Timeline San Francisco to 1892
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San Francisco occupies 47.355 sq. miles with a city limit that extends 32 miles out to sea. SF includes the federal property of the 7 rocky Farallon Islands. (SFC, 5/19/96,Mag, p.11)(Hem., 5/97, p.26)(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A11)
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
35,000BP About this time, or more recently, a catastrophic earthquake carved out the Golden Gate and the waters of the Pacific rushed into the exposed plain to form the SF Bay.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
25,000BC San Francisco and the Bay Area were home to mammoths indicating cold temperatures of an Ice Age. In 1934 a 10-pound mammoth tooth from this time was found by engineers working on the new Bay Bridge. In 1983 SF workers building the foundation of the Pansini Building at Pacific and Columbus found fossilized mammal bones that dated back to this time.
(SSFC, 1/15/09, DB p.43)(SFC, 8/3/13, p.C3)
1543 Apr 14, Bartoleme Ferrelo returned to Spain after discovering a large bay in the New World (San Francisco).
(HN, 4/14/99)
1579 Jun 17, Sir Francis Drake sailed into San Francisco Bay and proclaimed English sovereignty over New Albion (California). Some claim that Sir Francis Drake sailed into the SF Bay. Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England. It may have been Drake’s Bay or Bolinas Lagoon.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.T6)
1769 Mar, Captain Portola set out with a group of soldiers, priests, Christian Native Americans and muleteers. Their intention was to go as far as Monterey Bay but they passed it. Gaspar de Portola led the first European land expedition to sight the San Francisco Bay from land. Captain Portola had been appointed governor of Baja and Alta California and sent on an expedition to explore and replace the Jesuits with Franciscans in the Baja missions and start new Franciscan missions in Alta.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16) (Park, Spring/95)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1769 Oct, Captain Portola and his party camped at what is now Pacifica. Portola sent Sergeant Jose Ortega out to survey what was ahead.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1769 Nov 1-1769 Nov 3, Sgt. Jose Francisco Ortega with his scouting party first looked upon SF Bay from the vicinity of Point Lobos.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1769 Nov 4, Portola received reports of a large bay ahead and went to see for himself. He crossed Sweeney Ridge in San Mateo County and saw the bay. Francisco de Ulloa was a navigator and member of the party.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1772 After Father Serra established a mission in Monterey, Pedro Fages and Father Juan Crespi set out to explore the SF Bay by land.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1774 Fernando Rivera and 4 soldiers climbed San Bruno Mountain and watched the sun rise over the bay.
(GTP, 1973, p.126)
1774 Juan Bautista de Anza was the first non-native to cross the Sierra to scout the Bay Area.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1775 Aug 5, Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala was the first European explorer to sail through the Golden Gate of California. He anchored at Angel Island and waited for the overland expedition of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza. Isla de los Angeles, or Angel Island, was one of the first landforms named by the Spanish when they entered SF Bay. The Spanish fregata, Punta de San Carlos, was the first sailing vessel to enter the San Francisco Bay while on a voyage of exploration.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(CAS, 1996, p.19)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFL)
1775 Sep 29, Mexican Captain Juan Bautista de Anza (39) and his party of Spanish soldiers and setters departed Tubac, Arizona, on a journey to the SF Bay Area following reports of a great river flowing into the bay. Anza led 240 soldiers, priests and settlers to Monterey. Jose Manuel Valencia was one of the soldiers. His son, Candelario Valencia, later served in the military at the Presidio and owned a ranch in Lafayette and property next to Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1775 Captain Bruno Heceta led a group of explorers along the slopes of San Bruno Mountain to the shores of Lake Merced. He most likely named the mountain.
(GTP, 1973, p.124)
1775-1776 Juan Bautista de Anza led 198 colonists and 1,000 cattle from Sonora, Mexico, to California.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A15)
1776 Mar 10, The expedition of Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in Monterey, Ca. Colonists were left in Monterey as a smaller party departed for the SF Bay.
(http://tinyurl.com/pltuw96)(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776 Mar 27, Mexican Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and his party of Spanish explorers spent their first night in the future city of San Francisco at what came to be called Mountain Lake in the Presideo.
(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776 Mar 29, Mexican Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, Lt. Jose Moraga, and Franciscan priest Pedro Font arrived at the tip of San Francisco. De Anza planted a cross at what is now Fort Point. They camped at Mountain Lake and searched inland for a more hospitable area and found a site they called Laguna de los Dolores or the Friday of Sorrows since the day was Friday before Palm Sunday. Anza became known as the “father of SF.” Mission Dolores was founded by Father Francisco Palou and Father Pedro Cambon. Rancho San Pedro, near what is now Pacifica, served as the agricultural center. Laguna de los Dolores was later believed to be a spring near the modern-day corner of Duboce and Sanchez.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(SFC, 2/19/11, p.A10)
1776 Jun 25, William Richardson, a British seaman turned Mexican citizen, put up a tent in Yerba Buena, later renamed San Francisco, on Calle de la Fundacion, a site later identified as 827 Grant Ave.
(SSFC, 6/20/10, DB p.50)
1776 Jun 26, The St. Francis of Assisi Church, later Mission Dolores, was founded by Father Francisco Palleu beside the Arroyo de Nuestra Senora de los Dolores (Stream of Our lady of Sorrows) on native Yelamu territory.
(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T5)(OAH, 2/05, p.A1)(SFL)
1776 Jun 27, Mexican Lieutenant Jose Moraga arrived in San Francisco with a party of settlers from Monterey.
(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776 June 29, Settlers who had been waiting in Monterey headed north and gathered for Mass under a crude shelter at the new mission in San Francisco. The mission dedication ceremony with fireworks and tolling bells scared the local Costanoan Indians.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T5)
1776 Sep 17, The Presidio of SF was formally possessed as a Spanish fort. The Spanish built the Presidio on the hill where the Golden Gate Bridge now meets San Francisco.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A12)(www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/founding.html)
1776 Oct 9, A group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco. The formal dedication of Mission San Francisco de Asis was made.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(AP, 10/9/97)
1776 Don Marcos Briones came to San Francisco. His daughter, Juana Briones, was born in Santa Cruz in 1802.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1790 A permanent Spanish mission building was built at the corner of what later became 16th and Dolores streets.
(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A8)(SFL)
1792 Englishman George Vancouver sailed into the Bay on his ship Discovery. He explored the Santa Clara Valley.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1794 Rancho San Pedro was abandoned and Rancho San Mateo was established by the local priests as the farming center.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1795 Spring, Some 300 Indians fled Mission Dolores in San Francisco following a year of food shortages and disease that killed over 200. They sought refuge in the East Bay hills and Napa.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.D15)(SFL)
1796 A new altar piece was installed at Mission Dolores. It covered old murals painted by the native Indians. In 2004 images of the murals were projected on the rotunda of the Mission Dolores Basilica.
(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A8)
1802-1889 Juana Briones Y Tapia de Miranda was born in Santa Cruz, Ca. She was a battered wife and became the first California woman to get a divorce. Her family moved to the Presidio in 1812. She was the first to settle on San Francisco’s Powell St. in what is now North Beach and worked as a homeopathic doctor. In 1989 the Women’s Heritage Museum persuaded the state to authorize a plaque in her honor to be set in Washington Square.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)(SFC,11/17/97, p.A1,21)(SFC, 8/24/13, p.C1)
1806 Apr, Nicolai Rezanov (42), a director of the Russian-American Co., arrived in SF aboard the Juno. He had proposed a California outpost to serve the Russian colonies in Alaska and sailed south to establish a settlement on the Columbia River but could not land there due to difficult seas. He sailed south to the Presidio at Monterey and negotiated a trade deal with Commander Jose Arguello. He also fell in love with Concepcion Arguello (d.1857), the daughter of Commander Arguello, and proposed marriage. He died that winter while crossing Siberia. In 2013 Owen Matthews “Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian American.”
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/20/13, p.74)
1806 May 21, Nicolai Rezanov (1764-1806), a director of the Russian-American Co., departed SF for Sitka, Alaska. He died that winter while crossing Siberia.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)
1808 The first recorded earthquake occurred.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1810 Mexico revolted and the Spanish settlements began to fall apart. Under Mexican rule the missions were secularized and the huge land holdings were broken up.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1814 Jose Dario Arguello, Spanish-born commander of the Presidio, served as the governor of Alta California. He was later buried at Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1820 Juana Briones (18) married Apolinario Miranda, a cavalryman at the SF presidio.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)
1822 William A. Richardson (27) came to SF as first mate aboard the British whaler Orion. He built the first home in SF in what became Chinatown on Grant St. between Clay and Washington.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1822-1825 Luis Antonio Arguello, son of Jose Dario, served as the first native-born governor of Alta California.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1830s Ignacio Pacheco retired as a customs officer in San Francisco's Presidio and received a land grant in Sonoma County. He thought it unsuitable for agriculture and traded it for a 7,776 acre plot in Marin County. Much of it later became Hamilton air Force Base.
(SFC, 1/15/04, p.D4)
1833 The pueblo of SF was established as a municipality and construction of homes picked up.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1834 The San Francisco was governed by a mayor (alcalde) with 2 regidores (council members).
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.E2)
1834 Orders to secularize the California missions arrived from Mexico as did General Mariano Vallejo to Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma. General Vallejo’s job was to establish a town and so Sonoma was designed around a central plaza. This ended mission ownership by the Franciscans.
(WCG, p.58)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1834 Mexican maps of this year identified the Islais Creek on the southeast side of SF. It was named after Los Islais, the hollyleaf cherry, a favorite Ohlone Indian food.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A21)(SFL)
1834 Jose Bernal owned Rancho Rincon de Las Salinas y Potrero. It included the land that later became known as Hunter’s Point. La Punta de Conca (seashell point) was later purchased by Robert and Philip Hunter who arrived during the gold rush and bought the land to develop a town.
(SSCM, 7/21/02, p.16)(SFL)
1835 William A. Richardson built the first structure in SF and was named captain of the port of SF.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1835 The San Francisco Bar Pilots company was formed.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1835 Richard Henry Dana, writer, arrived in SF aboard the brig Pilgrim.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
c1835 The first street in SF was named Dupont St. and is now known as Grant Ave.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFL)
1835-1851 Malcolm E. Barker edited the 1994 book “San Francisco Memoirs: Eyewitness Accounts of the Birth of a City” that covered this period. It was the first of a planned trilogy.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.C9)
1836 Jul 4, Jacob Leese, a trader from Ohio, built a house in Yerba Buena (later San Francisco). This was the town’s first building and Leese threw a 3-day party over the 4th of July to celebrate.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1836 Jacob Leese reached Yerba Buena and established a mercantile business near what is now Montgomery St. He married a daughter of Gen’l. Vallejo and their daughter, Rosalie Leese, was the first non-native born in Yerba Buena.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(SFL)
1838 A major earthquake opened a huge fissure from SF to Santa Clara.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1839 Jean Vioget laid out the 1st plan of Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and showed the later Union Square site as a future park.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(SFL)
1839 The Bernal Heights area of SF, Ca., began to be developed as part of a Mexican land grant belonging to Don Jose Cornelio Bernal.
(SFC, 6/29/06, 96 Hours p.41)(SFL)
1840 Jacob Leese sold his business to the Hudson Bay Company.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1841 Capt. William A. Richardson moved to Sausalito from SF after the Mexican government gave him a 19,571-acre land grant from the Marin headlands to Stinson Beach. There he established Rancho del Sausalito.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1841 William A. Leidesdorff, originally from the Virgin Islands, arrived in San Francisco. He became a prominent businessman, built the city’s first hotel, became a member of the first SF City Council and served as the city’s first treasurer.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1841 The Bartleson-Bidwell Party made the trek to California. John Bidwell was on the 1st wagon train over the Sierra Nevada and later founded Chico. Also in the group was Paul Geddes, who had robbed a bank in Philadelphia, and renamed himself Talbot Green. His true ID was exposed in 1851 as he was about to run for mayor of SF.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.E4)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.B3)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C2)
1842 Union Square was created as one of the first 2 SF parks.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A1)(SFL)
1842 Nantucket Capt. Gorham Nye sailed into Yerba Buena, later known as San Francisco, and sold several goats to traders. A local character named Jack Fuller proposed to businessman Nathan Spear to buy some of the goats and raise them on Yerba Buena Island, which became known as Goat Island.
(SFC, 11/23/13, p.C3)
1842-1846 The Sanchez Adobe was constructed in Pacifica by Francisco Sanchez, owner of the Rancho San Pedro and former alcalde of SF. He led volunteer forces against the US in the Battle of Santa Clara.
(SMMB)
1844 William Hinckley, alcalde of Yerba Buena (later San Francisco), erected a wooden footbridge over a creek that fed the Laguna Salada. This enabled residents to walk to the anchorage at Clark’s Point (near the intersection of Broadway and Battery). At this time Yerba Buena had under 50 inhabitants and and only a dozen buildings.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1844 Juana Briones purchased a 4,400 acre rancho that later covered parts of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto. She acquired her funds renting rooms and selling food in SF. In 1850 she began a 12-year legal battle to retain her property. She won title to her property in the US Supreme Court.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)
1846 Jun 13, Jose de Jesus Noe, owner of a 4,000-acre ranch in the center of Yerba Buena, was the last, Mexican alcalde, chief magistrate under Mexican rule. He became a city official when the Americans took over and is buried in Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFC, 5/26/00, Wb p.8)(SFL)
1846 Jun 14, A group of 33 men rode into the Mexican garrison town of Sonoma and raised the California Bear Flag.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A17)
1846 Jul 1, Kit Carson helped Capt. John Fremont scale the walls on the site of Fort Point to claim the Presidio for the US.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFL)
1846 Jul 9, Captain J.B. Montgomery raised the American flag over San Francisco. Montgomery claimed Yerba Buena (SF) for the US.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W36)(www.bearflagmuseum.org/History.html)
1846 Jul 31, San Francisco, known as Yerba Buena, had only 459 residents, and with the arrival of Sam Brannan and 230 Mormons became known as a Mormon town. [see 1848] Printer Brannan later published the first SF newspaper, the California star.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.29)
1846 Aug 15, Walter Colton, the American alcalde of Monterey, and Robert Semple a one-time frontier doctor, began printing The Californian on an old press with Spanish type in Monterey. It was the state’s first weekly.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1846 Dec, The town of Francesca (now Benicia) planned to change its name to San Francisco. William A. Bartlett, the first American alcalde, or mayor of Yerba Buena, led the town council to beat Francesca and approve a name change to San Francisco.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A15)
1846 Commander John Montgomery sent a 70-man detachment from the USS Portsmouth ashore at Yerba Buena and raised the American flag.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)
1846 Navy Lt. Washington Bartlett became the first American mayor of Yerba Buena, renamed to San Francisco in 1847.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A1)
1846 Brigham Young, Joseph Smith’s successor, led the Mormons overland to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Mormon pioneer Sam Brannan gathered some 250 Mormons aboard the ship, Brooklyn, and sailed from New York to San Francisco.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1846 The sons of Francisco de Haro, the first chief magistrate of Yerba Buena, were murdered by Americans under the command of Kit Carson.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1847 Jan 7, The California Star in Yerba Buena was begun by 2 men a couple of months after the Monterey Californian on the 2nd floor of a mule-powered grist mill on what is now Clay St. It was started by Sam Brannan and was edited by Dr. Elbert P. Jones.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1847 Jan 9, The first regular issue of The California Star newspaper appeared in San Francisco under editor Elbert P. Jones.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1847 Jan 30, The California Star, founded by Sam Brannon, published the official name change of Yerba Buena to San Francisco on this day. Mayor Washington Bartlett had the town council approve the change.
(www.sfmuseum.org/hist/name.html)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.G6)
1847 Apr, A local census counted 462 residents living in tents, shanties and adobe huts.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A15)
1847 May 6, The Californian newspaper of Monterey moved to San Francisco.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1847 Jul 24, The Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A4)
1847 Aug 2, William A. Leidesdorff launched the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1847 Aug, Construction of the first 20 homes in Benicia began. The new city was named “Francisco” after Vallejo’s wife, but residents of Yerba Buena changed the name to San Francisco and Robert Semple renamed his town to “Benicia” after Mrs. Vallejo’s middle name.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1847 Dec 25, The California Star complained that “low gambling dens” harbored many escaped fugitives, and that street turmoils were almost a daily occurrence.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.E15)
1847 Portsmouth Square was built in San Francisco and was later recognized as the city’s oldest park.
(SFC, 6/3/14, p.C2)
1847 Jasper O’Farrell (26), surveyor-general of Northern California, laid out the streets of San Francisco. He forged Market Street to run from the SF Bay to Twin Peaks. He also designated the sand dune called O’Farrel’s Mountain as a public square (later Union Square).
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(SFL)(SSFC, 4/21/13, p.G1)
1847 San Francisco’s Stern Grove was first settled by the Greene family. Because of many property disputes, the family built a fort surrounded by eucalyptus trees over the land. Charlotte Green was the original owner. Her great-granddaughter, Roberta Hewson Graves (d.1992), was later hailed as “the most beautiful girl in the world.” The original owners of Stern Grove were cattle baron Jefferson James and Countess Muysson-Van Vliet
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)(SFL)
1847 Just before the discovery of gold SF had about 800 residents living in some 160 frame structures amid older adobe buildings. [see Apr, 1847]
(SFEC, 7/11/99, BR p.1)
1847-1848 George Hyde served as the 3rd American mayor of SF.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A24)
1848 Jan 24, Gold was discovered in at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma and the lure of wealth brought many newcomers to the port of San Francisco. John Marshall, while inspecting the construction of a mill on the American River, being built for Capt. John Sutter, spotted a gold nugget. Much of the present day Financial District east of Montgomery was network of wharves. The area was later solidified with landfill and used for skyscrapers.
(HFA,'96,p.22)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.71)(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T3)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)
1848 Feb 2, The 1st ship load of Chinese arrived in SF.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1848 Mar 15, In San Francisco the Californian newsspaper ran a filler on Page 3 about a horse race at Mission Dolores. Below it appeared another filler: “Gold Mine Found,” which described a gold find at Sutter’s Mill on the American Fork.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1848 Apr 1, The SF-based California Star reported the discovery of a rich silver vein in San Jose valley. The discovery of rich beds of copper were also reported near Clear Lake.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 Apr 22, The SF-based California Star reported the discovery of a rich gold mine towards the head of the American Fork in the Sacramento Valley.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 Apr, The first SF American public school opened. Soon thereafter all the trustees took off for the gold fields.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)
1848 May 12, Sam Brannan, an elder of the Mormon Church in SF, announced the discovery of gold on the American River. He had just opened a store near the goldfields stocked with shovels and mining tools. He and members of the Mormon battalion were the first to profit in San Francisco from the Gold Rush.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFEC, 6/21/98, Z1 p.4)
1848 May 20, The California Star reported that a fleet of launches had left the SF bound up the Sacramento River due to “Gold Fever.”
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 May 27, The SF-based California Star complained that everybody in the state was under the spell of gold fever.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 May 29, The Californian newspaper complained that everybody in the state was under the spell of gold fever and announced suspension of publication because the staff was heading out to participate. The Californian and the California Star were based in SF.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)(SFEC, 6/21/98, Z1 p.1)(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1848 Jun 14, The California Star newspaper in SF locked its doors due to the gold strike and lack of working men.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.E6)
1848 Oct 29, Rev. Dwight Hunt and his wife, Mary, arrived in SF from Hawaii and began holding nondenominational services at the Old School House on Portsmouth Square.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A17)(SFL)
1848 Nov 9, The first U.S. Post Office in California opened in San Francisco at Clay and Pike streets. At that time there were only about 15,000 European settlers living in the state.
(HN, 11/9/98)(SFL)
1848 Nov 18, In San Francisco the Californian and the California Star newspapers merged and began publishing under Edward Kemble (19) as The Star and Californian.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C1)
1848 The San Francisco City Council passed a resolution regarding gambling and heavy fines were assessed on parties arrested for gambling. The resolution was soon repealed.
(GTP, 1973, p.53)
1848 William Alexander Leidesdorff, ship captain, merchant and the first treasurer of SF, died. He was half Dutch and half black and was buried inside Mission Dolores. He started the City Hotel, the 1st hotel in SF at Kearny and Clay.
(SFC, 5/19/98, p.B8)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.D1)(SFL)
1848 Col. J. D. Stevenson’s First Regiment of New York Volunteers, which fought in the Mexican war, disbanded in San Francisco. Many of the members had belonged to New York gangs like the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits. Some 50-60 of the vets joimed with ex-convicts from Australia and began hiring themselves out to merchants and sea captains calling themselves the Hounds and later the Regulators.
(SFC, 12/28/13, p.C1)
1848 The population of San Francisco numbered about 850.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1849 Jan 4, San Francisco’s The Star and Californian newspaper under Edward Kemble changed its name to the Alta California.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C1)
1849 Feb 28, The steamer California, sounding the first steamship whistle on the SF Bay, arrived in SF with San Francisco postmaster John W. Geary on board carrying mail for the Pacific coast. Steamboat service began from Panama City to SF. Pacific Mail Steamship Co. sent the side-wheel steamship California to SF with American gold-seekers and 50 Peruvian miners. Also onboard were preacher Osgood C. Wheeler (32) and his wife Elizabeth.
(www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/ca022849.htm)(SSFC, 3/1/09, DB p.50)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)
1849 Mar, Albert Williams, a Protestant church pioneer, disembarked from the Oregon, one of the first steamships to arrive in the Gold Rush.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)
1849 Aug 5, The first sanctuary of the First Baptist Church was built on the north side of Washington St. near Stockton St. under the direction of Osgood C. Wheeler.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)(SFL)
1849 May 20, Albert Williams presented a petition to establish the First Presbyterian Church following services at the Public School House on Portsmouth Square. Services began in the summer in a tent purchased for $200.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)(SFL)
1849 Jun 4, Eighteen men from the USS Ohio deserted their posts for the gold mines.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Jun 17, In San Francisco Rev. John Brouillet, vicar general of the diocese of Walla Walla, and Rev. Anthony Langlois, also from the Oregon territory, opened St. Francis Church with a Mass.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A21)
1849 Jun 22, San Francisco experienced its first theatrical performance with a one-man show in Portsmouth Square by Stephen C. Massett, an itinerant Brit.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.C1)
1849 Jul 5, The sailing ship Niantic arrived in SF, Ca, and anchored in Yerba Buena Cove. The ship’s owners soon converted her to a storage and auction house for imported goods and built a hotel on her deck.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)
1849 Jul 15, A Chilean tent community at the foot of Telegraph Hill, composed of some 700 miners, was assaulted by the lawless Society of Hounds street gang. Sam Roberts led the rampage and violent raid on the Little Chile tent community. The Hounds had specialized in “patriotic” assaults on Chileans. In response Sam Brannan call on volunteers to drive the Hounds out of town. A vigilante force of some 230 men rounded up 20 Hounds and imprisoned them on a warship. Popular justice brought 9 Hound members to court and sentenced them to a decade of hard labor. The Chilecito community stayed vibrant throughout the 1860s.
(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A24)(SFC, 6/1/13, p.C2)(SFC, 12/28/13, p.C2)
1849 Jul 28, Memmon became the 1st clipper to reach SF after 120 days out of NY.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1849 Jul 29, Rev. Dwight Hunt and 10 parishioners organized the First Congregational Church of SF based in form on the Evangelical Churches of New England. It began as a wooden structure on Jackson St. between Stockton and Powell. It moved to Mason and Post in 1872.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A17)(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A14)(SFL)
1849 Jul, Rev. Flavel S. Mines, Episcopal priest, opened the doors of the Holy Trinity Church.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1849 Aug 23, The first mail service arrived at Benicia, Sacramento and San Jose.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Aug, In San Francisco the triweekly Pacific News appeared as the first rival to The Star and Californian newspaper. By 1853 there were 12 dailies in San Francisco.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C2)
1849 Oct, The Boudin Sourdough Bakery was founded in San Francisco by French immigrant Isador Boudin during the Gold Rush. Boudin first used ordinary sourdough to bake a French-style bread. In 1941 the firm was bought by Steven Giraudo. By 1997 the 10th and Geary facility was a $500 million operation selling bread under the Parisian, Colombo and other labels.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/05, p.D1)(SFL)
1849 Oct, German immigrants arrived in SF and Rev. Frederick Mooshake soon set up at the Second Congregational Church on Sutter between Stockton and Grant and took over when the Congregationalists went bankrupt.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)(SFL)
1849 Nov 13, Voters approved a state constitution.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Dec 3, Jesuit Fr. John Nobili and Fr. Michael Accolti (1807-1878) arrived in San Francisco.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1849 Dec 9, The first SF fire engine arrived from the East Coast.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Dec 24, A fire began on the eastern side of Portsmouth Square. It burned a whole block and spread down Washington St. to the edge of the bay at Montgomery. The damage in 1999 money was about $17 million.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A23,24)(SFL)
1849 Dec, A rival Episcopal congregation, named Grace Church, opened a block away from Holy Trinity with Belgian priest Rev. John Ver Mehr presiding.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1849 Irishman Thomas H. Dowling settled on Goat island in the SF Bay about this time and built a house, a dock and started a quarry. The USD Army, citing a claim that the government owned all the islands in the SF Bay, ejected Dowling and his family from the island in 1867.
(SFC, 11/23/13, p.C3)
1849 The first church at the site of St. Francis of Assisi in North Beach, SF, was built by Catholics who disliked the 3.5 mile walk to Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.6)(SFL)
1849 The Jewish Congregation Sherith Israel was founded in SF.
(SFC, 3/12/05, p.E1)
1849 By this time the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (ayuntamiento) had grown to 16 members from 8 districts.
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.E2)
1849 The Tadich Grill opened in SF. It began as the new World Coffee Stand on the edge of what is now Commercial St.
(Hem., 5/97, p.24)(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.7)
1849 The James Clair Flood, a former saloon keeper from NY arrived in SF and made a fortune in the 1859 Nevada Comstock silver mine.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.B12)(SFC, 7/4/03, p.E1)
1849 Lazard Freres with a brother and cousin moved their New Orleans dry goods company to San Francisco. They opened a Paris office in 1852, a London office in 1877 and operations in New York in 1880.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.C1)
1849 Englishman George Gordon arrived in SF. He pursued ventures as a lumber dealer, builder of wharves, head of an iron foundry and a sugar refinery.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1849 Joshua Norton, a financier from the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in San Francisco with $40,000 from trade deals in Africa and South America. Within five years he amassed $250,000 and invested it all in rice with the hope of cornering the market. His scheme failed when three ships arrived from the Orient loaded with rice.
(HFA, '96, p.64)
1849 Oscar Backus (19) arrived in SF aboard the steamer California, believed to be the first steam powered ship to pass through the Golden Gate. He brought 750 copies of a New York newspaper that he’d bought for $5 and sold them for $1 apiece. He then began a successful career in mining and plumbing.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A24)
1849 The first stage coach line from SF to San Jose was begun by John Whistman. The 9-hour trip in an old French omnibus driven by Henry Ward cost $32 each way.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1849 A Peruvian consulate was established in SF with Carlos Varea as the first consul.
(Ind, 8/3/99, p.3A)
1849 A Market Street doctor funded the 1st "city physician" practice with gambling winnings. This was later considered as the beginning of SF General Hospital. In 2000 F. William Blaisdell and Moses Grossman published "Catastrophes, Epidemics, and Neglected Diseases" San Francisco General Hospital and the Evolution of Public Health.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.6)(SFL)
1849 August Helbing, a SF Jewish pioneer, rescued an ailing Jewish man who had just arrive by boat. Helbing went on to help others and created the Eureka Benevolent Society (1850), which later transformed to the Jewish Family and Children’s Services organization.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A15)(SFL)
1849 A ship called the Arkansas ran aground on Alcatraz and was towed to San Francisco’s Pacific Ave. wharf. It was soon converted into the Old Ship Saloon, which featured a hole cut in the bow “to admit the thirsty,” and became a major shanghaiing haunt. In 1867 it was moved to another building a few feet away and continued operations at 298 Pacific.
(SFC, 11/9/13, p.C2)
1849 Some 23,000 people arrive in SF by land and 62,000 by sea as the population grew to some 30,000. First Street was at the edge of the Bay and the area was called Happy Valley.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1 p.6)(SSFC, 4/24/11, DB p.46)
1850 Jan 16, The first real play in San Francisco, “The Wife,” was staged at the modest Washington Hall theater. This was located on the 2n d floor of a building that later became the city’s swankiest brothel.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.C2)
1850 Jan 22, The Alta California newspaper became the first daily in SF. The founding editors were Edward Gilbert and Edward C. Kemble.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Jan 23, The Journal of Commerce became the 2nd daily newspaper in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Feb 18, The California state legislature created the original 18 counties including the city of San Francisco.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Mar, The Pacific News, a daily newspaper, began publishing in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Apr 1, The San Francisco County government was established.
(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Apr 15, The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
(AP, 4/15/97)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 May, A fire broke out and 3 square blocks were consumed.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 Jun 1, The Daily Herald newspaper began publishing in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Jun, Another fire broke out in SF.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 Aug 1, The Evening Picayune newspaper began daily publishing in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Sep, A 4th major fire broke out in SF.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 Oct, In San Francisco the Eureka Benevolent Society was organized at 414 Clay St. Some 746 members met to “assist poor and needy Hebrews in want or sickness.”
(SFC, 10/13/09, p.E5)(SFL)
1850 Dec, A 5th major fire broke out in SF.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 The Abner Phelps house was built at 1111 Oak St. In 2001 it was the oldest dwelling in SF.
(SFC, 4/13/01, WBb p.1)(SFL)
1850 Giuseppe Bazzuro turned an abandoned ship into San Francisco’s 1st Italian restaurant.
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F4)
1850 In San Francisco Fred Lawson, a Norwegian sea captain, began sinking ships to lock in his underwater real estate. By 1953 he sank numerous ships including four in a block of water later bounded by Davis, Drumm, Pacific and Jackson streets.
(SFC, 1/25/14, p.C1)
1850 Pres. Fillmore recommended a federal mint in SF to replace the 20 private mints.
(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)(SFL)
1850 The US Treasury contracted Moffat & Company, a private mint firm in San Francisco, to mint American government stamped coins.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.18)
1850 Col. John Geary, the first mayor of San Francisco, donated land for a square to be held in perpetuity for park use. It later became Union Square. He owned the surrounding property and looked to increase its value.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W27)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(SFL)
1850 John Coffee Hays, a Texas Ranger turned Californian, acquired a piece of the Coppinger land grant in San Mateo Ct. and called it Hays Ranch. He later became the 1st sheriff of SF and after that served as the federal surveyor-general for the state.
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1850 The Sydney Ducks, a ruthless gang of Australian ex-convicts, based their operations on the waterfront between Pacific and Broadway. They terrorized the citizens and set fires that devastated the city.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFL)
1850 After statehood civil engineer Jasper O’Farrell began laying out South of Market’s street pattern with extra large city blocks, 2x the size of those North of Market.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.E6)
1850 James Folger (18), a native of Massachusetts, began roasting beans in SF. Folger’s Coffee established itself on the Barbary Coast and was the first major coffee company in SF. Jim Folger eventually traveled to the gold country to sell coffee to miners.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1850 The Phoenix Day lighting manufacturer began operations in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1850 Ferry commuting began on the SF Bay. Robert Semple operated a ferry service to Benicia which had grown to some 1,000 citizens. Semple advertised in the SF newspaper, the Californian, which he published.
(SFEC, 4/21/97, p.A11)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1850 Prussian-born Adolph Sutro (20) sailed through the Golden Gate on the steamer California.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1850s Joseph A. Donohue and John Parrott founded the Donohue-Kelly Banking Co. in SF.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.C4)
1850s Isaias Wolf Hellman immigrated to SF from Bavaria and later became president of Nevada Bank of SF which became Wells Fargo Bank.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.C2)
1850s In the early 1850s SF surrendered San Mateo County.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1850s SF was one of the few cities with a population of more than 30,000 and no police department.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.2)
1850s In San Francisco Washerwoman’s Lagoon was a large pond used as a laundry site at Gough and Greenwich. By 1882 it had become polluted and was filled in.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A15)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C2)
1850-1844 There are 1200 murders in SF in this period, and only one results in a legal execution.
(SFC, 11/15/95, p.B-1)
1851 May 4, The Sydney Ducks set fire to a store on San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square. Most of the dwellings on Telegraph Hill were destroyed. The heart SF was destroyed and some 2000 buildings burned down. This led to the formation of the secret Committee of Vigilance, which hung several criminals and drove others out of the city. Remnants from Hoff's store, built on a wharf over the bay, were found in 1986 during excavations for the Embarcadero West 33-story high-rise.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1851 May 4, The 1840-ship General Harrison burned to the water line. It was salvaged for parts, buried and not seen again until 2001 when construction at Battery and Clay revealed its remains. The whaling ship Niantic, already converted to a waterfront hotel, burned and sank into the bay. In 1977 new construction uncovered the Niantic’s burned remains.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)
1851 May, In San Francisco Sam Brannan and several other leaders formed the First Committee of Vigilance. They took it on themselves to purge the city of criminals. The group disbanded in September.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFC, 6/1/13, p.C2)
1851 Jun 9, In San Francisco Father John McGinnis celebrated Mass in a hall at Fourth and Jessie and marked the founding of St. Patrick’s. The church was built on Market St. at the present site of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel. It was moved in 1872 to Eddy St. near Divisadero and served as the Parish Hall for Holy Cross. The wooden structure is thought to be the oldest in the city.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.7)(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A22)
1851 Jun 11, San Francisco vigilantes lynched John Jenkins (aka John Simpton) on Portsmouth Square for stealing a safe. He was part of contingent of ex-con Australians known as the Sidney Ducks.
(SFC, 6/1/13, p.C1)
1851 Aug 31, The Yankee clipper ship Flying Cloud set a record for sailing from NY to San Francisco around South America in 89 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/n7evjm4)
1851 Oct 4, In San Francisco the third Jenny Lind Theater opened on Portsmouth Square on the same site as the two preceding it, which were destroyed by the fires of 1851. In 1852 the city of San Francisco purchased the theater for $200,000 for use as the city hall. In 1949 the site was named state landmark No. 192.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.C1)(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/cal0192.asp)
1851 Oct, The first of 17 ships arrived in SF from France following a lottery by Napoleon’s government which provided passage to some 3,000 for the gold rush.
(SFCM, 4/30/06, p.4)
1851 Books Inc. first opened as an independent bookseller in San Francisco.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.134)
1851 In San Francisco the St. Francis Church was rebuilt in adobe and blessed by Joseph S. Alemany, the new Bishop of Monterey. St. Francis served as his cathedral until Old St. Mary's was built in 1854.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A21)
1851 In San Francisco the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church moved into its first building in Chinatown, which burned down after 6 months.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)
1851 Jacob Gundlach arrived in SF and soon established a brewery. In 1858 he bought a winery in Sonoma.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1851 The Hitchcock family transferred to SF and were welcomed into the Chivalry, a polite fraternity of transplanted Southerners.
(SFEM, 4/2/00, p.46)
1851 The first SF omnibus line began operating between Portsmouth square and Mission Dolores.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A4)
1851 Henry Casebolt (1816-1892) of Virginia came to California and established himself as a builder and inventor in San Francisco.
(www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/casebolt.htm)
1851 Harry Meiggs, founder of Fisherman’s Wharf in SF, sailed to Mendocino with a full sawmill and made Mendocino the primary source for the Bay Area’s lumber.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, Par p.20)
1851 Haas Bros. began operation in San Francisco as a grocery wholesaler. The company later switched to liquor wholesales.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1851 In San Francisco six prominent businessmen obtained a franchise for a water project to deliver water from Mountain Lake through a tunnel to the Presidio and then to downtown SF. The Mountain Lake Water Co. raised $300,000 and in 1853 broke ground on the tunnel. The project went bust after they failed to get an additional $500,000 to complete the project.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1851 In San Francisco 6 men sailed to the Farallon Islands and declared themselves owners by right of possession. They began gathering eggs and selling them to the city.
(SFC, 5/25/13, p.C3)
1851 About 775 abandoned ships sat in the SF Bay. Some began to be used as offices and public buildings. The ship Euphemia became the city’s 1st jail and insane asylum. An enterprising barkeep cut a hole in the beached sailing vessel Arkansas and began selling what he called “Gud, Bad and Ind’ifferent Spirits” at 25 cents each. The Old Ship Saloon at Pacific Avenue and Battery Street was built in 1907 and remodeled in 1999.
(Ind, 9/2/00,5A)(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1851 Francisco Guerrero, Mexican official in Alta California, was struck in the back of the head by a slingshot and died. His murder was believed to have kept him from testifying in a murder trial.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1852 Mar 18, Henry C. Wells founded Wells, Fargo & Co. with William C. Fargo in San Francisco as a Western equivalent to their east coast American Express. It evolved into Wells Fargo Bank, headquartered in San Francisco and now one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. In 2002 Philip L. Fradkin authored “Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West” for the company’s 150th anniversary.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)(HNQ, 11/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/02, p.D1)
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.B1,4)
1852 Mar, Hubert Bancroft (1832-1918) was sent to San Francisco from New York to established a regional office of his family’s book selling business. In 1868 he abandoned business to devote himself entirely to writing and publishing history.
(SFC, 5/27/14, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Howe_Bancroft)
1852 Jun 18, Domingo Ghirardelli, an Italian candy-maker from Peru, announced the opening of his chocolate business. [see 1855]
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 4/26/02, p.G8)
1852 Aug 2, State Sen. James W. Denver, from Klamath and Trinity counties, challenged Edward Gilbert, editor of the SF Alta California newspaper, to a duel due to an inflammatory editorial. The pair met at Fair Oaks, near Sacramento, and when Gilbert forced a 2nd round of shots, Denver put a fatal shot through his chest. Denver’s 2nd shot hit Gilbert above the left hip. C.A. Washburn succeeded Gilbert at the Alta.
(PI, 6/13/98, p.5A)(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C2)
1852 Nov, In San Francisco John Quinn was ordained at St. Francis Church.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, DB p.41)
1852 Lighthouse builders arrived on the Farallon Islands. The Pacific Egg Co. claimed ownership and gathered murre eggs there for sale to San Franciscans. Manned lighthouse operations began their in 1855 and continued to 1972. In 1881 the government evicted the Pacific Egg Co.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.E4)
1852 Three churches were founded in SF: Bethel Methodist, First Zion and the Third Baptist celebrated their 150 year anniversaries in 2002.
(SFC, 9/9/02, p.A19)
1852 In San Francisco half-brothers George and Samuel Shreve opened Shreve & Co., their 1st jewelry near what later became Union Square. It remained a retail store until 1881 when George (d.1893) opened a jewelry-making factory.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1852 The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul opened an orphanage at Market and Montgomery. The nuns arrived to care for the orphans and victims of the cholera epidemic. The orphanage later moved and was renamed Mount St. Joseph.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1852 San Francisco's Sacred Heart school was founded.
(SFC, 1/16/04, p.E2)
1852 In San Francisco the Daily Alta California reported on “full grown persons engaged very industriously in the game known as town ball.”
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C1)
c1852 C.A. Washburn, the new editor of the Alta and opposed to slavery, dueled with B.F. Washington, editor of the Times and Transcript, who was pro-slavery. Washburn was badly wounded but recovered.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1852 The San Francisco Gas Co. was founded by 3 brothers. In 1905 it merged with California electric Light to form PG&E.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)
1852 The Pioneer Appliance Co. was founded in SF.
(SFC, 8/11/00, p.D5)
1852 The Shreve & Co. jewelry store opened in SF.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1852 George Gordon began acquiring lots in the block bounded by Second, Third, Brannon and Bryant (later known as South Park). Lord Gordon bought 12 acres for $48,500.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1852-1899 Malcolm E. Barker edited the 1996 book “San Francisco Memoirs: The Ripening Years” that covered this period. It was the 2nd of a planned trilogy.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.C9)
1853 May 15, In San Francisco a groundbreaking ceremony was held for a tunnel to deliver water from Mountain Lake to the Presideo and then to downtown SF. The project was not completed due to lack of funding. In 2010 the entrance, buried under 42 feet of landfill, was rediscovered in the Presidio near Polin Springs.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1853 May 21, Lola Montez (1821-1861), Irish-born dancer and former lover of Franz Liszt and mistress of King Ludwig of Bavaria, arrived in San Francisco aboard a steamer from Panama.
(SFC, 5/31/14, p.D1)
1853 Jul 29, Pope Pius IX established the archdiocese of San Francisco, Ca., under Archbishop Alemany.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1853 By this year there were 12 daily newspapers published in SF. The Sun was the favorite.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1853 In San Francisco the largest building on the West Coast opened at Montgomery and Washington streets. The four linked structures, known as the Monkey block, were torn down in 1959 to make room for a parking lot. This later became the site of the Transamerica Pyramid.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.C2)
1853 Fr. Flavian Fontaine, a member of the congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, acquired land in San Francisco and built a brick building for the Catholic College of Mission Dolores. The site at 14th and Walter Streets stood empty as Fontaine, unable to pay his debts, fled to Panama. The site was acquired by Fr. John Nobili for $11,000. A Jesuit school here was opened in 1854 with Fr. Francis Veyret, SJ, as its only teacher, but it closed in September.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1853 Joseph J. Atkinson, a brick contractor, built a house at 1032 Broadway. It was remodeled by Willis Polk in 1893 and survived the 1906 earthquake and fire.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A15)
1853 Henry Meiggs completed a wharf to serve the lumber trade. He fled to South America to avoid his creditors and died in Peru in 1877. His wharf grew to become Fisherman’s Wharf. Early businesses in the area included Abe Warner’s eatery “Cobweb Palace,” Cockney White’s museum, Driscoll’s Salt Water Tub Bathing Emporium, and Riley’s Shooting Gallery. The 1998 book “Crab Is King” by Bernard Averbuch covers the story of Fisherman’s Wharf.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.30)
1853 A Morse telegraph was station was erected on the SF hill now known as Telegraph Hill. Telegraph Hill was once known as Tin Can Hill until a semaphore station was set up on the summit to alert the city on ship arrivals.
(HT, 5/97, p.12)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1853 John Parrott (42), SF businessman, married Abigail Eastman Meagher (18) in Mobile, Ala. He brought her back to SF and they set up house in a new brownstone on Folsom St. in the Rincon Hill. In 1859 they acquired property in San Mateo.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1853 Levi Strauss, Bavarian-born dry goods merchant, arrived in California. and Co. He got his start peddling tough canvas pants to California gold miners. When his canvas ran out he switched to serge de Nimes, which evolved into denim. [See 1873, 1874]
(SFC, 1/23/96, p.C4)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.D3)(CHA, 1/2001)
1853 Joshua Norton attempted to corner the SF rice market with the purchase of $250,000 worth of rice but went bust when rice carrying ships sailed into the Bay. He filed for bankruptcy.
(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)
1853 J.G. Knowles established the first dairy in San Mateo County in the middle of what is now Daly City to supply milk to SF.
(GTP, 1973, p.63)
1853 In SF the Laurel Hill Cemetery was established. Residents were moved to Colma in 1939-1940 and the site was used for housing.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.G6)
1853 The SF YMCA was founded and was the basis for the later Golden Gate Univ.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W21)
1853 The El Dorado saloon on Kearny St. in SF received a piano shipped around Cape Horn. The piano was later sold to the David Fay family of soap makers.
(SFCM, 8/28/05, p.11)
1853 The freighter Tennessee was wrecked off the Marin headlands. The event spurred Congress to fund a lighthouse at Point Bonita.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A12)(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1853 The population of San Francisco numbered about 36,000.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1853-1854 Cornelius Garrison served as mayor of San Francisco.
(www.sffiremuseum.org/people.html)
1853-1906 This period was later covered by architectural historian William Kostura in his "Russian Hill: The Summit, 1853-1906."
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A15)
1854 Mar, Bret Harte arrived in SF with his sister.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.6)
1854 Apr 3, The SF Mint opened at 608 Commercial St. It issued $4 million in gold coins this year. An Indian princess appeared on gold dollars. The mint used equipment previously employed by SF-based Moffatt & Company.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A12)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.18)
1854 Oct 3, San Francisco businessman Harry Meiggs departed SF aboard the bark America with his family after embezzling $800,000 from the city to cover debts. He took refuge in Chile where he built a railroad between Santiago and Valparaiso. After 13 years he moved to Peru.
(SFC, 1/18/14, p.C2)
1854 Nov 1, Fr. Anthony Maraschi, SJ, arrived in San Francisco along with Fr. Charles Messea, SJ, and Fr. Aloysius Masnata, SJ.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Maraschi)
1854 Nov 4, The first lighthouse on the West Coast was built at Alcatraz Island.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(MC, 11/4/01)
1854 Dec 8, Fr. Nicolas Congiato, SJ, arrived in San Francisco to serve as the superior of the Jesuit mission in California. He later served as the 2nd president of St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1854 Dec 25, St. Mary’s at California and Grant in SF, the first cathedral in California, celebrated its 1st service with a midnight Mass. The Gothic Revival church was designed by William Crane and Thomas England and used granite from China and bricks from New England.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-10)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)(SFC, 11/26/04, p.FF)
1854 In SF the city’s original International Hotel was built on Jackson Street.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1854 The 1st California State Fair was held in SF. It was managed and funded by Col. J.L.L. Warren, a respected California seed and floral agribusiness man.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.F7)(www.bigfun.org/fair-info/fair-history/)
1854 Sarah Moore Clarke was the first California woman to start a newspaper. She began the Contra Costa weekly in Oakland and printed on the SF Evening Journal’s presses. She and her husband later bought the SF paper.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1854 Bishop William Kip, California's 1st missionary bishop, arrived and rescued the struggling congregation of Grace Church.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1854 Five Sisters of Presentation (f.1776) arrived in San Francisco from Ireland to teach the children of miners.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.F11)
1854 The Mechanic’s Institute was founded as a center for adult technical education to help overcome a post-Gold Rush depression. For some 17 years the Institute held mechanics and manufacturing fairs on Union Square.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.33)(SFC, 1/10/96, p.B2)
1854 Gustaf Francois Thomas arrived in SF from France and opened the G.F. Dyeing and Cleaning Works. In 2005 his descendants planned to end operations.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.B1)
c1854-1856 George Robinson Fardon (1807-1886), British photographer, took pictures of SF for his "San Francisco Album 1854-1856," believed to be the first camera survey of an American city.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.B3)
1855 May 1, In San Francisco a deed was granted to Fr. Anthony Maraschi for Lot 127 on Market St. between Fourth and Fifth. It had been owned by Thomas O. Larkin, the first American consul in Monterey, who sold it for $11,500.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1855 Jul 4, The Whaling ship Candace, built in Boston in 1818, entered SF Bay and never left. In 2005 it was found at a SF construction site at Folsom and Spear streets.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A1)
1855 Jul 15, In San Francisco St. Ignatius Church on Market St. was dedicated by Archbishop Alemany. The simple wood and plaster structure cost $4,000. Anthony Maraschi, SJ, soon began construction for a school and residence.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1855 Oct 8, James King, a Unitarian moralist from Boston, began publishing his newly purchased daily, the Evening Bulletin.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1855 Oct 15, In San Francisco St. Ignatius opened for classes with 3 students, including Richard McCabe, at 841 Market St. In the 1880s St. Ignatius College moved to a new campus on Van Ness. An advertisement this year referred to the school as St. Ignatius Grammar and High School.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1855 Nov 26, Several thousand people staged a parade and banquet at South Park to celebrate the Allied victory over the Russians in the Crimean War, the capture of the Malakoff fortress in Sevastopol.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1855 The 800 plus-page “The Annals of San Francisco” was published.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4,5)
1855 The Point Bonita Lighthouse was built for ships approaching the Golden Gate.
(G, Summer ‘97, p.5)
1855 Domingo Ghirardelli closed his chocolate factory in Hornitos due to the crime and mayhem and moved to SF. [see 1852]
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T6)
1855 A normal school was set up in SF to improve the quality of teaching.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1855 By this year most of the streets of downtown and the Western Addition were laid out and given Anglo names.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1855 By this year South Park had 17 elegant homes with its own windmill and access to downtown by a horse-drawn omnibus that ran up Third St. to North Beach.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1855 A depression slowed progress in San Francisco when the money supply dwindled after banks had overextended in loans to unprofitable ventures.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1855 A beer brewing operation, later known as the California Brewing Co. began in SF.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1855 Kellogg & Company minted $50 coins on Montgomery Street. In 2001 only 12 of the original coins were known to exist and were valued at $250,000 each. 5,000 new coins were planned to be struck with the original dies from California gold bars salvaged from the 1857 wreck of the Central America.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.12)
c1855 John Daly (13) arrived in SF from Boston. His mother died of yellow fever while they crossed the Isthmus of Panama.
(CHA, 1/2001)
1856 May 14, James P. Casey, editor of the SF Times, shot James King, proprietor of the rival Evening Bulletin. King died 6 days later. A “Vigilance Committee” of 2,600 later marched up Sacramento St. and broke into the jail where Casey was held. On May 22 Casey was lynched with his unfortunate cell mate, gambler Charles Cora.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C3)
1856 May 20, James King, editor of the Evening Bulletin, died from wounds suffered on May 14. His death brought about the rising of vigilantes and the take over of the SF government.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(http://elane.stanford.edu/wilson/Text/11b.html)
1856 May 22, Charles Cora, a gambler, and James Casey, a member of the SF Board of supervisors, were hanged by the SF Committee of Vigilance led by merchant Charles Doane, following a drumhead trial at “Fort Gunnybags, ”the vigilante headquarters on Sacramento St. There was widespread belief that Cora and Casey were “in cahoots” with then sheriff David Scannel. Cora was in jail for recently killing US Marshal William H. Richardson, who had drunkenly insulted Cora's mistress, Belle Ryan.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C1)
1856 Aug 18, In SF thousands of armed men paraded through the streets and then formally dissolved the second Committee of Vigilance. They had run SF for nearly 4 months much to the distress of Mayor James Van Ness and militia officer William T. Sherman.
(SFC, 8/18/06, p.B1)
1856 Nov 15, The clipper ship Neptune’s Car arrived in SF after sailing 136 days from NYC. Mary Ann Patten (1837-1861), the pregnant 19-year-old wife of Captain Joshua Patten (d.1857), commanded the ship for much of its voyage after the captain fell ill.
(AH, 2/05, p.60)
1856 In San Francisco The Call newspaper was started by five unemployed printers and quickly became one of the city’s leading papers. Its original building stood at 612 Commercial St.
(SFC, 10/5/13, p.C1)
1856 A surveyor drew a line across the neck of the San Francisco peninsula marking the border between Daly City and San Francisco.
(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A2)
1856 San Francisco’s Lowell High School opened as the Union Grammar School and attained its current name in 1896.
(http://tinyurl.com/y4q3tp)(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A9)
1856 William Davis Merry Howard, SF merchant and pioneer, died and was buried on Lone Mountain. His body was later exhumed and reburied in San Mateo. His 15-acre El Cerrito estate passed to Agnes Poett, his widow. The estate stood on the dividing line between San Mateo and Hillsborough. Agnes soon married Howard's younger brother George and together built a sprawling country home.
(Ind, 5/31/03, p.5A)(Ind, 9/1/01, 5A)
1858 Oct, Coaches of the Butterfield Overland Stage Co. began serving the peninsula. The Butterfield operation was already charged with carrying the US Mail from St. Louis to SF via southern Ca.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1856 Dec 29, Snow fell in San Francisco and accumulated to 2-3 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1856 A Second Committee of Vigilance was formed after a newspaper editor was shot down by a corrupt politician.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1857 Oct 2, In SF the cornerstone for the new St. Francis Church was laid.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A21)(SSFC, 3/25/12, DB p.41)
1857 The San Francisco Slavonic Mutual and Benevolent Society, the oldest Croatian society in the US, was founded.
(SFC, 2/17/05, p.E3)
1857 The California Savings and Land Association at 465 California St. was built. Henry Collins, one of California’s wealthiest black leaders, served as president of the first African-American owned bank in the country.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)(www.afrigeneas.com/forum-west/index.cgi?md=read;id=43)
1857 SF merchant Charles Doane (d.1862), former leader of the SF Committee of Vigilance, was elected sheriff of San Francisco. He served two 2-year terms. Upon retirement in 1861 he was made general of in the California militia.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)
1858 Mar 5, In San Francisco advocates of civil rights rescued Archy Lee, a slave held by Charles Stovall of Mississippi, from being taken from the city aboard the ship Orizaba. The story was later told by Rudolph Lapp (1915-2007) in “Archy Lee: A California Fugitive Slave Case” (1969).
(SFC, 1/11/14, p.C2)
1858 May 20, William Ralston (32), banker, married Elizabeth Red Fry (21) at the Calvary Presbyterian Church in SF.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)
1858 Sep 15, The Butterfield Overland Mail Company began delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The company's motto was: "Remember, boys, nothing on God's earth must stop the United States mail!"
(HN, 9/15/99)
1858 In San Francisco George Kenny built his Octogon House at 1067 Green St. In 1954 it was believed to be the oldest standing house in SF.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.F8)
1858 In San Francisco the First Baptist congregation built a brick chapel on Washington St.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)
1858 The St. Vincent de Paul Society of SF was established.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1858 In San Francisco a saloon was established on the corner of Center Street (later 16th Street) at Guerrero. It burned down in the 1906 earthquake and fire. A new building was erected on the site in 1907. In 2009 the Elixir claimed to be the 3rd oldest saloon in the city.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1858 In San Francisco the Catholic Monitor newspaper began to be published. It was folded in 1983 and a new version was scheduled in 1998.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A17)
1859 Mar 1, The present seal of San Francisco was adopted (its 2nd).
(SC, 3/1/02)
1859 Apr 30, The California state legislature granted a charter to St. Ignatius Academy in San Francisco. The school then changed its name to St. Ignatius College with the right to confer degrees.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_San_Francisco)
1859 Jun 11, Comstock silver load was discovered near Virginia City, Nevada. Prospector James Finney stumbled across thick, bluish clay in western Nevada. A fellow minor, Henry Comstock, gave his name to the lode, the most lucrative silver ore mine in history. Ott’s Assay Office in Nevada City, Ca., first assayed samples of the rich Comstock Lode of Nevada. Four Irishmen known as the Bonanza Kings bought up shares in the Comstock mines and became rich. They were John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood, and William O’Brian. Ore from the Comstock lode was hauled by horse-drawn wagon over Donner Pass to SF.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T6)(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.107)(SC, 6/11/02)
1859 Sep 13, David C. Broderick, a US Senator, faced David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, in a duel at Lake Merced. Broderick was hit in the chest and died after 60 hours. Terry fled the scene and resigned his position the next day. He was charged with murder and was arrested Sep 23, but was not convicted. The weapons used were a pair of Belgian .58-caliber pistols on loan from an associate of Terry. Broderick’s weapon was set with a hair-trigger, and misfired. The pistols sold at auction in 1998 for $34,500.
(PI, 5/30/98, p.5A)(SFC, 11/25/98, p.B8)(Ind, 5/12/01, 5A)
1859 Sep 16, In San Francisco US Senator David C. Broderick died at the Leonides Haskell house at Fort Mason, following his Sep 13 duel with David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, near Lake Merced.
(SFC, 9/7/09, p.C1)
1859 Sep 17, The San Francisco Call Bulletin published a notice on an inside page announcing that Joshua Norton, formerly a prominent SF businessman, had proclaimed himself Norton I, “Emperor of these United States.” Norton lived at a rooming house at 624 Commercial St., where he paid 50 cents a night for a modest room. Norton proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico with a proclamation delivered to the offices of the San Francisco Bulletin. He annexed the whole of the US and suspended the Constitution.
(HFA, ‘96, p.64)(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)(SFC, 9/17/09, p.A1)
1859 The Lutheran congregation of Rev. Mooshake adopted the name First German Evangelical Lutheran Church.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)
1859 The SF Call reported on the “Hoochie Coochie” dancers on the stages of the Bella Union, The Olympic and the Midway Plaisance and other dance halls: “dances of licentious and profane character, obscenity were served in superior style.”
(SFEM,11/30/97, p.20)
1859 Milton Slocum Latham became governor of California. He resigned within hours after receiving an appointment to the US Senate. His SF home at 656 Folsom St. was alleged to be one of the most sumptuous in America.
(Ind, 1/9/98, p.5A)
1859 Richard Tobin, SF attorney, co-founded the Hibernia Savings and Loan Society.
(Daly City Fog Cutter, Vol 8 No. 3, 2008)
1859 The population of SF was about 50,000 people.
(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.10)
1860 Mar 17, The Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, under Admiral Yoshitake Kimura, entered the Golden Gate after a 37-day voyage, on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco. It was the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific. 3 sailors died while the ship was in SF. It set sail to return to Japan on May 8.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(http://www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Mar 29, The USS Powhatan arrived in San Francisco as part of a diplomatic mission from Japan. It carried official envoys including Niimi Buzennokami, the first Japanese ambassador to the US.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Apr 3, The US Pony Express mail system began when one horse and rider carrying a bulging mail pouch began the 10 1/2-day run from San Francisco, Calif., to St. Joseph, Mo. Riders left St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, Ca., at the same time. They averaged 12 mph over 75-100 mile segments between 153 (190) change stations. The freight company of Russell, Majors and Waddell began the service. The enterprise failed after only 18 months, however, due to mounting financial losses and competition from the ever-expanding telegraph network. Donald C. Biggs (d.2000 at 72), prof. of history at SF State, later authored "The Pony Express: Creation of the Legend."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express)(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D4)(AP, 4/3/97)(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A24)
1860 Apr 14, First Pony Express rider arrived in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, Missouri.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1860 Apr 23, The Pony Express rider missed the boat at Benicia, Ca. Thomas Bedford, a 34-year-old stable keeper, was hired on the spot and boarded the ferry Carquinez with his horse. His discovered that his horse had lost a shoe and borrowed a horse from Martinez blacksmith Casemoro Briones and delivered the mail to the ferry at Oakland. The mail reached SF 9 hours and 15 minutes from the time it left Sacramento.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A19)
1860 May 21, Phinneas Gage died in SF from a major seizure. Gage had survived an 1848 blasting accident in Vermont when tamping iron blasted through his skull. [see Sep 13, 1848]
(ON, 10/02, p.10)
1860 Jun 7, San Francisco workmen started laying track for the Market Street Railroad. The line was planned to reach to San Jose.
(SC, 6/7/02)(SFC, 1/23/10, p.A1)
1860 Jul 4, In San Francisco the Market Street Railroad Co. opened a line on Market from Third to Valencia running both horsecar and steam train lines. This was the first street railway on the Pacific Coast.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.C2)
1860 Rodney Tabor (13) and C.A. Wetmore (13), students at the Hyde Street Grammar School, began publishing “The Young Californian,” a SF newspaper for kids.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.D13)
c1860 The sand dune deeded by Col. John Geary was removed and the 1st design for a public square (Union Square) was completed.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1860 The St. Francis of Assisi Norman Gothic church at Columbus and Vallejo was built around the original 1849 structure and was the city’s first cathedral. Bishop Alemany dedicated the church on St. Patrick's day. It was gutted by fire in 1906 but restored.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.6)
1860 The St. Brigid Church in Cow Hollow was built. [see 1863]
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A19)
1860 Rev. Jacob Matthias Buehler (23) arrived in SF and took over the 20 member Lutheran congregation.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)
1860 The Saloon at 1232 Grant Avenue began operating about this time. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire as fire fighters managed to save the building, also home to a brothel.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1860 Etinne Guittard started grinding cacao beans in SF on Commercial St. In 1997 Guittard Chocolate was the oldest family-owned chocolate manufacturer in the US.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.6)
1860 Carleton Watkins shared a photographic studio on Montgomery St. He produced a series of stereoscopic views in one of the early photo publishing ventures in SF. Watkins had left Oneonta, N.Y., in 1851 and picked up his photo skills under Robert Vance, who operated a studio at 429 Montgomery.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1860 The population of SF reached 56,802.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.B1)
1860s A brewery was built on Pacific Ave. It was named The Anchor Brewing Co. in 1896.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1860s The first SF Butchertown was located around Polk and Chestnut.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A15)
1861 May, Groundbreaking was held at San Francisquito Creek for the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1861 Jul 3, Pony Express arrived in SF with overland letters from NY.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1861 The US Army’s red brick bastion at Fort Point, San Francisco, was built.
(HT, 5/97, p.63)
1861 An Octagon House was built in San Francisco at Gough and Union by William C. McElroy, a miller and his wife Harriet. In 1953 the Colonial Dames persuaded PG&E to sell it for $1 on the condition that they move it across the street to 2645 Gough.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.33)(SFEC,11/2/97, DB p.31)(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.A2)
1861 San Francisco’s Market Street was paved.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1861 The California state Legislature gave the Sisters of Mercy $5,000 to help build an asylum for women in SF. Magdalene Asylum was built on Potrero St. and by 1874 housed 150 women and girls. In 1904 it was renamed to St. Catherine's Home and Industrial School.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A27)
1861 In San Francisco the Oakdale Bar and Clam House opened at the corner of Oakland and Bayshore. It later came to be known as the Old Clam House.
(SSFC, 2/19/12, p.A2)
c1861 Marco Fontana formed the California Fruit Canners Association at a brick building near Fisherman’s Wharf. In 1963 the Cannery was converted to a shopping mall by Manchurian immigrant Leonid Matveyeff.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.30)
1861 Solomon Gump founded Gump’s.
(SFC, 6/22/01, WBb p.9)
1861-1862 The winter of this time flooded the area with a record 49.27 inches of rain with 24.36 inches in January.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A1)
1861-1865 The mid-downtown park, donated to San Francisco by Mayor John Geary, became the site of rallies on behalf of the Union that gave the park its name. Many of the rallies were led by Unitarian minister Thomas Starr King (1824-1864). The block was renamed Union Square to commemorate the rallies.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W27)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1861-1865 The Pioneer Woolen Mill by Fisherman’s Wharf produced blankets and uniforms for the Union army during the Civil War.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.30)
1862 Jan 21, In San Francisco Fr. Maraschi stepped down as the first president-rector of St. Ignatius. Fr. Nicolas Congiato took over.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1862 May 5, Gov. Leland Stanford signed a bill that appropriated $3,000 to convert the SF normal school into the first state sponsored institution of higher education. The California State Normal School.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1862 May, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors decreed that dogs in public without muzzles would be grabbed by the city pound keeper, kept for 48 hours, and destroyed if not redeemed for $5.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)
1862 May, In San Francisco St. Ignatius held a ceremony for the cornerstone of its new Jesuit residence and college on Market Street.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1862 Jun, SF Lawmakers signed a petition to anoint Lazarus (d.1963) and Bummer (d.1865), 2 popular rat catching dogs, as official city property and exempt from the recently passed muzzle law. In 1984 Malcolm E. Barker authored “Bummer & Lazarus: San Francisco’s Famous Dogs.”
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.A23)(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.E11)
1862 Sep 14, In San Francisco some 3,000 people packed into Platt’s Music Hall at Bush and Montgomery to hear Unitarian minister Starr King (1824-1864) speak on behalf of the Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the Red Cross. His speech inspired businessmen to raise money and within 5 days $100,000 was raised. In one year California raised some $500,000.
(SFC, 11/30/13, p.C3)
1862 Oct 31, Rev. Buehler and his Lutheran congregation laid the cornerstone for the new St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Union Square. The land cost $5000, donated by Claus Sprechels, and later became the site of Macy's.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A20)
1862 Grace Church was rebuilt in a brick Gothic style. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1862 Greek Revival houses were built in the Presidio along Funston Ave. They initially faced west but were turned to face eat in 1879.
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
1862 The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange was established by 19 founding members as a marketplace for mining company stocks following the Comstock Lode strike.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.I3)
1862 The Six Companies was founded in SF to assist Chinese arriving in California.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.B1)
1862 Charles Segalas began a liquor manufacturing operation that served the French and Basque communities in the Bay Area and Western states.
(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A21)
1862 The Pacific Mail Co.'s Golden Gate steamer sank off Manzanillo. An English salvage company recovered gold bullion and artifacts in 1928.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1862-1957 Bernard Maybeck, architect. He designed the palace of Fine Arts in SF and the First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley.
(SFEM,12/797, p.46)
1863 Mar 14, Asbury Harpending (24) of Kentucky, Ridgely Greathouse of Kentucky and Alfred Rubery of Britain set sail from San Francisco with 20 fighting men aboard the J.M. Chapman on an expedition to intercept outbound Panama steamers loaded with gold and silver and send the money to the Confederacy. They were quickly intercepted, taken to Alcatraz, and found guilty of high treason. Harpending was granted amnesty after four months in jail.
(SFC, 3/15/14, p.D2)
1863 Apr 29, Randolph Hearst was born in SF.
(SFEM, 10/24/99, p.20)
1863 Jun 4, David Batchelder and a group of 27 armed men sailed from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands in 3 boats to challenge the Egg Co. for bird eggs. One man was killed and another died of wounds a few days later. In 1995 Peter White authored “The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate.”
(SFC, 5/25/13, p.C3)
1863 Oct 2, San Francisco Archbishop Alemany sent a letter to Fr. Maraschi, SJ, pastor of St. Ignatius Church, announcing that St. Ignatius Church would lose its parish status. The church did not regain its status as a parish until 1994.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1863 Oct 23, The railroad came to the SF peninsula. Some 400 people swarmed into 6 cars and rode to San Mateo’s Francisquito Creek to join a picnic as guests of the railroad management. The first stop out of SF was near the school house where Mission St. and Old San Pedro Road met. The depot was called Schoolhouse station.
(GTP, 1973, p.73)
1863 Hubert Howe Bancroft discovered 75 volumes pertaining to California on the shelves of his SF bookstore and began accumulating works on the Trans-Mississippi West. His personal history project was completed in 1894 and in 1905 UC Berkeley acquired his personal library.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A6)
1863 The first San Francisco Cliff House was built by real estate tycoon Charles Butler as a dining establishment for well-to-do families. The 160-acre site had been used as a potato farm by a man named chambers. It was purchased in 1881 by Adolph Sutro. The Cliff House burned down in 1894 and was rebuilt. It again burned down in 1907 and rebuilt in 1909.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.B1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 4/5/14, p.C1)
1863 San Francisco’s St. Brigid Church was founded. It was later rebuilt 6 times and transformed from a wooden structure to a granite building with stained glass imported from Dublin, Ireland. Construction had begun in 1860. The SF Archdiocese closed the church in 1994.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 8/14/11, p.F3)
1863 St. Ignatius College in San Francisco awarded its first bachelor of arts degree.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1863 Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of the 1857 book "The Hasheesh Eater," arrived in SF by the Overland Stagecoach. He rode with painter Albert Bierstadt who married Ludlow's wife in 1864. Ludlow wrote an account of his travels titled "The heart of the Continent." In 1999 Donald P. Dulchinos published "Pioneer of Inner Space: The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Hasheesh Eater."
(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.4)
1863 As San Francisco voters considered a bond measure to help finance the Central pacific Railroad, Philip Stanford, brother of the governor, drove through the city on election day “handing out money liberally’ to all who would vote for the bond.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1863 St. Mary’s College was built on College Hill near Richland Ave and Mission St. It left San Francisco for Oakland in 1889 and later moved to Moraga.
(SFC, 5/22/13, p.E6)
1864 Jan 16, A celebration was held in San Jose for the completion of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1864 Mar 4, Thomas Starr King (b.1824), Unitarian minister, died in SF. During the Civil War, he spoke zealously in favor of the Union and is credited (by Abraham Lincoln) with saving California from becoming a separate republic. In addition, he organized the Pacific Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, which cared for wounded soldiers. He led many rallies on behalf of the Union in SF, and the site of the rallies was later renamed Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Starr_King)
1864 Jul 5, William Ralston founded the Bank of California with $2 million in capital.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)(SFC, 4/7/06, SF Rising p.14)
1864 Aug 25, A combination rail and ferry service became available from SF to Alameda, Ca.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1864 Sep 5, In California boilers on the steamer Washoe exploded on its voyage from San Francisco to Sacramento. An estimated 175 people were onboard. Reporter Mark Twain estimated as many as 100 people were killed and 75 wounded or missing.
(www.twainquotes.com/18640907b.html)
1864 Carleton Watkins made his "San Francisco Panorama" photograph that stretched across five 18x22-inch negatives.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1864 In San Francisco a woolen mill was built on the block bounded by Beach, Polk, Larkin and North Point streets. In the 1890s it was taken over by the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the 1960’s Ghirardelli transferred operations to San Leandro and the square was converted to a restaurant and shopping complex.
(SSFC, 10/28/12, p.D4)
1864 UC Medical Center was founded as Toland Medical College. It was named after founder Dr. Hugh H. Toland, who arrived with the gold rush from South Carolina.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1864 The restaurant known as Jack’s opened on Sacramento St. From 1903 to 1996 it was owned by one family.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.B1)
1864 William Sharon (44) was sent to Virginia City as manager of the Nevada branch of the Bank of California.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1864 Herbert Liebes opened a fur salon which grew to become H. Liebes & Company. Liebes ran sailing schooners from Alaska to SF with cargoes of furs.
(SFC, 6/29/04, p.B6)
1865 Jan 16, Charles (19) and Michael de Young (17) started a free theater-program sheet in SF called The Daily Dramatic Chronicle. Early quarters were at Clay and Montgomery. They borrowed a $20 gold piece from Capt. William Hinkley, who owned the building where they lived, to start the paper.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/16/09, Extra p.1)
1865 Sep 17, In San Francisco Mark Twain and ‘Mousetrap Man’ (Tremenheere Lanyon Johns) were seen walking up Clay street under the influence of hashish. At this time concentrated cannabis was commonly available in tincture or solid form in drug stores.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, p.E9)
1865 Sep 24, James Cooke walked a tightrope from the San Francisco Cliff House to Seal Rocks.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1865 Oct 8-1865 Oct 9, An earthquake hit San Francisco.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1865 Oct 21, Another earthquake hit San Francisco. It lasted for 42 seconds and caused major damage throughout the city.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1865 Bret Harte edited the 1st collection of California poetry from newspaper clippings of poems compiled by Mary Tingley of San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M1)
1865 A gas works was constructed in the China Basin area.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.10)
1865 The Odd Fellows Cemetery was established on the slope of Lone Mountain at Stanyon St. In 1935 the bones were moved to Colma.
(SFCM, 1/18/04, p.12)
1865 Andrew S. Hallidie moved to SF and started producing flexible wire cable for carrying buckets of ore.
(ON, 10/03, p.8)
1865 William Butterfield’s auction business was founded in SF. In 1970 Butterfield & Butterfield was sold to Bernard Osher. In 1999 the operation was acquired by EBay, a San Jose-based online auction house.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.B1)(SFC, 3/8/08, p.F6)
1865 The SF Elevator, a weekly black newspaper edited by Philip Bell, was established.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.B2)
1865 Irving Scott bought the Union Iron Works in SF and steered the foundry into the ship building industry (Pier 70).
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)
1865-1875 Henry Casebolt, San Francisco inventor of the cable car grip, built his Casebolt Mansion at 2727 Pierce St. in Pacific Heights.
(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf051.asp)(http://tinyurl.com/c7rum4)
1866 Mar 31, Fred. Law Olmsted, New York City landscape architect, wrote a long piece on city planning for parks with special reference to San Francisco.
(SFEM, 7/27/97, p.30)
1866 Apr 6, Joseph Lincoln Steffens (d.1936), American political philosopher, investigative reporter and muckraker journalist (Shame of the Cities), was born in San Francisco: "Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over." "Never practice what you preach. If you're going to practice it, why preach it?"
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 4/6/98)(AP, 4/24/98)(HNQ, 10/4/98)
1866 Dec 30, St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Union Square was dedicated.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)
1866 William Hammond Hall began to design San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A10)
1866 In San Francisco Robert B. Woodward bought property and a stately mansion of US Sen. John C. Fremont located between Mission and Valencia to the east and west and 13th and 15th streets to the north and south. His Woodward’s Gardens amusement park opened for a 25-cent admission and featured the nation’s first aquarium.
(SFC, 10/30/12, p.E6)
1866 San Francisco established The Almshouse on the grounds of what later became Laguna Honda Hospital, providing shelter for the city’s unemployed and homeless men.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1866 In San Francisco the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur opened Notre Dame school across the street from the Mission Dolores.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F2)
1866 Swiss-born Antoine Borel (1840-1915) took over his brother’s SF mercantile firm, Alfred Borel & Co., when Alfred returned to Europe. Antoine later became director of the Bank of California (1882-1909), held directorships in the SF Dry Dock Co., the Golden Gate Milk Co. and the Spring Valley Water Co. He assumed the position of Swiss consul in 1885.
(Ind, 4/5/03, 5A)
1866 In San Francisco by this time Lawrence & Houseworth, opticians, had established their firm as the most prominent publisher on the West Coast. Their catalog included some 1200 images.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1866 Henry Casebolt, San Francisco transit tycoon, built a house at 2727 Pierce St.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.B3)
1866 Mary Ellen Pleasant was kicked off a streetcar in San Francisco and began arguing against laws prohibiting black people from riding them.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1866-1874 The Brannan Guard, an African American military organization, was headquartered at 929 Pacific St.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.D9)
1867 Mar, Banker William Ralston separated from his wife Lizzie Ralston, who moved to France with their 4 children.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)
c1867 St. Peter’s Church was built in the Mission district at 24th and Alabama by Irish and Italian immigrants.
(SFC, 1/20/96, p.A17)(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.A3)
1867 The St. Paulus Lutheran church in SF was founded. The original church building burned down in 1995. In 2007 it moved from Gough and Eddy to join quarters with the St. Coltrane African Orthodox Church on Fillmore.
(SFC, 5/28/07, p.D1)
1867 Laguna Honda Home opened as the Almshouse on 80 acres of land off of Twin Peaks. The four-story wooden structure was designed by Samuel Charles Bugbee and Miner Frederic Butler.
(PI, 5/30/98, p.5A)
1867 Sam’s Grill at 374 Bush St. opened in SF, Cal. It was operated as an oyster bar by Irish immigrant Michael Bolan Moraghan. In 1922 Sam Zenovich of Yugoslavia bought the operation and it became known as Sam’s. The Seput family, originally from Yugoslavia, bought it in 1937 and in 2005 sold it to Phil Lyons.
{SF, Yugoslavia, Ireland}
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.D13)(SFC, 9/21/05, p.F3)
1867 There was anti-Chinese violence in SF and Chinese laborers were driven from work and their homes were destroyed by whites angry over the economic conditions.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1867 Trans-Pacific trade was pioneered when the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. dispatched the 300-foot steamship Colorado from SF to Yokohama and Hong Kong.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.B1)
1868 Jan 12, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 2 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1868 Mar 27, John Muir (30) arrived by steamer in San Francisco and almost immediately set off on a 300-mile journey to Yosemite Valley along with Englishman Joseph Chilwell.
(SSFC, 4/2/06, p.B1)(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.B3)
1868 Mar 31, Anson Burlingame, head of the Chinese Embassy, arrived in SF for a month-long stay.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1868 Sep 1, In San Francisco the Daily Dramatic Chronicle with widened coverage became the Morning Chronicle.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W2)
1868 Oct 21, A major earthquake, later estimated at magnitude 7, took place on the Hayward Fault in northern California. It destroyed the top of the San Mateo County Courthouse. At this time only 265,000 people lived in the Bay Area. The Marine Hospital at Rincon Point was badly damaged and forced to close.
(SMMB)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A15)(SFC, 10/9/10, p.A10)
1868 Mark Twain authored “Innocents Abroad” in San Francisco after returning from a trip to Europe.
(SSFC, 4/18/10, DB p.46)
1868 San Francisco’s first real ballpark, the Recreation Grounds, was built at 25th and Folsom. Some 4 thousand fans watched the SF Eagles beat the Oakland Wide Awakes.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1868 The Oriental Warehouse was built as a bonded warehouse for incoming trade from Asia. It was damaged by fires in 1988 and 1994, and by the 1989 earthquake, but was re-engineered to contain 66 live-work lofts and won a 1997 architectural award.
(SFEM, 2/22/98, p.11)
1868 The SF-San Jose railroad line joined the Southern Pacific Railroad and became a part of the statewide system.
(GTP, 1973, p.73)
1868-1870 In San Francisco a warehouse was built between during this period on North Point Street. It was first used as a woolen mill and converted to a spaghetti factory around the turn of the century. The structure was demolished in 1960 to make room for 2 apartment towers.
(SSFC, 11/28/10, DB p.50)
1868-1871 Bret Harte edited the SF-based magazine “Overland Monthly.”
(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.6)
1869 Jan 28, Cycling enthusiasts took over the Mechanic's Pavilion to demonstrate pedal-driven bicycles or velocipedes.
(Ind, 8/2/03, p.5A)
1869 Jun 24, Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant officially became the Voodoo Queen in San Francisco, California.
(HN, 6/24/99)
1869 Aug 18, Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton, in a proclamation in the Oakland Daily News ordered that a bridge be built between San Francisco and Oakland. This notice was later considered a forgery. [see 1872]
(http://www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/)
1869 Sep 22, The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, arrived in San Francisco after a rollicking, barnstorming tour of the West.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1869 The Spreckels family, sugar and steamer mavens, built a mansion in Pacific Heights. It was valued at $1.9 million in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.10)
1869 In SF the Original firehouse No. 1 was built. It was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt. In 1958 adman Howard Gossage bought it from the city at auction.
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.C2)
1869 Second Street was carved through the west edge of Rincon Hill to connect downtown and the southern waterfront.
(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A11)
1869 In San Francisco the Portola district formally began when a group called the University Homestead Association named a 263-foot hill University Mound and laid out streets named Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Princeton, Dartmouth, Holyoke and Bowdoin.
(SSFC, 5/24/09, p.A2)
1869 China Basin began showing up on maps at this time. Ships arrived here from New York and China.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.10)
1869 A depression hit after the completion of the trans-continental railroad and the Chinese became a target of ill-will as unemployment soared. In San Francisco they withdrew to a single area for self-protection and started businesses that would not seem threatening to their Caucasian neighbors. This was the beginning of Chinatown.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)
1869 The Pacific Lumber Company was founded. It was headquartered in San Francisco.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A4)
1869 Timothy Guy Phelps, former state Senator and US Congressman, was appointed Collector of Customs in SF. He served a term under Pres. Grant and another term under Pres. Harrison (1869-1872, 1890-1892).
(Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1869 Gustave Niebaum and others incorporated the Alaska Commercial Company with offices at Sansome and Halleck. Its plan was to consolidate fur-trading and natural resources operations under a single umbrella.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.26)
1869-1873 Joseph Bayma SJ (1816-1892), served as the 5th president of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1870 In San Francisco a shipwright’s house was built about this time at Hunters Point. In 2005 the SF Landmark Preservation Advisory Board approved it as SF Landmark No. 250.
(SFC, 5/13/05, p.F2)
1870 In San Francisco a Norman-style castle, later known as the Albion Castle and Brewery, was built as a brewery at 881 Innes Ave. In 1940 it became the home of a mountain springs water company, which bottled fresh water flowing underneath. In 2005 it sold for $2.1 million and was put on the market in 2009 for $2.95 million.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.D2)
1870 In San Francisco Battery East, a three-quarter mile earth barrier with masonry enforcements was built at Fort Point to guard the bay.
(Ind, 7/13/99, p.11A)
1870 Sherman Clay & Co was founded in SF. It grew to become the nation’s largest piano retailer. Levander Sherman bought the shop where he repaired music boxes.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.C1)(SFC, 6/22/01, WBb p.9)
1870 SF Supervisors designated the “Outside Lands” of the city for a new park. The Golden Gate Park commission held its first meeting under the efforts of mayor Frank McCoppin. The mayor was the principal stockholder in the SF Grading Co., and the firm wanted the city contracts for grading the park and transporting the dirt.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5,6,8)(Ind, 10/28/00,5A)
1870 The “Act to Provide for the Improvement of Public Parks in the city of San Francisco” created Golden Gate park.
(SFC, 6/26/02, p.A18)
1870 Seven private horsecar companies competed on SF city streets.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A4)
1870 By this time SF was the 10th largest US city with a population of 150,000.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1870s In San Francisco the Albion Brewery at 881 Innes Ave. in Hunters Point was built of stones that served as ship ballast. Albion ale was made with water from springs that ran underneath and the Albion Water Co. next door later sold bottled water from the springs.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A19)
1870s In San Francisco the Fairmont district was developed on the site of the Fairmont Dairy between Noe Valley and Glenn Park.
(CAS, 1996, p.18)
1871 The first light station for the Brothers Islands in San Pablo Bay was constructed. The islands were notorious for shipwrecks up to this time.
(SFEM, 3/16/97, p.37)
1871 The California Historical Society was founded with 25 members. It was originally a men’s club and many of its records were destroyed in the 1906 SF earthquake and fire. It was later located at 678 Mission near Third. 415-357-1848. Open Tuesday-Saturday 11-5.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D5)(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.55)
1871 The San Francisco Art Association was founded.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.8)(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1871 In San Francisco eight teenage girls founded the Little Sisters’ Infant Shelter to help care for the children of working mothers and babies from broken homes.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.C3)
1871 Podesta Baldocchi began peddling flowers in SF. The firm was sold to Gerald Stevens Inc., a national chain, in 1999.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.D1)
1871 Carleton Watkins opened the Yosemite Art Gallery at 22-26 Montgomery where he displayed his photographic work as art. He went bankrupt and sold his work to photographer I.W. Taber.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1871 William Hammond Hall was appointed the 1st Superintendent of Golden Gate Park and stated: “Destroy a public building and it can be rebuilt in a year; destroy a city woodland park and all the people living at the time will have passed away before its restoration can be effected.” Hall created the park’s original design over sand dunes known as the “Outside Lands.”
(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A8)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1871 The California State Normal School in SF was moved to San Jose at the urging of a local railroad line and Oscar Fitzgerald, superintendent of public instruction.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1871 Fr. Joseph Neri, SJ, demonstrated the 1st electric light in SF from a window of St. Ignatius on San Francisco’s Market St. He used a large electro-magnetic device, the Alliance Machine, that had been used in the 2nd Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War for lighting defensive work.
(SFCM, 2/6/05, p.3)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1871 In San Francisco Philip Arnold (40) and John Slack, prospectors from Kentucky, introduced a find of alleged diamonds and other precious stones to local businessmen.
(SFC, 4/26/14, p.D1)
1871-1880 Union Square was cleared and redesigned as a formal strolling garden. It was surrounded by churches and residences.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1872 Mar, Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton, ordered SF and Oakland citizens to build a suspension bridge across the bay. His similar Aug 19, 1869, proclamation was later considered a forgery.
(SFC, 12/15/04, p.A1)(www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/)
1872 May, In San Francisco Andrew Smith Hallidie started excavation on Clay St. for a cable car system.
(ON, 10/03, p.9)
1872 Jun 4, Kentucky conmen Philip Arnold (40) and John Slack took a party of San Francisco investors, including Asbury Harpending, to a site in Wyoming where diamonds and other precious stones were salted about. The con job took in hundreds of thousands of dollars before geologist Clarence King (30) identified the Wyoming site as a scam.
(SFC, 4/26/14, p.D2)
1872 Jul 2, Jacob W. Davis of Reno, Nevada, sent Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco a sample of his work pants and a business proposal for Strauss to apply for a patent in exchange for a half share in the patent. Davis soon sold his half share to Strauss and moved to San Francisco to supervise the manufacture of the work pants.
(ON, 4/05, p.11)
1872 Aug 23, The 1st Japanese commercial ship visited SF carrying tea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1872 Dec 28, James Van Ness (b.1808), the 7th mayor of San Francisco (1855-1856), died in San Luis Obispo, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/25/13, p.G3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Van_Ness)
1872 Julia Morgan, architect, was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)
1872 Albert Bierstadt painted "Seal Rocks, San Francisco."
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.E1)
1872 St. Patrick’s Church moved to Mission between 3rd and 4th. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in Gothic Revival style in 1914. [see Mar 17, 1983]
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.C1)
1872 The First Congregational Church of SF moved to Post and Mason. The brick Gothic church was seriously damaged in the 1906 earthquake. A new structure was opened in 1915. The Congregation sold the facility in 2001 with only 60 active members.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A17)(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A14)
1872 The San Francisco Bohemian Club was founded by 5 newspapermen, a Shakespearean actor, a vintner and a local merchant. The Bohemian grove, a 2,700 acre redwood grove on the Russian River, became their summer encampment. In 1974 John van der Zee authored “The Greatest Men’s Party on Earth.”
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.A18)
1873 Mar 17, St. Patrick’s Church opened on Mission St.
(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A22)
1873 May 20, Levi Strauss of San Francisco and Jacob Davis of Reno, Nevada, received a patent for miners’ work pants that included rivets to reinforce the pockets.
(SFC, 4/29/03, B1)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A10)(ON, 4/05, p.12)
1873 Aug 2, Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco. Various references give the date of this event as Aug. 1, but more recent research points to Aug. 2. Hallidie made the first cable car trip aboard his Nob Hill Line at 4 a.m. It traveled down Clay St. from Knob Hill to Kearney.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A16)(AP, 8/2/06)
1873 Nov 4, Dentist John Beers of SF patented the gold crown.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1873 American writer Charles Stoddard (1843-1909) began a long tour as special correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle. The “South Sea Idyls,” a collection of his travel tales, were published based on his 1864 travels to the South Sea Islands.
(SFC, 2/27/14, p.D5)
1873 In SF the city’s International Hotel, built in 1854, moved from Jackson Street to 848 Kearny.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1873 A stately home at 1882 Washington St. at Franklin was built. It was purchased in 1905 by banker Antoine Borel.
(Ind, 4/5/03, 5A)
1873 The South End Rowing Club was established south of Market. In 1938 it moved to Aquatic Park. The club was established following the victory of 6 Irishmen over rowers at the Golden state Rowing club.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A23)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A17)(SFCM, 1/25/04, p.12)
1873 Toland Medical College became affiliated with the new Univ. of California.
(UCSF, Spring, 2003)
1873 San Francisco’s first cable car hit the tracks starting at Clay and Jones streets on Nob Hill.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C1)
1873 In SF Mifflin Gibbs, the owner of a boot shop at 636 Clay St., was elected as San Francisco’s 1st black judge.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.B2)
1873 Gustave Niebaum (31), founding director of the Alaska Commercial Company, married Susan Shingleberger.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.27)
1873-1876 Fr. Aloysius Masnata, SJ, served as the 6th president of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1874 Feb 3, Gertrude Stein (d.1946), poet and novelist, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her older brother, Michael, managed the family business, which included San Francisco's Market Street railway line. Her parents were Daniel and Milly. The family returned to America from Europe in 1878, and settled in Oakland, California, where Gertrude attended First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland's Sabbath school. Her relationship with her brother, Leo (1872-1947), abruptly ended in 1914. Her work included "Three Lives," "G.M.P." and "Tender Buttons." Stein coined the term "Lost Generation" in reference to the disillusioned intellectuals and aesthetes of the post-World War I years. The 40-year relationship between Gertrude and Leo is told by Brenda Wineapple in "Sister Brother, Gertrude and Leo Stein." "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." "It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(AP, 12/27/97)(AP, 9/3/98)
1874 Mar 26, Robert Frost, poet (d.1963), was born in San Francisco. Robert Lee Frost, American poet. In a biography of Frost by Jeffrey Myers: “Robert Frost: A Biography,” the author claims that Frost moved his birthday up a year to make himself legitimate. A 3-volume biography by Lawrence Thompson was completed in 1976. Myers reveals that Frost’s lover, Kay Morrison, was also involved with Lawrence Thompson, but that that would not be disclosed in the Thompson biography. "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out." [see Mar 26, 1875]
(WUD, 1994, p.571)(HN, 3/25/98)(AP, 3/26/97)(AP, 11/9/98)
1874 May 20, Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets at $13.50 per doz.
(HN, 5/20/98)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)(MC, 5/20/02)
1874 The Baldwin Hotel at the corner of Powell and Market was constructed with ice skating rinks and swimming pools. It burned to the ground in 1898 and was succeeded by the Flood Building.
(Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)(SFC, 7/4/03, p.E1)
1874 The San Francisco Federal Mint building opened at 5th and Mission. It was designed by Alfred Mullett, the Treasury’s supervising architect.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A13)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)
1875 Mar 26, Poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco. [see Mar 26, 1874]
(AP, 3/26/97)
1875 Aug 27, William C. Ralston’s body was pulled from the SF Bay in a case of likely suicide. He had built the Palace Hotel, was the founder of the Bank of California and had a sprawling estate in Belmont. William Sharon was named Ralston’s executor and became master of Ralston’s estate.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C4)(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1875 Aug, The Bank of California, headed by William C. Ralston, collapsed.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1875 Sep 9, On Admission Day Charlotte Mignon (Lotta) Crabtree, the “California Girl,” dedicated a fountain to SF that was placed at Market and Kearney. She had acquired her reputation dancing on top of barrels in saloons. The fountain was cast in Philadelphia and shipped around Cape Horn to SF. It was modeled after a lighthouse prop from a forgotten play called “Zip.” In 1998 the fountain was disassembled for a 4-month repair job.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A1)(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A1,22)
1875 In San Francisco the Ferry House, predecessor to the Ferry Building, was built. It was a 350-foot wooden shed and was soon replaced. In 1998 Nancy Olmsted published "The Ferry Building: Witness to a Century of Change."
(SFEC, 12/20/98, BR p.2)
1875 The Palace Hotel opened in San Francisco. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. A new Palace Hotel opened in 1909.
(SFC, 8/21/09, p.A10)
1875 San Francisco’s Lowell High School, then called the Union Grammar School, moved within San Francisco to Sutter Street between Gough and Octavia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_High_School_%28San_Francisco%29)
1875 In San Francisco a picture by Walter Yeager depicted the California St. offices of Lazard Freres: Bankers.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)
1875 A Marine Hospital was built in the Presidio area of San Francisco. An adjacent cemetery operated at the site from about 1981 to 1915. In 1912 US marine hospitals became Public Health Service hospitals. A new structure was completed in 1932. In 1952 the hospital was expanded and Landfill 8 covered the graves, which were never moved. In 1981 the hospital was decommissioned and in 2010 reopened as 154 luxury apartments. Landfill 8 was capped with sand and underwent restoration to resemble its original, pre-European look.
(SFC, 11/25/06, p.B5)(SFC, 10/9/10, p.A10)
1875 James Lick, San Francisco real estate magnate, ordered a pre-fabricated glass house for his estate but died before it was erected. A group of wealthy men led by Leland Stanford donated the glass house to Golden Gate Park, where it became the Conservatory of Flowers. [see 1879]
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A23)
1875 William Sharon of SF was elected to a 6-year term as Senator from Nevada. It is believed that he spent some $1 million to get elected.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1876 Jan 12, Jack London (d.1916), American writer and adventurer, was born in SF at 3rd and Brannon. The original home burned down in the 1906 fire. He is best known for his dog novels "The Call of the Wild" and “White Fang.”
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p.768)(HN, 1/12/99)(SFC, 1/10/03, p.E6)
1876 Jul 4, Fr. Joseph Neri, SJ, introduced electric lights on Market Street in SF.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1876 Dec 7, Colonel Hayward, Vermont-born mining millionaire, remarried his wife Charity in SF.
(Ind, 12/8/01, 5A)
1876 The First Baptist Congregation moved to Eddy St. between Jones and Leavenworth and 2 churches were built on the site. The 2nd one burned down in the 1906 fire.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)
1876 The California Maritime Academy was founded. The Board of Supervisors and the Chamber of Commerce proposed to train young criminals onboard the ship Jamestown for work in the merchant naval service. Its history is told by Capt. Walter W. Jaffee in "The Track of the Golden Bear, The California Maritime Academy Schoolships."
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.7)
1876 The SF Native Sons fraternal order was founded.
(SFC, 2/22/96, p.A21)
1876 Pioneer Park on Telegraph Hill was donated to the city by a group of citizens.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A23)
1876 B.E. Lloyd attributed the high restaurant activity in the city to the high percentage of residents living in rooming houses or hotels in the post-Gold Rush era.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1876 Austin and Reuben Hills began roasting coffee at the Bay City Market in SF. [see 1878]
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)
1876 Lazard Freres ceased operations as a fabrics and hardware import-export company and established itself as the bank: Lazard Freres & Co.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)
1876 The Livingston Brothers department store was founded.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A22)
1876 Oil was struck in a well near what later became Santa Clarita, California. It was sold to the Pacific Coast Oil Co. of San Francisco in 1879, which eventually became Chevron.
(SSFC, 10/29/06, p.F6)
1876 James Lick, one of the wealthiest men in SF and a notorious miser, died. He gave away most of his wealth before dying and the elevated 101 freeway from the Bay Bridge to Candlestick Point was later named in his honor as was the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A11)
1876-1880 Fr. John Pinasco, SJ, served as the 7th president of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1877 Aug, In the midst of a recession and the turmoil of anti-Chinese riots, San Franciscans decided to build a public library.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1877 Oct 29, In San Francisco the Jesuits paid $200,000 for lot 74 of the Western Addition, a block of land bordered by Van Ness, Hayes, Franklin and Grove Streets. Construction of a new church, campus and residence buildings lasted from 1878-1880 and cost $323,763.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1877 San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood was dubbed “Butchertown” as 18 slaughterhouses set up shop on the waterfront.
(SFC, 7/24/13, p.A12)
1877 San Francisco’s 2nd cable car line, the Sutter Street Railroad, ran out Sutter from Market and Sansome to its power house at Larkin and Bush.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C3)
1877 Cable cars began operating on Geary Street.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1877 In San Francisco the Dolphin Club, a rowing organization, was founded by brewery owner Joseph Wieland.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A23)
1877 Felix Schoenstein, a German immigrant and organ builder, founded the Schoenstein & Co. organ builders in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.I3)
1877 Isaac Magnin and his wife Mary Ann Cohen Magnin founded their first I. Magnin store in SF. The original store was located on Market street. It moved to Grant Avenue after the 1906 earthquake and in 1948 opened at Geary and Stockton in the “Marble Lady,” designed by Timothy Pflueger. It merged with Bullocks in 1944 and became a division of Federated Department Stores in 1964. The store closed Jan 15, 1995.
(SSFC, 12/31/06, p.E5)
1877 The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange moved into a building on Pine St.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F3)
1877 Almost one-fourth of the California labor force was unemployed. Anti-Chinese feelings in SF resulted in several killings. The Sand Lot riots began under the leadership of Denis Kearney, who organized mobs that attacked the Chinese. The Chronicle newspaper called him “a political mad dog.” These riots followed similar mob attacks in the Eastern States.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)(www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/kearneyism.html)
1878 Jan 25, Off of San Francisco the 3-masted clipper ship King Philip, built in Maine in 1856, was towed by a tug through the Golden Gate and laid anchor to allow the tug to assist a nearby vessel. The anchor failed and the King Philip drifted onto sand at Ocean Beach, where it foundered. Remnants of the ship appeared in 1980 and again in 2007.
(SFC, 5/8/07, p.B5)
1878 Mar 26, Hastings College of Law was founded in SF. It was named after Serranus Clinton Hastings, the 1st chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
(SS, 3/26/02)(SFCM, 10/26/03, p.8)
1878 Aug 3, Ambrose Bierce in the SF Argonaut stated: There is no recorded instance of punishment for shooting a newspaperman. The restrictions of the game law do not apply to this class of game.”
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)
1878 Isadora Duncan (d.1927), US pioneer in modern dance, was born in San Francisco.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)
1878 Henry Burgess painted “View of San Francisco in 1850.”
(WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W10)
1878 Ephraim Burr (1809-1894), former mayor of SF (1856-1859), built an Italianate house at 1772 Vallejo St.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.B3)
1878 In SF a house was built at 2066 Pine Street. In 1921 it was turned into the Madame C.J. Walker Home for Girls.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1878 The Mill Building at 720 York St., designed by Laver & Curlett, was built. It was restored in 1998.
(SSFC, 11/6/11, p.D2)
1878 The Big Four, Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, formed the city’s second cable car company, the California Street Cable Railroad, to go from Market St. to their mansions atop Nob Hill.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1878 The 1st SF telephone directory, printed by the American Speaking Telephone Co., listed 168 entries on a single page.
(SFC, 9/2/05, p.F2)
1878 The clipper ship King Philip was stranded on Ocean Beach at the foot of Ortega St.
(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1878 Austin and R.W. Hills founded Hills Bros. Coffee in SF. [see 1876]
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1878 A waiter in SF concocted the dish named chop suey for Li Hung-Chang, the first Chinese viceroy to visit SF.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1879 cJun 2, Henry Cogswell, an eccentric dentist, buried a lead box time capsule at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in Washington Square. It was opened Apr 22, 1979 and contained a copy of The Call newspaper dated Jun 2, 1879, Harper's Weekly dated May 1872, and books of poetry.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)
1879 Jul 8, The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, California.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1879 Sep 10, Pacific Coast Oil Co. was founded in San Francisco by Lloyd Tevis, George Loomis and Charles Felton. In 1906 it became Standard Oil Co. (California). In 1926 it became Standard Oil Co. of California (Socal). In 1984 it became Chevron Corp. In 2001 it became ChevronTexaco. In 2005 it was renamed Chevron Corp.
(SFC, 10/20/04, p.C6)(SFC, 5/10/05, p.D1)
1879 Sep 20, Former Pres. Ulysses S. Grant arrived in San Francisco aboard the steamship City of Tokio. He was in a bad mood because a steward had just emptied a glass of water with his false teeth through a porthole.
(Ind, 2/17/00, 5A)
1879 Oct 24, In San Francisco the 9-day “Author’s Carnival” opened as a fundraiser for six charities. Six thousand people attended each night.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.C3)
1879 The ornate white frame of the Conservatory of Flowers was imported from Ireland and erected. The disassembled parts were purchased from the estate of SF millionaire James Lick by Charles Crocker, who donated it to the city in 1875.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.5R)(Ind, 10/28/00,5A)
1879 The San Francisco Free Public Library was opened in Pacific Hall on Bush St., between Kearny and Dupont (later Grant) streets.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1879 The 1st SF bicycle tournament was held at the Mechanics Pavilion. The 400-mile event required 2,400 circuits. The winner won $500 after a 72-hour ride.
(Ind, 8/2/03, p.5A)
1879 Abby Fisher, one of 18 pickle manufacturers, was recognized for “best display of pickles” and won $5 prize money.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1879 Police arrested dancer Mabel Santly for indecent exposure following a vilification of the Can-can by the SF Chronicle. She was fined $300 for failing to keep her skirts around her ankles.
(SFEM,11/30/97, p.20)
1879 Adolph Sutro returned to SF after becoming a millionaire from building a tunnel to drain and ventilate the silver mines of the Nevada Comstock Lode.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1880 cJan 8, Emperor Norton died and had an elaborate funeral sponsored by the Pacific Union Club at a cost of $10,000. His remains were later moved from the Masonic Cemetery to Woodlawn Cemetery with a marble tombstone inscribed: Norton I...Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Joshua A. Norton 1815-1880. Dr. Robert Burns Aird (d.2000) later composed a musical based on Norton's life. The organization E Clampus Vitius later proceeded to hold an annual memorial services at his Colma grave site.
(HFA, '96, p.65)(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A20)(CHA, 1/2001)
1880 Jan 28, Henry Casebolt, San Francisco inventor of the cable car grip, sold his interest in the Sutter Street Railway.
(www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccwho.html#hxc)
1880 Feb 1, In San Francisco the buildings of the new St. Ignatius campus at Van Ness and Hayes were dedicated. Archbishop Alemany and bishop James A. Healy presided over the dedication of the new church oh Hayes St.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1880 Apr, Isaac M. Kalloch, son of the mayor, shot and killed Charles de Young in SF Chronicle offices. Michael de Young took over. Isaac Kalloch, pastor of the Metropolitan Temple on 5th St. had earlier insulted de Young, who in turn had shot and wounded Kalloch. Kalloch was elected mayor with the support of Denis Kearney.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1880 Jul 2, In San Francisco St. Ignatius College opened for classes at its new campus at Van Ness and Hayes.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1880 Peter B. Kyne (d.1957), author, was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Mateo County. He wrote 25 novels and over 1,000 short stories, a number of which were turned into Hollywood movies.
(Ind, 7/19/03, p.3A)
1880 Julian Rix painted “Hay Scow on San Francisco Bay.”
(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.55)
1880 Thomas Blythe, a Welsh drifter who made a fortune in SF real estate, built a mansion at 1000 Chestnut St. It was torn down in 1954 to make room for a 14-story apartment house.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.F6)
1880 The Mechanic's Fair stamped as obscene a French painting by Gabriel Guay, "The Awakening." Visitors voted to keep the painting in the exhibit.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.30)
1880 US Pres. Rutherford Hayes lunched at the Cliff House in SF.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A1)
1880 George Hearst purchased the SF Daily Evening Examiner newspaper to advertise his political beliefs. Hearst won the Examiner as payment for a gambling debt.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.B9)(CHA, 1/2001)
1880-1889 The San Francisco Belt Line began operating during this period to move freight from ships docked at the port for trans-shipment by rail.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A2)
1880s Henry D. Cogswell (d.1900), dentist, made a fortune in SF real estate. He was a man of temperance and financed a number of fountains that were donated to cities in America, including the one in Washington D.C. on 7th St.
(HT, 4/97, p.80)
1880s Rev. Joseph Worcester, a Swedenborgian minister and architectural theorist, built the 1st "Rustic"-style homes on Russian Hill. He inspired such architects as Ernest Coxhead, Bernard Maybeck, A. Page Brown and Willis Polk.
(SFCM, 8/3/03, p.15)
1880s The Board of Health ordered all cattle to be removed from the city limits. Until this time most the city’s milk came from the Cow Hollow area.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1881 A Casino was constructed in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1881 Adolph Sutro bought most of San Francisco’s western headlands. Sutro acquired 2200 acres of land around the Cliff House which had become a disreputable entertainment hall. Sutro bought the Cliff House and the adjacent 80 acres to develop a seaside attraction that included the Sutro Baths and the Sutro Conservatory.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 9/29/12, p.C3)
1881 The city directory indicated 233,959 residents, 428 restaurants, 342 oyster saloons, 18 oyster dealers, 90 coffee saloons, 299 bakeries, 254 retail butchers, 205 fresh fruit sellers, some 1400 grocers and an equal number of bars, 40 brewers and 15 champagne importers.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1881 “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Southern Cooking” by Abby Fisher was published by the San Francisco Women’s Co-operative Printing Office.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1881 Joseph Brandenstein opened a coffee company in SF, naming it after his son Michael J. Brandenstein and Co. The name was later shortened to MJB Inc.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1882 Mar 26, Oscar Wilde arrived in SF for a series of lectures. His first lecture on “The English Renaissance,” was given the next night at Platt’s Hall at Bush and Montgomery.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.3)(SFC, 10/12/12, p.C3)
1882 Apr 10, Capt. William Matson sailed the schooner Emma Claudina through the Golden Gate toward Hawaii. Matson had just founded his shipping company to cover service between San Francisco and Hawaii.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1882 Jul 4, Telegraph Hill Observatory opened in SF.
(Maggio, 98)
1882 Sep 18, The Pacific Stock Exchange was founded in SF as Local Security Board in the basement of Wohl & Pollitz at 403 California.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.B1)(SFC, 7/24/98, p.B1)
1882 Dec 31, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 3.5 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1882 Frederick Layman received financing for a short-lived cable car line up Kearny St.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1882 A railway began service from Second and Market to Daly City.
(SFC, 4/20/01, WBb p.7)
1882 The Golden Gate Park Band was founded in San Francisco and began performing annual concerts in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 7/3/96, p.E1)
1882 The First Presbyterian Church moved into a gothic style wooden building at Van Ness and Sacramento. It was destroyed in the 1906 fire.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)
1882 The SF military base was re-named Fort mason after former Gov. Richard Barnes Mason.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.E1)
1882 Union Iron Works, founded by Peter Donohue, moved into the area of SF, 22nd and Third St., that later came to be known as Dogpatch. The works later became Bethlehem Steel, Todd Yard, Southwest Marine and SF Drydock (Pier 70). In 2000 it was the oldest operating civilian shipyard in the US.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A17)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)
1883 Local artists put 8 paintings of nudes into the Mechanic's Fair exhibit. Jeweler A.W. Stott, the only one of 3 jury members available, banned the paintings. A.S. Hallidie was busy watching his cable car business and M.A. Doirn was busy with his law office.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.32)
1883 Frona Eunice Wait announced a plan to find a "California Venus," whose image would be immortalized in marble by sculptor Rupert Schmid. The plan failed but Schmid did find Miss Marian Nolan, 23 ½, 32 ½, 38 ½. He made a plaster cast of her a year later and took it to Italy to be cut in Carrara marble.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.34)
1883 In San Francisco Commercial High School opened as the business department of Boys High School, which eventually became Lowell. It then split from Lowell, relocated twice and settled on Market Street just in time to go up in flames in the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 4/30/13, p.E4)
1883 Lutherans of Northern California came together to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Martin Luther’s birthday. This led to the 1945 formation of the Lutheran Welfare Council.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1883 The Salvation Army came to SF. In 1886 they opened a facility in the Tenderloin.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)(SFC, 6/28/08, p.B1)
1883 In San Francisco Army Major W.A. Jones created a plan to transform the Presidio into a forested park-like reserve. In 1886 the Army began planting blue gum eucalyptus to serve as a windbreak on the ridges of the Presidio.
(SFC, 7/6/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/25/09, p.A8)
1883 Fr. Joseph Sasia, SJ (1843-1928) took over as president of St. Ignatius College in San Francisco.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1883 San Francisco’s Park and Ocean Railroad began carrying passengers from Haight and Stanyon out H Street (later Lincoln Way) to 49th Ave. (later la Playa), and then north to the Cliff House.
(SFC, 7/20/13, p.C2)
1883 The central dome of the glass house in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was destroyed by fire. A new, higher dome replaced the original.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)
1884 Feb 7, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 1-2 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1884 Apr 22, Thomas Stevens (b.1853) started the 1st bicycle trip to cross the US from SF. He later continued around world (2 yrs 9 mos). He purchased a bicycle with a 50-inch diameter front wheel from Col. Albert Pope of Hartford, Conn., for $110 the price of a horse and buggy.
(MC, 4/22/02)(ON, 9/03, p.9)
1884 Sep 20, The Equal Rights Party was formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco. The convention nominated Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood of Washington, D.C., for president.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1884 Dec 24, A trial judge, following an 81-day trial, decided that Senator William Sharon was legally married to Sarah Althea Hill, and that she was entitled to a divorce, alimony and community property. A Nevada Circuit Court reversed the decision in 1885.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1884 In San Francisco Central Park opened at 8th and Market. It featured a new ball park as the popularity of baseball grew.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1884 In San Francisco the University Mound Ladies Home was built at 350 University St. as a comfortable home for elderly women of modest means.
(SFC, 7/9/14, p.E1)
1884 In SF Sts. Peter and Paul Church was built in North Beach at the corner of Grant and Filbert. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in 1924 on Washington Square.
(SSFC, 5/17/09, DB p.50)
1884 A Victorian mansion was built on the corner of Bush and Jones streets. It perished in the 1906 fire but a replica, the Carter House, was built by the Carter Family in Eureka, Ca.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T5)
1884 Patrick William Riordan succeeded Archbishop Alemany as Archbishop of SF and served until 1914.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1884 A block-long, brick machine shop building was built on Third St. and Illinois.
(SFEC, 12/12/04, p.10)
1884 Hibernia Bank was founded in SF.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.F2)
1884 An amusement area in SF named Ocean Beach Pavilion began.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F1)
1884 In SF, Ca., Adolph Spreckels, son of sugar-baron Claus Spreckels, attempted to kill Michael de Young due to a Chronicle story that accused his father of swindling shareholders. Spreckles was acquitted.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.C5)
1884 The Arctic Oil Works opened at the foot of Sixteenth and Illinois Street in Mission Bay. It was one of the largest whale processing factories in the world and the building was one of the very first reinforced concrete structures in the United States. It was built by Ernest Ransome.
(http://tinyurl.com/2vznaq)
1884 British interests purchased half the California operations of Lazar Freres and this led to the establishment of the London, Paris and American Bank. This ultimately became part of Crocker National Bank and then Wells Fargo.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)
1884 The population of SF was about 225,000 people.
(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.10)
1884 John Parrot, SF millionaire banker and merchant, died.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1885 Feb, Duncan C. Ross of Scotland arrived in San Francisco and introduced a broadsword jousting competition. Some 1,800 people attended the event at the new baseball grounds at Eight and Market. The successful contest led him to stage a regular event for a year on top of Telegraph Hill.
(SFC, 3/8/14, p.C2)
1885 Nov 13, Former Nevada Senator William Sharon died.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1885 Dec, A Nevada Circuit court reversed the 1884 ruling against William Sharon and ruled that the marriage certificate and letters of Sarah Althea Hill were forgeries. Hill later married one of her attorneys, David Terry.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1885 Charles Rollo Peters painted “Italian Fisherman’s Wharf,” a scene of the congested SF harbor.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.E3)
1885 Jules Harder, 1st chef of the SF Palace Hotel, authored “The Physiology of Taste: Harder’s Book of Practical American Cookery.”
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F4)
1885 In San Francisco a 4-level Victorian was built at 3086 Washington St. In 2009 the 4,851 square-foot house listed for $6.45 million following renovations.
(SFC, 10/14/09, p.C3)(SFL)
1885 The James A. Garfield monument on Kennedy Drive in San Francisco’s golden Gate Park was erected by the offerings of a “grateful people.”
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A13)(SFL)
1885 In San Francisco Adolph Sutro opened Sutro Heights to the public. The estate was dotted with European statues. He went on to build the Sutro Baths, a 3-acre glass palace.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.2)
1885 St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco’s Western Addition was built.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A19)(SFL)
1885 San Francisco brewery owner Joseph Wieland died in a fire. His heirs commissioned a new boat for the Dolphin Club, which he had founded; the 40-foot Joseph Wieland rowing vessel was built by Al Rogers.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A23)
1885 William Sharon, US senator and silver millionaire, died. He bequeathed $60,000 for the construction of a children’s playground in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1886 Apr, In San Francisco school children on Arbor Day planted the first trees of the Presidio forest. Adolph Sutro enlisted schoolchildren to help plant eucalyptus, acacia, Monterey pine and Monterey cypress trees in Glen Park. The 904-foot Mount Parnassus, owned by Sutro, was also planted.
(G, Winter, p.3)(SFC, 5/26/00, Wb p.8)(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A1)
1886 May 22, The cover of Harper’s Weekly featured an illustrated picture of a jousting match in San Francisco with a German-style castle in the background atop Telegraph Hill. The castle, known as Layman’s Folly (1883-1903), was built by Frederick O. Layman. He had also built a 1,400-foot cable car line up Greenwich St. from Powell to the summit of Telegraph Hill.
(SFC, 3/8/14, p.C2)
1886 Jul 4, St. Peter’s Church on Alabama St. was dedicated. It burned down in 1997 and was rebuilt in 2000.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A1)
1886 In San Francisco Adolph Sutro opened his Sutro Baths. The huge glass enclosure had room for 1,600 bathers. Late in his life the former mayor donated the Sutro Library to the city. It was made up of a 50,000-volume genealogy collection, medieval Jewish tests, books and documents from the Italian Renaissance, the papers of British explorer Joseph Banks, a labor archive and other collections.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1886 In San Francisco the 13-room Haas-Lilienthal House was built at 2007 Franklin. Architect Peter R. Schmidt built the 24-room house of fir and redwood for Bertha and William Haas, a mercantile grocer, for $18,500.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.2)(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D5)
1886 In San Francisco the Union Iron Works red brick machine shop was built across from the dry dock gate at Pier 70. It closed in 2004 due to seismic issues. In 2009 plans were made public for the redevelopment of the area.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)(SFC, 7/11/09, p.A6)
1886 In SF the Fior d’Italia restaurant began to serve clients for a nearby North Beach bordello. Tortellini was a nickel, risotto with clams a dime and veal scallopine and calf’s liver was 15 cents. It was originally located at 482 Broadway and later moved to 601 Union St. In February 2005 the restaurant was burned out of its Washington Square location. It re-opened in November on Mason Street at the former San Remo Hotel.
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A1)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.B5)(SSFC, 5/1/11, DB p.46)
1886 In SF the North Beach jewelry business, later run by Rocco Matteucci (d.1959), was founded.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A24)
1886 Aaron Shenson started a meat business. In 1953 the H. Shenson Wholsesale Meat Co. moved to a new plant at 1040 Bryant St., SF.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1886 In San Francisco Mrs. Abbie Parrott purchased the old St. Ignatius Market Street school site for $900,000. her family later built the Emporium store on this site.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1886 The ship Balclutha was built in Glasgow, Scotland. It was named in Gaelic for Clyde’s rock. For 16 years it sailed from the British Isles with a load of coal around Cape Horn to SF where it picked up grain and returned to Europe. It was later preserved at the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)(www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/balclutha.htm)
1886-1896 The Haight Street Grounds ballpark commonly drew crowds of 15,000 to 20,000.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1887 Jan, Thomas Stevens returned to SF following a world tour and a 103 day bicycle ride from SF to Boston.
(SFCM, 8/3/03, p.15)
1887 Feb 5, Snow fell in SF and accumulated officially to 3.7 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1887 Mar 4, William Randolph Hearst (23) became "Proprietor" of the SF Examiner newspaper.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1887 Apr 29, William Randolph Hearst received the SF Examiner newspaper on his 24th birthday. He proceeded to found the Hearst Corporation with help from his father, Senator George Hearst. The elder Hearst had amassed wealth from the Comstock mines of Nevada.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A19)(CHA, 1/2001)
1887 Apr, There was a big fire at Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. Hearst covered the story with an extravagant 14-page extra edition.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1887 May 19, The Examiner’s 1st major front-page crime story appeared under the headline “THUGS.”
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.45)
1887 May 29, The Sunday Examiner featured an article titled “Night Watches,” a description of activity on Market Street from 7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.46)
1887 May, Baseball scores began to appear on the bottom of page one of the Examiner.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.44)
1887 Jun, The Examiner introduced the novel “Allan Quatermain” by H. Rider Haggard in serialized form on the front page.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.45)
1887 In San Francisco the Haight Street Grounds baseball park was built on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1887 In San Francisco a 30-foot stone pedestal was built on Mount Olympus to support the Goddess of Liberty statue. SF removed the statue in 1954.
(SFC, 5/15/13, p.D1)
1887 The Mansions Hotel, a Victorian hotel in Pacific Heights was constructed. It is allegedly haunted by a dark-haired mechante named Claudia, the shapely niece of the original owner, Utah Senator Charles Chambers.
(SFE Mag, 5/5/96, p.A-7)
1887 The Orpheum Theater opened on O’Farrell St.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, DB p.44)
1887 In San Francisco the 3-story Sharon Building was built next to the children’s playground in Golden Gate Park. It was designed by Percy & Hamilton.
(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.C2)
1887 St. Boniface Church was founded as a parish for German Catholics.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A19)
1887 John McLaren, a Scottish-born landscape gardener, was hired by William Hammond Hall as assistant park superintendent of Golden Gate Park. Hall was a surveyor who gave the Park its initial design under plans pushed by Governor Haight and Mayor McCoppin.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1887 The land at Stern Grove was officially granted to the Greene family.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1887 John Tadich acquired the New World Market Coffee Stand at 221 Leidesdorff.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1887 In San Francisco a stranded schooner carrying some 40 tons of dynamite exploded near the Cliff House.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.B3)
1887 Fr. Imoda took over as president of St. Ignatius College in San Francisco and continued to 1893. During his tenure a fire destroyed the old school and church on Market St., which had become a cheap lodging house and furniture warehouse. 3 people died in the fire.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1888 Jan 16, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 0.1 inch.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1888 Apr 16, Russian Orthodox Bishop Vladimir (Vasily Sokolovsky) arrived in San Francisco from Russia with an entourage of eight clerics and 11 boys.
(SFC, 4/19/14, p.C2)
1888 Jun 3, The poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was 1st published in the SF Daily Examiner. The poem was based on a game played in Stockton, Ca.
(SFC, 4/28/05, p.A1)(www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE23.html)
1888 Aug 22, The City of Chester, a 202-foot passenger steamship, sank as it left the San Francisco Bay after colliding with the incoming ocean line Oceanic. 16 people died including 3 crew members and 13 men, women and children. Wreckage of the Chester was found in May, 2013, in 217 feet of water near the Golden Gate Bridge.
(SFC, 4/24/14, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/m2fdxwe)
1888 Dec, The “Sharon Quarters for Children” was dedicated in Golden Gate Park. It was the 1st children’s playground to be established in a public park in America.
(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1888 In San Francisco a 2-story Victorian home at 50 Liberty St., designed by Absalom J. Barnett, was completed.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.C2)
1888 Russian Czar Alexander III donated bells to the Holy Trinity Cathedral on Powell near Columbus. The Cathedral burned down in the 1906 quake and was rebuilt in 1909 and 1979 at 1520 Green St. In 1999 3 of the bells were stolen and returned.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A17,18)(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A21)
1888 In San Francisco the Bayview Opera House was built at 4705 3rd Street. In 2007 a 3-year $4 million renovation program was begun.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.B1)
1888 A wooden Gothic Presbyterian Church was erected in Noe Valley at 23rd and Sanchez. It later became known as the Noe Valley Ministry.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F1)
1888 In SF a red-brick power plant was built at 178 Townsend St. It later served as a hay mill, warehouse and repair shop. In 2006 plans called for its conversion to 66 condominiums.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.B1)
1888 Nov, In San Francisco a new cable car line opened in the Mission District.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C3)
1889 Feb, The SF Examiner opened a free employment service for white male and female applicants competing for work with Chinese laborers.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.47)
1889 Aug 23, The 1st ship-to-shore wireless message was received in US in SF.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1889 Nov 17, The Union Pacific Railroad Co. began direct, daily railroad service between Chicago and Portland, Ore., as well as Chicago and San Francisco.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1889 Nov 23, The first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon. The contraption consisted of an Edison tinfoil phonograph with four listening tubes and a coin slot for each tube.
(AP, 11/23/97)
1889 Dec 29, The SF Examiner published a “prophecy edition,” a look at what life would be like in 1929. Predictions included an aluminum Bay Bridge, a canal across Panama, a major SF fire in 1903, an earthquake in Boston, the expulsion of all Chinese from the US, a fortress and wave-powered guns on the Farallon Islands, and the invention of a “thermo-electric fog dispeller.”
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W45)
1889 William Heath Davis authored” Sixty Years in California.” It included a description of life in Yerba Buena (San Francisco).
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1889 Hippolite d’Audiffred, a San Francisco merchant, put up a building where Mission Street meets the Embarcadero and named it after himself. It later became the home of the Sailors Union of the Pacific and the Boulevard restaurant.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.A2)
1889 A 5,300 pound bell was commissioned for $17,000 from a Baltimore foundry to hang in the St. Mary’s Cathedral at Van Ness and O’Farrell, San Francisco. It hung in the church until 1962 when an arsonist destroyed the cathedral. The bell was moved to new cathedral grounds near Gough and Geary and sat for some 40 years until it was stolen in 2011 as the metal value of its 80% copper reached $75,000. The bell was recovered at a salvage yard in West Oakland.
(SFC, 10/25/11, p.A8)(SFC, 10/27/11, p.C1)
1889 The first carousel was constructed in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1889 Willis Polk arrived in SF to help A. Page Brown design the Ferry Building.
(SFCM, 8/3/03, p.16)
1889 The San Francisco Examiner sent out reporter Allen Kelly to dispel the myth that grizzlies were extinct in California. After 3 months he saw only one and failed to capture it and was fired by Citizen Hearst via Western Union. Kelly later wrote “Bears I Have Met -- and Others.” He later found a bear captured on Gleason Mountain by a Mexican known as Mateo. The bear, named Monarch, was brought back to SF and housed in a “pleasure garden near Dolores and Market streets.”
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.16,17)
1889 In San Francisco the Russian Orthodox Church and episcopal complex at 1713-15 Powell burned down. Some parishioners suspected that Bishop Vladimir had burned it down for insurance money. The bishop accused nihilists that included Dr. Russel, vice-president of the Greco-Russian-Slavonian Benevolent Society. Russel accused the bishop of being a pederast but prosecutors refused to pursue the case. In 1997 Terence Emmons authored “Alleged Sex and Threatened Violence: Doctor Russel, Bishop Vladimir, and the Russians in San Francisco, 1887-1892.”
(SFC, 4/19/14, p.C2)
1889 The California and Nevada Railroad came through Orinda.
(SFCM, 3/30/03, p.6)
1889 Drewes Bros. meat market opened on Church St.
(SFCM, 6/13/04, p.3)
1890 Jun 22, The SF Chronicle trumpeted its new 10-story building at Kearny and Market, the first steel-framed building in the West. It was designed by Burnham & Root of Chicago. In 1924 the Chronicle moved to its new building at Fifth and Mission. In 1962-1963 Home Mutual Savings and Loan draped the De Young Building at 690 Market in metal. In 2004 planned renovations included conversion to residential and hotel use.
(SFC, 3/17/04, p.C4)(SFC, 8/15/05, p.C5)(SFC, 1/17/09, p.E1)
1890 Aug 21, Bill Henry, newscaster (Who Said That?), was born in SF, Calif.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1890 The officer’s quarters at the Fort Point Coast Guard Station in the Presidio was built in Dutch Colonial Revival style.
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
1890 The Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center was founded by Elizabeth Ashe and Alice Griffith as the city’s 1st settlement house for new immigrants. The 1st site was on Vallejo St. a year later it was moved to 1736 Stockton St.
(SFC, 6/1/01, WBb p.3)(SFC, 6/7/01, p.A17)
1890 Attorney William W. Stow, chief lobbyist for the Southern Pacific Railroad, was appointed president of the SF park commission. He had earlier lobbied for 20 years to reduce revenues for Golden Gate Park. Stow ordered John McLaren to proceed with a 1880 design for a reservoir on Strawberry Hill and a lake below.
(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1890 John McLaren (d.1943) took over as Superintendent of Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5)
1890 The newly organized South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company acquired titles to land around Baden and began to promote a new town. The capital stock was $2 million and the directors in the first year included: Gustavus J. Swift, Nelson Morris, E.G. Martin of Chicago, Peter E. Iler, Henry Miller, E.R. Lilienthal and Charles W. Smith of San Francisco.
(SSF, 1976, p.5)
1890s George M. Greene built the Trocadero Inn at Stern Grove. It had a restaurant, boating pavilion, beer garden, open-air dancing, a rowing lake, a trout farm, and a deer park. He closed it upon Prohibition.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1890-1957 The ferryboat Eureka served the SF Bay.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A18)
1890s James Fair built a seawall as part of a plan to square off 70 acres of shallow waters to create an industrial park. The area remained under water until 1912 when it was filled in for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The Marina Development Corp. later carved it into 634 residential lots.
(SFCM, 10/17/04, p.4)
1891 Jan 20, King David Kalakaua, sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands, died at the SF Palace Hotel.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C1)
1891 Feb 26, The 1st buffalo was purchased for Golden Gate Park in SF under John McLaren. A pair of bison, named Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, were settled in Golden Gate Park following reports that only 1000 were left in the US.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A18)(SC, 2/26/02)(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
1891 Mar 9, Burglars at the streetcar barns at Oak and Broderick poisoned 3 dogs. A monument to the dogs was erected, but disappeared following the earthquake and fire of 1906. The monument was found and restored in 1929.
(SFC, 4/23/04, p.F5)
1891 Apr 25, Pres. Benjamin Harrison visited SF.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1891 May 21, James J. Corbett fought Peter "Black Prince" Jackson (1861-1901), in a much-heralded bout between San Francisco cross-town rivals. Since Corbett and Jackson were boxing instructors at the two most prestigious athletic clubs. They fought to a draw after 61 rounds. Jackson had won the Australian heavyweight championship in 1886 and the British Empire title in 1892.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Corbett)
1891 Dec, In San Francisco Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee used a large crab pot for the 1st time at the Market St. ferry landing to solicit food for a charity Christmas dinner to feed poor dockworkers and sailors. The organization had come to the US in 1880.
(SFC, 12/1/04, p.A1)
1891 The Mills building went up at the Montgomery, Pine and Bush intersection. It was rebuilt in 1909.
(SSFM, 10/12/02, p.13)
1891 Archbishop Alemany moved the cathedral seat to Van Ness Ave. Old St. Mary’s on California St. became a parish church. St. Mary’s Cathedral on Van Ness was completed by contractor Owen Brady. It was destroyed by fire in 1962.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-10)(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)(SFC, 1/21/05, p.B10)
1891 Sweeney Observatory was dedicated in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1891 A California bond measure raised almost $1 million for the construction of the SF Ferry Building. It was designed by Arthur Page Brown and finished in 1898. Brown died before the building was completed [see 1875].
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.B1)
1891 The hay schooner Alma was built at San Francisco’s Hunters Point shipyard. In 1993 mariner Al Lutz (d.2010 at 55) took over the boat, the last survivor of the fleet of sailing schooners built to handle cargo on the SF Bay and the Sacramento River Delta.
(SFC, 7/5/10, p.C6)
1891 San Francisco’s California St. RR opened a crosstown cable car line on O’Farrell, Jones and Hyde with a Jones St. shuttle line that ran from O’Farrel five blocks to Market.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C3)
1891 In San Francisco brothers, Behrend and Isaac Joost, organized The San Francisco and San Mateo Railroad Company. The Joost line did not pay expenses and was sold at a foreclosure sale on April 11, 1896.
(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf079.asp)
1892 Jan 21, Samuel Marsden Brookes, English-born artist, died in SF. He emigrated to the US in 1833, settled in Chicago and moved to SF in 1862. He was a founder of the SF Art Association and the Bohemian Club.
(SFCM, 10/28/01, p.20)
1892 Mar, The Stanford and UC Berkeley football teams played their 1st “big game” in San Francisco at the Haight Street Grounds. Stanford won 14-0. Legend says that Herbert Hoover, Stanford manager and future US president, forgot the requisite football and caused a several hour game delay.
(SFEC,12/797, p.B12)(Ind, 11/10/01, 5A)
1892 May 28, The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1892 May 5, US Congress passed the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, which required Chinese in the United States to be registered and carry an identity card or face deportation. The Six Companies of San Francisco ordered all 110,000 immigrants to refuse compliance.
(AP, 5/5/97)(SSFC, 6/3/07, p.M5)
1892 Jun 4, The Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/97)
1892 Dec 17, The Stanford and UC Berkeley football teams played their 2nd “big game” in San Francisco at the Haight Street Grounds. They tied 10-10. The annual games continued in SF until 1904.
(Ind, 11/10/01, 5A)
1892 Douglas Tilden made his bronze sculpture “Tired Boxer.” His other work included the Mechanics Monument and Fountain at Bush and Market streets, the California Volunteers at Market and Dolores, Admission Day at Market and Post, as well as Father Junipero Serra and the Baseball Player, which were originally in Golden Gate Park. Mildred Albronda (d.1998 at 86) wrote his definitive biography.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A13)(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A19)
1892 The Audiffred Building was built at Mission and the Embarcadero.
(SFC, 4/21/05, p.B1)
1892 In SF the Trinity Episcopal Church at Bush and Gough was completed. It was based on England’s Durham Cathedral. The church was originally established in 1849. In 2009 the main sanctuary was mothballed due to seismic issues and the lack of funds for repair.
(SFEM, 8/9/98, p.27)(SFC, 5/29/09, p.B1)
1892 Lloyd Lake was created in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1892 A trolley line from SF reached Daly’s Hill.
(LaPen, 12/86, p.5)
1892 John H. Baird, a San Francisco capitalist, subdivided and sold a set of lots along Haight Street, site of the Haight Street Grounds sports field.
(Randolph Delehanty "S.F., The Ultimate Guide", p. 252)
1892 Hibernia Bank set up headquarters in a temple-style building at 1 Jones St. and Market near the SF Civic Center. In 2008 the building ,vacant since 2000, was sold for $3.95 million.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.F2)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B1)
1892 Alice Eastwood moved to SF and became co-curator at the Academy of Sciences.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.26)
1892 Sarah Althea Hill, former mistress of William Sharon, was arrested in SF and charged with being irrational. She was deemed insane and committed to an asylum in Stockton, where she died in 1937.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1892 Mr. Crowley began a maritime operation on the Bay with an $80 rowboat that grew to become the giant Crowley Maritime Corp.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.C8)
1892 The US Navy cruiser Olympia was built in San Francisco. It served as the flagship of Commodore George Dewey’s fleet that defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. In 1957 it became a museum ship in Philadelphia.
(SFC, 7/11/12, p.A1)
Go to 1893-1929
Return to home
Mister SF: http://www.MisterSF.com/
SF Change Happens: http://www.sfchangehappens-books.com/sys-tmpl/door/
SF Dept of Environment: www.sfenvironment.com
SF History: http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/sfh2.html
SF Landmarks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_San_Francisco_Designated_Landmarks
San Francisco occupies 47.355 sq. miles with a city limit that extends 32 miles out to sea. SF includes the federal property of the 7 rocky Farallon Islands. (SFC, 5/19/96,Mag, p.11)(Hem., 5/97, p.26)(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A11)
The original Bay Area and coast dwellers were the Miwok
and Ohlone Indians. There were 4 main native tribes: the Coast
Miwoks in Marin, the Wintuns on the northern shore of San Pablo
Bay, the Yokuts south of the Carquinez Strait, and the Costanoans
along the Peninsula.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
35,000BP About this time, or more recently, a catastrophic earthquake carved out the Golden Gate and the waters of the Pacific rushed into the exposed plain to form the SF Bay.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
25,000BC San Francisco and the Bay Area were home to mammoths indicating cold temperatures of an Ice Age. In 1934 a 10-pound mammoth tooth from this time was found by engineers working on the new Bay Bridge. In 1983 SF workers building the foundation of the Pansini Building at Pacific and Columbus found fossilized mammal bones that dated back to this time.
(SSFC, 1/15/09, DB p.43)(SFC, 8/3/13, p.C3)
1543 Apr 14, Bartoleme Ferrelo returned to Spain after discovering a large bay in the New World (San Francisco).
(HN, 4/14/99)
1579 Jun 17, Sir Francis Drake sailed into San Francisco Bay and proclaimed English sovereignty over New Albion (California). Some claim that Sir Francis Drake sailed into the SF Bay. Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England. It may have been Drake’s Bay or Bolinas Lagoon.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(HN, 6/17/98)(SFEC, 8/23/98, p.T6)
1769 Mar, Captain Portola set out with a group of soldiers, priests, Christian Native Americans and muleteers. Their intention was to go as far as Monterey Bay but they passed it. Gaspar de Portola led the first European land expedition to sight the San Francisco Bay from land. Captain Portola had been appointed governor of Baja and Alta California and sent on an expedition to explore and replace the Jesuits with Franciscans in the Baja missions and start new Franciscan missions in Alta.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16) (Park, Spring/95)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1769 Oct, Captain Portola and his party camped at what is now Pacifica. Portola sent Sergeant Jose Ortega out to survey what was ahead.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1769 Nov 1-1769 Nov 3, Sgt. Jose Francisco Ortega with his scouting party first looked upon SF Bay from the vicinity of Point Lobos.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1769 Nov 4, Portola received reports of a large bay ahead and went to see for himself. He crossed Sweeney Ridge in San Mateo County and saw the bay. Francisco de Ulloa was a navigator and member of the party.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1772 After Father Serra established a mission in Monterey, Pedro Fages and Father Juan Crespi set out to explore the SF Bay by land.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1774 Fernando Rivera and 4 soldiers climbed San Bruno Mountain and watched the sun rise over the bay.
(GTP, 1973, p.126)
1774 Juan Bautista de Anza was the first non-native to cross the Sierra to scout the Bay Area.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1775 Aug 5, Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala was the first European explorer to sail through the Golden Gate of California. He anchored at Angel Island and waited for the overland expedition of Captain Juan Bautista de Anza. Isla de los Angeles, or Angel Island, was one of the first landforms named by the Spanish when they entered SF Bay. The Spanish fregata, Punta de San Carlos, was the first sailing vessel to enter the San Francisco Bay while on a voyage of exploration.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(CAS, 1996, p.19)(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFL)
1775 Sep 29, Mexican Captain Juan Bautista de Anza (39) and his party of Spanish soldiers and setters departed Tubac, Arizona, on a journey to the SF Bay Area following reports of a great river flowing into the bay. Anza led 240 soldiers, priests and settlers to Monterey. Jose Manuel Valencia was one of the soldiers. His son, Candelario Valencia, later served in the military at the Presidio and owned a ranch in Lafayette and property next to Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1775 Captain Bruno Heceta led a group of explorers along the slopes of San Bruno Mountain to the shores of Lake Merced. He most likely named the mountain.
(GTP, 1973, p.124)
1775-1776 Juan Bautista de Anza led 198 colonists and 1,000 cattle from Sonora, Mexico, to California.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A15)
1776 Mar 10, The expedition of Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza arrived in Monterey, Ca. Colonists were left in Monterey as a smaller party departed for the SF Bay.
(http://tinyurl.com/pltuw96)(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776 Mar 27, Mexican Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and his party of Spanish explorers spent their first night in the future city of San Francisco at what came to be called Mountain Lake in the Presideo.
(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776 Mar 29, Mexican Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, Lt. Jose Moraga, and Franciscan priest Pedro Font arrived at the tip of San Francisco. De Anza planted a cross at what is now Fort Point. They camped at Mountain Lake and searched inland for a more hospitable area and found a site they called Laguna de los Dolores or the Friday of Sorrows since the day was Friday before Palm Sunday. Anza became known as the “father of SF.” Mission Dolores was founded by Father Francisco Palou and Father Pedro Cambon. Rancho San Pedro, near what is now Pacifica, served as the agricultural center. Laguna de los Dolores was later believed to be a spring near the modern-day corner of Duboce and Sanchez.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(SFC, 2/19/11, p.A10)
1776 Jun 25, William Richardson, a British seaman turned Mexican citizen, put up a tent in Yerba Buena, later renamed San Francisco, on Calle de la Fundacion, a site later identified as 827 Grant Ave.
(SSFC, 6/20/10, DB p.50)
1776 Jun 26, The St. Francis of Assisi Church, later Mission Dolores, was founded by Father Francisco Palleu beside the Arroyo de Nuestra Senora de los Dolores (Stream of Our lady of Sorrows) on native Yelamu territory.
(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T5)(OAH, 2/05, p.A1)(SFL)
1776 Jun 27, Mexican Lieutenant Jose Moraga arrived in San Francisco with a party of settlers from Monterey.
(SFC, 9/14/13, p.C4)
1776 June 29, Settlers who had been waiting in Monterey headed north and gathered for Mass under a crude shelter at the new mission in San Francisco. The mission dedication ceremony with fireworks and tolling bells scared the local Costanoan Indians.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 3/12/00, p.T5)
1776 Sep 17, The Presidio of SF was formally possessed as a Spanish fort. The Spanish built the Presidio on the hill where the Golden Gate Bridge now meets San Francisco.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A12)(www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/founding.html)
1776 Oct 9, A group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco. The formal dedication of Mission San Francisco de Asis was made.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(AP, 10/9/97)
1776 Don Marcos Briones came to San Francisco. His daughter, Juana Briones, was born in Santa Cruz in 1802.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1790 A permanent Spanish mission building was built at the corner of what later became 16th and Dolores streets.
(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A8)(SFL)
1792 Englishman George Vancouver sailed into the Bay on his ship Discovery. He explored the Santa Clara Valley.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1794 Rancho San Pedro was abandoned and Rancho San Mateo was established by the local priests as the farming center.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1795 Spring, Some 300 Indians fled Mission Dolores in San Francisco following a year of food shortages and disease that killed over 200. They sought refuge in the East Bay hills and Napa.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.D15)(SFL)
1796 A new altar piece was installed at Mission Dolores. It covered old murals painted by the native Indians. In 2004 images of the murals were projected on the rotunda of the Mission Dolores Basilica.
(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A8)
1802-1889 Juana Briones Y Tapia de Miranda was born in Santa Cruz, Ca. She was a battered wife and became the first California woman to get a divorce. Her family moved to the Presidio in 1812. She was the first to settle on San Francisco’s Powell St. in what is now North Beach and worked as a homeopathic doctor. In 1989 the Women’s Heritage Museum persuaded the state to authorize a plaque in her honor to be set in Washington Square.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)(SFC,11/17/97, p.A1,21)(SFC, 8/24/13, p.C1)
1806 Apr, Nicolai Rezanov (42), a director of the Russian-American Co., arrived in SF aboard the Juno. He had proposed a California outpost to serve the Russian colonies in Alaska and sailed south to establish a settlement on the Columbia River but could not land there due to difficult seas. He sailed south to the Presidio at Monterey and negotiated a trade deal with Commander Jose Arguello. He also fell in love with Concepcion Arguello (d.1857), the daughter of Commander Arguello, and proposed marriage. He died that winter while crossing Siberia. In 2013 Owen Matthews “Glorious Misadventures: Nikolai Rezanov and the Dream of a Russian American.”
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/20/13, p.74)
1806 May 21, Nicolai Rezanov (1764-1806), a director of the Russian-American Co., departed SF for Sitka, Alaska. He died that winter while crossing Siberia.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T5)(SFC, 2/18/06, p.A1)
1808 The first recorded earthquake occurred.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1810 Mexico revolted and the Spanish settlements began to fall apart. Under Mexican rule the missions were secularized and the huge land holdings were broken up.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1814 Jose Dario Arguello, Spanish-born commander of the Presidio, served as the governor of Alta California. He was later buried at Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1820 Juana Briones (18) married Apolinario Miranda, a cavalryman at the SF presidio.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)
1822 William A. Richardson (27) came to SF as first mate aboard the British whaler Orion. He built the first home in SF in what became Chinatown on Grant St. between Clay and Washington.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1822-1825 Luis Antonio Arguello, son of Jose Dario, served as the first native-born governor of Alta California.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1830s Ignacio Pacheco retired as a customs officer in San Francisco's Presidio and received a land grant in Sonoma County. He thought it unsuitable for agriculture and traded it for a 7,776 acre plot in Marin County. Much of it later became Hamilton air Force Base.
(SFC, 1/15/04, p.D4)
1833 The pueblo of SF was established as a municipality and construction of homes picked up.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1834 The San Francisco was governed by a mayor (alcalde) with 2 regidores (council members).
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.E2)
1834 Orders to secularize the California missions arrived from Mexico as did General Mariano Vallejo to Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma. General Vallejo’s job was to establish a town and so Sonoma was designed around a central plaza. This ended mission ownership by the Franciscans.
(WCG, p.58)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1834 Mexican maps of this year identified the Islais Creek on the southeast side of SF. It was named after Los Islais, the hollyleaf cherry, a favorite Ohlone Indian food.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A21)(SFL)
1834 Jose Bernal owned Rancho Rincon de Las Salinas y Potrero. It included the land that later became known as Hunter’s Point. La Punta de Conca (seashell point) was later purchased by Robert and Philip Hunter who arrived during the gold rush and bought the land to develop a town.
(SSCM, 7/21/02, p.16)(SFL)
1835 William A. Richardson built the first structure in SF and was named captain of the port of SF.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1835 The San Francisco Bar Pilots company was formed.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1835 Richard Henry Dana, writer, arrived in SF aboard the brig Pilgrim.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
c1835 The first street in SF was named Dupont St. and is now known as Grant Ave.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFL)
1835-1851 Malcolm E. Barker edited the 1994 book “San Francisco Memoirs: Eyewitness Accounts of the Birth of a City” that covered this period. It was the first of a planned trilogy.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.C9)
1836 Jul 4, Jacob Leese, a trader from Ohio, built a house in Yerba Buena (later San Francisco). This was the town’s first building and Leese threw a 3-day party over the 4th of July to celebrate.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1836 Jacob Leese reached Yerba Buena and established a mercantile business near what is now Montgomery St. He married a daughter of Gen’l. Vallejo and their daughter, Rosalie Leese, was the first non-native born in Yerba Buena.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(SFL)
1838 A major earthquake opened a huge fissure from SF to Santa Clara.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1839 Jean Vioget laid out the 1st plan of Yerba Buena (San Francisco) and showed the later Union Square site as a future park.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(SFL)
1839 The Bernal Heights area of SF, Ca., began to be developed as part of a Mexican land grant belonging to Don Jose Cornelio Bernal.
(SFC, 6/29/06, 96 Hours p.41)(SFL)
1840 Jacob Leese sold his business to the Hudson Bay Company.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)
1841 Capt. William A. Richardson moved to Sausalito from SF after the Mexican government gave him a 19,571-acre land grant from the Marin headlands to Stinson Beach. There he established Rancho del Sausalito.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A23)
1841 William A. Leidesdorff, originally from the Virgin Islands, arrived in San Francisco. He became a prominent businessman, built the city’s first hotel, became a member of the first SF City Council and served as the city’s first treasurer.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1841 The Bartleson-Bidwell Party made the trek to California. John Bidwell was on the 1st wagon train over the Sierra Nevada and later founded Chico. Also in the group was Paul Geddes, who had robbed a bank in Philadelphia, and renamed himself Talbot Green. His true ID was exposed in 1851 as he was about to run for mayor of SF.
(SFC, 12/7/02, p.E4)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.B3)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C2)
1842 Union Square was created as one of the first 2 SF parks.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A1)(SFL)
1842 Nantucket Capt. Gorham Nye sailed into Yerba Buena, later known as San Francisco, and sold several goats to traders. A local character named Jack Fuller proposed to businessman Nathan Spear to buy some of the goats and raise them on Yerba Buena Island, which became known as Goat Island.
(SFC, 11/23/13, p.C3)
1842-1846 The Sanchez Adobe was constructed in Pacifica by Francisco Sanchez, owner of the Rancho San Pedro and former alcalde of SF. He led volunteer forces against the US in the Battle of Santa Clara.
(SMMB)
1844 William Hinckley, alcalde of Yerba Buena (later San Francisco), erected a wooden footbridge over a creek that fed the Laguna Salada. This enabled residents to walk to the anchorage at Clark’s Point (near the intersection of Broadway and Battery). At this time Yerba Buena had under 50 inhabitants and and only a dozen buildings.
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1844 Juana Briones purchased a 4,400 acre rancho that later covered parts of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto. She acquired her funds renting rooms and selling food in SF. In 1850 she began a 12-year legal battle to retain her property. She won title to her property in the US Supreme Court.
(SFC, 11/14/03, p.I24)
1846 Jun 13, Jose de Jesus Noe, owner of a 4,000-acre ranch in the center of Yerba Buena, was the last, Mexican alcalde, chief magistrate under Mexican rule. He became a city official when the Americans took over and is buried in Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)(SFC, 5/26/00, Wb p.8)(SFL)
1846 Jun 14, A group of 33 men rode into the Mexican garrison town of Sonoma and raised the California Bear Flag.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.A17)
1846 Jul 1, Kit Carson helped Capt. John Fremont scale the walls on the site of Fort Point to claim the Presidio for the US.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)(SFL)
1846 Jul 9, Captain J.B. Montgomery raised the American flag over San Francisco. Montgomery claimed Yerba Buena (SF) for the US.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W36)(www.bearflagmuseum.org/History.html)
1846 Jul 31, San Francisco, known as Yerba Buena, had only 459 residents, and with the arrival of Sam Brannan and 230 Mormons became known as a Mormon town. [see 1848] Printer Brannan later published the first SF newspaper, the California star.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)(SFEC, 7/21/96, DB p.29)
1846 Aug 15, Walter Colton, the American alcalde of Monterey, and Robert Semple a one-time frontier doctor, began printing The Californian on an old press with Spanish type in Monterey. It was the state’s first weekly.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1846 Dec, The town of Francesca (now Benicia) planned to change its name to San Francisco. William A. Bartlett, the first American alcalde, or mayor of Yerba Buena, led the town council to beat Francesca and approve a name change to San Francisco.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A15)
1846 Commander John Montgomery sent a 70-man detachment from the USS Portsmouth ashore at Yerba Buena and raised the American flag.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A15)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)
1846 Navy Lt. Washington Bartlett became the first American mayor of Yerba Buena, renamed to San Francisco in 1847.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.A1)
1846 Brigham Young, Joseph Smith’s successor, led the Mormons overland to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Mormon pioneer Sam Brannan gathered some 250 Mormons aboard the ship, Brooklyn, and sailed from New York to San Francisco.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)
1846 The sons of Francisco de Haro, the first chief magistrate of Yerba Buena, were murdered by Americans under the command of Kit Carson.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1847 Jan 7, The California Star in Yerba Buena was begun by 2 men a couple of months after the Monterey Californian on the 2nd floor of a mule-powered grist mill on what is now Clay St. It was started by Sam Brannan and was edited by Dr. Elbert P. Jones.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1847 Jan 9, The first regular issue of The California Star newspaper appeared in San Francisco under editor Elbert P. Jones.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1847 Jan 30, The California Star, founded by Sam Brannon, published the official name change of Yerba Buena to San Francisco on this day. Mayor Washington Bartlett had the town council approve the change.
(www.sfmuseum.org/hist/name.html)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.G6)
1847 Apr, A local census counted 462 residents living in tents, shanties and adobe huts.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A15)
1847 May 6, The Californian newspaper of Monterey moved to San Francisco.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1847 Jul 24, The Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.A4)
1847 Aug 2, William A. Leidesdorff launched the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1847 Aug, Construction of the first 20 homes in Benicia began. The new city was named “Francisco” after Vallejo’s wife, but residents of Yerba Buena changed the name to San Francisco and Robert Semple renamed his town to “Benicia” after Mrs. Vallejo’s middle name.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1847 Dec 25, The California Star complained that “low gambling dens” harbored many escaped fugitives, and that street turmoils were almost a daily occurrence.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.E15)
1847 Portsmouth Square was built in San Francisco and was later recognized as the city’s oldest park.
(SFC, 6/3/14, p.C2)
1847 Jasper O’Farrell (26), surveyor-general of Northern California, laid out the streets of San Francisco. He forged Market Street to run from the SF Bay to Twin Peaks. He also designated the sand dune called O’Farrel’s Mountain as a public square (later Union Square).
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(SFL)(SSFC, 4/21/13, p.G1)
1847 San Francisco’s Stern Grove was first settled by the Greene family. Because of many property disputes, the family built a fort surrounded by eucalyptus trees over the land. Charlotte Green was the original owner. Her great-granddaughter, Roberta Hewson Graves (d.1992), was later hailed as “the most beautiful girl in the world.” The original owners of Stern Grove were cattle baron Jefferson James and Countess Muysson-Van Vliet
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)(SFC, 2/18/98, p.A18)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)(SFL)
1847 Just before the discovery of gold SF had about 800 residents living in some 160 frame structures amid older adobe buildings. [see Apr, 1847]
(SFEC, 7/11/99, BR p.1)
1847-1848 George Hyde served as the 3rd American mayor of SF.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.A24)
1848 Jan 24, Gold was discovered in at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma and the lure of wealth brought many newcomers to the port of San Francisco. John Marshall, while inspecting the construction of a mill on the American River, being built for Capt. John Sutter, spotted a gold nugget. Much of the present day Financial District east of Montgomery was network of wharves. The area was later solidified with landfill and used for skyscrapers.
(HFA,'96,p.22)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.71)(SFC, 1/25/97, p.A17)(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.T3)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)
1848 Feb 2, The 1st ship load of Chinese arrived in SF.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1848 Mar 15, In San Francisco the Californian newsspaper ran a filler on Page 3 about a horse race at Mission Dolores. Below it appeared another filler: “Gold Mine Found,” which described a gold find at Sutter’s Mill on the American Fork.
(SFC, 7/12/14, p.C2)
1848 Apr 1, The SF-based California Star reported the discovery of a rich silver vein in San Jose valley. The discovery of rich beds of copper were also reported near Clear Lake.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 Apr 22, The SF-based California Star reported the discovery of a rich gold mine towards the head of the American Fork in the Sacramento Valley.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 Apr, The first SF American public school opened. Soon thereafter all the trustees took off for the gold fields.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)
1848 May 12, Sam Brannan, an elder of the Mormon Church in SF, announced the discovery of gold on the American River. He had just opened a store near the goldfields stocked with shovels and mining tools. He and members of the Mormon battalion were the first to profit in San Francisco from the Gold Rush.
(SFC, 4/9/96, A-7)(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFEC, 6/21/98, Z1 p.4)
1848 May 20, The California Star reported that a fleet of launches had left the SF bound up the Sacramento River due to “Gold Fever.”
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 May 27, The SF-based California Star complained that everybody in the state was under the spell of gold fever.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.E4)
1848 May 29, The Californian newspaper complained that everybody in the state was under the spell of gold fever and announced suspension of publication because the staff was heading out to participate. The Californian and the California Star were based in SF.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)(SFEC, 6/21/98, Z1 p.1)(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1848 Jun 14, The California Star newspaper in SF locked its doors due to the gold strike and lack of working men.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.E6)
1848 Oct 29, Rev. Dwight Hunt and his wife, Mary, arrived in SF from Hawaii and began holding nondenominational services at the Old School House on Portsmouth Square.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A17)(SFL)
1848 Nov 9, The first U.S. Post Office in California opened in San Francisco at Clay and Pike streets. At that time there were only about 15,000 European settlers living in the state.
(HN, 11/9/98)(SFL)
1848 Nov 18, In San Francisco the Californian and the California Star newspapers merged and began publishing under Edward Kemble (19) as The Star and Californian.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C1)
1848 The San Francisco City Council passed a resolution regarding gambling and heavy fines were assessed on parties arrested for gambling. The resolution was soon repealed.
(GTP, 1973, p.53)
1848 William Alexander Leidesdorff, ship captain, merchant and the first treasurer of SF, died. He was half Dutch and half black and was buried inside Mission Dolores. He started the City Hotel, the 1st hotel in SF at Kearny and Clay.
(SFC, 5/19/98, p.B8)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.D1)(SFL)
1848 Col. J. D. Stevenson’s First Regiment of New York Volunteers, which fought in the Mexican war, disbanded in San Francisco. Many of the members had belonged to New York gangs like the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits. Some 50-60 of the vets joimed with ex-convicts from Australia and began hiring themselves out to merchants and sea captains calling themselves the Hounds and later the Regulators.
(SFC, 12/28/13, p.C1)
1848 The population of San Francisco numbered about 850.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1849 Jan 4, San Francisco’s The Star and Californian newspaper under Edward Kemble changed its name to the Alta California.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C1)
1849 Feb 28, The steamer California, sounding the first steamship whistle on the SF Bay, arrived in SF with San Francisco postmaster John W. Geary on board carrying mail for the Pacific coast. Steamboat service began from Panama City to SF. Pacific Mail Steamship Co. sent the side-wheel steamship California to SF with American gold-seekers and 50 Peruvian miners. Also onboard were preacher Osgood C. Wheeler (32) and his wife Elizabeth.
(www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/ca022849.htm)(SSFC, 3/1/09, DB p.50)(AP, 2/28/98)(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.40)
1849 Mar, Albert Williams, a Protestant church pioneer, disembarked from the Oregon, one of the first steamships to arrive in the Gold Rush.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)
1849 Aug 5, The first sanctuary of the First Baptist Church was built on the north side of Washington St. near Stockton St. under the direction of Osgood C. Wheeler.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)(SFL)
1849 May 20, Albert Williams presented a petition to establish the First Presbyterian Church following services at the Public School House on Portsmouth Square. Services began in the summer in a tent purchased for $200.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)(SFL)
1849 Jun 4, Eighteen men from the USS Ohio deserted their posts for the gold mines.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Jun 17, In San Francisco Rev. John Brouillet, vicar general of the diocese of Walla Walla, and Rev. Anthony Langlois, also from the Oregon territory, opened St. Francis Church with a Mass.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A21)
1849 Jun 22, San Francisco experienced its first theatrical performance with a one-man show in Portsmouth Square by Stephen C. Massett, an itinerant Brit.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.C1)
1849 Jul 5, The sailing ship Niantic arrived in SF, Ca, and anchored in Yerba Buena Cove. The ship’s owners soon converted her to a storage and auction house for imported goods and built a hotel on her deck.
(SFC, 5/9/03, p.E5)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)
1849 Jul 15, A Chilean tent community at the foot of Telegraph Hill, composed of some 700 miners, was assaulted by the lawless Society of Hounds street gang. Sam Roberts led the rampage and violent raid on the Little Chile tent community. The Hounds had specialized in “patriotic” assaults on Chileans. In response Sam Brannan call on volunteers to drive the Hounds out of town. A vigilante force of some 230 men rounded up 20 Hounds and imprisoned them on a warship. Popular justice brought 9 Hound members to court and sentenced them to a decade of hard labor. The Chilecito community stayed vibrant throughout the 1860s.
(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A24)(SFC, 6/1/13, p.C2)(SFC, 12/28/13, p.C2)
1849 Jul 28, Memmon became the 1st clipper to reach SF after 120 days out of NY.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1849 Jul 29, Rev. Dwight Hunt and 10 parishioners organized the First Congregational Church of SF based in form on the Evangelical Churches of New England. It began as a wooden structure on Jackson St. between Stockton and Powell. It moved to Mason and Post in 1872.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A17)(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A14)(SFL)
1849 Jul, Rev. Flavel S. Mines, Episcopal priest, opened the doors of the Holy Trinity Church.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1849 Aug 23, The first mail service arrived at Benicia, Sacramento and San Jose.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Aug, In San Francisco the triweekly Pacific News appeared as the first rival to The Star and Californian newspaper. By 1853 there were 12 dailies in San Francisco.
(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C2)
1849 Oct, The Boudin Sourdough Bakery was founded in San Francisco by French immigrant Isador Boudin during the Gold Rush. Boudin first used ordinary sourdough to bake a French-style bread. In 1941 the firm was bought by Steven Giraudo. By 1997 the 10th and Geary facility was a $500 million operation selling bread under the Parisian, Colombo and other labels.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/05, p.D1)(SFL)
1849 Oct, German immigrants arrived in SF and Rev. Frederick Mooshake soon set up at the Second Congregational Church on Sutter between Stockton and Grant and took over when the Congregationalists went bankrupt.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)(SFL)
1849 Nov 13, Voters approved a state constitution.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Dec 3, Jesuit Fr. John Nobili and Fr. Michael Accolti (1807-1878) arrived in San Francisco.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1849 Dec 9, The first SF fire engine arrived from the East Coast.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)
1849 Dec 24, A fire began on the eastern side of Portsmouth Square. It burned a whole block and spread down Washington St. to the edge of the bay at Montgomery. The damage in 1999 money was about $17 million.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A23,24)(SFL)
1849 Dec, A rival Episcopal congregation, named Grace Church, opened a block away from Holy Trinity with Belgian priest Rev. John Ver Mehr presiding.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1849 Irishman Thomas H. Dowling settled on Goat island in the SF Bay about this time and built a house, a dock and started a quarry. The USD Army, citing a claim that the government owned all the islands in the SF Bay, ejected Dowling and his family from the island in 1867.
(SFC, 11/23/13, p.C3)
1849 The first church at the site of St. Francis of Assisi in North Beach, SF, was built by Catholics who disliked the 3.5 mile walk to Mission Dolores.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.6)(SFL)
1849 The Jewish Congregation Sherith Israel was founded in SF.
(SFC, 3/12/05, p.E1)
1849 By this time the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (ayuntamiento) had grown to 16 members from 8 districts.
(SSFC, 2/28/10, p.E2)
1849 The Tadich Grill opened in SF. It began as the new World Coffee Stand on the edge of what is now Commercial St.
(Hem., 5/97, p.24)(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.7)
1849 The James Clair Flood, a former saloon keeper from NY arrived in SF and made a fortune in the 1859 Nevada Comstock silver mine.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.B12)(SFC, 7/4/03, p.E1)
1849 Lazard Freres with a brother and cousin moved their New Orleans dry goods company to San Francisco. They opened a Paris office in 1852, a London office in 1877 and operations in New York in 1880.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.C1)
1849 Englishman George Gordon arrived in SF. He pursued ventures as a lumber dealer, builder of wharves, head of an iron foundry and a sugar refinery.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1849 Joshua Norton, a financier from the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in San Francisco with $40,000 from trade deals in Africa and South America. Within five years he amassed $250,000 and invested it all in rice with the hope of cornering the market. His scheme failed when three ships arrived from the Orient loaded with rice.
(HFA, '96, p.64)
1849 Oscar Backus (19) arrived in SF aboard the steamer California, believed to be the first steam powered ship to pass through the Golden Gate. He brought 750 copies of a New York newspaper that he’d bought for $5 and sold them for $1 apiece. He then began a successful career in mining and plumbing.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A24)
1849 The first stage coach line from SF to San Jose was begun by John Whistman. The 9-hour trip in an old French omnibus driven by Henry Ward cost $32 each way.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1849 A Peruvian consulate was established in SF with Carlos Varea as the first consul.
(Ind, 8/3/99, p.3A)
1849 A Market Street doctor funded the 1st "city physician" practice with gambling winnings. This was later considered as the beginning of SF General Hospital. In 2000 F. William Blaisdell and Moses Grossman published "Catastrophes, Epidemics, and Neglected Diseases" San Francisco General Hospital and the Evolution of Public Health.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, BR p.6)(SFL)
1849 August Helbing, a SF Jewish pioneer, rescued an ailing Jewish man who had just arrive by boat. Helbing went on to help others and created the Eureka Benevolent Society (1850), which later transformed to the Jewish Family and Children’s Services organization.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A15)(SFL)
1849 A ship called the Arkansas ran aground on Alcatraz and was towed to San Francisco’s Pacific Ave. wharf. It was soon converted into the Old Ship Saloon, which featured a hole cut in the bow “to admit the thirsty,” and became a major shanghaiing haunt. In 1867 it was moved to another building a few feet away and continued operations at 298 Pacific.
(SFC, 11/9/13, p.C2)
1849 Some 23,000 people arrive in SF by land and 62,000 by sea as the population grew to some 30,000. First Street was at the edge of the Bay and the area was called Happy Valley.
(SFEC, 3/14/99, Z1 p.6)(SSFC, 4/24/11, DB p.46)
1850 Jan 16, The first real play in San Francisco, “The Wife,” was staged at the modest Washington Hall theater. This was located on the 2n d floor of a building that later became the city’s swankiest brothel.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.C2)
1850 Jan 22, The Alta California newspaper became the first daily in SF. The founding editors were Edward Gilbert and Edward C. Kemble.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Jan 23, The Journal of Commerce became the 2nd daily newspaper in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Feb 18, The California state legislature created the original 18 counties including the city of San Francisco.
(SFEC, 1/11/98, DB p.41)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Mar, The Pacific News, a daily newspaper, began publishing in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Apr 1, The San Francisco County government was established.
(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 Apr 15, The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
(AP, 4/15/97)(www.sfgov.org/site/visitor_index.asp?id=8091)
1850 May, A fire broke out and 3 square blocks were consumed.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 Jun 1, The Daily Herald newspaper began publishing in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Jun, Another fire broke out in SF.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 Aug 1, The Evening Picayune newspaper began daily publishing in SF.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1850 Sep, A 4th major fire broke out in SF.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 Oct, In San Francisco the Eureka Benevolent Society was organized at 414 Clay St. Some 746 members met to “assist poor and needy Hebrews in want or sickness.”
(SFC, 10/13/09, p.E5)(SFL)
1850 Dec, A 5th major fire broke out in SF.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)
1850 The Abner Phelps house was built at 1111 Oak St. In 2001 it was the oldest dwelling in SF.
(SFC, 4/13/01, WBb p.1)(SFL)
1850 Giuseppe Bazzuro turned an abandoned ship into San Francisco’s 1st Italian restaurant.
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F4)
1850 In San Francisco Fred Lawson, a Norwegian sea captain, began sinking ships to lock in his underwater real estate. By 1953 he sank numerous ships including four in a block of water later bounded by Davis, Drumm, Pacific and Jackson streets.
(SFC, 1/25/14, p.C1)
1850 Pres. Fillmore recommended a federal mint in SF to replace the 20 private mints.
(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)(SFL)
1850 The US Treasury contracted Moffat & Company, a private mint firm in San Francisco, to mint American government stamped coins.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.18)
1850 Col. John Geary, the first mayor of San Francisco, donated land for a square to be held in perpetuity for park use. It later became Union Square. He owned the surrounding property and looked to increase its value.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W27)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(SFL)
1850 John Coffee Hays, a Texas Ranger turned Californian, acquired a piece of the Coppinger land grant in San Mateo Ct. and called it Hays Ranch. He later became the 1st sheriff of SF and after that served as the federal surveyor-general for the state.
(Ind, 5/26/01, 5A)
1850 The Sydney Ducks, a ruthless gang of Australian ex-convicts, based their operations on the waterfront between Pacific and Broadway. They terrorized the citizens and set fires that devastated the city.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFL)
1850 After statehood civil engineer Jasper O’Farrell began laying out South of Market’s street pattern with extra large city blocks, 2x the size of those North of Market.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.E6)
1850 James Folger (18), a native of Massachusetts, began roasting beans in SF. Folger’s Coffee established itself on the Barbary Coast and was the first major coffee company in SF. Jim Folger eventually traveled to the gold country to sell coffee to miners.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1850 The Phoenix Day lighting manufacturer began operations in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1850 Ferry commuting began on the SF Bay. Robert Semple operated a ferry service to Benicia which had grown to some 1,000 citizens. Semple advertised in the SF newspaper, the Californian, which he published.
(SFEC, 4/21/97, p.A11)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W26)
1850 Prussian-born Adolph Sutro (20) sailed through the Golden Gate on the steamer California.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1850s Joseph A. Donohue and John Parrott founded the Donohue-Kelly Banking Co. in SF.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.C4)
1850s Isaias Wolf Hellman immigrated to SF from Bavaria and later became president of Nevada Bank of SF which became Wells Fargo Bank.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.C2)
1850s In the early 1850s SF surrendered San Mateo County.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)
1850s SF was one of the few cities with a population of more than 30,000 and no police department.
(SFEC,10/26/97, BR p.2)
1850s In San Francisco Washerwoman’s Lagoon was a large pond used as a laundry site at Gough and Greenwich. By 1882 it had become polluted and was filled in.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A15)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C2)
1850-1844 There are 1200 murders in SF in this period, and only one results in a legal execution.
(SFC, 11/15/95, p.B-1)
1851 May 4, The Sydney Ducks set fire to a store on San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square. Most of the dwellings on Telegraph Hill were destroyed. The heart SF was destroyed and some 2000 buildings burned down. This led to the formation of the secret Committee of Vigilance, which hung several criminals and drove others out of the city. Remnants from Hoff's store, built on a wharf over the bay, were found in 1986 during excavations for the Embarcadero West 33-story high-rise.
(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A24)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1851 May 4, The 1840-ship General Harrison burned to the water line. It was salvaged for parts, buried and not seen again until 2001 when construction at Battery and Clay revealed its remains. The whaling ship Niantic, already converted to a waterfront hotel, burned and sank into the bay. In 1977 new construction uncovered the Niantic’s burned remains.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A11)(SFC, 2/4/05, p.E16)
1851 May, In San Francisco Sam Brannan and several other leaders formed the First Committee of Vigilance. They took it on themselves to purge the city of criminals. The group disbanded in September.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)(SFC, 6/1/13, p.C2)
1851 Jun 9, In San Francisco Father John McGinnis celebrated Mass in a hall at Fourth and Jessie and marked the founding of St. Patrick’s. The church was built on Market St. at the present site of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel. It was moved in 1872 to Eddy St. near Divisadero and served as the Parish Hall for Holy Cross. The wooden structure is thought to be the oldest in the city.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.7)(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A22)
1851 Jun 11, San Francisco vigilantes lynched John Jenkins (aka John Simpton) on Portsmouth Square for stealing a safe. He was part of contingent of ex-con Australians known as the Sidney Ducks.
(SFC, 6/1/13, p.C1)
1851 Aug 31, The Yankee clipper ship Flying Cloud set a record for sailing from NY to San Francisco around South America in 89 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/n7evjm4)
1851 Oct 4, In San Francisco the third Jenny Lind Theater opened on Portsmouth Square on the same site as the two preceding it, which were destroyed by the fires of 1851. In 1852 the city of San Francisco purchased the theater for $200,000 for use as the city hall. In 1949 the site was named state landmark No. 192.
(SFC, 5/24/14, p.C1)(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/cal0192.asp)
1851 Oct, The first of 17 ships arrived in SF from France following a lottery by Napoleon’s government which provided passage to some 3,000 for the gold rush.
(SFCM, 4/30/06, p.4)
1851 Books Inc. first opened as an independent bookseller in San Francisco.
(Hem., Nov.’95, p.134)
1851 In San Francisco the St. Francis Church was rebuilt in adobe and blessed by Joseph S. Alemany, the new Bishop of Monterey. St. Francis served as his cathedral until Old St. Mary's was built in 1854.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A21)
1851 In San Francisco the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church moved into its first building in Chinatown, which burned down after 6 months.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)
1851 Jacob Gundlach arrived in SF and soon established a brewery. In 1858 he bought a winery in Sonoma.
(SFC, 12/19/02, p.D4)
1851 The Hitchcock family transferred to SF and were welcomed into the Chivalry, a polite fraternity of transplanted Southerners.
(SFEM, 4/2/00, p.46)
1851 The first SF omnibus line began operating between Portsmouth square and Mission Dolores.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A4)
1851 Henry Casebolt (1816-1892) of Virginia came to California and established himself as a builder and inventor in San Francisco.
(www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/casebolt.htm)
1851 Harry Meiggs, founder of Fisherman’s Wharf in SF, sailed to Mendocino with a full sawmill and made Mendocino the primary source for the Bay Area’s lumber.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, Par p.20)
1851 Haas Bros. began operation in San Francisco as a grocery wholesaler. The company later switched to liquor wholesales.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1851 In San Francisco six prominent businessmen obtained a franchise for a water project to deliver water from Mountain Lake through a tunnel to the Presidio and then to downtown SF. The Mountain Lake Water Co. raised $300,000 and in 1853 broke ground on the tunnel. The project went bust after they failed to get an additional $500,000 to complete the project.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1851 In San Francisco 6 men sailed to the Farallon Islands and declared themselves owners by right of possession. They began gathering eggs and selling them to the city.
(SFC, 5/25/13, p.C3)
1851 About 775 abandoned ships sat in the SF Bay. Some began to be used as offices and public buildings. The ship Euphemia became the city’s 1st jail and insane asylum. An enterprising barkeep cut a hole in the beached sailing vessel Arkansas and began selling what he called “Gud, Bad and Ind’ifferent Spirits” at 25 cents each. The Old Ship Saloon at Pacific Avenue and Battery Street was built in 1907 and remodeled in 1999.
(Ind, 9/2/00,5A)(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1851 Francisco Guerrero, Mexican official in Alta California, was struck in the back of the head by a slingshot and died. His murder was believed to have kept him from testifying in a murder trial.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1852 Mar 18, Henry C. Wells founded Wells, Fargo & Co. with William C. Fargo in San Francisco as a Western equivalent to their east coast American Express. It evolved into Wells Fargo Bank, headquartered in San Francisco and now one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S. In 2002 Philip L. Fradkin authored “Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West” for the company’s 150th anniversary.
(SFEC, 1/4/98, Z1p.4)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)(HNQ, 11/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/02, p.D1)
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.B1,4)
1852 Mar, Hubert Bancroft (1832-1918) was sent to San Francisco from New York to established a regional office of his family’s book selling business. In 1868 he abandoned business to devote himself entirely to writing and publishing history.
(SFC, 5/27/14, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Howe_Bancroft)
1852 Jun 18, Domingo Ghirardelli, an Italian candy-maker from Peru, announced the opening of his chocolate business. [see 1855]
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 4/26/02, p.G8)
1852 Aug 2, State Sen. James W. Denver, from Klamath and Trinity counties, challenged Edward Gilbert, editor of the SF Alta California newspaper, to a duel due to an inflammatory editorial. The pair met at Fair Oaks, near Sacramento, and when Gilbert forced a 2nd round of shots, Denver put a fatal shot through his chest. Denver’s 2nd shot hit Gilbert above the left hip. C.A. Washburn succeeded Gilbert at the Alta.
(PI, 6/13/98, p.5A)(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C2)
1852 Nov, In San Francisco John Quinn was ordained at St. Francis Church.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, DB p.41)
1852 Lighthouse builders arrived on the Farallon Islands. The Pacific Egg Co. claimed ownership and gathered murre eggs there for sale to San Franciscans. Manned lighthouse operations began their in 1855 and continued to 1972. In 1881 the government evicted the Pacific Egg Co.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.E4)
1852 Three churches were founded in SF: Bethel Methodist, First Zion and the Third Baptist celebrated their 150 year anniversaries in 2002.
(SFC, 9/9/02, p.A19)
1852 In San Francisco half-brothers George and Samuel Shreve opened Shreve & Co., their 1st jewelry near what later became Union Square. It remained a retail store until 1881 when George (d.1893) opened a jewelry-making factory.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)(SFC, 9/19/07, p.G6)
1852 The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul opened an orphanage at Market and Montgomery. The nuns arrived to care for the orphans and victims of the cholera epidemic. The orphanage later moved and was renamed Mount St. Joseph.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1852 San Francisco's Sacred Heart school was founded.
(SFC, 1/16/04, p.E2)
1852 In San Francisco the Daily Alta California reported on “full grown persons engaged very industriously in the game known as town ball.”
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C1)
c1852 C.A. Washburn, the new editor of the Alta and opposed to slavery, dueled with B.F. Washington, editor of the Times and Transcript, who was pro-slavery. Washburn was badly wounded but recovered.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1852 The San Francisco Gas Co. was founded by 3 brothers. In 1905 it merged with California electric Light to form PG&E.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A5)
1852 The Pioneer Appliance Co. was founded in SF.
(SFC, 8/11/00, p.D5)
1852 The Shreve & Co. jewelry store opened in SF.
(SSFC, 4/3/06, p.G5)
1852 George Gordon began acquiring lots in the block bounded by Second, Third, Brannon and Bryant (later known as South Park). Lord Gordon bought 12 acres for $48,500.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1852-1899 Malcolm E. Barker edited the 1996 book “San Francisco Memoirs: The Ripening Years” that covered this period. It was the 2nd of a planned trilogy.
(SFC, 11/22/96, p.C9)
1853 May 15, In San Francisco a groundbreaking ceremony was held for a tunnel to deliver water from Mountain Lake to the Presideo and then to downtown SF. The project was not completed due to lack of funding. In 2010 the entrance, buried under 42 feet of landfill, was rediscovered in the Presidio near Polin Springs.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1853 May 21, Lola Montez (1821-1861), Irish-born dancer and former lover of Franz Liszt and mistress of King Ludwig of Bavaria, arrived in San Francisco aboard a steamer from Panama.
(SFC, 5/31/14, p.D1)
1853 Jul 29, Pope Pius IX established the archdiocese of San Francisco, Ca., under Archbishop Alemany.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1853 By this year there were 12 daily newspapers published in SF. The Sun was the favorite.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1853 In San Francisco the largest building on the West Coast opened at Montgomery and Washington streets. The four linked structures, known as the Monkey block, were torn down in 1959 to make room for a parking lot. This later became the site of the Transamerica Pyramid.
(SSFC, 5/25/14, p.C2)
1853 Fr. Flavian Fontaine, a member of the congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, acquired land in San Francisco and built a brick building for the Catholic College of Mission Dolores. The site at 14th and Walter Streets stood empty as Fontaine, unable to pay his debts, fled to Panama. The site was acquired by Fr. John Nobili for $11,000. A Jesuit school here was opened in 1854 with Fr. Francis Veyret, SJ, as its only teacher, but it closed in September.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1853 Joseph J. Atkinson, a brick contractor, built a house at 1032 Broadway. It was remodeled by Willis Polk in 1893 and survived the 1906 earthquake and fire.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A15)
1853 Henry Meiggs completed a wharf to serve the lumber trade. He fled to South America to avoid his creditors and died in Peru in 1877. His wharf grew to become Fisherman’s Wharf. Early businesses in the area included Abe Warner’s eatery “Cobweb Palace,” Cockney White’s museum, Driscoll’s Salt Water Tub Bathing Emporium, and Riley’s Shooting Gallery. The 1998 book “Crab Is King” by Bernard Averbuch covers the story of Fisherman’s Wharf.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.30)
1853 A Morse telegraph was station was erected on the SF hill now known as Telegraph Hill. Telegraph Hill was once known as Tin Can Hill until a semaphore station was set up on the summit to alert the city on ship arrivals.
(HT, 5/97, p.12)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1853 John Parrott (42), SF businessman, married Abigail Eastman Meagher (18) in Mobile, Ala. He brought her back to SF and they set up house in a new brownstone on Folsom St. in the Rincon Hill. In 1859 they acquired property in San Mateo.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1853 Levi Strauss, Bavarian-born dry goods merchant, arrived in California. and Co. He got his start peddling tough canvas pants to California gold miners. When his canvas ran out he switched to serge de Nimes, which evolved into denim. [See 1873, 1874]
(SFC, 1/23/96, p.C4)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.D3)(CHA, 1/2001)
1853 Joshua Norton attempted to corner the SF rice market with the purchase of $250,000 worth of rice but went bust when rice carrying ships sailed into the Bay. He filed for bankruptcy.
(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)
1853 J.G. Knowles established the first dairy in San Mateo County in the middle of what is now Daly City to supply milk to SF.
(GTP, 1973, p.63)
1853 In SF the Laurel Hill Cemetery was established. Residents were moved to Colma in 1939-1940 and the site was used for housing.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.G6)
1853 The SF YMCA was founded and was the basis for the later Golden Gate Univ.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W21)
1853 The El Dorado saloon on Kearny St. in SF received a piano shipped around Cape Horn. The piano was later sold to the David Fay family of soap makers.
(SFCM, 8/28/05, p.11)
1853 The freighter Tennessee was wrecked off the Marin headlands. The event spurred Congress to fund a lighthouse at Point Bonita.
(WSJ, 9/17/96, p.A12)(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1853 The population of San Francisco numbered about 36,000.
(SFC, 10/11/10, p.A9)
1853-1854 Cornelius Garrison served as mayor of San Francisco.
(www.sffiremuseum.org/people.html)
1853-1906 This period was later covered by architectural historian William Kostura in his "Russian Hill: The Summit, 1853-1906."
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A15)
1854 Mar, Bret Harte arrived in SF with his sister.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.6)
1854 Apr 3, The SF Mint opened at 608 Commercial St. It issued $4 million in gold coins this year. An Indian princess appeared on gold dollars. The mint used equipment previously employed by SF-based Moffatt & Company.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A12)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)(SFC, 4/2/04, p.F3)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.18)
1854 Oct 3, San Francisco businessman Harry Meiggs departed SF aboard the bark America with his family after embezzling $800,000 from the city to cover debts. He took refuge in Chile where he built a railroad between Santiago and Valparaiso. After 13 years he moved to Peru.
(SFC, 1/18/14, p.C2)
1854 Nov 1, Fr. Anthony Maraschi, SJ, arrived in San Francisco along with Fr. Charles Messea, SJ, and Fr. Aloysius Masnata, SJ.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Maraschi)
1854 Nov 4, The first lighthouse on the West Coast was built at Alcatraz Island.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.7)(MC, 11/4/01)
1854 Dec 8, Fr. Nicolas Congiato, SJ, arrived in San Francisco to serve as the superior of the Jesuit mission in California. He later served as the 2nd president of St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1854 Dec 25, St. Mary’s at California and Grant in SF, the first cathedral in California, celebrated its 1st service with a midnight Mass. The Gothic Revival church was designed by William Crane and Thomas England and used granite from China and bricks from New England.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-10)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)(SFC, 11/26/04, p.FF)
1854 In SF the city’s original International Hotel was built on Jackson Street.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1854 The 1st California State Fair was held in SF. It was managed and funded by Col. J.L.L. Warren, a respected California seed and floral agribusiness man.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.F7)(www.bigfun.org/fair-info/fair-history/)
1854 Sarah Moore Clarke was the first California woman to start a newspaper. She began the Contra Costa weekly in Oakland and printed on the SF Evening Journal’s presses. She and her husband later bought the SF paper.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1854 Bishop William Kip, California's 1st missionary bishop, arrived and rescued the struggling congregation of Grace Church.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1854 Five Sisters of Presentation (f.1776) arrived in San Francisco from Ireland to teach the children of miners.
(SFC, 11/12/04, p.F11)
1854 The Mechanic’s Institute was founded as a center for adult technical education to help overcome a post-Gold Rush depression. For some 17 years the Institute held mechanics and manufacturing fairs on Union Square.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.33)(SFC, 1/10/96, p.B2)
1854 Gustaf Francois Thomas arrived in SF from France and opened the G.F. Dyeing and Cleaning Works. In 2005 his descendants planned to end operations.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.B1)
c1854-1856 George Robinson Fardon (1807-1886), British photographer, took pictures of SF for his "San Francisco Album 1854-1856," believed to be the first camera survey of an American city.
(SFC, 6/19/99, p.B3)
1855 May 1, In San Francisco a deed was granted to Fr. Anthony Maraschi for Lot 127 on Market St. between Fourth and Fifth. It had been owned by Thomas O. Larkin, the first American consul in Monterey, who sold it for $11,500.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1855 Jul 4, The Whaling ship Candace, built in Boston in 1818, entered SF Bay and never left. In 2005 it was found at a SF construction site at Folsom and Spear streets.
(SFC, 1/28/06, p.A1)
1855 Jul 15, In San Francisco St. Ignatius Church on Market St. was dedicated by Archbishop Alemany. The simple wood and plaster structure cost $4,000. Anthony Maraschi, SJ, soon began construction for a school and residence.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1855 Oct 8, James King, a Unitarian moralist from Boston, began publishing his newly purchased daily, the Evening Bulletin.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
1855 Oct 15, In San Francisco St. Ignatius opened for classes with 3 students, including Richard McCabe, at 841 Market St. In the 1880s St. Ignatius College moved to a new campus on Van Ness. An advertisement this year referred to the school as St. Ignatius Grammar and High School.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1855 Nov 26, Several thousand people staged a parade and banquet at South Park to celebrate the Allied victory over the Russians in the Crimean War, the capture of the Malakoff fortress in Sevastopol.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1855 The 800 plus-page “The Annals of San Francisco” was published.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4,5)
1855 The Point Bonita Lighthouse was built for ships approaching the Golden Gate.
(G, Summer ‘97, p.5)
1855 Domingo Ghirardelli closed his chocolate factory in Hornitos due to the crime and mayhem and moved to SF. [see 1852]
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T6)
1855 A normal school was set up in SF to improve the quality of teaching.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1855 By this year most of the streets of downtown and the Western Addition were laid out and given Anglo names.
(SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)
1855 By this year South Park had 17 elegant homes with its own windmill and access to downtown by a horse-drawn omnibus that ran up Third St. to North Beach.
(SFC, 7/21/00, p.WBb3)
1855 A depression slowed progress in San Francisco when the money supply dwindled after banks had overextended in loans to unprofitable ventures.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1855 A beer brewing operation, later known as the California Brewing Co. began in SF.
(SFC, 4/9/04, p.F10)
1855 Kellogg & Company minted $50 coins on Montgomery Street. In 2001 only 12 of the original coins were known to exist and were valued at $250,000 each. 5,000 new coins were planned to be struck with the original dies from California gold bars salvaged from the 1857 wreck of the Central America.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.12)
c1855 John Daly (13) arrived in SF from Boston. His mother died of yellow fever while they crossed the Isthmus of Panama.
(CHA, 1/2001)
1856 May 14, James P. Casey, editor of the SF Times, shot James King, proprietor of the rival Evening Bulletin. King died 6 days later. A “Vigilance Committee” of 2,600 later marched up Sacramento St. and broke into the jail where Casey was held. On May 22 Casey was lynched with his unfortunate cell mate, gambler Charles Cora.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C3)
1856 May 20, James King, editor of the Evening Bulletin, died from wounds suffered on May 14. His death brought about the rising of vigilantes and the take over of the SF government.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(http://elane.stanford.edu/wilson/Text/11b.html)
1856 May 22, Charles Cora, a gambler, and James Casey, a member of the SF Board of supervisors, were hanged by the SF Committee of Vigilance led by merchant Charles Doane, following a drumhead trial at “Fort Gunnybags, ”the vigilante headquarters on Sacramento St. There was widespread belief that Cora and Casey were “in cahoots” with then sheriff David Scannel. Cora was in jail for recently killing US Marshal William H. Richardson, who had drunkenly insulted Cora's mistress, Belle Ryan.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)(SFC, 6/14/14, p.C1)
1856 Aug 18, In SF thousands of armed men paraded through the streets and then formally dissolved the second Committee of Vigilance. They had run SF for nearly 4 months much to the distress of Mayor James Van Ness and militia officer William T. Sherman.
(SFC, 8/18/06, p.B1)
1856 Nov 15, The clipper ship Neptune’s Car arrived in SF after sailing 136 days from NYC. Mary Ann Patten (1837-1861), the pregnant 19-year-old wife of Captain Joshua Patten (d.1857), commanded the ship for much of its voyage after the captain fell ill.
(AH, 2/05, p.60)
1856 In San Francisco The Call newspaper was started by five unemployed printers and quickly became one of the city’s leading papers. Its original building stood at 612 Commercial St.
(SFC, 10/5/13, p.C1)
1856 A surveyor drew a line across the neck of the San Francisco peninsula marking the border between Daly City and San Francisco.
(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A2)
1856 San Francisco’s Lowell High School opened as the Union Grammar School and attained its current name in 1896.
(http://tinyurl.com/y4q3tp)(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A9)
1856 William Davis Merry Howard, SF merchant and pioneer, died and was buried on Lone Mountain. His body was later exhumed and reburied in San Mateo. His 15-acre El Cerrito estate passed to Agnes Poett, his widow. The estate stood on the dividing line between San Mateo and Hillsborough. Agnes soon married Howard's younger brother George and together built a sprawling country home.
(Ind, 5/31/03, p.5A)(Ind, 9/1/01, 5A)
1858 Oct, Coaches of the Butterfield Overland Stage Co. began serving the peninsula. The Butterfield operation was already charged with carrying the US Mail from St. Louis to SF via southern Ca.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)
1856 Dec 29, Snow fell in San Francisco and accumulated to 2-3 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1856 A Second Committee of Vigilance was formed after a newspaper editor was shot down by a corrupt politician.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.16)
1857 Oct 2, In SF the cornerstone for the new St. Francis Church was laid.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A21)(SSFC, 3/25/12, DB p.41)
1857 The San Francisco Slavonic Mutual and Benevolent Society, the oldest Croatian society in the US, was founded.
(SFC, 2/17/05, p.E3)
1857 The California Savings and Land Association at 465 California St. was built. Henry Collins, one of California’s wealthiest black leaders, served as president of the first African-American owned bank in the country.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)(www.afrigeneas.com/forum-west/index.cgi?md=read;id=43)
1857 SF merchant Charles Doane (d.1862), former leader of the SF Committee of Vigilance, was elected sheriff of San Francisco. He served two 2-year terms. Upon retirement in 1861 he was made general of in the California militia.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)
1858 Mar 5, In San Francisco advocates of civil rights rescued Archy Lee, a slave held by Charles Stovall of Mississippi, from being taken from the city aboard the ship Orizaba. The story was later told by Rudolph Lapp (1915-2007) in “Archy Lee: A California Fugitive Slave Case” (1969).
(SFC, 1/11/14, p.C2)
1858 May 20, William Ralston (32), banker, married Elizabeth Red Fry (21) at the Calvary Presbyterian Church in SF.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)
1858 Sep 15, The Butterfield Overland Mail Company began delivering mail from St. Louis to San Francisco. The company's motto was: "Remember, boys, nothing on God's earth must stop the United States mail!"
(HN, 9/15/99)
1858 In San Francisco George Kenny built his Octogon House at 1067 Green St. In 1954 it was believed to be the oldest standing house in SF.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.F8)
1858 In San Francisco the First Baptist congregation built a brick chapel on Washington St.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)
1858 The St. Vincent de Paul Society of SF was established.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1858 In San Francisco a saloon was established on the corner of Center Street (later 16th Street) at Guerrero. It burned down in the 1906 earthquake and fire. A new building was erected on the site in 1907. In 2009 the Elixir claimed to be the 3rd oldest saloon in the city.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1858 In San Francisco the Catholic Monitor newspaper began to be published. It was folded in 1983 and a new version was scheduled in 1998.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A17)
1859 Mar 1, The present seal of San Francisco was adopted (its 2nd).
(SC, 3/1/02)
1859 Apr 30, The California state legislature granted a charter to St. Ignatius Academy in San Francisco. The school then changed its name to St. Ignatius College with the right to confer degrees.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_San_Francisco)
1859 Jun 11, Comstock silver load was discovered near Virginia City, Nevada. Prospector James Finney stumbled across thick, bluish clay in western Nevada. A fellow minor, Henry Comstock, gave his name to the lode, the most lucrative silver ore mine in history. Ott’s Assay Office in Nevada City, Ca., first assayed samples of the rich Comstock Lode of Nevada. Four Irishmen known as the Bonanza Kings bought up shares in the Comstock mines and became rich. They were John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood, and William O’Brian. Ore from the Comstock lode was hauled by horse-drawn wagon over Donner Pass to SF.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T6)(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)(RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.107)(SC, 6/11/02)
1859 Sep 13, David C. Broderick, a US Senator, faced David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, in a duel at Lake Merced. Broderick was hit in the chest and died after 60 hours. Terry fled the scene and resigned his position the next day. He was charged with murder and was arrested Sep 23, but was not convicted. The weapons used were a pair of Belgian .58-caliber pistols on loan from an associate of Terry. Broderick’s weapon was set with a hair-trigger, and misfired. The pistols sold at auction in 1998 for $34,500.
(PI, 5/30/98, p.5A)(SFC, 11/25/98, p.B8)(Ind, 5/12/01, 5A)
1859 Sep 16, In San Francisco US Senator David C. Broderick died at the Leonides Haskell house at Fort Mason, following his Sep 13 duel with David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, near Lake Merced.
(SFC, 9/7/09, p.C1)
1859 Sep 17, The San Francisco Call Bulletin published a notice on an inside page announcing that Joshua Norton, formerly a prominent SF businessman, had proclaimed himself Norton I, “Emperor of these United States.” Norton lived at a rooming house at 624 Commercial St., where he paid 50 cents a night for a modest room. Norton proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico with a proclamation delivered to the offices of the San Francisco Bulletin. He annexed the whole of the US and suspended the Constitution.
(HFA, ‘96, p.64)(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)(SFC, 9/17/09, p.A1)
1859 The Lutheran congregation of Rev. Mooshake adopted the name First German Evangelical Lutheran Church.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)
1859 The SF Call reported on the “Hoochie Coochie” dancers on the stages of the Bella Union, The Olympic and the Midway Plaisance and other dance halls: “dances of licentious and profane character, obscenity were served in superior style.”
(SFEM,11/30/97, p.20)
1859 Milton Slocum Latham became governor of California. He resigned within hours after receiving an appointment to the US Senate. His SF home at 656 Folsom St. was alleged to be one of the most sumptuous in America.
(Ind, 1/9/98, p.5A)
1859 Richard Tobin, SF attorney, co-founded the Hibernia Savings and Loan Society.
(Daly City Fog Cutter, Vol 8 No. 3, 2008)
1859 The population of SF was about 50,000 people.
(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.10)
1860 Mar 17, The Japanese ship Kanrin Maru, under Admiral Yoshitake Kimura, entered the Golden Gate after a 37-day voyage, on a diplomatic mission to San Francisco. It was the first Japanese ship to cross the Pacific. 3 sailors died while the ship was in SF. It set sail to return to Japan on May 8.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(http://www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Mar 29, The USS Powhatan arrived in San Francisco as part of a diplomatic mission from Japan. It carried official envoys including Niimi Buzennokami, the first Japanese ambassador to the US.
(SFC, 3/17/10, p.C2)(www.kanrin-maru150.com/)
1860 Apr 3, The US Pony Express mail system began when one horse and rider carrying a bulging mail pouch began the 10 1/2-day run from San Francisco, Calif., to St. Joseph, Mo. Riders left St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, Ca., at the same time. They averaged 12 mph over 75-100 mile segments between 153 (190) change stations. The freight company of Russell, Majors and Waddell began the service. The enterprise failed after only 18 months, however, due to mounting financial losses and competition from the ever-expanding telegraph network. Donald C. Biggs (d.2000 at 72), prof. of history at SF State, later authored "The Pony Express: Creation of the Legend."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_Express)(SFC, 2/15/97, p.D4)(AP, 4/3/97)(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A24)
1860 Apr 14, First Pony Express rider arrived in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, Missouri.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1860 Apr 23, The Pony Express rider missed the boat at Benicia, Ca. Thomas Bedford, a 34-year-old stable keeper, was hired on the spot and boarded the ferry Carquinez with his horse. His discovered that his horse had lost a shoe and borrowed a horse from Martinez blacksmith Casemoro Briones and delivered the mail to the ferry at Oakland. The mail reached SF 9 hours and 15 minutes from the time it left Sacramento.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A19)
1860 May 21, Phinneas Gage died in SF from a major seizure. Gage had survived an 1848 blasting accident in Vermont when tamping iron blasted through his skull. [see Sep 13, 1848]
(ON, 10/02, p.10)
1860 Jun 7, San Francisco workmen started laying track for the Market Street Railroad. The line was planned to reach to San Jose.
(SC, 6/7/02)(SFC, 1/23/10, p.A1)
1860 Jul 4, In San Francisco the Market Street Railroad Co. opened a line on Market from Third to Valencia running both horsecar and steam train lines. This was the first street railway on the Pacific Coast.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.C2)
1860 Rodney Tabor (13) and C.A. Wetmore (13), students at the Hyde Street Grammar School, began publishing “The Young Californian,” a SF newspaper for kids.
(SFC, 2/1/02, p.D13)
c1860 The sand dune deeded by Col. John Geary was removed and the 1st design for a public square (Union Square) was completed.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1860 The St. Francis of Assisi Norman Gothic church at Columbus and Vallejo was built around the original 1849 structure and was the city’s first cathedral. Bishop Alemany dedicated the church on St. Patrick's day. It was gutted by fire in 1906 but restored.
(SFEC, 3/2/97, z1 p.6)
1860 The St. Brigid Church in Cow Hollow was built. [see 1863]
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A19)
1860 Rev. Jacob Matthias Buehler (23) arrived in SF and took over the 20 member Lutheran congregation.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)
1860 The Saloon at 1232 Grant Avenue began operating about this time. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire as fire fighters managed to save the building, also home to a brothel.
(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A2)
1860 Etinne Guittard started grinding cacao beans in SF on Commercial St. In 1997 Guittard Chocolate was the oldest family-owned chocolate manufacturer in the US.
(SFC, 10/8/97, Z1 p.6)
1860 Carleton Watkins shared a photographic studio on Montgomery St. He produced a series of stereoscopic views in one of the early photo publishing ventures in SF. Watkins had left Oneonta, N.Y., in 1851 and picked up his photo skills under Robert Vance, who operated a studio at 429 Montgomery.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1860 The population of SF reached 56,802.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.B1)
1860s A brewery was built on Pacific Ave. It was named The Anchor Brewing Co. in 1896.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.9)
1860s The first SF Butchertown was located around Polk and Chestnut.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A15)
1861 May, Groundbreaking was held at San Francisquito Creek for the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1861 Jul 3, Pony Express arrived in SF with overland letters from NY.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1861 The US Army’s red brick bastion at Fort Point, San Francisco, was built.
(HT, 5/97, p.63)
1861 An Octagon House was built in San Francisco at Gough and Union by William C. McElroy, a miller and his wife Harriet. In 1953 the Colonial Dames persuaded PG&E to sell it for $1 on the condition that they move it across the street to 2645 Gough.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.33)(SFEC,11/2/97, DB p.31)(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.A2)
1861 San Francisco’s Market Street was paved.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1861 The California state Legislature gave the Sisters of Mercy $5,000 to help build an asylum for women in SF. Magdalene Asylum was built on Potrero St. and by 1874 housed 150 women and girls. In 1904 it was renamed to St. Catherine's Home and Industrial School.
(SSFC, 8/24/03, p.A27)
1861 In San Francisco the Oakdale Bar and Clam House opened at the corner of Oakland and Bayshore. It later came to be known as the Old Clam House.
(SSFC, 2/19/12, p.A2)
c1861 Marco Fontana formed the California Fruit Canners Association at a brick building near Fisherman’s Wharf. In 1963 the Cannery was converted to a shopping mall by Manchurian immigrant Leonid Matveyeff.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.30)
1861 Solomon Gump founded Gump’s.
(SFC, 6/22/01, WBb p.9)
1861-1862 The winter of this time flooded the area with a record 49.27 inches of rain with 24.36 inches in January.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A1)
1861-1865 The mid-downtown park, donated to San Francisco by Mayor John Geary, became the site of rallies on behalf of the Union that gave the park its name. Many of the rallies were led by Unitarian minister Thomas Starr King (1824-1864). The block was renamed Union Square to commemorate the rallies.
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W27)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1861-1865 The Pioneer Woolen Mill by Fisherman’s Wharf produced blankets and uniforms for the Union army during the Civil War.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, DB p.30)
1862 Jan 21, In San Francisco Fr. Maraschi stepped down as the first president-rector of St. Ignatius. Fr. Nicolas Congiato took over.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1862 May 5, Gov. Leland Stanford signed a bill that appropriated $3,000 to convert the SF normal school into the first state sponsored institution of higher education. The California State Normal School.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1862 May, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors decreed that dogs in public without muzzles would be grabbed by the city pound keeper, kept for 48 hours, and destroyed if not redeemed for $5.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)
1862 May, In San Francisco St. Ignatius held a ceremony for the cornerstone of its new Jesuit residence and college on Market Street.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1862 Jun, SF Lawmakers signed a petition to anoint Lazarus (d.1963) and Bummer (d.1865), 2 popular rat catching dogs, as official city property and exempt from the recently passed muzzle law. In 1984 Malcolm E. Barker authored “Bummer & Lazarus: San Francisco’s Famous Dogs.”
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.A23)(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.E11)
1862 Sep 14, In San Francisco some 3,000 people packed into Platt’s Music Hall at Bush and Montgomery to hear Unitarian minister Starr King (1824-1864) speak on behalf of the Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the Red Cross. His speech inspired businessmen to raise money and within 5 days $100,000 was raised. In one year California raised some $500,000.
(SFC, 11/30/13, p.C3)
1862 Oct 31, Rev. Buehler and his Lutheran congregation laid the cornerstone for the new St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Union Square. The land cost $5000, donated by Claus Sprechels, and later became the site of Macy's.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A20)
1862 Grace Church was rebuilt in a brick Gothic style. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A19)
1862 Greek Revival houses were built in the Presidio along Funston Ave. They initially faced west but were turned to face eat in 1879.
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
1862 The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange was established by 19 founding members as a marketplace for mining company stocks following the Comstock Lode strike.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.I3)
1862 The Six Companies was founded in SF to assist Chinese arriving in California.
(SFC, 4/1/04, p.B1)
1862 Charles Segalas began a liquor manufacturing operation that served the French and Basque communities in the Bay Area and Western states.
(SFC, 7/10/99, p.A21)
1862 The Pacific Mail Co.'s Golden Gate steamer sank off Manzanillo. An English salvage company recovered gold bullion and artifacts in 1928.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1862-1957 Bernard Maybeck, architect. He designed the palace of Fine Arts in SF and the First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley.
(SFEM,12/797, p.46)
1863 Mar 14, Asbury Harpending (24) of Kentucky, Ridgely Greathouse of Kentucky and Alfred Rubery of Britain set sail from San Francisco with 20 fighting men aboard the J.M. Chapman on an expedition to intercept outbound Panama steamers loaded with gold and silver and send the money to the Confederacy. They were quickly intercepted, taken to Alcatraz, and found guilty of high treason. Harpending was granted amnesty after four months in jail.
(SFC, 3/15/14, p.D2)
1863 Apr 29, Randolph Hearst was born in SF.
(SFEM, 10/24/99, p.20)
1863 Jun 4, David Batchelder and a group of 27 armed men sailed from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands in 3 boats to challenge the Egg Co. for bird eggs. One man was killed and another died of wounds a few days later. In 1995 Peter White authored “The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate.”
(SFC, 5/25/13, p.C3)
1863 Oct 2, San Francisco Archbishop Alemany sent a letter to Fr. Maraschi, SJ, pastor of St. Ignatius Church, announcing that St. Ignatius Church would lose its parish status. The church did not regain its status as a parish until 1994.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1863 Oct 23, The railroad came to the SF peninsula. Some 400 people swarmed into 6 cars and rode to San Mateo’s Francisquito Creek to join a picnic as guests of the railroad management. The first stop out of SF was near the school house where Mission St. and Old San Pedro Road met. The depot was called Schoolhouse station.
(GTP, 1973, p.73)
1863 Hubert Howe Bancroft discovered 75 volumes pertaining to California on the shelves of his SF bookstore and began accumulating works on the Trans-Mississippi West. His personal history project was completed in 1894 and in 1905 UC Berkeley acquired his personal library.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A6)
1863 The first San Francisco Cliff House was built by real estate tycoon Charles Butler as a dining establishment for well-to-do families. The 160-acre site had been used as a potato farm by a man named chambers. It was purchased in 1881 by Adolph Sutro. The Cliff House burned down in 1894 and was rebuilt. It again burned down in 1907 and rebuilt in 1909.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.B1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 4/5/14, p.C1)
1863 San Francisco’s St. Brigid Church was founded. It was later rebuilt 6 times and transformed from a wooden structure to a granite building with stained glass imported from Dublin, Ireland. Construction had begun in 1860. The SF Archdiocese closed the church in 1994.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 8/14/11, p.F3)
1863 St. Ignatius College in San Francisco awarded its first bachelor of arts degree.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1863 Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of the 1857 book "The Hasheesh Eater," arrived in SF by the Overland Stagecoach. He rode with painter Albert Bierstadt who married Ludlow's wife in 1864. Ludlow wrote an account of his travels titled "The heart of the Continent." In 1999 Donald P. Dulchinos published "Pioneer of Inner Space: The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Hasheesh Eater."
(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.4)
1863 As San Francisco voters considered a bond measure to help finance the Central pacific Railroad, Philip Stanford, brother of the governor, drove through the city on election day “handing out money liberally’ to all who would vote for the bond.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1863 St. Mary’s College was built on College Hill near Richland Ave and Mission St. It left San Francisco for Oakland in 1889 and later moved to Moraga.
(SFC, 5/22/13, p.E6)
1864 Jan 16, A celebration was held in San Jose for the completion of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1864 Mar 4, Thomas Starr King (b.1824), Unitarian minister, died in SF. During the Civil War, he spoke zealously in favor of the Union and is credited (by Abraham Lincoln) with saving California from becoming a separate republic. In addition, he organized the Pacific Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, which cared for wounded soldiers. He led many rallies on behalf of the Union in SF, and the site of the rallies was later renamed Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Starr_King)
1864 Jul 5, William Ralston founded the Bank of California with $2 million in capital.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)(SFC, 4/7/06, SF Rising p.14)
1864 Aug 25, A combination rail and ferry service became available from SF to Alameda, Ca.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1864 Sep 5, In California boilers on the steamer Washoe exploded on its voyage from San Francisco to Sacramento. An estimated 175 people were onboard. Reporter Mark Twain estimated as many as 100 people were killed and 75 wounded or missing.
(www.twainquotes.com/18640907b.html)
1864 Carleton Watkins made his "San Francisco Panorama" photograph that stretched across five 18x22-inch negatives.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1864 In San Francisco a woolen mill was built on the block bounded by Beach, Polk, Larkin and North Point streets. In the 1890s it was taken over by the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In the 1960’s Ghirardelli transferred operations to San Leandro and the square was converted to a restaurant and shopping complex.
(SSFC, 10/28/12, p.D4)
1864 UC Medical Center was founded as Toland Medical College. It was named after founder Dr. Hugh H. Toland, who arrived with the gold rush from South Carolina.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1864 The restaurant known as Jack’s opened on Sacramento St. From 1903 to 1996 it was owned by one family.
(SFC, 12/31/96, p.B1)
1864 William Sharon (44) was sent to Virginia City as manager of the Nevada branch of the Bank of California.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1864 Herbert Liebes opened a fur salon which grew to become H. Liebes & Company. Liebes ran sailing schooners from Alaska to SF with cargoes of furs.
(SFC, 6/29/04, p.B6)
1865 Jan 16, Charles (19) and Michael de Young (17) started a free theater-program sheet in SF called The Daily Dramatic Chronicle. Early quarters were at Clay and Montgomery. They borrowed a $20 gold piece from Capt. William Hinkley, who owned the building where they lived, to start the paper.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/16/09, Extra p.1)
1865 Sep 17, In San Francisco Mark Twain and ‘Mousetrap Man’ (Tremenheere Lanyon Johns) were seen walking up Clay street under the influence of hashish. At this time concentrated cannabis was commonly available in tincture or solid form in drug stores.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, p.E9)
1865 Sep 24, James Cooke walked a tightrope from the San Francisco Cliff House to Seal Rocks.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1865 Oct 8-1865 Oct 9, An earthquake hit San Francisco.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1865 Oct 21, Another earthquake hit San Francisco. It lasted for 42 seconds and caused major damage throughout the city.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1865 Bret Harte edited the 1st collection of California poetry from newspaper clippings of poems compiled by Mary Tingley of San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M1)
1865 A gas works was constructed in the China Basin area.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.10)
1865 The Odd Fellows Cemetery was established on the slope of Lone Mountain at Stanyon St. In 1935 the bones were moved to Colma.
(SFCM, 1/18/04, p.12)
1865 Andrew S. Hallidie moved to SF and started producing flexible wire cable for carrying buckets of ore.
(ON, 10/03, p.8)
1865 William Butterfield’s auction business was founded in SF. In 1970 Butterfield & Butterfield was sold to Bernard Osher. In 1999 the operation was acquired by EBay, a San Jose-based online auction house.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.B1)(SFC, 3/8/08, p.F6)
1865 The SF Elevator, a weekly black newspaper edited by Philip Bell, was established.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.B2)
1865 Irving Scott bought the Union Iron Works in SF and steered the foundry into the ship building industry (Pier 70).
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)
1865-1875 Henry Casebolt, San Francisco inventor of the cable car grip, built his Casebolt Mansion at 2727 Pierce St. in Pacific Heights.
(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf051.asp)(http://tinyurl.com/c7rum4)
1866 Mar 31, Fred. Law Olmsted, New York City landscape architect, wrote a long piece on city planning for parks with special reference to San Francisco.
(SFEM, 7/27/97, p.30)
1866 Apr 6, Joseph Lincoln Steffens (d.1936), American political philosopher, investigative reporter and muckraker journalist (Shame of the Cities), was born in San Francisco: "Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over." "Never practice what you preach. If you're going to practice it, why preach it?"
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 4/6/98)(AP, 4/24/98)(HNQ, 10/4/98)
1866 Dec 30, St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Union Square was dedicated.
(SFC, 10/16/99, p.A19)
1866 William Hammond Hall began to design San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A10)
1866 In San Francisco Robert B. Woodward bought property and a stately mansion of US Sen. John C. Fremont located between Mission and Valencia to the east and west and 13th and 15th streets to the north and south. His Woodward’s Gardens amusement park opened for a 25-cent admission and featured the nation’s first aquarium.
(SFC, 10/30/12, p.E6)
1866 San Francisco established The Almshouse on the grounds of what later became Laguna Honda Hospital, providing shelter for the city’s unemployed and homeless men.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1866 In San Francisco the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur opened Notre Dame school across the street from the Mission Dolores.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F2)
1866 Swiss-born Antoine Borel (1840-1915) took over his brother’s SF mercantile firm, Alfred Borel & Co., when Alfred returned to Europe. Antoine later became director of the Bank of California (1882-1909), held directorships in the SF Dry Dock Co., the Golden Gate Milk Co. and the Spring Valley Water Co. He assumed the position of Swiss consul in 1885.
(Ind, 4/5/03, 5A)
1866 In San Francisco by this time Lawrence & Houseworth, opticians, had established their firm as the most prominent publisher on the West Coast. Their catalog included some 1200 images.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1866 Henry Casebolt, San Francisco transit tycoon, built a house at 2727 Pierce St.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.B3)
1866 Mary Ellen Pleasant was kicked off a streetcar in San Francisco and began arguing against laws prohibiting black people from riding them.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1866-1874 The Brannan Guard, an African American military organization, was headquartered at 929 Pacific St.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.D9)
1867 Mar, Banker William Ralston separated from his wife Lizzie Ralston, who moved to France with their 4 children.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)
c1867 St. Peter’s Church was built in the Mission district at 24th and Alabama by Irish and Italian immigrants.
(SFC, 1/20/96, p.A17)(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.A3)
1867 The St. Paulus Lutheran church in SF was founded. The original church building burned down in 1995. In 2007 it moved from Gough and Eddy to join quarters with the St. Coltrane African Orthodox Church on Fillmore.
(SFC, 5/28/07, p.D1)
1867 Laguna Honda Home opened as the Almshouse on 80 acres of land off of Twin Peaks. The four-story wooden structure was designed by Samuel Charles Bugbee and Miner Frederic Butler.
(PI, 5/30/98, p.5A)
1867 Sam’s Grill at 374 Bush St. opened in SF, Cal. It was operated as an oyster bar by Irish immigrant Michael Bolan Moraghan. In 1922 Sam Zenovich of Yugoslavia bought the operation and it became known as Sam’s. The Seput family, originally from Yugoslavia, bought it in 1937 and in 2005 sold it to Phil Lyons.
{SF, Yugoslavia, Ireland}
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.D13)(SFC, 9/21/05, p.F3)
1867 There was anti-Chinese violence in SF and Chinese laborers were driven from work and their homes were destroyed by whites angry over the economic conditions.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1867 Trans-Pacific trade was pioneered when the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. dispatched the 300-foot steamship Colorado from SF to Yokohama and Hong Kong.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.B1)
1868 Jan 12, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 2 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1868 Mar 27, John Muir (30) arrived by steamer in San Francisco and almost immediately set off on a 300-mile journey to Yosemite Valley along with Englishman Joseph Chilwell.
(SSFC, 4/2/06, p.B1)(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.B3)
1868 Mar 31, Anson Burlingame, head of the Chinese Embassy, arrived in SF for a month-long stay.
(Ind, 8/11/01, 5A)
1868 Sep 1, In San Francisco the Daily Dramatic Chronicle with widened coverage became the Morning Chronicle.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)(SSFC, 6/7/09, p.W2)
1868 Oct 21, A major earthquake, later estimated at magnitude 7, took place on the Hayward Fault in northern California. It destroyed the top of the San Mateo County Courthouse. At this time only 265,000 people lived in the Bay Area. The Marine Hospital at Rincon Point was badly damaged and forced to close.
(SMMB)(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)(SFC, 10/18/07, p.A15)(SFC, 10/9/10, p.A10)
1868 Mark Twain authored “Innocents Abroad” in San Francisco after returning from a trip to Europe.
(SSFC, 4/18/10, DB p.46)
1868 San Francisco’s first real ballpark, the Recreation Grounds, was built at 25th and Folsom. Some 4 thousand fans watched the SF Eagles beat the Oakland Wide Awakes.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1868 The Oriental Warehouse was built as a bonded warehouse for incoming trade from Asia. It was damaged by fires in 1988 and 1994, and by the 1989 earthquake, but was re-engineered to contain 66 live-work lofts and won a 1997 architectural award.
(SFEM, 2/22/98, p.11)
1868 The SF-San Jose railroad line joined the Southern Pacific Railroad and became a part of the statewide system.
(GTP, 1973, p.73)
1868-1870 In San Francisco a warehouse was built between during this period on North Point Street. It was first used as a woolen mill and converted to a spaghetti factory around the turn of the century. The structure was demolished in 1960 to make room for 2 apartment towers.
(SSFC, 11/28/10, DB p.50)
1868-1871 Bret Harte edited the SF-based magazine “Overland Monthly.”
(SFEC, 9/3/00, BR p.6)
1869 Jan 28, Cycling enthusiasts took over the Mechanic's Pavilion to demonstrate pedal-driven bicycles or velocipedes.
(Ind, 8/2/03, p.5A)
1869 Jun 24, Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant officially became the Voodoo Queen in San Francisco, California.
(HN, 6/24/99)
1869 Aug 18, Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton, in a proclamation in the Oakland Daily News ordered that a bridge be built between San Francisco and Oakland. This notice was later considered a forgery. [see 1872]
(http://www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/)
1869 Sep 22, The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, arrived in San Francisco after a rollicking, barnstorming tour of the West.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1869 The Spreckels family, sugar and steamer mavens, built a mansion in Pacific Heights. It was valued at $1.9 million in 1998.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A14)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.10)
1869 In SF the Original firehouse No. 1 was built. It was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt. In 1958 adman Howard Gossage bought it from the city at auction.
(SFC, 3/28/09, p.C2)
1869 Second Street was carved through the west edge of Rincon Hill to connect downtown and the southern waterfront.
(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A11)
1869 In San Francisco the Portola district formally began when a group called the University Homestead Association named a 263-foot hill University Mound and laid out streets named Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Princeton, Dartmouth, Holyoke and Bowdoin.
(SSFC, 5/24/09, p.A2)
1869 China Basin began showing up on maps at this time. Ships arrived here from New York and China.
(SFEM, 4/9/00, p.10)
1869 A depression hit after the completion of the trans-continental railroad and the Chinese became a target of ill-will as unemployment soared. In San Francisco they withdrew to a single area for self-protection and started businesses that would not seem threatening to their Caucasian neighbors. This was the beginning of Chinatown.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)
1869 The Pacific Lumber Company was founded. It was headquartered in San Francisco.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A4)
1869 Timothy Guy Phelps, former state Senator and US Congressman, was appointed Collector of Customs in SF. He served a term under Pres. Grant and another term under Pres. Harrison (1869-1872, 1890-1892).
(Ind, 7/13/02, 5A)
1869 Gustave Niebaum and others incorporated the Alaska Commercial Company with offices at Sansome and Halleck. Its plan was to consolidate fur-trading and natural resources operations under a single umbrella.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.26)
1869-1873 Joseph Bayma SJ (1816-1892), served as the 5th president of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1870 In San Francisco a shipwright’s house was built about this time at Hunters Point. In 2005 the SF Landmark Preservation Advisory Board approved it as SF Landmark No. 250.
(SFC, 5/13/05, p.F2)
1870 In San Francisco a Norman-style castle, later known as the Albion Castle and Brewery, was built as a brewery at 881 Innes Ave. In 1940 it became the home of a mountain springs water company, which bottled fresh water flowing underneath. In 2005 it sold for $2.1 million and was put on the market in 2009 for $2.95 million.
(SFC, 12/15/09, p.D2)
1870 In San Francisco Battery East, a three-quarter mile earth barrier with masonry enforcements was built at Fort Point to guard the bay.
(Ind, 7/13/99, p.11A)
1870 Sherman Clay & Co was founded in SF. It grew to become the nation’s largest piano retailer. Levander Sherman bought the shop where he repaired music boxes.
(SFC, 9/9/96, p.C1)(SFC, 6/22/01, WBb p.9)
1870 SF Supervisors designated the “Outside Lands” of the city for a new park. The Golden Gate Park commission held its first meeting under the efforts of mayor Frank McCoppin. The mayor was the principal stockholder in the SF Grading Co., and the firm wanted the city contracts for grading the park and transporting the dirt.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5,6,8)(Ind, 10/28/00,5A)
1870 The “Act to Provide for the Improvement of Public Parks in the city of San Francisco” created Golden Gate park.
(SFC, 6/26/02, p.A18)
1870 Seven private horsecar companies competed on SF city streets.
(SFC, 10/6/99, p.A4)
1870 By this time SF was the 10th largest US city with a population of 150,000.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.W4)(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1870s In San Francisco the Albion Brewery at 881 Innes Ave. in Hunters Point was built of stones that served as ship ballast. Albion ale was made with water from springs that ran underneath and the Albion Water Co. next door later sold bottled water from the springs.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A19)
1870s In San Francisco the Fairmont district was developed on the site of the Fairmont Dairy between Noe Valley and Glenn Park.
(CAS, 1996, p.18)
1871 The first light station for the Brothers Islands in San Pablo Bay was constructed. The islands were notorious for shipwrecks up to this time.
(SFEM, 3/16/97, p.37)
1871 The California Historical Society was founded with 25 members. It was originally a men’s club and many of its records were destroyed in the 1906 SF earthquake and fire. It was later located at 678 Mission near Third. 415-357-1848. Open Tuesday-Saturday 11-5.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D5)(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.55)
1871 The San Francisco Art Association was founded.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.8)(SFC, 5/30/03, p.E7)
1871 In San Francisco eight teenage girls founded the Little Sisters’ Infant Shelter to help care for the children of working mothers and babies from broken homes.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.C3)
1871 Podesta Baldocchi began peddling flowers in SF. The firm was sold to Gerald Stevens Inc., a national chain, in 1999.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.D1)
1871 Carleton Watkins opened the Yosemite Art Gallery at 22-26 Montgomery where he displayed his photographic work as art. He went bankrupt and sold his work to photographer I.W. Taber.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1871 William Hammond Hall was appointed the 1st Superintendent of Golden Gate Park and stated: “Destroy a public building and it can be rebuilt in a year; destroy a city woodland park and all the people living at the time will have passed away before its restoration can be effected.” Hall created the park’s original design over sand dunes known as the “Outside Lands.”
(SFC, 7/28/97, p.A8)(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A7)
1871 The California State Normal School in SF was moved to San Jose at the urging of a local railroad line and Oscar Fitzgerald, superintendent of public instruction.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, Z1 p.4)
1871 Fr. Joseph Neri, SJ, demonstrated the 1st electric light in SF from a window of St. Ignatius on San Francisco’s Market St. He used a large electro-magnetic device, the Alliance Machine, that had been used in the 2nd Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War for lighting defensive work.
(SFCM, 2/6/05, p.3)(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1871 In San Francisco Philip Arnold (40) and John Slack, prospectors from Kentucky, introduced a find of alleged diamonds and other precious stones to local businessmen.
(SFC, 4/26/14, p.D1)
1871-1880 Union Square was cleared and redesigned as a formal strolling garden. It was surrounded by churches and residences.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1872 Mar, Joshua Norton, aka Emperor Norton, ordered SF and Oakland citizens to build a suspension bridge across the bay. His similar Aug 19, 1869, proclamation was later considered a forgery.
(SFC, 12/15/04, p.A1)(www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/)
1872 May, In San Francisco Andrew Smith Hallidie started excavation on Clay St. for a cable car system.
(ON, 10/03, p.9)
1872 Jun 4, Kentucky conmen Philip Arnold (40) and John Slack took a party of San Francisco investors, including Asbury Harpending, to a site in Wyoming where diamonds and other precious stones were salted about. The con job took in hundreds of thousands of dollars before geologist Clarence King (30) identified the Wyoming site as a scam.
(SFC, 4/26/14, p.D2)
1872 Jul 2, Jacob W. Davis of Reno, Nevada, sent Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco a sample of his work pants and a business proposal for Strauss to apply for a patent in exchange for a half share in the patent. Davis soon sold his half share to Strauss and moved to San Francisco to supervise the manufacture of the work pants.
(ON, 4/05, p.11)
1872 Aug 23, The 1st Japanese commercial ship visited SF carrying tea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1872 Dec 28, James Van Ness (b.1808), the 7th mayor of San Francisco (1855-1856), died in San Luis Obispo, Ca.
(SSFC, 8/25/13, p.G3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Van_Ness)
1872 Julia Morgan, architect, was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)
1872 Albert Bierstadt painted "Seal Rocks, San Francisco."
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.E1)
1872 St. Patrick’s Church moved to Mission between 3rd and 4th. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in Gothic Revival style in 1914. [see Mar 17, 1983]
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.C1)
1872 The First Congregational Church of SF moved to Post and Mason. The brick Gothic church was seriously damaged in the 1906 earthquake. A new structure was opened in 1915. The Congregation sold the facility in 2001 with only 60 active members.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A17)(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A14)
1872 The San Francisco Bohemian Club was founded by 5 newspapermen, a Shakespearean actor, a vintner and a local merchant. The Bohemian grove, a 2,700 acre redwood grove on the Russian River, became their summer encampment. In 1974 John van der Zee authored “The Greatest Men’s Party on Earth.”
(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/15/04, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/18/04, p.A18)
1873 Mar 17, St. Patrick’s Church opened on Mission St.
(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A22)
1873 May 20, Levi Strauss of San Francisco and Jacob Davis of Reno, Nevada, received a patent for miners’ work pants that included rivets to reinforce the pockets.
(SFC, 4/29/03, B1)(SFC, 1/23/04, p.A10)(ON, 4/05, p.12)
1873 Aug 2, Inventor Andrew S. Hallidie successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco. Various references give the date of this event as Aug. 1, but more recent research points to Aug. 2. Hallidie made the first cable car trip aboard his Nob Hill Line at 4 a.m. It traveled down Clay St. from Knob Hill to Kearney.
(SFC, 8/1/98, p.A16)(AP, 8/2/06)
1873 Nov 4, Dentist John Beers of SF patented the gold crown.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1873 American writer Charles Stoddard (1843-1909) began a long tour as special correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle. The “South Sea Idyls,” a collection of his travel tales, were published based on his 1864 travels to the South Sea Islands.
(SFC, 2/27/14, p.D5)
1873 In SF the city’s International Hotel, built in 1854, moved from Jackson Street to 848 Kearny.
(SSFC, 8/19/07, p.B1)
1873 A stately home at 1882 Washington St. at Franklin was built. It was purchased in 1905 by banker Antoine Borel.
(Ind, 4/5/03, 5A)
1873 The South End Rowing Club was established south of Market. In 1938 it moved to Aquatic Park. The club was established following the victory of 6 Irishmen over rowers at the Golden state Rowing club.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A23)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A17)(SFCM, 1/25/04, p.12)
1873 Toland Medical College became affiliated with the new Univ. of California.
(UCSF, Spring, 2003)
1873 San Francisco’s first cable car hit the tracks starting at Clay and Jones streets on Nob Hill.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C1)
1873 In SF Mifflin Gibbs, the owner of a boot shop at 636 Clay St., was elected as San Francisco’s 1st black judge.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.B2)
1873 Gustave Niebaum (31), founding director of the Alaska Commercial Company, married Susan Shingleberger.
(SFEM, 10/31/99, p.27)
1873-1876 Fr. Aloysius Masnata, SJ, served as the 6th president of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1874 Feb 3, Gertrude Stein (d.1946), poet and novelist, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her older brother, Michael, managed the family business, which included San Francisco's Market Street railway line. Her parents were Daniel and Milly. The family returned to America from Europe in 1878, and settled in Oakland, California, where Gertrude attended First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland's Sabbath school. Her relationship with her brother, Leo (1872-1947), abruptly ended in 1914. Her work included "Three Lives," "G.M.P." and "Tender Buttons." Stein coined the term "Lost Generation" in reference to the disillusioned intellectuals and aesthetes of the post-World War I years. The 40-year relationship between Gertrude and Leo is told by Brenda Wineapple in "Sister Brother, Gertrude and Leo Stein." "Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense." "It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(AP, 12/27/97)(AP, 9/3/98)
1874 Mar 26, Robert Frost, poet (d.1963), was born in San Francisco. Robert Lee Frost, American poet. In a biography of Frost by Jeffrey Myers: “Robert Frost: A Biography,” the author claims that Frost moved his birthday up a year to make himself legitimate. A 3-volume biography by Lawrence Thompson was completed in 1976. Myers reveals that Frost’s lover, Kay Morrison, was also involved with Lawrence Thompson, but that that would not be disclosed in the Thompson biography. "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out." [see Mar 26, 1875]
(WUD, 1994, p.571)(HN, 3/25/98)(AP, 3/26/97)(AP, 11/9/98)
1874 May 20, Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets at $13.50 per doz.
(HN, 5/20/98)(SFC, 8/28/98, p.B4)(MC, 5/20/02)
1874 The Baldwin Hotel at the corner of Powell and Market was constructed with ice skating rinks and swimming pools. It burned to the ground in 1898 and was succeeded by the Flood Building.
(Ind, 2/20/99, p.5A)(SFC, 7/4/03, p.E1)
1874 The San Francisco Federal Mint building opened at 5th and Mission. It was designed by Alfred Mullett, the Treasury’s supervising architect.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A13)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E1)
1875 Mar 26, Poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco. [see Mar 26, 1874]
(AP, 3/26/97)
1875 Aug 27, William C. Ralston’s body was pulled from the SF Bay in a case of likely suicide. He had built the Palace Hotel, was the founder of the Bank of California and had a sprawling estate in Belmont. William Sharon was named Ralston’s executor and became master of Ralston’s estate.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C4)(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1875 Aug, The Bank of California, headed by William C. Ralston, collapsed.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1875 Sep 9, On Admission Day Charlotte Mignon (Lotta) Crabtree, the “California Girl,” dedicated a fountain to SF that was placed at Market and Kearney. She had acquired her reputation dancing on top of barrels in saloons. The fountain was cast in Philadelphia and shipped around Cape Horn to SF. It was modeled after a lighthouse prop from a forgotten play called “Zip.” In 1998 the fountain was disassembled for a 4-month repair job.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A1)(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A1,22)
1875 In San Francisco the Ferry House, predecessor to the Ferry Building, was built. It was a 350-foot wooden shed and was soon replaced. In 1998 Nancy Olmsted published "The Ferry Building: Witness to a Century of Change."
(SFEC, 12/20/98, BR p.2)
1875 The Palace Hotel opened in San Francisco. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. A new Palace Hotel opened in 1909.
(SFC, 8/21/09, p.A10)
1875 San Francisco’s Lowell High School, then called the Union Grammar School, moved within San Francisco to Sutter Street between Gough and Octavia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_High_School_%28San_Francisco%29)
1875 In San Francisco a picture by Walter Yeager depicted the California St. offices of Lazard Freres: Bankers.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)
1875 A Marine Hospital was built in the Presidio area of San Francisco. An adjacent cemetery operated at the site from about 1981 to 1915. In 1912 US marine hospitals became Public Health Service hospitals. A new structure was completed in 1932. In 1952 the hospital was expanded and Landfill 8 covered the graves, which were never moved. In 1981 the hospital was decommissioned and in 2010 reopened as 154 luxury apartments. Landfill 8 was capped with sand and underwent restoration to resemble its original, pre-European look.
(SFC, 11/25/06, p.B5)(SFC, 10/9/10, p.A10)
1875 James Lick, San Francisco real estate magnate, ordered a pre-fabricated glass house for his estate but died before it was erected. A group of wealthy men led by Leland Stanford donated the glass house to Golden Gate Park, where it became the Conservatory of Flowers. [see 1879]
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A23)
1875 William Sharon of SF was elected to a 6-year term as Senator from Nevada. It is believed that he spent some $1 million to get elected.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1876 Jan 12, Jack London (d.1916), American writer and adventurer, was born in SF at 3rd and Brannon. The original home burned down in the 1906 fire. He is best known for his dog novels "The Call of the Wild" and “White Fang.”
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p.768)(HN, 1/12/99)(SFC, 1/10/03, p.E6)
1876 Jul 4, Fr. Joseph Neri, SJ, introduced electric lights on Market Street in SF.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1876 Dec 7, Colonel Hayward, Vermont-born mining millionaire, remarried his wife Charity in SF.
(Ind, 12/8/01, 5A)
1876 The First Baptist Congregation moved to Eddy St. between Jones and Leavenworth and 2 churches were built on the site. The 2nd one burned down in the 1906 fire.
(SFC, 11/18/99, p.A22)
1876 The California Maritime Academy was founded. The Board of Supervisors and the Chamber of Commerce proposed to train young criminals onboard the ship Jamestown for work in the merchant naval service. Its history is told by Capt. Walter W. Jaffee in "The Track of the Golden Bear, The California Maritime Academy Schoolships."
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.7)
1876 The SF Native Sons fraternal order was founded.
(SFC, 2/22/96, p.A21)
1876 Pioneer Park on Telegraph Hill was donated to the city by a group of citizens.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A23)
1876 B.E. Lloyd attributed the high restaurant activity in the city to the high percentage of residents living in rooming houses or hotels in the post-Gold Rush era.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1876 Austin and Reuben Hills began roasting coffee at the Bay City Market in SF. [see 1878]
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A1)
1876 Lazard Freres ceased operations as a fabrics and hardware import-export company and established itself as the bank: Lazard Freres & Co.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)
1876 The Livingston Brothers department store was founded.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A22)
1876 Oil was struck in a well near what later became Santa Clarita, California. It was sold to the Pacific Coast Oil Co. of San Francisco in 1879, which eventually became Chevron.
(SSFC, 10/29/06, p.F6)
1876 James Lick, one of the wealthiest men in SF and a notorious miser, died. He gave away most of his wealth before dying and the elevated 101 freeway from the Bay Bridge to Candlestick Point was later named in his honor as was the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A11)
1876-1880 Fr. John Pinasco, SJ, served as the 7th president of San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1877 Aug, In the midst of a recession and the turmoil of anti-Chinese riots, San Franciscans decided to build a public library.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1877 Oct 29, In San Francisco the Jesuits paid $200,000 for lot 74 of the Western Addition, a block of land bordered by Van Ness, Hayes, Franklin and Grove Streets. Construction of a new church, campus and residence buildings lasted from 1878-1880 and cost $323,763.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1877 San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood was dubbed “Butchertown” as 18 slaughterhouses set up shop on the waterfront.
(SFC, 7/24/13, p.A12)
1877 San Francisco’s 2nd cable car line, the Sutter Street Railroad, ran out Sutter from Market and Sansome to its power house at Larkin and Bush.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C3)
1877 Cable cars began operating on Geary Street.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F2)
1877 In San Francisco the Dolphin Club, a rowing organization, was founded by brewery owner Joseph Wieland.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A23)
1877 Felix Schoenstein, a German immigrant and organ builder, founded the Schoenstein & Co. organ builders in San Francisco.
(SSFC, 2/22/04, p.I3)
1877 Isaac Magnin and his wife Mary Ann Cohen Magnin founded their first I. Magnin store in SF. The original store was located on Market street. It moved to Grant Avenue after the 1906 earthquake and in 1948 opened at Geary and Stockton in the “Marble Lady,” designed by Timothy Pflueger. It merged with Bullocks in 1944 and became a division of Federated Department Stores in 1964. The store closed Jan 15, 1995.
(SSFC, 12/31/06, p.E5)
1877 The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange moved into a building on Pine St.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F3)
1877 Almost one-fourth of the California labor force was unemployed. Anti-Chinese feelings in SF resulted in several killings. The Sand Lot riots began under the leadership of Denis Kearney, who organized mobs that attacked the Chinese. The Chronicle newspaper called him “a political mad dog.” These riots followed similar mob attacks in the Eastern States.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)(www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/kearneyism.html)
1878 Jan 25, Off of San Francisco the 3-masted clipper ship King Philip, built in Maine in 1856, was towed by a tug through the Golden Gate and laid anchor to allow the tug to assist a nearby vessel. The anchor failed and the King Philip drifted onto sand at Ocean Beach, where it foundered. Remnants of the ship appeared in 1980 and again in 2007.
(SFC, 5/8/07, p.B5)
1878 Mar 26, Hastings College of Law was founded in SF. It was named after Serranus Clinton Hastings, the 1st chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
(SS, 3/26/02)(SFCM, 10/26/03, p.8)
1878 Aug 3, Ambrose Bierce in the SF Argonaut stated: There is no recorded instance of punishment for shooting a newspaperman. The restrictions of the game law do not apply to this class of game.”
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)
1878 Isadora Duncan (d.1927), US pioneer in modern dance, was born in San Francisco.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)
1878 Henry Burgess painted “View of San Francisco in 1850.”
(WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W10)
1878 Ephraim Burr (1809-1894), former mayor of SF (1856-1859), built an Italianate house at 1772 Vallejo St.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.B3)
1878 In SF a house was built at 2066 Pine Street. In 1921 it was turned into the Madame C.J. Walker Home for Girls.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1878 The Mill Building at 720 York St., designed by Laver & Curlett, was built. It was restored in 1998.
(SSFC, 11/6/11, p.D2)
1878 The Big Four, Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, formed the city’s second cable car company, the California Street Cable Railroad, to go from Market St. to their mansions atop Nob Hill.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1878 The 1st SF telephone directory, printed by the American Speaking Telephone Co., listed 168 entries on a single page.
(SFC, 9/2/05, p.F2)
1878 The clipper ship King Philip was stranded on Ocean Beach at the foot of Ortega St.
(G, Winter 96/97, p.3)
1878 Austin and R.W. Hills founded Hills Bros. Coffee in SF. [see 1876]
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1878 A waiter in SF concocted the dish named chop suey for Li Hung-Chang, the first Chinese viceroy to visit SF.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1879 cJun 2, Henry Cogswell, an eccentric dentist, buried a lead box time capsule at the foot of the Benjamin Franklin statue in Washington Square. It was opened Apr 22, 1979 and contained a copy of The Call newspaper dated Jun 2, 1879, Harper's Weekly dated May 1872, and books of poetry.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)
1879 Jul 8, The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, California.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1879 Sep 10, Pacific Coast Oil Co. was founded in San Francisco by Lloyd Tevis, George Loomis and Charles Felton. In 1906 it became Standard Oil Co. (California). In 1926 it became Standard Oil Co. of California (Socal). In 1984 it became Chevron Corp. In 2001 it became ChevronTexaco. In 2005 it was renamed Chevron Corp.
(SFC, 10/20/04, p.C6)(SFC, 5/10/05, p.D1)
1879 Sep 20, Former Pres. Ulysses S. Grant arrived in San Francisco aboard the steamship City of Tokio. He was in a bad mood because a steward had just emptied a glass of water with his false teeth through a porthole.
(Ind, 2/17/00, 5A)
1879 Oct 24, In San Francisco the 9-day “Author’s Carnival” opened as a fundraiser for six charities. Six thousand people attended each night.
(SFC, 3/1/14, p.C3)
1879 The ornate white frame of the Conservatory of Flowers was imported from Ireland and erected. The disassembled parts were purchased from the estate of SF millionaire James Lick by Charles Crocker, who donated it to the city in 1875.
(BS, 5/3/98, p.5R)(Ind, 10/28/00,5A)
1879 The San Francisco Free Public Library was opened in Pacific Hall on Bush St., between Kearny and Dupont (later Grant) streets.
(SFC, 4/14/96, EM, p.20)
1879 The 1st SF bicycle tournament was held at the Mechanics Pavilion. The 400-mile event required 2,400 circuits. The winner won $500 after a 72-hour ride.
(Ind, 8/2/03, p.5A)
1879 Abby Fisher, one of 18 pickle manufacturers, was recognized for “best display of pickles” and won $5 prize money.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1879 Police arrested dancer Mabel Santly for indecent exposure following a vilification of the Can-can by the SF Chronicle. She was fined $300 for failing to keep her skirts around her ankles.
(SFEM,11/30/97, p.20)
1879 Adolph Sutro returned to SF after becoming a millionaire from building a tunnel to drain and ventilate the silver mines of the Nevada Comstock Lode.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)
1880 cJan 8, Emperor Norton died and had an elaborate funeral sponsored by the Pacific Union Club at a cost of $10,000. His remains were later moved from the Masonic Cemetery to Woodlawn Cemetery with a marble tombstone inscribed: Norton I...Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Joshua A. Norton 1815-1880. Dr. Robert Burns Aird (d.2000) later composed a musical based on Norton's life. The organization E Clampus Vitius later proceeded to hold an annual memorial services at his Colma grave site.
(HFA, '96, p.65)(G&M, 7/30/97, p.A24)(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A20)(CHA, 1/2001)
1880 Jan 28, Henry Casebolt, San Francisco inventor of the cable car grip, sold his interest in the Sutter Street Railway.
(www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccwho.html#hxc)
1880 Feb 1, In San Francisco the buildings of the new St. Ignatius campus at Van Ness and Hayes were dedicated. Archbishop Alemany and bishop James A. Healy presided over the dedication of the new church oh Hayes St.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1880 Apr, Isaac M. Kalloch, son of the mayor, shot and killed Charles de Young in SF Chronicle offices. Michael de Young took over. Isaac Kalloch, pastor of the Metropolitan Temple on 5th St. had earlier insulted de Young, who in turn had shot and wounded Kalloch. Kalloch was elected mayor with the support of Denis Kearney.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8)
1880 Jul 2, In San Francisco St. Ignatius College opened for classes at its new campus at Van Ness and Hayes.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1880 Peter B. Kyne (d.1957), author, was born in San Francisco and grew up in San Mateo County. He wrote 25 novels and over 1,000 short stories, a number of which were turned into Hollywood movies.
(Ind, 7/19/03, p.3A)
1880 Julian Rix painted “Hay Scow on San Francisco Bay.”
(SFEC,10/26/97, DB p.55)
1880 Thomas Blythe, a Welsh drifter who made a fortune in SF real estate, built a mansion at 1000 Chestnut St. It was torn down in 1954 to make room for a 14-story apartment house.
(SFC, 8/6/04, p.F6)
1880 The Mechanic's Fair stamped as obscene a French painting by Gabriel Guay, "The Awakening." Visitors voted to keep the painting in the exhibit.
(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.30)
1880 US Pres. Rutherford Hayes lunched at the Cliff House in SF.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A1)
1880 George Hearst purchased the SF Daily Evening Examiner newspaper to advertise his political beliefs. Hearst won the Examiner as payment for a gambling debt.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.B9)(CHA, 1/2001)
1880-1889 The San Francisco Belt Line began operating during this period to move freight from ships docked at the port for trans-shipment by rail.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A2)
1880s Henry D. Cogswell (d.1900), dentist, made a fortune in SF real estate. He was a man of temperance and financed a number of fountains that were donated to cities in America, including the one in Washington D.C. on 7th St.
(HT, 4/97, p.80)
1880s Rev. Joseph Worcester, a Swedenborgian minister and architectural theorist, built the 1st "Rustic"-style homes on Russian Hill. He inspired such architects as Ernest Coxhead, Bernard Maybeck, A. Page Brown and Willis Polk.
(SFCM, 8/3/03, p.15)
1880s The Board of Health ordered all cattle to be removed from the city limits. Until this time most the city’s milk came from the Cow Hollow area.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W30)
1881 A Casino was constructed in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1881 Adolph Sutro bought most of San Francisco’s western headlands. Sutro acquired 2200 acres of land around the Cliff House which had become a disreputable entertainment hall. Sutro bought the Cliff House and the adjacent 80 acres to develop a seaside attraction that included the Sutro Baths and the Sutro Conservatory.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)(G, Winter 98/99, p.1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 9/29/12, p.C3)
1881 The city directory indicated 233,959 residents, 428 restaurants, 342 oyster saloons, 18 oyster dealers, 90 coffee saloons, 299 bakeries, 254 retail butchers, 205 fresh fruit sellers, some 1400 grocers and an equal number of bars, 40 brewers and 15 champagne importers.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1881 “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Southern Cooking” by Abby Fisher was published by the San Francisco Women’s Co-operative Printing Office.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1881 Joseph Brandenstein opened a coffee company in SF, naming it after his son Michael J. Brandenstein and Co. The name was later shortened to MJB Inc.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.D2)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.C2)
1882 Mar 26, Oscar Wilde arrived in SF for a series of lectures. His first lecture on “The English Renaissance,” was given the next night at Platt’s Hall at Bush and Montgomery.
(SFEC,11/16/97, DB p.3)(SFC, 10/12/12, p.C3)
1882 Apr 10, Capt. William Matson sailed the schooner Emma Claudina through the Golden Gate toward Hawaii. Matson had just founded his shipping company to cover service between San Francisco and Hawaii.
(SSFC, 2/18/07, DB p.58)
1882 Jul 4, Telegraph Hill Observatory opened in SF.
(Maggio, 98)
1882 Sep 18, The Pacific Stock Exchange was founded in SF as Local Security Board in the basement of Wohl & Pollitz at 403 California.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.B1)(SFC, 7/24/98, p.B1)
1882 Dec 31, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 3.5 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1882 Frederick Layman received financing for a short-lived cable car line up Kearny St.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A18)
1882 A railway began service from Second and Market to Daly City.
(SFC, 4/20/01, WBb p.7)
1882 The Golden Gate Park Band was founded in San Francisco and began performing annual concerts in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 7/3/96, p.E1)
1882 The First Presbyterian Church moved into a gothic style wooden building at Van Ness and Sacramento. It was destroyed in the 1906 fire.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A19)
1882 The SF military base was re-named Fort mason after former Gov. Richard Barnes Mason.
(SFC, 10/4/02, p.E1)
1882 Union Iron Works, founded by Peter Donohue, moved into the area of SF, 22nd and Third St., that later came to be known as Dogpatch. The works later became Bethlehem Steel, Todd Yard, Southwest Marine and SF Drydock (Pier 70). In 2000 it was the oldest operating civilian shipyard in the US.
(SFC, 3/29/00, p.A17)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)
1883 Local artists put 8 paintings of nudes into the Mechanic's Fair exhibit. Jeweler A.W. Stott, the only one of 3 jury members available, banned the paintings. A.S. Hallidie was busy watching his cable car business and M.A. Doirn was busy with his law office.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.32)
1883 Frona Eunice Wait announced a plan to find a "California Venus," whose image would be immortalized in marble by sculptor Rupert Schmid. The plan failed but Schmid did find Miss Marian Nolan, 23 ½, 32 ½, 38 ½. He made a plaster cast of her a year later and took it to Italy to be cut in Carrara marble.
(SFEM, 4/11/99, p.34)
1883 In San Francisco Commercial High School opened as the business department of Boys High School, which eventually became Lowell. It then split from Lowell, relocated twice and settled on Market Street just in time to go up in flames in the 1906 earthquake.
(SFC, 4/30/13, p.E4)
1883 Lutherans of Northern California came together to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Martin Luther’s birthday. This led to the 1945 formation of the Lutheran Welfare Council.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1883 The Salvation Army came to SF. In 1886 they opened a facility in the Tenderloin.
(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)(SFC, 6/28/08, p.B1)
1883 In San Francisco Army Major W.A. Jones created a plan to transform the Presidio into a forested park-like reserve. In 1886 the Army began planting blue gum eucalyptus to serve as a windbreak on the ridges of the Presidio.
(SFC, 7/6/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/25/09, p.A8)
1883 Fr. Joseph Sasia, SJ (1843-1928) took over as president of St. Ignatius College in San Francisco.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1883 San Francisco’s Park and Ocean Railroad began carrying passengers from Haight and Stanyon out H Street (later Lincoln Way) to 49th Ave. (later la Playa), and then north to the Cliff House.
(SFC, 7/20/13, p.C2)
1883 The central dome of the glass house in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was destroyed by fire. A new, higher dome replaced the original.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)
1884 Feb 7, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 1-2 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1884 Apr 22, Thomas Stevens (b.1853) started the 1st bicycle trip to cross the US from SF. He later continued around world (2 yrs 9 mos). He purchased a bicycle with a 50-inch diameter front wheel from Col. Albert Pope of Hartford, Conn., for $110 the price of a horse and buggy.
(MC, 4/22/02)(ON, 9/03, p.9)
1884 Sep 20, The Equal Rights Party was formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco. The convention nominated Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood of Washington, D.C., for president.
(AP, 9/20/97)
1884 Dec 24, A trial judge, following an 81-day trial, decided that Senator William Sharon was legally married to Sarah Althea Hill, and that she was entitled to a divorce, alimony and community property. A Nevada Circuit Court reversed the decision in 1885.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1884 In San Francisco Central Park opened at 8th and Market. It featured a new ball park as the popularity of baseball grew.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1884 In San Francisco the University Mound Ladies Home was built at 350 University St. as a comfortable home for elderly women of modest means.
(SFC, 7/9/14, p.E1)
1884 In SF Sts. Peter and Paul Church was built in North Beach at the corner of Grant and Filbert. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in 1924 on Washington Square.
(SSFC, 5/17/09, DB p.50)
1884 A Victorian mansion was built on the corner of Bush and Jones streets. It perished in the 1906 fire but a replica, the Carter House, was built by the Carter Family in Eureka, Ca.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T5)
1884 Patrick William Riordan succeeded Archbishop Alemany as Archbishop of SF and served until 1914.
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.A22)
1884 A block-long, brick machine shop building was built on Third St. and Illinois.
(SFEC, 12/12/04, p.10)
1884 Hibernia Bank was founded in SF.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.F2)
1884 An amusement area in SF named Ocean Beach Pavilion began.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F1)
1884 In SF, Ca., Adolph Spreckels, son of sugar-baron Claus Spreckels, attempted to kill Michael de Young due to a Chronicle story that accused his father of swindling shareholders. Spreckles was acquitted.
(SFC, 8/15/05, p.C5)
1884 The Arctic Oil Works opened at the foot of Sixteenth and Illinois Street in Mission Bay. It was one of the largest whale processing factories in the world and the building was one of the very first reinforced concrete structures in the United States. It was built by Ernest Ransome.
(http://tinyurl.com/2vznaq)
1884 British interests purchased half the California operations of Lazar Freres and this led to the establishment of the London, Paris and American Bank. This ultimately became part of Crocker National Bank and then Wells Fargo.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.D1)
1884 The population of SF was about 225,000 people.
(SFEM, 3/2/97, p.10)
1884 John Parrot, SF millionaire banker and merchant, died.
(Ind, 11/24/01, 5A)
1885 Feb, Duncan C. Ross of Scotland arrived in San Francisco and introduced a broadsword jousting competition. Some 1,800 people attended the event at the new baseball grounds at Eight and Market. The successful contest led him to stage a regular event for a year on top of Telegraph Hill.
(SFC, 3/8/14, p.C2)
1885 Nov 13, Former Nevada Senator William Sharon died.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1885 Dec, A Nevada Circuit court reversed the 1884 ruling against William Sharon and ruled that the marriage certificate and letters of Sarah Althea Hill were forgeries. Hill later married one of her attorneys, David Terry.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1885 Charles Rollo Peters painted “Italian Fisherman’s Wharf,” a scene of the congested SF harbor.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.E3)
1885 Jules Harder, 1st chef of the SF Palace Hotel, authored “The Physiology of Taste: Harder’s Book of Practical American Cookery.”
(SFC, 9/7/05, p.F4)
1885 In San Francisco a 4-level Victorian was built at 3086 Washington St. In 2009 the 4,851 square-foot house listed for $6.45 million following renovations.
(SFC, 10/14/09, p.C3)(SFL)
1885 The James A. Garfield monument on Kennedy Drive in San Francisco’s golden Gate Park was erected by the offerings of a “grateful people.”
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A13)(SFL)
1885 In San Francisco Adolph Sutro opened Sutro Heights to the public. The estate was dotted with European statues. He went on to build the Sutro Baths, a 3-acre glass palace.
(G, Winter 98/99, p.2)
1885 St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco’s Western Addition was built.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A19)(SFL)
1885 San Francisco brewery owner Joseph Wieland died in a fire. His heirs commissioned a new boat for the Dolphin Club, which he had founded; the 40-foot Joseph Wieland rowing vessel was built by Al Rogers.
(SFC, 7/3/97, p.A23)
1885 William Sharon, US senator and silver millionaire, died. He bequeathed $60,000 for the construction of a children’s playground in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1886 Apr, In San Francisco school children on Arbor Day planted the first trees of the Presidio forest. Adolph Sutro enlisted schoolchildren to help plant eucalyptus, acacia, Monterey pine and Monterey cypress trees in Glen Park. The 904-foot Mount Parnassus, owned by Sutro, was also planted.
(G, Winter, p.3)(SFC, 5/26/00, Wb p.8)(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A1)
1886 May 22, The cover of Harper’s Weekly featured an illustrated picture of a jousting match in San Francisco with a German-style castle in the background atop Telegraph Hill. The castle, known as Layman’s Folly (1883-1903), was built by Frederick O. Layman. He had also built a 1,400-foot cable car line up Greenwich St. from Powell to the summit of Telegraph Hill.
(SFC, 3/8/14, p.C2)
1886 Jul 4, St. Peter’s Church on Alabama St. was dedicated. It burned down in 1997 and was rebuilt in 2000.
(SFC, 6/30/00, p.A1)
1886 In San Francisco Adolph Sutro opened his Sutro Baths. The huge glass enclosure had room for 1,600 bathers. Late in his life the former mayor donated the Sutro Library to the city. It was made up of a 50,000-volume genealogy collection, medieval Jewish tests, books and documents from the Italian Renaissance, the papers of British explorer Joseph Banks, a labor archive and other collections.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1886 In San Francisco the 13-room Haas-Lilienthal House was built at 2007 Franklin. Architect Peter R. Schmidt built the 24-room house of fir and redwood for Bertha and William Haas, a mercantile grocer, for $18,500.
(SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.2)(SFC, 8/30/96, p.D5)
1886 In San Francisco the Union Iron Works red brick machine shop was built across from the dry dock gate at Pier 70. It closed in 2004 due to seismic issues. In 2009 plans were made public for the redevelopment of the area.
(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.F2)(SFC, 7/11/09, p.A6)
1886 In SF the Fior d’Italia restaurant began to serve clients for a nearby North Beach bordello. Tortellini was a nickel, risotto with clams a dime and veal scallopine and calf’s liver was 15 cents. It was originally located at 482 Broadway and later moved to 601 Union St. In February 2005 the restaurant was burned out of its Washington Square location. It re-opened in November on Mason Street at the former San Remo Hotel.
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A1)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.B5)(SSFC, 5/1/11, DB p.46)
1886 In SF the North Beach jewelry business, later run by Rocco Matteucci (d.1959), was founded.
(SFC, 10/21/99, p.A24)
1886 Aaron Shenson started a meat business. In 1953 the H. Shenson Wholsesale Meat Co. moved to a new plant at 1040 Bryant St., SF.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.E2)
1886 In San Francisco Mrs. Abbie Parrott purchased the old St. Ignatius Market Street school site for $900,000. her family later built the Emporium store on this site.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1886 The ship Balclutha was built in Glasgow, Scotland. It was named in Gaelic for Clyde’s rock. For 16 years it sailed from the British Isles with a load of coal around Cape Horn to SF where it picked up grain and returned to Europe. It was later preserved at the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco.
(SFEC,11/23/97, p.D3)(www.nps.gov/safr/historyculture/balclutha.htm)
1886-1896 The Haight Street Grounds ballpark commonly drew crowds of 15,000 to 20,000.
(SFEC,12/797, Z1 p.4)
1887 Jan, Thomas Stevens returned to SF following a world tour and a 103 day bicycle ride from SF to Boston.
(SFCM, 8/3/03, p.15)
1887 Feb 5, Snow fell in SF and accumulated officially to 3.7 inches.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1887 Mar 4, William Randolph Hearst (23) became "Proprietor" of the SF Examiner newspaper.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1887 Apr 29, William Randolph Hearst received the SF Examiner newspaper on his 24th birthday. He proceeded to found the Hearst Corporation with help from his father, Senator George Hearst. The elder Hearst had amassed wealth from the Comstock mines of Nevada.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A19)(CHA, 1/2001)
1887 Apr, There was a big fire at Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. Hearst covered the story with an extravagant 14-page extra edition.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1887 May 19, The Examiner’s 1st major front-page crime story appeared under the headline “THUGS.”
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.45)
1887 May 29, The Sunday Examiner featured an article titled “Night Watches,” a description of activity on Market Street from 7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.46)
1887 May, Baseball scores began to appear on the bottom of page one of the Examiner.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.44)
1887 Jun, The Examiner introduced the novel “Allan Quatermain” by H. Rider Haggard in serialized form on the front page.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.45)
1887 In San Francisco the Haight Street Grounds baseball park was built on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 9/21/13, p.C3)
1887 In San Francisco a 30-foot stone pedestal was built on Mount Olympus to support the Goddess of Liberty statue. SF removed the statue in 1954.
(SFC, 5/15/13, p.D1)
1887 The Mansions Hotel, a Victorian hotel in Pacific Heights was constructed. It is allegedly haunted by a dark-haired mechante named Claudia, the shapely niece of the original owner, Utah Senator Charles Chambers.
(SFE Mag, 5/5/96, p.A-7)
1887 The Orpheum Theater opened on O’Farrell St.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, DB p.44)
1887 In San Francisco the 3-story Sharon Building was built next to the children’s playground in Golden Gate Park. It was designed by Percy & Hamilton.
(SSFC, 1/24/10, p.C2)
1887 St. Boniface Church was founded as a parish for German Catholics.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A19)
1887 John McLaren, a Scottish-born landscape gardener, was hired by William Hammond Hall as assistant park superintendent of Golden Gate Park. Hall was a surveyor who gave the Park its initial design under plans pushed by Governor Haight and Mayor McCoppin.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.4)(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1887 The land at Stern Grove was officially granted to the Greene family.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1887 John Tadich acquired the New World Market Coffee Stand at 221 Leidesdorff.
(SFC, 6/19/96, zz1, p.1)
1887 In San Francisco a stranded schooner carrying some 40 tons of dynamite exploded near the Cliff House.
(SFC, 2/28/09, p.B3)
1887 Fr. Imoda took over as president of St. Ignatius College in San Francisco and continued to 1893. During his tenure a fire destroyed the old school and church on Market St., which had become a cheap lodging house and furniture warehouse. 3 people died in the fire.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)
1888 Jan 16, Snow fell in SF and accumulated to 0.1 inch.
(SFEM, 12/22/96, p.20)
1888 Apr 16, Russian Orthodox Bishop Vladimir (Vasily Sokolovsky) arrived in San Francisco from Russia with an entourage of eight clerics and 11 boys.
(SFC, 4/19/14, p.C2)
1888 Jun 3, The poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was 1st published in the SF Daily Examiner. The poem was based on a game played in Stockton, Ca.
(SFC, 4/28/05, p.A1)(www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE23.html)
1888 Aug 22, The City of Chester, a 202-foot passenger steamship, sank as it left the San Francisco Bay after colliding with the incoming ocean line Oceanic. 16 people died including 3 crew members and 13 men, women and children. Wreckage of the Chester was found in May, 2013, in 217 feet of water near the Golden Gate Bridge.
(SFC, 4/24/14, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/m2fdxwe)
1888 Dec, The “Sharon Quarters for Children” was dedicated in Golden Gate Park. It was the 1st children’s playground to be established in a public park in America.
(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1888 In San Francisco a 2-story Victorian home at 50 Liberty St., designed by Absalom J. Barnett, was completed.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, p.C2)
1888 Russian Czar Alexander III donated bells to the Holy Trinity Cathedral on Powell near Columbus. The Cathedral burned down in the 1906 quake and was rebuilt in 1909 and 1979 at 1520 Green St. In 1999 3 of the bells were stolen and returned.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A17,18)(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A21)
1888 In San Francisco the Bayview Opera House was built at 4705 3rd Street. In 2007 a 3-year $4 million renovation program was begun.
(SFC, 10/19/07, p.B1)
1888 A wooden Gothic Presbyterian Church was erected in Noe Valley at 23rd and Sanchez. It later became known as the Noe Valley Ministry.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F1)
1888 In SF a red-brick power plant was built at 178 Townsend St. It later served as a hay mill, warehouse and repair shop. In 2006 plans called for its conversion to 66 condominiums.
(SFC, 5/22/06, p.B1)
1888 Nov, In San Francisco a new cable car line opened in the Mission District.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C3)
1889 Feb, The SF Examiner opened a free employment service for white male and female applicants competing for work with Chinese laborers.
(SFEM, 8/6/00, p.47)
1889 Aug 23, The 1st ship-to-shore wireless message was received in US in SF.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1889 Nov 17, The Union Pacific Railroad Co. began direct, daily railroad service between Chicago and Portland, Ore., as well as Chicago and San Francisco.
(AP, 11/17/97)
1889 Nov 23, The first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon. The contraption consisted of an Edison tinfoil phonograph with four listening tubes and a coin slot for each tube.
(AP, 11/23/97)
1889 Dec 29, The SF Examiner published a “prophecy edition,” a look at what life would be like in 1929. Predictions included an aluminum Bay Bridge, a canal across Panama, a major SF fire in 1903, an earthquake in Boston, the expulsion of all Chinese from the US, a fortress and wave-powered guns on the Farallon Islands, and the invention of a “thermo-electric fog dispeller.”
(SFEC, 3/15/98, p.W45)
1889 William Heath Davis authored” Sixty Years in California.” It included a description of life in Yerba Buena (San Francisco).
(SFC, 7/6/13, p.C2)
1889 Hippolite d’Audiffred, a San Francisco merchant, put up a building where Mission Street meets the Embarcadero and named it after himself. It later became the home of the Sailors Union of the Pacific and the Boulevard restaurant.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.A2)
1889 A 5,300 pound bell was commissioned for $17,000 from a Baltimore foundry to hang in the St. Mary’s Cathedral at Van Ness and O’Farrell, San Francisco. It hung in the church until 1962 when an arsonist destroyed the cathedral. The bell was moved to new cathedral grounds near Gough and Geary and sat for some 40 years until it was stolen in 2011 as the metal value of its 80% copper reached $75,000. The bell was recovered at a salvage yard in West Oakland.
(SFC, 10/25/11, p.A8)(SFC, 10/27/11, p.C1)
1889 The first carousel was constructed in Golden Gate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1889 Willis Polk arrived in SF to help A. Page Brown design the Ferry Building.
(SFCM, 8/3/03, p.16)
1889 The San Francisco Examiner sent out reporter Allen Kelly to dispel the myth that grizzlies were extinct in California. After 3 months he saw only one and failed to capture it and was fired by Citizen Hearst via Western Union. Kelly later wrote “Bears I Have Met -- and Others.” He later found a bear captured on Gleason Mountain by a Mexican known as Mateo. The bear, named Monarch, was brought back to SF and housed in a “pleasure garden near Dolores and Market streets.”
(Pac. Disc., summer, ‘96, p.16,17)
1889 In San Francisco the Russian Orthodox Church and episcopal complex at 1713-15 Powell burned down. Some parishioners suspected that Bishop Vladimir had burned it down for insurance money. The bishop accused nihilists that included Dr. Russel, vice-president of the Greco-Russian-Slavonian Benevolent Society. Russel accused the bishop of being a pederast but prosecutors refused to pursue the case. In 1997 Terence Emmons authored “Alleged Sex and Threatened Violence: Doctor Russel, Bishop Vladimir, and the Russians in San Francisco, 1887-1892.”
(SFC, 4/19/14, p.C2)
1889 The California and Nevada Railroad came through Orinda.
(SFCM, 3/30/03, p.6)
1889 Drewes Bros. meat market opened on Church St.
(SFCM, 6/13/04, p.3)
1890 Jun 22, The SF Chronicle trumpeted its new 10-story building at Kearny and Market, the first steel-framed building in the West. It was designed by Burnham & Root of Chicago. In 1924 the Chronicle moved to its new building at Fifth and Mission. In 1962-1963 Home Mutual Savings and Loan draped the De Young Building at 690 Market in metal. In 2004 planned renovations included conversion to residential and hotel use.
(SFC, 3/17/04, p.C4)(SFC, 8/15/05, p.C5)(SFC, 1/17/09, p.E1)
1890 Aug 21, Bill Henry, newscaster (Who Said That?), was born in SF, Calif.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1890 The officer’s quarters at the Fort Point Coast Guard Station in the Presidio was built in Dutch Colonial Revival style.
(SFC, 4/25/01, WB p.4)
1890 The Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center was founded by Elizabeth Ashe and Alice Griffith as the city’s 1st settlement house for new immigrants. The 1st site was on Vallejo St. a year later it was moved to 1736 Stockton St.
(SFC, 6/1/01, WBb p.3)(SFC, 6/7/01, p.A17)
1890 Attorney William W. Stow, chief lobbyist for the Southern Pacific Railroad, was appointed president of the SF park commission. He had earlier lobbied for 20 years to reduce revenues for Golden Gate Park. Stow ordered John McLaren to proceed with a 1880 design for a reservoir on Strawberry Hill and a lake below.
(Ind, 10/28/00, 5A)
1890 John McLaren (d.1943) took over as Superintendent of Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A5)
1890 The newly organized South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company acquired titles to land around Baden and began to promote a new town. The capital stock was $2 million and the directors in the first year included: Gustavus J. Swift, Nelson Morris, E.G. Martin of Chicago, Peter E. Iler, Henry Miller, E.R. Lilienthal and Charles W. Smith of San Francisco.
(SSF, 1976, p.5)
1890s George M. Greene built the Trocadero Inn at Stern Grove. It had a restaurant, boating pavilion, beer garden, open-air dancing, a rowing lake, a trout farm, and a deer park. He closed it upon Prohibition.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.6)
1890-1957 The ferryboat Eureka served the SF Bay.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.A18)
1890s James Fair built a seawall as part of a plan to square off 70 acres of shallow waters to create an industrial park. The area remained under water until 1912 when it was filled in for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. The Marina Development Corp. later carved it into 634 residential lots.
(SFCM, 10/17/04, p.4)
1891 Jan 20, King David Kalakaua, sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands, died at the SF Palace Hotel.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C1)
1891 Feb 26, The 1st buffalo was purchased for Golden Gate Park in SF under John McLaren. A pair of bison, named Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, were settled in Golden Gate Park following reports that only 1000 were left in the US.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A18)(SC, 2/26/02)(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
1891 Mar 9, Burglars at the streetcar barns at Oak and Broderick poisoned 3 dogs. A monument to the dogs was erected, but disappeared following the earthquake and fire of 1906. The monument was found and restored in 1929.
(SFC, 4/23/04, p.F5)
1891 Apr 25, Pres. Benjamin Harrison visited SF.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1891 May 21, James J. Corbett fought Peter "Black Prince" Jackson (1861-1901), in a much-heralded bout between San Francisco cross-town rivals. Since Corbett and Jackson were boxing instructors at the two most prestigious athletic clubs. They fought to a draw after 61 rounds. Jackson had won the Australian heavyweight championship in 1886 and the British Empire title in 1892.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Corbett)
1891 Dec, In San Francisco Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee used a large crab pot for the 1st time at the Market St. ferry landing to solicit food for a charity Christmas dinner to feed poor dockworkers and sailors. The organization had come to the US in 1880.
(SFC, 12/1/04, p.A1)
1891 The Mills building went up at the Montgomery, Pine and Bush intersection. It was rebuilt in 1909.
(SSFM, 10/12/02, p.13)
1891 Archbishop Alemany moved the cathedral seat to Van Ness Ave. Old St. Mary’s on California St. became a parish church. St. Mary’s Cathedral on Van Ness was completed by contractor Owen Brady. It was destroyed by fire in 1962.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-10)(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)(SFC, 1/21/05, p.B10)
1891 Sweeney Observatory was dedicated in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1891 A California bond measure raised almost $1 million for the construction of the SF Ferry Building. It was designed by Arthur Page Brown and finished in 1898. Brown died before the building was completed [see 1875].
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.B1)
1891 The hay schooner Alma was built at San Francisco’s Hunters Point shipyard. In 1993 mariner Al Lutz (d.2010 at 55) took over the boat, the last survivor of the fleet of sailing schooners built to handle cargo on the SF Bay and the Sacramento River Delta.
(SFC, 7/5/10, p.C6)
1891 San Francisco’s California St. RR opened a crosstown cable car line on O’Farrell, Jones and Hyde with a Jones St. shuttle line that ran from O’Farrel five blocks to Market.
(SFC, 2/1/14, p.C3)
1891 In San Francisco brothers, Behrend and Isaac Joost, organized The San Francisco and San Mateo Railroad Company. The Joost line did not pay expenses and was sold at a foreclosure sale on April 11, 1896.
(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf079.asp)
1892 Jan 21, Samuel Marsden Brookes, English-born artist, died in SF. He emigrated to the US in 1833, settled in Chicago and moved to SF in 1862. He was a founder of the SF Art Association and the Bohemian Club.
(SFCM, 10/28/01, p.20)
1892 Mar, The Stanford and UC Berkeley football teams played their 1st “big game” in San Francisco at the Haight Street Grounds. Stanford won 14-0. Legend says that Herbert Hoover, Stanford manager and future US president, forgot the requisite football and caused a several hour game delay.
(SFEC,12/797, p.B12)(Ind, 11/10/01, 5A)
1892 May 28, The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1892 May 5, US Congress passed the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, which required Chinese in the United States to be registered and carry an identity card or face deportation. The Six Companies of San Francisco ordered all 110,000 immigrants to refuse compliance.
(AP, 5/5/97)(SSFC, 6/3/07, p.M5)
1892 Jun 4, The Sierra Club was incorporated in San Francisco.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/97)
1892 Dec 17, The Stanford and UC Berkeley football teams played their 2nd “big game” in San Francisco at the Haight Street Grounds. They tied 10-10. The annual games continued in SF until 1904.
(Ind, 11/10/01, 5A)
1892 Douglas Tilden made his bronze sculpture “Tired Boxer.” His other work included the Mechanics Monument and Fountain at Bush and Market streets, the California Volunteers at Market and Dolores, Admission Day at Market and Post, as well as Father Junipero Serra and the Baseball Player, which were originally in Golden Gate Park. Mildred Albronda (d.1998 at 86) wrote his definitive biography.
(SFC, 1/24/98, p.A13)(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A19)
1892 The Audiffred Building was built at Mission and the Embarcadero.
(SFC, 4/21/05, p.B1)
1892 In SF the Trinity Episcopal Church at Bush and Gough was completed. It was based on England’s Durham Cathedral. The church was originally established in 1849. In 2009 the main sanctuary was mothballed due to seismic issues and the lack of funds for repair.
(SFEM, 8/9/98, p.27)(SFC, 5/29/09, p.B1)
1892 Lloyd Lake was created in Goldengate Park.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A6)
1892 A trolley line from SF reached Daly’s Hill.
(LaPen, 12/86, p.5)
1892 John H. Baird, a San Francisco capitalist, subdivided and sold a set of lots along Haight Street, site of the Haight Street Grounds sports field.
(Randolph Delehanty "S.F., The Ultimate Guide", p. 252)
1892 Hibernia Bank set up headquarters in a temple-style building at 1 Jones St. and Market near the SF Civic Center. In 2008 the building ,vacant since 2000, was sold for $3.95 million.
(SFC, 3/25/05, p.F2)(SFC, 9/11/08, p.B1)
1892 Alice Eastwood moved to SF and became co-curator at the Academy of Sciences.
(PacDis, Winter ’97, p.26)
1892 Sarah Althea Hill, former mistress of William Sharon, was arrested in SF and charged with being irrational. She was deemed insane and committed to an asylum in Stockton, where she died in 1937.
(Ind, 7/1/00,5A)
1892 Mr. Crowley began a maritime operation on the Bay with an $80 rowboat that grew to become the giant Crowley Maritime Corp.
(SFC, 8/15/00, p.C8)
1892 The US Navy cruiser Olympia was built in San Francisco. It served as the flagship of Commodore George Dewey’s fleet that defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. In 1957 it became a museum ship in Philadelphia.
(SFC, 7/11/12, p.A1)
Go to 1893-1929
