Lost New England

Lost New England Goes West: Stockton Street, San Francisco

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking north on Stockton Street from California Street in San Francisco, around 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Lawrence & Houseworth Collection.

Stockton Street in 2015:

When the first photo was taken, most of the buildings in the scene were still fairly new. San Francisco did not see dramatic population growth until the 1849 gold rush, and most of this area was probably developed in the mid to late 1850s. However, everything here was destroyed in the fires after the 1906 earthquake, and in 1914 the street itself underwent some major changes when the Stockton Street Tunnel was built. This tunnel starts here directly underneath the foreground, and it carries traffic two and a half blocks through the hill, while the original street still goes up and over the hill. Today, Stockton Street is one of the two main streets in Chinatown, along with Grant Avenue, and this section in the distance of the photo is the neighborhood’s primary commercial center.

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: Portsmouth Square, San Francisco (2)

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Facing west across Portsmouth Square from Kearny Street in San Francisco, around 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Lawrence & Houseworth Collection.

The scene in 2015:

This earlier post shows Portsmouth Square in 1851, facing the north side of the square. Here, this first photo shows the west side of the square about 15 years later, after it had become a landscaped park. Anything from the first photo that was still standing 40 years later was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake; the photo in this earlier post shows the square, facing the opposite direction, in the aftermath of the disaster, when the square was covered in tents for displaced residents. Today, nothing is left from the original photo except for the square itself, which is still a public park and is located within the city’s Chinatown neighborhood.

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: Russian Hill, San Francisco

May 25, 2016May 23, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The view of Russian Hill from the corner of Mason and Sacramento Streets in San Francisco, around 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Lawrence & Houseworth Collection.

The view in 2015:

Today, Russian Hill is probably best known for the zigzag section of Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, and its excellent views of the city, as seen in this earlier post, also make it one of the San Francisco’s most expensive neighborhoods. However, when the first photo was taken 150 years ago, it was still sparsely populated, mostly with poorer residents who could not afford to live in a more convenient location. This began to change, though, soon after the photo was taken. Cable cars were introduced to San Francisco in 1873, allowing residents to easily move up and down the city’s many hills. As a result, wealthy residents who no longer had to worry about walking up the steep grades now found Russian Hill and nearby Nob Hill, where these photos were taken from, as appealing places to live.

As is the case with most of the other 19th century views of the city, most of this scene was completely destroyed by the fires caused by the 1906 earthquake. Much of Russian Hill now consists of modern condominium buildings, but there are a few surviving pre-earthquake homes near the top of the hill, especially along Green Street. At least one of these, the Feusier Octagonal House, was standing when the first photo was taken. It was built in the 1850s with an unusual octagonal design, and although the photo isn’t clear enough to identify the house, it would be located somewhere near the top of the hill on the left side.

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: Sacramento Street, San Francisco (2)

May 25, 2016May 23, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking down Sacramento Street from the corner of Powell Street in San Francisco, around 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Lawrence & Houseworth Collection.

Sacramento Street in 2015:

The first photo here was taken just a half block further up the hill from where, 40 years later, Arnold Genthe would take his famous photograph of the earthquake. Much of this view had changed by 1906, but many of the buildings from this 1866 view were still standing up until the fires destroyed this entire scene. One of the few buildings that survives today from the 1866 photo – in fact, it may be the only one left – is the church on the right side. This is the Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral, which was built in 1854 and, although gutted by the fires in 1906, was repaired and is still standing at the corner of California and Grant Streets.

The view of the church from here is now blocked by modern buildings, and the city’s skyline has obviously changed considerably in the 150 years since the first photo was taken. In the distance down Sacramento Street is the Financial District with its skyscrapers, and at the very end of the street, barely visible, is the Ferry Building, which was built over 30 years after the first photo was taken,. It was one of the few historic buildings still standing in this scene, and also one of the few that survived both the earthquake and the fires.

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: Powell Street, San Francisco

May 22, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking north on Powell Street from the corner of California Street in San Francisco, around 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Lawrence & Houseworth Collection.

Powell Street in 2015:

The image of a cable car descending a steep hill, with San Francisco and the bay visible in the distance, is what many people picture when they think of San Francisco, and although it wasn’t deliberate on my part, that is exactly what the present-day scene shows. However, the first photo shows a very different scene along Powell Street. At the time, San Francisco was still very much a “wild west” kind of city, and the Nob Hill area here had not yet developed into the wealthy neighborhood that it would soon become. The cable car system was also still several years away, so at the time the only way up the steep streets to Nob Hill was by horse or, as the young boys in the photo chose to do, by walking.

Any buildings from the first photo that would have still been standing 40 years later would have been destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, when fires spread across this entire area. Aside from the nearby Flood Mansion, all of the Victorian-era mansions on Nob Hill burned down, and the only other surviving building in the area was the Fairmont Hotel, located just to the left of this scene. However, like the rest of the city, the neighborhood was rebuilt, and today it remains one of the city’s most expensive areas, thanks to its commanding views and proximity to the center of San Francisco.

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: View From Nob Hill, San Francisco

May 22, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Facing northeast from the corner of California and Powell Streets in San Francisco, around 1866. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Lawrence & Houseworth Collection.

The view in 2015:

Like the view in the previous post, these photos show San Francisco as it appeared in its early years. It had experienced rapid growth during the Gold Rush, and less than 20 years later in the 1860s it was becoming a major city and port on the west coast. The first photo shows the present-day Jackson Square, Portsmouth Square, and Financial District areas, with San Francisco Bay and Yerba Buena Island in the distance. There are a number of ships in the bay or at the wharves, which were likely arriving from or departing for ports around the world. At the time, the city was largely dependent on ships. The Transcontinental Railroad would not be completed for three more years, and the Panama Canal was still almost 50 years away, so the most economical trading route from San Francisco to New York and other east coast ports was the two month, 13,000 mile journey around the southern tip of South America.

Within a few years after the first photo was taken, San Francisco’s population reached 150,000, which was an astonishing 15,000% increase from just 20 years earlier. In the years that followed, the growth continued, and by the time the 1906 earthquake struck, the population was around 400,000. Many of the buildings in the first photo were likely still standing in 1906, but this entire area was destroyed by the fires that were started by the earthquake. At least one building in this view did survive, though. The Montgomery Block, visible just above and to the right of the center, was built in 1853 and stood at the corner of Montgomery and Washington Streets until 1959, when it was demolished and replaced with a parking lot.

Today, development in downtown San Francisco has completely blocked the view of the bay from here. The most prominent building in this view is the Transamerica Pyramid, which was completed in 1972 on the site of the Montgomery Block. It remains the city’s tallest building, and its pyramid shape is instantly recognizable in the San Francisco skyline.

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.