 Andrew Hallidie and Horses The story goes like this: Andrew Hallidie once saw a team of horses, while pulling a tram up the Clay Street Hill, fall to the cobblestones, exhausted and injured. Deeply moved by the incident, Hallidie became determined to develop a system to save the noble beasts from further fatal exertion. Voilá (so the story goes)! The Cable Car is born. Evidence: Hallidie's first cable car descended the Clay Street Hill at 5:00 am (so no one would get hurt in case it didn't work) on the morning of August 2nd, 1873 (well recorded in newspapers of the time). But what really happened here? Things you should know: • Andrew Smith, the mechanical genius who originated cable r..... |
• Carleton Watkins - Photographing Early California  Carleton Watkins - Photographing Early CaliforniaCarleton Watkins was an early photographer who captured the Western landscapes, new cities, and industries. He photographed burgeoning San Francisco, land baron estates, Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Pacific coast, and mining and rail operations. His photographs of Yosemite, seen by few people at the time, encouraged Abraham Lincoln to sign a bill which was the forerunner for the National Park System. Considered one of the best landscape photographers, he made thousands of majestic images. However, Watkins had financial problems, and many of his photographs (including many in the San Francisco History Center collection) are attributed to other people who acquire..... |
 Henry Wager HalleckAs a follow-up to last month's excellent history of the Montgomery Block, it is appropriate to consider the life and career of Henry Halleck, the builder of the Block. He is memorialized by a statue in Golden Gate Park, by Halleck Street between Leidesdorff and Front Streets, and by Halleck Street in the Presidio, from Lincoln Blvd. to Crissy Field. The Halleck monument stands on the south side of JFK Drive in the Park, near the tennis courts, perennially shaded by a grove of coast live oak trees and a towering cypress. The inscription on the monument reads "Tribute To His Memory, from his best friend, Gen. George Callum, 1886." The sculptor was Carl Conrads..... |
• Norton I, Famous for Being Well-Known  Norton I, Famous for Being Well-KnownCelebrity is a capricious state in that, while many seek the public eye, few catch and hold it. Consider Joshua Norton, the self-styled Emperor of the United States and erstwhile Protector of Mexico. The fast and easy analysis–maybe crazy, maybe not so crazy, but everybody in San Francisco loved him just the same! The Cranky Historian suggests that a closer look helps explain this supposedly universal municipal "love." A few well-documented facts: • Joshua Norton was a successful merchant in the gold rush and a member of the first Vigilance Committee. • He lost all when the bottom fell out of the rice market. • He returned to public attention after..... |
 Jesse Benton FremontShe is thought to be the real author behind the successful writings of John C. Fremont (general, senator, presidential candidate, and the Pathfinder of the West) describing his explorations. Jesse Benton Fremont (1824– 1902), Fremont's wife, was also the daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a leading advocate of Manifest Destiny, a political movement pushing expansion to the West. And in her event-filled life, some of her happiest times were at her house in San Francisco's Black Point area, now known as Fort Mason. The Fremonts lived there between 1860 and 1861. The prop- erty included three sides of the point, and Jesse described..... |
• Betty de Losada: How We Got Our Name Betty de Losada:
How We Got Our Name When Betty de Losada died in 2010—her obituary listed her union affiliation, work for the San Francisco Unified School District, and her twenty-year tenure on the Landmarks Board. Betty was also co-founding “mother” of the San Francisco Victorian Alliance, and she made a mark on City Guides too. She coined the name!
It was sometime in November 1977; I was starting a volunteer program for people with day jobs who loved San Francisco, revered our history, and wanted an active role in showing it off. I had a powerful group of advisors including Knox Mellon the State Historic Preservation Officer, Beverly Bubar from the California Historical Society, John Langelier from the Presidio M..... |
• James Lick, Miser and Philanthropist  James Lick, Miser and PhilanthropistMiserly, selfish, reclusive, “touched in the head,” – but absolutely honest and an astute business-man. This is what James Lick’s contemporaries thought of the eccentric, disagreeable Gold Rush pioneer who, at the end of his long life, astonished them by using his millions to benefit his adopted state. Lick’s Beginnings Born in rural Pennsylvania in 1796, James Lick learned fine cabinetmaking from his father, and from his mother inherited a passion for gardening. He fell in love with the daughter of the local miller, and when she became pregnant with his child he sought her hand in marriage. The rude rebuff he received from her father would mark Lick for life: the wealthy miller ridicu..... |
• Adolph Sutro Travels to California (Part 1)  Adolph Sutro Travels to California (Part 1)Young Adolph Sutro, barely twenty years old, arrived in New York from Prussia in October 1850. He was the first of his band of seven brothers to arrive, and the second oldest. After learning all he could about the Gold Rush from the California-bound gold-seekers, the brash but perceptive Adolph decided abruptly, just a few days after his arrival, to go to California. He boarded the steamer Cherokee on October 12th. The first of his many letters to his brothers is dated Wednesday, October 30, from Panama; they assumed he was still in New York. (The voluminous letters, edited and paired with unattributed translations from the German, are found in the collection of the Sutro Library in San ..... |
• San Francisco's Shanghai Kelly  San Francisco's Shanghai KellyIn the black trade of “shanghaiing” sailors from San Francisco’s Barbary Coast, one man’s infamous villainy earned him the label “King of the Crimps.” Known by all as Shanghai Kelly, he was a short, slovenly, man with unkempt flaming red hair and beard and a fierce temper. Born James Kelly in Ireland in 1820, he joined the Gold Rush to California in 1848. Kelly soon set himself up in business with a sailors’ boardinghouse at 33 Pacific Street, the heart of the Barbary Coast. This was the perfect set-up for his real money-maker, filling the “orders” of sea captains desperate for sailors to man their ships sailing on from San Francisco. In the years after the Gold Rush, with hundreds of shi..... |
• Isadora Duncan’s San Francisco  Isadora Duncan’s San FranciscoIsadora Duncan is considered the mother of Modern Dance. Her dance movements were borrowed from Ancient Greece, and she danced in flowing costumes, bare feet, and loose hair—revolutionary at the time. Although she created her reputation in Europe and Russia, Isadora Duncan started in San Francisco. She was born Dora Angela Duncan in 1877 and baptized at Old St. Mary’s Church on California Street. Her family home at 501 Taylor Street near Geary was adjacent to a vacant lot where they kept their cow. The present day building on the site hosts a commemorative plaque. Isadora’s maternal grandfather, Colonel Thomas Gray, was a California State senator and established the first ferry between ..... |
• West side known as city's playground  West side known as city's playground(Reprinted from the Sunset Beacon, August 2014) The Richmond and Sunset neighborhoods are often seen as sleepy, quiet communities for families, immigrants, surfers and college students. People from outside the area rarely visit for entertainment unless they are attending a concert in Golden Gate Park or spending the day at the beach on a rare warm day. However, this part of the City has changed dramatically since San Francisco's early days. At one point, it was a hotbed for amusement and leisure. On the evening of July 15, the SF Public Library hosted a lecture at the Anza Branch about the area's history. Presenting a slideshow titled "The Outside Lands: A History of Ent..... |
• San Francisco's Old Clam House on the Lost Waterfront  San Francisco's Old Clam House on the Lost WaterfrontThe Old Clam House, opened in 1861, is one of the oldest restaurants in San Francisco. Located on the corner of Bayshore Boulevard and Oakdale Avenue, it has also been called the Clam House and Oakdale Bar. When it opened, the restaurant was on the waterfront, sitting on Islais Creek which flowed into San Francisco Bay, and surrounded by a shallow marshy estuary. At that time, the restaurant was connected to downtown San Francisco by two wood-planked roads. Within ten years the marsh was filled in, more than 100 buildings were constructed on piles over the creek, and the area became known as New Butchertown. After the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, even more debris was dumped into the marsh. ..... |
 ALBA Bay Area Connection
In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a military uprising to overthrow the elected government of Spain. In response, the International Brigades – 40,000 volunteers from fifty countries – went to Spain to fight for democracy. The Americans who joined the fight were known as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. But Franco had the support of Hitler and Mussolini, and in April of 1939 he gained control of Spain. Five months later the Nazis invaded Poland and World War II began. As is true for many Americans, my knowledge of the Spanish Civil War was minimal, gained primarily through the work of Ernest Hemingway and other writers of the 1930s – that is until my cousin, Julia Newman, made several trips..... |
• Adolph Sutro in Panama (Part 2)  Adolph Sutro in Panama (Part 2)In Jack Leibman's series of articles culled from Sutro’s letters - here he takes up the tale of Sutro’s journey to San Francisco after the steamer Cherokee from New York deposits him in the port of Chagres on the Caribbean coast of Panama. As always, Adolph provides vivid descriptions of his experiences. The exotic natives of Chagres in Panama number about 1500 and seem to be a mixture of brown and black. "They are very lazy and passionately fond of smoking, especially the women. Nearly every girl has a cigar in her mouth or sticks it behind her ear like a pen. Men and women are clad from the hips down or not at all, and have no shame. Some women are dressed in fine ..... |
 Chagres TravelersPeople bound for California from New York or New Orleans generally sailed to the port of Chagres in Panama, then traveled overland 60 miles through jungle and over mountains to reach the Pacific Ocean and await a ship to transport them north. The harbor was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502. For three centuries under Spanish rule, the village was considered unhealthy and unruly. When tens of thousands of gold-seekers landed there on their way to California, the village did not have the resources—including sanitation or police—to handle all the people. The biggest dangers included robbery and insect- and water-born diseases such as Chagres or Panama fever (yellow fever), malaria,..... |
• Adolph Sutro Slogs Through Panama (Part 3)  Adolph Sutro Slogs Through Panama (Part 3)This is the third in a series of articles tracing German immigrant Adolph Sutro’s 1850 journey by ship from New York to California via the isthmus of Panama. City Guide Jack Leibman has drawn this description from Sutro’s letters found in the collection of the Sutro Library. His tale resumes after he has spent a miserable night in a canoe, besieged by mosquitoes and drenched by rain. Today's scenery again features thick forests, trees lying across the river, and isolated huts. At noon, a “disgusting” lunch table is encountered, covered with flies, little worms, and ants. Then a terrible drenching thunderstorm occurs before the next station, which is furnished with two huts. Abou..... |
• Baroness von Schroeder, Rambling Bits of History  Baroness von Schroeder, Rambling Bits of HistoryThis article began as a search to learn more about Baroness von Schroeder, the developer of a Mission district residential area. Her trail proved to intersect with many of the movers and shakers of San Francisco at the turn of the last century. Between 1889 and 1894, Baroness Mary Ellen von Schroeder developed 27 houses on South Van Ness (then called Howard Street) between 22nd and 23rd Streets and the backing lots with houses facing Capp Street. Designed by architect Thomas J. Welsh (1845-1918), the Eastlake or American Stick style houses sold for around $5,000. Many of the existing houses have the original flash glass—small colored glass squares surrounding the main window pane. Welsh d..... |
 Mark Twain at the BancroftThe Mark Twain Papers and Project at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library is converting the works of Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens) into HTML files, making Twain’s work available electronically and for web searches. The Twain Project is translating all of Mark Twain's surviving private papers and published works, including notebooks, letters, unpublished manuscripts, drafts, deleted chapters of published books, essays, newspaper columns, editorials, and speeches. There are approximately 27,000 letters, 150 books from his library (many with notes written in the margins), clippings, scrapbooks, interviews, bills, checks, and photographs. The Project is converting not only items in the ..... |
 Honest Harry MeiggsOf the many dreamers, promoters, and con men who built Gold Rush San Francisco, perhaps none was as hard-working and well-liked as Henry “Honest Harry” Meiggs. Born in 1811 in New York, by his mid-twenties Harry had managed, through his own energy and abilities, to purchase a lumber mill in present-day Brooklyn. Caught by a business downturn in the 1840s, Meiggs joined the throngs heading West. But before departing, the resourceful lumberman used his remaining funds to purchase a sailing vessel and load it up with lumber to ship around the Horn. Arriving in San Francisco in January 1849, he fetched a fabulous price for his cargo. With his profits he built a sawmill and a small wharf..... |
• Adolph Sutro Arrives in SF (Part 4)  Adolph Sutro Arrives in SF (Part 4)City Guide Jack Leibman, a volunteer at the Sutro Library, has been sharing with GuideLines readers descriptions from the letters of German immigrant Adolph Sutro about his 1850 journey from New York to San Francisco. The previous installment featured Sutro’s description of his dreadful passage across the isthmus of Panama. In this fourth and final installment, Sutro, after further adventures, at last reaches his destination. After six steamy, disagreeable days in Panama, on November 1, 1850, for $300, Adolph boarded the California bound..... |
• San Francisco's Divas of the Past  San Francisco's Divas of the PastToday's headlines-making pop stars have nothing on their predecessors. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, colorful entertainers graced the stages of San Francisco: Lola Montez, who could have served as the inspiration for the song from Damn Yankees, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets," was famous for performing her Spider Dance, a provocative performance based on the notion that spiders were crawling on her body under her clothing. As she twirled and writhed around the stage, rubber spiders came flying out. Born Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in Ireland, Lola married and separated at a young age and became a noted courtesan, mistress to Franz Liszt and Ludwig I of Bava..... |
• Talbot Green and His Green Street  Talbot Green and His Green Street Running from the Embarcadero to the Presidio, Green Street was named in William Eddy’s 1849 survey of San Francisco. But just who is the Green of Green Street? Like many of San Francisco’s earliest settlers, he was not who he seemed. Talbot Green came west in the spring of 1841 in the first immigrant party to travel over the Sierras to California. The arduous journey of this group of forty-eight settlers who set off together from Independence, Missouri, was chronicled in the diary kept by their secretary, John Bidwell. After surviving the grueling journey, Green traveled to Monterey and joined Thomas Larkin as a junior partner, conducting business on Larkin’s behalf in Los Angeles and ..... |
• Goats on Goat Island in San Francisco  Goats on Goat Island in San FranciscoGoat Island – now called Yerba Buena Island – is located halfway between San Francisco and Oakland. This piece of land has had a number of names, most referring to its inhabitants. José de Canizares, believed to be the first European to sail through the Golden Gate, named it Isla del Carmen in 1776. Apparently that name never stuck, because the locals referred to it as Sea Bird, Wood, and Yerba Buena (for the mint plant growing all over the island). When people started settling in California after the Gold Rush, there were a large number of goats brought to the island by squatters – hence the name Goat Island. The first California legislature, when passing an act establishing t..... |
 San Francisco's BirthdayJune 29, 1776—just a few days before the signing of the Declaration of Independence a continent away in Philadelphia—is celebrated as the official birthday of San Francisco. It was on this date that the Spaniards celebrated their first mass under a temporary shelter at the site of the future Mission Dolores. In March of that year, a Spanish scouting party under Captain Juan Bautista de Anza had determined the sites for a future presidio overlooking the entrance to the bay and, in a sheltered valley to the southeast, a mission. They named the small stream and lake where the mission was to be built Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Lake of our Lady of Sorrows). De Anza’s advance..... |
• Diana Statue in Sutro Heights Park  Diana Statue in Sutro Heights ParkDiana the Huntress…Artemis. If you have been on our Lands End: Sutro Highs and Lows tour, you have seen this statue at Sutro Heights, the park located in the northwest corner of San Francisco near Ocean Beach. It was once the home of Adolph Sutro, Comstock Silver Baron, San Francisco mayor, land developer, and builder of Sutro Baths and the second, most grandiose Cliff House. Sutro loved statues, and at one time had 200 surrounding the grounds and niches on the cliffs above Ocean Beach. Only two original statues remain--the Stag and Diana the Huntress. In addition, gracing the entrance gates are copies of the original Lions that were replaced after they deteriorated. Sutro collected thes..... |
 Graffiti in San FranciscoCity Guide's North Beach by Night guides are saddened every time they lead walkers past the marvelous mural on Romolo Place off Broadway between Columbus and Kearny. Created by artist Ann Sherry in 1994, the 200-foot-long mural entitled “Gold Mountain” depicts the history of the Chinese in San Francisco. It includes such Chinatown icons as Donaldina Cameron, who rescued Chinese girls forced into prostitution, Edsel Ford Fong, the famously rude waiter at Sam Wo’s restaurant, and Betty Ong, a flight attendant on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center on 9/11, who was painted into the mural in 2003. Chinatown native Betty Ong, a flight attendant whose plane was flown into the World Tr..... |
• Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree in San Francisco  Lola Montez and Lotta Crabtree in San FranciscoElizabeth Rosanna Gilbert (1821-1861) was notorious. The dancer and actress was well-known for her lovers, including King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Franz Liszt. As one biographer said, she was an incorrigible liar, and many of the fantastic stories about her life were probably started by her. The biggest fantasy was her name. She was born in Ireland and traveled to Spain while being sued for adultery and divorce in England. She returned to England the next year pretending to be Spanish royalty with the name Maria Dolores de Porris y Montez—familiarly called Lola. But what is fact is that she came to San Francisco in May 1853, quickly married a man she met on the ship, moved to Grass Valley..... |
• Black Bart and Clean Handkerchiefs  Black Bart and Clean Handkerchiefs
Charles Bowles – aka Charles Bolton, C. E. Boles, Black Bart, and Po8 – robbed twenty-seven Wells Fargo stagecoaches between 1875 and 1883. A resident of Second Street in San Francisco, he would travel to Stockton, California, walk into the mountains, and later appear on roads where stagecoaches traveled. After each robbery, he left behind a poem. Black Bart wore a light-colored overgarment covering his clothes, a flour sack over his head, and a derby hat on top of it. His first poem, written on a waybill and left weighted by a stone on top of a tree stump, appeared after Bart robbed a stage in Sonoma County. "I've labored long and hard for bread and honor and for riches But on my c..... |
• San Francisco Armory in the Mission  San Francisco Armory in the MissionCity Guides offers three different tours in the Mission. None venture remotely near the hulking ugly pseudo-Moorish Armory building at 1800 Mission Street. With clinker brick exteriors, four octagonal towers, and 200,000 square feet of space, this forbidding structure was built in 1912-14 as an arsenal for the US National Guard, replacing one in the Western Addition destroyed in 1906. Its ultimate cost, including land, was $500,000. Besides its official function as a military training and storage facility, it was used frequently for sporting events and prizefights. Said to be the largest building of architectural importance in the Mission, it has the largest unsupported enclosed volu..... |
 The Irish in San FranciscoI am the granddaughter of four Irish immigrants. They all came to the United States in the early 1900s, part of the wave of Irish immigrants who came to the United States because of the political unrest in Ireland during her struggle for independence from England. My mother’s parents first settled in Oakland and later in San Francisco, and my father’s parents lived in Los Angeles. They all came to California by way of the transcontinental railroad. They were sponsored by relatives who were already living here, and when they were able, they themselves sponsored other relatives from Ireland. I grew up in San Francisco very conscious of my Irish roots. We would celebrate St. Patrick’s..... |
• San Francisco State Normal School -1903- A Personal History  San Francisco State Normal School
-1903- A Personal History Pictured here is the San Francisco State Normal School in 1903 and after the earthquake and fire of 1906. What was to become today’s San Francisco State University opened in 1899 in this rented building located on Powell between Clay and Sacramento Streets. Of the plain stone structure, which had previously served as a church and as Boys’ High School, one faculty member wrote, “It would be difficult to locate another normal school building that was as old, inconvenient, or depressing.” Following is the story of one of the first graduates of San Francisco State Normal School and her connection to two extraordinary San Franciscans. My grandma was privileged to know and le..... |
• Ella Castelhun - A Lesser Known Woman Architect  Ella Castelhun - A Lesser Known Woman ArchitectIn 1901, the State of California adopted a law that required all practicing architects to be licensed, either demonstrating their experience in the field of architecture or passing an exam and fulfilling requirements in education and experience. Julia Morgan was the first woman to appear on the roster of licensed architects, receiving license number B344 in 1904. The second woman licensed to practice architecture in California was Ella Castelhun, who received license B358 in 1905. In contrast to Morgan, she remains little known. Unfortunately, her file is not available at the State of California Architects Board. The last record of her architectural career is her inclusion in the 1920 r..... |
• San Francisco Coffee Roasters  San Francisco Coffee RoastersCoffee is one of the most exported commodities in the world. It originated in Yemen and by the 1400s trading brought it to Africa, Arabia, and the Mediterranean. After achieving popularity in Europe in the 1600s, “the Wine of Araby” traveled to America, where by the end of that century it overtook beer as the favorite breakfast drink. During the Mexican-American War in 1846, it was a ration for soldiers. Traders spread coffee to other hot climate growing areas, including the East and West Indies. And just like the Gold Rush immigrants traveling to California, green coffee beans also came by ship. San Francisco became a center for coffee roasting businesses, with coffee a main part of t..... |
• Memories of Early City Guide Days Memories of Early City Guide Days Joining City Guides in the first training class in 1978, I wanted to share my love of San Francisco history. I had absolutely no idea how the City Guides would affect my life and the lives of so many others! I’ve made life-long friends; had some once-in-a-lifetime experiences; and always have been thankful for, and proud of what the City Guides do! My favorite stories are about some of the wonderful people who made up the volunteer corps throughout the early years. After the first few years of establishing our reputation and relationships with other city groups, during the early 80s it felt like some free spirit was unleashed. Judith Lynch gave a Noe Valley by Full Moon walk that was lov..... |
• A Remarkable Life: Alice Marble  A Remarkable Life: Alice MarbleProbably the best-known sports star who lived in the Sunset District as a child was Alice Marble. She was a great tennis player whose life story had more twists and turns than many movie scripts. Marble was born on September 28, 1913, in the northern California town of Beckwourth. Her family moved to San Francisco’s Sunset District at 1619 12th Avenue when Alice was five. Her father died within the year, and Alice’s mother was left to raise five children alone. As a young child, Marble was always interested in sports, especially baseball. She wrote in her memoir that she and her brother Tim attended SF Seals games, going early “so we could play catch in the bleachers before the game..... |
 Crocker’s Spite FenceIf you look up “spite fence” in the Wikipedia you will read: “A spite fence is an overly tall fence typically constructed between adjacent lots by a property owner who is annoyed with, or wishes to annoy, a neighbor or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots.” Just below the definition you see a picture of the top of Nob Hill before 1906 that includes one of the most famous (or shall we say infamous?) spite fences ever built. picture1right300 The story has been told a number of ways, but generally goes like this. Charles Crocker, one of the “Big Four” partners in the Central Pacific Railroad, had become a multi- millionaire and wanted to build a mansion at the to..... |
 John W. GearyThe following are excerpts from Rand Richards’ newest book, Mud, Blood and Gold - San Francisco in 1849. All throughout the year 1849, thousands of people poured into San Francisco “like bees to a swarming.” One of those was John White Geary. Geary, for whom Geary Boulevard and Street are named, spent only three years in San Francisco but he looms large in the City’s early history. picture1left300 Geary was born in western Pennsylvania in 1819. His penniless father died when he was 14, forcing young Geary to leave school to work to support his widowed mother. He put himself through college and studied law and civil engineering. During the Mexican War, he served as a ..... |
• Izzy Gomez’ Café in San Francisco  Izzy Gomez’ Café in San FranciscoPortuguese-born Isadore Gomez was a Barbary Coaster with a different tack than most. Izzy always followed his heart rather than a quick buck. He opened Isadore Gomez’ Café in 1930 at 848 Pacific Street, a somewhat rundown café focusing on the new Bohemian movement and its artists. Three principles ruled Izzy’s life: “When you don’t know what to say, say nothing”; “Life is a long road, take it easy”; “When you come to a pool of water on that long road, don’t make it muddy; maybe you’ll pass there again, and you’ll be thirsty.” Izzy’s Café was a gathering place for aspiring artists. Famed writer William Saroyan, himself a regular at Izzy’s, immortalized the place, its characters and the..... |
• Stockton and Kearny, Ending at Mason  Stockton and Kearny, Ending at MasonThere is no such intersection. Stockton and Kearny, like their street names, pursued parallel courses - but eventually collided and ended at odds. Both streets start at Market Street, but Kearny ends at Telegraph Hill, while Stockton, befitting its namesake, runs to the Embarcadero. Unlike their streets, the two men did intersect rather uncomfortably and ignominiously during the taking of California, and later at the sensational court-martial of John Frémont in Washington. Commodore Robert Stockton arrived in Monterey to replace the retiring Commodore Sloat, who had just occupied Monterey. This was a crucial moment in California history in July 1846, shortly after the declaration of war ..... |
• David Warren and the Suicide Club  David Warren and the Suicide Club“Members must agree to set their worldly affairs in order to enter into the REAL world of chaos, cacophony, and dark saturnalia, and they must further agree to live each day as though it were their last, for it may BE. The club will explore the untravelled, exotic, miasmal, and exhilarating experiences of life: deserted cemeteries, storms, caving, haunted houses, Nazi bars, fanatical movements, hot air ballooning, stunts, exposes, impersonation. The Club will be ongoing for the rest of our lives.” This was the agreement among the founding members of the San Francisco Suicide Club in 1977. One of those founders, and a long-time friend of City Guides, David Warren, died in Januar..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 1  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 1Isabelle Walton Lusk wrote her memoir in the 1920s, when she was in her 90's, about traveling to California. Her great-grandson, Eric Bennion, heard from his mother that Isabelle was looking for her lost father who disappeared somewhere near Nicaragua on the journey back to Bangor, Maine. Other relatives intimated that she was actually not looking for Dad, but for treasure he supposedly buried in California. More likely, thinks Eric, she just did not want to be the daughter who was assigned caretaker of her mother - and took her opportunity to escape Maine. Her memoir will be published in GuideLines in installments. Part 1 - Isabelle Prepares to Travel On October 16..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 2  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 2This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusk’s memoir. She journeyed from Bangor, Maine to the California Sierras. In Part 1, Isabelle described herself and her trip preparations. Part 2 - Isabelle Meets her Chaperon and Travels to New York So with my two trunks, my [several] hundred dollars, [I traveled over the Maine countryside] on the 23rd of November 1856 for California. I took a steamer to Belfast where I met my chaperon, Mrs. Lucille Barnard.(1) She with her two bo..... |
 Sewer WalkEven now, nearly 30 years later, it's difficult to define the Suicide Club, but certainly challenging mindless tradition was one goal. So was balancing "the hype" - providing an alternative platform for thoughts on current events. And, of course, there were adventures that conquer fears. On this particular night, we all dressed up, in tuxedos and ballgowns, with rubber waders, and gathered on Grove Street at the entrance to Davies Hall where we mingled with the "swells" who were arriving for the symphony opening night performance. We watched as the line of limos disgorged their satin- and lace-wrapped riders; waved as they dashed up the steps and into the concert hall. Then we turned t..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 3  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 3In the first two parts of Isabelle Walton's memoir, she traveled from Maine to New York City, and was separated from her chaperon on the way to their hotel. She mistakenly went to the luxury hotel Astor House, while Lucille Barnard was at another hotel. Part 3 - Isabelle dines at the Astor House, meets her future husband I sat a moment and said do you think it is possible they took Mrs. Barnard to another hotel? That might be, or my coach took me to another hotel. I asked quickly what hotel is this? "Why, this is the Astor House," [said Mrs. Ashley]. [I thought], I suppose their coach will take me to the [steamer]. [She also said], "The city is full of ..... |
 Mary Ellen PleasantAlmost 100 years before Rosa Parks, San Francisco resident Mary Ellen Pleasant sued a local transportation company for not letting her and other African Americans ride. She won. picture1left250 Many details of Ms. Pleasant’s life are open to question, but what is certain, and recorded in a plaque at the corner of Octavia and Bush streets, is that she was a tireless worker for civil rights and a great entrepreneur. The Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial Park, the smallest park in San Francisco, consists of six enormous eucalyptus blue gum trees marching down Octavia Street, remaining from the twenty she planted. The trees are landmarked by the City of San Francisco. The site was chosen b..... |
• City Guides Named in Sponsor's Will City Guides Named in Sponsor's Will Mary "Micki" Ryan loved San Francisco's history and the local organizations which celebrate it. She found an important way to provide long-term support for issues about which she was passionate: she created a will and trust that reflected her desire to support City Guides. Ten years before her death in July 2009, Micki took steps to demonstrate her love of the city's history by naming City Guides as one of several beneficiaries of a trust. The trust provided that the money from the sale of her home was to be distributed to the beneficiaries. As a result of Micki's generosity, City Guides recently received the largest donation in our history. Micki demonstrated her interest in "giving ..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 4  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 4Twenty-one year old Isabelle Walton traveled from Maine to California, and wrote this memoir in her 90s. In Parts 1-3, Isabelle wrote about preparing for her trip, meeting her traveling companion, dining in New York, and meeting Mr. Salmon Lusk. You can see the earlier parts on the City Guides website. Part 4 - Boarding the Ship People were falling over Mrs. Barnard's carpetbag and jostling us right and left trying to find their staterooms [on the steam ship]. I found ours at last. We were so far in, what is called the aft.(1) Light filtered through from a small porthole in the side of the ship. |
• Leonard Borchardt's “Oofty Goofty”  Leonard Borchardt's “Oofty Goofty”Leonard Borchardt's first glimpse of America was brief. The fourteen year old stowaway from Berlin was discovered en route to the new world by the Captain of the SS Fresia. He was forced to stay on the ship, join the crew to earn his passage, return to Germany and back again to the United States, before being allowed to disembark in New York. From there Borchardt drifted from state to state before signing up for the U.S. Cavalry in Detroit. After learning he would be fighting Native American Indians who might scalp him - Borchardt deserted, sold his horse and gun to a farmer, and headed for San Francisco. He arrived in 1884 at the age of 22. Borchardt would try any crazy scheme for..... |
Betty de Losada San Francisco lost a friend, and City Guides lost an avid supporter: Betty de Losada died recently. Her obituary barely did her credit by listing her union affiliation, her work for the SF Unified School District, and her twenty-year tenure on the Landmarks Board. Betty was a co-founding “mother” of the San Francisco Victorian Alliance, a group active in historic preservation for more than 38 years. Betty made a mark on City Guides too - she coined the name! It was sometime in November 1977; I was starting a volunteer program for people with day jobs who loved San Francisco, revered our history, and wanted an active role in showing it off. I had a powerful group of advisors includin..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 5  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 5In her 90s, Isabelle Lusk wrote about her journey from Maine to California. At the time of her writing, she had lost her sight and much of her hearing. As she wrote her memoir on a manual typewriter, using onionskin paper, she often did not hear the carriage return bell. She typed over many of her remembrances and parts of this memoir are lost. In Parts 1-4, Isabelle described her background and trip preparations, meeting her traveling companion, and finding her way to the steamship. You can find the earlier installments on the City Guides website. Part 5 - Off to Panama When the dinner bell rang, Henry was sound asleep but little Charley was wakeful. I told [Mrs. Barnard..... |
• Coffee Dan’s - Most Popular SF Speakeasy  Coffee Dan’s - Most Popular SF SpeakeasyNo one should forget San Francisco’s riotous Coffee Dan’s. The original club opened in 1879 as a cabaret located in the basement below Daniel Davis’ restaurant on the southeast corner of Sutter and Kearny. After the earthquake and fire of 1906, Dan moved his club to Powell and O’Farrell Streets. Like its predecessor, it opened for breakfast, serving customers long past dinner with entertainers that belied the apparent low station of the café. Posh city magazine The Wasp proclaimed Coffee Dan’s the rendezvous for San Francisco’s elite in their May 20, 1916 issue. picture1left250 Dan died in 1917 and son John Davis took over management. It was Prohibition and Coffee Dan’s was now..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 6  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 6Over the last year GuideLines has been publishing the memoir of Isabelle Walton Lusk. She traveled from Maine to California when she was 21, and wrote this memoir in her 90s. You can read the previous installments on the City Guides website where she describes meeting her chaperon Mrs. Lucille Barnard, arriving at the wrong hotel in New York, and being rescued from a hooped skirt mishap by the man who would become her husband (she refers to him as My Knight.) In this part, Isabelle has boarded the steamship that will take her to the Panama Railroad. Part 6 - Life on the Ship It seemed we were overloaded. Our steamer was only allowed nine hundred passengers a..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 7  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 7In earlier episodes Isabelle traveled by steam ship from Bangor to New York City, freshened up (accidentally) at the exclusive Astor Hotel, and met her future husband while getting stuck in her hooped skirt exiting a coach (apparently one of the reasons this fashion never really took hold.) From that point on she refers to Mr. Lusk as My Knight. In the last episode she described her traveling companions on the steam ship to Panama; and she continues in this part. You can read Parts 1 - 6 on the City Guides website. In 1856 more women and children were traveling to California. One man stated during this period, "The greatest annoyance on board the ship is the number of babies and ch..... |
• A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 8  A Trip to California in 1856 - Part 8This article is a continuation of Isabelle Walton Lusk's memoir about traveling from Maine to California. Even though steam ships did not depend on wind, weather was still important for smooth traveling. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of his trip on a steamer. "I was in the forward part of the vessel where all the great waves struck and broke with voices of thunder. In the next room to mine, a man died. I was afraid that they might throw me overboard instead of him in the night."(1) Part 8 - Coal Stop in Kingston, JamaicaWe soon [traveled] down to where it was beginning to be hot, and poor Mrs. Bernard almost suffocated w..... |
 The Missing Mission LakeWell…..we are all embarrassed about this. The Mission Dolores Neighborhood and Mission guides held a special workshop with Christopher Richard. He is the Associate Curator of Aquatic Biology at the Oakland Museum of California, and has researched what he thinks is the story of the San Francisco mission founded on the shores of a "now-vanished" lake. Guides have all been telling our walkers about this lake on the Mission tours. He thinks it is a misconception. In his research, Christopher has come to the conclusion that there was no lake where Mission Dolores was founded. He has arrived at the position that:
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• Dolly Adams, the Water Queen  Dolly Adams, the Water QueenCurt Gentry's sources, in his wonderful volume The Madams of San Francisco: An Irreverent History of the City by the Bay, confused a woman named Dolly Adams - the Water Queen, with a woman named Dolly Ogden - who started up one of the Tenderloin's early parlor houses.(1) In her brief time Dolly Adams became the more famous of the two, but even though they were both active members of the demi-monde, her fame was for her performances under water rather than under the sheets. Who was she? She was born Ellen Loretta Callahan around 1860 in New York. She was the fourth of at least 10 children, all of them girls except one boy. Her paren..... |
• Pied Piper Returns to Palace  Pied Piper Returns to PalacePublic reaction was swift and vocal when the Palace Hotel in March announced plans to sell its Maxfield Parrish painting “The Pied Piper” at Christie’s auction house. Twitter feeds streamed, online petitions popped up, and the hotel switchboard began buzzing relentlessly. Even San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee called, asking hotel management to reconsider. picture1left600 How could a “mere” painting generate such passion and affection? The main reason probably is its longevity. It’s been hanging behind the bar at the hotel since 1909, with a brief interruption during Prohibition when it moved to a ballroom after the bar was closed. The painting returned to the bar a..... |
• Literary Industries: Chasing a Vanishing West  Literary Industries: Chasing a Vanishing WestHubert Howe Bancroft is primarily remembered today as the originator of the world-renowned Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Voracious bibliophile, avid historian, and self-taught man of letters, Bancroft (or “H. H.” as he is familiarly known) followed an adventurous youth with a literary career that sought to chronicle and preserve the early history of California and the American West. In Literary Industries, edited from H. H.’s autobiography by his direct descendent Kim Bancroft, we encounter the dynamic personality who, with the aid of his assistants, achieved this impressive goal. Literary Industries will be published by Heyday in January 2014. T..... |
• Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes and the Bells of El Camino Real!  Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes and the Bells of El Camino Real!
picture1left200 First in a series of articles about extraordinary women in California history. From www.mysfpast.com, used with permission. The El Camino Real was a trail blazed by early Spanish soldiers and missionaries in the 1700s, connecting the 21 California missions. By the 1850s, much of the El Camino Real had become overgrown and the missions were falling into decay. Around 1900, two women’s groups, the Native Daughters of the American West and the California Federation of Women’s Clubs joined forces to preserve the California missions and mark the historic El Camino Real. Mrs. Armitage Suton Carion Forbes (she preferred using her husband’s name) helped design the be..... |
• Rivet Rivet: The Birth of Blue Jeans  Rivet Rivet: The Birth of Blue JeansMerchant Levi Strauss could sell, and tailor Jacob Davis could sew. Working together they received the first U.S. Patent for blue jeans in 1873. The Levi Strauss & Co Archives, located at the company’s headquarters, 1155 Battery Street, records the birth of blue jeans using thousands of posters, photographs, and garments. Designers from around the world visit the collection, called The Vault, for inspiration. It’s open from 8 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday, and 10 am to 5 pm on weekends. Donations are welcome. ..... |
• The Cliff House: Celebrating 150 Years  The Cliff House: Celebrating 150 YearsBuilt in 1863 by Senator John Buckley and C.C. Butler, the Cliff House was a destination for the wealthy, to enjoy fine food and views. As high society gave way to the hoi poloi, Adolph Sutro, whose estate overlooked it, purchased the Cliff House in 1883, hoping to restore its grandeur and exclusivity. On Christmas Day, 1894, the Cliff House was gutted by fire. Undaunted, Sutro rebuilt it bigger and better, as a French chateau eight stories tall. It burned to the ground again, in 1907. The third Cliff House was built in 1909 by Sutro’s daughter, Dr. Emma Merritt, with support from John Taft and several investors. The most recent restoration was by restaurant owners Dan and Mary Hountalas and..... |
• The Beat Goes On: City Lights at 60  The Beat Goes On: City Lights at 60picture1right300 Eat. Sleep. Read. Provoke. So says one of many eye-catching signs at City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The independent bookstore, located at 261 Columbus Avenue, is a popular stop on North Beach tours. Step inside and you’ll find plenty to feed your mind. City Lights was co-founded in 1953 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin as the first all paperbound bookstore in the country. From the start it was a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals. The bookstore became known as a gathering spot for the Beat poets, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, in the 1950s. In 1956, Ferlinghetti was arrested on obscenity charges for publishing Ginsberg’s ..... |
• History of the Historic Ship, Alma  History of the Historic Ship, Alma
picture1right300 Built in a Hunters Point shipyard in 1891, the Alma was named for the granddaughter of shipbuilder Fred Siemer, a German immigrant. She’s had several renovations over her long life. In 1918, Siemer’s son-in-law and the real Alma’s father, James Peterson, removed her masts and used her as a barge to tow sacks of salt up from South Bay ponds. In 1926, a new owner Frank Resech installed a gasoline engine. Resech and his wife lived and worked aboard Alma, using her to dredge for oysters and haul containers of the shells up to Petaluma to be ground up for chicken feed. She was sold again in the 1940s to Peter John Gambetta who used her as a dredger until he retired in 1957. Th..... |
• Sweet Treats: Chocolate and Chocolate Makers  Sweet Treats: Chocolate and Chocolate MakersChocolate Tired of making the same old resolution year after year? Lose 10 pounds. Floss. Exercise. Eat more fruits and vegetables. This year, how about making a resolution you’ll want to keep? Support Bay Area artisans. Shop local merchants. Eat more chocolate. Chocolate has been part of San Francisco history since the Gold Rush. The two oldest chocolate companies in the U.S. -- Ghirardelli and Guittard -- both started in San Francisco and still make their chocolate here in the Bay Area. Inside this issue, we’ll share the history of these two iconic companies and their founders. But today, San Francisco is attracting a new breed of chocolate artisans. We visited se..... |
 More about chocolateThree Chocolatiers: Charles, Recchiuti and XOX picture1right200In 2004, Charles Chocolates was launched by Chuck Siegal who started making chocolate creations in the kitchen of San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center. This was actually Siegal’s second venture into the chocolate world; he started his first chocolate company at age 25 with the help of Joseph Schmidt, but later sold it. Charles Chocolates soon moved to larger space in Emeryville using Guittard chocolate to make their hand-decorated bon bons and signature bars embedded with organic fruits and nuts. Now the company is back in San Francisco, where their selection includes edible boxes made of so..... |
 Making Chocolate HistorySan Francisco is the birthplace of two of the oldest chocolate makers in America: Ghirardelli and Guittard. Both have their roots in the Gold Rush. Both their companies still make their chocolate in the Bay Area today. Here are the stories of these two pioneer companies and their founders. picture1right200Ghirardelli The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company is the oldest chocolate company in America. Domingo Ghirardelli was born in Italy, near Genoa, the son of an importer of exotic food. At age 20, Domingo went to South America to work in the coffee and spice trade. He opened a store in Lima, Peru selling coffee, cocoa powder and spices. Domingo’s neighbor in Li..... |
• Love, Love Me Do: Finding a Mate Out West  Love, Love Me Do: Finding a Mate Out West WANTED:
From the 1870s through the turn of the century, matrimonial catalogs and periodicals flourished in America, full of ads that brought hundreds of lonely hearts together on the new frontier. Single women from the East, including Civil War widows, and eligible men living out West placed or responded to notices in Matrimonial News, a weekly paper printed in San Francisco and Kansas City. In Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail-Order Matchmaking on the Western Frontier, author Chris Enss reports: “A code of..... |
• Mother of San Francisco: Juana Briones 1802-1889  Mother of San Francisco: Juana Briones 1802-1889picture1right180 No diaries of Juana Briones exist to tell her story, but testimonies of people she doctored, fed, and gave sanctuary to speak volumes. One of the first residents of Yerba Buena, Juana has been called the “Mother of San Francisco.” Compassionate and resourceful, she was renowned for caring for the sick and for the medicinal tea she made from the Yerba Buena plant. She had learned healing practices from her Native Californian friends, and later became expert as both a bone-setter and midwife, training others including her nephew who became the first doctor in Bolinas. Historians have compared her to Clara Barton, the Civil War nurse who founded the Red Cross. The sketch on..... |
• At Last: Julia Morgan receives AIA Gold Medal  At Last: Julia Morgan receives AIA Gold Medal
The American Institute of Architects Gold Medal is considered to be the profession’s highest honor. The Gold Medal honors an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. In December 2013, the AIA Board of Directors voted to give the 2014 award to Julia Morgan. picture1right300 Recognition from AIA for her architectural achievements would come 57 years after her death. Morgan’s grandniece received the award on her behalf at the AIA 2014 National Convention and Design Exposition in Chicago on June 28. Morgan, who died in 1957, won a litany of firsts and established a new precedent for greatness in the field. A build..... |
• The Emporium: Grand Dame of Market Street  The Emporium: Grand Dame of Market StreetMany native San Franciscans have fond memories of the “Big E.” It was the place where you got your first grown-up jacket, did your back-to-school shopping, and rode the big slide on the roof or, at Christmas time, the train. Christmas also meant a visit with Santa and a photo. A trip downtown was something special that you dressed up for, and in the 1950s that meant gloves and a hat. picture1left350 The Emporium aimed for a middle-class clientele, and for over 100 years after its founding in 1897 it not only succeeded but thrived, despite near total destruction in the 1906 earthquake. The Union Square stores — Magnin, the City of Paris, and the White House — catered to the hig..... |
• PPIE100: San Francisco’s 1915 World’s Fair and the Dawn of Championship Auto Racing  PPIE100: San Francisco’s 1915 World’s Fair and the Dawn of Championship Auto Racing This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the international debut of the Miller Engine, an event that would completely revolutionize the aviation, marine and automotive industries, determine the identity and international relevance of American motor sports, and usher in a Golden Age of championship auto racing. The 1915 American Grand Prix and Vanderbilt Cup Race, held in conjunction with the Panama- Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, were seminal events in the history of auto racing. They occurred at a critical juncture in motor sports, when the automotive industry was growing at an exponential rate, and right before racecar design changed hands from big auto manuf..... |
 Seep CityAt a time when urban development in San Francisco is more visible than it has been in generations, it's easy to forget nature. Yet the built environment, from building types and heights to locations and angles of streets, reflect physical constraints linked to the original natural conditions of our landscape. The Seep City Map of Water Explorations, a trove of technical data disguised as an art poster, was installed in March in an eight-by-eight-foot display on Divisadero Street at McAllister. It’s been a magnet for explorers, especially those interested in water and history. The Green Earth food store has provided the exhibit space. The purpose of the project, which is presented by Th..... |
• Legendary Locals of the Outside Lands  Legendary Locals of the Outside Lands These profiles are from Legendary Locals of San Francisco’s Richmond, Sunset, and Golden Gate Park (Arcadia Publishing), by City Guide Lorri Ungaretti, who leads tours of the Sunset, Richmond, and Stern Grove. Her book includes many more remarkable people from the city’s west side. Three distinct areas — the residential Richmond and Sunset Districts, separated by Golden Gate Park — were once considered the western desert of San Francisco. At one time, much of this land was inaccessible sand dunes, and many people believed it was uninhabitable. Over time, however, visionary people moved sand, created a great park, constructed roads, laid water and sewage lines, and built h..... |
• Frank Lloyd Wright and Nick’s Merchandise  Frank Lloyd Wright and Nick’s MerchandiseAs with a lot of research, this article began as a hunt for something else: Why is there a city street only existing enclosed in the Safeway parking lot on Market Street in San Francisco? Named Reservoir Street, it is near the San Francisco Mint on Hermann Street. I discovered that this location was once a reservoir in the mid-1860s, built as part of the plan to develop what are now the Castro and Noe Valley districts. Then I came across the gem that the area behind the Safeway and adjacent to the Mint was a proposed site for a Frank Lloyd Wright designed mortuary. picture1left350 In the 1940s, Frank Lloyd Wright was approached about designing a mortuary complex for Nicholas Dap..... |
James Lick, Miser and Philanthropist
by Gail MacGowan
Miserly, selfish, reclusive, “touched in the head,” – but absolutely honest and an astute business-man. This is what James Lick’s contemporaries thought of the eccentric, disagreeable Gold Rush pioneer who, at the end of his long life, astonished them by using his millions to benefit his adopted state.
Lick’s Beginnings
Born in rural Pennsylvania in 1796, James Lick learned fine cabinetmaking from his father, and from his mother inherited a passion for gardening. He fell in love with the daughter of the local miller, and when she became pregnant with his child he sought her hand in marriage. The rude rebuff he received from her father would mark Lick for life: the wealthy miller ridiculed him, saying that only when Lick owned a mill as large and costly as his could he consider the marriage.
His dreams dashed, the furious Lick relocated to Baltimore, where he learned to build pianos, then in 1821 moved to South America to start his own piano manufacturing business. Lick remained there for twenty-seven years, living first in Buenos Aires, Argentina, then in Valparaiso, Chile, and finally in Lima, Peru. In 1832, after making his first fortune, he returned briefly to Pennsylvania to claim his bride and 14-year-old son, only to learn that she had married another. James Lick never married.
Onward to California
He was already in his 50s when, believing California would soon become part of the United States, he sold his considerable South American assets and boarded a ship north. He arrived in San Francisco on January 7, 1848 – 17 days before James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill. Lick brought with him his cabinetmaking workbench and tools, 600 pounds of chocolate made by his former neighbor in Lima,
Domingo Ghirardelli, and $30,000 in gold coins from selling his piano business. (The chocolate sold so well that Lick convinced Ghirardelli to relocate to San Francisco.)
Upon his arrival in the village of San Francisco, Lick set about buying land. In three months, he spent $7,000 to buy 50 San Francisco lots, most of which he kept for the rest of his life. One notable exception was the lot at Montgomery and Jackson that he bought for $3,000; in 1853 he sold it for $32,000 to William Tecumseh Sherman to build a new bank.
Lick also bought large tracts in Santa Clara County as well as parcels near Lake Tahoe, in Napa County, in Virginia City, Nevada, and in present-day Griffith Park in Los Angeles. He also acquired Catalina Island.
He himself lived very austerely in the South Bay for most of his twenty-eight years in California. There he planted imported plum, apricot, and pear trees and pioneered new horticultural techniques. Tales are told of the rail-thin Lick, dressed in shabby old clothes, coming to town and traveling from restaurant to restaurant to collect their old bones to grind into fertilizer for his orchards. He also built a garret for 1,000 pigeons so he could fertilize with their manure.
It was in Santa Clara County, too, that Lick sought his revenge on the now-dead Pennsylvania miller who so long ago had rudely shunned the enamored young suitor’s request for his daughter’s hand. Lick spared no expense in building a mill of cedar and exotic woods costing the unheard of sum of over $200,000. Lick
ultimately gave the mill to Baltimore’s Paine Memorial Society, which made him furious when they sold it for only $18,000. The “Mahogany Mill” was destroyed by fire in 1882.
In 1855, at Lick’s request, his son John, then 37, came from Pennsylvania to live with the father he had never known. Near the mill Lick built the beautiful 24-room Lick Mansion, but lived there only briefly before abandoning its opulence to construct a less pretentious home. John Lick had a difficult time with his cantankerous father and returned to Pennsylvania in 1863. The Lick Mansion and grounds were preserved and today are open to the public.
Despite his disdain for luxurious accommodations, in 1862 Lick opened the opulent Lick House, a three-story luxury hotel on Montgomery between Post and Sutter. Its magnificent dining room, a copy of one Lick had seen at the Palace of Versailles on his one trip to Europe, became the meeting place of San Francisco’s elite. The Lick House was destroyed in the 1906 fire.
From Miser to Philanthropist
At age 77, James Lick was disabled by a stroke. The next year he announced he was setting up a trust to distribute his fortune, which at his death two years later totaled $2,930,654. He specified the following gifts:
• Lick Observatory: Lick gave $700,000 to fulfill his obsession to build the world’s largest telescope. He initially wanted it built on his land at 4th and Montgomery, then at Lake Tahoe, but was finally convinced to purchase Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County.
• California School of Mechanical Arts: $540,000 built Lick School, which is today Lick-Willmerding High School. For many years the carpentry workbench Lick brought from South America in 1848 sat in the school’s entrance hall.
• Public Baths: $150,000 was used to construct free public baths for San Francisco’s poor. They opened in 1890 at 10th and Howard and operated until 1919.
• Pioneer Monument: $100,000 was ear-marked for this historical statue erected at Grove and Hyde in 1894, and now located between the New Main Library and the Asian Art Museum.
• Old Ladies Home: $100,000 built the home on University Mound in southern San Francisco.
• Protestant Orphan Asylum, Ladies Protestant Relief Society, and San Jose Orphans: Each received $25,000. The Protes-tant Orphan Asylum was never built.
• Mechanics Institute and SPCA: $10,000 contributions went to each.
• Francis Scott Key Monument: $60,000 was set aside to honor the author of the “Star Spangled Banner.”
• Family Monument (in Pennsylvania): Lick gave $46,000 for a monument to his grandfather, who had fought under George Washington.
• Son John Lick and collateral heirs: $535,000
Sharing the estate’s remaining $604,656 were:
• Society of California Pioneers: Founding member Lick had donated land at Montgomery and Gold in 1859 for its first building. He was the Society’s president at the time of his death.
• California Academy of Sciences: Lick had previously given them land on Market Street between 4th and 5th. They used the estate funds to build a public museum. It was destroyed in 1906.
James Lick died October 1, 1876. His remains are interred under the dome of the Lick Observatory.
Sources: Block, Eugene: The Immortal San Franciscans; Finson, Bruce: “The Legacy of James Lick,” SF Examiner/Chronicle California Living Section, 3/6/1977; Lick, Rosemary: The Generous Miser; Worrilow, Wm. H.: James Lick, 1796-1876, Pioneer and Adventurer; http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/public/history/James_Lick.html; James Lick file, SF History Room, SF Public Library.
Photos reprinted with permission, SF History Center, SF Public Library.
An undated drawing of James Lick
Lick's gift of a monument to Francis Scott Key was unveiled in Golden Gate Park in 1888. Key's "Star Spangled Banner," published in 1814 when Lick was 18, was the most popular song of its day.
After ordering a copy of London's Kew Gardens for his San Jose property, Lick changed his mind. His heirs donated it to San Francisco, whose citizens raised the funds for its construction in Golden Gate Park.
The opulent dining room of The Lick House hotel on Montgomery at Sutter seated 400 and boasted walls and floors of exotic woods and three crystal chandeliers imported from Venice.
Lick School at 16th and Utah merged with Willmerding School of Industrial Arts in 1915 and moved to Ocean Avenue in 1956.
The Lick Old Ladies' Home, later renamed the University Mound Old Ladies' Home, is shown here in 1930 before it moved to a new building in 1932.
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