11. San Francisco!
Dong Hin sailed through the narrow Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay for the first time in 1881 aboard the S.S. City of Peking. It surely must have been both a stunning and welcome sight after a long and possibly difficult voyage across the wide Pacific. The San Francisco that greeted Dong Hin in 1881 was in many ways still in its infancy. A little bit of San Francisco history helps to paint a picture of what the emerging metropolis looked like 125 years ago upon Dong Hin's arrival.
(1) The Golden Gate as seen from Telegraph Hill (1873, adapted from the Anchor Steam Beer website). And nope, there's no bridge yet.
There has been a Native American presence in San Francisco for millenia. When considered on that time scale, it was only fairly recently then that, in 1770, San Francisco Bay was "discovered" by Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portolà. Six years later in 1776, the Spanish, under the guidance of Franciscan priests Fathers Junipero Serra and Francisco Palou established the Mission San Francisco de Asis, or Mission of St. Francis of Assisi. (The Mission would eventually take its nickname, "Mission Dolores" from the nearby, but now long-gone "Lago de los Dolores" or "Lake of the Sorrows"). Simultaneously the Spanish military established the Presidio as a small fort to defend both the Bay as well as the tiny village of Yerba Buena located on the northeastern tip of the SF peninsula. Yerba Buena was originally a small collection of ramshackle shacks and adobe homes centered around a small plaza facing the Yerba Buena Cove in an area now occupied by Chinatown and San Francisco's financial district. The village of Yerba Buena would eventually become the nucleus for the City of San Francisco.
(2a) An illustration of San Francisco from 1846 (adapted from sparkletack.com); (2b) A map of San Francisco police districts from the late 1850's - notice the wharfs projecting into Yerba Buena cove, the reclaimed area that is now the financial district (adapted from the history of the SFPD).
Little changed in the quiet burg even upon Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. Though now nominally in control of the former Spanish territory, the Mexican government was too overtaxed and otherwise occupied to pay too much attention its new northern territorial holdings and San Francisco fell into sleepy isolation. During this time, a variety of countries, seeing the geographical value of San Francisco Bay Area, vied for territorial expansion into the region while under the lackadaisical rule of Mexico. In some ways, this was the start of the multicutural nature of the City.
Of course, things would not remain like this for long. In 1846, after many machinations, a group of Californians (spurred by the US government and led by nutty rabble-rouser John C. Fremont) "seized" Sonoma and declared independence from Mexico, creating the California "Bear Flag Republic." Soon after, the US navy sloop-of-war "Portsmouth" under the command of Captain John B. Montgomery sailed unchallenged into San Francisco Bay and took control of San Francisco for the US. Fortunately, San Francisco's liberation from Mexico was a bloodless affair as the few remaining Mexican soldiers had long since departed.
(3) The US Navy sloop-of-war "Portsmouth" (San Francsico History Center)
If you're a little confused by the apparent interchangability of the names "Yerba Buena" and "San Francisco," you're not alone. To settle the matter once and for all (and to get a jump on rival settlers who were trying to establish a competing city at the site of present day Benicia to be named "Francisca"), the City's first American Alcalde (mayor) Washington Bartlett issued the following proclamation on January 30, 1847:
AN ORDINANCE WHEREAS, the local name of Yerba Buena, as applied to the settlement or town of San Francisco, is unknown beyond the district; and has been applied from the local name of the cove, on which the town is built: Therefore, to prevent confusion and mistakes in public documents, and that the town may have the advantage of the name given on the public map; IT IS HEREBY ORDAINED, that the name of SAN FRANCISCO shall hereafter be used in all official communications and public documents, or records appertaining to the town.
And with this little ordinance in place, the City officially became "San Francisco." You can read more about this story in the San Francisco History Index.
If one could identify a single historical center of San Francisco, it would be that little plaza in the middle of the village of Yerba Buena. With the arrival of the US military, that main plaza of San Francisco was renamed "Portsmouth Square" after the sloop-of-war, and it was here that the stars and stripes were raised for the first time near the old Mexican adobe custom house on July 9, 1846. Now if you look carefully at the maps in figures 2a-b, you'll see how the City was configured around this time and how much has changed since then. The small town was built around a small harbor, and "Portsmouth Square" was just a block or two up from the water line. The road running just along the water front was rechristened "Montgomery Street" in honor of the "liberator." Eventually Yerba Buena cove was reclaimed with landfill (including the abandoned ships of the soon-to-arrive prospectors), creating the terra firma that now consititutes much of present-day downtown San Francisco. And Montgomery street, the street that once ran along the edge of the harbor, now runs smack-dab through the middle of downtown.
Change was beginning to accelerate for this tiny town. On May 11, 1848, the Mormon elder and newspaper publisher Sam Brannan announced Sutter's discovery of gold in historic Portsmouth Square, and the gold rush was on. Simply looking at the population change during these years illustrates clearly the explosive growth that was taking place:
1842: 196 residents
1846: 200
1848: 850
1849: 5,000 (July)
1849: 25,000 (December)
1860: 56,802
1870: 149, 473
1880: 233,959
(4) Portsmouth square, 1858 (San Francsico History Center)
The time period between 1849 and 1881 was a period of intense change for the City. San Francisco suffered six major conflagrations that burned the City to the ground, developed a reputation for lawlessness and vigilantism, and became a major economic, shipping, and military center for the western United States. In September 9, 1850, partially in response to the influx of 49ers seeking to strike it rich in the gold fields, California became the 31st state admitted to the union, and San Francisco became a center of power for the fledgling state. If you compare figure 2a (1846) to the panorama picture of the City in figure 5 (1878), you can see just how much much the City was begining to grow. By 1880, San Francisco had become the ninth largest city in America.
(5) A panorama of San Francisco by Eadward Muybridge (1878, adapted from AmericaHurrah).
The Muybridge panorama is probably very similar to the sight of San Francisco that first greeted Dong Hin in 1881. The young City, really only 30 years old, was still establishing its identity and character. The influx of Chinese immigrants and their culture at this time (along with the arrivals of so many other peoples of the world), played no small part in helping to shape and develop the unique and special characteristics of San Francisco.
Links
[Note: At the end of every post, I try to place links to the sources of information if you're interested in going a little further in depth in a particular topic. This week I'm listing a number of links I consider really amazing, links I think everyone should try to check out.]
Sparkletack.com is the source for incredible, free podcasts about the history of San Francisco, covering everything from the City's birth to ephemera like those identical twins who dress alike and make the rounds downtown. A must-listen!
San Francisco history section of sfgeneology.com is a terrific resource full of stories, pictures, and plain-old San Francisciana. If you ever wondered about the origin of a SF street name, this is the place to go to first.
San Francisco (wikipedia)
City and County of San Francisco official website
(1) The Golden Gate as seen from Telegraph Hill (1873, adapted from the Anchor Steam Beer website). And nope, there's no bridge yet.There has been a Native American presence in San Francisco for millenia. When considered on that time scale, it was only fairly recently then that, in 1770, San Francisco Bay was "discovered" by Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portolà. Six years later in 1776, the Spanish, under the guidance of Franciscan priests Fathers Junipero Serra and Francisco Palou established the Mission San Francisco de Asis, or Mission of St. Francis of Assisi. (The Mission would eventually take its nickname, "Mission Dolores" from the nearby, but now long-gone "Lago de los Dolores" or "Lake of the Sorrows"). Simultaneously the Spanish military established the Presidio as a small fort to defend both the Bay as well as the tiny village of Yerba Buena located on the northeastern tip of the SF peninsula. Yerba Buena was originally a small collection of ramshackle shacks and adobe homes centered around a small plaza facing the Yerba Buena Cove in an area now occupied by Chinatown and San Francisco's financial district. The village of Yerba Buena would eventually become the nucleus for the City of San Francisco.
(2a) An illustration of San Francisco from 1846 (adapted from sparkletack.com); (2b) A map of San Francisco police districts from the late 1850's - notice the wharfs projecting into Yerba Buena cove, the reclaimed area that is now the financial district (adapted from the history of the SFPD).Little changed in the quiet burg even upon Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. Though now nominally in control of the former Spanish territory, the Mexican government was too overtaxed and otherwise occupied to pay too much attention its new northern territorial holdings and San Francisco fell into sleepy isolation. During this time, a variety of countries, seeing the geographical value of San Francisco Bay Area, vied for territorial expansion into the region while under the lackadaisical rule of Mexico. In some ways, this was the start of the multicutural nature of the City.
Of course, things would not remain like this for long. In 1846, after many machinations, a group of Californians (spurred by the US government and led by nutty rabble-rouser John C. Fremont) "seized" Sonoma and declared independence from Mexico, creating the California "Bear Flag Republic." Soon after, the US navy sloop-of-war "Portsmouth" under the command of Captain John B. Montgomery sailed unchallenged into San Francisco Bay and took control of San Francisco for the US. Fortunately, San Francisco's liberation from Mexico was a bloodless affair as the few remaining Mexican soldiers had long since departed.
(3) The US Navy sloop-of-war "Portsmouth" (San Francsico History Center)If you're a little confused by the apparent interchangability of the names "Yerba Buena" and "San Francisco," you're not alone. To settle the matter once and for all (and to get a jump on rival settlers who were trying to establish a competing city at the site of present day Benicia to be named "Francisca"), the City's first American Alcalde (mayor) Washington Bartlett issued the following proclamation on January 30, 1847:
AN ORDINANCE WHEREAS, the local name of Yerba Buena, as applied to the settlement or town of San Francisco, is unknown beyond the district; and has been applied from the local name of the cove, on which the town is built: Therefore, to prevent confusion and mistakes in public documents, and that the town may have the advantage of the name given on the public map; IT IS HEREBY ORDAINED, that the name of SAN FRANCISCO shall hereafter be used in all official communications and public documents, or records appertaining to the town.
And with this little ordinance in place, the City officially became "San Francisco." You can read more about this story in the San Francisco History Index.
If one could identify a single historical center of San Francisco, it would be that little plaza in the middle of the village of Yerba Buena. With the arrival of the US military, that main plaza of San Francisco was renamed "Portsmouth Square" after the sloop-of-war, and it was here that the stars and stripes were raised for the first time near the old Mexican adobe custom house on July 9, 1846. Now if you look carefully at the maps in figures 2a-b, you'll see how the City was configured around this time and how much has changed since then. The small town was built around a small harbor, and "Portsmouth Square" was just a block or two up from the water line. The road running just along the water front was rechristened "Montgomery Street" in honor of the "liberator." Eventually Yerba Buena cove was reclaimed with landfill (including the abandoned ships of the soon-to-arrive prospectors), creating the terra firma that now consititutes much of present-day downtown San Francisco. And Montgomery street, the street that once ran along the edge of the harbor, now runs smack-dab through the middle of downtown.
Change was beginning to accelerate for this tiny town. On May 11, 1848, the Mormon elder and newspaper publisher Sam Brannan announced Sutter's discovery of gold in historic Portsmouth Square, and the gold rush was on. Simply looking at the population change during these years illustrates clearly the explosive growth that was taking place:
1842: 196 residents1846: 200
1848: 850
1849: 5,000 (July)
1849: 25,000 (December)
1860: 56,802
1870: 149, 473
1880: 233,959
(4) Portsmouth square, 1858 (San Francsico History Center)
The time period between 1849 and 1881 was a period of intense change for the City. San Francisco suffered six major conflagrations that burned the City to the ground, developed a reputation for lawlessness and vigilantism, and became a major economic, shipping, and military center for the western United States. In September 9, 1850, partially in response to the influx of 49ers seeking to strike it rich in the gold fields, California became the 31st state admitted to the union, and San Francisco became a center of power for the fledgling state. If you compare figure 2a (1846) to the panorama picture of the City in figure 5 (1878), you can see just how much much the City was begining to grow. By 1880, San Francisco had become the ninth largest city in America.
(5) A panorama of San Francisco by Eadward Muybridge (1878, adapted from AmericaHurrah).The Muybridge panorama is probably very similar to the sight of San Francisco that first greeted Dong Hin in 1881. The young City, really only 30 years old, was still establishing its identity and character. The influx of Chinese immigrants and their culture at this time (along with the arrivals of so many other peoples of the world), played no small part in helping to shape and develop the unique and special characteristics of San Francisco.
Links
[Note: At the end of every post, I try to place links to the sources of information if you're interested in going a little further in depth in a particular topic. This week I'm listing a number of links I consider really amazing, links I think everyone should try to check out.]
Sparkletack.com is the source for incredible, free podcasts about the history of San Francisco, covering everything from the City's birth to ephemera like those identical twins who dress alike and make the rounds downtown. A must-listen!
San Francisco history section of sfgeneology.com is a terrific resource full of stories, pictures, and plain-old San Francisciana. If you ever wondered about the origin of a SF street name, this is the place to go to first.
San Francisco (wikipedia)
City and County of San Francisco official website
posted by steve at 12:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home