Month: May 2016

Lost New England Goes West: Sutter Street, San Francisco

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Looking west on Sutter Street from Grant Avenue in San Francisco, in the aftermath of the April 18, 1906 earthquake. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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Sutter Street in 2015:

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The scene in the first photo is typical of what so much of San Francisco looked like after the 1906 earthquake and the subsequent fires. All of the buildings in this scene were completely destroyed, and the photo was probably only taken a few days after the disaster, because the street is still covered in debris. The people in the photo are walking carefully along the cable car tracks in the middle of the street, stepping over bricks and charred pieces of wood. One of the men in the distance is wearing a sailor’s uniform; he was probably one of the many naval personnel who assisted in the firefighting efforts for three days after the earthquake.

The most prominent building in the first photo is the Temple Emanu-El, located in the center of the photo. It was home to the oldest Jewish congregation in the western part of the country, and although the two tall towers survived the earthquake, the building was gutted by fire. The congregation later relocated to the western part of the city, and here on Sutter Street everything was completely rebuilt. Today, nothing pre-earthquake appears to have survived, but some of the buildings in the foreground probably date back to the reconstruction in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

This post is part of a series of photos that I took in California this past winter. Click here to see the other posts in the “Lost New England Goes West” series.

Lost New England Goes West: Palace Hotel, San Francisco

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Looking north on New Montgomery Street from near Mission Street in San Francisco, in the aftermath of the April 18, 1906 earthquake. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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The view in  2015:

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The Palace Hotel, seen on the left side of the photo, opened in 1875 as the city’s largest hotel, with seven floors and 755 guest rooms. It featured such modern conveniences as bathrooms in every guest room and hydraulic elevators, and it was also designed to withstand both earthquakes and fires. To prevent earthquake damage, the brick exterior walls were two feet thick and reinforced with iron bands around the building, and it featured modern firefighting equipment such as hydrants around the building and a 358,000 gallon cistern in the basement.

The earthquake reinforcements apparently helped, because the building survived it with minor damage while, as the first photo shows, most of its neighbors were leveled. However, the earthquake started a number of fires that soon spread throughout the city. Although the hotel’s designers had planned well for a fire emergency, the staff was poorly trained and the city’s fire department had limited resources and manpower, so ultimately the fires reached the hotel, which was quickly gutted by the flames.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the hotel was rebuilt on the same site, and it is still standing today. It reopened in 1909, and like its predecessor it hosted a number of prominent guests. Many US presidents have stayed here, with the most notable presidential visit being Warren Harding, who died here on August 2, 1923 during a visit to the west coast. Several hours later, Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated as president on the other side of the continent, in the parlor of his father’s house in Vermont.

This post is part of a series of photos that I took in California this past winter. Click here to see the other posts in the “Lost New England Goes West” series.

Lost New England Goes West: Market Street, San Francisco

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The view looking southwest on Market Street from Second Street in San Francisco, in the aftermath of the April 18, 1906 earthquake. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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Market Street in 2015:

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Market Street is one of the main streets in downtown San Francisco, and at the time of the 1906 earthquake there were many important businesses along here. The first photo is undated, but it was likely taken within a week or so of the earthquake, and many of the people on the crowded street were likely surveying the damage for the first time. Walking along here, they would have seen a number of buildings that had either been destroyed by the earthquake itself or gutted by the fires that raged throughout the city for several days afterward. Many of these were subsequently demolished, including the Palace Hotel in the distance on the left. This prominent hotel was destroyed in the fires, and its replacement is still standing on the site today. Other displaced businesses included the Postal Telegraph Company, whose building on the far right was destroyed. When the photo was taken, the company was operating out of a tent, as seen in front of the building.

However, some of the buildings from the first scene are still standing today, although they have since been dramatically renovated. Nothing in the foreground survives, but the Call Building in the distance on the left, which was at the time of the earthquake the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, was repaired and later renovated as the Central Tower. On the right side, two historic buildings are still standing, including the red-brick Chronicle Building in the center of the photo. However, just about all that is left of the original building is the exterior facade, as the interior has been completely gutted by both the fires and by subsequent renovations over the years, including the addition of a tall tower on top of the 1890 structure in 2007. The last historic building in this scene is barely visible just beyond the Chronicle Building. Built in 1902, the Mutual Savings Bank Building survived the earthquake, and despite an addition in 1964 the original building is still standing today.

This post is part of a series of photos that I took in California this past winter. Click here to see the other posts in the “Lost New England Goes West” series.