  kept  alive  by  pulp  magazines  and  newspaper  supple- 
ments— been  lived  down.  Naive  visitors  still  expect  to  be  shown  opium 
dens  and  underground  passages.  The  new  Chinatown,  alert  and  pro- 
gressive, is  without  nostalgia  for  its  long  era  of  dirt  and  crime.  The 
second  largest  Chinese  settlement  outside  the  mother  country  ( Singapore 
has  the  largest),  it  prefers  its  modern  role  as  meeting  place  of  East  and 
West. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

103.  The  red-brick  KONG  CHOW  TEMPLE  (suggested  visiting 
hours  6-10  p.m.),  520  Pine  St.,  is  entered  through  bright  red  doors 
opening  onto  the  Passageway  of  Peace,  a  bare  corridor  ending  in  a  blank 
wall — protection  against  evil  spirits,  who  travel  only  in  straight  lines. 
From  an  inner  courtyard,  stairs  lead  to  the  third-floor  sanctuary,  just 
beneath  the  green  double-tiered  oriental  roof — for  worship  of  the  an- 
cestral gods  permits  nothing  more  created  by  human  hands  to  be  above 
the  deities.  Decorating  the* room  are  richly  brocaded  silken  hangings 
and,  extending  its  full  breadth,  hand-made  wood  carvings  bearing 
stories  of  the  Six  Dynasties  (589-317  B.C.)  ;  the  upper  part  of  one,  a 
priceless,  glass-enclosed  work,  depicts  scenes  from  the  Court  of  the 
Dragon  King.  From  the  articles  of  divination  in  the  temple,  religious 
Chinese  determine  those  days  auspicious  for  instituting  business  ventures 
and  trips.  Strips  of  red  paper  in  the  temple  anteroom  record  the 
amounts  of  recent  contributions — heavily  swelled  on  such  special  occa- 


CHINATOWN      227 

sions  as  the  Day  for  Sweeping  the  Graves  and  the  Feast  Day  to 
Quan  Ti. 

Pioneer  Chinese  from  the  district  of  Kong  Chow  first  established 
their  temple  locally  in  1857;  arter  tne  buildings  of  the  Kong  Chow 
Association  (one  of  the  Chinese  Six  Companies)  were  dynamited  to 
check  the  fire  of  1906,  they  rebuilt  their  joss  house  here.  Rescued  from 
the  doomed  temple  was  the  figure  of  Kuan  Ti,  patron  deity  and  head 
of  the  17  gods  and  goddesses  of  the  temple,  now  enthroned  in  the 
reconstructed  shrine. 

104.  Where  the  soft  crunch  of  gravel  underfoot  or  the  snores  of  a 
drowsing  panhandler  disturbs  the  quiet  of  green-terraced  ST.  MARY'S 
SQUARE,  Pine,  Anne,  and  California  Sts.,  the  raucous  solicitations  of 
the  inmates  of  brothels  once  mingled  with  the  bark  of  rifles  in  shooting 
galleries  below,  and  American  and  British  sailors  met  periodically  for 
bouts  and  brawls.  But  the  little  park  was  not  always  so  bawdy.  In 
the  iSgo's,  the  women  of  San  Francisco  petitioned  the  city,  and  the 
prostitutes  were  removed  from  Dupont  Street  (Grant  Avenue)  to  the 
comparative  isolation  of  the  square  (hidden  from  Dupont  by  a  row  of 
business  establishments,  as  it  is  today).  Here  they  remained  for  several 
years  to  distress  the  Paulist  Fathers  of  Old  St.  Mary's,  who  faced  them 
across  California  Street.  In  1898,  the  Fathers  organized  the  St.  Mary's 
Association,  whose  purpose  was  to  remove  the  bagnios  and  have  the  area 
set  aside  as  a  park.  Between  1898  and  1904,  money  was  appropriated 
on  more  than  one  occasion  to  buy  the  property  for  the  city,  but  each 
time  County  Treasurer  Sam  Brooke  used  it  for  other  purposes.  A  series 
of  lawsuits  resulted  in  the  decision  in  1904  that  taxes  should  be  levied  to 
make  the  necessary  purchases;  but,  before  this  was  done,  the  fire  of 
1906  wiped  out  the  offending  red  light  area.  A  step  in  replanning  the 
city  was  the  creation  of  the  present  park. 

From  the  high  western  slope  of  the  square  a  STATUE  OF  SUN 
YAT-SEN  faces  the  East  toward  China.  The  1 2-foot  figure,  with  head 
and  hands  of  rose-red  granite,  wearing  a  long  robe  of  bright  stain- 
less steel,  was  created  by  sculptor  Beniamino  Bufano  under  the  sponsor- 
ship of  the  WPA's  Northern  California  Art  Project  (formerly  the 
Federal  Art  Project).  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen  (1866-1925),  organizer  of  the 
Kuomintang — whose  local  branch  supplied  materials  for  the  memorial — 
visited  San  Francisco  on  several  occasions.  China's  present  (1940) 
president,  Lin  Sen,  in  1937  wrote  the  words  that  appear  on  the  steel 
disc  in  the  granite  base  of  the  monument:  "Father  of  the  Chinese 
Republic  and  First  President  .  .  .  Champion  of  Democracy  .  .  .  Pro- 
ponent of  Peace  and  Friendship  Among  Nations  .  .  ." 


228      SAN     FRANCISCO 

N.  from  Pine  St.  on  Anne  St.  to  California  St.;  W .  on  California. 

105.  The  construction  of  OLD  ST.  MARY'S  CHURCH,  NE. 
corner  Grant  Ave.  and  California  St.,  was  inaugurated  in    1853   by 
Archbishop  Joseph  Sadoc  Alemany,  and  at  midnight  Mass  on  Christmas 
Day,  1854,  the  edifice  was  dedicated  as  the  cathedral  seat  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  diocese  of  the  Pacific  Coast.     Until  completion  of  St.  Mary's 
Cathedral  in  1894,  Old  St.  Mary's  remained  the  most  powerful  strong- 
hold of  Catholicism  in  California  and  Nevada.     Respected  for  its  rich 
tradition  and  the  simple  dignity  of  its  services,  this  stately  old  structure 
for  the  last  45  years  has  been  the  parish  church  of  the  Paulist  Fathers. 

Old  St.  Mary's  stands  on  land  donated  by  pioneer  banker  John 
Sullivan,  whose  wife  (Catherine  Farrell  Sullivan)  lies  buried  in  the 
crypt  of  the  church.  Architects  Crane  and  England  are  thought  to  have 
modeled  the  purely  Gothic  structure  after  a  church  in  the  Spanish  birth- 
place of  Archbishop  Alemany.  Its  red  brick  and  ironwork  was  shipped 
around  the  Horn;  granite  brought  from  China  was  hoisted  into  place 
with  improvised  wooden  derricks  by  Chinese  workmen.  The  two  large 
clocks  in  the  9O-foot-high  square  Gothic  tower  were  long  the  community 
timepieces  of  early  San  Franciscans.  Beneath  the  frontal  dial  still 
appear  the  gold  letters  on  black  bronze,  whose  warning  was  intended  to 
put  the  fear  of  God  into  the  roisterers  of  Dupont  Street:  "Son  Observe 
the  Time  and  Fly  from  Evil."  As  early  as  1855,  an  angry  corre.- 
spondent  to  the  Alta  California  made  irreverent  protest  against  the 
booming  bell  of  Old  St.  Mary's:  "Those  who  want  their  sins  washed 
off  by  those  daily  ablutions  may  as  well  be  aroused  by  their  own  con- 
sciences, without  annoying  the  whole  neighborhood." 

Completely  gutted  by  the  fire  of  1906,  the  interior  of  the  church 
was  rebuilt  on  its  original  plan.  In  January,  1929,  the  basement  was 
remodeled  to  form  a  modern  auditorium,  Paulist  Hall ;  two  months 
later  a  five-story  structure  adjoining  St.  Mary's  on  the  north  was  razed 
and  the  church  building  extended  to  its  present  length  of  153  feet.  This 
latter  wing,  which  maintains  the  architectural  features  of  the  original 
(Edward  A.  Eames,  architect),  houses  the  PAULIST  CIRCULATING 
LIBRARY  (open  weekdays  n-6,  Sun.  10:30-1:30). 

Each  night  for  more  than  a  decade,  a  long  line  of  needy  migrants 
has  waited  patiently  at  the  side  entrance  to  Old  St.  Mary's  for  the  food 
and  lodging  tickets  supplied  them  by  the  Paulist  Fathers. 

N.  from  California  St.  on  Grant  Ave.  to  Sacramento  St.;  E.  on  Sacra- 
mento. 

106.  The  NOM  KU  SCHOOL  (open  5-8  p.m.},  765  Sacramento 
St.,  for  children  between  the  ages  of  6  and  15,  supplements  the  public 


CHINATOWN      229 

school  curriculum,  offering  a  purely  cultural  program  designed  to  foster 
Chinese  traditions  and  customs  in  American-born  Chinese.  No  com- 
mercial subject  is  taught;  emphasis  is  placed  on  Chinese  language, 
calligraphy,  literature,  history,  and  philosophy  (particularly  that  of 
Confucius). 

Built  in  1912  by  a  group  of  wealthy  Chinese,  the  school  building 
follows  the  official  courthouse  design  of  China.  A  pair  of  sacred  lions 
guard  the  set-back  upper  story.  High,  narrow  windows  in  many  small 
panels  give  myriad  light  reflections  to  the  interior,  whose  simple  teak- 
wood  furnishings  are  relieved  by  the  lavish  use  of  decorative  colors: 
vivid  green,  yellow,  red,  and  turquoise. 

107.  More  than  its  name  implies  is  the  CHINESE  CHAMBER 
OF  COMMERCE    (open  Mon.-Fri.   10-5,  Sat.   10-12),   730  Sacra- 
mento St.,  the  only  organization  of  its  kind  when  established  in  the 
i88o's.     In  addition  to  fostering  Chinese  business  and  commerce,  the 
organization  aids  in   solving  the  housing  problem   of   Chinese  in   San 
Francisco;  enlightens  its  countrymen  on  legal  matters;  and  aids  in  the 
liquidation  of  bankruptcies  of  Chinese  merchants  by  negotiation  rather 
than  by  court  procedure. 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  has  assumed  commercial  arbitration 
over  matters  once  handled  by  the  Chinese  Six  Companies,  settling  dis- 
putes among  merchants  and  members  of  their  families,  and — rarely — • 
among  trade  organizations  (such  as  the  Jewelry  Guild  or  Laundry 
Workers  Association).  Since  establishment  of  a  similar  chamber  in 
New  York  in  1910,  this  bureau  no  longer  serves  Chinese  throughout 
the  United  States.  Executive  Secretary  Chee  Lowe,  educated  at  San 
Francisco  public  schools  and  the  University  of  California,  worked  for 
20  years  as  a  mining  engineer  in  China,  and  returned  to  San  Francisco 
in  1938. 

Retrace  on  Sacramento  St. 

1 08.  Outwardly  occidental  are  the  businesslike  offices  of  the  KUO- 
MINTANG  HEADQUARTERS  IN  AMERICA  (open  10-12,  2-4), 
827  Sacramento  St.,  from  which  are  supervised  the  activities  of  the  3 
regional  and  50  branch  offices  of  the  Chinese  Nationalist  Party  in  the 
United  States.     The  San  Francisco  headquarters  was  the  second  estab- 
lished outside  China   (the  first  was  in  Honolulu).     Party  activities  in 
this  country  (according  to  National  Chairman  Dr.  K.  D.  Lum)  consist 
of  establishing  good  will  between  the  people  of  the  United  States  and 
the  people  of  China  and  sponsoring  the  spread  of  the  democratic  idea  by 
following  the   principles  laid   down   by   Sun  Yat-sen.     The  Western 
Regional  Office  of  the  Kuomintang,  with  jurisdiction  over  branches  in 


23O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

California,  Nevada,  and  Utah,  also  is  located  in  San  Francisco   (846 
Stockton  St.). 

The  party  publishes  two  Chinese-language  newspapers  in  the  city: 
The  Chinese  Nationalist  Daily  (809  Sacramento  St.)  and  the  Young 
China  (88 1  Clay  St.),  founded  by  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen. 

109.  The    irregular    series    of    rectangular    terraces    forming    the 
CHINESE  CHILDREN'S  PLAYGROUND  (open  weekdays  10-10; 
play  apparatus),  Sacramento  St.  between  Waverly  PI.  and  Stockton  St., 
are  walled  by  the  dark  brick  of  surrounding  buildings.    Brightly  lighted 
at  night,  the  playground  is  the  occasional  scene  of  evening  entertainment 
and  concerts  (on  gala  occasions  the  children  wear  their  native  dress). 
The  upturned  cornices  of  the  small  pagoda-like  stucco  clubhouse  are 
brightly  painted. 

N.  from  Sacramento  St.  on  Stockton  St. 

1 10.  The     CHINESE     CONSOLIDATED     BENEVOLENT 
ASSOCIATION  (open  to  visitors  1-5),  843  Stockton  St.,  also  called 
the  Chung  Wan  Wui  Goon  and  the  China  Association,  is  best  known 
as  the  Chinese  Six  Companies — despite  the  fact  that  it  long  has  repre- 
sented seven  companies.     These  seven  associations,  each  representing  a 
province  or  district  of  old  China,  are  the  Kong  Chow,  Ning  Yung,  Sam 
Yup,  Sue  Hing,  Yan  Wo,  Yeung  Wo,  and  the  Hop  Wo — formed  when 
so  many  persons  had  come  from  one  district  that  it  was  advisable  to 
make  two  companies  of  one.      (The  Chinese  system  of  organization 
follows  three  lines:  family — of  which  there  are  about  100;  geographical 
— hence  the  7  associations  listed  above;  and  fraternal — the  tongs,  of 
which  there  are  about  40,  composed  of  people  with  common  interests, 
such  as  trades.) 

With  Nation-wide  jurisdiction,  the  Six  Companies  functions  as  a 
board  of  arbitration,  settling  disputes  among  organizations  and  indi- 
viduals. Chinatown's  civic  activities,  such  as  the  annual  Community 
Chest  drive  and  Rice  Bowl  parties,  are  under  its  management.  It  assists 
in  maintaining  the  Chinese  Hospital  and  Chinese  schools.  A  particu- 
larly important  function  is  its  supervision  of  the  removal  of  the  bones  of 
Chinese  dead  from  American  cemeteries  to  China  for  reburial  or  reposi- 
tory in  shrines. 

The  Six  Companies  at  one  time  engaged  in  commercial  activities — 
such  as  the  importation  of  bonded  Chinese  laborers — but  is  today  a  non- 
profit organization  supported  by  popular  subscription,  special  taxes,  and 
the  income  from  its  properties.  From  among  its  officers  (representatives 
of  the  seven  associations  named  above)  a  new  president  is  elected  every 
three  months.  The  brief  presidential  term  is  designed  to  prevent  the 
acquisition  of  undue  power  or  influence  by  any  one  officer. 


CHINATOWN      231 

The  organization  occupies  a  three-story  stuccoed  building  roofed 
with  red  tile.  White  marble  steps  lead  to  a  first-floor  veranda  guarded 
by  giant  Chinese  lanterns.  Contrasting  with  the  facade  of  sky-blue  tile 
are  green-  and  gold-trimmed  balconies  opening  onto  the  second  and 
third  floors.  The  interior  is  sumptuously  furnished  in  the  Chinese  motif, 
from  the  large  main-floor  meeting  hall  to  the  rooms  and  offices  of  the 
upper  floors. 

in.  A  pioneer  of  Protestant  faith  in  Chinatown  is  the  CHINESE 
PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  925  Stockton  St.,  founded  in  1853. 
The  present  building  was  erected  after  the  1906  fire  upon  the  ruins  of 
the  original  structure.  The  simple,  uncarpeted  interior  resembles  that 
of  a  country  church,  with  its  rough,  beamed  ceilings,  its  long  pews,  and 
the  rows  of  chairs  behind  the  pulpit;  yet  its  atmosphere  is  that  of  the 
Orient.  Three  red  velvet  panels  behind  the  rostrum  carry  inscriptions, 
in  gold  Chinese  characters,  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  the  Beatitudes. 

The  Chinese  Presbyterian  Church,  in  1854,  published  San  Fran- 
cisco's first  Chinese  and  English  newspaper  (probably  the  first  in  the 
United  States),  The  Oriental,  which  is  said  to  have  done  much  to 
counteract  the  local  hostility  between  Chinese  and  the  white  race  during 
its  two-year  existence.  A  copy  of  the  paper  is  preserved  in  the  Presby- 
terian Theological  Seminary  at  San  Anselmo.  The  church  conducts 
day  and  evening  classes  in  English  for  Chinese  of  all  ages. 

W .  from  Stockton  St.  on  Washington  St.  to   W etmore  St.;  S.  from 
Washington  on  W  etmore. 

112.  Today's     CHINESE      (PRESBYTERIAN)      MISSION 
HOME,   144  Wetmore  St.,  occupying  a  small  double  flat — home  of 
a  staff  of  Chinese  girls — is  far  removed  from  the  busy  mission  that 
moved  to  larger  quarters  four  times  after  its  establishment  in  1874.     In 
1894,  a  building  was  erected  at  920  Sacramento  Street  to  house  the 
crowded  home.     The  following  year  its  management  was  assumed  by 
Donaldina  Cameron,  who  became  "Lo   Mo"    (The   Mother)    to  the 
scores  of  Chinese  girls  she  rescued  from  slave  operators.     Long  before 
her  retirement  at  the  age  of  70,  Miss  Cameron  had  achieved  an  inter- 
national reputation.    The  mission  moved  to  its  present  quarters  in  1939. 

Retrace  on  Wetmore  St.  to  Washington  St.;  retrace  on  Washington  to 
Trenton  St.;  N.  on  Trenton. 

113.  The  CHINESE  HOSPITAL,  SE.  corner  Trenton  and  Jack- 
son Sts.,  built  in  1924  by  public  subscription  by  and  for  the  residents  of 
Chinatown,  occupies  a  four-story,  many-windowed  gray  concrete  build- 


232       SAN     FRANCISCO 

ing,  decorated  by  ornamental  iron  grill  work  and  topped  by  a  large 
sunroom.  Chinatown  continues  to  support  its  little  58-bed  hospital, 
aided  only  by  the  Community  Chest,  while  white  patients  in  increasing 
numbers  take  advantage  of  its  reasonable  rates — low  in  comparison  to 
those  of  other  modern  hospitals  of  the  same  standing.  The  institution 
consists,  in  addition  to  its  general  medical  department  and  surgery,  of 
emergency  and  maternity  wards;  an  eye,  ear,  nose  and  throat  depart- 
ment; and  a  clinic  with  in-  and  out-patient  departments.  It  is  staffed 
by  both  Chinese  and  white  employees  and  officials. 

Retrace  on  Trenton  St.  to  Washington  St.;  E.  on  Washington. 

114.  What  is  now  OLD  CHINATOWN  LANE,  extending  a 
half-block  northward  from  its  entrance  near  868  Washington  Street — 
a  narrow  paved  thoroughfare  of  bazaars  and  shops  characteristic  of 
Chinatown — was  once  the  "Street  of  the  Gamblers,"  a  crowded  little 
lane  notorious  for  its  gaming  rooms  and  brothels.  Later,  it  became 
Cameron  Alley  (honoring  Donaldina  Cameron)  and  kept  this  name 
until  1939,  when,  oddly  enough,  its  dingy  tenements  were  modernized 
to  resemble  the  untouched  Chinatown  of  a  generation  ago. 

At  the  street's  entrance  stands  a  4O-foot  edifice  embodying  a  watch 
tower,  in  authentic  design,  such  as  guards  temple  or  palace  gates  and 
public  grounds  in  China.  The  alleyway  is  decorated  with  bright  Chi- 
nese lanterns,  flowers,  and  shrubs.  Among  its  shops  is  THE  PAVILION 
OF  THE  SEVEN  MAIDENS.  Here,  beyond  a  store  offering  oriental 
handcraft,  is  the  first  women's  temple  in  the  United  States,  dedicated  to 
the  Queen  of  Heaven  (T'ien  Hou)  and  watched  over  by  the  goddess  of 
mercy.  The  legend  of  the  temple  is  the  story  of  a  lovely  goddess,  who 
fell  in  love  with  a  shepherd.  She  was  allowed  to  marry  him  but,  as 
punishment,  was  permitted  to  join  him  only  on  the  seventh  day  of  the 
seventh  moon,  at  which  time  magpies  formed  a  bridge  with  their  wings 
that  the  goddess  might  descend.  One  of  the  tapestries  in  the  temple 
depicts  the  goddess  in  the  act  of  descending  thus  to  meet  her  waiting 
lover. 

In  the  CHINGWAH  LEE  ART  STUDIO  (12  m.  to  12  p.m.),  reached  by 
a  narrow  stairway  at  the  far  end  of  the  lane,  are  exhibited  a  rare  collec- 
tion of  porcelain,  bronzes,  ancient  snuff  bottles,  paintings^  ancient 
weapons  of  warfare,  and  a  large  collection  of  Chinese  gods  (many  from 
temples  formerly  situated  in  towns  and  camps  throughout  California, 
which  eventually  will  be  housed  in  a  new  temple). 

Extending  from  the  north  end  of  Old  Chinatown  Lane  westward  to 
Stockton  Street  is  the  STREET  OF  THE  LITTLE  '  BAZAARS,  an  indoor 
passage  whose  model  was  a  street  of  old  China.  Midway  in  it  is  a  wish- 
ing well  surrounded  by  a  small  garden. 


CHINATOWN      233 

S.  from  Washington  St.  on  Waverly  PL 

115.  The  main  floor  of  the  four-story,  yellow-brick  building  housing 
the  TIN  HOW  TEMPLE  (suggested  visiting  hours  6-10  p.m.},  125 
Waverly  PL,  is  occupied  by  the  Sue  King  Benevolent  Association,  by 
whom   the   temple   is  maintained.      Maroon-colored   balconies   run   the 
length  of  the  three  upper  floors.     A  wrought-iron  gate  on  the  top  floor 
(summon  attendant  by  bell]  guards  the  temple  of  T'ien  Hou,  Queen  of 
the  Heavens  and  Goddess  of  the  Seven  Seas. 

It  is  believed  by  many  Chinese  that  one  of  the  present  altars  was 
brought  to  San  Francisco  in  1848,  by  one  of  the  few  Chinese  who 
arrived  that  year,  transferred  from  a  sailing  vessel  to  a  house  at  First 
and  Brannan  Streets,  and  later  moved  to  Waverly  Place.  When  a 
larger  temple  erected  in  1875  was  ravaged  by  the  flames  of  1906,  the 
altar  and  the  goddess  T'ien  Hou  were  removed  temporarily  to  Oakland. 
The  following  year,  workmen  excavating  for  the  basement  of  the  present 
building  discovered  the  great  temple  bell,  and  it  too  was  reinstalled. 

The  main  altar  of  the  temple  presents  an  intricate  carving  repre- 
senting the  life  story  of  Confucius.  To  the  left  of  T'ien  Hou  sits  Moi 
Dii,  god  of  military  affairs,  and  Ni-Lung,  one  of  the  goddesses  of 
motherhood.  In  front  of  T'ien  Hou  are  three  massive  bronze  urns 
containing  prayer  sticks  and  a  tiny  altar  light,  which  is  never  permitted 
to  burn  out.  Along  the  walls  are  16  ceremonial  wands,  resembling 
ancient  Chinese  battle-axes,  used  in  early  times  as  implements  of  war- 
fare against  evil  spirits.  With  the  altar,  set  in  the  center  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, are  two  urns  inlaid  with  Cantonese  enamel  and  precious  stones; 
their  designs  depict  scenes  from  the  life  and  work  of  Confucius,  whose 
teachings  are  especially  revered,  although  Buddhism  and  Taoism  are 
also  represented. 

Retrace  on  Waverly  PL;  E.  on  Washington  St. 

1 1 6.  A  pagoda-like,  green-fronted,  little  one-story  structure  houses 
the  CHINESE  TELEPHONE  EXCHANGE,  743  Washington  St., 
only  exchange  of  its  kind  outside  China.    The  interior  is  elaborate  with 
gilt   and   wood   carvings;   dragons   in    bas    relief    decorate    the   ceiling. 
Intricately  carved  grillwork  screens  shield  the  20  girls  operators  from 
observation.     Some  of  the  present   (1940)  operators  are  descendants  of 
the  men  who  handled  the  original  exchange  in  1894;  unusual  memories 
are  required  of  them,  since  the  2,100  subscribers  include  many  who  insist 
upon  asking  for  one  another  by  name  rather  than  by  number. 

The  exchange  stands  on  the  SITE  OF  THE  CALIFORNIA  STAR.  Here 
Sam  Brannan,  renegade  Mormon  and  organizer  of  the  first  Vigilance 


234      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Committee,    published    the    California   Star,    first    newspaper    in    San 
Francisco. 


Retrace  on  Washington  St.  to  Grant  Ave.;  N.  on  Grant. 

117.  Guiding  the   destiny   of   the   ORIENTAL   BRANCH    OF 
THE  BANK  OF  AMERICA  (open  Mon.-Fri.  9-3,  Sat.  9-7),  939 
Grant  Ave.,  are  its  California-born  manager,  Dorothy  Gee,  and  eight 
Chinese  women  department  heads.     (Only  one  other  bank  in  the  world, 
in  Shanghai,  is  operated  entirely  by  women.)     The  branch  is  proud  of 
an  unusual  record:  not  a  single  loan  defaulted  during  the  entire  period 
of  the  depression. 

The  establishment  occupies  the  ground  floor  of  a  four-story  yellow- 
brick  building.  The  facade  is  enlivened  by  black  and  red  marble,  the 
windows  bordered  with  carved  black  teak.  Customers'  desks  in  the 
lobby — some  of  which  are  of  teakwood — are  supplied  with  the  abacus, 
still  used  for  mathematical  calculations  by  many  of  the  branch's  9,000 
depositors. 

E.  from  Grant  Ave.  on  Jackson  St. 

1 1 8.  Motion  pictures  made  both  in  Hollywood  and  China  (Chinese 
films  predominate)  have  been  shown  at  the  GREAT  CHINA  THEA- 
TER (open  7-12  p.m.,  adm.  J5^),  636  Jackson  St.,  since  it  abandoned 
legitimate  productions  in   1938.     In  the  small  ornate  foyer — orange- 
fronted  and  covered  by  a  blue  ceiling  dotted  with  gilt  stars — stills  of 
Chinese  cinema  stars  are  displayed  beside  scenes  from  such  attractions  as 
"Ray  'Crash'  Corrigan  in  Part  3  of  Undersea  Kingdom."    The  names 
of  current  attractions,  in  Chinese  characters  on  cheap  wrapping  paper, 
are  elaborately  framed  with  floral  designs. 

Retrace  on  Jackson  St.  to  Grant  Ave.;  N.  on  Grant. 

119.  Everyone  is  a  first-nighter  at  the  MANDARIN  THEATER 
(open  7:J0  p.m.- 12: 30  a.m.;  adm.  25^-50$),  for  the  play  changes  each 
evening.    With  few  props  and  little  scenery,  the  native  dramas  seem  to 
flow  on  endlessly,  while  the  orchestra  (seated  onstage  out  of  range  of 
the  play)  and  the  audience  consume  melon  seeds,  ice  cream,  and  "pop." 
For  late   arrivals,   the   programs  carry   detailed   synopses  of   the   play. 
The  actors  are  unperturbed  by  the  antics  of  children  scampering  up  and 
down  the  aisles  or  by  the  intrusion  of  prop  men,  who  casually  walk  off 
and  on  supplying  needed  properties — often  by  placing  a  table  between 
two  bamboo  stools  to  form  a  bridge,  over  which  the  actor  walks  sedately 


CHINATOWN      235 

to   meet   his   foe   in   the   dramatic   sword   fight   that   highlights   every 
performance. 

Only  within  late  years  were  curtains  introduced  into  Chinatown's 
legitimate  theaters.  These  usually  were  supplied  by  some  Chinese 
manufacturer,  who  devised  this  method  of  advertising  local  wares  to  a 
foreign  public.  The  following  notice  recently  appeared  on  the  rather 
gaudy  drapery  of  the  Mandarin's  proscenium: 

"Heart  Brand  Disease  Solution  Dependable  for  curing  all 
kinds  of  Skin  Disease.  'The  Wai  Shang  Yuk  Ching'  Tonic  Juice. 
Safely  and  Highly  recommended  for  nourishing  the  Blood  and 
Brain. 

Aukah   Chuen        Canton,    China." 


Latin  Quarter: 
Telegraph  Hill  and  North  Beach 

"The  city  is  full  of  bold  hills,  rising  steeply  from  the  deep 
water.  The  air  is  keen  and  dry  and  bright  like  the  air  of  Greece 
and  the  waters  not  less  blue  .  .  .  recalling  the  cities  of  the  Medi- 
terranean .  .  " 

— JAMES,   VISCOUNT  BRYCE 

BETWEEN  the  two  steep  hills  that  loom  abruptly  from  the 
Peninsula's  northeastern  bulge — on  the  east,  Telegraph  Hill; 
on  the  west,  Russian  Hill — ringed  with  their  tiers  of  buildings, 
a  narrow  valley  runs  northwestward  from  the  fringes  of  the  financial 
district  to  the  water  front  of  North  Beach.  Along  its  bottom  cuts  the 
diagonal  of  Columbus  Avenue,  which  begins  among  the  clustering  shops, 
cafes,  and  night  clubs  at  the  southern  base  of  Telegraph  Hill  and  ends 
among  the  gasworks,  warehouses,  and  smokestacks  at  the  northern  base 
of  Russian  Hill.  Up  from  this  traffic-crowded  artery,  where  stucco- 
fronted  commercial  buildings  with  their  awnings  and  signboards  string 
in  long  rows,  climb  endless  blocks  of  weathered  frame  flats,  staggered — 
step-like — one  above  another.  Here  and  there  a  round-bellied  window, 
a  red-tiled  roof,  a  patch  of  green  garden  breaks  the  monotony  of  their 
ranks.  In  the  salt-fresh,  sun-baked  air  of  a  clear  day,  each  building 
stands  out  sharply,  tarnished  with  a  mellow  patina  of  sun,  fog,  and 
soot.  Seen  in  such  weather,  under  a  hot  blue  sky,  the  district  is 
reminiscent  of  some  Mediterranean  seaside  village  spilling  to  the  water 
from  steep  heights.  And  seen  when  the  billowing  mists  of  a  smoky 
twilight  stream  down  the  slopes,  it  has  the  look  of  a  sprawling  hillside 
town  of  northern  Italy. 

Whether  imagined  or  actual,  such  resemblances  could  not  have 
failed  to  suggest  themselves  to  San  Franciscans  who  know  that  this  is 
San  Francisco's  "Little  Italy."  It  could  only  have  been  an  imagined 
resemblance  that  prompted  Ernest  Peixotto's  often-quoted  remark:  "If 
you  want  to  behold  a  bit  of  the  Bay  of  Naples,  go  some  misty  morning 
to  Fisherman's  Wharf."  To  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  the  district  was 
"Little  Italy  ...  a  favorite  haunt  of  mine  .  .  ."  In  his  time,  too,  it 
was  called  "Little  Mexico"  (a  part  of  it  still  is  Mexican).  And  it 
might  once  haye  been  named  "Little  Ireland,"  for  as  Wallace  Irwin 
wrote  of  "Telygraft  Hill": 

236 


LATIN     QUARTER      237 

"The  Irish  they  live  on  the  top  av  it, 

And  th'  Dagoes  they  live  on  th'  base  av  it, 
And  th'  goats  and  th'  chicks  and  th'  brickbats  and  shticks 
Is  joombled   all  over  th'  face   av  it  .  .  ." 

Through  the  years,  the  face  of  hill  and  beach  have  changed  almost 
beyond  recognition,  but  since  the  town's  beginnings  the  steep  slopes  of 
these  northeastern  limits  have  been  peopled  with  a  many-tongued  foreign 
colony.  And  like  Latin  Quarters  everywhere,  the  district  came  in  the 
end  to  be  the  traditional  haunt  of  bohemia. 

The  visitor  who  boards  a  streetcar  for  North  Beach  will  no  more 
find  an  ocean  beach  at  the  end  of  the  line  than  will  the  pedestrian  who 
toils  up  Telegraph  Hill  find  a  telegraph  station  at  the  end  of  his  climb. 
The  beach  along  which  bathhouses  clustered — in  the  days  when  the 
famous  wharf  built  by  "Honest  Harry"  Meiggs  in  1853  still  extended 
into  the  Bay  from  the  foot  of  Powell  Street — was  buried  more  than 
half  a  century  ago  when  tons  of  earth  were  dumped  into  the  water,  out 
as  far  as  the  sea  wall  extending  along  the  present  water  front,  finished 
in  1 88 1.  And  long  since  vanished  is  that  telegraph  station  on  the 
summit  of  the  hill  which  was  a  city  landmark  for  decades  after  it  was 
connected  by  wire  in  1853  with  a  lookout  station  at  Point  Lobos.  The 
station  replaced  the  still  older  semaphore  of  which  Bret  Harte  wrote  in 
"The  Man  at  the  Semaphore":  ".  .  .  on  the  extremest  point  of  the 
sandy  peninsula,  where  the  bay  of  San  Francisco  debouches  into  the 
Pacific,  there  stood  a  semaphore  telegraph  ...  it  signified  to  another 
semaphore  farther  inland  the  'rigs'  of  incoming  vessels,  by  certain  un- 
couth signs,  which  were  passed  on  to  Telegraph  Hill,  San  Fraincisco, 
where  they  reappeared  on  a  third  semaphore  .  .  .  and  on  certain  days 
of  the  month  every  eye  was  turned  to  welcome  those  gaunt  arms  widely 
extended  at  right  angles  which  meant  'side-wheel  steamer'  (the  only 
steamer  which  carried  the  mails)  and  'letters  from  home.'  ': 

The  road  to  the  Presidio,  which  wound  over  Telegraph  Hill's 
western  shoulders  and  past  North  Beach,  was  a  track  through  unsettled 
wilds  until  the  later  i85o's.  For  years  the  only  house  between  Yerba 
Buena  and  the  Presidio  was  the  hospitable  adobe  which  Juana  Briones 
built  in  1836  near  the  hill's  western  base,  at  what  is  now  the  inter- 
section of  Powell  and  Filbert  Streets.  In  the  shelter  of  that  Loma  Alta 
(high  hill)  of  the  Spanish  discoverers,  the  buxom  dark-featured  widow 
of  Apolinario  Miranda  supplied  milk  and  green  vegetables  to  visiting 
ship's  crews,  administered  to  the  sick,  and  sheltered  an  occasional  refugee 
from  the  wretchedness  of  life  before  the  mast.  The  travelers  of  the 
iSso's  found  the  "old  Presidio  road  .  .  .  neither  safe  nor  pleasant," 
recalled  pioneers  T.  A.  Barry  and  B.  A.  Patten.  "The  hard  adobe  soil 
in  summer  was  like  stone,  and  in  the  rainy  season  gummy,  sticky  and 
disagreeable.  The  steep,  shelving,  uneven  way  [made]  the  carriage  per- 


238      SAN     FRANCISCO 

petually  seem  as  if  it  were  just  toppling  over.  .  .  .  Like  all  primitive 
roads,  it  wound  up  over  the  highest,  most  toilsome  way,  past  cattle-pens, 
corrals,  brick-yards  and  butcher's  shambles,  the  ground  all  the  way 
looking  as  baked  and  hard  as  slag  or  adamant,  with  no  sign  of 
vegetation  .  .  ." 

Around  Telegraph  Hill's  southern  slopes — no  more  than  a  stone's 
throw  from  the  town's  first  landing  place  at  Clarke's  Point — congre- 
gated in  1849  exiles  from  Australia's  penal  colonies  in  a  district  of  grog 
shops,  brothels,  and  gambling  dives  known  as  "Sydney  Town."  Along 
the  hill's  western  base  spread  the  shacks  and  tents  of  "Little  Chile," 
settled  by  Chilenos  and  Peruvians.  At  weekly  intervals,  usually  on 
Sundays,  the  organized  hoodlums  who  called  themselves  "Hounds" — 
many  of  their  number  recruited  from  Sydney  Town — used  to  raid  the 
Chileno  quarter,  pillaging  the  houses,  robbing  and  beating  the  in- 
habitants, attacking  the  women.  The  depredations  were  only  halted  by 
the  Vigilance  Committee  of  1851. 

For  decades  the  North  Point  Docks  under  the  brow  of  Telegraph 
Hill,  built  in  1853  from  the  foot  of  Sansome  Street,  were  the  landing 
place  for  immigrants  from  France  and  Italy.  From  the  beginning  they 
settled  around  the  slopes  of  the  hill.  The  section  became  a  polyglot 
community,  where  Irish,  Germans,  French,  Italians,  and  Latin  Amer- 
icans mingled  easily.  Although  the  first  Italians  had  arrived  as  early  as 
the  i83o's,  they  began  to  overwhelm  the  other  nationalities  with  their 
numbers  only  toward  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century.  By  the  thou- 
sands they  came — laborers,  artisans,  mechanics,  farmers,  shopkeepers. 
As  soon  as  they  were  well  established,  they  lent  passage  money  to 
countrymen  in  the  homeland.  The  majority  settled  in  the  North 
Beach-Telegraph  Hill  section  because  it  reminded  them  of  their  native 
land,  because  rents  and  land  were  cheap  there,  and  because  it  was  near 
the  Bay  where  many  of  them  earned  their  living  by  fishing.  The  Irish, 
the  Germans,  and  the  French  moved  to  other  parts  of  the  city.  When 
the  fire  of  1906  began  to  creep  up  the  slopes  of  the  hill,  it  was  the 
Italians  who  saved  it.  From  their  cellars  they  rolled  out  barrels  of  red 
wine  and,  forming  a  bucket  brigade,  protected  their  houses  against  the 
flames  with  blankets  soaked  in  the  wine.  The  district  has  been  theirs 
ever  since,  shared  for  the  most  part  only  by  the  Latin  American  colony 
at  its  southwestern  fringes,  near  the  base  of  Russian  Hill,  and  by  the 
bohemian  colony  (succeeded  lately  by  sympathizers  of  more  affluent 
means)  on  the  crest  of  Telegraph  Hill. 

"Little  Italy"  is  no  longer  so  little,  for  the  Italians,  60,000  strong, 
are  San  Francisco's  largest  and  most  powerful  national  minority.  And 
North  Beach  is  home  not  only  for  the  Italians  who  live  there  but  also 
for  those  who.  have  moved  to  other  parts  of  the  city  or  the  Bay  region. 
On  Sundays  and  feast  days  they  come  back  to  North  Beach  to  visit 


LATIN     QUARTER      239 

relatives  and  revive  old  friendships.  They  fill  the  bay-windowed  flats, 
lounge  in  the  doorways,  and  gather  in  groups  for  sidewalk  discussion. 
They  crowd  the  lawns  and  benches  beneath  the  weeping  willows  in 
Washington  Square.  In  their  eyes  is  little  regret  for  the  vanishing 
past;  in  their  rich  laughter  only  a  hearty  appreciation  for  the  present. 
What  if  the  old  stores  are  beginning  to  disappear — the  dingy  shelves 
and  counters  stacked  with  dried  mushrooms,  anchovies,  and  the  Italian 
cheeses :  Parmesan,  Roma,  Gorgonzola — the  dusty  rafters  festooned  with 
yards  of  rich  moldy  sausages  and  bunches  of  aromatic  dried  herbs:  rose- 
mary, thyme,  sage  and  sweet  marjoram — the  boxes  of  creamy  smooth 
chocolates  from  Turin  and  Perugia?  Are  not  the  great  new  markets, 
dazzling  with  refrigerated  show  cases  and  white  tile,  filled  with  the 
same  good  things  to  eat? 

In  the  spring  the  markets,  both  old  and  modern,  proclaim  the  virtues 
of  capretti,  fresh  suckling  kid.  The  young  goats'  heads,  replete  with 
tiny  horns,  are  displayed  in  the  windows.  Brown  and  white  candy 
lambs,  with  little  brass  bells  hung  about  their  necks  and  Italian  flags 
thrust  in  their  backs,  appear  in  all  the  confectionaries.  Beside  them  lie 
huge  Easter  eggs  with  Buona  Pasqua  written  on  them  in  sparkling 
sugar.  The  pre-Lenten  season  is  also  the  occasion  for  elaborate  displays 
in  shops  devoted  to  imported  gravure  prints  of  a  religious  nature  and 
Carrara  marble  images  of  the  Virgin. 

Formerly  this  season  was  marked  by  the  rivalry  between  the  Gari- 
baldi and  Bercigliari  Guards.  Sponsored  by  competing  undertaking 
establishments,  these  two  drill  companies  contested  at  Easter  parades  and 
pre-Lenten  carnival  balls  for  the  choice  of  a  queen  and  for  trophies. 
Today  the  Italian  Family  Club  and  other  social  organizations  hold 
pre-Lenten  balls,  but  the  maskers  are  missing,  being  confined  to  Italian 
celebrations  of  such  Anglo-Saxon  festivities  as  Hallowe'en  and  New 
Year's  Eve. 

Keen  rivalry  still  exists,  however,  among  the  colony's  residents  in 
the  choice  of  a  queen  for  the  annual  fete  on  Columbus  Day.  Elected 
usually  by  votes  secured  through  purchases  at  various  North  Beach 
stores,  she  reigns  briefly  each  October  12.  A  special  mass  at  the  Church 
of  Saints  Peter  and  Paul  honors  the  great  discoverer,  as  does  a  parade 
to  the  Municipal  Pier  at  the  foot  of  Van  Ness  Avenue.  At  the  pier  a 
pageant  in  fifteenth  century  costumes  re-enacts  Columbus'  momentous 
landing  on  the  shores  of  San  Salvador. 

In  the  fall,  when  truckloads  of  ripened  grapes  have  been  piled  in 
cellars,  North  Beach  waxes  heady  with  the  smell  of  fermenting  wine. 
The  owners  of  portable  winepresses  move  from  one  cool  basement  to 
another,  crushing  grapes  for  the  red  vino.  Besides  beverages  of  domestic 
manufacture,  North  Beach  merchants  offer  wines  and  liquors  imported 


24O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

from  Italy;  and  vov  of  Padua  has  converted  many  not  of  Latin  blood  to 
the  colony's  gastronomy  and  its  casual  way  of  life. 

To  industry,  finance,  sports,  and  politics  the  city's  Italians  have  made 
distinguished  contributions.  The  names  of  Amadeo  Giannini,  founder 
of  the  Bank  of  America,  Armando  Pedrini,  and  James  A.  Bacigalupi 
are  known  to  the  world's  stock  markets.  (Until  the  1929  stock  market 
crash  scarcely  a  North  Beach  Italian,  from  cook's  helper  to  crab  fisher- 
man, did  not  own  shares  in  Giannini's  corporation.)  Mayor  Angelo  J. 
Rossi  is  of  Italian  descent.  Of  National  reputation  in  the  world  of 
sports  are  the  Di  Maggio  brothers;  Fred  Apostoli,  the  boxer;  Charlie 
Ferrara,  golf  champion;  Vic  Bottari  and  Angelo  "Hank"  Luisetti, 
football  and  basketball  heroes.  (With  great  pride  North  Beach  resi- 
dents point  out  the  playground  at  Lombard  and  Mason  Streets  where 
they  say  Joe  Di  Maggio  learned  to  play  baseball. ) 

Mostly  immigrants  from  Italy's  northern  provinces,  the  robust 
inhabitants  of  North  Beach  maintain  their  attachment  for  the  soil  in 
spite  of  their  urban  mode  of  living.  The  Peninsula  truck  gardens 
owned  by  their  compatriots  supply  the  city's  wholesale  vegetable  and 
flower  markets.  The  colony's  other  roots,  particularly  for  its  Neapolitan 
and  Sicilian  elements,  are  in  the  fishing  industry;  and  herein  is  revealed 
a  communal  strain  that  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  individualism 
apparent  in  other  Italian  enterprises.  Members  of  the  Crab  Fishermen's 
Protective  Association  own  their  boats  and  gear  in  common  and  share 
among  themselves  the  profits  of  the  catch  they  bring  in  to  Fisherman's 
Wharf. 

Ever  since  Juana  Briones  established  her  home  here,  Spanish-speaking 
people  have  lived  in  North  Beach.  Although  most  of  them  now  live 
farther  west  near  the  base  of  Russian  Hill,  many  still  cling  to  their 
older  habitat  on  the  slopes  of  Telegraph  Hill.  Here  an  ill-concealed 
and  profound  antagonism  exists  between  them  and  their  Italian  neigh- 
bors. They  patronize  small  butcher  shops  and  grocery  stores  owned  by 
their  own  countrymen.  At  the  base  of  the  hill  a  barber  shop  finds  it 
expedient  to  hire  barbers  of  each  nationality,  with  separate  chairs,  for 
its  factional  clientele.  That  the  sins  of  the  fathers  may  not  be  visited 
upon  the  coming  generations,  however,  a  third  chair  is  provided,  with 
a  hobbyhorse  mounted  on  its  seat,  which  is  shared  by  children  of  both 
nationalities. 

The  small  colony  of  Spanish-speaking  people  in  the  vicinity  of  Powell 
Street  and  Broadway  likewise  share  with  some  misgivings  the  larger 
domain  of  their  Italian  neighbors,  who  own  most  of  their  property,  and 
even  their  weekly  newspaper,  El  Impartial.  The  Mexicans  and  other 
Latin  Americans  maintain  a  separate  life  and  a  separate  culture  that 
clings  to  customs  of  their  homelands.  Although  a  common  religion  is 
their  strongest  bond  with  their  immediate  neighbors,  Nuestra  Senora 


LATIN     QUARTER      24! 

de  Guadalupe  differs  in  aspect  from  the  Italian  church  which  overlooks 
Washington  Square.  Along  the  base  of  Russian  Hill  they  have  also 
their  restaurants  and  social  clubs,  their  abarrotes  which  offer  Mexican 
candies,  pastry,  huaraches,  and  pottery.  Spanish  phonograph  records 
are  sold  in  a  store  which  displays  Spanish  books,  South  American  and 
Mexican  periodicals,  and  American  "pulp"  magazines  reprinted  in 
Spanish. 

Despite  its  Spanish  origins,  San  Francisco  has  today  only  about 
8,700  Mexicans,  of  whom  approximately  7,000  are  native  born.  Other 
scattered  Spanish-speaking  groups  bring  the  total  Latin  American  minor- 
ity to  about  14,000.  Many  old  families  live  in  North  Beach.  The 
majority  of  the  Mexicans  are  laborers;  the  Peruvians  and  others  have 
clerical  jobs  in  the  export  and  import  trade.  They  have  no  native 
theater,  but  a  North  Beach  movie  shows  a  Spanish  motion  picture  once 
each  week.  The  Basque  sheep-ranchers  who  come  occasionally  to  North 
Beach  are  still  to  be  found  about  the  Espanol  and  Du  Midi  hotels. 
Mexican  folk  dances  such  as  the  jarabe  tapetillo  are  seen  only  in  cafes 
like  La  Fiesta.  A  little  curio  shop  on  Pacific  Street  sells  baskets  woven 
of  maguey  fibre,  the  vivid  handicraft  of  Yaqui  Indians,  and  various 
native  wares  imported  from  below  the  Rio  Grande. 

As  North  Beach  clings  to  its  traditions  in  spite  of  physical  and 
social  change,  so  does  Telegraph  Hill ;  and  the  hill  has  a  tradition  all 
its  own  which  is  not  altogether  incidental  to  the  history  of  the  Latin 
elements  that  have  claimed  all  but  its  summit  and  its  eastern  side.  The 
"Telygraft  Hill"  of  the  Irish  who  believed  themselves  descendants  of 
Gaelic  kings  and  littered  the  hill  with  their  shanties,  their  washing,  and 
their  goats  exists  today  only  in  the  reminiscences  of  old-timers,  but  their 
influence  is  still  there — with  a  few  of  the  Irish  themselves  to  keep  it 
alive.  The  French,  who  shared  the  hill  with  them,  have  also  moved 
elsewhere,  and  their  old  locations  have  been  claimed  by  the  Italians. 

Gone,  too,  is  that  fervent  assemblage  of  bohemians  to  whom  Tele- 
graph Hill  was  an  oasis  of  Art  in  the  wasteland  of  the  1920*8.  Scattered 
now  to  fame,  hack  work,  or  cheaper  quarters  are  all  those  blase  girls 
and  sad  young  men  who  talked  interminably  in  Freudian  overtones  of 
Picasso  and  T.  S.  Eliot,  Stravinsky  and  Isadora  Duncan,  and  read  with 
bated  breath  in  transition  and  the  Dial  the  expatriate  communiques 
from  Rapallo  and  Trieste,  and  Paris  editions  of  Joyce's  Ulysses  smug- 
gled in  from  Mexico.  That  they  painted  little  and  wrote  less  was 
beside  the  point:  they  represented  for  Telegraph  Hill  the  cultural 
frustration  of  an  epoch,  Gertrude  Stein's  "lost  generation"  before  it 
found  itself  in  the  rebirth  of  National  bohemianism  somewhat  more 
affluent,  less  real. 

The  passing  of  the  days  when  the  summit  of  "the  Hill  was  not 
inhabited  save  by  flocks  of  goats" — as  Charles  Warren  Stoddard,  who 


242      SAN     FRANCISCO 

once  lived  there,  wrote — was  bitterly  resisted  by  the  little  group  of 
professional  bohemians  who  had  labored  to  create  a  Greenwich  Village 
of  the  West.  When  one  of  the  first  of  the  hill's  more  pretentious 
homes  began  to  rise  from  concrete  foundations  perched  uncertainly  on 
the  steep  slope,  it  was  threatened  by  intermittent  barrages  of  rocks,  tin 
cans,  and  dead  cats  until,  during  the  last  weeks  of  construction,  the 
owner  was  obliged  to  camp  out  in  the  unfinished  building  to  protect  it 
from  vandalism.  As  improvements  encroached,  rents  rose.  When 
Montgomery  Street  was  paved  through  to  Julius'  Castle  and  towering 
concrete  bulkheads  were  erected  to  dam  up  the  treacherous  clay  hill- 
sides, three-  and  four-story  stucco  apartment  buildings  with  rents  run- 
ning into  fancy  figures  began  to  appear.  As  rents  soared,  property 
owners  began  to  rebuild  and  remodel  the  weatherbeaten  shanties  cling- 
ing to  the  eastern  slopes  or  to  demolish  them  and  erect  ultramodern 
studio  apartments  in  their  places.  The  artists  retreated  to  lands  of 
cheaper  living.  To  take  their  places  on  the  crest  of  the  hill  came 
brokers,  minor  executives,  and  other  part-time  bohemians. 

Filbert  Street's  long  flight  of  weather-blackened  stairs,  climbing 
over  the  hill's  grassy-edged  shoulders  and  up  its  scarred  brown  rocky 
face,  gouged  out  long  ago  to  fill  in  the  water-front  tidelands  below, 
still  affords  glimpses  of  the  hill  as  it  was.  Mounting  the  grassy  slopes, 
where  torrents  of  rainwater  still  gush  down  the  ruts  in  spring,  it  passes 
tiny  cottages  hanging  against  cliff  sides,  narrow  alleys  laid  with  planks, 
steep  little  gardens  behind  picket  fences.  Remotely  sound  the  rattle  of 
winches  along  the  docks,  the  puffs  and  snorts  of  the  Belt  Line  Railroad 
locomotives,  the  sirens,  whistles,  and  bells  of  the  water  front  below, 
from  which  float  upward  whiffs  of  the  odors  of  roasting  coffee,  of 
cinnamon,  cloves,  and  nutmeg  from  spice  and  coffee  houses.  Through 
the  haze  over  the  Bay,  where  gulls  wheel,  shimmer  Yerba  Buena  Island 
with  its  pillared  causeway  below  the  wooded  crest;  the  radiant  white 
walls  and  towers  of  Treasure  Island;  and  the  bluish  slopes — with  their 
tumbled  white  buildings — of  the  East  Bay  shore.  Over  the  weather- 
beaten  board  walks  and  fences  tumble  matted  hedges  of  geraniums; 
around  green-shuttered  windows,  over  the  railings  of  balconies  on  stilts, 
up  weather-stained  shingled  walls  clamber  creeping  vines.  And  from 
the  summit  of  the  hill,  banked  in  greenery,  soars  the  gleaming  white 
fluted  shaft  of  Coit  Tower. 

The  crest  of  the  hill  is  another  land.  Around  the  park's  patch  of 
green,  hemmed  in  by  concrete  walls,  soaring  modern  apartment  houses 
rear  their  blank  stuccoed  facades.  Ragged  eucalyptus  trees  shed  their 
leaves  on  jumbled,  varicolored  roofs.  From  facades  painted  pink,  green, 
blue,  or  yellow,  expansive  windows  look  out  across  the  Bay.  Behind 
heavy  wooden  doors,  narrow  brick-flagged  passageways  lead  into  court- 
yards sheltered  from  the  cold  blustering  breezes  off  the  ocean,  where 


LATIN     QUARTER      243 

caged  canaries  sing  in  the  sun.  The  building  fronts  are  adorned  with 
gaily  painted  doors  and  brass  knockers,  with  windows  revealing  Indian 
pottery  and  blankets,  with  window  boxes  colored  sea  green,  aquamarine, 
and  lemon  yellow.  And  only  a  half-block  down  the  western  slope, 
where  gloomy  flats  border  narrow  Genoa  Place,  begins  Little  Italy, 
with  its  sour  smell  of  bread  dough  fermenting;  its  pillows,  mattresses 
and  bedding  hung  out  to  air  from  open  windows ;  its  screaming  children 
tobogganing  down  the  steep  pavements  on  the  broken-out  sides  of  fruit 
boxes. 

Along  the  Latin  Quarter's  southern  boundary,  Broadway,  where  it 
turns  its  face  toward  the  rest  of  San  Francisco,  denizens  of  hill  and 
beach — Italians  and  bohemians — meet  and  mingle  with  the  rest  of  San 
Francisco.  Gaily  bedizened  with  glaring  electric  signs  after  dark, 
Broadway  and  its  cross  streets  in  the  four  blocks  between  Kearny  and 
Powell  Streets  are  bordered  continuously  with  restaurants  and  night 
clubs  whose  food,  wine,  and  entertainment  draw  nightly  throngs: 
Vanessi's,  Finocchio's,  the  Fior  d'ltalia,  and  New  Joe's — where  crowds 
wait  for  seats  at  three  in  the  morning;  the  Xochimilco  and  the  Sinaloa; 
the  Jai-Alai  and  the  Espanol.  At  the  opposite  end  of  North  Beach,  near 
the  water  front  with  its  wharves  and  warehouses,  the  bright  lights  of 
the  Club  Lido,  the  Bal  Tabarin,  Lucca's  and  the  Fiesta  Club  dispel  the 
gloom.  And  to  the  water  front  at  Fisherman's  Wharf,  where  the  crabs 
brought  in  by  the  fishermen  are  cooked  on  the  sidewalk  in  steaming 
caldrons,  comes  all  of  San  Francisco  for  sea  food  at  Joe  di  Maggio's, 
Fishermen's  Grotto,  or  one  of  a  dozen  open-fronted  cafes. 

To  those  who  love  it  best  North  Beach  will  remain  the  Latin 
Quarter:  bohemia  between  the  hills  and  neighbor  to  the  sea,  hospitable 
with  the  musical  linguistics  and  the  gracious  folkways  brought  hither 
by  paisanos  from  the  hot  countries.  And  the  hill  will  still  stand,  with 
its  crown  of  wind-swept  eucalyptus,  through  the  fog  and  the  rain  and 
the  sun.  And  people  will  still  come  there  at  sunset  to  watch  the  long 
shadows  creep  upward  from  the  trees  of  Washington  Square  and  to  feel 
in  the  stir  of  the  gathering  darkness  the  touch  of  George  Sterling's 
"cool  grey  city  of  love." 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1 20.  Probably  the  best-known  and  best-loved  bar  in  a  city  of  count- 
less streamlined  cocktail  lounges  is  ISADORE  GOMEZ'  CAFE,  848 
Pacific  St.  A  small  lantern  before  an  inconspicuous  door  marks  the 
entrance  to  a  narrow  flight  of  dirty  wooden  stairs.  Upstairs  is  a  long, 
smoke-filled  room — a  room  (describes  the  Almanac  for  Thirty-Niners) 
".  .  .  dilapidated  as  in  speak-easy  days,  retaining  the  broken  plaster  of 
the  ceiling,  the  insecure  chairs,  the  cracked  oilcloth  on  the  tables,  the 


Latin  Quarter  Points  of  Interest 

Lords  of  the  Hilltops  Points  of  Interest  (J3J) 


LATIN     QUARTER       245 

long  pine  bar  .  .  .  Idle  behind  the  bar,  leaning  across  it  with  leisurely 
amusement,  is  Izzy  Gomez  in  a  black  fedora  ...  a  coffee-colored  fat 
man  .  .  .  elaborately  feted  on  his  birthday  by  San  Francisco's  Press 
Club  ...  an  illiterate  fat  man  painted,  photographed,  written  and 
sung  about  .  .  ."  Here  63-year-old  Isadore  greets  his  closest  friends, 
or  anyone  who  may  wander  in,  and  tells  tall,  witty  tales  of  life  in  his 
native  Portugal — or  dances  Portuguese  folk-dances  with  incredible  grace 
despite  his  massive  bulk.  On  occasion  he  expounds — punctuating  with 
a  ponderous  forefinger — the  three  principles  of  his  philosophy:  "When 
you  don't  know  what  to  say,  say  nothing";  "Life  is  a  long  road;  take  it 
easy";  "When  you  come  to  a  pool  of  water  on  that  long  road,  don't 
make  it  muddy;  maybe  you'll  pass  there  again,  and  you'll  be  thirsty." 
Since  1900  Izzy  has  been  running  his  bar,  since  1930  in  its  present 
location.  Famed  in  a  city  noted  for  good  things  to  eat  are  his  thick, 
juicy  steaks  and  great  platters  of  French-fried  potatoes.  And  drinks 
are  not  measured  here,  but  poured  with  casual  generosity  from  the 
bottle.  Repeal  has  not  changed  the  house  of  El  Gomez;  red  chalk 
marks  left  by  a  spotter  during  Prohibition  days  are  still  preserved,  and 
a  peep-hole  still  overlooks  the  stairs.  The  same  famous  mural  back  of 
the  bar  records  the  faces  of  Izzy,  of  Joe  and  "Dad"  (who  have  served 
Izzy's  customers  for  many  years,  casually  polite,  vastly  unhurried),  and 
of  the  more  colorful  characters  who  once  gathered  here.  The  initials  of 
hundreds  of  them  appear,  cut  into  woodwork  and  tables. 

N.  from  Pacific  St.  on  Poivell  St.  to  Broadway;  E.  on  Broadway. 

121.  Only  church  in  San  Francisco  whose  services  are  conducted  in 
the  Spanish  language  is  NUESTRA  SENORA  DE  GUADALUPE, 
908  Broadway,  which  derives  its  name  from  the  shrine  erected  near 
Guadalupe,  Mexico,  in  commemoration  of  the  appearance  before  the 
peon,  Juan  Diego,  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  One  of  its  two  stained-glass 
windows,  softly  lighting  the  rich  interior,  portrays  Juan  Diego  kneeling 
before  Bishop  Sumaraga.  The  chastely  simple  Romanesque  church 
building,  its  twin  domes  topped  by  gold  crosses,  was  built  in  1912.  The 
first  church  in  the  United  States  to  be  constructed  of  reinforced  concrete 
replaced  the  old  frame  structure  (dating  from  1875)  destroyed  by  the 
1906  fire.  In  April,  1939  Father  Antonio  M.  Santandreu  had  rounded 
out  his  fiftieth  year  as  the  church's  pastor.  Oldest  living  priest  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  totally  blind  and  partially  deaf,  he  now  (1940)  is 
assisted  by  three  younger  men,  all  trained  in  Mexico  or  Spain. 

In  sharp  contrast  to  the  austere  facade  is  the  ornate  interior,  ap- 
proached from  stone  steps  which  lead  to  a  sheltered  patio  bordered  with 
flowers.  On  the  arched  ceiling  of  the  nave,  supported  by  twelve  pillars, 
is  portrayed  in  fresco  the  Holy  Sacrament  and  the  Coronation  of  the 


246      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Blessed  Virgin.  Behind  the  flood-lit  white  marble  altar,  standing  at  the 
end  of  the  exquisitely  tiled  main  aisle,  is  a  mural  depicting  the  Last 
Supper  and  the  Multiplication  of  the  Loaves  and  Fishes.  By  day,  light 
streams  through  stained-glass  windows  portraying  the  miracle  at  Guada- 
lupe  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  by  night,  from  massive  and  ornate 
candelabra.  Every  year  during  the  nine  days  before  Christmas,  when 
Mexican  families  are  commemorating  the  birth  of  Christ  with  the 
ceremonies  of  Las  Posadas  (the  lodgings)  in  their  homes,  the  church 
holds  a  novena  with  special  singing  and  prayers. 

N.  from  Broadway  on  Mason  St.  to  Vallejo  St.;  E.  from  Mason  on 
Vallejo. 

122.  First  Roman  Catholic  parish  church  in  San  Francisco,  ST. 
FRANCIS'  CHURCH,  620  Vallejo  St.,  owes  its  origin  to  the  religious 
zeal  of  a  group  of  the  Gold  Rush  town's  French  residents,  who  per- 
suaded a  young  officer  of  the  United  States  Army  to  give  them  the  use 
of  a  small  room  for  services.  Father  Langlois,  on  his  way  from  Oregon 
to  eastern  Canada  by  way  of  Cape  Horn,  was  persuaded  to  remain  as 
their  pastor.  In  a  new  adobe  chapel  on  the  church's  present  site,  on 
July  19,  1849,  Father  Langlois  said  Mass  for  the  first  time  in  the  new 
building  and  administered  the  town's  first  Roman  Catholic  baptism. 
The  French  soon  were  joined  by  worshippers  of  so  many  other  nation- 
alities that  in  1856  they  withdrew  to  found  a  church  of  their  own, 
Notre  Dame  des  Victoires. 

In  the  adobe  chapel's  schoolroom,  on  December  7,  1850,  a  reception 
was  given  for  young  Bishop  Sadoc  Alemany,  just  arrived  to  take  charge 
of  a  diocese  extending  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Since  St.  Francis'  congregation  was  still  smarting  from  the  indignity  of 
having  been  embezzled  by  an  impostor  of  funds,  Father  Langlois  is  said 
to  have  insisted  on  the  Bishop's  credentials.  When  it  appeared  that 
San  Francisco,  rather  than  Monterey,  would  be  the  chief  city  of  the 
diocese,  he  returned  as  Archbishop  Alemany,  his  formal  translation  to 
the  Metropolitan  See  of  San  Francisco  occurring  July  23,  1853.  Here 
he  took  up  residence  in  a  wooden  shanty  adjoining  the  church,  which 
served  as  his  cathedral  until  dedication  of  St.  Mary's  on  Christmas, 

1854- 

Construction  of  a  new  St.  Francis  Church  was  begun  five  years 
later.  Dedicated  March  17,  1859,  the  fourteenth-century  Gothic  struc- 
ture of  cement-faced  brick  survived  the  1906  fire  with  little  enough 
damage  to  permit  restoration.  The  interior  is  an  aisled  nave  of  seven 
bays  with  a  shallow  apse.  In  the  apsidal  arches  above  the  ornate  altar 
and  reredos  are  a  series  of  frescoes  depicting  events  in  the  life  of  St. 


LATIN     QUARTER      247 

Francis.  Two  larger  frescoes  over  the  side  altars  portray  the  death  of 
St.  Francis  and  the  showing  of  the  Stigmata. 

NW.  from  Vallejo  St.  on  Columbus  Ave. 

123.  In  the  heart  of  the  teeming  Italian  section,  WASHINGTON 
SQUARE,  Columbus  Ave.,  Union,  Stockton,  and  Filbert  Sts.,  a  quad- 
rangular oasis  of  lawn,  cypresses,  and  weeping  willows,  is  an  out-of- 
doors  refuge  from  the  close-set  flats  of  the  locality.    In  the  center  of  the 
square  is  a  bronze  STATUE  OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  bequeathed  by 
Henry  D.  Cogswell,  wealthy  philanthropist  and  eccentric,   to:   "Our 
boys  and  girls  who  will  soon  take  our  places  and  pass  on."     A  plaque 
in  its  base  bears  the  curious  inscription : 

"P.  O.  Box  With 

Mementos 

For  The 
Historical  Society 

In  1979 
From  H.  D.  C." 

Inscriptions  as  curious — "Vichy,"  "Congress  Water,"  and  "California 
Seltzer" — proclaim  the  virtues  of  the  ordinary  drinking  water  (Cogs- 
well was  a  determined  temperance  advocate)  which  spouts  from  the 
fountain.  On  the  east  side  of  the  park  a  granite  UNITED  STATES  COAST 
GEODETIC  SURVEY  MARKER  carries  the  legend:  "Astronomical  and 
telegraph  longitude,  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey:  Lat. 
37-47'j  57"  N.  Longitude  122.24',  37"  W.  Station  Washington 
Square,  1869-1880."  Facing  Columbus  Avenue  is  the  VOLUNTEER 
FIREMEN'S  MONUMENT  (Haig  Patigian,  sculptor),  a  bronze  group  of 
three  volunteer  firemen — one  holding  a  supine  woman  in  his  arms — 
dedicated  to  the  "Volunteer  Fire  Department  of  San  Francisco,  1849- 
1866."  It  was  erected  in  1933  through  a  bequest  of  Lillie  Hitchcock 
Coit.  Washington  Square,  which  served  as  a  campground  for  homeless 
citizens  after  the  1906  holocaust,  occupies  land  donated  to  the  city 
January  3,  1850  by  its  first  mayor,  John  W.  Geary. 

E.  from  Columbus  Ave.  on  Filbert  St. 

124.  The  Roman   Catholic  CHURCH   OF   SS.   PETER  AND 
PAUL,  660  Filbert  St.,  of  concrete  construction,  lifts  its  two  spires 
high  above  the  Italian  district  it  serves.     Its  cornerstone  laid  in  1922  by 
Archbishop  Hanna,  all  but  the  exterior  of  the  church  was  completed  the 
following  year.     In  1939  and  1940  its  facade  again  was  shrouded  in 


248      SAN     FRANCISCO 

scaffolding.  When  finished  the  terra  cotta  exterior  will  be  embellished 
on  each  side  of  the  doorway  by  a  mosaic  of  Dante  at  work  on  his 
Paradiso  and  another  of  Columbus  landing  in  America.  In  the  ornate 
interior  seating  1,000,  the  Roman  altar  and  many  gilded  images  reflect 
the  soft  light  'filtering  from  the  stained  glass  windows.  Brought  from 
Italy,  the  richly  ornate  altar,  inlaid  with  mosaic  and  framed  in  white 
Carrara  marble,  bears  a  sculptured  reproduction  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci's 
The  Last  Supper.  The  church's  large  statuary  collection  also  includes 
a  statue  of  patron  saint  John  Bosco  and  a  sixteenth-century  carved  wood 
figure  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Up  Filbert  St.  steps  to  Telegraph  Hill  Blvd.;  N.  from  Filbert  on  Tele- 
graph Hill  (by  motor  f  N.  from  Filbert  on  Stockton  St.  to  Lombard  St.; 
E.  from  Stockton  on  Lombard  to  Telegraph  Hill  Blvd.;  S.  from  Lom- 
bard on  Telegraph  Hill). 

125.  Crowning  the  brow  of  Telegraph  Hill  is  PIONEER  PARK, 
whose  paved  esplanade  and  parkway  command  a  stirring  panorama  of 
the  vast  Bay  and  its  shores  and  the  city  crowding  to  the  edge  of  the 
Peninsula.  Grown  from  loam-filled  crevices  on  the  bare  rocky  summit, 
its  yellow  broom,  cypress  trees,  and  stately  eucalyptuses  bank  in  greenery 
the  base  of  COIT  MEMORIAL  TOWER  (open  Wed.,  Sat.,  Sun.  10-4  and 
8-10;  elevator  25$),  a  slim,  fluted  concrete  column  (Arthur  Brown, 
Jr.,  architect)  whose  glass-enclosed  observation  gallery  is  540  feet  above 
the  waters  of  the  Bay.  The  tower  is  named  for  a  life-long  friend  of 
San  Francisco's  firefighters,  Lillie  Hitchcock  Coit,  who  in  1929  left 
funds  to  the  city  to  be  used  for  a  memorial  to  the  volunteer  firemen  of 
the  1850*8  and  i86o's.  As  a  girl  of  15,  she  had  been  the  mascot  of  the 
crack  Knickerbocker  Company  No.  5.  To  the  end  of  her  life  she  wore 
the  diamond-studded  gold  badge  given  her  by  the  firemen,  whether  she 
attended  a  formal  evening  function  or  an  early  morning  blaze.  Where 
Coit  Memorial  Tower  now  rises  stood,  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  telegraph  station  for  which  the  hill  is  named — "A  place  of 
much  resort"  in  the  fifties,  reminisced  Barry  and  Patten.  ".  .  .  it  was 
good  exercise  to  walk  up  there,  and  the  view  repaid  the  trouble.  There 
were  .  .  .  refreshing  milk-punches  to  be  had  in  the  room  beneath  the 
lookout  on  the  roof,  where  privileged  visitors  could  ascend  and  use  the 
telescope." 

A  landmark  in  the  history  of  government-subsidized  art  are  the 
COIT  TOWER  MURALS,  reflecting  the  contemporary  scene  in  California 
city,  factory  and  field  in  1934*  which  were  the  result  of  the  first  work 
relief  project  for  artists  sponsored  by  the  Federal  government  in  the 
United  States.  Covering  the  walls  of  first  and  second  floors  and  the 
stairway  between  them,  they  were  executed  by  20  members  of  San 


LATIN     QUARTER      249 

Francisco's  art  colony.  On  the  main  floor,  above  the  entrance  to  the 
elevator  room,  a  pair  of  Cyclopian  eyes  look  down  from  Ray  Boynton's 
mural  symbolizing  the  mystic  forces  of  nature,  man  in  search  of 
sustenance,  and  man  in  search  of  wealth.  Other  walls  of  the  first  floor 
graphically  portray  the  characteristic  activities  of  California  life  with 
their  ten-foot  figures  by  Malette  Dean  and  Clifford  Wight;  industrial 
plants  by  Ralph  Stackpole;  a  department  store  interior  by  Frede  Vidar; 
a  San  Francisco  street  by  Victor  Arnautoff;  and  rich  agricultural  fields 
by  Maxine  Albro.  A  library  cross-section  by  Bernard  Zakheim  shows 
readers  scanning  the  headlines  in  contemporary  newspapers.  A  mural 
by  John  Langley  Howard  depicts  unemployed  "snipers"  panning  gold 
and  grim-faced  workers  massed  in  front  of  a  smelter  plant.  The  murals 
in  the  elevator  room,  executed  in  oil,  show  views  from  Telegraph  Hill 
and  rolling  California  landscapes  by  Otis  Oldfield,  Rinaldo  Cuneo,  and 
Moya  del  Pino.  A  spectacular  portrayal  of  the  Powell  Street  hill  by 
Lucien  Labaudt  decorates  the  stairway  walls  ascending  to  the  second 
floor,  where  are  found  illustrations  of  California  sports  and  outdoor  life 
and  Jane  Berlandina's  scenes  of  domestic  life  in  egg  tempera. 

The  MARCONI  MEMORIAL,  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  leading  to  Lom- 
bard Street,  a  modern,  simply  carved  bench  of  Raymond  California 
granite  containing  a  bronze  plaque  (Raymond  Puccinelli,  sculptor)  of 
Guglielmo  Marconi,  was  erected  to  commemorate  the  inventor  of  the 
wireless  in  July,  1939.  A  Latin  inscription  reads:  "Outstripping  the 
lightning,  the  voice  races  through  the  empty  sky." 

N.  on  Telegraph  Hill  Blvd.  to  Lombard  St.;  W.  from  Telegraph  Hill 
on  Lombard  to  Columbus  Ave.;  NW.  from  Lombard  on  Columbus  to 
Taylor  St.;  W .  from  Columbus  on  Taylor. 

126.  Twentieth-century  commercialism  and  Old-World  tradition  go 
hand  in  hand  at  FISHERMAN'S  WHARF,  foot  of  Taylor  St.,  where 
are  moored  in  serried  ranks  the  tiny,  bright-painted  gasoline  boats  of  the 
crab  fishermen  and  the  tall-masted  yo-foot  Diesel-engined  trawlers  of 
the  sardine  fleet.  The  high-sterned  junks  with  square  sails  of  the  Chi- 
nese shrimp  fishermen  who  supplied  the  forty-niners  with  seafood  have 
long  since  disappeared.  The  colorful  craft  of  the  Italians  who  sup- 
planted them — rigged  with  triangular  lateen  sails  like  the  fishing  boats 
of  the  Gulf  of  Genoa  or  the  Bay  of  Naples — have  disappeared  too, 
supplanted  in  turn  by  trim  vessels  powered  with  combustion  engines. 
And  the  fish  markets  to  which  San  Francisco  housewives  once  drove  in 
buggies  have  become  neon-lit  shops  offering  "curb  service"  to  motorists. 
But  the  gulls  still  fight  over  morsels  thrown  into  the  lagoon ;  small  boys 
still  impale  sardine  bait  on  the  troll  lines;  the  oldsters  of  the  crab  fleet 


25O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

still  sit  cross-legged,  mending  their  nets  by  hand  with  long  wooden 
needles. 

Heedless  of  onlookers,  the  sun-browned  fishermen  go  about  their 
work,  tossing  their  fish  from  the  holds  to  the  wharves,  where  they  are 
trundled  off  in  hand  trucks,  hanging  up  their  nets  to  dry  in  great  brown 
festoons,  painting  and  repairing  their  vessels,  haggling  with  fish  buyers. 
Sicilian  in  origin,  many  of  the  barrel-chested  crab  fishermen  sport  the 
tam-o-shanter,  the  knit  jersey,  and  the  heavy  sea  boots  of  their  Mediter- 
ranean homeland. 

The  boats  of  the  crabfishing  fleet,  like  their  larger  sisters  of  the 
sardine  fleet,  are  brightly  painted,  with  blue  and  white  the  predominat- 
ing hues.  During  the  fishing  season  (November  through  August)  the 
crab  fleet  usually  leaves  the  wharf  with  the  tide — between  two  and 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning — bound  for  fishing  grounds  between  three 
and  six  miles  outside  the  gate,  where  each  boat  anchors  within  hailing 
distance  of  its  neighbor.  In  mid-afternoon  they  return,  laden  with  from 
one  to  four  dozen  crabs  apiece,  accompanied  by  screaming  hordes  of 
gulls.  When  not  at  sea,  the  crab  boats  are  anchored  at  the  inner  harbor 
at  Fisherman's  Wharf,  where  the  walks  and  planking  are  often  plastered 
with  nets  drying  in  the  sun. 

Usually  anchored  outside  the  square  lagoon  of  the  crab  fishermen 
are  the  sardine  and  bottom  fish  boats — large  schooners  and  trawlers  with 
deep  after  holds,  their  blue  and  yellow  masts  and  booms  towering  above 
the  smaller  craft.  In  the  sardine  fleet,  Norwegians  and  Slavonians 
predominate — excellent  seamen,  tanned  by  sun  and  wind,  their  faces 
wrinkled.  Powered  with  200  and  3OO-horsepower  Diesel  engines,  the 
vessels  venture  northward  as  far  as  Alaskan  waters  and  southward  to 
Mexican  shores.  The  dark  of  the  moon  between  August  and  February 
is  the  best  time  for  sardine  fishing,  because  the  sardine  schools  then  are 
sighted  most  easily  by  the  iridescent  flash  they  create  as  they  move 
through  the  water.  The  sardine  fishermen  use  the  net  known  as  the 
purse  seine,  which  is  maneuvered  in  a  circle  by  means  of  a  skiff  and  then 
drawn  together  in  much  the  same  fashion  as  a  tobacco  pouch.  The 
bottom  fish  vessels  use  the  paranzella  net,  dragged  between  two  boats, 
which  revolutionized  the  industry  when  Pedro  Costa  introduced  it  in 
1876.  In  these  nets  they  trap  sole,  sand  dab,  rock  cod,  and  flounder — 
which  comprise  90  per  cent  of  their  catch — and  occasionally  starfish, 
octopi,  and  even  sharks.  The  trawlers  of  the  bottom  fish  fleet — which 
number  about  20 — rank  in  size  with  those  of  the  sardine  fleet.  It  was 
the  bottom  fish  fleet  which  first  used  steam-powered  boats,  also  intro- 
duced by  Costa — for  which  reason  sole  were  first  known  around  San 
Francisco  Bay  as  "steamerfish."  More  than  2,000  men  and  350  vessels 
are  engaged  in  the  fishing  industry  throughout  the  year ;  the  annual  catch 
totals  nearly  300  million  pounds.  Ranking  first  in  size  of  catch  is  the 


LATIN     QUARTER      25! 

sardine ;  second,  the  crab.  The  shore  community  at  the  wharf  includes 
blacksmiths,  boatbuilders,  tackle  menders  and  net  repairers,  and  the  dock 
includes  a  marine  service  station  where  the  tanks  of  the  gasoline- 
powered  crab  boats  are  filled.  Fishing  fleet  boats  are  available  for  hire 
at  an  average  cost  of  $3.00  per  person — which  often  includes  cioppino 
(fish  stew)  with  red  wine. 

Along  the  wharfside,  the  sidewalk  is  lined  with  huge  iron  cauldrons 
simmering  over  open  fires  of  boxwood,  where  live  crabs  are  boiled  after 
the  buyer  has  selected  his  choice  from  the  dripping  stacks  on  display. 
Behind  the  kettles  are  squirming  piles  of  lobsters,  trays  of  shrimp  and 
prawns,  shelves  decked  with  rainbow-hued  abalone  shells,  and  little 
turtles  with  brightly  painted  designs  on  their  backs  for  sale  as  souvenirs. 
Automobiles  line  the  curb,  their  occupants  eating  seafood  delicacies 
from  trays.  Other  diners  sit  by  restaurant  windows  looking  out  over 
the  masts  of  the  boats  moored  in  the  lagoon. 


Lords  of  the  Hilltops 

"I  estimate  that  a  dime  dropped  on  the  crest  of  California 
Street  would  gather  speed  enough  to  kill  a  horse  on  Market  Street, 
unless  it  hit  a  Chinaman  on  Grant  Avenue." 

— PHILIP  GUEDALLA 


WHENEVER  the  builders  of  San  Francisco  could  not  go  for- 
ward, they  went  up.  In  Currier  and  Ives'  bird's-eye  view, 
The  City  of  San  Francisco — i8j8,  they  already  had  leaped 
that  crescent-shaped  barrier  of  hills  which  swings  from  Telegraph  Hill 
on  the  northeast  to  Twin  Peaks  in  the  middle  of  the  Peninsula.  Per- 
sistently the  long  files  of  houses  climbed  to  the  crests  and  down  the 
other  side.  Where  the  heights  defied  scaling  even  by  the  cable  car,  the 
city's  uphill  progress  was  facilitated  by  steps. 

No  San  Franciscan  was  amazed  to  behold  even  that  doughty  railroad 
builder,  Collis  P.  Huntington,  being  towed  uphill  to  his  mansion  by  the 
California  Street  grip.  The  pinnacle  to  which  a  man's  rise  in  riches 
might  carry  him  had  a  name  in  those  days — Nob  Hill,  inspired  by  those 
"nabobs"  of  commerce  and  finance  who  looked  down  from  its  crest.  To 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  the  "great  net  of  straight  thoroughfares  lying 
at  right  angles,  east  and  west  and  north  and  south  over  the  shoulders 
of  Nob  Hill,  the  hill  of  palaces,  must  certainly  be  counted  the  best  part 
of  San  Francisco.  It  is  there  that  the  millionaires  who  gathered  to- 
gether, vying  with  each  other  in  display,  looked  down  upon  the  business 
wards  of  the  city." 

When  Dr.  Arthur  Hayne,  having  made  a  comfortable  fortune  at 
his  medical  practice,  desired  to  settle  down  with  his  bride,  actress  Julia 
Dean,  he  chose  Nob  Hill  and,  hacking  a  trail  through  the  brush  to  the 
summit,  built  in  1856  a  house  of  wood  and  clay  on  the  future  site  of  the 
Fairmont  Hotel.  A  short  time  later,  a  merchant,  William  Walton, 
erected  a  more  pretentious  dwelling  at  Taylor  and  Washington  Streets. 
Not  until  late  in  the  i86o's,  however,  when  the  mass  exodus  of  the  elite 
from  Rincon  Hill  began,  was  Nob  Hill  populated  extensively. 

Among  the  first  men  of  wealth  to  settle  there  was  Maurice  Dore, 
banker  William  C.  Ralston's  confidante,  who  bought  Walton's  house. 
The  first  palatial  homes  built  by  millionaires — recalled  Amelia  Ran- 
som Neville,  chronicler  of  San  Francisco's  social  elite — -were  Richard 
Tobin's,  "distinguished  by  reason  of  having  what  might  be  termed  a 
hand-picked  library" ;  James  Ben  Ali  Haggin's,  "a  large  gray  mansard 
with  stables  behind  it  where  were  all  the  most  fastidious  horses  one  could 

252 


LORDS     OF     THE     HILLTOPS      253 

desire";  Lloyd  Tevis',  where  "wonderful  parties  were  given  .  .  ." 
Later  William  T.  Coleman  built  "a  white  Roman  villa  in  a  walled 
garden"  and  Senator  George  Hearst,  "a  long  Spanish  palace  of  white 
stucco." 

The  Hill's  inducements  as  a  residential  site  were  greatly  augmented 
by  the  advent  of  the  cable  car  in  the  1 870*8 — that  curious  vehicle  whose 
means  of  locomotion  puzzled  the  visiting  English  noblewoman,  Lady 
Duffus  Hardy,  almost  as  much  as  the  "newly  arrived  Mongolian"  whose 
remarks  she  quoted :  "  'No  pushee,  no  pullee,  no  horsee,  no  steamee ; 
Melican  man  heap  smart.'  " 

And  from  the  summit  of  Nob  Hill  were  rising,  in  the  iSyo's,  those 
"really  palatial  residences,  the  homes  of  the  railway  and  bonanza  kings," 
of  which  Lady  Hardy  wrote.  To  advertise  their  new-found  wealth,  a 
half-dozen  "get-rich-quick"  millionaires — Leland  Stanford,  Mark  Hop- 
kins, and  Charles  Crocker  of  the  "Big  Four" ;  David  Colton,  who  was 
known  as  the  "y2"  of  the  "Big  4^";  James  C.  Flood  of  the  "Nevada 
Four";  and  E.  J.  ("Lucky")  Baldwin — lavished  their  railroad  and 
mining  millions  in  unbridled  display.  Of  wood  treated  to  resemble 
stone  they  built  their  palaces,  and  stuffed  them  with  objets  d'art  im- 
ported from  Europe  in  shiploads.  In  their  ostentation  they  were  any- 
thing but  discreet,  as  they  must  have  realized  when  Dennis  Kearny  led 
an  army  of  "sand-lotters"  up  the  hill  one  autumn  day  in  1877  to  shake 
angry  fists  at  the  mansions.  For  three  decades  the  vainglorious  display 
continued  to  dazzle  all  beholders — until  one  by  one,  the  mansions  burst 
into  blaze  as  fire  swept  the  hill  in  April,  1906. 

Risen  from  the  ashes,  Nob  Hill  continues  to  justify  its  proud  epithet, 
"Hill  of  Palaces."  Where  the  bonanza  mansions  stood,  luxury  hotels, 
aristocratic  clubs,  and  towering  apartment  houses  overlook  the  Bay. 
Fastidious  old  gentlemen  still  reach  their  homes  on  the  heights  by  cable 
car.  Nob  Hill  ladies  out  airing  their  dogs,  doormen  resplendent  in 
uniform  before  gleaming  entrances,  shining  limousines  attended  by 
liveried  chauffeurs  perpetuate  the  traditions  of  the  hill's  golden  age. 
But  the  days  of  reckless  ostentation  passed  with  the  fire;  the  Nob  Hill 
of  today  breathes  an  air  of  subdued  gentility. 

Nob  Hill  was  but  one  of  the  summits  claimed  and  held  by  the  rich. 
As  the  rest  of  the  city  began  to  swarm  around,  the  vanguard  of  the 
"Four  Hundred"  moved  northward  to  Russian  Hill  or  westward  to 
Pacific  Heights,  where  they  could  dwell  surrounded  by  gardens  looking 
down  upon  the  Golden  Gate. 

What  part  the  Russians  played  in  the  naming  of  Russian  Hill 
remains  a  mystery.  According  to  one  legend,  a  colony  of  Russian  farmers 
raised  vegetables  on  its  slopes  for  the  seal  catchers  of  the  Farallones; 
according  to  another,  certain  Russians  of  unknown  identity  were  buried 
there;  and  according  to  still  another,  a  Russian  sailor  of  prodigious 


254      SAN     FRANCISCO 

drinking  habits  fell  into  a  well  on  the  hill,  where  he  drowned.  The 
place  made  its  earliest  appearance  in  the  city's  annals  as  the  site  of  a 
gibbet,  where  on  December  10,  1852,  one  Jose  Forni  was  hanged  in 
the  town's  first  official  execution. 

When  Joseph  H.  Atkinson  built  his  house  in  1853  on  the  south  side 
of  Russian  Hill,  it  stood  alone.  But  Charles  F.  Homer,  a  government 
contractor,  soon  built  next  door;  and  next  to  Homer,  W.  H.  Ranlett 
erected  his  "House  of  Many  Corners."  William  Squires  Clark,  who 
had  constructed  the  town's  first  wharf,  built  the  two-story  house  later 
purchased  by  William  Penn  Humphreys.  And  not  far  away  were 
erected  two  of  the  city's  eight  octagonal  houses. 

One  of  the  first  panoramas  of  the  city,  drawn  and  lithographed 
from  daguerreotypes  made  from  the  summit  of  the  hill  about  1862  by 
C.  B.  Gifford,  shows  a  few  straggling  fences  and  a  handful  of  isolated 
houses  among  unpaved  streets  on  the  hill's  northern  and  southern  slopes. 
From  its  summit  rises  the  "observatory" — somewhat  resembling  an  oil 
well  derrick  with  a  spiraling  stairway — which  Captain  David  Jobson 
erected  in  1861.  From  the  crow's  nest  atop  this  structure  (known  as 
"Jobson's  Folly"),  picnickers  who  had  toiled  uphill  from  Harbor  View 
Park  on  the  Bay  could  survey,  for  25$f,  the  landscape  and  seascape 
through  a  telescope. 

Almost  from  the  beginning,  Russian  Hill  was  the  haunt  of  the  city's 
artists  and  writers.  Of  their  number,  however,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
— whose  "homes"  are  almost  as  numerous  as  the  beds  "in  which  George 
Washington  slept" — was  not  one,  although  his  widow  came  here  to  live 
after  his  death.  Ambrose  Bierce's  cynicism  found  vent  there.  Joaquin 
Miller  composed  poetry  there,  as  did  Ina  Coolbrith  and  George  Sterling. 
Frederick  O'Brien  lived  there  when  he  wrote  White  Shadows  of  the 
South  Seas.  There  Peter  B.  Kyne  wrote  many  of  his  "Cappy  Ricks" 
stories,  and  Stewart  Edward  White,  his  novels.  Will  and  Wallace 
Irwin,  in  the  days  when  Will  was  co-editor  with  Frank  Norris  and 
Gelett  Burgess  of  The  Wave,  found  refuge  on  the  hill.  It  was  because 
he  lived  there  that  Burgess  conceived  his  "Ballad  of  the  Hyde  Street 
Grip": 

"Rush  her  at  the  crossings,  catch  her  on  the  rise, 

Easy   round   the   corners   when   the   dust  is   in   your   eyes!" 

Of  the  colony  were  John  Dewey,  before  he  acquired  his  fame  in  the 
East;  Mary  Austin  and  James  Hopper,  before  they  went  to  join  the 
colony  at  Carmel;  Kathleen  and  Charles  Norris,  before  they  deserted 
the  city  for  the  Peninsula.  On  the  crest  of  the  hill,  Rose  Wilder  Lane 
found  inspiration.  And  here  Inez  Haynes  Irwin  wrote  The  California™ 
and  Charles  Caldwell  Dobie,  San  Francisco:  A  Pageant.  Sculptors 


LORDS     OF     THE     HILLTOPS      255 

Douglas  Tilden  and  Haig  Patigian  have  lived  here,  and  the  painter 
Maynard  Dixon. 

In  a  walled  cavern  built  from  an  old  cistern,  "Dad"  Demarest,  high 
priest  of  Russian  Hill's  bohemia  since  1872,  lived  for  two  weeks  after 
the  fire  in  1906 — and  he  still  keeps  it  fitted  up  as  a  den,  "just  in  case." 
Tall  apartment  buildings  began  invading  bohemia's  province  on  the  Hill 
long  ago.  Higher  and  higher  the  newcomers  have  lifted  their  steel-and- 
concrete  shafts.  But  despite  this  invasion,  Russian  Hill  is  still  a  world 
removed,  where  steps  climb  and  brick-flagged  lanes  twine  up  sheer 
heights  between  green  hedges.  Gracious  homes  and  rambling  studios 
perch  among  gardens  spilling  downhill  on  its  slopes.  Among  the  Tudor 
villas  and  the  neo-French  chateaux,  chastely  simple  dwellings  of  plywood 
and  glass  brick,  designed  with  corner  windows  and  sun  decks  to  admit 
sunlight,  air,  and  the  view,  have  begun  to  appear  of  late  years. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

(From  Market  and  Powell  Sts.,  the  Washington  and  Jackson  cable  car 
crosses  Nob  Hill  via  Powell  and  Jackson  Sts.;  from  Market  and  Cali- 
fornia Sts.,  the  California  St.  cable  car  via  California;  from  the  Ferry 
Building,  the  Sacramento  St.  cable  car  via  Sacramento.  From  Market 
and  O'Farrell  Sts.,  the  O'Farrell,  Jones  and  Hyde  Sts.  cable  car  crosses 
Russian  Hill  via  Hyde;  from  the  Ferry  Building,  the  Municipal  Rail- 
way "E"  car  via  Union  St.) 

127.  From  the  verge  of  the  hill,  the  2Ostory  MARK  HOPKINS 
HOTEL,  SE.  corner  California  and  Mason  Sts.,  above  a  triangular 
plaza  entered  between  pylons  and  enclosed  by  balustrades,  lifts  its  bea- 
con-tipped minarets  563   feet  above  sea  level.     Opened  in  December 
1926,  it  looks  down  on  one  of  the  city's  most  magnificent  panoramas. 

Famous  orchestras  broadcast  nightly  beneath  painted  peacocks  flaunt- 
ing their  plumage  on  the  ceiling  of  Peacock  Court.  Adjoining  is  the 
Room  of  the  Dons,  decorated  with  the  murals  of  Maynard  Dixon  and 
Frank  Van  Sloun,  depicting  the  story  of  California  with  its  recurrent 
theme  of  "Golden  Dreams."  "The  Mark"  is  the  scene  of  such  estab- 
lished cults  as  the  Friday  night  dance  and  the  annual  Junior  League 
dance  and  fashion  show. 

To  guests  of  sybaritic  tastes,  the  solid  gold  bathroom  fixtures  of 
several  of  the  tower  apartments  may  recall  the  overwhelming  lavish- 
ness  of  the  mansion  which  railroad  magnate  Mark  Hopkins  built  on  the 
site  in  the  1 870*8.  Presented  after  Hopkins'  death  to  the  San  Francisco 
Art  Association,  the  mansion  became  the  scene  of  extravagant  annual 
Mardi  Gras  balls. 

128.  On  the  foundations  laid  by  James  G.   ("Bonanza  Jim")   Fair 
for  a  Nob  Hill  mansion  which  would  outshine  all  others,  the  FAIR- 


256      SAN     FRANCISCO 

MONT  HOTEL,  California,  Mason,  Sacramento,  and  Powell  Sts., 
rears  its  lordly  pile  of  white  granite.  Only  the  granite  walls  enclosing 
the  grounds  had  been  built  when  domestic  troubles  interrupted  Fair's 
plans.  To  memorialize  her  father,  "Tessie"  Fair  Oelrichs  undertook 
the  erection  of  a  de  luxe  hotel.  The  Fairmont  stood  complete  but  for 
its  windows — and  crates  of  sumptuous  furnishings  had  been  moved  into 
the  lobby — when  the  fire  of  1906  demolished  everything  but  the  walls. 
Under  the  direction  of  Stanford  White  the  hotel  was  repaired  and 
refurnished,  and  on  April  17,  1907 — one  day  short  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  fire — it  was  opened  with  a  banquet  for  500  guests.  It  at  once 
became  the  resort  of  the  elite,  led  by  Ned  Greenway,  self-appointed 
arbiter  of  the  city's  "Four  Hundred." 

From  a  semicircular  drive  flanked  by  lawns  and  shrubs,  a  porte- 
cochere  leads  to  the  entrance,  marked  by  six  gray  stone  columns  rising 
six  stories  to  the  roof.  From  the  walls  of  the  vast,  white-columned 
lobby,  splashed  with  vivid  red  furnishings,  look  down  panelled  Floren- 
tine mirrors  mounted  in  carved  frames  inlaid  with  gold  leaf,  imported 
from  the  Castello  di  Vincigliata  in  Italy.  From  the  lobby  open  the 
Gold  Room,  scene  of  brilliant  Army  and  Navy  balls;  the  Laurel  Court, 
fashionable  at  tea  time;  and  the  Venetian  Room,  where  guests  dance  to 
"name  bands."  In  the  Circus  Lounge,  against  a  background  of  gold 
leaf,  eight  murals  by  Esther,  Margaret,  and  Helen  Bruton  depict  men 
and  animals  performing  under  the  "big  top."  Popular  Fairmont  diver- 
sions are  swimming  in  the  fresh-water  Terrace  Plunge  (open  10-10} 
and  sun-bathing  on  the  Terrace  Lawn  overlooking  the  Bay. 

129.  The  PACIFIC  UNION  CLUB,  NW.  corner  California  and 
Mason  Sts.,  occupies  the  only  residence  on  the  hill  to  survive  the  fire 
of  '  1906 — the  massive  $1,500,000  Connecticut  brownstone  mansion 
built  by  James  C.  Flood  after  his  return  from  a  trip  to  New  York, 
where  he  was  impressed  by  the  brownstone  mansions  of  the  rich.  Flood's 
"thirty-thousand-dollar  brass  fence,"  recalled  Amelia  Ransome  Neville, 
"flashed  for  the  entire  length  of  two  blocks  on  the  square  .  .  .  and  it 
was  the  sole  task  of  one  retainer  to  keep  it  bright."  The  foundations 
of  the  Flood  fortune  were  laid  in  the  "Auction  Lunch"  kept  by  Flood 
and  his  partner,  W.  S.  O'Brien,  "where  an  especially  fine  fish  stew 
drew  Patrons  from  the  Stock  Exchange  nearby.  Daily  the  proprietors 
heard  talk  of  stocks  and  mining  shares  and  together  decided  to  invest. 
Results  were  overwhelming." 

In  Steve  Whipple's  saloon  on  Commercial  Street  was  founded  the 
Pacific  Club,  first  "gentlemen's  club"  in  San  Francisco,  of  which  Cutler 
McAllister,  brother  of  New  York's  social  arbiter,  Ward,  was  a  founder. 
It  was  amalgamated  eventually  with  the  rival  Union  Club,  founded  in 
1854.  Its  memberships,  restricted  to  100,  pass  like  inheritances  from 


LORDS     OF     THE     HILLTOPS      257 

father  to  son.     Near  Point  Reyes,   in  Marin   County,   members  hunt 
and  fish  in  a  preserve  of  76,000  acres. 

130.  Where  nursemaids  trundle  streamlined  prams  along  the  shrub- 
bery-bordered paths  of  HUNTINGTON  PARK,  California,  Taylor, 
and   Sacramento   Sts.,   Collis  P.   Huntington  used  to  stride   up   to  his 
front  door  from  the  cable  car  stop  on  California  Street.     Huntington 
bought  his  mansion  from  the  widow  of  his  one-time  friend,  David  D. 
Colton,  legal  counsel  for  the  "Big  Four."     After  Colton's  mysterious 
death  in   1878,  the  "Four"  brought  pressure  upon  her  for  the  return 
of  securities  on  the  grounds  that  Colton  had   embezzled   funds   from 
their  properties.     Mrs.  Colton  vindicated  her  husband's  name  by  intro- 
ducing at  a  subsequent  trial  the  famous  "Colton  Letters"  exposing  the 
machinations  by  which  the  four  partners  had  acquired  their  railroad 
properties.      From   his   enemy   in   court,    Huntington   bought    Colton's 
house.     Unlike  the  mansions  of  most  of  his  contemporaries,  the  railroad 
lawyer's  was  in  good  taste,  copied  (wrote  Mrs.  Neville)  "from  a  famous 
white  marble  palace  of  Italy  .  .  ."     Its  site  was  bequeathed  by  Hunt- 
ington's  widow  to  the  city  in  1915. 

131.  Like  those  Gothic  churches  of  the  Middle  Ages  under  con- 
struction for  generations,  GRACE  CATHEDRAL,  California,  Taylor, 
Sacramento,   and  Jones   Sts.,   is  not  finished,   although   its  cornerstone 
was  laid  by  Bishop  William  Ford  Nichols  30  years  ago.     Its  spire — 
from  which  an  illuminated  cross  will  rise  some  day  230  feet  above  the 
hilltop — is  still  a  gaunt  skeleton  of  orange-painted  girders.     The  dream 
which  inspired  its  founders  has  been  nurtured  since   September   1863, 
when    the    Right    Reverend    William    Ingraham    Kip,    first    Episcopal 
Bishop    in    California,    placed    his    Episcopal    Chair    in    Grace    Church 
(founded  1850),  thus  establishing  the  first  cathedral  seat  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  in  America. 

The  Grace  Cathedral  of  Bishop  Kip's  day  (California  and  Stockton 
Streets)  was  destroyed  in  the  1906  fire.  On  January  27,  1914,  the 
Founders'  Crypt  of  the  new  church  was  opened.  Halted  by  the  War, 
construction  was  resumed  toward  the  end  of  the  next  decade,  to  be 
delayed  again  by  the  economic  depression.  Present  (1940)  completed 
units  include  the  sanctuary,  choir,  north  and  south  transepts,  three  bays 
of  the  nave,  and  the  Chapel  of  Grace.  When  completed  the  north 
tower  will  support  a  carillon  whose  44  bells — weighing  from  twelve 
pounds  to  six  tons  each — were  cast  in  Croydon,  England.  The  carillon 
is  the  gift  of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Coulson. 

The  cathedral  is  340  feet  long  and  119  feet  wide  (across  the  main 
front).  The  towers  rise  158  feet  from  the  street;  the  87-foot-high  nave 
extends  300  feet.  The  use  of  undisguised  concrete  for  the  exterior 
gives  the  massive,  buttressed  walls  an  air  of  enduring  strength.  In  the 
Chapel  of  Grace  are  an  altar  from  tenth-century  France,  an  altar  rail 


258      SAN     FRANCISCO 

of  Travertine  marble,  and  a  reredos  of  fourteenth-century  Flemish 
wood  carving. 

Property  on  which  the  cathedral  stands  was  deeded  to  the  diocese 
by  the  heirs  of  Charles  Crocker,  whose  mansion  stood  here  until  1906. 
Attempting  to  acquire  possession  of  the  whole  block  in  1877,  Crocker 
was  defied  by  a  Mr.  Yung,  whose  home  occupied  a  25-foot  strip  on 
Sacramento  Street.  In  revenge,  Crocker  had  Yung's  property  hemmed 
in  by  a  fence  that  shut  out  the  sunlight.  During  the  ensuing  deadlock 
gripmen  stopped  their  cable  cars  at  the  spot,  hackmen  brought  ogling 
tourists,  and  souvenir  seekers  removed  pickets  from  the  "spite"  fence. 
It  was  not  until  after  the  death  of  the  principals  that  the  Crocker 
family  obtained  the  property. 

132.  Second  oldest  surviving  residence  in  San  Francisco,  the  AT- 
KINSON HOUSE  (private),  1052  Broadway,  was  built  by  Joseph  H. 
Atkinson  and  his  wife  in  1853.     Entered  through  an  iron  gate  from 
the  grass-grown  cobblestones  of  the  street,  the  gray  plaster  two-story 
house  clings  to  the  steep  hillside,  its  narrow  second-story  balconies  level 
with  the  terrace  at  one  side.    Through  creepers  and  ferns  wind  narrow 
brick-flagged  paths.    The  old  house  was  occupied  by  Atkinson's  relatives 
until  recent  years. 

133.  The  OCTAGONAL  HOUSE    (private),   1067  Green  St., 
first  of  a  number  of  such  architectural  oddities  conceived  by  an  early 
Eastern  builder,  has  been  occupied  continuously  by  descendants  of  the 
French  settler,  Feusier,  for  whom  it  was  built  in  1858.     With  every 
room  a  front  room,  the  large  double  windows  on  all  sides  stare  like  so 
many  Argus  eyes  upon  a  world  of  rapid  change. 

134.  Overlooking  the  Golden  Gate  from  the  end  of  a  graveled  walk 
between  interlacing  plane  trees,  half-way  down  the  hill  from  the  Lom- 
bard Street  Reservoir,  the  GEORGE  STERLING  MEMORIAL, 
Hyde,  Greenwich,  and  Lombard  Sts.,  is  a  simple  bench  inlaid  with 
warm-hued  tiles,  dedicated  by  the  Spring  Valley  Water  Company  June 
25,  1928,  "To  Remember  George  Sterling,  1869-1926."     The  bronze 
tablet  is  inscribed  with  a  stanza  from  the  "Song  of  Friendship"  (a  musi- 
cal composition  whose  lyrics  were  written  by  Sterling)  and  a  quotation 
from  the  poet's  "Ode  to  Shelley" : 

"O  Singer,  Fled  Afar! 

The  Erected  Darkness  Shall  But  Isle  the  Star 
That  Was  Your  Voice  to  Man, 

Till  Morning  Come  Again 
And  Of  the  Night  That  Song  Alone  Remain." 

Sterling's  death  by  his  own  hand  marked  for  many  of  his  admirers  the 
passing  of  that  -bohemia  of  which  he  had  been  one  of  the  chief  repre- 
sentatives. 


LORDS     OF     THE     HILLTOPS      259 

135.  An  abandoned  rain-filled  cistern  saved  San  Francisco's  oldest 
surviving  residence,  the  WILLIAM  PENN  HUMPHRIES  HOUSE 
(private),  NE.  corner  Chestnut  and  Hyde  Sts.,  from  the   1906  fire. 
The  owner's  sons  and  neighbors  cleared  the  debris  from  the  unused 
backyard  reservoir  and  drenched  the  house  with  buckets  of  water.    The 
handiwork  of  William  Squires  Clark,  who  built  the  town's  first  wharf, 
the  house  was  constructed  in  1852  of  heavy  white  oak  timbers  brought 
around  the  Horn.     Its  broad  verandas  resemble  the  decks  and  its  third 
story,  the  captain's  bridge  of  a  ship.     Into  the  garden  at  its  feet,  flag- 
stones lead  from  wooden  gates,  one  shadowed  by  a  towering  eucalyptus, 
the  other  by  a  twisted  acacia.    Along  its  western  side  gnarled  cypresses 
border  the  tall  latticed  fence  built  for  a  windbreak.    Honeysuckle  climbs 
about  the  verandas,  weeds  glut  the  yards,  lattices  and  fences  are  falling. 
Like  many  another  ancient   residence,   the  mansion  now  is  a   "guest 
house";  efforts  to  secure  its  purchase  by  the  City  and  County  of  San 
Francisco  for  preservation  as  a  museum  have  been  unsuccessful. 

136.  Above  a  hillside  garden  overlooking  the  Bay  soars  the  tile- 
roofed  tower  of  the  CALIFORNIA  SCHOOL  OF  FINE  ARTS 
(open  Mon.-Sat.  9-4;  Mon.f  Wed.,  Fri.,  7-10  also),  Chestnut  and  Jones 
Sts.,  dominating  the  rambling,  three-story  structure  of  painted  concrete, 
which  surrounds  a  patio  with  a  tiled  fountain  at  its  center.     A  con- 
stantly changing  student  exhibit  of  murals  and  frescoes  covers  the  in- 
terior walls.     In  one  of  the  studios  is  Diego  Rivera's  Age  of  Industry, 
one  of  two  Rivera  murals  executed  in  San  Francisco.     The  school  was 
built  in  1923  by  the  San  Francisco  Art  Association,  from  profits  derived 
by  the  sale  of  the  Mark  Hopkins  property  on  Nob  Hill,  where  since 
1893  it  had  conducted  the  Mark  Hopkins  Institute  of  Art.     It  houses 
the  ANNE  BREMER  MEMORIAL  LIBRARY  (open  to  students  Mon.-Fri. 
10-5) ,  endowed  by  art  patron  Albert  Bender,  which  contains  fine  prints, 
current  art  publications,  and  valuable  books  on  ancient  and  modern  art. 
A  full  program  of  courses  in  fine  and  applied  arts  is  conducted  for  an 
annual  enrollment  of  about  650  students. 


Embarcadero 


".  .  .  that  harbor  so  remarkable  and  so  spacious  that  in  it  may 
be  established  shipyards,  docks,  and  anything  that  may  be 
wished." 

— FATHER  PEDRO  FONT  (1776) 

THE  story  of  San  Francisco  is  largely  the  story  of  its  water  front. 
As  if  it  had  grown  up  out  of  the  sea,  the  original  town  clung 
so  closely  to  the  water's  edge  that  one  might  almost  have  fancied 
its  settlers — newly  landed  from  shipboard,  most  of  them — were  reluctant 
to  take  to  dry  land.  For  years  all  the  city's  traffic  passed  up  and  down 
the  long  wooden  wharves,  sagging  with  business  houses  that  ranged 
from  saloons  to  banks.  Many  of  the  old  ships  lie  buried  now  beneath 
dry  land.  Above  the  level  of  the  tides  that  once  lapped  the  pilings, 
streetcars  thunder.  Even  old  East  Street,  last  of  the  water-front  thor- 
oughfares, has  gone  the  way  of  the  sailing  vessels  which  once  thrust 
proud  figureheads  above  the  wharves'  wooden  bulkheads.  Around  the 
Peninsula's  edge,  from  Fisherman's  Wharf  to  China  Basin,  sweeps  the 
paved  crescent  of  the  2OO-foot-wide  Embarcadero,  lined  with  immense 
concrete  piers.  Where  the  four-masters  and  square-riggers  once  dis- 
embarked, cargo-ships  and  luxury  liners  rest  alongside  vast  warehouses, 
unloading  their  goods  from  all  the  corners  of  the  earth. 

By  night  the  Embarcadero  is  a  wide  boulevard,  dimly  lighted  and 
nearly  deserted,  often  swathed  in  fog.  Its  silence  is  broken  by  the 
lonely  howl  of  a  fog  siren,  the  raucous  scream  of  a  circling  seagull,  or 
the  muffled  rattle  of  a  winch  on  a  freighter  loading  under  floodlights. 
The  sudden  blast  of  a  departing  steamer,  the  far-off  screech  of  freight- 
cars  being  shunted  onto  a  siding  by  a  puffing  Belt  Line  locomotive 
shake  the  nocturnal  quiet.  The  smells  of  copra,  of  oakum,  raw  sugar, 
roasting  coffee  and  rotting  piles,  and  mud  and  salt  water  creep  up  the 
darkened  streets. 

Even  before  the  eight  o'clock  wail  of  the  Ferry  Building  siren,  the 
Embarcadero  comes  violently  to  life.  From  side  streets  great  trucks 
roll  through  the  yawning  doors  of  the  piers.  The  longshoremen,  clus- 
tered in  groups  before  the  pier  gates,  swarm  up  ladders  and  across  gang- 
planks. The  jitneys,  small  tractor-like  conveyances,  trailing  long  lines 
of  flat  trucks,  wind  in  and  out  of  traffic;  the  comical  lumber  carriers, 
like  monsters  with  lumber  strapped  to  their  undersides,  rattle  along  the 
street.  Careening  taxis,  rumbling  underslung  vans  and  drays,  and 
scurrying  pedestrians  suddenly  transform  the  water  front  into  a  traffic- 
thronged  artery. 

260 


«««K««K(C«CC««CCCC«tt>^^^ 


Street  Scenes 


&&<&^^^^^ 


CALIFORNIA  STREET  STILL  CHALLENGES  THE  CABLE  CAR 


CHINESE  NEW  YEAR  CELEBRATION 

CHINATOWN 
CHINESE  CHILDREN  AT  THANKSGIVING  PLAYGROUND  PARTY 


HOTEL 
«&** 


GRANT  AVENUE 


FISHERMAN'S  WHARF 


SS.  PETER  AND  PAUL  CHURCH 


PACIFIC  UNION  CLUB,  MARK  HOPKINS 
AND  FAIRMONT  HOTELS  ON  NOB  HILL 


:>? 


- 


LrMr 


TELEGRAPH  HILL  FROM  THE  PRECIPITOUS  SIDE 


OCTAGONAL  HOUSE  ON  RUSSIAN  HILL.  BUILT  IN  1854 


PACIFIC  HEIGHTS 


K 


MM 
Mil! 


ute*c--      ^t, 

pSS*^ 


EMBARCADERO      26l 

A  never-ending  stream  of  vehicles  brings  the  exports  of  the  Bay 
area  and  the  West  and  the  imports  of  both  the  hemispheres.  Stored 
in  the  Embarcadero's  huge  warehouses  are  sacks  of  green  coffee  from 
Brazil;  ripening  bananas  from  Central  America;  copra  and  spices  from 
the  South  Seas;  tea,  sugar,  and  chocolate;  cotton  and  kapok;  paint  and 
oil ;  and  all  the  thousand  varieties  of  products  offered  by  a  world  market. 
Here,  awaiting  transshipment,  are  wines  from  Portugal,  France,  and 
Germany ;  English  whisky  and  Italian  vermouth ;  burlap  from  Calcutta 
and  glassware  from  Antwerp ;  beans  from  Mexico  and  linen  yarn  from 
northern  Ireland. 

North  of  the  Ferry  Building  dock  the  vessels  of  foreign  lines.  Here, 
too,  are  berths  for  many  of  the  old  stern-wheelers,  and  of  barges  and 
river  boats  of  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  Rivers  which  bring  to 
San  Francisco  the  products  of  central  California's  great  agricultural 
plains. 

South  of  the  Ferry  Building  dock  the  big  transpacific  passenger 
ships.  Near  China  Basin  are  several  piers  from  which  sail  the  around- 
the-world  boats  of  the  American  President  Line  (formerly  Dollar 
Lines).  Sailing  and  docking  days  bring  a  fleet  of  taxis  to  the  pier  head 
with  flowers,  passengers,  and  dignitaries.  When  the  Pacific  Fleet  is 
anchored  in  Man-o'-War  Row,  the  bluejackets  disembark  from  the  ten- 
ders at  Pier  14. 

Around  China  Basin  and  the  long  narrow  channel  extending  inland 
from  the  Embarcadero's  southern  end  are  railway  freight  yards,  ware- 
houses, and  oil  and  lumber  piers.  Of  the  bridges  that  span  the  channel, 
most  important  is  the  trunnion  bascule  lifting  bridge  at  Third  and 
Channel  Streets,  built  in  1933,  one  of  the  largest  of  its  type.  On  the 
south  side  of  the  channel  entrance  are  the  Santa  Fe  Railway  Company's 
wharves,  with  a  mechanically  adjustable  ramp  that  can  be  raised  or 
lowered  with  the  level  of  the  tide.  To  adjoining  piers  are  moored  many 
large  purse-seiners,  driven  south  by  winter  storms,  whose  home  ports 
include  such  places  as  Chignik,  Nome,  Sitka,  Juneau,  and  Gig  Harbor. 
Fishing  in  southern  latitudes  during  winter,  they  utilize  San  Francisco 
as  their  base. 

Busiest  section  of  the  Embarcadero  is  the  stretch  between  the  Ferry 
Building  and  the  Matson  Line  docks.  Opposite  the  great  concrete  piers 
is  a  string  of  water-front  hotels,  saloons,  cafes,  billiard  parlors,  barber 
shops,  and  clothing  stores.  The  one  sail  loft  which  remains  has  turned 
long  since  to  making  awnings.  In  the  block  between  Market  and  Mis- 
sion Streets  the  atmosphere  of  the  old  water  front  lingers  in  the  saloons, 
lunch  rooms,  and  stores  where  seafaring  men  and  shore  workers  gather. 

As  on  most  American  water  fronts,  store  windows  are  stuffed  with 
dungarees,  gloves,  white  caps,  good  luck  charms,  cargo  hooks,  and 
accordions.  A  tattoo  artist  decorates  manly  arms  and  chests  with 
glamour  girls,  cupids,  and  crossed  anchors.  Gone  today  are  the  bum- 


262      SAN     FRANCISCO 

boatmen,  who  once  climbed  aboard  incoming  ships  from  rowboats  with 
articles  to  sell;  but  peddlers  patrol  the  Embarcadero,  some  pushing 
carts  with  candy  and  fruits,  mystic  charms  and  shoestrings,  lottery  and 
sweepstakes  tickets.  In  many  cafes  or  saloons  a  longshoreman  can  cash 
his  "brass,"  the  small  numbered  metal  token  given  him  for  presentation 
at  the  company  pay  windows.  For  cashing  it,  the  charge  is  usually 
five  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Sealers,  seamen,  longshoremen,  warehousemen — all  have  their  hiring 
halls  and  union  headquarters  in  the  small  area  bounded  by  the  Embar- 
cadero, Market,  Clay,  and  Drumm  Streets,  known  to  seafaring  men 
and  dock  workers  as  the  "Front."  Here  the  men  congregate  between 
shifts  and  between  jobs  awaiting  their  turn  for  new  jobs  handed  out 
through  union  dispatchers.  Their  talk  is  interminably  of  union  con- 
tracts, politics,  jobs,  lottery  tickets,  and  horse  racing.  From  the  various 
hiring  halls  the  men  are  sent  out,  the  longshoremen  sometimes  hurrying 
to  docks  and  ports  as  far  away  as  Crockett  in  Contra  Costa  County 
and  the  seamen  packing  their  suitcases  of  working  "gear"  to  the  ships. 
All  dispatching  is  done  by  rotation:  this  is  the  hiring  hall  system  for 
which  the  men  fought  in  the  1934  maritime  strike. 

The  longshoremen  with  their  white  caps  and  felt  hats,  their  black 
jackets  and  hickory  shirts,  their  cargo  hooks  slung  in  hip  pockets,  out- 
number the  workers  of  any  other  craft  in  the  maritime  industry.  As 
soon  as  a  ship  is  tied  up,  they  go  aboard,  and  as  the  winches  begin  to 
rattle,  unloading  is  under  way.  The  jitney  drivers  pull  up  alongside 
with  their  trucks;  checkers  keep  track  of  every  piece  of  cargo.  Mean- 
while, ship  sealers  are  aboard  cleaning  out  empty  holds,  boiler  tubes 
and  fire  boxes,  painting  sides  and  stacks,  scraping  decks,  and  doing  the 
thousand  jobs  required  to  make  a  vessel  shipshape. 

The  produce  commission  district,  a  stone's  throw  from  the  water 
front  in  the  area  bounded  by  Sacramento,  Front,  Pacific,  and  Drumm 
Streets,  also  bustles  with  activity  in  early  morning.  A  district  of  nar- 
row streets  lined  with  roofed  sidewalks  and  low  brick  buildings,  it  is 
the  receiving  depot  for  the  fresh  produce  that  finds  its  way  into  the 
kitchens,  restaurants,  and  hotels  of  the  city.  Long  before  daybreak — 
in  the  summer,  as  early  as  one  o'clock — trucks  large  and  small  begin 
to  arrive  from  the  country  with  fruits  and  vegetables.  From  poultry 
houses  come  the  crowing  and  cackling  of  fowls  aroused  by  the  lights 
and  commotion.  The  clatter  of  hand-trucking  and  a  babel  of  dialects 
arise.  About  six  o'clock  the  light  delivery  trucks  of  local  markets  begin! 
to  arrive.  By  this  time  a  pedestrian  can  barely  squeeze  past  the  crates, 
hampers,  boxes,  and  bags  along  the  sidewalks. 

The  stacks  of  produce  dwindle  so  rapidly  that  by  nine  o'clock  the 
busiest  part  of  the  district's  day  is  over.  Then  come  the  late  buyers, 
known  as  "cleaners-up,"  to  take  advantage  of  lowered  prices;  street 
peddlers  with  dilapidated  trucks,  and  poverty-stricken  old  men  and 


EMBARCADERO      263 

women,  carrying  bags,  to  search  the  gutters  for  fruit  and  vegetables 
dropped  or  flung  away.  By  afternoon  this  district  is  almost  deserted. 

"San  Francisco  is  the  only  port  in  the  United  States,"  reports  the 
United  States  Board  of  Engineers  for  Rivers  and  Harbors,  "where  the 
water  front  is  owned  and  has  been  developed  by  the  State,  and  where 
also,  the  public  terminal  developments  have  been  connected  with  one 
another  and  with  rail  carriers  by  the  Belt  Line,  owned  and  operated  by 
the  State."  In  1938,  the  State  Board  of  Harbor  Commissioners,  cele- 
brating its  control  of  the  water  front  since  1863,  reported  the  port  of 
San  Francisco  had  "43  piers  available  for  handling  general  cargo;  17.5 
miles  of  berthing  space;  193  acres  of  cargo  space;  terminals  and  ware- 
houses for  special  cargo — a  grand  total  of  1,912  acres  owned  by  the 
State  of  California.  A  shipside  refrigeration  and  products  terminal 
equipped  with  modern  facilities  for  handling  and  storing  agricultural 
products  and  perishable  commodities  in  transit;  a  grain  terminal  for 
cleaning,  grading  and  loading  grain  for  export;  special  facilities  for  the 
promotion  and  development  of  the  fishing  industry  at  Fisherman's 
Wharf;  tanks  and  pipelines  for  handling  Oriental  vegetable  oils  and 
molasses;  fumigating  plants  for  cotton;  lumber  terminals.  The  entire 
water  front  and  adjacent  warehouses  and  industries  are  served  by  the 
State  Belt  Railroad,  which  has  66  miles  of  track  and  direct  connection 
with  all  transcontinental  and  local  railroads.  .  .  .  The  Port's  ensemble 
of  wharves,  piers,  terminals  and  commercial  shipping  facilities  virtually 
as  they  exist  today,  have  been  constructed  during  the  last  28  years  and 
are  valued  at  close  to  $42,000,000.  All  the  facilities  of  the  port  are 
appraised  at  $86,000,000." 

Before  there  was  an  Embarcadero  the  shoreline  of  a  circling  lagoon 
swept  inward  from  Clark's  Point  at  the  base  of  Telegraph  Hill  and 
outward  again  to  Rincon  Point  near  the  foot  of  Harrison  Street.  From 
August,  1775,  when  Lieutenant  Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala  first  sailed  the 
San  Carlos  through  the  Golden  Gate  until  September,  1848,  when  the 
brig  Belfast  docked  at  the  water-front's  first  pile  wharf,  cargoes  were 
lightered  from  vessel  to  shore.  The  favored  landing  place  was  Clark's 
Point,  the  small,  rocky  promontory  sheltering  Yerba  Buena  Cove  on 
the  north,  first  known  as  the  Punta  del  Embarcadero  (Point  of  the 
Landing  Place).  Here  in  September,  1847  William  Squires  Clark 
persuaded  the  Town  Council  to  authorize  construction  of  a  public  pier 
(see  bronze  plaque  on  wall  of  Montevideo  and  Parodi,  Inc.  Building, 
TOO- no  Broadway).  Sufficient  only  to  pay  for  the  pier's  foundations, 
the  $1,000  appropriated  was  exhausted  by  the  following  January.  In 
1848  the  Town  Council  agreed  to  appropriate  $2,000  more  for  con- 
tinuance of  the  work.  This,  when  completed,  was  the  first  wharf  built 
on  piles  on  the  Pacific  Coast  north  of  Panama. 

"The  crowd  of  shipping,  two  or  three  miles  in  length,  stretched 
along  the  water  .  .  ."  wrote  globe-trotter  Bayard  Taylor  before  the 


264      SAN     FRANCISCO 

end  of  1849.  "There  is  probably  not  a  more  exciting  and  bustling 
scene  of  business  activity  in  any  part  of  the  world,  than  can  be  wit- 
nessed on  almost  any  day,  Sunday  excepted,  at  Broadway  Street  wharf, 
San  Francisco,  at  a  few  minutes  before  4  o'clock  p.m.  Men  and  women 
are  hurrying  to  and  fro ;  drays,  carriages,  express  wagons  and  horsemen 
dash  past.  .  .  .  Clark's  Point  is  to  San  Francisco  what  Whitehall  is  to 
New  York." 

First  wharf  for  deep-water  shipping  was  Central  or  Long  Wharf, 
built  along  the  line  of  Commercial  Street,  which  by  the  end  of  1849 
had  been  extended  to  a  length  of  800  feet.  It  was  used  by  most  of 
the  immense  fleet  of  vessels  from  all  the  world  which  anchored  in  the 
Bay  in  the  winter  of  1849-50.  By  October,  1850,  an  aggregate  of 
5,000  feet  of  new  wharves  had  been  constructed  at  an  estimated  outlay 
of  $1,000,000.  The  wharf  building  was  accomplished  in  haphazard 
fashion.  Not  until  May  1851,  when  the  State  legislature  passed  the 
Second  Water  Lot  Bill,  was  the  city  empowered  to  permit  construction 
of  wharves  beyond  the  city  line.  No  less  than  eight  wharves,  however, 
had  been  built  by  this  time.  Nearly  one  half  of  San  Francisco  rose  on 
piles  above  water.  The  moment  a  new  wharf  was  completed,  up  went 
frame  shanties  to  house  a  gambling  den,  provision  dealer,  clothing  house, 
or  liquor  salesman. 

Soon,  however,  more  substantial  structures  were  being  erected.  Of 
these,  perhaps  the  most  famous  was  Meiggs'  Wharf,  built  by  Henry 
Meiggs  in  1853.  From  the  water  line  (then  Francisco  Street)  at  the 
foot  of  Mason  Street,  Meiggs'  L-shaped  pier,  42  feet  wide,  ran  1,600 
feet  north  to  the  line  of  Jefferson  Street  and  360  feet  east.  Long  after 
its  builder  had  absconded  to  Peru  (where  he  made  a  fortune  building  a 
railway  through  the  Andes),  following  discovery  of  his  embezzlement 
of  $800,000  in  city  funds,  the  wharf  was  a  terminal  for  ferryboats 
plying  to  Alcatraz  and  Sausalito.  From  the  foot  of  Sansome  Street, 
in  the  shadow  of  Telegraph  Hill,  ran  the  North  Point  Docks,  built  in 
1853,  where  for  many  years  landed  most  of  the  city's  French  and 
Italian  immigrants. 

The  ten-year  leases  under  which  most  of  the  important  wharves 
operated  expired  in  1863 — and  in  that  year  was  appointed  a  State 
Board  of  Harbor  Commissioners,  which  refused  to  grant  renewals.  Not 
until  1867,  because  of  litigation  with  wharf-owners,  was  the  board  able 
to  proceed  with  harbor  development.  A  channel  60  feet  wide  was 
dredged  20  feet  below  low  tide  level,  in  which  loads  of  rock  dumped 
by  scows  and  lighters  were  piled  up  in  a  ridge  reaching  the  level  of 
mean  low  tide.  On  top  of  the  embankment  were  laid  a  foundation  of 
concrete  and,  on  top  of  the  concrete,  a  wall  of  masonry.  But  the  pro- 
tracted litigation  with  water-front  property  owners,  the  decline  in  ship- 
ping caused  by  competition  of  the  newly  completed  transcontinental 
railroad,  and  the  grafting  of  private  contractors  who  had  undertaken 


EMBARCADERO      265 

to  build  the  sea  wall — all  combined  to  hold  up  the  work.  Within  two 
years  after  construction  had  been  resumed  in  1877,  a  thousand  feet  of 
the  wall  west  of  Kearny  Street  had  been  completed.  From  the  scarred 
eastern  flanks  of  Telegraph  Hill,  long  lines  of  carts  transported  rock. 
In  the  course  of  construction,  tons  of  rock  were  gouged  from  the  hill's 
slopes,  and  tons  more  (more  than  1, 000,000)  were  ferried  from  Sheep 
Island,  off  Port  Richmond.  Not  until  1913  was  the  sea  wall  finally 
completed. 

The  Belt  Line  Railroad  was  first  debated  in  1873,  but  not  until 
1890  was  a  mile-long  line  with  a  three-rail  track  built  for  both  narrow- 
and  standard-gauge  cars.  At  first  confined  to  the  section  north  of 
Market  Street,  the  road  was  extended  southward  in  1912  to  link  the 
entire  commercial  water  front  with  rail  connections  to  the  south  and 
thereafter  westward  through  the  tunnel  under  Fort  Mason  to  the 
Presidio  and  southward  to  Islais  Creek  Channel. 

Revolutionary  as  the  port's  physical  changes  have  been  in  the  past 
century,  no  less  marked  have  been  the  differences  wrought  in  the  lives 
of  the  men  who  earn  their  livelihood  on  its  ships  and  shores.  During 
the  years  after  '49,  "the  Front"  gained  the  reputation  of  being  one  of 
the  toughest  spots  in  the  world.  In  the  last  half  of  the  century  the 
shortage  in  sailors  was  so  great  that  kidnapping  or  "shanghaiing"  was 
practiced.  The  very  expression  "shanghaiing"  originated  in  San  Fran- 
cisco in  the  days  when  voyages  to  Shanghai  were  so  hazardous  that  a 
"Shanghai  voyage"  came  to  mean  any  long  sea  trip. 

Notorious  among  the  crimp  joints  of  the  i86o's  was  a  saloon  and 
boarding  house  conducted  on  Davis  Street  by  a  harridan  named  Miss 
Piggott.  Here  operated  one  Nikko,  a  Laplander  whose  specialty  was 
the  substitution  of  dummies  and  corpses  for  the  drunken  sailors  the 
ships'  captains  thought  they  were  hiring.  Miss  Piggott  had  a  rival  in 
Mother  Bronson,  who  ran  a  place  on  Steuart  Street.  She  would  size  up 
a  likely  customer,  smack  him  over  the  head  with  a  bung-starter,  and 
drop  him  through  a  trap  door  to  the  cellar  below  where  he  awaited 
transfer  to  a  ship. 

Shanghai  Kelly,  a  red-headed  Irishman  who  ran  a  three-story  saloon 
and  lodging  house  at  33  Pacific  Street,  was  probably  the  most  notorious 
crimp  ever  to  operate  in  San  Francisco.  The  tide  swished  darkly  be- 
neath three  trap  doors  built  in  front  of  his  bar.  Beneath  the  trap  doors, 
boats  lay  in  readiness.  Kelly's  most  spectacular  performance  came  in 
the  middle  1870'$.  Three  ships  in  the  harbor  needed  crews.  One  was 
the  notorious  hell-ship  Reefer,  from  New  York.  Kelly  engaged  to  sup- 
ply men.  He  chartered  the  paddle-wheel  steamer  Goliath  and  an- 
nounced a  picnic  with  free  drinks  to  celebrate  his  "birthday."  The 
entire  Barbary  Coast  responded.  Once  in  the  harbor,  Kelly  fed  his 
guests  doped  liquor,  pulled  alongside  the  Reefer  and  the  other  two  ships, 
and  delivered  more  than  90  men. 


266      SAN     FRANCISCO 


During  the  iSQo's  six  policemen  sent  successively  to  arrest  a  Chilean, 
Calico  Jim,  were  kidnapped  in  turn  and  put  aboard  outward  bound 
boats.  Ultimately,  all  six  returned  to  San  Francisco,  swearing  ven- 
geance. The  crimp  had  gone  to  South  America.  The  policemen  raised 
a  fund  and  sent  one  of  their  number  to  Chile  to  wreak  vengeance. 
Having  found  Calico  Jim,  he  pumped  six  bullets  into  him,  one  for  each 
policeman,  and  returned  to  duty. 

The  most  famous  runner  for  sailors'  boardinghouses  was  Johnny 
Devine,  the  "Shanghai  Chicken,"  who  had  lost  his  hand  in  some  scrap 
and  had  replaced  it  with  an  iron  hook.  Devine  was  a  burglar,  footpad, 
sneak  thief,  pimp,  and  almost  everything  else  disreputable.  His  favorite 
stunt  was  to  highjack  sailors  from  other  runners. 

Of  all  that  lively  collection  of  crimps,  highj  ackers,  burglars,  pimps, 
and  ordinary  rascals,  the  least  vicious  —  if  not  the  least  dangerous  — 
seems  to  have  been  Michael  Conner,  proprietor  of  the  Chain  Locker  at 
Main  and  Bryant  Streets.  Deeply  religious,  he  boasted  of  never  telling 
a  lie.  When  ships'  captains  came  seeking  able  seamen,  Conner  could 
swear  that  his  clients  had  experience  —  for  he  had  rigged  up  in  his  back- 
yard a  mast  and  spars  whereon  his  "seasoned  sailors"  were  put  through 
the  rudiments.  On  the  floor  of  his  saloon  was  a  cow's  horn,  around 
which  Conner  would  make  the  seamen  walk  several  times  so  that  he 
might  truthfully  say  they  had  been  "round  the  Horn." 

The  Embarcadero's  reputation  for  toughness  rapidly  is  being  woven 
into  legend,  along  with  the  doings  of  the  pioneers.  San  Francisco's 
water  front  is  no  longer  a  shadowy  haunt,  full  of  unsuspected  perils. 
Today,  it  occupies  a  place  in  the  forefront  of  the  city's  industrial,  com- 
mercial, and  social  life.  The  water-front  men  take  an  informed  interest 
in  civic  affairs  —  and  many  of  them  own  comfortable  homes  out  on  the 
avenues. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

137-  The  MARINE  EXCHANGE  LOOKOUT  STATION, 
Pier  45,  Embarcadero  and  Chestnut  St.,  whose  glassed-in,  hexagon- 
shaped  cubicle,  equipped  with  a  powerful  telescope,  commands  a  sweep- 
ing view  of  the  Golden  Gate,  has  been  called  "The  Eyes  of  the  Har- 
bor." At  the  dock  below  lies  the  launch  Jerry  Dailey,  ready  to  carry 
its  crew  of  old-timers  through  the  Gate  to  meet  incoming  vessels  when- 
ever telephonic  reports  from  the  Marine  Exchange's  other  lookout  sta- 
tion at  Point  Lobos  announce  that  a  vessel  has  been  sighted  on  the 
horizon.  The  lookout  delivers  mail  and  instructions  for  docking, 
receives  cargo  statistics,  running  time,  and  other  marine  news.  Return- 
ing to  the  station,  he  telephones  the  information  to  the  Marine  Ex- 
change, where  news  of  the  ship's  arrival  is  listed  on  the  blackboards. 

Since  its  organization  in  1851,  the  Marine  Exchange  has  kept  its 
day-and-night  watch  for  inbound  ships,  at  first  with  the  aid  of  the 


EMBARCADERO      267 

lookout  station  erected  by  Messrs.  Sweeney  and  Baugh  in  1849  on 
Telegraph  Hill,  to  which  signals  were  relayed  from  the  Point  Lobos 
lookout. 

138.  A  relic  of  the  old  days  is  FLINT'S  WAREHOUSE,  Filbert, 
Battery,  and  Sansome  Sts.,  built  in  1854  when  the  Bay  washed  at  the 
piles  of  the  Battery  Street  wharf.  Originally  two  stories  high,  it  was 


constructed  of  stone  torn  from  near-by  Telegraph  Hill;  but  when  the 
tide  lands  were  filled,  the  first  floor  became  the  basement.  Loading 
beams  that  served  the  sturdy  square-rigged  sailing  ships  of  the  1850*5 
still  hang  above  the  Battery  Street  doorways.  Today,  the  venerable 
structure,  steel-braced  and  patched  with  variegated  brick  but  still 
equipped  with  its  ancient  red  iron  shutters,  is  a  storage  plant  for  auto- 
mobiles. 

139.  One  police  boat,  the  D.  A.  WHITE,  moored  at  Pier  7,  serves 
the  entire  San  Francisco  water  front.  It  is  a  66-foot,  shallow-keeled 
vessel  powered  by  two  Diesel  motors  of  190  horsepower  each  which 
develop  a  speed  of  16  knots;  its  two-way  radio  enables  it  to  keep  in 
contact  with  the  Harbor  Police  Station,  under  whose  jurisdiction  it 


268      SAN     FRANCISCO 

operates.     Chief  duties  include  rescuing  amateur  yachtsmen  from  the 
mud  flats  and  grappling  corpses  from  the  murky  waters  of  the  Bay. 

140.  The  HARBOR  POLICE  STATION,  NE.  corner  Drumm 
and  Sacramento  Sts.,  a  compact,  two-story,  gray  stone  building,  is  head- 
quarters for  police  control  over  the  water-front  area.     One  of  its  main 
concerns  is  thievery  on  the  docks,  commonly  known  as  "poaching  the 
cargo." 

141.  The   HARBOR   EMERGENCY   HOSPITAL,   88  Sacra- 
mento St.,  is  largely  a  field  hospital  for  derelicts.     Here,  prisoners  from 
the  City  Jail  and  water-front  "sherry  bums,"  as  well  as  injured  sailors 
and  longshoremen  receive  treatment  in  two  twelve-bed  emergency  wards. 
The  present  hospital,  at  this  location  since  1926,  is  staffed  by  a  surgeon, 
nurse,  steward,  and  ambulance  driver.    Its  equipment  includes  a  Drinker 
respirator  for  use  in  drowning  cases. 

142.  The  oldest  maritime  organization  on  the  Pacific  Coast  has  its 
headquarters  at  the  BAR  PILOTS  STATION,  Pier  7,  Embarcadero 
and  Broadway;  for  90  years,  from  1850  to  1940,  the  San  Francisco  Bar 
Pilots  have  been  steering  vessels  over  the  San  Francisco  bar  and  through 
the  Golden  Gate  to  anchorage  in  the  Bay.     All  master  mariners,  the 
20  pilots  are   former  sea  captains  of  long  experience  on   the   Pacific 
Coast.    They  maintain  three  auxiliary  schooners  as  pilot  boats,  each  of 
which  carries  an  engineer,  a  boat  keeper,   a  cook,   and  three  sailors. 
Day  and  night  one  of  these  vessels  stands  by,  about  six  miles  off  the 
Golden  Gate,  with  sails  spread  to  keep  an  even  keel  in  high  seas.     Dur- 
ing its  five  days  at  sea,  the  crew  is  on  constant  call.     To  the  schooner 
at  sea,  the  shore  station  reports  ship  movements  by  means  of  a  wireless 
telephone  system — the  only  one  in  the  world  maintained  by  a  pilotage 
service.    Whenever  an  approaching  vessel  requires  a  pilot,  the  schooner 
is  brought  around  to  its  lee.     In  a  small  boat  the  pilot  is  rowed  over 
to  the  inbound  ship.     On  the  bridge  of  the  vessel,  he  takes  charge, 
steering  a  safe  course  into  the  harbor.     Under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
State  Pilot  Commission,  the  bar  pilots  are  obliged  to  keep  a  24-hour 
watch  on  the  bar  and  to  provide  pilotage  service  without  undue  delay 
to  any  ship  requesting  it. 

143.  More  universally  accepted  as  a  symbol  of  San  Francisco  than 
any  other  single  landmark,  the  FERRY  BUILDING,  Embarcadero 
and  Market  St.,  has  served  to  identify  the  city  in  the  minds  of  countless 
travelers  throughout   the  world.     Before   the   completion   of  the  two 
bridges  across  the  Bay,  this  was  the  gateway  to  San  Francisco,  its  high 
clock  tower  the  most  conspicuous  feature  of  the  skyline  to  passengers  on 
the  lumbering  ferries  which  churned  the  waters  for  nearly  nine  decades. 
In  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  opening  of  train  service  across 
the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge,  the  long  hallways  of  the  his- 
toric structure  echoed  to  the  footsteps  of  as  many  as  50,000,000  pas- 
sengers in  a  single  year — a  volume  of  traffic  exceeded  only  by  Charing 


EMBARCADERO      269 

Cross  Station  in  London.  For  40  years  the  flower  stand  on  the  ground 
floor  was  a  favored  rendezvous  where  San  Franciscans  met  visiting 
friends  in  the  midst  of  a  hubbub  of  talk,  newsboys'  shouts,  slamming 
taxicab  doors,  and  rumbling  streetcars.  Now  the  stairways  and  cor- 
ridors are  all  but  deserted,  since  only  overland  railroad  passengers  and 
Treasure  Island  pleasure-seekers  come  and  go  from  the  ferry  slips. 

Erected  by  the  State  Board  of  Harbor  Commissioners  (1896-1903) 
on  a  foundation  of  piles  beyond  the  edge  of  the  original  loose-rock 
sea  wall,  the  Ferry  Building  was  hailed  at  its  opening  in  July,  1898 
as  the  most  solidly  constructed  edifice  in  California.  It  was  built  to 
replace  the  old  Central  Terminal  Building  erected  in  1877,  a  wooden 
shed  over  the  three  ferry  slips  operated  by  the  Central  Pacific,  Atlantic 
and  Pacific,  and  South  Pacific  Coast  Railways,  when  the  volume  of 
traffic  across  the  Bay  dictated  an  improvement  in  terminal  facilities. 

Architect  Arthur  Paige  Brown  designed  a  two-story  building  with 
an  arcaded  front  extending  along  the  water  front  for  66 1  feet.  The 
clock  tower,  rising  235  feet  above  the  ground — a  respectable  height  in 
its  day — was  modeled  after  the  famous  Giralda  Tower  of  Spains'  Cathe- 
dral of  Seville.  Like  the  rest  of  the  building,  it  was  faced  with  gray 
Colusa  sandstone  until  the  1906  earthquake  shook  off  the  stone  blocks 
and  they  were  replaced  by  concrete.  Into  the  grand  nave  extending 
the  whole  length  of  the  building  on  the  second  floor  lead  corridors  giv- 
ing access  to  the  upper  decks  of  the  ferryboats. 

For  a  year  after  April  18,  1906,  the  great  hands  of  the  clock  dials 
on  the  tower  pointed  to  5  117 — the  time  at  which  the  earthquake  struck. 
When  first  installed,  the  clock  was  operated  by  a  long  cable  wound  on 
a  drum,  and  a  1 4-foot  pendulum;  it  has  since  been  equipped  to  run  by 
electricity.  Each  of  the  four  2,500-pound  dials  on  the  four  sides  of  the 
tower  measures  23^  feet  in  diameter;  each  of  the  numerals,  2^  feet 
in  height.  The  hour  hands  are  7  and  the  minute  hands  1 1  feet  long. 

Extending  the  entire  length  of  the  grand  nave  on  the  second  floor 
is  a  PANORAMA  MAP  in  relief  of  the  State  of  California,  modeled 
from  United  States  Geological  Survey  maps  by  25  artists,  engineers, 
electricians,  and  carpenters,  who  spent  two  years  (1923-25)  fabricating 
it  from  cardboard,  magnesite,  and  paint  at  a  cost  of  $100,000.  An 
automatic  electric  control  regulates  a  lighting  system  simulating  day- 
light, sunrise,  and  sunset  and  operates  a  miniature  Mount  Lassen  in 
eruption.  The  map  is  600  feet  long  and  18  wide,  on  a  scale  of  6  inches 
to  the  mile.  It  is  backed  by  a  cyclorama  of  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

Opposite  a  huge  mosaic  of  the  Great  Seal  of  California  in  the 
floor  of  the  nave  is  the  mezzanine  stairway  leading  to  the  CALIFORNIA 
STATE  MINING  BUREAU  MINERAL  MUSEUM  (open  Mon.-Fri.  9-5, 
Sat.  9-12),  its  laboratory,  and  the  John  Hammond  Mining  Library  of 
9,000  volumes.  The  museum,  fifth  largest  of  its  type  in  the  United 
States,  contains  specimens  of  minerals  from  every  part  of  the  world, 


270      SAN     FRANCISCO 

facsimiles  of  all  of  the  important  nuggets  unearthed  in  California,  and 
models  of  gold  and  diamond  mines  and  ore  crushers.  The  institution 
has  been  supported  by  the  State  and  by  individual  contributors  ever 
since  its  inception  in  1897.  J-  C.  Davis,  member  of  the  first  board  of 
trustees,  has  been  the  principal  donor. 

Flanking  the  main  entrance  to  the  Ferry  Building  are  two  short 
SECTIONS  OF  BAY  BRIDGE  CABLES,  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge  section  to 
the  north  and  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  section  to  the 
south. 

144.  From  the  NAVY  LANDING,  Pier  14,  Embarcadero  between 
Mission  and  Howard  Sts.,  launches  ply  back  and  forth  between  landing 
stage   and   shipside,    transporting  crowds   of   blueclad    Navy   men   and 
sightseeing  visitors,  whenever  the   United   States   Pacific   Fleet   is  tied 
up  along  "Man-o'-War  Row." 

145.  Alongside    the    two-story    engine    house    of    the    EMBAR- 
CADERO FIRE  DEPARTMENT,  Pier  22,  Embarcadero  between 
Folsom  and  Harrison  Sts.,  are  anchored  one  of  the  harbor's  two  gleam- 
ing red  and  black,  brass-trimmed  fire  boats,  and  one  of  its  two  auxiliary 
tugs.     The  harbor  firefighting  unit  of  23   men   is  maintained  jointly 
by  the  State  Board  of  Harbor  Commissioners  and  the  city.     The  fire 
boats  are  each  equipped  with  monitor  batteries,  more  than  5,000  feet 
of  hose,  and  water  towers  which  can  be  raised  to  a  height  of  55  feet 
above  deck.    They  respond  to  emergency  calls  from  all  parts  of  the  Bay 
and  its  islands. 

146.  Overlooking  the  China  Basin  Channel,  the  STATE  REFRIG- 
ERATION  PLANT,   between   Embarcadero  and  Third   Sts.,   offers 
storage  and  transfer  facilities  for  immense  quantities  of  fresh  fruit  and 
vegetables  awaiting  shipment  to  foreign  markets.     In  the  refrigeration 
plant's  450,000  cubic  feet  of  space,  more  than  200,000  packages  of  fruit 
can  be  precooled  simultaneously.     The   fruit  is  unloaded  from  trucks 
on  a  second-floor  platform  along  the  land  side  and  loaded  aboard  ship 
from  a  platform  on  the  water  side. 

147.  At  the  UNITED  FRUIT  COMPANY  DOCKS,  south  side 
of  China  Basin  Channel  west  of  Third  St.   Bridge,  one  of  the  fruit 
company's  banana  boats  from  Central  America  ties  up  each  Thursday. 
Occasionally,  a  frightened  monkey  or  small  boa  constrictor,  half  frozen 
from  long  hours  in  refrigerated  hatches,  comes  out  of  the  dark  with  the 
fruit.    The  firm  operates  three  freight  and  passenger  steamships  between 
San   Francisco  and   Puerto  Armuelles,   Panama.     Of   Danish   registry, 
the  vessels  are  specially  constructed  for  transporting  bananas,  each  hav- 
ing a  cargo  capacity  of  60,000  stems.     The  unloading  equipment  on 
the   pier   includes   electrically   operated   traveling  conveyors   and    belts. 
Issuing  from  the  vessel's  holds  in  endless  streams,  the  banana  stems  are 
sorted  according  to  degrees  of  ripeness  and  then  loaded  into  refrigerator 
cars.    The  capacity  of  the  unloading  equipment  is  30,000  stems  in  eight 
hours. 


South  of  Market 


".  .  .  from  all  around,  the  hum  of  corporate  life,  of  beaten  bells, 
and  steam,  and  running   carriages,  goes   cheerily   abroad  .  .  ." 

— ROBERT  Louis  STEVENSON 


HISTORY  has  played  fast  and  loose  with  that  great  segment  of 
the  city  which  sprawls  southward  from  Market  Street  to  the 
San  Francisco-San  Mateo  County  line.  Athwart  historic  Rin- 
con  Hill,  fashionable  residential  quarter  of  Gold  Rush  days,  the  stream- 
lined approach  to  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  rises  from  an 
area  of  factories,  machine  shops,  railroad  terminals,  "skid-road"  hotels, 
and  Greek  restaurants.  Westward  from  the  water  front — lined  to 
Hunter's  Point  with  warehouses,  stockyards,  and  shipbuilding  plants — 
the  district  spreads  across  Potrero  Hill  to  the  heights  of  Twin  Peaks, 
Buena  Vista  Park,  Mount  Olympus,  and  Mount  Davidson.  A  broad 
residential  district  whose  most  venerable  landmark  is  Mission  Dolores, 
occupying  a  sheltered  coastal  plain  and  adjacent  hillsides,  "The  Mis- 
sion" is  San  Francisco's  workshop,  where  live  most  of  the  city's  work- 
ing-class population.  Here  were  the  ranchos  of  Spanish  dons,  the 
suburbs  of  the  Argonauts;  but  today  this  is  the  city's  most  "American" 
section,  an  area  as  socially  homogeneous  as  an  Iowa  town. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

148.  Shimmering  green  fingers  of  ivy  cling  to  the  face  of  ST.  PAT- 
RICK'S CHURCH,  Mission  between  Third  and  Fourth  Sts.,  "the 
most  Irish  church  in  all  America."  Considered  to  be  one  of  the  finest 
examples  of  early  Gothic  ecclesiastical  architecture  outside  Europe,  it 
was  rebuilt  after  1906  from  the  charred  shell  of  Old  St.  Patrick's 
(1868).  First  mass  was  celebrated  in  1851  by  Father  John  Maginnis 
in  a  little  room  on  Fourth  and  Jessie  Streets;  from  this  chapel  grew 
St.  Patrick's  Parish,  whose  first  church  building  was  erected  in  1854 
on  the  present  site  of  the  Palace  Hotel. 

To  rebuild  the  gutted  interior  of  the  present  church,  Father  John 
Rogers,  successor  to  its  founder,  brought  from  Ireland  Caen  stone  and 
green  translucent  marble  of  Connemara.  Restored  stained  glass  win- 
dows depict  the  visions  of  St.  Patrick,  the  Four  Apostles,  and  scenes 
from  Irish  mythology.  Irish  artist  Mia  Cranwill  designed  the  main 
altar's  metal  crucifix  inlaid  with  precious  stones  and  the  vestments  of 
cloth-of-gold,  embroidered  in  ancient  Gaelic  patterns. 

271 


272      SAN     FRANCISCO 

149.  Dusty  and  threadbare  is  the  landmark  of  old  SOUTH  PARK, 
Third  between  Bryant  and  Brannan  Sts.,  once  enclosed  by  an  orna- 
mental iron   fence  to  keep  the   "shovelry"   from   the   retreat  wherein 
scions  of  the  Gold  Rush  "chivalry"  scampered  in  seclusion.     Today  it 
is  an  obscure  little  parkway  dominated  by  the  approach  to  the   San 
Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge.     Surrounded  by  cheap  rooming  houses 
and  machine  shops,  only  a  narrow  elliptoid  of  turf  remains  of  the  project 
which  the  enterprising  "Lord"  Gordon  laid  out  in  the  early   1850*8 
after  the  plan  of  London's  fashionable  Berkeley  Square.     Factories  and 
machine  shops  occupy  the  sites  of  the  sedate  Georgian  houses  which 
encircled   the   park.      Here,    among   others,    lived   cattle    king    Henry 
Miller;  the  grandparents  of  Gertrude  Atherton;   Hall   McAllister — 
until  he  lost  his  house  in  a  poker  game  to  a  Captain  Lyons;  Senator 
and  Mrs.  William  M.  Gwin;  and  "Lord"  Gordon's  family.    After  the 
exodus  of  their  fashionable  tenants  in  the  1870*8,  the  abandoned  man- 
sions fell  into  the  hands  of  Japanese  immigrants.     Deterioration,   the 
1906  fire,  and  conversion  to  mundane  uses  have  been  the  fate  of  this 
pioneer  real  estate  development. 

150.  Venerable  MISSION  DOLORES  (adm.  25$  including  cem- 
etery; open  daily  May  to  Sept.  g-$,  Oct.  to  April  9:30-4:30),  Dolores, 
between    Sixteenth   and    Seventeenth    Sts.,    its   heterogeneous    architec- 
ture well  preserved  after  more  than  150  years,  was  founded  by  Padre 
Francisco  Palou.     Father  Palou  has  told  how  the  pioneer  chapel,  dedi- 
cated on  June  29,  1776  to  "our  seraphic  Father  San  Francisco,"  was 
founded  just  five  days  before  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence.    With  the  aid  of  sailors  from  the  Spanish  supply  ship  San 
Carlos  "a  building  was  completed  which  .  .  .  was  made  of  wood  plas- 
tered over  with  clay  and  roofed  with  tules.     To  this  was  built  of  the 
same  material  ...  a  church  eighteen  varas  [or  about  fifty  feet]  long. 
Adjoining  it  was,  in  the  rear  of  the  altar,  a  small  room  which  served 
as  a  vestry.     The  church  was  adorned  in  the  best  manner  possible  with 
various  cloths,  flags,  bunting,  and  pendants  from  the  transport  ship." 
Dedicated  on   October   3,    1776,   it  was  formally  opened   October   8. 
Here  were  performed  the  first  marriage,  the  first  baptisms  of  Spaniards 
and  of  Indians,  and  the  first  Christian  burial  on  the   San   Francisco 
Peninsula. 

On  April  25,  1782,  in  the  presence  of  Padre  Jose  de  Murguia  from 
Mission  Santa  Clara,  Lieutenant  Joaquin  Moraga  and  officers  from  the 
Presidio,  and  an  assemblage  of  priests  and  soldiers,  Padre  Palou  laid  the 
cornerstone  of  the  present  church.  "Into  the  sepulcher  of  the  first  said 
stone,"  he  wrote,  "were  placed  the  image  of  our  Holy  Father  San 
Francisco,  some  relics  from  the  bones  of  St.  Pius  and  other  holy  martyrs, 
five  medals  of  various  saints,  and  a  good  portion  of  silver  money  to 
signify  the  Treasures  of  the  Church." 


SOUTH     OF     MARKET      273 

Perhaps  some  of  these  sacred  objects  are  still  buried  beneath  the 
adobe  walls,  four  feet  thick,  which  support  the  old  mission's  low-pitched 
roof  of  brown  tiles  surmounted  by  a  plain  Franciscan  cross.  It  has 
survived  the  years  in  remarkably  good  condition,  marked  neither  by  the 
decay  nor  the  extensive  restoration  which  have  befallen  some  other  Cali- 
fornia missions.  The  main  entrance  of  the  mission  is  flanked  by  pairs 
of  engaged  semi-Doric  columns  resting  on  massive  stylobates,  which 
support  six  pillars  rising  from  the  wooden  balcony  to  the  widely  pro- 
jecting eaves.  Between  the  four  middle  columns,  in  niches  cut  in  the 
wall,  are  hung  with  plaited  rawhide  the  three  bells  brought  from 
Mexico  in  1780 — Bret  Harte's  lyric  "Bells  of  the  Past"  which  once 
summoned  from  field  and  shop  the  Indian  neophytes  to  midday  meals. 
Measuring  22  feet  in  width  and  114  feet  in  depth,  the  mission  is  a 
compact  and  well-proportioned  structure  in  an  architectural  style  whose 
eclectic  Moorish  and  Classic  features  are  conditioned  by  adaption  to 
raw  native  materials  and  primitive  craftsmanship.  The  joints  of  doors 
and  windows  throughout  are  secured  with  manzanita  pegs;  the  struts 
and  ridge-joints  of  the  rafters  are  bound  with  thongs  of  rawhide. 

Approached  by  a  low  flight  of  stone  steps,  its  entrance  is  a  wide 
Roman  arch  with  double  doors  of  panelled  wood.  The  interior  reveals 
Mexican  churriguerresque  design  as  interpreted  by  Indian  craftsmen. 
As  vivid  as  when  painted  by  the  neophytes  a  century  and  a  half  ago 
are  the  triangular  designs  of  alternating  red  and  white  which  cover  the 
ceiling  between  its  heavy  beams.  The  beams  and  sanctuary  arch  bear 
chevrons  of  alternating  red,  yellow,  gray,  and  white,  painted — like  the 
ceiling  decoration — with  vegetable  pigments. 

Hand-carved  are  the  main  and  side  altars  brought  with  other  fur- 
nishings from  Mexico.  In  panels  at  the  bases  of  the  lavender-tinted 
side  altars  are  bas-relief  vases  of  roses  which  suggest  the  Italian  influence 
in  Mexican  rococo  art.  In  churriguerresque  pattern  is  the  large  reredos 
behind  the  main  altar,  with  its  elaborate  niches  and  lavender  panels 
framed  with  ornamental  gilt  scrolls,  garlands,  and  other  conventional 
decoration.  The  door  of  the  revolving  tabernacle  brought  from  Manila 
bears  an  old  Italian-school  painting  of  Christ,  blessing  the  bread  He 
holds  before  a  table  bearing  a  tall  silver  wine  chalice.  Over  the  taber- 
nacle and  the  Crucifixion  are  two  small  paintings  in  oval  frames,  one 
depicting  in  faded  hues  a  cross;  the  other,  a  cross  and  a  soldier's  bare 
arm  and  clenched  hand  upholding  it.  The  monstrance  is  of  French 
origin  dating  from  1757;  Indian  neophytes  made  the  Pascal  candle;  the 
confessional  doors  came  from  Mexico.  In  their  respective  niches  on 
the  reredos  are  the  original  13  statues  of  saints  carved  in  wood,  of  which 
the  St.  Michael  with  staff  and  uplifted  sword  is  the  dominant  figure. 
This  soldier  of  the  cross,  between  Franciscan  and  Dominican  coats  of 
arms,  wears  red  drapery,  gilded  boots,  and  a  green  tunic  with  gilt 


274      SAN     FRANCISCO 

flowers.  A  crowned  figure  of  the  Virgin  stands  to  the  right  of  the 
tabernacle;  an  exquisitely  carved  Mater  Dolorosa,  to  the  left.  In 
brilliant  costume  over  the  right  side  altar  stands  St.  Anthony,  holding 
in  one  hand  a  sheaf  of  lilies  and  in  the  other  an  open  volume  on  which 
rests  a  kneeling  child.  Side  niches  are  occupied  by  kneeling  figures 
of  St.  Francis  Solano  and  San  Juan  Capistrano.  On  the  opposite  altar 
are  represented  St.  Joseph,  St.  Bonaventure,  and  San  Luis  Rey. 

When  all  this  ecclesiastical  furniture  was  installed  is  not  known, 
but  at  the  end  of  1810  the  padres  reported  to  their  superiors  in  Mexico 
the  aquisition  of  the  two  side  altars,  the  statue  of  St.  Michael,  several 
paintings  on  canvas  in  gold  and  silver  frames,  various  silver  vessels,  a 
reliquary,  and  a  pyxsis  for  sick  calls.  Although  the  records  of  the 
mission's  construction  are  incomplete,  it  is  believed  to  have  been  com- 
pleted by  1800.  The  huge  granary,  built  in  1794,  adjoining  a  long 
low  residential  building  of  earlier  construction  which  connected  it  with 
the  church,  appears  in  old  prints  and  photographs  to  form  a  wing  of 
the  main  building.  The  adjacent  pasture  and  grain  field  were  enclosed 
"to  the  distance  of  half  a  league"  by  a  ditch.  In  1795  twenty  adobe 
homes  for  an  equal  number  of  neophyte  families  were  erected.  The 
closing  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  also  saw  enclosed  in  the  mission 
quadrangle  a  bathhouse,  a  tannery,  and  other  structures. 

For  half  a  century,  says,  Fr.  Zephrin  Engelhardt's  authoritative 
San  Francisco  or  Mission  Dolores,  this  "community  formed  a  kind  of 
co-operative  association,  a  sort  of  Christian  Communism,  of  which  the 
missionaries  were  the  unsalaried  managers  and  the  neophytes  the  bene- 
ficiaries." In  return  for  giving  up  their  liberty  and  such  pagan  customs 
as  polygamy  and  accepting  the  daily  routine  of  religious  services,  the 
converts  were  assured  of  a  regular  diet  and  decent  homes  as  long  as 
they  faithfully  performed  their  baptismal  vows  of  labor  and  devotion. 
"They  were  informed  that  all  the  land  they  occupied  with  the  herds 
belonged  to  themselves;  that  even  to  the  missionaries  nothing  more  was 
due  of  the  property  accumulated  by  the  industry  of  the  neophytes  than 
the  food  and  the  clothing  their  guides  needed;  and  that  eventually, 
when  they  were  capable  of  managing  it,  the  property  acquired  by  the 
community  would  be  turned  over  to  them  exclusively,  as  was  done  in 
Mexico.  .  .  .  The  priests  would  after  that  attend  only  to  their  spiritual 
wants." 

Despite  its  somewhat  unhealthy  site  near  the  marshes  of  Mission 
Creek,  Mission  Dolores  remained  fairly  prosperous  until  its  property 
was  confiscated  for  the  public  domain  by  the  Mexican  government  and 
promptly  granted  to  private  individuals.  During  the  57  years  of  its 
independent  existence  the  Franciscan  Fathers  baptized  6,536  Indians 
and  448  Mexican  children,  married  2,043  Indians  and  79  Mexicans, 
buried  5,187  Indian  and  150  Mexican  dead.  "The  community,"  de- 


SOUTH     OF     MARKET      275 

clares  Fr.  Engelhardt,  "at  the  end  of  the  last  general  report,  December 
31,  1832,  consisted  of  204  Indians  of  all  ages,  which  would  mean  about 
50  families.  The  herds,  on  the  same  date,  consisted  of  5,000  cattle, 
3,500  sheep,  1,000  horses,  most  of  which  were  of  no  use,  and  18  mules. 
Owing  to  the  scarcity  of  able-bodied  neophytes,  the  fields  had  yielded,  in 
the  year  1832,  only  500  bushels  of  wheat,  400  bushels  of  barley,  50 
bushels  of  corn,  and  140  bushels  of  beans  and  peas.  This  harvest  was 
about  two-thirds  of  the  usual  product." 

Twenty-two  years  later  the  Annals  of  San  Francisco  described  the 
mission  as  a  ruined  relic  of  a  bygone  day:  "The  Mission  has  always 
been  a  favorite  place  of  amusement  to  the  citizens^  of  San  Francisco. 
Here,  in  the  early  days  of  the  city,  exhibitions  of  bull  and  bear  fights 
frequently  took  place,  which  attracted  great  crowds;  and  here,  also, 
were  numerous  duels  fought,  which  drew  nearly  as  many  idlers  to  view 
them.  At  present  (1854),  there  are  two  race-courses  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  a  large  number  of  drinking  houses.  .  .  .  On  fine  days, 
especially  on  Sundays,  the  roads  to  the  Mission  show  a  continual  succes- 
sion, passing  to  and  fro,  of  all  manner  of  equestrians  and  pedestrians, 
and  elegant  open  carriages  filled  with  ladies  and  holiday  folk."  The 
mission's  career  as  a  "place  of  amusement"  was  a  brief  one,  however, 
for  in  1857  it  was  restored  to  the  Roman  Catholic  archdiocese. 

Enclosed  by  a  white  stuccoed  adobe  wall  with  red  tiles,  adjoining 
the  mission,  the  old  cemetery  is  a  secluded  little  garden  with  clean-swept 
lawns  whose  headstones  and  monuments  evoke  memories  of  another 
era.  Many  of  the  graves  are  unmarked;  others  are  overgrown  with 
tangled  ivy  and  myrtle. 

Among  the  headstone  inscriptions  which  revive  for  San  Franciscans 
their  city's  Spanish  days  is  one  which  reads:  "Aqui  Yacen  los  Restos  del 
Capitan  Louis  Antonio  Arguello.  Primer  Governador  Alta  California 
Bajo  el  Governiero  Mejicano.  Nacio  en  San  Francisco  el  21  de  Junio. 
1784  y  murio  en  el  Mis?no  Lugar  el  2J  de  Marzo.  1830''  (Here  Lie 
the  Remains  of  Captain  Louis  Antonio  Arguello.  First  Governor  of 
Alta  California  Under  the  Mexican  Government.  Born  at  San  Fran- 
cisco June  21,  1784  and  Died  At  the  Same  Place  March  27,  1830). 
"Sacred  to  the  memory"  of  those  victims  of  Vigilante  justice,  Charles 
Cora  and  James  P.  Casey,  are  other  headstones.  Casey's  reads:  "May 
God  Forgive  My  Persecutors."  Buried  also  in  the  cemetery  is  James 
("Yankee")  Sullivan,  early-day  champion  pugilist,  who  while  awaiting 
trial  by  the  Vigilance  Committee  of  1856,  hanged  himself  in  Fort 
Gunnybags.  A  statue  of  Padre  Junipero  Serra  by  Arthur  Putnam  looks 
down  upon  the  west  end  of  the  cemetery.  In  the  center  is  a  large  rock 
shrine,  the  "Grotto  of  Lourdes,"  containing  an  old  redwood  cross — 
erected  in  1920 — which  bears  the  inscription:  "Dedicated  to  the 
Neglected  and  Forgotten  Who  Rest  Here." 


276      SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  "neglected  and  forgotten"  include  mostly  the  5,515  Indians 
interred  here  and  in  the  rear  of  the  mission  between  1777  and  1848. 
The  Burial  Register  of  the  padres  contains  the  short  and  simple  annals 
of  many  a  neophyte  who  died  from  smallpox,  measles,  and  other  epi- 
demics whose  periodic  toll  brought  about  the  establishment  of  the 
"Hospital  Mission"  at  San  Rafael.  Of  the  196  white  persons  recorded 
in  the  old  register,  the  most  notable  is  Lieutenant  Jose  Joaquin  Moraga, 
whose  remains  rest  within  the  sanctuary  of  the  mission  beside  those  of 
the  Very  Reverend  Richard  Carroll,  its  pastor  from  1853  to  1860. 
Beneath  the  paved  courtyard  behind  the  mission  is  buried  Jose  Noe,  last 
Mexican  alcalde  of  Yerba  Buena,  whose  family  headstone  is  set  in  the 
red  tile  floor  within  the  mission  entrance.  Here  too,  is  the  resting  place 
of  William  Leidesdorff,  pioneer  San  Franciscan  who  was  associated 
with  Jacob  Leese  and  Thomas  Larkin  during  the  Bear  Flag  revolt. 

151.  Biggest  dry  dock  on  the  Pacific  Coast  for  vessels  of  the  merchant 
marine  is  the  larger  of  the  two  HUNTER'S  POINT  DRYDOCKS, 
foot  of  Evans  Ave.,  in  which  the  biggest  oceangoing  ships  can  be  lifted 
high  and  dry  for  reconditioning.  In  great  cement-lined  troughs,  the 
rusting  sides  of  a  ship  are  exposed  from  deck  to  keel.  Both  docks  are 
graving  docks,  equipped  to  permit  scraping  of  the  bottoms  as  well  as  the 
sides  of  vessels,  and  both  are  equipped  with  electric  pumps  and  steam 
cranes.  Graving  Dock  No.  2,  built  in  1901,  is  750  feet  long,  has  a 
depth  at  high  water  of  28  feet  6  inches;  Graving  Dock  No.  3,  built  in 
1919,  is  1,020  feet  long,  has  a  depth  at  high  water  of  45  feet  6  inches. 
When  filled,  the  larger  dock  holds  42,000,000  gallons  of  water,  which 
its  four  75O-horsepower  pumps  can  empty  in  nine  and  one-half  hours. 
Only  dock  on  the  Pacific  Coast  for  merchant  marine  vessels  with  a 
draft  of  more  than  24  feet,  Graving  Dock  No.  3  will  accommodate  the 
largest  capital  ships  of  the  United  States  Navy.  After  nearly  five  years' 
agitation  for  acquisition  of  the  docks  as  a  repair  base  for  naval  vessels, 
President  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  signed  on  June  3,  1939  a  bill  approv- 
ing their  purchase  from  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company  Shipbuilding 
Division. 

First  dry  dock  at  Hunter's  Point  was  built  in  1868  by  William  C. 
Ralston,  then  a  director  of  the  California  Steam  Navigation  Company, 
upon  the  suggestion  of  civil  engineer  Alexander  Von  Schmidt,  whose 
newly  invented  process  of  drilling  granite  under  water  was  employed 
in  excavating  the  entrance.  The  cavity  was  carved  almost  entirely  out 
of  solid  stone.  From  Puget  Sound,  Ralston  imported  immense  timbers 
to  line  the  excavation.  For  the  keel  blocks,  California  laurel  was  used. 
From  the  Rocklin  quarries  in  the  Sacramento  Valley,  ox  teams  pulled 
enough  huge  granite  blocks  to  cover  13,000  yards.  Cost  of  the  dock, 
including  mechanical  equipment,  was  $1,200,000.  Measuring  465  feet 
in  length,  120  in  width,  and  22  in  depth  at  high  water,  it  was  large 


SOUTH     OF     MARKET      277 

enough  to  accommodate  any  ship  afloat  at  the  time  except  the  Great 
Western.  Before  the  stone  dock  had  been  completed,  Ralston  and  his 
associates,  who  had  formed  the  California  Dry  Dock  Company  with  a 
capital  of  $1,000,000,  already  had  begun  construction  of  a  floating  dry- 
dock  built  of  Oregon  pine.  The  stone  dock  lasted  until  1916,  when  it 
was  removed  and  the  present  Graving  Dock  No.  3  built  on  its  site. 

152.  From  the   foundries  of  the  WEST   COAST  YARDS   OF 
THE    BETHLEHEM    STEEL    COMPANY    SHIPBUILDING 
DIVISION   (private},  Twentieth  and  Illinois  Sts.,  have  come  ships, 
machinery,  dredges,  railroad  locomotives,  and  endless  tons  of  steel  equip- 
ment shipped  to  all  parts  of  the  world.    Origin  of  the  3O-acre  establish- 
ment dates  back  to   1849,  when  Peter  and  James  Donahue  opened  a 
blacksmith  shop  on  Mission  Street,  which  in  1862  became  the  Donahue 
Iron  and  Brass  Company  and  a  few  years  later — when  H.  J.  Booth, 
Irving  M.  Scott,  and  George  W.  Prescott  joined  the  firm — the  Union 
Iron  Works.     The  first  steam  locomotive  built  on  the  Pacific  Coast, 
for  the  old  San  Francisco-San  Jose  Railroad   (1865),  was  constructed 
here.     Between  1865  and  1870  thirteen  railroad  locomotives,  including 
two  3O-tonners,  were  built.     The  plant  manufactured  practically  all 
the  machinery  and  dredges  used  in  California  and  Nevada  gold  fields 
and  shipped  tons  of  equipment  to  Alaska  during  the  Yukon  gold  strike. 

Following  acquisition  in  the  early  i88o's  of  the  present  plant  site, 
the  Union  Iron  Works  began  a  heavy  program  of  shipbuilding.  The 
Olympic,  Admiral  Dewey's  flagship  at  Manila,  and  the  Oregon,  equally 
famous  in  the  Spanish-American  War,  were  built  with  a  speed  and 
thoroughness  that  amazed  Eastern  competitors  and  established  San 
Francisco  as  a  major  shipbuilding  base.  Since  the  Spanish- American 
War  period,  cruisers,  gunboats,  destroyers,  and  submarines  have  been 
built  in  these  yards,  particularly  for  South  American  countries.  When 
the  shipbuilding  boom  of  war  days  collapsed,  the  plant  lapsed  into  a 
semidormant  state.  Nevertheless,  in  the  eleven  years  between  1919 
and  1938  it  constructed  142  vessels,  including  submarines,  oil  tankers, 
freighters,  ferries,  and  passenger  and  freight  ships.  With  the  revival  of 
interest  in  the  merchant  marine,  the  plant  was  modernized  in  1938  in 
anticipation  of  new  orders. 

The  Union  Iron  Works  was  acquired  in  1906  by  the  Bethlehem 
Steel  Company  but  held  to  its  old  name  until  1917,  when  it  became  the 
Bethlehem  Shipbuilding  Corporation  Ltd.;  in  November  1938  it  was 
merged  with  the  parent  company. 

153.  The  two  stone  rollers  on  either  side  of  the  ten-story  building 
housing  offices  of  the  WESTERN   SUGAR  REFINERY   (open  to 
visitors  9-11,  i-j),  foot  of  Twenty-third  St.,  were  made  in  China  for 
use  in  the  "Philippine  primitive  2-roll  Muscovado   Sugar   Mill."     In 
;sharp  contrast  to  a  primitive  mill  is  the  plant  beyond  the  entrance,  one 


278      SAN     FRANCISCO 

of  the  two  cane  sugar  refineries  in  the  West,  equipped  to  produce  2,500,- 
ooo  pounds  of  raw  sugar  within  24  hours.  Working  at  full  capacity, 
the  plant  employs  1,000  men  and  produces  20  different  grades  of  refined 
sugar.  The  Sea  Island  brand  is  the  staple.  The  factory  consumes  daily 
1,500,000  gallons  of  water,  1,600  barrels  of  fuel  oil,  and  8,500,000  feet 
of  natural  gas — as  much  as  is  used  by  the  entire  city  of  Sacramento. 

The  plant,  built  in  1861,  still  utilizes  several  of  the  original  build- 
ings which  survived  the  1906  earthquake.  Claus  Spreckels,  founder  of 
the  firm,  established  his  first  plant  at  Battery  and  Union  Streets  in 
1863.  When  he  died  in  1903  he  had  revolutionized  the  sugar  industry 
in  the  United  States.  His  sons,  John  D.  and  A.  B.  Spreckels,  continued 
the  work  begun  by  their  father  and  expanded  the  San  Francisco  plant 
into  the  present  huge  refinery. 

154.  On  the  peak  of  steep  Buena  Vista  Heights,   heavily  wooded 
BUENA  VISTA  PARK,  with  its  deeply  shaded  nooks  smelling  always 
of  dampness,  was  set  aside  in  1868  as  the  first  plot  of  the  city's  now 
extensively  developed  parks  system.     The  view  from  the  parking  lot 
atop  the  hill  is  far-sweeping.     Beyond  the  line  of  the  East  Bay  shore  are 
the  white  homes  of  Berkeley  and  Oakland;  nearer,  in  the  middle  dis- 
tance,  Yerba   Buena   and   man-made   Treasure    Island.      The    massive 
San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  swings  in  a  graceful  arc  from  shore 
to  island  to  shore.     In  the  foreground  lies  downtown  San  Francisco,  a 
jumble  of  pointed  skyscrapers  and  climbing  streets. 

Mount  Tamalpais,  a  slumberous  dark  blue,  rises  high  above  the 
rolling  Marin  County  hills  across  the  Golden  Gate,  beyond  the  great 
orange-painted  towers  of  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge  rising  high  above  the 
Bay.  Angel  Island  and  Alcatraz  break  the  smooth  blue  waters.  North- 
west, the  water  breaks  white  against  the  rocky  shore  of  Point  Bonita. 

In  the  foreground  lie  the  Western  Addition  and  Haight-Ashbury 
residential  districts,  pierced  by  the  narrow,  wooded  lane  of  the  Pan- 
handle. North  and  west  dark  Strawberry  Hill  rises  out  of  green  Golden 
Gate  Park.  In  the  immediate  foreground  a  portion  of  Kezar  Stadium 
with  its  shelf-like  seats  shines  whitely  in  the  sun  at  the  eastern  end  of 
the  park. 

Bare  of  trees,  the  two  summits  of  Twin  Peaks  point  to  the  sky  in 
the  west.  Tiny  roads  with  yellow  embankments  cross  and  wind  along 
the  mountainsides.  In  the  distant  south  the  rolling  hills  of  the  Bay 
Shore  district  hide  the  horizon,  while  in  the  middle  distance  and  fore- 
ground the  populous  Mission  District  lies  flat,  cut  by  streets  into  severe 
squares.  In  the  immediate  foreground  is  Corona  Heights,  a  bare  peak 
of  rocks,  unimproved,  with  a  great  red  gash  in  the  eastern  slope. 

155.  In  1926  MOUNT  OLYMPUS  was  made  a  city  park.     Ac- 
cording to  legend,  the  hill  received  its  name  from  the  crippled  milk 
peddler  named  Hanrahan,  who  familiarly  was  known  as  "Old  Limpus" 


SOUTH     OF     MARKET      279 

in  the  adjoining  residential  area  in  the  i86o's.  A  partly  ruined  statue, 
The  Triumph  of  Light,  brought  to  this  country  in  1887  by  Adolph 
Sutro,  is  mounted  in  the  tiny  hilltop  square  in  the  geographical  center  of 
the  city;  12  feet  in  height,  it  stands  on  a  pedestal  30  feet  high.  In  the 
Brussels  original  (by  Antoine  Wiertz)  the  standing  woman  holds  a 
torch  in  her  right  hand  and  a  sword  in  her  left;  in  this  copy  the  right 
arm  is  broken  off  at  the  elbow  and  the  left  is  without  a  sword.  Unsub- 
stantiated is  the  popular  story  that  both  sword  and  arm  were  removed 
by  irate  seamen  who  declared  the  statue  threw  them  off  their  course  as 
they  steered  through  the  Golden  Gate. 

The  view  from  Mount  Olympus  is  similar  to  that  from  Buena  Vista 
Park,  but  offers  a  more  complete  picture  of  Twin  Peaks,  with  the  resi- 
dential section  climbing  halfway  up  its  eastern  slopes.  Nearer,  also  to 
the  southwest,  Sutro  Forest  caps  Mount  Sutro.  Northwest  in  the 
distance  is  the  sweeping  lawn  of  Lincoln  Park;  to  the  east,  Buena  Vista 
Park,  encircled  by  the  red-tile-roofed  houses  of  Buena  Vista  Heights. 

156.  The    white,    brick-red,    and    grey    concrete    buildings    of    the 
MEDICAL    CENTER    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    CALI- 
FORNIA,   Parnassus   and  Third  Aves.,   occupy  a    I3j^-acre   natural 
amphitheater  backed  against  the  dark  eucalyptus  forest  of  Mount  Sutro 
and  Parnassus  Heights.     The  Center   (formerly  known  as  the  Affili- 
ated   Colleges)    includes    the    University    of    California    Hospital    and 
Clinic;  the  Colleges  of  Medicine,  Dentistry,  and  Pharmacy;  a  training 
school  for  nurses  and  the  George  William  Hooper  Foundation  for  Re- 
search supplements  the  work  of  the  school.     Among  the  Foundation's 
notable  achievements  have  been  the  discoveries  of  Vitamin  E  and  Vine- 
thene,  a  new  anesthetic.     Canning  and  fishing  industries  have  profited 
greatly  by  its  discoveries. 

The  colleges  date  from  1862,  when  Dr.  H.  H.  Toland  founded  the 
Toland  Medical  School  in  North  Beach.  In  1872  the  school  became 
affiliated  nominally  with  the  University  of  California,  but  continued  to 
be  supported  by  the  fees  of  medical  students.  In  1895  Adolph  Sutro 
donated  the  present  site,  and  with  money  provided  by  the  State  legis- 
lature several  buildings  were  opened  here  in  1898.  In  1902  the  proper- 
ties were  taken  over  by  the  University  of  California  and  support  of  the 
college  was  assumed  by  the  university. 

Few  private  patients  are  admitted  to  the  3OO-bed  University  of 
California  Hospital,  which  is  maintained  almost  exclusively  for  its 
research  in  medicine  and  surgery.  Those  who  crowd  the  clinic  daily 
come  from  all  parts  of  the  West  Coast,  some  on  funds  supplied  by  the 
State. 

157.  Clarendon  Avenue  passes  through  SUTRO  FOREST,  over  a 
dark  ridge  of  MOUNT  SUTRO  (920  alt.).     Here  Adolph  Sutro  in 
the  late   1870*5 — after  returning  from  the   Comstock   Lode  a  million- 


28O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

aire — purchased  part  of  the  old  Rancho  San  Miguel.  Sutro,  who 
called  his  mountain  "Parnassus,"  planted  trees  here  in  1887,  after  the 
legislature  provided  that  property  converted  into  forest  land  should  be 
tax-exempt  for  five  years.  For  years  he  employed  a  gardener  who  not 
only  tended  these  trees,  but  those  scattered  over  a  I2,ooo-acre  area 
which  included  Mount  Davidson. 

During  Sutro's  lifetime  the  forest  was  open  to  the  public,  but  it  was 
closed  after  his  death  when  fires  started  by  careless  visitors  several  times 
threatened  to  destroy  it.  In  1911  realtors  Baldwin  and  Howell  pur- 
chased 724  acres  for  $1,417,377  and  planned  to  subdivide  the  land  into 
homesites. 

Today  Sutro  Forest  is  a  rough  wildwood  in  the  heart  of  a  modern 
residential  district.  The  ground  is  covered  by  tangled  undergrowth. 
Ivy  clings  to  the  trunks  of  the  tall  eucalyptus  trees  and  sugar  pines. 
Each  spring  it  is  brightly  colored  by  wildflowers  and  blossoming  brush- 
wood. 

158.  Twin   Peaks  Boulevard  encircles  the  TWIN   PEAKS   in   a 
broad  figure  "8."     The  windy  summits  also  are  reached  by  trails  and 
earthen  steps  that  lead  up  steep,  grassy  slopes.     To  the  east  and  south 
can  be  seen  the  bright-colored  roofs  and  smoking  chimneys  of  row  upon 
row  of  apartment  houses,  laced  together  by  a  network  of  streets.    Mount 
Davidson,  topped  by  its  giant  white  cross,  forms  a  somber  pile  against 
the  background  of  the  western  sky.     Beyond  is  the  long  line  of  the 
Pacific.     Distance  lends  a  serene  quality  to  the  Marin  hills  and  bays, 
darkly  blue  in  the  northwest.    The  long  expanse  of  the  East  Bay  shore 
rolls  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach. 

Legends  cloud  the  history  of  Twin  Peaks.  Once,  said  the  Indians, 
the  mountains  were  one:  man  and  wife.  But  they  quarreled  long  and 
bitterly  and  in  time  the  Great  Spirit  heard  them,  and  with  thunder  and 
lightning  smote  them  in  twain. 

The  Spaniards  called  the  peaks  Los  Pechos  de  la  Choca  ( The 
Breasts  of  the  Indian  Girl)  in  memory,  so  the  story  goes,  of  a  beautiful 
maiden.  She  was  softly  beautiful,  tall  and  slender.  When  one  spoke 
to  her  she  dropped  her  eyes  in  modesty.  N.  P.  Vallejo,  son  of  Mariano 
Vallejo,  in  describing  her  said,  "Never  have  I  seen  a  cultured  maiden 
half  so  fair  as  this  untaught,  uninstructed  daughter  of  the  wilds." 

159.  The     highest     point     in     San     Francisco     is     heavily-wooded 
MOUNT  DAVIDSON  (938  ft.  alt.),  where  on  bright  days  the  sun- 
light filtering  through  the  treetops  throws  bright  patches  of  light  on  the 
grassy  leaf-covered  ground.     From  its  summit  rises  a  great  cross,  illumi- 
nated during  Easter  week,  which  was  dedicated   March  24,    1934  at 
7 130  p.m.,  when  President  Franklin  D.  Roosevelt  pressed  a  golden  key 
that  sent  electrical  impulses  across  the  Nation  to  light  the  floodlights. 
The  cross,  103  feet  in  height,  is  built  of  concrete  and  steel.     Resting 


SOUTH     OF     MARKET      281 

upon  solid  rock,  its  base  contains  a  crypt  in  which  are  relics  from  the 
Holy  Land,  including  a  jug  of  water  from  the  River  Jordan.  The 
concrete  which  seals  the  crypt  itself  was  mixed  with  this  water.  The 
first  of  four  crosses  preceding  the  present  one  was  erected  atop  the 
mountain  in  1923,  the  year  of  San  Francisco's  first  sunrise  Easter  service. 
Each  year  since  thousands  of  people  have  climbed  the  steep  slopes  in  the 
hours  before  dawn  of  Easter  Sunday  to  gather  about  the  cross  for 
services  which,  in  recent  years,  have  been  broadcast  to  the  Nation  over 
radio  hook-ups. 

Once  a  part  of  the  Rancho  San  Miguel,  Mount  Davidson  formed 
part  of  the  I2,ooo-acre  estate  of  Adolph  Sutro.  When  George  David- 
son of  the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  surveyed  it  in  1862,  it  was  known 
as  Blue  Mountain.  It  remained  a  barren  rocky  peak  until  trees  were 
planted  on  its  slopes.  In  1911  A.  S.  Baldwin  purchased  the  mountain 
and  spent  $2,000  in  building  trails  to  its  summit.  In  that  year  too  it 
was  named  Mount  Davidson  in  honor  of  its  early  surveyor. 

When  in  1926  the  encroachment  of  real  estate  subdivision  threatened 
it,  Mrs.  Edmund  N.  Brown,  a  member  of  the  State  Park  Commission, 
secured  the  help  of  the  Commodore  Sloat  Parent-Teachers'  Association 
and  other  public  agencies  in  a  warm  publicity  campaign  which  persuaded 
the  city  to  purchase  26  acres.  The  area  was  dedicated  as  a  city  park  on 
December  20,  1929,  the  8srd  birthday  of  John  McLaren  (see  Golden 
Gate  Park). 


Western  Addition 


".  .  .  monotonous  miles  of  narrow-chested,  high-shouldered, 
limber-jawed  houses  strongly  reminiscent  of  the  scroll-saw  period 
of  our  creative  artistry  .  .  ." 

— IRVIN  S.  COBB 


E£E  the  backyard  of  some  imposing  but  superannuated  mansion, 
the  Western  Addition  is  cluttered  with  the  discarded  furniture 
of  the  city's  Gilded  Age.  It  is  a  curious  district  whose  claim  to 
distinction  is  its  disdain  of  all  pretense.  It  is  not  beautiful,  and  yet 
San  Franciscans  refer  to  it  almost  affectionately  as  "The  Fillmore,"  the 
name  of  its  busiest  thoroughfare,  and  love  it,  as  Charles  Caldwell  Dobie 
says,  "for  its  supreme  grotesqueness." 

Once  it  was  what  its  name  implies — the  "western  addition"  to  the 
old  town — but  now  it  lies  in  the  very  middle  of  the  city.  Its  eastern 
boundary  is  the  broad  traffic-thronged  artery  of  Van  Ness  Avenue, 
"automobile  row."  Westward  it  spreads  as  far  as  Lone  Mountain's 
vanishing  old  graveyards,  once  far  out  of  town  in  a  sandy  brush-grown 
wilderness.  Northward  it  extends  to  the  heights  above  The  Marina, 
and  southward  almost  to  Market  Street. 

The  preposterous  old  houses  built  here  in  the  1870*8  and  i88o's 
when  San  Francisco  was  expanding  westward,  and  spared  by  the  flames 
of  1906,  are  monuments  to  the  bonanza  era.  In  them  the  nouveau  riche 
of  the  Gilded  Age  attempted  to  outdo  the  fantastic  wooden  castles  on 
Nob  Hill.  What  the  jigsaw  and  the  lathe  could  not  accomplish  the 
builders  supplied  with  Gothic  arches  and  Corinthian  pillars,  with  Nor- 
man turrets  crowned  by  Byzantine  domes,  with  mansard  roofs,  balconies, 
gables,  and  stained-glass  windows.  Interiors  were  resplendent  with 
horsehair  divans,  marble-topped  tables,  and  bronze  statuary.  Gaslight 
flickered  in  dim  vestibules  and  up  redwood  staircases.  No  longer  fash- 
ionable, the  old  mansions  have  been  converted  into  boarding  houses  and 
housekeeping  rooms. 

In  the  days  before  the  fire,  while  the  Western  Addition  was  still 
the  abode  of  fashion,  Fillmore  Street  was  a  suburban  center  of  com- 
merce. After  1906  it  had  a  brief  and  sudden  boom.  Before  the  charred 
wreckage  of  Market  Street  could  be  cleared  off  and  stores  rebuilt,  the 
flow  of  commerce  ran  into  Fillmore  Street — and  its  delighted  merchants 
sought  to  keep  it  there.  Arches  supporting  large  street  lamps  were 
erected  over  each  intersection  from  Sacramento  to  Fulton  Street  and  fes- 
tooned with  electric  lights.  Through  five  or  six  years  the  great  days 

282 


WESTERN     ADDITION      283 

lasted,  but  when  Market  Street  reclaimed  its  commercial  prestige  after 
1910,  Fillmore  Street  was  doomed.  Today  its  ornate  arches  are  incon- 
gruous reminders  of  its  hour  of  greatness.  Fillmore  Street,  however,  is 
more  than  a  commercial  thoroughfare.  It  represents  a  way  of  life,  and 
is  the  stronghold  of  San  Francisco's  cosmopolitan  tradition.  Raffish, 
optimistic,  blissfully  vulgar,  Fillmore  Street  keeps  alive  that  inimitable 
social  spirit  of  which  San  Francisco  is  the  larger  expression. 

From  The  Marina,  north  of  the  Western  Addition,  Fillmore  Street 
climbs  the  precipitous  slope  of  Pacific  Heights  scaled  by  two  diminutive 
cable  cars.  Down  the  slope  below  Sacramento  Street  are  stores,  movie 
theaters,  and  restaurants,  a  scene  of  lively  disorder.  Chaste  little 
antique  shops  stand  next  door  to  radio  stores;  hamburger  joints  thrive 
beside  the  austere  facades  of  branch  banks.  Past  the  sidewalk  vegetable 
stands  stroll  housewives,  pinching  grapefruits,  tomatoes,  and  peaches 
with  the  fingers  of  connoisseurs.  At  convenient  intervals  are  neighborly 
little  bars  offering  the  tired  shopper  a  moment's  refreshment  while  the 
understanding  bartender  wheels  her  offspring's  carriage  to  a  quiet  corner 
at  the  end  of  the  counter.  And  day  or  night  pass  laughing  Negroes, 
dapper  Filipino  boys,  pious  old  Jews  on  their  way  to  schule,  sturdy- 
legged  Japanese  high  school  girls,  husky  young  American  longshoremen 
out  for  a  quiet  stroll  with  the  wife  and  kids. 

Near  the  southern  end  of  Fillmore  Street's  lengthy  market  place, 
where  its  noisy  turbulence  gives  way  again  to  prosaic  respectability  at 
the  foot  of  another  hill  clustered  with  turrets,  bay  windows,  and  man- 
sard roofs,  lies  the  city's  Jewish  commercial  center,  the  heart  of  the 
before-the-fire  section,  where  bedizened  old  houses  of  the  i88o's  adver- 
tize housekeeping  rooms  on  grimy  signs.  Yet,  paradoxically,  here  is  a 
gourmet's  paradise;  along  adjacent  blocks  of  Golden  Gate  Avenue  and 
McAllister  Street  the  atmosphere  is  spicy  with  the  odors  of  delicatessen 
shops,  bakeries,  and  restaurants.  In  a  dozen  strange  tongues,  bargain- 
ing goes  on  along  McAllister  Street — San  Francisco's  "second-hand 
row" — for  begrimed  statuary,  ancient  stoves,  Brussels  carpets  with  faded 
floral  patterns,  chamber  pots  and  perambulators,  Dresden  figurines  and 
fishing  tackle,  gilt-framed  oil  landscapes  and  canary  bird  cages.  Gath- 
ered in  this  district  are  a  large  number  of  the  city's  30,000  Jews,  most 
of  them  immigrants  from  eastern  Europe,  many  being  recent  arrivals. 
But  Fillmore  Street's  Jewish  quarter  is  scarcely  representative  of  the 
city's  Jewish  citizenry  as  a  whole.  Not  confined  to  any  one  district, 
profession,  or  mode  of  life,  they  have  played  a  leading  role  in  the  city's 
development  since  the  first  of  them  came  during  the  Gold  Rush.  Scat- 
tered throughout  the  Western  Addition,  as  elsewhere  in  the  city,  are 
numerous  synagogues,  both  orthodox  and  reformed,  and  their  charitable 
institutions  and  fraternal  organizations.  Though  the  city's  Jews  have 


284      SAN     FRANCISCO 

no  native  theater,  they  support  a  Yiddish  Literary  and  Dramatic  Society 
and  numerous  social  clubs,  musical  societies,  and  schools. 

East  of  Fillmore  Street,  north  and  south  of  Post  Street,  is  "Little 
Osaka,"  home  of  a  vast  majority  of  the  city's  7,000  Japanese.  Unlike 
the  Chinese,  they  have  made  almost  no  attempt  to  establish  in  miniature 
the  graceful  scenes  of  their  native  land.  For  the  most  part,  they  have 
simply  moved  in  and  put  up  their  electric  signs  on  faded  facades.  The 
older  generation  still  clings  to  religious  beliefs  and  folkways,  and  schools 
the  second  and  third  generations  in  the  ways  of  the  homeland.  Little 
Osaka's  young  attend  not  only  the  city's  public  schools,  but  also  one  of 
the  colony's  half-dozen  native  schools,  of  which  the  Golden  Gate 
Institute,  on  Bush  Street  near  Buchanan,  is  the  second  largest  in  the 
country.  At  the  Japanese  branch  of  the  Y.W.C.A.,  in  a  modern  build- 
ing on  Sutter  Street  near  Buchanan,  young  girls  practice  cha-no-yuf  the 
age-old  tea  ceremony,  and  ike-bana,  the  ancient  art  of  flower  arrange- 
ment. Young  men  are  taught  jiu-jitsu  and  kendo,  in  which  armor-clad 
participants  fence  with  bamboo  sticks. 

The  Japanese  New  Year  is  celebrated  throughout  the  colony  on 
January  I  when  the  polite  pay  calls  and  partake  of  sake  (rice  wine) 
and  foods  dedicated  to  the  occasion.  On  March  3  the  Doll  Fes- 
tival (Hinamatsuri)  is  observed  with  ceremonious  display  of  ex- 
quisite miniature  figures  dressed  in  the  costumes  of  old  Japan  and  the 
serving  of  flavored  rice,  with  seki-han,  sakura-mochi,  and  rice  dumplings 
wrapped  in  cherry  leaves;  the  display  of  dolls  during  Hinamatsuri  at 
the  downtown  Western  Women's  Club  is  reputed  to  be  the  finest  of  its 
kind  in  America.  The  Birthday  of  Buddha  is  observed  on  the  Sunday 
nearest  April  8  in  the  Japanese  Tea  Garden  (see  Golden  Gate  Park: 
Points  of  Interest}.  The  colony's  other  Buddhist  festival,  observed  as 
well  by  Buddhists  of  other  races,  is  Ura-bon  (Festival  of  Souls),  cele- 
brated with  a  religious  dance  in  the  Buddhist  Church  at  Pine  and  Octavia 
Streets  on  the  Sunday  evening  nearest  to  the  sacred  day.  At  the  cele- 
bration of  Boys'  Day  (Osekku)  on  May  5,  intended  to  inspire  young 
males  to  swim  against  the  current  of  life  with  vigor  and  courage, 
kashiza-nochi  (rice  dumplings  wrapped  in  oak  leaves)  is  served  cere- 
moniously and  native  folk  dances  are  staged. 

In  Little  Osaka's  restaurants  on  Post  and  Sutter,  between  Octavia 
and  Buchanan  Streets,  are  served  such  delicacies  as  soba  and  undon 
(noodles)  ;  roasted  eel  and  rice;  chicken  soup,  amber-clear,  with  sea- 
weed, fish,  or  red  beans;  and  tempura,  concocted  of  deep-fried  fish  and 
prawns  with  such  vegetables  as  leeks,  soya  bean  cake,  gelatin  strings, 
and  bamboo  shoots.  San  Francisco's  Japanese  have  no  native  theater, 
though  occasionally  a  troupe  of  actors  or  dancers  presents  the  dramatic 
art  of  both  modefn  and  old  Japan.  Japanese  music,  played  on  native 
instruments,  may  be  heard  at  the  colony's  various  church  auditoriums 


WESTERN     ADDITION      285 

and  language  schools.  Two  Japanese  daily  newspapers  are  published 
in  the  city,  each  with  its  section  in  English  for  the  benefit  of  younger 
readers.  Imported  Japanese  films,  both  silent  and  vocal,  are  shown  at 
a  local  bookshop. 

Throughout  the  Japanese  settlement  is  scattered  a  Filipino  colony, 
smaller  than  the  quarter  on  upper  Kearny  Street  but  distinguished  by 
the  same  social  features.  Wherever  these  jaunty,  small-statured  people 
congregate  at  social  functions,  the  carinosa,  their  national  dance  which 
resembles  the  tango,  is  danced  to  the  orchestral  accompaniment  of 
bandores,  twelve-stringed  mandolins  of  native  origin.  The  disparity  of 
the  sexes  among  the  city's  3,000  Filipinos  lends  a  pathetic  note  to  their 
social  life. 

West  of  Fillmore  Street  and  south  of  Sutter  Street  live  many 
Russians  although  their  folkways  are  more  apparent  in  their  other  and 
tighter  little  colony  on  Potrero  Hill.  Divided  by  opposing  political 
loyalties,  the  city's  Russians  never  have  created  a  distinctive  colony  of 
their  own.  The  older  immigrants  came  to  escape  the  Tsar,  the  newer 
to  escape  the  Soviet  regime.  The  ways  of  both  are  the  ways  of  exiles 
who  strive  to  keep  alive  the  customs  of  their  forbears  among  alien 
surroundings.  In  the  Western  Addition  the  Russian  residents  are 
chiefly  emigres  from  the  Russian  Revolution.  The  older  generation  is 
defiantly  monarchist  in  politics  and  orthodox  in  religion.  Until  recently 
they  kept  up  the  courtly  ceremonials  of  their  former  life,  appearing  in 
faded  regimentals  of  the  Imperial  Army  to  pay  each  other  elaborate 
respects  over  vodka,  tea,  and  caviar.  Annually  they  squandered  the 
savings  of  a  twelvemonth  on  a  grand  ball  in  honor  of  their  Petrograd 
days.  Easter  is  still  celebrated  as  gaily  as  ever  at  the  Russian  Orthodox 
Church  on  Green  Street  at  Van  Ness  Avenue. 

The  greater  number  of  San  Francisco's  7,000  Negroes  live  in  the 
neighborhood  west  of  Fillmore  between  Geary  and  Pine  Streets.  Among 
them  are  representatives  of  every  State  in  the  Union,  of  Jamaica,  Cuba, 
Panama,  and  South  American  countries.  Of  those  from  the  South,  the 
greater  number  are  Texans  who  arrived  after  the  World  War;  these 
still  celebrate  "Juneteenth,"  Emancipation  Day  for  the  Texas  Negroes, 
who  did  not  learn  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  until  June  19, 
1863.  The  colony's  social  life  revolves  around  its  handful  of  bars  and 
restaurants,  its  one  large  and  noisy  night  club,  its  eight  churches  of 
varying  faiths,  and  the  Booker  T.  Washington  Community  Center  on 
Divisadero  Street,  where  trained  social  workers  guide  educational  and 
recreational  activities  for  children  and  adults.  Occasionally,  in  churches 
and  clubs,  are  heard  old  Negro  folk  songs  surviving  the  days  of  slavery. 

With  its  confusion  of  customs  from  half  the  world,  the  Western 
Addition  is  more  entitled  than  any  other  section  of  the  city  to  be  called 


286      SAN     FRANCISCO 

San    Francisco's    International    Quarter.      But    the   Western   Addition 
abhors  labels.    It  is  just  "The  Fillmore,"  and  proud  of  it. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1  60.  The  stately,  white,  six-story  MASONIC  TEMPLE,  SW. 
corner  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Oak  St.,  was  dedicated  on  October  13,  1913. 
Of  Romanesque  design  (William  B.  Faville,  architect),  the  building  is 
faced  with  Utah  marble  and  adorned  with  sculptural  decorations  repre- 
senting Biblical  and  allegorical  figures  by  Adolph  A.  Weinman  and 
Ralph  Stackpole.  A  small  rotunda  leads  into  the  main  lobby  of  polished 
gray  and  white  marble.  In  the  large  halls  on  the  second  and  fourth 
floors  are  portraits  of  past  grand  masters,  many  by  Duncan  C.  Blakis- 
ton.  The  great  Commandery  Hall  on  the  third  floor  is  surmounted 
with  a  dome  rising  85  feet  above  the  floor;  two  large  murals  on  religious 
subjects  are  by  Arthur  F.  Matthews. 


.  from  Van  Ness  Ave.  on  Market  St.  to  Haight  St.;  W  .  from 
Market  on  Haight. 

1  6  1.  A  collection  of  frame  and  stucco  structures,  the  five  variously 
styled  buildings  of  SAN  FRANCISCO  STATE  COLLEGE,  main 
entrance  SE.  corner  Haight  and  Buchanan  Sts.,  stand  closely  together 
on  a  two-block  hillside  campus  bare  of  trees.  Above  the  arched  main 
entrance  to  stuccoed,  tile-roofed  Anderson  Hall  is  a  fresco,  Persian  in 
style,  picturing  California  flora  and  fauna.  The  frescoes  depicting  chil- 
dren at  play  on  the  patio  wall  of  the  Frederick  Burk  Grammar  and 
Training  School,  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  campus,  are  by  Jack 
Moxom  and  Hebe  Daum  of  WPA's  Northern  California  Art  Project. 
A  teachers'  college,  San  Francisco  State  grants  teaching  credentials  in 
kindergarten-primary,  elementary,  and  junior  high  school  fields.  Aver- 
age yearly  attendance  is  slightly  more  than  2,000  students.  The  Fred- 
erick Burk  Training  School,  accommodating  about  450  children,  fol- 
lows a  modern  progressive  philosophy  of  education.  Launched  in  1862 
in  one  room  of  the  city's  only  high  school,  San  Francisco  College  was 
housed  in  the  Girls'  High  School  until  1899,  when  the  Legislature 
provided  for  foundation  of  the  San  Francisco  Normal  School  in  a  red 
brick  building  on  Powell  Street,  between  Clay  and  Sacramento  Streets. 

S.    from    Haight    St.    on    Buchanan    St.    to    Hermann    St.;    W.    from 
Buchanan  on  Hermann. 

162.  The  $1,000,000  UNITED  STATES  MINT  (not  open  to 
public),  Hermann,  Buchanan,  and  Webster  Sts.  and  Duboce  Ave.  (Gil- 


288      SAN     FRANCISCO 

bert  Stanley  Underwood,  architect),  rears  its  fortress-like  walls  from 
the  solid  stone  of  steep  Blue  Mountain.  Constructed  of  steel  reinforced 
with  granite  and  concrete,  the  building's  severe  facades  are  pierced  by 
three  sets  of  windows,  the  middle  tier  barred  with  iron.  Above  and 
between  the  middle  sets  are  large  bas-reliefs  in  concrete  of  United 
States  coins  of  various  denominations.  On  the  first  floor  are  a  marble 
lobby  and  large  storage  vaults  for  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  nickel,  with 
concrete  walls  two  feet  thick.  Second  and  third  floors  hold  offices, 
minting  rooms,  an  assay  laboratory,  and  a  women's  lunch  room.  On  the 
fourth  floor  particles  from  the  vapor  given  off  by  melting  and  refining 
furnaces  is  recovered  in  a  series  of  tubes;  the  vapor  is  electrified  with  a 
75,ooo-volt  current  which  causes  the  metal  particles  to  cling  to  the 
tubes'  sides.  A  guards'  pistol  range  occupies  the  fifth  floor,  and  all 
approaches  to  the  mint  are  covered  by  gun  towers;  the  surrounding 
area  can  be  illuminated  by  batteries  of  floodlights  set  in  the  walls.  A 
network  of  pipes  entering  all  key  points  of  the  building  is  designed  to 
discharge  a  flood  of  tear  gas  at  the  sounding  of  an  alarm.  Both  front 
and  rear  entrances  are  barred  by  electrically  operated  doors  made  of 
heavy  double  steel,  only  one  of  which  can  be  opened  at  a  time ;  the  door 
guarding  the  main  vault  weighs  40  tons. 

163.  The  landscaped  terraces  of  4-acre  DUBOCE  PARK,  W.  end 
of  Hermann  St.,  rise  gradually  to  the  row  of  old-fashioned  frame  dwell- 
ings on  its  western  side;  once  a  mound-dotted  wasteland  on  which  tons 
of  rock  had  been  dumped,  the  park  was  opened  to  the  public  in  1900. 

164.  In  the  city's  western  residential  districts  real  estate  prices  shot 
skyward  when  SUNSET  TUNNEL,  E.  Portal  at  S.  side  of  Duboce 
Park,  was  opened  October  21,  1928,  with  Mayor  James  Rolph  at  the 
controls  of  the  first  streetcar  to  make  the  tunnel  trip.     Piercing  Buena 
Vista  Hill,  the  tunnel  is  4,232  feet  long,  25  feet  wide,  and  23  feet  high. 

N.  from  Hermann  St.  on  Steiner  St. 

165.  In  1860,  Charles  P.  ("Dutch  Charlie")  Duane,  undaunted  by 
threats  of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  fought  for  his  squatter's  rights  to 
ALAMO  SQUARE,  Steiner,  Fulton,  Hayes  and  Scott  Sts.,  12  acres  of 
smooth  green  lawn  and  rustling  pine  and  cypress  trees  on  the  top  of  a 
hill.    Wide  cement  steps  ascend  to  a  palm-fringed  circular  flower  bed, 
and  shrubbery-lined  paths  lead  to  an  adjacent  picnic  grove  and  children's 
playground.     Squatter  "Dutch  Charlie,"  chief  fire  engineer  from  1853 
to  1857,  gained  the  attention  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  of  1851  for 
his  shooting,  two  years  earlier,  of  a  theater  manager.     He  was  later 
exiled  from  the  city  under  penalty  of  death  by  the  Vigilance  Committee 
of  1856  for  the  then  greater  crime  of  stuffing  a  ballot  box.    Returning  in 
1860,  he  waged  an  unsuccessful  suit  until  1877  for  the  property,  which 


WESTERN     ADDITION      289 

had  been  acquired  by  the  city  in  1853.  Refugees  from  the  fire  of  1906 
lived  on  the  hill,  and  some  of  the  victims,  it  is  believed,  were  buried 
here. 


E.  from  Steiner  St.  on  Hayes  St. 

1 66.  The  old  Wesleyan  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  converted 
in    1930  into   the   HAYES   VALLEY   RECREATION   CENTER 
AND   COTTAGE    (open  Mon.-Fri.  2:30-5,  7-10;  Sat. -Sun.    10-12, 
7-5),  SE.  corner  Hayes  and  Buchanan  Sts.     Open  to  all  boys  over  14, 
it  provides  facilities  for  indoor  games,  dancing  and  theatricals,  a  camera 
club,  a  band  and  orchestra,  and  study  groups  in  arts,  crafts,  cooking, 
gardening,  and  sewing.     More  than  2,500  children  weekly  attend  the 
center  in  a  district  once  noted  for  its  high  ratio  of  juvenile  delinquency. 
The  property  was  leased  in  1930  through  a  legacy  left  by  Adolph  Rosen- 
berg, merchant  and  philanthropist,  and  established  as  a  recreation  center 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Recreation  Commission. 

N.  from  Hayes  St.  on  Laguna  St. 

167.  Five  days  after  the  1906  fire  the  Board  of  Supervisors  assem- 
bled in  what  was  MOWRY'S  OPERA  HOUSE,  SW.  corner  Grove 
and  Laguna  Sts.,  a  three-story  red-brick  and  frame  building  erected  in 
1879,  on  whose  gaslit  stage  appeared  "Gentleman  Jim"  Corbett  to  be 
acclaimed  for  his  victory  over  John  L.  Sullivan.     At  subsequent  secret 
sessions  of  the  supervisors,  during  which  Abe  Ruef  issued  his  instruc- 
tions, detective  William  J.  Burns  gathered  evidence  leading  to  the  graft 
prosecutions  that  destroyed  the  Ruef  machine.     Since  December,  1906, 
when  it  ceased  to  serve  as  a  city  hall,  the  sturdy  old  building,  with  its 
triangular  wooden  parapet  decorated  with  a  harp  in  bas-relief  and  its 
brick  ground  floor  with  huge  double  doors,  has  been  occupied  by  various 
mercantile  firms. 

1 68.  Sometimes  referred  to  as  San  Francisco's  Hyde  Park,  JEF- 
FERSON SQUARE,  Golden  Gate  Ave.,  Laguna,  Gough,  and  Eddy 
Sts.,  is  noted  for  the  stormy  character  of  its  political  meetings.     On 
pleasant  Sunday  afternoons  every  shade  of  political  and  religious  thought 
is  expounded   in  open-air   forums  by  old-age-pension   advocates,   single 
taxers,  and  fanatical  champions  of  religious  cults.     In   1906  the  park 
was  used  as  a  refugee  camp.    The  park  slopes  downhill,  its  green  sward 
broken  by  tall  eucalyptuses,  evergreens,  and  shrubs  planted  along  grav- 
eled walks.     In  the  playground,  named  for  Margaret  S.  Hayward,  for 
many  years  a  city  recreation  commissioner,  are  tennis  courts,  volley  and 
basketball  courts,  baseball  diamonds  and  stands.     In  the  center  of  the 
park  is  the  low  stucco  building  housing  the  San  Francisco  Fire  Depart- 


2QO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

ment's  Central  Alarm  Station  with  its  aerial  and  high-tension  electric 
transformer  towers.  Situated  in  a  congested  area,  the  park  is  a  favorite 
recreation  center  for  youngsters  of  many  national  groups. 

W '.  from  Laguna  St.  on  Golden  Gate  Ave.  to  Masonic  Ave.;  S.  from 
Golden  Gate  on  Masonic  to  Fulton  St.;  W .  from  Masonic  on  Fu'lton. 

169.  Founded   in    1855    as   St.    Ignatius   Church   and   College,   the 
UNIVERSITY   OF   SAN   FRANCISCO,   Fulton   St.,    Parker   and 
Golden  Gate  Aves.,  stands  beside  St.  Ignatius  Church  on  part  of  the 
site  of  the  Masonic  Cemetery,  one  of  four  burial  grounds  encircling  the 
base  of  Lone  Mountain.     Conducted  by  the  Jesuits,  the  university  is 
open  to  male  students  of  all  denominations;  only  its  law  and  evening 
classes  are  co-educational.     On  the  broad  hillside  campus  stand  the  gray 
three-story  Faculty  Building,  which  houses  the  priests  of  the  teaching 
staff;  the  four-story  Liberal  Arts  Building  of  gray  reinforced  concrete; 
a  one-story,  stucco  tile-roofed  structure  containing  classrooms;  and  the 
sole  surviving  cemetery  structure,  a  small  wooden  edifice  resembling  a 
Greek  temple,   once   the   tomb   of   a   San   Francisco   brewer,   in  which 
students  now  attend   classes.      Offering  liberal   arts,    premedical,   law, 
economics,   and  commerce  and  finance  courses,   the  institution  has   an 
enrollment  of  more  than  1,000  students  and  a  faculty  of  more  than  80. 
Established  as  St.   Ignatius  Church  and  College  in   1855,  it  was  em- 
powered by  the  State  Legislature  in  1859  to  grant  degrees  and  honors. 
The  school  won  fame  in  1874  when  Father  Joseph  Neri,  a  professor, 
introduced  San  Francisco  to  the  arc  light  with  an  exhibition  on  the  roof 
of  the  school  building;  during  the  centennial  celebration  of  American 
Independence  in  1876,  he  strung  three  arc  lamps  of  his  own  invention 
across  Market  Street.     The  university  was  renamed  at  the  request  of 
prominent  San  Franciscans  in  1930. 

170.  Standing  on  Ignatius  Heights,  the  buff-colored  brick  structure 
of    SAINT   IGNATIUS    CHURCH,    NE.   corner    Fulton    St.    and 
Parker  Ave.,  with  its  campanile,  twin  towers,  and  golden  dome  glinting 
in  the  sun,  is  a  San  Francisco  landmark.     Dedicated  in  1914,  the  church 
is  seventeenth-century   Renaissance   in   design    (Charles   Devlin,   archi- 
tect).   The  interior  is  still  unfinished,  with  exposed  loudspeaker  system 
and  racks  bulging  with  religious  tracts.     Under  the  dome  is  the  sanc- 
tuary, bordered  by  fluted  pillars;  above  the  white  marble  altar,  flanked 
by  filigreed  gilt  candelabra,  is  suspended  an  ornate  gold  sanctuary  lamp. 
On  the  right  are  the  altar  of  St.  Joseph  and  the  crucifix ;  on  the  left,  the 
altar  of  the  Blessed  Mother  and  the  pulpit.    The  altars,  both  of  marble, 
stand  against  blue  wall  panels  ornately  filigreed  with  gold.     The  two 
murals  of  the*  altar,  by  Tito  Ridolfi,  are  dedicated  to  St.  Robert  Bell- 
armine  and  depict  the  seventeenth-century  Cardinal  of  Milan  in  two 


WESTERN     ADDITION      29! 

poses.  Ridolfi  also  painted  the  series  of  murals  in  the  frieze  above  the 
colonnades  on  either  side,  depicting  the  14  stations  of  the  cross,  in  which 
Christ  is  shown  in  mediaeval  tradition  wearing  an  under  cloak  of  dull 
red  and  an  outer  cloak  of  dull  blue.  Above  the  frieze  are  round  win- 
dows, to  be  replaced  with  stained-glass  representations  of  Catholic 
scholar  saints;  the  two  installed  depict  St.  Ives,  patron  of  lawyers,  and 
St.  Augustine,  doctor  of  theology.  In  the  campanile  is  the  old  bell,  now 
battered  and  rusty,  that  hung  in  the  original  church  of  1855,  obtained 
from  a  local  volunteer  fire  company  which  had  ordered  it  from  Eng- 
land but  was  unable  to  pay  for  it. 

Saint  Ignatius  Church  was  founded  in  1855,  when  Father  Anthony 
Marachi  dedicated  a  small  wooden  building  in  the  waste  land  of  what 
was  then  known  as  the  Valley  of  St.  Anne,  south  of  Market  Street 
between  Fourth  and  Fifth  Streets.  The  present  buildings,  both  church 
and  college,  were  begun  in  1910  and  completed  in  1914. 

N.  from  Fulton  St.  on  Parker  Ave. 

171.  From  the  top  of  Lone  Mountain,  the  Spanish  Gothic  tower 
of  the  SAN  FRANCISCO  COLLEGE  FOR  WOMEN,  Parker  and 
Masonic  Aves.  and  Turk  St.,  lifts  an  iron  cross  115  feet  above  the 
mountain's  flattened  crest.  A  curving  road  winds  up  from  Turk 
Street,  past  newly  planted  trees,  shrubs  and  flower  beds,  to  the  flight  of 
wide  stone  steps  leading  past  terraced  lawns  to  an  ornamental  arched 
doorway.  The  three-story  building,  Spanish-Gothic  in  design,  has 
vaulted  halls  richly  furnished  with  tapestries,  paintings,  statues,  and 
wood  carvings.  In  the  east  wing  is  the  oak-beamed  library;  its  100,000 
volumes,  the  majority  donated  by  Monsignor  Joseph  M.  Gleason,  pastor 
of  the  St.  Francis  de  Sales  Church  of  Oakland,  include  rare  manuscripts 
and  first  editions.  Here  are  such  rarities  as  the  sermons  of  Pope  St.  Leo 
the  Great ;  a  set  of  wills  and  indentures  covering  the  reigns  of  the  Eng- 
lish sovereigns  from  James  I  to  George  III;  several  papal  bulls,  one 
signed  by  nine  cardinals  who  attended  the  Council  of  Trent  in  1566, 
and  the  second  by  Pope  Pius  V,  before  the  battle  of  Lepanto;  a  copy 
of  the  Nuremburg  Chronicle;  and  what  is  probably  the  most  complete 
collection  of  bookplates  in  the  United  States.  Americana  include  a 
newspaper  published  in  the  South  on  wallpaper  during  the  Civil  War, 
an  unpublished  and  autographed  poem  by  Henry  Wadsworth  Long- 
fellow, and  letters  written  by  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  Andrew  Jackson, 
Andrew  Johnson,  and  other  notables. 

Having  purchased  Lone  Mountain  in  1860,  Bishop  Joseph  Sadoc 
Alemany,  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco,  had  a  giant 
wooden  cross  erected  on  the  mountain  top.  When  the  city  acquired  all 
"outside  lands"  west  of  the  former  city  boundary  in  1869,  Lone  Moun- 


292      SAN     FRANCISCO 

tain  was  reserved  as  a  future  park  site;  but  Bishop  Alemany,  through 
the  persuasive  abilities  of  his  secretary,  John  Spottiswoode,  succeeded 
in  regaining  title  to  the  property.  The  old  cross  was  replaced  by  a  new 
one  in  1875,  and  in  1900  a  storm  blew  the  great  cross  down,  for  the 
boys  of  the  neighborhood  had  tunnelled  under  its  base  to  make  a  cave 
in  which  they  gathered  to  bake  potatoes  and  banquet  on  other  stolen 
delicacies.  Again  restored,  the  cross  remained  on  the  mountain  top 
until  grading  for  the  college  began  in  1930.  When  Archbishop  Edward 
J.  Hanna  of  San  Francisco  suggested  in  1929  that  a  Roman  Catholic 
women's  college  be  opened  in  San  Francisco,  the  Lone  Mountain  site 
was  purchased  by  the  Society  of  the  Sacred  Heart.  When  construction 
was  completed  in  1932,  the  present  iron  cross  at  the  top  of  the  tower 
replaced  the  cross  erected  in  1900.  The  college  has  increased  its 
enrollment  from  60  to  223  students. 

W '.  from  Parker  Ave.  on  Anza  St.  to  Lorraine  Court;  N.  from  Anza 
on  Lorraine  Court. 

172.  In  the  old  Odd  Fellows  Cemetery  at  the  base  of  Lone  Moun- 
tain, the  only  burial  place  within  the  corporate  limits  of  San  Francisco, 
is   the   SAN   FRANCISCO   MEMORIAL  COLUMBARIUM,    i 
Lorraine  Court,  originally  erected  at  the  entrance  of  the  pioneer  burial 
ground  in  1898.     It  contains  the  cremated  remains  of  more  than  7,000 
San  Franciscans.     Of  modified  Mediterranean  design,  the  green-domed 
building  of  white  concrete  is  noted  for  its  stained-glass  windows.    From 
the   rotunda   marble  stairways  wind   upward;   on   its   four   floors   are 
galleries  of  niches,  each  named  for  a  stellar  constellation.     Following 
removal  of  the  Odd  Fellows  Cemetery  to  Lawndale,  San  Mateo  County, 
the  columbarium  fell  into  neglect  and  decay.   Acquired  by  the  Bay  Cities 
Cemetery  Association  in   1933,  the  structure  has  been  remodeled  and 
restored. 

Retrace  on  Lorraine  Court;  W .  from  Lorraine  Court  on  Anza  St.  to 
Arauello  Blvd.;  N.  from  Anza  on  Arguello. 

173.  Dominating  most  of  the  city's  western   residential  area,   the 
massive  orange-domed  TEMPLE  EMANU-EL,  NW.  corner  Lake  St. 
and  Arguello  Blvd.,  is  the  religious  and  cultural  center  of  Reformed 
Judaism  in  San  Francisco.     Of  steel  and  concrete,  faced  with  cream- 
colored  stucco,  the  temple  (Sylvain  Schnaittaker  and  Bakewell  &  Brown, 
architects)  is  designed  in  the  form  of  an  "L"  about  on  open  court  with 
low  cloisters  and  fountain.    The  auditorium  seats  1,700;  besides  assem- 
bly halls  and  Sunday  school  classrooms,  the  temple  contains  facilities  for 
study  groups  and  lectures,  social  halls,  and  a  huge  gymnasium. 


WESTERN     ADDITION      293 

Set  in  colored  tile  in  the  pavement  before  the  main  entrance  is  the 
familiar  six-pointed  star,  the  Seal  of  Solomon,  surrounded  by  the  seals 
of  the  Twelve  Tribes  of  Israel.  The  vestibule  of  the  auditorium  is  a 
low  vaulted  gallery  finished  in  light  blue  to  contrast  with  the  ivory 
tones  of  the  interior  walls.  In  solitary  splendor,  contrary  to  custom, 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  a  gilded  bronze  cabinet  with  cloisonne  enamel 
inlay,  stands  out  under  its  stone  canopy  against  the  undecorated  walls 
and  vaults  around  the  altar.  It  contains  two  ornate  scrolls  of  the 
Torah,  one  for  regular  services,  the  other  for  special  occasions. 

Like  other  reform  congregations,  Temple  Emanu-El  does  not  require 
observance  of  strict  dietary  laws,  wearing  of  hats  or  skull  caps  by  male 
members,  and  segregation  of  the  sexes  on  opposite  sides  of  the  auditorium 
during  services.  Contrary  to  orthodox  ritual,  music  accompanies  wor- 
ship here.  Some  750  heads  of  families  constitute  the  Temple's  regular 
congregation,  though  attendance  is  much  larger.  An  important  part  of 
the  temple's  program  are  its  classes  for  boys  and  girls. 

E.  from  Arguello  Blvd.  on  Washington  St. 

174.  Tucked  away  in  a  tree-shaded  garden  behind  high  walls  over- 
run with  climbing  vines  and  rose  bushes,  the  little  tiled-brick  ivy- 
bowered  CHURCH  OF  THE  NEW  JERUSALEM  (services  Sun. 
ii  a.m.),  NW.  corner  Jackson  and  Washington  St.,  is  a  reproduction  of 
a  village  church  near  Verona,  Italy.  Surrounding  a  clear  pool  of  water 
are  trees  from  many  lands.  Completed  in  1895,  the  church  is  a  monu- 
ment to  its  founder,  the  Reverend  Joseph  Worcester,  who  lived  in  close 
association  with  the  artists  of  Russian  Hill.  Its  heavy-timbered  cof- 
fered roof  is  supported  by  great  hewn  madrone  trees.  The  square- 
framed,  tule-bottomed  chairs  on  mats  of  rushes  from  the  Suisun  marshes, 
the  open  fireplace  ablaze  with  pine  knots,  and  the  wax  tapers  in  wrought 
iron  sconces  reinforce  the  outdoor  atmosphere.  On  the  windowless 
north  wall  four  allegorical  landscapes  of  seedtime  and  harvest  by  Wil- 
liam Keith  are  set  against  plain  dark-stained  panels  of  pine.  The  two 
beautifully  executed  stained-glass  windows  are  by  Bruce  Porter.  Fol- 
lowing the  doctrines  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg  (1688-1772),  the  simple 
services  are  opened  and  closed  with  a  Bible  ritual. 

S.  from  Washington  St.  on  Lyon  St.  to  California  St.;  W .  from  Lyon 
on  California. 

175-  The  JEWISH  COMMUNITY  CENTER  (open  Mon., 
Thurs.,  Sat.  9:30  a.m.-n  p.m.;  Fri.  9:30-6;  Sun.  9:30-1),  NW.  corner 
California  St.  and  Presidio  Ave.,  is  headquarters  for  communal  activities 
of  Hebrew  organizations.  The  two-story  structure  of  smooth  tan  con- 


294      SAN     FRANCISCO 

crete  with  red  tile  roof  was  opened  in  1933  and  houses  an  art  gallery, 
library  and  reading  rooms,  a  little  theater  workshop,  swimming  pool 
and  gymnasium,  and  classrooms  and  lounges.  The  multicolored  mosaic 
of  glazed  household  tiles  decorating  the  fountain  and  pool  in  the  patio 
is  by  Bernard  Zakheim  of  the  WPA  Northern  California  Art  Project. 
A  fresco  in  the  patio,  also  by  Zakheim,  depicts  the  gaity  and  color  of 
ancient  Palestine's  festivals.  The  educational  program  includes  courses 
in  law,  journalism,  languages,  arts  and  crafts,  and  philosophical  and 
religious  subjects.  There  are  book  chats,  play  readings,  open  forums, 
concerts,  musical  recitals,  and  dancing. 

176.  Known  to  generations  of  San  Franciscans  as  Laurel  Hill  Ceme- 
tery, PIONEER  MEMORIAL  PARK,  California  St.,  Presidio  and 
Parker  Aves.,  a  54-acre  area  at  the  base  of  Lone  Mountain,  contrasts 
strangely  with  the  apartment  houses  surrounding  it.  Sorrel,  oxalis,  and 
clover  cover  this  graveyard  of  tottering  stones  and  forgotten  tombs,  and 
offshore  winds  stir  the  branches  of  cypress,  laurel,  pine,  and  oak  trees. 
In  1854,  San  Franciscans  established  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  here  far  out 
in  the  sand  dunes  so  that  it  would  not  interfere  with  the  city's  growth. 
On  a  wooden  board  was  inscribed  a  memorial  to  the  first  person  buried : 
"To  the  Memory  of  the  First  Inhabitant  of  This  Silent  City  .  .  .  John 
Orr  .  .  .  interred  June  loth,  1854."  Some  inscriptions  were  laconic, 
as  in  the  case  of  Silas  W.  Sanderson,  judge  and  lawyer,  whose  stone 
simply  recorded:  "Final  Decree."  Others,  as  this  over  an  unknown 
woman,  were  elaborately  "poetic": 

Pain  was  my  portion, 

Physic  was  my  food, 
Groans  were  my  devotions, 

Drugs  did  me  no  good. 
Christ   was   my   Physician 

Knew  which  way  was  best, 
So  to   ease  me   of  my  pain 

He  took  my  soul  to  rest. 

A  long  list  of  names  important  in  the  city's  history  have  appeared  on 
the  headstones:  Fire  Chief  Dave  Scannell;  Mayor  James  Van  Ness; 
smelting  works  founder  Thomas  Selby;  barrister  and  bon-vivant  Hall 
McAllister ;  William  S.  Clark,  who  drove  the  first  piles  in  San  Francisco 
Bay;  Senator  David  C.  Broderick,  killed  in  a  pistol  duel  with  State 
Supreme  Court  Justice  David  S.  Terry;  Bulletin  editor  James  King  of 
William,  whose  murder  by  James  Casey  revived  vigilante  organization  ; 
Samuel  Woodworth,  author  of  "The  Old  Oaken  Bucket";  Edward 
Gilbert,  California's  first  Congressman,  slain  in  a  duel  by  General 
James  W.  Denver,  for  whom  Colorado's  capital  was  named;  Colonel 
E.  D.  Baker, 'killed  with  his  regiment  at  the  battle  of  Ball's  Bluff  in 
1 86 1 ;  William  Sharon  and  James  G.  Fair  of  Comstock  Lode  fame. 


WESTERN     ADDITION      295 

In  1912,  when  four  cemeteries,  Laurel  Hill,  Calvary,  Odd  Fellows, 
and  Masonic,  were  grouped  around  the  base  of  Lone  Mountain,  the 
Board  of  Supervisors,  heeding  the  protests  of  the  living,  ordered  the 
area  vacated.  All  of  the  cemeteries  save  Laurel  Hill  were  moved  to 
San  Mateo  County.  The  controversy  which  ensued  lasted  for  28  years. 
In  1937  the  people  of  San  Francisco  voted  that  the  ground  be  cleared 
and  emptied  by  the  end  of  1940.  Coffins  are  being  transferred  at  the 
rate  of  more  than  2,000  each  month  to  Cypress  Lawn  Cemetery  in  San 
Mateo  County  to  be  interred  in  catacombs  and  vaults  until  a  mausoleum 
can  be  constructed  at  Lawndale. 


N.  from  Geary  St.  on  Fillmore  St. 

177.  Hot  spot  of  the  "Gay  Nineties,"  headquarters  of  city  govern- 
ment following  the  holacaust  of  1906,  and  meeting  place  of  political, 
language,  and  unemployed  groups  in  its  declining  years,  FRANKLIN 
HALL,  1859  Fillmore  St.,  now  wears  a  general  air  of  neglect  with  its 
faded  gray  walls  and  unwashed  windows.    Built  in  1895,  the  four-story 
wooden  building  with  its  auditorium  and  stage  was  popular  as  a  public 
dance  hall.     Here  "Professor"  Bothwell  Brown,  "California's  Greatest 
Female   Impersonator,"  held  his  audiences  with  his   "art"   up   to   the 
earthquake  and  fire  in  1906,  when  the  premises  were  occupied  by  the 
San  Francisco  Examiner,  Mayor  Eugene  Schmitz,  and  the  Committee 
of  Fifty,  composed  of  the  city's  financial  leaders.     The  building  later 
housed  a  dancing  academy. 

W.  from  Fillmore  St.  on  Bush  St. 

178.  The  eight-spired  Tudor  Gothic  tower  of  ST.  DOMINIC'S 
CHURCH,  NW.  corner  Bush  and  Steiner  Sts.,  rises  to  a  height  of  175 
feet,   dominating  the  neighborhood.     The  present  structure  was  com- 
pleted in   1928  on  the  site  of  the  original  church  destroyed  in   1906. 
Stretched  across  the  tallest  of  its  interior  vaulted  arches  is  a  rood  screen 
bearing  in  its  center  the  figures  of  a  Crucifixion  group.     In  the  chief 
shrine  along  each  side  of  the  church  is  a  figure  of  Christ,  wearing  a 
regal  sceptre  and  robed  in  priestly  garments.     Woodwork  of  the  altar 
rails   and   confessional    doors   is   the   work   of   the   master   carvers   of 
Oberammergau,  Bavaria,  and  of  Bruges,  Belgium. 

N.  from  Bush  St.  on  Steiner  St. 

179.  ALTA  PLAZA,  Steiner,  Scott,  Clay,  and  Jackson  Sts.,  was 
reclaimed  by  John  McLaren  when  he  filled  a  deserted  rock  quarry  with 
rubbish,  topped  it  with  soil,   planted   lawns,   and  laid  out.  walks  and 


296      SAN     FRANCISCO 

tennis  courts.  The  stairway  on  the  south  side's  steep  terraced  slope  is 
a  reproduction  of  the  grand  stairway  in  front  of  the  gaming  casino  at 
Monte  Carlo.  4 


E.  from  Steiner  St.  on  Jackson  St. 

1 80.  The   city's   largest    Protestant   congregation   worships   in   the 
CALVARY   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH,    NW.   corner  Jackson 
and  Fillmore  Sts.,  founded  in  1854  by  the  Reverend  William  Anderson 
Scott,  who  was  hanged  in  effigy  in  1861.     A  supporter  of  the  original 
church,  William  C.  Ralston,  is  reported  to  have  scattered  $20  gold 
pieces  among  its  pews. 

The  cornerstone  of  the  present  classic  structure  with  Corinthian 
features  was  laid  July  4,  1901,  to  the  accompaniment  of  fireworks  and 
Protestant  hymns.  Offering  its  spacious  facilities  to  other  religious 
congregations  and  to  the  city  government  after  the  1906  fire,  Calvary 
had  services  conducted  in  its  lecture  room  by  the  presiding  Rabbi  of 
Temple  Emanu-El,  concerts  by  the  Loring  Club  in  its  auditorium,  and 
sessions  of  the  Superior  Court  in  its  gymnasium. 

S.  from  Jackson  St.  on  Webster  St. 

1 8 1.  The   buildings,   old   and   new,   of   the   STANFORD-LANE 
HOSPITALS,  Webster  St.  between  Clay  and   Sacramento  Sts.,   are 
the   visible   record   of   the   institution's   last   half-century   of   progress. 
The  huge  five-story  red-brick  Lane  Hospital  was  erected  in  1893;  the 
reinforced  concrete  Stanford  Hospital,  adjoining  on  the  east,  in  1917. 
The  former  contains  medical,  surgical,  pediatric,  neuropsychiatric,  and 
obstetrical  wards,  and  a  clinical  nursery,  and  is  operated  by  a  medical 
faculty  chosen  by  a  clinical  committee  appointed  by  Stanford  Univer- 
sity.     Stanford    Hospital,   controlled   by   the   same   staff,   contains    70 
private  rooms,  a  private  surgery  and  a  gynecological  clinic  ward,  de- 
livery  rooms,    hydro-   and    electro-therapeutic    departments,    a   private 
clinical  laboratory,  and  X-ray,  diagnostic,  and  therapeutic  departments. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  Clay  Street  stands  the  seven-story  gray  cement 
Stanford  School  of  Nursing.     Lane  Hospital  is  an  outgrowth  of  the 
first  medical  college  established  on  the  Pacific  Coast  in   1858  by  Dr. 
E.  S.  Cooper. 

Containing  90,000  volumes,  the  LANE  MEDICAL  LIBRARY,  SE.  cor- 
ner Sacramento  and  Webster  Sts.,  occupies  a  three-and-one-half-story 
fireproof  building  erected  in  1912.  It  contains  an  early  collection  of 
valuable  works  from  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine  and  5,000 
volumes  of  me'dical  history,  which  includes  works  by  ancient  or  medieval 
authorities  in  the  Turkish,  Arabic,  and  Persian  languages.  The  library 


WESTERN     ADDITION      297 

is  named  for  Dr.  Levi  Cooper  Lane,  a  brilliant  surgeon,  nephew  of  the 
principal  founder  of  Lane  Hospital. 

W ' .  from  Webster  St.  on  Sacramento  St. 

182.  In  the  DRAMA  WORKSHOP,  2435  Sacramento  St.,  a  pale 
green  one-story  building  with  wide  canary  yellow  door,  costumes  of 
every  country  of  the  world  are  designed,  assembled,  and  stored  for  use 
of  the  San  Francisco  Recreation  Department.     Within  the  skylighted 
room  are  doll  models  and  mounted  water  color  paintings  of  the  dress 
of   the  world's   far  places.     Recreational   activities   sponsored   by   the 
workshop  include  puppetry,  dance  and  drama,  and  adult  story-telling 
groups.     Here,  too,  is  housed  the  extensive  library  of  the  Northern  Cali- 
fornia Drama  Association,  for  which  the  Drama  Workshop  is  head- 
quarters. 

183.  Its  ponderous  limestone  mass  capped  with  a  gray  Levantine 
dome,  TEMPLE  SHERITH  ISRAEL  (open  daily  9-5),  NE.  corner 
Webster   and    California    Sts.,    is    a   pioneer    stronghold    of    reformed 
Judaism  which  has  played  a  colorful  role  in  the  city's  political  history. 
Its  stern  main  facade  is  distinguished  by  an  entrance  recessed  behind  a 
Roman  arch  which  curves  above  a  vast  rose  window.     The  interior 
auditorium  is  a  huge  square,  surrounded  by  two  tiers  of  galleries,  from 
which  a  domed  ceiling  rises  80  feet  above  the  floor.    The  present  build- 
ing was  erected  in  1904  for  a  congregation  organized  in  1850. 

Serving  as  a  temporary  Hall  of  Justice  immediately  after  the  1906 
fire,  the  auditorium  here  was  the  courtroom  in  which  Abraham  Ruef 
was  indicted  on  65  counts  of  extortion  by  a  grand  jury.  (During  a 
recess,  a  juryman  named  Haas,  who  had  been  exposed  as  an  ex-convict, 
shot  and  wounded  Francis  J.  Heney,  chief  prosecutor  and  leader  of  the 
graft  investigations.)  Barely  saved  from  lynching,  Ruef  was  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  14  years  in  San  Quentin.  Asked  by  newspaper  re- 
porters how  he  liked  exchanging  his  natty  attire  for  a  convict's  striped 
gray  uniform,  the  dethroned  political  boss  of  San  Francisco  replied: 
"The  zebra  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  graceful  of  animals.  Why, 
therefore,  should  I  cavil  at  my  attire." 

E.  from  Webster  St.  on  California  St.  to  Laguna  St.;  N.  from  Cali- 
fornia on  Laguna. 

184.  Site   of   the  first   observatory  in    California,    LAFAYETTE 
SQUARE,  Washington,   Gough,    Sacramento   and   Laguna   Sts.,   is   a 
sloping  green  hill  crisscrossed  with  hedges  and  graveled  walks,  topped 
with   tennis   courts   and   a   small   playground.      Erected   in    1879,    the 
observatory  was  maintained  privately  for  20  years  by  George  Davidson, 


298      SAN     FRANCISCO 

geodesist  and  astronomer.  The  park  was  created  in  1867,  but  the  top 
of  the  hill  was  owned  by  Samuel  W.  Holladay,  ex-Oregon  stage  driver 
and  owner  of  the  famous  Overland  Stage  Line,  whose  glistening  white 
home  on  "Holladay's  Hill"  was  a  mecca  for  literary  and  Gold  Rush 
aristocracy.  Repeated  suits  by  the  city  failed  to  dislodge  Holladay,  and 
the  old  mansion,  with  weathered  timbers  that  had  come  round  the  Horn, 
was  not  razed  until  1936,  when  the  site  was  incorporated  into  the  park. 

E.  from  Laguna  St.  on  Sacramento  St.  to  Octavia  St.;  S.  from  Sacra- 
mento on  Octavia. 

185.  Three  tiny  fragments  of  bone,  each  no  larger  than  a  grain  of 
rice,  repose  in  three  little  glass  balls  enclosed  in  a  glass  temple  on  a 
beautifully  carved  altar  at  the  HONGWANJI  BUDDHIST  MIS- 
SION OF  NORTH  AMERICA  (open  daily;  English  services,  Sun. 
I  p.m.;  Japanese  services,  Sun.  8  p.m.),  1881   Pine  St.,  first  Buddhist 
church  in  America  and  national  headquarters  of  the  mission.     These 
sacred  relics,  reputed  to  be  portions  of  the  body  of  Buddha,  were  pre- 
sented to  Bishop  Masuyama  in  1935  by  the  King  of  Siam.    The  temple 
is  a  pearl  gray,  two-story  concrete  building,  occidental  in  line;  its  slender 
dome  is  topped  with  an  odd  spearlike  spire.     Beautifully  handwrought 
brass  lanterns  flank  its  three  entrances. 

In  the  auditorium  filigreed  black  and  gold  folding  panels  shield  the 
altar  and  inner  shrine,  decorated  with  pastel  and  gold  leaf  friezes  repre- 
senting Buddhist  angels  in  heaven  and  birds  of  paradise.  The  screen 
panels,  when  unfolded,  disclose  the  maejoku  (altar  table),  with  its 
candelabra,  incense  burner,  and  cut  flowers  in  massive  bronze  urns, 
flanked  on  either  side  by  a  rinto  (lantern)  of  heavily  garlanded  brass, 
suspended  from  a  bell-like  hood.  Behind  the  altar  rises  the  pagoda- 
topped  shrine  with  heavily  carved  columns  of  gold-leaf;  in  the  inner 
chamber  is  a  reclining  golden  image  of  Buddha  under  a  golden  canopy. 

The  members  of  the  temple  are  of  the  Shin  sect,  with  headquarters 
at  the  Nishi  Hongwanji  Temple  in  Kyoto,  Japan.  This  sect  was 
founded  in  Japan  in  the  year  1226  by  Saint  Shinran;  its  North  Amer- 
ican adherents  number  about  70,000.  A  modest  two-story  flat  at  532 
Stevenson  Street  served  in  1898  as  the  first  Buddhist  Church  in  Amer- 
ica. The  present  temple  was  dedicated  in  1938. 

1 86.  On  the  northern  fringes  of  the  Japanese  quarter  a  hospital 
marks  the  SITE  OF  THE  THOMAS  BELL  RESIDENCE,  corner 
Octavia  and  Bush  Sts.,  long  known  as  the  "House  of  Mystery."     The 
house  itself  was  torn  down  about  1927  but  a  short  row  of  eucalyptus 
trees  that  once  hedged  it  remains.      Here,   during  the  heyday  of  the 
Comstock  period,  lived  that  formidable  sorceress  known  to  every  San 
Franciscan  as  Mammy  Pleasant.     Ostensibly,  the  great  mansion  with 


WESTERN     ADDITION      299 

its  mansard  roof,  its  inner  courtyard,  and  its  mirror-lined  ballroom, 
which  was  never  used  for  dancing,  was  the  private  residence  of  Thomas 
Bell,  reputedly  the  power  behind  William  C.  Ralston's  throne  in  the 
Bank  of  California.  Mammy  Pleasant  was  to  all  appearances  his 
housekeeper.  There  was  scarcely  a  man  in  public  life  who  did  not 
treat  the  scrawny  little  Negress  with  utmost  deference. 

The  truth  was,  of  course,  that  she  was  a  procuress  of  unusual  re- 
sources and  connections,  and  a  remarkable  cook.  On  her  arrival  in  San 
Francisco  in  1848,  she  quickly  attracted  to  her  boarding  house  the 
leaders  of  the  town.  The  entertainment  she  provided  soon  enabled  her 
to  open  a  whole  chain  of  boarding  houses.  Obeying  the  injunction  of 
her  dead  first  husband  she  devoted  part  of  her  legacy  received  from  him 
to  the  Abolitionist  cause,  traveling  to  Boston,  where  she  presented  John 
Brown  with  a  draft  for  $30,000.  When  Brown  was  captured  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  a  note  was  found  on  him,  signed  with  illiterate  Mammy 
Pleasant's  "M.  P."  It  read:  "The  ax  is  laid  at  the  foot  of  the  tree. 
When  the  first  blow  is  struck,  there  will  be  more  money  to  help." 

To  ensure  this,  Mammy  returned  to  San  Francisco,  set  up  her 
menage  in  the  mansion  among  the  blue  gum  trees,  and  settled  down  to 
her  long  career  of  forwarding  the  infidelities  of  the  city's  men  of  affairs. 
She  squandered  Thomas  Bell's  fortune  on  her  weird  schemes,  turned 
his  wife  against  him,  kept  him  virtually  a  prisoner,  and  starved  his 
children.  When  he  died  of  a  fall  into  the  courtyard  from  a  third-story 
balcony,  it  was  believed  that  his  "housekeeper"  had  pushed  him  over. 
She  carried  on  for  years  a  bitter  legal  duel  with  members  of  his  family. 
She  died  at  the  age  of  92,  penniless,  asking  only  that  her  tombstone 
bear  this  epitaph:  "She  was  a  friend  of  John  Brown." 

E.  from  Octavia  St.  on  Bush  St. 

187.  First  of  its  denomination  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  TRINITY 
EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  NE.  corner  Gough  and  Bush  Sts.,  was 
founded  in  1849.  The  present  structure,  built  of  rough-hewn  Colusa 
sandstone,  Norman  in  style,  is  flanked  at  either  end  of  its  main  facade 
by  bastions  with  conical  turrets  which  contribute  to  the  massive  effect 
imposed  by  the  square  central  belfry  (Hobart,  Cram,  and  Ferguson, 
architects).  The  interior  nave  of  three  bays  contains  lancet  windows 
of  stained  glass  portraying  Biblical  subjects,  the  work  of  Belgian  crafts- 
men. Buried  beneath  the  chancel  is  the  Reverend  Flavel  Scott  Mines, 
founder  of  the  church,  who  died  in  1852.  Beside  the  altar  stands  a 
bronze  angel  with  folded  wings  who  bears  aloft  a  flat  brass  scroll  on- 
which  rests  a  large  Bible.  Until  1867  services  were  held  in  a  private 
house.  From  that  date  until  the  erection  of  the  present  church  in  1892, 


3OO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

its  congregation  met  in  a  large  frame  building  at  Post  and   Powell 
Streets. 


S.  from  Bush  St.  on  Gough  St.  to  O'Farrell  St.;  E.  from  Gough  on 
O'Farrell 

1 88.  Its  peaked  gray  roof  rising  between  a  cone-topped  turret  and  a 
square  pyramid-roofed  bell  tower,   ST.   MARK'S   EVANGELICAL 
LUTHERAN  CHURCH  (services  Sun.  8:30  and  n  a.m.},  O'Farrell 
St.  between  Gough  and  Franklin  Sts.,  was  the  first  Lutheran  Church  in 
California,   founded  in   1849.     The  red  brick  facade  of   the  present 
structure,  dedicated  in  1895,  is  of  Romanesque  design.     In  n  stained 
glass  windows,   which   shed   rich   red,   blue,   and   purple   light   on   an 
interior  decorated  in  French  ivory  and  gold,  are  represented  The  Pascal 
Lamb,  The  Holy  Writ,  The  Sacred  Chalice,  The  Cross,  The  Crown 
of  Christ  the  King,  The  Ten  Commandments,  and  the  name  "Jehovah" 
in  Hebrew.     Behind  the  ornate  altar  rise  the  gilded  pipes  of  the  great 
organ,   distinguished  for  its  trumpet  brass  reed  with  clarion   martial 
tone.  One  of  the  first  pipe  organs  built  in  San  Francisco,  it  was  installed 
by  Felix  Schoenstein  in  1886  in  the  church's  former  building  on  Geary 
Street.     Until  1864,  when  orthodox  members  of  its  congregation  with- 
drew to  found  the  Church  of  St.  Paulus,  Masons  and  others  belonging 
to  secret  orders  were  barred  from  membership.     Following  the   1906 
disaster  the  slightly  damaged  church  served  as  a  refugee  and  hospital 
center.     Until  1931  services  were  conducted  in  German. 

189.  Seat  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishopric  of  Northern  Cali- 
fornia, ST.  MARY'S  CATHEDRAL  OF  THE  ASSUMPTION, 
NW.  corner  O'Farrell  St.  and  Van  Ness  Ave.,  is  a  huge  ungainly  red- 
brick structure  of   German   Gothic   design;   its   octagonal   tower   and 
spire  and  massive  flight  of  granite  steps  are  out  of  proportion  to  its 
severe  and  unimposing  facade.    The  interior  offers  a  contrasting  aspect 
of  simple  magnificence.     Royal  Bavarian  windows  of  stained  glass  lend 
it   an  atmosphere  of  symbolic  grandeur.     The  three   sections  of   the 
Assumption  rise  behind  the  archbishop's  green  and  gold  throne  by  the 
high  altar,  under  a  rose  window  in  four  segments.     Behind  the  two 
small  galleries  are  rose  windows  in  12  divisions.     Along  the  north  side 
of  the  nave  are  four  larger  windows  representing  the  Wedding  Feast 
at  Cana,  Christ  in  the  Garden  of  Gesthemane,  The  Good  Shepherd, 
and  Peter  Receiving  the  Keys.    On  the  south  side  are  The  Meeting  of 
Mary  and  Elizabeth,  The  Nativity,  The  Presentation  in  the  Temple, 
and  The  Flight  Into  Egypt.    The  Stations  of  the  Cross  on  either  side 

'of  nave  and  transept  are  represented  in  white,  gold,  and  blue  enamel. 


WESTERN     ADDITION      3OI 

N.  from  O'Farrell  St.  on  Van  Ness  Ave.  to  Geary  St.;  W.  from  Van 
Ness  on  Geary 

190.  Rich     in    historic    tradition,     the     FIRST     UNITARIAN 
CHURCH,  SW.  corner  Geary  and  Franklin  Sts.,  an  ivy-covered,  gray 
stone  edifice  of  modified  Romanesque  and  Gothic  design,  with  a  square 
turret  in  place  of  the  bell  tower  demolished  by  the  earthquake  of  1906, 
is  reminiscent  in  its  quiet  dignity  of  the  churches  of  the  English  country- 
side.    In  the  little  strip  of  churchyard  is  an  oblong  white  marble  sar- 
cophagus bearing  the  simple  inscription,   "Thomas   Starr  King,   born 
December  17,  A.  D.  1824 — Died  March  4,  A.  D.  1864";  here  repose 
the  remains  of  the  militant  pastor  of  the  Civil  War  period  with  whom 
the  church  long  has  been  identified.     The  church  has  a  great  circu- 
lar rose  window  and  perpendicular  Gothic  windows  of  stained  glass. 
Bruce  Porter's  allegorical  painting,  Lo  At  Length   The  True  Light, 
appears  over  the  altar,  which  is  flanked  on  either  side  by  winged  angels 
sculptured  by  Arthur  Putnam.     The  marble  baptismal  font  with  rows 
of  finely  chiseled  cherubs,  under  a  spired  Gothic  canopy  rising  to  the 
vaulted  ceiling  of  the  church,  is  the  gift  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  New  York  to  the  First  Unitarian  Church  in  San  Francisco, 
made  in  1864. 

The  city's  first  Unitarian  religious  service  was  preached  on  October 
20,  1850,  by  the  Reverend  Charles  A.  Farley.  A  Unitarian  society 
was  soon  formed  and  by  1852  was  holding  services  in  Armory  Hall, 
then  the  largest  auditorium  in  town.  In  a  church  of  its  own  on  Stock- 
ton Street  the  society  began  meeting  in  1853.  To  this  church  in  1860 
came  a  young  Boston  clergyman,  Thomas  Starr  King.  When  the  Civil 
War  began  a  year  later,  he  canvassed  the  State,  helping  to  swing  Cali- 
fornia to  the  side  of  the  Union  with  his  eloquence.  Through  King's 
efforts  the  cornerstone  of  a  new  church  on  Geary  Street  was  laid  in 
December,  1862.  Only  two  months  after  its  dedication  January  10, 
1864,  King  died  of  diphtheria.  The  Reverend  Horatio  Stebbins  suc- 
ceeded him  and  during  the  35  years  of  his  pastorate,  many  distinguished 
visitors  spoke  from  the  pulpit,  among  them  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Charles  Eliot,  and  David 
Starr  Jordan.  Since  the  dedication  of  the  present  church  on  February 
10,  1889,  its  pastor  and  membership  have  carried  on  the  tradition  of 
Thomas  Starr  King,  playing  a  leading  role  in  movements  for  political, 
economic,  and  social  reform. 

N.  from  Geary  St.  on  Franklin  St.  to  Post  St.;  E.  from  Franklin  on 
Post  to  Van  Ness  Ave.;  N.  from  Post  on  Van  Ness 

191.  The  chaste  white  granite  and  limestone  SCOTTISH  RITE 
TEMPLE,  NW.  corner  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Sutter  St.  (Carl  Werner, 


3O2      SAN     FRANCISCO 

architect),  was  dedicated  in  1911  by  the  Masonic  Order  of  Scottish 
Rite,  first  established  in  San  Francisco  in  1868.  It  has  been  used  by 
clubs,  political  groups,  and  trade  unions  for  grand  annual  balls,  public 
forums,  and  convention  headquarters.  Beyond  the  lobby  is  the  lodge 
room,  seating  1,500,  a  vast  two-storied  chamber  of  English  Tudor 
design,  with  high  stained-glass  windows  lighting  the  dark  walnut  panels 
of  the  room.  On  the  fourth  and  top  floor  is  a  library  (open  to  members 
only)  of  2,500  volumes,  including  a  copy  of  Albert  Magnus'  Sermons, 
printed  in  1479,  bound  in  leather  with  covers  of  thin  wood;  the  History 
of  St.  Joan,  printed  in  1722;  and  what  is  perhaps  the  only  complete 
Catholic  Encyclopedia  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

192.  Home  of  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church  in  North  America  is 
the  HOLY  TRINITY  RUSSIAN  EASTERN  ORTHODOX 
CATHEDRAL,  NW.  corner  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Green  St.,  where  on 
Orthodox  Sunday  (first  Sunday  in  Lent)  deep-voiced  Russian  singers 
intone  their  centuries-old  laments  for  the  godless.  The  first  Russian 
cathedral  in  the  United  States  and  the  oldest  Russian  church  in  San 
Francisco,  the  present  structure  is  authentically  Byzantine  in  design,  a 
buff-colored  frame  building,  its  green  dome  surmounted  with  a  gold 
Greek  cross.  It  faces  east  in  the  tradition  of  the  Greek  Orthodox 
Church.  Within  the  belfry  hang  five  bells,  the  largest  of  which,  weigh- 
ing two  and  one-half  tons,  was  made  expressly  for  the  church  in  com- 
memoration of  the  miraculous  escape  from  death  of  the  *  'little  Father 
of  all  the  Russias"  in  1884.  The  church  has  two  richly  decorated  audi- 
toriums, one  for  daily  services,  the  other  -for  Sundays  and  holy  days. 
Its  murals  depicting  religious  subjects  are  by  Gleb  Ilyn.  The  cathedral 
has  no  benches  or  pews,  the  congregation  being  obliged  to  stand  or 
kneel  on  the  bare  floor  while  priests  in  colored  vestments,  thin  and 
frayed  from  decades  of  use,  intone  the  mass  and  vespers.  Ikons  are 
usually  kept  covered  on  a  special  table  except  during  Easter,  when  they 
are  placed  on  the  altar  for  40  days. 

The  first  known  services  of  the  Russian  Greek  Orthodox  Church 
held  in  San  Francisco  were  conducted  in  1863,  when  a  priest  from  a 
Russian  ship  in  the  Bay  baptized  a  Serbian  infant  in  a  private  house. 
With  the  arrival  of  many  Russian  immigrants  from  Alaska,  Father 
loann  Metropolsky  came  in  1871  and  organized  the  St.  Alexander 
Russian  Orthodox  Church.  In  1882-83  a  cathedral  was  established  on 
Powell  Street;  the  memorial  bells  hung  in  the  church  were  rescued 
during  the  fire  and  earthquake  of  1906  and  installed  in  the  present 
structure  after  its  dedication  in  1909.  The  present  titular  head  of  the 
cathedral,  Bishop  Metropolitan  Theopolis  Bashkrovsky,  former  Tsarist 
army  chaplain  during  the  World  War,  was  appointed  bishop  of  San 
Francisco  in  1*932  and  Metropolitan  of  the  Russian  Church  in  North 
America  in  1934. 


WESTERN     ADDITION       303 

W .  from  Van  Ness  Ave.  on  Union  St. 

193.  Of  polyglot  design,  the  HINDU  TEMPLE  (open  Wed.  8 
p.m.},  SW.  corner  Filbert  and  Webster  Sts.,  rears  from  its  third  story 
a  bewildering  array  of  minarets,  cupolas,  and  towers  of  Gothic,  Hindu, 
Shiva,  and  Moslem  design.  The  upward-pointing  architectural  features 
of  the  temple,  headquarters  of  the  Vedanta  Society,  are  intended  to  sym- 
bolize the  goal  of  Vedanta  teachings,  ultimate  perfection.  To  each  of 
the  six  towers  is  attached  a  symbolic  meaning:  one,  decorated  with  cres- 
cent, sun,  and  trident,  symbolizes  the  path  to  knowledge  through  devo- 
tion and  work.  In  the  chapel  and  auditorium  on  the  first  floor,  above 
the  altar,  hang  two  life-size  portraits,  one  of  Ramakrishna,  patron  saint 
of  the  Vedanta  movement,  the  other  of  Swami  Trigunatita,  head  of 
the  temple  at  the  time  of  its  completion  in  1904.  Beside  the  platform 
is  a  large  portrait  of  Swami  Vivekananda,  who  brought  Hinduism  to  the 
West  and  under  whose  guidance  the  temple  was  founded. 


306      SAN     FRANCISCO 

product  include  the  ground  chocolate  originated  by  Domingo  Ghirar- 
delli.  In  the  main  office  of  the  plant  is  a  large  mixing  machine  brought 
round  the  Horn  from  France  in  the  i86o's — a  heavy  circular  chocolate 
mill  three  feet  in  diameter  with  stone  rollers  used  for  grinding  the 
raw  cacao — and  a  primitive  Mexican  hand  mill  used  by  the  Aztecs. 
(No  better  medium  for  the  grinding  of  chocolate  than  stone  has  yet 
been  discovered.) 


S.  on  Polk  St.  to  Bay  St.;  W.  on  Bay 

197.  Thrust  northward  into  the  Bay,  its  land  boundaries  Van  Ness 
Ave.,  Bay  and  Laguna  Sts.  (main  entrance  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Bay 
St.),  is  FORT  MASON  UNITED  STATES  MILITARY  RE- 
SERVE (usually  open  24  hrs. ;  subject  to  close  without  notice),  whose 
68*/2  acres  enclose  the  site  of  Spanish  fortifications  built  nearly  150 
years  ago.  On  April  4,  1797,  Governor  Diego  de  Borica  instructed 
engineer  Alberto  de  Cordoba  to  complete  certain  necessary  repairs  of 
Castillo  de  San  Joaquin  and  to  construct  another  battery  where  it 
would  "further  impede  the  anchorage  of  any  hostile  vessel  in  La  Yerba 
Buena."  Location  chosen  by  De  Cordoba  for  his  Battery  San  Jose 
was  Point  Medanos  (later  called  San  Jose),  today's  Black  Point,  north- 
ernmost natural  promontory  of  the  reserve.  Original  defense  for  the 
little  battery  was  five  brass  eight-pounders;  by  1798  it  had  achieved  a 
sixth  cannon;  but  by  the  turn  of  the  century  it  was  virtually  abandoned. 
When  General  and  Mrs.  John  C.  Fremont  in  the  1850*5  moved  to 
Black  Point — said  to  have  been  so  named  because  of  its  dense,  somber 
laurel  thickets — there  was  no  trace  of  Battery  San  Jose. 

The  area  was  set  aside  for  military  purposes  by  President  Millard 
Fillmore  in  1850-51,  but  not  until  1863  were  troops  quartered  in  the 
area.  Meanwhile  lawsuits  had  been  waged  over  boundaries,  water 
rights,  and  private  claims  which  were  to  reduce  the  original  loo-acre 
reserve  to  its  present  size. 

Unsuccessful  in  their  fight  to  gain  possession  of  the  area  were  Fre- 
mont and  four  friends  who  claimed  it  by  squatters'  rights.  Colonel 
Richard  Barnes  Mason  carried  out  the  Presidential  order  to  dispossess, 
thus  incurring  an  enmity  that  culminated  in  a  challenge  by  Fremont 
to  a  duel,  which  was  never  fought.  In  1882  the  reservation  was  named 
for  Colonel  Mason  (California  military  governor  1847-49). 

Fort  Mason  today  contains  102  frame  buildings,  including  several 
commissary  warehouses,  a  supply  depot  and  13  units  occupied  by  officers. 
Residential  headquarters  of  the  commander  of  the  Fourth  Army  (Sev- 
enth and  Ninth  Corps  Areas),  a  rambling  old  house  overlooking  the 
Bay,  incorporates  the  little  one-room  headquarters  built  by  Major 
Leonidas  Haskell  about  1850. 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      307 

Point  of  embarcation  and  arrival  for  troops  stationed  abroad  are 
the  three  ARMY  TRANSPORT  DOCKS  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  the 
reserve  (foot  of  Laguna  St.).  A  primary  port  of  the  United  States 
Army  Transport  Service,  Fort  Mason  is  the  home  of  the  Army  trans- 
ports Grant,  Somme,  Cambrai,  and  Meigs.  Annually  provisions  valued 
at  more  than  $12,000,000  are  shipped  to  Army  outposts  in  Alaska, 
Panama  Canal  Zone,  Hawaii,  the  Philippines,  and  the  Far  East. 
Through  a  tunnel  under  the  reservation  Belt  Line  locomotives  haul 
freight  cars  between  the  Embarcadero  and  the  docks.  More  than 
25,000  replacement  troops  leave  here  each  year  to  relieve  garrisons  in 
service  overseas. 

N.  from  Bay  St.  on  Laguna  St.  to  Marina  Blvd.;  NW.  on  Marina  (or 
NW.  from  Bay  St.  and  Van  Ness  Ave.  on  a  Fort  Mason  road  to 
Marina  Blvd.;  NW.  on  Marina) 

Comparatively  new  and  fashionable  is  that  residential  district  of 
stuccoed  flats  and  broad-windowed  apartment  buildings  known  as  The 
Marina,  extending  from  Van  Ness  Avenue  west  to  the  Presidio  and 
north  from  Lombard  Street  to  Fort  Mason  and  the  Bay.  The  older 
part  of  the  district  was  built  up  during  the  Panama-Pacific  International 
Exposition  of  1915;  the  newer,  since  1922,  on  some  50  of  the  several 
hundred  blocks  on  which  the  exposition  was  located. 

198.  Lying  north  of  broad  Marina  Boulevard  between  Webster  St. 
and  Yacht  Harbor,  are  the  block-wide,  level  lawns  of  MARINA  PARK 
(parking  area;  comfort  stations).     Baseball  and  football  players,  pic- 
nickers, and  kite  and  model  airplane  enthusiasts  have  replaced  the  local 
amateur  aviators  who  made  the  park  their  unofficial  landing  field  until 
1925.     In  that  year  Marina  residents  objected  so  strenuously  to  the 
aerial  menaces  to  their  lives  and  property  that  the  Park  Commission 
decided  to  use  the  land  for  its  originally  intended  recreational  purposes. 
The  tiny  cove  at  the  eastern  end  of  Marina  Park,  near  the  Army  Trans- 
port Docks,  is  crowded  with  small  fishing  craft  (boats  rented).    Where 
the  oil-covered  pilings  of  the  abandoned  wharves  push   up   from   the 
water,   implacable  fishermen  stand  guard  over  bobbing  corks  or  haul 
oily  crabnets  from  the  cove.      Cleaner  is   the   small   enclosed   bathing 
lagoon  at  the  park's  western  end. 

199.  Berthed  in  municipally  owned  YACHT  HARBOR,  Marina 
Blvd.,  Scott,  and  Lyon  Sts.,  are  about  2OO  craft,  ranging  in  size  from 
the  tiniest  of  catboats  to  Templeton  Crocker's  black-hulled,  two-masted 
schooner  Zaca,  veteran  of  far-ranging  scientific  expeditions.     Sail  and 
motor  boats  moored  here  dot  the  Bay  on  pleasant   Sundays  and  par- 
ticipate in  periodical  regattas. 

200.  On  the  i,5OO-foot-long  breakwater  that  shelters  the  harbor  is 


308      SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  home  of  the  ST.  FRANCIS  YACHT  CLUB  (private),  a  two- 
story  cement-faced  structure  roofed  with  red  and  orange  tile,  all  but 
obscured  from  the  mainland  by  green  pines.  Spanish  in  both  exterior 
and  interior — with  beamed  ceilings  looking  down  on  rooms  furnished 
in  heavy  dark  wood  and  warmed  by  great  open  fires — the  decorative 
motif  is  nevertheless  marine.  A  large  glass-enclosed  lounge  affords  an 
unusually  fine  view  of  the  Bay  and  its  shores.  Among  the  clubrooms 
open  to  its  300  members  are  a  dining  room,  a  bar,  steam  and  locker 
rooms,  and  courts  for  badminton,  handball,  and  squash.  Active  in  for- 
mation of  the  organization  (1928)  was  Hiram  Johnson,  Jr.  Non-profit 
and  given  to  the  promotion  of  frequent  social  events,  the  club's  primary 
interest  is  yachting.  Its  annual  open  racing  season  (for  craft  of  all 
classes)  attracts  sportsmen  from  the  entire  Bay  region. 

201.  Beyond  the  club,  at  the  eastern  tip  of  the  breakwater,  stands 
a  MINIATURE  LIGHTHOUSE  of  stone  and  granite  once  publicized  by 
Robert    ("Believe-It-or-Not")    Ripley  as  the  only  municipally  owned 
lighthouse  in  the  world  chartered   by  a   national   government.     The 
granite  in  the  3O-foot-high  tower  came  from  tombstones  in  an  aban- 
doned Lone  Mountain  Cemetery.    A  small  park  area  guarded  by  reclin- 
ing stone  lions  surrounds  the  little  building. 

S.  from  Marina  Blvd.  on  Baker  St. 

202.  Where  indoor  tennis  courts  are  covered  by  the  long  roof  of 
the  PALACE  OF  FINE  ARTS    (open  iveekdays  8:30-11:30;  Sun. 
8-5;  courts  $i  an   hour;  lighted},   foot  of  Lyon   St.,   visitors   to   the 
Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  of  1915  enjoyed  the  art  treas- 
ures of  the  fair.    The  tan  stuccoed  facade  of  the  semicircular  building 
(outer  circumference    1,100  feet;  width,    135   feet)    and  its   fronting 
peristyle  of  terra-cotta  Corinthian  columns  follow  the  curve  of  a  lagoon 
in  which  water  fowl  glide  about  two  anchored  gondolas.     In  the  center 
of  the  colonnade,  opposite  the  main  entrance,  is  an  ornamental  domed 
rotunda  supported  by  eight  pairs  of  columns  flanking  as  many  arches. 
The  palace's  designer,  Bernard  Maybeck,  is  said  to  have  been  inspired 
by  Brocklin's  painting,  The  Island  of  the  Dead. 

After  the  fair,  in  1918,  the  palace  again  housed  an  art  collection — 
that  of  the  San  Francisco  Art  Commission;  but  after  1921,  when  the 
group  moved  its  exhibit,  the  building  was  allowed  to  deteriorate.  In 
1927  the  Government  deeded  that  ten-acre  portion  of  the  Presidio  on 
which  the  palace  stood  to  the  City  of  San  Francisco,  but  not  until  12 
years  later  did  San  Francisco  begin  to  expend  the  $500,000  necessary 
for  its  restoration. 

The  restored  palace  mirrored  in  the  placid  waters  of  the  lagoon  is 
all  that  remains  of  the  $50,000,000  exposition  that  reached  from  Fort 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      309 

Mason  to  the  Presidio.  President  William  Howard  Taft  broke  the 
first  earth  on  the  site  October  14,  1911,  and  four  months  later  issued 
an  invitation  to  all  nations  to  participate  in  this  great  celebration  of  the 
opening  of  the  Panama  Canal.  On  the  early  morning  of  February  20, 
1915,  more  than  150,000  noisily  enthusiastic  persons  marched  through 
the  city  streets  to  the  fairgrounds.  Only  celebrants  who  did  not  walk 
to  the  Scott  Street  gates  were  a  group  of  pioneers  whose  carriage  fol- 
lowed slowly  behind  the  marching  leaders  of  the  two-and-one-half-mile- 
long  parade:  Mayor  James  Rolph,  Jr.,  Governor  Hiram  W.  Johnson, 
and  fair  official  Marshall  Hale  (whose  brother,  Robert,  first  had  sug- 
gested the  celebration  to  Congress  in  a  letter  dated  January  12,  1904). 

Said  a  contemporary  writer  of  the  exposition:  "From  the  city's 
heights  one  looks  down  on  a  facade  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  domi- 
nated at  its  center  by  the  lofty  seven-storied  .  .  .  Tower  of  Jewels, 
432  feet  in  height,  and  broken  on  either  side  by  an  open  court  orna- 
mented with  lesser  towers.  As  the  eye  rests  upon  the  rectangular  group, 
eight  great  domes  claim  the  attention,  distinguishing  the  location  of 
an  equal  number  of  exhibit  palaces,  domes  of  sea-green  color,  pale 
against  the  intense  blue  of  the  sky  and  the  bright  red  of  the  tiled  roofs. 
One  notes  that  the  avenue  bisects  the  group  at  right  angles,  widening 
along  the  lateral  axis  into  three  courts  .  .  . 

"And  now  the  eye  withdraws  from  this  central  group-building, 
attracted  by  the  two  domed  structures  in  the  South  Gardens,  Festival 
Hall  and  the  Palace  of  Horticulture.  To  the  east,  rests  the  Palace 
of  Machinery  .  .  .  To  the  west  across  the  still  lake,  and  curving  to  its 
shores  .  .  .  stands  the  Palace  of  Fine  Arts.  .  .  .  Passing  through  the 
main  entrance,  underneath  the  Tower  of  Jewels,  we  enter  the  Court 
of  the  Universe.  Elliptical  in  shape,  700  by  900  feet,  it  contains  a 
sunken  garden  capable  of  seating  seven  thousand  persons,  is  entirely 
surrounded  by  handsome  colonnades  .  .  .  the  facades  of  the  four  palaces 
being  modified  to  form  the  walls  of  the  court.  The  entrance  from 
the  lateral  avenue  on  the  east  and  west  are  surmounted  by  magnificent 
archways.  .  .  .  Passing  westward  along  the  avenue  between  the  palaces 
of  Agriculture  and  Liberal  Arts,  the  visitor  enters  the  Court  of  the 
Four  Seasons.  .  .  .  The  corresponding  court  on  the  east  is  the  Court 
of  Abundance.  Two  minor  courts  open  to  the  south,  that  on  the  east, 
the  Court  of  Flowers;  on  the  west,  the  Court  of  Palms. 

"To  the  north  .  .  .  stretches  the  long  Esplanade,  threaded  with 
walks  and  driveways  .  .  .  while  over  beyond  the  superb  Palace  of  Fine 
Arts  in  bewildering  array  the  dignified  Foreign  Pavilions  and  imposing 
buildings  of  the  states  arrest  the  attention  .  .  ." 

Twenty-five  foreign  nations  contributed  to  the  "bewildering  array," 
many  duplicating  famous  structures  of  their  lands — such  as  Turkey's 
mosque  of  Sultan  Ahmed  I  and  Japan's  sacred  temple  at  Kioto,  Kin  Ka 


3IO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Ku  Ji.  The  43  states  and  territories  represented  showed  equal  imagi- 
nation: New  York  built  a  Fifth  Avenue  mansion;  New  Jersey,  George 
Washington's  Trenton  Barracks;  California,  a  Spanish  mission. 

Dedicated  to  sheer  fun  was  the  "Zone,"  with  its  $10,000,000  worth 
of  amusement  concessions.  And  in  the  background  the  3,600,000- 
candlepower  scintillator  on  its  special  pier  at  Yacht  Harbor  swept  the 
night  skies  with  color,  painting  the  fog  that  rolled  in  from  the  Bay 
with  every  hue  of  the  rainbow. 

W .  from  Baker  St.  on  Lombard  St.,  which  leads  into  Lincoln  Blvd. 

THE  PRESIDIO  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO,  UNITED  STATES 
MILITARY  RESERVATION  (usually  open  24  hours;  subject  to 
close  without  notice;  speed  limit  20  m.p.h.;  night  parking  prohibited} , 
entered  at  Lincoln  Blvd.  and  Lombard  St.,  is  a  wooded  tract  of  1,540 
acres  extending  from  Lyon  St.  west  to  the  ocean  and  from  West  Pacific 
Ave.  and  Lobos  Creek  north  to  the  rim  of  the  Golden  Gate.  Largest 
military  post  within  a  city's  limits  in  the  United  States,  the  reservation 
includes  general  headquarters  of  the  Ninth  Corps  Area,  fortifications 
hidden  by  sand  dunes  and  heavily  forested  hillsides,  barracks  for  enlisted 
men,  officers'  quarters,  a  guard  house,  recreation  centers,  a  hospital,  a 
cemetery,  sleek  parade  grounds,  aviation  field  and  hangars,  warehouses, 
and  supply  depots.  A  fortified  area  since  1776 — when  it  was  chosen  by 
Juan  Bautista  de  Anza  as  military  headquarters  of  the  soldiers  of 
Charles  III  of  Spain — the  Presidio  has  been  occupied  by  Spanish  gar- 
risons, was  host  to  Fremont's  buckskin-clad  followers,  welcomed  volun- 
teers during  the  Spanish-American  War,  and  trained  doughboys  for 
service  in  the  first  World  War.  In  1906  the  Presidio  became  a  tent  city 
of  refugees  of  the  fire.  In  1917-18  it  played  host  in  an  even  grimmer 
way,  housing  a  concentration  camp  for  enemy  aliens. 

Associated  with  the  Presidio  are  some  of  the  most  illustrious  names 
of  the  United  States  Army.  Stationed  here  were  Generals  William 
Tecumseh  Sherman,  P.  H.  Sheridan,  E.  V.  Sumner,  Winfield  Scott, 
Irvin  McDowell,  and  A.  S.  Johnson.  Brigadier-General  Fred  Funston 
commanded  the  post  during  the  reconstruction  of  the  city  in  1906  and 
General  John  J.  Pershing  was  in  command  for  a  short  time  before  lead- 
ing the  Punitive  Expedition  into  Mexico. 

203.  Largest  military  hospital  in  the  West  and  one  of  five  Army 
general  hospitals  in  the  country  is  i,ooo-bed  LETTERMAN  GEN- 
ERAL HOSPITAL.  Its  48  acres — on  which  are  56  permanent  struc- 
tures— are  in  the  eastern  end  of  the  Presidio,  that  part  of  the  reservation 
most  protected  from  fog  and  wind.  Wide  lawns  and  a  profusion  of 
palm  trees  and  shrubs  surround  the  yellow  and  white  buildings.  Starred 
entirely  by  Army  medical  officers,  it  is  the  hospital  for  reception  and 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      3!! 

definitive  treatment  of  the  Army's  seriously  ill  stationed  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  and  in  near-by  States,  and  for  the  sick  returned  from  the  Canal 
Zone,  Alaska,  and  transpacific  stations.  In  the  Red  Cross  "hut"  on 
the  hospital  grounds  vaudeville  and  motion  pictures  are  provided.  Fur- 
ther recreational  facilities  are  tennis  courts  and  a  library  of  10,000 
books  and  periodicals. 

The  institution  was  less  pretentious  when  built  in  1898  and  named 
in  honor  of  Jonathan  Letterman,  Medical  Director  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  One  of  the  finest  medical  officers  of  the  Civil  War,  Letter- 
man designed  the  pavilion  type  hospital  used  (with  slight  modification) 
by  many  countries. 

204.  Still  in  use  is  the  old  STATION   HOSPITAL   (near  the 
Administration    Building)    constructed   in    1854   °^   materials   shipped 
around  the  Horn. 

205.  West  of  the  hospital  grounds,  bordered  on  the  north  by  Lin- 
coln Blvd.,  is  the  MAIN   PARADE   GROUND,   flanked  by  great 
red-brick  barracks  and  their  background  of  eucalyptus  trees.     At  the 
northern  end  of  the  parade  ground  a  sentry  walks  his  post  before  the 
red-brick  Guardhouse. 

206.  Nearby  stands  the  OFFICERS'  CLUB   (private),  only  sur- 
vival of  the  adobe  buildings  erected  by  the  Spanish.     In  1776  it  was 
the  headquarters  of  Lieutenant  Jose  Joaquin  Moraga  of  the  De  Anza 
expedition  (see  A  Frontier  To  Conquer:  The  White  Men  Came) ,  who 
completed  the  garrison  and  dedicated  the  Presidio  on  September  17  of 
that  year.     A  plaque  on  the  building  reads  in  part: 

".  .  .  Officers  Quarters 

Under 

Spanish,  Mexican,  and  American  Rule 

Oldest  Adobe  Building  in 

San  Francisco." 

Bronze  cannons  cast  250  years  ago  in  Madrid,  veterans  of  Pizarro's 
conquest  of  Peru,  flank  the  club's  entrance.  A  third,  pointing  at  a 
marker  honoring  Lieutenant  Moraga,  bears  on  its  breech  the  royal  arms 
of  Spain  and  the  date  1679. 

207.  The   NATIONAL    MILITARY    CEMETERY,    Infantry 
Ter.  and  Lincoln  Blvd.,  25  acres  of  landscaped  hillside  overlooking  the 
Golden  Gate,  is  surrounded  by  groves  of  laurel,  cypress,  and  eucalyptus 
trees.     Among  the  remains  of  more  than   16,000  men  buried  here  are 
those  of  officers  and  enlisted  men  from  abandoned  cemeteries  at  Fort 
Klamath,  Oregon;  Fort  Colville,  Washington;  the  Modoc  Lava  Beds 
(scene  of  California's  Modoc  Indian  Wars  of  1872-73)  ;  and  Old  Camp 
Grant  in  Arizona.      Headstones  bear  the  well-known   names  of   Me- 


3IO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Ku  Ji.  The  43  states  and  territories  represented  showed  equal  imagi- 
nation :  New  York  built  a  Fifth  Avenue  mansion ;  New  Jersey,  George 
Washington's  Trenton  Barracks;  California,  a  Spanish  mission. 

Dedicated  to  sheer  fun  was  the  "Zone,"  with  its  $10,000,000  worth 
of  amusement  concessions.  And  in  the  background  the  3,600,000- 
candlepower  scintillator  on  its  special  pier  at  Yacht  Harbor  swept  the 
night  skies  with  color,  painting  the  fog  that  rolled  in  from  the  Bay 
with  every  hue  of  the  rainbow. 

W '.  from  Baker  St.  on  Lombard  St.,  which  leads  into  Lincoln  Blvd. 

THE  PRESIDIO  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO,  UNITED  STATES 
MILITARY  RESERVATION  (usually  open  24  hours;  subject  to 
close  without  notice;  speed  limit  20  m.p.h.;  night  parking  prohibited), 
entered  at  Lincoln  Blvd.  and  Lombard  St.,  is  a  wooded  tract  of  1,540 
acres  extending  from  Lyon  St.  west  to  the  ocean  and  from  West  Pacific 
Ave.  and  Lobos  Creek  north  to  the  rim  of  the  Golden  Gate.  Largest 
military  post  within  a  city's  limits  in  the  United  States,  the  reservation 
includes  general  headquarters  of  the  Ninth  Corps  Area,  fortifications 
hidden  by  sand  dunes  and  heavily  forested  hillsides,  barracks  for  enlisted 
men,  officers'  quarters,  a  guard  house,  recreation  centers,  a  hospital,  a 
cemetery,  sleek  parade  grounds,  aviation  field  and  hangars,  warehouses, 
and  supply  depots.  A  fortified  area  since  1776 — when  it  was  chosen  by 
Juan  Bautista  de  Anza  as  military  headquarters  of  the  soldiers  of 
Charles  III  of  Spain — the  Presidio  has  been  occupied  by  Spanish  gar- 
risons, was  host  to  Fremont's  buckskin-clad  followers,  welcomed  volun- 
teers during  the  Spanish-American  War,  and  trained  doughboys  for 
service  in  the  first  World  War.  In  1906  the  Presidio  became  a  tent  city 
of  refugees  of  the  fire.  In  1917-18  it  played  host  in  an  even  grimmer 
way,  housing  a  concentration  camp  for  enemy  aliens. 

Associated  with  the  Presidio  are  some  of  the  most  illustrious  names 
of  the  United  States  Army.  Stationed  here  were  Generals  William 
Tecumseh  Sherman,  P.  H.  Sheridan,  E.  V.  Sumner,  Winfield  Scott, 
Irvin  McDowell,  and  A.  S.  Johnson.  Brigadier-General  Fred  Funston 
commanded  the  post  during  the  reconstruction  of  the  city  in  1906  and 
General  John  J.  Pershing  was  in  command  for  a  short  time  before  lead- 
ing the  Punitive  Expedition  into  Mexico. 

203.  Largest  military  hospital  in  the  West  and  one  of  five  Army 
general  hospitals  in  the  country  is  i,ooo-bed  LETTERMAN  GEN- 
ERAL HOSPITAL.  Its  48  acres — on  which  are  56  permanent  struc- 
tures— are  in  the  eastern  end  of  the  Presidio,  that  part  of  the  reservation 
most  protected  from  fog  and  wind.  Wide  lawns  and  a  profusion  of 
palm  trees  and  shrubs  surround  the  yellow  and  white  buildings.  Staffed 
entirely  by  Army  medical  officers,  it  is  the  hospital  for  reception  and 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      311 

definitive  treatment  of  the  Army's  seriously  ill  stationed  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  and  in  near-by  States,  and  for  the  sick  returned  from  the  Canal 
Zone,  Alaska,  and  transpacific  stations.  In  the  Red  Cross  "hut"  on 
the  hospital  grounds  vaudeville  and  motion  pictures  are  provided.  Fur- 
ther recreational  facilities  are  tennis  courts  and  a  library  of  10,000 
books  and  periodicals. 

The  institution  was  less  pretentious  when  built  in  1898  and  named 
in  honor  of  Jonathan  Letterman,  Medical  Director  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  One  of  the  finest  medical  officers  of  the  Civil  War,  Letter- 
man designed  the  pavilion  type  hospital  used  (with  slight  modification) 
by  many  countries. 

204.  Still  in  use  is  the  old  STATION   HOSPITAL   (near  the 
Administration    Building)    constructed   in    1854   °^   materials   shipped 
around  the  Horn. 

205.  West  of  the  hospital  grounds,  bordered  on  the  north  by  Lin- 
coln Blvd.,  is  the  MAIN   PARADE  GROUND,   flanked  by  great 
red-brick  barracks  and  their  background  of  eucalyptus  trees.     At  the 
northern  end  of  the  parade  ground  a  sentry  walks  his  post  before  the 
red-brick  Guardhouse. 

206.  Nearby  stands  the  OFFICERS'  CLUB   (private),  only  sur- 
vival of  the  adobe  buildings  erected  by  the  Spanish.     In  1776  it  was 
the  headquarters  of  Lieutenant  Jose  Joaquin  Moraga  of  the  De  Anza 
expedition  (see  A  Frontier  To  Conquer:  The  White  Men  Came),  who 
completed  the  garrison  and  dedicated  the  Presidio  on  September  17  of 
that  year.     A  plaque  on  the  building  reads  in  part: 

".  .  .  Officers  Quarters 

Under 

Spanish,  Mexican,  and  American  Rule 

Oldest  Adobe  Building  in 

San  Francisco." 

Bronze  cannons  cast  250  years  ago  in  Madrid,  veterans  of  Pizarro's 
conquest  of  Peru,  flank  the  club's  entrance.  A  third,  pointing  at  a 
marker  honoring  Lieutenant  Moraga,  bears  on  its  breech  the  royal  arms 
of  Spain  and  the  date  1679. 

207.  The   NATIONAL    MILITARY    CEMETERY,    Infantry 
Ter.  and  Lincoln  Blvd.,  25  acres  of  landscaped  hillside  overlooking  the 
Golden  Gate,  is  surrounded  by  groves  of  laurel,  cypress,  and  eucalyptus 
trees.     Among  the  remains  of  more  than   16,000  men  buried  here  are 
those  of  officers  and  enlisted  men  from  abandoned  cemeteries  at  Fort 
Klamath,  Oregon;  Fort  Colville,  Washington;  the  Modoc  Lava  Beds 
(scene  of  California's  Modoc  Indian  Wars  of  1872-73)  ;  and  Old  Camp 
Grant  in  Arizona.      Headstones  bear  the  well-known   names  of   Me- 


312      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Dowell,  Shatter,  Funston  and  Ligget.  "Two  Bits  October  5  1873" 
is  the  inscription  on  a  marble  stone  over  the  grave  of  an  Indian  inter- 
preter from  Fort  Klamath.  A  huge  heart-shaped  plot  with  a  granite 
monument,  dedicated  to  the  "Unknown  Soldier  Dead,"  marks  the  burial 
place  of  408  soldiers  of  the  World  War.  "Pauline  C.  Tyler— Union 
Spy"  is  engraved  on  the  headstone  of  the  grave  of  Pauline  Cushman 
Tyler,  young  actress  who  was  in  the  Union  services  during  the  Civil 
War  and  later  received  the  honorary  commission  of  brevet-major. 

208.  CRISSY  FIELD,  stretching  along  the  Golden  Gate  between 
Marine  Blvd.  and  Mason  St.,  is  the  scene  of  the  weekly  (Tues.  2:30 
p.m.)   "Retreat  Formation"  by  troops  of  "San  Francisco's  own,"  the 
3Oth  Infantry,  and  the  annual  encampment  of  the  Citizens'  Military 
Training  Camp.     On  Army  Day,   the  maneuvers,   parades,   artillery 
demonstrations,  and  anti-aircraft  bombardments  held  here  are  open  to 
the  public,  as  are  the  divisional  reviews  of  all  troops  of  the  post.    The 
eastern  end  of  the  field  is  occupied  by  polo  grounds  and  the  numbered 
supply  depots  and  warehouses  of  the  Quartermaster  Corps.     Named  in 
honor  of  Major  Dana  H.  Crissy,  Air  Service  pilot  who  was  killed  in 
the  Transcontinental  Air  Races  of  1919,  the  field  was  used  as  an  army 
aviation  base  from  1919  until  supplanted  in  1936  by  Hamilton  Field 
(see  North  Bay  Tour*). 

N.  from  Lincoln  Blvd.  on  Long  Ave.  to  Marine  Dr.;  W .  on  Marine 

209.  FORT  WINFIELD  SCOTT,  near  the  northern  limits  of 
the  Presidio,  is  headquarters  of  both  the  Ninth  Coast  Artillery  District 
and  the  harbor  defense  distributed  among  Forts  Barry  and  Baker  (see 
North  Bay   Tour),  Forts  Miley  and  Funston.     Within  its  area  are 
the  heavy  gun  units  of  the  Coast  Defense.   In  1921  the  fort  was  officially 
designated  as  a  saluting  station  to  return  the  salutes  of  foreign  vessels 
of  war  visiting  the  Port  of  San  Francisco.     Officers  and  enlisted  men 
occupy  new  grey  stucco  buildings,  among  them  the  Signal  Corps  Radio 
Station. 

210.  Fort  Point,  the  promontory  (parking  space)  beyond  Fort  Win- 
field  Scott,  is  the  northernmost  point  of  the  San  Francisco  Peninsula. 
On  the  shoreline  below  is  OLD  FORT  SCOTT    (private)— called 
until  1882  Fort  Point — marking  the  Site  of  Castillo  de  San  Joaquin, 
beside  the  southern  anchorage  of  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge.     December, 
1794  saw  completion  of  the  early  castillo  by  the  Spanish.     It  is  recorded 
that  the  adobe  walls  trembled  on  their  foundations  of  sand  at  the  mere 
firing  of  a  salute,  that  the  guns  "were  badly  mounted,   and,   for  the 
most  part,  worn  out."    By  July  i,  1846  the  guns  were  dismounted  and 
useless,  although  Fremont  in  his  Memoirs  relates  that  on  that  date  he 
and  12  of  his  men  spiked  the  "large,  handsome  pieces." 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      313 

Designed  after  Fort  Sumter,  the  present  old  brick  fortress,  with 
walls  36  feet  thick,  encloses  a  paved  courtyard  at  the  waters'  edge. 
Today  as  obsolete  as  the  square-riggers  which  were  its  enemies,  its  only 
modern  facilities  are  a  powerhouse  and  searchlight. 

Retrace  on  Marine  Dr.  to  Lincoln  Blvd.;  W .   (then  S.)    on  Lincold 
to  Washington  Blvd.;  S.  on  Washington  to  Park  Blvd.;  S.  on  Pafk\ 

211.  Occupying  162  acres  in  the  southern  and  central  part  of  the 
reservation  are  the  PRESIDIO  GOLF  LINKS  (greens  fee  $2;  $i  to 
officers  and  their  guests  Mon.-Fri.;  $2  Sat.  and  Sun.),  Washington  and 
Park  Blvds. 

212.  Adjoining  the  golf  links  on  the  west  are  the  grounds  of  the 
six-story,  white  granite  MARINE   HOSPITAL,  foot  of  Fourteenth 
Ave.,  with  its  surrounding  staff  quarters    (the   medical   and   nursing 
staff  of  82  live  on  the  premises),  laboratories,  laundries,   and  green- 
houses.    Number  9  of  25  similar  institutions  operated  by  the  Federal 
Public  Health  Service,  its  500  beds  are  open  to  merchant  sailors  and 
all  Federal  employees  except  those  in  the  Army  and  Navy. 

This  hospital  was  built  in  1932.  The  city's  first  Marine  Hospital, 
a  four-story  brick  building,  had  been  erected  79  years  earlier  on  Rincon 
Point.  The  first  such  institution  in  the  country,  said  to  be  the  oldest 
Government  service,  was  founded  at  Norfolk,  Virginia,  in  1798,  to 
combat  cholera  and  yellow  fever,  and  occupational  diseases  caused  by 
unsanitary  living  conditions  aboard  early  American  merchant  vessels. 
A  merchant  sailor's  ticket  of  admission  to  these  hospitals  is  a  certificate 
from  his  ship's  master  and  surgeon  presented  within  six  months  of  his 
discharge. 

213.  Just   east   of   the   hospital   and   within   the   Presidio   is   little 
MOUNTAIN  LAKE,  Government-protected  sanctuary  for  ducks  and 
gulls.    In  1939  the  lake  was  reduced  to  half  its  former  size  when  earth 
excavated  in  lowering  the  grade  of  the  Funston  Avenue  approach  to  the 
Golden  Gate  Bridge  was  dumped  into  it.     MOUNTAIN  LAKE  PARK 
(play  apparatus) ,  Lake  St.  between  Eighth  and  Funston  Aves.,  stretches 
along  the  lake's  southern  shore  outside  the  Presidio. 

Retrace  on  Park  Blvd.  to  Lincoln  Blvd.;  S.  on  Lincoln,  which  leads 
into  El  Camino  del  Mar 

214.  Property  of   the  War   Department,   but   open   to   picnickers, 
bass  fishermen,  and  sunbathers  is  BAKER'S  BEACH,  foot  of  Twenty- 
fifth  Ave.,  a  long  sandy  strip  along  the  western  edge  of  the  Presidio 
(accessible  by  trails  from  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  Presidio  and 
from  the   foot   of   Twenty-fifth   Ave.).     The   beach   was   named   for 


314      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Colonel  Edward  Dickinson  Baker  (for  whom  Fort  Baker  in  Marin 
County;  Baker,  Oregon;  and  San  Francisco's  Baker  Street  also  were 
named).  An  eloquent  orator  and  lawyer,  Baker  came  here  in  the 
1 850*8  and  canvassed  the  State  in  the  cause  of  the  Union.  After  mak- 
ing himself  unpopular  by  defending  Charles  Cora  during  the  Vigilante 
trial  of  1856,  he  moved  to  Oregon,  where  he  became  a  United  States 
Senator,  but  returned  to  command  the  first  regiment  of  California 
volunteers  in  the  Civil  War.  He  was  killed  in  battle  in  1861.  Near 
Sea  Cliff,  the  impassible  promontory  at  the  southern  end  of  the  beach, 
is  an  old  red-brick  pumping  station  which  long  ago  pumped  water  from 
Lobos  Creek  (southern  boundary  of  the  Presidio)  through  a  tunnel 
at  Fort  Point  to  downtown  San  Francisco,  but  which  now  supplies 
only  the  reservation. 

N.  from  El  Camino  del  Mar  on  Twenty-seventh  Ave.  to  Sea  Cliff  Ave.; 
W '.  on  Sea  Cliff,  which  leads  into  a  footpath;  N.  on  the  footpath 

215.  Toward  purchase  of  the  short,  irregular  crescent  of  JAMES 
D.  PHELAN  MEMORIAL  BEACH  STATE  PARK  (barbecue 
pits;  comfort  stations},  the  man  for  whom  the  park  is  named  left  a 
bequest  of  $50,000.  A  five-year  wrangle  over  the  property  by  the  city, 
the  State,  the  Allen  Company  (Sea  Cliff  development  group),  and  the 
newspapers  culminated  in  its  purchase  in  1933  by  State  and  city  for 
$160,000.  It  still  popularly  is  called  China  Beach,  a  name  applied 
since  Chinese  fishermen  camped  on  the  protected  inlet — their  nightly 
bonfires  giving  rise  to  the  legend  that  the  cove  was  a  rendezvous  of 
pirates.  Announced  by  the  Recreation  Commission  as  the  only  spot 
on  the  city's  ocean  frontage  between  Fort  Point  and  Fleishhacker  Pool 
safe  for  bathing,  plans  call  for  "terraced  gardens  for  the  sloping  hill- 
sides; leafy  walks;  an  alluring  tea  house;  tennis  courts;  and  an  arti- 
ficial pool  .  .  ." 

Retrace  on  footpath  to  El  Camino  del  Mar;  W .  on  El  Camino  del  Mar 

In  the  extreme  northwestern  corner  of  city  and  peninsula  are  the 
270  green-lawned  acres  of  city-owned  LINCOLN  PARK,  facing  sea- 
ward on  the  north  and  west,  bounded  on  the  east  by  Thirty-third  Ave. 
and  on  the  south  by  Clement  St.  and  Fort  Miley  Reserve.  The  ter- 
rain slopes  gently  to  the  south  and  east  and  drops  abruptly  to  the  sheer 
cliffs  above  the  Golden  Gate.  El  Camino  del  Mar  winds  the  length 
of  the  park,  at  one  point  skirting  high  above  the  rugged  rock-strewn 
shore.  Across  the  Bay,  beyond  the  Golden  Gate  Bridge,  lie  the  soft 
Marin  Hills  ^nd  Point  Bonita  (see  North  Bay  Tour]  ;  closer  are 
Land's  End  and  Phelan  and  Baker's  Beaches. 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      315 

Beneath  Lincoln  Park's  smooth  lawns  lie  the  graves  of  thousands 
of  San  Franciscans  who  died  during  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Among  the  cemeteries  here  were  the  burial  grounds  of  Chinese 
and  Italians,  and  here  was  Potter's  Field.  The  city  has  kept  its 
promise  made  when  it  purchased  the  property  in  1910,  and  has  not 
disturbed  the  graves. 

216.  On  the  formally  landscaped  summit  in  the  northern  section 
of  the  park  stands  the  city's  largest  art  museum,  the  CALIFORNIA 
PALACE  OF  THE  LEGION  OF  HONOR  (open  daily  10-5;  park- 
ing area;  organ  concerts  Sat.  and  Sun.  3-4),  a  memorial  to  California's 
dead  in  the  first  World  War,  the  gift  (i924)  of  Adolph  B.  and  Alma 
de  Bretteville  Spreckels.  The  cream-colored  palace,  closely  resembling 
the  eighteenth-century  classic  Palais  de  la  Legion  d'Honneur  (Paris, 
France),  is  approached  through  a  Roman  arch  flanked  by  two  porticoes 
with  double  rows  of  Ionic  columns.  The  porticoes  abut  the  two  wings 
of  the  palace  to  form  a  rectangular  court.  The  wings  are  flanked  by 
peristyles,  each  with  22  columns,  and  the  main  facade  is  fronted  by  a 
portico  with  six  Corinthian  columns.  One  of  the  five  original  bronze 
casts  of  Auguste  Rodin's  The  Thinker  occupies  the  center  of  the  court. 
The  entire  building  is  set  off  by  a  stone  balustrade.  Bronze  equestrian 
statues  (Anna  Hyatt  Huntington,  sculptress),  El  Cid,  and  Jeanne 
d'Arc,  flank  the  path  leading  to  the  entrance.  A  marble  plaque  beside 
the  doorway,  the  gift  of  France,  reads:  "Hommage  de  la  France  aux 
heros  Calif orniens  morts  pour  la  defense  du  droit  et  la  liberte"  (France's 
homage  to  the  California  heroes  dead  in  defense  of  right  and  liberty). 

Of  the  museum's  19  main-floor  galleries,  those  to  the  left  and  rear 
of  the  central  foyer  contain  the  permanent  collection,  which  includes 
a  series  of  fine  seventeenth-century  Flemish  tapestries,  French  tapestries 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries — many  from  the  Gobelin 
works,  and  a  set  of  modern  Gobelins  presented  by  the  French  govern- 
ment. The  paintings  include  a  few  of  the  early  Italians,  Vivarini, 
BeltrafHo,  and  Fra  Bartolemmeo ;  there  are  two  fine  Guardis,  among 
them  the  Rialto  Bridge;  a  Caneletto,  arid  other  eighteenth  century 
Venetians.  The  Dutch  school  is  represented  by  Rubens,  Cuyp,  David 
Teniers,  de  Vos,  and  Ruisdael ;  the  Spanish,  by  Murillo,  Velasquez  and 
El  Greco's  St.  Peter.  The  English  eighteenth-century  paintings  num- 
ber portraits  by  Raeburn,  Lawrence,  Reynolds,  Hoppner,  and  Romney. 
There  are  two  Constables  and  Turner's  Grand  Canal  at  Venice.  The 
French  eighteenth-century  school,  including  Fragonard,  de  Troy,  and 
Boucher,  is  well  represented;  the  work  is  hung  in  galleries  containing 
some  fine  pieces  of  French  furniture  of  the  same  period.  Among  the 
works  of  sculpture  are  bronzes  and  marbles  by  Rodin  and  others  influ- 
enced by  him,  including  Arthur  Putnam,  and  a  bronze  bust  by  Jacob 
Epstein. 


3l6      SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  galleries  to  the  right  of  the  main  foyer  are  used  for  loan  ex- 
hibits. The  lower  floor  houses  a  little  theater  and  the  Albert  Bender 
collection  of  oriental  painting,  sculpture,  and  ceramics. 

In  the  center  of  the  driveway  before  the  museum  a  I2ofoot  wooden 
flagpole  marks  the  western  terminus  of  the  Lincoln  Highway  (US  40). 
A  few  yards  east  is  The  Shades,  three  nude  male  bronzes  by  Rodin, 
standing  with  heads  bowed  and  arms  outstretched.  The  group  is  a 
memorial  to  Raphael  Weill,  pioneer  merchant  and  philanthropist.  The 
semicircular  stone  balustrade  at  the  edge  of  the  parkway  overlooks  a 
curious  obelisk  of  bronze,  rising  24  feet  from  a  y-foot-square  granite 
base  bearing  the  information  that  it  was  "presented  to  the  Ladies  Sea- 
men's Friend  Society  by  Dr.  Henry  Cogswell.  A  landmark  of  the 
seamen's  last  earthly  port  and  resting-place  in  which  he  waits  the  advent 
of  the  Great  Pilot  of  his  eternal  destiny.  .  .  ." 

S.  from  the  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  on  an  unnamed  drive 

21 7.  Facing  the  driveway  near  one  of  the  main  entrances  (Thirty- 
fourth  Ave.  and  Clement  St.),  in  the  southeastern  section  of  the  park,  is 
headquarters  of  the  i8-hole  LINCOLN  PARK  MUNICIPAL  GOLF 
COURSE.     LINCOLN  PARK  CLUBHOUSE  (greens  fee  50$  Mon.-Fri.; 
J5$  Sat.  and  Sun.;  $2  monthly;  clubs  50$  a  set;  locker  $l  a  month; 
restaurant),  a  large  one-story  white  frame  building  resembles  a  com- 
fortable country  home.    Near  by  is  the  CHILDREN'S  PLAYGROUND  (play 
apparatus;  handball  courts). 

Retrace   on   unnamed  drive   to   El   Camino   del  Mar;  NW.  from  El 
Camino  del  Mar  on  a  footpath 

2 1 8.  A  WPA-built  trail,  below  El  Camino  del  Mar  just  northeast 
of  the  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  skirts  the  cliffside  to  LAND'S 
END,  the  wave-dashed  headland  forming  the  northwest  rim  of  the  city. 

219.  From  the  rocky  shoal  waters  the  hoarse  siren  of  MILE  ROCK 
LIGHTHOUSE,  a  few  hundred  feet  offshore  on  the  larger  of  the  two  Mile 
Rocks,  echoes  along  the  cliffs  when  fogs  shroud  the  Bay;  its  light,  atop 
a  white  cylindrical  tower  78  feet  above  the  water,  is  visible  for   14 
miles.     Before  the  construction  of  the  light   (1903-06)   the  S.  S.  Rio 
de  Janeiro  foundered  on  Fort  Point  Reef    (see   The  Harbor  and  Its 
Islands)  in  1901  and  sank  with  a  loss  of  more  than  100  lives  and  a 
reputed  fortune  in  bullion  and  silk.    Visitors  intrepid  enough  to  under- 
take the  extremely  rough  passage  and  climb  a  rope  ladder — or  be  hoisted, 
like  the  stations'  supplies,  by  a  rope  swung  from  a  boom — make  arrange- 
ments for  the  t-rip  with  the  Coast  Guard  at  the  Customhouse. 

220.  The  path  around  Land's  End  follows  the  shore  beneath  the 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      317 

MARINE  LOOKOUT  STATION  OF  THE  CHAMBER  OF 
COMMERCE,  a  buff-colored,  three-story,  towerlike,  stuccoed  structure 
equipped  with  a  telepscope  with  a  3O-mile  range.  The  purpose  of  the 
station  is  to  report  vessels  entering  the  harbor  to  their  owners,  the 
Immigration  Department,  the  Customhouse,  the  press,  supply  houses, 
taxi  companies  and  hotels.  Craft  are  identified  after  they  pass  the  light- 
ship near  the  Farallones.  The  waves  below  the  station  wash  over  the 
boilers  and  hull  of  the  lumber  schooner  Coos  Bay.  Farther  west  the 
skeletons  of  the  Frank  H.  Buck  and  the  Standard  Oil  tanker  Lyman 
Stewart  lie  in  the  surf. 

221.  Near  the  wreckage  of  the  Lyman  K.  Stewart,  a  few  stark, 
jutting   beams   compose   the   remaining   FRAMEWORK   OF    PEL- 
TON'S  TIDE  MACHINE— formerly  referred  to  as  "Pelton's  Folly" 
— a  structure  built  on  an  isolated  rock  facing  the  sea.     Here  Alexander 
Pelton  planned  to  harness  the  tides  and  thus  develop  electric  power. 
An  experimental  plant  costing  $250,000  was  three  times  swept  out  to 
sea.     When  his  backer   (said  to  be  Adolph  Sutro)   would  advance  no 
further   funds   and   his   own   were   exhausted,    Pelton   abandoned   the 
project. 

Retrace  on  footpath  to  El  Camino  del  Mar;  W.  on  El  Camino  del 
Mar  to  Seal  Rock  Ave.;  E.  on  Seal  Rock 

222.  The  UNITED  STATES  VETERANS'  ADMINISTRA- 
TION FACILITY  (open  Mon.-Fri.  8-4,  Sat.  8-12),  Seal  Rock  and 
Forty-fifth  Aves.,  is  housed  in  a  group  of  ultra-modern  hospital  build- 
ings  constructed   of   terra   cotta   and    reinforced   concrete,    combining 
pyramidal  motifs  of  Mayan  Temple  architecture  with  modern  design. 
Built  in   1933  as  a  diagnostic  center,  the  facility  serves  all  veterans' 
hospitals  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.      (By  special  arrangement,  a 
limited   number  of   Canadian   veterans   are   admitted   for   treatment.) 
One  of  8 1   such  institutions  in  the  United  States,  it  is  more  than  a 
hospital,  serving  as  a  clearing  house  for  veterans  seeking  compensation 
adjustments,  physical  examinations,  and  similar  services.     A  consulting 
staff  of  39  of  the  Pacific  Coast's  best-known  physicians  and  surgeons 
augments  the  staff  of  27   doctors  and  three  dentists.     There  are  41 
nurses,  90  ward  attendants,  and  35  kitchen  workers    (all   lesser  em- 
ployees are  Civil  Service).    Among  the  subsidiary  buildings — in  addition 
to  laboratories  and  clinics — are  quarters  for  nurses  and  married  attend- 
ants, two  duplex  buildings  for  physicians,  surgeons'  homes,  and  a  library, 
recreation  hall,  and  canteen. 

With  a  capacity  of  336  beds,  the  facility  serves  more  than  2,000 
patients  annually  and  examines  about  4,000  more  for  pension  and  dis- 
ability purposes.  The  principal  work  is  done  in  the  clinical  and  patho- 


3l8      SAN     FRANCISCO 

logical  laboratories,   the  X-ray   diagnosis   laboratory,   and   the   physio- 
therapeutic  division. 

223.  The   facility  is  in   the  extreme  southern   section   of   FORT 
MILEY  UNITED  STATES  MILITARY  RESERVATION  (pri- 
vate), whose  50  acres  were  set  aside  in  1900  and  named  in  honor  of 
Lieutenant  Colonel  John  D.  Miley,  who  had  died  at  Manila  the  pre- 
ceding year.     A  fortified  reserve,  it  is  surrounded  by  a  strong  wire 
fence  and  patrolled  day  and  night  by  sentries.     In   1911   Fort  Miley 
was  made  a  subpost  of  the  Presidio. 

Retrace  on  Seal  Rock  Ave.  to  El  Camino  del  Mar;  S.  on  El  Camino 
del  Mar  to  Point  Lobos  Ave. 

224.  SUTRO  HEIGHTS  (open  daily  9-5;  no  vehicles  permitted), 
Pt.  Lobos  and  Forty-eighth  Aves.,  once  the  home  of  Adolph  Sutro,  is 
now  a  public  park.     One  of  many  enterprises  of  the  Comstock  million- 
aire who  invested  a  fortune  in  the  preservation  of  the  city's  natural 
beauty,  the  Heights  are  his  most  intimate  memorial. 

Sutro  Heights  commands  a  view  of  three  miles  of  ocean  beach  below. 
Among  the  tall  groves  of  trees  in  the  park  are  scattered  statuettes  repre- 
senting characters  of  folklore  and  fiction,  among  them  a  group  from  the 
stories  of  Charles  Dickens.  A  white-painted  wooden  arch  and  gateway 
flanked  by  reclining  stone  lions  marks  the  park's  entrance.  Directly 
within  are  an  octagonal-shaped  station  house  formerly  used  by  a  gate- 
keeper, and  twin  life-sized  iron  figures  of  guards  in  seventeenth-century 
cuirasses  and  helmets.  A  graveled  central  pathway,  formerly  a  driveway, 
leads  southward  into  the  center  of  the  garden  under  trees  of  a  myriad 
variety,  among  them  palms,  firs,  monkey  trees,  Monterey  cypresses, 
and  several  from  the  islands  of  the  South  Pacific;  a  Norfolk  Island 
pine,  a  Hawaiian  cazana,  and  an  aurecara  of  New  Zealand.  A  smaller 
path,  branching  from  the  main  pathway,  leads  to  the  top  of  the  heights 
on  the  garden's  western  edge,  a  steeply  descending  cliff  with  terraced 
rock  gardens  planted  in  evergreens  and  perennials.  A  low  granite  wall 
on  the  edge  of  the  terrace  serves  as  a  base  for  statues  and  urns  placed 
alternately.  Here  also  are  two  large  muzzle-loading  cannon,  near 
each  of  which,  as  if  in  readiness,  stand  piles  of  huge  iron  shot.  These 
ornaments  originally  decorated  one  of  the  city's  earliest  pleasure  resorts, 
Woodward's  Gardens. 

A  few  paces  back  from  the  cliff's  edge  stood  Adolph  Sutro's  home, 
built  in  the  late  iSyo's  and  condemned  and  demolished  in  1939.  Only 
evidence  today  that  a  mansion  once  was  here  is  a  small  stone  strong- 
room, fitted  with  a  heavy  iron  door  and  furnished  with  a  safe  bearing 
the  imprint,  "Adolph  Sutro." 

A  native  of  Germany  but  a  resident  of  California  since  1850,  Sutro 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      319 

had  achieved  wealth  and  prominence  as  a  mining  engineer.  Visiting 
the  property  for  the  first  time  in  the  early  i88o's,  accompanied  by  his 
small  daughter  Emma,  he  was  attracted  by  its  possibilities,  and  forth- 
with purchased  it  from  Samuel  Tetlow,  onetime  proprietor  of  the  Bella 
Union.  He  at  once  erected  a  new  home  on  the  site,  acquired  a  stable 
of  thoroughbred  horses,  imported  statuary  from  Europe,  and  collected 
rare  plants  from  many  parts  of  the  world.  In  the  following  years  he 
spent  more  than  $1,000,000  improving  the  estate,  which  at  one  time 
employed  fifteen  caretakers  and  three  gardeners,  in  addition  to  a  corps 
of  house  servants. 

The  Heights  quickly  became  a  fashionable  gathering  place,  and  its 
owner's  hospitality  a  thing  of  renown.  On  one  occasion  a  performance 
was  given  of  Shakespeare's  As  You  Like  It,  the  cast  of  which  includejd 
Ada  Rehan  and  John  Drew,  both  of  Augustin  Daly's  company.  It 
proved  eminently  successful,  although  the  footlights  were  only  Japanese 
lanterns;  the  stage,  one  of  the  lawns  in  front  of  the  mansion. 

An  uncommon  foresight  moved  Sutro  to  acquire  properties  adjoin- 
ing the  Heights,  and  his  estate  eventually  embraced  much  of  the  city 
which  now  skirts  the  sea-front.  With  Edward  B.  Pond,  then  mayor 
of  San  Francisco,  he  planned  the  magnificent  system  of  boulevards 
from  Thirty-third  Avenue  westward  to  the  ocean,  an  area  which 
included  the  sites  of  what  is  the  present  Lincoln  Park  and  the  Veterans' 
Facility,  the  Cliff  House,  and  Sutro  Heights.  Sutro's  public-spirited- 
ness  was  perpetuated  by  his  descendants.  "Open  house"  was  always 
maintained  at  Sutro  Heights;  a  sign  placed  near  the  entrance  gate  for 
many  years  invited  the  public  "to  walk,  ride,  and  drive  therein."  Sutro 
Heights  in  1898  came  into  the  possession  of  Sutro's  daughter,  Dr. 
Emma  Sutro  Merritt,  who  left  it  as  a  public  park  to  the  city  on  her 
death  in  1938. 

W '.  from  El  Camino  del  Mar  on  Point  Lobos  Ave.;  N.  from  PoinA 
Lobos  on  Merrie  Way  to  a  footpath;  W .  on  footpath 

225.  Easternmost  tip  of  San  Francisco  is  POINT  LOBOS,  called 
Punta  de  los  Lobos  Marines  (Point  of  the  Sea  Wolves)  by  the  Spanish 
because  of  its  proximity  to  the  sea  lions  on  Seal  Rocks.  Lieutenant 
Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala,  who  had  sailed  past  the  point  and  through  the 
Golden  Gate  in  the  San  Carlos  on  the  evening  of  August  5,  1775,  had 
charted  the  promontory  as  Angel  de  la  Guarde  (Guardian  Angel). 
Somewhere  on  the  heights  above,  on  December  4,  1774,  Captain  Fer- 
nando de  Rivera  y  Moncado  and  Father  Francisco  Palou,  with  four 
soldiers  from  their  exploring  party  climbed  a  summit  from  which  they 
saw  "a  great  bay  ...  its  waters  were  as  quiet  as  those  of  a  great  lake." 
On  a  rocky  headland,  "which  up  to  this  time  had  never  received  the 


32O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

footprint  of  Spaniard  or  Christian,"  they  set  up  a  cross,  supporting  it 
by  two  rocks. 

Seventy-nine  years  later  enterprising  Yankees  were  erecting  a  cross 
of  a  different  nature  on  Point  Lobos:  that  carrying  the  Pacific  Coast's 
first  telegraph  wires  to  the  Merchants'  Exchange  by  way  of  Telegraph 
Hill.  A  lookout  signalled  news  of  the  arrival  of  vessels  to  the  several- 
mile-distant  city. 


Retrace  to  Point  Lobos  Ave.;  W .  on  Point  Lobos,  which  becomes  Great 
Highway 

226.  The  sprawling  buildings  of  the  SUTRO  BATHS  AND  ICE 
RINK  (open  Mon.-Fri.  10  a.m.-n  p.m.;  Sat.,  Sun.,  holidays  g  a.m.- 
II  p.m.;  skating  35$  Sun.  afternoons  and  every  evening,  25$  other 
times;  skate  rental  i$$;  swimming  50^),  Point  Lobos  Ave.  near  Great 
Highway,  covering  three  acres  of  sloping  beach  in  the  lee  of  Point  Lobos, 
were  built  in  1896  by  Adolph  Sutro.  Long  advertised  as  the  world's 
largest  are  the  six  indoor  pools ;  of  both  fresh  and  salt  water,  these  vary 
in  size,  depth,  and  temperature.  Also  here  are  a  floodlighted  ice  rink 
and  an  outdoor  sand  plot  for  sunbathing.  It  is  said  that  25,000  per- 
sons have  visited  "Sutro's"  in  one  day.  Wide-tiered  galleries  and 
promenades — bordered  with  palms,  tropical  plants,  natural  history  speci- 
mens, and  gay-colored  tables  and  chairs — accommodate  7,000  spectators. 
One  of  the  resort's  numerous  decorative  palms  attained  such  proportions 
that  it  became  necessary  to  cut  a  hole  in  the  floor  above,  through  which 
the  tree  extends  to  the  ceiling  of  the  second  story. 

Seen  from  the  windows  of  the  resort  is  a  part  of  the  battered  hull 
of  the  American-Hawaiian  freighter  Ohioan,  which — reported  the 
Chronicle  on  October  8,  1936 — lost  its  bearing  "in  a  peasoup  fog  off 
the  Golden  Gate  .  .  .  [and]  with  42  officers  and  crew  ran  aground 
between  Point  Lobos  and  Seal  Rocks,  below  Sutro  Baths,  just  before 
midnight  last  night.  .  .  ."  The  Ohioan  s  i,5OO-ton  cargo  of  general 
merchandise  was  valued  at  $450,000;  the  ship  itself,  at  $350,000.  Most 
of  the  cargo  was  saved,  much  of  it  undamaged,  but  the  vessel  was 
lodged  so  firmly  on  the  rocks  that  it  could  not  be  refloated.  Much 
of  the  steel  in  the  hull  was  salvaged.  Hundreds  of  curious  visitors 
flocked  to  view  the  wrecked  steamer.  Two  years  later  they  again 
crowded  the  same  stretch  of  beach  to  stare  at  the  body  of  a  large  whale 
washed  up  near  the  Ohioan  during  a  severe  storm. 

The  carcass  of  a  i2O-ton  whale  had  been  deposited  near  by  several 
years  earlier.  The  Chronicle  facetiously  advertised  on  May  16,  1919: 
"Wanted — Somebody  to  remove  .  .  .  one  huge,  ancient  and  long-dead 
whale  .  .  .  before  .  .  .  Sunday."  Towed  to  sea,  the  mammal  had 
returned  with  the  tide.  Finally  it  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Said  the 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      321 

Chronicle:  "Mourners  stand  away  off  as  last  sad  requiem  sobbed  by 
winds." 

227.  The  CLIFF  HOUSE,  Point  Lobos  Ave.  at  Great  Highway, 
a  white  stuccoed  building  terraced  along  the  edge  of  the  cliff  south  of 
Sutro  Baths,  is  a  modern  restaurant,  bar,  and  gift  shop.  Both  the 
barroom  and  the  Sequoia  Room — a  cocktail  lounge — are  finished  in  red- 
wood, from  smooth  walls  to  rustic  beamed  ceilings,  and  both  house 
huge  brick  fireplaces  in  which  open  fires  glow  on  chill  days.  From  the 
lounge  and  the  blue  and  white  dining  room  in  the  rear  of  the  building 
guests  seated  at  the  great  plate  glass  windows  on  clear  days  look  beyond 
Seal  Rocks  for  miles  across  the  Pacific. 

The  present  Cliff  House  is  the  third  to  occupy  the  site.  (Contrary 
to  popular  opinion,  the  first  Cliff  House  was  not  built  by  Samuel  Bran- 
nan  of  lumber  salvaged  from  a  wrecked  ship.  A  roadhouse  called 
Oceanside  House  was  built  elsewhere  by  Bela  Brooks  of  the  salvaged 
materials.)  The  first  was  built  in  1863;  its  first  tenants  were,  accord- 
ing to  the  Morning  Call  of  February  26,  1894,  "a  couple  of  French- 
men, whose  names  and  memories  are  lost  in  obscurity."  Traffic  to  the 
cafe  in  the  i86o's  was  by  way  of  the  Point  Lobos  Toll  Road,  built  by 
James  Phelan,  William  Herrick,  John  Buckley,  and  Salem  Burdell. 
A  horse-drawn  omnibus  made  the  trip  from  Portsmouth  Square  to  the 
beach;  the  fare  was  50^.  The  road  followed  Point  Lobos  Avenue 
(most  of  which  has  been  renamed  Geary  Boulevard).  Second  tenant 
was  retired  seaman  Captain  J.  R.  Foster,  who  leased  and  managed 
the  Cliff  House  for  nearly  two  decades.  Foster's  resort  was  at  first 
highly  successful,  for  "it  was  for  many  years  the  only  recreation  point 
the  inhabitants  of  our  then  sparsely  settled  city  had  when  they  wished 
to  take  the  fresh  air.  Previous  to  the  building  of  this  palace  a  Vide 
to  the  Mission'  was  the  only  luxury  of  the  kind  indulged  in  and  this 
was  performed  on  horseback  over  the  sandhills.  .  .  ."  When  the  Cliff 
House  became  less  fashionable  and  less  attended,  Foster  made  it  a 
rendezvous  of  politicians  and  (continued  the  Call)  "of  the  hetairie  of 
San  Francisco.  The  plazas  used  to  be  thronged  with  these  gaily  dressed 
nymphs,  the  rooms  resounded  with  their  carousals,  and  Captain  Foster 
.  .  .  winked  the  other  eye  when  he  directed  the  attention  of  a  surprised 
visitor  to  the  beauty  of  the  ocean  view.  .  .  ." 

When  Adolph  Sutro  purchased  the  property  about  1879  it  was 
known  as  the  Cliff  House  ranch.  Said  Sutro:  "I  believe  there  was  a 
dilapidated  little  farm  house  down  on  the  beach."  On  the  same  beach 
in  earlier  years  had  been  Seal  Rock  House  (also  confused  by  some  his- 
torians with  the  Cliff  House) — aa  curious  architectural  conglomera- 
tion" formed  by  frequent  additions  to  an  original  "nondescript  build- 
ing"— said  to  have  been  managed  by  Captain  Foster. 

The  Cliff  House's  first  mishap  occurred  in  January,   1887,  when 


322      SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  schooner  Parallel,  with  her  cargo  of  80,000  pounds  of  dynamite, 
was  driven  into  the  bluff  below;  abandoned  by  captain  and  crew,  the 
vessel  was  pounded  against  the  rocks  until  the  dynamite  exploded  and 
seriously  damaged  the  building's  foundations.  On  Christmas,  1894, 
the  Cliff  House  burned  to  the  ground.  Reported  the  Call:  "The  fire 
was  a  hidden  one  between  ceiling  and  walls  .  .  .  started  from  a  de- 
fective flue.  .  .  .  Toward  midnight  hacks  began  to  arrive  from  the 
city  with  those  curious  to  view  the  destruction  of  one  of  the  most 
noted  resorts  in  the  world.  .  .  .  Jets  of  flame  followed  it  until  the 
bold  brow  of  the  cliff  shone  out  ...  It  lit  up  the  white  forms  of  the 
plaster  gods  and  goddesses  on  the  parapet,  and  revealed  the  low  house 
of  the  master  and  the  ghastly  figures  under  the  trees  [of  Sutro's 
Heights].  .  .  .  The  hoarse  bellowing  of  the  frightened  seals  as  they 
fled  from  the  rocks  to  the  depths  was  heard.  .  .  .  The  corpulent  king 
of  the  herd,  Benjamin  Harrison  Cleveland,  who  succeeded  Ben  Butler, 
was  first  to  seek  refuge  from  the  falling  embers.  .  .  ." 

Adolph  Sutro  erected  the  second  Cliff  House  two  years  later — a 
picturesque  structure  in  the  design  of  a  chateau  with  spiralling  towers. 
The  dedication  of  what  jokingly  was  called  "Sutro's  gingerbread  palace" 
occasioned  great  celebration.  With  this  auspicious  start  began  another 
era  of  popularity  for  the  resort.  It  was  a  favorite  of  James  Flood, 
James  Fair,  John  Mackay,  and  Claus  Spreckels;  played  host  to  Presi- 
dents Hayes,  Grant,  McKinley,  Roosevelt,  and  Taf t ;  and  was  a  rendez- 
vous of  such  theatrical  and  literary  lights  as  Sarah  Bernhardt,  Adelina 
Patti,  Mark  Twain,  and  Bret  Harte.  In  1901,  E.  D.  Beylard  of  Bur- 
lingame  (wrote  Oscar  Lewis  and  Carrol  Hall)  "inaugurated  a  tally-ho 
service  for  the  benefit  of  the  Palace  [Hotel]  guests.  Beylard  borrowed 
his  idea  from  the  East,  where  .  .  .  smart  hotels  were  offering  daily 
rides  on  the  tops  of  coaches  driven  by  young  men  of  social  importance. 
The  Beylard  tally-ho  .  .  .  each  afternoon  .  .  .  proceeded,  via  Golden 
Gate  Park,  to  the  Cliff  House;  there  the  four  horses  were  changed  and 
the  return  trip  was  made  by  a  different  route.  Twelve  passengers  were 
carried  and  the  charge  was  two  dollars  per  person." 

The  Cliff  House  withstood  the  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906,  only  to 
be  destroyed  by  fire  the  following  year.  Immediately  rebuilt  by  Sutro, 
its  popularity  continued  until  Prohibition.  One  attempt  to  operate  it 
on  a  temperance  basis  was  unsuccessful.  In  1937  the  abandoned  Cliff 
House  was  purchased  by  concessionaires  George  K.  and  Leo  C.  Whitney, 
who  modernized  and  reopened  the  famous  old  cafe.  Their  gift  shop 
adjoining  the  building  is  said  to  be  the  largest  curio  shop  in  the  world. 

228.  Legal  residents  of  the  city  and  wards  of  the  Park  Commission 
since  1887,  when  their  hauling  ground  was  deeded  by  Congress  to  the 
City  and  County  of  San  Francisco,  are  the  sea  lions  on  SEAL  ROCKS, 
400  feet  offshore  below  the  Cliff  House.  Known  as  Steller  sea  lions, 


The  City's  Sights 


FERRY  BUILDING  AND  BOATS 


SHIPS  AT  DOCK 


I  E 


F  FT 


HIGHWAY  AND  OCEAN  BEACH 


PANAMA  PACIFIC  INTERNATIONAL  EXPOSITION  (1915) 


SUTRO  HEIGHTS 


AQUATIC  PARK 


M.  H.  DE  YOUNG  MEMORIAL  MUSEUM,  GOLDEN  GATE  PARK 


J  t 


MISSION  DOLORES 


CARPENTERS'  GOTHIC 


*^1 

! 


BAY  WINDOWS  CATCH  THE  SUN 


•H  ••• 

II 


THE  PRIDE  OF  ANTIQUARIANS 
(ENGINE  COMPANY  NO.  15-2150  California  Street) 


U.S.S.  CALIFORNIA  IN  DRYDOCK  AT  HUNTER'S  POINT 


SEA  ISLAND  SUGAR  REFINERY 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      323 

they  are  closely  related  to  the  fur  seal;  both  are  of  the  eared  seal 
family.  Unlike  the  more  modest  leopard  (or  harbor)  seal,  also  found 
along  the  California  coast,  they  are  polygamous,  gregarious,  and  noisy — 
filling  the  air  with  their  raucous  roaring  and  barking.  These  Seal 
Rock  lions  breed  during  the  latter  half  of  June  (the  cow  produces  only 
one  pup  in  a  season)  at  their  rookery  on  Ano  Nuevo  Island,  about  25 
miles  south.  Once  slaughtered  almost  to  extinction — both  by  fisher- 
men, who  believed  that  the  animals  interfered  with  their  nets  and 
depleted  the  fish  supply,  and  by  hunters,  for  their  oil  and  hides — they 
are  protected  today  by  State  and  Federal  laws.  Hardly  had  they  re- 
covered from  their  alarm  at  the  burning  of  the  Cliff  House  in  1894 
when  the  earthquake  of  1906  provided  a  more  serious  disturbance — 
one  so  great  that  they  retreated  to  the  Farallones  and  did  not  return 
for  several  years. 

Crowds  have  gathered  on  occasions  to  watch  swimming  races  around 
the  Seal  Rocks.  More  thrilling  were  performances  by  tightrope  walkers 
James  Cooke  and  Rose  Celeste,  who  balanced  to  the  rocks  and  back  on 
different  occasions  in  the  i86o's.  A  suspension  bridge  to  the  rocks  con- 
structed later  was  abandoned  after  it  overturned  with  about  20  pedes- 
trians, injuring  several. 

229.  The  OCEAN  BEACH,  between  the  Cliff  House  and  Sloat 
Blvd.,  is  thronged  on  pleasant  days  with  picnickers,  surf  and  sun  bathers, 
equestrians,  and  sightseers.    The  pedestrian  esplanade  bordering  the  sea- 
wall affords  a  broad  view  of  the  Pacific.    A  vicious  undertow  is  created 
by  the  sudden  drop  beyond  the  edge  of  the  surf  and  annually  takes  its 
toll  of  the  unwary. 

230.  At  the  northern  end  of  the  Ocean  Beach  is  PLAYLAND  AT 
THE  BEACH,  an  amusement  area  consisting  of  22  various  "rides,"  a 
score  of  games  of  chance  and  "skill,"  shooting  galleries,   fun  houses, 
many  eating  places  (ranging  from  tiny  hamburger  stands  to  the  well- 
known  Topsy's  Roost,  a  fried  chicken  and  dance  establishment),  a  penny 
arcade,  and  other  concessions  familiar  to  modern  amusement  zones.     In 
1929  George  and  Leo  Whitney,  professional  concessionaires,  forced  to 
return  from  operating  Melbourne,  Australia's  Luna  Park  by  the  out- 
break of  the  World  War,  were  successful  in  taking  over  this  entire 
area  from  its  several  owners.    Born  in  Kansas  about  1 890,  the  Whitney 
brothers'  careers  began  early  with  their  perfection  of  a  "quick-finishing" 
photographic  process.     Their  first  small  photography  shop  was  so  suc- 
cessful that  they  began  operating  penny  arcades;   profits   from   these 
financed  their  concessions  at  the  Alaska- Yukon  Exposition  of  1909,  in 
Seattle,  Washington. 

One  and  one-half  million  dollars  raised  by  bond  issue  in  1927 
financed  the  two-year  construction  of  the  Great  Highway,  which  extends 
along  Ocean  Beach  from  the  Cliff  House  south  to  Sloat  Boulevard,  a 


324      SAN     FRANCISCO 

distance  of  nearly  three  miles.  Construction  of  the  4,2g8-foot-long 
Esplanade,  extending  from  the  highway's  northern  end  to  Lincoln  Way, 
had  begun  as  early  as  1916,  but  was  not  completed  until  the  new 
funds  were  acquired.  Several  methods  of  protecting  the  road  along 
the  ocean  had  failed  until  City  Engineer  Michael  O'Shaughnessy  de- 
signed the  present  tight  cut-off  wall  of  reinforced  concrete  interlocking 
sheet  piling,  which  extends  13  feet  below  extreme  low  tide.  Extending 
shoreward  from  the  parapet  wall,  the  Esplanade  consists  of  flanking 
2O-foot  sidewalks,  15  feet  of  lawn,  and  a  paved  highway  between  150 
and  200  feet  in  width.  For  a  stretch  of  3,000  feet,  opposite  Golden 
Gate  Park,  the  Great  Highway  is  the  widest  boulevard  in  the  United 
States.  Paralleling  the  road  between  Lincoln  Way  and  Sloat  Boule- 
vard is  a  bridle  path — a  link  in  the  continuous  pathway  from  the 
Presidio  to  Fleishhacker's  by  way  of  Golden  Gate  Park. 

Great  Highway  becomes  Skyline  Blvd. 

231.  Set  in  a  little  valley  encircled  by  wooded  hills  are  the  128 
landscaped  acres  of  FLEISHHACKER  PLAYFIELD  AND  ZOO- 
LOGICAL GARDENS,  foot  of  Great  Highway  at  Sloat  and  Skyline 
Blvds.  This  recreation  center  dates  from  1922,  when  the  city  acquired 
from  the  Spring  Valley  Water  Company  60  acres  on  which  to  construct 
a  playground  and  pool.  Only  37  acres  at  first  were  developed;  opened 
in  1924,  the  park  was  named  for  Herbert  Fleishhacker,  then  president 
of  the  Park  Commission,  who  had  donated  the  pool  and  the  Mothers' 
House. 

Said  to  be  the  world's  largest  outdoor  plunge  is  the  SWIMMING 
POOL  (open  daily  9-5;  suit,  towel,  and  locker  rental:  adults  25$,  chil- 
dren i$$;  20  life  guards}  ;  1,000  feet  long,  150  feet  wide,  with  a 
graduated  depth  of  from  3  to  14  feet,  several  thousand  persons  can 
swim  at  one  time  in  its  6,500,000  gallons  of  warmed  salt  water.  Con- 
sidered a  noteworthy  achievement  is  the  system  of  heating  the  sea 
water.  Nearby  under  windblown  cypresses  are  plots  for  sunbathing. 

The  PLAYFIELD  (open  daily  9-5;  free},  in  addition  to  an  un- 
usually large  variety  of  play  apparatus,  boasts  a  merry-go-round,  a 
miniature  railway,  and  donkey  rides  (small  fee}.  Larger  children  and 
adults  use  the  tennis  courts,  baseball  diamond,  and  sporting  greens. 
Facing  the  one-foot-deep  wading  pool  for  tots  is  the  MOTHERS'  HOUSE, 
a  low,  stuccoed,  tile-roofed  building  providing  a  resting  place  for 
mothers  and  children;  the  gift  of  Fleishhacker,  it  is  a  memorial  to  his 
mother.  Interior  murals  and  mosaics  are  the  work  of  WPA  artists. 

Adjoining  the  playground  is  the  Zoo  (open  daily  10-4:30;  free}. 
Begun  in  1929  with  a  few  lion  cubs  and  monkeys,  gradually  more  ani- 
mals were  acquired  (by  purchase  and  donation),  until  the  animal, 


RIM     OF     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      325 

bird,  and  reptile  population  reached  1,000.  Noted  is  the  fine  collection 
of  "cats,"  which  includes  lions,  tigers,  leopards,  lynxes,  and  panthers. 

In  1935  sixty-eight  acres  adjoining  the  zoo  were  purchased,  and 
here  WPA  labor  constructed  the  fine  ZOOLOGICAL  GARDENS  (Lewis 
Hobart,  architect),  modeled  after  Germany's  famous  Hagenbeck  Zoo. 
Here,  among  man-made  streams,  waterfalls,  islands,  cliffs,  and  caves, 
are  simulated  natural  habitats  of  many  animals — separated  (where  prac- 
tical) from  spectators  only  by  moats  and  designed  to  give  the  animals 
the  illusion  of  freedom.  The  concrete  of  the  bear  pits  resembles  natural 
rock.  The  aquatic  bird  building  stands  on  the  shores  of  a  specially  built 
lake;  the  "flight  cage"  is  220  feet  long,  with  rocky  refuges,  nesting 
places,  trees,  shrubs,  and  a  running  stream.  Also  in  the  gardens  are 
Monkey  Island;  the  pachyderm  house,  with  its  separate  enclosures  and 
private  swimming  pools;  lion  dens;  and  a  lake  built  for  beavers  and 
thoughtfully  supplied  with  "chewy"  logs.  The  gardens  are  (1940) 
only  80  per  cent  completed. 

Heated  local  controversy  attended  the  trial  of  Wally,  the  elephant, 
who  in  1936  attacked  and  killed  his  keeper.  Only  intensified  by 
Wally's  execution  by  court  order,  the  discussion  continued  for  several 
months. 

232.  Adjoining   Fleishhacker   Playfield   and   Zoo   on   the   south   is 
FORT  FUNSTON  (private).    Bordered  on  the  east  by  Skyline  Blvd., 
it  stretches  for  about  a  mile  and  a  half  along  the  coast.     Established  as 
a  military  reservation  during  the  Spanish- American  War    (1898),   it 
was  known  as  the  Laguna  Merced  Military  Reservation  until   1917, 
when  it  was  renamed  in  honor  of  Major-General  Frederick  Funston, 
commander  of  the  Army  troops  who  policed  San  Francisco  after  the 
1906  disaster.     During  the  1940  "war  games"  the  reservation  was  the 
scene  of  spectacular  practice  firing  in  which  machine  gun  tracer  bullets 
"repulsed"  a  night  landing  of  the  "enemy." 

233.  Historic  LAGUNA  DE   NUESTRA   SENORA  DE   LA 
MERCED   (Sp.,  Lake  of  Our  Lady  of  Mercy),  Lake  Merced  and 
Skyline  Blvds.,  is  about  five  acres  of  fresh  water  surrounded  by  sand 
dunes  and  golf  courses;  one  of  the  latter  divides  the  lake  into  north 
and  south  parts  by  a  narrow  neck  of  filled-in  land.     Wild   flowers 
grow  in  profusion  on  the  shores,  and  among  nearby  rolling  sand  hills 
vegetable  gardens  flourish.     The  city-owned  lake  was  abandoned  as  a 
source   of   water   supply   in   the    I93o's.      In    1939    it   was   leased    to 
Thomas  P.   Cusick,  whose  improvements  have  made  it  popular  with 
fishermen  and  devotees  of  skeet  shooting.     The  lake's  original  depth 
was  lowered  30  feet  on  the  night  of  November  22,  1852,  by  a  mysterious 
disturbance   surmised   to   be   a   temblor;   in    Spanish   colonial   days   the 
water  flowed  westward  through  a  narrow  channel  to  the  ocean. 

234.  Spreading  between  the  north  and  south  waters  of  Lake  Merced 


326      SAN     FRANCISCO 

is  HARDING  PARK  GOLF  COURSE  (greens  fee  7^  Mon.-Fri.; 
$1.50  Sat.,  Sun.f  holidays;  $3.00  monthly},  a  2OO-acre  tract  included  in 
property  purchased  by  the  city  from  the  Spring  Valley  Water  Company. 
The  i8-hole  course  is  operated  by  the  Park  Commission,  which  began 
to  improve  the  property  in  1922  and  opened  it  to  the  public  in  1924. 

235.  In  the  extreme  southwest  corner  of  the  city,  bisected  by  Sky- 
line Boulevard,  is  the  OLYMPIC  GOLF  CLUB  AT  LAKESIDE 
(private),  country  club  of  the  Olympic   Club.     Enclosed  within   its 
278  acres  purchased  in   1920  are  two   i8-hole  golf  courses  and  four 
tennis  courts,  although  athletics  here  are  subordinated  to  social  functions. 

Retrace  on  Skyline  Blvd.  to  Lake  Merced  Blvd.;  SE.  on  Lake  Merced 

236.  The  PACIFIC  ROD  AND  GUN  CLUB   (private),  near 
Lake  Merced  Blvd.  on  the  southwest  shore  of  Lake  Merced,  is  housed 
in  three  wooden  buildings  made  of  six  schoolhouses  purchased  from  the 
city.     Waters  of  the  south  lake  abound  in  black  bass,  blue  gills,  and 
other  fresh-water  fish ;  these  are  replenished  from  the  north  lake  breed- 
ing ground,  which  is  closed  to  fishing  and  boating. 

237.  In  a  little  hollow  surrounded  by  rolling  hills  and  vegetable 
gardens  is  the  SITE  OF  THE  BRODERICK-TERRY  DUEL,  Lake 
Merced  Blvd.  at  the  San  Francisco-San  Mateo  County  Line.     Two 
granite  shafts  mark  the  positions  of  the  contestants  in  the  encounter 
which  welded  California's  political  factions  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War. 
About  ten  yards  north  a  granite  memorial  bears  the  information  that 
"United  States  Senator  David  C.  Broderick  and  Judge  David  S.  Terry 
fought  a  duel  on  this  ground  in  the  early  morning  of  Tuesday,  Septem- 
ber  13,   1859.     Senator  Broderick  received  a  wound  from  which  he 
died  three  days  later.     The  affair  marked  the  end  of  dueling  in  Cali- 
fornia. .  .  ."     Terry,  Chief  Justice  of  the  California  Supreme  Court, 
had  accused  Senator  Broderick  of  defeating  his  candidacy  for  re-election. 
(Previously   Broderick   had   befriended   the   fiery   Southerner,   who   in 
1856   had   been   imprisoned   for   stabbing  an   officer   of   the   Vigilance 
Committee.)      On  learning  of  Terry's  arraignment  of  him  before  the 
1859  State  Convention  of  the  Democratic  Party,  the  "grand,  gloomy 
and  peculiar"  Broderick  remarked:     "I  have  said  that  I  considered  him 
the  only  honest  man  on  the  supreme  bench,  but  now  I  take  it  all  back." 
Informed  of  this  statement,  Judge  Terry  demanded  a  retraction;  and 
when  this  was  refused,  "the  satisfaction  usual  among  gentlemen.  .  .  ." 

Arriving  at  the  appointed  spot  with  their  respective  seconds  in  the 
raw  foggy  dawn,  each  contestant  was  provided  with  a  Lafoucheux  duel- 
ing pistol  (these  hair-trigger  weapons  had  been  chosen,  according  to 
custom,  by  the  challenger) .  With  his  back  to  the  rising  sun,  nervously 
fingering  his  weapon,  Broderick  fired  at  the  count  of  "one,"  his  bullet 


RIM     O,  F     THE     GOLDEN     GATE      327 

striking  the  ground  midway  between  him  and  his  adversary.  Terry, 
with  deliberate  aim,  shot  Broderick  through  the  right  breast.  Followed 
by  a  crowd  of  some  60  spectators,  a  carriage  bearing  the  fatally  wounded 
Senator  drove  the  ten  miles  to  Black  Point  where  he  died  in  the  home 
of  Leonidas  Haskell. 

238.  A  wooden  plaque  among  rolling  hills  marks  the  northernmost 
CAMP  SITE  OF  THE  RIVERA  Y  MONCADA  EXPEDITION, 
Lake  Merced  Blvd.  just  north  of  the  San  Francisco-San  Mateo  County 
Line;  here  at  eleven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  December  4,  1774,  head- 
quarters were  established  by  the  third  Spanish  party  sent  to  explore  San 
Francisco  Bay.  It  consisted  of  16  soldiers,  Father  Francisco  Palou,  and 
a  muleteer  (with  mules  laden  with  provisions  for  40  days),  under  the. 
command  of  Captain  Fernando  Rivera  y  Moncada.  An  hour  later 
Rivera,  Palou,  and  four  soldiers  proceeded  up  the  coast,  where  they 
planted  a  large  wooden  cross  on  Point  Lobos.  Returning  to  their  hill- 
side camp — which  then  overlooked  a  small  stream  running  into  Lake 
Merced — the  whole  party  followed  Portola's  old  route  back  to  Monte- 
rey without  having  chosen  a  site  for  the  projected  Mission  San  Fran- 
cisco de  Asis — the  selection  of  which  had  been  one  of  the  chief  purposes 
of  the  expedition. 

E.  from  Lake  Merced  Blvd.  on  an  unnamed  western  extension  of 
Stanley  St.  to  Junipero  Serra  Blvd.;  S.  on  Junipero  Serra 

239-  Organized  in  1895,  the  SAN  FRANCISCO  GOLF  CLUB, 
LTD.  (private;  greens  fee  $2),  Junipero  Serra  Blvd.  and  Palmetto 
Ave.,  occupies  an  i8-hole  course  of  184  acres  bordered  on  the  south  by 
the  city  and  county  limits.  Located  here  is  the  INGLESIDE  MEN'S  CLUB 
(private;  bar,  restaurant). 

Retrace  and  continue  N.  on  Junipero  Serra  Blvd. 

240.  The  INGLESIDE  PUBLIC  GOLF  COURSE,  INC. 
(greens  fee  75$  Mon.-Fri.;  $i  Sat.  until  n,  $1.25  11-4,  50$  after  4; 
$1.2$  Sun.  until  1:30,  $i  1:30-4),  Nineteenth  Ave.  and  Junipero  Serra 
Blvd.,  has  been  operated  privately  since  1926  on  140  acres  leased  from 
the  Spring  Valley  Water  Company.  The  San  Francisco  Golf  Club 
occupied  this  site  until  1919. 


NW.  from  Junipero  Serra  Blvd.  on  Nineteenth  Ave.;  W .  from  Nine- 
teenth on  Sloat  Blvd. 

241.  SIGMUND    STERN    MEMORIAL   GROVE    (barbecue 
pits;  picnic  tables;  sanitary  facilities),  Sloat  Blvd.  between  Nineteenth 


328      SAN     FRANCISCO 

and  Twenty-fifth  Aves.,  occupies  a  natural  amphitheater  100  feet  below 
street  level.  The  grass-carpeted  glade  is  sheltered  by  eucalyptus  trees 
planted  nearly  70  years  ago  by  homesteader  George  Greene,  a  New 
England  horticulturist  who  came  around  the  Horn  in  1847.  When  it 
became  known  in  the  early  1850*8  that  Congress  was  to  pass  an  act 
giving  title  of  this  property  to  those  holding  land  there,  Greene  and 
several  other  homesteaders  erected  a  fort,  and  for  weeks  guarded  their 
property  day  and  night  against  encroachers.  In  1892  Greene  estab- 
lished the  Trocadero  Inn ;  boasting  an  open-air  dance  pavilion  and  trout 
lake,  it  was  until  1916  a  popular  resort.  The  inn  was  used  in  1907 
as  a  hideout  by  ousted  political  boss  Abe  Ruef,  and  it  was  here  that 
he  was  captured. 

Mrs.  Sigmund  Stern  purchased  about  12  acres  of  the  land  and 
presented  it  to  the  city  in  1931  as  a  memorial  to  her  husband,  with  the 
provision  that  it  be  used  only  for  recreational  and  cultural  purposes. 
Enlarged  later  by  the  purchase  of  additional  acreage  by  the  Recreation 
Commission,  and  again  in  1937  when  another  gift  of  Mrs.  Stern  made 
possible  the  acquisition  of  still  more  land,  the  park  today  covers  more 
than  33  acres.  The  remodeled  Trocadero  Inn  is  a  clubhouse  available 
to  organized  groups  for  social  and  recreational  usage  (reservation  must 
be  made  at  the  San  Francisco  Recreation  Commission  office,  Room  3JOf 
City  Hall}. 


Golden  Gate  Park 


"I'd  go  out  into  the  country  and  walk  along  a  stream  until  1 
came  to  a  bonnie  brook.  Then  I'd  come  back  to  the  park  and 
I'd  reproduce  what  Nature  had  done." 

— JOHN   MCLAREN 


FEW  demonstrations  of  man's  mastery  over  nature  have  been  more 
convincing  than  the  creation  of  Golden  Gate  Park:  that  long 
stretch  of  evergreen  outdoors — nine  city  blocks  wide  and  four 
and  a  half  miles  long — cutting  a  swath  from  the  heart  of  the  city  to 
the  ocean's  shore.  Its  grassy  meadows  and  limpid  lakes,  its  forested 
hills  that  alternate  in  the  apparent  confusion  of  a  natural  wilderness, 
interlaced  with  winding  roadways,  bridle  paths,  and  foot  trails — all 
are  man's  handiwork.  When  the  city  set  out  to  create  a  park  here 
in  1870,  these  1,017  acres  were  a  windswept  desert.  "Of  all  the 
elephants  the  city  of  San  Francisco  ever  owned,"  said  the  Santa  Rosa 
Democrat  in  1873,  "they  now  have  the  largest  and  heaviest  in  the  shape 
of  'Golden  Gate  Park,'  a  dreary  waste  of  shifting  sand  hills  where  a 
blade  of  grass  cannot  be  raised  without  four  posts  to  support  it  and 
keep  it  from  blowing  away."  A  scant  70  years  later  that  "dreary 
waste"  is  a  sylvan  retreat  in  the  midst  of  the  city,  where  herds  of  sheep 
graze  placidly  along  rolling  pastures,  darting  squirrels,  scurrying  rab- 
bits, and  chattering  blackbirds  fill  the  air  with  forest  sounds,  and 
haughty  peacocks  flaunt  their  plumage  across  velvet  lawns.  Thousands 
eat  Sunday  and  holiday  lunches  on  the  shady  slopes  soft  with  leaf  mold 
and  sprawl  in  the  sun  on  the  wide  lawns.  The  oldsters,  conservatively 
dressed,  listen  to  the  afternoon  band  concerts,  visit  the  museums,  or 
gather  around  the  checker  boards  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  park.  The 
youngsters,  clad  in  bright-colored  sports  clothes,  play  tennis,  ride  bicycles, 
crowd  the  children's  playground,  or  tumble  after  footballs. 

Today  as  one  walks  among  the  innumerable  flower  beds  and  gardens, 
past  lakes,  brooks,  and  waterfalls,  over  rolling  hills  and  pastoral 
meadows,  he  can  hardly  believe  this  magnificent  evergreen  playground 
entirely  artificial.  Buffalo,  deer,  and  elk  roam  in  paddocks  landscaped 
to  give  an  impression  of  fencelessness.  So  numerous  are  foxes  and  other 
small  predatory  animals  that  a  hunter  is.  required  the  year  round  to 
prevent  destruction  of  other  animal  life.  The  dozen  lakes  of  the  park 
afford  feeding  and  resting  places  for  thousands  of  waterfowl. 

Within  the  park's  confines  grow  more  than  5,000  kinds  of  plants. 
One  may  wander  through  groves  of  eucalyptus  and  conifers,  through 

329 


33O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

wild,  brush-filled  canyons  or  shaded  glens  luxuriant  with  ferns  and 
blackberries,  across  hillsides  riotous  under  a  blanket  of  yellow  chrysan- 
themums, violet  wild  radishes,  brilliant  orange  poppies,  snapdragons, 
and  purple  cestrum.  One  may  find  yellow  daisies  from  South  Africa 
or  silverleafed  ones  from  Teneriffe,  fuchsias  from  Mexico  and  Peru, 
abelias  from  Mexico  and  the  Himalayas,  brooms  from  the  Canaries  and 
South  Africa,  cypress  from  Kashmir.  Here  grow  the  exotic  crimson 
Waratah  from  New  South  Wales,  blooming  in  the  United  States  for 
the  first  time,  and  centuryplants,  staggered  in  development  so  that  at 
least  one  plant  blooms  every  three  years.  The  109  varieties  of  eucalypti 
include  the  rare  alpina  from  Australia,  which  rarely  attains  more  than 
12  feet  in  height.  The  acacias,  as  varied  as  the  eucalypti,  include  a 
rare  pink  variety.  More  than  100  species  of  conifers  are  represented, 
including  the  Monterey  pine  and  Monterey  cypress,  the  Torrey  pine, 
and  the  New  Zealand  kauri-pine.  The  native  live  oak  is  also  prominent, 
as  is  the  Quercus  ilex  from  Italy.  The  principal  shrubs  are  of  the 
genus  Veronica  from  New  Zealand  and  the  genus  Escalonia  from 
Chile.  Of  rhododendrons,  which  grow  in  unnumbered  thousands 
throughout  Golden  Gate  Park,  there  are  more  than  300  varieties — 
some  from  Thibet,  India,  Japan,  Java,  Portugal,  Siberia,  and  Yunnan — 
and  from  300  to  400  hybrids,  many  of  which  have  been  developed 
locally;  the  display  is  unrivaled  except  in  Kew  Gardens,  which  boasts 
more  varieties  but  fewer  specimens. 

When  public  demand  for  a  large  recreation  ground  in  San  Fran- 
cisco began  to  arise  in  the  early  i86o's,  claimants  to  the  area  of  the 
present  park  were  asked  to  give  up  some  of  their  land  in  exchange  for 
an  absolute  title  to  the  land  which  they  retained.  During  the  ensuing 
long  battle  over  land  titles  in  the  courts  and  the  legislature,  Mayor 
Frank  McCoppin,  twice  led  delegations  to  the  State  Capitol  to  demand 
that  the  area  be  saved  for  a  park.  Finally,  in  1868,  $801,593  were 
paid  for  the  desired  1,017  acres.  In  1870  Governor  Henry  H.  Haight 
appointed  the  first  San  Francisco  Park  Commission.  The  following 
year,  when  he  had  completed  a  preliminary  survey  of  the  proposed 
Golden  Gate  Park,  William  Hammond  Hall  was  appointed  Park 
Superintendent  and  authorized  to  proceed  with  the  development. 

To  most  people,  the  project  of  growing  trees  and  grass  on  shifting 
sand  was  a  foolish  dream — and  for  years  it  appeared  they  were  not  mis- 
taken. When  in  1887  a  new  superintendent  was  appointed — a  sandy- 
haired  young  Scottish  landscape  gardener,  John  McLaren — cultivation 
had  been  confined  largely  to  the  eastern  end  of  the  park.  The  Park 
Commission  told  McLaren:  "We  want  you  to  make  Golden  Gate 
Park  one  of,  the  beauty  spots  of  the  world.  Can  you  do  it?"  He 
answered:  "With  your  aid,  gentlemen,  and  God  be  willing,  that  I 
shall  do."  And  he  kept  his  word. 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      331 

With  the  treescape  of  the  eastern  part  well  established,  the  great 
task  of  improving  the  park  proper  remained.  The  two  chief  problems 
were  to  discover  an  economical  and  consistent  source  of  fresh  water  and 
to  fix  in  position  the  constantly  moving  sand  dunes.  The  first  was 
solved  when  subterranean  streams  were  tapped  south  of  Strawberry  Hill. 
The  second  demanded  infinite  patience  in  experiment. 

When  native  lupine  and  barley  were  found  to  be  unable  to  hold  the 
sand,  McLaren  resorted  to  the  Ammophila  arenaria,  "sand-loving  sand 
grass,"  a  beach  grass  common  to  the  coast  of  Northern  Europe.  Send- 
ing out  a  mass  of  roots  well  below  the  surface,  this  grass  continues  to 
grow  as  fast  as  the  wind  covers  it  over,  refusing  to  be  buried,  until 
the  dune  has  reached  such  a  height  that  the  wind  velocity  will  no  longer 
carry  sand  to  the  top.  Second  plant  to  be  utilized  in  fixing  the  con- 
tours of  the  sand  was  the  Australian  tea-tree,  a  soil-holding  shrub  closely 
related  to  eucalyptus;  third  was  the  Australian  acacia,  a  leguminous 
shrub,  a  soil-builder  as  well  as  holder.  The  few  blue  gums  planted 
by  settlers  in  the  early  iSso's  and  a  few  native  live  oaks  were  aug- 
mented by  systematic  planting  of  additional  blue  gums  (eucalypti), 
manzanita,  madrone,  and  laurel.  Principal  grasses  to  follow  were  Ken- 
tucky bluegrass,  Australian  ryegrass,  fescue,  and  Poa  annua. 

The  first  years  were  hard  for  "Uncle  John"  McLaren.  Time  after 
time  he  awakened  to  find  thousands  of  young  trees  covered  with  sand. 
Patiently  he  dug  them  out  and  nursed  them  back  to  life.  Needing 
fertilizer,  he  asked  for,  and  was  given,  the  sweepings  from  the  city 
streets.  (When  the  automobile  drove  the  horses  from  the  streets, 
"Uncle  John"  was  annoyed.)  Allowed  by  tacit  agreement  with  city 
officials  to  do  his  own  hiring  and  firing,  McLaren  refused  consistently 
to  employ  relatives  or  friends  of  the  men  in  power.  Neither  would  he 
tolerate  interference  in  his  plans.  When  he  discovered  the  three  young 
oaks  planted  in  the  parking  area  before  the  Park  Police  Station  being 
dragged  away  with  a  steam  roller,  he  replaced  the  trees.  Later  that 
day,  when  he  found  the  oaks  gone  again  and  workmen  paving  the  park- 
ing space,  "Uncle  John"  had  his  own  men  shovel  out  the  cement  as 
fast  as  it  was  poured  in.  The  Board  of  Public  Works  gave  up  its 
attempt  to  pave  the  area,  and  today  three  sturdy  oaks  hide  the  police 
station  as  McLaren  had  intended  they  should. 

An  attempt  to  retire  McLaren  when  he  reached  60  occasioned  a 
minor  uprising  by  the  people  of  San  Francisco;  "Uncle  John"  stayed 
on.  When  he  was  70  the  people  again  came  to  his  defense.  In  1922 
the  Board  of  Supervisors  adopted  a  resolution  that  not  only  exempted 
him  from  enforced  retirement  but  raised  his  wages.  On  December  20, 
1939  he  celebrated  his  93rd  birthday — still  superintendent  of  the  park 
and  still  active  in  its  development. 

Despite  its  semi-miraculous  development,   Golden  Gate  Park  was 


332       SAN     FRANCISCO 

not  easily  to  supplant  Woodward's  Gardens  in  the  affection  of  the 
public.  Woodward's  in  early  years  had  been  the  established  mecca  for 
lovers  of  outdoor  amusement.  However,  an  elaborate  children's  play- 
ground (1886)  and  free  municipal  Sunday  concerts  in  the  "shell"  built 
in  the  huge  open-air  tree-flanked  Music  Concourse  added  to  the  park's 
popularity.  With  the  celebration  of  San  Francisco's  Midwinter  Fair 
within  its  borders  in  1894,  Golden  Gate  Park  came  permanently  into 
its  own.  Some  of  the  special  features  of  the  Chicago  World's  Fair, 
including  John  Philip  Sousa's  band  and  Fritz  Scheel's  Vienna  Orches- 
tra, gave  repeat  performances  at  the  Midwinter  Fair.  Thousands 
visited  the  conservatory  to  see  the  world's  largest  flower,  a  pond  lily 
that  came  to  be  known  as  the  Victoria  regina.  The  famous  Japanese 
Tea  Garden,  built  for  the  fair,  was  so  popular  that  it  never  was  torn 
down. 

Throughout  the  resplendent  "gay  nineties,"  the  park  became  the 
rendezvous  for  the  "horse-and-buggy"  social  set.  Each  Sunday  they 
came  dressed  in  the  latest  fashion.  Some  rode  dog  carts,  some  bicycles — 
built  for  one,  two,  three,  or  four — but  most  drove  carriages.  Trum- 
peting importantly  for  right  of  way,  the  tally-ho,  with  its  complement 
of  gaily  caparisoned  riders,  cut  across  bicycles  and  dog-carts  alike. 
Carriage  occupants  bowed  politely  to  acquaintances,  the  men  lifting  their 
shining  silk  toppers.  Less  dignified  were  the  bicyclists,  one  of  whom 
inspired  a  columnist's  rude  comment,  "ocean  breezes  reveal  that — she 
pads."  Tandem  bicycles  were  eclipsed  by  four-passenger  "bikes,"  seat- 
ing two  pairs  of  young  men  and  women  astride.  A  female  "scorcher" 
arrested  for  speeding  at  the  reckless  rate  of  "ten  miles  an  hour,"  also 
had  committed  the  heinous  crime  of  wearing  the  "new-fangled  Bloom- 
ers." When  the  noisy  horseless  carriage  first  appeared,  those  seeking 
to  heighten  their  social  prestige  by  appearing  in  the  park  in  these  gasoline 
or  electric  "buggies"  were  chagrined  when  Golden  Gate  Park  remained 
proscribed  territory  for  vehicles  mechanically  self-propelled  (the  rule 
was  enforced  for  several  years). 

Still  observed  is  McLaren's  early  refusal  to  allow  "Keep  Off  the 
Grass"  signs.  As  in  the  days  after  the  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906, 
when  the  park  provided  haven  for  countless  refugees,  whole  families 
still  seek  relief  on  its  green  swards  whenever  the  city  is  engulfed  by 
one  of  its  rare  heat  waves.  Indicative  of  the  importance  of  the  park 
in  the  life  of  San  Franciscans  today  are  such  signs  in  local  streetcars 
as:  "The  Rhododendrons  are  blooming  in  Golden  Gate  Park" — signs 
heeded  by  thousands. 

And  meanwhile,  as  the  never-ending  stream  of  visitors  continues, 
the  park  grows  in  beauty.  What  today  is  a  dry  canyon  tomorrow  may 
be  a  sparkling  brook.  For  the  past  few  years  the  WPA,  under  the 
guidance  of  "Uncle  John,"  has  been  helping  him  shape  the  park  as  he 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      333 

wants  it.  Today  he  is  most  proud  of  his  redwood  forest,  which  he 
started  growing  from  seeds  when  he  was  80.  People  laughed.  But 
today  the  trees  are  30  feet  high.  In  his  half  century  as  the  park's 
creator,  "Uncle  John"  has  planted  a  million  trees.  Now  he  is  planting 
his  second  million  and  watching  them  grow. 


PARK  INFORMATION 

Information  Service:  Information  and  maps  at  Park  Lodge,  near  Stanyan  and 
Fell  Sts. 

Streetcars  and  Buses:  Municipal  Ry.  cars  B,  C,  K,  L,  and  N  connect  with 
Municipal  bus  Route  #i  which  crosses  park;  fare  5$.  Market  Street  Ry.  cars 
4>  5>  7i  *7>  2°>  and  2I  pass  northern,  southern,  and  eastern  entrances;  fare  7$. 

Traffic  Regulations:  Seventeen  miles  of  auto  roads.  No  trucks,  drays,  and 
delivery  vehicles  except  on  transverse  drives,  Ninth  Ave.  and  Twenty-Fourth 
Ave.  Speed  limit  15  m.p.h.  Parking  allowed  anywhere,  except  where  for- 
bidden by  signs,  provided  general  traffic  is  not  disturbed  (special  parking  area, 
South  Drive  near  Kezar  Stadium).  No  double  parking. 

Accommodations:  Drinking  fountains  and  comfort  stations  throughout  park. 
Meals  and  beverages  at  Beach  Chalet;  lunch,  tea,  and  tray  service  for  pic- 
nickers at  Children's  Quarters;  tea  and  rice  cakes  at  Japanese  Tea  Garden. 
Picnicking  allowed  on  all  lawns;  barbecue  pits  near  Horseshoe  Courts;  tables 
near  Children's  Playground,  Pioneer  Log  Cabin,  and  in  George  Washington 
Bicentennial  Grove.  Emergency  Hospital  (always  open)  near  Stanyan  and 
Frederick  Sts. 

Art  Collections  and  Museums:  M.  H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum;  lectures 
on  permanent  collection  Sun.  2-4;  puppet  plays  for  children  alternate  Sat. 
10-12;  children's  puppet  classes,  Sat.  10-12,  1-3.  North  American  Hall.  Sim- 
son  African  Hall.  Steinhart  Aquarium. 

Band  Concerts:     Music   Concourse,    Sun.   and   holidays   2-4:30. 

Archery:  Local,  regional,  and  National  tournaments  in  Golden  Gate  Park 
Stadium;  participants  provide  own  equipment  (storage  facilities  for  targets). 

Baseball:  9  diamonds  between  5th  and  7th  Aves.,  near  Lincoln  Way;  addi- 
tional grounds  in  Recreation  Field  and  near  Golden  Gate  Park  Stadium. 

Basketball:     Pavilion  in  front  of  Kezar  Stadium. 

Bowling:  3  greens  for  men  and  women  accommodating  64  players  each  (open 
only  to  members  of  San  Francisco  Men's  Bowling  Club  or  Women's  Golden 
Gate  Bowling  Club). 

Card  Games,  Chess,  Checkers:  Ghirardelli  Pavilion  near  Haight  and  Stanyan 
Sts.;  tables  accommodate  200  players. 

Cycling:  Bicycles  rented  outside  park  on  Stanyan  St.,  at  south  end  of  Ocean 
Beach  amusement  area,  and  on  Balboa  St.  near  4th  and  5th  Aves. 


334      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Fly  Casting:  Pools  south  of  Main  Drive  between  Golden  Gate  Park  Stadium 
and  Middle  Lake.  Tournaments  October-June. 

Football:  Recreation  Field.  Golden  Gate  Park  Stadium.  Intercollegiate  and 
high  school  games,  Kezar  Stadium. 

Handball:     4  courts  adjoining  baseball  fields  near  7th  Ave. ;  spectators'  gallery. 

Horseshoe  Pitching:  16  courts  (barbecue  pits,  tables  and  chairs,  and  small 
clubhouse)  on  North  Ridge  Dr. 

Miniature  Yachting:  Spreckels  Lake  (clubhouse  maintained  by  San  Francisco 
Model  Yacht  Club,  with  work  benches  where  members  may  build  boats). 
Regattas  Sun.  and  holiday  afternoons. 

Polo:     Golden   Gate   Park   Stadium;    see   newspapers   for   dates. 

Riding:  25  miles  of  bridle  paths.  Hurdles  for  leaping  in  Equitation  Field 
near  4ist  Ave.  and  Lincoln  Way.  Mounts  not  available  in  park. 

Tennis:  21  courts  near  Children's  Playground,  fee  25^  per  hour  per  court 
Sat.,  Sun.,  holidays;  free  other  days;  8  courts  in  Recreation  Field  (players 
provide  own  nets). 

Volley  Ball:     Court  near   Children's   Playground. 

CALENDAR  OF  PARK  EVENTS 

(Note:  "nfd"  means  no  fixed  date) 
Jan.   i  Kezar  Stadium          East- West  Football  Game 

Mar.  nfd  Spreckels  Lake          Miniature  Yacht  Regatta 

or  Apr.  nfd      Children's  Play-       Easter  Egg  Hunt 

ground 

Mar.-May  Golden  Gate  Park    Track  meets  and  tournaments 

Stadium 

Apr.  Sun  nearest  8  Japanese  Tea  Gar-  Festival  of  birthday  of  Buddha 
den 

May  I  Children's  Play-       May  Day  celebration 

ground 

Sept.  nfd  Kezar  Stadium          University    of    San    Francisco- 

St.  Mary's  Football  Game 

Oct.  nfd  Kezar  Stadium          St.    Mary's-Santa    Clara   Foot- 

ball Game 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      335 

Nov.  Thanksgiv-       Kezar  Stadium          Polytechnic   and    Lowell    High 
ing  Day  Schools  Football  Game 

Dec.  nfd  Lindley  Meadow      During  holiday  season  the 

Three  Wise  Men  are  enacted 
by  attendants  who  tend  their 
flocks  dressed  as  ancient  shep- 
herds 

20  John    McLaren's    children's 

Christmas  party  and  Christ- 
mas tree  lighting 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

242.  At  the  entrance  to  the  block-wide  Panhandle,  the  cypress-  arid 
eucalyptus-shaded  strip  extending  eight  blocks  eastward  from  the  main 
area  of  the  park,  stands  the  McKINLEY  MONUMENT   (Robert 
Ingersoll  Aitken,  sculptor),  Baker  St.  between  Fell  and  Oak  Sts.,  a 
bronze  heroic  female  figure,  emblematic  of  the  Republic,  towering  35 
feet  above  a  granite  base.     President  Theodore  Roosevelt  broke  ground 
for  the  memorial  May  13,  1903. 

W '.  from  Panhandle  park  entrance  on  Main  Dr. 

243.  The  sandstone,  tile-roofed  PARK  LODGE,  N.  of  Main  Dr. 
near  Panhandle  park  entrance,  stands  on  a  slight  elevation  surrounded 
by  wide  lawns.     Although  only  a  few  steps  from  hurrying  city  traffic, 
the  lodge  has  the  quiet  appearance  of  a  country  estate.     Built  in  1896 
at  a  cost  of  $25,000,  it  is  occupied  jointly  by  Park  Administration  offices 
and  the  household  of   Park  Superintendent  "Uncle"  John   McLaren. 
A  huge  Monterey  cypress  in  front  of  the  lodge  is  known  as  "Uncle 
John's  Christmas  Tree." 

244.  The  FUCHSIA  GARDEN  extends  S.   of   Main   Dr.   near 
the  Panhandle  entrance,  between  a  double  row  of  tall  cypresses.     The 
collection  includes  fuchsias  of  a  great  variety  of  sizes  and  colors. 

N.  from  Main  Dr.  on  North  Ridge  Dr. 

245.  Steps  made  of  old  basalt  paving  blocks  lead  from  North  Ridge 
Dr.  to  the  HORSESHOE  COURTS,  surrounded  by  trees  and  a  stone 
retaining  wall.    The  sixteen  playing  courts  and  the  grounds  were  recon- 
structed in  1934  by  the  State  Relief  Administration.     On  the  cliffs  to 
east  and  south  are  giant  bas-reliefs  of  a  running  horse  and  a  man  tossing 
a  horseshoe,  carved  by  "Vet"  Anderson  of  the  Horseshoe  Club. 


336      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Retrace  on  North  Ridge  Dr.;  W .  from  North  Ridge  Dr.  on  Main  Dr. 

246.  On  a  wide  green  against  a  background  of  oak  and  acacia 
stands  the  HALLECK  MONUMENT,  S.  of  Main  Dr,  a  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  Major-General  Henry  W.  Halleck,  General-in-chief  of 


ff        mor 


the  Union  Armies  in  1862-64,  "from  his  'best  friend'."  It  was  erected 
in  1886  by  Major-General  George  W.  Cullum.  The  granite  pedestal 
supports  a  heroic-size  granite  figure  of  Halleck  in  full  uniform,  wrapped 
in  his  military  cape  (C.  Conrads,  sculptor). 

247.  THE  BASEBALL  PLAYER,  S.  of  Main  Dr.,  an  early 
bronze  by  Douglas  Tilden  depicting  a  mustachioed  player  of  the  eighties 
throwing  a  ball,  cast  in  Paris  in  1889,  was  erected  in  1892  by  W.  E. 
Brown  as  tribute  to  Tilden's  "energy,  industry  and  ability." 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      337 

248.  In  the  shade  of  Monterey  pines  and  cypresses  the  BOWLES 
RHODODENDRONS,  N.  of  Main  Dr.,  border  the  approach  to  Con- 
servatory Valley  on  the  east.     They  were  given  by  Mrs.   Philip   E. 
Bowles,  as  a  memorial  to  her  husband.     Of  the  park's  thousands  of 
rhododendrons,  some  are  always  in  bloom  from  February  through  June, 
although  the  largest  number  appear  in  full  bloom  in  April. 

249.  The  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  MONUMENT  stands  on  a 
knoll  N.  of  Main  Dr.     On  the  steps  of  a  granite  base  sits  a  mourning 
female  figure  holding  a  broken  sword  and  a  wreath.     Above  stands  a 
heroic-size  bronze  statue  of  the  martyred  president.    Modeled  by  Frank 
Happersberger  and  cast  in  Munich,  the  work  was  unveiled  July  4,  1885. 

250.  N.  of  Main  Dr.  from  the  broad  lawns  of  shallow  Conservatory 
Valley — where  formal  flower  beds  are  gay  with  bloom  the  year  round — 
a  broad  flight  of  steps  leads  to  a  marble  fountain  and  the  CONSER- 
VATORY  (open  8-5  daily}.     This  glass  structure  whose  two  wings 
flank  a  central  octagonal  rotunda  and  dome,  modeled  after  the  Royal 
Conservatories  at  Kew  Gardens,  is  the  successor  to  one  constructed  in 
1878  of  materials  purchased  in  England  by  James  Lick.     Destroyed  by 
fire  in  1822,  it  was  replaced  with  funds  donated  by  Charles  Crocker. 
A  glassed-in  vestibule  leads  into  the  rotunda,  where  rare  palms  from 
the  Norfolk  Islands,  Central  and  South  America,  Sumatra  and  Java, 
China  and  Japan  lift  their  green  fronds  above  semitropical  plants  from 
Australia,  New  South  Wales,  and  Lord  Howe's  Island.     The  center 
room  of  the  east  wing  harbors  a  jungle-like  growth  of  palms,  vines, 
and   ferns   from    Malacca,    India,    South   Africa,    Japan,    Brazil,    and 
Mexico.    In  the  end  room  is  a  rockery  green  with  ferns  and  other  plants 
and  a  small  pool  stocked  with  gold  fish.     Plants  from  Peru,   China, 
and  South  Africa  grow  in  a  hot  and  humid  atmosphere.     Floating  on 
the  waters  of  the  pool  here  from  July  to  January  are  the  giant  pads  of 
the   Victoria  regia,  a  water  lily  native  to  the  waters  of  the  Amazon 
River,  whose  petals  open  in  mid-afternoon  and  close  in  mid-morning 
when  it  blooms  in  September.     In  the  center  room  of  the  west  wing 
grow  semitropical  plants  from  Africa,  China,  India,  Central  and  South 
America,  and  a  small  collection  of  orchids.    The  end  room  offers  rotat- 
ing seasonal  exhibits  of  potted  flowering  plants.     In  the  hothouse  nur- 
series behind  the  Conservatory  gardeners  have  developed  a  collection  of 
about  7,000  orchids. 

251.  The  LIBERTY  TREE,  a  redwood  planted  by  the  Daughters 
of  the  American  Revolution  April  19,  1894,  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
Battle  of  Lexington,  stands  in  this  area. 

252.  The  McKINNON  MONUMENT,   S.  side  of  Main  Dr. 
(J.   McQuarrie,   sculptor),   depicting  the  uniformed  figure  of   Father 
William  D.  McKinnon,  chaplain  of  the  First  California  Volunteers  of 


SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  Spanish-American  War,  is  set  against  a  background  of  evergreen 
shrubs  and  cypresses. 

253.  The  ROBERT  BURNS  MONUMENT   (M.  Earl  Cum- 
mings,  sculptor),  S.  of  Main  Dr.  near  McKinnon  Monument,  a  heroic 
bronze  of  the  Scotch  poet,  stands  on  a  sloping  lawn  against  a  back- 
ground   of    cypresses    and    tall    pittosporum.      Here    the    birthday    of 
"Bobby"  Burns,  January  25,  is  observed  annually  by  enthusiastic  Scots. 

SE.  from  Main  Dr.  on  drive  encircling  Music  Concourse 

254.  The  MUSIC  CONCOURSE   (band  concerts  Sun.  and  holi- 
days 2-4:30),  S.  of  Main  Dr.  near  Eighth  Ave.  park  entrance,  a  sunken, 
outdoor  auditorium  seating  20,000,  is  12  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
surrounding  roadway.     It  is  bordered  by  clipped  hedges  and  terraced 
lawns  and  roofed  by  formal  rows  of  trees.     In  line  with  the  central 
aisle  are  three  circular  fountains.    Around  the  concourse  were  grouped 
the  buildings  of  the  California  Mid-Winter  International  Exposition 
of  1894. 

255.  A  memorial  to  the  Unitarian  minister  who   fought  to  keep 
California   in   the   Union   during   the   Civil   War   is   the   THOMAS 
STARR  KING  MONUMENT,  Main  Dr.  and  Music  Concourse  Dr. 
(Daniel  Chester  French,  sculptor).     On  the  granite  base  bearing  the 
bronze  figure  is  inscribed:   "In   Him  Eloquence   Strength  and  Virtue 
were    Devoted   with    Fearless   Courage    to   Truth    Country    and    His 
Fellow-Men.     1 824-64." 

256.  The    CERVANTES    MONUMENT,    NE.    corner    Music 
Concourse,  a  bronze  head  of  Miguel  de  Cervantes  (Jo  Mora,  sculptor), 
looks  down  gravely  from  a  rugged  pile  of  native  rock  upon  the  kneeling 
figures   of    Cervantes'    fictional   creations,    Don    Quixote    and    Sancho 
Panza. 

257.  Portrayed  advancing  with  a  tall  cross,  the  padre-presidente  of 
the  California  missions  is  memorialized  by  the  JUNIPERO  SERRA 
MONUMENT,  opposite  the  Cervantes  Monument.     Dedicated  No- 
vember 17,  1907  by  the  Native  Sons  of  the  Golden  West,  the  bronze 
is  the  work  of  Douglas  Tilden. 

258.  The   ULYSSES    S.    GRANT   MEMORIAL,    NE.   corner 
Music  Concourse,  is  a  bronze  bust  of  Grant   (R.  Schmid,  sculptor). 
On  the  base  are  listed  his  principal  battles. 

259.  On  the  NW.  side  of  the  Music  Concourse,  flanked  by  trim 
lawns  and  stately  Irish  yews,  is  the  M.  H.  DE  YOUNG  MEMO- 
RIAL MUSEUM   (open  daily  10-5).     Of  sixteenth-century  Spanish 
Renaissance  design,  the  building's  pale  salmon-colored  facades  are  bur- 
dened with  rococo  ornamentation.     Its  two  wings  extend  from  either 
side  of  a  134-foot  tower,  facing  a  landscaped  court.    In  the  court,  before 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      339 

the  main  entrance,  lies  the  POOL  OF  ENCHANTMENT  (M.  Earl  Cum- 
mings,  sculptor),  in  which  a  sculptured  Indian  boy  pipes  to  two  listen- 
ing mountain  lions  on  a  rocky  island.  At  the  building's  southeast 
corner,  a  bronze  SUN  DIAL  (M.  Earl  Cummings,  sculptor)  commemo- 
rates "the  first  Three  Navigators  to  the  California  Coast:  Fortuno 
Ximenes,  1534 — Juan  de  Cabrillo,  1542 — Sir  Francis  Drake,  1579." 
In  front  of  the  west  wing  stands  the  VINTAGE,  designed  by  Paul  Gus- 
tave  Dore,  a  massive  three-ton  bronze  vase  depicting  in  bas-relief  the 
story  of  the  grape.  The  symbolic  sculptures  above  the  main  entrance 
to  the  museum  are  by  Haig  Patigian;  other  exterior  sculptures,  by  Leo 
Lentelli. 

The  museum  is  a  heritage  of  the  California  Mid-Winter  Inter- 
national Exposition,  whose  guiding  spirit,  Michael  de  Young,  pub- 
lisher of  the  Chronicle,  proposed  that  the  $75,000  profits  of  the  fair 
be  used  to  house  a  permanent  collection  of  art.  In  the  fair's  Egyptian- 
style  Fine  Arts  Building  the  museum  was  opened  March  25,  1895.  A 
collection  of  6,000  objects  bought  from  the  fair  was  the  nucleus  of  the 
present  collection  of  more  than  1,000,000  items.  Throughout  Europe 
De  Young  searched  for  treasures,  while  pioneer-minded  citizens  sent 
grandfather's  boots  and  grandmother's  sunbonnets,  until  the  museum 
was  congested  with  "historical  curiosities" — so  great  in  number  that 
many  have  not  yet  been  cataloged.  The  small,  dark  rooms  were  heaped 
to  the  rafters  with  Italian  marbles,  bric-a-brac,  and  objets  d'art  of  the 
bonanza  period.  When  the  original  Fine  Arts  Building  became  too 
crowded  to  hold  anything  else,  construction  was  begun  in  1917  on  the 
first  unit  of  the  present  building  (Louis  Mullgardt,  architect) — erected 
with  funds  donated  by  M.  H.  de  Young — to  which  a  second  wing 
was  added  in  1925,  and  a  third  (Frederick  H.  Meyer,  architect)  in 
1931.  Condemned  as  unsafe  in  1926,  the  old  building  was  torn  down. 
All  that  remains  as  a  reminder  of  the  old  structure  are  the  two  sphinxes 
and  bronze  lion  to  the  east  of  the  museum. 

The  museum's  galleries  enclose  the  sunken  Great  Court  beyond  the 
main  entrance  and  extend  through  the  wings  on  either  side.  Around 
the  Great  Court  are  galleries  1-21.  A  transverse  corridor  leads  right 
to  galleries  22-49  and  left  to  galleries  50-60.  (A  floor  plan  near  the 
main  entrance  aids  visitors.)  Exhibits  in  galleries  1-21  are  arranged 
in  chronological  sequence: 

1.  Egyptian:  mummies,  carved  figures  in  stone,  statuettes,  vases 

2.  Greek:  red-figured  amphorae,  vases 

3.  Roman:  pottery,  jewelry,  a  marble  sarcophagus 

4.  Northern   Europe,   fourteenth   and   fifteenth   centuries:   a  large 
Flemish  tapestry,  wood  carvings 

5.  Northern  Europe,  fourteenth  to  sixteenth  centuries:  German  and 


34O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Flemish   primitives,   including   Isenbrant's   Madonna   and   Child,   Van 
Cleve's  Lucre  tia,  French  limestone  statue,  Virgin  and  Child  (c.  1340) 

6.  Southern    Europe,    fourteenth    and    fifteenth    centuries,    Italian 
primitives,  including  Vivarini's  Madonna  and  Child  and  a  small  Vero- 
nese ecclesiastical  chair  of  wrought  iron  and  brass  covered  with  Genoese 
velvet 

7.  Southern  Europe,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries:  furniture, 
Veronese's  Virgin  and  Angel  of  the  Annunciation 

8.  Italian,  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries :  furniture  and  paint- 
ings 

9.  A  wood-panelled  room  (north  Italian  of  the  late  seventeenth  cen- 
tury), polychrome  decorations 

10.  English  and  Dutch,  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries:  fur- 
niture and  paintings 

11.  European  decorative  arts,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries: 
Delft  ware,  German  armor,  Conca's  Adoration  of  the  Lamb 

12.  French,    eighteenth   century:    furniture,    harpischord,    Beauvais 
tapestry,  Sevres  porcelains 

13.  European  decorative  arts,  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries: 
glass,  china,  furniture 

14.  English  and  American,  eighteenth  century:  portraits  by  Kneller, 
Reynolds,  Romney,  Gainsborough,  Copley,  and  Raeburn's  Portrait  of 
Sir  William  Napier;  furniture 

15.  Northern  European,  eighteenth  century:  an  Aubusson  tapestry, 
furniture,  Vernet's  Seaport  at  Dawn,  miniatures 

1 6.  French,  early  nineteenth  century:  Napoleonic  furniture,  includ- 
ing a  throne  chair  of  Napoleon  I 

17.  American,  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries:  portraits, 
one  by  Benjamin  West;  mahogany  furniture 

1 8.  American,    mid-nineteenth    century:    portraits    of     California 
pioneers  by  Nahl,  Martinelli,  and  unknown  artists 

19.  20,   21.  American   decorative   arts,   eighteenth   century:    silver, 
pewter,  luster  ware,  glass,  early  American  portraits 

22-29.  Loan  exhibits 

30.  Print  room 

31.  Textile  study  room 

32.  Musical  instruments 

33.  Eastern  art 

35.  Chinese  art:  sculpture,  porcelains 

36  and  41.  Japanese  art:  porcelains,  priests'  robes 

42.  Indo-China,  Java,  Bali 

43.  South  Sea  Islands 

44.  Peru  and  Mexico :  Mayan  food  and  ceremonial  vessels,  Aztec  oil 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      341 

and  pulque  jars,  water  and  drinking  vessels,  vases,  incense  burners; 
Peruvian  jugs,  bowls,  and  effigy  vessels 

45-46.  North  American  Indians:  jars  of  Acoma  Indians  of  New 
Mexico,  of  California  Pomos;  weapons,  utensils  and  ornaments  of  other 
California  aborigines;  bead  work 

47-48.  Textiles 

49.  Reproductions  of  classical  sculpture 

50.  Paintings  and  prints  of  early  California 

51.  California  interior  (c.  1850),  bed-sitting-room 

52.  California  interior  (c.  1865),  drawing  room 

53.  Changing  exhibits  of  Californiana 

54.  Study  room  for  history  of  California 

55.  Nineteenth-century  paintings 

56.  California  interior,  1870,  parlor 

57.  California  interior,  1885,  lady's  boudoir 

58.  Costumes;  portraits  of  California  pioneers 

59.  Ship  models;  eight-foot  timber  from  Natalie  (which  took  Napo- 
leon from  Elba  to  France),  beached  near  Monterey,  1843;  Fire  Engine 
No.  i,  1850 

60.  Arms,  military  equipment:  cannon  used  in  Thirty  Years'  War; 
bronze  mortar,  Peru,  1780;  relics  of  U.  S.  S.  Maine;  Civil  and  World 
War  items 

260.  The   CIDER   PRESS    MONUMENT,    NW.   side   Music 
Concourse,  represents  a  nude  male  in  heroic  size  operating  a  cider  press ; 
a  child  kneels  at  his  feet  holding  an  apple.     Purchased  from  the  French 
Commission,  the  statue  (Thomas  S.  Clarke,  sculptor)  was  presented  to 
the  park  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  California  Mid- Winter 
International  Exposition  in  1894. 

261.  In  the  $75,000   Italian   Renaissance   MUSIC   PAVILION, 
SW.  end  Music  Concourse,  gift  of  sugar  magnate  Claus  Spreckels  in 
1900,   Sunday  afternoon  band  concerts  are  presented.     Built  of  gray 
Colusa  sandstone,  it  has  a  high  proscenium  arch  over  the  music  platform 
flanked  by  balustraded  colonnades. 

262.  Arching  over  the  eastern  entrance  to  the  JAPANESE  TEA 
GARDEN  (open  daily  10-5),  W.  of  Music  Concourse,  is  a  two-storied 
ro-mon    (gate)    carved  of   hinoki  wood,   used  in  Japan  before  temple 
entrances.     Precipitous,  bamboo-railed  paths  wander  through  the  five- 
acre  garden,  over  grassy  slopes  planted  with  camellias,  magnolia  trees, 
cryptomeria,  and  red-leafed  Japanese  maples.     Between  lichen-covered 
rocks,  little  streams  crossed  by  small  stone  bridges  descend  to  a  chain 
of  five  small   pools  planted   to  water   iris   and   stocked  with   goldfish. 
Over  a  still  pool  curves  a  "wishing  bridge"  whose  reflection  in  the 
water  completes  a  perfect  circle.     In  spring,  flowering  quince,  plum, 
and  cherry  trees  burst  into  sprays  of  blossom.     Here  and  there  grow  a 


342      SAN     FRANCISCO 

hundred  or  more  fantastically  gnarled  bonsai,  misshapen  conifers,  some 
a  century  old  but  none  more  than  three  feet  in  height  (to  stunt  their 
growth  roots  and  branches  are  constantly  pruned,  and  only  a  minimum 
of  water  is  allowed). 

In  the  thatched  tea  house  near  the  eastern  gate  girls  in  kimonos 
serve  pale  green  tea  and  wafer-like  cakes  to  guests  sitting  at  tables  made 
of  tree  trunks.  Along  one  side  of  the  pavilion,  sunlight  falls  through 
a  lattice  arbor  burdened  with  fragrant  blossoms  of  white  and  lavender 
wistaria  in  season.  Beyond  the  tea  house  is  a  two-story,  four-room 
zashiki  (house)  with  wooden  walls,  sliding  panels,  and  window  panes 
of  rice  paper.  The  interior  is  severely  simple.  The  floors  are  covered 
with  matting.  There  is  a  tokonomo  (alcove)  for  the  display  of  flower 
arrangements.  A  huge,  red,  black,  and  gold  Buddha  sits  in  serene  con- 
templation at  the  foot  of  a  slope  on  whose  summit  is  a  copper-roofed 
Shinto  shrine.  One  of  the  chief  attractions  of  the  1894  exposition  (it 
was  the  Japanese  Village),  the  garden  is  operated  by  descendants  of  its 
original  proprietor. 

263.  The    GIUSEPPE    VERDI    MONUMENT,    SW.    corner 
Music  Concourse,  was  designed  and  executed  in  Milan  (Orazio  Gros- 
soni,  sculptor)  and  presented  by  the  local  Italian  colony  in  1914.     On 
the  granite  base  below  the  bronze  bust  of  the  composer  a  male  figure 
holds  an  hour  glass  and  a  laurel  wreath,  and  two  children  unfurl  an 
Italian  flag. 

264.  The  BEETHOVEN  MONUMENT,  SE.  side  Music  Con- 
course, a  portrait  bust  in  bronze,  rests  on  a  formal  granite  column  at 
whose  base  stands  Music,  a  draped  female  figure  holding  a  lyre.     The 
gift   of   the   Beethoven   Mannerchor   of   New  York,   it  was   dedicated 
August  6,  1915. 

265.  The  ROBERT  EMMET  MONUMENT,  SE.  side  Music 
Concourse,  a  life-size  bronze  of  the  Irish  patriot,  bears  in  gold  letters 
simply  his  name,  in  conformance  with  his  last  wish  before  he  was  exe- 
cuted: "When  my  country  takes  her  place  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  then,  and  not  till  then,  let  my  epitaph  be  written."    The  work  of 
Jerome  Connor,  the  statue  was  presented  by  Senator  James  D.  Phelan 
in  1919.     Here  gather  the  United  Irish  Societies  for  yearly  observances 
of  Robert  Emmet's  birthday,  which  always  includes  a  rendition  of  his 
"Speech  Before  the  Dock." 

266.  Erected    in    1887   with   a   $60,000   bequest   of    philanthropist 
James  Lick,  the  FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY  MONUMENT,  SE.  side 
Music  Concourse,  represents  the  author  of  "The  Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner" sitting  on  a  travertine  pedestal  inscribed  with  the  words  of  his 
song  under  a  canopy  upheld  by  four  Corinthian  columns  and  crowned 
by  bronze  eagles,  buffalo  heads,  and  a  heroic-sized  bronze  female  figure 
of  Liberty  bearing  a  banner  and  a  sword. 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      343 

267.  On  the  SE.  side  of  Music  Concourse  are  the  three  buildings 
of  the  CALIFORNIA  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES,  the  oldest  scien- 
tific institution  in  the  West.  Supported  partly  by  endowments  and 
bequests  and  partly  by  city  funds,  the  institution  maintains  North 
American  Hall,  Steinhart  Aquarium,  and  Simson  African  Hall,  build- 
ings in  harmonizing  architecture  whose  white  concrete  walls  enclose 
three  sides  of  a  paved  quadrangle.  The  Academy's  exhibits  of  flora 
and  fauna  are  only  one  of  its  many  activities.  Its  scientific  expeditions 
(on  many  Templeton  Crocker's  yacht  Zaca  has  been  employed)  have 
gone  to  Alaska,  Panama,  Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  South 
America,  and  many  of  the  Pacific  Islands.  More  than  3,000,000  sepa- 
rate specimens  have  been  collected.  It  has  furnished  materials  and 
facilities  for  original  research  in  the  biological  and  physical  sciences, 
maintaining  research  departments  in  the  fields  of  botany,  entomology, 
herpetology,  ichthyology,  invertebrate  zoology,  ornithology  and  mam- 
malogy, and  paleontology.  Its  activities  are  primarily  concerned  with 
the  natural  history  and  geology  of  the  lands  bordering  the  Pacific  Ocean 
and  its  islands. 

On  April  4,  1853,  seven  men  interested  in  science  met  at  Lewis  W. 
Sloat's  Montgomery  Street  office;  on  June  27,  1853,  they  incorporated  as 
the  California  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  For  many  years  their 
meetings  were  held  in  the  office  of  Colonel  Thomas  J.  Nevins,  one  of 
the  seven  founders  and  San  Francisco's  first  Superintendent  of  Schools. 
The  "Proceedings,"  first  published  in  a  newspaper,  began  to  appear  in 
illustrated  volumes.  The  library  and  museum  grew  and  moved  in  1874 
to  larger  quarters  in  a  church.  In  1891  the  Academy  established  itself 
on  property  at  Fourth  and  Market  Streets  deeded  to  it  by  James  Lick. 
Under  the  terms  of  Lick's  will  it  became  one  of  two  residuary  legatees, 
receiving  one-half  of  whatever  remained  after  all  other  bequests  had 
been  paid.  With  the  $20,000  given  by  Charles  Crocker  in  1881  and 
additional  funds  from  Leland  Stanford,  it  created  a  large  natural  his- 
tory exhibit.  Other  benefactors  included  John  W.  Hendrie  and  Wil- 
liam Alvord.  When  the  Market  Street  home  of  the  Academy  was 
demolished  by  the  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906,  San  Francisco  citizens 
voted  to  reestablish  it  in  Golden  Gate  Park. 

NORTH  AMERICAN  HALL  (open  daily  10-5),  popularly  called  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  is  approached  by  a  wide  entrance  stairway 
before  which  are  embedded  four  old  millstones  from  early  California 
flour  mills.  Opened  in  1916,  it  was  the  first  unit  of  the  Califor- 
nia Academy  of  Science  group.  In  the  vestibule  are  displays  of  freshly 
cut  flowers  and  growing  plants  labeled  with  both  their  botanical  and 
common  names.  The  vestibule  leads  into  Mammal  Hall,  which,  illu- 
minated by  skylights,  has  15  large  and  many  small  habitat  groups,  each 
glass-enclosed  and  backed  by  a  painted  cyclorama.  Of  the  animals 


344      SAN     FRANCISCO 

shown  here,  collected  especially  because  of  the  threat  of  their  extinction, 
all  but  the  grizzly  bear  and  the  fur-bearing  seal  are  still  to  be  seen  in 
California.  Beginning  at  the  right  of  the  entrance  hall,  the  large 
habitat  groups  are:  Roosevelt  elk,  near  a  forest  stream  of  the  Olympic 
Mountains  west  of  Puget  Sound;  San  Joaquin  Valley  elk,  dwarf  elk, 
tule  elk,  and  wapiti,  found  in  Kern  County,  in  the  long  tule  grass 
bordering  a  river;  Northern  and  Columbian  black-tailed  deer,  in  a 
shaded  dell  of  Mendocino  County;  Imperial  grizzly  bear,  in  a  lakeside 
valley  of  Yellowstone  Park  below  towering  Wyoming  mountains; 
Rocky  Mountain  mule  deer,  in  a  snow-covered  bit  of  Sierra  Nevada 
forest;  prong-horn  antelope,  in  a  barren  mountain  landscape  of  Modoc 
County;  desert  mountain  or  bighorn  sheep,  in  the  San  Jacinto  Moun- 
tains of  Riverside  County;  mountain  lions,  found  in  Humboldt  County; 
northwestern  black,  brown,  and  cinnamon  bears,  found  in  Humboldt 
County;  Alaska  fur  seal,  on  a  rocky  coast  of  St.  George  Island  in  the 
Bering  Sea ;  leopard  and  California  harbor  seals,  in  a  rookery  at  Cypress 
Point  near  Monterey  Bay;  California  sea  lions,  in  a  rookery  on  Santa 
Cruz.  Island,  Santa  Barbara  County;  Steller  sea  lions,  in  a  rookery  on 
Ano  Nuevo  Island,  San  Mateo  County;  California  raccoon  and  Cali- 
fornia skunk;  California  valley  coyote  and  prairie  wolf,  found  in 
Moraga  Valley,  Alameda  County. 

Mammal  Hall  opens  into  Bird  Hall.  The  larger  habitat  groups 
are,  beginning  left  of  the  entrance,  in  order:  Western  meadow  lark, 
San  Joaquin  waterfowl,  Nuttall  sparrow,  sharp-shinned  hawk,  Cali- 
fornia condor,  California  vulture  and  desert  birds.  In  the  condor  group, 
a  nest  high  on  a  cliff  near  the  headwaters  of  the  San  Antonio  River  in 
Monterey  County  is  shown.  Among  the  smaller  groups  are  one  show- 
ing 14  species  resting  on  the  rocky  cliffs  of  a  rookery  on  the  Farallon 
Islands  and  one  showing  a  flock  of  white  pelicans  in  their  breeding 
colony  on  Anaho  Island  in  Pyramid  Lake,  Nevada.  Other  birds  include 
the  California  linnet,  quail,  and  clapper  rail;  coast  bushtit;  Lazuli 
bunting;  Western  robin;  water  ouzel;  and  many  varieties  of  sea  gulls 
and  wild  ducks. 

Parallel  to  Mammal  Hall  is  a  corridor  displaying  a  cross  section  of 
a  California  big  tree  (Sequoia  gigantea),  from  Sequoia  National  Park. 
The  tree  is  estimated  to  have  been  1,710  years  old  when  it  fell  in  1917. 
It  was  330  feet  high  and  25  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base.  In  this  same 
corridor  are  collections  of  fluorescent  minerals,  semiprecious  stones,  but- 
terflies and  water  colors  of  California  wild  flowers. 

The  other  rooms  of  the  building  are  occupied  by  the  65,OOO-volume 
library  of  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences  and  its  research  depart- 
ments in  botany,  herpetology,  mammalogy,  ornithology,  and  paleon- 
tology. These  departments  house  study  collections  including  about 
8,000  mammals,  57,000  birds,  and  69,000  reptiles  (among  which  is  a 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      345 

notable  collection  of  reptiles  from  the  Galapagos  Islands).  The  her- 
barium of  275,000  mounted  plants  has  grown  from  1,000  specimens 
saved  from  the  earthquake  and  fire  of  1906  by  Alice  Eastwood,  curator 
of  the  botany  department.  The  collection  of  the  department  of  paleon- 
tology includes  1,600,000  specimens. 

STEINHART  AQUARIUM  (open  daily  10-5)  houses  its  collection  of 
fresh-  and  salt-water  life  behind  a  gray  stucco  facade  ornamented  with 
white  classic  pillars.  Facing  the  entrance  to  the  aquarium  are  three 
outdoor  pools  for  sea  lions,  otter,  and  other  aquatic  mammals  (feeding 
time  4  p.m.).  In  the  high,  pillared  lobby  is  a  sunken  tank  where 
turtles,  water  snakes,  giant  bullfrogs,  and  alligators  move  about  in  an 
imitation  tropical  swamp.  Along  the  lobby  walls  glass  cases  contain 
hundreds  of  small  tropical  fish  of  brilliant  hues,  indigenous  snakes,  Gila 
monsters,  colorful  sea  anemones,  star  fish,  sea  urchins  and  mollusks. 

From  the  lobby  extend  corridors  lined  with  glass  tanks  built  into 
the  walls.  Specimens  from  American  streams  and  Pacific  waters  include 
giant  sea  turtles,  crested  and  speckled  eels,  fantastic  sea  horses,  peri- 
scopic  flounders,  turkey  fish,  and  electric  and  bat  sting-rays.  Among 
the  most  unusual  are  the  climbing  perch,  an  oriental  fish  which  climbs 
the  submerged  roots  of  trees  and  is  able  to  exist  out  of  the  water,  and 
the  two  varieties  of  lung  fish,  Australian  and  African,  which  breathe 
through  lungs  and  gills.  Trout  and  other  game  fish  are  well  repre- 
sented. 

Founded  in  1923,  the  gift  of  Ignatz  Steinhart,  the  aquarium  con- 
tained 500  species  and  12,000  individual  fish  in  1940.  Its  collection 
has  been  increased  by  a  system  of  exchange  with  the  Sydney,  Australia, 
aquarium.  In  1939  alone,  the  institution  received  3,000  gifts;  among 
its  donors  have  been  Templeton  Crocker  and  Capt.  G.  Allan  Hancock. 

In  the  rear  of  Steinhart  Aquarium  a  graveled  walk  leads  to  a  shed 
sheltering  the  75-foot  skeleton  of  a  SULPHUR  BOTTOM  WHALE,  cap- 
tured off  the  coast  of  Vancouver  Island  in  1908.  Native  to  the  Cali- 
fornia coast,  the  Sulphur  Bottom  is  the  largest  and  swiftest  of  whales. 
The  skulls  of  a  finback,  a  Baird's  beaked,  and  humpbacked  whale,  all 
obtained  on  the  California  coast  in  1925,  are  also  on  display. 

SIMSON  AFRICAN  HALL  (open  Sun.  and  Wed.  1-5),  newest  of  the 
Academy  buildings  and  similar  in  design  to  North  American  Hall,  was 
built  by  Leslie  Simson,  retired  mining  engineer  and  sportsman  who 
collected  specimens  of  African  wild  life  from  expeditions  to  Kenya. 
The  habitat  groups  are  shown  with  scrupulous  accuracy  of  detail,  against 
mural  backgrounds  representing  African  scenery  in  the  localities  where 
the  specimens  were  collected.  Simson  as  a  boy  learned  to  prepare  bird 
and  mammal  skins  from  his  father,  who  had  received  similar  instruc- 
tions from  the  son  of  John  J.  Audubon,  the  great  artist-ornithologist. 

The  predominant  habitat  group  represents  an  African  water  hole 


346      SAN     FRANCISCO 

on  the  edge  of  the  veldt  with  distant  mountains  under  clear  blue  skies 
in  the  background.  Around  the  oasis  in  naturalistic  pose  are  gathered 
several  specimens  each  of  the  impalla,  the  Masai  giraffe,  the  zebra,  the 
white-bearded  gnu  or  wildebeest,  the  Grant's  gazelle  and  the  Coke's 
hartebeest.  The  trees,  shrubs,  rocks,  and  plants  stand  in  sharp  con- 
trast to  the  grassy  plains  stretching  away  to  the  foothills.  In  twenty- 
three  other  groups — ten  large,  one  intermediate,  and  twelve  small  in 
size — are  grouped  several  specimens  each  of  such  exotic  creatures  as  the 
Beisa  oryx,  black  lechwe,  bushback,  bush  duiker,  cheetah,  dik-dik,  Dor- 
cas gazelle,  gerenuk,  Hunter's  hartebeest,  klipspringer,  mountain  nyala, 
oribi,  steinbok,  and  waterbuck,  as  well  as  specimens  of  the  better-known 
African  lion,  baboon,  gorilla,  Grevy's  zebra,  African  leopard,  monkey, 
roan  and  sable  antelope,  and  hunting  dog. 

On  the  second  floor  of  African  Hall  is  the  Department  of  Ento- 
mology, containing  more  than  a  million  mounted  insects,  largest  research 
entomological  west  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  The  Department  of 
Ichthyology  in  the  basement  has  a  collection  of  about  200,000  specimens 
of  fish,  especially  rich  in  South  American  fresh  water  fish. 

268.  In  a  bower  of  English  laurel  is  the  GOETHE-SCHILLER 
MONUMENT,  E.  of  Simson  Hall,  a  pedestal  of  red  Missouri  granite 
supporting  bronze  figures  of  the  two  German  poets.     A  reproduction 
of  a  monument  in  Weimar,  Germany  (Ernst  Rietschel,  sculptor),  it  was 
presented  by  citizens  of  German  descent  in  1901. 

269.  Facing  the  Music  Concourse  against  a  background  of  tall  pines 
is  the  GENERAL  PERSHING  MONUMENT,  NW.  side  Music 
Concourse,  a  bronze  statue  of  General  John  J.  Pershing  ( Haig  Patigian, 
sculptor)  in  khaki  field  uniform  with  a  crushed  German  helmet  at  his 
feet,  presented  by  Dr.  Morris  Herzstein  in  1922. 

W.  from  drive  encircling  Music  Concourse  on  Main  Dr. 

270.  A  shaded   road  winds  through   HEROES   GROVE,   N.   of 
Main  Dr.,   a   15-acre  tract  of   redwoods  dedicated   to   San   Francisco 
soldiers  killed  in  the  World  War.     Their  names  are  inscribed  on  a 
large  obelisk-shaped  boulder. 

271.  The  REDWOOD  MEMORIAL  GROVE,  N.  of  Main  Dr., 
was  dedicated  by  the  Native  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Golden  West 
and  the  Gold  Star  Mothers  of  America  to  the  San  Francisco  men  and 
women  who  lost  their  lives  in  the  World  War.      In   the   Grove  of 
Memory,  a  section  of  the  main  grove,  a  redwood  for  each  of  the  dead 
towers  high  above  the  DOUGHBOY  MONUMENT,  a  bronze  figure  of  a 
young  soldier  who  stands,  hatless  and  bare-armed,   on  a  2O-ton   rock 
base.     Once  part  of  the  Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition,  this 
statue   (M.  Earl  Cummings,  sculptor)   was  purchased  by  the  52  San 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      347 

Francisco  parlors  of  the   Native   Sons  and   Daughters  of   the   Golden 
West. 

272.  The  PIONEER  LOG  CABIN,  S.  of  Main  Dr.  on  an  un- 
named drive  W.  of  Redwood  Memorial  Grove,  was  built  in  1911  of 
logs  floated  down  from  Mendocino  County.     The  structure,  set  in  a 
redwood  grove  (picnicking  facilities},  is  the  property  of  the  Association 
of  Pioneer  Women  of  California,  who  convene  there  monthly  around 
the  huge  brick  fireplace. 

273.  Composed  of  one  tree  for  each  of  the  Thirteen  Original  Colo- 
nies, a  group  of  HISTORIC  TREES,  planted  along  a  path  leading 
south  from  the  intersection  of  Main  Drive  and  the  drive  to  the  Pioneer 
Log  Cabin,  commemorates  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown 
in   1785.     Notable  are  a  cedar  from  Valley  Forge  and  a  tree  from 
Thomas  Jefferson's  grave.     The  trees  were  planted   in    1896   by  the 
Sequoia  Chapter,  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution. 

274.  The  sandstone  PRAYER  BOOK  CROSS,  N.  of  Main  Dr., 
modeled  after  an  ancient  Celtic  Cross  on  the  Scottish  island  of  lona, 
towers  57  feet  above  the  edge  of  a  bluff.     It  was  erected  in  1894  by 
the  Northern   California  Episcopal   diocese  in   commenoration   of   the 
first  use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  on  the  Pacific  Coast  by  Francis 
Fletcher,  Chaplain  to  Francis  Drake,  who  conducted  a  service  on  the 
shore  of  Drake's  Bay  June  24,  1579. 

275.  On  Sundays  and  holidays,  tiny  RAINBOW  FALLS,  N.  of 
Main  Dr.,  rush  over  a  cliff  at  the  base  of  Prayer  Book  Cross  into  a 
fern-bordered  pool.     Artificially  fed  from  a  reservoir  atop  Strawberry 
Hill,  they  were  named  when  colored  electric  lights  were  strung  along 
the  cliff  to  make  rainbows  appear  in  the  spray. 

276.  LLOYD  LAKE,  N.  of  Main  Dr.,  fed  by  a  tiny  stream  that 
ripples  over  a  rocky  ledge,  is  encircled  by  a  graveled  path. 

277.  The  PORTALS  OF  THE  PAST,  six  white  marble  Ionic 
Pillars  reflected  in  the  tranquil  surface  of  Lloyd  Lake,  are  all  that 
remain  of  A.  N.  Towne's  Nob  Hill  residence  burned  in  the  1906  fire. 

278.  Nine-acre  MARX  MEADOWS,  NW.  of  Lloyd  Lake,  were 
named  for  Mrs.  Johannah  Augusta  Marx,  who  bequeathed  $5,ooo  for 
beautification  of  the  park  in  1922. 

279.  BROOM  POINT,  S.  of  Main  Dr.,  since  early  days  has  been 
a  landmark  identified  by  the  bright  yellow  blossoms  of  Scotch  broom 
that  grow  there  in  profusion. 

280.  Within  the  confines  of  25-acre  LINDLEY  MEADOW,  S.  of 
Main  Dr.,  grazes  a  herd  of  sheep.     Each  December  the  meadow  be- 
comes a  living  Christmas  card,  with  shepherds  in  biblical  costume  herd- 
ing grazing  sheep. 

281.  Homing  ground  for  migratory  game  and  domestic  waterfowl, 
SPRECKELS  LAKE,  N.  of  Main  Dr.,  supplies  much  of  the  water 


348      SAN     FRANCISCO 

for  the  park  irrigation  system.  Each  Sunday  from  March  to  late  Sep- 
tember the  miniature  sail  and  speed  boats  of  the  San  Francisco  Model 
Yacht  Club  clip  their  trim  way  across  its  rippling  waters,  some  attain- 
ing a  speed  of  40  miles  an  hour. 

282.  The   MODEL  YACHT   CLUBHOUSE    (members   only), 
W.  of  Spreckels  Lake,  a  one-story  structure  of  concrete  and  glass  brick, 
is  headquarters  for  miniature  yacht  enthusiasts.     The   Model  Yacht 
Club  members,  in  its  fully  equipped  workshop,  build  tiny  boats  which 
duplicate  in  every  detail  their  full-sized  models. 

283.  The  fences  of  the  BUFFALO  ENCLOSURE,  N.  of  Main 
Dr.,  are  so  cleverly  concealed  in  the  surrounding  forest  that  the  herd 
of  about  15  buffalo  seem  to  be  roaming  at  large. 

284.  Within  the  buffalo  enclosure  are  the  DEER  PADDOCKS, 
occupied  by  small  herds  of  Belgian  deer  and  California  elk. 

285.  The  CHAIN  OF  LAKES,  N.   and  S.  of  Main  Dr.,  is  a 
series  of  artificial  lakes  bordered  by  wilder  and  more  rugged  vegetation 
than  is  found  elsewhere  in  the  park.     North  Lake,  N.  of  Main  Dr., 
largest  of  the  three,  is  dotted  with  several  islands  planted  with  birches, 
rhododendrons,  and  other  shrubs.     Waterfowl  preen  their  plumage  on 
the  surface  of  the  water  and  feed  among  the  wild  grasses  in  the  shallows. 
Middle  Lake,  S.  of  Main  Dr.,  is  framed  by  800  camellia  and  Japanese 
cherry  trees. 

286.  A  150-yard-long  RECREATION  FIELD,  W.  of  Main  Dr. 
facing  the  ocean,  includes  facilities  for  football,  Softball,  soccer,  and 
tennis  players,  and  a  dressing  room  with  showers. 

287.  The  white,  cedar-shingled  NORTH  WINDMILL  (not  open 
to  public),  E.  of  Main  Dr.  near  NW.  corner  of  park,  is  an  authentic 
copy  of  a  Dutch  windmill.     Seen  from  the  Pacific,  the  structure  is  in 
astonishing  contrast  to  the  greenery  of  Golden  Gate  Park  and  the  sky- 
line of  the  city  beyond.     Constructed  in  1903  to  pump  water  for  the 
park's  irrigation  system,  it  since  has  been  equipped  with  electric  pumps; 
but  sails  are  attached  during  the  summer  months. 

288.  Reminiscent  of  the  Maine  Coast  is  the  UNITED  STATES 
COAST  GUARD  STATION   (open  after  3  p.m.),  NW.  corner  of 
park,  occupying  three  white  buildings  enclosed  by  a  picket  fence.     A 
force  of  1 1  men  are  stationed  here  to  aid  distressed  vessels.     One  of 
the  three  buildings  was  constructed   in    1870  when   the   station   was 
established. 

S.  from  Main  Dr.  on  Great  Highway 

289.  The  stumpy,  schooner-rigged  47-ton  sloop  GJOA,  E.  of  Great 
Highway  near  NW.  corner  of  park,  only  ship  to  negotiate  the  ice- 
bound Northwest  Passage,  rests  in  its  rocky  dry  dock  behind  an  iron- 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      349 

spiked  fence  overlooking  the  Pacific.  The  Gjoa  was  given  to  San 
Francisco  in  1909  by  her  commander,  Arctic  explorer  Roald  Amundsen. 
The  sloop  was  built  at  Hardanger  Fjord,  Norway,  in  1872.  After 
29  years  of  active  service  as  a  herring  boat  and  sealer,  she  was  purchased 
by  Amundsen.  With  her  superstructure  strengthened,  her  hull  sheathed 
in  hardwood,  and  iron  strips  bolted  to  her  bow,  she  was  equipped  with 
a  13-horsepower  motor.  On  June  16,  1903,  the  Gjoa  set  sail  from 
Christiana  (now  Oslo),  Norway,  bound  for  the  Arctic  and  that  North- 
west Passage,  the  existence  of  which  for  centuries  had  troubled  the 
minds  of  the  adventurous.  Aboard  were  Amundsen,  six  companions, 
Eskimo  dogs,  scientific  instruments,  and  enough  stores  for  five  years. 

Disaster  soon  struck  at  the  expedition.  A  fire  broke  out  in  the 
engine  room.  A  mysterious  malady  killed  many  of  the  dogs.  In  the 
Northwest  Passage  the  sloop  was  grounded  on  a  reef  and  her  false 
keel  ripped  off.  Only  after  precious  deck  cargo  had  been  tossed  over- 
board was  she  refloated.  At  long  last  the  Gjoa  halted  in  King  William 
Land,  in  a  bay  later  named  Gjoahaven. 

For  three  years  Amundsen  remained  in  the  Arctic,  with  the  tem- 
perature often  "60  degrees  below."  Completely  cut  off  from  civiliza- 
tion, the  expedition  nevertheless  went  busily  about  its  work  of  gathering 
scientific  data.  In  addition  to  discovering  the  Passage,  they  succeeded 
in  fixing  the  location  of  the  magnetic  pole.  Finally  the  Gjoa  set  sail 
once  more,  passing  through  the  Bering  Sea  and  thence  into  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  down  the  Coast  to  San  Francisco.  She  dropped  anchor  off 
Point  Bonita  one  October  day  in  1906.  In  the  celebration  that  fol- 
lowed, American  warships  dipped  their  flags  to  the  men  who  had  at 
last  sailed  the  near-legendary  Northwest  Passage. 

290.  The  two-story  BEACH  CHALET  (open  daily  except  Mon. 
io-6)y  E.  of  Great  Highway,  has  a  large  glassed-in  dining  room  over- 
looking the  ocean  and  the  Great  Highway.     The  foyer  is  ornamented 
with  murals  and  mosaics  by  WPA  artists. 

E.  from  Great  Highway  on  South  Dr. 

291.  The  MURPHY  WINDMILL  (not  open  to  public),  N.  of 
South  Dr.  near  SW.  corner  of  park,  the  second  of  the  park's  two  Dutch 
mills,  is  one  of  the  largest  sail-type  structures  in  the  world,  having  a 
wing  spread  of  114  feet.    Erected  in  1905  to  supply  water  for  irrigation, 
it  was  equipped  with  electric  pumps  in  1927.     At  the  present  time  the 
sails  are  operated  only  as  an  "exhibit." 

292.  In  the  EQUITATION  FIELD,  N.  of  South  Dr.,  a  fenced, 
sandy  area  25  by  75  yards,  skilled  equestrians  urge  their  horses  over 
practice  hurdles.     The  adjacent  Beach  Stables  house  the  horses  used 
in  the  park. 


35O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

NE.  from  South  Dr.  on  unnamed  drive 

293.  Not  since  early  in  the  century  has  the  three-quarter-mile  track 
of  GOLDEN  GATE  PARK  STADIUM,  N.  of  South  Dr.,  thun- 
dered to  the  hoofbeats  of  thoroughbreds.     A  bicycle  track,   a  cinder 
path,  a  football  field,  and  a  polo  field  occupy  the  space  within  the  hedge 
that  borders  the  inner  rim  of  the  trotting  track.     At  the  end  of  the 
last  century  two  driving  clubs  dominated  equestrian  activities  in  San 
Francisco:  the  Golden  Gate  Driving  Club,  composed  of  men  of  wealth, 
and  the  San   Francisco  Driving  Club    (the   "Steam  Beer   Club")    of 
members  in  more  moderate  circumstances.    The  organizations  built  the 
track  by  private  subscription  according  to  the  designs  of  Park  Superin- 
tendent John  McLaren  and  Park  Commissioner  A.  B.  Spreckels.    Chief 
use  of  the  trotting  track  at  present  is  for  training  purposes.    The  stables 
were  replaced  in  1939  by  the  WPA-built  Polo  Sheds,  a  group  of  four 
gray  concrete  tile-roofed  buildings.     The  sheds  house  not  polo  ponies, 
but  race  horses  in  training  for  track  events  throughout  the  country. 
In  return  for  free  quarters  owners  put  their  horses  in  for  one  trotting 
race  each  season,  the  proceeds  of  which  go  toward  upkeep  of  track  and 
grounds. 

294.  The  angler  finds  an  ideal  practice  pool  in  the  cement-lined, 
WPA-built  FLYCASTING  POOL  (free),  W.  end  of  Golden  Gate 
Park  Stadium,  hidden  in  a  woodland  setting  with  eucalyptus  and  ever- 
green trees  mirrored  in  its  placid  surface.     With  an  overall  length  of 
450  feet  and  a  width  of  185  feet,  the  pool  is  divided  into  three  sections, 
one  of  which  is  used  for  distance  casting,  one  for  accuracy,  and  the 
third,  provided  with  graduated  steps  rising  above  the  surface,  for  im- 
proving skill  in  difficult  overhead  shots.     Overlooking  the  pool  is  An- 
glers' Lodge,  a  wooden  building  with  hand-hewn  window  frames  and 
wrought-iron  fittings,  headquarters  of  the  Golden   Gate  Angling  and 
Casting  Club,  which,  as  the  San  Francisco  Fly  Casting  Club,   func- 
tioned as  early  as   1890.     Of  its  open  tournaments  from  October  to 
June,  largest  is  the  Washington's  Birthday  Handicap. 

E.  from  unnamed  drive  on  Middle  Dr. 

295.  METSON  LAKE,  S.  of  Middle  Dr.,  part  of  the  park  irriga- 
tion system,  with  its  grassy  shores,  large  boulders,  and  background  of 
conifers,  has  the  appearance  of  a  lake  in  a  mountain  meadow. 

Retrace  on  Middle  Dr.  to  unnamed  drive;  SE.  from  Middle  Dr.  on 
unnamed  drive  to  South  Dr.;  E.  from  unnamed  drive  on  South  Dr. 

296.  Rock-rimmed  MALLARD  LAKE,  S.  of  South  Dr.,  with  its 
wooded  islet  and  tiny  falls,  is  a  favored  stopover  for  September's  south- 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      351 

bound  duck  traffic.  Here  thousands  of  transient  mallard  and  canvas- 
back  graciously  fraternize  with  their  stay-at-home  cousins,  the  drab  little 
mud-hens  for  whom  the  lakelet  is  "home."  For  years  this  was  known 
as  Hobo  Lake,  because  transient  workers  on  the  roadways  during  the 
1894  Mid-Winter  Fair  rested  here  between  labors  on  the  patches  of 
seagrass. 

297.  A  head-high  wire  fence  encloses  ELK  GLEN,  N.  of  South 
Dr.,  a  wooded  dell  where  the  hoofs  of  elk,  Scotch  sheep,  East  Indian 
deer,  and  buffalo  have  churned  into  dusty  waves  the  brown  earth  around 
their  miniature  lake.     The  elk  herd  has  grown  from  a  pair  of  the  ani- 
mals given  to  the  city  by  Alvinza  Hayward  in  1890.    Although  death- 
struggles  between  the  bucks  during  mating  time  have  occurred  on  the 
reservation,  the  animals  are  gentle  enough  to  nibble  leaves  from  the 
hands  of  visitors. 

298.  The  redwoods  of  the  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  BICEN- 
TENNIAL GROVE,  S.  of  South  Dr.,  were  planted  February  22, 
1932,  in  honor  of  the  bicentennial  anniversary  of  Washington's  birth. 

299.  The     HERBERT    HOOVER    TREE,    adjoining    George 
Washington  Grove,  a  redwood  tree  planted  by  the  Daughters  of  the 
American  Revolution  in   1935,  commemorates  the  ex-president's  work 
in  conservation. 

300.  Encircling    the    base    of    steep,    wooded    Strawberry    Hill    is 
STOW  LAKE,  N.  of  South  Dr.,  bordered  by  tree-lined  walks  and 
winding  driveways.     Central  reservoir  for  the  park's  irrigation  system, 
it  is  the  largest  of  the  park's  artificial  lakes.     On  the  wooded  islets 
that  dot  its  surface  nest  waterfowl,  both  wild  and  domestic — brant, 
pelicans,  black  and  white  swans,  and  wild  ducks,  arriving  in  the  autumn 
on  their  migration  southward  from  as  far  north  as  the  Arctic.     Straw- 
berry Hill,  reached  by  two  stone  bridges  across  narrow  parts  of  the 
lake,  is  the  highest  elevation  in  the  park.     The  steep  slopes  are  covered 
with  cypress,   eucalyptus,   and  long-leafed   acacia.     From   the   summit 
(428  alt.)  are  visible  on  clear  days  the  Farallon  Islands,  gray  dots  on 
the  horizon,  26  miles  out  in  the  Pacific. 

301.  HUNTINGTON  FALLS  leaps  75  feet  from  the  summit  of 
Strawberry  Hill  down  a  bed  of  glistening,  fern-lined  rocks.     It  was 
named  for  Collis  P.   Huntington,   railroad  magnate,  who  contributed 
$25,000  for  the  beautification  of  the  bleak  sand  dunes  of  the  city's  new 
park.    The  water  for  the  falls  is  pumped  to  the  top  of  the  hill  at  the 
rate  of  1,600,000  gallons  a  day. 

302.  Plants   rare   and   useful   from   far-away   places   grow   in   the 
ARBORETUM    (open  Mon.-Fri.  8-4),  S.  of   South  Dr.,  a  4O-acre 
plot  of  which  a  fourth  is  under  cultivation.    A  bequest  by  Mrs.  Helen 
Strybing  has  made  possible  plans  which  will  include  several  acres  of 
native  California  plants  and  a  building  housing  a  laboratory,  library, 


352      SAN     FRANCISCO 

and  botanical  collections.     The  new  outlay  also  provides  for  classrooms 
where  gardeners  will  be  trained  for  their  work  in  the  park. 

Plants  are  arranged  in  geographical  groupings.  Near  the  entrance, 
off  South  Dr.,  grow  shrubs  and  trees  from  South  Africa,  including  the 
aloe,  which  often  reaches  a  height  of  60  feet.  South  of  this  group  is 
the  Australian  and  New  Zealand  section,  where  grows  the  kauri,  a 
primitive  pine  nearly  extinct.  West  of  the  Australian  group  is  the 
Mexican  area  with  its  Mexican  or  Montezuma  cypress  which  is  said  to 
reach  an  age  of  3,000  years.  In  the  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  Himalayan 
area,  south  of  the  Mexican  section,  are  rare  varieties  of  rhododendrons, 
including  some  brought  from  remote  parts  of  Western  China,  Thibet, 
and  the  Himalayas.  There  are  numerous  trees  and  plants  from  South 
Africa.  One  area  is  given  over  to  medicinal  plants,  including  one  from 
China  from  which  recently  was  developed  ephedrine.  More  commonly 
known  are  digitalis,  from  which  the  drug  of  the  same  name  is  derived; 
the  recinus,  or  castor  oil  plant;  the  Arabian  kath,  whose  leaves  are 
made  into  a  narcotic ;  and  the  white  Chinese  poppy,  from  which  opium 
is  made. 

303.  South  of  the  Arboretum  on  gently  sloping  ground  is  the  ROSE 
GARDEN,  a  large  collection  of  standard,  hybrid  perpetual,  and  tea 
roses.     Climbing  roses  cover  the  fences  enclosing  the  garden.     South  of 
the  garden,  close  to  a  tall  stuccoed  brick  chimney  resembling  a  castle 
tower,  is  a  fine  collection  of  iris  and  Kurumi  azaleas. 

NE.  from  South  Dr.  on  Middle  Dr. 

304.  A  low,  clipped  hedge  of  myrtle  fronts  the  GARDEN   OF 
SHAKESPEARE'S  FLOWERS,  N.  of  Middle  Dr.,  wherein  grow 
specimens  of  every  flower,  shrub,  and  tree  mentioned  in  the  writings  of 
William  Shakespeare.     Flower  beds  bordering  a  lawn  include  pansies, 
marigolds,   columbines,   primroses,   yellow  crocuses  and   daffodils,   and 
dainty  bluebells.     Trees  shading  the  garden  include  the  alder,  apple, 
ash,  cedar,  chestnut,  laurel,  lemon,  locust,  orange,  pine,  pomegranate, 
walnut,  and  yew.    There  are  beds  of  sweet  briar,  rue,  and  thyme.     On 
either  side  of  the  plot  facing  the  entrance,  where  an   English   holly 
stands,  are  marble  benches  backed  by  dense  growths  of  box.     In  the 
ivy-covered  brick  wall  along  the  east  end  of  the  garden  is  a  glass- 
enclosed  niche  holding  a  bust  of  Shakespeare,  a  copy  of  the  Gerard 
Jensen  bust  in  the  Stratford-upon-Avon  church.    The  garden  was  estab- 
lished by  the  California  Spring  Blossom  and  Wildflower  Association. 

305.  DE  LAVEAGA  DELL,  S.  of  Middle  Dr.,  is  a  secluded  glen, 
whose  jungle  foliage  and  fern-choked  stream  are  the  haunt  of  squirrels 
and  birds.     Giant  tree  ferns,  some  20  feet  high,  grow  among  moss- 
covered  rocks,  mottled  with  shadows.     Along  each  side  of  the  twisting 


GOLDEN     GATE     PARK      353 

stream  run  footpaths  carpeted  with  leaves  and  flanked  by  shrub-filled 
artificial  gullies.  At  the  dell's  eastern  end  is  one  of  the  park's  largest 
collections  of  rhododendrons  and  azaleas. 

306.  The  LILY  POND,  N.  of  Middle  Dr.,  a  long  winding  pool 
nestling  at  the  foot  of  steep  overhanging  cliffs,  was  once  a  quarry.     A 
walk  bordered  by  huge  rocks  and  tree  ferns  skirts  the  edge,  and  rushes 
and  water  grasses  line  the  shores  of  the  pond.     Ducks  paddle  among 
the  green  pads  of  water  lilies. 

S.  from  Middle  Drive  on  unnamed  cross  drive 

307.  From  the  21  tree-protected,  asphalt  TENNIS  COURTS,  E. 
of   cross   drive,   have   been   graduated   such   players   as    Maurice    Mc- 
Laughlin,  Bill  Johnston,  the  Griffin  brothers,  and  Alice  Marble.   It  was 
here  on  some  of   the  world's  first   asphalt  courts,   that   McLaughlin 
developed  the  well-known  "American  twist"  serve.    The  asphalt  courts 
called  for  a  much  faster  pace  than  clay  and  grass  courts.     Such  pioneers 
as  McLaughlin,  after  developing  their  games  here,  swept  all  before  them 
in  the  East  and  Great  Britain. 

308.  On  quiet  afternoons  the  BOWLING  GREENS   (open  1-4), 
E.  and  W.  of  cross  drive,  first  public  bowling  greens  in  the  United 
States,  present  a  picture  of  another  era.     White-clad  men  and  women 
bowl  on  the  well-kept  turf,  while  spectators  watch  from  benches  on 
terraced  slopes.    A  row  of  the  rare  Torrey  pines  protects  the  greens  on 
the  west. 

E.  from  unnamed  cross  drive  on  South  Dr. 

309.  The  CHILDREN'S   PLAYGROUND,   N.  of   South   Dr., 
occupies  a  secluded  valley  sheltered  by  thickly  planted  trees  and  shrub- 
bery.   The  first  established  in  a  public  park  in  America,  it  was  founded 
with  $50,000  left  by  William  Sharon  in  1886.     Its  playground  equip- 
ment, donkey  course,  and  merry-go-round  center  about  the  Children's 
House,  a  two-story  building  of  buff  sandstone  in  Romanesque  style. 

310.  When  high,  oval-shaped,  municipal  KEZAR  STADIUM,  S. 
of   South  Dr.,  was  opened  with  a  track  meet   May  2,    1925,   Paavo 
Nurmi,  Finnish  marathon  champion,  was  a  feature  attraction.    At  first 
seating  22,000,  it  was  enlarged  in  1928  to  a  capacity  of  60,000.     Mary 
Kezar,  for  whom  the  stadium  was  named,  gave  $100,000  of  its  total 
cost  of  $450,000.     It  is  of  articulated  reinforced  concrete,  with  a  deck 
of  wood,  covered  by  asbestos  felt  coated  with  sanded  asphaltum. 

Kezar  Stadium  is  used  chiefly  by  football  teams  of  San  Francisco 
high  schools  and  the  Catholic  universities,  St.  Mary's,  Santa  Clara, 
and  San  Francisco.  Main  events  of  the  year  are  the  annual  clashes 


354      SAN     FRANCISCO 

between  Santa  Clara  and  St.  Mary's  and  the  New  Year's  Day  East- 
West  game  between  picked  stars  from  Eastern  and  Western  university 
teams.  Average  annual  attendance  is  more  than  300,000. 

311.  The  BASKETBALL  PAVILION,  E.  of  Kezar  Stadium  fac- 
ing Stanyan  St.,  is  a  long,  low,  buff-colored  cement  building  roofed  with 
red  tile.     Its  interior,  lighted  by  great  skylights,  seats  5,500.     During 
the  basketball  season  high  school  teams  play  four  afternoons  weekly 
and  college  teams  at  irregular  intervals  at  night. 

312.  The  GAMES  ENCLOSURE  AND  GHIRARDELLI  PA- 
VILION, N.  of  South  Dr.  near  Haight  St.  park  entrance,  a  hedged 
retreat  almost  hidden  by  flowering  shrubs,  half  of  which  is  walled  on 
three  sides  and  roofed  by  glass,  contains  tables  painted  with  chess  and 
checkers  markings  and  benches  to  accommodate  about  200  players. 

313.  ALVORD  LAKE,  near  Haight  and  Stanyan  Sts.  entrance, 
is  a  small  lake  sheltered  from  winds  by  tall  cypresses  and  clumps  of 
Coast  live  oak,  the  only  tree  native  to  the  park  area. 


^ 


Part 
Around  the  Bay 


The  Harbor  and  its  Islands 


FOR  two  centuries  before  discovery  of  the  Golden  Gate  the  navi- 
gators of  Portugal,  Spain,  and  England  carefully  avoided  the 
sea  approaches  to  the  Port  of  San  Francisco.  The  forbidding 
coastline  and  frequent  fogs  were  not  alone  responsible  for  its  prolonged 
obscurity:  the  outer  islands  indicated  the  danger  of  submerged  rocks 
and  shoals  in  the  Gulf  of  the  Farallones.  Although  soundings  were 
taken  by  Sebastian  Cermeno  in  1595,  not  until  180  years  later  was  any 
mariner  bold  enough  to  steer  his  ship  through  the  Golden  Gate.  When 
the  master  of  the  San  Carlos  ventured  through  the  strait  in  1775,  he 
sent  a  pilot  boat  ahead  to  chart  the  depth  of  the  channel.  Even  within 
the  Gate,  Lieutenant  Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala's  little  packet  proceeded 
with  extreme  caution:  only  too  obvious  was  the  danger  of  being  swept 
out  to  sea  by  the  ebb  tide,  whose  current  had  permitted  passage  only 
after  the  vessel's  third  attempt  at  entry. 

Although  modern  aids  to  navigation  long  since  have  made  San 
Francisco's  harbor  one  of  the  safest  in  the  world,  incoming  ships  must 
begin  exercising  caution  about  six  miles  from  shore.  Outside  the  Gate 
is  deposited  the  silt  brought  down  from  inland  valleys  and  carried 
through  the  Bay  by  force  of  the  current.  Fanning  from  the  entrance  is 
an  undersea  delta  whose  rim,  tilted  upwards,  forms  a  wide  semicircle, 
the  San  Francisco  Bar,  lying  only  about  30  feet  under  the  surface — 
on  its  north  side,  where  it  widens  out  in  the  "Potato  Patch,"  only  22 
feet.  During  storms  the  waves  break  upon  these  rock-strewn  shoals 
with  disastrous  force,  and  even  in  calm  weather  they  are  impassable  to 
large  vessels.  Three  channels  cross  the  bar:  the  artificially-dredged 
Main  Channel  opposite  the  Golden  Gate,  kept  open  by  the  Army's 
3,01 5-ton  Mackenzie  to  a  depth  of  approximately  50  feet,  and  the 
narrow  North  and  South  Channels,  close  to  shore.  The  entrance  to 
the  Main  Channel  is  guarded  by  San  Francisco  Lightship,  a  129-foot 
schooner  with  a  flashing  light  visible  in  clear  weather  for  13  miles. 
Equipped  with  a  foghorn  and  a  transmitter  for  radio  beacon  signals, 
it  is  serviced  by  the  Yerba  Buena  station.  In  the  area  between  the 
lightship  and  the  bar,  the  pilot  boats  cruise,  waiting  for  incoming  ves- 
sels. When  contact  with  a  ship  is  made,  a  bar  pilot  puts  out  from  the 
lightship  in  a  ten-foot  dory  to  which  a  rope  ladder  is  thrown  over  the 
inbound  ship's  side.  From  the  lightship  in,  the  Main  Channel  is  out- 
lined with  eight  buoys,  all  equipped  with  flashing  lights,  three  with 
bells,  one  with  a  whistle,  and  one  with  an  electric  trumpet. 

357 


SAN     FRANCISCO 

In  strict  nautical  terms,  the  Golden  Gate  is  the  three-mile  strait 
between  the  San  Francisco  and  Marin  Peninsulas.  At  its  western  end, 
lights  and  foghorns  on  the  headlands  and  buoys  in  the  North  and  South 
Channels  (some  equipped  with  lights  and  fog  signals),  make  the  en- 
trance to  the  Bay  more  conspicuous  in  any  weather  than  it  was  when 
mariners  like  Sir  Francis  Drake  passed  by  without  guessing  the  exist- 
ence of  an  inland  body  of  water.  Radio  beacon  signals  are  flashed 
from  the  light  on  Point  Bonita;  between  the  cliffs  stands  Mile  Rock 
Lighthouse.  The  Golden  Gate  itself  is  illuminated  by  two  additional 
lighthouses,  at  Point  Diablo  and  at  Lime  Point.  And  three  life-saving 
surf  stations  are  maintained  along  the  strait,  each  with  a  staff  of  9  to 
22  men  on  duty  24  hours  a  day. 

The  efficiency  of  men  and  machinery  in  the  modern  life-saving 
service  of  San  Francisco  Bay  is  indicated  roughly  by  comparing  the 
casualties  of  two  shipwrecks  39  years  apart.  The  Rio  de  Janeiro,  which 
sank  in  the  Golden  Gate  during  a  fog  in  1901,  carried  128  people 
down  with  her.  But  when  the  Pinto  was  shattered  on  the  "Potato 
Patch"  in  1939 — under  circumstances  that  made  rescue  particularly 
difficult — not  a  life  was  lost.  Even  a  ferryboat,  the  Golden  City,  has 
gone  down  in  the  harbor  without  loss  of  a  single  life.  At  Land's  End 
may  still  be  seen  the  rusty  scraps  of  four  hulks  which  testify  to  hazards 
of  the  Golden  Gate,  but  no  one  drowned  in  any  of  these  disasters. 

The  islands  of  San  Francisco  Bay,  besides  contributing  to  its  natural 
charm,  have  played  a  notable  part  in  its  history.  Yerba  Buena,  Alcatraz, 
the  Farallones,  and  part  of  Angel  Island  were  included  in  the  huge 
Mexican  grant  claimed  by  Joseph  L.  Limantour,  a  Frenchman  who 
swore  that  he  received  it  in  return  for  $4,000  he  had  advanced  Governor 
Manuel  Micheltorena  in  1843.  Besides  the  several  islands  the  notorious 
Limantour  Claim  included  about  half  the  present  area  of  San  Fran- 
cisco. Described  by  United  States  Attorney  General  Jeremiah  S.  Black, 
who  prosecuted  the  case,  as  "the  most  stupendous  fraud,  the  greatest  in 
atrocity  and  magnitude  the  world  has  ever  seen,"  the  claim  was  finally 
denied  in  the  iSso's  after  expenditure  of  $200,000  for  litigation  and 
the  arrest  of  Limantour.  Gradually,  since  their  recovery  by  the  Fed- 
eral government,  Alcatraz,  Angel,  and  Yerba  Buena  Islands  have  been 
incorporated  in  the  harbor  defenses  maintained  by  the  Ninth  Corps 
Area,  United  States  Army. 

Less  prominent  are  the  Bay's  two  other  tiny  islands,  but  they  too 
have  had  their  uses.  Brooks  Island,  the  larger  of  these,  lies  about  half 
a  mile  off  Point  Potrero.  Some  46  acres  in  area,  rocky  and  very 
sparsely  wooded,  it  is  (1940)  uninhabited.  Once  known  as  Sheep 
Island,  it  was.  exploited  several  years  ago  by  a  construction  company 
operating  a  rock  quarry  there.  Just  off  Pier  50,  near  the  San  Francisco 
water  front,  is  Mission  Rock,  occupied  only  by  a  warehouse  and  a 


THE     HARBOR     AND     ITS     ISLANDS       359 

wharf,  both  partially  destroyed  by  fire  in  1936.  According  to  water- 
front legend  a  Portuguese  fisherman  once  stocked  the  rock  with  sheep; 
he  rowed  out  to  it  once  a  year  to  harvest  his  crop  with  a  shotgun,  pull- 
ing the  slaughtered  sheep  aboard  with  a  boathook. 

THE  FARALLONES 

Almost  as  remote  as  Guam  or  Samoa  to  most  San  Franciscans 
is  that  chain  of  islands  known  as  The  Farallones,  which  lie  about  32 
miles  off  Point  Lobos.  Despite  their  inclusion  since  1872  in  the  City 
and  County  of  San  Francisco,  their  inaccessibility  to  the  average  citizen 
has  invested  them  with  the  unfamiliarity  of  a  foreign  land.  Even  to 
sportsmen,  for  whose  annual  yacht  races  they  are  a  hazardous  goal, 
their  history  and  conformation  have  little  intimate  significance. 

The  Farallones  lie  in  two  groups  separated  by  seven  and  three- 
quarter  miles  of  open  sea.  Seven  isles  constitute  the  southern  group: 
Southeast  Farallon  Island,  Sugar  Loaf  Isle,  Aulone  Isle,  Seal  Rock, 
Arch  Rock,  Finger  Rock,  and  Sea  Lion  Islet.  Of  these,  Southeast 
Farallon  Island  is  the  most  important  of  the  entire  chain,  and  Sugar 
Loaf  Isle  (185  alt.)  is  the  highest.  Except  for  one  island  which  rises 
to  an  altitude  of  155  feet,  the  North  Farallones  are  small  and  unim- 
portant. Noonday  Rock,  marking  the  northern  end  of  the  chain,  is  a 
submerged  peak  so  named  for  the  clipper  Noonday  which  struck  it  and 
sank  in  1863.  Midway  between  the  two  groups  lies  "lonely  little  Four 
Mile  Rock."  The  Gulf  of  the  Farallones,  the  stretch  of  water  between 
the  chain  and  the  California  coast,  was  called  La  Bahia  de  los  Pinos 
(the  bay  of  the  pines)  by  the  Cabrillo  expedition  in  1542  and  Bahia 
de  Puerto  de  San  Francisco  (bay  of  the  port  of  San  Francisco)  by 
Vizcaino  in  1603. 

The  Southeast,  or  South,  Farallon,  about  32  miles  west  of  the 
Golden  Gate,  is  about  one  mile  long,  half  a  mile  wide,  three  and  one- 
half  miles  in  circumference.  A  rocky  ridge  runs  its  entire  length, 
broken  by  gorges  and  a  swift-running  sea  stream  called  "The  Jordan" 
which  separates  the  portion  known  as  West  End.  The  highest  peaks 
of  this  island  are  Tower  Hill  (on  which  the  lighthouse  is  built),  and 
Main  Top.  In  some  places  the  slope  from  the  ridge  to  the  water's  edge 
is  too  steep  for  a  foothold;  in  others,  there  are  ledges  where  sparse 
vegetation  makes  patches  of  green.  The  soil  on  these  flats  is  a  mixture 
of  guano  and  granite  sand.  The  forbidding  coastline  of  the  South 
Farallon  is  edged  by  grotesque  rocky  cliffs  and  caves.  The  contours 
of  the  island  are  suggested  by  some  of  the  names  given  various  parts: 
Indian  Chief  Cliff;  Lost  World  Cave;  Great  Murre  Cave;  Giant's 
Bath,  a  natural  swimming  pool  on  Breaker  Hill;  Great  West  Arch,  a 
natural  arch  with  the  sea  swirling  under  it;  and  Breakers  Bay,  also 


360      SAN     FRANCISCO 

called  Franconia  Bay  for  the  Franconia,  a  wooden  vessel  of  1,462  tons 
which  went  ashore  on  West  End  June  4,  1881.  Fisherman's  or  Tower 
Bay  is  the  present  (1940)  anchorage. 

Despite  a  popular  belief  to  the  contrary,  the  Farallon  Islands  sup- 
port vegetation.  Besides  a  group  of  2O  Monterey  cypresses  growing 
in  one  sheltered  spot  and  the  small  gardens  cultivated  by  the  lighthouse 
keepers,  there  are  scattered  growths  of  rock  flowers,  moss,  and  grass. 
The  largest  of  several  varieties  of  clinging  weeds  is  the  Farallon  Weed, 
bearing  a  small  yellow  blossom,  which  grows  in  a  mat  formation,  some- 
times torn  loose  in  sheets  by  the  winds.  It  is  used  by  the  cormorants 
and  other  island  birds  in  constructing  their  nests.  Other  weeds  have 
been  introduced  through  seeds  contained  in  the  hay  shipped  in  for  the 
solitary  island  mule. 

Around  the  islands  gather  great  hordes  of  Steller  sea  lions,  the 
largest  congregations  being  on  Saddle  Rock  and  Sugar  Loaf.  The  Cali- 
fornia Harbor  seal  and  Pribilof  fur  seal  are  seen  occasionally.  There 
are  also  numbers  of  hares,  descendants  of  a  few  given  by  an  English 
sea  captain  to  a  former  lighthouse  keeper.  These  animals  increased  so 
fast  that  they  surpassed  the  supply  of  food  (weeds)  and  at  one  time 
died  of  starvation  in  great  numbers.  During  the  last  century,  when 
tender  service  to  the  islands  was  less  regular  than  now,  the  rabbits  fur- 
nished the  only  supply  of  fresh  meat  for  the  keepers  during  periods  of 
protracted  storms. 

The  bird  population  of  The  Farallones  includes  California  murres, 
Western  gulls,  cormorants,  pigeons,  guillemots,  tufted  puffins,  Cassin's 
auklets,  ashy  petrels,  and  rock  wrens.  During  the  early  i85o's,  when 
fresh  eggs  were  almost  worth  their  weight  in  gold  to  San  Franciscans, 
the  pear-shaped  eggs  of  the  murres  were  gathered  here  and  sold  in  San 
Francisco  markets.  The  thick,  tough  shells  of  the  eggs  enabled  their 
collectors  to  handle  them  with  shovels  and  eliminated  the  necessity  of 
packing,  but  gathering  them  was  a  dangerous  occupation.  So  precipitous 
are  the  cliffs  of  these  islands  that  the  collectors,  besides  being  liable  to 
arrest  as  poachers,  frequently  fell  off  into  the  sea.  The  trade  in  murres' 
eggs  continued  until  the  late  i88o's,  when  the  supply  had  so  decreased 
that  the  profits  of  collecting  them  no  longer  outweighed  the  risks 
involved. 

According  to  some  historians,  the  first  white  man  to  see  the  Farallon 
Islands  was  Bartolemeo  Ferrola,  who  took  command  of  Cabrillo's  ex- 
pedition after  Cabrillo's  death,  although  other  authorities  question  the 
authenticity  of  the  old  Spanish  chronicles  which  credit  the  discovery  to 
him.  However,  Sir  Francis  Drake  not  only  saw  but  landed  on  one  of 
the  Farallones -on  July  24,  1579 — 24  hours  after  leaving  "Nova  Albion" 
(Drake's  Bay),  where  the  expedition  had  been  repairing  their  Golden 
Hinde  since  June  17.  Drake  named  the  islands  the  "Islands  of  St. 


THE     HARBOR     AND     ITS     ISLANDS      361 

James"  and  described  them  as  having  "plentiful  and  great  stores  of  seals 
and  birds."  Sebastian  Cermeno  and  his  companions  apparently  visited 
the  Farallones  in  1595  when  they  were  proceeding  down  the  coast  from 
Drake's  Bay  in  their  launch,  the  San  Buena  Ventura,  after  their  San 
Augustin  had  been  wrecked. 

According  to  Mildred  Brooke  Hoover,  the  islands  had  already  been 
designated  as  The  Farallones:  "The  name  Los  Farallones  is  derived 
from  the  Spanish  nautical  word  meaning  'cliff  or  small,  pointed  island,' 
and  was  fixed  on  this  particular  group  during  the  years  when  the  Span- 
ish galleons  plied  between  the  Philippines  and  Mexico."  The  implica- 
tion that  the  islands  were  well  known  to  mariners  of  the  time  is  sub- 
stantiated by  the  chronicle  of  Sebastian  Vizcaino,  who  described  them 
in  1603  as  a  mark  for  finding  Punta  de  los  Reyes  and  the  harbor  of 
Drake's  Bay.  The  first  to  name  individual  islands  of  the  group,  he 
called  the  Southeast  Farallon  La  Isla  Hendido  [$/c]  (the  cleft  isle) 
and  the  Northwest  Farallon,  Las  Llagas  (the  wounds)  to  commemorate 
the  stigmata  of  St.  Francis. 

Firsc  white  inhabitants  of  The  Farallones  were  fur-gatherers  from 
the  Russian  colony  at  Bodega  Bay.  At  a  cost  of  much  sickness  and 
death  due  to  improper  food  and  water,  they  took  200,000  fur  seals  in 
three  seasons.  Although  the  supply  of  fur  seals  was  seriously  depleted 
at  the  end  of  that  time,  the  Russians  continued  to  keep  hunters  on  the 
islands.  In  1819  a  new  colony  was  planted  there,  including  a  number 
of  Aleuts.  They  lived  in  huts  made  of  stone,  planks,  canvas,  and  the 
sea  lions'  skins  (some  of  the  stone  walls  still  stand).  Lacking  wood 
for  fires,  they  used  the  fat  of  sea  lions  and  seals.  Only  once  did  a 
Russian  brig  call  at  the  island  for  their  products.  After  several  months 
most  of  the  men,  too  weak  to  kill  the  seals,  were  barely  subsisting  on 
raw  birds'  eggs.  By  1825  not  one  fur  seal  was  left  on  the  island  and 
only  one  Russian  family  and  23  Kodiaks  (northwest  Indians)  were 
living  there. 

Since  1855  the  islands  have  been  under  the  supervision  of  the  United 
States  Lighthouse  Service  and  closed  to  the  public.  In  1909  bird  lovers, 
aided  by  Admiral  George  Dewey,  succeeded  in  having  the  islands  de- 
clared a  bird  sanctuary.  At  the  present  time  (1940)  the  Southeast 
Farallon  is  inhabited  by  four  lighthouse  keepers,  six  Navy  men  in  charge 
of  the  Radio  Beam  Compass  Station,  and  their  families.  Still  standing, 
though  remodeled,  is  "Stone  House,"  the  structure  put  up  during  the 
1 85o's  when  the  first  lighthouse  was  built.  The  original  light  has  been 
replaced  by  a  modern  one,  raised  358  feet  above  mean  tidewater  and 
visible  for  26  miles.  To  reach  the  light,  the  keepers  climb  a  zigzag 
path  along  steep  bluffs.  It  is  said  that  during  winter  gales  they  have 
to  crawl  on  hands  and  knees  along  the  unsheltered  stretches  of  this  path. 


362       SAN     FRANCISCO 

ALCATRAZ 

Resembling  a  huge  battleship  lying  just  within  the  Golden  Gate, 
grim  Alcatraz  Island  is  known  as  "The  Rock"  to  the  Nation's  under- 
world, whose  most  desperate  criminals  are  confined  within  its  prac- 
tically inescapable  walls.  With  a  capacity  of  800,  normally  two-thirds 
filled,  this  prison  for  incorrigibles  has  had  such  notorious  inmates  as 
Al  Capone,  kidnapper  "Machine  Gun"  Kelly,  and  mail  robbers  Albert 
Bates,  Gene  Colson,  and  Charles  "Limpy"  Cleaver.  Amid  the  riptides 
of  the  Golden  Gate,  a  mile  and  a  quarter  from  the  San  Francisco  main- 
land, the  island  consists  of  barely  12  acres  of  solid  rock  rising  in  sheer 
gray  cliffs  from  the  water's  edge.  Above  its  stone  walls  jut  the  watch- 
towers  of  guards  armed  with  machine  guns ;  and  below  them  the  water- 
line  is  equipped  with  barbed-wire  entanglements.  The  wall  separating 
prisoners  from  the  water  is  20  feet  high;  the  massive  prison  gates  are 
electrically  operated.  In  the  main  building  the  steel  cell-blocks  are 
three  tiers  high,  arranged  back  to  back  in  four  double  banks.  In  the 
mess  hall,  above  the  heads  of  the  prisoners  as  they  eat,  hang  drums  of 
tear  gas  that  can  be  released  by  the  pushing  of  a  button. 

When  visitors  call  (they  are  allowed  only  once  a  month),  they  face 
the  inmates  across  tables  through  sheets  of  bullet-proof  glass  reaching 
to  the  ceiling.  Conversation  is  carried  on  by  means  of  microphone  and 
loudspeaker,  over  which  whispers  cannot  be  transmitted.  Since  all  in- 
coming mail  is  censored  and  recopied,  inmates  never  see  the  original  of 
any  letter  sent  to  them ;  they  are  allowed  to  send  only  one  letter  a  week 
each  to  a  blood  relative.  Industries  employing  prisoners  on  the  island 
include  a  laundry,  mat  factory,  clothing  factory,  model  shop,  and  dry 
cleaning  plant,  in  one  or  another  of  which  more  than  half  the  prisoners 
are  employed.  The  inmates  are  allowed  to  receive  elementary  musical 
instruction  and  to  enroll  for  correspondence  courses  sponsored  by  the 
University  of  California. 

Less  widely  publicized  by  the  movies  and  the  press  than  the  island's 
more  forbidding  aspects  is  its  little  civilian  community  comprising  facil- 
ities for  51  families.  These  quarters,  some  of  which  were  built  half 
a  century  ago,  are  inhabited  chiefly  by  families  of  prison  guards.  Some 
60  children  of  these  families  commute  daily  between  Alcatraz  and  San 
Francisco  during  school  terms,  being  carried  by  Army  boats  plying 
between  Angel  Island  and  the  Fort  Mason  Transport  Docks. 

The  history  of  Alcatraz  Island  begins  with  its  discovery  in  1775  by 
Lieutenant  Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala  of  the  San  Carlos,  who  named  it 
Isla  de  los  Alcatraces  (Isle  of  the  Pelicans)  because  of  the  great  num- 
ber of  these  birds  he  found  nesting  there.  In  1846,  Pio  Pico,  last 
Mexican  Governor  of  California,  sold  the  island  to  Julian  Workman. 
In  March,  1849  Alcatraz  was  resold  to  John  Charles  Fremont,  who 


THE     HARBOR     AND     ITS     ISLANDS       363 

acted  as  representative  of  the  United  States  Government.  Before  the 
$5,000  was  paid  for  the  property,  however,  Fremont  disposed  of  the 
island  to  the  banking  firm  of  Palmer,  Cook  and  Company  which  sub- 
sequently brought  suit  to  recover  possession  of  it.  Because  Fremont 
had  acted  as  a  Government  agent,  the  suit  was  denied  and  the  island 
was  retained  as  Federal  property. 

When  the  United  States  began  to  fortify  the  harbor  in  1854,  a 
lighthouse  and  lantern  were  installed  on  Alcatraz.  Temporary  build- 
ings were  erected,  a  wharf  was  built,  and  construction  of  batteries  was 
begun.  The  building  erected  at  that  time  as  the  engineer's  office  is 
still  standing.  Between  1854  and  1882  the  Government  appropriated 
$1,697,500  for  fortifications  on  the  island.  Powder  magazines  were 
blasted  from  the  rock  and  a  citadel  built  on  the  crest.  In  1859  the 
first  Army  detachment,  Company  "H,"  Stewart's  Third  Artillery, 
arrived  on  Alcatraz,  commanded  by  Captain  Joseph  Stewart. 

The  island  was  designated  a  disciplinary  barracks  for  prisoners  hav- 
ing long  sentences  to  serve  in  1868.  From  the  early  iSyo's  on,  trouble- 
some Indians  were  sent  to  this  post  from  time  to  time.  A  company 
of  Indian  scouts  accused  of  mutiny  at  Cibicu  Creek,  Arizona  Territory, 
were  incarcerated  here,  as  were  five  Indian  chiefs  who  mutinied  at  San 
Carlos,  Arizona  Territory,  in  June,  1887,  among  them  Kae-te-na,  friend 
of  Geronimo.  Of  the  many  prisoners  who  arrived  from  the  Philippines 
(one  transport  alone  brought  126)  in  1900,  most  had  deserted  the 
United  States  forces  and  joined  the  Filipino  insurgents.  Civilians  who 
committed  crimes  against  the  Army  in  China  also  were  brought  here. 
During  the  1906  disaster,  176  prisoners  removed  from  San  Francisco 
jails  were  transferred  to  Alcatraz. 

From  1895  to  1907  several  Coast  Artillery  detachments  were  sta- 
tioned here.  In  the  latter  year,  when  Alcatraz  was  designated  the 
Pacific  Branch  of  the  United  States  Military  Prison,  the  third  and 
fourth  companies,  United  States  Military  Prison  Guard,  were  organized 
as  its  permanent  garrison.  It  became  a  Federal  prison  for  civilian  incor- 
rigibles  in  1934. 

Escapes  from  the  island  are  nowadays  seldom  attempted  and  rarely 
successful.  The  most  ingenious  of  these  get-aways  was  engineered  in 
1903  by  four  prisoners,  all  trusties  for  good  behavior,  of  whom  one  was 
a  professional  forger  and  another  a  printer  by  trade.  Between  them 
they  succeeded  in  drawing  up  and  printing  a  document  recommending 
leniency  in  their  cases,  to  which  they  forged  the  name  of  the  command- 
ing officer.  Through  a  friend  in  the  post  office  department  they  suc- 
ceeded in  having  the  document  slipped  into  the  outgoing  mail.  It  made 
its  way  through  all  departments  to  the  Department  Commander,  who 
then  ordered  the  four  released.  They  were  given  a  military  escort  to 
the  mainland.  No  sooner  had  they  landed  in  San  Francisco  than  they 


364      SAN     FRANCISCO 

forged  four  checks  to  the  sum  of  $125  on  the  quartermaster  department, 
whereupon  they  repaired  to  a  grog  shop  for  liquid  refreshments.  Three 
of  the  men,  fearing  drunkenness,  fled;  but  the  fourth  was  picked  up  by 
police  on  a  San  Francisco  street  and  promptly  returned  to  the  island. 
More  successful  were  Roy  Gardner,  the  "gentleman  bandit,"  who  es- 
caped alone  from  the  island  in  the  early  1920*5,  and  two  prisoners  who 
made  a  sensational  get-away  in  1938  and  never  were  found.  In  1926 
a  plot  for  a  mass  exit  was  halted  when  the  warden,  learning  of  the 
plans,  pointed  to  the  Bay  and  told  the  rebels  to  "go  ahead  and  swim." 
The  invitation  was  unanimously  declined. 

Alcatraz'  grim  reputation  has  caused  San  Francisco  civic  bodies 
recently  to  demand  its  abandonment;  but  though  former  United  States 
Attorney  General  Frank  Murphy  in  1939  advised  removal  of  its  felons, 
"The  Rock"  continues  to  make  San  Francisco  Bay  the  locale  of  the 
most  fearsome  of  American  prisons. 

ANGEL  ISLAND 

Largest  island  in  the  Bay,  mile-square  Angel  Island,  roughly  trian- 
gular in  shape,  rears  its  central  peak  (771  alt.)  across  Raccoon  Strait 
from  Point  Tiburon.  Once  the  site  of  a  detention  camp  for  hostile 
Indians  captured  during  the  Arizona  campaign,  it  has  served  since  1892 
as  San  Francisco's  Quarantine  and  Immigration  Station  (adm.  by  pass 
only  to  relatives  of  station  employees;  boats  leave  Pier  5,  8:40  and  10:30 
a.m.  and  I  and  3:30  p.m.}.  The  grassy  green  of  the  island's  slopes 
is  broken  by  darker  patches  of  trees  and  brush.  In  some  places  out- 
croppings  of  rock  lend  a  fantastic  color  to  the  predominating  gentleness 
of  the  landscape.  The  shoreline,  nearly  six  miles  in  circumference, 
rough  and  steep  in  places,  curves  inward  here  and  there  to  narrow  strips 
of  white  sand.  Above  it  a  military  road  circles  the  island  at  elevations 
varying  from  eighty  to  three  feet.  A  Federal  game  refuge,  the  island 
is  stocked  with  deer,  quail,  and  pheasant. 

When  the  San  Carlos  dropped  anchor  in  Raccoon  Strait,  Lieutenant 
Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala  named  the  adjacent  island  Nuestra  Senora  de 
los  Angeles  (Our  Lady  of  the  Angels).  After  a  century  and  a  half 
of  consequent  neglect,  Angel  Island  was  granted  in  1839  to  Antonio 
Mario  Osio  by  Governor  Juan  B.  Alvarado,  who  took  this  means  to 
prevent  its  occupation  by  the  Russians  and  other  foreigners.  Osio  raised 
horses  and  cattle  there;  although  he  never  lived  on  the  island  himself. 
However,  his  claim  generally  was  recognized  until  California  became 
American  territory,  whereupon  Osio  went  to  Mexico.  When  he  re- 
turned in  1855  with  a  claim  to  the  island,  he  found  it  had  already  been 
set  aside  in  1850  for  military  purposes  by  executive  order  of  the  United 
States  Government.  The  island  was  occupied  by  Federal  troops  in 


THE     HARBOR     AND     ITS     ISLANDS      365 

1863.  By  1865  a  battery  of  three  guns  had  been  established  on  the 
west  slope  of  the  island,  commanding  the  approach  through  the  Golden 
Gate,  which  was  later  increased  to  18  pieces;  and  in  1867  a  general 
depot  for  receiving  and  discharging  recruits  from  the  Atlantic  Coast 
was  established  on  the  east  shoreline. 

Before  the  end  of  the  i85o's,  Angel  Island  had  won  local  fame  as 
the  site  of  a  celebrated  duel,  which  grew  out  of  a  stormy  conflict  involv- 
ing the  slavery  issue.  One  Charles  A.  Stovall  had  brought  with  him 
to  San  Francisco  from  Mississippi  a  Negro  slave  boy  known  simply  as 
Archy.  When  Stovall  decided  to  return  home,  Archy  refused  to  go  and 
escaped  from  a  Sacramento  river  boat.  His  master  had  him  arrested 
but  the  Sacramento  police  refused  to  hand  him  over,  whereupon  Stovall 
carried  the  matter  to  the  State  Supreme  Court.  Justice  Peter  H.  Bur- 
nett ordered  the  Negro  returned  to  him.  Archy's  case  then  was  taken 
to  United  States  Commissioner  George  Penn  Johnson,  who  ruled  on 
April  14,  1858  that  he  no  longer  was  a  slave.  One  of  Johnson's 
closest  friends,  State  Senator  William  I.  Ferguson,  a  Southerner, 
challenged  Johnson's  decision.  Feeling  ran  so  high  between  the  two 
that  arrangements  were  made  for  a  duel.  On  a  tiny  piece  of  level 
ground  on  the  eastern  side  of  Angel  Island  the  principals  met  at  five 
o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  August  21,  1858.  Dueling  pistols  having 
been  chosen,  it  was  agreed  the  combatants  would  start  firing  at  ten 
paces,  this  distance  to  be  reduced  to  ten  feet  if  the  first  fire  ineffective. 
When  neither  contestant  was  hit  on  the  first  exchange,  or  on  the  second 
and  third,  Johnson  demanded  an  apology  or  a  fourth  encounter.  The 
latter  course  was  chosen.  Ferguson  was  hit  in  the  right  thigh  and 
Johnson  in  the  left  wrist.  Ferguson  was  taken  to  San  Francisco,  where 
he  died  on  September  14  while  his  leg  was  being  amputated. 

Near  Angel  Island  a  prison  brig  had  been  anchored  in  1852  with 
35  convicts  aboard,  17  of  whom  escaped  at  different  times,  overpower- 
mg  or  bribing  the  keepers.  The  island  itself  served  as  a  prison  camp 
during  the  i87OJs  for  hostile  Arizona  Indians.  A  part  of  its  eastern 
shore  was  set  aside  in  1900  as  a  detention  and  quarantine  camp  for 
soldiers  returning  from  the  Philippines.  In  1900  the  post  was  named 
Fort  McDowell  (adm.  by  pass  only  to  relatives  of  persons  at  fort;  boats 
leave  Pier  4.,  Army  Transport  Dock,  Fort  Mason,  at  *J:20,  8:30,  10 
a.m.;  12  noon;  4,  6  p.m.).  From  December  I,  1901  to  June  30,  1902 
a  total  of  10,747  soldiers  passed  through  the  Angel  Island  station  on 
their  return  from  Manila. 

By  an  act  of  Congress  in  1888  the  building  of  a  permanent  quaran- 
tine station  on  the  island  was  authorized  and  an  appropriation  of  $103,- 
ooo  set  aside  for  the  purpose.  Constructed  on  the  shores  of  a  sheltered 
indentation  north  of  Fort  McDowell,  known  as  Hospital  Cove,  the 
quarantine  station  was  opened  May  I,  1892.  In  1909  the  Angel  Island 


366      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Immigration  Station  was  established.  Quarantine  and  immigration  of- 
ficers board  ships  from  foreign  ports  for  inspection.  Individuals  who 
do  not  pass  inspection  are  taken  to  the  Angel  Island  Station  for  further 
examination.  An  Oriental  Division  is  in  charge  of  matters  relating 
to  vessels  from  China  and  Japan  (a  majority  of  cases  handled  at  Angel 
Island  are  Chinese  and  Japanese).  A  hospital  at  the  station  operates 
under  jurisdiction  of  the  Public  Health  Service  Department.  Besides 
the  Quarantine  and  Immigration  Station,  the  Government  operates  a 
lighthouse,  established  on  the  southwest  portion  of  the  island,  under 
license  to  the  Treasury  Department,  in  1886.  Its  two  keepers  operate 
the  light,  a  fog  bell,  and  (by  remote  control)  two  fog  sirens  at  other 
points  on  the  island. 

YERBA  BUENA 

Stepping  stone  for  the  bridge  builders  in  spanning  the  Bay,  cone- 
shaped  Yerba  Buena  Island  (open  for  official  business  only  by  pass  from 
Headquarters  I2th  Naval  District,  Federal  Office  Bldg.,  San  Fran- 
cisco), rising  between  the  eastern  and  western  shores,  is  the  anchorage 
for  both  the  suspension  and  the  cantilever  spans  of  the  San  Francisco- 
Oakland  Bay  Bridge.  Through  a  rock  formation  of  the  island  passes 
a  bore  tunnel  connecting  the  two  (see  Emporium  of  a  New  World: 
Engineering  Enterprise).  East  of  the  tunnel,  the  first  of  the  bridge's 
East  Bay  spans  passes  over  the  buildings  of  the  island's  naval  reserva- 
tion on  a  narrow  tongue  of  land  projecting  into  the  bay,  terminated 
by  a  barren  low  hill.  Winding  paved  side  roads  lead  to  all  parts  of 
the  island's  landscaped  and  heavily  wooded  slopes,  dotted  by  the  neat 
dwellings  of  navy  and  lighthouse  personnel. 

Known  to  early  navigators  and  whalers  as  Wood  Island,  Yerba 
Buena  Island  was  indicated  on  old  Spanish  charts  as  Isla  del  Carmen. 
The  English  navigator,  Frederick  W.  Beechey,  gave  it  the  present  name 
in  1826,  but  it  was  known  locally  as  Goat  Island  in  the  early  iSso's 
when  Gorham  H.  Nye  pastured  his  goats  on  its  slopes.  Until  after 
the  1850'$,  when  the  Land  Commission  denied  the  Limantour  claim 
to  the  island  and  gave  title  to  the  Government,  other  early  settlers 
raised  goats  there.  Despite  the  subsequent  disappearance  of  all  goats 
from  the  island  the  colloquial  name  persisted,  although  various  official 
documents  referred  to  it  as  "Yerba  Buena."  (An  1858  map  of  Cali- 
fornia had  called  it  "Ghote"  [sic]  Island.")  In  1895  the  United 
States  Geographic  Board  officially  adopted  the  local  name. 

Not  until  December  19,  1866  did  the  Government  first  take  posses- 
sion. First  used  as  an  infantry  station,  the  island  served  in  the  early 
yo's  as  an  artillery  post,  until  fire  destroyed  the  buildings,  leaving  as 
the  only  remaining  Government  service  the  lighthouse  station  estab- 
lished in  1875. 


THE     HARBOR     AND     ITS     ISLANDS       367 

On  April  12,  1898,  President  William  McKinley  signed  an  execu- 
tive order  setting  aside  a  part  of  the  island  for  a  naval  training  station. 
At  a  cost  of  $74,400  barracks  were  erected  to  house  500  apprentices. 
The  additional  water  supply  necessary  for  the  training  station  was 
piped  under  the  bay  from  Contra  Costa  County.  The  island  slopes 
were  cleared  and  landscaped  and  a  road  built  to  its  highest  point.  A 
fully  rigged  training  ship,  the  Boston,  was  attached  to  the  station  for 
use  in  a  six-months  cruise  of  sea  duty,  following  a  like  training  period 
on  shore.  Stocks  of  quail  and  pheasant  turned  loose  on  the  island 
thrived  until  in  1916  an  executive  order  signed  by  President  Woodrow 
Wilson  set  aside  141  of  the  island's  approximately  300  acres  as  a 
National  game  preserve.  The  naval  training  station  was  officially  closed 
in  August,  1923.  The  remaining  buildings  and  old  training  ship  con- 
tinued to  be  used  as  a  receiving  station  for  transfer  of  naval  units  to 
and  from  the  Asiatic  fleet  and  various  naval  bases. 

The  campaign  to  change  the  name  of  the  island,  begun  in  1916  by 
historian  Nellie  van  der  Grift  Sanchez,  succeeded  in  1931  when  the 
United  States  Geographic  Board  made  the  name  "Yerba  Buena"  offi- 
cial. A  newspaper  account  of  the  ceremonies  held  on  the  island  in 
June,  1931  states:  "The  day's  legend  was  that  there  was  one  remain- 
ing goat  on  the  island,  and  he  was  to  be  thrown  overboard  to  free  Yerba 
Buena,  like  St.  Patrick  did  Ireland.  Jack  Love,  radio  operator  on  the 
island,  dressed  up  as  a  goat  and  was  twice  fed  to  the  crocodiles,  figura- 
tively speaking." 

Below  the  eastern  entrance  to  the  Bay  Bridge  tunnel,  a  road  winds 
down  around  the  island  past  a  marine  sentry  post  to  the  Naval  Receiv- 
ing Station  on  the  southeastern  shore.  Commissary  buildings,  ware- 
houses and  a  carpenter  shop,  a  building  marked  ''General  Court  Martial 
and  Brig,"  and  the  old  barracks  with  its  colonial  portico  stand  below 
a  span  of  the  bridge.  At  a  nearby  dock,  beyond  a  tennis  court,  the 
gray-painted  receiving  ship  rides  at  anchor.  Its  interior  has  been  altered 
and  its  superstructure  changed  to  conform  with  modern  naval  construc- 
tion, so  that  only  the  hull  and  the  decks  of  the  original  ship  remain. 

Below  the  high  bluff  on  the  southwest  shore  are  the  six  buildings 
of  the  Yerba  Buena  Lighthouse  Depot,  where  a  force  of  about  25  men 
service  and  supply  all  lighthouses,  lightships,  buoys,  and  fog  signal  sta- 
tions on  the  California  coast.  A  white-painted  lighthouse  tender,  used 
to  maintain  contact  with  the  various  lighthouses  and  with  San  Fran- 
cisco Lightship,  is  stationed  at  the  depot's  dock  alongside  the  red-painted 
lightship,  Relief.  Equipped  with  complete  radio  beam  facilities,  the 
Relief  carries  a  crew  of  nine  while  in  port  and  seventeen  while  on 
station.  It  is  used  to  relieve  the  regular  lightships  stationed  off  San 
Francisco  Bar  and  Blunts  Reef  during  annual  vacation  and  check-up 
periods. 


368      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Above  the  island's  southwestern  point,  visible  from  the  San  Fran- 
cisco span  of  the  Bay  bridge,  is  the  octagonal  grey  and  white  frame 
tower  of  Yerba  Buena  Light,  erected  in  1875.  One  of  the  smallest  in 
the  service,  it  is  supplied  by  a  i,5OO-watt  globe  magnified  to  12,000 
candlepower  by  its  prism  shade,  which  operates  at  calculated  intervals 
from  sunrise  to  sunset.  An  astronomical  clock  regulates  the  light  auto- 
matically to  conform  with  changes  in  the  daylight  hours.  The  gray 
and  white  frame  building  with  gabled  red  roof  above  the  tower,  occu- 
pied by  the  lighthouse  keeper  and  his  assistant,  houses  a  radio-beacon 
monitor  control  station.  Here  radio  beams  from  lighthouses  and  light- 
ships are  checked  twice  daily  with  naval  observatory  time  for  frequency 
and  strength.  (California  lighthouse  stations  are  grouped  in  south, 
central  and  northern  districts.  In  clear  weather,  the  southern  district 
broadcasts  its  beam  only  during  the  first  and  fourth  ten  seconds  of 
each  hour;  the  central  district,  during  the  second  and  fifth  ten  seconds; 
the  northern  district,  during  the  third  and  sixth.  The  monitor  station 
checks  all  districts  to  guard  against  lag  or  overlap  between  broadcasts. ) 

TREASURE  ISLAND 

"It  ought  to  be  in  the  West,  and  have  a  tang  of  the  Orient  about 
it  ...  at  the  last  frontier  of  civilization's  forward  march,  yet  looking 
out  upon  the  most  ancient  lands  and  the  most  exotic  peoples."  So  was 
hailed — by  Lewis  Rex  Miller  in  the  Christian  Science  Monitor — the 
concept  and  construction  of  the  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition 
(I939-4O)  on  Treasure  Island.  Approached  by  a  filled-in  causeway 
from  Yerba  Buena  Island,  Treasure  Island  (see  Emporium  of  a  New 
World:  Engineering  Enterprise)  appears  like  a  "stately  pleasure  dome" 
conjured  up  by  the  magic  of  modern  science  from  Kublai  Khan's 
Xanadu.  By  night  this  unearthly  effect  is  enhanced  by  panchromatic 
floodlighting  which  transforms  the  exposition's  towers  and  pavilions  into 
a  floating  city  of  emerald  and  vermilion  palaces. 

The  architectural  commission  to  whom  goes  much  of  the  credit  for 
the  exposition's  dominant  features  included  such  outstanding  Western 
architects  as  Lewis  P.  Hobart,  Ernest  Weihe,  Timothy  Pflueger,  Wil- 
liam G.  Merchant,  and  Arthur  Brown,  Jr.  Until  his  death  in  1937, 
George  W.  Kelham,  supervising  architect  of  the  Panama-Pacific  Inter- 
national Exposition  (1915),  was  chairman  of  the  commission.  Under 
its  direction  the  goal  which  Kelham  described  as  an  attempt  "to  strike 
a  golden  medium  between  pageantry  and  structural  beauty"  was  realized 
to  a  degree  of  perfection  witnessed  by  the  millions  of  spectators  who 
have  marvelled  at  the  spectacular  charm  of  the  exposition's  array  of 
courts  and  pavilions.  Working  in  close  harmony  with  its  designers  of 
buildings,  landscape  architects  such  as  Mark  Daniels,  Thomas  D. 


THE     HARBOR     AND     ITS     ISLANDS      369 

Church,  Butler  S.  Sturtevant,  and  the  Misses  Worn,  under  the  super- 
vision of  John  McLaren,  chief  landscape  architect  of  the  1915  exposition 
and  of  Golden  Gate  Park,  created  floral  designs  and  arranged  for  the 
planting  of  evergreens  indigenous  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  Besides  rhodo- 
dendrons and  azaleas,  native  annuals,  and  perennials  from  all  over  the 
Far  West,  landscaping  brought  to  this  riot  of  color  the  exotic  hues  of 
flowers  and  plants  imported  from  far  countries  of  the  Pacific  area. 

Midway  down  the  Avenue  of  Palms  rise  two  massive  Mayan-Incan 
pyramids  (Weihe)  supporting  huge  stylized  elephant  figures — the  ex- 
position's main  gateway  to  its  great  circular  Court  of  Honor.  Here  the 
slim  octagonal  Tower  of  the  Sun  (Brown),  pierced  by  airy  embrazures 
and  surmounted  by  a  spire,  rises  400  feet  to  dominate  with  a  Renais- 
sance gesture  the  conglomerate  eclecticism  of  the  surrounding  archi- 
tecture. Northward  from  the  belvederes  and  statuary  about  its  base 
stretches  the  immense  oblong  Court  of  the  Seven  Seas  (Kelham).  From 
the  facades  of  the  pavilions  which  enclose  it  protrude  the  rearing  prows 
of  galleys  with  carved  figureheads,  suggestive  of  travel  and  adventure. 
This  via  triumphalis  set  with  standards  and  lanterns  opens  into  the 
Court  of  Pacifica  (Pflueger),  across  whose  fountain  and  sculptures 
gazes  Ralph  Stackpole's  amazonian  statue,  Pacifica,  symbolic  of  peaceful 
co-operation  between  the  Americas  and  their  Pacific  neighbors,  sta- 
tioned against  a  gleaming  backdrop  of  tubes  and  metal  stars  designed 
to  produce  melodious  sounds  under  certain  climatic  conditions.  East- 
ward from  the  Tower  of  the  Sun  lies  the  long  Court  of  Reflections 
with  its  serene  sculptures  and  still  pools,  separated  by  a  lofty  arch 
(Hobart)  from  the  adjoining  Court  of  Flowers.  Olof  C.  Malmquist's 
The  Rainbow  rises  from  the  fountain  dominating  this  enclosure,  whose 
eastern  entrance  is  guarded  by  twin  Towers  of  the  East  (Merchant). 
The  Court  of  the  Moon  and  Stars  (Kelham)  adjoining  the  Court  of 
Honor  on  the  south  presents  a  decorative  vista  of  fountain,  urns,  and 
bas-reliefs.  Beyond,  in  the  direction  of  Yerba  Buena  Island,  lies  the 
sunken  Enchanted  Garden,  where  landscaping  plays  unconfined  about 
a  huge  fountain.  Overlooking  this  verdant  area,  William  Wurster's 
Yerba  Buena  Clubhouse  achieves  that  gay  and  functional  quality  asso- 
ciated with  this  architect's  rejection  of  ornament  and  fondness  for 
modern  materials. 

Throughout  the  exposition's  ensemble  of  almost  a  hundred  build- 
ings, as  various  in  design  as  the  purposes  they  serve,  are  many  whose 
architecture  is  notable  either  for  beautiful  modernity  or  for  features 
suggestive  of  cultures  ranging  from  Alaska  to  Argentina,  from  Missouri 
to  French  Indo  China. 

The  exposition  has  proved  a  gigantic  workshop  for  all  but  a  few 
of  the  more  renowned  Bay  region  sculptors  and  mural  painters.  From 
Sargent  Johnson's  grotesque  Inca  Indians  astride  llamas  beside  the  foun- 


37O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

tain  in  the  Court  of  Pacifica  and  Adeline  Kent's  evanescent  Air  and 
Water  above  the  arched  west  walls  of  the  Court  of  Honor  to  Robert 
Howard's  gamboling  Whales  in  the  fountain  of  the  San  Francisco 
Building  and  Herman  Volz's  gigantic  mural  The  Conquest  of  the  West 
on  the  facade  of  the  Federal  Building — the  statuary  and  murals  run  the 
gamut  of  the  Bay  region's  artistic  achievements.  The  academic  tradi- 
tion predominates  in  Olof  C.  Malmquist's  Fauna,  in  Ettore  Cadorin's 
Moon  and  the  Dawn,  in  Haig  Patigian's  Creation.  Purely  decorative 
are  Jacques  Schnier's  gold-finished  panel,  Dance  of  Life;  Raymond  Puc- 
cinelli's  restrained  Flora;  Ruth  Cravath's  fountain  group,  North 
America. 

When  the  exposition  buildings  are  demolished  and  Treasure  Island 
is  transformed  into  an  air  terminal,  the  semi-circular  Administration 
Building  will  remain,  and  the  two  huge  pavilions  housing  fine  arts  and 
aviation  exhibits  will  become  hangars  for  clipper  planes  linking  San 
Francisco  and  the  Nation  with  Latin  America,  the  Orient,  and  Aus- 
tralasia. 


East  Bay:  Cities  and  Back  Country 


IN  SPANISH  times  the  distant  shoreline  opposite  the  Golden  Gate 
was  "la  contra  costa"  (the  opposite  coast),  to  the  conquistador -es. 
Today  between  the  shimmering  cables  and  steel  girders  of  the  San 
Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge,  the  eastward  traveler  sees  a  continuous 
panorama  of  home  and  industry,  extending  north  and  south  with  hardly 
a  break  and  almost  to  the  crest  of  the  wooded  hills  in  the  background. 
The  "opposite  coast"  is  now  the  East  Bay,  a  heterogeneous  urban  area 
comprising  ten  municipalities  in  two  counties.  The  bridge  is  itself  both 
a  practical  and  a  symbolical  evidence  of  its  close  relationship  to  the 
other  metropolitan  areas  on  the  western  shore. 

The  hills  seem  to  recede  as  the  traveler  speeds  down  the  eastern  half 
of  the  bridge:  he  sees  a  flat  rectangular  strip  of  land  on  which  most 
of  the  industrial  and  business  sections  of  the  East  Bay  rest,  as  on  a 
stage  to  which  the  residential  hills  are  the  backdrop.  Ahead  and  to 
the  right  are  the  tall  buildings  of  downtown  Oakland,  key  city  of  the 
area,  where  the  industrial  district  crowds  down  to  the  Outer  Harbor 
in  the  foreground.  Across  the  water  to  the  far  right  a  ferryboat  dock — 
reminiscent  of  a  vanishing  era  in  Bay  transportation — affords  the  only 
glimpse  of  Alameda,  the  island  city.  Far  to  the  southeast,  beyond  the 
traveler's  range  of  vision,  are  San  Leandro  and  Hayward.  Although 
the  vast  panorama  of  homes  and  business  buildings  shows  no  visible 
gaps,  it  is  a  jig-saw  puzzle  of  independent  communities  closely  fitted 
together — Piedmont,  a  residential  community  in  the  hills  almost  directly 
ahead ;  Emeryville,  an  industrial  town  crowding  to  the  shore  in  the  left 
foreground;  Berkeley  to  the  left,  best  identified  by  the  white  campanile 
and  stadium  on  the  university  campus,  spreading  up  the  slopes  beyond  ; 
El  Cerrito,  and  Richmond,  residential  and  industrial  towns  far  to  the 
left.  With  a  combined  population  of  over  a  half-million,  these  munic- 
ipalities form  a  continuous  urban  unit,  yet  maintain  their  political 
independence. 

Its  scenic  attractions  and  garden  climate — slightly  more  extreme 
in  summer  and  winter  than  San  Francisco's — make  the  East  Bay  the 
family  homesite  of  more  than  30,000  commuters,  who  ebb  and  flow  daily 
across  the  bridge  to  business  and  professional  offices.  The  panoramic 
setting  of  the  entire  Bay  region  is  nowhere  better  seen  than  from  the 
Grizzly  Peak  and  Skyline  Boulevards,  which  follow  the  crest  of  the 
hills  above  Berkeley  and  Oakland.  With  impressive  authority,  a  noted 
traveler  has  cited  this  tour  as  "the  third  most  beautiful  drive  in  the 

37i 


374      SAN     FRANCISCO 

world."  It  follows  for  a  distance  the  boundary  line  between  the  two 
counties  which  share  the  east  side  of  the  Bay — Alameda  and  Contra 
Costa,  the  old  Spanish  name  having  adhered  to  the  latter,  although  its 
meaning  is  generally  lost  on  the  monolinguistic  inheritors  of  the  ranches. 


Oakland 


Information  Service:  Oakland  Tribune,  isth  and  Franklin  Sts.  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  i4th  and  Franklin  Sts.  Dep't  of  Motor  Vehicles,  1107  Jackson  St. 
California  State  Automobile  Assn.,  399  Grand  Ave.  Alameda  County  De- 
velopment Commission,  County  Courthouse. 

Railroad  Stations:  Atchison,  Topeka  and  Santa  Fe.  Ry.,  San  Pablo  Ave.  and 
4oth  St.  Sacramento  Northern  Ry.,  Shafter  Ave.  and  4Oth  St.  Southern  Pa- 
cific R.  R.,  W.  end  of  i6th  St.  and  Broadway  and  ist  St.  Western  Pacific 
R.  R.,  Washington  and  3rd  Sts. 

Bus  Stations:  Greyhound  and  Peerless  Lines,  Union  Stage  Depot,  2047  San 
Pablo  Ave.  Santa  Fe  and  Burlington  Trailways,  1801  Telegraph  Ave.  All 
American  Bus  Lines,  1901  San  Pablo  Ave.  Dollar  Lines,  2002  San  Pablo  Ave. 

Airports:  Oakland  Municipal  Airport,  Bay  Farm  Island,  for  United  Air  Lines 
(about  Jan.,  1941  base  will  be  moved  to  San  Francisco)  and  TWA.  Treasure 
Island  for  Pan-American  Airways. 

Taxis:     Average  rates  20^  first  y^  m.,  10^  each  additional  J^>  m. 

Streetcars  and  Buses:  East  Bay  Transit  Co.  to  all  points  in  Oakland,  Berke- 
ley, and  Alameda,  10^  or  one  token  (7  for  50^)  ;  to  Hayward,  El  Cerrito,  or 
Richmond  20$  or  2  tokens;  transfers  free.  Transbay  electric  trains  to  San 
Francisco,  21^. 

Bridge:  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  approaches:  38th  and  Market 
Sts.  and  8th  and  Cypress  Sts.;  toll  25^,  i  to  5  passengers. 

Traffic  Regulations:  Speed  limit  25  m.p.h.  in  business  and  residential  areas, 
15  m.p.h.  at  intersections.  Parking  limit  40  min.  in  business  district.  No  all- 
night  parking. 

Accommodations:  Eight  medium-priced  hotels  downtown;  apartment  hotels; 
Y.M.C.A.,  2501  Telegraph  Ave.;  Y.W.C.A.,  1515  Webster  St.;  eight  tourist 
camps. 

Radio  Stations:  KLX  (880  kc.),  Tribune  Tower;  KLS  (1280  kc.),  327  2ist 
St.;  KROW  (930  kc.),  464  i9th  St. 

Concert  Halls:  Auditorium  Theater,  Civic  Auditorium;  Women's  City  Club. 
Motion  Picture  Houses:  Five  first-run  theaters  downtown. 

Amateur  and  Little  Theaters:  Oakland  Theater  Guild,  Women's  City  Club, 
1428  Alice  St.;  Faucet  School  of  the  Theater,  1400  Harrison  St.;  East  Bay 
Children's  Theater,  Junior  League,  Hotel  Oakland. 

Burlesque:     Moulin  Rouge,   485   8th    St. 

375 


376      SAN     FRANCISCO 

SPORTS 

Archery:     Peralta  Park,   loth  and  Fallen  Sts. 

Auto  Racing:     Oakland  Speedway,  E.  i4th  St.  and  i5Oth  Ave. 

Baseball:     Oakland    Baseball    Park    (Pacific    Coast    League),    San    Pablo    and 

Park  Aves.    Auditorium  Field,  8th  and  Fallon  Sts.      Bay  View,  i8th  and  Wood 

Sts.    Bushrod,  6oth  St.  and  Shattuck  Ave. 

Boating:     Lake  Merritt. 

Boxing:     Oakland  Civic  Auditorium   (Wednesday  nights). 

Cricket:     Golden  Gate  Playgrounds,  6142  San  Pablo  Ave. 

Golf:  Knoll  Golf  Course,  Oak  Knoll  and  Mountain  Blvd.  Lake  Chabot 
Municipal  Golf  Course,  end  of  Golf  Links  Rd. 

Ice  Skating:     Oakland  Ice  Rink,  625   i4th  St. 

Lawn  Bowling:     Lakeside  Park,  N.  shore  Lake  Merritt. 

Riding:     Bridle  paths  in  hills;  horse  rental  $1.00  per  hour  up. 

Softball:  Exposition  Field  (lighted),  8th  and  Fallon  Sts.  Wolfenden  Play- 
grounds (lighted),  2230  Dennison  St.  Allendale  School,  Penniman  and  38th 
Aves.  Goldengate  Playground,  6142  San  Pablo  Ave.  Manzanita  School, 
24th  Ave.  and  E.  26th  St.  Poplar  Playground,  32nd  and  Peralta  Sts. 

Swimming:  Lion's  Pool,  Dimond  Park,  Fruitvale  Ave.  and  Lyman  Rd.;  chil- 
dren 15^,  adults  25^;  no  suits  or  towels  furnished.  Lake  Temescal  .  Forest 
Park  Pool,  Thornhill  Dr.;  children  15^,  adults  25^;  suit  10^,  towel  5$,  caps  lotf 
to  25^. 

Tennis:  31  municipal  courts;  daytime  free,  25^  per  court  per  ^  hour  nights. 
Athol  Plaza,  Lakeshore  Blvd.  and  Athol  Ave.  Bella  Vista,  icth  Ave.  and 
E.  28th  St.  Brookdale  Plaza,  High  St.  and  Brookdale  Ave.  Dimond  Park, 
Fruitvale  Ave.  and  Lyman  Rd.  Mosswood  Park,  Moss  Ave.  and  Webster  St. 
Davie  Tennis  Stadium,  188  Oak  Rd. 

Wrestling:     Oakland  Civic  Auditorium    (Friday  nights). 
Yachting:     Oakland  Yacht  Harbor,  foot  of   igth  Ave. 

CHURCHES 

(Only  centrally  located  churches  of  most  denominations  are  listed] 

Baptist.  First,  530  2ist  St.  Buddhist.  Japanese  Buddhist  Temple,  6th  and 
Jackson  Sts.  Christian.  First,  29th  and  Fairmount  Sts.  Christian  Science. 
First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  1701  Franklin  St.  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter  Day  Saints.  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints,  3757  Webster 
St.  Congregational.  First,  a6th  and  Harrison  Sts.  Episcopal.  St.  Paul's, 
Bay  Place  and  Montecito  Ave.  Evangelical.  St.  Mark's,  Telegraph  Ave.  and 
58th  St.  Free  Methodist.  First,  459  6ist  St.  Greek  Orthodox.  Holy  Assump- 


OAKLAND      377 

tion,  920  Brush  St.  Hebrew  Orthodox.  Temple  Sinai,  28th  and  Webster  Sts. 
Lutheran.  St.  Paul's,  Grove  and  xoth  Sts.  Methodist.  First,  24th  and  Broad- 
way. Presbyterian.  First,  26th  and  Broadway.  Roman  Catholic.  St.  Francis 
de  Sales,  Grove  and  Hobart  Sts.  Salvation  Army.  Salvation  Army  Citadel, 
533  gth  St.  Seventh  Day  Adventist.  Oakland  Central  Church,  531  25th  St. 
Unitarian.  First,  685  I4th  St. 

OAKLAND  (0-1600  alt.,  304,909  pop.),  seat  of  Alameda  County, 
occupies  roughly  the  central  part  of  the  East  Bay  metropolitan  area. 
Berkeley  and  Emeryville  to  the  north  and  Alameda,  across  the  Estuary, 
limit  its  expansion,  but  to  the  east  and  southeast  it  sprawls  without 
let  or  hindrance  over  hills  and  Bay-shore  flats. 

From  the  tall  white  City  Hall  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  streets,  once 
country  roads,  radiate :  San  Pablo  Avenue  striking  northwest  to  indus- 
trial Emeryville  and  West  Berkeley;  Telegraph  Avenue  and  Broadway, 
north  through  the  newer  residential  sections  to  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia; Fourteenth  Street,  west  through  shabby  neighborhoods  toward 
the  Bay,  and  east  and  southeast  by  zigzags  past  Lake  Merritt  and  an 
interminable  series  of  local  retail  shops  supplying  the  small,  neat  but 
monotonous  rows  of  white  houses  which  make  up  East  Oakland,  Fruit- 
vale,  Melrose,  and  Elmhurst. 

Closely  hemming  the  downtown  section,  where  a  few  tall  office 
buildings  loom  over  squat  business  structures,  are  two-  and  three-story 
homes  of  the  "gingerbread"  era,  slightly  down-at-the-heel.  Spreading 
north  and  east  toward  the  hills  from  Lake  Merritt  in  the  heart  of  the 
city  are  thousands  of  wood  and  stucco  houses,  each  with  its  shrubs  and 
lawn.  The  one  reminder  of  Oakland's  Spanish  heritage  is  the  modern 
homes  in  the  restricted  districts — Rockridge,  Broadway  Terrace,  and 
Claremont  Pines — constructed  in  a  modified  Mediterranean  style  of 
architecture,  tile-roofed  and  stuccoed,  with  wide  arches,  studio  windows, 
and  sunny  patios.  Semitropical  trees — camphor,  acacia,  pepper,  dra- 
cena,  and  palm — ornament  city  parks  and  sidewalks,  and  figs  and  citrus 
fruits  ripen  in  the  warm  sunshine  in  many  backyards. 

Warmer  in  the  summer  than  its  metropolitan  neighbor  across  the 
Bay,  Oakland's  climate  is  nevertheless  tempered  in  summer  by  cooling 
winds  and  fogs  from  the  ocean.  This  has  attracted  many  San  Francisco 
business  men  and  office  workers  who,  even  before  the  building  of  the 
great  bridge,  came  here. 

In  the  springtime,  the  hills  become  green  backgrounds  for  wildflower 
mosaics  of  scarlet  and  purple,  blue  and  yellow.  Besides  the  Coast  live- 
oak  for  which  the  city  was  named,  the  Monterey  pine  and  the  eucalyp- 
tus are  abundant,  the  latter  introduced  from  Australia  in  1856  and 
planted  by  thousands  in  the  hills  to  create  a  wooded  watershed.  Vivid 
with  color  during  the  spring  months,  the  uplands  are  seared  to  silver- 
brown  through  summer  and  fall  because  of  lack  of  rain. 


378      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Around  the  City  Hall  spread  the  70  blocks  of  the  retail  shopping 
district.  Oakland's  department  stores  and  speciality  shops  draw  patron- 
age from  the  entire  East  Bay  region,  but  they  also  yield  a  certain  per- 
centage of  such  trade  to  the  transbay  metropolis,  as  San  Francisco 
trade  names  on  the  doors  of  local  shops  indicate.  Influenced  by  the 
close  commercial  tie-up  between  the  two  cities,  Oakland's  tempo  of 
living  varies  with  the  time  of  day :  by  dawn  commuters  are  on  the  move, 
feeder  highways  to  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  are  alive 
with  speeding  cars,  and  interurban  trains  clang  through  the  streets, 
crossing  and  re-crossing  the  great  span.  After  the  early  morning  rush, 
life  in  the  downtown  section  settles  into  a  somewhat  more  moderate 
pace.  At  the  end  of  the  day,  as  automobiles,  buses,  and  streetcars  carry 
thousands  home  from  work,  the  main  thoroughfares  come  to  noisy  life 
again. 

South  of  the  central  business  district,  the  section  between  Tenth 
Street  and  the  shore  of  the  Estuary,  oldest  quarter  of  the  city,  is  now 
given  over  to  bargain  stores,  second-hand  shops,  and  workers'  homes. 
On  lower  Broadway  is  a  section  of  honky-tonk  beer  parlors  and  skid- 
road  soup  houses,  where  a  burlesque  show  with  lurid  lobby  portraiture 
is  neighbor  to  a  hole-in-the-wall  pawnshop  and  an  old-clothes  emporium, 
where  panhandlers  linger  on  street  corners  and  at  entrances  to  penny 
arcades.  Southward,  interspersed  with  unpainted,  grimy  dwellings,  are 
wholesale  houses. 

Along  the  Estuary  itself,  resounding  to  the  grating  squeak  of  winches 
and  the  staccato  chug  of  wharf  tractors  are  huge  docks,  a  part  of  the 
Port  of  Oakland's  Inner  Harbor — one  of  the  three  on  the  city's  32-mile 
water  front:  Outer  Harbor,  between  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge 
approach  and  the  Southern  Pacific  mole;  Middle  Harbor,  bounded  by 
the  Southern  Pacific  and  Western  Pacific  Railroads;  and  Inner  Harbor, 
comprising  the  six  miles  of  tidal  estuary  between  Oakland  and  Alameda. 
Into  the  narrow  Inner  Harbor  come  freighters  from  the  seven  seas. 
Here  are  held  crew  races  of  the  University  of  California,  and  here 
pleasure  craft  and  fishing  boats  nose  in  and  out. 

West  of  downtown  Oakland,  extending  from  Market  Street  to  the 
Bay  and  from  the  Estuary  to  Twentieth  Street,  is  the  West  Oakland 
district.  Crowding  close  about  railroad  yards  and  manufacturing  plants 
are  unsightly  and  dreary-looking  dwellings.  On  some  of  the  streets 
spacious  old  homes  still  maintain  an  air  of  shabby  and  aloof  gentility, 
but  many  have  been  partitioned  into  crowded,  rabbit-warren  housekeep- 
ing rooms.  Throughout  the  district  are  rows  of  ugly  cottages  with 
blistered  paint  and  rickety  stairs  and  porches,  many  of  which  are  now 
being  demolished  to  make  way  for  new  projects  of  the  United  States 
Housing  Authority.  Along  Seventh  Street,  intersecting  this  district 
east  and  west,  rumble  the  interurban  trains. 


OAKLAND      379 

In  West  Oakland  is  the  city's  Harlem,  home  of  the  large  Negro 
population  attracted  by  Oakland's  position  as  the  western  terminus  of 
two  overland  railway  systems,  which  employ  in  great  numbers  waiters, 
cooks,  and  porters.  West  Seventh  Street  is  the  center  of  Negro  life. 
Here  are  dance  halls,  restaurants,  markets,  barber  shops,  and  motion 
picture  theaters  for  Negroes. 

Although  Oakland's  population  includes  thousands  of  Portuguese, 
Italians,  Mexicans,  and  Chinese,  its  various  national  groups  are  scat- 
tered throughout  the  city  rather  than  settled  in  well-defined  foreign 
quarters.  But  their  customs  and  their  cuisine  lend  colorful  variety  to 
the  city's  life. 

The  Portuguese  have  been  here  for  three  generations,  and  yet  they 
still  hold  to  such  national  customs  and  festivals  as  the  Feast  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  celebrated  annually.  A  large  number  of  Portuguese- 
Americans  in  the  environs  are  truck  farmers  and  dairymen.  The 
Italians,  largest  foreign  language  group,  have  influenced  the  culinary 
art  of  the  community.  Numerous  Italian  restaurants  feature  various 
antipasti  with  which  to  whet  the  appetite;  polenta,  a  thick  porridge  of 
corn  meal;  and  such  delicacies  as  fried  artichokes  or  squash  blossoms 
dipped  in  batter  and  fried  in  deep  olive  oil.  The  Mexican  population 
maintains  a  few  restaurants  which  serve  native  Mexican  foods — enchil- 
adas, tacos  en  tortillas,  and  chili  rellena — and  an  occasional  hole-in-the- 
wall  shop  where  strings  of  chorizo  (Mexican  sausage)  hang  from  gray 
rafters  and  three-bushel  jute  bags  of  purple  and  crimson  peppers  stand 
in  corners.  Chinatown,  with  its  dangling  lanterns  and  picture  word 
signs,  houses  its  3,000  Chinese  in  a  loosely  knit  community  centering 
in  the  wholesale  district  near  Eighth  and  Franklin  Streets.  Up  and 
down  its  sidewalks  the  soft-soled  slippers  of  Old  China  shuffle  along 
beside  Young  China's  tapping  occidental  heels.  On  market  pegs  hang 
exotic  fruits  and  vegetables,  dried  ducks  and  transparent  octopuses ;  from 
gaudy  chop  suey  establishments  issue  strains  of  modern  "swing." 

Although  the  site  of  Oakland  was  first  visited  by  white  men  in  1770, 
when  Lieutenant  Pedro  Fages  led  an  expedition  here  seeking  a  land 
route  to  Point  Reyes,  a  half  century  passed  before  the  land  was  first 
colonized.  In  1820  Spain's  last  governor  of  Alta  California,  Pablo 
Vicente  de  Sola,  granted  to  one  Sergeant  Luis  Maria  Peralta  a  tract 
of  land  in  recognition  of  conspicuous  military  service  in  the  Spanish 
Colonial  Army.  This  grant  became  known  as  the  Rancho  San  Antonio. 
Covering  48,000  acres,  it  included  the  area  now  occupied  by  Oakland, 
Berkeley,  and  Alameda.  Threescore  years  of  age  at  the  time  he  re- 
ceived this  prodigious  grant,  Don  Luis  never  actually  lived  on  it,  pre- 
ferring to  remain  at  his  home  on  a  grant  he  had  obtained  in  1818, 
Portados  la  Rancheria  del  Chino,  near  the  pueblo  San  Jose.  He  had 
four  grown  sons  whom  he  placed  in  charge  of  Rancho  San  Antonio. 


380      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Not  only  was  this  the  first,  but  it  was  also  the  most  valuable,  of  the 
land  grants  on  the  east  shore  of  San  Francisco  Bay.  Lean  years  were 
few.  The  soil  was  rich,  and  herds  multiplied  rapidly;  but  agriculture 
was  confined  to  the  raising  of  a  few  staples  grown  in  limited  quantities. 

In  1842  Don  Luis,  then  past  80,  divided  his  grant  among  his  sons. 
To  Jose  Domingo  he  gave  what  is  now  Berkeley ;  to  Vicente,  the  Encinal 
de  Temescal  (now  central  Oakland)  ;  to  Antonio  Maria,  the  portion 
to  the  south  (East  Central  Oakland  and  Alameda)  ;  and  to  Ignacio, 
what  is  now  Melrose  and  Elmhurst.  Realizing  the  danger  of  future 
family  altercations,  he  adjured  them:  "I  command  all  my  children, 
that  they  remain  in  peace,  succoring  each  other  in  their  necessities, 
eschewing  all  avaricious  ambitions,  without  entering  into  foolish  dif- 
ferences for  one  or  two  calves,  for  the  cows  bring  them  forth  each  year ; 
and  inasmuch  as  the  land  is  narrow,  it  is  indispensable  that  the  cattle 
should  become  mixed  up,  for  which  reason  I  command  my  sons  to 
be  friendly  and  united." 

To  this  sage  advice  his  sons  listened  with  respect.  During  the 
golden  years  of  the  Peraltas'  reign  over  Rancho  San  Antonio,  business 
was  seldom  allowed  to  interfere  with  pleasure.  There  were  innumer- 
able fiestas,  and,  on  Antonio's  share  of  the  grant,  bull  fights  were  held. 
But  while  the  Spaniards  complacently  watched  their  grazing  herds  of 
fat  cattle  "without  entering  into  foolish  differences  for  one  or  two 
calves,"  a  new  economic  order  was  emerging.  Gold  had  been  discov- 
ered. Across  the  Bay  the  sleepy  settlement  of  Yerba  Buena  had  become 
a  lusty  brawling  town  crowded  with  men  of  all  descriptions,  including 
trigger-quick  adventurers. 

Shaken  by  the  momentous  events  which  were  threatening  the  des- 
tinies of  the  Peralta  clan,  Don  Luis  called  its  members  together — sons 
and  grandsons — and  spoke  with  grave  earnestness,  imparting  final  words 
of  wisdom :  "My  sons,"  he  said,  "God  has  given  this  gold  to  the  Ameri- 
cans. Had  He  desired  us  to  have  it,  He  would  have  given  it  to  us 
ere  now.  Therefore,  go  not  after  it,  but  let  others  go.  Plant  your 
lands  and  reap;  these  be  your  best  gold  fields,  for  all  must  eat  while 
they  live." 

In  1849  there  arrived  the  first  American  settler  in  this  region,  a 
former  sea  captain,  Moses  Chase.  Soon  thereafter  three  newcomers, 
Robert,  William,  and  Edward  Patten,  who  had  leased  land  from  An- 
tonio Peralta,  added  Chase  to  their  group  and  became  the  first  American 
farmers  in  this  district,  raising  good  crops  of  hay  and  grain. 

With  these  tenants  the  Peraltas  had  come  to  terms,  but  a  steady 
stream  of  new  squatters  also  dotted  their  holdings.  Unsuccessful  in 
several  attempts  in  1850  and  1851  to  eject  the  newcomers,  they  were 
forced  at  length  to  compromise  by  granting  leases.  Among  these  squat- 
ters was  a  man  whose  name  was  to  be  closely  linked  with  the  early 


OAKLAND      381 

history  of  Oakland — Horace  W.  Carpentier,  who  recently  had  been 
graduated  from  Columbia  College  in  New  York.  Associated  with  him 
in  the  enterprises  that  were  destined  to  make  him  many  times  a  mil- 
lionaire were  A.  J.  Moon  and  Edson  Adams.  Having  acquired  with 
his  partners  a  townsite  where  present  downtown  Oakland  is  situated, 
Carpentier  in  1852  succeeded  in  having  the  town  of  Oakland  incor- 
porated, with  himself  seated  securely  in  the  mayor's  chair.  When  the 
citizenry,  who  were  seldom  advised  of  what  their  mayor  was  doing, 
awoke,  he  held — among  other  concessions — a  franchise  for  a  ferry  to 
San  Francisco,  the  fare  to  be  one  dollar  a  trip. 

Carpentier  obtained  absolute  title  to  the  entire  water  front  in  ex- 
change for  building  a  small  frame  schoolhouse  and  three  tiny  wharves. 
The  water-front  deal  resulted  in  prolonged  litigation,  known  as  the 
"Battle  of  the  Waterfront,"  by  which  the  city  tried  to  regain  title  to  its 
doorstep.  The  fight  was  not  ended  until  1910,  when  assignees  of  Car- 
pentier agreed  to  waive  title  to  the  water-front  property  in  exchange  for 
long-term  leases. 

The  first  combination  rail  and  ferry  service  began  operation  to  San 
Francisco  in  1863,  although  ferry  service  alone  had  started  as  early 
as  1850.  During  the  i86o's  the  "Big  Four" — Stanford,  Huntington, 
Crocker,  and  Hopkins — started  building  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad, 
for  which  Oakland  was  the  proposed  western  terminus.  When  in  1867 
they  asked  the  city  for  water-front  rights,  the  city  was  unable  to  comply, 
having  presented  all  such  property  to  Horace  Carpentier.  However, 
the  next  year  Carpentier  founded  a  corporation  known  as  the  Oakland 
Waterfront  Company.  Associated  with  him  in  this  enterprise,  among 
others,  was  Leland  Stanford,  one  of  the  "Big  Four."  Carpentier  deeded 
to  the  corporation  his  water-front  holdings  and  the  corporation  in  turn 
conveyed  to  the  railroad  500  acres  of  tideland.  The  railroad  later 
appeared  as  the  chief  defendant,  and  loser,  in  the  suit  wherein  Oakland 
regained  these  properties. 

At  one  time  the  railroad  officials  had  considered  the  Government- 
owned  Yerba  Buena  Island  as  a  western  rail  terminus.  The  citizens 
of  San  Francisco  objected  violently.  It  was  feared  "that  the  real  inten- 
tion was,  by  leveling  the  island  and  constructing  causeways  to  Oakland, 
to  rear  up  a  rival  city  on  the  opposite  shore  that  would  be  in  substance 
owned  ...  by  the  railroad  company."  The  plan  died  when  the  Senate 
refused  to  approve  the  scheme.  All  obstacles  finally  surmounted,  the 
first  overland  rail  service  began  in  1869. 

By  1870  there  were  two  banks,  three  newspapers,  and  a  city  direc- 
tory. Gas  lamps  illuminated  lower  Broadway.  The  first  paving  had 
been  laid — at  a  cost  of  $3.40  per  square  foot.  The  University  of  Cali- 
fornia (later  moved  to  Berkeley)  was  "spreading  light  and  goodness," 


382      SAN     FRANCISCO 

and  a  seminary  for  young  ladies — now  Mills  College — was  about  to 
open. 

The  Central  Pacific  had  entered  the  city,  and  the  Oakland  Railroad, 
already  connecting  with  ferries  to  San  Francisco,  had  been  granted  the 
right  "to  run  horse-cars  from  the  end  of  Broadway  to  Temescal  Creek, 
and  thence  to  the  grounds  of  the  College  of  California,  for  thirty 
years."  Southeast  of  Lake  Merritt  the  villages  of  Clinton,  San  Antonio, 
and  Lynn  had  been  consolidated  into  the  town  of  Brooklyn — now  East 
Oakland. 

The  social  life  of  the  town,  also,  had  seen  great  change.  No  longer 
were  posters  seen  such  as  the  one  which  had  announced  in  earlier  days: 

"There  will  be  a  great  bear  fight  in  front  of  the  American 
Hotel,  Oakland,  between  the  red  bear  Sampson  and  a  big  grizzly 
on  Jan.  pth." 

By  1870  this  form  of  entertainment  had  been  banned,  and  less  san- 
guinary pleasures  had  taken  its  place:  baseball  instead  of  bullfights  and 
typically  Yankee  "dime  parties,"  socials,  and  church  bazaars  instead 
of  Spanish  fiestas. 

In  its  growth  as  a  suburb,  it  gained  some  distinction  from  the  art- 
ists and  writers  who  lived  here.  Jack  London  was  developing  from  a 
water-front  loiterer  into  an  internationally  known  novelist.  Joaquin 
Miller,  the  "Poet  of  the  Sierras,"  was  vaingloriously  displaying  his  long 
hair  and  longer  beard.  Edwin  Markham,  while  teaching  in  an  Oakland 
school,  awoke  to  find  himself  famous  for  "The  Man  With  the  Hoe." 
William  Keith  was  painting  the  East  Bay  hills  and  trees.  George  Ster- 
ling, the  lyric  poet  of  whom  London,  his  contemporary,  said,  "he  looked 
like  a  Greek  coin  run  over  by  a  Roman  chariot,"  lived  in  Oakland  from 
1890  to  1905,  and  Ina  Coolbrith,  who  as  librarian  of  the  Oakland 
Public  Library  guided  the  early  reading  of  Jack  London,  and  who  was 
a  poetess  in  her  own  right,  was  here  from  1873  until  1897. 

Oakland's  growth  was  greatly  accelerated  by  the  earthquake  and 
fire  that  overwhelmed  San  Francisco  in  1906.  Although  itself  dam- 
aged by  the  earthquake,  it  escaped  the  fire  which  overwhelmed  the 
neighboring  city. 

Up  to  50,000  refugees  fled  to  the  East  Bay  region  in  one  week. 
Not  a  few  remained  as  permanent  residents.  This  influx  caused  such 
a  building  boom  that  by  the  following  year  the  population  had  jumped 
to  125,000.  Industrial  growth  also  was  stimulated.  During  the  World 
War,  industry  boomed  as  four  large  shipbuilding  companies  operated  at 
peak  capacity.  By  1920  the  population  was  216,000. 

The  rapid  growth  of  Oakland  shortly  after  1900  is  credited  largely 
to  Francis  Marion  "Borax"  Smith,  of  Death  Valley  fame.  With  the 
huge  profits  from  his  borax  mines,  Smith  invested  heavily  in  the  future 


OAKLAND      383 

of  Oakland.  He  tied  together  the  numerous  street  railway  systems  of 
the  East  Bay  and  founded  the  Key  Route  Ferry  System  in  opposition 
to  the  Southern  Pacific;  he  acquired  control  of  the  East  Bay  Water 
Company,  and  in  partnership  with  Frank  C.  Havens,  pioneer  capitalist, 
established  the  Realty  Syndicate  as  a  holding  company  for  their  many 
real  estate  properties.  Land  in  every  region  of  Alameda  County  was 
bought  and  developed,  residential  and  industrial  tracts  were  opened  up, 
and  interurban  train  service  was  extended  into  each  new  era.  Smith 
came  to  own  an  estimated  one-sixth  of  Alameda  County. 

In  December,  1910  the  $200,000,000  United  Properties  Company 
was  formed  by  a  merger  of  money  and  properties  owned  by  Smith, 
William  S.  Tevis,  and  R.  G.  Hanford.  This  corporation,  perhaps  the 
largest  in  California  history  (excepting  the  Eastern-controlled  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad ) ,  was  to  absorb  and  develop  the  railways,  ferry  system, 
public  utilities,  and  real  estate  of  the  East  Bay.  However,  the  company 
collapsed  in  1913  because  of  unsound  financial  methods,  carrying  with 
it  the  fortunes  of  the  three  founders.  Smith,  the  heaviest  loser,  saw 
$24,000,000  slip  from  his  fingers  almost  overnight.  But  the  company's 
loss  was  the  city's  gain,  for  its  developments  remained. 

In  the  Bay  region,  Oakland's  port  ranks  second  to  San  Francisco 
in  value  of  cargo  handled,  and  third  to  Richmond  and  San  Francisco 
in  tonnage.  Coordinated  water-rail-truck  facilities  handle  the  3,500,000 
tons  of  cargo  that  pass  over  the  water  front  annually.  Principal  exports 
are  dried  and  canned  fruits  and  vegetables,  lumber,  grain,  salt,  and 
petroleum.  Imports  include  copra,  coal  and  coke,  paper,  iron  and  steel, 
and  fertilizer.  Fir,  pine,  cedar,  spruce,  and  redwood  arrive  from  the 
Northwest  and  the  interior  of  California  to  be  made  into  finished  lum- 
ber or  wood  products  before  distribution. 

Oakland's  water  front  is  well-equipped  not  only  to  repair  bay,  river, 
and  oceangoing  vessels  but  also  to  lay  down  such  craft  and  to  launch  and 
outfit  them.  Yachting,  commercial  fishing,  towing,  and  general  boat- 
building and  repairing  call  for  many  smaller  shipyards.  Construction 
work  on  large  yachts  and  other  boats  is  facilitated  by  the  proximity  of 
large  Diesel  engine  works. 

Fortunate  in  having  ample  room  for  residential  expansion,  Oakland 
is  still  growing.  On  the  outskirts,  where  garden  space  is  available, 
files  of  newly  built  homes  spread  into  the  countryside.  Thus  Oakland, 
despite  the  encroachment  of  industry,  retains  its  identity  as  a  city  of 
homes. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

i.  The  ALBERS  BROTHERS  MILLING  COMPANY 
PLANT  (tours  for  visitors  Tues.,  Wed.,  Thurs.,  10  a.m.,  2  p.m), 


384      SAN     FRANCISCO 

west  end  of  Seventh  St.,  manufactures  a  wide  variety  of  packaged  food 
products  and  feeds  for  animals. 

2.  The  NAVAL  SUPPLY  DEPOT,  end  of  Middle  Harbor  Rd., 
will  be  the  largest  in  the  Nation  when  completed  sometime  after  1942 
at  an  estimated  cost  of  $15,000,000.    It  will  have  49  buildings;  immense 
warehouses  will   provide   storage   space  sufficient   to   hold   a   two-year 
supply  of  food,  clothing,  equipment,  and  other  materials  for  the  entire 
United  States  Navy.    Two  wharves,  capable  of  handling  six  battleships, 
will  be  reached  through  a  channel  and  turning  basin. 

3.  The    PACIFIC    COAST    SHREDDED    WHEAT    COM- 
PANY PLANT   (visiting  hours  9-11,  1-4;  guides  furnished),  Four- 
teenth and   Union   Sts.,   ships  much   of  its  large  output  to  countries 
around  the  Pacific.     In  the  process  of  making  shredded  wheat,  hard 
wheat  is  dry-cleaned,  steam-cooked,  and  stored  in  steel  tanks  for  ten 
hours.     Shredded  between  grooved   rollers  under    1,700  pounds  pres- 
sure, it  emerges  in  twenty-nine  threadlike  layers  which  are  cut  into 
biscuits  and  baked  for  twenty  minutes  at  550°  F. 

4.  The  MOORE  DRYDOCK  (no  visitors),  foot  of  Adeline  St., 
in  1939  laid  keels  for  four  cargo  steamers  under  a  $12,000,000  contract 
with  the  United  States  Maritime  Commission — the  first  sizable  vessels 
to  be  built  in  San  Francisco  Bay  since  the  World  War.    The  concern's 
300-  and  5OO-foot  floating  drydocks  and  marine  railway  docks  provide 
for  building  and   repairing  vessels  and  for  such  special  jobs  as  con- 
structing the  caissons  used  in  the  piers  of  the  San  Francisco-Oakland 
Bay  Bridge.    This  firm,  since  it  laid  in  1909  the  keel  of  the  first  steel 
ship  built  in  Oakland,  has  launched  2OO  such  craft.    During  the  World 
War  58  vessels  were  constructed,  six  of  them  sliding  down  the  ways 
in  1918  on  a  single  morning  tide. 

5.  At  ST.  JOSEPH'S   CHURCH,   Seventh  and   Chestnut   Sts., 
occurs  the  annual  Portuguese  Festival  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  origi- 
nated in  Portugal  in  the  thirteenth  century  when  Queen  Saint  Isabel 
had  a  vision  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     To  her  He  indicated  a  desire  that 
a  church  be  built  in  His  honor.     The  ceremonial  of  the  dedication  of 
that  church,  with  its  procession,  its  crowning  of  a  queen,  and  its  plac- 
ing of  the  crown  on  the  Altar  of  the  Third  Person  of  the  Blessed 
Trinity,  has  survived  among  the  Portuguese  to  this  day.     The  festival, 
centering   around    Pentecost    Sunday,    is   celebrated   with    feasting   on 
barbecued  meats  and  sopas  and  dancing  of  the  chamarita. 

6.  The  OAKLAND  PUBLIC  LIBRARY,  Fourteenth  and  Grove 
Sts.,  contains  275,000  volumes  and  200,000  pictures  and  prints.     Over 
the  main  stairway  and  on  the  walls  of  the  second  floor  are  murals  by 
Marion  Holder  Pope  and  Arthur  Matthews. 

7.  Oakland's  tallest  structure,  the  CITY  HALL,  Washington  St. 
between  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Sts.,  is  a   1 7-story  building  rising 


OAKLAND      385 

360  feet,  completed  in  1914,  and  was  designed  by  the  New  York  firm 
of  Palmer,  Hornbostel,  and  Jones,  winner  in  a  National  competition. 
Faced  with  white  granite  and  terra  cotta  in  mingled  Doric  and  Corin- 
thian design,  it  has  three  set-back  sections,  capped  by  a  baroque  cupola 
adorned  with  four  clock  faces.  The  clock  was  donated  by  Dr.  Samuel 
Merritt,  former  mayor. 

Opposite  the  City  Hall,  overlooked  by  towering  downtown  build- 
ings, is  the  triangular  MEMORIAL  PLAZA,  dedicated  to  American 
war  heroes. 

8.  Famed  as  the  cradle  of  Jack  London's  genius,  the  FIRST  AND 
LAST  CHANCE  SALOON,  50  Webster  St.,  near  the  Oakland  Estu- 
ary, has  also  warmed  many  another  literary  celebrity,  including  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson,  Joaquin  Miller,  and  Rex  Beach.    A  guest  book  bears 
the  signatures  of  hundreds  of  the  great  and  near-great.     The  small, 
weathered,  dilapidated  structure,  built  over  60  years  ago  from  the  tim- 
bers of  an  old  whaling  boat,  was  first  used  as  a  bunkhouse  for  men 
working  the  oyster  beds  along  the  East  Bay  shore.     As  a  saloon,  espe- 
cially in  the  1890*8,  it  was  a  popular  hangout  for  ready-fisted  seafarers 
who  crowded  its  bar  and  gambled  at  its  card  tables.     Jack  London,  in 
his  early  teens,  found  a  friend  in  the  proprietor,  the  late  Johnny  Hein- 
old,  through  whose  encouragement  and  financial  assistance  his  genius 
flowered  in  adventure  tales  woven  around  the  lives  of  South  Sea  traders, 
Arctic  whalers,  and  Alaska  sourdoughs.     Today  the  tinder-dry  boards 
of  the  old  building  are  blotched  with  cracked  grey  paint.     The  scarred 
mahogany  bar  is  still  in  service.     The  old  gambling  tables  on  which 
young  London  often  wrote  are  used   for  refreshments.     On  a  wall, 
guarded  from  souvenir  hunters  by  chicken  wire,  are  letters  and  photo- 
graphs, including  a  picture  of  Jack  in  knickerbockers  poring  over  Hein- 
old's  tattered  old  dictionary,  and  a  letter,  written  years  later,  inviting 
Heinold  to  the  author's  famous  Glen  Ellen  home. 

9.  The  POSEY  TUBE,  4,436  feet  long,  passing  under  the  42- 
foot-deep  channel  of  the  Oakland   Estuary  between   Harrison   St.   in 
Oakland  and  Webster  St.  in  Alameda,  when  completed  at  a  cost  of 
$5,000,000  in  1928  was  the  world's  largest  under- water  tube  for  vehicu- 
lar traffic  (its  32-foot  diameter  has  since  been  surpassed  by  the  Mersey 
Tunnel  at  Liverpool,  England).     It  is  still  the  only  such  bypass  west 
of  Detroit,  Michigan.     Its  unusual  method  of  construction  drew  the 
attention  of  engineers  the  world  over.     In  the  Oakland  Portal,  admin- 
istrative and  operating  center,  are  meters  that  automatically  count  pass- 
ing vehicles,  control  boards  that  govern  the  ventilating  system,   and 
delicate  instruments  that  register  the  percentage  of   carbon-monoxide 
gas  from  automobile  exhausts  in  every  part  of  the  tunnel.     A  staff  of 
17  engineers,  mechanics,  and  traffic  policemen  is  always  on  duty.     Only 


386      SAN     FRANCISCO 

two  fatal  accidents  occurred  in  the  tube  during  its  first   1 1   years,  in 
which  time  70,500,000  trips  were  recorded. 

10.  The  BUDDHIST  TEMPLE,  Sixth  and  Jackson  Sts.,  with  its 
courtyard  and  school,  is  the  center  of  Buddhist  social  and  religious  life 
in  the  East  Bay.     Here  American-born  Japanese  children,  after  attend- 
ing public  schools,  spend  two  hours  daily  learning  their  mother  tongue 
and  old-country  customs. 

11.  The  32-acre  PERALTA  PARK,  facing  Lake  Merritt  across 
Twelfth  St.,  is  dominated  by  the  $1,000,000  steel  and  concrete,  granite- 
finished  MUNICIPAL  AUDITORIUM,  built  in  1915  on  ground  once  occu- 
pied by  a  group  of  houses  collectively  known  as  the  "House  of  Blazes" — 
a  not  very  select  bagnio.     The  building  is  in  classical  style,  the  main 
facade  facing  the  lake  ornamented  by  a  series  of  bas-reliefs  in  terra  cotta 
set  in  the  alcoves  above  the  entrance  doors.     Besides  the  arena,  seating 
10,000,  which  is  used  for  conventions  and  sports  events,  it  contains  a 
large  theater  for  dramatic  and  musical  performances.     The  ART  GAL- 
LERY (open  7-5)   on  the  upper  floor  houses  a  permanent  collection  of 
paintings.      Except    for   about   30   canvases   by   Russians,   the   work   is 
chiefly  that  of  California  artists,  including  Charles  Rollo  Peters,  Xavier 
Martinez,  and  William  Keith. 

12.  Across  Tenth  St.  from  the  auditorium,  in  Peralta  Park,  is  the 
EXPOSITION  BUILDING,  a  one-story,  concrete  and  steel  structure 
used  chiefly  as  an  armory  by  the  California  National  Guard,  and  for 
civic  events.     Within  the  park  are  a  playfield,  a  militia  drill  ground, 
and  the  shooting  ranges  and  lodge  of  the  Oakland  Archery  Club,  whose 
members  meet  and  shoot  every  Sunday  morning. 

13.  The  ALAMEDA  COUNTY  COURTHOUSE,  facing  Lake 
Merritt  on  Fallen  St.  between  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  Sts.,  is  a  steel 
and  concrete  structure  of  neoclassic  design,  built  in  1936  at  a  cost  of 
$2,500,000.    Inside  the  main  entrance,  on  opposite  walls,  are  two  murals 
designed  by  Marian  Simpson  and  executed  by  the  WPA  Federal  Art 
Project,  which  depict  Alameda  County  in  Spanish  days  and  in  Gold 
Rush  times  in  more  than  50  colors  of  marble. 

14.  LAKE  MERRITT,  a  155-acre  body  of  tidal  water  extending 
northeast  from  Twelfth  St.,  named  for  Dr.  Samuel  Merritt,  ex-Mayor 
of  Oakland  who  helped  create  it,  occupies  the  once  marshy,   muddy 
lagoon  adjacent  to  San  Antonio  Creek,  dammed  and  dredged  in  1909. 
Hydraulic  gates  control  the  water  level.     A  boulevard,   a   macadam 
footpath,  and  a  chain  of  lights  encircle  the  lake.     Directly  north  of  the 
Oakland  Public  Museum  is  the  large,  concrete,  brown-gabled  BOAT- 
HOUSE  (open  8-12  midnight;  rowboats,  canoes;  around-the-lake  water 
tour,  10$,  children  5^),  containing  a  dining  room,  crew  quarters  and 
meeting  rooms. 

15.  The  OAKLAND  PUBLIC  MUSEUM  (open  weekdays  10-5, 


OAKLAND      38? 

Sun.  and  holidays  1-5),  beside  the  lake  at  1426  Oak  St.,  housed  in  a 
brown,  two-story  frame  building,  contains  exhibits  in  natural  science 
and  the  ethnology  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  American  history  display 
includes  relics  of  the  Nation's  wars.  Indian,  Spanish,  and  pioneer  arti- 
cles are  shown  in  the  California  room.  In  the  two  Colonial  rooms  are 
reproductions  of  that  period,  and  a  "whatnot"  once  owned  by  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

1 6.  The  SNOW  MUSEUM   (open  10-5  weekdays,  1-5  Sun.  and 
holidays),  274  Nineteenth  St.,  displays  habitat  groups  of  birds,  animals, 
and  other  native  life  collected  on  various  expeditions  by  the   donor, 
Henry  Adelbert  Snow.    In  1919-21,  on  one  of  these  field  trips,  Hunting 
Biff  Game  in  Africa,  the  first  wild-animal  picture  to  be  released  by  a 
major  exchange,  was  filmed.     A  recent  addition  is  the   Cave  Room, 
whose  miniature  dioramas  of  prehistoric  animal  life  portray  dinosaurs, 
mammoths,  mastodon,  great  long-horned  bison,  saber-toothed  cats,  and 
other  beasts.     The  collection  includes  about  50,000  bird  eggs. 

17.  Amid  gardens  of  Old- World  tranquillity,  the  COLLEGE  OF 
THE   HOLY  NAMES,  2036  Webster  St.,  stands  in  an  eight-acre 
campus  on  Lake  Merritt's  western  shore.     This  liberal  arts  Catholic 
college  for  women  grew  from  a  high  school  founded  in   1868  by  the 
Sisters  of  the  Holy  Names  of  Jesus  and  Mary,  through  the  efforts  of 
Reverend  Michael  King,  pioneer  Catholic  priest,  and  received  in  1880 
a  charter  to  award  bachelor  of  arts  degrees.     Its  scholastic  department 
issued  in  1872  the  first  high  school  diplomas  granted  in  Oakland. 

1 8.  The  88-acre  LAKESIDE  PARK  (bowling  greens,  tennis  courts, 
golf  putting  greens,  boating),  Grand  Ave.  between  Harrison  St.  and 
Lakeshore  Ave.,  covers  a  blunt  peninsula  thrust  between  two  arms  of  the 
lake.    A  granite  boundary  marker  of  the  old  Rancho  San  Antonio  stands 
near  the  Bellevue  and  Perkins  Sts.  entrance.     In  a  grassy  amphitheater 
near  the  beach  the  Municipal  Band  gives  concerts   (Sun.  2:30,  July- 
Oct.).    A  mounted  torpedo  porthole  from  the  battleship  Maine  and  a 
memorial  tablet  cast  from  metal  recovered  from  the  vessel  stand  about 
200    yards    northeast    of    the    bandstand.      The    nine-foot    McELROY 
FOUNTAIN  of  white  Carrara  marble  on  the  south-central  part  of  the 
esplanade  walk  was  built  in  "Commemoration  of  the  Public  Services 
of  John  Edmund  McElroy,"  Oakland  attorney.    Near  the  southern  end 
of  the  peninsula  is  a  brown-gabled  canoehouse   (canoes  for  rent)   and 
landing,  where  privately  owned  sail  boats  of  the  Lake  Merritt  Sail  Club 
are  quartered. 

19.  East  of  the  canoehouse  and  landing  is  the  LAKE  MERRITT 
WILD-FOWL   SANCTUARY    (feeding  hours   Oct.-Mar.,   10  and 
3:30).    In  1869  the  California  Legislature  designated  Lake  Merritt  as 
a  migratory  water-fowl  sanctuary,  and  in   1926  it  became  a  banding 
station  of  the  United  States  Biological  Survey.    From  four  to  five  thou- 


388      SAN     FRANCISCO 

sand  fowl  are  present  during  the  winter  months,  and  many  nest  on  the 
small  wooded  island  built  in  the  lake  by  the  city  in  1923.  Besides  many 
species  of  ducks  and  geese,  other  visitors  to  the  lake  include  the  coot, 
egret,  cormorant,  grebe,  gull,  killdeer,  loon,  heron,  swan,  tern,  plover, 
and  snipe.  Fowl  tagged  here  have  been  shot  as  far  afield  as  Siberia  and 
Brazil. 

20.  From  the  site  of  EAST  SHORE  PARK  at  the  easternmost  tip 
of  the  lake,  the  Peraltas  shipped  hides  and  tallow.     Their  embarcadero 
is  marked  by  concrete  columns  bordering  a  crescent-shaped  brick  wall, 
built  in  1912. 

21.  The  VETERANS  MEMORIAL  BUILDING,  N.  side  of 
Grand  Ave.,  adjoining  Lakeside  Park,  has  an  auditorium  seating  700 
and  a  collection  of  war  trophies. 

22.  The   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH,    Broadway   at 
Twenty-sixth   St.,   a  fine  modern   adaptation   of  perpendicular   Gothic 
architecture   (William  C.  Hays,  architect),  has  stained-glass  windows 
designed  by  Stetson  Crawford,  a  pupil  of  James  McNeill  Whistler. 

23.  A  public  recreation  center,  MOSSWOOD  PARK  (8-8  daily), 
Moss  Ave.  between  Broadway  and  Webster   St.,   contains  playfields, 
tennis,  roque,  and  croquet  courts,  horseshoe-pitching  ranges,  and  a  shrub- 
bordered  garden  theater.    A  little  arroyo  spanned  by  rustic  bridges  and 
bordered  by  flowering  shrubs  and  ferns  meanders  beneath  fine  old  oaks 
past  the  RESIDENCE  OF  JOHN  MORA  Moss,  built  in  the  i86o's,  which  is 
now  used  as  a  clubhouse  and  tea  room. 

24.  The  MUNICIPAL  ROSE  GARDENS,  in  Linda  Vista  Park, 
Oakland  and  Olive  Aves.,  eight  acres  in  area,  contain  approximately 
8,000  bushes. 

25.  The    STATE    INDUSTRIAL    HOME    FOR    ADULT 
BLIND,   3601   Telegraph  Ave.,   occupies  a  group   of  white  concrete 
buildings  in  mission  style.     In  the  display  room  are   reed   furniture, 
baskets,  pottery,  brooms,  and  other  articles  made  by  the  blind. 

26.  Founded  in  1907,  the  CALIFORNIA  COLLEGE  OF  ARTS 
AND  CRAFTS,  5212  Broadway,  which  occupies  several  buildings  on 
a  four-acre  campus,  claims  distinction  as  "the  only  art  institution  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  authorized  to  grant  college  degrees"  and  as  the  only  one 
in  California  "where,  on  a  single  campus,  students  may  complete  their 
work  for  state  teaching  credentials  .  .  .   [while]   gaining  their  profes- 
sional art  training."     As  the   former  California   School  of  Arts  and 
Crafts,  a  nonprofit,  coeducational  institution,  it  served  the  West  from 
I9O7-37-     1°  tne  Divisions  of  Fine  Arts,  of  Applied  Arts,  and  of  Art 
Education   are   studios   and    exhibition   halls.      The   campus   with    its 
flowers,  shrubs,  and  trees,  its  native  birds  and  small  animals  for  art 
models  is  the  setting  for  outdoor  sketching  and  painting.     Since   1909 
the  Aztec  Indian  pupil  of  Whistler,  Xavier  Martinez,  born  in    1873 


OAKLAND      389 

in  Guadalajara,  Mexico,  has  taught  painting  here.  Dressing  primi- 
tively in  hand-woven  materials,  his  black  hair  bound  by  a  leather  thong, 
"Marty"  is  unconventional  as  a  teacher,  bold  and  direct  as  a  painter. 

27.  Entered    through    a    massive    stone    gateway,    MOUNTAIN 
VIEW  CEMETERY,  head  of  Piedmont  Ave.,  on  a  beautifully  land- 
scaped hillside,  has  a  fine  view  of  San  Francisco  Bay.     The  pioneer 
Dr.  John  Marsh,  Washington  Bartlett,  Governor  Henry  Haight,  Joseph 
Le  Conte,  and  Francis  Marion  "Borax"  Smith  are  buried  here. 

28.  In   ST.   MARY'S   CEMETERY,   Roman   Catholic,   head   of 
Howe  Street,  are  the  graves  of  many  Spanish  pioneers,  among  them 
members  of  the  Peralta  family. 

29.  LAKE  TEMESCAL  REGIONAL  PARK,  Chabot  and  New 
Tunnel  Rds.,  is  an  abandoned  reservoir  converted  by  WPA  labor  into 
a    recreation    center.      From    the    brick    boathouse    (open    May-Sept.; 
8:30-7;  lockers  10$;  swimming  free;  canoes  and  boats  50$  per  hour) 
juts  a  long  float,  equipped  with  springboards  for  swimmers.     Another 
float  has  water  targets  for  casting  practice  and  tournaments. 

30.  First    frame    dwelling    in    Oakland,    The    MOSES    CHASE 
HOME    (private),  404  E.   Eighth  St.,   retains  only  one  of  the  four 
rooms  built  in  1850,  but  several  additions  have  been  made.     Original 
ceiling  beams,  shaped  by  hand  and  joined  by  wooden  pegs,  are  still  firm 
and  strong.     The   Massachusetts  Yankee  was  Oakland's  first  settler 
from  the  "States." 

31.  The  OAKLAND  YACHT  CLUB,  foot  of  Nineteenth  Ave., 
established  in   1913,  has  berths  for  about  100  yachts  and  motorboats. 
Each  year  its  members  contest  for  three  trophies:  the  Wallace  Trophy 
for  sailboats,  the  Craven  Trophy  for  "star"-type  sailboats,  and  the  Tin 
Cup  Derby  for  motorboats  (an  engraved  tin  cup  is  the  winner's  award). 
At  one  time  Jack  London  was  an  honorary  member.     For  the  club's 
annual  midsummer  party,  "A  Nite  in  Venice,"  to  which  the  public  is 
invited,  the  harbor  is  strung  with  colored  lights. 

32.  DIMOND  PARK   (horseshoe  court,  picnicking,  tennis,  swim- 
ming),  Fruitvale  Ave.  and  Lyman  Rd.,  lies  in  a  canyon  shut  in  at  its 
northern   end   by   precipitous   slopes.      The    12-acre   tract,    green   with 
eucalyptus,  oak  and  acacia,  extending  along  Sausal  Creek,  was  named 
for   Hugh  and   Dennis  Dimond,  who   became  owners  of   this  part  of 
Rancho  San  Antonio.     The   iO5-foot  LIONS  POOL   (bath  house;  sand 
beach)   is  Oakland's  principal  outdoor  plunge.     In  the  park  is  the  DI- 
MOND COTTAGE,  built  in  1897  of  adobe  bricks  from  the  original  home 
of  Antonio  Maria  Peralta,  which  stood  at  2501  Thirty-fourth  Avenue. 
The  adobe,  16  by  28  feet,  built  by  the  Dimond  brothers,  is  now  the 
headquarters  of  a  Boy  Scout  troop. 

33-  JOAQUIN   MILLER  PARK   (THE   HIGHTS),  Joaquin 
Miller  Rd.   near  Mountain   Blvd.    (hiking  trails;  community   kitchen; 


390      SAN     FRANCISCO 

picnic  areas},  is  a  67-acre  highland  area  purchased  by  Oakland  as  a 
memorial  park  in  1917.  The  75,000  eucalyptus,  pine,  cypress,  and 
acacia  trees  were  planted  by  Miller — who  resided  here  from  1886  to 
1913 — with  the  aid  of  friends  and  visitors.  A  native  of  Indiana,  Cin- 
cinnatus  Heine  Miller  (1839-1913),  after  a  career  of  Indian-fighting 
and  small-time  politics — during  which  he  took  the  first  name  of  the 
bandit  Joaquin  Murietta — became  California's  white-haired  "Poet  of 
the  Sierras."  Participation  in  the  Alaska  gold  rush  and  the  Chinese 
war  added  more  color  to  his  last  years.  Eccentric  in  dress  and  de- 
meanor, Miller  was  much  beloved  in  England  as  a  poet  of  the  American 
frontier.  He  is  best-known  for  his  school-text  poem,  "Columbus," 
although  he  wrote  prolifically.  At  "The  Hights"  (as  he  spelled  the 
name  of  his  estate),  he  provided  homes  for  the  poets,  Yone  Noguchi 
and  Takeshi  Kanno.  George  Sterling,  Jack  London,  Harr  Wagner, 
and  Edwin  Markham  were  among  his  frequent  guests.  Buried  in  the 
little  cemetery  here  is  Cali-Shasta,  his  daughter  by  a  Pitt  River  Indian 
woman.  Later  in  Oregon  he  married  a  young  poetess,  who  bore  him 
three  children  before  she  divorced  him.  A  daughter  by  a  still  later 
marriage  to  Abbie  Leland  now  resides  at  "The  Hights,"  having  reserved 
a  life  tenure  in  it  when  she  sold  the  property  to  Oakland. 

THE  ABBEY,  built  in  1886,  is  a  small,  low  gray  frame  building 
consisting  of  three  one-room  structures  interconnected  to  form  a  single 
unit,  each  room  roofed  with  a  shingled  peak.  Miller  said  it  was  inspired 
by  Newstead  Abbey  in  England  and  spoke  of  it  as  a  "little  Abbey  for 
little  Abbie,"  his  wife. 

A  loop  trail  beginning  at  the  park's  souvenir  shop,  which  is  flanked 
by  "Juanita's  Sanctuary"  and  "Juanita's  Wigwam,"  leads  past  the  stone 
funeral  pyre  on  which  Miller  wished  to  be  cremated  (but  was  not),  the 
"Pyramid  to  Moses,"  the  "Tower  to  Browning,"  and  the  "Fremont 
Monument."  Miller  was  his  own  mason  in  building  these  oddly  asym- 
metrical monuments  of  native  rock.  In  the  center  of  the  park  are 
cypress  trees  planted  in  the  shape  of  a  cross. 

The  WOODMINSTER  MEMORIAL  AMPHITHEATER, 
constructed  by  WPA  labor  under  the  direction  of  the  Oakland  Board 
of  Park  Directors,  is  a  memorial  to  California  writers.  A  cascade  be- 
ginning near  the  rear  of  the  amphitheater  flows  through  eight  flower- 
bordered  pools  to  an  electric  fountain  illuminated  by  constantly  chang- 
ing colors. 

34.  The  182  acres  of  SEQUOIA  PARK,  Joaquin  Miller  Rd.  and 
Skyline  Blvd.  {picnicking,  outdoor  grills,  bridle  paths},  are  shaded  by 
towering  redwoods.  Sequoia  Point,  within  the  park,  a  circular  land- 
scaped point,  provides  a  panorama  of  the  Bay  to  the  south,  bringing 
into  view  East  Oakland,  Alameda,  San  Leandro,  San  Leandro  Bay,  the 
Oakland  Airport,  and  the  Estuary. 


OAKLAND      391 

35.  Best-known  women's  college  west  of  the  Mississippi,  MILLS 
COLLEGE,  Seminary  Ave.  between  Camden  St.  and  Calaveras  Ave., 
is  also  one  of  the  oldest  in  the  United  States.     The  present  residential, 
non-sectarian  college  began  as  the  Young  Ladies  Seminary  in  1852  in 
Benicia.     In  1865  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Cyrus  Taggart  Mills  purchased  the 
school  and  six  years  later  removed  it  to  the  present  beautifully  wooded 
campus  of  150  acres  at  the  base  of  the  San  Leandro  hills. 

Mills  was  patterned  after  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary  in  Massachu- 
setts. As  a  college  of  liberal  arts,  it  has  schools  in  fine  arts,  language 
and  literature,  social  institutions,  natural  sciences,  mathematics,  and 
education,  leading  to  the  A.B.  degree,  and  a  school  of  graduate  studies 
which  gives  an  M.A.  or  M.Ed,  degree.  The  faculty  of  100  members, 
serving  about  600  students,  is  large  enough  to  permit  small  classes  and 
individual  attention.  Visiting  faculty  members  in  the  graphic  arts  have 
included  Leon  Kroll,  Alexander  Archipenko,  Frederic  Taubes,  and  the 
Bauhaus  group;  in  music,  Henry  Cowell,  Luther  Marchant,  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Pro  Arte  Quartet;  in  dancing,  Martha  Graham,  Hanya 
Holm,  and  Charles  Weidman. 

The  campus  buildings  are  notably  successful  adaptations  in  concrete 
of  Spanish  Colonial  design.  Through  the  Wetmore  Gate  on  Seminary 
Ave.  a  winding  road  leads  to  EL  CAMPANIL,  a  buttressed  tower  of 
tan-colored  concrete,  the  gift  of  Francis  M.  "Borax"  Smith,  in  whose 
pierced  belfry  is  a  chime  of  ten  bells  cast  for  the  Chicago  World's  Fair 
of  1893.  A  number  of  residential  halls  in  an  informal  style  are  grouped 
about  beautifully  landscaped  courts  and  terraces.  The  Music  BUILD- 
ING, in  the  style  of  a  Spanish  Renaissance  church,  has  a  fine  doorway 
with  ornate  carving  and  an  auditorium  with  murals  by  Ray  Boynton. 
Graceful  triple  arches  lead  to  the  foyer  of  LISSER  HALL,  whose 
auditorium  seats  600.  Before  a  lofty  open  arcade  leading  to  the 
ART  GALLERY  (open  Wed.  and  Sun.  2-5)  are  two  marble  Dogs  of 
Fu,  Chinese  carvings  of  the  Ming  dynasty  in  white  marble.  In  addition 
to  a  permanent  collection  of  oils,  etchings,  bronzes,  textiles,  and  oriental 
objets  d'art,  the  galleries  have  occasional  loan  exhibits.  The  77,000 
volumes  in  the  LIBRARY  (open  to  visitors),  include  the  collection  of 
about  5,000  rare  books  and  manuscripts  given  by  Albert  M.  Bender. 
The  WOODLAND  THEATER,  a  natural  amphitheater  in  a  eucalyp- 
tus grove,  is  the  scene  of  outdoor  plays.  Bordering  LAKE  ALISO 
near  the  northern  boundary  of  the  campus  is  an  outdoor  stage  used  for 
dance  programs. 

36.  CHABOT  OBSERVATORY  (open  Tues.-Sat.  1-5,  7-9:30), 
4917  Mountain  Blvd.,  named  for  Anthony  Chabot,  pioneer,  capitalist, 
and  philanthropist,  is  one  of  the  few  California  institutions  of  its  kind 
serving  the  public  schools.     Lectures  are  given  to  classes  from  the  Oak- 
land schools  and  from  Mills  College,  which  assist  jointly  in  maintenance 


392      SAN     FRANCISCO 

of  the  observatory's  large  lecture  hall,  reading  room,  and  astronomical 
library.  Illustrated  programs  for  adult  astronomy  students  and  meetings 
of  the  East  Bay  Astronomical  Association  are  held  here.  The  two- 
story  stucco  building,  on  the  landscaped  hillside,  houses  a  spectroscope 
and  8-  and  20-inch  refracting  telescopes.  Connected  with  the  institu- 
tion is  a  meteorological  station  which  collects  data  for  Oakland  weather 
reports. 

37.  The  ALAMEDA  COUNTY  ZOOLOGICAL  GARDENS 
(open  Q-6;  adm.  10$;  picnicking),  Ninety-eighth  Ave.  and  Mountain 
Blvd.,  cover  450  well-wooded  acres  formerly  known  as  Durant  Park, 
now  administered  by  the  Alameda  County  Zoological  Society.     It  con- 
tains an  arboretum  and  a  small  zoo.     (In  1940  removal  of  the  Oakland 
City  Zoo  from  Sequoia  Park  to  a  site  near  the  main  gate  was  planned.) 
Occasional  nature-study  programs  are  presented  under  the  direction  of 
Sidney  Adelbert  Snow,  noted  big-game  hunter  and  photographer,  who 
lives  on  the  grounds. 

38.  On  the  tidal  flats  of  Bay  Farm  Island  in  San  Leandro  Bay  is 
the  OAKLAND  MUNICIPAL  AIRPORT  (lunch  room),  compris- 
ing 850  acres.     Here  are  located  a  unit  of  the  United  States  Naval 
Reserve,    the   western    terminals   of    transcontinental    air   lines,    flying 
schools,  and  hangars  for  privately  owned  planes  and  local  air  taxis. 
Along  Earhart  Road,  which  parallels  the  airport's  southeastern  edge, 
are  hangars,  the  administration  building  housing  the  Airport  Weather 
Bureau,  and  a  small  glass-enclosed  exhibition  building,   displaying  an 
old  pusher-type  biplane  built  in  1910  which  placed  first  in  a  1912  inter- 
national competition.    The  Wiseman  plane,  first  successful  heavier-than- 
air  craft  built  in  California,  is  suspended  in  the  nearby  Navy  hangar. 
Five  huge  corrugated  iron  hangars,   decorated  with   brightly   painted 
flying  directions,  house  maintenance  shops,  schools,  and  operating  offices. 
The  island  was  first  used  as  a  port  in  1927  when,  in  three  weeks  of 
day  and  night  work,  a  runway  was  built  to  provide  a  take-off  for  the 
Army's  mass  flight  to  Hawaii.     The  present  airport  and  channel  are 
developments  made  by  the  city  of  Oakland  largely  with  WPA  labor. 


&<«&$m<&&^^ 


Berkeley 


Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  American  Trust  Bldg.,  Shattuck 
Ave.  and  Center  St.  Berkeley  Travel  Bureau,  81  Shattuck  Sq.  University  of 
California  administrative  office,  California  Hall,  U.  of  C.  campus. 
Railroad  Stations:  Southern  Pacific,  University  Ave.  and  3rd  St.  Atchison, 
Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Ry.,  University  Ave.  and  West  St.  Bus  Stations:  Pacific 
Greyhound  Lines  and  National  Trailways,  2001  San  Pablo  Ave.  Taxis: 
Average  rate  20^  first  Y$  m.,  io#  each  J/£  m.  thereafter,  i  to  5  passengers. 
Streetcars  and  Buses:  Fare  10^  or  one  token  (7  for  50$)  ;  to  Hayward,  El 
Cerrito,  or  Richmond,  20^  or  2  tokens.  Transbay  electric  trains  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, fare  21$.  Traffic  Regulations:  25  m.p.h.  in  residential  and  business 
districts,  15  m.p.h.  at  intersections;  i  and  2  hour  parking  limit  in  business 
districts,  all-night  parking  prohibited  in  all  areas. 

Accommodations:     Ten  hotels. 

Concert  Halls:  Wheeler  Hall,  U.  of  C.  Greek  Theatre,  U.  of  C.  Women's 
City  Club,  2315  Durant  Ave.  Radio  Stations:  KRE  (1370  kc.),  601  Ashby 
Ave.  Motion  Picture  Theaters  (first-run):  Two.  Amateur  and  Little  The- 
aters: Wheeler  Hall,  U.  of  C.,  for  university  productions.  International 
House  Auditorium,  Piedmont  Ave.  and  Bancroft  Way.  Women's  City  Club 
Little  Theater,  2315  Durant  Ave. 

Archery:  Albany  Archers,  Tilden  Park  (straw  targets).  Archery  Range, 
East  Shore  Highway,  Albany  (small  fee).  Baseball:  Diamonds  at  Berkeley 
High  School,  Grove  St.  and  Bancroft  Way,  and  many  public  playgrounds. 

Boating:  Berkeley  Aquatic  Park.  Football:  U.  of  C.  Stadium,  foot  of  Ban- 
croft Way.  Berkeley  High  School,  Grove  St.  and  Bancroft  Way.  Golf: 
Charles  Lee  Tilden  Regional  Park.  Berkeley  Country  Club,  E.  end  Cutting 
Blvd.  Ice  Skating  and  Hockey:  Iceland,  Shattuck  Ave.  and  Ward  St. 

Bowling:  Municipal  Bowling  Green,  Allston  Way  W.  of  Acton  St.  Riding: 
Arlington  Hills  Riding  Academy,  Arlington  and  Brewster  Dr.  Athens  Polo 
and  Riding  Stables,  1010  San  Pablo  Ave.  Berkeley  Riding  Academy,  2731 
Hilgard  St.  Fairmont  Riding  Academy,  Colusa  and  Fairmount  Aves.  Soft- 
ball: City  playground,  2828  Grove  St.  City  playground,  Mabel  and  Oregon 
Sts.,  and  many  school  playgrounds.  Swimming:  Berkeley  High  School,  Grove 
St.  and  Bancroft  Way  (open  June  i5-Aug.  15).  Tennis:  U.  of  C.  campus. 
Berkeley  Tennis  Club  (private),  Tunnel  Rd.  and  Domingo  Ave.  Also  follow- 
ing recreational  areas:  City  Hall,  Allston  Way  and  Grove  St.;  Grove,  2828 
Grove  St.;  Codornices,  1201  Euclid  Ave.;  James  Kenney,  8th  and  Delaware 
Sts.;  Live  Oak,  Shattuck  Ave.  and  Berryman  St.;  San  Pablo,  Mabel  and 
Oregon  Sts. 

Churches  (Only  centrally  located  churches  are  listed):  Baptist.  First, 
2430  Dana  St.  Buddhist.  Hegeshi  Honganji,  1524  Oregon  St.  Christian. 
University,  1725  Scenic  Ave.  Christian  Science.  First  Church  of  Christ,  Sci- 
entist, Bowditch  and  Dwight  Way.  Mormon.  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter  Day  Saints,  2150  Vine  St.  Congregational.  First,  2345  Channing  Way. 
Episcopal.  St.  Mark's,  2314  Bancroft  Way.  Evangelical.  Mission  Covenant, 

393 


394      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Grove  and  Parker  Sts.  Free  Methodist.  Japanese,  1521  Derby  St.  Hebrew 
Orthodox.  Hebrew  Center,  1630  Bancroft  Way.  Lutheran.  Bethany,  1744 
University  Ave.  Methodist.  Trinity,  Durant  and  Dana  Sts.  Presbyterian. 
First,  Dana  St.  and  Channing  Way.  Roman  Catholic.  St.  Joseph's,  1600 
Addison  St.  Russian  Orthodox.  St.  John's,  2020  Dwight  Way.  Seventh  Day 
Adventist.  Berkeley  Seventh  Day  Adventists,  Dana  and  Haste  Sts.  Unitarian. 
First,  2425  Bancroft  Way.  Miscellaneous.  Apostolic  Church  of  the  Faith  of 
Jesus,  829  University  Ave.;  Immanuel  Mission  to  Seamen,  1540  Lincoln  St.; 
Plymouth  Brethren  Church,  42nd  and  Rich  Sts.;  Reihaisho  Hershinto,  1707 
Ward  St.;  Unity  Center,  2315  Durant  St. 

BERKELEY  (0-1,000  alt.,  84,827  pop.)  spreads  across  a  great  natural 
amphitheater  opposite  the  Golden  Gate,  rising  from  the  shore  of  the 
Bay  eastward  to  the  crest  of  the  Berkeley  hills,  over  which  the  fogs 
often  drift  in  late  afternoon.  To  the  alumnus,  as  to  the  academic 
world  in  general,  Berkeley  means  the  University  of  California.  But 
while  the  university  is  its  outstanding  feature,  Berkeley  is  really  three 
or  four  towns  in  one.  There  is  the  Berkeley  of  the  retired  old  men 
and  women  who  trespass  on  the  wooden  senior  bench  near  the  student 
union  building  on  the  campus  and  attend  lectures  where  they  can  "ab- 
sorb culture  in  homeopathic  doses,"  as  the  beloved  Charles  Mills  Gayley 
used  to  say.  There  is  the  world  of  those  who  commute  to  business  in 
San  Francisco;  and  there  is  industrial  Berkeley,  clustered  along  the 
Bay  west  of  San  Pablo  Avenue — a  two  and  one-half  mile  strip  of  fac- 
tories bearing  well-known  trade  names.  Around  the  fringe  of  this  section 
are  massed  the  homes  of  the  factory  workers.  This  part  of  Berkeley 
seems  spiritually  more  akin  to  industrial  Emeryville  on  the  south  or  to 
oil-refining  Richmond  on  the  north  than  to  the  gay  bustle  of  the  streets 
surrounding  the  campus — streets  thronged  with  men  students  in  cordu- 
roys and  gaudy  sweaters,  women  students  in  mock  peasant  head  ker- 
chiefs and  jaunty  little  half-socks. 

Among  the  hills  on  either  side  of  the  campus  are  the  handsome 
new  fraternity  and  sorority  houses,  the  more  modest  homes  of  the 
faculty,  and  rambling  terraced  gardens,  almost  hiding  houses  clinging 
perilously  to  the  side  of  the  hill. 

The  lower  sections  of  Berkeley  adjoining  the  campus,  particularly 
on  the  southern  side,  are  given  over  to  student  lodgings.  Here  every 
other  house  carries  a  sign,  often  "Rooms — Men  Only."  The  men, 
though  harder  on  the  furniture  than  the  girls,  are  less  of  a  responsibility, 
because  the  office  of  the  Dean  of  Women  keeps  an  eagle  eye  on  the 
campus  homes  of  undergraduate  women.  Or  the  sign  may  read  "Coach- 
ing— Mathematics,  Russian  and  Chemistry"  or  "Typing,  Neatly  and 
Cheaply  Done." 

"Downtown"  Berkeley  lies  along  Shattuck  Avenue;  the  main 
business  district,  because  of  the  proximity  of  metropolitan  shopping 
centers,  is  surprisingly  small  for  a  city  of  Berkeley's  size.  It  changes 


BERKELEY       395 

slowly  with  the  years,  although  the  old  steam  trains  that  used  to 
bring  students  from  the  city  to  their  eight  o'clock  classes  and  the  horse- 
cars  that  occasionally  were  derailed  by  students  who  wanted  an  excuse 
for  being  late  have  long  since  given  way  to  modern  electric  cars.  Even 
the  old  red-brick  Southern  Pacific  station,  which  sat  squarely  in  the 
middle  of  Shattuck  Avenue,  finally  gave  way  to  modern  stores  in  1939. 
Berkeley  owes  its  naming  to  the  university.  A  hundred  years  ago 
the  site  was  part  of  the  great  Rancho  San  Antonio  of  the  Peralta  family. 
When  it  was  selected  in  1866  as  the  new  location  of  the  College  of 
California,  Henry  Durant,  one  of  the  trustees,  gazing  out  over  the  Bay, 
quoted  Bishop  Berkeley's  well-known  line:  "Westward  the  course  of 
empire  takes  its  way,"  and  another  trustee  suggested  that  they  name  the 
new  town  for  the  prophetic  English  philosopher.  The  village  which 
grew  up  around  the  campus  was  not  incorporated  until  1878,  organ- 
ization having  been  delayed  by  farmers  who  rejected  the  idea  of  impos- 
ing the  expense  of  municipal  government  upon  them.  By  the  turn  of 
the  century,  however,  streets  had  been  paved,  a  reservoir  built  and  pipes 
laid,  residential  tracts  opened,  and  the  electric  trains  supplemented  the 
noisy  and  smoky  locomotives  of  the  Southern  Pacific. 

The  San  Francisco  fire  brought  so  many  new  residents  that  the  town 
by  1908  was  large  enough  to  make  an  effort  to  get  the  State  capital 
away  from  Sacramento.  At  the  same  time  many  attractive  homes  were 
being  built  among  scattered  clumps  of  oaks  on  the  rising  ground  north 
and  south  of  the  campus.  In  the  fall  of  1923  a  grass  fire,  starting  in 
the  hills,  destroyed  a  large  part  of  North  Berkeley.  New  homes  and 
gardens  have  gradually  hidden  the  scars  of  the  fire. 

In  the  1930  census  the  population  figures  were:  73  per  cent  native 
white,  23  per  cent  foreign  white,  2  per  cent  Negro,  and  2  per  cent 
mixed.  But  the  number  of  foreign  students  at  the  university  is  rela- 
tively high.  In  1927,  when  International  House  was  proposed,  approxi- 
mately 10  per  cent  of  all  the  foreign  students  in  the  United  States  were 
registered  at  the  University  of  California.  The  governments  of  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand,  and  South  Africa  send  many  graduate  students  to 
Berkeley  at  government  expense,  most  often  to  study  soil  chemistry  or 
some  other  branch  of  agriculture.  The  Egyptian  government  sends  stu- 
dents every  year  to  study  citriculture.  Berkeley  also  draws  many  for- 
eign students  of  engineering,  particularly  of  petroleum  engineering.  Oc- 
casionally one  sees  East  Indians  of  the  commercial  class  walking  re- 
spectfully behind  and  out  of  the  shadow  of  the  bearded  and  turbaned 
Sikhs  of  the  military  caste. 

Berkeley  became,  in  1923,  one  of  the  first  cities  of  its  size  in  the 
United  States  to  adopt  the  city-manager  form  of  government.  Its 
school  department  claims  to  have  established  the  first  junior  high  school 
in  the  country.  Its  standing  in  public  health  service  is  indicated  by  its 


396      SAN     FRANCISCO 

proud  boast  that  for  two  decades  it  has  had  one  of  the  four  lowest 
infant  mortality  rates  among  places  of  its  size  in  the  United  States. 
But  it  prides  itself  most  on  its  police  department — built  up  by  Police 
Chief  August  Vollmer,  now  retired — whose  fame  has  extended  as  far 
away  as  Scotland  Yard. 

Vollmer  encouraged  his  staff  to  experiment:  as  a  member  of  the 
Berkeley  police  department  in  1921  Dr.  John  A.  Larson  invented  the 
lie-detector,  a  machine  that  records  the  tell-tale  changes  in  heart  action 
and  breathing  which  usually  accompany  deviations  from  the  truth.  In 
1921  Vollmer  was  elected  president  of  the  International  Association  of 
Chiefs  of  Police,  and  in  1929,  although  not  himself  a  college  graduate, 
he  took  leave  of  his  command  to  head  a  department  of  research  at  the 
University  of  Chicago  with  the  title  of  Professor  of  Police  Adminis- 
tration— perhaps  the  first  ever  to  hold  such  a  title.  Vollmer,  who  now 
gives  regular  courses  in  police  administration  at  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, is  a  firm  believer  in  a  college  education  for  policemen — a  fact 
which  caused  his  men  to  be  called  "super-cops."  During  summer  ses- 
sions, it  is  not  surprising  to  see  a  burly  cop  saunter  out  of  a  classroom, 
his  gun  on  his  hip  and  a  student  note  book  under  his  arm.  As  a  result, 
Berkeley  police  have  an  unusual  standing  in  the  community. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1.  The  BERKELEY  AQUATIC  PARK  (boating  free  with  own 
craft;  rowboats,  sailboats,  electric  boats  for  hire),  East  Shore  Highway 
between  University  and  Ashby  Aves.,  is  a  mile-long,  ninety-acre  recrea- 
tional waterfront  development  built  by  WPA  labor,  containing  a  long, 
narrow,  tide-filled  lagoon  with  a  landscaped  border.     In  the  southern 
end  of  the  lagoon,  set  aside  for  model-yacht  racing,  regattas  in  which 
the  diminutive  copies  of  yachts  compete  are  held  occasionally.     A  small 
grass-covered  island  midway  along  the  western  shoreline  is  reserved  as 
a  wild  fowl  sanctuary. 

2.  The  BERKELEY  MUNICIPAL  FISHING  PIER  (fee  tf) 
extends  more  than  three  miles  over  the  mud  flats  to  deep  water. 

3.  The  BERKELEY  YACHT  HARBOR,  north  of  the  Municipal 
Fishing  Pier,  developed  in  part  with  WPA  funds,  will  accommodate 
500  small  craft  in  waters  protected  by  rock-faced  earthen  breakwaters. 

4.  The  LAWN  BOWLING  GREEN,  Allston  Way  west  of  Acton 
St.,  maintained  by  the  city's  Recreation  Department,  has  been  the  scene 
of  world  championship  tournaments. 

5.  MORTAR  ROCK  PARK,  Indian  Rock  Ave.  and  San  Diego 
Rd.,  once  the  site  of  Indian  assemblages,  is  dominated  by  a  huge  irregu- 
lar mass  of  rock,  which  commands  a  magnificent  view  of  the  surround- 
ing  territory.      Here   Indian   women   ground   corn   in   the   mortar-like 


BERKELEY      397 

rocks,  whose  smooth  cylindrical  holes  still  show  the  use  to  which  they 
were  put. 

6.  The  seven-acre  JOHN   HINKEL  PARK,   Southampton  Ave. 
and  San  Diego  Rd.,  has  an  amphitheater  seating  400,  constructed  in 
1934  by  the  CWA,  where  plays  are  given  by  the  Berkeley  Community 
Players  during  the  summer  months. 

7.  CRAGMONT  ROCK  PARK,   Regal  Rd.  at   Hilldale  Ave., 
covers  four  acres  surrounding  the  freak  rock  formation  for  which  the 
park  was  named.     From  the  lookout  station  800  feet  above  sea  level 
is  an  excellent  view  of  the  Bay  and  its  bridges.     Easter  sunrise  services 
are  held  here. 

8.  CODORNICES  (Sp.,  quail)  PARK,  Euclid  Ave.  at  Bay  View 
PL,   originally   a   steep,    rocky,    brush-grown   gulch   where   quail   were 
abundant,  has  been  terraced  by  WPA  workers  as  a  rose  garden,  with 
tiers  of  roses  of  many  varieties.     The  park  has  public  tennis  courts,  a 
playground  for  children,  and  a  clubhouse  for  community  use. 

9.  The  PACIFIC  SCHOOL  OF  RELIGION   (open  to  visitors 
on  application},   1798  Scenic  Ave.,  is  a  graduate  theological  seminary, 
interdenominational  and  coeducational,  established  in  San  Francisco  in 
1866  as  the   Pacific  Theological   Seminary.      Moved  the  next  year  to 
Oakland,  it  was  established  here  in  1925.    Its  present  name  was  adopted 
in  1916  on  its  5Oth  anniversary.     The  school  prepares  students  for  all 
kinds  of  religious  work.    One  department,  known  as  the  Palestine  Insti- 
tute, centers  its  activity  in   the   Holy  Land,  where  it  is  engaged   in 
Biblical  research. 

The  ADMINISTRATION  BUILDING  and  the  HOLBROOK  MEMORIAL 
LIBRARY  are  of  gray  cut  stone;  the  men's  dormitory  is  of  gray  stucco. 
The  library  of  30,000  volumes  includes  a  "Breeches"  Bible,  printed  in 
Geneva  in  1560;  a  group  of  Babylonian  cuneiform  tablets;  a  collection 
of  fourth-century  Biblical  inscriptions  on  papyrus ;  and  a  rubbing  of  the 
inscription  on  the  Nestorian  monument  in  China.  An  archeological 
exhibit  in  the  same  building  consists  of  relics  dating  from  3500  B.C. 

For  the  past  few  years  the  Pacific  Coast  School  for  Workers  has 
taken  over  the  grounds  of  the  Pacific  School  of  Religion  for  its  summer 
session.  A  member  of  the  American  Affiliated  Schools  for  Workers, 
it  is  sponsored  jointly  by  the  Extension  Division,  labor  organizations, 
the  State  Department  of  Education,  and  other  interested  bodies. 
Courses  are  conducted  in  San  Francisco,  but  in  the  summer  for  six 
weeks  union  members  come  here  from  laundries,  hotel  kitchens,  the 
water  front,  and  other  places  of  industrial  activity  to  study  economics, 
parliamentary  law,  and  international  affairs,  in  order  to  go  back  and 
better  serve  their  organizations. 

10.  The  HANGAR  (adm.  adults  25$,  children  IO<£),  2211  Union 
St.,  "Mother"  Tusch's  aviation  museum,  is  a  little  white  cottage  which 


398      SAN     FRANCISCO 

has  become  a  familiar  spot  to  aviation  fans.  During  the  World  War, 
when  a  school  of  military  aeronautics  was  established  on  the  campus, 
"Mother"  Tusch  founded  the  University  Mothers'  Club  to  look  after 
the  boys  away  from  their  homes.  Overseas  flyers  remembered  the  little 
white  house  and  its  motherly  occupant,  serving  coffee  and  doughnuts, 
and  sent  her  souvenirs  from  the  battlefields.  Among  "Mother"  Tusch's 
treasures  is  part  of  the  fuselage  of  an  Army  plane,  on  which  is  carved 
with  a  penknife  the  last  message  of  its  pilots,  Lieutenant  Fred  Water- 
house  and  Cecil  H.  Connolly,  who  were  forced  down  on  the  Mexican 
border  in  1919.  One  of  the  most  unusual  tributes  came  from  a  German 
ace — a  pair  of  silver  wings,  inscribed:  "To  the  Mother  of  us  all,  with 
love  from  Capt.  Willie  Mauss."  Recent  additions  to  the  collection  are 
the  black  sealskin  cap  worn  by  Admiral  Richard  Byrd  in  Little  America 
and  the  small  Bible  which  Lieutenant  Clyde  Pangborn  carried  on  his 
flight  around  the  world.  On  the  walls  of  The  Hangar  are  the  signa- 
tures of  Captain  Eddie  Rickenbacker,  Colonel  Billy  Mitchell,  Sir 
Hubert  Wilkins,  Byrd,  Pangborn,  and  other  famous  flyers.  Only  one 
woman's  autograph  is  there — that  of  Amelia  Earhart. 

11.  BARRINGTON  HALL,  2315  Dwight  Way,  is  the  largest  of 
five  co-operative  dormitories  built  on  the  university  campus  during  the 
depression.     The  five  are  organized  into  the  California  Students'  Coop- 
erative Association,  housing  365  men  and  82  women.     All  the  work  is 
done  by  the  members  themselves,  aided  by  one  or  two  paid  employees. 
Each  student  puts  in  about  four  hours  of  work  each  week,  enabling  him 
to  obtain  a  room  and  three  meals  a  day  for  about  $22.50  a  month. 

12.  The  CALIFORNIA  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  DEAF,  Warring 
and  Parker  Sts.,  at  the  foot  of  the  Berkeley  hills,  is  the  only  residential 
school  of  its  kind  in  California.    The  course  of  study  embraces  a  1 2-year 
period,  three  years  of  which  is  preparatory  work  enabling  the  child  to 
reach  the  level  of  the  first  grade  of  the  public  school  system.     The 
entire  course  is  intended  not  only  to  give  the  handicapped  child  a  general 
education,  but  also  to  prepare  him  for  some  occupation  at  which  he  can 
earn  his  living. 

13.  The  CALIFORNIA  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  BLIND,  3001 
Derby  St.,  sharing  the  campus  of  the  California  School  for  the  Deaf, 
serves  visually  handicapped  children.  Begun  in  San  Francisco  in   1860 
as  a  private  institution  for  the  deaf,  dumb  and  blind,  it  was  taken  over 
by  the  State  in   1865  and  moved  to  Berkeley  two  years  later.     Since 
1922  it  has  been  an  institution  solely  for  the  blind. 

14.  The  rambling,  stuccoed  CLAREMONT  HOTEL,  at  the  head 
of  Russell  St.f  erected  in  1904,  is  surrounded  by  a  large  old-fashioned 
garden. 

15.  At  the  BERKELEY  TENNIS   CLUB    (tournaments  May- 


BERKELEY      399 

June,  Sept.-Oct.),  adjoining  the  Claremont  Hotel,  "Pop"  Fuller  devel- 
oped two  champion  players,  Helen  Wills  Moody  and  Helen  Jacobs. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Until  the  turn  of  the  century  the  University  of  California  occupied 
a  heterogeneous  assortment  of  buildings  at  the  base  of  the  Berkeley 
Hills  on  oak-studded  slopes  traversed  by  two  branches  of  Strawberry 
Creek;  but  in  1896  Phoebe  Apperson  Hearst  awarded  a  prize  of  $10,000 
for  a  campus  design  to  Emile  Benard  of  Paris,  and  his  general  layout, 
with  modifications,  has  since  guided  the  development  of  the  grounds. 
In  1902  John  Galen  Howard,  an  American  architect  who  had  studied 
at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  and  had  worked  with  Benard,  came  to  the 
university,  established  a  School  of  Architecture,  and  became  supervising 
architect.  The  architecture  of  the  campus  strongly  reflects  his  influence. 
He  changed  many  details  of  the  Benard  plan,  but  French  academic 
influence  is  apparent  everywhere  both  in  the  buildings  and  in  their 
relation  to  each  other. 

The  beginning  of  the  university  dates  to  the  California  constitutional 
convention  of  1849,  when  a  clause  was  adopted  providing  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  university.  A  subsequent  delay  of  nearly  20  years  was 
due  partly  to  a  controversy  between  those  who  wished  to  establish  a 
"complete  university"  and  those  who  wanted  only  a  college  of  agricul- 
ture and  mechanics.  Meanwhile  Oakland's  College  of  California  was 
chartered  in  1855  by  two  ministers,  Henry  Durant  and  Samuel  Hopkins 
Willey.  Absorbing  the  Contra  Costa  Academy,  it  had  in  1860  a  faculty 
of  six  and  a  freshman  class  of  eight.  In  1867  the  founders  and  trustees 
offered  to  disincorporate  and  transfer  to  the  State  all  their  assets — the 
buildings  at  Oakland,  the  i6o-acre  building  site  at  Berkeley,  and  a 
io,ooo-volume  library.  The  State  accepted  the  offer  and  on  September 
23,  1869  the  new  university  opened  in  Oakland.  In  September,  1873 
the  buildings  on  the  Berkeley  campus  were  occupied  by  40  students 
and  a  faculty  of  IO. 

For  many  years  the  combined  student  enrollment  of  the  University 
of  California's  various  schools  and  colleges  has  made  it  the  largest  uni- 
versity in  the  country.  In  1939-40,  the  enrollment  of  16,199  on  its 
Berkeley  campus  alone  surpassed  all  others.  Academically,  the  univer- 
sity ranks  as  one  of  the  Nation's  best.  A  survey  made  under  the  auspices 
of  the  American  Council  on  Education  in  1938  gave  it  a  tie  with  Har- 
vard for  first  place  in  a  weighted  rating  of  distinguished  and  adequate 
departments. 

In  the  value  of  its  "practical"  contributions,  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia has  a  fine  record.  Its  benefits  to  agriculture  alone  are  estimated 
to  save  California  farmers  $100,000,000  annually.  In  addition  to  ex- 


4OO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

perimental  work  in  animal  husbandry,  horticulture,  viticulture,  and  irri- 
gation, the  agricultural  departments  have  developed  and  introduced  to 
the  farmer  the  spray  plant,  a  device  for  spraying  fruit  trees  and  vegeta- 
tion through  underground  pipes;  the  solar  heater  to  prevent  frost  injury 
to  orchard  trees;  the  use  of  humified  air  for  sterilizing  dairy  utensils; 
and  a  milk-cooling  system.  Boulder  Dam,  constructed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Dr.  Elwood  Mead,  formerly  of  the  university  faculty,  was  built 
with  a  special  low-heat  cement  developed  in  the  Engineering  Materials 
Testing  Laboratory  on  the  Berkeley  campus.  In  the  same  laboratory 
test  models  of  the  San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge  and  the  Golden 
Gate  Bridge  were  made,  while  professors  of  geology  were  investigating 
the  strata  upon  which  the  bridge  foundations  would  rest.  Materials 
used  in  Boulder  Dam,  the  bridges,  and  many  other  public  works  were 
first  tested  by  the  university's  materials  testing  machine,  capable  of  exert- 
ing a  pressure  of  4,000,000  pounds.  The  engineering  department,  co- 
operating with  the  United  States  War  Department,  compiles  data  ob- 
tained at  the  university's  hydraulic  tidal  testing  basin  to  aid  in  the 
maintenance  of  ship  channels  and  the  preservation  of  beaches.  In  its 
laboratories  was  developed  an  improved  method  of  treating  leprosy. 
Vitamin  E  and  the  growth-  and  sex-stimulating  hormones  of  the  pitu- 
itary glands  were  discovered  by  Dr.  Herbert  M.  Evans  of  the  Institute 
of  Experimental  Biology.  Through  experiments  conducted  in  university 
laboratories,  the  canning  industry  overcame  botulism,  the  sugar  beet  pest 
was  conquered,  and  the  mealy  bug  eliminated  from  citrus  groves. 

Other  studies  include:  consideration  of  the  atmosphere  on  Mars;  a 
study  of  living  organisms  found  in  a  solid  rock  225,000,000  years  old; 
translation  of  a  clay  tablet  from  Mesopotamia,  which  upset  accepted 
theories  of  how  Babylon  was  governed.  Less  spectacular  are  the  studies 
of  unemployment,  the  migrant,  and  agricultural  labor  made  at  the  re- 
quest of  State  and  local  authorities  by  the  Bureau  of  Public  Admin- 
istration, a  pioneer  in  training  students  for  government  service. 

Perhaps  no  contemporary  piece  of  abstruse  research  so  captured  the 
imagination  of  the  lay  public  and  the  respect  of  the  world's  scientists 
as  did  the  invention  of  the  "atom  smasher"  or  cyclotron  by  Dr.  E.  O. 
Lawrence  of  the  Radiation  Laboratory  of  the  Department  of  Physics. 
Dr.  Lawrence  has  realized  the  dream  of  the  alchemist  of  old,  the  trans- 
mutation of  the  elements,  by  bombarding  them  with  his  atom  smasher. 
He  has  already  achieved  successful  production  of  artificial  radioactive 
elements  in  sufficient  quantities  to  provide  a  cheap  synthetic  substitute 
for  radium.  Experiments  are  still  being  conducted  in  the  use  of  the 
mysterious  "neutron  ray"  in  the  treatment  of  cancer.  For  his  work 
with  the  cyclotron,  Dr.  Lawrence  was  awarded  the  Nobel  Prize  for 
Physics  in  1939.  In  the  field  of  medico-therapy  Dr.  Lawrence  and  his 
staff  have  also  developed  a  new  type  of  X-ray  apparatus  capable  of 


BERKELEY      4OI 

producing  a  continuous  supply  of  X-rays  with  an  energy  approaching 
1,000,000  volts,  for  treatment  of  tumorous  growths. 

Gifts  to  the  university  have  been  the  basis  for  the  establishment 
of  its  various  schools  and  colleges — all,  with  the  exception  of  those  at 
Los  Angeles  and  Berkeley,  devoted  to  specialized  fields  of  study.  The 
Medical  School,  the  Colleges  of  Pharmacy  and  Dentistry,  the  Training 
School  for  Nurses,  and  the  Hooper  Foundation  for  Medical  Research 
are  located  in  San  Francisco,  as  are  the  affiliated  College  of  Fine  Arts 
and  Hasting's  College  of  Law.  The  College  of  Agriculture  has,  besides 
the  curricula  at  Berkeley  and  Los  Angeles,  a  farm  at  Davis,  the  Citrus 
Experiment  Station  at  Riverside,  the  Institution  of  Animal  Husbandry 
at  Pomona,  and  the  Forest  Station  in  Tulare  County.  At  Mount  Ham- 
ilton is  the  Lick  Observatory;  at  La  Jolla,  the  Institution  of  Oceanog- 
raphy. Perhaps  the  most  significant  evidence  of  growth  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  southern  branch  of  the  university  in  Los  Angeles  in 
1919.  Beginning  with  freshmen  and  sophomore  work,  it  added  ad- 
vanced curricula  as  the  need  arose,  until  in  1927  it  received  equal  rank 
with  the  Berkeley  institution  as  the  University  of  California  at  Los 
Angeles.  Today,  in  the  words  of  a  recent  university  publication,  a 
California  student  pursues  his  studies  at  whatever  campus,  school,  or 
research  station  best  suits  his  needs,  because  California  "has  grown 
from  a  local  school  to  a  state-wide  clearing  house  of  knowledge  gathered 
from  all  corners  of  the  earth." 

The  Golden  Book  of  the  Alumni  Association,  published  in  1936, 
listed  alumni  in  the  four  corners  of  the  earth,  including  a  chief  engineer 
for  public  works  in  Madras,  the  manager  of  a  government  ranch  at 
Bagdad,  a  cotton  breeder  for  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  Bombay, 
a  chief  of  the  Associated  Press  for  the  Balkans,  a  gold-dredging  expert 
in  New  Guinea,  and  a  professor  in  Leningrad  College.  David  Prescott 
Barrows,  Chairman  of  the  Department  of  Political  Science,  tells  a  story 
which  illustrates  the  way  in  which  alumni  bob  up  in  the  most  unex- 
pected places.  In  1917  he  was  assistant  chief  of  staff  in  the  American 
Expeditionary  Force  in  Siberia.  After  an  interview  with  General 
Semenoff,  in  charge  of  White  Russian  forces  at  Chita,  General  Barrows 
was  assigned,  as  aide-de-camp,  a  magnificent-looking  Cossack  dressed 
in  Asiatic  splendor.  General  Barrows  was  amazed  to  hear  him  say 
mildly,  in  excellent  English,  "You  don't  know  me,  General,  but  I  have 
seen  you  many  times  on  the  Berkeley  campus.  I  was  a  student  for  two 
years  at  your  College  of  Mining." 

CAMPUS  POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

i.  The  PRESIDENT'S  HOUSE  (private),  Hearst  Ave.  and 
Scenic  Ave.,  built  in  1911  for  use  as  the  official  residence  of  the  univer- 


402       SAN     FRANCISCO 

sity's  executive  head,  stands  on  a  slight  eminence  near  the  north  edge 
of  the  campus.  It  is  of  grey-brown  sandstone,  with  a  portico  supported 
by  Ionic  columns  and  guarded  by  marble  lions. 

2.  AGRICULTURE,  HILGARD,  AND  GIANNINI  HALLS, 
built    in    Italian    Renaissance    style   of    white    concrete,    range    around 
a  C-shaped  open  court  near  the  northwest  corner  of  the  campus.    They 
house  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  the  Agricultural  Extension  Divi- 
sion.   Nearby  are  greenhouses  (open  to  students  only)  for  experimental 
work.     In  the  corridors  of  Giannini  Hall  is  a  display  of  colored  hard- 
woods from  many  parts  of  the  world. 

3.  The  LIFE  SCIENCES  BUILDING,  Harmon  Way  between 
Axis  Rd.  and  Campanile  Way,  is  a  massive  concrete  structure,  completed 
in  1930.    On  the  facade  are  panels  and  rosettes  in  which  have  been  cast 
conventionalized  representations  of  fish,  reptiles,  and  mammals.     Labo- 
ratories, classrooms,  offices,  and  libraries  of  13  life-science  departments 
occupy  the  building,  which  also  houses  the  Institute  of  Experimental 
Biology;  the  Museum  of  Vertebrate  Zoology  (for  students  only)  with 
its   160,000  specimens  of  mammals,  birds,  and  reptiles;  and  the  her- 
barium of  the  Department  of  Botany  (open  8:30-12,  1-5;  Sat.  8:30-12) , 
containing  some  500,000  plant  specimens  from  all  over  the  world. 

4.  The  TILDEN  FOOTBALL  STATUE,  Campanile  Way  west 
of  Life  Sciences  Bldg.,  is  a  bronze  statue  of  two  rugby  players,  by 
Douglas  Tilden,  presented  by  Senator  James  D.  Phelan  in  recognition 
of  the  superiority  of  the  university  football  teams  of  1898-99. 

5.  The  GYMNASIUM  FOR  MEN,  Dana  St.  between  Bancroft 
and  Allston  Ways,  completed  in  1933,  has  large  gymnasium  floors  and 
swimming  pool,  special  rooms  for  wrestling,  boxing,  and  fencing  and 
space  for  badminton  and  table  tennis.    Adjoining  it  are  a  baseball  dia- 
mond and  the  George  C.  Edwards  Memorial  Stadium  for  track  and 
field  sports. 

6.  SATHER  GATE,  at  the  head  of  Telegraph  Ave.,  most  used 
entrance  to  the  campus,  is  an  ornamental  structure  of  concrete  and 
bronze,  erected  in   1909  with  funds  provided  by  Jane  K.  Sather  as  a 
memorial  to  her  husband,  Peder  Sather.    "To  go  outside  the  gate"  is  an 
established  tradition  for  student  assemblies  which  do  not  have  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  university  authorities. 

7.  The  ART  GALLERY  (open  weekdays  10-5),  one  block  E.  of 
Sather  Gate,  is  a  former  power  house.     The  two  large  mosaics  on  the 
facade,  symbolizing  the  seven  arts,  were  designed  and  executed  in  Byzan- 
tine style  by  Helen  Bruton  and  Florence  Swift,  assisted  by  workers  of 
the  WPA  Federal  Art  Project.     The  gallery  owns  the  Albert  Bender 
collection  of  oriental  art  and  a  collection  of  Russian  ikons. 

8.  BOALT  HALL,  Sather  Gate  Dr.  between  Axis  Rd.  and  South 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
BERKELEY.  CALIFORNIA 


404      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Dr.,  housing  the  School  of  Jurisprudence,  honors  the  memory  of  Judge 
John  Henry  Boalt. 

9.  CALIFORNIA  HALL,  Sather  Gate  Dr.,  now  the  university's 
administrative  headquarters,  will  become  part  of  the  School  of  Juris- 
prudence after  completion  of  a  new  administration  building  on  Tele- 
graph Avenue  outside  Sather  Gate.     On  the  walls  of  the  first   floor 
corridor  an -I  auditorium  are  portraits  of  notable  teachers,  regents,  and 
others  associated  with  the  history  of  the  university. 

10.  The  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY   (open  weekdays  8-10,  Sat. 
8-6,  Sun.  i-io;  fee  for  non-students,  $6  a  year),  Sather  Gate  Dr.,  a 
large  white  granite  building,  has  over  1,000,000  volumes.    It  is  the  larg- 
est college  library  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  seventh  in  the  United 
States.     Besides  the  main  collection  there  are  the  Bancroft  Library,  a 
world-famous  collection  of  more  than  75,000  valuable  books  and  manu- 
scripts on  Spanish-American  history,  the  nucleus  of  which  was  bought 
from  the  historian,  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  in  1905;  the  Library  of 
Economic  Research ;  the  Library  of  French  Thought,  whose  basis  was 
the  books  exhibited  by  the  French  government  at  the  Pan-American 
Exposition  in  1915;  and  the  Alexander  F.  Morrison  Memorial  Library, 
reserved  for  student  "browsing."    The  reference  room  extends  the  full 
north  width  of  the  second  floor.     In  the  periodical  room  along  the  east 
side  of  the  second  floor  are  45  copies  of  famous  Velasquez  paintings. 

11.  WHEELER  HALL,  Sather  Gate  Dr.,  main  classroom  build- 
ing, contains  an  auditorium  seating  1,050,  used  for  lectures,  concerts, 
and  plays.     It  is  named  for  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler,  president  of  the 
university  from  1899-1919. 

12.  SOUTH  HALL,  W.  Esplanade  at  South  Dr.,  oldest  building 
on  the  campus,  was  constructed  in  1873.    It  houses  the  offices  and  some 
classrooms  of  the  College  of  Commerce  and  the  departments  of  political 
science  and  of  economics. 

13.  The  CAMPANILE  (elevator  9-5,  fee  10$),  as  Sather  Tower 
is  commonly  known,  may  be  called  the  heart  of  campus  life.     It  is  a 
shaft  of  gleaming  California  granite  302   feet  high,  with   four  clock 
faces  and  an  observation  platform.     It  was  built  in  1914  as  a  gift  of 
Jane  K.  Sather,  donor  of  Sather  Gate.     Its  clock  bell  orders  the  univer- 
sity day  from  morning  to  night.     When  the  university  celebrates  its 
birthday  on  March  23  and  at  commencement  the  chimes  ring  "Hail  to 
California."      On    the    evening   before    final    examinations    begin,    the 
mournful  notes  of  "Danny  Deever"  give  notice  of  impending  tragedies; 
but  during  finals  the  chimes  are  tactfully  silent.     Consisting  of  twelve 
bells,  the  chimes,  were  cast  in  England  by  John  Taylor  and  Company, 
who  have  been  casting  bells  since  the  days  of  Chaucer.     Charles  Weikel, 
former  chimesmaster,  wrote  and  arranged  many  compositions  for  them. 


BERKELEY      4-O5 

In  the  ground-floor  room  of  the  Campanile  hangs  a  plan  of  the  campus, 
made  in  1914  by  John  Galen  Howard,  university  architect. 

14.  STEPHENS  UNION,  Campanile  Esplanade  on  South  Dr.,  a 
concrete  building  in  Tudor  Gothic  style,  was  built  in  1921  by  popular 
subscription  as  a  memorial  to  Henry  Morse  Stephens,  distinguished  his- 
torian and  long  a  popular  faculty  member.    Here  are  the  offices,  "co-op" 
store,  and  restaurant  of  the  Associated  Students,  and  the  headquarters  of 
the  California  Alumni  Association  and  its  magazine,   The  California 
Monthly.    A  display  case  in  the  men's  club  room  is  the  part-time  home 
of  the  Stanford  axe,  a  huge,  broad-bitted  lumberman's  axe,  for  whose 
custodianship  the  California  and  Stanford   football  teams  contend  in 
the  annual  "Big  Game."    Originally  used  by  Stanford  rooters  to  empha- 
size the  famous  "axe"  yell,  it  was  captured  by  California  students  at  a 
baseball  game  in    1899.      For  31   years  it   remained   in   a  bank  vault, 
brought  out  only  under  heavy  guard  to  taunt  the  enemy  from   "the 
farm,"  until  Stanford  students  regained  it  in  a  tear-gas  raid  while  it 
was  being  returned  to  its  resting  place.    After  this  melee  the  two  stu- 
dent bodies  made  a  gentleman's  agreement,  whereby  the  axe  became  the 
"Big  Game"  trophy. 

15.  Neighboring  ESHLEMAN  HALL  houses  offices  of  the  Little 
Theater   and   student   publications.     This  structure,   erected   in    1930, 
honors  the  late  John  Morton  Eshleman,  alumnus  and  one-time  lieu- 
tenant-governor. 

1 6.  The     PHOEBE     A.     HEARST     GYMNASIUM     FOR 
WOMEN,  Bancroft  Way  and  Bowditch  St.,  provides  women  students 
with  facilities  for  badminton,  table  tennis,  and  many  other  activities 
in  its  gymnasiums  and  swimming  pools.     On  the  spacious  grounds  out- 
side, groups  of  students  often  engage  in  tennis,  hockey,  archery,  and 
interpretive  dancing. 

17.  FACULTY   GLADE,   between   Stephens   Union   and   Men's 
Faculty  Club,  is  a  velvety  green  sward,  shaded  by  Coast  live  oaks,  along 
the  landscaped  banks  of  Strawberry  Creek.     For  many  years  the  Par- 
theneia,  an  original  pageant,  was  staged  here  by  women  students.     Max 
Reinhardt    presented    A    Midsummer   Night's    Dream    here    in    1935. 
Alumni  luncheons  are  served  in  the  glade  on  Commencement  Day.    The 
arch  over  the  steps  leading  into  the  glade  from  South  Drive  was  erected 
in  1910  in  memory  of  Phoebe  Apperson  Hearst,  mother  of  the  publisher 
and  benefactress  of  the  university. 

1 8.  Red-brick  BACON  HALL,  E.  Esplanade  at  South  Drive,  is 
the  second  oldest  building  on  the  campus.    Today  it  is  the  headquarters 
for  the  Department  of  Geological  Sciences  and  the  Division  of  Seis- 
mology.    It  also  houses  the  Geological  Sciences  Exhibit  (open  weekdays 
8:30-12,  1-5;  Sat.  8:30-12). 


406      SAN     FRANCISCO 

19.  The  HEARST  MEMORIAL  MINING  BUILDING,  north 
of  the  Mining  Circle,  was  donated  by  Phoebe  Apperson  Hearst  in  1907 
as  a  memorial  to  her  husband,  Senator  George  Hearst.    The  plant  has 
unusually  fine  equipment  for  the  study  of  mining  engineering,  including 
the   LAWSON  ADIT,    a   model    tunnel    which    affords    mining    students 
practical  experience  in  mine-fire  and  rescue  work.     The  building  con- 
tains the  Museum  of  Paleontology    (open  weekdays  8-5;  Sat.  9-12}, 
which  has  the  largest  collection  of  vertebrate  and  invertebrate  fossils  on 
the  Pacific  Coast. 

20.  FOUNDERS  ROCK,  near  Hearst  and  La  Loma  Aves.,  is  the 
spot  where  trustees  of  the  College  of  California  met  April   16,   1860 
and  dedicated  the  site  of  the  campus  to  learning.     It  is  marked  by  a 
bronze  plaque,  gift  of  the  class  of  '96. 

21.  The   GREEK   THEATER,    in   a   natural   amphitheater   half 
hidden  in  the  eucalyptus  grove  above  Gayley  Road,  seats  8,500.     It  is 
an  adaptation  of  the  ancient  theater  at  Epidaurus.    The  enormous  stage, 
133  feet  wide  and  28  feet  deep,  is  protected  at  back  and  sides  by  a 
42-foot  wall  (the  ancient  skene),  in  front  of  which  is  a  row  of  Doric 
columns.     Half  surrounded  by  tiers  of  concrete  benches  is  the  pit  (the 
ancient  orchestra),  before  the  stage,  where  huge  bonfires  are  built  at 
student  rallies.    The  theater,  a  gift  of  William  Randolph  Hearst,  was 
first  used — although  only  one-third  finished — at  commencement  in  1903, 
when  Theodore  Roosevelt  delivered  the  address.     At  its  dedication  in 
September  of  that  year,  students  set  the  tone  for  its  future  use  by  pre- 
senting selections  from  Aristophanes'  comedy,  The  Birds.     The  theater 
is  used  for  university  exercises  and  student  rallies  as  well  as  dramatic 
and  concert  performances. 

22.  The  BIG  C,  far  up  on  Charter  Hill  behind  the  Greek  Theater, 
is  a  concrete  letter  60  feet  high,  made  and  maintained  by  undergraduates 
as  their  university  symbol.     Painted  yellow,  it  shows  up  strongly  against 
the  background  of  the  hillside.     The  C  was  constructed  in   1905   by 
men  of  the  freshman  and  sophomore  classes,  who   relayed  buckets  of 
gravel  and  cement  up  the  hill  in  a  drenching  rain.     It  was  reached  only 
by  a  steep  trail  until   1916,  when  2,500  students  built  a  zigzag  path 
up  the  slope  in  two  hours  on  the  day  of  the  quadrennial  "Big  C  Sirkus," 
February  29.     It  is  now  illuminated  on  pre-game  nights,  when  members 
of   the   sophomore   class — its   official   guardians — maintain   an   all-night 
vigil  to  ward  off  marauders. 

23.  The  MEMORIAL  STADIUM,  at  the  mouth  of  Strawberry 
Canyon,  seats  78,000.     Built  by  popular  subscription  as  a  memorial  to 
the  university's  World  War  dead,  it  was  first  used  at  the  "Big  Game" 
of  1923.     On  the  east  side  of  the  field,  below  the  California  rooting 
section,  is  the  ANDREW  LATHAM  SMITH  MEMORIAL  BENCH,  dedicated 
in   1927   in  honor  of  the  coach  of  the   "wonder  teams"   of  the   early 


BERKELEY      407 

1920'$.     Unused  for  the  most  part  except  during  the  football  season, 
the  stadium  is  the  scene  of  commencement  exercises  each  spring. 

24.  The  BOTANICAL  GARDENS    (open  9-4),  in  Strawberry 
Canyon  east  of  the  stadium,  contain  more  than  50,000  plants  of  6,000 
species,  including  special  collections  of  rhododendrons,  cacti,  and  suc- 
culents.    Plants  of  rare  beauty  and  value  have  been  brought  to  the 
university  from  such  remote  places  as  the  Tibetan  Himalayas  and  the 
South  American  Andes.    An  OPEN-AIR  THEATER,  in  a  five-acre  grove 
of  pine  and  redwood  trees,  is  a  memorial  to  Stephen  Mather,  alumnus, 
who  was  first  director  of  the  National  Park  Service. 

25.  INTERNATIONAL  HOUSE,  on  Piedmont  Ave.  at  the  head 
of  Bancroft  Way,  is  the  second  of  four  such  institutions  donated  by 
John  D.  Rockefeller  Jr.  in  the  interests  of  international  understanding. 
Others  are  located  at  Columbia  University  in  New  York,  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  and  at  the  Cite  Universitaire  in  Paris.   The  Berkeley 
building  provides  living  accommodations  for  450  students,  selected  from 
among  the  many  races  and   nationalities   registered   at  the  university. 
The  number  of  American  students  is  limited  in  order  to  provide  room 
for  foreign  students. 


Alameda 


Information  Service:  Chimber  of  Commerce,  2546  Santa  Clara  Ave.  City 
Hall,  Oak  St.  and  Santa  Clara  Ave. 

Airports:  San  Francisco  Bay  Airdrome,  Webster  St.,  one  block  S.  of  Posey 
Tube;  Naval  Air  Station,  W.  end  of  island.  Taxis:  Dime  Taxi  Company, 
10$  per  passenger  to  any  point  within  city  limits,  35^  to  Oakland;  Alameda 
Taxi  Company,  25^  ist  m.,  20^  thereafter,  i  to  4  persons.  Streetcars  and 
Buses:  Key  system  local  and  intercity  buses,  fare  10^  or  one  token  (7  for 
50^)  ;  Interurban  Electric  Ry.  transbay  service  on  Encinal  and  Lincoln  Aves., 
fare  to  San  Francisco,  2itf.  Traffic  Regulations:  Speed  limit  25  m.p.h.  in 
business  and  residential  districts,  15  m.p.h.  at  intersections. 

Accommodations:     One  hotel.  Beach  cottages,  monthly  rates. 

Concert  Halls:  Adelphian  Club,  2167  Central  Ave.  Motion  Picture  The- 
aters: Three  first-run  theaters.  Little  Theater:  Alameda  Little  Theater, 
Delanoy  Hall,  1346^  Park  St. 

Sports:  Boating.  Aeolian  Yacht  Club,  Bay  Farm  Island  Bridge.  Alameda 
Boat  Club,  N.  end  of  Chestnut  St.  Encinal  Yacht  Club,  S.  end  Grand  St. 
Golf.  Municipal  Golf  Course,  Bay  Farm  Island.  Riding  Stables.  Alameda 
Riding  Stables,  Bay  Farm  Island.  Sheet  and  Trap  Shooting.  Golden  Gate 
Gun  Club,  W.  end  of  island  on  Southern  Pacific  Auto  Ferry  road.  Swimming. 
Cottage  Beach,  554  Central  Ave.  Leo  Purcell's  Beach,  434  Central  Ave. 
Sunny  Cove  Beach,  456  Central  Ave.  Yachting.  Aeolian  Yacht  Club,  Bay 
Farm  Island.  Encinal  Yacht  Club,  S.  end  Grand  St. 

Churches  (Only  centrally  located  churches  are  listed):  Baptist.  First,  1519 
Santa  Clara  Ave.  Christian.  First,  2445  San  Jose  Ave.  Christian  Science. 
First  Church  of  Christ  Scientist,  Central  Ave.  and  Walnut  St.  Congregational. 
First,  1912  Central  Ave.  Episcopal.  Christ  Church,  1700  Santa  Clara  Ave. 
Hebrew  Orthodox.  Temple  Israel,  2664  Alameda  Ave.  Lutheran.  Immanuel, 
1906  Santa  Clara  Ave.  Methodist.  First,  Central  Ave.  and  Oak  St.  Presby- 
terian. First,  Santa  Clara  Ave.  and  Chestnut  St.  Roman  Catholic.  St.  Jo- 
sephs, 1109  Chestnut  St.  Seventh  Day  Adventist.  Alameda  Seventh  Day  Ad- 
ventists,  1513  Verdi  St. 

ALAMEDA  (sea  level-25  alt.,  35,133  pop.),  is  on  an  island  shaped 
roughly  like  an  elongated  violin,  lying  parallel  to  East  Oakland,  with 
the  neck  pointing  toward  the  Golden  Gate.  The  island  has  an  average 
width  of  about  one  mile,  a  total  length  of  six  and  one-half  miles.  The 
two-mile  neck  and  adjoining  areas  are  chiefly  occupied  by  two  large 
airports.  The  northeast  shoreline,  along  the  Estuary,  is  given  over  to 
industry  and  shipping,  while  the  southwestern  shoreline  is  a  popular 
bathing  resort  section.  Although  no  State  or  Federal  highway  touches 
Alameda,  five  vehicular  connections  link  it  with  the  mainland.  The 
five  miles  of  the  Estuary  and  two  miles  of  artificially  created  tidal  canal 

408 


A  L  A  M  E  D  A      409 

separating  the  island  from  the  mainland  serve  as  a  deep-water  harbor 
for  both  Oakland  and  Alameda.  Three  bridges  cross  the  canal.  An- 
other connects  with  Bay  Farm  Island  to  the  south.  But  the  most  fre- 
quently used  entrance  is  the  George  A.  Posey  Tube  under  the  Estuary. 

Many  residents  do  not  know  that  the  city  proper  was  a  peninsula 
until  the  tidal  canal  was  dredged  in  1902.  More  are  unaware  that  its 
boundaries  include  a  mainland  agricultural  district  called  Bay  Farm 
Island,  which  now  adjoins  the  filled-in  Oakland  Municipal  Airport. 
Government  Island,  once  a  shoal  off  the  main  part  of  the  city,  now  lies 
across  the  main  channel  of  the  Estuary,  approachable  by  bridge  only 
from  Oakland. 

Alameda  is  one  of  the  oldest  East  Bay  cities,  and  also  one  of  the 
most  modern.  The  contrast  is  found  in  schools  and  homes.  Modern 
houses  and  apartments  elbow  ornate  old  buildings  set  in  tranquil  gardens 
on  tree-shaded  streets.  Queer  shrubs  from  foreign  ports  are  common 
because  the  city  is  a  well-known  "port  of  retire"  for  old  seamen,  who 
settled  here  with  souvenirs  of  travel. 

All  this  flat  expanse  of  fertile  land,  with  its  numerous  sloughs  and 
clumps  of  big  drooping  valley  oaks,  for  generations  gave  shade  and  food 
and  water  to  the  Costanoan  Indians.  Included  in  the  Peralta  land 
grant  of  1820,  it  was  known  as  Encinal  de  San  Antonio  (the  oak  grove 
of  St.  Anthony)  when  Americans  came  here  and  found,  grazing  in  the 
lush  pasture  land,  many  cattle  branded  with  the  Peralta  initial.  Water- 
fowl and  small  game  attracted  hunters,  who  found  a  ready  market  in 
San  Francisco  for  their  kill,  and  the  thick  stands  of  oaks  brought  in 
crews  of  charcoal  burners,  who  likewise  had  no  difficulty  in  marketing 
their  product  in  the  growing  transbay  city  and  in  the  Mother  Lode's 
boom  towns. 

Among  the  early  arrivals  were  Gideon  Aughinbaugh,  a  Pennsyl- 
vania carpenter,  and  his  partner,  W.  W.  Chipman,  a  lawyer  and  school 
teacher  from  Ohio,  who  recognized  the  possibilities  of  the  region. 
Through  the  flimsy  walls  of  one  of  the  kindling  and  cardboard  shanties 
of  early  San  Francisco,  Chipman  overheard  H.  S.  Fitch,  a  San  Francisco 
auctioneer,  negotiating  with  Antonio  Peralta  for  the  purchase  of  the 
Encinal  at  a  price  of  $7,000.  Chipman  immediately  sought  out  Peralta 
and  doubled  the  bid.  By  this  bit  of  shrewdness  the  future  city  of  Ala- 
meda passed  into  the  hands  of  the  partners,  Chipman  and  Aughinbaugh. 
They  needed  money,  however,  and  to  obtain  it  offered  Fitch  a  one- 
fourteenth  interest  for  $3,000.  Fitch  accepted,  and  in  partnership  with 
William  Sharon  took  possession  of  160  acres. 

Chipman  and  Aughinbaugh  began  to  develop  the  land  and  to  attract 
settlers.  Grafted  fruit  trees  were  brought  from  the  East  (there  are 
accounts  of  peaches  in  Aughinbaugh's  orchard  which  sold  for  one  dollar 
each).  He  secured  the  use  of  a  small  steamer,  the  Bonita,  which  plied 


4IO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

between  Alameda  and  San  Francisco.  Sunday  excursions,  watermelon 
picnics,  and  gift  lots  to  any  one  who  would  erect  a  $50  building  were 
some  of  the  devices  used  to  further  development.  With  more  than  100 
settlers  by  1853,  Chipman  and  Aughinbaugh  took  the  initiative  in  found- 
ing a  town  in  the  vicinity  of  High  Street. 

The  name,  Alameda  (poplar-shaded  avenue),  already  in  use  by  the 
recently  organized  county,  was  selected  by  popular  vote.  Two  other 
towns  also  were  laid  out — one  at  the  Point,  named  Woodstock,  the 
other  at  the  center  of  the  peninsula,  called  Encinal. 

With  the  increase  of  American  population  in  California,  the  little 
hamlet,  along  with  its  neighbors,  Oakland  and  San  Leandro,  got  its 
share  of  new  settlers,  many  of  whom,  returning  unsuccessful  from  the 
mines,  were  looking  for  homes  and  land.  In  1871  a  bridge  over  the 
Estuary  and  a  causeway  across  the  marsh  were  constructed,  establishing 
directed  communication  with  Oakland.  Incorporation  took  place  in 
1872.  The  city-manager  form  of  government  was  adopted  in  1917. 

In  the  course  of  its  history  Alameda  has  counted  among  its  residents 
Mark  Twain,  Jack  London,  and  Harrison  Fisher.  The  starting  point 
for  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  journeys  to  the  South  Seas,  it  figured 
prominently  in  his  career.  He  first  came  here  to  visit  the  Orr  family 
(Scots,  like  himself),  who  operated  a  copra  oil  mill.  Because  copra 
came  from  the  South  Sea  islands,  he  grew  interested  in  island  lore  and 
outfitted  a  ship,  the  Casco,  to  sail  there  under  command  of  the  New 
England  skipper,  Captain  Albert  Otis.  Captain  Otis,  whose  own 
declining  years  were  spent  in  Alameda,  was  immortalized  as  Arty  Nares 
in  Stevenson's  The  Wreckers.  The  novelist  later  married  a  sister  of 
Mrs.  Orr,  in  Alameda. 

The  island's  excellent  water  connections  have  attracted  many  large 
industries,  including  the  shipbuilding  yards  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel 
Company  and  the  warehouses  of  the  California  Packing  Corporation, 
through  which  most  of  the  products  of  the  corporation's  canneries  in 
the  Bay  area  and  central  valleys  are  transshipped  to  other  parts  of  the 
country  and  abroad.  Adjoining  Cal-Pak's  spacious  buildings  is  the 
Encinal  Terminal,  which  it  owns,  where  more  than  1,200  ships  dock 
annually.  Close  by  also  are  the  warehouse  and  docks  of  the  Alaska 
Packer's  Association,  which  annually  sends  an  expedition  to  the  fishing 
waters  of  Alaska,  returning  with  as  many  as  1,000,000  cases  of  canned 
salmon.  Boat  yards  build  yachts  and  other  pleasure  craft.  Numerous 
plants  turn  out  such  diverse  products  as  pottery,  pencils,  pickles,  pre- 
serves, peanut  butter,  and  chocolates. 

Alameda  was  one  of  the  first  cities  in  the  country  to  macadamize 
its  streets.  It  had  the  first  municipal  power  plant  in  California,  estab- 
lished in  1890  at  a  cost  of  $40,000,  which,  during  50  years  of  operation, 
has  earned  profits  of  nearly  $3,000,000,  used  in  the  construction  of 


AL  AM  ED  A      4-U 

many  public  services  and  buildings.  A  health  center,  a  belt  line  railroad, 
a  public  library,  a  fire-alarm  system,  a  park,  and  the  Municipal  Golf 
Course  are  some  of  its  contributions  to  the  well-being  of  Alameda's 
citizens. 

POINTS  OF  INTEREST 

1.  The   BETHLEHEM    STEEL   COMPANY    SHIPBUILD- 
ING DIVISION  (no  visitors),  2308  Webster  St.,  was  at  one  time  the 
largest  shipbuilding  yard  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  employing  9,000  men. 
During  the  World  War  it  built  the  Invincible,  a  i2,OOO-ton  steamer, 
in  24  days.     Long  used  as  a  repair  yard,  it  is  being  refitted  to  do  its 
part  in  the  Government's  1940  naval  expansion  program.     From  the 
adjoining  steel  fabricating  plant  came  all  the  steel  for  the  Golden  Gate 
Bridge. 

2.  The  SAN  FRANCISCO  BAY  AIRDROME,  2155  Webster 
St.,   privately  owned,   houses   several   charter,   sales,   and   service  com- 
panies.   Between  80  and  90  ships,  passenger  and  private,  are  based  here, 
many  being  available  for  sightseeing  trips  around  the  Bay. 

3.  The  NAVAL  AIR  STATION   (visitors  only  on  special  occa- 
sions), on  Southern  Pacific  Auto  Ferry  Rd.,  will  be  one  of  the  world's 
largest  airports  when  completed  in  1942.     Costing  more  than  $15,000,- 
ooo  and  incorporating  both  the  former  Benton  Field  of  the  Army  and 
the  Municipal  Airport,  it  will  have  a  total  area  of  more  than  three 
square  miles,  of  which  88 1  acres  will  be  land.     A  9,ooo-foot  sea  wall 
will  protect  the  shoreline  and  a  2,4OO-foot  rock-wall  jetty  will  form  a 
large  lagoon  for  seaplanes.     Two  piers  will  be  able  to  accommodate  the 
Navy's  largest  aircraft  carriers.    The  base  will  contain  eight  land  plane 
hangars  with  four  main  runways,  five  huge  seaplane  hangars  facing  the 
lagoon,  administrative  buildings,  a  small-arms  arsenal,  storehouses,  and 
quarters  for  approximately  5,OOO  officers  and  enlisted  men.    Two  patrol 
squadrons  numbering  24  seaplanes  and  three  airplane  carriers,  each  with 
75  fighting  planes,  will  make  this  their  base  of  operations.     The  first 
China  Clipper  flight  began  here  November  22,  1935,  when  the  airport 
was  a  base  for  the  Pan  American  Airways  System. 

4.  The  GOLDEN  GATE  GUN  CLUB   (targets:  60$  to  mem- 
bers,  70$   to   non-members;  picnic  grounds;   club  rooms),  with   eight 
traps  and  three  skeet  fields,  occupies  160  acres  at  the  extreme  west  end 
of  Alameda  Island  on  the  Southern  Pacific  Auto  Ferry  Road. 

5.  WASHINGTON  PARK  (picnic  grounds;  tennis  courts;  base- 
ball diamond;  cinder  track;  club  house),  Central  Ave.  and  Eighth  St., 
Alameda's  largest  municipal  recreation  center,  is  bounded  on  the  Bay 
side  by  a  public  bathing  beach   (lifeguard  during  summer  months;  no 
lockers).     Professional  baseball  was  played  here  for  the  first  time  in 
California,  and  from  this  diamond  have  come  some  of  the  present  big 


412       SAN     FRANCISCO 

names  in  baseball:  Johnny  Vergez,  Dick  Bartell,  Lou  Vezelick,  and 
Al  Browne.  The  Alameda  Girls  Softball  Team  has  twice  been  crowned 
United  States  National  champion. 

West  of  Washington  Park  is  the  SITE  OF  NEPTUNE  BEACH  formerly 
a  popular  amusement  park,  now  a  residential  subdivision.  An  outgrowth 
of  Neptune  Gardens  and  Croll's  Gardens,  it  was  the  mecca  for  boxing 
and  wrestling  fans.  John  L.  Sullivan,  Bob  Fitzsimmons,  Jim  Corbett, 
Kid  McCoy,  Billy  Muldoon,  Farmer  Burns,  and  Frank  Gotch  all  came 
here  to  rest  and  train. 

6.  The  ENCINAL  YACHT  CLUB,  S.  end  of  Grand  St.,  founded 
in  1891,  sponsors  sailing  events,  and  has  anchorage  for  small  yachts  and 
other  pleasure  craft. 

7.  The  130  members  of  the  AEOLIAN  YACHT  CLUB,  E.  end 
of  Calhoun  St.,  take  part  in  frequent  class  and  handicap  races  and  in 
cruises  to  Bay,  river,  and  coast  points.     The  Aeolian  Juniors,  made  up 
of  boys  under  21,  conduct  races  and  regattas  with  their  own  fleet,  under 
supervision  of  junior  officers.    Many  of  them  have  built  their  own  boats. 

8.  The   i8-hole  ALAMEDA  'MUNICIPAL  GOLF  COURSE 
(greens  fee:  Sat.,  Sun.,  holidays,  75$;  weekdays,  50^)  is  on  Bay  Farm 
Island  directly  across  the  bridge  from  Alameda. 

9.  INDIAN    MOUND    STONE    MOUNMENT,    in    Lincoln 
Park  on  High  St.  at  E.  end  of  Santa  Clara  Ave.,  commemorates  the 
site  of  a  former  Indian  shell  mound  that  measured   150  by  400  feet. 
The  mound  was  leveled  in  1908  and  the  earth  and  mussel  shells  used 
on  the  roads  of  Bay  Farm  Island.     The  site,  now  under  nearby  homes 
and  streets,  is  indistinguishable.     The  mound  rose   14  feet  above  the 
level  ground.     From  it  were  taken  the  remains  of  450  Indians,  all  of 
whom  had  been  buried  facing  the  rising  sun  with  knees  drawn  up  to 
chins.    Near  the  top  was  a  brass  counter  bearing  the  image  of  George  II 
and  dated  1768,  which  possibly  was  brought  here  by  Indians  in  contact 
with  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 

10.  The  ALAMEDA  PUBLIC  LIBRARY,  Santa  Clara  Ave.  and 
Oak  St.,  has  a  collection  of  nearly   100,000  volumes,  including  some 
valuable  Californiana.     Relics  salvaged  from  the  Indian  shell  mound, 
including  shell  ornaments,  cooking  implements  and  a  172-year-old  brass 
counter,  are  on  display. 

11.  The  ALAMEDA  BOAT  CLUB,  foot  of  Chestnut  St.,  on  the 
Estuary,  was  established  in  1864  as  a  center  for  racing  shells.     Today 
(1940)    the  principal  activity  of  its   100  members  is  participation  in 
motorboat  races  sponsored  by  other  clubs. 

12.  The  SHIP  GRAVEYARDS  on  the  Estuary,  N.  end  of  Schiller 
St.  and  foot  of.  a  rutted,  sandy  road  leading  from  end  of  St.  Charles 
St.,   are   the  final   resting  places   for  many   ancient,   worn-out   vessels. 
Here  is  the  long-idle  Unimak,  built  in   1902  in  Alameda,  a   124- foot 


A  L  A  M  E  D  A      413 

steam  schooner  that  once  pushed  her  way  bravely  through  the  ice  of  an 
early  Alaska  winter,  homeward  bound  and  loaded  to  the  beams  with  the 
season's  salmon  pack.  Here  are  the  Kadiak,  a  sturdy  tug  that  once 
worked  the  Alaska  waters,  and  the  unnamed  grey  hulk  called  No.  30, 
once  a  water-carrier  in  the  United  States  Navy.  In  contrast  to  these 
are  rows  of  steel  and  wooden  ships  maintained  in  a  state  of  idle  pre- 
paredness, awaiting  the  command  to  fire  the  boilers. 

13.  The  loo-acre  GOVERNMENT  ISLAND  (visitors  welcome 
Sat.  p.m.  and  Sun.)  in  the  Estuary,  reached  by  way  of  the  Dennison 
Street  Bridge  from  Oakland,  is  the  base  for  a  major  United  States 
Coast  Guard  Station,  with  more  than  100  men  and  seven  patrol  boats 
and  three  Coast  Guard  cutters  on  duty.  Located  here  are  divisions  of 
the  United  States  Forestry  Service  and  of  the  United  States  Public 
Roads  Administration,  and  a  merchant  marine  school  for  which  the 
Northland,  Coast  Guard  vessel,  serves  as  a  training  ship.  The  island 
was  made  when  the  Estuary  was  dredged  in  1916. 

In  the  ADMINISTRATION  BUILDING  are  frescoes  by  Beckford  Young 
and  John  Haley  depicting  the  history  of  road-building  and  activities  of 
the  Coast  Guard  and  the  Forestry  Service,  done  under  the  WPA  Art 
Project. 


CCKCC«K«CC«««««««C«C«C^^^ 


East  Bay  Tour  1 


Oakland — El   Cerrito — Richmond — Crockett — Martinez — Pittsburg — 
Antioch;  50.5  m.    US  40,  County  road,  State  4-24. 

Paved  throughout. 

Southern  Pacific  R.  R.  and  Santa  Fe  Ry.  parallel  the  route  between  Oakland 

and  Antioch.     Pacific  Greyhound  Bus  Lines  serve  the  area. 

From  the  flat  western  sections  of  Oakland  and  Berkeley,  this  route 
follows  the  contours  of  San  Francisco  Bay,  San  Pablo  Bay,  Carquinez 
Strait,  and  Suisun  Bay,  passing  residential,  industrial,  and  "company" 
towns  in  rapid  succession — traversing  a  district  whose  petroleum-laden 
atmosphere  indicates  immense  oil  storage  tanks  and  great  oil  refineries — 
and  ends  at  the  gateway  to  the  rich  garden  region  of  the  San  Joaquin 
delta. 

The  touring  center  of  OAKLAND,  0  m.,  is  San  Pablo  Ave., 
Broadway,  and  Fourteenth  Street. 

North  from  San  Pablo  Ave.,  Broadway,  and  Fourteenth  St.  on  Broadway 
to  Moss  Ave.;  R.  on  Moss  Ave.;  L.  on  Oakland  Ave.  to  PIEDMONT  1.8  m. 
(800  alt.,  9,339  pop.),  contoured  to  glen  and  upland,  a  municipal  island 
entirely  surrounded  by  Oakland.  Strictly  residential,  its  stately  mansions  and 
vine-clad  cottages  set  in  terraced  gardens  border  streets  that  wind  in  a  be- 
wildering maze  through  canyons,  across  ridges,  and  around  knolls.  Like 
Oakland,  Piedmont  was  once  a  part  of  the  43,472-acre  Rancho  San  Antonio 
(see  Oakland}.  Walter  Blair,  a  New  Englander,  purchased  the  site  for  a 
ranch  in  1852  at  $1.25  an  acre  and  in  1870  James  Gamble  divided  it  into 
town  lots. 

Thirteen-acre  PIEDMONT  PARK  (community  hall,  playground,  tennis  courts), 
in  the  approximate  center  of  the  city,  is  irrigated  by  a  sulphur  spring,  around 
which  a  health  resort  was  built  in  1876.  Within  the  park  are  the  largest 
collection  of  wild  irises  in  the  State  and  a  one-acre  sanctuary  for  Alameda 
County  wild  flowers. 

North  from  San  Pablo  Ave.,  Broadway,  and  Fourteenth  St.  in 
Oakland,  on  San  Pablo  Ave.,  to  EMERYVILLE,  2  m.  (sea  level- 
60  alt.,  2,399  pop.),  a  highly  industrialized  municipality  dating  from 
the  middle  iSyo's  when  the  Oakland  Trotting  Track  and  the  picnic 
grounds  at  Shellmound  Park  "in  the  vicinity  of  Butchertown"  were  the 
chief  attractions.  In  the  park,  surmounting  a  large  Indian  shellmound, 
stood  a  dance  pavilion.  Frequent  fairs,  circuses  and  exhibitions;  Na- 
tional shooting  tournaments;  festivals  of  the  Swedish  and  Caledonian 
Societies  with  bagpipe  and  haggis;  and  the  Butchers'  Annual  Celebra- 
tion all  brought  throngs  to  Golden  Gate  Village,  as  the  community  was 
then  known.  In  1896  it  became  Emeryville,  named  for  Joseph  Stickney 
Emery,  early  resident  and  architect  of  the  San  Francisco  mint. 

414 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     I       4J5 

In  that  same  year  the  California  Jockey  Club  purchased  the  Oakland 
Trotting  Track  and  changed  it  to  a  running  track.  There  was  grief 
in  Emeryville  when  State  legislative  action  abolished  horse-racing  in 
1911;  but  this  blow  was  a  blessing  in  disguise.  The  race  track  properties 
brought  handsome  prices  as  these  level  acres  near  two  transcontinental 
railroads  attracted  industry.  Now  (1940)  there  are  120  industries, 
one  for  every  21  inhabitants.  There  is  neither  church,  theater,  hospital, 
nor  cemetery.  Population  is  decreasing  but  every  razed  residence  sig- 
nalizes the  coming  of  a  new  industry  or  the  expansion  of  an  old  one. 

BERKELEY,  3.2  m.  (sea  level-i,3<x>  alt.,  84,827  pop.)  (see 
BERKELEY). 

Right  from  Berkeley  on  Ashby  Ave. — State  24 — which  becomes  Tunnel  Rd., 
to  Broadway;  L.  on  Broadway. 

The  twin  bores  of  the  BROADWAY  Low  LEVEL  TUNNEL,  West  Portal  at  4.8  m. 
(see  Emporium  of  a  New  World:  Engineering  Enterprise},  serve  the  opposing 
lines  of  traffic.  Since  completion  of  this  tunnel  in  1937,  many  people  employed 
in  the  metropolitan  area  have  chosen  the  sheltered  slopes  and  valleys  beyond 
it  for  home  sites.  From  the  tunnel's  East  Portal,  State  24  descends  the  canyon 
of  the  west  branch  of  San  Pablo  Creek  through  low  hills. 

At  7.5  m.  is  a  junction  with  paved  Moraga  Road. 

Right  here,  over  a  low  pass  into  the  orchard  lands  of  Moraga  Valley,  is 
MORAGA,  4.5  m.  (475  alt.,  61  pop.),  a  little  village  whose  site  was  once  part 
of  the  is,3i6-acre  Rancho  Laguna  de  los  Palos  Colorados  (Lagoon  of  the  red 
trees),  granted  jointly  to  Joaquin  Moraga  and  Jose  Bernal  in  1835. 

The  route  continues  L.  from  Moraga  on  a  paved  road  to  ST.  MARY'S  COLLEGE, 
6  m.,  on  a  5oo-acre  campus  in  an  arm  of  Moraga  Valley,  through  which  flows 
Las  Trampas  (the  frauds)  Creek.  The  $2,000,000  group  of  buildings  designed 
in  California  mission  style  (John  J.  Donovan,  architect)  was  dedicated  in 
1928.  Springing  from  the  little  school  opened  by  Reverend  John  T.  Harrington 
in  1855  in  the  basement  of  old  St.  Mary's  in  San  Francisco,  the  present  St. 
Mary's  College  has  grown  to  include  a  chain  of  State-wide  preparatory  schools 
and  colleges,  now  administered  by  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools, 
who  assumed  control  of  St.  Mary's  in  1868.  Brother  Leo,  widely  known  as  a 
lecturer  and  an  authority  on  Dante,  is  a  member  of  the  faculty.  Of  the  average 
student  enrollment  of  five  hundred,  most  major  in  arts  and  letters. 

In  the  KEITH  MEMORIAL  GALLERY  are  hung  thirty-three  paintings,  eight  oil 
sketches  and  studies,  and  several  drawings  by  William  Keith,  San  Francisco 
artist  who  died  in  1911  (see  Golden  Era:  Art  and  Artists). 

The  CHAPEL  OF  OUR  LADY  OF  MORAGA  is  surmounted  by  a  i2o-foot  tower 
and  a  dome  of  many-colored  tile.  In  the  interior,  modeled  after  a  church  at 
Monreale,  Sicily,  is  an  elaborately  designed  marble  altar. 

MADIGAN  GYMNASIUM  occupies  one  corner  of  a  large  athletic  field,  where 
the  "Gaels"  of  football  fame  are  trained.  It  is  named  for  Coach  "Slip" 
Madigan,  under  whose  tutelage  St.  Mary's  teams  won  renown. 

Northeast  of  its  junction  with  Moraga  Road,  State  24  climbs  by  an  easy 
grade  into  the  canyon  of  the  Lafayette  branch  of  Walnut  Creek. 

LAFAYETTE,  11.4  m.  (200  alt.,  750  pop.),  is  an  agricultural  trading  com- 
munity and  suburban  town.  In  1848  Elam  Brown,  immigrant  train  captain, 
purchased  the  3,5oo-acre  Rancho  Acalanes  from  Candelario  Valencia,  and  sold 
a  tenth  of  the  rancho  to  Nathaniel  Jones.  The  two  erected  frame  buildings 
to  begin  the  town. 

State  24  cuts  through  the  foothills  of  Lafayette  Ridge  across  Reesley  Valley 
to  Walnut  Creek  14.8  m.  (147  alt.,  1,014  pop.),  at  the  southern  end  of  Ygnacio 
Valley.  The  business  center  parallels  the  creek;  the  residential  section  rises 
into  low  hills.  Because  of  its  location  at  crossroads  the  first  American  settlers 
gave  the  town  the  terse  Yankee  name  of  "The  Corners."  Later  the  English 
equivalent  of  the  earlier  Spanish  name,  Arroyo  de  las  Nueces  (gully  of  the 


416      SAN     FRANCISCO 

nuts),  was  restored  because  of  the  many  native  hard-shell  California  walnuts 
growing  along  Walnut  Creek.  Walnut  culture,  a  thriving  industry  that 
centers  here,  began  when  pioneer  growers  first  grafted  the  English  walnut  to 
hardy  young  native  trees.  Many  kinds  of  fruit  also  are  cultivated  in  the  rich 
valley  soil,  and  there  are  numerous  poultry  farms  in  the  region. 

South  of  Walnut  Creek,  State  21  follows  narrow  San  Ramon  Valley  between 
the  foothills  of  Mount  Diablo  (L)  and  Las  Trampas  Ridge  (R). 

In  ALAMO,  18.4  m.  (272  alt.,  69  pop.),  giant  maple  trees  shade  the  main 
street,  although  the  village  was  named  by  Spaniards  for  the  cottonwoods 
growing  abundantly  hereabout.  The  first  adobe  built  here  (about  1848) 
became  in  1853  the  only  post  office  between  Martinez  and  Mission  San  Jose; 
the  mail  was  delivered  by  horse  and  cart  twice  a  week. 

Visible  at  20.4  m.  is  TAO  HOUSE  (private),  home  of  playwright  Eugene 
O'Neill.  The  white  palatial  residence  stands  on  a  hillside  (R)  overlooking 
the  road. 

DANVILLE,  21  m.  (365  alt.,  600  pop.),  a  trading  center,  was  named  after 
Danville,  Kentucky. 

The  side  route  continues  L.  from  Danville  on  Mount  Diablo  Road,  climbing 
out  of  the  orchard  lands  of  San  Ramon  Valley  to  the  entrance  of  MOUNT 
DIABLO  STATE  PARK  (automobile  permit,  25$;  motorcycle  permit,  15$; 
overnight  camping  permit,  50^),  25.5  m.  The  road  climbs  along  a  confused 
mass  of  DEVIL'S  SLIDE  (R),  28  m.,  up  Madrone  Canyon  past  the  grotesque, 
animal-like  rock  formations  of  the  GARDEN  OF  THE  JUNGLE  GODS  (R),  28.6  m. 
Well-defined  trails  lead  northwest  from  PARK  HEADQUARTERS  (R),  29.1  m,, 
to  the  sandstone  formation  of  ELEPHANT  ROCK,  SENTINEL  ROCK,  DEVIL'S  STAIR- 
WAY, PIGEON  ROCK,  and  PENGUIN  ROCK. 

Rising  majestically  above  broad  plains,  the  conical  summit  of  MOUNT 
DIABLO,  36.2  m.  (3,849  alt.),  often  incorrectly  said  to  be  volcanic,  is  easily 
recognizable  from  great  distances;  it  long  has  been  a  conspicuous  landmark 
for  both  Indians  and  whites.  To  the  east  are  the  great  San  Joaquin  and  Sacra- 
mento Valleys  and  the  long  line  of  the  Sierra  from  Mount  Lassen  to  Mount 
Brewer;  to  the  north,  Mount  St.  Helena;  to  the  west,  Mount  Tamalpais  and 
the  Pacific;  to  the  south,  Santa  Clara  Valley  between  parallel  Coast  ranges. 
Eighty  thousand  square  miles  of  land  and  sea  lie  within  the  extreme  limits 
of  vision.  All  lands  in  California  north  of  Kern  and  San  Luis  Obispo  Counties, 
except  the  Humboldt  region,  are  surveyed  by  reference  to  Mount  Diablo  (a 
meridian  base). 

Pedro  Pages  and  his  company  in  1772  were  the  first  white  men  to  come  near 
the  mountain.  Four  years  later  Juan  Bautista  de  Anza  followed  the  trail 
blazed  by  Pages.  General  Mariano  G.  Vallejo  reported  that  in  1806  a  military 
expedition  from  San  Francisco  fought  the  Bolgone  Indians,  who  were  encamped 
on  a  foothill  seven  miles  north  of  Kah  Woo  Koom  (mighty  mountain),  as  the 
Indians  called  Mount  Diablo.  During  the  battle  "an  unknown  personage, 
decorated  with  the  most  extraordinary  plumage  and  making  divers  movements, 
suddenly  appeared.  The  Indians  were  victorious  and  the  incognito,  probably  a 
medicine  man  impersonating  the  puy  [evil  spirit,  or  devil]  .  .  .  departed 
towards  the  mount.  The  defeated  soldiers  .  .  .  named  the  mount  'Diablo'  .  .  ." 
In  1841  the  first  emigrant  train  to  enter  California  by  way  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  the  Bidwell-Bartleson  party,  used  Mount  Diablo  as  a  guide.  Colonel 
Leander  Ransom  established  Diablo  as  a  base  point  for  Government  surveys 
in  California  in  1851.  In  1862  the  Whitney  survey  expedition  climbed  and 
measured  the  mountain.  Before  the  days  of  automobiles  it  required  a  full 
day  to  ascend  the  steep  and  dusty  road  to  the  summit.  A  hotel  on  the  mountain- 
side, which  cared  for  overnight  visitors,  was  burned  by  settlers  who  objected 
to  trespassers. 

Crowning  the  summit  are  the  heavily  buttressed  walls  of  MOUNT  DIABLO 
MUSEUM,  built  of  native  miocene  sandstone.  The  structure  (under  construc- 
tion 1940)  has  a  three-story  octagonal  tower  flanked  by  an  L-shaped  wing. 
The  main  entrance  opens  into  the  ground  floor  of  the  tower,  built  around 
the  base  meridian  marker.  Against  the  walls  is  a  series  of  dioramas  and 


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EVENING  STAR,  IN  THE  COURT  OF  THE  MOON 


OAKLAND  BUSINESS  DISTRICT  FROM  LAKE  MERRITT 


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EAST     BAY     TOUR     I       417 

pictures  relating  to  establishment  of  the  mountain  as  a  base  meridian  point  and 
a  triangulation  base  for  the  United  States  Geodetic  Survey.  In  the  adjoining 
wing  are  the  Hall  of  Science,  containing  botanical,  zoological,  paleontological, 
and  geological  exhibits,  and  murals  illustrating  prehistoric  animal  life;  and 
the  Hall  of  History,  with  a  series  of  dioramas  and  murals  depicting  Indian 
life  and  religious  concepts,  Spanish  exploration  and  settlement  in  the  Diablo 
region,  early  American  settlements,  and  local  industries,  particularly  the  Mount 
Diablo  coal  mines.  The  second  floor  of  the  tower  is  an  observation  room. 
Above  the  windows  are  large  photomurals  showing  the  greatest  distances  in 
each  direction  which  can  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye.  The  upper  story  of  the 
tower  is  surmounted  by  a  powerful  revolving  electric  beacon. 

In  Alameda  County's  extreme  northwest  corner  is  ALBANY,  6.2  m. 
(sea  level-3OO  alt.,  11,420  pop.),  with  its  many  one-family  homes  of 
white  stucco.  The  town  site  was  part  of  the  huge  Rancho  San  Antonio 
granted  to  Luis  Maria  Peralta  in  1820.  The  town  was  known  as 
Ocean  View  until  1909,  when  the  electorate  renamed  it  in  deference 
to  Mayor  Roberts,  who  came  from  Albany,  New  York. 

The  GOLDEN  GATE  TURF  CLUB  (under  construction  April, 
1940),  Fleming  Point,  will  when  completed  share  racing  dates  with 
Tanforan  and  Bay  Meadows.  Also  under  construction  is  the  WEST- 
ERN REGIONAL  RESEARCH  LABORATORY,  Buchanan  and 
Fillmore  Sts.,  a  large  U-shaped,  three-story  concrete  building  which 
will  house  a  branch  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Agricultural 
Chemistry  and  Engineering.  It  will  be  devoted  to  chemical,  physical, 
and  biological  experiment  in  an  effort  to  find  new  markets  and  uses  for 
farm  crops  and  commodities. 

EL  CERRITO,  6.9  m.  (sea  level-5OO  alt.,  6,154  pop.),  occupies 
the  southern  portion  of  the  old  Rancho  San  Pablo,  granted  in  1823  to 
Francisco  Maria  Castro.  It  dates  from  1917,  when  the  residents  of 
2,500  acres,  some  in  Richmond  and  some  in  what  was  known  merely 
as  the  "Cerrito  District,"  voted  for  incorporation. 

The  large  white  CASTRO  ADOBE  standing  (R)  a  few  yards  off 
San  Pablo  Ave.  on  Cerrito  Creek,  was  built  in  the  1840*5  by  Don 
Victor  Castro,  youngest  son  of  the  grantee  of  Rancho  San  Pablo.  It 
has  34-inch  outer  walls  and  includes  a  private  chapel.  Bret  Harte  used 
the  house  as  the  locale  of  his  play,  The  Two  Men  of  Sandy  Bar. 

In  the  eastern  residential  district  of  RICHMOND,  9.2  m.  (sea 
level-ioo  alt.,  22,707  pop.),  an  arrow-shaped  electric  sign  above  the 
highway  points  (L)  to  the  heart  of  the  city.  Though  less  than  40  years 
old,  Richmond  is  Contra  Costa  County's  largest  city  and  the  principal 
West  Coast  port  for  the  transshipment  of  oil.  It  extends  from  the 
Contra  Costa  hills  across  three  miles  of  low,  level  terrain  to  a  steep 
headland  from  which  two  peninsulas — Point  Richmond  to  the  southeast 
and  Point  San  Pablo  to  the  northwest — jut  into  San  Francisco  Bay. 
Between  Point  San  Pablo  and  San  Pedro  Point  on  the  opposite  Marin 
County  shore  is  San  Pablo  Strait,  joining  San  Francisco  and  San  Pablo 
Bays.  A  six-mile  water  front  fringed  by  an  industrial  belt  and  a  series 
of  modern  home  districts  semicircling  the  business  district  comprise  the 
27  square  miles  of  this  scattered  town.  Although  it  has  fine  homes  on 


418      SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  hillslopes  east  of  San  Pablo  Avenue,  many  schools  and  other  public 
buildings,  parks  and  playgrounds,  Richmond's  many  vacant  blocks, 
fronted  by  sign  boards  and  generally  unrelieved  by  trees  or  shrubs,  give 
the  town  an  unfinished  look  characteristic  of  young  communities. 

Until  1900  this  was  farming  and  grazing  land.  In  1857  the  first 
settler,  John  Nicholl,  bought  200  acres  of  Rancho  San  Pablo.  The 
hilly  land  from  Point  San  Pablo  to  Point  Richmond  was  early  acquired 
by  Jacob  M.  Tewksbury,  surgeon  and  land-grabber.  In  1870  the 
greater  part  of  the  present  water  front  and  industrial  belt,  known  as 
the  Potrero  (pasture)  District,  was  separated  from  the  mainland  by  a 
slough.  As  an  island  it  would  have  been  declared  closed  Federal  land 
(as  were  all  the  islands  in  San  Francisco  Bay  by  the  Act  of  1866),  but 
by  building  a  small  dam  across  the  southern  end  of  the  slough,  Dr. 
Tewksbury  caused  shoaling  and  ultimately  the  closing  of  the  waterway, 
until  then  deep  enough  to  accommodate  a  small  sloop.  In  1872  the 
government  declared  the  tract  a  peninsula,  and,  as  such,  a  part  of  old 
Rancho  San  Pablo  and  the  property  of  Tewksbury. 

When  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  entered  the  district  in  1877,  it 
passed  up  Richmond's  present  site  and  built  a  station  called  Stege  two 
miles  southeast,  but  the  Santa  Fe  in  1899  selected  the  site  as  its  western 
terminus,  thereby  starting  an  industrial  development.  The  Standard 
Oil  Company  built  the  first  unit  of  its  great  refinery  here  in  1902. 
The  dredging  of  the  harbor  began  in  1912.  Since  1926  the  city  has 
shared  ownership  and  operation  of  its  harbor  with  private  interests. 

The  four  terminals  along  the  Richmond  water  front  handle  an  an- 
nual cargo  of  more  than  9,000,000  tons.  Oil  is  by  far  the  principal 
cargo,  borne  here  by  tankers  from  the  Orient  and  pumped  into  the  tanks 
that  mushroom  the  hills.  There  are  more  than  60  industries,  including 
fish-reduction  plants,  chemical  works,  an  asphalt  products  plant,  and 
tile,  brick,  enamel,  and  pottery  works. 

The  STANDARD  OIL  REFINERY  (adm.  by  pass),  Standard 
Ave.,  occupies  a  tract  of  1,800  acres.  It  has  a  daily  capacity  of  100,000 
barrels  of  crude  oil,  employs  between  2,000  and  3,000  workers,  and 
manufactures  more  than  500  petroleum  products. 

The  FORD  MOTOR  COMPANY  ASSEMBLY  PLANT  (vis- 
itors 9-3  weekdays;  guides),  1414  S.  Tenth  St.,  covering  58  acres,  has 
about  1,000  employees. 

A  center  for  both  yachting  and  motorboating  is  THE  RICH- 
MOND YACHT  CLUB,  Second  St.  and  Inner  Harbor  Canal.  Prin- 
cipal events  are  a  championship  regatta  in  June  and  a  "beachcomber's 
ball"  in  September. 

NICHOLL  PARK  (tennis,  handball,  baseball,  bowling),  Twenty- 
ninth  St.  and  McDonald  Ave.,  is  Richmond's  largest  recreation  center. 
The  eight-room  JOHN  NICHOLL  HOUSE,  2800  McDonald  Ave., 
built  in  1857  of  redwood,  is  shaded  by  great  eucalyptus  trees  more 
than  70  years  old. 

Left  from  McDonald  Ave.  in  Richmond  on  Garrard  Blvd.  to  a  junction 
with  Western  Dr.,  4.6  m.  (Point  Richmond)  ;  R.  on  Western  Dr.  to  a  junction 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     I       419 

with  a  paved  road,  6.2  m.;  L.  here  0.5  m.  to  the  Richmond-San  Rafael  Ferry 
(car  and  driver  70$;  with  four  passengers,  Sotf),  which  crosses  the  northern 
end  of  San  Francisco  Bay  to  San  Quentin  Wharf. 

Western  Drive  continues  to  WINEHAVEN,  8.7  m.,  sheltered  by  Molate 
Point  (L),  where  formerly  a  large  winery  occupied  the  extensive  buildings 
facing  San  Pablo  Bay.  It  is  now  a  ghost  town,  its  plant  and  warehouses  empty 
of  machinery,  its  company-owned  hotel  and  rows  of  cottages,  which  once 
housed  150  workers  and  their  families,  decaying  in  peaceful  loneliness.  So 
favorable  for  the  aging  and  blending  of  wines  were  climatic  conditions  in  this 
sheltered  Bayside  spot  that  $1,500,000  were  invested  in  this  property  in  1906. 
The  plant  was  abandoned  in  1921  after  a  brief  attempt  at  making  grape  juice 
for  a  dry  Nation.  But  to  it  clings  the  memory  of  the  fine  California  wines  it 
processed — wines  that  competed  for  world  favor  with  the  best  of  other  lands. 

SAN  PABLO,  11.4  m.  (28  alt.,  489  pop.),  was  named  for  Rancho 
San  Pablo,  a  four-league  tract  which  Francisco  Maria  Castro,  Spanish 
artillery  corporal,  acquired  in  1823.  Castro  died  a  few  years  later, 
leaving  12  children,  one  of  whom,  Martina,  married  Juan  B.  Alvarado, 
Mexican  governor  (1836-42)  who  later  came  into  possession  of  the 
greater  part  of  this  rancho. 

Its  rear  wall  facing  the  highway,  the  ALVARADO  ADOBE,  US 
40  and  Church  Lane,  90  feet  long  with  broad  porches  and  overhanging 
gables,  has  served  as  the  storeroom  of  a  grocery.  It  was  built  in  1838 
by  Antonio,  eldest  son  of  Francisco  Castro.  After  American  occupation 
of  the  State,  Governor  Alvarado  made  it  his  home  until  his  death  in 
1882. 

Left  from  San  Pablo  on  a  hard-surfaced  road  1.2  m.  to  a  junction  with  a 
driveway  leading  (R)  to  the  GUTIERREZ  ADOBE  (private),  visible  from 
the  road.  Two  frame  wings  have  been  added  to  the  original  24-  by  48-foot 
building  whose  thick  walls,  sheathed  in  wood  and  resting  on  a  stone  founda- 
tion, are  well  preserved.  This  adobe,  built  about  1845,  was  the  home  of 
Candido  Gutierrez  and  his  wife  Jovita.  Under  one  of  the  wings  is  the  grave 
of  Maria  Emma  Gutierrez,  who  died  at  the  age  of  six.  Her  tombstone, 
inscribed  with  a  Spanish  verse,  almost  touches  a  floor  beam. 

At  12.4  m.  on  US  40  is  a  junction  with  a  hard-surfaced  road. 

Left  on  this  road,  at  the  northern  tip  of  Pinole  Point,  is  the  company  town 
of  GIANT,  2m.  (10  alt.,  120  pop.),  plant-site  of  the  Atlas  Powder  Company. 
Although  it  has  homes  for  about  30  families,  a  majority  of  the  workmen  live 
elsewhere.  Formerly  called  Nitro,  the  place  dates  from  1867,  when  the  Giant 
Powder  Company,  first  company  in  California  to  manufacture  dynamite,  built 
a  plant  here. 

US  40  veers  northeast,  still  following  the  contour  of  the  Bay.  The 
Contra  Costa  hills  decline  into  rolling  ridges  which  flatten  out  as  they 
approach  the  water.  This  region  was  known  as  the  Sobrante  district 
during  late  Mexican  and  early  American  days,  the  tract  being  sobrante 
(unclaimed  or  left-over  portion)  between  Ranchos  San  Pablo  and  El 
Pinole.  Sheep  and  cattle  trails  wind  through  occasional  groves  of 
eucalyptus  and  willow. 

At  the  foot  of  hills  commanding  views  of  Bay  and  mountains, 
PINOLE,  16.4  m.  (32  alt.,  919  pop.),  through  which  runs  Pinole 


42O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Creek,  is  chiefly  a  residential  community  for  employees  of  plants  along 
the  Contra  Costa  shore.  The  town  is  named  for  Rancho  El  Pinole, 
claimed  in  1823  by  Lieutenant  Ignacio  Martinez,  who  named  it  in  com- 
memoration of  the  rescue  of  a  party  of  Spanish  soldiers,  lost  in  this 
district,  by  a  band  of  friendly  Indians,  who  fed  them  a  coarse  gruel 
made  from  acorns,  which  they  called  pinole.  The  canyon,  farther  east, 
where  they  first  lost  their  bearings,  came  to  be  known  as  the  Canada 
del  Hambre  (valley  of  hunger)  later  corrupted  to  Alhambra. 

In  1849  a  young  Englishman,  Dr.  Samuel  J.  Tennant,  once  physi- 
cian to  the  King  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  stopped  here  on  one  of  his 
trips  to  the  gold  regions,  met  Rafaela,  daughter  of  Don  Ignacio,  and 
later  married  her.  On  that  part  of  the  rancho  inherited  by  him  and 
his  wife,  he  founded  the  town  of  Pinole. 

At  16.6  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  hard-surfaced  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  the  company  town  of  HERCULES,  0.7  m.  (8  alt,  343 
pop.),  where  the  Hercules  Powder  Company  established  its  plant  in  1869  to 
provide  powder  for  the  mining  industry.  The  residential  district  borders  the 
road  which  winds  along  the  tree-covered  ridge  fronting  San  Pablo  Bay.  As  a 
measure  of  safety,  powder  and  acid  houses  are  built  in  separate  pockets. 
Underground  storage  magazines  are  scattered  throughout  the  flat  lands  to  the 
east.  The  plant  covers  2,800  acres  and  has  a  capacity  of  250,000  pounds 
monthly. 


At  17.4  m.  is  a  junction  with  State  4. 


Right  on  State  4  up  Franklin  Canyon,  the  fertile  valley  of  Rodeo  Creek, 
still  partly  covered  with  live  oaks.  The  cleared  land  is  planted  to  apricots, 
walnuts,  and  tomatoes. 

At  9.2  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  paved  road — the  former  State  4;  L.  here 
0.1  m.  to  the  RANCHO  LAS  JUNTAS  ADOBE  (private),  a  well-preserved 
white  house  built  in  the  i84o's,  facing  away  from  the  road  under  old  locust 
trees. 

On  former  State  4  at  2  m.  is  Martinez. 

On  State  4  at  9.4  m.  the  large,  old-fashioned,  cupolaed  JOHN  STRENTZEL 
HOUSE  (L)  overlooks  rolling  orchard  land.  Here  the  great  naturalist,  John 
Muir  (1838-1914),  who  originated  the  first  plans  for  a  system  of  National 
parks,  spent  the  latter  part  of  his  life.  The  estate  was  originally  part  of 
Rancho  Las  Juntas. 

At  9.7  m.  is  a  junction  with  hard-surfaced  Alhambra  Road;  R.  here  to  the 
JOHN  MUIR  HOUSE  (L),  1.1  m.  (private),  the  original  part  of  which  was 
built  in  1853  by  Dr.  John  Strentzel,  who  gave  it  to  his  daughter  and  Muir 
after  their  marriage  in  1880.  The  Muirs  lived  here  for  ten  years  (1880-90), 
moving  to  the  Strentzel  House  shortly  after  Dr.  Strentzel's  death.  Many  of 
the  books,  pieces  of  furniture,  and  other  possessions  used  by  Muir  are  here. 
Near  a  large  eucalyptus  tree  visible  from  the  road  Muir  and  his  wife  are 
buried.  An  annual  pilgrimage  to  the  graves  is  made  on  the  Sunday  nearest 
April  21,  anniversary  of  his  birthday. 

Also  on  Alhambra  Road  is  the  JOHN  SWETT  HOUSE  (private),  1.6  m., 
on  the  banks  (R)  of  a  tree-shaded  stream  on  Hill  Girt  Ranch.  John  Swett 
(1830-1913),  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  from  1863  to  1867, 
co-founder  of  the  first  State  normal  college  and  intimate  friend  of  John  Muir, 
lived  here.  Nearby  is  a  well-preserved  adobe,  built  in  the  iSso's,  when  this 
was  part  of  Rancho  Las  Juntas. 

From  its  junction  with  Alhambra  Road,  State  4  continues  east  to  a  junction 
with  State  21,  12.7  m. 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     I       421 

Right  on  State  21  to  the  LOUCKS  HOUSE  (private],  0.4  m.,  built  by 
G.  L.  Walwrath  in  1853  on  a  hill  (L).  The  timbers,  cut  from  Moraga  red- 
woods, are  covered  with  sheathing  that  was  brought  .round  Cape  Horn. 
George  P.  Loucks  bought  the  house  in  1856. 

PACHECO,  0.8  m.  (21  alt.,  200  pop.),  a  sleepy  inland  village,  stands  be- 
side Walnut  Creek,  a  stream  that  served  as  the  boundary  line  for  two  ranches 
— Las  Juntas  and  Monte  del  Diablo.  Grayson  Creek,  which  also  flows  through 
Pacheco,  joins  Walnut  Creek  north  of  town  to  form  Pacheco  Creek.  Within 
a  few  months  after  the  town  site  was  laid  out  in  1860,  the  village  burned  to 
the  ground.  A  devastating  flood  in  1862,  two  more  fires  in  1867  and  1871, 
and  an  earthquake  in  1868  were  no  boost  to  the  town's  growth. 

Left  from  Pacheco  1.8  m.  is  CONCORD  (65  alt.,  1,369  pop.),  a  pleasant 
tree-shaded  town,  busy  shipping  point  for  the  produce  of  Diablo  Valley. 
The  young  village  laid  out  in  1876  around  the  plaza  was  called  Todos  Santos 
(All  Saints)  by  the  Spanish  and  Drunken  Indian  by  the  Americans.  Early 
hopes  for  the  district  were  outlined  in  the  Contra  Costa  Gazette  of  February 
13,  1886:  "Contra  Costa  County  is  destined  to  become  a  paradise  of  vineyards 
and  orchards,  of  which  Ygnacio  and  Diablo  Valleys  will  be  the  central  portion." 
The  prediction  has  in  a  measure  been  realized.  Strawberries  and  vegetables 
are  also  grown  in  large  quantities. 

At  Concord  and  Salvio  Aves.  stands  the  PACHECO  HOUSE,  a  sturdy 
adobe  with  balconies  and  shuttered  windows,  set  among  pepper  trees.  Now 
encased  in  wood  and  well  preserved,  the  century-old  house  was  the  home  of 
Salvio  Pacheco,  grantee  of  Rancho  Monte  del  Diablo,  embracing  17,921  acres 
of  the  surrounding  fertile  valley. 

State  21  continues  south  from  Pacheco  to  a  junction  with  State  24,  3.4  m. 

The  main  side  route  follows  State  4  from  its  junction  with  State  21  to  a 
junction  with  State  24,  16  m.,  with  which  it  unites  as  State  4-24,  and  continues 
L.  to  a  junction  with  former  State  4,  19.7  m.  (see  below). 

US  40  crosses  a  low  range  of  hills  into  the  valley  of  Rodeo  Creek. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  creek  on  San  Pablo  Bay  is  RODEO,  19.3  m. 
(12  alt.,  1,288  pop.).  During  Spanish  and  early  American  days  great 
rodeos  were  held  yearly  up  the  canyon.  There  is  still  some  cattle-raising 
in  the  back  country.  The  Bay  is  in  view  as  US  40  continues  across 
the  rolling  terrain,  with  great  oil  tanks  on  the  hillsides — a  portion  of 
the  900  in  this  district. 

The  smell  of  petroleum  near  OLEUM,  20.2  m.  (76  alt.,  217  pop.), 
comes  from  the  Union  Oil  Company  Refinery.  The  plant  refines  35,000 
barrels  of  petroleum  daily.  The  "cracking"  towers  which  tower  above 
the  highway  are  gigantic  stills  in  which  crude  oil  is  heated  to  700° 
Fahrenheit.  The  volatility  of  the  component  parts  of  the  oil  determines 
at  which  level  of  the  tower  they  will  be  sucked  out  by  the  condensers 
and  deposited  in  other  tanks.  The  high  octane  aviation  gasoline  is 
drawn  off  at  the  top  of  the  tower,  ordinary  gasoline  and  kerosene  at 
a  lower  level  and  the  heavier  motor  and  fuel  oils  near  the  bottom. 

TORMEY,  20.8  m.,  a  station  (L)  on  the  Southern  Pacific  line, 
was  named  for  John  and  Patrick  Tormey,  whose  7,ooo-acre  cattle  ranch 
with  a  three-mile  frontage  on  San  Pablo  Bay  was  before  1861  a  part 
of  Rancho  El  Pinole. 

At  21  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  the  company  town  of  SELBY,  0.2  m.  (o-ioo  alt.,  141 
pop.),  named  for  Prentiss  Selby,  who  established  the  plant  in  1884.  A  recently 
erected  6o5-foot-high  smokestack,  second  in  size  only  to  one  in  Japan,  marks  the 


422      SAN     FRANCISCO 

location  of  the  American  Smelting  and  Refining  Company  plant.  Ore  vessels 
unload  at  company  docks;  chief  products  are  gold,  silver,  lead,  and  antimony. 

Ascending  a  hill,  US  40  climbs  to  a  wide  parking  space,  21.5  m., 
cut  in  the  hillside  directly  above  San  Pablo  Bay,  which  affords  a  view 
of  Carquinez  Strait,  Carquinez  Bridge,  and  the  north  Bay  hills  and 
valleys.  The  broad  expanse  of  San  Pablo  Bay  narrows  into  six-mile- 
long  and  one-mile-wide  CARQUINEZ  STRAIT.  The  town  of 
Vallejo  and  the  Mare  Island  Navy  Yard  lie  opposite.  A  long  break- 
water protects  the  deep  channel  to  the  Navy  Yard ;  towering  steel  masts 
mark  a  powerful  Naval  radio  station. 

John  Sutter,  in  command  of  three  small  vessels,  looked  out  upon 
these  shores  en  route  to  empire  and  riches  in  1839;  and  this  was  the 
water  route  for  men  and  supplies  during  the  Gold  Rush.  Today  ocean- 
going vessels  buck  the  swift  currents  on  their  way  to  the  deep-water 
port  of  Stockton,  while  flat-bottomed  river  boats  push  to  and  from  the 
great  central  valleys.  In  season  hundreds  of  tiny  craft  bob  on  the 
swells,  as  fishermen  pit  their  skill  and  patience  against  the  wariness  of 
the  gamey  striped  bass. 

At  22.3  m.  is  a  junction  with  a  paved  road,  on  which  the  route 
branches  R.  from  US  40. 

Left  here  on  US  40,  across  CARQUINEZ  BRIDGE    (45$  per  car,  5$  per 
passenger],  is  VALLEJO,  3.5  m.   (see  North  Bay  Tour}. 

The  route  continues  R.  on  the  paved  road  to  CROCKETT,  22.7  m. 

(25  alt.,  3,885  pop.),  which  rises  from  the  narrow  strip  of  land  fronting 
Carquinez  Strait  up  the  steep  adjoining  hills.  The  original  owner  of 
the  town  site,  Thomas  Edwards,  Welsh  by  birth  and  a  former  mate 
on  Mississippi  River  steamboats,  drove  his  own  covered  wagon  to 
California  in  1849-50.  Securing  1,800  acres  along  the  Strait,  he  went 
into  the  cattle  business.  With  the  coming  of  the  Central  Pacific  in 
1877,  tne  Edwards  ranch  became  the  site  of  Valona  Station.  In  1881, 
when  a  foundry  selected  the  site  as  a  new  home,  Edwards  laid  out  the 
present  town.  He  named  it  for  J.  B.  Crockett,  a  former  member  of 
the  California  Supreme  Court,  whom  he  had  known  in  St.  Louis  as  a 
young  lawyer. 

In  1897  tne  California  Beet  Sugar  Refining  Company  erected  a 
small  refinery  on  the  shore,  the  nucleus  of  the  present  CALIFORNIA 
HAWAIIAN  SUGAR  REFINING  CORPORATION  PLANT 
(visiting  hours  10-1).  The  corporation  has  its  own  ships  which  bring 
some  half  million  tons  of  raw  sugar  from  the  Hawaiian  Islands  to  its 
docks  annually.  The  plant  refines  2,600  tons  daily,  employing  2,000 
men  at  peak,  and  disbursing  up  to  $2,500,000  in  pay  rolls  each  year. 

East  of  Crockett  the  route  parallels  Carquinez  Strait.  Now  at  sea 
level,  now  on  the  hillsides,  the  road  winds  around  points  and  dives  into 
canyons. 

In  PORT  COSTA,  25.2  m.  (11  alt.,  593  pop.),  an  elm-shaded 
lane  (L)  leads  down  to  a  cove  which  was  formerly  an  important  har- 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     I       423 

bor.  When  grain  was  California's  principal  crop,  sailing  vessels  of 
many  nations  loaded  wheat  at  this  port.  Until  1930,  when  the  Southern 
Pacific  built  a  bridge  across  the  strait  (see  below),  the  main  line  trains 
were  ferried  from  here  to  Benicia.  One  of  the  boats,  the  Contra  Costa, 
with  a  capacity  of  36  freight  cars  and  two  locomotives,  was  the  largest 
railroad  ferry  in  the  world. 

MARTINEZ,  31  m.  (12  alt.,  7,341  pop.),  sits  snugly  on  a  crescent- 
shaped  cove  on  Carquinez  Strait,  where  the  hills  turn  south  to  form 
the  narrow  Alhambra  Valley  into  which  the  town  is  growing.  Mar- 
tinez was  laid  out  in  1849  by  Colonel  William  M.  Smith  on  lands  of 
Rancho  El  Pinole  (see  above),  to  which  in  1850  was  added,  east  of 
Del  Hambre  Creek,  a  part  of  Rancho  Las  Juntas  (the  junction  points), 
granted  in  1852  to  William  Welch,  a  Scot.  When  Contra  Costa 
County  was  organized  in  1850,  Martinez  became  the  county  seat. 
River  boats  docked  here,  and  a  ferry  crossed  to  Benicia.  In  1878  the 
Central  Pacific  built  a  branch  line  from  Port  Costa  to  Martinez  and 
later  another  line  south  into  the  San  Ramon  Valley.  Since  1905  the 
Mountain  Copper  Company  has  manufactured  fertilizers  and  various 
copper  derivatives.  The  town,  however,  grew  slowly  until  1914,  when 
the  Shell  Oil  Company  with  its  refinery  became  the  chief  industry  (now 
employing  more  than  one  thousand).  The  population  has  tripled  since 
1910.  Martinez  also  ships  wine,  acids,  alcohol,  furniture,  fishoil  and 
meal,  spring  water,  redwood  panels,  and  electric  fixtures. 

1.  Right  from  Martinez  on  State  21  to  a  junction  with  State  4,  4.3  m.    (see 
above). 

2.  Left   from   Martinez   on   Ferry   St.   to   the    Martinez-Benicia   Auto    Ferry 
(car  and  driver  55$,  each  additional  passenger  10$) ,  which  crosses  Suisun  Bay 
to  BENICIA,  2  m.;  this  water  link  is  a  continuation  of  State  21. 

The  main  route  goes  east  on  Escobar  Street  (old  State  4)  through 
the  Shell  Oil  Refinery  property  and  past  the  SOUTHERN  PACIFIC 
RAILROAD  BRIDGE,  which  spans  the  eastern  end  of  Carquinez 
Strait  between  Suisun  Point  and  Army  Point.  The  bridge  was  com- 
pleted in  1930  at  a  cost  of  $12,000,000. 

The  refinery  site  of  the  Associated  Oil  Company  is  at  ASSO- 
CIATED, 34.5  m.  (12  alt.,  250  pop.),  a  company  town  which  until 
recently  was  called  Avon.  The  refinery  has  a  capacity  of  48,000  barrels 
daily ;  it  maintains  great  loading  docks  and  pipe  lines. 

PORT  CHICAGO,  37.8  m.  (18  alt.,  1,032  pop.),  formerly  called 
Bay  Point,  looks  out  toward  the  low-lying  islands  of  Suisun  Bay.  It 
grew  up  with  the  C.  A.  Smith  Lumber  Company  which  came  here  in 
1907  and  flourished  during  the  World  War  when  the  Pacific  Coast 
Shipbuilding  Company  maintained  yards  here,  but  later  declined  in 
population  when  these  companies  moved  away.  Most  of  the  residents, 
many  of  them  Scandinavians  by  birth  or  parentage,  are  employed  in 
nearby  industrial  towns.  The  harbor  is  much  visited  by  yachtsmen  and 
fishermen. 

Another  company  town  is  NICHOLS,  39.7  m.  (20  alt.,  300  pop.), 


424      SAN     FRANCISCO 

home  of  the  General  Chemical  Company,  where  up  to  200  are  employed 
at  peak. 

East  of  Nichols,  Suisun  Bay  narrows  to  a  deep  channel  into  which 
pour  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  Rivers  after  draining  the  great 
central  valleys. 

At  SHELL  POINT  (L),  42.9  m.t  are  a  chemical  plant  and  experi- 
mental laboratories  of  the  Shell  Oil  Company,  with  about  300  em- 
ployees. 

PITTSBURG,  46.2  m.  (21  alt.,  9,610  pop.),  faces  the  deep  waters 
of  New  York  Slough,  near  the  confluence  of  the  Sacramento  and  San 
Joaquin  Rivers.  Although  it  is  a  highly  industrialized  town,  it  has 
clean,  well-paved  streets,  and  many  of  its  residents  own  their  own 
homes. 

The  founder  of  the  first  settlement  here  was  Jonathan  B.  Stevenson, 
ex-colonel  of  New  York  Militia,  who  led  a  regiment  of  New  York 
Volunteers  to  California  to  help  restore  order  in  1847.  Stevenson 
turned  to  real  estate  with  the  idea  of  founding  a  "New  York  of  the 
Pacific."  In  1849  he  purchased  a  part  of  Rancho  Los  Meganos  (sand 
dunes),  including  the  site  of  Pittsburg,  engaged  an  obscure  young  engi- 
neer, one  William  Tecumseh  Sherman — destined  to  become  well-known 
in  the  State  of  Georgia — to  lay  out  this  Pacific  Coast  Manhattan,  and 
tried  to  infuse  Californians  with  his  own  "big-town"  enthusiasm. 
Those  who  thought  the  city  would  become  a  "second  New  York"  were 
doomed  to  disappointment,  for  the  citizens  sat  up  nights  waiting  for 
the  boom  and  fighting  off  the  hordes  of  mosquitoes  infesting  adjacent 
swamps.  By  1865  they  had  become  resigned  to  the  waiting  and  the 
mosquitoes — and  to  the  town's  name  of  "New  York  Landing,"  which 
had  been  substituted  for  the  colonel's  grandiloquent  "New  York  of  the 
Pacific."  When  in  the  i88o's  coal  was  discovered  on  the  slope  of 
Mount  Diablo,  the  town  was  renamed  Black  Diamond.  In  1910,  after 
the  Columbia  Steel  Company  had  built  a  modern  mill,  it  received  its 
present  name. 

The  mills,  foundries,  and  shops  of  the  COLUMBIA  STEEL 
CORPORATION  PLANT  (visitors  admitted  by  special  permission], 
where  rolled  steel  products  are  manufactured,  cover  387  acres.  This 
plant  is  the  principal  subsidiary  on  the  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation. 

ANTIOCH,  50.5  m.  (42  alt.,  3,563  pop.),  lies  on  the  south  bank 
of  the  San  Joaquin  River.  The  town  is  the  gateway  to  the  rich  San 
Joaquin  delta,  which  produces  the  bulk  of  the  Nation's  asparagus.  Along 
its  water  front  pass  ships  and  barges  to  Stockton,  one  of  the  country's 
leading  inland  ports.  The  founders  of  Antioch,  J.  H.  and  W.  W. 
Smith,  ministers  by  profession  and  carpenters  by  trade,  arrived  in  San 
Francisco  from  Boston  on  July  6,  1849.  The  brothers  took  up  jointly 
two  quarter-septions  of  land  where  Antioch  now  stands.  On  December 
24,  1849,  they  set  up  tents  and  broke  ground,  working  the  land  just 
enough  to  hold  it,  while  carrying  on  their  carpenter  work.  On  Febru- 
ary 5,  1850  the  Reverend  W.  W.  Smith  died,  but  his  brother  remained 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     2      425 

at  "Smith's  Landing."  Learning  that  a  shipload  of  settlers  from  Maine 
had  arrived  in  San  Francisco  planning  to  found  a  colony  in  California, 
he  hurried  to  the  city  and  offered  each  a  lot  for  a  home.  They  brought 
with  them  the  traditions  of  a  sturdy,  God-fearing  race  and  selected  the 
Biblical  name  of  Antioch  for  their  new  home.  Antioch  prospered  dur- 
ing the  Gold  Rush,  when  ships  with  men  and  supplies  made  it  a  port 
of  call  and  farmers  began  to  cultivate  the  surrounding  rich  agricultural 
lands. 

Today  Antioch's  largest  industry  is  the  Fibreboard  Products  Com- 
pany, occupying  a  3O-acre  tract  and  employing  400  people,  which  pro- 
duces boxboard,  paper  boxes,  packing  cases,  and  wallboard.  Other  in- 
dustries include  a  shipbuilding  plant  and  several  fruit  and  vegetable 
canneries. 

The  substantial  GEORGE  W.  KIMBALL  HOUSE,  Third  St., 
erected  in  1851,  was  one  of  the  first  structures  in  the  State  to  be  built 
of  Douglas  fir — the  "Oregon  pine"  of  lumbermen. 


&&GKZ&^^ 


East  Bay  Tour  2 


Oakland — San  Leandro — Alvarado — Centerville — Irvington — Warm 
Springs — Milpitas — San  Jose;  41.7  m.    State  17. 

Paved  roadbeds  throughout. 

Southern   Pacific  R.  R.   parallels  the   route;   Peerless   Stages   between   Oakland 

and   San  Jose;   East  Bay  Transit   Motor   Coaches   between   Oakland   and    San 

Lorenzo. 

This  route  follows  the  rich  agricultural  lands  on  the  east  side  of 
San  Francisco  Bay,  country  occupied  by  Franciscan  missionaries  and 
Spanish  rancheros  long  before  the  coming  of  Americans. 

South  from  Fourteenth  St.  and  Broadway  in  OAKLAND,  0  m., 
on  Broadway;  L.  on  Eighth  St.  (State  17),  which  curves  into  E. 
Twelfth  St. 

SAN  LEANDRO,  8.7  m.  (50  alt.,  13,656  pop.),  is  a  commercial 
and  residential  center  on  a  narrow  strip  of  exceptionally  fertile  land 
between  San  Francisco  Bay  (R)  and  low  foothills  (L).  A  green 
wedgelike  plaza  and  old-fashioned  frame  buildings  soften  the  business 
district's  otherwise  typical  Main-Street  atmosphere.  Both  the  old  frame 
houses  and  the  new  stucco-finished  bungalows  are  fronted  by  well-kept 
gardens.  The  more  pretentious  old  wooden  homes  have  an  air  of  faded 
grandeur.  West  pf  East  Fourteenth  Street  (San  Leandro's  main  busi- 
ness artery)  are  factories,  packing  sheds  and  canneries.  When  the 


426      SAN     FRANCISCO 

canning  season  is  at  its  peak,  trucks  loaded  with  fruit  and  vegetables 
lumber  through  the  streets,  and  overalled  men  and  women  thread  their 
way  past  great  stacks  of  lug  boxes  lining  the  sidewalks. 

The  city's  site  was  formerly  part  of  Rancho  San  Leandro,  granted 
Don  Jose  Joaquin  Estudillo  in  1842.  Before  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment could  confirm  the  title,  however,  many  settlers  had  staked  out 
claims.  In  early  days  San  Leandro  was  an  important  stagecoach  stop 
between  Oakland  and  San  Jose.  Of  all  the  stage  drivers  who  made  the 
run,  the  most  hell-roaring  was  Charley  Parkhurst,  a  swaggering  bully 
with  one  eye  covered  by  a  black  patch,  lips  and  chin  habitually  stained 
by  tobacco  juice,  who  wore  a  buffalo-skin  cap  and  turned  up  the  cuffs 
of  his  blue  jeans  to  show  off  elegant  boots.  Not  until  "his"  death  was 
Charley  discovered  to  be  a  woman,  Charlotte  Parkhurst,  who  had  come 
to  California  at  the  age  of  twenty  in  1848.  Unsuspected,  she  registered 
as  a  voter  50  years  before  woman's  suffrage,  her  name  (in  its  masculine 
form)  appearing  on  the  Santa  Cruz  register  for  1866. 

The  State's  largest  Portuguese  settlement,  comprising  more  than 
25,000  in  Alameda  County,  centers  in  San  Leandro.  Founders  of  the 
colony  (originally  from  the  Azores  and  Madeira)  came  here  from 
Sandwich  Island  sugar  plantations  where,  because  of  a  labor  shortage, 
they  had  been  held  in  virtual  peonage.  In  the  iSyo's  many  Portuguese 
sailors,  picked  up  at  the  Azores  by  New  Bedford  whaling  vessels, 
rounded  Cape  Horn,  jumped  ship  in  San  Francisco,  and  came  here  with 
little  more  than  the  small  gold  earrings  which  the  majority  of  them 
wore.  By  their  industry  and  thrift  these  patient,  liberty-loving  people 
were  able  to  send  passage  money  to  other  Azorean  countrymen  eager 
to  take  up  life  in  the  New  World.  The  Portuguese,  among  the  first 
farmers  of  Alameda  County,  have  remained  close  to  the  soil.  The  dense 
Portuguese  population  here  celebrates  with  church  services,  banners, 
street  parades,  and  fireworks  the  Feast  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Lying  in  a  famed  garden  belt,  San  Leandro  is  a  great  center  of 
floriculture.  More  than  3,800  workers  are  employed  in  the  hothouses 
of  this  area.  The  flowers  grown,  chiefly  sweet  peas,  camellias,  gar- 
denias, and  orchids  have  an  annual  retail  value  of  more  than  $10,000,- 
ooo.  The  nurseries  supply  flowers  for  the  Pasadena  Tournament  of 
Roses,  the  Portland  Rose  Festival,  and  the  New  Orleans  Mardi  Gras. 
Thousands  of  acres  in  this  area  are  devoted  to  dairying,  truck  farming, 
and  fruit  raising.  San  Leandro  has  a  large  fruit  and  vegetable  cannery; 
its  factories  make  or  assemble  calculating  machines,  automobiles,  trucks, 
tractors,  pencil  slates,  and  pencils. 

In  ROOT  PARK,  E.  Fourteenth  St.  and  San  Leandro  Creek,  a 
historical  marker  indicates  the  boundary  between  Rancho  San  Antonio 
and  Rancho  San  Leandro. 

The  ESTUDILLO  HOUSE  (private},  1291  Carpentier  St., 
erected  1850  pr  1851,  is  the  city's  oldest  residence.  It  was  badly  dam- 
aged in  the  1868  earthquake.  The  balcony  extending  along  two  sides 
of  the  14-room  house,  which  still  has  its  original  clapboard  sheathing 
and  window  sashes,  is  supported  by  wooden-covered  brick  pillars.  On 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     2      427 

the  lower  floor  were  originally  the  kitchen,  dining  room,  wine  cellar, 
and  quarters  for  Indian  servants;  on  the  upper  floor  were  living  quar- 
ters for  the  family.  Behind  the  mansion  is  a  fig  tree  over  90  years  old, 
while  nearby  stands  an  almost  equally  venerable  pear  tree.  Two  large 
gnarled  stumps  in  the  front  yard  are  remains  of  Alameda  County's 
first  pepper  trees. 

A  women's  social  club  is  housed  in  the  old  IGNACIO  PERALTA 
HOME,  563  E.  Thirteenth  St.  Sergeant  Luis  Maria  Peralta,  grantee 
of  Rancho  San  Antonio,  divided  his  holdings  among  his  four  sons  in 
1842,  and  Ignacio,  coming  into  the  southern  portion,  built  this  home 
in  1860.  The  house,  a  one-story,  rectangular  structure,  is  of  brick, 
the  first  in  the  county  built  of  that  material.  Extensively  repaired  and 
remodeled,  it  is  painted  a  light  tan.  The  front  porch,  extending  the 
width  of  the  house,  is  shaded  by  two  large  magnolias. 

Left  from  San  Leandro  on  East  Fourteenth  Street  2  m.  to  the  OAKLAND 
SPEEDWAY,  a  privately  owned  one-mile  banked  dirt  track,  claimed  to  be 
the  fastest  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States.  A  5oo-mile  event  is  held  here  each 
Labor  Day,  besides  auto,  midget  car,  and  motorcycle  races  during  the  year. 
The  grandstand  seats  approximately  11,000. 

South  of  San  Leandro,  where  blue  mountains  appear  across  the  Bay, 
orchards,  hayfields,  and  truck  gardens  checkerboard  the  flat  land. 
Diminutive  Japanese  women  wearing  large  sunbonnets  and  legginged 
overalls  work  in  berry  fields  and  truck  gardens.  Tilled  field  on  hill- 
sides (L)  create  a  patchwork  quilt. 

SAN  LORENZO,  12  m.  (31  alt.,  500  pop.),  commercial  center 
for  surrounding  farms  and  orchards,  was  once  known  as  Squatterville. 
Here  on  the  banks  of  San  Lorenzo  Creek  Americans  began  in  1851  to 
overrun  Don  Jose  Joaquin  Estudillo's  Rancho  San  Leandro.  Some  of 
the  squatters  expressed  their  pioneer  disrespect  for  property  rights  by 
shooting  Estudillo's  horses  and  cattle  and  fencing  watering  places  away 
from  his  stock.  Following  a  court  decision  favorable  to  Estudillo  in 
1854,  they  began  to  take  leases  and  eventually  bought  the  land. 

The  former  SAN  LORENZO  HOTEL,  now  a  tavern  and  private 
dwelling,  is  a  two-story  building  beneath  whose  casing  of  brown  shingles 
is  the  original  siding.  Built  in  1854  by  Charles  Crane,  it  was  a  stage 
station  on  the  Mission  Road  between  San  Jose  and  Oakland. 

In  a  fertile  agricultural  area  is  MOUNT  EDEN,  15.8  m.  (25  alt., 
500  pop.),  consisting  of  little  more  than  a  church,  a  country  store,  and 
the  inevitable  gas  stations.  The  name  is  misleading,  for  the  town  site 
is  flat.  Established  in  1850,  it  was  known  in  the  early  days  both  as 
Eden's  Landing  and  Johnson's  Landing.  John  Johnson,  first  American 
to  extract  salt  commercially  along  San  Francisco  Bay,  shipped  his  prod- 
uct to  pioneer  settlements  of  California  from  a  crude  landing  near  here. 

i.  Right  from  Mount  Eden  on  a  paved  road  1.8m.  to  the  LESLIE  SALT 
WORKS,  extending  over  flat  land,  where  water  from  the  Bay,  confined  in 
square  shallow  areas  enclosed  by  banked-up  earth,  is  reduced  to  crude  salt  by 
evaporation.  Windmills,  squat  copies  of  the  Dutch  type,  pump  water  from  one 


428      SAN     FRANCISCO 

area  to  another.  Huge  piles  of  white  salt  stand  like  cones  of  snow.  Long 
before  the  white  man  came  Indians  gathered  crude  salt  from  natural  basins 
along  the  nearby  shore  line. 

At  3  ra.  is  the  east  approach  to  the  seven-mile-long  SAN  MATEO  TOLL 
BRIDGE  (toll,  65$  for  car,  driver,  and  four  passengers),  constructed  of  cement 
made  from  oyster  shells  dredged  in  the  Bay. 

In  San  Mateo,  13.1  m.  (see  Peninsula  Tour),  is  the  junction  with  US 
101  Bypass  (see  Peninsula  Tour). 

2.  Left  from  Mount  Eden  on  a  paved  road  is  HAYWARD,  2  m.  (115  alt., 
6,547  P°P-)j  at  tne  base  of  low  rolling  foothills,  surrounded  by  fertile  orchard 
land  and  poultry  farms.  On  the  west  side  of  the  town  are  packing  sheds, 
canneries,  and  cannery  workers'  homes.  To  the  east  the  streets  slope  up  to  a 
more  pretentious  residential  district  with  many  fine  gardens. 

The  town,  which  occupies  a  portion  of  the  Rancho  San  Lorenzo,  granted 
to  Guillermo  Castro  in  1841,  derived  its  name  from  William  Hay  ward,  who 
in  1851  mistakenly  pitched  his  tent  in  Palomares  Canyon  on  Castro's  land  with 
the  intention  of  homesteading.  Later  Hayward  purchased  a  plot  on  the  rancho 
from  Castro.  Since  roads  leading  to  the  gold  fields  passed  through  Hayward's 
property,  his  rude  habitation  soon  became  a  trading  place  for  miners.  The 
shrewd  Yankee  established  a  combined  stagecoach  inn  and  general  store. 
Soon  the  fame  of  "Haywards"  was  such  that  San  Francisco  people  made  the 
trip  by  boat  and  stagecoach  to  spend  vacations  there. 

The  shipping  and  canning  of  apricots,  peaches,  cherries,  peas,  spinach,  and 
tomatoes  is  the  town's  chief  industry,  occupying  2,500  persons  at  the  height  of 
the  season.  There  are  also  hatcheries  that  yearly  ship  some  quarter-million 
baby  chicks.  In  and  around  the  town  are  many  nurseries,  conservatories,  and 
lath  houses  growing  plants  and  flowers. 

The  HAYWARD  HOTEL  ANNEX,  953  A  St.,  a  part  of  William  Hay- 
ward's  inn  (see  above),  built  in  1853,  has  some  of  the  original  hand-made 
doors  and  window  sashes. 

The  MARKHAM  SCHOOL,  named  in  honor  of  Edwin  Markham,  author 
of  the  world-famous  "The  Man  with  the  Hoe,"  occupies  ground  on  which 
stood  the  old  Laurel  School  where  Markham,  while  a  struggling  young  poet, 
once  taught. 

Proprietor  in  the  iSyo's  of  the  VILLA  HOTEL,  on  Castro  St.,  was  Tony 
Oakes,  ballad  singer,  who  published  Tony  Oakes'  Songster  in  1878.  The 
hotel,  built  prior  to  1860,  was  known  as  the  American  Exchange  and  as  Oakes' 
Hotel. 

DUBLIN,  ll.lm.  (367  alt,  200  pop.),  a  small  crossroads  town  at  the  junc- 
tion with  State  21,  once  called  Amador,  was  a  portion  of  Rancho  San  Ramon, 
granted  in  1833  to  Jose  Maria  Amador,  a  hard-boiled  soldier,  onetime  major- 
domo  of  Mission  San  Jose.  Centered  here  was  his  i6,5i7-acre  rancho,  stocked 
with  great  herds  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses.  In  1846,  when  Captain  John 
Charles  Fremont,  ostensibly  making  "surveys,"  rode  through  the  property  and 
confiscated  57  of  Amador's  horses,  a  quarrel  arose;  but  Fremont,  at  the  head 
of  his  column  of  campaign-toughened  fighters,  presented  a  formidable  argu- 
ment to  which  Amador  was  forced  to  yield.  The  enterprising  Amador  was 
perhaps  the  first  industrialist  in  the  region  now  comprising  Alameda  County. 
Using  Indian  and  Mexican  labor,  he  early  manufactured  soap,  leather  goods, 
blankets,  wagons,  and  other  commodities.  After  1852,  when  James  Witt 
Dougherty  purchased  most  of  the  Amador  grant,  the  settlement  was  known  as 
"Dougherty's  Station."  Because  the  area  became  settled  largely  by  the  Irish, 
the  little  town  ultimately  became  known  as  Dublin.  Surrounded  by  very  fer- 
tile land,  it  is  noted  for  fine  Hereford  stock,  and  dairy  and  farm  products. 

Little  white  frame  ST.  RAYMOND'S  CHURCH,  built  in  1859  by  Tom 
Donlan,  was  the  first  place  of  worship  in  the  valley.  A  hawthorne-lined 
driveway  leads  behind  the  church  to  the  cemetery  in  which  have  been  interred 
the  pioneers  of  the  region.  Jig-saw  scrolls  ornament  the  overhanging  eaves  of 
the  two-story  AMADOR  HOTEL,  on  the  west  side  of  US  50,  built  in  1860 
by  James  W.  Dougherty  with  redwood  lumber  brought  from  Redwood  City. 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     2      429 

In  1870,  John  Scarlett,  a  local  bartender,  purchased  the  hotel.  A  modern 
front  has  been  added  to  the  first  story. 

Straight  ahead  (south)  on  State  21  from  Dublin,  along  the  western  edge  of 
Amador  Valley  and  the  eastern  base  of  Pleasanton  Ridge,  1  ra.  to  the  remod- 
eled JEREMIAH  FALLON  HOUSE  (L),  built  in  1850  of  redwood  timbers 
hewn  from  the  San  Antonio  forest  east  of  Oakland.  The  house  was  moved 
here  from  a  previous  location  when  the  highway  was  rerouted. 

A  giant  oak  shades  the  ALVISO  ADOBE  (L),  3.4  m.,  built  in  1846.  The 
one-story  house,  with  a  storehouse  in  an  abutting  wing,  overlooks  vast  green 
alfalfa  fields  extending  to  Pleasanton  (see  below).  The  adobe  is  used  as  a 
dining  room,  kitchen,  and  club  room  for  men  employed  on  the  large  dairy 
ranch  that  operates  the  property. 

The  white-plastered  AUGUSTIN  BERNAL  ADOBE  (R),  5.8  m.  (private), 
dates  from  1850.  The  roof  extending  over  the  long  front  porch  is  supported 
by  heavy  square  posts.  The  gable  windows  are  later  additions.  The  present 
ranch  is  a  small  part  of  the  vast  48,ooo-acre  Rancho  El  Valle  de  San  Jose, 
which  included  a  large  part  of  the  Livermore  and  Sunol  Valleys.  It  was 
granted  in  1839  jointly  to  Augustin  Bernal,  his  brother  Juan  Pablo,  Antonio 
Maria  Pico,  and  Antonio  Maria  Sunol  (see  below). 

At  62  m.  on  State  21  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  road;  R.  here  0.3  m. 
to  the  former  PHOEBE  APPERSON  HEARST  RESIDENCE,  a  white,  Spanish- 
styled,  two-story  building  topped  by  two  towers  and  roofed  with  red  tile. 
Here  the  wife  of  Senator  George  Hearst  frequently — and  lavishly — entertained 
students  from  the  University  of  California.  Centered  in  the  patio  is  a  marble 
well-head  of  Veronese  sculpture  from  which  the  estate  took  its  name,  Hacienda 
del  Pozo  de  Verona  (estate  of  the  Veronese  well).  Inside  the  mansion  are  40 
rooms.  The  surrounding  500  acres,  lying  on  the  low  foothills  of  Pleasanton 
Ridge  and  wooded  with  many  fine  varieties  of  conifers,  white  oaks,  and  cork 
elms,  were  bought  by  Senator  Hearst  in  1890  and  converted  into  a  blooded 
horse-breeding  farm.  For  several  years  after  Mrs.  Hearst's  death  a  golf 
course  and  country  club  occupied  the  estate.  In  1940  it  was  converted  once 
more  to  a  stock-breeding  farm. 

At  6.3  m.  on  State  21  is  the  junction  with  the  Pleasanton-Sunol  road  (see 
below). 

West  from  Dublin  the  main  side  route  follows  US  50  across  the  level 
stretches  of  the  fertile  Livermore  Valley  to  SANTA  RITA,  14.8  m.  (346  alt., 
40  pop.),  originally  part  of  Rancho  Santa  Rita  issued  in  1839  to  Jose  Dolores 
Pacheco. 

Right  from  Santa  Rita  on  a  paved  road  is  Pleasanton,  2.8  m.   (see  belo'w) . 

The  ROBERT  LIVERMORE  MONUMENT  (L),  202  m.,  built  of  native 
rock  in  1935,  commemorates  the  first  English-speaking  settler  in  this  region. 
Livermore,  who  had  served  in  the  British  navy,  entered  the  merchant  marine 
service  only  to  jump  his  ship,  the  Colonel  Young,  at  Monterey  Bay  in  1822. 
Quickly  learning  Spanish,  he  became  a  favorite  among  the  Mexicans.  After 
marrying  Senorita  Josefa  Higuera,  whose  father  owned  the  Rancho  Agua 
Caliente,  encompassing  the  present  site  of  Warm  Springs  (see  below), 
Livermore  came  with  his  wife  and  Jose  Noriega  into  this  valley  in  1835,  settled 
on  the  8,8oo-acre  Rancho  Las  Positas  (the  little  water  holes),  and  planted  the 
first  orchard  and  vineyard  in  the  valley.  Livermore  died  in  1858  and  was 
buried  at  Mission  San  Jose  de  Guadalupe  (see  below). 

At  20.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  on  which  the  route  goes  R. 

LIVERMORE,  21.3  m.  (487  alt.,  2,744  pop.),  located  partly  on  what  was 
once  Robert  Livermore's  Rancho  Las  Positas,  is  a  cattle  and  agricultural 
community  where  "ten-gallon"  hats  and  jingling  spurs  mingle  with  more  con- 
servative attire.  Near  Livermore  is  a  "cow  country"  little  changed  since 
frontier  days.  During  the  annual  Livermore  Rodeo  in  June,  residents  don 
"Western"  hats,  high-heeled  boots  and  chaps,  and  proceed  to  take  the  town 
apart. 

Alfonso  Ladd  named  the  town  site  Laddsville  as  early  as  1850.  In  follow- 
ing years  many  settlers  drifted  into  Livermore  Valley  where  they  harvested 


43O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

bumper  crops  of  wheat,  barley,  and  oats.  But  not  until  the  advent  of  the 
Central  Pacific  Railroad  in  1869  did  the  town  burgeon  into  importance.  The 
introduction  of  the  wine  industry  assured  it  of  a  prosperous  development. 

Livermore  Valley  has  been  called  the  Sauterne  capital  of  America.  James 
Concannon,  the  Wente  Brothers,  and  others,  discovering  here  chalky  soils 
similar  to  those  of  the  Sauterne  areas  in  southwestern  France,  sent  to  France 
for  cuttings  in  the  early  i88o's.  The  yield  of  grapes,  one  and  one-quarter  tons 
per  acre,  is  small,  but  the  varieties  are  of  the  highest  quality.  Vintages  from 
the  imported  cuttings  have  won  gold  medals  in  competition  with  wines  from 
grapes  of  the  parent  stock. 

Right  (south)  from  Livermore  on  L  Street,  which  crosses  the  Arroyo  Mocho 
and  becomes  a  paved  county  road,  4.2  m.  to  the  UNITED  STATES  VET- 
ERANS' HOSPITAL  ('visiting  hours:  weekdays  H-i,  3-5,  7-8;  Sun.  and  holt- 
days  10:30-1,  3-6}.  In  the  white  stucco  buildings  with  red  tile  roofs,  about  300 
tubercular  veterans  are  treated. 

The  main  side  route  continues  from  Livermore  on  West  First  Street  to  the 
junction  with  a  paved  road,  27.1  m.,  and  L.  here  across  the  Arroyo  del  Valle. 

PLEASANTON,  27.3  m.  (361  alt,  1,272  pop.),  is  the  center  of  an  area 
devoted  to  agriculture,  dairying,  grape  culture  and  wine-making.  The  local 
wineries  sponsor  an  annual  festival  called  "La  Fiesta  del  Vino."  The  town's 
name  honors  General  Pleasanton,  a  cavalry  officer  who  served  under  John 
Charles  Fremont  in  the  Missouri  campaign  of  the  Civil  War.  Though  sedate 
and  quiet  today,  Pleasanton  was  once  melodramatically  "Western,"  with  fire- 
spitting  guns,  swinging  saloon  doors,  and  spangled  dancehall  girls.  Pleas- 
anton's  old-fashioned  houses  and  white  wooden  church  appeared  in  the  motion 
picture  Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook  Farm,  which,  with  Mary  Pickford  in  the  title 
role,  was  filmed  here  in  1917-18. 

Laid  out  in  the  early  seventies,  the  PLEASANTON  RACETRACK  became 
famous  throughout  the  country  for  its  harness  races  and  trotting  exhibitions. 
The  track  west  of  town  is  still  in  use  as  a  trial  ground  for  promising  horses; 
the  stables  and  adjacent  grounds  are  also  used  as  a  resting  place  for  racing 
stock  from  Tanforan,  Santa  Anita,  and  other  tracks. 

The  ROSE  HOTEL,  540  Main  St.,  a  shabby  three-story  building  built  in 
1874,  formerly  was  much  patronized  by  owners  of  thoroughbreds  and  race- 
track followers. 

Founded  in  1902,  the  GARRATTI  WINERY  (open  to  visitors},  124  St. 
John  St.,  makes  both  dry  and  sweet  wines  and  brandy.  It  has  two  oaken  casks 
whose  heads  are  examples  of  fine  wood  carving. 

The  JUAN  P.  BERNAL  ADOBE,  on  the  north  bank  of  Arroyo  del  Valle, 
was  built  in  1852.  A  soldier  of  the  San  Francisco  and  San  Jose  presidios, 
Bernal  here  became  a  large  landowner.  His  daughter  married  an  Austrian, 
John  W.  Kottinger,  first  storekeeper  in  Pleasanton,  who  erected  an  adobe  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  arroyo. 

South  of  Pleasanton,  the  valley  narrows  into  the  Arroyo  de  la  Laguna. 
At  29.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  21  (see  above],  on  which  the  route  con- 
tinues through  the  arroyo  to  the  junction  with  Niles  Canyon  Road,  31.5  m. 

Straight  ahead  through  a  grilled  iron  gate  0.5  m.  to  the  SUNOL  WATER 
TEMPLE  and  a  shaded  picnic  ground  (open  7-7).  The  Water  Temple 
(Willis  Polk,  architect),  inspired  by  the  ancient  Temple  of  Vesta  at  Tivoli, 
consists  of  a  circular  arcade  of  ten  Corinthian  columns  supporting  a  dome. 
Immediately  below  the  dome  is  a  deep  circular  enclosure  through  which  flows 
a  torrent  of  water  from  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  having  been  filtered  here, 
flows  on  to  San  Francisco  via  Crystal  Springs  Lake  (see  PENINSULA  TOUR). 

The  main  side  route  goes  R.  on  Niles  Canyon  Road  across  the  Arroyo  de 
la  Laguna  to  SUNOL,  33.1  m.  (250  alt.,  600  pop.),  an  agricultural  center  at  the 
northern  end  of  Sunol  Valley,  which  is  drained  by  Alameda  Creek.  The  town 
was  named  after*  Antonio  Sunol,  who  prior  to  settling  here  served  in  the 
French  navy.  Sunol  and  others  were  granted  the  Rancho  El  Valle  de  San  Jose 
in  1839.  The  region's  chief  products  are  apricots,  tomatoes,  walnuts,  grapes, 
grain,  and  hay. 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     2      43! 

West  of  Sunol,  Alameda  Creek  winds  through  steep,  narrow  Niles  Canyon. 
The  creek  is  crossed  and  recrossed  as  the  road  winds  and  twists  into  the 
canyon,  with  it  buckeyes  and  wide-spreading  sycamores.  In  the  shade  are  many 
spots  for  picnicking,  camping,  and  swimming. 

A  stone  aqueduct,  paralleling  the  road  south  from  38  m.}  once  carried  water 
to  Vallejo's  Mill,  whose  ruins  still  stand  in  Niles  (see  below). 

NILES,  39.4  m.  (77  alt.,  1,517  pop.),  is  the  center  of  an  intensive  flower- 
fruit-  and  vegetable-growing  area.  The  town  stands  on  part  of  what  was 
Rancho  Arroyo  de  la  Alameda,  17,705  acres  granted  in  1842  to  Jose  de  Jesus 
Vallejo,  an  older  brother  of  General  Mariano  Vallejo.  Its  name  honors  Judge 
Addison  C.  Niles,  who  in  1871  was  elected  to  the  California  Supreme  Court.  In 
the  "nickelodeon"  era,  when  movies  were  in  their  silent  but  lusty  infancy,  the 
now  defunct  Essanay  Studios,  in  which  Charles  Chaplin,  Ben  Turpin,  and 
Wallace  Beery  began  their  movie  careers,  were  located  here. 

The  side  route  goes  L.  from  Niles  on  a  four-lane  highway  (formerly  US 
101  E)  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  39.7  m.,  where  it  turns  R. 

At  42  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  17  in  Centerville   (see  below). 

Named  to  honor  Juan  B.  Alvarado,  Mexican  governor  (1836-42), 
ALVARADO,  18.8  m.  (n  alt.,  1,800  pop.),  is  a  partly  industrialized 
town  with  a  large  Portuguese  population.  It  stands  on  part  of  former 
Rancho  Potrero  de  los  Cerritos  (pasture  of  the  little  hills),  granted  to 
Agustin  Alviso  and  Tomas  Pacheco  in  1844.  At  the  height  of  the 
Gold  Rush  the  ranch  was  purchased  by  two  Americans  who  planted 
it  to  potatoes  and  received  $100,000  for  their  second  crop.  So  great 
was  a  minor  "gold"  rush  to  the  potential  potato  diggin's  of  Alvarado 
that  the  next  year's  crop  glutted  the  market  and  no  one  realized  a  profit. 

In  the  early  1850*5  three  rival  towns  were  laid  out  here:  Union  City, 
New  Haven,  and  finally  Alvarado.  On  March  15,  1853,  Henry  C. 
Smith,  founder  of  New  Haven,  introduced  into  the  State  legislature 
a  bill  to  create  Alameda  County,  "designating  New  Haven  as  the  county 
seat  and  Alvarado  as  seat  of  justice."  The  new  county  officials  met  in 
the  upper  story  of  Smith's  store  in  New  Haven,  but  their  first  minutes 
are  dated  "Alvarado,  April  n,  1853,"  indicating  that  the  name  Alva- 
rado had  been  accepted  for  the  entire  community  as  well  as  the  county 
seat. 

Center  of  a  large  acreage  devoted  to  sugar  beets,  the  HOLLY 
SUGAR  COMPANY  (open  to  visitors  during  operation,  approxi- 
mately Aug.  15  to  Christmas}  is  a  modern,  many-windowed  factory 
with  a  tall  white  stack. 

At  22  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  hard-surfaced  road. 

Right  on  this  road  to  the  DUMBARTON  TOLL  BRIDGE,  6.9  m.  (toll, 
4.0$  per  car,  $$  each  person).  At  10.7  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  101  Bypass 
(see  Peninsula  Tour). 

Commercial  center  for  farmers  and  orchardists,  CENTERVILLE, 
23.6  m.  (50  alt.,  1,700  pop.),  stretches  along  the  highway,  its  two  rows 
of  glaring  modern  store  fronts  broken  occasionally  by  an  old-fashioned 
frame  structure.  Originally  known  as  Hardscrabble,  the  town  in  the 
early  1850'$  consisted  of  a  small  store  on  the  old  Mission  Road  to  San 
Jose.  One  of  the  first  schools  in  the  State  was  organized  here  in  1852. 
Centerville  grew  slowly  and  uneventfully  until  the  earthquake  of  1906 


432      SAN     FRANCISCO 

started  a  fire  which  all  but  destroyed  the  village.    Today  the  town  sub- 
sists on  surrounding  farms,  a  metal-products  company,  and  a  cannery. 

Right  from  Centerville  on  a  paved  road  is  NEWARK,  3  m.  (21  alt.,  1,535 
pop.),  another  small  industrial  town.  First  known  as  Mayhew's  Landing, 
it  was  founded  about  1875  by  James  G.  Fair,  one  of  the  Nevada  silver  million- 
aires, and  A.  E.  Davis,  who  later  renamed  it  for  his  birthplace  in  New  Jersey. 

A  stove-manufacturing  company,  established  in  1882  and  now  employing 
500  men,  is  Newark's  outstanding  industry.  In  the  vicinity  are  two  Nationally 
known  salt  companies  which  extract  salt  from  Bay  water  (see  above]  by  solar 
evaporation.  A  mile  west  of  the  business  district  is  a  chemical  plant  pro- 
ducing ethylene  dibromide  and  other  compounds.  Shooting  preserves  located 
along  the  Bay  shore  accommodate  duck  hunters. 

The  NEWARK  SUB-STATION  OF  THE  PACIFIC  GAS  AND  ELEC- 
TRIC COMPANY  is  the  "largest  pool  of  power  in  the  world."  More  than  a 
half-million  horsepower  of  electrical  energy  flows  into  it  from  various  power 
plants  throughout  the  State,  to  be  stepped  down  for  distribution. 

At  7  m.  is  the  Dumbarton  Bridge   (see  above}. 

In  the  midst  of  open  fields  and  orchards  is  tree-shaded  little  IRV- 
INGTON, 26.8  m.  (72  alt.,  1,000  pop.).  Wooden  "arcades,"  extend- 
ing from  square  fronts  of  old  frontier-type  general  stores,  shade  the 
sidewalk.  First  known  as  Washington  Corners,  this  was  an  important 
pioneer  trading  post.  It  took  the  name  of  Irvington  in  1884. 

Left  from  Irvington  on  a  paved  road  1.2  m.  to  a  cement-walled  INDIAN 
CEMETERY,  where  a  plain  granite  monument  explains  that  "here  sleep  4,000 
of  the  Olhone  Tribe,  who  helped  the  padres  build  this  Mission  San  Jose  de 
Guadalupe"  (see  below).  MISSION  PEAK  (2,508  alt.),  a  landmark  in  the 
mission  days,  rises  directly  ahead. 

The  RIEHR  WINERY  (R),  1.4  m.,  occupies  the  site  of  the  former  summer 
home  and  experimental  grounds  of  Professor  E.  W.  Hilgard  (see  BERKELEY: 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA).  One  of  the  presses  in  use  dates  from 
1868.  Wines  produced  here  were  shipped  around  Cape  Horn  in  sailing  vessels. 
The  rocking  motion  of  ships  was  said  to  enhance  their  quality. 

Oldest  settlement  in  Alameda  County,  MISSION  SAN  JOSE,  2.1  m.  (300 
alt.,  531  pop.),  formerly  known  as  Mission  Town,  was  once  the  scene  of 
numerous  fiestas.  When  Mexican  rancheros  assembled  here  with  hundreds  of 
their  retainers  for  sports  and  amusements,  the  town's  single  thoroughfare  was 
temporarily  enclosed  and  sufficient  seats  for  the  population  of  the  entire 
countryside  were  erected.  The  festivities  included  feats  of  horsemanship, 
bull  and  bear  fights,  barbecues,  and  gay  dances. 

Languishing  after  the  decline  of  the  mission  era,  the  village  again  awoke 
after  discovery  of  gold.  Miners  on  their  way  to  the  gold  fields,  fur  traders, 
trappers  and  desperadoes  stopped  here.  The  dining  room  of  the  Red  Hotel 
served  as  a  dance  hall.  The  wife  of  the  hotel  manager  asserted  her  individu- 
ality by  adorning  herself  with  five-dollar  gold  pieces  in  place  of  buttons. 
As  late  as  1859  the  last  bull  fight  was  staged. 

Fourteenth  of  the  21  California  missions,  MISSION  SAN  JOSE  DE 
GUADALUPE  (adm.  25$),  founded  by  Padre  Fermin  Francisco  Lasuen  on 
Trinity  Sunday,  1797,  originally  was  known  as  La  Mision  del  Gloriosisimo 
Patriarca  Sefior  San  Jose  (The  Mission  of  the  Most  Glorious  Patriarch,  St. 
Joseph).  According  to  legend,  disagreement  about  the  selection  of  a  site  among 
the  members  of  an  exploration  party  was  settled  by  prayer  and  the  law  of 
gravitation.  A  huge  stone,  after  being  blessed,  was  rolled  down  a  steep 
hillside.  Where  it  came  to  rest  the  mission  was  built. 

The  mission  founders  knew  privation,  struggle,  and  opposition.  To  Chris- 
tianize the  Indians,  who  sometimes  fought  against  preemption  of  their  land, 
it  was  sometimes  necessary  to  use  the  sword  and  the  whip.  The  natives  often 


EAST     BAY     TOUR     2      433 

rebelled  against  the  hard,  monotonous  work  forced  upon  them.  During  church 
services  guards  equipped  with  long  goads  moved  among  the  congregation, 
prodding  natives  who  assumed  other  than  a  kneeling  position.  For  outstanding 
work,  however,  the  Indians  were  rewarded  with  beads  and  gaudy  trinkets. 
It  is  recorded  that  friction  developed  even  between  the  padres  and  the  mili- 
tary when  soldiers  refused  to  serve  as  vaqueros  or  to  do  other  non-military 
work. 

Despite  all  these  obstacles  the  mission  grew  to  become  one  of  the  most 
prosperous  of  the  mission  establishment,  being  fourth  in  wealth  and  second  in 
the  number  of  converts. 

Under  the  guidance  of  capable  padres  many  converts  were  taught  trades 
and  crafts.  Indeed,  Padre  Duran,  beloved  mission  prefect,  developed  a 
stringed  orchestra  of  more  than  20  musicians  who  were  in  constant  demand 
at  social  functions.  Padre  Duran  also  made  good  wines  and  better  brandies. 
The  old  leather  bound  "guest  book"  of  the  mission,  now  among  the  chief  treas- 
ures of  St.  Mary's  of  San  Francisco,  contains  the  signatures  of  men  of  science, 
travelers  from  many  countries,  as  well  as  trappers,  woodsmen,  and  outlaws 
who  were  early  mission  visitors. 

After  secularization,  Mission  San  Jose  fell  into  such  a  state  of  deterioration 
that  in  1846  it  was  sold  for  only  a  fraction  of  its  former  value.  After  Cali- 
fornia entered  the  Union  the  Land  Commission  restored  the  property  to  the 
Church.  It  is  now  under  the  custody  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Dominic.  The  first 
mission  building,  constructed  of  heavy  timber  and  covered  with  a  grass  roof, 
later  was  replaced  by  a  more  elaborate  structure  of  adobe  which  was  de- 
stroyed by  earthquake  in  1868.  All  that  remains  of  the  original  cluster  of 
buildings  is  a  large  common  room,  whose  thick  walls  are  weatherworn  and 
•cracked.  The  dark  interior  is  festooned  with  cobwebs.  The  present  place 
of  worship,  built  of  wood,  stands  on  the  foundation  of  one  of  the  original 
structures.  In  1884  a  fire  destroyed  several  nearby  buildings;  water  was 
scarce,  but  the  chapel  was  saved  by  barrels  of  wine  which  vintners  from 
the  surrounding  countryside  had  stored  in  an  old  mission  cellar.  Among 
old  relics  at  Mission  San  Jose  are  some  vestments  worn  by  mission  founders, 
-candlesticks,  a  baptismal  font  surmounted  by  a  wrought-iron  cross,  and  two 
•old  mission  bells  cast  in  1815  and  1826. 

On  the  hillside  behind  the  mission  building  is  the  QUEEN  OF  THE  HOLY 
ROSARY  COLLEGE,  a  training  school  for  sisters  of  the  Dominican  order. 
In  the  modern  concrete  building  about  a  hundred  nuns  prepare  for  teaching. 
The  old  red-brick  building  adjoining  is  the  convent,  established  in  1890.  The 
school's  site  was  part  of  the  mission  property.  Many  of  the  old  olive  trees 
along  the  lane  leading  to  the  convent  and  cemetery  were  planted  by  the 
Padres. 

At  4.5  ra.  on  State  21  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road;  L.  here  0.6  m.  to 
the  SANTA  INEZ  LODGE  (private],  now  the  summer  home  of  the  Sisters 
of  the  Holy  Names,  a  large  two-and-a-half-story  building  with  mansard  roof 
which  was  formerly  a  resort  hotel,  near  six  warm  springs,  flowing  at  the  rate 
of  60,000  gallons  per  day.  First  white  man  to  see  the  springs,  Juan  Bautista 
de  Anza,  named  them  Agua  Caliente  in  1776.  Fulgencia  Higuera  in  1836 
obtained  a  land  grant  to  this  property,  which  he  named  Rancho  del  Agua 
Caliente.  He  sold  the  rancho  in  1850  to  Clement  Columbet,  who  made  it  a 
fashionable  spa.  After  the  1868  earthquake  partially  destroyed  his  hotel, 
A.  A.  Cohen  and  William  Ralston  bought  and  remodeled  it.  In  1870  they 
sold  out  to  Leland  Stanford,  who  set  out  a  fine  vineyard  and  in  1887  built 
a  red-brick  winery,  still  standing  west  of  the  hotel.  The  property  passed  in 
1920  into  the  hands  of  Frank  Kelly,  who  tore  down  some  of  the  old  buildings, 
built  new  ones,  and  laid  out  gardens.  Stanford's  vineyard  was  dug  up  and 
the  winery  converted  into  stables  for  Kelly's  race  horses.  In  1927  Kelly  sold 
the  ranch  to  the  Sisters  of  the  Holy  Names. 

At  4.8  m.  on  State  21  is  a  junction  with  a  paved  road:  L.  on  this  road, 
which  becomes  a  dirt  road,  1.1  m.  to  the  ABELARDO  HIGUERA  ADOBE, 


434      SAN     FRANCISCO 

once  the  home  of  the  brother  of  the  grantee  of  Rancho  del  Agua  Caliente 
(see  above).  Its  crumbling  walls  have  been  replaced  on  two  sides  with  wood. 
It  is  now  used  as  a  storehouse. 

At  5.4   m.   is   the   junction   with    State    17    at   Warm    Springs    (see   below). 

WARM  SPRINGS,  30.4  m.  (65  alt.,  59  pop.),  an  agricultural 
hamlet,  received  its  name  and  its  past  fame  from  the  springs  of  the 
nearby  SANTA  INEZ  LODGE  (see  above). 

At  32.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  unpaved  Jacklin  Road. 

Left  on  Jacklin  Road  1  m.  to  the  HIGUERA  ADOBE  HOUSES,  residence 
of  Jose  Higuera,  grantee  of  Rancho  les  Tularcitos.  The  two-and-one-half-foot 
walls  of  the  newer  adobe,  built  about  1831,  are  protected  by  a  two-story 
wooden  superstructure.  This  adobe  is  now  used  as  a  home  for  transient 
pea-pickers  in  season.  Crumbling  ruins  are  all  that  remain  of  the  older 
adobe,  built  about  1822,  which  stands  a  few  yards  to  the  right. 

MILPITAS  (little  maize  fields),  34.5  m.  (13  alt.,  450  pop.),  once 
part  of  a  vast  land  grant,  is  now  an  agricultural  settlement.  First 
called  Penitencia,  for  the  creek  that  runs  through  it,  it  was  renamed 
because  of  the  usual  mispronunciation  by  Yankees,  for  Nicolas  Berry- 
essa's  Rancho  Milpitas.  Milpitas  is  somewhat  of  a  political  barometer: 
"As  goes  Milpitas  so  goes  the  State."  The  reports  of  voting  here  many 
times  have  indicated  State-wide  election  results  before  complete  return? 
were  in. 

Left  from  Milpitas  on  paved  Calaveras  Road  2  m.  to  the  junction  with 
Piedmont  Road,  where  stands  (R)  the  neat,  white  ALVISO  ADOBE  (private), 
built  here  on  Arroyo  de  los  Coches  about  1841  by  Jose  Maria  Alviso,  who  suc- 
ceeded Berryessa  as  owner  of  Rancho  Milpitas.  The  second  story,  of  frame, 
was  built  some  time  later. 

Calaveras  Road  continues  east  and  then  north  through  the  rugged  moun- 
tains to  CALAVERAS  RESERVOIR  (R),  12  m.,  an  auxiliary  source  of  water 
for  San  Francisco.  As  far  back  as  1875  there  were  plans  for  municipal  de- 
velopment of  this  site,  but  the  Spring  Valley  Water  Company,  which  was 
already  supplying  the  city,  purchased  these  lands  and  water  rights  also.  After 
the  company  was  purchased  by  the  city,  Calaveras  Valley  was  converted  into 
a  32,ooo,ooo,ooogallon  reservoir  in  1925  when  an  earth  and  rock  fill  dam  was 
completed  at  the  lower  end  of  the  valley.  A  dam  on  Alameda  Creek,  about 
three  miles  east  of  the  reservoir,  diverts  water  to  Calaveras  by  way  of  a 
9,709-foot  tunnel.  From  the  reservoir  a  44-inch  pipe  line  carries  water  to  the 
Hetch  Hetchy  aqueduct  that  empties  into  Crystal  Springs  Lake  by  gravity 
(see  Peninsula  Tour). 

At  20  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  21  at  Scott  Corners  (see  East  Bay 
Tour  2). 

On  the  bluff  above  the  Coyote  River,  crossed  by  State  17  at  38.3  m., 
on  the  grounds  of  the  Clark  Nursery,  is  the  LARGEST  EUCALYP- 
TUS IN  CALIFORNIA,  planted  in  1868.  Its  trunk  is  nine  feet  in 
diameter. 

SAN  JOSE,  41.7  m.  (100  alt.,  57,651  pop.)    (see  San  Jose). 


CC«C<«««««CC«««K««K«««C<C<C^^ 


North  Bay  Tour 


The  North  Bay  area  is  a  land  of  contrasts.  Gray  fog  swirls  over 
its  high  mountain  tops  and  down  steep  slopes  forested  with  giant  red- 
woods; highways  wind  through  its  flatlands  past  sleepy  towns  that  doze 
in  the  sun;  quiet  creeks  drain  its  valleys  and  clear  streams  rush  down 
its  dark  canyons  to  Bay  and  ocean.  Paved  highways  have  replaced 
dusty  roads;  tiny  vineyards  of  early  winemakers  have  expanded  to  cover 
whole  slopes  and  wide  flatlands;  orchards  and  gardens  and  modern 
chicken  hatcheries  spread  over  the  valley  floors.  The  Russian  River, 
the  sandy  beaches  and  sheltered  coves  are  popular  vacation  spots,  and 
the  mountain  slopes  are  terraced  in  rows  of  modern  homes  inhabited  by 
men  and  women  who  work  in  San  Francisco.  The  rugged  Pacific  shore 
and  the  Bay's  indentations  are  favored  by  fishermen,  and  yachtsmen  sail 
their  craft  around  the  headlands  and  between  the  islands. 


San    Francisco — Sausalito — San    Rafael — Vallejo — Benicia;    52.7     m. 
US  101,  State  37,  County  roads. 

Paved  roadbed  throughout. 

Pacific  Greyhound  interurban  busses  serve  Marin  County. 

This  route  follows  US  101  across  the  Golden  Gate  and  cuts  north 
through  low  hills  bordering  San  Francisco  and  Richardson  Bays.  It 
swings  east  on  State  37,  following  the  contour  of  San  Pablo  Bay  to  the 
mouth  of  Suisun  Bay,  where  inland  waters  of  the  Sacramento  and  San 
Joaquin  Rivers  pour  through  Carquinez  Strait.  Its  course  is  through 
vacation  communities,  yachting  centers,  little  towns  overlooking  the 
Bay,  houseboat  colonies,  wide  dairy  acres,  and  flat  marshlands. 

North  from  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Fulton  St.  in  SAN  FRANCISCO, 
0  m.,  on  Van  Ness  Ave.  to  Lombard  St. ;  L.  on  Lombard ;  R.  on  Rich- 
ardson Ave.  to  the  main  approach  of  Golden  Gate  Bridge. 

The  bridge  approach  rises  gradually  on  concrete  piers  across  the 
northern  edge  of  the  Presidio.  At  4.7  m.  is  the  toll  plaza  (automobiles, 
50$;  pedestrians,  10$)  of  GOLDEN  GATE  BRIDGE.  For  1.2 
miles  the  route  follows  the  longest  and  highest  single-span  suspension 
bridge  in  the  world,  an  integral  link  in  the  great  highway  between 
Canada  and  Mexico. 

435 


436      SAN     FRANCISCO 

At  6.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Right  on  this  road  through  a  part  of  FORT  BAKER  UNITED  STATES 
MILITARY  RESERVATION,  0.5  m. 

SAUSALITO,  2.4  m.  (8-600  alt.,  3,506  pop.),  faces  San  Francisco  from  the 
steep  flanks  of  the  Marin  hills.  Its  one  business  street  is  built  on  a  narrow 
shelf  beside  the  Bay,  where  pleasure  craft,  fishing  boats,  and  Coast  Guard 
cutters  lie  at  anchor.  All  have  one  thing  in  common — a  view  of  the  Bay. 

The  first  white  man  to  come  here  was  Spanish  navigator  Captain  Juan 
Manuel  de  Ayala,  who  named  the  cove  Ensenada  del  Carmelito  (Bay  of  Little 
Mount  Carmel).  The  Spaniards  who  followed  named  the  spot  Saucelito  (from 
salcedo — willow)  for  its  many  small  willow  thickets. 

The  cabin  of  the  young  Irishman,  John  Read,  who  settled  here  in  1826, 
was  the  first  permanent  home  of  a  white  man  in  Marin  County.  When  Read 
died  from  the  excessive  bleeding  practised  by  the  physicians  of  the  day,  his 
widow  married  the  bandit,  "Three-fingered  Jack"  Garcia,  friend  of  Joaquin 
Murrieta. 

In  1838  an  Englishman,  Captain  William  Antonio  Richardson,  was  granted 
the  i9,ooo-acre  Rancho  Saucelito.  He  was  a  harbor  pilot,  operated  a  trans- 
bay  ferry,  raised  cattle,  traded  with  Yankee  ships,  and  sold  water  from 
Sausalito's  springs  to  Yerba  Buena. 

Sausalito  once  was  known  as  a  town  where  gambling  dens  and  saloons 
rid  the  unwary  of  his  money  quickly  and  efficiently;  and  its  elections  were 
stormy  battles.  But  since  1907  it  has  been  a  haven  of  graceful  living.  Fishing 
and  the  building  of  small  craft  are  its  only  important  industries. 

The  DANIEL  O'CONNELL  MONUMENT,  Bulkley  and  Harrison  Aves., 
a  granite  bench  shaded  by  pepper  trees,  is  a  memorial  to  the  Irish  poet  and 
political  refugee. 

On  the  slope  below  the  monument  the  thick,  bastion-like  WALLS  OF  SEA 
POINT,  a  former  home  of  William  Randolph  Hearst,  face  the  Bay  above 
Bridgeway  Blvd.  Hearst  razed  the  palatial  home  after  a  quarrel  with  local 
residents. 

Beside  Bridgeway  Blvd.  at  Napa  St.  the  hulks  of  once-majestic  square- 
riggers,  brigantines,  and  schooners  forced  out  of  business  by  steam  slowly 
decay  on  the  mud  bottom.  The  brigantine  Galilee,  demasted  and  nosing  the 
shore,  is  the  home  of  an  artist.  It  was  built  at  the  Turner  Shipyard  at  Benicia 
(see  below),  whose  museum  cherishes  pictures  of  the  trim  craft  with  rakish 
masts  and  a  smooth  white  hull.  Beside  it  the  stark  hull  of  the  S.  S.  Phoenix 
rests  on  pilings. 

At  4.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  101   (see  below}. 

On  US  101  at  7.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  private  road. 

Left  on  this  road  6  m.  to  FORT  BARRY  UNITED  STATES  MILITARY 
RESERVATION,  whose  fortresses  overlook  San  Francisco  Bay.  Once  part  of 
Fort  Baker  Reserve,  the  893-acre  area  was  set  aside  in  1904  and  named  in 
honor  of  Civil  War  veteran  General  William  F.  Barry. 

Marking  the  northern  entrance  to  the  Golden  Gate  is  POINT  BONITA, 
7  m.  Atop  the  white  tower  of  POINT  BONITA  LIGHTHOUSE  (built  in 
1855  and  reconstructed  in  1877),  I24  feet  above  the  water,  is  a  40,000- 
candlepower  light  visible  for  17  miles.  A  cannon  brought  here  in  1850 
thundered  the  first  fog  warnings  in  the  vicinity. 

US  101  cootinues  northward  into  the  hills  above  Sausalito,  passes 
through  deep  cuts  and  a  long  tunnel,  and  drops  down  to  RICHARD- 
SON BAY,  named  for  William  A.  Richardson. 

At  10.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  I. 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      437 

Right  on  State  i,  across  the  Marin  Peninsula  hills  and  down  Green  Gulch 
to  the  junction  with  a  gravel  road,  6  m. ;  L.  here  0.7  m.  across  an  arm  of 
Big  Lagoon  to  MUIR  BEACH  (swimming,  fishing}. 

State  i  skirts  the  ocean  shore  northward  to  STINSON  BEACH,  12.5  m. 
(boats,  tackle  and  bait  for  surf  fishing],  a  small  resort  town  at  the  southern 
end  of  Bolinas  Lagoon. 

At  16.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  on  which  the  route  turns 
L.  along  the  western  edge  of  BOLINAS  LAGOON,  named  for  Francisco 
Bolanos,  pilot  of  the  Sebastian  Vizcaino  expedition  of  1603. 

A  few  rotting  piles  at  17.2  m.  mark  the  site  of  the  BOLINAS  LIGHTER 
WHARF  (L),  where  oxen  in  the  1850*8  hauled  lumber  from  inland  mills  in 
crude  wagons  whose  wheels  were  solid  sections  of  redwood  logs. 

At  18.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road;  R.  here  2.6  m.  to  the 
RCA  STATION  (private],  twin  to  one  on  Point  Reyes,  whose  46  directional 
antennas  transmit  short-waves  across  the  Pacific. 

At  19.3  m.  on  the  main  side  road  is  BOLINAS  (10  alt.,  125  pop.),  a 
summer  resort,  with  good  swimming  and  fishing. 

US  101  continues  north  over  a  half-mile-long  redwood  bridge  across 
the  upper  reaches  of  Richardson  Bay  and  on  through  rolling  foothill 
country  bright  with  wild  flowers  in  spring. 

At  12.1  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

1.  Right   on   this    road   0.7    m.   to   the    JOHN    READ    RANCH    (private], 
where    the    orchard    planted    a    century    ago    by    Read    on    his    Rancho    Corte 
Madera   del   Presidio    (cut   timber   for   the   presidio)    still   thrives.     This   was 
headquarters   of  the   rancho   granted   Read   in    1834,    and    here    he   lived   with 
his    young    Spanish    wife,    daughter    of    Yerba    Buena's    Presidio    comandante, 
Jose    Antonio    Sanchez. 

At  3.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road;  R.  here  across  a  causeway 
to  BELVEDERE,  4.3  m.  (350  alt.,  446  pop.),  at  the  southern  end  of  Bel- 
vedere Island  in  Richardson  Bay.  A  quiet  suburban  town  with  fine  homes 
and  terraced  gardens,  it  looks  out  from  its  steep  slopes  toward  Sausalito 
and  Angel  Island. 

Belvedere's  SAN  FRANCISCO  YACHT  CLUB,  on  Beach  Rd.,  was 
organized  in  1869,  the  first  yacht  club  in  California. 

L.  from  Belvedere  across  another  causeway  to  TIBURON,  4.7  m.  (10  alt., 
327  pop.),  on  Point  Tiburon,  southwestern  tip  of  Tiburon  Peninsula.  Along 
the  shore  cluster  houseboat  colonies.  Many  homes  at  the  water's  edge  boast 
small  private  piers  for  swimming  and  boating.  To  the  southeast,  across 
Racoon  Strait,  lies  the  green  bulk  of  Angel  Island. 

East  from  Tiburon,  then  northwest  around  Tiburon  Peninsula  to  CALI- 
FORNIA CITY,  7.4  m.,  training  base  for  the  CALIFORNIA  NAUTICAL 
SCHOOL  (visitors  Sat.  and  Sun.  1-5],  established  in  1929  to  train  young 
men  for  service  as  officers  in  the  merchant  marine.  When  the  training  ship 
California  State  docks  after  an  extended  cruise,  the  125  cadets  live  aboard 
the  modern  ship  and  study  ashore.  The  ship  is  kept  in  repair  by  the  Navy, 
by  which  it  is  owned;  all  other  expenses  are  defrayed  by  the  State. 

PARADISE  COVE,  8.6  m.,  a  sheltered  picnicking  and  camping  place,  is 
frequented  by  the  owners  of  small  sailing  craft. 

At  13.2  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  101    (see  belovS], 

2.  Left    on    this    road    is    MILL    VALLEY,    2.1    m.     (57    alt.,    4,799    pop.), 
a    residential    town    built   in    the    narrow    canyons    and    on    the    steep    wooded 
slopes    along   two   small    streams.      Originally   part   of   Rancho    Corte    Madera 
del  Presidio    (see  below],  the  town  slumbered  for  two  generations,  but  after 
the   building   of    an    electric   railroad   from    Sausalito    it   became    the    home    of 
business  men  and  of  artists,  musicians,  and  writers. 

OLD    MILL    PARK,    on    Throckmorton    Ave.,    is    the    site    of    the    region's 


438       SAN     FRANCISCO 

first  sawmill,  built  by  John  Read  about  1834.  Read,  an  Irish  sailor,  who 
had  acquired  Rancho  Corte  Madera  del  Presidio,  whipsawed  timber  here 
for  his  house  in  Sausalito  and  afterwards  supplied  lumber  for  San  Fran- 
cisco. Down  the  small  stream  draining  Mount  Tamalpais'  southern  slopes 
he  floated  the  logs  to  the  twin  wheels  of  his  water  mill,  whose  frame  still 
stands.  Read's  adobe,  one-half  mile  northeast,  was  occupied  after  his  death 
by  the  desperado,  Bernardino  "Three-fingered  Jack"  Garcia,  who  married 
Read's  widow. 

In  Mill  Valley  the  side  route  turns  L.  from  Throckmorton  Avenue  on 
Old  Mill  Dr.;  L.  on  Cascade  Dr.;  R.  on  Molino  Ave.;  sharply  R.  on  Birch 
St. ;  R.  on  Edgewood  Ave. ;  L.  on  Sequoia  Valley  Rd.  up  a  ridge  to  a 
junction  at  the  summit  with  Panoramic  Highway,  4.6  m. 

Left  on  Sequoia  Valley  Road  1.6  m.  to  MUIR  WOODS  NATIONAL 
MONUMENT  (picnicking,  hiking,  riding;  no  fires  permitted),  a  424-acre  park 
of  virgin  redwoods  in  a  mountain  ravine.  The  taller  trees  are  from  200  to 
250  feet  in  height,  and  from  12  to  17  feet  in  diameter.  The  woods,  deeply 
scarred  by  fire  175  years  ago,  are  noted  for  their  abnormal  growths  of 
burls,  albino  shoots,  natural  grafts  and  strange  formations.  REDWOOD 
CREEK,  where  salmon  and  steelhead  spawn,  flows  through  the  park  at  the 
base  of  such  redwood  giants  as  the  Gifford  Pinchot  Redwood  Cathedral 
Grove,  Bridge  Tree,  William  Kent  Fir,  and  Albino  Redwood.  With  the 
redwoods  are  dense  growths  of  Douglas  fir,  oak,  and  laurel,  with  azaleas, 
wild  huckleberry,  and  other  plants. 

Senator  William  Kent  bought  this  grove  for  $45,000  and  deeded  it  to  the 
Nation  in  1908  as  a  monument  to  John  Muir,  the  naturalist  who  so  loved 
the  California  mountains.  In  the  condemnation  proceedings  necessary  to 
acquire  the  land,  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Gifford  Pinchot  gave  valuable  aid. 

The  main  route  follows  Panoramic  Highway  from  its  junction  with  Sequoia 
Valley  Road  along  the  northern  edge  of  96o-acre  MOUNT  TAMALPAIS 
STATE  PARK  (camp  sites,  hiking  trails).  A  wooden  trestle,  6.4  m.,  spans 
the  roadbed  of  the  abandoned  Mill  Valley  and  Mount  Tamalpais  Scenic 
Railway,  laid  out  with  a  hand  level  by  the  promoters.  Built  at  a  cost 
of  $147,000  in  1896,  the  eight-mile  track,  known  as  the  "Crookedest  Railroad 
in  the  World,"  had  281  curves.  At  one  difficult  place  a  "double  bow-knot" 
paralleled  itself  five  times  within  2,000  feet,  thereby  achieving  a  rise  of  100 
feet.  Oil-burning  logging  engines  drew  trains  to  the  summit. 

At  9.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road;  R.  here  through  Panorama 
Toll  Gate  (fee  50$),  which  is  aptly  named,  for  as  the  road  climbs  higher, 
it  affords  even  wider  views  of  Bay,  ocean  and  mountains. 

At  Rock  Springs,  11.1  m.,  is  the  junction  with  Ridgecrest  Boulevard  on 
which  the  side  route  turns  R.  to  the  MOUNTAIN  THEATER  (R),  11.3  m. 
(admission  to  performances,  50^),  a  natural  amphitheater  on  the  flank  of 
Mount  Tamalpais  from  which  the  audience  can  look  beyond  the  stage  across 
70  miles  of  Bay,  plain,  and  mountain.  On  stone  seats  rising  in  circular  tiers, 
from  three  to  seven  thousand  people  gather  annually  on  the  third  Sunday  in 
May  to  watch  a  dramatic  production. 

Ridgecrest  Boulevard  curves  uphill  to  MOUNT  TAMALPAIS  TAVERN, 
14.0  m.  (parking  lot,  hotel,  restaurant,  free  camping  and  picnicking  grounds), 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  summit  of  MOUNT  TAMALPAIS.  There 
are  three  crests  in  the  Tamalpais  Range,  West  Peak  (2,601  alt.),  Middle 
Peak  (2,570  alt.),  and  East  Peak  (2,586  alt.).  From  the  summit  a  third  of 
northern  California  is  visible  on  clear  days.  The  whole  of  San  Francisco 
Bay  spreads  out  below,  spanned  by  its  two  bridges,  bordered  by  cities  and 
orchard  lands.  A  white  cluster  of  buildings  is  San  Jose  at  the  southern  end. 
Beyond  the  Mount  Hamilton  and  Mount  Diablo  ranges,  the  flat  San  Joaquin 
Valley  stretches  east  to  the  blue  Sierras.  Westward,  out  to  sea,  the  Farallon 
Islands  seem  near  and  ships  appear  on  the  horizon.  To  the  north  are  the 
multiple  Coast  Ranges  dividing  inland  valleys. 

The  first  man  to  climb  the  peak  was  Jacob  Leese,  Marin  County  pioneer, 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      439 

who  made  the  ascent  to  refute  the  Lacatuit  Indian  legend  that  evil  spirits 
haunted  the  mountain.  On  the  summit,  Leese  set  up  a  cross  of  tree  limbs. 
Marin,  the  Indian  chief,  to  prove  his  valor,  climbed  up  and  hung  his  blanket 
from  the  cross,  thereby  gaining  much  prestige  with  his  tribe. 

On  US  101  at  13.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road. 

Left  on  this  road  is  CORTE  MADERA  (Sp.,  wood-cutting  place),  0.5  m. 
(56  alt.,  1,094  pop.),  a  snug  community  of  homes  with  outlying  model  dairy 
farms.  Its  name  came  from  logging  operations  in  surrounding  hills  where 
Luis  Antonio  Arguello  cut  timbers  to  repair  and  enlarge  San  Francisco's 
Presidio  buildings.  Corte  Madera's  BALTIMORE  PARK  GROVE,  on 
Madrone  Avenue,  is  a  small  grove  of  redwoods  extending  up  a  narrow  canyon. 

The  hilly  suburban  town  of  LARKSPUR,  1.6  m.  (18  alt.,  1,549  pop.),  looks 
out  over  green  marshes  and  meadows  from  the  base  of  the  hills.  Beside 
the  highway  (R)  is  the  LARKSPUR  BOWL  (open  Sat.,  Apr.-Sept.;  adm.  50^), 
a  huge,  open-air  dance  floor  accommodating  2,000.  Through  the  platform 
redwoods  thrust  their  trunks  upward,  twined  with  lanterns  and  electric  lights. 
The  pavilion  is  managed  by  the  Larkspur  volunteer  fire  department,  which 
thus  pays  for  itself  without  drawing  on  the  town's  treasury. 

One  of  the  chain  of  quiet  residential  towns  in  Ross  Valley  is  KENTFIELD, 
3.1  m.  (100  alt.,  100  pop.),  settled  early  by  men  of  wealth.  In  Mexican  days 
the  spot  where  the  highway  now  crosses  Corte  Madera  Creek  was  known 
as  the  Embarcadero  and  later  as  Ross  Landing  for  James  Ross,  who  owned 
the  surrounding  Rancho  Punta  de  Quentin  (Point  Quentin).  The  settlement 
was  next  called  Tamalpais  and  finally  Kentfield,  for  Senator  William  Kent's 
father,  Albert  Emmet  Kent,  who  had  come  here  in  search  of  health. 

ROSS,  3.6  m.  (26  alt.,  1,701  pop.),  once  known  as  Sunnyside,  is  a  com- 
munity of  homes,  many  with  extensive  grounds  set  in  back  of  tall  trees  and 
hedges.  It  was  once  part  of  the  vast  and  much-sought  Rancho  Punta  de 
Quentin,  purchased  from  Benjamin  R.  Buckelew  by  James  Ross  in  1859.  The 
latter,  a  Scot,  who  brought  a  wife  from  Tasmania,  had  become  a  successful 
wine  merchant  in  San  Francisco.  When  Ross  moved  into  Buckelew's  home, 
leg-irons  used  on  the  convicts  who  built  the  house  were  found  in  the  basement. 

Founded  in  1875,  SAN  ANSELMO,  4.6  m.  (52  alt.,  5,766  pop.),  is  a  town 
of  hillside  houses  and  gardens  along  winding  shaded  streets.  According  to 
a  local  tale,  it  was  started  by  a  quarrel  between  two  Irish  families  who 
lived  at  Ross  Landing  (see  above).  One  day,  while  their  husbands  were 
at  work  on  the  North  Pacific  Coast  Railroad,  the  two  wives  quarreled  more 
seriously  than  usual;  one  threw  the  other  into  a  well  and  sat  on  the  lid. 
When  rescued  by  her  raging  husband,  the  wife  in  the  well  was  found  cling- 
ing to  the  bucket  rope,  uninjured  and  eager  for  the  free-for-all  that  followed. 
The  railroad  company  grew  alarmed  at  the  ensuing  feud  for  fear  it  would 
lose  a  prized  foreman.  Hence,  one  day  a  section  crew  heaved  one  family's 
shack  onto  a  handcar  and  pushed  it  two  miles  up  the  tracks.  It  was  un- 
loaded, and  there  was  San  Anselmo. 

The  route  goes  L.  from  San  Anselmo  around  the  base  of  RED  HILL, 
where  sunrise  services  are  held  on  Easter. 

From  the  edges  of  FAIRFAX,  6.6  m.  (108  alt.,  2,175  pop.),  rise  brush- 
covered  mountains  that  have  the  look  of  velvet  from  a  distance.  The  6,000- 
acre  Rancho  Canada  de  Herrera  (valley  of  the  blacksmith's  wife),  once 
embracing  its  site,  was  granted  in  1839  to  Pedro  V.  Sais,  a  soldier  and  civil 
officer  in  San  Francisco.  When  in  1849  a  visitor  from  Virginia,  Dr.  A.  W. 
Taliaferro,  expressed  a  wish  to  buy  40  acres,  Sais,  with  characteristic  early 
California  generosity,  gave  him  the  land,  saying  that  it  was  worth  that  to 
have  a  good  neighbor.  To  the  large  house  which  Dr.  Taliaferro  built,  came 
as  a  visitor  in  1856  a  direct  descendant  of  the  English  baron  famous  in 
Virginia  history,  Charles  "Lord"  Fairfax.  Remaining  as  a  permanent  guest, 
he  inherited  the  estate  when  the  doctor  died  without  heirs.  After  Fairfax's 
death,  the  home  was  for  years  the  restaurant  of  Madame  Adele  Pastori, 


44O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Italian  opera  singer,  who  served  meals  in  the  garden  under  the  trees.     The 
property  is  now  occupied  by  the  Marin  School  for  Boys. 

Northwest  from  Fairfax,  the  route  curves  over  Whites  Hill  and  descends 
through  rolling  oak-covered  foothill  country  into  San  Geronimo  Valley. 

SAN  GERONIMO,  12.1  m.  (286  alt.,  30  pop.),  was  the  home  of  Lieutenant 
Warren  Revere,  grandson  of  Paul  Revere.  While  hunting  elk,  Revere,  who 
had  been  sent  by  the  Government  to  conduct  a  survey  of  timber,  found  this 
attractive  valley.  Buying  the  two-league  Rancho  San  Geronimo,  he  settled 
down  to  lead  the  life  of  a  Spanish  ranchero.  The  once  powerful  Nicasio 
Indians  caused  him  some  trouble  by  running  off  his  horses  for  food.  When 
he  captured  an  Indian,  he  forced  him  to  make  adobe  bricks  in  payment  for 
the  lost  horses. 

Right  from  San  Geronimo  on  a  paved  road  over  low  hills  3.8  m.  to  a 
junction  with  a  county  road;  (i)  R.  here  2  m.  up  Lucas  Valley  to  the 
LUCAS  VALLEY  REDWOODS  (picnicking,  camping),  named  for  John  Lucas, 
a  nephew  of  Timoteo  Murphy  (see  below],  from  whom  he  inherited  Rancho 
Santa  Margarita.  At  10.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  101  (see  below).  (2) 
Left  here  is  NICASIO,  4.5  m.  (177  alt.,  200  pop.),  a  tree-shaded  hamlet  with 
an  old  wooden  church  and  school  house  and  a  few  dwellings  in  need  of 
paint,  dating  from  the  i85o's  and  i86o's.  After  disease  and  drink  had  de- 
creased the  local  tribe  of  Nicasio  Indians,  Chief  Jose  Calistro  bought  30 
acres  two  miles  east  of  Nicasio  and  settled  his  people  upon  it.  The  large 
stand  of  prime  redwood  in  the  region  began  to  fall  in  1862  when  James 
Ross  built  the  first  mill  one  and  one-half  miles  east  of  town.  At  13.3  m. 
is  the  junction  with  State  i  (see  below). 

The  main  side  route  continues  west  from  San  Geronimo  to  the  summer 
resort  center  of  LAGUNITAS,  14.1  m.  (219  alt.,  512  pop.),  and  plunges 
into  cool  Lagunitas  Creek  canyon  between  high  redwoods  and  firs,  past 
mountain  cabins  perched  on  hillsides  and  flats  along  the  stream.  Fishing 
is  forbidden  to  protect  the  salmon  that  spawn  in  the  shallow,  gravelly 
reaches. 

Once  known  as  Taylorville,  CAMP  TAYLOR  (camping),  17  m.  (138 
alt.),  in  a  grove  of  virgin  redwoods  on  a  flat  next  to  the  stream,  is  the 
site  where  in  1856  Samuel  Penfield  Taylor  built  the  first  paper  mill  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  employed  Chinese  to  collect  rags  for  raw  material.  Among 
old-timers,  Lagunitas  Creek,  whose  pure  water  was  particularly  adapted 
to  paper  making,  is  still  known  as  Paper  Mill  Creek. 

TOCALOMA,  20.8  m.  (66  alt.,  25  pop.),  is  a  hamlet  in  a  secluded  glen 
on  the  creek  banks. 

OLEMA,  22.7  m.  (68  alt.,  150  pop.),  with  its  white-steepled  church  and 
tree-shaded  houses,  has  the  look  of  a  New  England  village.  Alemaloke 
was  the  name  of  a  former  Indian  village  near  here.  The  place  was 
headquarters  in  1837  of  the  great  Rancho  Tomales  y  Bolinas.  In  the  i86o's 
a  i2-passenger  stage  rumbled  between  here  and  San  Rafael,  an  old  wagon 
cradled  on  thick  leather  straps  and  covered  with  tarpaulin.  The  earth- 
quake of  1906  stirred  the  old  town  considerably.  According  to  report,  a  cow  on 
the  nearby  Shafter  ranch  fell  head  first  into  a  yawning  chasm  which  closed 
together,  trapping  the  unfortunate  animal  with  rump  and  tail  still  visible 
above  ground.  When  the  milkers  at  Skinner's  dairy  rushed  out  of  the  barn 
(according  to  Oscar  Lewis  and  Carroll  Hall  in  Bonanza  Inn),  they  saw  that 
"the  cypress  trees  and  the  rose  garden  had  moved  away  from  the  front  of  the 
house  and  now  stood  in  front  of  the  barn.  The  clump  of  raspberry  bushes 
had  slid  down  from  the  north  and  occupied  the  space  vacated  by  the  roses. 
The  eucalyptus  trees  had  marched  to  a  position  opposite  the  barn  and  in  the 
process  one  had  shifted  from  the  foot  of  the  line  to  the  head.  The  piles 
of  manure  before  the  barn  had  each  moved  some  sixteen  feet  south  of  the 
window  to  which  *it  belonged." 

At  Olema  is  the  junction  with  State  i,  which  the  route  follows  R.  up 
Olema  Creek  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  24.4  m.,  where  it  turns  L. ; 
R.  here  on  State  i  is  POINT  REYES  STATION,  0.3  m.  (31  alt.,  143  pop.), 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR       44! 

center  of  a  dairy  region,  surrounded  by  rolling  pastures,  which  ships  butter 
to  San  Francisco.  State  i  continues  north  along  the  eastern  shore  of  TOMALES 
BAY,  a  narrow,  finger-like  inlet  first  sighted  in  1775  by  Lieutenant  Juan 
Francisco  de  Bodega  y  Cuadra,  who  believed  he  had  found  a  passage  con- 
necting with  San  Pablo  Bay.  Looping  inland,  State  i  passes  through  the 
sleepy  farming  communities  of  TOMALES,  18.2  m.  (75  alt.,  450  pop.),  VALLEY 
FORD,  25  m.  (45  alt.,  200  pop.),  and  BODEGA,  31.1  m.  (40  alt.,  100  pop.). 
Right  from  Bodega  1  m.  to  the  SITE  OF  KUSKOF  SETTLEMENT,  marked 
by  a  flagpole,  where  Russian  colonists  raised  cattle  and  grain  and  converted 
the  Indians  to  Christianity  130  years  ago  and  (adjoining)  the  ruins  of  CAP- 
TAIN STEPHEN  SMITH'S  ADOBE  MANSION,  built  in  1843,  headquarters 
of  the  owner  of  3o,ooo-acre  Rancho  Bodega.  West  of  Bodega,  State  i  re- 
turns to  the  coast  at  shallow,  marsh-edged  BODEGA  BAY,  named  for  its 
discoverer  (1775).  It  skirts  the  coast  northward  through  thinly  settled  country, 
treeless  except  for  occasional  clumps  of  Douglas  fir  and  Bishop  pine.  At 
47.2  m.,  on  the  north  side  of  a  bridge  across  the  Russian  River,  is  the  junction 
with  State  12  (see  below}. 

West  from  its  northern  junction  with  State  i  the  main  side  route  goes  L. 
to  INVERNESS,  28.2  m.  (10  alt.,  200  pop.),  a  summer  resort  and  boating 
center  on  Tomales  Bay  at  the  foot  of  wooded  hills.  The  town  took  its 
name  from  the  birth  place  of  James  Black,  a  Scottish  sailor  who  arrived 
in  California  in  1832  and  later  took  up  cattle  ranching  on  a  part  of  Rancho 
Nicasio  facing  the  east  side  of  Tomales  Bay. 

The   road  curves  west  and  south  from   Inverness   over  Inverness  Ridge. 

At  34.2  m.  is  the  RCA  RADIO  STATION  (R),  where  short-wave  an- 
tennas, spread  over  1,500  acres,  catch  transpacific  signals. 

The  road  continues  south  along  a  rocky,  windy  promontory  where  many 
ships  have  been  wrecked. 

At  39.9  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road;  R.  here  0.7  m.  to  the  UNITED 
STATES  RADIO  COMPASS  STATION,  from  which  ships  at  sea  take  bear- 
ings to  fix  their  positions. 

At  42.9  m.  on  the  main  side  road  is  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road;  L. 
here  1.3  m.  to  the  UNITED  STATES  COAST  GUARD  LIFE-SAVING  STA- 
TION above  the  white  cliffs  facing  DRAKE'S  BAY.  In  this  sheltered  cove 
Sir  Francis  Drake  beached  the  Golden  Hinde  on  June  17,  1579  (Julian  Calen- 
dar) and  claimed  the  region  for  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  remained  for  several 
weeks,  revictualing  and  repairing  his  ship.  In  the  garden  of  the  life-saving 
station  is  a  marker  commemorating  his  landing.  On  the  cliffs  overlooking 
the  cove  stands  a  white  wooden  cross,  erected  by  Bishop  William  Ford 
Nichols,  commemorating  the  first  use  of  the  English  language  and  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  on  the  California  coast.  An  annual  pilgrimage  and 
service  on  or  about  St.  John  Baptist's  Day,  June  24,  is  held  here. 

This  coast  is  the  locale  of  Bret  Harte's  "The  Legend  of  Devil's  Point," 
according  to  which  Drake  chose  "this  spot  to  conceal  quantities  of  ill-gotten 
booty  taken  from  neutral  bottoms,  and  had  protected  his  hiding  place  by  the 
orthodox  means  of  hellish  incantation  and  diabolical  agencies.  On  moonlight 
nights  a  shadowy  ship  was  sometimes  seen  when  fogs  encompassed  sea  and 
shore  .  .  .  the  creaking  of  a  windlass,  or  the  monotonous  chant  of  sailors, 
came  faint  and  far,  and  full  of  magic  suggestions."  Whatever  factual  basis 
supports  the  legend,  "a  more  weird  and  desolate-looking  spot  could  not  have 
been  selected  for  [its]  theatre.  High  hills  .  .  .  enfiladed  with  dark  canadas, 
cast  their  gaunt  shadows  on  the  tide  ...  sea  fog  [comes]  with  soft  step  in 
noiseless  marches  down  the  hillside,  tenderly  soothing  the  wind-buffetted  face 
of  the  cliff  until  sea  and  sky  [are]  hid  together." 

At  Laguna  Ranch,  on  the  east  side  of  Drake's  Bay,  a  chauffeur  in  1933 
discovered  a  plate  of  solid  brass  which  he  subsequently  discarded  near  Point 
San  Quentin.  Another  motorist,  halted  by  a  flat  tire,  rediscovered  the  plate 
and  offered  it  to  the  University  of  California  for  inspection.  Revealed  be- 
neath the  blackened  surface  was  this  inscription: 


442      SAN     FRANCISCO 

"BEE  IT  KNOWNE  VNTO  ALL  MEN  BY  THESE  PRESENTS 

IVNE  17  1579 

BY  THE  GRACE  OF  GOD  AND  IN  THE  NAME  OF  HERR 
MAIESTY  QVEEN  ELIZABETH  OF  ENGLAND  AND  HERR 
SVCCESSORS  FOREVER  I  TAKE  POSESSON  OF  THIS 
KINGDOME  WHOSE  KING  AND  PEOPLE  FREELY  RESIGNE 
THEIR  RIGHT  AND  TITLE  IN  THE  WHOLE  LAND  VNTO 
HERR  MAIESTIES  KEEPEING  NOW  NAMED  BY  ME  AN  TO 
BEE  KNOWNE  VNTO  ALL  MEN  AS  NOVA  ALBION 

FRANCIS    DRAKE" 

The  main  side  road  continues  to  the  remote  tip  of  the  headland,  where  the 
white  i6-sided  pyramidal  tower  of  POINT  REYES  LIGHTHOUSE,  44.3  m., 
shines  its  light  294  feet  above  the  sea.  Its  i2o,ooo-candlepower  light,  whose 
three-ton  lens  was  ground  in  France  and  installed  at  Point  Reyes  in  1870,  is 
visible  in  clear  weather  for  24  miles.  But  even  this  beam  and  the  blast 
of  the  fog  signal  have  failed  to  prevent  many  ships  and  even  one  air  liner 
from  piling  up  on  the  saw-toothed  shore. 

Across   rolling   foothill   country   runs   US    101,    rising   to   hilltops 
and  dipping  through  valleys,  with  the  Bay  seldom  out  of  view. 

At  the  tidal  mouth  of  Corte  Madera  Creek  is  GREENBRAE,  15.1 
m.  (32  alt.,  100  pop.),  a  colony  of  house  boats,  whose  occupants  live 
the  year  around  in  their  compact  arks. 

Right  from  Greenbrae  on  a  paved  road  which  winds  along  the  hills 
that  rise  above  the  West  Gate  (for  official  use  only]  of  San  Quentin  Prison 
(see  below),  1  m.,  where  armed  guards  are  stationed  in  yellow  octagonal 
towers.  The  route  goes  around  and  above  the  prison  grounds  with  their  neat 
guard  cottages  and  high  wire  fences  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  2  m., 
where  it  turns  R.  to  the  SAN  QUENTIN  WHARF,  2.9  m.,  now  western 
terminus  of  the  Richmond-San  Rafael  Ferry  (automobiles  and  driver,  70$; 
automobile  and  four  passengers,  80$;  pedestrians,  lo$}. 

At  the  head  of  San  Quentin  Wharf  stands  the  FERRY  INN,  erected  on 
the  piling  of  the  old  Buckelew  Sawmill  by  Benjamin  R.  Buckelew,  who 
sold  the  site  of  San  Quentin  Prison  to  the  State  and  who  was  once  pub- 
lisher and  editor  of  The  Californian.  Visible  from  San  Quentin  Wharf  is 
RED  ROCK,  three  miles  offshore,  a  two-acre  uninhabited  island  whose 
color  is  due  to  the  presence  of  iron  oxides,  and  where  legend  has  placed 
buried  gold  and  jewels.  Boundary  corners  of  three  counties  meet  on  the  little 
island. 

In  the  small  village  of  SAN  QUENTIN,  3m.  (12  alt.,  328  pop.),  prison 
guards  and  employees  live  with  their  families. 

The  side  route  ends  at  3.1  m.,  at  the  main  gate  of  SAN  QUENTIN  STATE 
PRISON  (relatives  and  persons  on  legitimate  business  admitted  daily  8  and 
2;  guided  tours,  p  and  2  Thurs.).  The  snouts  of  machine  guns  protrude 
from  nearby  towers.  Visible  beyond  the  gates  are  the  grey  walls  and  the 
stocky  unornamented  cell  blocks  of  the  prison,  pierced  by  barred  windows. 
Behind  these  walls  5,200  men  are  "doing  time."  Women,  once  kept  here,  now 
are  sent  to  Tehachapi ;  recidivists — "two  time  losers" — are  sent  to  Folsom 
Prison. 

New  prisoners  usually  are  put  to  work  in  the  jute  mill  making  burlap 
and  other  rough  fabrics;  later  they  are  placed  in  work  more  suited  to  their 
individual  abilities.  Prison  farms  and  dairies  offer  some  of  the  men  outdoor 
work.  Others  are  employed  in  furniture  shops,  printing  plants,  machine 
and  plumbing  shops,  bakeries,  and  kitchens. 

The  most  famous  prisoner  here  for  two  decades,  labor  martyr  Thomas 
J.  Mooney,  accused  of  planting  a  bomb  and  killing  several  persons  during 
a  parade  in  San  Francisco  in  1916,  was  pardoned  in  1939  by  Governor 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      443 

Culbert  L.  Olson.  Also  confined  here  were  Matthew  Schmidt  and  J.  B. 
McNamara,  defendants  in  the  Los  Angeles  Times  explosion  case  of  October, 
1910. 

Convicts  built  the  first  prison  cells  here  in  the  early  1850*8  to  house  other 
convicts  then  chained  in  the  black  holds  of  prison  boats.  The  first  ten  years 
of  the  prison's  existence  were  stormy  with  escapes  and  uprisings.  The  most 
desperate  break  occurred  July  22,  1862,  when  400  convicts  rushed  the  front 
gate,  and,  using  Lieutenant-Governor  John  F.  Chellis  as  a  shield,  stormed 
and  carried  the  gun  post  near  the  steamer  landing.  The  convicts  released 
Chellis  three  miles  from  the  prison  and  headed  for  the  hills,  where  they  were 
blocked  by  a  citizens'  posse.  Thirty-three  escaped,  three  were  killed,  and 
the  others  captured. 

North  of  Greenbrae,  US  101  cuts  across  tidal  lands  reclaimed  from 
the  marshes.  In  1866  this  road,  built  three  feet  above  the  marsh  lands, 
was  a  toll  road  whose  surfacing  material  had  been  taken  from  Indian 
shell  mounds.  Tolls  ranged  from  two  and  one-half  cents  each  for 
sheep  and  hogs  to  one  dollar,  which  admitted  three  yoke  of  oxen  and 
a  loaded  wagon.  Today's  highway  is  lined  by  gas  stations,  "hot  dog" 
stands,  and  stores.  The  old  ferry  boat  Encinal,  moored  in  the  marsh 
near  the  road  at  16.8  m.,  is  a  seafood  restaurant. 

Seat  of  Marin  County  and  suburban  trading  center  is  SAN 
RAFAEL,  17.5  m.  (10  alt.,  8,516  pop.).  Bisected  by  San  Rafael 
Creek,  the  city  extends  north  to  steep,  round-headed  San  Rafael  Hill. 
Its  business  streets  are  lined  with  old-fashioned  brick  buildings;  many 
of  its  homes  are  set  back  of  green  lawns  and  tall  shade  trees. 

Father  Vicente  Sarria  founded  here,  on  December  14,  1817,  the 
twentieth  of  California's  missions  as  an  asistencia  (auxiliary)  to  Mis- 
sion Dolores,  whose  Indian  converts  were  rapidly  dying  off  from  the 
effects  of  measles  and  other  diseases  contracted  from  white  men.  By 
1834  tne  new  mission  boasted  1,250  converts,  but  in  that  year  it  was 
secularized  and  its  converts  scattered.  In  1844  Governor  Manuel 
Micheltorena  granted  a  considerable  part  of  the  present  town  site  to 
Don  Timoteo  Murphy,  administrator  of  the  secularized  mission. 

In  the  1850'$  the  little  town  became  a  busy  but  dirty  center  for 
the  surrounding  ranches.  Streets  bottomless  with  dust  in  summer,  with 
mud  in  winter,  were  crowded  with  dogs,  children,  and  Mexicans,  and 
the  few  plank  sidewalks  tripped  the  unwary.  Here  the  daily  Petaluma 
stage  and  the  thrice-a-week  "mud  wagon"  from  Olema  and  Bolinas 
connected  with  the  San  Quentin  stages  that  met  the  San  Francisco  fer- 
ries, stopping,  "with  popping  of  whips  and  panting  of  horses  ...  in 
front  of  the  hotel.  Now  all  is  bustle,  the  men  in  long  dusters,  the 
women  swathed  in  Veils.'  A  crowd  follows  the  mail-bag,  the  women 
retire  to  apartments  upstairs,  and  the  men  line  up  at  the  bar  .  .  ." 

Celebration  of  the  founding  of  San  Rafael  each  October  24  is  no 
longer  the  gala  day  it  was  prior  to  1900,  when  (according  to  the  Marin 
Journal]  decent  and  respectable  people  took  the  day  off,  remained  at 
home  behind  locked  doors,  and  waited  patiently  until  the  last  of  the 
celebration  had  worn  off.  Three-card  monte  men,  shell  game  operators, 
and  crooked  card-sharpers  thronged  the  town;  stabbings,  shootings,  and 


444      SAN     FRANCISCO 

fist  fights  provided  work  for  local  doctors;  and  entertainment  centered 
around  horse  races,  dog  and  coyote  fights,  cock  fights,  and  bull  fights. 

Among  the  80  houses  of  1866  were  "some  costly  residences  with 
tastefully  laid  out  ground  .  .  ."  Some  of  these  still  stand  in  the  dis- 
trict north  of  Fifth  Avenue,  among  them  the  WILLIAM  TELL 
COLEMAN  RESIDENCE,  1130  Mission  Ave.,  a  large,  rambling, 
white  building  incorporating  San  Rafael's  first  frame  house,  put  up  in 
1849.  Coleman,  a  San  Francisco  merchant  and  vigilance  committee 
member,  established  in  the  valley  just  north  of  town  a  nursery;  here 
among  the  hills  he  raised  thousands  of  trees. 

The  apartment  building  at  720  Fourth  St.,  a  three-story  structure 
with  tall,  narrow  windows,  decorated  with  Georgian  pediments,  was 
built  by  convict  labor  in  1859  as  the  CENTRAL  HOTEL. 

The  former  HOUSE  OF  PETER  DONOHUE,  1411  Lincoln 
Ave.,  now  a  restaurant,  occupies  the  big,  old-fashioned  two-story  house 
built  by  Peter  Donohue,  Irish  blacksmith  who  founded  the  Union  Iron 
Works  of  San  Francisco.  About  1906  the  estate  became  the  property 
of  Leon  Douglass  of  the  Victor  Phonograph  Company,  who  lived  here 
with  his  family  until  1926. 

Of  MISSION  SAN  RAFAEL  ARCANGEL  little  remains  but  a 
few  fragments  of  tile.  The  building  was  demolished  for  its  timber  in 
1860;  nine  years  later  a  new  church  was  built  on  the  site,  but  this  in 
turn  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1917.  The  present  ST.  RAPHAEL'S 
CHURCH,  Fifth  Ave.  and  A  St.,  occupies  the  site  of  the  old  mission, 
which  is  depicted  in  a  bas-relief  above  the  central  door.  A  statue  of 
Saint  Raphael  stands  in  the  main  tower. 

A  bank  at  1304  Fourth  St.  marks  the  SITE  OF  THE  MURPHY 
ADOBE  built  in  1844  by  Don  Timoteo  Murphy,  who  as  alcalde  held 
here  many  a  baile  and  reception.  In  1853,  after  Timothy  Murphy's 
death,  the  county  court  was  moved  from  a  leaky  room  in  the  old  mis- 
sion to  this  adobe,  which  a  progressive  citizen  had  bought  for  $1,000 
and  sold  to  the  county  for  $5,000.  The  old  road  leading  from  Murphy's 
to  the  freight  landing  of  the  1850*8  is  now  C  Street. 

The  first  local  building  of  the  DOMINICAN  COLLEGE,  Grand 
Ave.  between  Locust  and  Acacia  Sts.,  was  dedicated  in  1889  on  land 
given  by  Don  Timoteo  Murphy  and  William  Tell  Coleman.  The  dor- 
mitories occupy  three  handsome  old  residences,  but  the  educational 
buildings  are  modern.  In  addition  to  grammar  and  high  school  depart- 
ments, the  institution  offers  a  full  college  course.  Since  its  founding 
in  Monterey  in  1850  the  college  has  given  much  attention  to  music; 
many  distinguished  musicians  have  taught  and  lectured  here.  The  music 
library  has  some  valuable  illuminated  missals  and  a  number  of  rare 
books  on  music.  The  campus  covers  35  acres  planted  to  pine  and 
eucalyptus  by  Coleman,  who  tried  to  reforest  the  region.  Forest  Mead- 
ows, a  part  of  the  campus,  is  the  setting  for  the  WOODLAND  THEATER, 
an  outdoor  auditorium  built  in  1934  and  used  for  the  annual  concerts. 

SAN  RAFAEL  HILL  (717  alt.),  rising  steeply  from  the  north 
end  of  B  St.,  is  a  municipal  recreation  area,  the  gift  of  Captain  Robert 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      445 

Dollar.     On  the  summit,  which  offers  an  unusual  view,  Easter  sunrise 
services  are  held. 


from  San  Rafael  on  Third  St.,  which  becomes  a  county  road  run- 
ning along  San  Rafael  Creek  between  the  hills  and  marshes.  Many  fine 
country  homes  dot  the  wooded  slopes.  The  MARIN  YACHT  CLUB,  1.3  m., 
participates  in  all  San  Francisco  Bay  regattas.  The  green  marshes  end  in 
the  Bay  waters.  Offshore  about  one  mile  are  the  two  small  MARIN  ISLANDS, 
on  one  of  which  the  Lacatuit  Indian  chief  Marin  sought  refuge  from  the 
Spanish.  Captured,  he  was  baptized  at  San  Rafael.  Later  his  name  was 
given  to  the  county. 

At  3.9  m.  stand  the  three  tall  kiln  stacks  of  the  McNEAR  BRICK  WORKS, 
where  haydite,  a  light  concrete  aggregate,  is  manufactured.  The  road  con- 
tinues east  through  hilly  land  owned  by  the  McNear  family,  pioneer  grain 
and  cattle  ranchers.  The  eucalypti  that  crown  the  hilltops  and  the  Bay 
slopes  were  among  20,000  trees  set  out  in  the  i89o's. 

At  5  m.  is  the  junction  with  an  improved  road;  R.  here  0.5  m.  to  McNEAR'S 
BEACH  (parking  fee  50$;  picnic  grounds;  boats  for  hire],  once  McNear's 
Landing,  which  offers  good  bass  and  rock  cod  fishing.  The  beach  is  sheltered 
by  the  tip  of  San  Pedro  Point,  westermost  of  two  promontories  marking 
the  entrance  to  San  Pablo  Bay.  An  old  frame  hotel  (L),  embowered  in 
groves  of  palms  and  eucalypti,  dates  from  horse  and  buggy  days. 

The  main  side  route  continues  north  across  low  hills  to  bluffs  above  San 
Pablo  Bay.  In  a  small  cove  is  CHINA  CAMP,  6  m.,  where  a  rickety  pier 
extends  over  the  water  (boats  for  hire}.  Chinese  settled  here  in  the  i88o's 
to  fish  for  shrimp.  By  1910,  twelve  hundred  Chinese  lived  here,  catching  and 
drying  shrimp. 

From  BUCKEYE  POINT  (boats  for  hire],  6.7  m.,  the  road  continues  across 
the  hills  that  rise  abruptly  from  the  Bay.  Oak,  madrone,  bay,  buckeye,  elder- 
berry, wild  lilac,  and  toyon  are  abundant. 

At  11.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  101    (see  below). 

Stretches  of  US  101  north  of  San  Rafael  are  lined  with  rows  of 
eucalyptus  trees,  planted  in  the  i88o's  and  1890*5  as  windbreaks. 

ST.  VINCENT'S  SCHOOL  FOR  BOYS  (visitors  welcome), 
22  A  m.  (R),  occupies  a  group  of  Spanish  Renaissance  buildings.  A 
Catholic  orphanage,  it  was  opened  in  1855  on  land  deeded  by  Don 
Timoteo  Murphy.  The  1,800  acres  of  ground  produce  all  the  dairy 
and  farm  products  used  by  the  school. 

The  highway  winds  smoothly  up  a  range  of  hills  and  down  into  a 
broad  valley  to  the  gates  (R)  of  $7,000,000  HAMILTON  FIELD 
(open  only  to  citizens  on  official  business),  23.7  m.,  an  Army  base  for 
pursuit  squadrons  named  for  Lieutenant  Lloyd  Andrews  Hamilton  of 
the  Seventeenth  Aero  Squadron,  shot  down  in  France,  August,  1918. 
The  airport,  begun  in  1932,  covers  928  acres  of  drained  marshland 
sloping  imperceptibly  to  the  Bay.  It  was  used  as  a  bombing  base  until 
1940. 

IGNACIO,  24.7  m.  (10  alt.,  135  pop.),  consisting  of  a  few  gas 
stations  and  lunch  counters,  was  named  for  Don  Ignacio  Pacheco,  much- 
married  alcalde  of  San  Rafael,  who  owned  a  large  ranch  here.  His 
horses  were  so  admired  by  John  C.  Fremont  that  the  American  explorer 
is  said  to  have  kidnapped  him  and  demanded  a  ransom  in  horses. 

At  25.3  m.  is  the  junction  of  State  37  with  US  101.  The  route 
goes  R.  on  State  37. 


446      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Left  on  US  101,  in  little  Novato  Valley,  where  dikes  thrown  up  against  the 
incursion  of  tides  have  formed  green  meadows  planted  to  alfalfa  and  grain, 
is  NOVATO,  2.5  m.  (17  alt.,  700  pop.),  below  the  hills  bordering  San  Pablo 
Bay.  The  town  stands  on  the  former  Rancho  Novato,  granted  to  Don  Fernando 
Feliz  in  1839. 

In  one  of  the  farm  buildings  (L)  of  RANCHO  BURDELL  (private),  5.7  m.,  is 
an  adobe  wall  once  part  of  the  home  of  Camillo  Ynitia,  last  chief  of  the 
Olompali  Indians.  Soon  after  he  sold  the  Olompali  Rancho  for  $5,200,  Ynitia 
was  murdered  by  his  brother,  who  believed  he  had  hidden  the  gold  in  the 
nearby  hills.  Jacob  Leese,  Marin  County's  first  English-speaking  settler,  once 
owned  the  rancho,  as  did  Bezaar  Simmons,  who  built  a  wooden  house  here 
in  1850,  and  James  Black,  who  gave  his  daughter  the  property  when  she  married 
Dr.  Galen  Burdell. 

The  rich  earth  of  PETALUMA  VALLEY,  9.6  m.,  supports  cattle  ranches, 
fruit  groves,  dairies,  and  chicken  farms. 

Claiming  the  title  of  the  ''World's  Egg  Basket,"  PETALUMA,  13.5  m. 
(15  alt.,  7,983  pop.),  which  lies  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  Petaluma  Creek, 
is  the  center  of  a  region  whose  millions  of  hens  lay  the  utmost  modern 
methods  can  produce.  Poultry-raising  here  has  become  an  industry  in  which 
laboratory  experiments  blaze  the  way  to  more  eggs  and  better  hens.  From 
mechanical  incubators  that  turn  automatically  their  trays  of  eggs,  thousands 
of  chicks  emerge  daily  from  their  shells,  immediately  to  be  placed  on 
scientific  diets.  Along  the  main  street  of  Petaluma,  dominated  by  the  white 
towers  of  a  grain  elevator,  cluster  grain  and  poultry  equipment  stores.  Ware- 
houses, factories,  and  wholesale  houses  line  the  creek  east  of  the  business  section. 

In  1834  Petaluma  was  a  sleepy  Mexican  village  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  Rancho  Petaluma  (see  below),  which  took  its  name  from  an  early  Miwok 
Indian  village.  After  1840  the  fertile  valley  experienced  a  general  invasion 
of  settlers.  By  1852,  Yankees  dominated  the  village.  They  continued  to  raise 
grain,  built  a  flour  mill,  and  shipped  their  produce  down  the  creek  to  San 
Francisco.  For  nearly  a  half-century  wheat,  lumber,  wool,  bricks,  and  basalt 
blocks  were  carried  by  a  fleet  of  thirty  odd  schooners. 

The  poultry  industry,  long  Petaluma's  foremost,  began  in  1878  when  a  young 
Canadian,  Lyman  C.  Byce,  coming  here  in  search  of  health,  saw  that  this 
region  with  its  even  climate,  sandy  soil,  and  marketing  facilities  was  admirably 
suited  for  chicken-raising.  An  inventive  genius,  Byce  began  manufacturing 
incubators  and  brooders,  which  are  today  widely  used.  Connected  with 
poultry-raising  are  most  of  the  town's  industries:  feed  mills,  commercial 
hatcheries,  egg-  and  poultry-packing  plants,  box  factories,  incubator  and  brooder 
factories.  Since  subdivision  of  the  large  wheat  ranches,  dairying  has  also 
become  an  important  occupation. 

Largest  electrically  operated  hatchery  in  the  world,  the  SALES  AND  BOURKE 
HATCHERY  (visitors  welcome),  701  Seventh  St.,  occupies  a  group  of  red  brick 
buildings.  Equipped  with  thermostatic  controls,  the  incubators  rotate  their 
eggs  every  four  hours  during  the  twenty-one  day  incubation  period.  In  a  year 
approximately  two  million  white  Leghorns,  a  half-million  heavy  breeds,  and  a 
quarter-million  turkeys  are  hatched. 

Probably  the  only  drugstore  in  the  world  devoted  solely  to  medicines  for 
ailing  chickens  is  the  CHICKEN  PHARMACY,  176  Main  St.  The  POULTRY  PATHO- 
LOGICAL LABORATORY,  627  F  St.,  is  maintained  by  the  University  of  California 
under  the  Division  of  Animal  Husbandry. 

Only  silk  mill  west  of  the  Mississippi  River  is  the  BELDING  THREAD  SILK 
MILL,  Wilson  and  Jefferson  Sts.,  occupying  ivy-covered  red  brick  buildings. 

Right  from  Petaluma  on  Washington  Street  2.8  m.  to  a  junction  with  a 
paved  road;  R.  here  to  what  was  General  Mariano  Vallejo's  CASA  GRANDE 
(caretaker)  4.4  m.,  built  in  1833-34.  When  Vallejo  stood  on  the  broad  second- 
story  balcony,  his,  eyes  could  see  no  land  that  was  not  his  own,  for  the  great 
house  was  headquarters  for  his  75,ooo-acre  Rancho  Petaluma.  The  white 
plaster  on  the  adobe  walls  is  cracked  and  crumbling  in  spots,  and  a  shingled 
roof  has  replaced  the  original  tiles;  but  the  massive  walls  are  the  same  that 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      447 

Vallejo's  Kanaka  workmen  put  together,  and  the  original  beams  of  hand-hewn 
redwood  support  ceilings  and  balconies.  The  rear  wing  has  been  destroyed. 
In  the  inner  courtyard  formed  by  the  four  great  walls,  Vallejo's  two  thousand 
Indians  gathered  to  hear  his  orders. 

On  US  101  at  21.5  m.  is  COTATI  (113  alt.,  1,000  pop.),  founded  on  land 
once  part  of  i7,ooo-acre  Rancho  Cotati,  whose  owner,  Captain  Juan  Castaneda, 
gave  up  his  claim  in  1849  to  the  district's  American  sheriff,  Dr.  Thomas  S. 
Page.  The  sheriff's  son,  Wilfred  Page,  laid  out  the  town  around  a  hexagonal 
plaza,  from  which  the  streets  radiate  in  a  spider-web  pattern.  When  asked 
why  he  had  not  used  simple  squares  and  straight  lines  in  the  great  expanse  of 
land,  Page  replied,  "Any  fool  can  plant  that  and  come  out  right,  but  it  takes 
brains  to  start  on  angles  and  have  your  plans  click." 

SANTA  ROSA,  29.9  m.  (160  alt.,  12,547  pop.),  seat  of  Sonoma  County,  is 
an  attractive,  prosperous  city  at  the  base  of  the  Sonoma  Mountain  on  the  eastern 
edge  of  a  rich  alluvial  valley.  In  1829  Father  Juan  Amores,  on  a  missionary 
expedition  from  San  Rafael,  named  the  valley  and  creek  for  Saint  Rose  of 
Lima  but  the  Indians  prevented  him  from  establishing  a  mission.  In  1833, 
Mariano  Vallejo  tried  to  begin  a  settlement  here,  but  abandoned  it  in  favor  of 
Sonoma.  The  town  was  not  founded  until  several  years  after  the  discovery 
of  gold,  when  the  Argonauts  turned  to  farming.  Almost  immediately  the  enter- 
prising community  asked  to  be  made  county  seat  (then  Sonoma)  ;  they  received 
the  honor  in  1854. 

The  earthquake  of  1906  wrecked  Santa  Rosa's  entire  business  district  with 
a  loss  of  forty  lives,  but  the  town  was  rebuilt  and  has  continued  to  keep  pace 
with  the  subdivision  of  the  surrounding  agricultural  lands.  Local  industries 
include  fruit  processing,  large-scale  manufacturing  of  ice  for  refrigerator  cars, 
egg-packing,  and  the  manufacture  of  shoes. 

On  the  tract  which  for  fifty  years  was  an  experimental  farm  of  Luther 
Burbank  (1849-1926),  who  arrived  in  Santa  Rosa  in  1875,  are  tne  one-and- 
one-half-acre  BURBANK  MEMORIAL  GARDENS,  Santa  Rosa  Aye.  and  Tupper  St. 
Property  of  the  Santa  Rosa  Junior  College  botany  department,  the  gardens 
contain  a  great  variety  of  plants,  including  many  Burbank  discoveries.  Under 
an  enormous  cedar  of  Lebanon  grown  from  a  seed  sent  from  the  Holy  Land, 
Burbank  is  buried. 

While  a  young  man,  Burbank  accidentally  discovered  the  potato  named 
for  him  on  his  Massachusetts  truck-farm.  With  the  $150  he  received  for  his 
discovery  and  ten  of  the  new  Burbank  potatoes,  he  followed  his  brothers  to 
California.  Soon  he  began  the  experiments  with  plants  destined  to  add 
hundreds  of  new  varieties  of  vegetables,  flowers,  and  fruits  to  nursery  and  seed 
catalogues.  He  believed  in  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics,  and  that 
these  acquired  characteristics  could  be  fixed,  or  be  made  permanent.  Among 
his  best-known  hybrids  are  the  spineless  cactus;  Burbank  potato;  Gold,  Wick- 
son,  American,  and  Climax  plums;  Splendor  and  Sugar  prunes;  and  many 
improved  varieties  of  quinces,  berries,  and  vegetables.  His  Shasta  and  Alaska 
daisies;  "crimson  flame"  and  softly  colored  single  and  double  California  pop- 
pies; roses;  callas;  gladioli;  dahlias;  and  many  improved  flowering  shrubs 
have  added  color  and  fragrance  to  gardens  all  over  the  world. 

The  slim-spired  white  FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH,  B  St.  between  Fifth  and  Sixth 
Sts.,  was  built  in  1873  of  lumber  cut  from  a  single  redwood  tree.  Sufficient 
lumber  remained  of  the  same  tree  to  build  a  five-room  residence. 

The  side  route  continues  L.  from  Santa  Rosa  on  Sebastopol  Avenue 
(State  12). 

In  the  heart  of  a  countryside  which  flowers  with  acres  of  fruit  blossoms 
in  spring  is  SEBASTOPOL,  37.8  m.  (68  alt.,  1,853  P<>P-),  center  of  Gravenstein 
apple  and  cherry  orchards.  J.  H.  P.  Morris  named  the  town  Pine  Grove  when 
he  founded  it  in  1853  on  the  site  of  the  adobe  house  of  Joaquin  Carillo's 
Rancho  Llano  de  Santa  Rosa  (Plain  of  St.  Rose).  Two  years  later  a  local  feud 
ended  in  a  street  battle  in  which  one  participant  barricaded  himself  in  a  store. 
Enthusiastic  spectators,  recalling  the  Crimean  city  of  Sebastopol,  then  in  a  state 
of  seige,  immediately  adopted  its  name,  first  for  the  store,  then  for  the  town. 


448      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Left  from  Sebastopol  on  Gravenstein  Highway  0.6  m.  to  the  SONOMA  BUD- 
DHIST TEMPLE,  ENMAN-JI,  which  was  shipped  from  Japan  for  exhibit  in  the 
South  Manchurian  Railway  display  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair  in  1933  and 
afterwards  dismantled  and  erected  here.  In  authentic  Kamakura  style,  the 
building  has  a  green  pagoda  roof,  bell-shaped  windows,  and  stucco  walls. 

North  of  Sebastopol  State  12  runs  through  orchard  lands  and  vineyards, 
skirting  the  western  edge  of  a  rich  hop-growing  region,  to  the  shores  of  the 
RUSSIAN  RIVER,  51.8  m.  a  vacation  area  for  as  many  as  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  persons  annually.  Rising  in  Mendocino  County,  the  stream 
cuts  directly  across  the  Coast  Range.  In  this  part  of  its  course  the  river's 
meanderings  have  created  a  string  of  beaches  covered  with  yellow  sand. 
The  Russians  named  the  river  Slavianka  (Slavic)  when  they  penetrated  the 
fertile  region  in  1812  and  began  trapping  for  furs  along  the  stream.  The 
Americans,  who  followed,  logged  the  area,  built  lumber  mills,  and  farmed  the 
cleared  land. 

The  population  of  GUERNEVILLE,  52  m.  (52  alt.,  800  pop.),  swells  in  the 
summer  to  seven  thousand,  filling  resort  cottages,  cabins,  and  camp-grounds. 
The  town  occupies  a  wide  river  meadow  encircled  by  mountains,  edged  by 
firs  and  redwoods.  The  business  street  is  lined  with  one-story,  false-front 
buildings  and  old  wooden  sidewalks.  The  town  took  its  name  from  George  C. 
Guerne,  who  with  Harmon  G.  Heald  erected  the  region's  first  sawmill  in  1865. 

Right  from  Guerneville  on  a  paved  road  2.8  m.  to  4OO-acre  ARMSTRONG 
WOODS  STATE  PARK  (camping  and  picnicking}.  Here,  deep  among  a  fine 
stand  of  redwoods,  is  the  ARMSTRONG  FOREST  THEATRE,  whose  redwood  log 
benches  seat  1,800. 

State  12  continues  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road  57  m.;  L.  here  across 
the  river  is  MONTE  RIO,  0.2  m.  (41  alt.,  500  pop.),  at  the  foot  of  steep  hills 
whose  slopes  are  covered  with  summer  homes  and  resort  hotels.  The  side 
route  goes  L.  from  Monte  Rio  to  BOHEMIAN  GROVE  (visits  by  special  permis- 
sion], 1.1  m.,  the  2,437-acre  redwood  grove  of  San  Francisco's  Bohemian  Club. 
Here,  in  an  outdoor  theater  whose  log  seats  accommodate  1,200,  the  club  since 
1878  has  held  its  annual  stag  Hi  Jinks,  staging  its  Grove  Play  against  a  natural 
background  of  great  trees.  During  a  two-week  encampment,  some  six  hundred 
men  "rough  it"  in  tents  or  cabins,  eat  in  the  open  air,  tell  tall  tales  around  a 
campfire,  and  attend  a  music-drama  written  and  played  by  fellow  members. 

The  main  side  route  follows  State  12  west  from  Guerneville  along  the  north 
bank  of  the  Russian  River  to  a  junction  with  State  i,  65.6  m. 

BLACK  POINT,  28.4  m.  (8  alt.,  125  pop.),  a  railroad  shipping 
point  for  dairy  products,  lies  in  a  corner  where  the  hills  come  down  to 
the  marshes.  The  dark  appearance  of  the  wooded  point  projecting  into 
San  Pablo  Bay  suggested  the  name. 

A  bascule  drawbridge  operated  by  electricity  crosses  PETALUM,A 
CREEK,  28.6  m.  Barges  and  river  boats  use  this  waterway  to  Peta- 
luma  (see  above},  and  pleasure  craft  sail  here  on  week-end  excursions. 

Hills  and  meadows  are  left  behind  as  State  37  enters  a  region  of 
strong  winds  and  wide  horizons.  Tules  are  the  chief  growth  in  these 
sloughs,  creeks,  and  tidal  lagoons  where  wild  ducks  are  abundant  in 
the  late  autumn. 

At  32.9  7/2.  is  the  junction  with  Sears  Point  Road,  on  which  the 
route  goes  R. 

Left  on  State  37,  which  leaves  green  sloughs  where  red-winged  black- 
birds wheel  and 'follows  the  base  of  low  foothills  on  which  sheep  and  cattle 
graze. 

The  embarcadero  (landing  place)  on  Sonoma  Creek  at  the  site  of  SHELL- 
VILLE,  7.4  m.  (10  alt.,  84  pop.),  once  piled  high  with  merchandise  bound 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      449 

to  and  from  Sonoma,  was  first  named  Saint  Louis  by  early  Missouri  settlers. 
It  was  renamed  for  Theodor  Schell,  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  Sonoma 
Valley  Prismoidal  Railway  in  1875,  who  bought  1,400  acres  here  in  1860. 

The  route  goes  L.  from  Shellville  on  State  12  toward  the  Sonoma  Mountains, 
past  the  wide  orchards  and  old  ranch  houses  of  Sonoma  Valley. 

At  9.2  m.  is  a  junction  with  oil-surfaced  Petaluma  Road;  L.  here  1.3  m. 
to  a  junction  with  a  dirt  road;  R.  here  to  the  entrance  of  the  Coblentz 
Ranch  (private],  2,2  m.  About  a  half-mile  from  the  road,  almost  hidden 
by  masses  of  venerable  trees  (L),  are  the  stone  walls  and  blue-green  roof 
of  TEMELEC  HALL,  built  by  Bear  Flag  revolutionist  Captain  Granville 
Perry  Swift,  once  the  finest  private  house  north  of  San  Francisco.  The 
south  wing  is  said  to  have  been  built  as  early  as  1849  by  General  Persifor 
Frazer  Smith,  military  governor  of  California,  who  sold  the  i2,ooo-acre  ranch 
to  Swift,  a  newly  rich  miner.  First  and  second  floors  of  the  2o-room  house 
are  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  colonnaded  balconies  and  the  roof  is  topped 
by  a  small  gazebo.  The  massive  stone  wall  in  the  rear,  which  once  con- 
tinued around  the  house  and  joined  the  reservoir  on  the  north,  was  an  ex- 
cellent defense  against  marauding  Indians  or  bandits.  Just  south  of  it  were 
adobe  quarters  for  40  Indian  servants,.  At  each  side  of  the  formal  gardens 
of  the  front  terrace — where  cypress,  acacia,  and  lemon  verbena,  planted  by 
Swift,  still  flourish — is  a  tiny  ornate  stone  summer  house  with  high,  pointed 
roof.  The  two-story  stone  stable,  topped  by  a  tall  pigeon  cote,  once  had  an 
inclined  driveway  for  carriages. 

Northward  from  the  junction  with  Petaluma  Road  through  orchards  and 
vineyards  State  12  follows  the  wide  road  laid  out  by  Mariano  Vallejo. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  valley  at  the  base  of  low  hills  is  SONOMA,  11  m. 
(97  alt.,  1,153  P°P')>  which  has  never  quite  lost  its  leisurely  Mexican  air. 
It  owes  its  existence  to  Franciscan  priest  Jose  Altimira  and  soldier  Mariano 
Guadalupe  Vallejo.  When  Governor  Arguello  urged  Altimira  in  1823  to 
consolidate  Missions  San  Francisco  de  Asis  and  San  Rafael  and  move  them 
farther  north,  ostensibly  for  the  health  of  the  Indian  neophytes,  but  also 
to  check  Russian  colonization,  the  young  priest  came  into  the  Sonoma  Valley. 
Here  he  dedicated  the  "New  San  Francisco"  before  a  willow  altar. 

The  Franciscan  authorities,  annoyed  at  the  young  priest's  temerity  and 
impulsiveness,  insisted  that  Missions  San  Rafael  and  San  Francisco  de  Asis 
should  remain  where  they  were  founded.  Altimira  fought  back  in  long  let- 
ters until  finally  he  was  permitted  to  have  a  mission  here — the  last  founded 
and  most  northerly  of  the  California  missions — which  was  named  San  Fran- 
cisco de  Solano.  Neophytes  from  San  Jose,  San  Rafael,  and  San  Francisco 
built  a  few  mud-plastered  wooden  buildings  below  the  billowing  hills.  In  a 
few  years  permanent  buildings  of  adobe  were  finished.  Stockaded  gardens 
and  vineyards  surrounded  the  mission  and  small  herds  of  cattle,  sheep,  and 
horses  roamed  the  valley.  When  a  chief  of  the  local  Chocuy-on  Indians 
was  baptised  "Sonoma,"  the  pleasant  name  was  adopted  for  the  valley  and  the 
town  that  grew  up  around  the  mission. 

In  1835,  the  missions  having  been  secularized,  Governor  Jose  Figueroa 
appointed  young  Lieutenant  Mariano  Vallejo  as  comisionado  of  the  Sonoma 
mission  lands  and  stock  and  sent  him  to  found  a  fortified  pueblo  at  Sonoma. 
Without  equipment  other  than  his  pocket  compass,  Vallejo  laid  out  the  town 
in  large  squares  about  a  plaza.  He  fortified  the  hills  behind  the  mission  with  a 
few  small  cannons.  With  the  aid  of  Indians  he  built  barracks  surrounded 
with  a  loop-holed  wall  and  adjoining  them  a  palacio  with  a  two-story  castle- 
like  tower  which  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  pretentious  residences  in 
California.  Around  the  dusty  plaza  where  Vallejo  put  his  perspiring  Indian 
soldiers  through  their  paces  were  built  the  homes  of  relatives  and  friends 
to  whom  were  granted  the  broad  reaches  of  the  present  valleys  of  Sonoma, 
Petaluma,  Santa  Rosa,  and  Napa. 

After  a  few  sharp  skirmishes  with  neighboring  Indians,  Vallejo  was  able 
to  make  an  alliance  with  Sem  Yeto  (the  mighty  arm),  over-lord  of  many 
tribes,  who  persuaded  his  people  to  submit  to  the  Spanish.  Sem  Yeto  was 


45O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

baptized  at  the  mission  and  christened  Francisco  Solano.  (The  first  con- 
stitutional convention  in  Monterey,  at  Vallejo's  suggestion,  gave  Solano's 
name  to  the  county  east  of  Napa;  a  statue  has  been  erected  to  him  in  Fair- 
field.)  Under  Vallejo's  paternal  rule  the  Indians  lived  in  a  mild  form  of 
peonage. 

By  the  middle  1 840*8  Sonoma  already  had  some  American  residents.  The 
Spanish  eyed  uneasily  the  newer  American  immigrants — and  with  good  reason, 
as  it  appeared  in  1846.  The  pueblo's  fortifications  were  no  handicap  to  33 
Yankees  led  by  Ezekiel  Merritt,  who  on  the  morning  of  June  14  surprised  the 
garrison's  18  men  and  "captured"  the  defenseless  commander.  Under  the 
crude  banner  painted  with  a  bear  and  a  star  which  they  hoisted  in  the  plaza, 
the  rebels  proclaimed  the  California  Republic.  It  lasted  less  than  a  month,  for 
on  July  9,  1846,  when  Lieutenant  Joseph  Warren  Revere  of  the  U.  S.  Army 
took  command,  the  Bear  Flag  was  replaced  by  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  "At 
last  the  rag  of  that  dirty  rabble  had  been  supplanted  by  the  glorious  flag  of 
the  United  States,"  wrote  Senora  Vallejo  to  the  general  in  the  calaboza  at 
Sutter's  Fort. 

When  Lilburn  W.  Boggs,  former  Governor  of  Missouri,  was  appointed 
alcalde  of  Sonoma  by  General  Stephen  W.  Kearny,  the  appointment  was 
contested  by  John  H.  Nash,  Bear  Flag  revolutionist  who  had  grabbed  for 
himself  the  post  of  alcalde.  Nash  refused  to  turn  over  the  city  records.  Only 
after  Governor  Richard  B.  Mason  had  dispatched  Lieutenant  William 
Tecumseh  Sherman  to  seize  and  carry  off  Nash  did  Boggs  become  head  of 
the  community.  After  a  few  months  Vallejo,  who  promised  not  to  bear 
arms  against  the  Americans,  returned  to  Sonoma  and  settled  down  to  master 
the  difficult  language  of  his  new  country  and  act  as  Indian  agent  for  the 
district.  Garrisoned  by  the  Army,  Sonoma  quieted  down. 

Sonoma  always  has  centered  around  its  PLAZA,  bounded  by  Napa  and 
Spain  Sts.,  First  St.  W.  and  First  St.  E.  In  its  northeast  corner  is  the  BEAR 
FLAG  MONUMENT,  a  bronze  statue  of  a  pioneer  (John  MacQuarrie,  sculp- 
tor) holding  the  new  flag,  mounted  on  a  4O-ton  boulder  of  volcanic  rock.  In 
the  center  of  the  Plaza  is  the  buff  stone  COURTHOUSE  AND  CITY  HALL, 
which  replaced  in  1908  an  old  adobe  courthouse  that  once  housed  the  county 
seat,  although  a  grand  jury  had  condemned  it  as  "not  fit  for  a  cattle  shed." 
When  a  special  election  in  1854  decided  in  favor  of  the  lusty  young  town  of 
Santa  Rosa  as  county  seat,  two  jubilant  new  officials  drove  a  team  of  mules 
from  Santa  Rosa  one  dark  night  and  rifled  the  courthouse.  The  county  clerk 
is  said  to  have  prodded  the  mules  home  with  his  wooden  leg. 

The  oldest  building  in  Sonoma,  the  MISSION  SAN  FRANCISCO  DE 
SOLANO,  built  in  1824,  is  an  L-shaped  adobe  roofed  with  red  tile  and  sur- 
mounted by  a  plain  Latin  cross.  Hanging  from  an  ivy-covered  framework  in 
front  is  a  bell  cast  in  Peru  in  1829.  After  the  secularization  of  the  missions 
in  1835,  the  mission  church  became  the  parish  church,  but  when  a  new  church 
was  built  in  1880,  it  was  sold.  The  old  buildings  then  served  as  a  hay-barn 
and  a  wine  cellar;  the  patio,  as  a  butcher's  slaughter  yard.  A  small  wooden 
saloon  crowded  against  the  front  wall  of  the  church.  For  years  small  boys 
threw  rocks  through  the  crumbling  walls.  After  long  neglect  the  mission  was 
purchased  in  1903  by  public-spirited  citizens  who  presented  it  to  the  State. 
It  is  now  a  State  landmark  and  museum. 

The  MISSION  MUSEUM  (open  10-4)  contains  early  California  papers, 
portraits  of  pioneers,  part  of  the  Sonoma  flagstaff,  timbers  and  millstone 
from  Sonoma's  first  gristmill,  Indian  baskets  shownig  beaded  and  feathered 
work  of  the  Porno,  long  handwrought  iron  hinges  from  Fort  Ross,  and  tim- 
bers from  the  ship  Ocean  Hero,  which  was  towed  to  Lakeville  and  there 
sunk  to  serve  as  an  embarcadero. 

The  BLUE  WING  HOTEL,  217  E.  Spain  St.,  is  an  adobe  building  100  feet 
long  whose  second-story  balcony  extending  over  the  sidewalk,  similar  to  one 
in  the  rear,  is  supported  by  octagonal  redwood  posts  rising  to  the  roof. 
The  original  i2-light  windows,  open  beams  and  wooden  ceiling,  and  hand- 
made doors  with  ogee  mouldings  are  well  preserved.  The  museum  (open 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      451 

2-4,  adm.  lo?),  formerly  the  hotel  bar,  contains  a  gold  scale  once  used 
in  a  store  across  the  street,  a  music  box  that  tinkles  "Linger  Longer  Lou", 
a  small  red  altar  from  the  local  Chinese  joss  house,  and  a  long  quarter- 
master's account  with  John  C.  Fremont  covering  the  disbursement  of  $1,242 
in  small  sums.  Sonoma's  man-power  fire  engine  is  flanked  by  an  automobile 
bought  by  Luther  Burbank  in  1915.  The  collection  also  includes  General 
Persifor  Smith's  medicine  cabinet  and  the  walnut  desk  used  by  Frank  Soule 
while  writing  The  Annals  of  San  Francisco. 

Its  wide  verandah  facing  the  Plaza,  the  old  MEXICAN  BARRACKS, 
Spain  St.  and  First  St.  E.,  which  cost  Vallejo  $9,000  of  his  private  funds,  is 
a  two-story  structure  built  in  1836  of  adobe  and  hand-hewn  redwood  timbers 
hauled  to  the  site  by  oxteam.  Used  as  headquarters  for  Vallejo's  Mexican 
soldiers  and  as  a  munition  depot,  it  was  later  garrisoned  by  the  Bear  Flag 
rebels  and  finally  by  United  States  officers. 

The  EL  DORADO  HOTEL,  145  First  St.  W.,  erected  in  1846  by  General 
Vallejo's  brother,  Captain  Salvador  Vallejo,  became  a  famous  California 
hostelry.  The  original  building  is  hidden  by  ugly  modern  additions  except 
on  the  north  side,  where  appear  the  old  42-inch-thick  adobe  walls.  The 
frame  second  story  has  a  balcony  supported  by  wooden  posts. 

The  SALVADOR  VALLEJO  ADOBE  (private},  adjoining  the  El  Dorado 
Hotel  on  the  south,  is  a  two-story  adobe  of  nice  proportions.  A  row  of  tall 
posts  rises  from  the  sidewalk  to  the  second-floor  roof,  which  extends  over  a 
shallow  balcony  reached  from  inside  through  French  doors.  Although  he  had 
ranchos,  vineyards,  horses,  and  cattle,  Salvador  Vallejo  became  so  financially 
involved  that  in  1853  all  his  personal  belongings  were  attached:  even  the 
gold  epaulets  from  his  Mexican  uniform  and  such  trifles  as  brandied  peaches 
and  feather  fans. 

Painted  in  dull  red  and  yellow  is  the  FITCH  HOUSE  (private),  347 
First  St.  W.,  a  two-story  adobe  with  a  cantilevered  balcony  extending  over 
the  sidewalk.  Built  in  1836  by  Jacob  Leese  for  Henry  D.  Fitch,  Vallejo's 
brother-in-law,  it  boasted  the  first  fireplace  in  the  county.  General  Persifer 
Smith  made  his  headquarters  here.  In  the  iSso's,  St.  Mary's  Hall,  an 
Episcopalian  boarding  school  for  young  ladies,  occupied  the  building. 

The  two-story  RAY  HOUSE  (private),  E.  Spain  St.  and  Second  St.  E., 
is  a  long  rectangular  adobe  and  frame  structure,  the  small  wooden  portion 
of  which  was  built  in  1846  and  supplemented  four  years  later  with  a  large 
adobe  addition.  The  two  sides  facing  the  streets  are  surrounded  by  rows  of 
redwood  posts  supporting  an  open-raftered,  low-pitched  roof  extending  eight 
feet  beyond  the  walls.  American  Army  officers  were  quartered  here  in  the 
1 840*8  and  i85o's.  Later  the  building  housed  the  first  Masonic  organization 
in  the  county. 

In  the  northwestern  part  of  town,  at  the  end  of  a  tree-shaded  lane  open- 
ing off  W.  Spain  St.,  is  the  VALLEJO  HISTORICAL  STATE  MONU- 
MENT, Vallejo's  $150,000  estate,  Lachryma  Montis  (Lat.,  tear  of  the  moun- 
tain), established  in  1851.  The  family  home,  a  two-story  yellow  house  in 
"American  Gothic"  style,  has  a  high  pitched  roof  with  many  gables  decorated 
with  elaborate  jig-saw  tracery.  Vallejo's  i3th  child,  Senora  Luisa  Vallejo 
Emparan,  the  last  of  his  immediate  family,  has  a  life  tenancy  of  her  old 
home.  The  whip-sawed  house  timbers  were  hauled  here  by  oxteam. 

The  SWISS  CHALET  (open  10-4],  now  a  museum,  is  a  two-story  half- 
timbered  house  with  the  second  floor  overhanging.  The  original  frame  and 
bracing  timbers  were  shipped  around  the  Horn  from  Switzerland,  numbered 
for  assembly.  The  enclosing  walls  are  of  a  soft  rose-colored  brick.  In  a 
recent  restoration  many  of  the  original  oak  timbers  were  replaced  with  red- 
wood and  the  whole  building  set  upon  a  foundation  of  concrete.  The  building 
was  used  as  a  store  house  and  as  Indian  servants'  quarters.  On  the  long 
dining  table  used  by  Vallejo  and  his  family  of  16  children  stand  two  globes 
made  in  1823,  one  of  the  world  and  one  of  the  skies.  In  the  cases  are  the 
sword  and  uniform  the  General  wore  when  Mexican  Comandante-General; 
his  elaborately  embroidered  christening  robe;  the  silk-lined,  enameled  jewel 


452       SAN     FRANCISCO 

case  which,  with  a  set  of  jewelry,  was  a  wedding  present  to  Sefiora  Vallejo; 
and  a  charming  daguerreotype  of  the  side-whiskered  general  surrounded  by  six 
pretty  ringletted,  hoop-skirted  daughters  and  granddaughters. 

In  SONOMA  CEMETERY,  at  the  northern  end  of  W.  First  St.,  is  the 
grave  of  General  Vallejo  (1808-90)  and  his  wife,  Francisca  Benicia  Carrillo 
de  Vallejo  (1816-91),  marked  by  a  black  granite  monument. 

State  12  goes  west  from  Sonoma  on  West  Napa  Street  to  the  junction 
with  a  paved  road,  12  m.,  where  it  turns  R. 

BOYES  SPRINGS,  13.7  m.  (150  alt.,  400  pop.),  long  a  vacation  center, 
was  settled  in  1883  by  Captain  Henry  Ernest  Boyes,  who  had  come  to  Cali- 
fornia from  England.  Boyes  and  his  wife  heard  stories  of  the  old  hot 
mineral  springs  used  by  the  Indians  and  investigated — the  captain  digging 
and  Mrs.  Boyes  hoisting  the  bucket.  Located  here  are  BOYES  HOT  SPRINGS 
{mineral  itfater  plunge;  dancing;  lunch  counter}. 

The  SONOMA  MISSION  INN  (tennis  courts,  saddle  horses,  swimming 
Pool)  occupies  a  large  white  concrete  building  with  the  twin  towers,  rounded 
arches,  and  tiled  roofs  typical  of  the  California  missions. 

FETTER'S  SPRINGS,  14.1  m.,  were  developed  about  1907  on  the  ico-acre 
ranch  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  Fetter,  who  built  a  hotel  there.  This  resort 
and  AGUA  CALIENTE,  14.6  m.  (75  alt.,  415  pop.),  are  open  throughout  the 
year. 

HOOKER'S  MONUMENT  (L),  15.2  m.,  a  boulder  bearing  a  bronze  tablet 
dedicated  to  Colonel  "Fighting  Joe"  Hooker  of  Civil  War  fame,  stands  on 
the  edge  of  the  550  acres  which  he  acquired  in  1851,  during  a  two-year  leave 
from  the  Army,  with  the  thought  of  becoming  a  "Southern  planter  of  Cali- 
fornia." In  a  clump  of  oaks  350  yards  west  is  the  snug  little  four-room 
clapboard  HOOKER  HOUSE,  the  timbers  of  which  were  cut  in  Norway  and 
shipped  'round  the  Horn. 

Adjoining  is  the  GEORGE  WATRESS  HOUSE,  a  two-story  stone  and  tim- 
ber building  built  in  1853  by  Hooker's  successor  on  the  ranch.  Watress, 
former  proprietor  of  the  Astor  House  in  New  York,  arrived  in  San  Fran- 
cisco in  1851  and  became  proprietor  of  a  hotel  before  moving  to  Sonoma 
Valley. 

State  12  winds  through  low,  chaparral-covered  foothills  drained  by  Cala- 
bazas  (pumpkin)  Creek. 

At  18.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  on  which  the  route  goes  L. 
to  GLEN  ELLEN,  19.3  m.  (227  alt.,  220  pop.),  shaded  by  tall  trees  that  grow 
along  Sonoma  Creek,  once  a  railroad  terminal  and  a  fashionable  summer 
resort.  It  has  long  been  famous  for  its  wine  grapes.  The  JACK  LONDON 
MEMORIAL  LIBRARY  AND  COMMUNITY  CENTER  (L)  was  built  by 
the  Glen  Ellen  Women's  Club  and  other  admirers  of  the  novelist. 

The  route  goes  R.  from  Glen  Ellen  on  a  paved  road  to  the  entrance  to  the 
JACK  LONDON  RANCH  (accommodations;  saddle  horses),  19.7  m.  A 
private  road  winds  up  to  the  ranch  houses — the  old  Kohler  and  Frohling 
winery  buildings  that  London  purchased  for  headquarters  and  the  stone  house 
built  by  Charmian  London  after  her  husband's  death.  Except  for  occasional 
trips,  one  of  which  was  described  in  The  Cruise  of  the  Snark,  Jack  London 
lived  here  from  1904  until  his  death  in  November,  1916. 

The  ranch,  eventually  1,400  acres  in  extent,  did  not  occupy  a  great  deal 
of  the  author's  time — cultivation,  experimentation  and  stock  breeding  being 
left  to  employees,  many  of  whom  were  paroled  convicts.  London  wrote  in 
the  mornings,  1,000  words  being  a  day's  work.  His  income,  ultimately 
$40,000  annually,  enabled  him  to  be  very  hospitable. 

Some  distance  from  the  main  buildings,  the  ruins  of  WOLF  HOUSE 
stand  among  charred  redwoods.  This  building,  a  three-story  structure  built 
of  rock  quarried*  in  the  Sonoma  hills,  had  been  planned  by  London  as  his 
ideal  home,  but  before  he  could  move  in,  the  place  was  destroyed  by  fire  of 
unknown  origin.  An  unmarked  boulder  not  far  from  the  ruins  cover  London's 
ashes. 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      453 

The  route  goes  east  on  Sears  Point  Road,  a  lonely  stretch  of  high- 
way, across  marshlands,  past  sloughs  and  lagoons  to  the  junction  with 
a  paved  county  road,  42.7  m.}  on  which  it  goes  R, 

At  43.7  m.,  on  the  outskirts  of  Vallejo  (see  below),  is  the  junction 
with  Tennessee  Street. 

Right  here  over  a  causeway  0.9  m.  to  MARE  ISLAND  NAVY  YARD 
(usually  open  9-4:30  daily,  subject  to  special  restrictions;  cameras  checked],  at 
the  southern  end  of  a  narrow  3,ooo-acre  peninsula  flanked  by  the  Bay  on  the 
west  and  the  channel  of  the  Napa  River  on  the  east.  Here  are  shipyards, 
drydocks,  machine  shops,  warehouses,  barracks,  officers'  quarters,  a  radio 
station,  and  a  naval  hospital.  In  1851  President  Millard  Fillmore  set  aside 
Mare  Island  for  a  Navy  dock;  four  years  later  Captain  (later  Admiral) 
David  G.  Farragut  became  commandant.  Before  Farragut's  arrival  a  floating 
drydock  built  in  New  York  had  been  shipped  around  the  Horn  and  reassembled 
here.  First  vessel  to  be  repaired  was  the  Pacific,  in  1853.  The  first  stone 
drydock,  507  feet  long,  constructed  in  the  iSyo's,  is  still  in  use;  a  second, 
740  feet  long  and  able  to  hold  any  Navy  vessel,  was  built  in  1919.  The  keel 
of  the  first  ship  built,  the  wooden  tug  Lively,  was  laid  in  1869.  Here  during 
the  World  War  the  U.  S.  S.  Ward  was  constructed  completely  in  17  days,  and 
the  U.  S.  S.  California,  then  the  Nation's  deepest  draft  battleship,  was  launched. 

The  work  of  more  than  7,000  civilian  employees  and  about  1,200  Navy 
men  is  directed  from  the  MARE  ISLAND  ADMINISTRATION  BUILDINGS, 
1.9  m.  In  the  office  of  the  commandant  is  Farragut's  Log,  a  record  of  the 
duties  performed  here  in  the  1850*3  by  Farragut. 

Across  from  the  Administration  Buildings,  in  Alden  Park,  is  the  FIGURE- 
HEAD OF  THE  U.  S.  S.  INDEPENDENCE,  all  that  remains  of  the  famous 
old  wooden  battleship,  which  after  more  than  100  years'  active  service  was 
broken  up  at  Mare  Island.  Among  an  array  of  captured  guns,  is  the  ANCHOR 
OF  H.  M.  S.  CENTURIAN,  from  the  British  ship  which  was  lost  in  1742 
at  Robinson  Crusoe's  Island.  The  anchor  is  ten  feet  long  and  its  irregular 
lines  and  flukes  show  long  years  of  use. 

From  the  San  Carlos,  De  Ayala  sighted  the  peninsula  in  1775  and  called 
it  Isla  Plana  (flat  island).  In  the  i83o's  the  property  was  granted  by 
Governor  Juan  Alvarado  to  Victor  Castro,  who  sold  it  about  1850  to  Bezar 
Simmons  and  John  Frisbee  (a  son-in-law  of  Mariano  Vallejo,  who  at  one  time 
claimed  the  island).  The  Government  was  for  many  years  involved  in 
litigation  proceedings  with  several  claimants.  It  is  believed  that  the  island 
first  was  called  La  Isla  de  la  Yegua  (the  island  of  the  Mare)  because  Gen- 
eral Mariano  G.  Vallejo  found  grazing  there  a  prized  mare  lost  when  a 
ferry  overturned  with  a  load  of  livestock  in  Carquinez  Strait. 

VALLEJO,  42.5  m.  (10  alt.,  ig,747  pop.),  a  hilly  city  of  treeless 
residential  streets  and  old-fashioned  business  blocks,  is  located  at  the 
confluence  of  the  Napa  River  and  San  Pablo  Bay.  The  first  mention 
of  the  town  reveals  that  in  1817  a  group  of  Spanish  soldiers  led  by 
Lieutenant  Jose  Sanchez  engaged  a  band  of  Suisun  Indians  headed  by 
Chief  Malica  near  Vallejo's  site.  Sanchez  emerged  victorious  after  a 
short  skirmish  but  the  chief  retired  to  his  wickiup.  When  the  invaders 
approached  he  set  fire  to  it,  burning  himself  to  death. 

In  April,  1850,  General  Mariano  Vallejo  donated  166  acres  of  land 
for  a  town  site  and  promised  $370,000  for  the  construction  of  a  State 
Capitol.  Two  years  later  the  capital  was  transferred  here  from  San 
Jose.  The  State  legislature  met  in  a  hastily  erected  building  but,  dis- 
satisfied with  their  accommodations,  abandoned  it  within  a  week. 

Three  brothers,  Levi,  John,  and  Eleazer  Frisbie,  played  important 


454      SAN     FRANCISCO 

roles  in  the  history  of  Vallejo.  Levi  and  John  laid  out  the  city  in 
1851.  John,  builder  of  the  California  Pacific  Railroad  and  manager  of 
Vallejo's  great  estate,  had  left  the  Army  in  1848.  Levi  married  Dona 
Adela  Vallejo,  said  to  have  been  the  most  beautiful  of  the  General's 
daughters.  Eleazer  was  appointed  first  postmaster  of  Vallejo  and  later 
Associate  Justice  of  the  California  Supreme  Court. 

Captain  Frank  Marryat  described  Vallejo  in  the  1850'$  as  "a  few 
scrubby-looking  hills  that  bordered  on  the  bay  ..."  A  store-ship  laden 
with  corrugated  iron  plates  for  the  construction  of  houses  had  sunk 
at  her  Vallejo  moorings.  When  Marryat  raised  her  and  found  the 
cargo  unfit  for  sale  in  San  Francisco,  he  used  the  tide  to  clean  the 
cargo  stacked  on  the  beach  and  soon  was  able  to  erect  "a  very  hand- 
some hotel"  out  of  the  salvage.  When  the  legislature  returned  to 
Vallejo,  only  to  abandon  it  a  second  time,  Marryat  reported  that  "the 
city  made  to  order  was  then  pulled  down  and  sold  for  old  materials  .  .  ." 

Having  twice  lost  the  capital,  the  city  played  for  smaller  stakes 
in  1873  when  it  attempted  to  take  the  county  seat  from  Fairfield.  Val- 
lejo won  in  a  special  election,  but  Fairfield  brought  a  special  suit  enjoin- 
ing the  action.  After  a  bill  was  introduced  into  the  legislature  whose 
passage  would  divide  Solano  County  so  that  Vallejo  should  be  separated 
from  it — making  her  a  county  seat  with  no  county  outside  her  own 
confines — Vallejo  immediately  capitulated  and  Fairfield  retained  the 
county  seat. 

The  industries  of  Vallejo,  located  along  the  water  front  and  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  city,  include  a  brick  and  tile  factory,  oil  and  sugar 
refineries,  a  smelter,  a  die-casting  company,  and  a  flour  mill.  Much  of 
its  patronage  and  not  a  few  of  its  residents  come  from  Mare  Island 
(see  above). 

The  SITE  OF  THE  SECOND  STATE  CAPITOL  BUILD- 
ING, Santa  Clara  and  York  Sts.,  is  marked  by  a  bronze  plaque. 

On  Sacramento  St.  near  York  St.  is  the  RICHARDS  RESI- 
DENCE, a  two-story  structure  built  of  redwood  in  the  early  1850'$ 
by  C.  B.  Richards,  first  harness  maker  in  Vallejo.  Its  lower  and  upper 
verandahs  are  supported  by  columns  of  redwood,  and  the  original  green 
shutters  still  hang  at  the  windows. 

Facing  Mare  Island  at  the  foot  of  Carolina  St.  is  the  VALLEJO 
YACHT  CLUB,  a  two-story  structure  topped  by  a  square  lookout 
tower.  Often  docked  here  is  the  three-masted  schooner,  California, 
once  representative  of  the  club  in  the  San  Francisco-Honolulu  race. 
This  clubhouse  for  more  than  35  years  has  been  the  goal  for  yacht  races 
from  parts  of  the  Bay  region. 

Left  from  Vallejo  on  State  29,  between  the  Napa  River  and  the  Sulphur 
Springs  Mountains,  to  the  entrance  (R)  to  NAPA  STATE  HOSPITAL  for 
insane  persons  and  alcoholics  (visiting  hours:  relatives  daily,  Q-II,  2-4;  public 
Mon.,  Wed.,  Fri.,  p-//),  12.1  m.  At  the  end  of  a  wide  driveway,  flanked  by 
dormitories  (L)'  and  cottages  (R)  and  bordered  by  large  magnolia  trees,  is 
the  main  building,  built  in  1873,  a  four-story  stone  building  in  Gothic  style. 
Its  red  roof,  tweaked  up  into  dormers  over  attic  windows,  breaks  into  a 
square  central  tower  and  round  conical  towers  on  each  corner.  The  Gothic 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      455 

idea  is  so  omnipresent  that  the  tortoise,  a  Gothic  emblem,  is  carved  on  beams 
within  the  building.  The  gray  granite  entrance  portico  is  adorned  with 
niches  in  which  are  white  marble  statutes  symbolic  of  various  virtues.  Opened 
in  1875  with  a  capacity  of  500,  the  asylum  was  full  by  the  end  of  the  year. 
A  program  of  enlargement  which  has  not  yet  ended  was  undertaken.  By 
June,  1938  the  State  had  expended  more  than  $4,000,000  here. 

In  the  same  year,  3,605  patients,  29.3  per  cent  in  excess  of  normal  capacity, 
were  cared  for  by  448  officers  and  employees.  In  addition  to  medical  care 
and  exercises,  occupational  therapy  and  entertainment  are  provided.  A  426- 
acre  farm  is  stocked  with  cattle,  hogs,  and  poultry.  The  truck  farms  and 
orchard  supply  many  of  the  institutions  needs. 

North  on  State  29,  the  well-preserved  one-story  JUAREZ  ADOBE,  13.6  m.t 
built  in  1845  (now  occupied  by  a  bar  and  dance  floor),  was  the  second  of 
the  Juarez  adobes  on  Rancho  Tulucay.  About  90  feet  long,  it  has  walls  be- 
tween two  and  three  feet  thick,  with  deep  window  embrasures,  built  of  adobe 
bricks  covered  with  plaster.  An  earlier  adobe  in  the  rear  built  in  1840  is  in 
ruins.  Bricks  have  tumbled  from  the  walls,  revealing  the  chopped  straw 
used  as  a  binder  for  the  mud.  Most  of  the  roof  has  vanished,  but  some 
of  the  hand-split  redwood  shakes  rest  on  the  huge  beams. 

NAPA,  14.6  m.  (24  alt.,  7,718  pop.),  seat  of  Napa  County,  covers  the  flat 
lands  around  the  head  of  navigation  on  Napa  River  and  the  low  hills  to  the 
east.  Napa  River,  one  of  the  few  naturally  navigable  streams  in  California, 
is  joined  here  by  Napa  Creek,  which  flows  through  the  town  from  the  west. 
The  business  district  extends  for  several  blocks  west  from  the  river.  Old- 
fashioned  stone,  brick,  and  wood  structures  give  the  streets  the  atmosphere  of 
the  i87o's  and  i88o's  but  the  store  fronts  are  modern  and  retail  shops  are 
busy  serving  the  needs  of  farmers  and  town  folk. 

The  Indians  called  the  place  Nappo.  That  they  had  long  lived  here 
was  shown  when  street  graders  at  Franklin  and  Laurel  Streets  cut  into  a 
burial  ground  where  almost  a  hundred  skeletons,  with  mortars,  pestles,  and 
other  artifacts,  were  found.  When  settlers  came  into  the  valley,  the  Indians 
moved  their  brush  shelters  to  the  hills  or  to  the  edges  of  ranches  where  they 
could  find  work.  John  Bidwell's  diary  of  1842  says:  "Wheat,  Corn,  and 
Potatoes  are  seldom  surrounded  by  a  fence,  they  grow  out  on  the  plains 
and  are  guarded  from  the  cattle  and  horses  by  the  Indians,  who  are  sta- 
tioned in  their  huts  near  the  fields.  You  can  employ  any  number  of  Indians 
by  giving  them  a  lump  of  Beef  every  week  and  paying  them  about  one 
dollar  for  same."  In  1856,  when  Napa  was  a  sizeable  town,  one  historian 
said  that  the  Indians  "made  the  night  ring  with  their  revelry  .  .  .  and  when 
they  could  secure  the  means  got  dead  drunk." 

In  1836  Nicolas  Higuera,  one-time  soldier  at  the  San  Francisco  Presidio, 
received  Rancho  Entre  Napa  to  the  southwest  of  the  present  town.  Near 
the  river,  he  built  a  house  of  wicker  plastered  with  mud  and  thatched  with 
tule  grass.  Cayento  Juarez,  who  brought  in  stock  the  next  year,  received  in 
1840  Rancho  Tulucay,  a  two-square-league  section  east  of  the  river  on  which 
he  built  an  adobe  (see  above}.  Salvador  Vallejo,  brother  of  the  General, 
received  Rancho  Napa,  some  3,000  acres  northwest  of  the  town,  in  1838  and 
stocked  it  with  cattle. 

First  commerce  in  this  country  was  conducted  by  "Boston"  launches  which 
visited  ranchos  around  the  Bay  to  trade  for  hides  and  tallow.  In  1841, 
young  John  Rose  and  John  C.  Davis  launched  a  schooner  about  the  size  of  a 
whale  boat  near  the  present  First  Street.  John  A.  Sutter  sailed  the  little 
Sacramento  up  the  river  in  1844,  loaded  with  settlers  bound  for  the  fertile 
valley  lands.  One  of  them,  Bartlett  Vines,  la'er  married  a  daughter  of 
George  C.  Yount  and  became  the  father  of  Napa  County's  first  American  baby. 
Sutter's  return  cargo  was  lime,  which  he  bought  from  Higuera. 

When  Higuera  gave  Nathan  Coombs  80  acres  in  payment  for  work  on 
the  former's  new  adobe  house  in  1848,  Coombs  had  a  surveyor  stake  out  a 
town-site.  Harrison  Pierce  bought  a  load  of  lumber  from  Bale  and  Kil- 
burn's  mill  on  Napa  River  and  began  work  on  a  small  building,  which  he 


456      SAN     FRANCISCO 

intended  for  a  saloon.  When  Coombs  and  Higuera  came  to  look  it  over, 
they  found  it  right  in  the  middle  of  the  proposed  Third  Street.  Deciding 
that  Mr.  Pierce  must  have  been  sampling  his  own  wares  too  generously,  they 
insisted  that  he  move  the  building  out  of  the  street  on  to  his  lot.  Pierce 
barely  got  the  roof  on  his  building  when  gold  was  discovered.  He  spent 
the  summer  at  the  mines,  but  when  snow  fell  in  the  mountains  he  came 
back  and  opened  the  Empire  Saloon,  where  he  served  square  meals  of  beef, 
hard  bread,  and  coffee  for  $1.00.  A  man  named  Thompson  built  a  store 
that  year,  and  General  Vallejo  and  General  Frisbie  opened  a  second  in  1849. 
After  1850  steamboats  churned  the  water  between  Napa  and  San  Francisco. 
First  of  these  was  the  little  Dolphin,  fitted  with  a  locomotive  boiler.  It  was 
said  that  she  had  to  be  "trimmed"  by  shifting  the  passengers  and  that  her 
tall  captain,  F.  G.  Baxter,  was  always  sighted  long  before  the  stack.  The 
second  steamer  was  the  Jack  Hayes,  brought  around  the  Horn  in  pieces  and 
assembled  at  Benicia.  Soon  boats  were  carrying  not  only  passengers  but  the 
lumber,  cattle,  and  wheat  of  the  surrounding  ranches. 

The  1850*8  were  roistering  days  for  Napa,  for  miners  found  it  a  good 
town  to  winter  in.  Coin  of  the  realm  included  gold  dust,  foreign  coins,  and 
the  five-  to  fifty-dollar  gold  slugs  made  in  San  Francisco.  By  1854,  400 
people  lived  here.  A  subscription  was  taken  up  in  1855  and  the  first  public 
school  in  the  valley  opened.  A  small  newspaper,  the  Napa  County  Reporter, 
appeared  on  the  streets  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1856;  it  was  known  as  a  tri- 
weekly, because  after  it  appeared  one  week,  the  publisher  spent  all  of  the 
second  week  trying  to  get  out  the  next  issue,  which  would  then  appear  the 
third  week.  A  new  City  Hall  was  built  in  1856.  A  silver  boom  in  the 
mountains  around  the  valley  emptied  the  town  in  1859;  one  man  said,  "If  they 
can  find  silver  in  Washoe,  why  not  in  Napa."  Promoters  hastily  issued 
and  sold  stock,  but  the  bubble  burst  when  assays  proved  the  ore  to  be  low  in 
value,  and  hotel  and  saloon  keepers  emptied  bulky  specimens  into  the  streets 
"making  quite  a  contribution  of  paving  material  to  the  streets  of  Napa."  These 
streets  were  quagmires  of  muck  where  bundles  of  straw  were  thrown  to  make 
paths,  and  woe  "to  the  unlucky  wight  who  had  too  much  'tangle-foot'  aboard, 
for  a  single  misstep  would  send  him  in  mud  to  his  waist."  In  summer, 
when  the  dirt  was  ground  into  deep  ruts  by  wagons,  they  were  "canopied 
with  intolerable  clouds  of  dust  through  which  people  floundered  over  a  strange 
mosaic  of  rubbish,  cast-off  clothing,  empty  bottles  and  sardine  cans." 

But  in  the  i86o's  the  first  shacks  of  adobe  and  split  wood  were  being  re- 
placed by  more  substantial  buildings,  the  citizens  trod  on  wooden  plank  side- 
walks, and  bridges  spanned  the  river  so  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  go 
to  the  ford  north  of  town  or  to  take  the  ferry  to  get  to  the  other  side.  In 
1865  Napa  celebrated  the  completion  of  a  railroad  to  Suscol ;  free  rides  were 
given  to  anyone  who  "wanted  to  embrace  the  opportunity."  "Pony,"  the  diminu- 
tive, wood-burning  engine,  was  succeeded  by  the  magnificent  $9,000  "Napa 
City,"  with  a  four  and  one-half  foot  drive  wheel.  In  1868  the  road  was 
continued  to  Calistoga,  where  Samuel  Brannan  feasted  the  first  train  load  of 
passengers. 

The  town's  later  growth,  based  on  the  productiveness  of  the  surrounding 
country,  has  been  steady  though  not  spectacular.  Its  products  include  gloves, 
athletic  equipment,  shirts  and  pants,  and  basalt  paving  and  building;  materials. 

Surrounded  by  green  lawns  and  tall  elms,  the  NAPA  COUNTY  COURT- 
HOUSE, Second,  Third,  Coombs,  and  Brown  Sts.,  was  built  in  1878,  replac- 
ing a  courthouse  erected  in  1856.  The  gray,  cement-covered  brick  building  has 
a  tower  of  the  most  unexpected  contours.  George  Dyer  observes  that  it  "might 
have  been  brought  from  the  Kremlin,  Moorish  windows,  turnip  top  and  all." 

The  NAPA  HOTEL,  First  and  Main  Sts.,  oldest  building  in  town,  a  three- 
story  crenellated  structure,  has  been  extensively  remodeled  since  it  was  built 
in  i8<;i  by  James  Harbin. 

TULUCAY  CEMETERY,  on  the  hills  east  of  Napa  on  Third  St.,  was 
opened  on  land  given  by  Cayetano  Juarez  in  1858.  Many  plots  are  outlined 
in  native  stone  and  names  of  early  families  are  commemorated  in  handsome 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      457 

large    mausoleums    of    warm-colored    stone.      Huge    eucalyptus    trees    shadow 
the  graves  and  coveys  of  grey  quail  mince  along  the  paths. 

The  route  continues  east  from  Vallejo  on  Georgia  Street,  which 
becomes  Benicia  Road. 

SOUTHAMPTON  BAY,  50.9  m.f  on  Carquinez  Strait,  is  remem- 
bered as  the  site  of  the  Corbett-Choynski  prizefight;  here  on  the  grain 
barge  Excel!  the  celebrated  bloody  ring  battle  was  fought  June  6,  1889. 
The  fight  began  at  seven  in  the  morning  and  lasted  an  hour  and  forty 
minutes — until  a  swig  of  brandy  failed  to  revive  Choynski  in  the  27th 
round.  Corbett  wore  three-ounce  gloves;  Choynski,  driving  gloves.  A 
sports  writer  described  the  opening  of  the  fifth  round:  "Choynski  came 
up  in  a  rollicking  way  and  did  some  good  work  but  the  professor  quickly 
scored  a  flush  hit  with  a  left  on  his  nose  that  brought  the  blood  in  a 
deluge." 

Where  the  western  end  of  Suisun  Bay  narrows  to  form  Carquinez 
Strait  lies  BENICIA,  52.7  m.  (10  alt.,  2,913  pop.),  a  quiet  little  town 
whose  past  is  of  greater  interest  than  its  present.  Benicia's  founder  was 
Dr.  Robert  Semple,  a  lean,  hardy  Missourian  six  feet,  eight  inches  tall, 
who  gave  the  impression  of  even  greater  size  in  his  coonskin  cap  and 
loosely-fitting  buckskin  hunting  jacket.  (According  to  local  legend, 
he  wore  his  spurs  on  the  calves  of  his  legs  when  horseback  riding  and 
waded  Carquinez  Strait  when  the  ferry  was  late.)  Semple  came  to  the 
Bay  region  from  Monterey,  where  in  1846  he  had  established  Califor- 
nia's first  newspaper,  the  Calif ornian  (see  Social  Heritage:  Gentlemen 
of  the  Press).  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  group,  who,  after  the 
Bear  Flag  rebellion,  had  taken  General  Mariano  Vallejo  as  a  prisoner 
to  Sutter's  Fort.  Quick  to  note  the  advantages  Benicia's  site  offered  for 
a  thriving  metropolis,  he  had  persuaded  Vallejo  to  deed  him  five  square 
miles  of  the  Suscol  Rancho. 

Thomas  O.  Larkin,  the  American  Consul  in  California,  became  a 
partner  with  Vallejo  and  Semple  when  the  transfer  of  the  land  was 
concluded  in  the  autumn  of  1846.  The  town  laid  out  the  following 
year  was  called  Francisca,  in  honor  of  Vallejo's  wife;  because  of  its 
similarity  with  the  name  San  Francisco,  Senora  Vallejo's  middle  name, 
Benicia,  later  was  adopted. 

The  fickle  legislature,  which  had  been  dividing  its  attention  among 
San  Jose,  Sacramento,  and  Vallejo,  made  Benicia  the  State  capital  in 
February,  1853.  Unfortunately  for  the  town's  elaborate  civic  plans,  the 
legislators  abandoned  it  for  Sacramento  a  year  later.  A  visitor  of  that 
forlorn  time  wrote  of  Benicia :  ".  .  .  instead  of  raising  an  imposing  front 
in  evidence  of  man's  progress,  it  hides  its  diminutive  head  among  the 
few  huts  that  stand  in  commemoration  of  its  failure." 

Between  1853  and  1868  a  steamer  ferry,  the  lone,  owned  by  Semple, 
operated  between  Benicia  and  Martinez,  across  the  strait.  Each  of  her 
two  engines  controlled  a  paddle-wheel,  and  since  the  two  frequently 
became  asynchronized,  the  little  boat  would  reel  around  in  drunken 
circles.  At  such  moments  the  swift  current  would  add  considerably  to 
the  skipper's  navigating  problems. 


458      SAN     FRANCISCO 

The  largest  wooden  dry  dock  ever  constructed  on  the  Pacific  Coast 
was  built  in  the  shipyard  of  Captain  Matthew  Turner  in  1895  for  a 
San  Francisco  company.  Today  Benicia's  chief  industry  is  the  canning 
of  meat,  fish,  and  vegetables.  Also  located  here  is  a  large  factory  that 
manufactures  gold  dredges. 

The  PACIFIC  MAIL  DOCKS,  east  of  the  Benicia-Martinez 
Ferry  Slip,  were  built  when  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  estab- 
lished its  California  headquarters  in  Benicia.  By  1853  tnev  nad  con- 
structed great  wharves,  foundries,  and  machine  shops.  The  company^  s 
great  early  steamers  California,  Oregon,  and  Panama  berthed  in  Benicia 
between  trips  for  repairs  and  refueling.  After  1881  the  company  could 
no  longer  compete  with  overland  railroad  transportation,  and  the  prop- 
erty was  sold. 

At  the  lower  end  of  First  St.  a  marker  indicates  the  SITE  OF 
JACK  LONDON'S  HANGOUT  (Jorgenson's  Saloon),  where  the 
future  novelist  spent  much  of  his  time  during  the  adventurous  days  of 
1892-93  when  he  was  an  officer  on  the  fish  patrol.  London  lived  on  a 
water-front  barge;  to  his  seafaring  intimates  he  was  "Curley-headed 
Jack."  His  Benicia  experiences  are  recalled  in  his  novel,  John 
Barleycorn. 

The  old  STATE  CAPITOL  BUILDING,  on  the  north  side  of 
G  St.,  now  the  City  Hall,  library,  and  museum,  a  two-story  brick  build- 
ing with  a  Doric  portico,  was  built  to  house  the  State  legislature,  which 
held  its  second  Benicia  session  here  1853-54.  Later  the  building  became 
the  county  courthouse  and  schoolhouse.  The  first-floor  museum  (open 
daily  9-5)  houses  a  collection  of  pioneer  items  relating  to  Benicia:  old 
lithographs  of  buildings  and  of  the  ships  that  slipped  from  local  ways, 
ancient  guns,  a  Wells  Fargo  safe  with  a  secret  keyhole;  and  the  in- 
evitable old  music  box  that  still  plays  lively  tunes. 

In  the  State's  first  MASONIC  HALL,  J  St.  west  of  First  St.,  a 
two-story  redwood  buiding  erected  in  August,  1851,  the  legislature  met 
in  February,  1853. 

ST.  PAUL'S  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  First  and  J  Sts.,  a  large 
wooden  Gothic  structure  topped  by  a  slender  spire,  had  cathedral  status 
when  Benicia  was  the  see  for  the  Diocese  of  Northern  California.  The 
house  of  the  diocesan,  Bishop  John  H.  D.  Wingfield,  and  the  entrance 
gate  to  the  campus  are  all  that  remain  of  the  College  of  St.  Augustine, 
which  was  the  successor  to  a  school  founded  in  1847. 

In  1851  the  two-story  SOLANO  HOUSE,  First  and  E  Sts.,  was 
built  of  redwood.  Long  the  leading  hotel  in  the  region,  it  was  host  to 
such  notable  guests  as  Generals  U.  S.  Grant  and  William  T.  Sherman  ; 
California  Governors  Bennett  Riley  and  Frederick  F.  Low;  John  Sut- 
ler ;  and  Colonel  Silas  Casey,  the  famous  Indian  fighter. 

On  I  St.  west  of  First  St.  is  the  marked  SITE  OF  BENICIA 
SEMINARY.  One  of  the  first  Protestant  girls'  schools  in  California, 
the  seminary  was  established  in  1852  for  several  denominations  by  the 
Reverend  Sylvester  Woodbridge  and  others.  Its  first  teachers  were 


NORTH     BAY     TOUR      459 

sent  here  by  Governor  E.  Fairbanks  of  Vermont.  The  Reverend  Cyrus 
T.  Mills,  who  purchased  the  school  in  1865,  was  the  founder  of  the 
present  Mills  College  (see  OAKLAND}. 

In  BENICIA  CITY  PARK,  First  between  K  and  L  Sts.,  is  the 
SITE  OF  THE  FIRST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  IN  CALI- 
FORNIA, established  April  15,  1849,  by  the  Reverend  Sylvester  Wood- 
bridge,  a  Presbyterian  minister.  The  church  declined  and  was  finally 
closed  in  1871  after  controversy  over  adherence  to  the  Union. 

A  portion  of  the  adobe  CALIFORNIA  HOUSE  still  stands  on  the 
south  side  of  H  St.,  west  of  First  St.  Built  by  William  Tustin  in  1847, 
it  became  one  of  California's  first  hotels.  Ex-Governor  L.  W.  Boggs  of 
Missouri  performed  Benicia's  first  wedding  ceremony  here  when  Frances 
Cooper  became  the  wife  of  Dr.  Robert  Semple.  In  1854  tne  building 
was  sold  to  John  Rueger,  who  turned  it  into  a  brewery. 

Dona  Maria  Concepcion  Arguello  (Sister  Dominica),  in  the  years 
following  her  tragic  love  affair  with  Count  Nikolai  Rezanov  (later 
romanticized  by  Bret  Harte  and  Gertrude  Atherton),  found  religious 
refuge  in  ST.  CATHERINE'S  CONVENT,  West  L  St.  between 
First  and  Second  Sts.  The  original  cream-colored  brick  building  with 
its  old  dormer  windows  still  stands.  The  school  has  expanded  into 
modern  buildings  of  the  mission  style. 

A  private  residence  on  the  north  side  of  H  St.  between  Second  and 
Third  Sts.  was  once  the  PEABODY  HOSPITAL,  established  in  1849. 
Here  returning  gold  miners  were  treated  by  Dr.  W.  F.  Peabody,  later 
Mayor  of  Benicia. 

Brought  around  the  Horn  in  sections  in  1849,  the  CAPTAIN 
JOHN  WALSH  HOUSE,  117  East  L  St.,  still  stands,  well  preserved. 
Walsh  settled  in  Benicia  in  1849  and  became  deputy  collector  of  the 
then  important  port. 

Still  used  by  the  United  States  Army  as  an  ammunition  depot  is 
the  BENICIA  ARSENAL,  north-east  edge  of  town,  established  in 
1851.  A  large  stone  building,  in  its  day  it  was  the  most  pretentious 
structure  in  Benicia  and  a  social  as  well  as  a  military  center.  The 
Benicia  Barracks  was  established  here  in  1849. 

1.  At  Benicia   is   the   Benicia-Martinez   Auto   Ferry   Slip    (Car  and  driver 
55$,   each   additional  passenger   70^),    from   which    ferries   cross   the   strait  to 
MARTINEZ,  2m.  (12  alt.,  6,569  pop.)    (see  East  Bay  Tour  1). 

2.  North    from    Benicia    on    First    St.    1    m.    to    the    ROMAN    CATHOLIC 
CEMETERY,  where  a  simple  cross  marks  the  grave  of  Dona  Maria  Concep- 
tion  Arguello. 


Down  the  Peninsula 


The  wedge-shaped  strip  of  territory  known  to  all  San  Franciscans 
as  "the  Peninsula,"  broad  at  its  base  in  the  south  and  pinched  to  a  tip 
by  ocean  and  Bay  at  its  northern  end,  is  a  multicolored  land.  It  em- 
braces tall  mountains  darkly  forested,  white  sandy  beaches  enclosed  on 
three  sides  by  steep  rocky  cliffs,  peaceful  farms  with  chaste  white  build- 
ings, broad  walled  estates  with  stately  old  mansions,  and  busy  towns 
bright  with  red  and  green  roofs  of  modern  stucco  homes.  Spanish 
explorers  and  Catholic  mission  builders,  trudging  north  from  estab- 
lished Monterey,  were  the  first  white  men  to  look  on  its  hills  and  water 
and  plain. 

Crude  ox  teams  and  speeding  mounted  couriers  packed  the  earth  hard 
on  the  Peninsula's  first  trail,  a  trail  that  became  a  road  and  was  named 
El  Camino  Real — the  King's  Highway.  As  San  Francisco  grew  and 
spread  across  the  Peninsula's  northern  tip  the  city's  wealthy  built  pala- 
tial homes  on  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Coast  mountains,  near  to  the 
King's  Highway,  and  drove  thundering  coachloads  of  famous  guests  to 
the  lavish  banquets  they  staged  in  mansions  filled  with  objets  d'art. 

Today  thousands  of  San  Franciscans  live  on  the  Peninsula  and  drive 
to  work  or  ride  the  commute  trains  playing  never-ending  games  of 
bridge  on  tables  held  on  knees  between  coach  seats.  On  Sundays  and 
holidays  the  many  roads  and  highways  that  climb  along  mountain  ridges, 
trace  the  ocean's  shore,  and  skirt  the  southern  regions  of  the  Bay  are 
black  with  the  cars  of  picnickers  and  sightseers  who  flock  to  man-made 
lakes,  crowd  the  barbecue  stands,  and  drink  beer  in  the  cafes  of  tiny 
towns  nestling  in  the  shade  against  the  mountain  slopes. 

Beyond  the  base  of  the  Peninsula,  sweeping  away  from  the  southern 
end  of  the  Bay,  lies  the  Santa  Clara  Valley,  in  springtime  a  red,  pink, 
and  white  confusion  of  blossoms,  for  its  broad  rolling  acres  are  an  al- 
most endless  orchard  of  apricot  and  prune  trees.  And  up  the  slopes  that 
climb  gradually  toward  the  forested  mountains  to  the  west  spread  green 
vineyards.  The  valley  is  walled  on  east  and  west  by  mountains.  The 
eastern  hills  are  dotted  with  live-oak  and  laurel,  and  their  slopes  are 
green  with  thick-growing  grass  as  winter  changes  to  spring.  Above 
the  foothills  rises  Mount  Hamilton,  highest  peak  of  the  eastern  range, 
whose  crest  in  winter  is  sometimes  whitened  by  snow.  Redwoods,  fir, 
maple,  laurel,  and  madrone  darken  the  western  mountains,  where  twist- 
ing roads  emerge  at  intervals  from  the  thick  forest  upon  sweeping  views 
of  deep  canyon*  and  distant  blue  ridges. 

At  the  valley's  southern  end,  some  of  the  richest  quicksilver  mines 
in  the  world  once  operated,  but  the  buildings  are  rotting  now  and  the 
long  shafts  and  tunnels,  their  length  and  depth  increased  by  legend,  are 

460 


PENINSULA     TOUR      461 

caving.  The  valley  is  rich  in  legends — and  often  the  legends  are  sub- 
stantiated by  the  crumbling  adobe  walls  of  a  home  built  in  the  days  of 
the  ranches  or  a  weed-grown  dirt  road,  abandoned,  leading  down  into 
some  narrow  canyon. 


«««SCC<CCCCCCCKC«CKC«CK^^ 


Peninsula  Tour 


San  Francisco — Burlingame — San  Mateo — Redwood  City — Palo  Alto 
—Santa  Clara— San  Jose;  101.9  m.    US  101. 

Paved  four-lane   road  throughout. 

Southern  Pacific  R.  R.  parallels  route;  Pacific  Greyhound  Bus  Line  follows  it. 

US  101  follows  "down  the  Peninsula"  part  of  the  most  famous  of 
all  California  roads,  El  Camino  Real  (The  King's  Highway),  which 
from  the  eighteenth  century  has  linked  together  the  long  line  of  missions 
and  pueblos.  Once  little  more  than  a  trail,  it  has  seen  an  ever-growing 
number  of  travelers  until  today,  as  a  four-way  arterial,  it  retains  little 
more  of  the  past  than  the  musical  names  of  its  towns  and  cities. 

South  from  Van  Ness  Ave.  and  Fulton  St.  in  SAN  FRANCISCO, 
0  m.,  on  Van  Ness  Ave.  to  Mission  St.;  R.  on  Mission  (US  101). 

DALY  CITY,  6.7  m.  (190  alt.,  9,612  pop.),  is  at  the  crest  of  a 
hill  from  which  the  land,  given  over  to  vegetable  gardens  and  golf 
courses,  drops  to  Lake  Merced  and  the  ocean.  San  Bruno  Mountain 
(1,375  alt.)  rises  steeply  in  the  east.  This  was  originally  part  of 
Rancho  Laguna  de  la  Merced.  The  earliest  American  settlers,  home- 
steaders engaged  in  growing  vegetables,  were  involved  for  several  years 
in  lawsuits  growing  out  of  attempts  made  by  speculators  to  drive  them 
off  their  land.  Until  the  1906  earthquake  the  northern  part  of  the 
town  site  was  a  dairy  ranch  owned  by  John  Daly.  Many  refugees  from 
the  great  San  Francisco  fire,  given  small  portable  two-room  houses, 
moved  here,  forming  the  nucleus  of  the  thriving  town.  Today  many 
of  the  residents  work  in  San  Francisco.  Nurseries  here  grow  violets, 
gladiolus,  dahlias,  and  heather,  all  of  which  thrive  on  the  cool  sum- 
mer fogs. 

COLMA,  8  m.,  formerly  a  separate  town,  is  now  a  district  of 
Daly  City. 

At  LAWNDALE,  8.4  m.  (113  alt.,  369  pop.),  the  quick  are 
greatly  outnumbered  by  the  dead.  Cemeteries  extend  into  the  hills 
from  both  sides  of  the  highway.  The  beautifully  landscaped  acres, 
through  which  streams  descend  into  Colma  Creek,  provide  burial  places 
for  members  of  many  nationalities  and  religious  faiths.  In  GREEK 


462       SAN     FRANCISCO 

ORTHODOX  MEMORIAL  PARK  many  of  the  tombstones  bear 
photographs  of  the  deceased  developed  in  enamel  and  set  into  the  stones. 
The  JAPANESE  CEMETERY  has  many  graves  marked  according  to 
Japanese  custom  by  square  wooden  posts  with  pyramidal  tops.  Some  of 
the  vaults  in  the  ITALIAN  CEMETERY  may  be  opened  and  the 
remains  seen  behind  glass.  In  the  SERBIAN  CEMETERY  many  of 
the  tombstones  are  in  the  form  of  the  patriarchal  cross  common  in  the 
iconography  of  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church.  CYPRESS  LAWN, 
largest  and  oldest  of  the  interdenominational  cemeteries,  with  beauti- 
fully kept  lawns  and  clumps  of  pines  and  other  trees,  extends  up  sloping 
ground  for  nearly  a  mile.  In  HOLY  CROSS,  a  large  Roman  Catholic 
cemetery,  is  an  ornate  stone  chapel.  At  the  entrance  to  the  CHINESE 
CEMETERY,  occupying  a  grassy  slope  overlooking  the  Bay,  stands  a 
shrine  with  two  fireplaces  in  which  the  strips  of  paper  carried  in  funeral 
processions  still  are  burned. 

In  the  willows  along  Baden  Creek  near  BADEN,  11.7  m.  (33  alt.), 
now  a  part  of  South  San  Francisco  (see  below) ,  a  tall  Alsatian  named 
Charles  Lux  met  in  1857  an  ambitious  young  German,  Henry  Kreicer. 
The  latter  had  come  to  California  on  a  non-transferable  ticket  belong- 
ing to  a  friend  named  Miller,  whose  name  he  adopted.  With  Lux 
he  built  up  a  cattle  business  which  soon  reached  far  beyond  this  part 
of  Rancho  Buri  Buri.  By  1880  Miller  and  Lux  holdings  spread  over 
nineteen  counties  in  California  (chiefly  in  the  Coast  Ranges  and  the 
west  side  of  the  San  Joaquin  Valley)  and  San  Francisco's  meat  business 
was  under  their  control. 

At  the  BADEN  KENNEL  CLUB  (L),  greyhounds  once  were 
raced.  Since  betting  on  races  was  illegal  in  California,  the  Greyhound 
Exchange  resorted  to  the  ingenious  devise  of  selling  "options"  on  the 
competing  dogs.  Before  crowds  of  enthusiastic  spectators,  the  dogs 
followed  a  realistic  mechanical  rabbit  around  a  quarter-mile  track.  In 
1939  the  State  Attorney  General  ordered  all  dog  tracks  in  California 
closed. 

TANFORAN  RACE  TRACK  (gen.  adm.  40$;  fall  and  spring 
seasons),  13  m.,  built  in  the  i88o's,  attracted  San  Francisco  horse- 
racing  enthusiasts  until  the  Legislature  in  1912  made  betting  on  races 
illegal.  When  the  pari-mutuel  system  was  legalized  the  track  reopened. 
In  1913  the  first  flying  in  California  was  done  here  by  Jean  Poulhan. 
Crowds  gasped  in  wonder  at  seeing  him  go  several  hundred  feet  aloft 
in  his  little  plane. 

South  of  Tanforan  the  highway  is  bordered  by  tall  eucalyptus  trees 
set  out  in  the  seventies  and  eighties  by  large  landowners.  They  once 
extended  in  an  almost  unbroken  line  from  here  twenty  miles  south  to 
Palo  Alto. 

Much  of  SAN  BRUNO,  14.1  m.  (20  alt.,  6,496  pop.),  lies  east 
of  the  highway ;  extensive  truck  farms  extend  west  to  the  hills.  A  small 
settlement  was  here  before  the  American  occupation,  on  part  of  the 
Sanchez  family's  Buri  Buri  Rancho,  which  extended  some  nine  miles 
along  the  Bay  shore  and  between  two  and  three  miles  into  the  hills. 


PENINSULA    TOUR      463 

When  California  passed  into  American  hands  the  Sanchez  family  were 
among  the  few  to  make  a  heroic  last  stand.  With  a  little  band  of 
compatriots  they  captured  and  held  prisoners  for  several  weeks  Yerba 
Buena's  alcalde,  Washington  Bartlett,  and  several  other  Americans. 
At  the  southern  outskirts  of  San  Bruno  is  "UNCLE  TOM'S  CABIN," 
a  restaurant  formerly  known  as  the  Fourteen  Mile  House,  whose  bar- 
room occupies  one  of  the  earliest  hostelries  on  the  "Mission  Road,"  a 
small  cabin  erected  in  1849,  to  which  later  additions  have  been  made. 

Left  from  San  Bruno  on  a  paved  road  0.8  m.  to  the  junction  with  US  101 
Bypass;  R.  (south)  here  0.6  m.  to  the  SAN  FRANCISCO  MUNICIPAL  AIR- 
PORT, one  of  the  largest  air  terminals  in  the  West.  Its  1,376  acres  were 
purchased  from  the  Mills  estate  in  1927.  Four  hangars  are  here,  and  a  large 
Spanish-styled  administration  building.  Nearing  completion  is  a  seaplane  base. 

The  main  side  route  continues  north  on  US  101  Bypass  to  SOUTH  SAN 
FRANCISCO,  2.8  m.  (n  alt.,  6,517  pop.),  at  the  southern  base  of  San  Bruno 
Mountain.  The  site  of  "South  City"  occupies  part  of  the  "home  ranch"  of 
Miller  and  Lux  (see  above).  Stockmen  and  meatp-ackers,  among  them  Henry 
S.  Crocker,  P.  D.  Armour,  G.  P.  Swift,  and  Henry  Miller,  invested  here  in 
1889;  later  came  steel  mills,  foundries,  and  manufacturing  plants.  The  town 
has  an  attractive  residential  section  with  a  view  of  the  Bay,  but  many  of  the 
employees  of  the  industrial  plants  live  in  San  Francisco. 

Like  San  Bruno,  MILLBRAE,  15.9  m.  (8  alt.,  1,500  pop.),  was 
until  1849  part  of  the  Buri  Buri  Rancho.  In  that  year  Darius  Ogden 
Mills,  a  Sacramento  merchant  and  banker,  acquired  about  3,700  acres, 
a  large  part  of  which  still  belongs  to  his  descendants.  The  streets  and 
houses  west  of  the  highway  are  recent  developments.  The  town  has 
several  large  nurseries. 

South  of  Millbrae  US  101  traverses  the  MILLS  ESTATE  (pri- 
vate) 16.2  m.,  over  which  ranged  large  herds  of  dairy  cattle.  This  was 
one  of  a  number  of  large  acreages  in  San  Mateo  County  where  wealthy 
families  in  the  seventies  and  eighties  made  an  attempt  not  altogether 
unsuccessful  to  duplicate  English  country  life.  With  the  great  increase 
in  the  demand  for  suburban  homes  after  1906,  most  of  the  estates 
gradually  were  subdivided,  but  the  fine  private  park  and  the  dignified 
Victorian  house  of  Darius  Mills  have  remained  unchanged. 

BURLINGAME,  17  m.  (30  alt.,  15,897  pop.),  lying  along  both 
sides  of  the  highway,  extending  from  the  Bay  shore  to  Buri  Buri  Ridge, 
is  almost  entirely  a  suburban  residential  community.  Business  is  limited 
to  two  streets  lined  with  small  retail  shops.  The  well-kept  residential 
streets,  the  modern  homes  with  trim  lawns  and  gardens,  a  library  with 
60,000  volumes,  the  fine  school  buildings — all  reflect  a  prosperous 
middle  class.  The  town  includes  the  northern  part  of  Rancho  San 
Mateo,  granted  to  Cayento  Arenas  by  Governor  Pio  Pico.  In  1846 
the  land  was  sold  for  $25,000  to  W.  D.  M.  Howard.  Emulating  the 
Spanish  predecessors,  Howard  built  up  a  hide  and  tallow  business,  but 
unlike  them,  he  grew  wealthy  with  the  growth  of  San  Francisco.  Bur- 
lingame's  moderate  climate  and  oak-covered  hills  early  attracted  a  num- 
ber of  prosperous  San  Franciscans  looking  for  country  home  sites, 
notably  A.  L.  Easton,  who  in  1860  acquired  property  and  settled  in 


464      SAN     FRANCISCO 

what  is  now  North  Burlingame.  Easton  and  Howard  were  not  the  first 
to  recognize  the  natural  beauty  of  the  land.  Captain  George  Van- 
couver on  his  visit  in  1792  had  observed  that  ".  .  .  it  could  only  be 
compared  to  a  park,  which  had  been  originally  planted  with  the  true 
old  English  oak  .  .  .  The  soil  was  covered  with  luxuriant  herbage  and 
beautifully  diversified  with  pleasing  eminences  and  valleys;  which  with 
the  range  of  lofty  rugged  mountains  that  bounded  the  prospect,  required 
only  to  be  adorned  with  the  neat  habitations  of  an  industrious 
people  .  .  ." 

The  community  bears  the  name  of  Anson  Burlingame.  Son  of  a 
humble  Methodist  lay  preacher,  Burlingame  had  risen  rapidly  to  become 
a  Congressman  from  Massachusetts,  and  in  1861  Lincoln  appointed 
him  minister  to  China.  His  Burlingame  Treaty  made  him  an  inter- 
national figure,  and  his  unfortunate  plan  for  importation  of  coolie 
labor  won  him  considerable  prestige  in  California.  In  1866,  while 
enroute  to  China,  he  purchased  1,043  acres  of  land  adjoining  the  Easton 
property.  Though  Burlingame  died  four  years  later,  and  had  visited 
the  place  only  once,  when  Burlingame  Country  Club  was  organized  in 
1893  it  was  named  for  him,  as  was  the  Burlingame  Post  Office  a  year 
later.  "Blingum"  was  for  years  synonymous  with  wealth  and  fashion; 
but  after  the  division  of  the  Easton  property  in  1905,  the  population 
increased  and  the  town  took  on  its  present  suburban  characteristics. 

The  SOUTHERN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY  STATION,  Bur- 
lingame Ave.  and  California  Dr.,  in  California  mission  style,  is  roofed 
with  the  old  hand-made  tiles  from  the  mission  hospice  used  by  the 
Franciscans  and  early  travelers  as  a  stopping  place  halfway  between 
Mission  Dolores  and  Santa  Clara. 

Standing  near  a  wide  driveway,  with  a  magnificent  view  of  open 
country,  semi-forested,  rolling  hills,  and  the  distant  Bay,  is  the  MERCY 
HIGH  SCHOOL,  Adeline  Dr.  When  it  was  the  home  of  C.  Frederick 
Kohl  it  was  known  as  "The  Oaks."  In  Tudor  style,  it  is  of  dark  red 
brick  trimmed  with  brown  stone  (Howard  and  White,  architects). 
Little  Lord  Fauntleroy,  starring  Mary  Pickford,  was  filmed  here. 

Between  18  4  m.  and  18.6  m.}  El  Camino  Real  is  the  eastern  bound- 
ary of  HILLSBOROUGH  (40-700  alt.,  2,745  Pop-)>  which  occupies 
an  irregular,  wedge-shaped  area  between  Burlingame  and  San  Mateo. 
It  was  separately  incorporated  in  1910  to  keep  out  all  business  estab- 
lishments. The  town  has  no  sidewalks;  its  homes,  most  of  them  set 
in  grounds  a  half-acre  or  more  in  extent,  are  surrounded  by  high  hedges. 
Along:  the  winding  roads  are  fine  old  shade  trees. 

The  BURLINGAME  COUNTRY  CLUB  (private},  Floribunda 
Ave.  in  northern  Hillsborough,  was  organized  in  1893,  the  first  country 
club  in  California  and  one  of  the  first  places  in  the  United  States  where 
polo  was  played.  Golf,  too,  was  popular  here  at  a  time  when  but  few 
Americans  playe.d  the  game. 

The  WOODLAND  THEATRE,  El  Cerrito  Ave.,  on  ground 
sloping  down  toward  San  Mateo  Creek,  shaded  by  oaks,  buckeyes,  and 
bay  trees,  is  used  principally  for  concerts. 


PENINSULA    TOUR      465 

The  informal  Italian  gardens  of  NEW  PLACE  (private),  Stone- 
hedge  Rd.,  residence  of  the  late  W.  H.  Crocker,  were  laid  out  by  Bruce 
Porter;  the  Italian  villa  was  designed  by  Lewis  P.  Hobart.  In  the 
house  are  notable  nineteenth  century  paintings  by  Monet,  Millet  and 
Rousseau;  some  fine  work  by  the  Venetians:  Bellini,  Canaletto,  and 
Guardi ;  and  exquisite  bronzes. 

Extending  from  the  Bay  Shore  to  wooded  hills,  the  quiet  tree- 
shaded  streets  of  suburban  SAN  MATEO,  19.8  m.  (22  alt.,  19,367 
pop.),  surround  a  bustling  shopping  district.  Here  on  the  banks  of 
San  Mateo  Creek,  where  it  emerges  from  a  brushy  canyon  into  the  oak- 
covered  plain,  the  Franciscan  fathers  built  of  adobe  a  small  chapel  and 
a  hospice,  for  many  years  the  only  accommodation  for  the  traveler  be- 
tween Santa  Clara  and  Mission  Dolores.  As  a  part  of  Rancho  San 
Mateo,  the  land  became  the  property  of  W.  D.  M.  Howard,  who 
after  the  earthquake  of  1868  saved  the  roofing  tiles  of  the  adobes  (later 
used  for  the  Burlingame  railway  station).  Two  pioneer  merchants  and 
bankers  of  San  Francisco,  Frederick  Macondray  and  John  Parrott, 
built  country  homes  here  in  the  iSso's.  In  1863  when  the  San  Fran- 
cisco-San Jose  railroad  was  completed,  streets  were  laid  out  to  the  east 
of  the  highway.  The  town  grew  slowly;  its  population  in  1890  was 
only  about  one  thousand.  But  as  the  large  estates  of  Howard,  Parrott, 
Alvinza  Hayward,  William  Sharon,  and  other  wealthy  early  settlers 
have  been  divided,  large  numbers  of  attractive  homes  have  been  built. 

Wooded  CITY  PARK  (ball  park,  tennis  courts),  facing  El  Camino 
Real  between  Fifth  and  Ninth  Aves.,  was  formerly  the  estate  of  Cap- 
tain Kohl,  an  Alaska  fur  trader. 

Set  back  of  trees  and  lawns  are  ST.  MATTHEW'S  EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH  and  BAYLARD  HOUSE,  El  Camino  Real  and  Baldurn 
Ave.  The  setting  of  the  buildings  resembles  that  of  an  English  village 
church.  In  the  church  is  the  tomb  of  the  Howard  family. 

At  the  SAN  MATEO-BURLINGAME  POLO  CLUB  (adm.  to 
games,  40$),  1900  S.  El  Camino  Real,  two  seasons  of  polo  are  held 
annually:  spring,  March  and  April,  and  fall,  August  to  Christmas. 

The  $400,000  BAY  MEADOWS  RACETRACK  (general  adm. 
40$),  on  San  Mateo's  southern  outskirts,  shares  the  spring  and  fall 
crowds  with  Tanforan  (see  above).  The  plant,  built  in  1934  by  a 
syndicate  headed  by  one-time  newsboy,  William  P.  Kyne,  accommodates 
about  twenty-five  thousand  spectators.  Standing  track  records  here  were 
set  by  Alviso,  Seabiscuit,  and  Top  Row. 

1.  Left  from   San  Mateo  on  East  Third  Avenue  3.7  m.  to  the   San  Mateo 
Toll  Bridge   (car,  driver,  and  four  passengers,  65$).     Beyond  the  eastern  end 
of  the  bridge  is  a  junction  with   State   17   at  Mount  Eden,   13.6  m.    (see  East 
Bay  Tour  2}. 

2.  Right  from  San  Mateo  on  West  Third  Avenue,  which  becomes   Crystal 
Springs  Road,  to  a  junction  with  Sawyer  Camp  Road,  2.8  m.;  R.  here  to  a  junc- 
tion with  State  5   (Skyline  Boulevard),  3.7  m.,  on  which  the  route  goes  L.  over 
SKYLINE  DAM,  built  across  the  deep  canyon  of  San  Mateo  Creek  to  impound 
the   water   of   CRYSTAL   SPRINGS   LAKE,    a    reservoir   for    San    Francisco's 
water  supply.     The  lake  extends  south  for  five  miles,  its  lower  end  covering 
the  site  of  the  house  of  Domingo  Feliz,  grantee  of  the  Rancho  Feliz.     Beneath 


466      SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  water  is  the  site  of  Crystal  Springs,  around  which  grew  the  vineyards 
of  Colonel  Agaston  Haraszthy,  Hungarian  nobleman,  who  had  set  out  six 
varieties  of  wine  grapes  here  by  1852. 

At  5.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  paved  road;  L.  here  to  the  junction  with 
Canada  Road,  12  m.;  R.  here  to  the  WATER  TEMPLE,  3.6  m.,  a  circular 
structure  inscribed:  "I  give  waters  in  the  wilderness  and  rivers  in  the  desert 
to  my  people."  This  is  the  west  end  of  the  Hetch  Hetchy  pipe  line.  Canada 
Road  continues  south  through  oak-covered  hills  to  Woodside,  9.3  m.  (see 
below). 

The  main  side  route  goes  R.  on  State  5  onto  an  earthen  causeway  across 
Crystal  Springs  Lake  and  climbs  wooded  slopes  to  the  crest  of  Cahil  Ridge 
at  the  junction  with  the  Half  Moon  Bay  Road,  8.3  m.,  where  the  main  side 
route  goes  R.  (straight  ahead)  ;  L.  here  on  State  5  over  thickly  forested  hills 
to  the  junction  with  Kings  Mountain  Road,  7  m.  (see  below). 

The  main  side  route  continues  west  from  the  junction  with  State  5  on  the 
Half  Moon  Bay  Road,  twisting  down  Pilarcitos  Creek  Canyon  to  HALF  MOON 
BAY,  13.6  m.  (10  alt.,  1,000  pop.),  a  town  at  the  junction  with  State  i, 
center  of  the  artichoke-growing  Pilarcitos  Valley.  The  original  settlement, 
known  as  Spanishtown,  grew  around  the  adobes  of  Candelario  Miramontes  and 
Tiburcio  Vasquez,  grantees,  respectively,  of  the  local  Rancho  Miramontes  and 
Rancho  Corral  de  Tierra  (enclosure  of  earth).  Half  Moon  Bay  was  known 
during  Prohibition  for  its  conflicts  between  rum-runners  and  Coast  Guard.  A 
submerged  reef  extending  south  for  two  miles  from  nearby  Pillar  Point  forms 
a  breakwater  for  the  harbor  and  protects  the  arc-shaped  white  sandy  beach. 

The  Nation's  commercial  production  of  globe  artichokes  is  confined  largely 
to  the  coastal  strip  between  Half  Moon  Bay  and  Monterey  Bay,  where  the  cool 
foggy  summers  and  mild  wet  winters  make  growing  conditions  ideal.  Though 
widely  used  in  France  and  Italy,  artichokes  are  not  a  staple  article  of  food  in 
the  United  States  outside  California.  They  are  on  the  San  Francisco  market 
almost  all  seasons,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  crop  is  cut  from  January  to 
April.  Canning  (first  done  in  1917)  provides  an  outlet  for  the  less  marketable 
small-sized  artichokes,  the  canned  product  consisting  only  of  hearts. 

South  of  Half  Moon  Bay  the  route  skirts  the  coast  on  State  i  to  PURISIMA 
(immaculate),  18.1  m.  (46  alt.,  50  pop.),  a  bleak  and  decaying  old  town  on  a 
hill  above  Purisima  Creek,  which  served  as  the  northern  boundary  of  Rancho 
Canada  de  Verde  y  Arroyo  de  la  Purisima  (valley  of  verdure  and  creek  of  the 
immaculate  one),  granted  to  Jose  Maria  Alviso  in  1838. 

Once  a  lumbering  town,  SAN  GREGORIO,  26  m.  (100  alt,  75  pop.),  lies 
beside  San  Gregorio  Creek,  which  drains  the  vast  acreage  of  the  former  Rancho 
San  Gregorio,  granted  to  Antonio  Buelna.  Reaching  here  on  October  24,  1769, 
Portola  camped  two  days  to  rest  his  men,  all  of  them  weary  and  many  ill 
of  scurvy.  The  frame  SAN  GREGORIO  HOUSE,  painted  a  rusty  red  and 
half-hidden  by  tall  maples,  was  once  a  popular  resort. 

PESCADERO  (fishmonger),  33.4  m.,  (56  alt.,  979  pop.),  standing  in  the 
flat  valley  about  three  miles  from  the  ocean,  is  within  the  boundaries  of  Rancho 
El  Pescadero,  granted  in  1833  to  soldier  Juan  Jose  Gonzales,  whose  adobe 
stood  on  the  north  bank  of  Pescadero  Creek.  Father  Crespi,  the  historian  of 
Portola's  party,  proposed  the  founding  of  a  mission  near  the  beach,  where  an 
Indian  village  stood.  Pescadero  was  known  as  Spotless  Town  for  many  years 
after  the  ship  Colombia  ran  ashore  here  and  was  battered  to  pieces,  for  the 
residents — nearly  all  of  whom  were  New  Englanders — salvaged  the  cargo  of 
white  lead  and  painted  their  houses  gleaming  white. 

At  Pescadero  is  the  junction  with  Blooms  Mill  Creek  Road   (see  below). 

At  LAKE  LUCERNE,  38.6  m.,  sometimes  known  as  Bean  Hollow  Lagoon,, 
a  salt-water  lake  lying  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arroyo  de  los  Frijoles  (Bean  Hol- 
low), is  the  junction  with  Pebble  Beach  Road;  R.  here  along  the  shoreline 
past  Pescadero  Po'int,  2.6  m.,  to  mile-long  PEBBLE  BEACH  (surf  fishing). 
The  deposit  of  pebbles  here  includes  agates  and  chalcedony,  from  amygdaloid 
rocks,  made  popular  by  San  Francisco  jewelers  in  the  eighties.  Here  stand  the 
ruins  of  "COBURN'S  FOLLY,"  the  large  three-story  hotel  erected  by  Loren> 


PENINSULA    TOUR      467 

Coburn  in  1892.  He  spent  money  lavishly,  expecting  to  have  a  popular  and 
profitable  resort  upon  the  arrival  of  the  proposed  Ocean  Shore  Railroad  from 
San  Francisco.  The  railroad's  failure  to  build  this  far  south  left  Coburn 
possessor  of  a  vacant  and  useless  building.  He  closed  the  road  to  the  beach, 
thus  bringing  on  a  long  series  of  quarrels  with  the  citizens  of  nearby  Pescadero 
(see  above).  Barriers  which  he  built  across  the  road  were  destroyed  again 
and  again.  Lawsuits  followed,  and  Coburn,  who  was  eventually  awarded  dam- 
ages against  his  fellow  citizens  for  $1,000,  became  a  hated  and  ostracised 
old  man. 

PIGEON  POINT,  41.3  m.,  was  named  for  the  clipper  ship  (Carrier  Pigeon), 
wrecked  here  May  6,  1853.  A  Portuguese  whaling  station  once  was  here,  and 
from  the  pier,  lumber  and  dairy  products  were  shipped.  The  high  cliff  is 
topped  by  the  white  conical  tower  of  PIGEON  POINT  LIGHTHOUSE,  148 
feet  above  water  level,  built  in  1872.  Its  yoo,ooo-candlepower  beam  is  visible 
for  eighteen  miles. 

Whitehouse  Creek,  10.3  m.,  is  named  for  ISAAC  GRAHAM'S  HOUSE 
(private),  a  lone  white,  two-story  frame  dwelling  brought  around  the  Horn, 
for  many  years  a  landmark  for  mariners  but  now  almost  hidden  by  a  grove 
of  eucalyptus  trees.  FRANKLIN  POINT,  a  mile  west,  commemorates  a  sea 
disaster  in  1865  when  eleven  were  lost  in  the  wreck  of  the  Sir  John  Franklin. 

LA  PUNTA  DEL  ANO  NUEVO  (New  Year's  Point),  49  m.,  sighted  and 
named  by  Sebastian  Vizcaino  on  January  3,  1603,  is  crowned  by  the  white 
tower  of  NEW  YEAR'S  POINT  LIGHTHOUSE.  Along  the  shore  here  the 
shifting  sand  frequently  reveals  evidence  of  former  Indian  occupation  in  the 
form  of  arrowheads,  skeletons,  and  shells.  The  vast  and  fertile  Rancho  Punta 
del  Ano  Nuevo  once  covered  17,753  acres  north  from  the  point.  From  grantee 
Simeon  Castro  the  rancho  passed  into  the  hands  of  Loren  Coburn,  who  leased 
the  land  to  dairy  farmers  (see  above). 

South  of  San  Mateo  the  highway  climbs  the  lower  slopes  of  rounded, 
oak-covered  hills — once  on  Rancho  Las  Pulgas — which  hem  in  the  little 
valley  originally  called  Canada  del  Diablo. 

BELMONT,  24.2  m.  (32  at.,  984  pop.)  is  a  town  of  suburban 
residences,  schools,  and  sanitariums.  In  the  early  fifties,  when  it  was 
for  a  short  time  the  county  seat,  a  hotel  here  was  a  stopping  place 
for  stages. 

The  former  rambling  white  mansion  of  William  C.  Ralston  is  now 
one  of  the  buildings  of  NOTRE  DAME  COLLEGE,  Ralston  Ave. 
In  1854  Count  Leonetto  Cipriani,  an  Italian  political  refugee,  acquired 
the  site,  Canada  del  Diablo  (Devil's  Valley),  and  built  a  small  villa, 
which  in  1866  he  sold  to  Ralston.  The  financier  began  transforming 
it  into  an  extravagant  show  place,  adorned  with  parquetry  floors,  mirror- 
panelled  walls,  and  chandeliers.  He  built  greenhouses,  a  gymnasium 
with  a  Turkish  bath,  stables  panelled  in  carved  mahogany,  a  gas-works 
to  provide  gas  for  illumination  and  a  dam  and  reservoir  to  provide 
water.  After  Ralston's  death  in  1875  the  big  house  was  successively  a 
private  school  and  a  hospital.  In  1923  it  was  occupied  by  the  Sisters 
of  Notre  Dame,  who  removed  their  convent  and  college  here  from 
San  Jose.  The  mansion  is  now  called  Berchman's  Hall,  honoring  one 
of  the  founding  sisters.  Ralston's  famous  ballroom  is  the  school  chapel. 

US  101  continues  south  through  country  largely  devoted  to  flower 
growing.  Chrysanthemums,  the  most  important  crop,  have  an  annual 
value  of  about  $5,000,000.  The  growers  are  usually  Chinese,  Japanese, 


468      SAN     FRANCISCO 

or  Italians.  From  here  each  year  on  All  Saints  Day,  New  Orleans  gets 
thousands  of  white  chrysanthemums  for  its  graves. 

Named  for  the  first  vessel  to  enter  the  Golden  Gate,  SAN  CAR- 
LOS, 25.1  m.  (21  alt.,  3,508  pop.),  occupies  a  site  within  the  former 
boundaries  of  Rancho  Las  Pulgas  (the  fleas),  which  got  its  unhappy 
name  from  the  innumerable  fleas  infesting  the  Indian  village  that  stood 
here.  Today  it  is  a  pleasant  residential  town  without  any  remains  of 
the  past  either  in  the  form  of  insects  or  old  buildings. 

REDWOOD  CITY,  27.1  m.  (10  alt.,  12,364  pop.),  seat  of  San 
Mateo  County,  was  known  in  Spanish-American  days  as  the  Embar- 
cadero  because  of  the  slough  which  was  navigable  up  to  what  is  now 
the  center  of  the  business  district.  Other  names  given  it  were  Cachi- 
netac  and  Mezesville,  for  S.  M.  Mezes,  who  laid  out  the  town  in  1854. 
Shortly  after  the  Gold  Rush  the  fine  stands  of  redwoods  nearby  at- 
tracted lumbermen,  who  shipped  the  timber  down  Redwood  Slough.  A 
number  of  schooners  built  here  carried  lumber,  hay,  and  grain  to  San 
Francisco.  The  town  has  grown  rapidly  since  1920,  but  many  old 
frame  houses  of  the  fifties  and  sixties  are  still  standing.  A  cement 
works  and  two  tanneries  are  the  largest  industrial  plants. 

Facing  Broadway  at  Hamilton  St.  is  the  SAN  MATEO  COUNTY 
COURTHOUSE,  a  resolutely  modern  building  built  in  1939,  which 
contrasts  incongruously  with  its  neighbor,  the  former  courthouse,  an 
old  domed  building  of  Colusa  sandstone.  The  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 
and  CITY  HALL,  Jefferson  Ave.  and  Middlefield  Rd.,  are  a  well- 
proportioned  group  of  buildings  employing  concrete  with  red-tiled  roofs 
in  a  severe  modern  style. 

The  two-story,  square,  stuccoed  MORGAN  HOUSE  was  moved 
to  Chestnut  and  Spring  Sts.  from  the  tidal  lands  of  the  Bay,  where  it 
had  served  as  a  residence,  anchored  on  piles,  for  Captain  John  Stillwell 
Morgan,  promoter  of  oyster  culture  in  San  Francisco  Bay. 

1.  Left  from  Redwood  City  on  a  paved  road  3.1  m.  to  the  PORT  OF  RED- 
WOOD CITY,  completed  in  1937.     The  channel  has  been  dredged  to   accom- 
modate ocean-going  vessels.     Large  shipments  are  made  of  fresh   and  canned 
fruit  and  vegetables.     Lumber,  once  the  chief  export,  is  now  the  chief  import. 

The  PACIFIC  PORTLAND  CEMENT  PLANT  (R),  3.2  m.,  utilizes  the 
oyster  shells  that  bed  the  bottom  of  the  shallow  mud  flats;  dredged  from  the 
Bay,  pulverized,  and  calcined,  they  are  converted  into  lime. 

2.  Right  from  Redwood  City  on  Jefferson  Ave.  2.1  m.  to  EMERALD  LAKE 
AND  BOWL,  in  a  nine-acre  park.     A  natural  bowl  seats  12,000  at  Christmas 
and  Easter  celebrations. 

3.  Right  from  the  southern  end  of  Redwood  City  at  Five  Points  on  paved 
Woodside  Road  is  WOODSIDE,  3.9  m.    (486   alt.,  400  pop.),   at  the  southern 
end  of  San  Raymundo  Valley,  first  settled  in  the  1830*8  by  William   ("Bill  the 
Sawyer")    Smith   and  his  partner  James  Pease,   deserter  from   a  British   ship, 
who    made    carts    and    farming   implements    for    the    padres    at    Santa    Clara. 
Woodside    now    represents    the    combined    old    settlements    of    Greersburg    and 
Whiskey  Hill,  where  flourished  three  saloons. 

Left  from  Woodside  on  Portola  Road,  past  large  country  houses  set  well 
back  of  hedges  and  gardens,  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  2.1  m.;  R. 
here  0.2  m.  to  the  junction  with  a  dirt  road;  R.  here  to  the  HOOPER  ADOBE 
(Private),  0.3  m.,  built  by  Charles  Brown,  an  American  who  deserted  a  whal- 
ing vessel  in  1833,  acquired  part  of  Rancho  Canada  de  Raymundo,  and  settled 


PENINSULA     TOUR      469 

here.  Later  Colonel  "Jack"  Hays  used  the  building  as  a  lodging  house  for 
lumbermen.  Other  owners  have  been  E.  W.  Burr  and  John  A.  Hooper,  presi- 
dent of  the  San  Francisco  National  Bank.  Two  tall  eucalyptus  trees  and  a 
trim  hedge  frame  the  one-story  house  with  its  tiled  roof  extending  over  the 
veranda.  An  enormous  Banksia  rosebush  climbs  to  the  ridge  of  the  roof. 

On  Portola  Road  at  2.3  m.  is  SEARSVILLE  LAKE  (swimming,  boating; 
adm.  week-days  25$,  Sun.  and  holidays  £5^).  Near  here  in  the  fifties  was 
Searsville,  with  2,000  inhabitants,  a  busy  center  for  redwood  lumbering  and 
convenient  stopping  place  for  mule-  and  ox-team  drivers  crossing  the  ridge. 
Only  reminder  of  its  lusty  days  are  the  rows  of  trees  which  shaded  its  main 
street.  In  1890,  when  the  supply  of  timber  was  exhausted,  the  Spring  Valley 
Water  Company  removed  the  buildings  and  built  a  dam  which  forms  the 
present  lake.  It  is  now  a  reservoir  whose  waters  irrigate  the  greenery  of  the 
Stanford  University  campus  (see  below). 

The  main  side  route  goes  west  from  Woodside  on  La  Honda  Road. 

At  the  junction  with  Kings  Mountain  Road,  4.7  m.,  under  a  large  oak,  is 
the  JOHN  COPPINGER  STOREHOUSE,  now  used  as  a  residence,  built  in 
1854  of  hand-hewn  timbers  by  Coppinger,  grantee  of  12,545-acre  Rancho 
Canada  de  Raymundo.  The  two  curious  dormer  windows  of  its  upper  story 
are  slightly  awry.  Coppinger,  who  married  Maria  Luisa  Soto,  member  of  an 
influential  Spanish  family,  built  an  adobe  house  here  in  1840  which  stood  until 
destroyed  by  the  1906  earthquake. 

The  route  turns  R.  on  Kings  Mountain  Road  to  the  WOODSIDE  STORE, 
5.2  m.,  a  two-story  shingled  structure  shaded  by  a  large  live  oak.  Built  in 
1854  by  R.  O.  Tripp,  a  dentist,  the  store  (now  a  library)  was  the  trading 
center  for  fifteen  sawmills.  More  than  a  thousand  lumberjacks  got  their  mail, 
food,  and  liquor  here.  Hand-hewn,  octagonal  posts  support  the  porch  roof; 
the  joists  also  are  hand-hewn.  "Old  Doc"  Tripp  at  ninety-three  still  presided 
behind  his  counter. 

At  5.8  m.  Kings  Mountain  Road  enters  wooded  HUDDART  PARK,  a 
973-acre  undeveloped  recreational  area  bequeathed  to  San  Francisco  by  James 
M.  Huddart  in  1931.  The  sharply  winding  road  climbs  into  the  wooded  canyon 
to  a  junction  with  State  5  (Skyline  Boulevard),  9.2  m.  (see  above),  at  the 
summit  of  Cahil  Ridge,  also  known  as  Kings  Mountain  for  a  Mrs.  Honoria 
King  who  formerly  kept  a  tavern  accommodating  travelers  by  stage  over  the 
toll  road  from  Woodside.  The  route  goes  L.  on  State  5. 

At  11  m.  is  OBSERVATION  POINT,  a  stone-buttressed  parking  lot  area 
offering  a  superb  view  of  the  Peninsula  towns,  San  Francisco  Bay,  and  the 
East  Bay  shore.  Mount  Tamalpais,  Mount  Hamilton,  and  Mount  Diablo  are 
clearly  visible. 

Near  the  summit  of  Sierra  Morena  (2,400  alt.)  at  11.6  m.  is  the  SKY- 
LINE METHUSELAH  REDWOOD  (L),  an  ancient  lone  redwood  with  storm- 
shattered  top,  fifty-five  feet  in  circumference. 

State  5  drops  by  well-engineered  grades  to  a  junction,  at  14.2  m.,  with  La 
Honda  Road,  on  which  the  route  goes  R. ;  L.  here  on  State  5  to  Saratoga  Gap, 
at  the  junction  with  State  9,  13.9  m.  (see  below). 

The  route  goes  R.  on  La  Honda  Road  through  dense  firs  and  redwoods  into 
the  deep  canyon  of  La  Honda  Creek.  LA  HONDA  (the  deep),  20  m.  (403  alt., 
150  pop.)  (hotel,  cabins,  campgrounds],  was  founded  in  1861  by  John  L.  Sears 
of  Searsville.  The  LA  HONDA  STORE  was  built  for  Sears  by  Jim  and  Bob 
Younger,  who  a  little  later  were  arrested  as  members  of  the  Jesse  James  gang. 

At  LA  HONDA  PARK  (campgrounds,  swimming],  20.5  m.,  a  summer 
resort,  is  a  junction  with  a  paved  road;  the  route  turns  L.  here  on  Alpine 
Creek  Road  into  a  densely  wooded  canyon  to  the  junction  with  Blooms  Mill 
Road,  22  m.;  R.  on  Blooms  Mill  Road  to  SAN  MATEO  COUNTY  MEMORIAL 
PARK  (camping  50$;  special  weekly  rates],  26.5  m.,  a  3io-acre  grove  of  red- 
woods dedicated  to  the  memory  of  those  from  San  Mateo  County  who  died  in 
the  World  War. 

Blooms  Mill  Road  winds  down  Pescadero  Creek  to  PESCADERO,  34.5  m. 
(56  alt.,  979  pop.),  at  the  junction  with  State  i  (see  above). 


47O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

South  of  Redwood  City  the  Bay  narrows  and  the  level  land  between 
the  highway  and  the  mountains  widens.  The  country  originally  had 
great  natural  beauty,  but  the  section  facing  the  highway  has  been  so 
defaced  by  real  estate  offices,  sandwich  stands,  and  billboards  that  Bay 
region  drivers  have  petulantly  echoed  Ogden  Nash's  couplet: 

"I  think  that  I  shall  never  see  a  billboard  lovely  as  a  tree; 
Perhaps,  unless  the  billboard  fall,  I  shall  not  see  a  tree  at  all." 

ATHERTON,  29.1  ?n.  (52  alt.,  1,324  pop.),  bears  the  name  of 
Faxon  D.  Atherton,  a  pioneer  settler,  whose  daughter-in-law,  Gertrude 
Atherton,  in  her  autobiography,  Adventures  of  a  'Novelist,  recounts 
much  interesting  gossip  of  fashionable  life  here  in  the  i88o's.  Atherton 
has  remained  a  residential  community,  its  roads  winding  in  and  out 
among  tree-lined  estates.  The  MENLO  CIRCUS  CLUB,  Isabella 
Ave.,  occupies  part  of  the  site  of  Valparaiso  Park,  the  estate  of  Faxon 
Atherton.  At  the  club's  annual  (August)  horse  show  fine  horses  from 
many  parts  of  the  country  compete  for  prizes. 

MENLO  PARK,  30.1  m.  (63  alt.,  2,254  pop.),  was  named  in 
1851  for  Ireland's  Menlo  Park  by  Dennis  J.  Oliver  and  D.  C.  McGlyn, 
who  had  purchased  1,700  acres  of  the  Rancho  Las  Pulgas.  The  town 
grew  up  after  the  opening  of  the  San  Francisco-San  Jose  railroad  in 
1863,  attracting  many  people  of  wealth.  More  recently  families  of 
moderate  means  have  settled  here,  but  except  for  nurseries  and  local 
retail  shops  Menlo  Park  has  no  commercial  activities. 

i.  Left  from  Menlo  Park  on  Ravenswood  Ave.  0.2  m.  to  the  PARK  MILI- 
TARY ACADEMY,  occupying  a  large  old-fashioned  house  surrounded  by  oak 
trees.  This  was  formerly  the  home  of  Edgar  Mills,  brother  of  Darious  Ogden 
Mills. 

The  square-towered  TIMOTHY  HOPKINS  HOUSE,  0.3  m.,  stands  a 
quarter-mile  south  of  the  road  in  a  grove  of  fine  oaks.  In  the  fifties,  this 
property  belonged  to  E.  W.  Barren  of  quicksilver  fame.  It  later  passed  to 
Senator  Milton  S.  Latham,  but  the  home  built  by  Barren  burned  before 
Latham  and  his  bride  could  move  into  it.  Latham  built  the  present  house, 
which  he  named  ''Sherwood  Hall."  From  him  it  passed  to  Mary  Hopkins, 
widow  of  Mark  Hopkins,  and  from  her  to  Timothy  Hopkins,  one  of  the  original 
trustees  of  Stanford  University. 

At  0.6  is  a  junction  with  Middlefield  Road;  the  route  goes  R.  here. 

In  1898  ST.  PATRICK'S  SEMINARY,  0.9  m.,  an  institution  of  collegiate 
rank,  was  founded  by  the  late  Archbishop  Thomas  Riordan  to  train  men  for 
the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood.  The  instructors  are  members  of  the  Order  of 
St.  Sulpice;  resident  seminarians  number  more  than  one  hundred.  The  build- 
ings stand  well  back  from  the  road  in  a  setting  of  green  lawns,  great  oaks, 
palms  and  rose  gardens. 

At  1.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  Willow  Road;  L.  on  Willow  Road. 

The  VETERANS'  ADMINISTRATION  HOSPITAL,  2.1  m.,  is  a  diag- 
nostic center  with  900  patients.  The  buildings  stand  on  attractive  wooded 
grounds. 

On  Willow  Road  at  2.4  m,  is  the  junction  with  US  101  Bypass;  straight 
ahead  on  Willow  Rd.  to  DUMBARTON  BRIDGE  (40$  per  car,  5$  per  pas- 
senger), 4.7  m. 

Visible  south  of  Dumbarton  Bridge  is  the  BAY  CROSSING  OF  THE 
HETCH-HETCHY  AQUEDUCTS.  Underneath  the  navigable  channel  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Bay,  the  steel  cylinder  and  reinforced  concrete  pipes  are  en- 
trenched twenty-five  feet  down  in  the  mud,  seventy  feet  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  water.  On  the  shallower  western  side  of  the  Bay,  the  submerged  pipes 


PENINSULA     TOUR      47! 

enter  a  concrete  caisson  and  from  there  are  carried  to  the  San  Mateo  County 
shore  over  a  steel  bridge  resting  on  concrete  piers  (see  Emporium  of  a  New 
World:  Engineering  Enterprise}. 

At  13.4  m.  is  the  junction  with  State  17   (see  East  Bay  Tour  2) . 

2.  Right  from  Menlo  Park  on  Cambridge  Avenue  0.7  m.  to  the  ALLIED 
ARTS  GUILD  (open  weekdays  9-5:30),  an  institution  organized  in  1930  to 
help  finance  the  Stanford  Convalescent  Home  for  Children  in  Palo  Alto.  The 
guild  maintains  a  tea  room  and  a  group  of  studios  which  display  weaving, 
ceramics,  metal-  and  wood-craft,  and  block  printing.  These  are  housed  in  a 
group  of  buildings  admirably  designed  in  seventeenth-century  Spanish  Colonial 
style  by  Gardiner  Bailey  on  land  owned  originally  by  John  and  Margaret 
Murray,  who  came  here  in  1854.  The  estate's  great  charm  is  enhanced  by  the 
beautifully  appropriate  landscaping  of  the  gardens. 

Where  US  101  crosses  San  Francisquito  Creek,  31.3  772. ,  appears  a 
few  hundred  feet  west,  near  its  bank,  the  solitary  redwood,  PALO 
ALTO  (tall  tree),  a  landmark  for  explorers  and  travelers  since  the 
Caspar  de  Portola  expedition  first  saw  it  in  1769.  It  was  not  a  tree 
of  remarkable  height  among  redwoods,  but  standing  far  removed  from 
any  others,  it  towered  above  its  neighboring  oaks,  visible  for  many 
leagues.  It  appears  in  early  prints  and  on  the  seal  of  Stanford  Uni- 
versity as  a  double-trunked  tree;  one  section  has  fallen. 

US  101  divides  Stanford  University  from  the  city  of  PALO  ALTO, 
31.9  m.  (63  alt.,  16,278  pop.),  itself  bisected  by  its  chief  thoroughfare, 
University  Avenue.  When  the  university  came  into  being  in  1891, 
the  greater  part  of  what  is  now  Palo  Alto  was  but  a  great  wheat  field 
dotted  with  oak  trees  and  a  few  scattered  houses  and  stores;  early 
students  and  instructors  went  to  Menlo  Park  for  their  mail  and  food 
supplies.  But  by  1894  Palo  Alto  was  large  enough  to  incorporate. 
Mayfield,  now  a  Palo  Alto  suburb,  once  was  a  separate  unregenerate 
town  where  Stanford  students  could  drink  beer.  Industry  too  has 
come,  in  the  form  of  a  company  making  automatic  hammers. 

The  Palo  Alto  PUBLIC  LIBRARY,  Hamilton  Ave.  and  Bryant 
St.,  has  65,000  volumes  and  much  important  material  on  local  history — 
files  of  newspapers,  old  theater  and  concert  programs,  and  old  photo 
graphs. 

Examples  of  an  intelligent  adaptation  of  the  Spanish  Colonial  style 
to  modern  use  are  the  POST  OFFICE,  Waverly  St.  and  Hamilton 
Ave.;  the  CITY  HALL,  Ramona  St.  between  University  and  Lytton 
Aves.;  and  the  PALO  ALTO  HIGH  SCHOOL,  El  Camino  Real  and 
Embarcadero  Rd.  The  same  style  has  been  used  succesfully  on  a  busi- 
ness block  (Ramona  St.  between  University  and  Hamilton  Aves.), 
where  the  buildings  were  designed  so  they  would  not  destroy  a  large 
oak  tree. 

The  COMMUNITY  CENTER,  Melville  Ave.  and  Middlefield 
Rd.,  consists  of  a  group  of  buildings  in  Spanish  Colonial  style  admir- 
ably placed  about  three  sides  of  a  brick  paved  court  and  surrounded 
by  splendid  oaks  and  broad  lawns.  The  buildings  were  a  gift  of  Mrs. 
Louis  Stern.  The  Center's  activities  are  supported  partly  by  the  city 
and  partly  by  the  organizations  using  the  center.  The  Palo  Alto  Com- 
munity Players  give  performances  in  the  theater,  the  central  building 


472      SAN     FRANCISCO 

in  the  group.  Here  also  are  a  separate  children's  theater,  a  children's 
museum,  Boy  Scouts  Hall,  a  ballroom,  a  reception  room,  and  a  dining 
room  and  kitchen,  all  designed  to  foster  Palo  Alto  community  spirit. 

The  junction  of  US  101  with  University  Avenue  and  Palm  Drive 
marks  the  entrance  (R)  to  the  campus  of  STANFORD  UNIVER- 
SITY, founded  by  Senator  and  Mrs.  Leland  Stanford  as  a  memorial 
to  their  only  child,  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  who  died  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
The  cornerstone  of  the  first  building  was  laid  in  1887;  the  university 
was  opened  in  the  autumn  of  1891.  Stanford  began  not  only  with  a 
great  endowment  and  a  fine  group  of  buildings,  but  with  distinguished 
faculty  members,  including  Vernon  L.  Kellogg,  Theodore  Hoover, 
Henry  R.  Fairclough,  Robert  Eckles  Swain,  Melville  Best  Anderson, 
and  Lewis  M.  Terman.  Among  its  early  alumni  are  Charles  K. 
"Cheerio"  Field,  Whitelaw  Reed,  Dane  Coolidge,  Herbert  Hoover, 
H.  L.  Davis,  Will  and  Wallace  Irwin,  Holbrook  Blinn,  Homer  Lea, 
and  Ray  Lyman  Wilbur.  It  always  has  been  coeducational.  Until 
1933  women  students  were  limited  to  500;  since  then  the  number  has 
been  limited  to  approximately  40  percent  of  the  total  enrollment.  In 
1938-39  there  were  4,554  students  and  691  faculty  members. 

The  heavy  sandstone  piers  flanking  the  entrance  have  taken  the  place 
of  the  low  Romanesque  towers,  pierced  by  heavy  round-headed  arches 
with  open  pier  arcades  on  each  side,  which  were  destroyed  in  the  1906 
earthquake.  The  great  memorial  arch,  beyond  which  rose  the  fine 
central  tower  of  the  Memorial  Church — both  pivotal  features  of  the 
unified  architectural  scheme — also  was  destroyed. 

Right  from  US  101  on  Palm  Drive,  bordered  by  shrubs  and  trees  from  many 
parts  of  the  world  in  a  6oo-acre  arboretum,  0.1  m.  to  the  junction  with  a 
paved  road;  R.  here  0.2  m.  to  PALO  ALTO  HOSPITAL,  a  fine  modern  in- 
stitution owned  by  the  City  of  Palo  Alto  and  operated  by  the  university. 

On  Palm  Drive  at  0.6  m.  is  the  junction  with  Pine  Avenue. 

1.  Right   here   0.1    m.   to   the   STANFORD    MAUSOLEUM,    built   of   white 
granite  in  the  form  of  a   Greek  temple.     The  entrance   is   flanked  by  marble 
sphinxes;   polished   Ionic  columns  support  the  architrave.     Nearby    (R)    is  the 
TOMB  OF  HENRY  J.  LATHROP,  Mrs.  Stanford's  brother,  surmounted  by  a 
white  marble  figure  called  the  Angel  of  Grief.     The  route  follows  a  winding 
drive   (L)   from  the  mausoleum,  past  the  CACTUS  GARDEN,  which  contains 
a  great  variety  of  desert  plants.     It  continues  to  the  TROUTMERE  GUERN- 
SEY FARM,  0.7  m.     In  the  large  brick  barn  where  Senator  Stanford's  famous 
thoroughbreds  once  were  stabled  are  dairy  cattle. 

2.  Left  on  Pine  Avenue  0.3  m.  to  the  junction  with  Galvez  Street;  L.  here 
past   the   campus   tennis   courts,    football    and   baseball    fields,    and    track    oval 
0.3  m.  to  the  STADIUM,  seating  89,000,  where  the   Stanford-California  foot- 
ball game — northern  California's  "Big  Game" — takes  place  on  alternate  years. 

Pine  Avenue  continues  past  ENCINA  GYMNASIUM,  men's  athletic  center, 
to  the  junction  with  Arguello  Street,  0.4  m.;  R.  here  past  ENCINA  HALL  (R), 
0.6  m.,  largest  of  the  men's  dormitories.  Adjoining  (L)  are  two  others — 
TOYON  HALL  and  BRANNER  HALL,  both  in  simple  Spanish  Colonial  style. 
Neither  men  nor  women  students  may  live  in  fraternity  or  sorority  houses 
until  they  have  completed  the  freshman  year.  About  three  hundred  older  stu- 
dents not  members  of  fraternities  belong  to  cooperative  eating  clubs.  One 
large  cooperative  organization  buys  for  the  entire  group.  The  cost  to  each 
student  is  about  $50  a  quarter. 

The  main  side  route  follows  Palm  Drive  south  from  its  junction  with  Pine 


PENINSULA     TOUR      473 

Avenue  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road,  0.7  m.;  R.  here  0.1  m.  to  the 
LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR  MUSEUM  (open  daily  10-5;  adm.  25$),  a 
large  neoclassic  structure  built  of  yellow  sandstone.  At  the  entrance  doors 
are  four  tall  Ionic  columns;  on  each  side  the  facade  is  ornamented  with  large 
mosaics.  Nucleus  of  the  museum  is  the  collection  made  by  Leland  Stanford,  Jr., 
between  1880  and  1884,  including  Egyptian  bronzes,  Tanagra  figurines,  Greek 
and  Roman  glass,  armor,  mosaics,  Sevres  and  Dresden  ware.  In  Stanford 
Memorial  Room  are  collections  of  personal  belongings  of  the  founders  of  the 
University,  views  of  its  buildings  in  construction,  and  details  of  the  mosaics 
used  in  the  Memorial  Church.  Another  room  contains  the  "Governor  Stan- 
ford," the  first  locomotive  used  on  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  (1863),  and 
cases  of  items  related  to  early  California  history — among  them  practically  all 
the  implements  extant  of  San  Francisco's  Mission  Dolores. 

Also  housed  in  the  museum  are  the  Di  Cesnola  collection  of  Greek  and 
Roman  pottery  and  glass  from  the  island  of  Cyprus;  Indian  mound  relics 
and  artifacts;  rare  art  materials  from  the  Orient  (the  Ikeda  Chinese  and 
Japanese  Collection)  ;  and  Chinese  and  Japanese  objets  d'art,  including  the 
well-known  De  Long  Collection  of  Japanese  rarities.  Among  the  rare  objects 
in  the  Egyptian  Room  is  a  collection  of  Babylonian  tablets. 

Palm  Drive  continues  south  to  the  junction  with  a  paved  road;  L.  here 
0.1  m.  to  the  LAURENCE  FROST  AMPHITHEATRE,  a  sunken  oval  seating 
8,000,  presented  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Howard  Frost  as  a  memorial  to  their  son. 
The  approach  is  through  a  tree-lined  walk.  The  tiers  of  seats  are  placed  along 
terraces  of  turf,  closely  cut  and  beautifully  green.  Commencement  exercises 
are  held  here. 

Adjoining  on  the  south  (R)  is  the  center  of  Stanford's  dramatic  activities, 
MEMORIAL  HALL,  completed  in  1937  at  a  cost  of  $600,000.  The  main  theater 
seats  1,700;  the  rehearsal  theater,  197.  Among  the  University  Theater's  pro- 
ductions have  been  Sophocles'  Antigone  (1903),  Shakespeare's  Twelfth  Night 
(1938),  and  The  Vikings  in  Helgoland  (1938). 

Around  a  large  oval  planted  to  lawn  and  shrubs,  dividing  Palm  Drive  into 
two  roadways,  the  route  curves  to  the  junction  with  Serra  Street,  0.9  m.,  at 
the  foot  of  Palm  Drive,  beyond  which  extends  the  Outer  Quadrangle  (see 
below)  ;  R.  on  Serra  Street  02  m.  to  SEQUOIA  HALL,  oldest  of  the  men's 
dormitories  and  traditional  abode  of  the  Stanford  "rough,"  non-fraternity  man 
of  uncurbed  spirit. 

Heart  of  the  campus  is  the  group  of  buildings  known  as  the  OUTER 
QUADRANGLE  (length  894  feet,  width  760  feet).  At  the  northern  end  of 
the  enclosure,  formed  by  fourteen  buildings  housing  lecture  halls  and  admin- 
istrative offices  with  open  arcades  on  the  outside,  stand  the  ADMINISTRA- 
TION BUILDING  (L)  and  JORDAN  HALL  (R).  Between  the  two  a  pas- 
sage leads  to  the  INNER  QUADRANGLE,  formed  by  twelve  one-story  build- 
ings and  the  Memorial  Church  (see  below) — all  connected  by  a  continuous 
arcade.  The  red  tile  roof,  the  open  arches,  the  long  colonnades  resembling 
cloister  walks  are  reminiscent  of  the  California  missions,  but  the  work  in  its 
essential  features  is  Romanesque,  the  architect — Charles  Allerton  Coolidge  of 
Boston — having  been  a  disciple  of  Richardson.  The  buff  sandstone  of  rough- 
faced  ashlar  used  in  these,  the  first  buildings  to  be  erected,  came  from  a  quarry 
twelve  miles  south  of  San  Jose.  Both  architecturally  and  academically  the 
two  "quads"  are  the  heart  of  the  university.  In  addition  to  the  original  group 
of  buildings  there  are  many  newer  buildings  on  streets  radiating  from  here. 

The  STANFORD  MEMORIAL  CHURCH  (open  daily;  services  Sun.  n 
and  4.,  also  7:3°  P-m-  during  summer  quarter;  organ  recitals  precede  services), 
faces  the  cloistered  inner  quadrangle  from  the  south.  Set  in  the  pavement 
before  the  entrance  are  a  series  of  brass  tablets,  a  new  one  being  added  for 
each  graduating  class.  Built  by  Mrs.  Leland  Stanford  as  a  memorial  to  her 
husband,  the  church  was  almost  completely  ruined  by  the  1906  earthquake. 
Rebuilt  without  its  former  central  tower,  the  present  structure  is  less  graceful 
than  the  original.  The  mosaics  of  the  facade,  like  those  destroyed,  were  made 
in  Venice;  they  follow  largely  the  original  design.  In  the  spandrils  above 


Wr"1*7 


STANFORD  UNIVERSITY] 

AND  VICINITY 

SCALE  IN  FEET 

0          500      1000  .     2000 3000 


PENINSULA     TOUR      475 

the  triple  doorways  with  their  Romanesque  piers  and  carved  arches,  the 
mosaics  represent  figures  symbolic  of  the  theological  virtues.  A  large  round- 
headed  window  fills  the  central  space  above  the  doorways;  at  each  side  are 
three  smaller  windows.  The  space  above  and  between  this  fenestration  up 
to  the  apex  of  the  roof  is  filled  with  a  huge  mosaic,  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
against  a  background  of  gold. 

The  mosaic  decoration  in  the  vestibule  consists  of  colored  medallions  in  the 
form  of  the  Chi  Rho  and  the  Alpha  and  Omega  against  a  gold  background. 
The  same  buff  sandstone  used  for  the  exterior  has  been  used  for  the  interior 
walls  and  piers.  The  interior  is  a  nave  of  four  bays  with  narrow  aisles,  each 
with  a  single  large  round-headed  window.  The  clerestory  has  two  small 
windows  to  each  bay.  The  transepts  have  apsidal  endings  and  balconies, 
each  with  a  semicircular  carved  balustrade  supported  by  heavy  Romanesque 
piers.  From  the  crossing,  with  its  four  massive  arches,  seven  white  marble 
steps  rise  the  entire  width  to  a  shallow  choir.  The  sanctuary  rail  is  of  marble. 
The  apse  is  semicircular  with  fourteen  small  recessed  arches  faced  with  gold 
mosaic  and  three  large  windows  in  the  upper  story.  Above  the  marble  altar 
is  a  reproduction  in  mosaic  of  Cosimo  Rosselli's  The  Last  Supper.  The  mosaics 
which  cover  the  upper  walls  of  the  entire  interior  depict  Biblical  scenes  and 
individual  figures  of  prophets,  patriarchs,  and  saints.  The  work  lost  in  the 
earthquake  was  replaced  from  the  studios  of  Antonio  Salvati  in  Venice,  where 
the  original  designs  had  fortunately  been  preserved. 

The  route  goes  L.  on  Serra  Street  from  the  foot  of  Palm  Drive  to  the  junc- 
tion with  Lasuen  Street,  1  m.,  and  R.  on  Lasuen  Street. 

The  Romanesque  THOMAS  WELTON  STANFORD  ART  GALLERY 
(L),  built  in  1917,  gift  of  a  brother  of  Senator  Stanford,  has  a  small  permanent 
collection  of  the  work  of  nineteenth-century  American  artists.  Like  the  buildings 
adjoining  on  the  south  (see  below),  it  is  a  unit  in  a  projected  new  quadrangle, 
one  of  two  planned  to  flank  the  present  Outer  Quandrangle  (see  above],  on  the 
east  and  west. 

The  facade  of  the  LIBRARY    (L),   1.1   m.,  built  in   1919,  is   adorned  with 


STANFORD  UNIVERSITY  AND  VICINITY 

"Legend" 

1.  Arboretum  17.  Cubberly  Building 

2.  Palo  Alto  Hospital  18.  Library 

3.  Stanford  Mausoleum  19.  Art  Gallery 

4.  Cactus  Garden  20.  Memorial  Hall 

5.  Troutmere  Guernsey  Farm  21.  Laurence  Frost  Amphitheater 

6.  Leland  Stanford  Junior  Mu-  22.  Encina  Gymnasium 
seum  23.  Athletic  Field 

7.  Administration  Building  24.  Stanford  Bowl 

8.  Jordan  Hall  25.  Encina  Hall 

9.  Inner  Quadrangle  26.  Toyon  Hall 

10.  Stanford  Memorial  Church  27.  Branner  Hall 

11.  Sequoia  Hall  28.  Residence    of    the    University 

12.  U.    S.    Department    of    Agri-  President 
culture  Experimental   Station  29.  Lagunita 

13.  Roble  Hall  30.  Golf  Course 

14.  Lagunita  Court  31.   Stanford  Stables 

15.  Women's  Gymnasium  32.  Carnegie  Institute  Laboratory 

1 6.  Stanford  Union 


476      SAN     FRANCISCO 

stone  figures  carved  by  Edgar  Walter.  Its  675,000  volumes  include  the  Hop- 
kins Railway  Library  presented  by  Timothy  Hopkins  in  1892,  the  5,ooo-volume 
Hildebrand  Library  of  Germanic  philology  and  literature,  the  Jarboe  collec- 
tion of  literature  of  the  French  Revolution  and  Napoleonic  era,  the  Thomas 
Welton  Stanford  Australasian  Library  of  early  travels  and  voyages,  and  the 
Flugel  collection  including  works  of  rare  fifteenth-  sixteenth-  and  seventeenth- 
century  writers. 

Surmounted  by  a  fourteen-floor,  28o-foot  tower,  the  adjoining  HOOVER 
LIBRARY  FOR  WAR,  PEACE,  AND  REVOLUTION,  a  concrete  and  steel 
structure  built  in  1940  (Bakewell,  Weihe,  and  Brown,  architects),  houses  ex- 
President  Herbert  Hoover's  collection  of  150,000  printed  and  manuscript  items 
dealing  with  the  World  War  and  its  aftermath. 

Named  for  Ellwood  P.  Cubberley,  professor  of  education,  the  CUBBERLEY 
SCHOOL  OF  EDUCATION  BUILDING  (L),  12  m.,  is  headquarters  for 
students  of  education. 

The  STANFORD  UNION  (R),  1.3  m.,  is  a  clubhouse  for  men  built  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  Herbert  Hoover  of  the  class  of  1895.  Informal  "bull 
sessions"  have  for  years  been  held  in  the  "cellar,"  a  small  downstairs  cafeteria. 

At  1.3  m.  on  Lasuen  Street  is  the  junction  with  Santa  Teresa  Street;  R. 
here  to  the  junction  with  Lomita  Drive,  1.5  m.,  where  the  main  side  route 
turns  L.  on  Lomita  Drive;  straight  ahead  from  this  junction  on  Santa  Teresa 
Street  to  the  two  principal  women's  dormitories:  ROBLE  HALL  (L),  0.1  m., 
a  large  vine-covered  building,  and  LAGUNITA  COURT  (L),  02  m.,  a  group 
of  houses  set  among  lawns  and  trees.  Flanked  by  a  swimming  pool,  tennis 
courts,  and  golf  and  hockey  fields,  the  WOMEN'S  GYMNASIUM  across  the 
street  (R)  is  a  simplified  adaptation  of  the  Spanish  Colonial  style  in  buff- 
colored  concrete. 

The  main  side  route  goes  L.  from  the  junction  with  Santa  Teresa  Street 
on  Lomita  Drive. 

LAGUNITA  (little  lake)  (R),  1.6  m.,  a  dry  lake  bed  throughout  much  of 
the  year,  is  used  for  water  sports  after  winter  rains  fill  it  with  a  shallow 
expanse  of  water. 

The  RESIDENCE  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESIDENT  (R),  1.8  m.,  is 
a  large  Colonial-style  house.  Stanford  has  had  but  three  presidents.  The 
first,  David  Starr  Jordan,  selected  by  Senator  and  Mrs.  Stanford  in  1891, 
guided  the  institution  through  some  difficult  early  years  when,  after  Senator 
Stanford's  death,  the  estate  became  involved  in  litigation.  After  Jordan's 
retirement  in  1913,  Dr.  John  C.  Branner  was  president  for  three  years.  Bran- 
ner  was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Ray  Lyman  Wilbur. 

At  22  m.  is  the  junction  with  Mayfield  Avenue,  on  which  the  main  side 
route  turns  R. ;  L.  here  on  Mayfield  Avenue  0.1  m.  to  the  junction  with  Santa 
Ynez  Street;  R.  on  Santa  Ynez  Street  to  the  junction  with  Mirada  Street, 
0.5  m.;  L.  on  Mirada  Street  to  the  RESIDENCE  OF  HERBERT  HOOVER 
(private)  (L),  0.6  m.  (623  Mirada  St.),  overlooking  the  campus.  The  ex- 
President,  a  graduate  of  Stanford's  first  class,  was  once  a  faculty  member. 

The  main  side  route  goes  R.  (west)  on  Mayfield  Avenue,  which  at  2.3  m. 
unites  with  Junipero  Serra  Boulevard.  At  3.3  m.  is  the  junction  with  a  grav- 
elled road,  on  which  the  route  turns  R. 

At  the  STANFORD  STABLES  (R),  3.4  m.,  Leland  Stanford  established  his 
stock  farm  in  1876.  On  the  base  of  a  monument  to  a  famous  trotter  are  in- 
scribed a  list  of  names  and  records  of  Stanford's  best  horses.  A  tablet  com- 
memorates the  pre-Edison  motion  picture  experiment  conducted  here  in  1878 
in  connection  with  horse  racing.  By  means  of  a  battery  of  cameras  fitted  with 
electric  shutters,  men  and  animals  were  portrayed  in  motion. 

At  3.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  Searsville  Road,  on  which  the  route  turns  R. 

The  CARNEGIE  INSTITUTE  LABORATORY  (L),  4  m.,  was  organized 
in  1921  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  production,  distribution,  and  consump- 
tion of  food.  The  Carnegie  Corporation  endowed  the  laboratory  in  1932. 

At  33.2  m.  on  US  101  is  the  junction  with  Stanford  Avenue. 


PENINSULA    TOUR      477 

Right  on  Stanford  Avenue  0.5  m.  to  the  PETER  COUTTS  COTTAGE 
(L),  standing  beside  a  plain  two-story  brick  library  and  office  building.  Both 
structures  were  built  in  the  seventies  by  Paulin  Caperon,  political  fugitive  from 
France  who  reached  America  on  the  passport  of  Peter  Coutts,  his  cousin. 
Caperon  bought  the  Matadero  Ranch  (later  purchased  by  Governor  Stan- 
ford), and  here  he  developed  orchards  and  vineyards,  tunneling  the  hillside 
for  a  water  supply.  A  racetrack  for  his  thoroughbreds  was  laid  out  near  the 
present  corner  of  Stanford  Avenue  and  US  101.  Caperon  and  his  family  re- 
turned to  Europe  in  1880.  Young  Dr.  David  Starr  Jordan  (see  above)  oc- 
cupied the  cottage  in  1891.  Subsequently  the  buildings  have  housed  university 
departments  and  faculty  members. 

At  0.8  m.  is  the  junction  with  Stanford  Avenue  Extension;  L.  here  to  the 
HARRIS  J.  RYAN  HIGH  VOLTAGE  LABORATORY  (L),  12  m.,  where 
university  scientists  carry  on  electrical  experiments  with  equpiment  which  in- 
cludes transformers  of  more  than  2,ooo,ooo-volt  capacity. 

South  of  Palo  Alto,  US  101  enters  the  great  orchard  region  of  the 
Santa  Clara  Valley,  where  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
acres  are  planted  to  deciduous  fruits.  Early  in  the  mission  period  the 
Franciscans  found  that  both  the  vine  and  fruit  trees  did  well  in  Cali- 
fornia, but  no  extensive  planting  of  fruit  trees  was  made  until  about 
1856,  when  Louis  Pellier  brought  from  southwestern  France  a  number 
of  prune  scions.  To  him  and  to  nurserymen  goes  the  credit  for  the 
beginning  of  a  great  industry.  In  1939  there  were  more  than  seventy 
thousand  acres  in  prunes  alone.  Second  in  importance  of  the  valley's 
products  is  the  apricot,  to  which  about  twenty  thousand  acres  have  been 
planted  in  belts  relatively  free  from  frost.  The  variety  most  grown  is 
the  Moor  Park.  Pears  are  planted  to  more  than  six  thousand  acres. 

Early  American  settlers  in  the  valley  discovered  an  artesian  zone 
north  and  west  of  San  Jose  which  provided  ample  water  for  irrigation. 
Since  1915  the  increased  pumping  draft  and  the  decrease  in  average 
rainfall  have  lowered  the  ground  water  level  nearly  one  hundred  feet. 
Some  one  hundred  thousand  acres  affected  by  this  gradual  depletion 
today  are  under  irrigation. 

At  36.7  m.  is  a  junction  with  San  Antonio  Ave. 

Right  on  San  Antonio  Avenue  is  LOS  ALTOS,  2.8  m.  (200  alt.,  2,000  pop.), 
a  town  of  fine  houses  and  gardens  on  land  once  a  part  of  Rancho  San  Antonio. 

Surrounded  by  orchards  and  truck  gardens  is  MOUNTAIN 
VIEW,  37.7  m.  (67  alt.,  3,897  pop.).  Here  are  canneries,  planing 
mills,  and  a  plant  for  pre-cooling  berries  and  fruits  before  shipment  to 
Eastern  markets.  Mountain  View's  Pacific  Press  Publishing  Associa- 
tion, one  of  the  largest  presses  in  the  West,  is  operated  by  the  Seventh- 
Day  Adventist  Church. 

The  site  of  old  Mountain  View  lies  nearly  a  mile  south.  Before 
the  building  of  the  railroad,  a  large  hotel  here  was  a  stopping  place  for 
the  daily  San  Francisco-San  Jose  stage  and  a  meeting  place  for  settlers 
from  scattered  grain  and  stock  ranches.  A  few  old-timers  remember 
with  regret  the  fine  quail,  pigeon,  and  duck  shooting  they  enjoyed  before 
the  land  was  planted  to  orchards. 

At  38.5  77*.  is  a  junction  with  paved  Alviso  Road. 


478       SAN     FRANCISCO 

Left  on  Alviso  Road  2.3  m.  to  the  junction  with  US  101  Bypass.  Stretch- 
ing northeastward  are  the  1,000  acres  of  MOFFETT  FIELD  (usually  open 
9-5;  no  cameras),  formerly  a  Navy  airbase,  today  the  field  of  two  Army  air 
squadrons.  The  great  hangar,  a  landmark  for  miles  around,  is  1,133  feet  l°ng> 
308  feet  wide,  and  its  height  of  193  feet  is  that  of  an  eighteen-story  building. 
It  was  the  home  of  the  dirigibles  Akron  and  Macon,  both  of  which  met  with 
tragic  accidents.  Under  construction  in  1940  was  a  $10,000,000  AERONAUTI- 
CAL RESEARCH  LABORATORY  which,  under  the  authority  of  the  National 
Advisory  Committee  for  Aeronautics,  will  be  a  sister  station  to  one  at  Langley 
Field,  Virginia,  and  will  conduct  research  into  unsolved  aeronautical  problems. 

Alviso  Road  continues  east  to  ALVISO,  7  m.  (8  alt.,  676  pop.),  at  the  head 
of  a  navigable  slough  at  the  southern  end  of  San  Francisco  Bay,  a  small  town 
of  treeless  streets  and  weatherbeaten  houses.  Originally  the  port  for  Mission 
Santa  Clara  and  nearby  ranches,  it  enjoyed  a  great  boom  with  the  Gold  Rush. 
Produce  from  the  valley  went  from  here  to  San  Francisco  and  up  the  Sacra- 
mento and  San  Joaquin  Rivers  in  stern-wheelers.  Of  these  old  boats  the 
best-known  was  the  Jenny  Lind,  whose  energetic  captain  forced  her  boilers 
and  caused  an  explosion  that  cost  thirty-five  lives.  With  the  completion  in 
1864  of  the  railroad  from  San  Francisco,  Alviso's  decline  began,  though  freight 
continued  to  be  shipped  by  steamer  for  some  years.  Prosperity  may  return  to 
Alviso  if  the  City  of  San  Jose  carries  out  its  plans  for  the  creation  of  a  deep- 
water  port  on  adjoining  land. 

Left  from  Alviso  4  m.  to  a  junction  with  State  17  at  Milpitas. 

The  main  side  route  continues  south  (R)  from  Alviso.  At  9  m,  is  AGNEW 
(20  alt.,  319  pop.).  The  fine  grounds  and  buildings  of  AGNEW  STATE 
HOSPITAL  border  the  highway.  The  mentally  deranged,  alcoholics,  and 
women  narcotic  addicts  are  treated  here.  With  a  normal  capacity  of  2,365, 
the  institution  in  recent  years  has  been  badly  crowded.  The  original  buildings, 
erected  when  the  hospital  was  established  in  1888,  were  destroyed  by  the  1906 
earthquake. 

At  12  m.  is  the  junction  with  US  101  at  Santa  Clara   (see  below). 

On  US  101  is  SUNNYVALE  (95  alt.,  3,094  pop.),  41  m.,  sur- 
rounded by  orchards  and  truck  gardens,  a  town  of  small  homes  and 
well-kept  streets  in  a  section  known  for  its  fine  saddle  and  racing 
horses.  The  town  site  is  a  part  of  Rancho  Pastoria  de  la  Borregas  (the 
lambs'  pasture),  which  was  divided  soon  after  the  period  of  American 
occupation  between  Mariano  Castro  and  Martin  Murphy,  Jr.  The 
latter  secured  more  than  four  thousand  acres  southeast  of  Permanente 
Creek  which  included  the  sites  of  Mountain  View  and  Sunnyvale.  The 
MARTIN  MURPHY  HOUSE  (private),  Sunnyvale  Ave.  near  Cali- 
fornia St.,  a  two-story  frame  structure  built  from  timber  brought  around 
the  Horn  in  1849,  has  been  occupied  continuously  by  members  of  the 
same  family. 

Right  from  Sunnyvale  on  State  9  is  CUPERTINO,  3  m.  (215  alt.,  119 
pop.),  a  retail  trading  center  for  the  surrounding  orchard  and  vineyard 
country. 

Right  from  Cupertino  on  Stevens  Creek  Road  to  a  junction  with  Per- 
manente Road,  1.5  m.;  R.  on  Permanente  Road  to  the  $4,000,000  PER- 
MANENTE CORPORATION  CEMENT  PLANT,  2  m.  The  plant  includes  a 
laboratory  building,  precipitator,  mills,  5oo,ooo-barrel  storage  silos,  and  the 
tall  stack — all  built  in  1939.'  The  company  contracted  (1940)  to  supply 
5,800,000  barrels'  of  low-heat  cement  for  the  Central  Valley's  Shasta  Dam 
project.  When  the  two  kilns,  largest  in  the  world,  12  feet  in  diameter  and  450 
feet  long,  are  supplemented  with  a  contemplated  third,  the  Permanente  plant 
will  become  the  world's  largest  cement  manufacturing  plant.  An  important 


North  and  South  of  the  Golden  Gate 


FROM  SKYLINE  BOULEVARD  THE  HILLS  UNFOLD  TO  THE  SEA 


alter 


• 


MONTALVO  FOUNDATION  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO 
ART  ASSOCIATION  NEAR  SARATOGA 


SKYLINE  DAM  AND  BOULEVARD  AT  CRYSTAL  SPRINGS  LAKES 


II 


PIGEON  POINT  LIGHTHOUSE 


RACCOON  STRAITS  FROM  SAUSAL1TO,  MARIN  COUNTY 


i 


ate 


MUIR  WOODS  NATIONAL  MONUMENT,  MARIN  COUNTY 


IN  PETRIFIED  FOREST  NEAR  CALISTOGA 


RUSSIAN  RIVER  PLAYGROUND 


' 


STATE  CAPITOL  (1853),  BENICIA 


HOME  OF  LUTHER  BURBANK,  SANTA  ROSA 


DIRIGIBLE  HANGAR,  MOFFETT  FIELD.  SUNNYVALE 


PENINSULA    TOUR      479 

department  is  that  which  manufactures  fifty  tons  per  hour  of  sugar  rock   (car- 
bonate of  lime)  for  beet-sugar  refineries. 

The  main  side  route  continues  south  from  Cupertino  on  State  9  to  SARA- 
TOGA, 7.4  m.  (500  alt.,  1,191  pop.),  in  the  midst  of  orchards  and  vineyards 
on  the  rolling  hills  above  Campbell  Creek.  The  town  was  founded  by  one 
Martin  McCarthy  as  a  convenient  starting  point  for  a  toll  road  leading  to  the 
fine  timber  up  Campbell  Creek.  Its  early  name,  McCarthyville,  was  replaced 
in  1863  by  its  present  one  because,  like  its  New  York  namesake,  it  was  near 
several  medical  springs.  Saratoga's  later  prosperity  has  come  from  the  sur- 
rounding orchards  and  vineyards.  Each  spring,  when  the  orchards  are  at 
the  height  of  their  bloom,  the  town  has  its  Blossom  Festival,  a  pageant  which 
originated  as  a  service  of  thanksgiving  for  the  recovery  of  the  orchards  from 
the  drought  of  1898-99. 

1.  Left  from  Saratoga  on  Saratoga  Road  to  VILLA  MONTALVO,  0.5  m., 
formerly  the  home  of  James   D.  Phelan,   at  the  end  of   a   winding  driveway, 
the   entrance   gates   surmounted   by  carved   griffins.     The   house   of   light   grey 
sandstone  in  the  style  of  an  Italian  villa  is  surrounded  by  broad  lawns   and 
formal   gardens   with   rows  of  tall   Italian  cypresses   leading  up   to   fountains, 
Etruscan  vases,  and  marble  statuary  groups.     Large  Irish  yews  are  a  distinc- 
tive landscaping  feature.     A  bronze  plaque  commemorates  the  fifteenth-century 
Spanish   writer   for   whom   the   estate   was    named,    Ordanez   de    Montalvo,    in 
whose   Las   Sergas   de   Esplandian    (The    Exploits    of   Esplandian),    the    name 
"California"  first  appeared.    As  a  United  States  Senator,  Phelan,  who  had  been 
mayor  of  San  Francisco,  entertained  here  not  only  politicans  but  also  writers, 
painters,  and  actors.    "A  Day  in  the  Hills"  was  an  annual  event  honoring  Cali- 
fornia authors.     Phelan  bequeathed  the  estate  to  the  San  Francisco  Art  Asso- 
ciation for  use  as  a  center  where  composers,  authors,  and  painters  might  live 
while  doing  creative  work.     It  was  opened  as  such  in  the  summer  of  1939. 

Saratoga  Road  continues  to  LOS  GATOS,  4  m.  (412  alt.,  3,168  pop.),  at 
the  junction  with  State  17  (see  below). 

2.  Right    from    Saratoga    on    Oak    Street,    which    becomes    Bollman    Road, 
2.8  m.  to  JOHN  BROWN'S  LODGE,  the  home  from  1881  to  her  death  in  1884 
of  Mary  Brown,  the  widow  of  John  Brown  of  Harper's  Ferry.     It  is  said  that 
a  substantial  part  of  the  $1,850  paid  by  Mrs.  Brown  for  the  ranch  was  donated 
by  the  Negro  population  in  and  around  San  Jose. 

The  main  side  route  goes  R.  from  Saratoga  on  State  9  up  Campbell  Creek. 

At  8.7  m,  is  the  junction  with  Pierce  Road;  R.  here  0.1  m.  to  the  junction 
with  a  one-way  dirt  road;  L.  here  to  the  PAUL  MASSON  CHAMPAGNE 
WINERY  (admission  by  appointment  only),  1.6  m.,  a  stone  structure  replacing 
one  destroyed  in  the  1906  earthquake,  where  champagne  was  first  produced  in 
California.  Coming  to  California  from  France  in  1852,  Charles  le  Franc 
found  here  on  the  rolling  slopes  the  peculiar  combination  of  soil  and  climate 
needed  for  the  aristocratic  champagne  grapes,  Pinot  Chardonnay  and  Pinot 
Noir.  Later  Paul  Masson  married  Le  Franc's  daughter  and  subsequently  in- 
herited the  winery. 

State  9  continues  to  CONGRESS  SPRINGS,  9.4  m.,  where  D.  O.  MILLS 
and  Alvinza  Hayward  in  the  i86o's  financed  a  fashionable  spa  with  a  large, 
much  verandaed  hotel.  The  hotel  was  burned  in  1903,  but  the  springs  are 
still  frequented  by  picnickers  (adm.  10$). 

West  of  Congress  Springs  the  route  follows  State  9  up  a  wooded  canyon 
to  Saratoga  Gap  at  the  junction  with  State  5,  14.8  m.  (see  above). 

State  9  descends  gradually  through  a  heavy  growth  of  redwood,  madrone, 
live  oak,  laurel,  and  buckeye  to  CALIFORNIA  STATE  REDWOOD  PARK, 
26.4  m.,  occupying  a  bowl-shaped  depression  on  East  Waddell  Creek,  called 
Big  Basin  by  early  lumbermen.  This  is  part  of  a  dense  redwood  forest  which 
before  lumbering  operations  began  extended  a  hundred  miles  from  the  Pajaro 
River  north  almost  to  San  Francisco.  About  1885  Ralph  S.  Smith  of  Redwood 
City  first  attempted  to  save  ^some  of  the  Coast  redwoods  from  lumbermen. 
Others,  including  the  Sempervirens  Club  of  San  Jose,  at  length  were  successful 
in  getting  an  appropriation  from  the  State  Legislature  sufficient  to  purchase 


480      SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  3,800  acres  of  Big  Basin.    By  subsequent  gifts  and  purchases,  the  park  was 
increased  to  10,000  acres.     Principal  tree  here  is  the  Sequoia  semper  sirens. 

At  29.7  m.  is  GOVERNORS'  CAMP  (accommodations  May  i-Oct.  I;  post 
office,  store,  inn,  cottages;  campsites  50$  per  car,  picnicking  25$  per  car}.  The 
camp's  name  commemorates  the  visits  of  three  governors  in  1901  and  1902. 
The  sound  of  a  trumpet  brings  herds  of  tame  deer  here  at  feeding  time.  A 
trail  beginning  at  the  camp  circles  through  the  giant  trees  of  the  park. 

On  US  101  at  43  m.  is  THE  SITE  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF 
SANTA  CLARA,  the  "Battle  of  the  Mustard  Stalks,"  fought  January 
2,  1847  (on  a  field  covered  with  tall  mustard  stalks),  when  Califor- 
nians  under  Francisco  Sanchez  revolting  against  plundering  Americans 
were  defeated  by  a  small  force  led  by  Captain  Ward  Marston. 

Neither  the  old-fashioned  houses  on  the  tree-shaded  streets  of 
SANTA  CLARA,  47.6  m.  (72  alt.,  6,571  pop.),  nor  the  typically 
American  business  blocks  dating  from  the  seventies  and  eighties  suggest 
the  town's  origin  as  a  settlement  surrounding  the  mission  dedicated  in 
1777  to  St.  Clare,  superior  of  the  first  Franciscan  nunnery. 

The  first  buildings  put  up  by  Father  Tomas  de  la  Pena  and  his  col- 
leagues were  flooded.  The  Franciscans  rebuilt  in  1781,  but  their  second 
structures,  damaged  by  a  severe  earthquake  in  1812,  were  destroyed 
completely  by  another  earthquake  six  years  later.  A  third  adobe  church 
and  its  surrounding  secular  buildings  were  dedicated  in  1822  on  the 
site  of  the  University  of  Santa  Clara  (see  below). 

So  many  Americans  settled  here  early  in  the  1850*5  that  the  Spanish- 
speaking  population  became  a  small  minority.  The  town's  recent  growth 
has  been  slow  but  substantial.  Fruit-packing  houses,  a  tannery,  a  pot- 
tery, and  a  cement  works  are  its  principal  industrial  establishments. 

The  SANTA  CLARA  WOMEN'S  CLUB,  1067  Grant  St.,  occu- 
pies an  adobe  built  in  1782  as  one  of  the  buildings  of  Mission  Santa 
Clara,  the  oldest  structure  in  the  Santa  Clara  Valley. 

Behind  a  high  rose-colored  wall  in  a  park  with  fine  old  trees  is  the 
CARMELITE  MONASTERY,  Lincoln  St.  opposite  Franklin  St., 
one  of  the  few  houses  in  the  United  States  of  this  cloistered  order  whose 
members,  giving  all  their  time  to  prayer  and  contemplation,  never  leave 
the  monastery. 

CITY  PARK,  Lexington  and  Main  Sts.,  was  the  plaza  when  Santa 
Clara  was  a  Mexican  pueblo. 

The  SECOND  SITE  OF  SANTA  CLARA  MISSION  is  marked 
by  a  cross  and  monument  at  Campbell  and  Franklin  Sts.  In  the  rear 
of  the  Bray  House  (private),  Scott  Lane,  an  old-fashioned  frame  dwell- 
ing, stands  a  low  one-story  adobe  with  a  tiled  roof,  a  lonely  relic  mark- 
ing the  SITE  OF  THE  SANTA  CLARA  MISSION  INDIAN 
VILLAGE. 

The  FERNANDEZ  ADOBE  (private),  401  Jefferson  St.,  a  grey- 
white  plastered  adobe  dating  from  the  1840*5,  is  shaded  by  an  olive  tree 
and  a  grapevine  of  unusual  age  and  size. 

The  UNIVERSITY  OF  SANTA  CLARA,  Franklin  and  Grant 
Sts.,  occupying  a  fifteen-acre  campus,  owes  its  creation  to  Archbishop 
Joseph  Sadoc  Alemany  of  San  Francisco.  Hoping  to  save  Santa  Clara 


PENINSULA    TOUR      481 

Mission  from  complete  deterioration  after  its  secularization,  he  invited 
the  Jesuit  Order  to  Santa  Clara  to  build  a  college.  In  1851  the  Rev- 
erend John  Nobili  adapted  what  was  left  of  the  old  adobe  buildings 
to  the  needs  of  a  school.  Although  chartered  as  a  university  in  1855, 
it  was  actually  a  college  of  arts  and  sciences  until  the  establishment  of 
colleges  of  law  and  engineering  in  1912  (a  school  of  business  adminis- 
tration was  added  in  1924).  The  enrollment  totals  about  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty.  Santa  Clara  was  the  first  institution  in  California  to 
bestow  an  academic  degree;  first  alumnus  was  Thomas  I.  Bergin,  A.B., 
who  became  a  successful  attorney. 

Among  widely  known  faculty  members  have  been  John  J.  Mont- 
gomery, who  made  a  successful  flight  in  a  glider  as  early  as  1883;  the 
late  Father  Jerome  Ricard,  the  "Padre  of  the  Rains,"  who  by  a  system 
of  co-ordinating  the  Government  forecasts  with  his  own  observations 
based  on  the  sun  spots  and  their  relation  to  atmospheric  conditions, 
hoped  to  make  accurate  long-time  weather  forecasts;  and  Father  Ber- 
nard Hubbard,  Alaskan  explorer  and  present  head  of  the  geology  de- 
partment. 

The  university  buildings  in  Spanish  Colonial  style  are  all  compara- 
tively new  with  the  exception  of  the  theater,  which  dates  from  1870. 
The  Mission  Play  of  Santa  Clara  has  been  produced  here  several  times. 

The  MISSION  SANTA  CLARA,  reconstructed  in  1927  from  old 
drawings  of  the  adobe  mission  church  of  1822,  is  the  university  chapel. 
An  earlier  restoration  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1926.  Students  and 
faculty  were  able  to  save  some  articles  dating  from  the  Spanish  period 
which  have  been  incorporated  in  the  new  building;  among  these  are  a 
large  crucifix,  the  holy-water  fonts,  the  wooden  statues  of  saints  at 
the  side  altars,  and  the  reredos  over  the  high  alter.  Three  bells  dating 
from  the  late  eighteenth  century  and  destroyed  in  the  fire  were  replaced 
by  a  gift  from  King  Alphonso  XIII.  The  large  redwood  cross  in  front 
of  the  mission  is  the  one  which  Spanish  soldiers  and  Indians  put  up  in 
1777  on  the  first  site  of  the  mission,  and  was  moved  each  time  the  mis- 
sion was  moved. 

VARSI  LIBRARY,  named  for  the  Reverend  Aloysius  Varsi,  S.J., 
president  of  Santa  Clara  from  1868  to  1876,  contains  ioo,OOO  volumes, 
among  them  some  rare  Spanish  works  on  general  science,  medicine,  and 
agriculture  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 

US  101  south  of  Santa  Clara  follows  The  Alameda,  a  tree-lined 
avenue  following  the  old  road  that  linked  Mission  Santa  Clara  with  the 
pueblo  of  San  Jose  de  Guadalupe.  In  1799  Father  Magin  Catala 
planted  a  double  lane  of  willows  on  each  side  of  El  Camino  Real,  and 
in  the  years  that  followed  they  gave  a  grateful  shade  to  all  those  travel- 
ing between  mission  and  pueblo:  the  bride  and  groom  in  lumbering 
carreta,  the  mounted  fast-riding  vaquero  and  ranchero,  and  the  solemn 
marchers  to  the  cemetery. 

SAN  JOSE,  50.8  m.  (92  alt.,  62,298  pop.)    (see  San  Jose). 

i.  Right  from  San  Jose  on  First  Street  to  San  Carlos  Street;  R.  on  San 
Carlos  Street,  which  becomes  Stevens  Creek  Road,  to  the  junction  with  Bascom 


482      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Avenue,  2.9  m.  on  which  the  main  side  route  turns  L. ;  R.  (straight  ahead)  on 
Stevens  Creek  Road  1  m.  to  the  junction  with  paved  Los  Gatos  Road;  L.  here 
to  the  WINCHESTER  MYSTERY  HOUSE  (adm.  50^),  1.3  m.  This  fantastic 
structure  with  its  strange  assortments  of  roofs,  spires,  and  cupolas  contains 
143  rooms  extending  over  six  acres.  It  was  the  creation  of  Sarah  Winchester, 
widow  of  Oliver  F.  Winchester,  millionaire  manufacturer  of  firearms,  who 
purchased  upon  her  arrival  here  in  the  i88o's  the  seventeen-room  house,  then 
under  construction  on  the  site,  from  which  all  the  rest  has  evolved.  Obsessed 
with  the  idea  that  if  building  were  to  stop,  she  would  die,  Mrs.  Winchester 
kept  a  crew  of  workmen  constantly  busy  for  thirty-six  years  until  her  death 
in  1922.  The  result  was  a  structural  nightmare;  stairways  leading  to  blank 
walls,  bathrooms  with  gold-plated  fixtures  and  glass  doors,  fireplaces  without 
flues,  small  rooms  built  inside  larger  rooms  like  Chinese  puzzle  boxes,  and 
her  private  chamber,  in  which  walls,  ceiling,  and  even  the  floors  were  covered 
with  white  satin. 

The  route  follows  State  17  L.  from  the  junction  with  Stevens  Creek  Road  on 
Bascom  Avenue  to  the  junction  with  paved  Campbell  Avenue,  5.4  m.;  R.  here 
is  CAMPBELL,  0.7  m.  (195  alt,  1,800  pop.),  known  as  "The  Orchard  City." 
Here  along  Los  Gatos  Creek,  Benjamin  Campbell,  a  Kentuckian,  sold  lots  for 
the  town  in  1887,  with  the  proviso  that  the  land  should  be  forfeit  to  him  or  his 
heirs  if  liquor  were  sold  upon  it.  The  town's  three  fruit-canning  plants 
produce  annually  about  7,500,000  cans;  its  packing  plants  ship  about  150 
carloads  of  dried  fruit. 

State  17  continues  to  LOS  GATOS,  11.2  m.  (412  alt.,  3,571  pop.),  which  lies 
at  the  point  where  Los  Gatos  Creek  flows  out  of  its  narrow  canyon  into  the 
broad  fertile  valley.  Extending  along  both  sides  of  the  creek,  it  merges 
imperceptibly  into  surrounding  orchards  and  vineyards.  Curving  about  the 
town  are  two  mountain  ridges,  El  Sereno  (the  night  watchman)  and  El 
Sombroso  (the  shadowing  one).  San  Thomas  Aquinas  Creek,  a  mile  to  the 
east  was  the  boundary  of  Rancho  Rinconada  de  los  Gatos  (little  corner  of  the 
cats),  which  Jose  Hernandez  got  by  grant  from  the  Mexican  government  in 
1840  and  named  for  two  wildcats  that  he  saw  battling  in  the  neighborhood. 
The  first  building  on  the  townsite  was  a  flour  mill  built  in  1850  by  James 
Alexander  Forbes,  a  Scot  who  had  been  in  California  since  1832,  and  who  had 
served  as  British  vice-consul  at  Monterey  since  1843.  For  lack  of  water,  the 
mill  prospered  little.  The  village  that  grew  up  around  it  was  slow  to  develop 
until  the  extension  of  the  railroad  from  San  Jose  in  1877.  Its  later  growth 
has  been  steady  if  not  spectacular.  Today  Los  Gatos  subsists  on  packing 
plants  which  ship  apricots,  prunes  and  grapes  and  two  wineries  which  produce 
both  sweet  and  dry  wines.  Its  pleasant  situation  and  climate  have  attracted 
a  number  of  writers,  among  them  Charles  Erskine  Scott  Wood,  Ruth  Comfort 
Mitchell,  Sara  Bard  Field  and  John  Steinbeck. 

The  FORBES  FLOUR  MILL,  now  a  sub-station  of  the  Pacific  Gas  and 
Electric  Company,  on  the  bottom  land  of  Los  Gatos  Creek,  is  most  easily 
reached  by  crossing  a  foot  bridge  in  the  rear  of  the  Los  Gatos  Grammar 
School,  University  Ave.  between  Main  St.  and  Mullen  Ave.  The  walls, 
of  a  hard  sandstone,  are  heavily  buttressed,  and  the  lintels  are  braced  with 
redwood  timbers.  The  mill-wheel  was  turned  by  water  brought  through  a 
wooden  flume  from  a  dam  further  upstream.  Only  a  portion  of  the  original 
four-story  building  survived  a  fire  in  1872. 

Bordering  Los  Gatos  Creek,  MEMORIAL  PARK,  Main  and  Park  Sts., 
has  a  swimming  pool,  horseshoe  courts,  and  picnic  grounds  shaded  by  large 
plane  trees. 

The  mission-style  buildings  of  the  NOVITIATE  OF  THE  SACRED 
HEART,  Prospect  Ave.  above  College  Ave.,  overlook  the  town  from  a  hill. 
Founded  in  1868,  the  novitiate  is  a  training  school  for  the  Jesuit  Order. 
After  four  years  of  training  here  the  novices  go  to  St.  Michael's,  Spokane,  for 
three  years,  spend  two  or  three  years  more  in  teaching,  and  finally  four  years 
at  the  theologate  branch  at  Alma  in  the  near-by  mountains.  The  garden  has  a 


PENINSULA    TOUR      483 

replica  of  the  famous  well  of  Lourdes.  The  novitiate  owns  a  vineyard  of 
485  acres,  from  whose  grapes  it  makes  sweet  and  dry  wines. 

2.  Right  from  San  Jose  on  First  Street  to  Alma  Avenue,  R.  on  Alma  Ave- 
nue to  the  junction  with  paved  Almaden  Road,  2.1  m.;  L.  on  Almaden  Road 
across  the  Guadalupe  River  and  up  Alamitos  Valley. 

ALMADEN,  13.8  m.  (473  alt.,  20  pop.),  drowses  in  a  pocket  in  the  hills. 
Its  two  streets,  following  the  line  of  Alamitos  Creek,  are  lined  with  trees, 
chiefly  the  smooth-barked  sycamore  (Platanus  racemosa).  Behind  the  narrow 
brick  sidewalks  and  trim  hedges  are  rows  of  small  adobe  and  frame  houses 
set  in  old-fashioned  gardens. 

The  quicksilver  mines,  for  which  this  region  is  famous,  have  (with  the 
exception  of  the  mines  of  Spain)  produced  more  quicksilver  than  any  other 
field  in  the  world.  They  were  known  to  the  Indians,  who  used  the  cinnabar 
for  coloring  their  faces  and  bodies.  In  1824  Antonia  Maria  Sunol,  a  Spaniard 
who  had  been  in  the  French  navy  and  who  was  then  a  shop  keeper  in  San 
Jose,  with  Luis  Chabolla  developed  the  mine  in  a  small  way,  thinking  it  con- 
tained silver. 

Not  until  1845  did  a  Mexican  officer,  Andres  Castillero,  discover  quick- 
silver. He  realized  that  if  there  were  extensive  deposits  his  fortune  was 
made,  for  quicksilver  was  scarce  in  Mexico.  He  filed  his  claim  and,  forming 
a  partnership  with  Padre  Real  of  Mission  Santa  Clara  and  with  some  members 
of  the  Robles  family  who  had  earlier  explored  the  region,  he  engaged  an 
American  named  Chard  to  begin  reducing  the  ore.  Chard's  equipment  was 
primitive:  six  whaler's  try-pots,  three  inverted  over  the  other  three,  to  form 
a  furnace. 

Two  years  later  Castillero  sold  some  shares  to  Barron,  Forbes  and  Com- 
pany of  Tepic,  Mexico,  whose  agent,  James  Alexander  Forbes,  introduced  im- 
proved methods.  By  1850  the  mines  had  an  annual  yield  worth  $750,000.  The 
California  gold  mines  kept  up  a  steady  demand  for  the  metal,  which  was  put 
in  iron  flasks  and  taken  by  oxcart  to  tidewater  at  Alviso.  The  Comstock  boom 
added  to  the  demand.  In  1865,  the  year  of  greatest  output,  the  mine  produced 
47,000  flasks  of  mercury  with  a  value  of  $2,160,000.  That  such  production 
had  its  effect  on  the  world  market  was  shown  when  Lionel,  Baron  de  Roths- 
child, lessee  of  the  great  Spanish  mines,  came  here  as  a  visitor  in  the  sixties. 

Throughout  the  :87o's  the  mine  continued  to  be  highly  profitable.  As  many 
as  1,000  men  were  employed,  and  the  population  rose  to  6,000.  As  it  became 
necessary  to  go  deeper  for  deposits  of  cinnabar,  however,  the  cost  of  operation 
rose.  Moreover,  quicksilver  dropped  in  price.  During  the  World  War,  the 
need  for  mercury  in  making  fulminate  caps  created  a  new  boom,  and  in  1940 
the  mines  again  were  active. 

CLUB  ALMADEN,  the  former  Casa  Grande,  at  the  northern  end  of  the 
town,  is  a  large  two-story  white  house  built  of  bricks  brought  around  the  Horn 
from  Glasgow.  It  was  erected  in  1850  as  a  hotel.  When  J.  E.  Randol  became 
mine  owner  in  1870,  he  made  it  his  private  residence,  in  which  he  entertained 
lavishly.  The  drawing  room  fireplace  has  an  ornately  carved  ebony  mantel 
with  small  medallions  of  mother-of-pearl  and  painted  glass.  Back  of  the 
house  is  a  swimming  pool  (fee:  Mon.-Sat.,  swimmers  35$,  spectators  lo$;  Sun. 
and  holidays,  45$  and  75$:  barbecue  pits  and  tables). 

The  OLD  STORE  at  the  southern  end  of  the  town,  an  adobe  structure  with 
brick  corbie-steps  at  the  gable  ends,  has  been  used  continuously  since  its  erection 
about  1850.  The  main  roof,  supported  by  hand-hewn  posts,  extends  over  the 
narrow  sidewalk. 

South  of  the  old  store  is  the  half-ruined  MINE  OFFICE,  an  adobe  and 
brick  building  with  a  wooden  porte-cochere.  It  contains  a  brick  vault  where 
flasks  of  mercury  were  stored. 

A  trail  leads  south  300  yards  to  the  smelters  and  furnaces,  from  which  rise 
brick  towers  150  feet  high  built  against  the  steep  slope  of  the  canyon.  The 
cinnabar,  after  being  pounded  into  pieces  about  the  size  of  an  egg,  was  placed 
in  the  ore  bed.  When  the  fuel  was  fired,  mercury,  highly  volatile,  rose  with 
the  smoke  into  the  towers  and  passed  through  a  series  of  apertures  to  be  cooled 


484      SAN     FRANCISCO 

in  a  condensing  chamber.  By  the  time  the  smoke  reached  the  chimney,  the 
greater  part  of  the  mercury  had  been  released  and  collected. 

3.  Left  from  San  Jose  on  Santa  Clara  Street,  which  becomes  paved,  tree- 
lined  Alum  Rock  Road,  to  the  junction  with  Mount  Hamilton  Road,  6  m.,  on 
which  the  main  side  route  turns  R. 

Left  on  Alum  Rock  Road  into  the  wooded,  rocky  gorge  of  Penitencia  Creek, 
named  for  the  "house  of  penance,"  a  small  adobe  which  once  stood  on  the 
banks,  where  priests  came  to  hear  confessions. 

The  643-acre  ALUM  ROCK  PARK,  2.1  m.  (520  alt.),  owned  by  the  city 
of  San  Jose,  was  named  for  a  2oo-foot  cliff  (L)  with  a  surface  residuum  of 
alum  dust,  standing  in  the  lower  part  of  the  canyon.  Once  part  of  the  pueblo 
lands  of  San  Jose,  the  park  has  become  a  playground  landscaped  so  as  to 
enhance  the  natural  beauty  of  the  surroundings.  Before  the  arrival  of  the 
Spaniards,  the  Indians  held  their  rituals  here  twice  a  year,  bathed  in  and 
drank  the  health-giving  waters.  At  the  lower  picnic  grounds,  in  addition  to 
a  dancing  pavilion,  are  an  indoor  swimming  plunge  (open  Mar.-Nov.;  Sun., 
25$-35$>  weekdays,  l5$-25$}  and  individual  hot  sulphur  baths  (50$).  Six 
beautifully  arched,  native  rock  bridges  lead  to  the  various  points  of  interest 
above  the  auto  parking  area.  The  park's  twenty-two  mineral  springs  are 
housed  in  rock  grottos,  reached  by  trails  extending  up  the  canyon  from  the 
end  of  the  road.  Here  also  are  a  deer  paddock,  a  song-bird  aviary,  and  a 
serpentorium. 

From  the  lower  picnic  grounds  Penitencia  Creek  Trail  ascends  the  canyon 
0.2  m.  to  the  junction  with  a  trail;  L.  here  0.3  m,  to  the  JOAQUIN  MUR- 
RIETA  HIDEOUT,  a  natural  cavern  thirty  feet  long  and  four  feet  wide, 
another  of  the  countless  places  in  California  where  the  bandit  who  has  become 
the  subject  of  a  thousand  tales  is  said  to  have  concealed  himself.  The  Peni- 
tencia Creek  Trail  follows  up  the  wooded  canyon  to  the  junction  with  the 
North  Fork  Trail,  1  m.;  L.  here  0.6  m.  to  EAST  WATER  FALLS  (1,200  alt.), 
where  the  waters  of  the  creek  drop  sixty  feet  over  a  rocky  ledge.  The  North 
Fork  Trail  continues  to  INSPIRATION  POINT,  0.9  m.  (1,500  alt),  which 
affords  a  wide  view  of  the  park  and  Santa  Clara  Valley.  The  main  trail 
goes  R.  up  South  Falls  Trail  to  SOUTH  FALLS,  2.3  m. 

The  main  side  route  turns  R.  on  Mount  Hamilton  Road  from  the  junction 
with  Alum  Rock  Road  and  climbs  rugged  oak-dotted  slopes  to  the  crest  of 
MOUNT  HAMILTON  (no  accommodations),  26.4  m.,  crowned  by  silver- 
domed  LICK  OBSERVATORY  (open  Mon.-Fri.  9-5,  Sat.  Q-Q;  Apr.  15-8 ept.  15, 
Sat.  Q-ro;  Sat.  evenings,  weather  permitting,  visitors  arriving  before  9  p.m. 
may  look  through  telescopes}.  The  observatory  was  a  gift  to  the  people  of 
California  from  James  Lick,  a  Pennsylvania  piano  maker  who  had  followed 
his  trade  successfully  in  South  America.  Arriving  in  San  Francisco  in  1847 
with  a  stake  of  $30,000,  Lick  became  a  millionaire  through  land  investments 
and  miserly  practices.  Though  he  was  unkempt  in  appearance  and  his  clothes 
were  often  ragged,  he  was  capable,  occasionally,  of  lavish  spending,  as  when 
he  built  near  Alviso  a  flour  mill  finished  in  mahogany  and  other  expensive 
woods.  At  his  death  in  1876  he  left  an  estate  of  $3,000,000.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  a  small  gift  to  an  illegitimate  son,  all  this  fortune  was  devoted  to 
public  benefactions. 

Lick's  deed  of  trust  charged  the  trustees  to  expend  the  sum  of  $700,000 
"for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  land  .  .  .  and  putting  up  on  such  land  ...  a 
powerful  telescope,  superior  to  and  more  powerful  than  any  telescope  yet 
made  .  .  .  and  also  a  suitable  observatory  connected  therewith  .  .  .  The 
said  telescope  and  observatory  are  to  be  known  as  the  Lick  Astronomical  De- 
partment of  the  University  of  California."  On  June  i,  1888,  the  telescope  and 
buildings  were  completed  and  a  scientific  staff  from  the  University  of  California 
began  its  work.  Lick's  body  was  removed  from  Lone  Mountain  Cemetery  in 
San  Francisco  and  buried  in  a  crypt  beneath  the  great  36-inch  equatorial 
refractor. 

Mount  Hamilton,  named  in  honor  of  the  Reverend  Laurentine  Hamilton, 
pioneer  missionary  preacher  of  San  Jose  and  first  white  man  to  climb  the 


PENINSULA    TOUR      485 

mountain,  is  a  ridge  running  east  and  west  and  rising  to  three  peaks.  Before 
December,  1876,  when  the  county  completed  the  road  to  the  summit,  as  specified 
in  Lick's  deed  of  trust,  it  took  five  days  to  get  supplies  and  materials  from 
San  Jose.  (Even  the  completed  road,  climbing  2,000  feet,  makes  365  turns 
in  the  last  five  miles  of  its  ascent.) 

On  the  western  peak  is  the  silver-domed  main  building  of  the  observatory, 
housing  a  36-inch  and  a  i2-inch  equatorial  refractor.  The  36-inch  instrument 
has  a  magnifying  power  which  can  be  varied  from  270  to  3,000  times  that 
of  the  naked  eye.  The  main  building  contains  also  the  offices  and  computing 
rooms  and  a  technical  library  of  20,000  items.  The  movable  floor,  permitting 
a  rise  and  fall  of  16^2  feet,  was  the  first  of  the  kind  to  be  constructed.  De- 
tached buildings  house  a  36J^-inch  reflecting  telescope,  a  6^-inch  meridian 
circle  instrument,  a  6^-inch  comet-seeker,  a  photographic  telescope  and  a 
three-prism  spectrograph.  To  enable  the  staff  at  Mount  Hamilton  to  extend 
observations  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  an  observatory  with  a  ^j^-inch 
Cassegrain  reflector  is  maintained  in  Chile. 

To  most  of  the  10,000  visitors  who  each  year  go  through  the  observatory, 
the  scientists  who  use  the  mighty  telescopes  to  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  distant 
space,  recording  minute  and  seemingly  unrelated  flares  of  ancient  light  in  their 
effort  to  plot  the  courses  of  remote  stars,  are  a  crew  who  work  with  facts 
that  are  but  fantasies.  Often  graphs  and  calculi  which  have  taken  years  to 
work  out  are  required  to  account  for  a  single  flash  of  light.  During  the 
Australian  eclipse  in  1922,  the  Lick  Observatory,  with  fifteen-foot  twin  cameras, 
photographed  images  of  the  stars.  When  the  photographs  were  compared 
with  plates  made  of  these  stars  by  the  same  cameras  four  months  previously, 
a  measured  deflection  of  1.72"  was  shown:  the  gravitational  attraction  of  the 
sun  had  bent  the  light.  Thus  a  startling  theory  in  physics  had  been  proved 
in  part.  In  September,  1892,  the  big  36-inch  refractor  found  the  fifth  satellite 
of  Jupiter,  the  first  discovered  since  Galileo  turned  his  glass  to  that  planet. 
In  1904,  1905,  and  1914,  three  more  were  discovered  and  photographed  with 
the  Crossley  Reflector.  The  observatory  has  discovered  thirty-three  comets, 
4,800  double  stars,  several  score  spectroscopic  binary  stars,  and  many  hundred 
new  nebulae.  The  first  great  success  in  photographing  comets  and  the  Milky 
Way  was  achieved  here. 


CC«««««««««««CCC<«««««««C^^^^ 


San  Jose 


Information  Service:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Civic  Auditorium,  W.  San  Carlos 
and  S.  Market  Sts.  American  Automobile  Assn.  and  California  State  Auto 
Assn.,  1024  The  Alameda.  Convention  and  Tourist  Bureau,  Civic  Auditorium. 
Railroad  Station:  Southern  Pacific,  56  Cahill  St.  Bus  Stations:  Union  Bus 
Station,  25  S.  Market  St.,  for  Pacific  Greyhound  and  Peerless  Stages.  San 
Jose  Travel  Bureau,  44  W.  San  Carlos  St.,  for  Airline  Bus  Co.  and  Dollar 
Line.  Sightseeing  and  Charter  Service:  California  State  Auto  Assn.,  1024 
The  Alameda.  Taxis:  Rates  15^  first  l/2  m.,  10^  each  additional  l/2  m. 
Busses:  Pacific  City  Lines  (local  and  to  Santa  Clara),  7^.  Traffic  Regulations: 
Speed  limit  25  m.p.h.  Parking  limit  i  hr.  No  all-night  parking  in  downtown 


Accommodations:     Better-class  hotels;  many  tourist  camps. 

Art  Collections:  Oriental  Museum,  Planetarium,  Naglee  and  Park  Aves. 
Concert  Halls:  Montgomery  Theater,  Civic  Auditorium.  Dance  Halls:  The 
Balconades,  181  W.  Santa  Clara  St.  Majestic  Ballroom,  55  N.  srd  St.  Trianon 
Ballroom,  43  W.  San  Antonio  St.  Radio  Stations:  KQW  (1010  kc.),  87  E. 
San  Antonia  St.  Motion  Picture  Theaters  (first-run]  :  Three.  Amateur  and 
Little  Theaters:  Montgomery  Theater,  Civic  Auditorium.  Road  Shows:  Civic 
Auditorium. 

Auto  Racing:  San  Jose  Speedway,  Alum  Rock  Ave.  Baseball:  "Semi-pro" 
teams,  Santa  Clara  Ball  Park.  Basketball:  Civic  Auditorium.  Bowling: 
Boitano,,  F.  J.,  57  S.  Market  St.  Forman's  Arena,  409  San  Augustine  St. 
Osborne,  C.  H.,  32  W.  San  Fernando  St.  San  Jose  Bowling  Palace,  172  W. 
Santa  Clara  St.  Santone  and  Howell,  77  N.  ist  St.  Wagner,  Harry,  55  W. 
San  Carlos  St.  Boxing  and  Wrestling:  Civic  Auditorium.  Bicycle  Racing: 
Garden  City  Velodrome  (occasional  races  May-Sept.),  Wabash  Ave.  and  Olive 
Sts.  Football:  Spartan  Field  Stadium,  S.  7th  and  E.  Humboldt  Sts.  Golf: 
Hillview  Public  Golf  Course,  Tully  Rd.  and  Swift  Lane.  San  Jose  Country 
Club,  Alum  Rock  Ave.  La  Rinconada  Golf  Club,  Los  Gatos.  Los  Altos 
Country  Club,  Los  Altos.  Hiking:  Alum  Rock  Park,  Alum  Rock  Ave.  Riding: 
25  miles  of  bridle  paths  in  Alum  Rock  Park.  Stables:  Western  Riding  Acad- 
emy, San  Jose  Riding  Academy,  Braine  Riding  Academy,  Alum  Rock  Ave. 
Roller  Skating:  Auditorium  Roller  Rink,  1066  The  Alameda.  Swimming: 
Roosevelt  Junior  High  School  pool  (open  to  the  public  summer  evenings;  adm. 
35$,  Includes  suit  and  towel),  igth  St.  and  Santa  Clara  Ave.  Woodrow  Wilson 
Junior  High  School  pool  (open  during  summer],  Grant  and  Vine  Sts.  Alum 
Rock  Park,  Alum  Rock  Ave.  Tennis:  San  Jose  Tennis  Courts  (lighted],  S. 
7th  St.  and  E.  Humboldt  St.  Backesto  Park  (12  courts),  N.  i3th  and  Jackson 
Sts. 

At  the  heart  of  the  rich  Santa  Clara  Valley  lies  SAN  JOSE  (92  alt., 
62,298  pop.),  ten  miles  below  the  southern  end  of  San  Francisco  Bay. 
Center  of  a  rich  agricultural  region,  San  Jose's  busy  downtown  district 
is  dominated  by  tall  modern  office  buildings;  but  the  greater  number  of 
its  business  blocks  date  from  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Along  the  shaded  residential  streets  are  hundreds  of  well-kept,  old 

486 


SAN     JOSE      487 

frame  houses  dating  from  the  seventies  and  eighties,  set  among  trim 
lawns  and  pleasant  gardens. 

Despite  its  having  been  for  70  years  a  town  where  only  Spanish  was 
spoken,  San  Jose  has  retained  surprisingly  little  of  this  heritage.  For 
three  generations  it  has  been  predominantly  American.  The  Latin  lan- 
guages heard  most  frequently  today  are  Italian  and  Portuguese. 

In  1777  Lieutenant  Jose  Moraga,  acting  under  orders  from  Don 
Felipe  de  Neve,  selected  nine  soldiers  "of  known  agricultural  skill" 
from  the  presidios  of  San  Francisco  and  Monterey  and  five  pobladores 
(settlers)  ;  these  men  and  their  families — 66  persons — he  took  to  the  site 
chosen  for  the  pueblo  San  Jose  de  Guadalupe — about  a  mile  and  a 
quarter  north  of  the  present  center  of  San  Jose.  To  each  man  were 
given  a  homesite  and  a  small  piece  of  ground  to  till.  Although  the  soil 
was  excellent,  it  was  flooded  each  winter  by  the  Guadalupe  River.  In 
1797  the  pobladores  moved  to  a  new  location  centering  at  the  corner 
of  what  is  now  South  Market  and  West  San  Fernando  Streets.  There 
is  little  recorded  of  the  happenings  in  the  pueblo  during  the  occupancy 
of  its  original  site,  although  in  1784  "some  of  the  settlers  were  im- 
prisoned and  put  in  irons  for  refusing  to  work  on  a  house  for  the  town 
council,"  and  "two  boys  drowned  an  Indian  to  amuse  themselves,  but  in 
consideration  of  their  tender  years  were  dismissed  with  twenty-five  lashes 
administered  in  the  presence  of  the  natives." 

In  the  iSao's  the  pobladores  received  their  first  English-speaking 
settler,  Robert  Livermore,  who  moved  north  after  a  few  years  into  the 
valley  which  now  bears  his  name.  Other  Englishmen  and  Americans 
had  arrived  before  1835,  but  by  marrying  into  the  Higuera,  Galindo, 
Saiz,  and  other  influential  families  they  became  identified  with  the  native 
Californians.  Within  another  ten  years,  however,  the  Americans  had  so 
increased  that  with  the  reorganization  of  the  pueblo  after  the  American 
occupation  of  California  in  1846,  six  out  of  twelve  committee  men  were 
Americans,  as  was  the  new  alcalde. 

With  an  eye  to  the  pueblo's  future,  the  citizens  met  in  September, 
1849  and  offered  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  assembled  in  Monte- 
rey some  21  acres  "for  the  sole  purpose  of  erecting  State  buildings 
thereon."  The  offer  was  accepted.  In  December  of  that  year  the 
Legislature  met  in  an  adobe  building  at  San  Antonio  and  Market 
Streets.  Among  the  official  acts  at  that  first  session  was  the  incorpora- 
tion, March  27,  1850,  of  the  capital  city,  which  thus  became  the  first 
incorporated  community  in  California  (San  Francisco's  charter  was 
granted  three  weeks  later) . 

The  capital  was  moved  to  Vallejo  in  1852,  thence  to  Benicia,  and 
finally  to  Sacramento.  The  citizens  of  San  Jose  strove  earnestly  but 
unsuccessfully  for  its  repossession.  Victory  hove  in  sight  when  the 
Supreme  Court  decided  on  an  appeal  in  1854  that  San  Jose  was  the  legal 
capital,  but  soon  afterward  it  reversed  its  decision. 

As  early  as  1851  there  had  been  talk  of  a  railroad  to  San  Francisco, 
for  the  fare  by  stage  was  $16  and  the  cost  of  shipping  lumber  from 
Alviso,  $15  per  thousand.  The  railroad  finally  came  in  1864 — "a 


488      SAN     FRANCISCO 

proof,"  in  the  opinion  of  the  San  Jose  Mercury,  "of  American  enter- 
prise, foresight  and  determination."  Cattle  and  grain  were  still  the 
chief  products,  the  country  south  of  Gilroy  being  an  almost  unbroken 
wheat  field,  but  the  number  of  orchards  was  increasing,  and  some  vine- 
yards were  already  known,  particularly  that  of  Colonel  Naglee,  who 
had  set  out  (in  what  is  now  the  northwestern  part  of  town)  more  than 
100  varieties  of  grapes.  Within  the  city,  which  by  1870  had  a  popula- 
tion of  about  13,000,  were  carriage  and  wagon  shops,  foundries,  brew- 
eries, tanneries,  and  woolen  and  flour  mills  run  by  water  from  the 
abundant  artesian  wells.  In  this  same  year  the  State  Normal  School 
was  established.  With  the  building  of  many  new  homes,  San  Jose  began 
to  call  itself  the  "Garden  City." 

The  subdivision  of  the  great  wheat  ranches  and  the  planting  of 
orchards  continued.  San  Jose  was  shipping  more  and  more  dried  prunes 
to  the  Eastern  markets.  The  nascent  art  of  advertising  was  being  used 
to  attract  people  with  money  to  Santa  Clara  County.  In  a  ten-acre  park 
the  big  wooden  Hotel  Vendome  with  its  fat  bay  windows  was  ready  in 
1889,  "with  electric  lights  and  hot  water." 

In  1894  San  Jose's  Dr.  Charles  D.  Herrold  transmitted  a  distance 
of  60  feet  California's  first  wireless  message.  By  1909  he  had  perfected 
the  first  successful  "radio  telephone  station"  in  America,  and  by  1913 
he  was  communicating  with  the  Fairmont  Hotel  in  San  Francisco.  (Ex- 
cept during  the  World  War  this  station,  now  KQW,  has  broadcast 
without  interruption.)  Continuing  San  Jose's  reputation  for  "firsts," 
Dr.  August  Greth  in  1903  built  America's  first  dirigible,  the  85-foot 
Spirit  of  California,  which  Captain  Thomas  S.  Baldwin  flew  over  San 
Francisco.  In  the  same  year  an  ambitious  young  producer  named  Sid 
Grauman  (who  was  later  to  build  Hollywood's  Egyptian  and  Chinese 
Theaters)  opened  on  Santa  Clara  Street  a  vaudeville  house  which,  in 
deference  to  the  gentility  of  San  Jose,  displayed  the  sign,  "No  liquor  or 
cigars  will  be  allowed,  and  no  tickets  sold  to  persons  not  fit  to  be  with 
women  and  children."  Here  Al  Jolson  made  his  debut  and  Roscoe 
"Fatty"  Arbuckle  was  chore  boy  and  ticket  seller. 

San  Jose's  foremost  industry,  the  shipping  of  fresh,  dried,  and  canned 
fruit,  meanwhile  was  growing  enormously.  A  little  woodshed  in  1871 
housed  Santa  Clara  County's  first  commercial  cannery  when  J.  M. 
Dawson  and  his  wife  packed  300  cases  of  peaches,  pears,  cherries,  and 
apricots.  To  protect  a  shipment  of  fresh  fruit  sent  to  Chicago  in  1876, 
John  Z.  Anderson,  former  operator  of  a  line  of  freight  teams  between 
California  and  Nevada,  converted  a  railroad  freight  car  into  the  indus- 
try's first  "reefer,"  or  refrigerator  car,  by  packing  ice  around  boxes  of 
cherries.  Now  green-fruit-packing  houses  make  annually  large  ship- 
ments of  such  highly  perishable  fruits  as  pears,  cherries,  grapes,  apricots, 
and  prunes.  Of  the  County's  43  canneries — the  1939  output  of  which 
was  72,000,000  cans,  or  4,000  carloads — 23  are  in  San  Jose;  of  its  30 
dried-fruit-packing  plants,  half  are  in  the  city.  At  the  season's  peak 
between  15,000  and  20,000  persons  are  at  work  in  the  orchards,  can- 
neries, packing  houses,  and  drying  yards. 


SAN     JOSE      489 


POINTS  OF  INTEREST 


ST.  JOSEPH'S  CHURCH,  90  S.  Market  St.,  occupies  the  site  of 
the  original  adobe  church  built  in  1803  and  dedicated  to  San  Jose  de 
Guadalupe.  The  larger  adobe  which  replaced  this  in  1835  was  so  badly 
damaged  in  1868  that  it  was  torn  down  and  the  present  church — an 
attempt  at  the  neoclassic  in  wood,  brick,  and  plaster — erected  in  its  place. 

On  the  site  around  which  grew  the  original  pueblo  is  CITY  HALL 
PARK,  an  oval  plaza  dividing  S.  Market  St.  between  W.  San  Fernando 
and  W.  San  Carlos  Sts.  into  two  wide  parkways.  It  contains  the 
CITY  HALL,  built  in  1889,  a  three-story  building  of  red  brick  and 
cast  iron  with  an  ornate  cornice  and  a  wooden  tower  over  the  central 
doorway.  In  the  park  a  plaque  marks  the  SITE  OF  THE  FIRST 
STATE  CAPITOL,  NE.  cor.  W.  San  Antonio  and  S.  Market  Sts. 
The  adobe  capitol  building  was  60  feet  long  and  40  feet  wide,  "pro- 
tected by  a  veranda  all  round." 

A  well-preserved  relic  of  Spanish  days,  though  much  out  of  plumb, 
the  FILIPELLI  ADOBE,  243  S.  Market  St.,  built  about  1840,  stands 
in  the  rear  of  a  large  old-fashioned  frame  house  and  has  been  incor- 
porated with  an  old  one-story  clapboard  house. 

SAN  JOSE  STATE  COLLEGE,  occupying  the  26  acres  of 
WASHINGTON  PARK,  S.  Fourth,  S.  Seventh,  E.  San  Fernando, 
and  E.  San  Carlos  Sts.,  is  the  successor  to  the  State  Normal  School 
established  in  San  Francisco  in  1862,  first  in  California.  Moved  to  the 
present  site  in  1870,  it  was  burned  in  1880,  rebuilt  and  again  demol- 
ished, this  time  by  the  earthquake  of  1906.  The  present  group  of 
buildings  is  built  about  a  courtyard  surrounded  by  elms,  pepper  trees, 
and  palms.  The  college  since  1921  has  offered  a  four-year  course  with 
degrees  of  A.B.  or  B.Ed.  In  1940,  3,800  students  enrolled. 

Now  used  as  the  infirmary  of  the  San  Jose  State  College,  the 
EDWIN  MARKHAM  HOUSE,  430  S.  Eighth  St.,  is  an  old-fashioned 
residence  faced  with  clapboard.  Here  the  poet  lived  in  the  early  1870*5 
when  a  student  at  the  normal  school,  and  here  his  mother  continued  to 
live  in  later  years. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  ST.  JAMES  PARK,  N.  First,  N. 
Third,  St.  John,  and  E.  St.  James  Sts.,  is  a  bronze  MONUMENT  OF 
WILLIAM  McKiNLEY  erected  in  1902.  In  this  park  in  1933  occurred 
the  lynching  of  two  men  accused  of  the  kidnaping  and  murder  of  a 
wealthy  merchant's  son.  An  infuriated  mob  broke  into  the  jail  across 
the  street  and  brought  their  victims  to  the  park.  The  Nation  rang 
with  reverberations  over  the  incident,  heightened  when  Governor  James 
Rolph,  Jr.,  announced  his  approval  of  the  mob's  action. 

The  FOOD  MACHINERY  CORPORATION,  331  W.  Julian 
St.,  occupies  a  long,  russet-colored,  stuccoed  building.  The  corporation 
had  a  modest  beginning  in  Los  Gatos  in  1883  when  a  retired  inventor, 
John  Bean,  perfected  a  spraying  pump,  which  he  began  manufacturing 
there  and  later  in  San  Jose.  Allied  manufacturers  amalgamated  with 
Bean's  Company  until  by  1940  it  ha.d  become  a  $12,000,000  corporation, 


49O      SAN     FRANCISCO 

the  largest  manufacturer  of  equipment  for  canneries  and  orchards. 
Nailing  machines,  turbine  pumps,  milk-evaporating  equipment,  and 
maraschino-pitting  machinery  are  among  its  many  important  develop- 
ments. More  than  1,600  persons  are  employed. 

The  GARCIA  ADOBE,  in  the  rear  of  184  San  Augustin  St.,  was 
built  about  1840.  Formerly  a  residence,  later  a  barn  and  hay  loft,  it  is 
now  filled  with  rubbish.  The  adobe  walls  are  partly  faced  with  boards. 

ROSICRUCIAN  HEADQUARTERS,  Naglee  Ave.  from  Chap- 
man St.  to  Park  Ave.,  is  the  center  for  North  and  South  America  of  the 
"Ancient  and  Mystical  Order  of  the  Rosy  Cross"  (AMORC).  Claim- 
ing great  antiquity,  the  order  gives  the  names  of  Pythagoras,  St.  Francis, 
Dante,  and  Professor  Albert  Einstein  as  members.  The  buildings, 
which  include  an  auditorium,  a  lecture  hall  and  laboratories,  and  an 
oriental  museum,  are  of  concrete  in  a  bewildering  variety  of  oriental 
styles. 

The  Moorish  arches  and  buff-colored  concrete  walls  of  the  EGYP- 
TIAN TEMPLE  AND  ORIENTAL  MUSEUM  (open  Mon.-Fri. 
9-$;  Sat.  9-1;  Sun.  12-5;  Mon.  eve.  7-9)  are  finished  to  simulate 
stuccoed  walls  in  the  process  of  peeling.  Here  the  Rosicrucian  order 
has  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  old  books  and  tapestries;  Egyptian 
pottery,  tomb  images,  and  scarabs;  and  reproductions  of  an  Assyrian 
gateway  and  an  Egyptian  temple.  Visitors  are  given  free  pamphlets 
soliciting  membership,  one  of  which  has  an  introduction  signed,  "Pro- 
fundis  XIII." 

The  PLANETARIUM  BUILDING  (open  Sun.  2-5,  7:30-9; 
demonstrations  3:30  and  6;  adm.  25$,  children  /5^),  called  "The 
Theater  of  the  Skies,"  is  devoted  to  the  Rosicrucian  explanation  of  the 
roles  of  the  planets  and  stars.  The  planetarium  is  one  of  five  in  the 
United  States. 

In  the  MUNICIPAL  ROSE  GARDEN,  Naglee  and  Dana  Aves., 
whose  five  and  one-half  acres  of  formal  planting  are  intersected  by  long 
aisles  of  grass,  flourish  many  varieties  once  popular  but  now  seldom 
grown.  The  garden  is  pervaded  by  the  old-time  perfume  of  the  Centi- 
folia,  the  dusky  sweetness  of  the  Damask  (Rose  of  Lancaster),  the  acid 
freshness  of  China  roses,  the  pungency  of  the  moss  rose,  the  scent  of 
winter  apples  in  the  foliage-  of  the  sweet  briar.  Standard  and  hybrid 
teas  much  grown  50  years  ago,  Safrano,  Duchess  de  Brabant,  La  France, 
and  Captain  Christy,  are  well  represented,  as  are  the  many  newer  and 
more  striking  hybrids.  Against  the  brick  walls  grow  many  varieties 
of  climbing  roses. 

The  well-preserved,  grayish-white,  two-story  SPIVALO  ADOBE 
(private),  770  Lincoln  Ave.,  has  walls  two  feet  thick.  From  a  crum- 
bling veranda  a  double  door  between  two  seven-foot  shuttered  windows 
leads  inside,  where  a  polished  mahogany  stairway  climbs  to  the  second 
floor.  The  marble  fireplace  and  the  lumber  used  in  the  structure  were 
brought  around  the  Horn.  A  fig  tree,  8  feet  in  circumference  and  80 
feet  tall,  planted  when  the  adobe  was,  new,  stands  at  the  southeast  corner. 


SAN     JOSE      491 

The  CALIFORNIA  CANNING  AND  PACKING  COM- 
PANY, W.  end  of  W.  San  Carlos  St.,  is  the  largest  canning-packing 
plant  in  San  Jose.  The  huge  canning  and  packing  units  each  occupy 
a  modern  red-brick  building  roofed  with  dark  tin.  Salad  fruits  and 
vegetables  are  canned  the  year  round;  asparagus  from  April  to  June; 
string  beans,  from  June  to  November;  spinach  from  January  to  April. 
The  peak  season  for  apricots,  peaches,  plums,  pears,  and  tomatoes  comes 
in  July,  August,  and  September. 

The  two-story  STOCKTON  HOUSE,  Spring  and  Newhall  Sts., 
built  in  1850,  is  one  of  a  number  of  houses  cut  to  size  and  brought 
around  the  Horn  by  Commodore  Robert  F.  Stockton.  It  has  a  wide 
veranda  and,  rising  from  the  central  gable,  a  square  balustraded  turret. 


(SSXS&SSliaXSX^^ 


PART  V 
Appendices 


C«««««««^^^ 


A  Chronology  of  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Region 


1542  Nov.  1 6  (O.  S.)  Portuguese  explorer  Juan  Rodrigues  Cabrillo  en- 
ters gulf  outside  Golden  Gate  and  discovers  Farallon  Islands. 

*579  June  17.  (Julian  Calendar).  English  navigator  Francis  Drake 
lands  in  present  Marin  County  (Drake's  Bay),  and  claims  land  as 
New  Albion  for  Queen  Elizabeth. 

1595  Nov.  6.  Sebastian  Rodrigues  Cermeno  enters  Drake's  Bay  and 
names  it  La  Bahia  de  San  Francisco  for  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi. 

!6o3  Jan.  5-  Sebastian  Vizcaino  sights  extreme  southwest  point  of 
present  San  Mateo  County  and  names  it  Punta  del  Afio  Nuevo 
(New  Year's  Point). 

1769  Oct.  1 8.  Caspar  de  Portola  expedition  arrives  in  sight  of  Santa 
Cruz. 

Nov.  1-3.  Portola's  chief  scout,  Sergt.  Jose  Ortega,  discovers 
present  San  Francisco  Bay. 

Nov.  7-10.  Exploring  party  sent  out  by  Portola  expedition  traverses 
country  east  of  Bay,  probably  through  Moraga  Valley  as  far  as  San 
Pablo  Bay. 

1772  Mar.  27-28.  Golden  Gate  first  sighted  from  present  sites  of  Oak- 
land and  Berkeley  by  Capt.  Pedro  Fages  expedition  on  way  north 
from  Mission  San  Carlos  Borromeo  by  way  of  Santa  Clara  Valley. 

1775  Aug.  5.     The  San  Carlos,  first  ship  to  enter  Bay,  is  piloted  through 
Golden  Gate  under  command  of  Lt.  Juan  Manuel  de  Ayala. 

1776  Mar.  28.     Juan  Bautista  de  Anza,  arriving  at  site  of  San  Francisco 
with  colonists  from  Mexico,  selects  site  for  presidio. 

Mar.    29.     Anza    selects    site    for    Mission    San    Francisco    de    Asis 

(Mission  Dolores). 

Sept.  17.     Presidio  founded  by  Lt.  Jose  Joaquin  Moraga. 

Oct.  8.     Padre  Francisco  Palou  dedicates  Mission  San  Francisco  de 

Asis. 

1777  Jan.  12.     Mission  Santa  Clara  founded. 

Nov.  29.  Pueblo  of  San  Jose  de  Guadalupe  (San  Jose),  first  in 
California,  is  founded. 

1791  Aug.  28.     Mission  Santa  Cruz  founded. 

1792  Nov.    14.     Capt.   George   Vancouver   arrives   in   H.M.S.   Discovery, 
first  foreign  vessel  to  enter  Bay. 

J797     June  n.     Mission  San  Jose  de  Guadalupe  is  dedicated. 

1803     Aug.  12.     First  American  vessel,  Eliza,  Capt.  James  Rowan,  enters 

harbor. 
1806     Apr.  8.     Coimt  Nikolai  Rezanov  arrives  to  buy  supplies  for  starving 

Russian  colony  at  Sitka. 

1812     Sept.   10.     Fort  Ross,  Russian  trading  post,  is  dedicated. 

495 


496      SAN     FRANCISCO 

1816  Oct.  2.     Russian  commander  Otto  Von  Kotzebue  and  crew  arrive 
in  Rurik  to  gather  information  on  Spanish  settlements. 

1817  Dec.  14.     Mission  San  Rafael  Arcangel,  "hospital  mission"  for  sick 
converts  of  Mission  San  Francisco  de  Asis,  is  founded. 

1820  June  20.     Luis  Maria  Peralta  receives  grant  (Rancho  San  Antonio) 
to  vast  East  Bay  area. 

1821  Feb.    21.     Spanish    rule    overthrown    in    Mexico    City    by    Agustin 
Iturbide. 

1823     July  4.     Mission  San  Francisco  Solano  (Sonoma)  dedicated. 

1825  Mar.    26.     California    formally    declared    province    of    Republic    of 
Mexico. 

Apr.  24.     Oath  of  allegiance  to  Republic  of  Mexico  administered  at 
San  Francisco  presidio. 

1826  Nov.   6.     Capt.   Frederick   William    Beechey,    of   H.M.S.   Blossom, 
arrives  to  make  survey  of  Bay. 

1827  Jan.  27.     French   trading  ship  Le   Heros,  Capt.   Auguste   Duhaut- 
Cilly,  arrives  in  Bay. 

1829     May   5.     Spaniards   subdue    rebellious   Cosumnes    Indians    in   battle 
near  San  Jose. 

1833  Aug.    17.     Mexican    Congress    decrees    secularization    of    California 
missions. 

1834  Aug.  24.     Mission  Santa  Cruz  secularized. 

Sept.     Missions  San  Francisco  de  Asis  and  San  Rafael  secularized. 
Dec.   7.     First  ayuntamiento    (council)    organized  in   San   Francisco 
district    and    Francisco    de    Haro    chosen    first    alcalde    (mayor)    of 
pueblo  Yerba  Buena. 

1835  June  24.     Pueblo  of  Sonoma  founded. 

June  25.     William  A.   Richardson,    first   harbormaster,    erects   first 
dwelling  in  Yerba   Buena. 

1836  July    i.     Jacob   Primer  Leese   arrives   at  Yerba   Buena   and   estab- 
lishes first  retail  firm. 

1837  Dec.     Los    Meganos    Rancho   near    Mount    Diablo   granted   to   Dr. 
John  Marsh. 

Mission  San  Jose  secularized. 

1838  Feb.  ii.     Rancho  Saucelito  (Marin  County)  granted  to  William  A. 
Richardson. 

1839  Apr.   15.     Russian  government  orders  Fort  Ross  abandoned. 

1841     Dec.    30.     Hudson's    Bay    Company    establishes    agency    at    Yerba 
Buena. 

Oct.  19.     Lt.  Charles  Wilkes,  U.  S.  N.,  visits  Bay  on  hydrographic 
survey  of  Pacific  Coast. 

Nov.  4.     First  overland  immigrant  party  reaches  ranch  of  Dr.  John 
Marsh. 

1844  Mar.  8.     Capt.  John  Charles  Fremont  and  survey  party  arrive  from 
overland  journey  at  Sutter's  Fort. 

1845  July  10.     Mexican  decree  forbids  further  American  immigration. 

1846  June   14.     American  settlers  seize  Sonoma  and  raise  Bear  Flag  of 
California  Republic. 


CHRONOLOGY      497 

June  24.     First  battle  of  Bear  Flag  Revolt  fought  near  Petaluma. 
July  7.     Commodore  John  D.  Sloat  raises  American  flag  at  Mon- 
terey and  proclaims  California  annexed  to  United  States. 
July  9.     American  flag  hoisted  at  Yerba  Buena  and  Sonoma. 

1847  Jan.  2.     Battle  of  Santa  Clara  concludes  Yankee  conquest  of  north- 
ern California. 

Jan.  9.     First  issue  of  San  Francisco's  first  (and  California's  second) 

newspaper,  The  California  Star,  appears. 

Jan.  30.     Yerba  Buena  renamed  "San  Francisco." 

1848  Jan.  24.     Gold  discovered  by  James  Marshall  at  John  A.  Sutler's 
sawmill  on  American  River. 

Feb.  2.     Treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  ends  war  with  Mexico  and 

cedes  California  to  United  States. 

Apr.  3.     First  American  public  school  opened  in  San  Francisco. 

1849  Jan.  9.     First  commercial  bank  established  in  San  Francisco. 
Feb.  28.     California,  first  Gold  Rush  steamer,  arrives. 

Apr.    i.     Steamship    Oregon    inaugurates    regular    mail    service    to 

East. 

Apr.  30.     U.  S.  Army  post  established  at  Benicia. 

June  22.     Stephen  Massett  gives  first  public  entertainment  in   San 

Francisco. 

Oct.  25.     Democratic  Party  of  California  organized. 

Nov.     Moses  Chase,  Oakland's  first  settler,  arrives  in  East  Bay. 

Nov.  13.     San  Jose  becomes  capital  of  California. 

Dec.    15.     First   American    territorial    legislature    convenes    at    San 

Jose. 

Dec.    24.     First    of    six    great   fires    causes    $1,250,000   loss    in    San 

Francisco. 

1850  Population:  San  Francisco,  34,776. 

Jan.    16.     First   dramatic   performance,    The   Wije,   is   held   in    San 

Francisco. 

Feb.    18.     Legislature  creates   Bay   region  counties:   San   Francisco, 

Contra  Costa,  Marin,  Santa  Clara,  Sonoma,  Solano,  and  Napa. 

Mar.  27.     City  of  San  Jose  incorporated. 

Apr.  i.     San  Francisco  County  government  established. 

Apr.  15.     City  of  San  Francisco  incorporated. 

June   24.     San    Francisco   Typographical    Society,    city's    first    trade 

union,  is  organized. 

Sept.  9.     California  admitted  to  Union. 

Kangaroo  ferry  inaugurates  San  Francisco-East  Bay  service. 

1851  Mar.   19.     Santa  Clara  College  established    (chartered   1855). 
May   3.     San    Francisco's    fifth    and    most    disastrous    fire    destroys 
twenty-two  blocks,  causing  $12,000,000  loss. 

June  9.     First  Committee  of  Vigilance  organized. 

Aug.  31.     Clipper  ship  Flying  Cloud  slashes  time  from  New  York 

from  159  days  to  89  days,  2il/2  hours. 

1852  Jan.  5.     State  Legislature  opens  its  third  session  in  Vallejo. 
May  4.     City  of  Oakland  incorporated. 


498      SAN     FRANCISCO 

1853  Mar.  25.     County  of  Alameda  created. 

1854  Feb.  25.     State  capital  established  permanently  at  Sacramento. 
Sept.   16.     Admiral  David  Farragut  establishes  Mare  Island  Navy 
Yard. 

1855  College  of  California  (University  of  California)  incorporated. 
Feb.   23.     "Black   Friday,"   financial   disaster,   initiates   California's 
first  panic. 

Apr.  19.     San  Mateo  County  created. 

1856  May  15.     Second  Vigilance  Committee  organized. 

1857  Sept.  7.     First  Mechanics  Fair  is  held  by  Mechanics   Institute,  in 
San  Francisco. 

1859  Apr.   30.     College   of   St.   Ignatius    (University   of   San   Francisco) 
incorporated. 

Sept.  13.     Broderick-Terry  duel  helps  crystallize  anti-slavery  senti- 
ment in  San  Francisco. 

1860  Population:  San  Francisco,  56,802;  San  Jose,  4,579;  Oakland,  1,543; 
Alameda,  460. 

Apr.   14.     First  Pony  Express  rider  arrives  from  St.  Joseph,  Mis- 
souri, in  San  Francisco. 

Oct.   8.     Telegraph   line   opened   between    San    Francisco    and   Los 
Angeles. 

1861  Feb.    15.     Fort   Point,   San   Francisco   Presidio,   occupied  by   U.   S. 
troops. 

June  28.     Central  Pacific  Railway  Company  incorporated. 

Oct.  24.     Overland  Telegraph  Company  establishes  communication 

between  San  Francisco  and  New  York. 

1863  Mar.    15.     Schooner    /.    M.    Chapman,    Confederate    privateer,    is 
seized  in  Bay. 

1864  Jan.  1 6.     San  Francisco-San  Jose  Railroad  completed. 

July  5.     William  C.   Ralston  and  associates   found   Bank  of  Cali- 
fornia. 

1868  Mar.  23.     Legislature  charters  University  of  California. 

1869  May  10.     Tracks  of  Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific  joined. 
Sept.  6.     First  transcontinental  train  arrives  in  Alameda. 

1870  Population:    San    Francisco,    149,473;    Oakland,    10,500;    San   Jose, 
9,089;  Alameda,  1,557. 

Mar.    ii.     San   Jose   Teachers'   College,    California's   first   normal 
school,  permanently  established  at  San  Jose. 
Mar.  18.     Golden  Gate  Park  established. 

1871  Mills  Seminary  (now  Mills  College)  established  in  Oakland. 

1872  Mar.  7-     City  of  Alameda  incorporated. 

1873  June  2.     Ground  is  broken  for  world's  first  cable  street  railway  in 
San  Francisco. 

1875  Aug.  26..    Bank  of  California  failure  causes  local  panic,   followed 
next  day  by  drowning  in  Bay  of  president  W.  C.  Ralston. 

1876  July  4.     San  Francisco's  first  public  exhibition  of  electric  light. 
Sept.  5.     Rail  connection  with  Los  Angeles  established. 


CHRONOLOGY      499 

1877  July  23.     Anti-Chinese  sentiment  results  in  first  of  San  Francisco's 
"Sand-lot   riots,"   prompting  organization   of   Committee   of   Safety 
under  William  T.  Coleman. 

Oct.  5.     Workingmen's  Party  of  California  organized. 

1878  Apr.  I.     City  of  Berkeley  incorporated. 

1880     Population:    San    Francisco    233,959;    Oakland,    34.555;    San    Jose, 
12,567;  Alameda,  5,708. 
July  23.     Construction  of  Lick  Observatory  begins. 

1882  May  6.     President  Chester  Arthur  signs  Chinese  Exclusion  Act. 

1883  Oct.  29.     Merchants'  and  Manufacturers'  Association,  pioneer  em- 
ployers' council  in  San  Francisco,  established. 

1885     Dec.  5.     Luther  Burbank  founds  experimental  farm  near  Sebastopol. 

1890  Population:    San   Francisco,   298,997;    Oakland,   48,682;    San   Jose, 
18,060;  Alameda,  11,165;  Berkeley,  5,101. 

1891  Oct.  i.     Stanford  University  opens  to  students. 

1892  Mar.  19.     First  "Big  Game"  between  University  of  California  and 
Stanford. 

Jan.   i.     California  Midwinter  International  Exposition  opens. 

1894  Dec.  25.  First  "East-West"  football  game  (Stanford  vs.  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago)  is  played  in  San  Francisco. 

1898  May  26.  San  Francisco  electorate  accepts  new  city  charter,  author- 
izing municipal  acquisition  and  ownership  of  public  utilities  (put  into 
effect  Jan.  i,  1900). 

1900  Population:    San   Francisco,    342,782;    Oakland,   66,960;    San   Jose, 
21,500;  Alameda,  16,464;  Berkeley,  13,214. 

1901  Jan.  7-9.     Initial  step  taken  to  organize  State  Federation  of  Labor. 
July  30.     Teamsters'  Union  strike  starts  widespread  sympathy  walk- 
out. 

Dec.  1 6.     State  Building  Trades  Council  formed. 

1902  Dec.  14.     S.S.  Silvertown  begins  laying  cable  to  Honolulu. 

1904  Oct.  17.  Bank  of  Italy  (Bank  of  America)  established  by  A.  P. 
Giannini  with  capital  of  $150,000. 

1906  Apr.    1 8.     Earthquake    starts    great    fire    destroying    most    of    San 
Francisco  with  loss  of  $300,000,000. 

1907  July   8.     Mayor   Eugene    Schmitz   sentenced   to   five   years   in    San 
Quentin  Prison  for  corruption  in  office. 

1908  Dec.   7.     Abe   Ruef,  political  boss,   sentenced  to   fourteen  years   in 
San  Quentin. 

July    9.     Muir    Woods,    Marin    County,    becomes    Muir    Woods 
National  Monument. 

1909  Oct.  18.     Portola  Festival  celebrates  San  Francisco's  recovery  from 
earthquake  and  fire. 

1910  Population:   San   Francisco,   416,912;   Oakland,    150,174;    Berkeley, 
40,434;  San  Jose,  28,946;  Alameda,  23,383. 

1913  Dec.  19.     Ratification  of  Raker  Act  permits  development  of  Hetch- 
Hetchy  power  system  by  San  Francisco. 

1914  Feb.   16.     Silas  Christofferson  makes  first  airplane  flight  from  San 
Francisco  to  San  Diego. 


5OO      SAN     FRANCISCO 

1915  Feb.  20.     Panama-Pacific  International  Exposition  opens. 

1916  July  22.     Preparedness   Day  bomb   explosion  occurs   in   San   Fran- 
cisco, resulting  in  life  prison  terms  for  Thomas  Mooney  and  Warren 
K.  Billings  (Mooney  pardoned  Jan.  7,  1939;  Billing's  sentence  com- 
muted to  time  served  Oct.  16,  1939). 

1917  July   14.     Twin   Peaks  Tunnel  dedicated  in   San   Francisco. 

1919  Nov.  3.     Crissey  Field,  San  Francisco  airport,  dedicated. 

1920  Population:    San    Francisco,    506,676;    Oakland,    216,261;    Berkeley, 
56,036;  San  Jose,  39,642;  Alameda,  28,806. 

1920     July  29.     First  transcontinental  airmail  flight  from  New  York  com- 
pleted at  San  Francisco. 

Sept.  8.     Regular  airmail  service  established  between  Mineola,  N.  Y., 
and  San  Francisco. 

1922     Oct.   i.     Philo  T.  Farnsworth  establishes  laboratory  in  San  Fran- 
cisco where  principles  of  television  were  first  perfected  in  1927. 

1927  Jan.  17.     Dumbarton  Bridge  is  completed. 

May  7.     San  Francisco  Municipal  Airport  (Mills  Field)   dedicated. 
May  21.     Carquinez  Bridge  opens. 

1928  Oct.  27.     Posey  Tube,  under  Estuary,  connects  Alameda  and  Oak- 
land. 

1929  Mar.  3.     San  Mateo  Bay  Bridge  opens. 

1930  Population:    San   Francisco,    634,394;    Oakland,    284,063;    Berkeley, 
82,109;  San  Jose;  57,651;  Alameda,  35,033- 

1931  Apr.  3.     Mount  Diablo  is  made  part  of  State  park  system. 

June  9.     Construction  of  U.  S.  Naval  Air  Station  at  Moffett  Field 
(Sunnyvale)   begins   (transferred  to  Army  Air  Corps,  1935). 

1932  Jan.  8.     San  Francisco's  present  charter  is  ratified. 

1933  Oct.  12.     U.  S.  Department  of  Justice  takes  over  Alcatraz  Island  as 
Federal  penitentiary. 

1934  May  9.     Walkout  of  maritime  workers  leads  to  general  strike,  first 
in  Bay  region's  history. 

1935  Jan.  12.     Amelia  Earhart  Putnam  lands  at  Oakland  Airport  on  first 
solo  flight  from  Hawaii. 

Nov.  22.     China   Clipper  leaves  Alameda  on  first  airmail  flight  to 
Manila. 

1936  Nov.    12.     San  Francisco-Oakland   Bay  Bridge  opens    (work  begun 
July  9,  1933). 

1937  May  27.     Golden  Gate  Bridge  opened  (work  begun  Jan.  5,  1933). 
Dec.  5.     Broadway  Low  Level  Tunnel  in  Alameda  County  opens. 

1939  Jan-  J4-     Commuters  to  East  Bay  say  goodbye  to  the  ferry  boats; 
Bay  Bridge  train  service  opens  following  day. 

Feb.  1 8.  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition  opens  on  Treasure 
Island. 

1940  Apr.  21.  Funston  Avenue  approach  to  Golden  Gate  Bridge  opens. 
May  25.  Golden  Gate  International  Exposition  re-opens. 

June    14.     Holly    Courts,    San    Francisco's    first    low-cost    housing 
project,  opens. 


A    Selected  Reading    List 


Aitken,  Frank  W.     A  History  of  the  Earthquake  and  Fire  in  San  Fran- 
cisco.    San  Francisco,   1906. 

Alley,  Bowen  and  Go.     History  of  Marin  County.     San  Francisco,  1880. 

Armsby,  Leonora  Wood.     Musicians  Talk.     New  York,  1933. 

Asbury,  Herbert.     The  Barbary  Coast.     New  York,  1933. 

Atherton,  Gertrude.     Adventures  of  a  Novelist.     New  York,   1932. 

— California,  an  Intimate  History.     New  York,  1914  (rev.  ed.  1927). 

Baker,   Joseph   Eugene.     Past   and  Present    of  Alameda    County.     2    vols. 
Chicago,  1914. 

Bancroft,  Hubert  Howe.     History  of  California.     7  vols.     San  Francisco, 
1884-90. 

Popular  Tribunals.     San  Francisco,  1890. 

Barry,  T.  A.,  and  B.  A.   Patten.     Men  and  Memories  of  San  Francisco. 
San  Francisco,  1873. 

Beckman,  R.  G.     The  Romance  of  Oakland.     Oakland,  1932. 

Bolton,  Herbert  Eugene.     Anza's  California  Expeditions.     5  vols.     Berke- 
ley, 1930. 

Fray    Juan     Crespi,    Missionary    Explorer    of    the    Pacific    Coast. 

Berkeley,   1927. 

Outpost  of  Empire.     New  York,  1931. 

Brown,  John  Henry.     Reminiscences  and  Incidents  of  Early  Days  of  San 
Francisco    (1845-30}.     San  Francisco,   1886    (later  ed.   1933). 

Burbank,  Luther,  with  Wilbur   Hall.     The  Harvest   of  the   Years.     Bos- 
ton,  1927. 

California   Historical   Society.     Drake's  Plate   of  Brass,  Evidence   of  His 
Visit  to  California  in  1579.     San  Francisco,  1937. 

Chapman,    Charles    E.     A    History    of    California:    The    Spanish    Period. 
New  York,   1921    (rev.  ed.   1928). 

Chevigny,    Hector.     Lost    Empire:    the    Life    and    Adventures    of   Nikolai 
Petrovich  Rezanov.     New  York,   1937. 

Cleland,   Robert   Glass.     A   History    of   California;   the  American   Period. 
New  York,  1922. 

Cleland,    Robert    Glass,    and    Osgood    Hardy.     The    March    of    Industry. 
Los  Angeles,   1929. 

Coblentz,  Stanton  A.     Villains  and  Vigilantes.     New  York,    1936. 

Cowan,    Robert    E.     Forgotten    Characters    of    Old    San    Francisco.     Los 
Angeles,  1938. 

Cowan,  Robert  E.,  and  Robert  G.  Cowan.     A  Bibliography  of  the  History 
of  California.     3  vols.     San   Francisco,    1933. 

Crocker,  Florence   B.     Who  Made   Oakland?     Oakland,   1925. 

Cross,   Ira  B.     Financing  an   Empire.     5   vols.     Chicago,    1927. 

History  of  the  Labor  Movement  in  California.     Berkeley,  1935. 

501 


5O2      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Cummins,  Ella  Sterling.     The  Story  of  the  Files.     San  Francisco,  1893. 

Dana,  Julian.     The  Man  Who  Built  San  Francisco.     New  York,  1936. 

Dana,  Richard  Henry.  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast.  Boston,  1840 
(later  ed.  1936). 

Davis,  William  Heath.  Seventy-five  Years  in  California.  San  Francisco, 
1929. 

Dawson,  William  Leon.  The  Birds  of  California.  Los  Angeles,  1921 
(later  ed.  in  4  vols.  1923). 

De  Veer,  Daisy  Williamson.  The  Story  of  Rancho  San  Antonio.  Oak- 
land, 1924. 

Dobie,  Charles  Caldwell.     San  Francisco,  a  Pageant.     New  York,    1933. 

San  Francisco's  Chinatown.     New  York,   1936. 

Eaves,  Lucilla  M.  History  of  California  Labor  Legislation.  Berkeley, 
1910. 

Eldredge,    Zoeth    Skinner.     History    of    California.     5    vols.     New    York, 

1915. 

The  Beginnings  of  San  Francisco.     2  vols.     New  York,   1912. 

Englehardt,  Fr.  Zephyrin.  The  Missions  and  Missionaries  of  California. 
4  vols.  and  index.  San  Francisco,  1908—16  (2d  ed.  in  2  vols. 
1929-30). 

Mission  Dolores.     Chicago,  1924. 

Fages,  Pedro.     Expedition  to  San  Francisco  Bay  in  1770.     Berkeley,  1911. 

Federal  Writers'  Project.  California:  a  Guide  to  the  Golden  State.  New 
York,  1939. 

Ferrier,  William  Warren.  Ninety  Years  of  Education  in  California. 
1846-1936.  Berkeley,  1937. 

Berkeley,  California.     Berkeley,   1933. 

Font,  Fr.  Pedro.  Font's  Complete  Diary.  A  chronicle  of  the  foundation 
of  San  Francisco.  Translated  and  edited  by  Herbert  Eugene  Bolton. 
Berkeley,  1933. 

Fremont,  John  Charles.     Memoirs  of  My  Life.     Chicago,  1887. 

Genthe,  Arnold.     As  I  Remember.     New  York,  1936. 

Glasscock,  C.  B.     Lucky  Baldwin.     Indianapolis,  1933. 

Halley,  William.  The  Centennial  Year  Book  of  Alameda  County,  Cali- 
fornia. Oakland,  1876. 

Harrison,  Edward  Sanford.  History  of  Santa  Cruz  County.  San  Fran- 
cisco, 1892. 

Hart,  Jerome.     In  Our  Second  Century.     San  Francisco,   1931. 

Hittell,  John  S.  A  History  of  the  City  of  San  Francisco.  San  Francisco, 
1878. 

Hittell,    Theodore    H.     History    of    California.     4    vols.     San    Francisco, 

1885-97- 

Hoover,  Mildred  Brooke.  Historic  Spots  in  California.  Vol.  Ill:  Coun- 
ties of  the  Coast  Range.  Stanford  University,  1937. 

Hulaniski,  Frederick.     History  of  Contra  Costa  County.     Berkeley,   1917. 

Hunt,  Margaret,  and  others.  History  of  Solano  and  Napa  Counties. 
Chicago,  1926. 

Hunt,  Rockwell,  and  W.  S.  Ament.     Oxcart  to  Airplane.     Chicago,  1929. 


A    SELECTED    READING    LIST      5O3 

Hunt,  Rockwell,  and  Nellie  Van  de  Grift  Sanchez.     A  Short  History  of 

California.     New  York,    1929. 
Irwin,  William  Henry.     Pictures  of  Old  Chinatown.     New  York,  1908. 

-  The  City   That  Was.     New  York,   1906. 

Issler,  Anna  Roller.     Stevenson  at  Silverado.     Caldwell,  Idaho,   1939. 
James,  George  Wharton.     In  and  Out  of  the  Old  Missions  of  California. 

Boston,    1905    (rev.   ed.    1927). 

James,  William  F.     History  of  San  Jose.     San  Jose,   1933. 
Jepson,  Willis  Linn.     A  Manual  of  the  Flowering  Plants  of  California. 

Berkeley,  1925. 

-  The  Trees  of  California.     San  Francisco,  1909  (2d  ed.  1923). 
Jordan,    David    Starr,    ed.     The    California    Earthquake    of    1906.     San 

Francisco,   1907. 
Kroeber,  Alfred  L.     Handbook   of  the  Indians  of  California.     Bureau  of 

American  Ethnology,  Bulletin  No.  78,  Washington,  D.  C.,   1925. 
Lewis,  Oscar.     The  Big  Four.     New  York,   1938. 

Lewis,  Oscar,  and  Carroll  D.  Hall.     Bonanza  Inn.     New  York,  1939. 
Lloyd,  Benjamin  E.     Lights  and  Shades  in  San  Francisco.     San  Francisco, 

1876. 

London,  Joan.     Jack  London  and  His  Times.     New  York,  1939. 
Lyman,  George  D.     John  Marsh,  Pioneer.     New  York,   1934. 

-  Ralston  s  Ring.     New  York,   1937. 

Merrit,  Frank  Clinton.     History  of  Alameda,  California.     Chicago,   1928. 
Morphy,  Edward.     The  Port  of  San  Francisco.     Sacramento,   1923. 
Murphy,  Celeste  C.     The  People  of  the  Pueblo,  ort  the  Story  of  Sonoma. 

Sonoma,   Calif.,   1935. 
Nelson,   Nels  Christian.     Shellmounds   of  the  San  Francisco  Bay  Region. 

Berkeley,  1909. 

Neuhaus,  Eugen.     The  Art  of  Treasure  Island.     Berkeley,  1939. 
Neville,  Amelia  Ransome.     The  Fantastic  City.     Boston,  1932. 
Nevins,   Allan.     Fremont,  Pathmaker   of  the   West.     New  York,    1939. 
Northern  California  Writers'   Project.     Festivals  in  San  Francisco.     San 

Francisco,   1939. 
Older,  Fremont.     My   Own  Story.     San  Francisco,    1919    (later  ed.   New 

York,   1926). 
Palou,   Fr.    Francisco.     Historical  Memoirs    of  New    California.     4   vols. 

Translated  and  edited  by  Herbert  Eugene  Bolton.     Berkeley,  1926. 
Parsons,  Mary  Elizabeth.     The  Wild  Flowers  of  California.     San  Fran- 

cisco,   1902    (later   ed.    1914). 
Pennell,  Joseph.     San  Francisco,  the   City   of  the   Golden    Gate.     Boston, 


Phillips,  Catherine  C.     Portsmouth  Plaza.     San  Francisco,   1932. 
Potter,  Elizabeth  Gray.     The  San  Francisco  Skyline.     New  York,   1939. 
Prieto,  Guillermo.     San  Francisco  in  the  Seventies.     San  Francisco,   1938. 
Richman,    Irving    B.     California    under    Spain    and    Mexico,    1535-1847. 

Boston,   1911. 
Rider,    Fremont,    ed.     Rider's    California:    a    Guidebook    for    Travelers. 

New  York,  1925. 


5O4      SAN     FRANCISCO 

Rosskam,   Edwin.     San   Francisco,   West   Coast  Metropolis.     New   York, 

1939- 

Rourke,  Constance  M.     Troopers  of  the  Gold  Coast.     New  York,   1928. 

Royce,  Josiah.  California  from  the  Conquest  in  1846  to  the  Second 
Vigilance  Committee  in  San  Francisco  (1856}.  Boston,  1886  (later 
ed.  1892). 

Sawyer,  Eugene  Taylor.  History  of  Santa  Clara  County.  Los  Angeles, 
1929. 

Scherer,  James  A.  B.     The  Lion  of  the  Vigilantes.     Indianapolis,   1939. 

Shuck,  Oscar  Tully.     Bench  and  Bar  in  California.     San  Francisco,  1889. 

Soule,  Frank,  John  H.  Gihon,  and  James  Nisbet.  The  Annals  of  San 
Francisco.  New  York,  1855. 

Stanger,  Frank  M.     History  of  San  Mateo  County.     San  Mateo,  1938. 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis.     The  Silverado  Squatters.     London,    1883. 

Stewart,  George  Rippey.     Bret  Harte,  Argonaut  and  Exile.     Boston,  1931. 

Stoddard,  Charles  Warren.  In  the  Footprints  of  the  Padres.  San  Fran- 
cisco, 1902  (rev.  ed.  1912). 

Taylor,  Bayard.  Eldorado:  or  Adventures  in  the  Path  of  Empire.  New 
York,  1850  (rev.  ed.  1882). 

Thompson,  Ruth,  and  Chef  Louis  Ranges.  Eating  Around  San  Francisco. 
San  Francisco,  1937. 

Todd,  Frank  Morton.  The  Story  of  the  Exposition  (Panama-Pacific  In- 
ternational). 5  vols.  New  York,  1921. 

Tuomey,  Honoria.     History  of  Sonoma  County.     Chicago,  1926. 

Walker,  Franklin.     San  Francisco's  Literary  Frontier.     New  York,   1939. 

Wallace,  W.     History  of  Napa  County.     Oakland,  1901. 

Wells,  Evelyn.     Champagne  Days  in  San  Francisco.     New  York,   1939. 

White,  Stewart  Edward.     Old  California.     New  York,  1937. 

Williams,  Mary  Floyd.  History  of  the  San  Francisco  Committee  of  Vigi- 
lance of  1851.  Berkeley,  1921. 

Woon,  Basil.     San  Francisco  and  the  Golden  Empire.     New  York,  1935. 

Wright,  Benjamin  C.  Banking  in  California  1849-1910.  San  Francisco. 
1910. 

San  Francisco's  Ocean  Trade,  Past  and  Future.  San  Francisco, 

1911. 

Young,  John  P.  San  Francisco:  A  History  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Metropolis. 
2  vols.  Chicago,  1912. 

History  of  Journalism  in  California.     San  Francisco,   1915. 


3&3K&^^^ 


Index 


Abas,  Nathan,   144 

Abbey,  the,  Oakland,  390 

Academy  of  Sciences,  343 

Adams,  Edson,    381 

Adams,  Edward  F.,   182 

Adams  Express  Company,  212 

Adams,  Maude,   138 

Adelphi  Theatre,   136,   137 

Administration      Building,      Alameda, 

4i3 

Adobes:  Alvarado,  419;  Alviso,  429, 
434;  Bernal,  429;  Castro,  417; 
Garcia,  490;  Higuera,  434;  Hooper, 
468;  Juarez,  455;  Las  Juntas,  420; 
Murphy,  site,  444;  oldest  in  San 
Francisco,  311;  Smith,  441;  Spivalo, 
490;  Vallejo,  451 

Aeolian  Yacht  Club,  Alameda,  412 
Aeronautical  research,  54;  Laboratory, 

Mountain  View,  478 
Agnew  State  Hospital,  478 
Agricultural  Hall  U.  C.,  402 
Agriculture,  U.  S.  Bureau,  Laboratory, 

417 

Agua  Caliente,  433,  452 
Airports:  Alameda,  408,  411;   Benton 

Field,    411;     Hamilton    Field,    445; 

Moffett    Field,    478;    Oakland,    375, 

392,  409;   San  Francisco,  81,  463 
Aitken,  Robert  Ingersoll,  70,  180,  335 
Alameda:    general    information,    408; 

history,  408,  411;  points  of  interest, 

4",  4i3 

Alameda  Canyon,  19 
Alameda  County  Courthouse,   386 
Alameda  County  Zoological   Gardens, 

392 

Alameda,  steamer,  32 
Alameda  Wharf,  32 
Alamo,  416 
Alamo  Square,  288 
Alaska  Packers,  33,  410 
Albany,  417 
Albers  Brothers  Milling  Co.,  Oakland, 

383 

Albino   redwood,  438 
Albion,   13 

Albro,  Maxine,  73,  249 
Alcalde,  161 

Alcatraz  Island,  7,  305,  358,  362,  364 
Alemany,  Joseph   Sadoc,   52,   149,  228, 

246,  291,  481 


Alexander  Building,  196 

Alhambra  Theater,  137 

Allen  Company,  314 

Allied  Arts  Guild,  Menlo  Park,  471 

Alma,  482 

Almaden,  483 

Alta  California,  21,  23 

Alta  California,  65,  150,  212 

Alta  Plaza,  295 

Altimira,  Jose,  20,  449 

Alum  Rock  Park,  484 

Alvarado,  431 

Alvarado,  Juan  Bautista,  24,   97,   364, 

419,  43i,  453 
Alviso,  478 
Alviso,  Agustin,  431 
Alviso,  Joseph  Maria,  466 
Alvord  Lake,   354 
Alvord,  William,  343 
Amador,  428 

Amador  Hotel,  Dublin,  428 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  120 
American-Hawaiian  Line,   34 
American  Railways  Union,   122 
American  Smelting  and  Refining   Co., 

422 

American  Theater,  136 
American  Trust  Co.,   189 
Amores,  Juan,  477 
Amundsen,  Roald,  349 
Anderson,  John  Z.,  488 
Anderson,  Maxwell,  139 
Anderson,  Melville  Best,  472 
Angel  de  la  Guarde,  319 
Angel  Island,  7,  305,  364,  366 
Anglers'  Lodge,  350 
Anglo  California  National  Bank,  201 
Anne  Bremer  Memorial  Library,  259 
Ano  Nuevo  Island,  323 
Anthony,  Elihu,   146 
Antioch,   19,  424 
Anza,  Juan  Bautista  de,   19,  310,  416, 

433 

Apostoli,  Fred,  240 
Aquarium,  Steinhart,  345 
Aquatic   Park,    65,   73,    304;    Berkeley, 

396 

Aqueduct,   Hetch  Hetchy,    164 
Arboretum,  351 
Archery  Club,  Oakland,  386 
Arch  Rock,  359 
Arenas,  Cayento,  463 


505 


506      INDEX 


Arguello,  Luis  Antonio,  275,  439 

Arguello,  Maria  Concepcion,  459 

Armory  Hall,  217 

Armour,  P.  D.,  463 

Armstrong  Park  &  Forest  Theater,  448 

Army:  Day,  312;  Forts,  Baker,  436; 
Barry,  436;  Funston,  325;  Mason, 
306;  McDowell,  365;  Miley,  314, 
318;  Scott,  312;  Letterman  Hospital, 
310;  National  Cemetery,  311;  Ninth 
Corps  Area,  306,  310,  358;  Presidio, 
X9>  3°8,  3IO>  Seventh  Corps  Area, 
306;  Signal  Corps,  312;  Thirtieth 
Infantry,  312;  Transport  Docks, 
307;  Veterans  Administration,  317, 
430,  470 

Arnautoff,  Victor,  72,  249 

Arroyo  de  la  Laguna,  430 

Arroyo  de  las  Nueces,  415 

Art  Association,    San    Francisco,    69, 

255,  479  . 

Art  Commission,  308 

Art  Galleries:  Courvoisier,  188; 
Crocker,  66;  Golden  Gate  Park, 
339;  Mills  College,  Oakland,  69, 
386;  San  Jose,  486;  Stanford,  475; 
U.  C.,  402 

Artichokes,  466 

Art  Studio  of  Chingwah  Lee,  232 

Associated,  423 

Associated  Students,  U.  C.,  405 

Association  of  Pioneer  Women,  347 

Astronomical     Association,     Oakland, 

392 
Atchison,  Topeka,   and   Santa  Fe  Ry., 

4i 

Atherton,  470 
Atherton,  Faxon  D.,  470 
Atherton,  Gertrude,  63,  470 
Atkinson  House,  258 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railway,  268 
Atlas  Diesel  Engine  Co.,  40 
Atlas  Powder  plant,  Giant,  419 
Auction  Lunch,  256 
Aughinbaugh,  Gideon,  409 
Aulone  Isle,   359 
Aurandt,  Dick,  145 
Austin,  Mary,  254 
Automobile  Row,  282 
Aviation  Museum,  Berkeley,  397 
Avon,  423 
Ayala,  Juan   Manuel   de,    19,   30,   263, 

3i9,  357,  362,  364,  436,  453 
Ayuntamiento,  97 

Bacigalupi,  James  A.,  240 
Bacon,  Ernst,  14*5 
Bacon  Hall,  U.  C.,  405 
Baden,  462 

Baden  Kennel  Club,  462 
Bahia  de  los  Pinos,  359 


Bahia  de  Puerto  de  San  Francisco,  359 

Bailey,  Gardiner,  471 

Baker,    Edward    Dickinson,    104,    294, 

3H 

Baker's  Beach,  313 
Bakewell  and  Brown,  292 
Bakewell,  John,  Jr.,   166,  202 
Bald  Peak,  8 

Baldwin  Academy  of  Music,  138 
Baldwin,  A.  S.,  281 
Baldwin,  E.  J.  "Lucky",  118,  138,  180, 

253,  332 

Baldwin  Hotel,  180 
Baldwin  Theater,  138,  176 
Baldwin,  Thomas  S.,  488 
Bal  Tabarin,  244 
Baltimore  Park  Grove,  439 
Bancroft  Building,  189 
Bancroft,   Hubert   Howe,   97,    189,   404 
Bancroft  Library,  U.  C.,   55,   190,  404 
Bank  clearings,    120 
Bank   Commissioners,   State  Board  of, 

118 

Bank  Exchange,  129 
Bank   of   America,    119,    180;    oriental 

branch,  234 
Bank  of  California,  105,  116,  118,  198, 

218 

Bank  of  Canton,  119 
Bank  of  Italy,  119 
Bank  of  Nevada,  118 
Baptists,  150 

Barbary  Coast,  102,  106,   no,   134,  214 
Barnes,  Matthew,  73 
Bar  Pilots  Station,  267 
Barrett,  Lawrence,  137 
Barrington  Hall,  Berkeley,  398 
Barren,  E.  W.  Timothy,  470 
Barron,  Forbes  and  Company,  483 
Barry,  T.  A.,  237 
Barry,  William  F.,  436 
Barrymore,  Ethel,  138;  Maurice,  138 
Bartell,  Dick,  412 
Bartlett  Vines,  455 
Bartlett,  Washington  A.,  98,   161,  206, 

3^9)  463 

Baseball  Player   Statue,   336 
Bashkrovsky,  Theopolis,  302 
Basketball  Pavilion,  354 
Baths,   Alum   Rock   Park,   484;    Sutro, 

320 

Battery  Yerba  Buena,  306 
Battle  of  the  Waterfront,  381 
Battle  Row,  215 
Bay,   San  Francisco,  4,   16 
Bay  Bridge    (see    San   Francisco-Oak- 
land  Bay  Bridge) 

Bay  Cities    Cemetery   Association,    282 
Bay  Farm   Island,    Oakland,   392,   409 
Bay  Meadows  Racetrack,  465 
Bay  Point,  423 


INDEX      507 


Baylard,  E.  C.,  322 

Baylard  House,  465 

Bayshore  Cut-off,  45 

Beach  Chalet,  349 

Beaches:  Aquatic  Park,  65,  73,  304; 
Baker's,  313;  China,  314;  McNear's, 
445;  Neptune,  412;  Ocean,  323; 
Stinson,  437,  466 

Bean  Hollow  Lagoon,  466 

Bean,  John,  489 

Bear  Flag  Revolt,  26,  48,  450;  Monu- 
ment, 450 

Beechey,  Frederick  W.,  366 

Beethoven  Monument,  342 

Belasco,  David,  138 

Belding  Thread  Silk  Mill,  446 

Belfast,  brig,   31,  263 

Bell,  Alexander  Graham,  43 

Bell,  Thomas,  298,  299 

Bella  Union,  137,  206,  319 

Belmont,  467 

Belt  Line  Railroad,  242,  260,  263 

Belvedere  Island,  7,  437 

Benard,  Emile,  399 

Bender,  Albert  M.,  259,  391 

Bender  Art   Collection,   Berkeley,   402 

Benicia,  423,  457~459 

Benicia  Seminary,  52,  458 

Benjamin,  S.  G.  W.,  68 

Benton  Field,  411 

Bercigliari  Guards,  239 

Bergin,  Thomas  I.,  481 

Bergman,  S.  W.,  185 

Berkeley:  general  information,  393; 
history,  394-396;  points  of  interest, 
396-407;  University  of  California, 
399-407 

Berlandina,  Jane,  71,  73,  249 

Bernal,  Augustin,  429 

Bernal,  Jose,  415 

Bernhardt,    Sara,    133 

Berryesa,  Jose,  27 

Bethlehem  Steel  Company,  Alameda, 
410;  Shipyards,  San  Francisco,  276 

Better  Business  Bureau,  81 

Bible  collection,  184 

Bidwell-Bartleson  party,  416 

Bidwell,  John,  455 

Bierce,  Ambrose,  59,   153 

Bierstadt,  Albert,  67 

Big  Basin,  479 

Big  Bonanza,  117 

Big  C,     U.  C.,  406 

Big  Five,  203 

Big  Four,  41,  104,  381 

Bigelow,  H.  D.,  154 

Bigler,  John,  152 

Billings,  Warren  K.,  124,  203 

Biological  Survey,  U.  S.,  387 

Birds,  ii ;  exhibit,  344 

Biscaccianti,  Eliza,  137 


Black  Cat,  134 

Black  Diamond,  424 

Black  Friday,  115,  195 

Black,  James,  441 

Black,  Jeremiah  S.,  358 

Black  Point,  306,  448 

Blakiston,  Duncan  C.,  286 

Blanch,  Arnold,  72 

Blind,  home  for,  Oakland,  388;  school 

for,  Berkeley,  398 
Blinn,  Holbrook,  51,  472 
Bliss  and  Faville,  182,  198,  203 
Block,  Ernest,  145 
Bloody  Thursday,  125 
Blossom  Festival,  479 
Blue  Book  Union,  124 
Blue  Mountain,  281,  288 
Blue  Wing  Hotel,  450 
Blunts,  Reef,  367 
Boalt  Hall,  U.  C.,  402 
Boalt,  John  Henry,  404 
Board  of  Supervisors,  163 
Boathouse,  Oakland,  386 
Bodega,  441 

Bodega  Bay,  21,  24,  361,  441 
Bodega  y  Cuadra,  San  Francisco,  441 
Boggs,  Lilburn  W.,  450,  459 
Bohemian    Club,    San    Francisco,    69, 

133,   182,  448 

Bohemian  Grove,  183,  448 
Bohemianism,  241 

Bolinas,  437;  Lagoon,   18;  Ridge,   8 
Bolton  and  Barron  Building,  211 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  first  use  of, 

441 

Booth,  H.  J.,  277 
Borica,  Diego  de,  306 
Borthwick,  J.  D.,  127 
Botanical  Gardens,  U.  C.,  407 
Botanical  Library,  351 
Bottari,  Vic.,  240 
Bottle  Meier's  resort,  216 
Bowles  Rhododendrons,  337 
Bowling  Greens,  353 
Bowman,  James,  183 
Boyes,  Henry  Ernest,  452 
Boyes  Hot  Springs,  452 
Boynton,  Ray,  72,  248 
Boy  Scouts,  Oakland,  389 
Boys'  Day,  Japanese,  284 
Brangwyn,  Frank,  168 
Brannan,  Samuel,  98,  114,  456 
Branner,  John  C.,  476 
Braque,    Georges,    74 
Bray  House,  Santa  Clara,  480 
Breaker  Hill,  359 
Breuer,  Henry  Joseph,  69 
Brico,  Antonia,  144 
Broadway  Low  Level  Tunnel,  45,  415 
Broadway  Terrace,  Oakland,  377 
Broadway  Wharf,  31,  264 


508      INDEX 


Broderick,    David    C.,    103,    152,    207, 

294,  326 

Broderick-Terry  Duel,  208,  326 
Bronson,  Mother,  265 
Brooklyn,  382 
Brooks  Island,  358 
Broom  Point,  347 
Brother  Leo,  451 
Bridge  Tree,  438 
Bridges,  Harry,  125 
Brothers  of  the  Christian  Schools,  415 
Brown,  Arthur  Paige,  268 
Brown,  Bothwell,  295 
Brown,  Charles,  468 
Brown,  Mrs.  Edmund  N.,  281 
Brown,  Elam,  415 
Brown,  John,  479 
Brown,  Arthur,  Jr.,  166,  167,  168,  248, 

368 

Brown,  Mary,  479 
Brown,  W.  E.,  336 
Browne,  Al,  412 
Brown's  Lodge,  John,  479 
Bruton,  Helen,  402 
Bruton  sisters,  256 
Bucareli,  Antonio,   19 
Buckelew,  Benjamin,  439 
Buckelew  Sawmill,  442 
Bucket  of  Blood,  176 
Buckeye  Point,  445 
Buckley's  Adelphi  theater,  137 
Buckley,  "Blind  Chris,"   106,  225 
Buckley,  John,  321 
Buddha's  birthday  celebration,  284 
Buddhist   Church,    284,   298;    Mission, 

298 ;  Temple,  Sonoma,  448 ;  Temple, 

Oakland,  386 
Buelna,  Antonio,  466 
Buena  Vista  Heights,  278 ;  Tunnel,  45 
Buena  Vista  Hill,  288 
Buena  Vista  Park,  278 
Bueno,  Cabrera,  18 
Bufano,  Beniamino,  65,  74,  227 
Buffalo  enclosure,   348 
Building' Trades  Council,  123 
Bulletin,  109,   154 
Burbank,  Luther,  447,  451;   Memorial 

Gardens,  447 
Burdell,  Salem,  321 
Bureau  of  Mines,  U.  S.,  173 
Burgess,  Gelett,  62,  254 
Buriburi  Ridge,  7 
Burk  Grammar  and  Training  School, 

286 

Burkhart,  W.  N.,  155 
Burlingame,  463 
Burlingame,  Ansofi,  464 
Burlingame  Country  Club,  464 
Burlingame  Treaty,  464 
Burnett,  Peter  H.,  365 
Burnham  and  Root,  191,  196 


Burnham,  Daniel  H.,   161,  164 
Burns,  Farmer,  412 
Burns,  William  J.,  289 
Burns  Monument,  70,  338 
Burr,  E.  W.,  469 
Bush  Street  Theatre,  137 
Butchertown,  113 
Byce,  Lyman  C.,  446 

Cable  car,  42;  turn-table,  180 

Cable,  trans-Pacific,  43 

Cabrillo  expedition,  359 

Cachinetac,  468 

Cactus  Garden,  Stanford,  472 

Cadorin,   Ettore,   370 

Cahil  Ridge,  466,  469 

Calaveras  Reservoir,  434 

Calendar    of    events,    75-78 ;     Golden 

Gate  Park,  334 
Calhoun,  Patrick,   123 
Calico,  Jim,  266 
California:  admitted  to  union,  24,  102; 

independence,  27 

California  Academy    of    Sciences,    343 
California  Alumni  Association,   U.  S., 

405 
California  Beet    Sugar    Refining    Co., 

422 

California  City,  437 
California  College,  55,  382,  399 
California  College  of  Arts  and  Crafts, 

Oakland,  388 
California  Courier,  151 
California  Dry  Dock  Co.,  277 
California  Electric  Light  Co.,  44,   202 
California  Fruit  Canners  Assn.,  38 
California  Hall,  U.   C.,  404 
California-Hawaiian    Sugar    Refining 

Corp.,  38,  422 

California   Historical   Society,   169 
California  House,  Benicia,  459 
California  Illustrated  Times,  151 
California  Mid-Winter     International 

Exposition,  106,  332,  338 
California  Nautical    School,    169,    437 
California  Packing    Corp.,    38 ;    plant, 

Alameda,  410 
California  Palace    of    the    Legion    of 

Honor,  68,  70,  315 
California  Republic,  26,  48,  450 
California  School  for  Blind,  Berkeley. 

398 
California  School  for  Deaf,    Berkeley, 

398 

California  School  of  Fine  Arts,  72,  259 
California   Spring  Blossom   and  Wild- 
flower  Assn.,  352 
California  Star,  99,  150,  233 
California  State     Chamber     of     Com- 
merce,   196 
California  State  Redwood  Park,  479 


California  State  Telegraph    Co.,   43 

California  State  training  ship,  437 

California,  steamer,  30,  100 

California  Steam  Navigation  Co.,  276 

California  Street  cable,  42 

California  Theater,  137 

California,  U.  S.  S.,  453 

California  volunteers,  314 

Californian,  57,  150,  457 

Cali-Shasta,  390 

Calistro,  Jose,  440 

Call,  57,  1 06 

Call  Building,  193 

Call-Bulletin,  73,  154,  193 

Call  of  the  Wild,  61 

Calle  de  la  Fundacion,  204 

Calvary  Presbyterian  Church,  296 

Cameron  Alley,  232 

Cameron,  Basil,  143 

Cameron,  Donaldina,  231 

Camino  Real,  19 

Campanile,  U.  C.,  56,  404 

Campbell,  482 

Camp  Taylor,  440 

Canada  del  Diablo,  467 

Canada  del  Hambre,  420 

Canning  industry,  38;  Campbell,  482; 
San  Jose,  491 ;  San  Leandro,  425 

Canoe  house,  Oakland,  387 

Cantin,  A.  A.,   194 

Caperon,  Paulin,  477 

Capital  city,  San  Jose,  487 

Capitol  Building,  Benicia,  458 ;  site, 
Vallejo,  454 

Capone,  Al.,  362 

Caredio,   Primo,    349 

Carillo,  Joaquin,  447 

Carmelite  Monastery,  Santa  Clara, 
480 

Carnegie  Institute  Laboratory,  Stan- 
ford, 476 

Carpentier,  Horace  W.,  381 

Carquinez  Bridge,  46,  422,  423 

Carquinez  Strait,  99,  422 

Carroll,  Richard,  276 

Carson,   Kit,   27 

Casa  Grande,  Almaden,  483 

Casa  Grande,  Petaluma,  446 

Casey,  James  P.,  102,  212,  275 

Casey,  Michael,  123 

Casino,   Aquatic   Park,    304 

Castaneda,  Juan,  447 

Castillero,  Andres,  483 

Castillo  de  San  Joaquin,  97,   306,  312 

Castle,   Frank,    145 

Castro,  Jose,  27;  Mariano,  478;  Fran- 
cisco Maria,  417,  419;  Guillermo, 
428;  Simeon,  467;  Victor,  417,  453 

Catala,  Magin,  481 

Caterpillar  Tractor  Company,   39 

Catholic  Church,  148-149 


INDEX      5O9 

Cavill,   Sid,    183 

Cement  Plant,  Permanente,  478;  Red- 
wood City,  468 

Cemeteries:  Calvary,  295;  Chinese, 
462;  Cypress  Lawn,  295,  462;  Greek 
Orthodox,  462;  Holy  Cross,  462; 
Italian,  462;  Japanese,  462;  Laurel 
Hill,  294;  Lawndale,  292,  461;  Lone 
Mountain,  308,  484;  Mission  Do- 
lores, 275;  Mountain  View,  389; 
National  Military,  311;  Odd  Fel- 
lows, 292,  295;  St.  Marys,  389; 
Serbian,  462;  Sonoma,  452;  Yerba 
Buena,  163 

Centerville,  431 

Central  Emergency   Hospital,    168 

Central  Hotel,  San  Rafael,  444 

Central  Labor   Council,   123,   125 

Central  Pacific  Railroad,  34,  41,  104, 
203,  268,  381 

Central  Terminal    Building,   268 

Central  Tower,  190 

Central  Wharf,  264 

Cermeno,   Sebastian,   357,  361 

Cervantes  Monument,  338 

Chabolla,  Luis,  483 

Chabot  Observatory,  Oakland,  391 

Chain  of  Lakes,  348 

Chain  Locker,  266 

Chalet,  Park,  349 

Chamber  of  Commerce,  124;  Chinese, 
229 

Chamberlain,  S.  S.,  153 

Champagne  winery,  first,  479 

Chapel  of  Our  Lady  of  Moraga,  415 

Chapman  family,  137 

Charter:  first,  162;  freeholders,  163; 
new,  no,  165 

Charter  Hill,   U.   S.,  406 

Chase  Home,  Oakland,  389 

Chase,    Moses,    380 

Chellis,  John  F.,  443 

Chess  pavilion,   354 

Chicken  Pharmacy,  Petaluma,  446 

Children's  Playground,   353 

Children's  Theater  Association,   139 

China  Association,  230 

China  Basin,  261 

China  Beach,  314 

China  Camp,  445 

China  Theater,  Great,  234 

Chinatown,  220-235;   Oakland,   379 

Chinese:  Chamber  of  Commerce,  229; 
Children's  Playground,  230;  Con- 
solidated Benevolent  Assn.,  230;  Ex- 
clusion Act,  121,  224;  Hospital,  230, 
231;  Labor,  33,  104,  121;  Nationalist 
Party,  229;  New  Year,  75;  Presby- 
terian Church  Mission  Home,  23 ; 
restaurants,  86;  school,  228;'  Six 
Companies,  220,  227,  230;  Tele- 


5IO      INDEX 

phone  Exchange,  233;  Theaters, 
139;  YMCA,  222;  YWCA,  222 

Chinese  Nationalist  Daily,  230 

Chipman,  W.  W.,  409 

Chong,  Fong,  225 

Choris,   Louis,   15 

Chronicle,  105,   152;   Building,    179 

Chronology  of  Bay  Region,  495,  500 

Chrysanthemum  Culture,  Belmont,  467 

Chrysler  plant,  39 

Chrysopylae,  98 

Churches:  49,  52,  J45-I49,  W  179, 
183,  185,  222,  224,  227,  232,  233, 
245,  246,  247,  257,  271,  284,  289, 
290,  292,  293,  295,  296,  297,  298, 
299,  300,  301,  302,  303,  384,  388, 
415,  428,  444,  447,  456»  459,  465» 

473,    489 

Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem,   293 
Church  of  SS.  Peter   and  Paul,   247 
Church,  Thomas  D.,  168,  369 
Cider  Press  Monument,  341 
Cioppino,  251 
Cipriani,  Leonetto,  467 
Circus    Lounge,    Fairmont    Hotel,    256 
Citizens'  Military  Training  Camp,  312 
City    and    County    of    San    Francisco, 

merger,  163 

City  Front  Federation,  122 
City  Front  Labor  Council,  122 
City  Hall,  165,  207,  208;  Oakland,  384 
City  Hall  Park,  San  Jose,  489 
City  Hotel,  206 
City  of  Paris,   187 
City  Park,  Burlingame,  465 
City  Park,  Santa  Clara,  480 
City  prison,  209 
Civic  Auditorium,  144,  167 
Civic  Center,  161 ;  Plaza,  167 
Civic  Repertory  Theater,   139 
Claremont  Hotel,  Berkeley,  398 
Claremont  Pines,  377 
Clark,  William  S.,  259,  263 
Clarke,  Thomas  S.,  341 
Clark's  Point,   31,  204,  238,  263 
Clay,  C.  C,  185 
Clearing  House,   118 
Cleary,  Alfred  J.,  165 
Clemens,   Samuel,   57 
Cliff   House,   321 
Clift  Hotel,  182 
Climate,  9;    Oakland,   377 
Clinton,  382 

Clipper  planes,  35,  47,  370 
Clipper  ships,  33 
Club  Almaden,  483 
Coast  Defense,  312 
Coast  Guard  Stations,  U.  S.,  348,  413, 

441 

Coast  Range,  8,  10 
Coast  Seamen's  Union,  122 


Coburn,  Loren,  467 
Codornices  Park,  Berkeley,  397 
Coffee  and  spice,  39 
Cogswell,  Henry  D.,  247,  316 
Cohen,  A.  A.,  433 

Coit,  Lillie  Hitchcock,   133,  247,  248 
Coit  Memorial  Tower,  65,  72,  242,  248 
Colburn's    Folly,   467 
Coleman,  William  T.,  102,  253,  444 
College  of  the  Holy  Names,  Oakland, 

387 

College  of  St.  Augustine,  458 
College  of  St.  Ignatius,  149 
Collum,  G.  W.,  336 
Colma,  46-1 

Colton,  David,  253,  257 
Colton  Letters,  257 
Columbarium  Memorial,  292 
Columbet,   Clement,  433 
Columbia  Steel  Co.,  40;  Pittsburg,  424 
Columbus  Avenue,  236 
Columbus  Day,  239 
Cornel,  Nino,  145 
Commercial  Club,  200 
Commercial  Street,  205 
Commercial  Wharf,  31 
Committee  of  Fifty,  295 
Committee  of  One  Hundred,  163 
Commodore      Sloat     Parent-Teachers' 

Assn.,    281 

Commonwealth  Club,  182 
Community  Center,  Palo  Alto,  471 
Community  Players,  Palo  Alto,  471 
Comstock  Lode,  59,  104,  116,  199 
Concannon,   James,   430 
Concert   Halls,   83,   375,   393,  408,  486 
Concord,  421 

Confucius,   birthday   of,   223 
Congress  of  Industrial    Organizations, 

120,  126 

Congress  Springs,  479 
Conner,  Michael,  266 
Connors,  Jerome,  342 
Conrads,  C.,  336 

Conservatory,  Golden  Gate  Park,  337 
Conservatory  of  Music,   145 
Consolidated  Virginia,  105 
Consolidation  Act,   163 
Constitutional   Convention,    105 
Contra  Costa  Academy,  401 
Coolbrith,  Ina,  59,  254,  382 
Coolidge,  Charles  Allerton,  473 
Coolidge,   Dane,  472 
Coombs,  "George  Washington,"  131 
Coombs,  Nathan,  455 
Cooper,  E.  S.,  296 
Cooper,  Frances,  459 
Coppa's  restaurant,  63 
Coppinger  Storehouse,  John,  469 
Coquelin  the  Elder,  133 
Cora,  Charles,  102,  275,  314 


INDEX      511 


Corbett-Choynski  prizefight,  457 
Corbett,  Jim,   183,  289,  412 
Cordoba,  Alberto  de,  306 
Corners,  the,  415 
Corte  Madera,  439 
Costanso,  Miguel,  17 
Cotati,  447 

Coulson,  Nathaniel,  257 
County  fairs,  75,  78 
Courtaine,  Harry,  137 
Courthouse,  Alameda  Co.,  386 
Courthouse,  U.   S.,   172 
Courvoisier   galleries,    188 
Coutts  Cottage,  Peter,  477 
Cowboy's  Rest,   215 
Cowell,  Henry,   145 
Coxey's  Army,  106,  122 
Crab  Fishermen's  Protective  Associa- 
tion, 240 
Crab  fleet,  249 
Crabtree,   Lotta,    137,    190 
Cragmont  Rock  Park,  Berkeley,  397 
Crane,  Charles,  427 
Cranwill,  Mia,  271 
Cravath,  Ruth,  74,   370 
Crawford,   Stetson,   388 
Crespi,  Juan,   17,  466 
Crimp  joints,  265 
Crissey  Field,  312 
Crocker  Art  Gallery,  66 
Crocker,  Charles,    104,    118,    195,    253, 

258,  337,  343 

Crocker  First  National  Bank,  118,  195 
Crocker,  Henry  S.,  463 
Crocker's  pets,  224 
Crocker,  Templeton,  343,  345 
Crocker,  W.  H.,  465 
Crocker-Woolworth   and   Co.,    118 
Crockett,  422;   refinery,  38 
Croll's  Gardens,  Alameda,  412 
Crothers,  R.  A.,  154 
Crown   Point   Mine,    117 
Crystal  Springs  Lakes,  434,  465 
Cubberley  Building,   Stanford,  476 
Cummings,  G.  P.,  212 
Cummings,  M.  Earl,  167,  338,  339,  346 
Cuneo,  Rinaldo,  72,  73,  249 
Cupertino,  478 
Curb  Exchange,   196 
Cusick,  Thomas  P.,   325 
Customhouse,  101,  206,  218 
Cutting,  Francis,   38 
Cyclotron,  U.  C,  52,  400 

Daggett,  Rollin  M.,  48,  57,  213 

Daily  Herald,  151,  212 

Daily  Journal  of  Commerce,    151 

Daily  News,  155,  189 

Daly  City,  461 

Dam,  O'Shaughnessy,  44 

Dance  of  the  Dragon,  223 


Daniels,  Mark,  368 

Danish  ships,  270 

Danville,  416 

Daroux,  Frank,  176 

Daughters    of    American    Revolution, 

347,    35i 

Daum,  Hebe,  286 
Davenport,   Homer,   153 
Davidson,  Benjamin,  211 
Davidson  Building,  210 
Davidson,  George,  281,  297 
Davis,  A.  E.,  432 
Davis,  H.  L.,  472 
Davis,  John  C.,  269,  455 
Dawson,  J.  M.,  488 
Dean,  Julia,  252 
Dean,  Mallette,  249 
De  Angelis,  Jeff  and  Joseph,   137 
Deer  paddocks,  348 
De  la  Pena,  Tomas,  480 
De  Laveaga  Dell,  352 
Delmonico's,   134 
Del  Pino,   Moya,  249 
Demarest,  "Dad",  255 
Democratic  Party,  first  meeting,  208 
Democratic  Press,  153 
Dennison's  Exchange  Saloon,  208 
Dental  College,  U.  C.,  279 
Depression,   no,   119 
Devil's  Acre,  215 
Devil's  Slide    Stairway,    Mt.    Diablo, 

416 

Devine,  Johnny,  266 
Devlin,  Charles,  290 
Dewey,  George,   361 ;    Monument,    134 
Dewey,  John,  254 
De  Young  Building,  191 
De  Young,  Charles,  105,  152 
De  Young  Memorial  Museum,  338 
De  Young,  M.  H.,  152,  339 
Diamond  Jubilee,   no 
Dickman,  Charles,  69 
Diesel    engine   works,   Oakland,    383 
Dilley's  Puppet  Theater,  213 
Di  Maggio  brothers,  240 
Di  Maggio's    Fishermen's    Grotto,    244 
Dimond   Cottage,    Oakland,    389 
Dimond,  H.  and  D.,  389 
Dimond  Park,  Oakland,  389 
Dirks,  R.,  153 
District  Courts,  U.  S.,   173 
Dixon,  Maynard,  73,  255 
Dobie,  Charles  Caldwell,  63,  212,  254 
Dobrowen,  Issay,   143 
Docks,  Pacific  Mail,  458 
Dog  shows,  75-78 
Dohrmann,  Frederick  W.,  188 
Doll    Festival,   284 
Dollar,  Robert,   34,  445 
Dollar   Steamship   Company,    34 
Dolphin,  steamer,  456 


512      INDEX 


Dominican  College,  52,  444 

Donahue  Brothers,  36 

Donahue  Iron  and  Brass  Co.,  277 

Donahue,  James  Mervyn,  200 

Donahue  Monument,  200 

Donahue,  Peter,  200,  202,  444 

Dore,  Maurice,  252 

Dore,  Paul  Gustave,  339 

Doughboy  Monument,  346 

Dougherty,  James  Witt,  428 

Douglas,  Thomas,  48,  49 

Douglass,  Leon,  444 

Drake,  Francis,  13,  360,  441 

Drake's  Bay,  8,  441 

Drake's  plate,  441,  442 

Drama  Workshop,  297 

Dramatic  Museum,   128,  236 

Draymen's   Association,    123 

Drew,  John,  138,  319 

Driving  Club,  350 

Drug  store,  oldest,  217 

Drydocks:      Benicia,      458;      Hunter's 

Point,  276;  Oakland,  384 
Duane,  Charles  P.,  288 
Dublin,  428 
Duboce  Park,  288 

Dumbarton   Drawbridge,   46,   431,   470 
DuMond,  Frank  Vincent,  170 
Dupont  Street,  225 
Duran,  Padre,  433 
Durand,  William  Frederick,  54,  213 
Durant,  Henry,   395,  401 
Dutch   windmill,   348 
D wight,  T.,  184 
Dyer,  George,  456 


Eames,  Edward  A.,  228 

Earthquake:     1864,     56;     1906,     107; 

fault,   5,   8 
East  Bay  Municipal     Utility    District, 

44 

East  Bay  Water  Company,  383 
East  Shore  Park,  Oakland,  388 
East  Street,  260 
East  Water  Falls,  484 
Easter  Sunrise  services,  75-78,   150 
Easter  week  celebration,  281 
Easton,  A.  L.,  463 
Eaves,  Lucille,  120 
Echeandia,  Jose  Maria  de,  24 
Education,  Dept.  of,  169 
Edwards,  George  C.,  402 
Edwards,  Thomas,  422 
Egg  Basket  of  World,  446 
Egyptian  Temple,.  San  Jose,  490 
El  Camino  del  Mar,  314 
El  Camino  Real,  460 
El  Campanil,  Mills  College,  391 
El  Cerrito,  417 
Elder  and  Company,   186 


Eldorado,  the,  207 

El  Dorado  Hotel,  Sonoma,  451 

Elephant  Rock,  Mt.  Diablo,  416 

El  Impartial,  240 

Elk  Glen  Park,  351 

Elmhurst,  380 

El  Sereno  ridge,  482 

El  Sombroso  ridge,  482 

Emancipation  Day,  285 

Emanu-El,  Temple,  149,  292 

Embarcadero,  33,  260;  Fire  Dept.,  269 

Emerald  Lake  and  Bowl,  468 

Emeryville,  39,  414 

Emmet  Monument,  342 

Emparan,  Luisa  Vallejo,  451 

Emperor  Norton,   132 

Empire  Hotel,  179 

Employers'  and  Manufacturers'  Asso- 
ciation, 122 

Employers'  Association,  121 

Employment  statistics,  113 

Emporium  department  store,  180 

Encinal,  410 

Encinal  de  San  Antonio,  409 

Encinal  de  Temescal,  380 

Encinal  Terminal,  410 

Encinal  Yacht  Club,  Alameda,  412 

Engelhardt,  Zephrin,  274 

Engineering  Testing  Laboratory,  U. 
C.,  53,  400 

Ensenado  del  Carmelito,  436 

Episcopal  cathedral,  first,  148 

Episcopal  diocese  of  Northern  Cali- 
fornia, 347 

Equitation  Field,  349 

Eshleman  Hall,  U.  C.,  405 

Espanol,  244 

Esplanade,  323 

Essanay  Studios,  Niles,  431 

Estuary,  378 

Estudillo,  Jose  Joaquin,  426,  427 

Eucalyptus,  largest,  in  California,  434 

Euphemia,   brig,    200 

Evans,  Herbert  M.,  400 

Evening  Bulletin,    102,    152 

Evening  Picayune,  151 

Events,  calendar  of,  75-78 

Examiner,  152,   153,   190,  295 

Exports,   29,    33 

Exposition  Building,  Oakland,  386 


Faculty  Glade,  U.  C.,  405 

Fageol  trucks,  39 

Fages,  Pedro,   18,  379,  416 

Fair,  James  G.,  117,  255,  294,  432 

Fairbanks,  E.,  459 

Fairclough,  Henry  R.,  472 

Fairfax,  439 

Fairfax,  "Lord"  Charles,  439 

Fairfield,  454 


INDEX      513 


Fairmont  Hotel,  252,  255 

Fairweather,  J.  S.,  189 

Fallon  House,  Dublin,  429 

Fallen,  William,  26 

Farallones,  323,  358,  359-361 

Farley,  Charles  A.,  301 

Farragut,  David  G.,  453 

Fauna,  u;  exhibit,  343 

Faville,  William  B.,  286 

Federal:  Building,  172;  Prison,  Alca- 
traz,  363 ;  Public  Health  Service, 
313;  Reserve  Bank,  119,  200 

Federated  Trades  and  Labor  Union, 
122 

Feliz,  Domingo,  466 

Feliz,  Fernando,  446 

Ferguson,  William  L.,  365 

Ferrara,  Charlie,  240 

Ferries:  Oakland,  32,  82,  375,  381; 
Benicia,  423;  Richmond-San  Rafael, 
419 

Ferry  Building,  268 

Ferry  Inn,  442 

Festivals,    75-78 

Fetter,  George,   342 

Fetter's  Springs,  452 

Fibreboard  Products  plant,  Antioch, 
425 

Field,  Charles  K.,  51,  472 

Field,  Sara  Bard,  482 

Fiesta  Club,  244 

Figueroa,  Jose,  24,  97,  449 

Filbert  Street,  242 

Filipino  colony,  285 

Fillmore:  District,  286;   Street,  282 

Fillmore,  Millard,  453 

Financial  Center  Building,  197 

Financial  district,  114,  178 

Financial  panics,  103,  105,  no,  115, 
119 

Finger   Rock,    359 

Finocchio's,   244 

Fior  d'  Italia,  244 

Fire  Dept.,  269,  289 

Firemen,  musical,  142 

Fires,  101,  107,  205,  206 

First  and  Last  Chance  Saloon,  Oak- 
land, 385 

First  Congregational  Methodist  Tem- 
ple, 183 

First  Presbyterian  Church,  Oakland, 
388 

First  Unitarian  Church,  301 

Fish,   12 

Fisher,  Bud,  153 

Fisherman's  Bay,  360 

Fisherman's  Wharf,  87,  236,  240,  244, 
249 

Fishing  industry,  250 

Fitch  House,  Sonoma,  451 

Fitch,  H.  S.,  409 


Fitzsimmons,  Bob,  412 

Fleishhacker,  Herbert,  201,  324;  Mor- 
timer, 201 

Fleishhacker  Playfield  and  Zoological 
Gardens,  324 

Fletcher,  Francis,  148,  347 

Flint's  Warehouse,  267 

Floating  Fortress,   211 

Flood  Building,  180 

Flood,  James  C,   117,   180,  253,  256 

Flora,   ii ;   exhibit,  343 

Floriculture,   San  Leandro,  426 

Flower  show,  75-78 

Flower  stand,  191 

Flycasting   Club,    350 

Foard,  J.  Macdonough,  48,  57,  213 

Fong-Fong's,   222 

Food  Machinery  Corporation,  San 
Jose,  489 

Food-processing,  39 

Football,  75-78 

Forbes  Flour  Mill,  Los  Gatos,  482 

Forbes,  James   Alexander,  482,   483 

Ford,  Henry  L.,  26 

Ford  Motor  Company,  39,  418 

Fort  Gunnybags,  102,  200 

Fort  Point,  312;   reef,  316 

Fort  Ross,  21,  22,  450 

Forts    (see   Army) 

Forty  Thieves,    198 

Foster,  J.  R.,  321 

Foujita,  71 

Founders  Rock,  U.  C.,  406 

Foundry,   first,   36 

Four-Fifty  Sutter  Building,  185 

Four  Mile  Rock,  359 

Fourteen  Mile  House,  463 

Fourth  Army,  306 

Foy,  Eddie,    137 

Francisco   Street,  264 

Franconia  Bay,  360 

Frank  H.  Buck,  hull,   317 

Franklin  Hall,  295 

Franklin  Point,  467 

Franklin  statue,  247 

Fremont,  John  Charles,  25,  97,  306, 
362,  428,  430,  445,  451 

Fremont  Monument,  Oakland,  390 

French,  Daniel  Chester,  338 

French  Library,  184 

Frisbee,  John,  453 

Frost  Amphitheater,  Stanford,  473 

Frost,   Howard,  473 

Fruit  exports,  35 

Fruit  packing,   38;    San  Jose,  488 

Fuchsia  Garden,  335 

Fuller,  "Pop,"  399 

Funston  Ave.  approach,  Golden  Gate 
Bridge,  313 

Funston,  Frederick,  310,  325 

Furuseth,  Andrew,  122,  123 


5H      INDEX 


Gage,  Henry  T.,  123 

Galilee,  brigantine,  436 

Galvez,  Jose  de,  18 

Gamble,  James,  43 

Game  preserves,  364,  367 

Game  Enclosure,  354 

Garcia,  Bernardino,  438 

Garden  of  Shakespeare,  352 

Garden  of  the  Jungle,  Mt.  Diablo,  416 

Garfield  Monument,  337 

Garibaldi   Guards,  239 

Garratti  Winery,  430 

Gas  company,   hrst,  44 

Gasoline  production,  39 

Gates,  Justin,  213 

Gavello,  Pierino,  214 

Geary,  John  W.,  101,  162,  173,  182, 
247 

Gee,  Dorothy,  234 

Genella  Building,  213 

General  Chemical    Co.,    Nicholas,   424 

General  Motors  plants,  39 

Genthe,  Arnold,   134 

Geodetic  Survey,   U.  S.  Coast,  247 

George,  Henry,   58,   155 

German   Turnverein,    141 

Ghiradelli  Chocolate  Plant,  305;  Pa- 
vilion, 354 

Ghiradelli,  David,  216 

Giannini,  A.  P.,  118,  240 

Giannini  Hall,  U.  C.,  402 

Giant,  419 

Giant's  Bath,  359 

Gilbert,  Edward,  152,  294 

Gilbert's  Melodeon,   137 

Gjoa,  cutter,  348 

Gleason,  Joseph  M.,  291 

Glen  Ellen,  61,  452 

Goat  Island,  366 

Goethe-Schiller  Monument,   346 

Gold:  discovery,  100;  shipment,  103 

Gold  Room,  Fairmont  Hotel,  256 

Gold  Rush,  29,  30 

Goldberg,  Rube,  153 

Golden  Bough  Theater,  139 

Golden  Era,  57,  151 

Golden  Era,  48 

Golden  Era  Building,  213 

Golden  City,  ferry,  358 

Golden  Gate,  20;  origin,  4;  dis- 
coverer, 19;  naming,  98 

Golden  Gate  Angling  and  Casting 
Club,  350 

Golden  Gate  Bridge,  46,  313,  435 

Golden  Gate   Driving   Club,   350 

Golden  Gate  Ferry  slips,  304 

Golden  Gate  Gun  Club,  Alameda,  411 

Golden  Gate  Institute,   284 

Golden  Gate  International  Exposition, 
47,  74,  no,  368 

Golden  Gate  Park,  329-354 


Golden  Gate  Turf  Club,  417 

Golden  Hinde,  441 

Golden  Lilies,  221 

Golden  spike,  195 

Golf   courses,    88,    313,    316,    326,    327, 

412,  464 

Goluboff,   Grisha,   144 
Gomez  Cafe,  Isadore,  244,  245 
Gonzales,  Juan  Jose,  466 
Gordon,  Aaron,  54 
Gordon,  "Lord,"  272 
Gotch,  Frank,  412 

Gould's  Civic  Repertory  Theater,   139 
Government,  Berkeley,  395 
Government  House,  217 
Government  Island,  Alameda,  413 
Governors'  Camp,  480 
Grabhorn,  Edwin,  171,  209 
Grabhorn  Press,  209 
Grace  Cathedral,  257 
Graham's  House,  Isaac,  467 
Grand  Opera  House,  138 
Grant  Avenue,  220 
Grant  Memorial,  338 
Grauman,  Sid,  488 
Great  China   Theater,    139,   234 
Great  Highway,  323 
Great  Murre  Cave,  359 
Great  West  Arch,  359 
Greek  Orthodox  Church,  302 
Greek  Orthodox  Memorial    Park,    462 
Greek  Theater,  U.  C.,  406 
Greeley,   Horace,  48 
Green,  Ray,  145 
Green  Street  Theater,  139 
Greenbrae,  442 
Greene,  George,  328 
Greenway,  Ned,  133,  256 
Greth,  August,  488 
Greyhound  Exchange,  Baden,  462 
Griffin  brothers,  353 
Griffin,  Judge,   124 
Grosoni,  Orazio,  342 
Grotto  of  Lourdes,  275 
Grove   Play,   Bohemian,   448 
Guadalupe  Hidalgo  treaty,  28 
Guerin,  Jules,  200 
Guerneville,  448 
Guilo,  Maestro,  139 
Gulf  of  the  Farallones,   16,   18,   357 
Gump  and  Co.,  187 
Gum  Sahn   (Golden  Hills),  222 
Gutierrez,   Candido,  419 
Gwin,  William  M.,  104,  272 
Gymnasium  for  Men,  U.  C.,  402;  for 

Women,  405 
Gymnasiums,   89 


Hadley,  Henry,  143 

Haggin,   James   Ben   AH,   252 


INDEX      515 


Haight,  Henry,  389 

Hale,  Marshall,  309 

Haley,  John,  413 

Half  Moon  Bay,  16,  466 

Hall,  Carroll,  440 

Hall  of  Justice,  208 

Hall  of  Records   (old),  208 

Hall,  William  Hammond,  330 

Halleck,  Henry  W.,  211,  336;  monu- 
ment, 336 

Hallidie,  Andrew  S.,  42,  208 

Hamilton  Field,  312,  445 

Hamilton,  Laurentine,  484 

Hamilton,  Lloyd  Andrews,  445 

Hammond  Mining  Library,  269 

Hancock,  G.  Allen,  345 

Hanford,  Avon,  46 

Hanford,  R.  G.,  383 

Hangar,  Berkeley,  397 

Hanna,  Edward  J.,  247,  292 

Happersberger,  Frank,  172,  337 

Happy  Valley,   178 ;  schoolhouse,  49 

Haraszthy,  Agaston,  466 

Harbin,  James,  456 

Harbor:  Commission,  33,  263;  Emer- 
gency Hospital,  267;  facilities,  35; 
Oakland,  378;  Police  Station,  267 

Harbor  Seal,  360 

Harbor  View  Park,  254 

Harding  Park  Golf  Course,  326 

Harding,  Warren  G.,  166,  193 

Hardscrabble,  431 

Haro,  Francisco  de,  27,  97 

Harrigan  Ned,  137 

Harrington,  John  T.,  415 

Harrison,  Lew,  145 

Harte,  Bret,  56,  213,  417 

Haskell,  Leonidas,  306,  327 

Hastings  College  of  Law,  U.  C.,  169, 
401 

Hatcheries,  Petaluma,  446 

Hauser,  Miska,  141,  144 

Havens,   Frank   C.,   383 

Hawaiian  Island  Treaty,  104 

Hawaiian  Sugar  Plant,    Crockett,    422 

Hayes   Valley  Recreation   Center,   289 

Hayne,  Arthur,  252 

Hays,  Jack,  469 

Hays,  William  C.,  388 

Hayward,  428 

Hayward,  Alvinza,  117,  351,  465,  479 

Hayward,  Margaret  S.,  289 

Heald,  Harmon  G.,  448 

Health  Center  Building,  167 

Health  Department,  168 

Hearst  Building,    190 

Hearst,  George,  253,  429 

Hearst  Gymnasium,  U.  C.,  405;  Min- 
ing Bldg.,  U.  C.,  406 

Hearst,  Phoebe  Apperson,  399,  405, 
429 


Hearst,    William   Randolph,    153,   401, 

436 

Heidelberg  Inn,  176 
Heil,   Walter,  72 
Heinold,  Johnny,  385 
Heinsbergen,  A.  B.,  185 
Heller,  Herman,  134 
Hendrie,  John  W.,  343 
Heney,  Francis  J.,  109,  297 
Herald,  the,  151,  212 
Hercules,  420 

Hercules  Powder  Plant,  420 
Hernandez,  Jose,  482 
Herne,  James,  137 
Heroes  Grove,  346 
Herold,  Rudolph,   142 
Herrick,  William,  321 
Herrold,  Charles  D.,  488 
Herter,  Albert,  182 
Hertz,  Alfred,   143 
Herzstein,  Morris,  346 
Hesthal,  William,  73 
Hetch  Hetchy,  44,  164,  466,  470 
Hibernia  Savings  &  Loan  Society,  119, 

179 

Hickman,  Art,  134,  145 
Hights,  The,  Oakland,  59,  389 
Higuera,  Fulgencia,  433 
Higuera,  Josefa,  429 
Higuera,  Nicolas,  455 
Hi  Jinks-Bohemian  Club,  183,  448 
Hiler,  Hilaire,  65,  73,  304 
Hilgard,  E.  W.,  432 
Hilgard  Hall,  U.  C.,  402 
Hill  of  Palaces,  253 
Hill,  Thomas,  68 
Hillsborough,  464 

Hinckley,  William  Sturgis,  97,  213 
Hindu  Temple,  303 
Hinkel  Park,  Berkeley,   397 
Hinrichs,  Gustav,  142 
Hippodrome,  216 
Historical  Exhibit,  de  Young  Museum, 

339 

Historical  Society,  California,  169 
History  Room,  Wells  Fargo  Bldg.,  195 
Hobart,  Cram,  and  Ferguson,  299 
Hobert,  Lewis  P.,  196,  325,  368,  465 
Hoffman,  Hans,  72 
Holbrock  Memorial  Library,  Berkeley, 

397 

Holladay's  Hill,  298 
Holly  Sugar  Company,  Alvarado,  431 
Holy  Trinity  Russian   Cathedral,   302 
Homeier,  Louis,   142 
Hooker,  "Fighting  Joe",  452 
Hooper  Foundation,  279 
Hooper,  John  A.,  469 
Hoover,  Herbert,   51,  472,  476 
Hoover  Library,  Stanford,  55,  476 
Hoover,  Theodore,  472 


5l6      INDEX 


Hoover  Tree,  351 

Hopkins  Art  Institute,  70,  259 

Hopkins    House,    Timothy,    470 

Hopkins,    Mark,    104,   253,   255,   470 

Hopper,  James,  254 

Horseshoe  Club  &  Courts,  335 

Horse  Shows,  75-78 

Hospital  Cove,  365 

Hospitals,  267,  296,  310,  311,  317,  454, 

478 

Hotaling  Building,  216 
Hounds,  the,  100,  238 
House  of  Blazes,  Oakland,  386 
House  of  Mystery,  298 
Housing  Authority  Projects,  378 
Houston,  Sam,  24 
Howard  and  White,  464 
Howard  Engine  Co.,  131 
Howard,  John  Galen,   164,  399,  405 
Howard,  John  Langley,  73,  249 
Howard,  Robert  Boardman,     74,     198, 

370 

Howard,  Roy,  155 
Howard,  W.  D.  M.,  463 
Howell  Book  Shop,  184 
Hubbard,  Bernard,  481 
Huddart  Park,  469 

Hudson's   Bay    Company,    23,    97,    211 
Humboldt  Bank  Building,   189 
Humphries  House,  259 
Hunt,  Timothy  Dwight,   146 
Hunter's  Point  Drydocks,  276 
Huntington,  Anna  Hyatt,  315 
Huntington,  Collis  P.,  104,    252,    351 
Huntington  Falls,  351 
Huntington  Park,  257 


Ice  Skating,  89 

Ice  Rink,  Sutro,  320 

Ide,  William  B.,  26 

Ignacio,  445 

Ignatius  Heights,  290 

Ilyin,   Gleb,    167,    302;   Peter,    167 

Immigration  Station,   364 

Indian  Cemetery:  Irvington,  432; 
Chief  Cliff,  359;  Mound  Stone 
Monument,  Alameda,  412;  Village 
site,  Santa  Clara,  480 

Indians,  14,  20,  363;  exhibit,  341; 
music,  140 

Indian  tribes:  Bolgone,  416;  Chocuy, 
449;  Costanoan,  15,  409;  Lacatuit, 
439,  445;  Miwok,  15,  446;  Nicasio, 
440;  Olompali,  446;  Penutian,  14; 
Suisun,  453;  Wifitun,  15,  18 

Indoor  Yacht  Club,   134 

Industrial    Association,    124 

Industrial   Relations   Department,    169 

Industry,    36,    40,    104;    Oakland,    382 

Ingleside  Men's  Club,  327 


Ingleside   Public  Golf  Course,   327 

Inner  Harbor,  Oakland,  378 

Inspiration   Point,   484 

International  House,  U.  C.,  395,  407 

International  Ladies  Garment  Work- 
ers Union,  121 

International  Longshoremen's  Associa- 
tion, 125 

International  Order  of  Odd  Fellows, 
213 

International  Seamen's  Union,  122 

International  Settlement,  214 

Inverness,  441 

Irvington,   432 

Irwin,  Inez  Haynes,  254 

Irwin,  Will  and  Wallace,  51,  63,  152, 
254,  472 

Isbell,  Olive  Mann,  52 

Isla  de  la  Yegua,  453 

Isla  del  Carmen,  366 

Isla  de  los  Alcatraces,  362 

Isla  Hendido,  361 

Islais  Creek  Channel,  265 

Islands  of  St.  James,  360 

Italian  Colony,  236,  244 

Italian  Family  Club,  239 

Iturbide,  Augustin,  regency,   21 


Jackson  Slough,  216 

Jacobs,  Helen,   399 

Jade  Room,   Gump's,   187 

Jai-Alai,  244 

Japanese:  cemetery,  462;  district,  284; 

newspapers,     285;     Oakland,     386; 

shops,  220;  Tea  Garden,  284,  341 
Jazz,  134 

Jean  Parker  Grammar  School,  50 
Jefferson  Square,  289 
Jenkins,  John,  101,  206 
Jenny    Lind    Theater,    136,    163,    207, 

208 

Jewelry  Guild,  229 
Jewish  Community  Center,  293 
Jewish  quarter,  283 
Johnson's  Folly,  254 
Johnson,  Hiram  W.,     109,   154,   309 
Johnson,  George  Penn,   365 
Johnson,  Jr.,  Hiram,  308 
Johnson,  John,  427 
Johnson,  Sargent,  74,  304,  369 
Johnston,  Albert  S.,  104,  310 
Johnston,  Bill,  353 
Jolly  Corks,  183 
Jolson,  Al,  488 
Jones'  Alley,  216 
Jones,  John,  117 
Jones,  Nathaniel,  415 
Jordan,  David  Starr,  51,  476,  477 
Jordan  Hall,  Stanford,  473 
Jorgenson's  Saloon,  458 


INDEX      517 


Joss  Houses,  222 

Juanita's  Sanctuary,  Oakland,  390 

Juarez,  Cayetano,  455 

Judah,  Theodore  Dehone,  104 

Judaism,  149,  292,  297 

Julius'  Castle,  242 

Kalloch,  Isaac  S.,  105 

Kangaroo,   Steamer,    32 

Kearney,  Dennis,  105,  121,  224,  253 

Kearny,  Stephen  W.,  450 

Keeler,  Charles,   107 

Keene,  James,   118 

Keith   Memorial   Gallery,   St.   Mary's, 

69,  4r5 

Keith,  William,  68,  293,  382,  386,  415 
Kelham,    George    W.,    169,    197,    200, 

201,  368 

Kelley,  Charles  T.,  122 
Kellogg,  Vernon  L.,  51,  472 
Kelly,  Frank,  433 
Kelly,  Shanghai,  265 
Kelly's  Place,  176 
Kemble,  Edward  C.,   150 
Kenori's  Boat  House,  305 
Kent,  Adeline,  74,  370 
Kent,  Albert  Emmet,  439 
Kent,  William,  438 
Kentfield,  439 

Key  Monument,  Francis  Scott,  342 
Key  Route,  383,  395 
Kezar  Stadium,  353 
KGO   radio   station,    195 
Kimball  House,  Antioch,  425 
Kindergarten,  49 
King,  Honoria,  469 
King,  Michael,  387 
King  of  William,  James,  102,  152,  211, 

212,  294 

King,  T.  Butler,  219 
King,  Thomas    Starr,    104,    147,    301, 

338 

King's  Highway,  460 
King's  Mountain,  469 
Kip,   William   Ingraham,    148,   257 
Klatt,  Oscar,  46 

Knickerbocker  Company,  No.  5,  248 
Kohl,  C.  Frederick,    464,  465 
Kohler  and  Company,  115 
Kong  Chow  Association,  227;  Temple, 

226 

Kosmos  Line,  34 
KPO  radio  station,  195 
Kreicer,  Henry,  462 
Kresling,  Joe,  143 
KSFO   radio   station,    193 
Kuhl  Memorial  room,   170 
Kuo-Mintang  Headquarters,  229 
Kuskof  Settlement,  441 
Kyn,  William  P.,  465 
Kyne,  Peter  B.,  254 


Labaudt,  Lucien,   71,   73,   349 
Labor,  120 
Labor  press,  120 
Ladd,  Alfonso,  429 
Ladies  Seamen's  Friend  Society,  316 
Lafayette,  415 
Lafayette  Ridge,  415 
Lafayette  Square,  297 
Laguna  de  Nuestra  Senora  de  la  Mer- 
ced, 325,  327,  461 
Laguna  Merced  Military  Reservation, 

325 

Laguna  Ranch,  441 
Lagunita,  476 
Lagunitas,  440 
La  Honda,  469 
Lakes:    325,    327,    347,    348,    386,    387, 

39i,    434,    461,    465,    466 
Lake  Temescal  Region  Park,  Oakland, 

389. 

Lakeside  golf  course,  326 
Lakeside  Park,  Oakland,  387 
L'Alliance  Francaise,  184 
Land's  End,   316,  358 
Lane,  Franklin,  152 
Lane  Hospital,  296 
Lane,  Levi  Cooper,  297 
Lane   Medical  Library,  69,  296 
Lane,  Rose  Wilder,  254 
Langlois,  Father,  148 
Lansburgh,  Albert  G.,  168 
Lark,  The,  62 

Larkin,   Thomas   O.,    24,    99,   457 
Larkspur,  439 
Larkspur  Bowl,  439 
Larson,  John  A.,  396 
La  Llagas,  361 

Laseun,  Fermin  Francisco,  432 
Latham,  Milton  S.,  470 
Lathrop,  Henry,  472 
Latin  Quarter,  236,  237 
Latter-Day  Saints,  98,  146 
Laundry  Workers  Association,  229 
Laurel  Court,  Fairmont  Hotel,  256 
Law  and  Order  Committee,  124 
Law  Library,  167 

Lawn    Bowling    Green,   Berkeley,    396 
Lawndale,  295,  461 
Lawrence,  E.  O.,  52,  400 
Lawson  Adit,  U.  C.,  406 
Lea,  Homer,  472 
Leahy,  William  H.,  143 
Leavenworth,  T.  M.,  101 
Le  Conte,  Joseph,  389 
Leese,  Jacob  Primer,  26,  97,  205,  438, 

45i 

Legend  of  Devil's  Point,  441 
Legislative     Assembly,     establishment, 

162 

Leidesdorff,  William,  206,  276 
Leland   Stanford  Junior  Museum,  473 


5l8      INDEX 


Len,  Wan  Lilly-Foot,  225 

Lentelli,  Leo,  169,  339 

Leslie,  Everett  Parker,  54 

Leslie  Salt  Works,  427 

Letterman  General  Hospital,  310 

Lewis,  Oscar,  440 

Libraries:  54,  55,  69,  164,  167,  168,  171, 
184,  202,  212,  228,  269,  291,  296,  297, 
302,  344,  351,  384,  391,  397,  404,  412, 
444,  452,  475,  476,  481 

Lick  House,   133,   195 

Lick,  James,  55,   172,  337,  342,  484 

Lick  Observatory,  55,  401,  484 

Lido  Club,  244 

Lie-detector,   396 

Life  Sciences  Building,  U.  C.,  402 

Ligget,  Hunter,  312 

Lighthouses:  Alcatraz,  363;  Angel  Id., 
366;  Mile  Rd.,  316;  Miniature, 
308;  New  Year's  Pt.,  467;  Pigeon 
Pt.,  467;  Pt.  Bonita,  436;  Pt.  Reyes, 
442;  Service,  361;  Yerba  Buena  Id., 
366 

Lightship,  357,  367 

Lily  Pond,  353 

Limantour,  Joseph  L.,  358;  claim,  358, 
366 

Lime  Point,  358 

Lincoln,  election,   103;   statue,   167 

Lincoln   Highway,   316 

Lincoln  Park,  279,  314;  Golf  Course, 
316;  Theater,  139 

Lindley   Meadow,    347 

Lion  of  Buddha,  223 

Lions   Pool,   Oakland,   389 

Lipman,  Charles  B.,  54 

Lisser  Hall,  Mills  College,  391 

Little  Chile,  238 

Little  Italy,  236,  244 

Little  Mexico,  236 

Little  Osaka,  284 

Little  Pete,  225 

Livermore,  429;  Rodeo,  429;  Valley,  8 

Livermore,  Robert,  429,  487 

Lloyd  Lake,  347 

Lobero,  Signer,  141 

Lobos  Creek,  310,  314 

Log  Cabin,  Pioneer,  346,  347 

Loma  Alta,  237 

Lone  Mountain,  282,  290,  291 

London,  Charmian,  452 

London,  Jack,  61,  153,  382,  389,  452, 
458 ;  Memorial  Library,  452 

Longshoremen,  strike,  125 

Longshoremen's  Association,  124 

Long  Wharf,  31,  205,  264 

Lookout  Station,  Embarcadero,  266,  317 

Loring  Club,  296 

Los  Altos,  477 

Los  Gatos,  482 

Lost  World  Cave,  359 


Lotta's  Fountain,  143,  190 

Loucks  House,  421 

Love,  Jack,  367 

Lowe,   Chee,  229 

Lucas,  John,  440 

Lucas,    Turner    and    Company,     115; 

bank  building,  214 
Lucas  Valley  Redwoods,  440 
Lucca's,  244 
Lucerne,  lake,  466 
Luck  of  Roaring  Camp,  57 
Luisetti,  Angelo,  240 
Lum,  K.  D.,  229 
Lundborg,  Florence,  63 
Lutheran  Church,  first,  300 
Lux,  Charles,  462 
Lyceum  theater,  136 
Lyman  K,  Stewart  hull,  317 
Lynn,  382 
Lyons,  Billy,  saloon,  176 

McAllister,  Cutler,  256 

McAllister,  Hall,  272,  294;  Statue,  70, 

167,    170 

McAllister  Street,  283 
McBoyle  &  Co.,  Alexander,  217 
McCarthy,  P.  H.,  109,  123 
McCarthyville,  479 
McCoppin,  Frank,  330 
McCoy,  Kid,  412 
McCullough,  John,   137 
McDowell,  Irving,  310 
McElroy   Fountain,    Oakland,    387 
McEwen,  Arthur,  153 
McGlyn,  D.  C.,  470 
McKinley    Monument,    70,    335;     San 

Jose,  489 

McKinnon  Monument,  337 
McLaren,  John,  281,  295,  330,  335,  350, 

369 

McLaughlin,  Maurice,  353 
McNamara,  J.  B.,  443 
McNear  Brick  Works,  445 
McNear's  Beach,  445 
McQuarrie,  J.,   337,  450 
Mackay,  John  W.,  43,   117 
Macky,  Spencer,  72 
Macondray,  Frederick,  465 
Madigan  Gymnasium,  415 
Madigan,  "Slip",  415 
Maginnis,  John,  149,  271 
Maguire,  Tom,  136 
Maguire's  Opera  House,  136,  138,  206 
Maiden  Lane,  178 
Main  Channel,  357 
Main  Top,  359 
Maison  Doree,   177 
Maison  Rich,   177 
Mallard  Lake,  350 
Malmquist,   Olof  C.,   369,   370 
Mammal  exhibit,  344 


INDEX      519 


Mandarin  Theater,   139,  234 
Man-o'-War  Row,   261,   269 
Manufacturing,  growth  of,  39 
Map,  Ferry  Building,  269 
Marachi,  Anthony,  291 
Marble,  Alice,  353 
Marchand's,   178 
Marconi  Memorial,  249 
Mare  Island  Navy  Yard,  422,  453 
Marin,  Indian  chief,  439,  445 
Marin  Islands,  445 
Marin  School  for  Boys,  440 
Marin  Yacht  Club,  445 
Marina,  282,  307 
Marina  Park,  307 

Marine   Exchange,    199;   Lookout   Sta- 
tion, 266,  317 
Marine  Hospital,  313 
Maritime    Federation    of    the    Pacific, 

126 

Maritime  strike,  262 
Market  Street,  174 
Market  Street  Railway,  42 
Markham,  Edwin,  63,  383;  House,  San 

Jose,  489 

Markham   School,   Hayward,  428 
Mark  Hopkins  Hotel,  255 
Mark  Hopkins  Institute  of  Art,  70,  259 
Marquard's,   134 
Marriott,  Frederick,  Sr.,  43 
Marryat,  Frank,  454 
Marsh,  John,  25,  389 
Marshall  Square,   171 
Marston,  Ward,  480 
Martinez,   19,  420,  423,  459 
Martinez,  Ignacio,  420 
Martinez,  Xavier,  69,  386,   388 
Marwedel,  Emma,  50 
Marx,  Meadows,  347 
Mason,  Richard  Barnes,  450 
Masonic    Cemetery,     290,     295;     Hall, 

Benicia,  458;  Order  of  Scottish  Rite, 

302;  Temple,  286 
Massett,  Stephen  C.,  128,  135 
Masson  Champagne  Winery,  479 
Masuyama,  Bishop,  298 
Mather,  Stephen,  407 
Matson  Navigation  Co.,  building,  202; 

Line,  34 

Matson,  William,  34,  202 
Matthews,  Arthur,   69,  286,   384 
Maybeck,  Bernard,  308 
Mayfield,  471 
Mayhew's  Landing,  432 
Mayor,  duties  of,  165 
Mead,  Elwood,  400 
Meat  packing,  39 
Mechanics'   and   Manufacturers'   Fair, 

194 

Mechanics   Institute,    194 
Mechanics-Mercantile  Library,  69,  194 


Mechanics'  Monument,  70 

Medical  Center,  U.  C.,  279 

Medical  Library,  Lane,  296 

Meiggs,  Henry,   115,  237,  264 

Meiggs  Wharf,  264 

Mellus,  Howard  and  Company,  211 

Melodeon  Theater  Building,  212 

Melrose,  380 

Melville,  Emily,  137 

Memorials:    Andrew    Lawson     Smith 

Bench,  406;   Church,   Stanford,  472; 

Columbarium,      292;      Court,      168; 

Library,    Anne   Bremer,   259;    Office 

of  White  House,  186;  Opera  House, 

144;    Park,   Los   Gatos,  482;   Plaza, 

Oakland,   385;   Stadium,  U.  C.,  402, 

406 

Menken,  Adah  Isaacs,  137 
Menlo  Circus  Park,  470 
Menlo  Park,  470 
Menuhim,  Yehudi,  144 
Mercantile    Library    Association,     69, 

194 

Merced  Valley,  7 
Merchant,  William  G.,  368 
Merchants'    Exchange    Building,    199; 

Club,  200 

Mercy  High  School,  464 
Merola,  Gaetano,  144 
Merritt,  Emma  Sutro,  319 
Merritt,  Ezekiel,  25,  450 
Merritt,  Samuel,  385,  386 
Methuseiah  Redwood,  469 
Metropolitan  Theater,  136 
Metropolosky,  loann,  302 
Metson  Lake,  350 
Mexican  Barracks,  Sonoma,  451 
Mexican  colony,  236;  Oakland,  379 
Mexican  regime,  21 
Meyer  and  O'Brien,  189 
Meyer,  Carl,  53 
Meyer,  Frederick  H.,  164,  339 
Mezesville,  468 

Micheltorena,  Manuel,  24,  358,  443 
Midway,  215 
Midway  Island,  43 
Midwinter  Fair,  106,  332,  338 
Mile  Rock  Lighthouse,  316,  358 
Miley,  John  D.,  318 
Military  Cemetery,  311 
Military  Prison,  U.  S.,  363 
Military  Reservations    (See  Army) 
Mill   Valley,  437 
Millbrae,  463 
Miller,  Henry,  272,  463 
Miller,  Joaquin,  56,  59,  254,  382,  390; 

Park,  389 

Miller  and  Lux  462 
Miller,  J.  R.,  194,   196 
Mills  Building,  196 
Mills  College,  Oakland,  52,  391,  459 


520      INDEX 


Mills,  Cyrus  T.,  52,  391,  459 

Mills,  Darius    Ogden,    116,    196,    198, 

463,  479 

Mills,  Edgar,  470 
Mills  Estate,  463 
Mills  Tower,   196 
Milpitas,  19,  434 
Miners'  Bank,   115 
Mines,  Flavel  Scott,  299 
Miniature  lighthouse,  308 
Mining  Bureau  Mineral  Museum,  269 
Mining  Exchange,  196 
Mining  Library,  Hammond,  269 
Mining  machinery,  36 
Mint,  U.  S.  branch,  115,  179,  287 
Miramontes,  Candelario,  466 
Missions  Museum,  450 
Mission  Play,  Santa  Clara,  481 
Mission  Rock,  358 
Mission  San  Jose,  432 
Mission  Town,  432 
Missions:   Dolores,    San    Francisco   de 

Asis,    18,    19,   21,   22,    149,   205,   272, 

443;  San  Francisco  Solano,  20,  450; 

San  Jose  de  Guadalupe,   19,  20,  21, 

432;     San    Rafael     Arcangel,    444; 

Santa    Clara,    20,    21,    481;     Santa 

Cruz,  20 

Mitchell,  Ruth  Comfort,  482 
Model  Yacht  Club,  348 
Modjeska,  Helena,   138 
Moffatt,  George,  188 
Moffett  Field,  478 
Mofras,  Duflot  de,  22 
Molate  Point,  419 
Monkey  Block,  211,  212 
Montalvo,  Ornadez  de,  479 
Montara  Mountain,  8 
Monte  Rio,  448 
Monterey,  25,  28 
Monteux,  Pierre,  143 
Montez,  Lola,  131,  137,  190 
Montgomery  Block,  211,  212 
Montgomery  Flag  Pole,  208 
Montgomery,  John  B.,  98,  206,  208,  481 
Montgomery  Street,   101,  114,   178,  207 
Monumental  Engine  House,  206 
Monumental  Six,  130 
Moody,  Helen  Wills,  399 
Moon,  A.  J.,  381 

Mooney,  Thomas,  124,  154,  203,  442 
Moor  Park,  477 
Moore  Drydock,  Oakland,  384 
Mooser,  Jr.,  William,  304 
Mooser,   Sr.,  William,  304 
Mora,  Jo,  183,  184.,  338 
Moraga,  52 
Moraga,  Jose  Joaquin,  3,  19,  20,  272, 

276,  311,  415,  487 
Moraga  Valley,  18,  415 
Moran,  Thomas,  68 


Moreno,  Rafael  de  Jusus,  22 

Morgan  House,  468 

Morley,  Grace  McCann,  72,  169 

Mormons,  98,  146 

Morning  Call,  59 

Morris,  J.  H.  P.,  447 

Morrison,  Alexander  F.,  55 

Morrison  Memorial  Library,  U.  C.,  54, 
404 

Mortar  Rock  Park,  Berkeley,   396 

Mosaic,  Stanford  chapel,  475 

Moss,  John  Mora,  388 

Mosswood  Park,  Oakland,  388 

Mothers'  House  at  Zoo,  324 

Moulin  Rouge,  216 

Mount:  Davidson,  7,  150,  280;  Diablo, 
8;  State  Park,  416;  Eden,  427; 
Hamilton,  8,  55,  460,  484;  Observa- 
tory, 484;  Olympus,  278;  Sutro,  7, 
279,  280;  Tamalpais,  8,  438 

Mountain  Copper  Company,  423 

Mountain  Lake  Park,  313 

Mountain  Play,  139 

Mountain  Theater,  438 

Mountain  View,  477 

Mowry's  Opera  House,  289 

Mud-flats,   reclamation  of,  40 

Mudhens,  117 

Muir,  John,  58,  420,  437,  438 

Muir  Woods  National  Monument,  10, 
438 

Muldoon,  Billy,  412 

Mulford,  Prentice,  59 

Mullett,  A.  B.,  179 

Mullgardt,  Louis,  339 

Municipal  Airport:  (see  Airports)  ; 
Auditorium,  Oakland,  386;  Band, 
Oakland,  387;  Fishing  Pier,  Berke- 
ley, 396;  Golf  Course,  316;  Pier, 
305;  Railway,  42,  164;  Rose  Gar- 
dens, Oakland,  388 

Murals,  Coit  Tower,  248 

Murphy  House,  Martin,  478 

Murphy,  Joe,  137 

Murphy,  Martin,  Jr.,  478 

Murphy,  Timoteo,  443,  444,  445 

Murphy  windmill,  349 

Murietta,  Joaquin,  390,  436,  484 

Murray,  John,  471 

Murray,  Margaret,  471 

Museums,  68,  69,  70,  71,  164,  168,  171, 
255,  259,  269,  308,  315,  338,  340,  343, 
397,  415,  473,  490 

Music,  140-144 

Music  Concourse,  338 

Music  Pavilion,  341 

Naglee,  Henry  M.,  115,  488 
Nahl,  Arthur,  183 
Nahl,  Charles,  66,   183 
Napa,  455 


INDEX      521 


Napa  County  Courthouse,  456 

Napa  Creek,  455 

Napa  State  Hospital,  454 

Napa  Valley,  8 

Napoleonic  wars,  trade  during,  21 

Nash,  John  Henry,  171,  450 

Nathan-Dohrmann  Co.,  188 

National  Railroad  Banking  System, 
125 

National  Recovery  Act,  125 

National  Theatre,  136 

Native  Sons  of  the  Golden  West,  338, 
346;  building,  184 

Native  Sons  Monument,  70,  179 

Natural  History  Museum,  343 

Naturalization  Service,   173 

Nautical  School,  California,  437 

Naval  Monument,  180 

Navy:  Air  Station,  Alameda,  411; 
Landing,  269;  Pacific  Fleet,  269; 
Supply  Depot,  Oakland,  384;  Train- 
ing Station,  Yerba  Buena,  367; 
Yard,  Mare  Island,  422,  453 

Negro  Colony,  285;  Oakland,  379 

Neilson,  Adelaide,  138 

Neptune  Baths,  Alameda,  305 

Neptune  Beach,  Alameda,  412 

Neri,  Joseph  M.,  44,  290 

Neuhaus,  Eugen,  67 

Nevada  Bank  Building,  195 

Nevada  Four,  117,  193 

Nevada  Mines,  116 

Neve,  Don  Felipe  de,  487 

Neville,  Amelia  Ransome,  70,  252 

Nevins,  Thomas  J.,  48,  343 

New  Haven,  431 

New  Joe's,  244 

New  Place,  465 

New  San  Francisco,  449 

New  Year,  Chinese,  222 

New  York  Landing,  424 

Newark,  432 

Newbegin's  Book  Store,  184 

News-Letter,  65 

News,  San  Francisco,  155,  189 

Newspaper  Square,  191 

Newspapers,   150-155 

Niantic  Hotel,  205 

Nicasio,  440 

Nicholl  Park,  Richmond,  418 

Nichols,  423 

Nichols,  William  Ford,  257,  441 

Nielson,  Alice,  143 

Nieto,  Jacob,   149 

Night  Clubs,  83 

Niles,  431 

Niles  Canyon  Road,  430 

Nob  Hill,  51,  252 

Nobilij  John,  481 

Noe,  Jose,  276 

Noguchi,  Yone,  63 


Nom  Ku  School,  228 

Noonday  Rock,  359 

Noriega,  Jose,  429 

Normal  School,  286;  San  Jose,  488 

Norris,  Charles,  64,  212,  254 

Norris,  Frank,  62,  212,  254 

Norris  Kathleen,  64,  212  254 

North  American  Hall,  343 

North  Bay  Area,  434 

North  Beach,  236 

North  Point  Docks,  238,  264 

Northern  California  Drama  Assn.,  297 

Norton,  Emperor,  132 

Notre  Dame   College,  Belmont,  467 

Notre    Dame    Des    Victories    Church, 

185,  246 
Novato,  446 

Novitiate  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  482 
Nucleus  Hotel,  190 
Nuestra  Senora  de  Guadalupe  Church, 

245 

Nuestra  Senora  de  los  Angeles,  364 
Nurseries,  Daly  City,  461 
Nye,  Gorham  H.,  366 

Oakes,  Tony,  428 

Oakland:  general  information,  375- 
377;  history,  377-383;  points  of  in- 
terest, 383-392 

Oakland  Long  Wharf,  32 

Oakland  Speedway,  427 

"Oaks,"  the,  464 

O'Brien,   Frederick,   254 

O'Brien,  William  S.,  117 

Observation  Point,  469 

Observatories:  Chabot,  Oakland,  391; 
Lick,  55,  484;  site  of  first  S.  F.,  297 

Observer,  the,  202 

Ocean  Beach,  323 

Oceanic  Steamship  Co.,  34 

O'Connell  Monument,  436 

O'Connor,  Moffatt  &  Co.,  188 

Octagonal  Houses,  254,  258 

Octupus,  the,  62 

Odd  Fellows  Cemetery,  292,  295 

Odeon,  134 

Oelrichs,  Tessie  Fair,  256 

O'Farrell,  Jasper,  98,  174,  178,  205 

Officers'  Club,  Presidio,  311 

Ohioan,  hull  of,  320 

Oil,  Contra  Costa  County,  39;  Oleum, 
421;  Richmond,  418;  Rodeo,  421 

Old  Chinatown  Lane,  232 

"Old  Limpus"  Hanrahan,  278 

Old  Mill  Park,  437 

Old  St.  Mary's  Church,  224,  227 

Old  Shoreline,  204 

Old  Store,  Almaden,  483 

Older,  Fremont,  109,  123,  154 

Oldfield,  Otis,  72,  249 

Olema,  440 


522      INDEX 


Oleum,  421 

Oliver,  Dennis  J.,  470 

Olson,  Culbert  L.,   124,  443 

Olympia,  building  of,  277 

Olympia  Hall,  134,  215 

Olympic  Club,   183;  golf  course,  326 

Olympic  Theater,  137,  217 

One-Eleven  Sutter  Building,  195 

O'Neill,  Eugene,  416 

Open-Air  Theater,  U.  C.,  407 

Opera,    142;    Association,    144;    War 

Memorial,  144,  168 
Orchard  City,  482 
Orchards,  Santa  Clara  County,  477 
Orchid  collection,   337 
Oregon,  building  of,  277 
Orpheum  Theater,  135,  176 
Orient,  trade  with,  34 
Oriental,  231 
Oriental  Hotel,  133 
Oriental  Museum,  San  Jose,  490 
Orr  Family,  410 
Ortega,   Jose   Francisco,    17 
O'Shaughnessy  Dam,  44 
O'Shaughnessy,  Michael  M.,  164,  185, 

324 

Osio,  Antonio  Mario,  364 
Otis,  Albert,  410 
Overland  Monthly,  57 
Overland  Stage  Line,  173 

Pacheco,  421 

Pacheco  House,  421 

Pacheco,  Ignacio,  445 

Pacheco,  Jose  Dolores,  429 

Pacheco,  Salvio,  421 

Pacheco,  Tomas,  431 

Pacheco  Valley,  19 

Pacific  and  Atlantic  Railroad,  212 

Pacific  Basin,  35 

Pacific  Company,  115 

Pacific     Gas     and    Electric     Co.,    44; 

Building,   202 ;    Substation,   Newark, 

432 

Pacific  Heights,  253,  283 
Pacific  Mail  Docks,  Benicia,  458 
Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Co.,  30,  33 
Pacific  Melodeon,   137 
Pacific  Portland  Cement  Plant,  468 
Pacific  Press  Publishing  Assn.,  477 
Pacific  Rod  and  Gun  Club,  326 
Pacific  Street,  215 
Pacific    Telephone    and    Telegraph 

Building,  194 
Pacific  Union  Club,  256 
Pacifica,  statue,  74,  369 
Packing  plants,   San  Jose,  488 
Padilla,  Juan,  27 
Padre  of  the  Rains,  481 
Page,  Thomas  S.,  447 
Page,  Wilfred,  447 


Palace  Hotel,   191 

Palace  of  Fine  Arts,  71,  308 

Palace    of   the    Legion   of    Honor,    68, 

J64,  3i5 

Palmer,  Cook  and  Co.,  115,  363 

Palo  Alto,  471 ;  Community  Players, 
471;  Hospital,  472 

Palou,  Francisco,  272,  319,  327 

Pan-American  Airways,  35,  47,  370 

Panama-Pacific  International  Exposi- 
tion, 70,  no,  307,  309 

Panama-Pacific  Line,  34 

Panhandle,  330,  335 

Paper  Mill  Creek,  440 

Parade  Ground,  Presidio,  311 

Paradise  Cove,  437 

Pardee  Dam,  44 

Parente's  saloon,  214 

Park  Administration  offices,  335 

Park  Commission,  first,  330 

Park  events,  Calendar  of,  334 

Parker  House,  129,  207,  208 

Parker,  Jean,  50 

Parkhurst,  Charley,  426 

Park  Military  Academy,  470 

Parks:  163,  180,  207,  227,  241,  247,  248, 
254,  257,  277,  278,  279,  288,  294,  313, 
314,  318,  329-354,  386,  387,  388,  389, 
39°,  396,  397,  4",  4H,  4l8,  426,  437, 
465,  469,  477,  479,  480,  484 

Parnassus,  Heights,  279,  280 

Parrish,  Maxfield,  193 

Parrott  Block,  197,  206 

Parrott,  John,  25,  465;  Mrs.,  133 

Parry,  Albert,  63 

Passion  Play,  138 

Pastori,  Adele,  439 

Patigian,  Haig,  71,  167,  189,  247,  255, 
339,  346,  370 

Patten,  B.  A.,  237 

Patten,  Edward,  Robert,  &  William, 
380 

Paulist  Circulating  Library,  228 

Paulist  Fathers,  227,  228 

Paulist  Hall,  228 

Pavilion  of  the  Seven  Maidens,  232 

Pavlowa,  Anna,  134 

Peabody  Hospital,  Benicia,  459 

Peabody,  W.  F.,  459 

Pease,  James,  468 

Pebble  Beach,  466 

Pechos  de  la  Choca,  Los,  280 

Pedrini,  Armando,  240 

Peixotto,  Ernest,  63 

Pellier,  Louis,  477 

Pelton,  John  G.,  49    . 

Pelton's  Tide  Machine,  317 

Pendarvis,  Paul,  145 

Penquin  Rock,  Mt.  Diablo,  416 

Peninsula,  460 

Penitencia,  434 


INDEX      523 


People's  Institute,  206 

People's  Party,  102,  163 

Peralta,  Antonio  Maria,  389,  409 

Peralta  Home,  San  Leandro,  427 

Peralta,  Luis  Maria,  379 

Peralta  Park,  Oakland,  386 

Permanente  Cement  Plant,  478 

Pershing,  John  J.,  310;  Monument,  346 

Pescadero,  466,  469 

Petaluma  Valley,  446 

Peters,  Charles  Rollo,  386 

Petroleum  products,  39 

Pflueger,  T.  L.,  185,  194,  196,  368 

Phelan,  James  D.,   106,   163,  321,   342, 

402,  479 
Phelan    Memorial    Beach    State    Park, 

3H 

Phelan  Memorial  Room,  171 
Phoenix  Building,  216,  305 
Phoenix,  John,  199 
Piazzoni,  Gottardo,  170 
Pickering,  Loring,  154 
Pickford,  Mary,  430 
Pico,  Antonio  Maria,  429 
Pico,  Pio,   362,  463 
Pied  Piper  Buffet,  193 
Pierce,   Harrison,  455 
Piers,  82,  263 
Pigeon  Point,  467 
Pigeon  Rock,  Mt.  Diablo,  416 
Piggott,  Miss,  265 
Pilarcitos  Valley,  466 
Pilot  boats,  268 
Pinchot    Redwood    Cathedral     Grove, 

438 

Pine  Grove,  447 

Pinole,  419 

Pinole  Point,  419 

Pioche   and  Bayerque  Building,  213 

Pioneer  Hall,  169;  Cabin,  347;  Me- 
morial Park,  294;  Monument,  172; 
Park,  248 

Pioneer  Columbia  Woolen  Mill,  305 

Pisco  Punch,  129 

Pissis,  Albert,  179,  186 

Pissis  and  Moore,   194 

Pittsburg,  40,  424 

Planetarium  building,  San  Jose,  490 

Plan's  Hall,   197 

Playground,  Children's,  353 

Playground  Commission,   164 

Playland,  323 

Plaza,  S.  F.,  98,  206;  Sonoma,  450 

Pleasant,  Mammy,  298 

Pleasanton,  429,  430 

Pleasanton  Racetrack,  430 

Pobladores,  487 

Podesta  and  Baldocchi,  186 

Poet  laureate,  Ina  Coolbrith,  59 

Poet  of  the  Sierras,  Joaquin  Miller, 
59,  390 


Point  Reyes   Station,  440 

Points:  Bonita,  358,  436;  Diablo,  358; 
Lobos,  17,  267,  319,  321,  327;  Me- 
danos,  306;  Orient,  39;  Potrero, 
358;  Reyes,  8,  18,  257,  379,  44^5 
Richmond,  417;  San  Jose,  306;  San 
Pablo,  417;  San  Pedro,  16,  18;  San 
Quentin,  441 ;  Tiburon,  364,  437 

Police  boat,  267 

Polk,  Willis,  195,  196,  430 

Polo  Club,  San  Mateo-Burlingame,  465 

Polo  Sheds,  350 

Polytechnic  High  School,  139 

Pond,  Edward  B.,  319 

Pony  Express,  173 

Poodle  Dog,  133,  176 

Pope,  Marion  Holden,  384 

Portados     la     Rancheria     del     Chino, 

379 

Portals  of  the  Past,  347 
Portanova,  Giovanni,  180 
Port  Chicago,  423 
Port  Costa,  422 

Porter,  Bruce,  63,  69,  293,  301,  465 
Portola  expedition,  Caspar  de,  16,  17, 

327,  47i 

Portola-Louvre  134,  176 
Ports:   Oakland,    383;    Redwood    City, 

468;  San  Francisco,  30,  35,  357 
Portsmouth  House,  206 
Portsmouth  Square,  99,  101,  206,  207 
Portsmouth,  U.  S.  S.,  27,  98 
Portuguese,    Oakland,    379,    384;    San 

Leandro,  426 

Portuguese  whaling  station,  467 
Posey-Tube,  Alameda,  45,  385,  409 
Post-office,  central,  172 
Potato  Patch,  357 
Potrero  Hill,  285 
Potter's  Field,  315 
Poulhan,  Jean,  462 
Poultry    Pathological    Lab.,    Petaluma, 

446 

Pousse  Cafe,  134 
Prayer  Book  Cross,  347 
Preparedness  Parade  Bombing,  203 
Prescott,  George  W.,  277 
President's  House,  U.  C.,  401 
Presidio,   19,  308,  310 
Presidio  Golf  Links,  313 
Pribilof  fur  seal,  360 
Printing  industry,   39 
Prismoidal    Railway,    Sonoma    Valley, 

449 

Prisons:  Alcatraz,  San  Quentin,  442 
Produce  commission  district,  262 
Professional  and  vocational  standards, 

department  of,  169 
Progress  and  Poverty,  58 
Prohibition  days,   no 
Promenade  concerts,   130 


524      INDEX 


Protestant  Church,  site  of  first  Cali- 
fornia, Benicia,  459 

Protestant  Episcopal  Cathedral,  first, 
257 

Provost,  Daniel  R.,  38 

Prudhon,   Victor,  26 

Public  Balance,  151 

Public  schools,  49,  164 

Public  utilities,   163,   164 

Publishing  industry,  39 

Puccinelli,  Raymond,  249,  370 

Pueblo,  Yerba  Buena,  97;  San  Jose, 
20,  487;  Sonoma,  449 

Punta  del  Ano  Nuevo  Rancho,  467 

Punta  del  Embarcadero,  263 

Punta  de  los  Lobos  Marinos,  319 

Punta  de  los  Reyes,  361 

Punta  de  Quentin  Rancho,  439 

Puppet  theater,  Dilley's,  213 

Purcell's  "So  Different"  Saloon,  216 

Purisima,  466 

Putnam,  Arthur,  70,  198,  216,  275,  301 

Quarantine   and   Immigration    Station, 

364 

Queen  of  Heaven  Temple,  232 
Queen  of  the  Holy  Rosary  College,  433 
Quicksilver  Mines,  Almaden,  483 

Racoon  Strait,  364 

Radiation  laboratory,  52 

Radio  compass  Stations,  U.  S.,  361, 
368,  441 

Radio  Stations,  82,  375 

Radio  telephone  station,  488 

Rae,  William  Glenn,  211 

Railroad  Commission,  109 

Railroad  Co.,  S.  F.  &  Oakland,  41 

Railroad,  transcontinental,  41 

Railway  Brotherhoods,  124 

Rainbow  Falls,  347 

Rainfall,  9 

Ralston,  William  C.,  116,  192,  199, 
276,  296,  299,  305,  433,  467 

Ranches:  grants  of  22;  Acalanes,  415; 
Bodega,  411;  Burdell,  446;  Buri 
Buri,  462;  Canada  de  Herrera,  439; 
Canada  de  Raymundo,  468 ;  Canada 
de  Verde  y  Arroyo  de  la  Purisima, 
466;  Corral  de  Tierra,  466;  Corte 
Madera  del  Presidio,  437;  Cotati, 
447;  de  la  Alameda,  431;  El  Valle 
de  San  Jose,  429;  Entra  Napa,  455; 
Feliz,  465;  Laguna  de  la  Merced, 
461 ;  Laguna  de^  los  Palos  Colorados, 
415;  Las  Juntas,  420;  Las  Pulgas. 
467,  470;  Llano  de  Santa-Rosa,  447; 
Los  Meganos,  424;  Los  Tularcitos, 
434;  Milpitas,  434;  Miramontes, 
466;  Monte  del  Diablo,  421;  Nicasio, 
441;  Novato,  446;  Olompali,  446; 


Pastoria  de  los  Borregas,  478 ; 
Petaluma,  446;  Portrero  de  los 
Cerritos,  431;  Punta  de  Quentin, 
439;  Rinconando  de  los  Gatos,  482; 
San  Antonio,  22,  379,  387,  395;  San 
Geronimo,  440;  San  Gregorio,  466; 
San  Lorenzo,  428;  San  Mateo,  463, 
465;  San  Miguel,  280,  281;  Santa 
Margarita,  97,  440;  Saucelito,  436; 
Suscol,  457;  Tomales  y  Bolinas, 
440;  Tulucay,  455 

Randol,  J.  E.,  483 

Randolph,  Lee,  72 

Ransom,  Leander,  416 

Ravazza,  Carl,  145 

Ray  House,  Sonoma,  451 

RCA  Radio  Station,  437,  441 

Read,  John,  436,  438;  Ranch,  437 

Reading  List,  501-502 

Realf,  Richard,  60 

Realty  Syndicate,  383 

Receiving  ship,   367 

Recreation  Center,  Hayes  Valley,  289 ; 
Oakland,  389 

Recreation  Commission,  164,  297,  328 

Recreation  Field,  348 

Red  Hill,  439 

Red  Light  Abatement  Act,  no 

Red  Rock,   San  Quentin,  442 

Redwood  Cathedral  Grove,  438 

Redwood  City,  468 

Redwood  Memorial  Grove,  346 

Redwood  Park,   10,  479 

Redwood  Tree,  church  from,  447 

Reed,  Whitelaw,  472 

Reesley  Valley,  415 

Refrigeration    Plant,    State,    270 

Regattas,  75-78,  307 

Regulators,   100 

Rehan,  Ada,  319 

Reid,  Jr.,  John,   164 

Reinhardt,  Max,  405 

Religious  Sects,  150 

Republic  of  Mexico,  establishment,  21 ; 
Reservoir,  Spring  Valley,  434 

Restaurants,  86,  87;  Chinese,  86,  221 

Revere,   Joseph   Warren,  440,  450 

Rezanof,  Nicolai  Petrovich,  21,  459 

Rhododendrons,  Bowles,  337 

Ricard,  Jerome,  481 

Ricci,  Ruggiero,  144 

Rice  Bowl,  230 

Richard's  Residence,  454 

Richardson  Bay,  32,  436 

Richardson,   William   A.,    32,   96,    102, 
204,  436 

Richmond,    417;    Hills,    19;    Oil    Re- 
finery, 39;  Yacht  Club,  418 

Richmond-San  Rafael  Ferry,  419 

Ridley,  Robert,  27 

Ridolfi,  Tito,  290 


INDEX      525 


Riehr  Winery,  432 

Rietschel,  Ernst,  346 

Riiey,  Bennet,  162 

Rincon  Hill,  40,  253 

Rincon  School,  49 

Rio  de  Janeiro  wreck,  316,  358 

Riordan,  Thomas,  470 

Ripley,  Robert,  308 

Rivera,  Diego,  65,  72,  169,  198,  259 

Rivera  y  Moncada  expedition,  319,  327 

Robinson,  Davis  G.,  128,  136 

"Rock,"  the,   362 

Rock  Springs,  438 

Rockridge,   377 

Rocky  Ridge,  8 

Rodeo,  421 

Rodeos,  75,  78 

Rodin,  Auguste,  315 

Roe,   George  H.,  44 

Rogers,  John,  271 

Rollins,   Lloyd  Le  Page,  72 

Rolph,  Jr.,  James,   no,   165,  309 

Roman  Catholic  Cemetery,  462 

Roney,  Frank,  121 

Roos  Brothers,  188 

Root  Park,  San  Leandro,  426 

Rose  Gardens,  352;  Oakland,  388;  San 

Jose,  490 

Rose  Hotel,  Pleasanton,  430 
Rose,  John,  455 
Rosenberg,  Adolph,  289 
Rosenthal,  Toby  Edward,  68 
Rosicrucian    Headquarters,    San    Jose, 

490 

Ross,  James,  439,  440 
Ross  Valley,  439 
Rossi,  Angelo  J.,  165,  188,  240 
Roth,  Almon  E.,  126 
Roth,  William  P.,  203 
Rothschilds  of  London,   115,  211,  483 
Rowe,  Joseph  A.,  136 
Royce,  Josiah,  54 
Ruef,  Abraham,  106,  123,  154,  225,  289, 

297,    328 

Ruef-Schmitz  machine,  154 
Rueger,  John,  459 
Russ  Building,   197 
Russ,  Christian,  197 
Russ  Gardens,  129 
Russell,  A.  C.,  152 
Russian  Hill,  236,  253 
Russian  Orthodox  Church,  285,  302 
Russian  River,  448 
Russians,  22,  23,  24,  253,  285,  361 
Ryan  Laboratory,  Stanford,  477 


Sacramento,  33 
Sacramento  Valley,  10 
St.    Alexander    Russian    Orthodox 
Church,  302 


St.  Catherine's  Academy,  52 

St.  Catherine's  Convent,  459 

St.  Dominic's  Church,  295 

St.  Edmunds,  John,  145 

St.  Francis  Church,  246;   Statue,  74 

St.  Francis  Hotel,  133,  182 

St.  Francis  Yacht  Club,  308 

St.  Ignatius   Church    and   College,   49, 

52,  149,  290 

St.  Joseph's  Church,  Oakland,  384 
St.  Joseph's  Church,  Sa"n  Jose,  489 
St.  Mark's  Evangelical  Lutheran 

Church,   300 

St.  Mary's  Cathedral,  228,  300 
St.  Mary's  Cemetery,  Oakland,  389 
St.  Mary's  College,  52,  415 
St.  Mary's  Square,  227 
St.  Mathews    Episcopal    Church,    San 

Mateo,  465 

St.  Patrick's  Church,  271 
St.  Patrick's    Seminary,    Menlo    Park, 

470 
St.  Paul's  Episcopal   Church,   Benicia, 

458 

St.  Raphael's  Church,  San  Rafael,  444 
St.  Raymond's  Church,  Dublin,  428 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas  Seminary,  149 
St.    Vincent's    School    for    Boys,    San 

Rafael,  445 

Sts.  Peter  and  Paul  Church,  247 
Sais,  Pedro  V.,  439 
Sales  and  Bourke  Hatchery,  Petaluma, 

446 

Salt  Works,  Leslie,  427 
Salvation  Army  headquarters,  92 
San  Andreas  earthquake  faults,  8 
San  Andreas  Rift  Valley,  8 
San  Anselmo,  439 
San  Antonio,  382;  Landing,  32,  36 
San  Bruno,  462;   Mountain,  7,  461 
San  Carlos,  268,  357 
San  Carlos  Opera  Co.,  144 
San  Carlos,  supply  ship,  19,  272 
San  Francisco   and   Oakland  Railroad 

Co.,  41 
San  Francisco  Art  Assn.,  69,  255,  259, 

479 

San  Francisco  Bay,  20,  24,  29 
San  Francisco  Call,   106 
San  Francisco  State  College,  286 
San  Francisco     College     for    Women, 

291 
San  Francisco    Curb    Exchange   Bldg., 

196 
San  Francisco    de    Asis    Mission,    18, 

272 

San  Francisco  Golf  Club,  327 
San  Francisco   Museum  of  Art,    168 
San  Francisco,  naming,  99 
San  Francisco  National  Bank,  218 
San  Francisco  Netvs,  155,  189 


526      INDEX 


San  Francisco-Oakland  Bay  Bridge, 
46,  201,  268,  366,  375;  Cables,  269; 
Terminal,  201 ;  tunnel,  367 

San  Francisco-San  Jose  railroad,  277, 
470 

S.  F.  Stock  Exchange  Bldg.,  197 

San  Francisco  String  Quartet,   144 

San  Francisco  Yacht  Club,  437 

San  Francisquito  Creek,  471 

San  Geronimo,  440 

San  Gregorio;  466 

San  Jose:  general  information,  486; 
history,  20,  486-488;  Points  of  In- 
terest, 489-491 

San  Jose  de  Guadalupe  Mission,  19, 
432,  481,  487,  489 

San  Jose  State  College,  489 

San  Joaquin  delta,  424 

San  Leandro,  410,  425;  Bay,  392;  hills, 

39i 

San  Lorenzo,  427 
San  Luis,  U.  S.  S.,  204 
San  Mateo,  465 

San  Mateo-Burlingame  Polo  Club,  465 
San  Mateo  County  Court  House,  468 
San  Mateo  County  Memorial  Park,  469 
San  Mateo  Toll  Bridge,  46,  428,  465 
San  Pablo,  419;  Bay,  18;  Strait,  417 
San  Quentin,  442 ;  Prison,  442 
San  Rafael,  443-445;   Mission,  20,  21, 

444 

San  Ramon  Valley,  8,  423 
San  Raymundo  Valley,  468 
Sanchez,  Francisco,  480 
Sanchez,  Jose,  453 
Sanchez,  Nellie  van  der  Grift,  367 
Santa  Anna,  Gen.,  23 
Santa  Clara,    480;    Mission,    20,    480, 

481;   University,  480;   Valley,   8,  20, 

460,  477,  486 
Santa  Cruz  Mission,  20 
Santa  Cruz  Mountains,  8 
Santa  Cruz  Redwood  Park,  10 
Santa  Inez  Lodge,  433 
Santandru,  Antonio  M.,  245 
Santa  Rite,  429 

Santa  Rosa,  447;   Junior  College,  447 
Saratoga,  479 
Sardine  fleet,  250 
Saroyan,  William,   64,  73 
Sarra,  Vicente,  443 
Sather  Gate,  U.  C.,  402 
Sather,  Jane  K.,  402,  404 
Sausalito,  42,  436 
Sawmill,   first,   36 
Sawyer  Ridge,  7 
Scannel,  Dave,  grave  of,  294 
Scheel,  Fritz,  142 
Scheffauer,  Herman,  60,  63 
Schell,  Theodor,  449 
Schmid,  R.,  338 


Schmid,  Matthew,  443 

Schmitz,  Eugene  E.,  106,  123,  295 

Schnaittaker,  Sylvain,  292 

Schnier,  Jacques,  370 

Schoenstein,  Felix,  300 

School  system,  49,  99,  164 

Schultze  and  Weaver,  195 

Scott,  Irving  M.,  277 

Scott,  William  Anderson,  146,  296 

Scott,  Winfield,   310 

Scottish  Rite  Temple,  301 

Scripps-Howard  chain,    155,   189 

Sea  Cliff,  314 

Sea  Lion  Islet,  359 

Sea  lions,   Steller,  322 

Seal  Rock  House,  321 

Seal  Rocks,  319,  322,  359 

Seamen's  Protective  Assn.,  122 

Searles,  Edward  F.,  70 

Sears,  John  L.,  469 

Sears  Point  Road,  448,  453 

Searville  Lake,  469 

Seattle  Concert  Hall,  216 

Sebastopol,  447 

See,  Bo  Sing,  225 

Seer,  Gisin,  225 

Selby,  421 

Selby  Co.,  305 

Selby,  Thomas,  37,  294 

Sempervirens  Club,  479 

Semple,  Robert,  26,  27,  150,  457,  459 

Sem  Yeto,  Chief,  449 

Sen,  Lin,  227 

Sentinel  Rock,  Mt.  Diablo,  416 

Sequoia  Hall,  Stanford,  473 

Sequoia  Park,  Oakland,  390 

Sequoia  sempervirens,  480 

Serra,  Junipero,   18,  272;   statue,  275 

Seven  Points,  214 

Seventh  Day  Adventists,  150;  Church, 

477 

Shafter,  General,  312 
Shakespeare  Gardens,  352 
Shaler,  William,  23 
Shanghai  Kelly,  265 
Shanghai   (kidnapping),  122,  265 
Sharon,    William,    118,    294,    353,    409, 

465 

Sheep  Island,  265,  358 
Shell  Building,  200 
Shelley,  John  F.,  126 
Shellmound  Park,  414 
Shell  Oil  Co.,  200;  refinery,  Martinez. 

423 

Shell  Point,  424 
Shellville,  448 
Sheridan,  P.  H.,  310 
Sherith  Israel  Temple,   149,  297 
Sherman,  Clay  and  Co.,  185 
Sherman,  William  Tecumseh,  101,  102, 

115,  214,  310,  424,  450 


INDEX      527 


Shin  sect,  298 

Shipbuilding,      212;      Alameda,      411; 

Oakland,   384 
Ship  model  exhibit,  341 
Shredded  Wheat  Plant,  Oakland,  384 
Shreve  and  Co.,  186 
Sigmund  Stern  Memorial  Grove,  327 
Silk  Mill,  Petaluma,  446 
Sill,  Edward  Rowland,  59 
Silver  Street  Kindergarten,  50 
Simmons,  Bezar,  453 
Simpson,  Marian,  386 
Simson  African  Hall,  345 
Sinaloa,  244 

Sir  Francis  Drake  Hotel,   184 
Sisters  of  the  Holy  Names,  433 
Sisters    of   the    Holy   Names   of   Jesus 

and  Mary,  Oakland,  387 
Sisters  of  Notre  Dame,  467 
Sisters  of  St.  Dominic,   52,  433 
Sitka,  sidewheeler,  31 
Skeet-shooting  range,  326 
Skyline  Dam,  465 
Skyline  Methuselah  Redwood,  469 
Slavery  issue,  100,  103 
Slavianka  River,  448 
Slenczynski,  Ruth,   144 
Sloat,  John  Drake,  27,  98 
Sloat,  Lewis  W.,  343 
Slummers'  galleries,  215 
Smith,  Francis  M.  "Borax,"   382,   389, 

391 

Smith,  Henry  C.,  431 
Smith,  Jedediah,  24 
Smith,  J.  H.,  424 
Smith  Lumber  Co.,  423 
Smith,  Persifor  Frazer,  449 
Smith,  Ralph  S.,  479 
Smith,  Stephen,  36 
Smith,  William,  468 
Smith,  William  M.,  423 
Smith,  W.  W.,  424 
Smith's  Landing,  425 
Snow,  Henry  Adelbert,  387 
Snow  Museum,  Oakland,  387 
Snow,  Sidney  Adelbert,  392 
Sobrante  district,  419 
Society  of  California  Pioneers,   169 
Society  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  292 
Sola,  Pablo  Vicente  de,  21,  23,  96,  379 
Solano,  Francisco,  450 
Solano  House,  458 
Sonoma,    449-452;     Mission,    20,    450; 

Mission  Inn,  452;  Valley,  8 
Sons     of     the     American     Revolution 

library,  168 

Soto,  Maria  Luisa,  469 
Soule,   Frank,    151 
South  City,  463 
South  Falls,  484 
South  Hall,  U.  C.,  404 


South  of  the  Slot,  42 

South  Pacific  Coast  Railway,  268 

South  Park,  272 

South  San  Francisco,  463 

Southeast  Farallon  Island,  359 

Southern  Pacific  Building,  203 ;  Rail- 
road, 41,  109 

Southampton   Bay,  457 

Spanish-American  War,   310 

Spanish  War  Monument,  70 

Spear,  Nathan,  97 

Spider  Kelly's,  216 

Spirit  of  California,  dirigible,  488 

Sports,  75-78,  87,  333,  376,  393,  408,  486 

Spotless  Town,  466 

Spreckels,  Adolph  B.,  278,  315,  350; 
Alma  de  Brettville,  315;  Claus,  37, 
190,  278,  341;  John  D.,  199,  278; 
Rudolph,  109 

Spreckels  Building,  190 

Spreckels  Lake,   347 

Spring  Valley  reservoir,  434 

Spring  Valley  Water  Co.,  324 

Stables,  Park,  349 

Stackpole,  Ralph,  70,  72,  73,  197,  213, 
249,  286,  369 

Stacks,   Jimmy,   cabaret,    176 

Stadiums,   350,   406,  472 

Standard  Oil  Building,  200;  refinery, 
39,  4i8 

Standard  Theater,  137 

Stanford,  Leland,  51,  104,  147,  253, 
343,  381,  472 

Stanford  University,  472-477  ;  Stanford- 
Lane  Hospitals,  296  ;  School  of  Nurs- 
ing, 296 

Star,   1 50 

Stark,  James,    136 

Stark,  Sarah  Kirby,  136 

State  Belt  Railroad,  242,  260,  263 

State  Board  of  Harbor  Commissioners, 

State  Building,  169 

State  Building  Trades  Council,  123 

State  Capital,  Benicia,  458 ;   San  Jose, 

487;  Vallejo,  454 
State  Chamber  of  Commerce,   196 
State  College,  286;  San  Jose,  489 
State  Federation  of  Labor,  123 
State      Industrial      Home      for     Adult 

Blind,  Oakland,  388 
State  Normal  School,  San  Jose,  488 
Station  Hospital,  311 
Steam  Beer  Club,  350 
Steamer  Day,   173 
Stebbins,   Horatio,   301 
Stege,  418 

Stein,   Gertrude,   64,    135 
Steinbeck,  John,  64,  482 
Steinhart  Aquarium,  345 
Steinhart,   Ignatz,   345 


528      INDEX 


Steller  sea  lions,  360 
Stephens,  Henry  Morse,  405 
Stephens  Union,  U.  C.,  405 
Sterling,  George,  60,  212,  254,  258,  382 
Stern,  Louis,  Mrs.,  471 
Stern  Memorial  Grove,  327 
Sterne,  Maurice,  72 
Stevens,  William  D.,  124 
Stevenson,  Jonathan  D.,  424 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  199,  252,  296; 
Monument,  208 

Stewart,  Joseph,  363 

Stewart's  Third  Artillery,  363 

Stidger,  Oliver  Perry,  212 

Stinson  Beach,  437 

Stock  and  Bond  Exchange,  116,  198 

Stock  Exchange  Building,  197 

Stockton,  33 

Stockton  House,  San  Jose,  491 

Stockton,  Robert  F.,  491 

Stockton  Street  Tunnel,  45,  185 

Stoddard,  Charles  Warren,  59 

Stone  House,  361 

Stovall,  Charles  A.,  365 

Stove  manufacturing,   Newark,  432 

Stow  Lake,  351 

Street  of  the  Little  Bazaars,  232 

Strentzel  House,  John,  420 

Strybling,  Helen,  351 

Sturtevant,  Butler  S.,  369 

Sue  Hing  Benevolent  Assn.,  233 

Sugar  Loaf  Isle,  359 

Sugar  refining,  37;  Crockett,  422 

Suisun  Bay,  8,  19 

Sullivan,  James  "Yankee,"  275 

Sullivan,  John,  179 

Sullivan,  John  L.,  132,  289 

Sumner,  E.  V.,  104,  310 

Sunday  Times,  152 

Sun  Dial,  339 

Sunnyvale,  478 

Sunol,  430 

Sunol,  Antonia  Maria,  429,  430,  483 

Sunol  Water  Temple,  430 

Sunset  Tunnel,  288 

Sun  Yat-Sen,  229;  statue,  74,  227 

Superior  Court,  criminal  division,  209 

Sutro,  Adolph,  106,  117,  279,  281,  317, 
318,  320;  Gingerbread  palace,  322 

Sutro  Baths  and  Ice  Rink,  89,  320; 
Forest,  279-280;  Heights,  318;  Me- 
morial Library,  171,  212;  Tunnel, 
117 

Sutter,  Johann  Augustus,  24,  422,  455 

Swain,  Robert  Eckles,  472 

Sweeney  and  BaUgh,  199,  267 

Swett,  John,  49,  420 

Swett  House,  420 

Swift,  Florence,  72,  402 

Swift,  G.  F.,  463 

Swift,  Granville  Perry,  449 


Swinnerton,  James,  153 
Swiss  Chalet,  Sonoma,  451 
Sydney  Ducks,  101,  215 
Sydney  Town,  215,  238 
Symphony  orchestra,  143 


Tait-Zinkane,  176 

Taliaferro,  A.  W.,  439 

Tamalpais,  Mount,  15,  438;  Play,  139; 

State  Park,  438 
Tanforan  race  track,  462 
Tao  House,  416 
Tapestries,  ancient,  315 
Tar  Flat  district,  50 
Tar's  resort,  214 
Tavernier,  Jules,  70 
Taylor,  Edgar  Dorsey,  72 
Taylor,  Edward  Robeson,  109,   170 
Taylor,  James  Knox,  172 
Taylor,  Samuel  Penfield,  440 
Taylor,  William,    146 
Taylor  and  Taylor,  202 
Taylorville,  440 
Teachers'  colleges,  286,  489 
Techau  Tavern,  134,  176 
Tehama  House,  199 
Telegraph,  43,  104,  320 
Telegraph   Hill,   ji,  40,   236,   237 
Telephone  Exchange,  Chinese,  233 
Temelec  Hall,  449 
Temple  Centers,  149 
Temple  Emanu-El,  149,  292 
Temple  of  Music,  137 
Temple  Sherith  Israel,  297 
Temple,  Tin  How,  233 
Temples,  Chinese,  222 
Tenderloin,  176 
Tennant,  Samuel  J.,  420 
Tennis  Club,  Berkeley,  398 
Tennis  Courts,  90,  353 
Terman,  Lewis  M.,  472 
Terrace   Plunge,    Fairmont   Hotel,   256 
Terrific  Street,  214 
Terry,  David  S.,  102,  103,  208,  326 
Tetlow,  Samuel,  319 
Tetrazzini,   Louisa,    143,    191 
Tevis,  Lloyd,  253 
Tevis,  William  S.,  383 
Tewksbury,  Jacob  M.,  418 
Textiles   exhibit,   341 
Thalia,  The,  216 
Tharp,  Newton  J.,  208 
Theater,   135-139 
Theater  Union,  139 
Theatre  D'Art,  139 
Thirtieth  Infantry,  312 
Thomas  Wells  and  Co.,  211 
Tiburon  Peninsula,  437 
Tilden,  Douglas,  70,  179,  200,  255,  336, 
338,  402 


INDEX      529 


Tin  How  Temple,  233 

Tivoli  Opera  House,  143 

Tivoli  Theater,  176 

Tobin,  Richard,  252 

Tocaloma,  440 

Todos  Santos,  421 

Toland  Medical  School,  279 

Tomales,  441 ;  Bay,  8,  18,  441 

Topsy's  Roost,   323 

Tormey,  421 

Torre,  Joaquin  de  la,  27 

Tortoni's,   178 

Totheroh,  Dan,  139 

Tournaments,  75-78 

Tower  Bay,  360 

Tower  Hill,  359 

Tower  of  Jewels,  309 

Town  meetings,  120 

Towne,  A.  N.,  347 

Trades  Assembly,  122 

Training  Camp,  312 

Transcontinental  railroad,  116 

Transport  wharf,  305 

Transportation,  bay,  32 

Treasure  Island,  47,  368 

Trees,  redwood,  10 

Trinity  Episcopal  Church,  299 

Tripp,  R.  O.,  469 

Trocadero  Inn,  328 

Troutmere   Guernsey  Farm,   Stanford, 

472 

Tulucay  Cemetery,  456 
Tunnel  Rd.,  415 
Turner,  Matthew,  458 
Turntable,  cable  car,  180 
Tusch's    aviation    museum,    Berkeley, 

397 

Tustin,  William,  459 
Twain,  Mark,  56,  151 
Twelfth  Federal  Reserve  District,  119 
Twelfth  Lighthouse  District,   316 
Tyler,  Pauline  Cushman,  312 
Typographical  Society,  121 
Twin  Peaks,  7,  280;   Boulevard,  280; 

Tunnel,  45 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  463 
Union  City,  431 
Union  Diesel  Engine  Co.,  40 
Union  Iron  Works,  36,  277 
Union  Labor  Party,  106 
Union  Oil  Refinery,  421 
Union  Pacific  Railroad,  41,  104 
Union  Square,  180 
Unitarian  Church,  first,  147,  301 
United  Fruit  Company  Docks,  270 
United  Fruit  Line,  34 
United  Properties  Company,  383 
United  Railways,  109,  155 
United    States:    Appraisers    Building, 
217;    Branch    Mint,    115,    179,    209, 


286;  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey 
Marker,  247;  Dept.  of  Justice,  173; 
Engineers  Corps,  212;  Sub-treasury 
Building,  209 

United  States  Hotel,  211 

University  of  California:  51,  55,  381, 
382,  399-407;  California  School  of 
Fine  Arts,  72,  259,  401 ;  Hastings 
Law  College,  169,  401;  Hooper 
Foundation,  279;  Lick  Observatory, 
55,  401,  484;  Medical  Center,  279 

University  of  San  Francisco,  52,  149, 
290 

University  of  Santa  Clara,  480 

University  Mothers'  Club,  Berkeley, 
398 

Unknown  Soldier,  312 

Usigli,  Gaston,   144 

Utilities   system,   163,   164 

Valencia,  Candelario,  415 

Vallejo:  Adela,  454;  Francisca  Be- 
nicia  Carrillo  de,  452;  G.  Mariano, 
24,  26,  416,  431,  446,  447,  449,  453, 
457;  Jose  de  Jesus,  431;  Salvador, 
26,  451,  455 

Vallejo  Adobe,  Sonoma,  451 

Vallejo  City,  422,  453 

Vallejo  Yacht  Club,  454 

Vallejo's  Mill,  431 

Valley  Ford,  441 

Valley  of  St.  Anne,  291 

Valona  Station,  422 

Vancouver,  George,  464 

Vanessi's,  244 

Van  Grofe,  Ferdinand  Rudolph,  145 

Van  Ness,  James,  294 

Van  Sloun,  Frank,  72,  255 

Varsi  Library,  481 

Vasquez,  Tiburcio,  466 

Vedanta  Society,  303 

Vegetable   industries,   39 

Venetian   Room,   Fairmont   Hotel,   256 

Verdi  Monument,   342 
Verdier,  Paul,  187 
Vergez,   Johnny,  412 
Vernet,  Horace,  67 
Vernon's  Hall,  213 

Veterans'  Administration  Facility, 
U.  S.,  317;  Hospital,  470;  Liver- 
more,  430 

Veterans'  Building,  168 
Veterans'     Memorial     Building,     Oak- 
land, 388 

Vezelick,  Lou,  412 
Victory  Monument,  70 
Vidar,   Frede,  249 
Vigilance    Committee,    101,    102;    bell, 

199 

Villa  Hotel,  Hayward,  428 
Villa  Montalvo,  479 


530      INDEX 


Vioget  House,  206 

Vioget,  Jean,  97,  205,  206 

Vizcaino,  Sebastian,  16,  359,  361,  467 

Vollmer,   August,   396 

Volunteer     Firemen,    130;    Monument, 

247 

Volz,  Herman,  370 
Von  Schmidt,  Alexander,  276 
Vytlacil,  Vaclav,  72 


Wailing  wall,  169 

Waldorf,   134 

Walker,  Ernest  Linwood,  53 

Wall  Street  of  the  West,  114 

Wall,  Tessie,  176 

Walnut  Creek,  415 

Walsh  House,  Benicia,  459 

Walter,  Edgar,  202 

Walton,  William,  252 

Walwrath,  G.  L.,  421 

War  Memorial  Opera  House,  144,  168 

Warm  Springs,  429,  434 

Washington  Bicentennial  Grove,  351 

Washington  Block,  212 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  Community 
Center,  285 

Washington  Corners,  432 

Washington  Elm,   337 

Washington  Hall,  206 

Washington  Park,  Alameda,  411 

Washington  Square,  241,  247 

Wasp,  65 

Water  Lot  Bill,  264 

Water  Temples,  430,  466 

Watress  House,  452 

Watson,  Thomas,  43 

Wayfarers,  139 

Weber,  Carl,  301 

Weeks  and  Day,  184 

Weihe,  Ernest,  368 

Weikel,  Charles,  404 

Weil,  Charles  and  Madame,  50 

Weiler,  Erich,  144 

Weill,  Raphael,  133,  184,  185;  Me- 
morial, 316 

Weinman,  Adolph  A.,  286 

Welch,  William,  423 

Wells,  Carolyn,  63 

Wells  Fargo  Bank,  115,  119,  195 

Wente  Brothers,  430 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
289 

West  Oakland,  378 

Western  Addition,  282 

Western  Regional  Laboratory,  Dept. 
Agri.,  417 

Western  Sugar  Refinery,  38,  277 

Whaler's  Bay,  31,  32 

Whaling,  31,  32;  Portuguese  Station, 
467 


Wharf  and  Wave  Federation,   122 

Wharves,  31,  264 

Wheeler,  Hall,  U.  C.,  404 

Wheeler,  Osgood  C.,  147 

Whipple,  Steve,  129,  256 

White  House,  185 

White,  Stanford,  256 

White,  Stewart  Edward,  63,  254 

White  Way,  176 

White,   William  Allen,   155 

Whitney,  George  K.,  322 

Whitney,  Leo  C.,  322 

Wholesale  trade  volume,  30 

Wiertz,  Antoine,  279 

Wiggin,   Kate   Douglas,    50 

Wight,   Clifford,  249 

Wilbur,  Ray  Lyman,  51,  472,  476 

Wild  Life,  10 

Wilde,  Ran,   145 

Willey,  Samuel  Hopkins,  401 

William  Taylor  Church  and  Hotel, 
179 

Williams,  Albert,  147,  189 

Williams,  Virgil,  69 

Winchester  Mystery  House,  482 

Winchester,  Oliver  F.,  482 

Winchester,  Sarah,  482 

Windjammers,  33 

Windmills,  348,  349 

Wine  Culture,  Livermore  Valley,  430 

Winehaven,  419 

Winery,  Riehr,  432 

Wingfield,  John  H.  D.,  458 

Wiseman  plane,  392 

Wolf  House,  Glen  Ellen,  452 

Wood,  Gilbert    Stanley,    288 

Wood,  Charles  Erskine  Scott,  482 

Wood  Island,  366 

Woodbridge,   Sylvester,  458 

Woodland  Theater,  Mills  College,  391, 
444,  469 

Woodminister  Memorial  Amphithea- 
ter, Oakland,  390 

Woodside,  468 

Woodside  Store,  469 

Woodstock,  410 

Woodward's  Gardens,  318,  332 

Woodworth,  Samuel,  294 

Worcester,  Joseph,  293 

Workingman's  Party,   105,   152 

Workman,  Julian,  362 

World  War,  no,  310 

Worn,  Misses,   369 

WPA:  Art  Project,  73,  227,  286,  294, 
324,  386,  402,  413;  Aquatic  Park, 
304;  Music  Project,  144;  Federal 
Theater  Project,  139 

Wright,  Stephen  A.,  115 

Wurster,  William,  369 

Xochimlou,  244 


INDEX      531 


Yachting,  90;  Clubs,  134,  308,  389, 
4'S,  437,  4545  Harbors,  307,  396, 
436;  Modei,  348 

Yagodka,  Tomo,   145 

Yankee  invasion,  21,  23 

Yerba  Buena,  24,  27,  96;  Cove,  21,  33, 
4°,  263 

Yerba  Buena  Island,  7,  46,  358  366 

Yerba  Buena  Cemetery,   163 

Yerba  Buena  Park,  163 

Ygnacio  Valley,  8,  415 

Yiddish  Literary  and  Dramatic  So- 
ciety, 284 

Young,  Beckford,  72,  413 


Young,  Brigham,  99 
Young,  John  P.,  151,  152 
Young  China,  230 

Young  Ladies  Seminary,  Oakland,  391 
Y.M.C.A.,  85;  Chinese,  222 
Yorke,  Father,   123 
Younger,  Jim  and  Bob,  469 
Yount,  George  C.,  455 
Y.W.C.A.,  85;  Chinese,  222;  Japanese, 
284 

Zakheim,  Bernard,  72,  73,  249,  294 
Zoological      Gardens:      Fleischhacker, 
325;  Oakland,  392