1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Richard Hansen, Gladys Hansen

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780738596587
• eBook ISBN: 9781439642108
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

One of the greatest disasters of the twentieth century, in words and photos.
 
The Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 was an unparalleled catastrophe in the history of San Francisco. More than 4.5 square miles of the city burned and crumbled into a windswept desert of desolation. This book is filled with remarkable images, from before the earthquake through the blaze and into the rebuilding.
 
With stories from survivors, and extensive photographs of sites from the waterfront in the east to Golden Gate Park in the west, the marina in the north to the Mission District in the south, readers can gain a vivid sense of this major historical event and how it affected one of America's greatest cities.

One

PRE-EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE

Early San Francisco seemed born to catastrophe, as disasters followed one after the other in the 1800s. Both fires and earthquakes were almost epidemic from the time of the city’s founding to the ultimate devastation in 1906. Each catastrophe was followed by prompt rebuilding, with each rebuilding producing a new city better than the last. Earthquake, fire, and even plague could not stop its growth from 1847 to 1906.

Before the earthquake, San Francisco was by far the largest city west of Chicago and the ninth-largest city in the country, with a population of around 440,000. It was the largest port on the west coast, funneling the Pacific trade into the country and out. Large ethnic communities gave the city an international flavor. Many different newspapers and magazines were produced locally in many languages.

The best of everything was gathered together into one small corner of the world called San Francisco, which has four seasons, all of them spring. The early Chinese called it Gold Mountain, which was literally true, as gold was discovered on two separate occasions within the city itself.

Despite all of these qualities, the overwhelming lure of San Francisco since the Gold Rush has been San Franciscans. In 1908, historian Frank Morton Todd wrote, “Probably of all modern city communities, the San Franciscans are, as a class, the most careless, gay and free-spirited. Their most cherished right is the right to do as they please. They are known to be capable of hanging together in cliques, factions and parties, but their capacity for general concerted action had never been tested before 1906.”

The original San Francisco City Hall was completely destroyed by the earthquake. Construction on the new city hall began in 1913 and was completed in 1915. The existing building was designed by Arthur Brown Jr.

Union Square is seen here in 1905, looking west from Stockton Street. In 1850, San Francisco mayor John White Geary presented 2.6 acres to the city. He left San Francisco in 1852, and the city council passed a resolution making it public property for all time. The tall building to the left is the St. Francis Hotel at Powell, Geary, and Post Streets. The statue, Victory, by Robert Ingersoll Aitken, is in the center of the square.

Rincon Hill is seen here in 1905 looking north to the Selby Smelting and Lead Company, on the southeast corner of First and Howard Streets. Some of the ore from the famous mines in California and Nevada was treated there.

The domes of the California Hotel on Bush Street near Kearny Street dominate this 1905 photograph. A chimney from the hotel fell on the neighboring fire station and fatally injured Fire Chief Dennis Sullivan. Goldberg, Brown and Company’s warehouse is on the left. The Hopkins Institute of Art and the new Fairmont Hotel are in the distance.

Standing tall among the waterfront buildings in the distance in these two photographs is the Ferry Building, designed by architect Arthur Page Brown, who modeled it after Garalda Tower at the Cathedral of Seville.

The Call Building is seen here one day before the earthquake. Market Street is on the left and Third Street is on the other side of the Call Building.

This photograph shows city hall on April 17, 1906, the day before the earthquake.

O’Farrell Street is seen here right before the earthquake. The Call Building is in the distance. As the tallest building in San Francisco, at 18 stories, the Call Building is a good marker; look for it in subsequent photographs to figure out approximate locations.

This pre-earthquake and fire photograph looks east on Market Street to the Ferry Building. The world-famous Palace Hotel is on the right. This is the present location of the rebuilt Palace Hotel, at Market and New Montgomery Streets.

This photograph looks from Portsmouth Square at the Hall of Justice, on Kearny Street. Washington Street is on the left of the building. This building is another good marker to help navigate the ruins in later photographs.

Two

EARTHQUAKE

The earthquake struck at 5:12:06 a.m., and fires immediately broke out. The shock was felt from Coos Bay, Oregon, to Los Angeles, and as far east as central Nevada, a total area of about 375,000 square miles, approximately half of which was in the Pacific Ocean. The region of destruction extended from the southern part of Fresno County to Eureka, about 400 miles away, and for a distance of 25 to 30 miles on either side of the fault zone. The distribution of intensity within the region of destruction was uneven.

Of course, all structures standing on or crossing the rift were destroyed or badly damaged. Many trees standing near the fault were either uprooted or broken off. Perhaps the most marked destruction of trees was near Loma Prieta in Santa Cruz County, where, according to Dr. John C. Branner of Stanford University, “The forest looked as though a swath had been cut through it two hundred feet in width.” In just under a mile, Dr. Branner counted 345 earthquake cracks running in all directions.

The earthquake was so strong that sensitive seismographs around the bay were either knocked from their supports or the records went off the scale, so they gave no information as to the actual earthquake movements.

Destructive effects were greatest in the immediate neighborhood of the fault zone, but there were places many miles from the San Andreas Fault where the earthquake destruction was greater than in places nearer the fault. Intensified effects were found in the alluvial valley region, extending from San Jose to Healdsburg. Santa Rosa, 20 miles from the San Andreas Fault, sustained more damage, in proportion to its size, than any other city in the state.

This photograph was supporting evidence for someone’s insurance company. It gives credence as to what occurred in this room on the morning of April 18, 1906. Many letters tell of the dust and the great sound. There is even one report of a person watching a power plant blow up through their window who could not hear the explosion because of all the noise in their house.

This wood-frame home had buckled floors and plaster stripped from the lath after the earthquake....

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Pre-Earthquake and Fire
• 2. Earthquake
• 3. Fire
• 4. Aftermath
• 5. Cooking in the Streets
• 6. Military
• 7. Rebuilding
• 8. Entertainment
• 9. Injury, Death, and Disappearance