Timeline San Francisco to 1892
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The city 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)
There are 43 named hills in SF. Mount Davidson is the highest
at 938 ft.
(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 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 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 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, The Californian and
the California Star merged and began publishing as The Star and
Californian.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
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, The Star and
Californian newspaper changed its name to the Alta California.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)
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 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)
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 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)
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1893-1929
