 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..... |
• 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 ..... |
 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..... |
• 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..... |
• 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..... |
 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..... |
• 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..... |
• 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 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..... |
• 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..... |
• 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 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. |
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..... |
• 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 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..... |
• 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..... |
San Francisco's Divas of the Past
by Thomas Sponsler
Today'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 Bavaria. Eventually she entered show business, performed in San Francisco, and lived for awhile in Grass Valley, California. Strong spirited, she once chased a hostile critic around with a whip.
Lilly Langtry, famous as the love object of Judge Roy Bean, "the law west of the Pecos" – although the two never met – also started out as a courtesan, the mistress of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. After breaking up with the Prince, Lilly took to the stage. She performed in San Francisco to large crowds who were less impressed by her theatrical skills than her scandalous past. She bought land in Lake County and for several years produced red wine and raised horses.
Isadora Duncan, a local girl, started out giving dancing lessons and became world famous as the mother of modern dance. An atheist, communist, and bisexual, she typified the bohemianism of her time. She died tragically while riding in an open car when her long trailing scarf became entangled in the rear wheel, breaking her neck. This prompted Gertrude Stein to observe, "Affectations can be dangerous."
Less scandalous stars shone here as well. "The Divine Sarah" Bernhardt performed in San Francisco and loved the city. At the time of the 1906 earthquake, she was performing in Chicago and raised money there to help the survivors. Two weeks after the earthquake she came to San Francisco and gave a free performance at the Greek Theater in Berkeley.
Luisa Tetrazzini, thought to be the subject of the saying, "It's not over until the fat lady sings," was a gifted and internationally popular opera star who performed in San Francisco. Her most famous performance here was a free concert on Christmas Eve Day, 1910, at Lotta's Fountain on Market Street at Kearny.
Locked in a contract dispute and threatened with an injunction against singing in any theater, she sang for free on the street to a crowd of two to three hundred thousand. A local chef named a
dish (turkey, chicken, or seafood Tetrazzini) after her.
Finally, the beloved Lotta Crabtree: As a child she performed to the homesick gold prospectors at the mining camps, sometimes making up to $400 a night in gold nuggets. The Shirley Temple of her time, she went on to great success in the East and became one of America's most beloved stage performers. She donated the money for Lotta's Fountain, built in 1875, which served as a meeting place for survivors of the 1906 earthquake at the time and at every anniversary since. Coincidentally, Lotta first learned to sing and dance when she was given lessons by her neighbor, Lola Montez, in her hometown of Grass Valley.
Read our archived past stories on both Isadora Duncan and Luisa Tetrazzini.
Photos in this issue courtesy of SF History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Relief portrait of Luisa Tetrazzini on Lotta's Fountain, added in memory of Tetrazzini’s open air performance beside the fountain on Christmas Eve, 1910.
Lotta Crabtree in her older years.
Send comments and questions to guidelines@sfcityguides.org
Material of San Francisco City Guides. Please give credit to the author and SF City Guides if referenced or reproduced.