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After the Earthquake: 1906
"Market Street toward ferry." San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Thanks... Just ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:40pm -

"Market Street toward ferry." San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Thanks...Just experienced my first Earthquake just over an hour ago. Once again, Dave you leave me speechless. Walter in Bethesda, MD
Good TimingDave, you've done it again!  There was a 5.9 tremor in Va. today and we felt it on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay. So, earthquakes will be the topic of discussion for a while.   
Quick WorkWow, you practically beat Reuters to the punch.
100-year photo blog indeed!Just arrived home after my building was closed following today's earthquake. Turned on my internet, and what do I see?
AmazingEven in the aftermath of this great tragedy, everyone is as fully and fashionably dressed as they must have been before April 18th.  I would expect that at least some of the people in the photograph were made homeless by the earthquake and fire, but you would never know it to look at them. 
Ironic timing is ironicWas this photo already chosen for today?
Fortunately, DC doesn't look this way nowI don't know if this photo is a coincidence coming so soon after the Magnitude 5.9 earthquake that rattled Virginia, DC, Maryland and all the way up to New York City.  Fortunately, we didn't get this kind of damage!!
This just in...Very timely.
The earth movedfor me!  Unfortunately, I was home alone.  I'm 35 miles S.E.of Washington, so a bit closer to the epicenter than D.C.  My behind started moving as my chair followed the floor movement, them my whole body followed as the movements became stronger.  The desk then started shaking, moving my PC case and monitor.
My first thought was that there was some some structural collapse in my home, then I realized it was a quake.  Lasted about 40 seconds, then slowly subsided.  A quick survey showed no damage, power, phone, and DSL service all normal. 
That's a pretty short skyline.I can only imagine what was going through the minds of those folks as they survey the damage.
The Ole Man PurseWhen will the ole man purse be back in style, I wonder.
This Just In As WellFrom The Gothamist, a little while ago.
[UPDATE] 5.9 Magnitude Earthquake In Virginia Rattles Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens
The FDNY and the US Geological Survey has confirmed a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in central Virginia. Residents of Manhattan and Brooklyn have reported feeling the earthquake 
Oh, well foundPuts things in perspective a bit.
It Would SeemIt appears that no matter what the occasion, the San Franciscans of 1906 got gussied up before going out. Get a load of those ladies' hats. 
Just Sayin'After their homes and business's have been devastated, the men still wear hats, collars, ties and suits. The ladies never go out in public unless well groomed.
Definitely saying something about the quality of the general mass but not the underbelly that also existed then. 
First EarthquakeHow ironic that on the day you publish this photo, we in the mountains of Pa. experienced the first earthquake any of us can remember.
Trolley wiresSince there are now trolley wires over the cable car tracks, the date is later than just the day after the earthquake.
Fashion PlateWhere did that cool looking dude get his fresh boutonniere and clean pocket hanky?
San Francisco where is Clark Gable?
Previously on ShorpyMany are familiar with the famous 13-minute film of Market Street shot from the front of a trolley car as it rolled toward the Ferry Building on a busy afternoon in San Francisco. Although the footage has long been dated by LOC curators to circa September 1905, extensive new research by David Kiehn, historian for the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, CA, has established that this footage was probably shot by the Miles Brothers film company on or near April 12, 1906, scarcely a week before the earthquake and fire. The footage was only shipped by rail to New York for processing and distribution on April 17, and the Miles Brothers studio was destroyed a few hours later. 
The San Francisco Chronicle has details of Kiehn's discoveries. The San Francisco Museum & Historical Society is sponsoring a lecture by Mr. Kiehn about his findings on Sept. 21.
The Underbelly SpeaksAs part of the Underbelly, or the Great Unwashed, as we are sometimes called, I'd just like to go on record as saying that, in case of earthquake, hurricane, rapture or other major disruption of life, I have prepared an outfit consisting of tattered Chuck Taylors, raggedy cut offs and a tie dyed T-shirt. I'm gonna hit the streets in style.
There's no there thereThe gent with the fresh boutonniere and clean pocket hanky likely got them in Oakland.  
The folks on the left hand side of the photo are walking up Market Street from the Ferry Building in the background, indicating they're returning to San Francisco, not fleeing from the now extinguished fires. Likely they had evacuated to Oakland or elsewhere and are now returning to see what's left of their homes and businesses. 
Ferries shuttling between San Francisco and Oakland and Marin served as the city's lifeline for days after the quake and fire. 
I'll bet most of the returnees in this view ended up camping in Golden Gate Park.
A Trip Down Market StreetLook at this movie of a cable car going the same direction on Market Street just days before the Earthquake.

(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Forest Brook: 1956
... fire kind. No duck, no cover - and this just north of San Francisco, with its own battery of Nike missiles by the Golden Gate - in plain ... only time we had to put our practice to use was for a 1957 earthquake centered just south of SF but sharp enough in Larkspur to get us ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/14/2013 - 7:14am -

November 8, 1956. "Forest Brook Elementary School, Hauppauge, Long Island. Classroom and teacher." For those of a certain demographic, this may strike a chord. Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.
We never did that.I grew up in the suburbs around Akron, Ohio, and we never had a bomb drill or duck-and-cover drill ever. All of my peers that grew up in other places had those drills, which has led me to a couple of possible theories. One, that we had some sort of pacifists in our local administration that refused to take part in the Cold War(unlikely). Or two, that we were so close to potential industrial targets that there was simply no point in hoping for survival... Better to go out in the first flash.
[Never had them in my grade school years 1952-1960 in Larkspur, California, either, nor was I aware at the time that they were going on anywhere. -tterrace] 
Lighting fixturesWe had very similar fixtures in my Elementary School about ten years after this, ours had a large bulb with the bottom painted silver sticking through the center though. 
They were probably ancient even in 1966.
X marks the spotI'm not sure if it looked that way in 1956, but Forest Brook today has a strange shape, what you might get if Picasso or Dali had been asked to draw the letter X.  
Hauppague today is a densely populated community, home to most of Suffolk County's government (though Riverhead is the actual county seat) and a huge industrial park, but back in 1956 it was on the frontier of suburbanization.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the students in this picture were the children of farmers.
You will not leave this  house dressed like thatIt would be three years before I entered first grade about 20 miles west of Hauppauge. The New York City Board of Education had a much less relaxed dress code. Boys from first grade on had to wear ties. Jeans and sneakers were not permitted. On school assembly day everyone was required to wear a white shirt or blouse and the boys had to wear  red ties. Of course by the time we were graduating from high school there were still strict dress standards, but they only applied to the teachers.
Smelementary SchoolThose wooden desks were washed and cleaned before classes three months ago, and the floors are waxed weekly.
All the girls are in skirts or dresses, and the boys are well groomed and always polite. After all, no one wants to get called down to the school office! 
Plus, there's a great lineup of cars out the window, in case a little daydreaming is in order, but only for a few seconds at a time. By the way, you can smell today's newfangled hot lunch almost ready to serve, down the hall.
Let there be photonsMy elementary school (Horace Mann in Burbank, Calif.) had the same light fixtures, although we had four to a room. Each contained one ≈500 watt bulb; the bottom of the bulb was obscured by a silver coating. When a bulb was nearing the end of its service life, it would usually emit a high-pitched squeal. The teacher would then cycle the light switch off and on several times, killing the bulb and throttling the distracting squeal.
Reading MaterialMost of the children have notebooks, many children seem to have the Spell and Write workbook, and the young man in the lower left (just behind the girl in the foreground) has the Air Raid Instruction booklet on his desk.
My First Year of School1956 was my first year of school in Houston. Would have loved to have been able to wear blue jeans and shirt tails out but HISD rules at the time (and almost all the way through my HS years) said no blue jeans, no t-shirts, no shirt tails out for boys and skirts/dresses only for girls.
Hard to believe especially since the schools weren't air conditioned in HISD except for offices and a few other classrooms (science for one)until after I graduated in 1968.
No duck and cover drills for us until the Cuban missile crisis when we were told Houston would be a first strike target due the refineries throughout the Houston area. We had an air raid siren right next to the window in my 5th grade class that went off each Friday at noon. I also thought to myself that if the Russians were smart they would attack at noon on Friday!
Star pupils or problem children?Teacher has all that space in front of the classroom for her desk but it's right up close to those pupils at the far end of the classroom. Even with the photographer present, the kids appear to be gazing out the window. Maybe she needed to be that close to keep their attention for any length of time. I wonder if modern medicine is overused in favor of such simple solutions.
Maybe I'll send the first grade picture (1960) from my Catholic school in New Jersey. It's a bright, clean classroom like the one shown here but it's packed tight with baby boomers, all in navy blue and white uniforms, with Sister in her black and white habit up front.
1956 RebelAlright, who's the non-conformist on staff who just had to park facing the wrong way?
Sturdy Desks and the "Good Old Days"Those sturdy desks are perfect for the inevitable "Flash Drills" of the era, in which the principal would come into the room unannounced and write "FLASH" on the blackboard, causing all of us students to "duck and cover" to avoid instant nuclear incineration. I'm not sure how much good it would have done in a real attack, but it was the only tool in the drawer.
Also, I'm surprised the windows don't have the standard heavy blackout curtains, which were handy not only for viewing nmovies but to keep enemy bombers from spotting stray lights at night. 
And a decade laterI started public school a decade later, in a building constructed in 1961. And it was exactly like this, light fixtures, desks, and all. Most of the teachers were young then (and exactly one man, who I got in fifth grade) but I started out with Mrs. Lord, the white-haired wife of the principal, who could have stepped out of any 1910 school administrator picture with naught more than a change of collar. However in my day the fellow with the open shirt front there would have been made to neaten himself up.
Beautiful Schools but the Russians are coming!I began my second semester of kindergarden in January of 1953 in newly built grade school on the west side of Detroit.  We immediately began having fire and air raid drills. For air raids we descended into the basement of the school which was actually the main tunnel of the air circulation system. Some times when we went down the stairs during a drill, the big fan would still be rotating after being shut down.  We had to sit along the walls and cover our heads. To condition us further the lights would be turned off for a short period of time. I switched to a newly built parochial grade school for the fourth grade on. No basement, so we sat in the main hallway between the class rooms and covered our heads. Both schools had class rooms identical to Forest Brook. To add to the tension, the nearby Rouge Park had a Nike missile battery. The missiles were normally hidden behind a high earth berm, but they were visible when frequently pointed skyward for testing. The AM radio frequencies of 640 and 1240 were permanently etched into our memory.     
DrillsI'm exactly the right age for these memories, but except for a few very early instances that were termed "air raid," all our drills were of the fire kind. No duck, no cover - and this just north of San Francisco, with its own battery of Nike missiles by the Golden Gate - in plain view if you took a spin along the Marin Headlands. We all just marched outside. The only time we had to put our practice to use was for a 1957 earthquake centered just south of SF but sharp enough in Larkspur to get us squealing in our fifth grade classroom before the alarm sounded and we made our orderly exit.
"Silver Tooth"I was in the ninth grade in fall of 56. All of the new schools I attended in the late 40's and 50's had those windows and the 9 inch floor tiles. I believe the teacher's desk was in that position only for this pic. One memory came to me in a flash when I saw the tiles. In the 4th grade on the last day of school as I was swinging between desks I did a face plant on the green floor tiles. The impact broke off two of my front teeth below the nerves and the family dentist fixed them with silver caps that stayed that way until I turned 21. 
Blue Jeans?I was in 5th grade at the time, in a far western suburb of Chicago. What I remember was the enormous spending on shiny new schools back then. My mom was a teacher, back when teaching was a respected profession, teachers were proud of what they did for a living and grateful for the $6,000 a year they were paid.
That and the rule against blue jeans. Strictly verboten in my school system. They looked "hoo-dy", pronounced with "hoo" as the first syllable, and were a a well known precursor for the dreaded juvenile delinquency during adolescence and a life of crime and depravity later on. Without that rule, thank goodness and a vigilant school board, I probably would have a criminal record by now.
Good Ol' '56I was in third grade in Hempstead, Long Island then. Ike was president and the world 'champeen' Brooklyn Dodgers would win another pennant only to lose once more to the Yanks. Anybody who wore dungarees (as jeans were called then) in my school district would have been sent home to change to proper attire and an open shirt would catch you a stiff reprimand. Nobody knew what a school bus was and schools were not in the restaurant business for anybody. There was a lot to like about those days. 
Fond MemoriesI was in 1st grade at that time and our classroom in suburban Chicago looked very much like this one.  Someone mentioned getting called down to the office.  There was nothing worse than hearing your name on the PA system to report to the principal.  Every kid in school knew you were probably in deep doo doo.  As for the non-conformist staff member who backed into his spot, these types have always been around and still are today.  They'd rather waste extra time and endure the hassle of backing into a parking spot just so they can pull out with ease at the end of the day.  Never understood that logic.   
The Joys of childhoodI would have been 9 years old when this photo was taken. I was attending "Summer Avenue School" at that time. It was an old three story brick building. We had the kind of desks that bolted to the floor so they couldn't be moved even if you wanted to do so. The seat was actually part of the desk behind you and folded up automatically when you stood up. The top of the desk was hinged at the front so that you could lift it up and put you books and such inside. Oh Yes, they had the obligatory inkwell hole in them as well, but never any ink.
Summer Avenue School still stands but is now known as Roberto Clemente Elementary School. 
The desksStarting I guess in the late 40s that blonde style of wood came very much into vogue for furniture.  Notice, they're the first generation of school desk withOUT a hole for an inkwell.  We had ball point pens by then, no more dipping a nub into india ink.  And no more opportunities for dunking the pigtail of the little girl in front of you into the ink!
The furthest cornersAh, those desks.  In the later grades of elementary school we ate our lunches in the classroom, and the kid in front of me used to stuff the parts of his lunch he didn’t want into the deepest recesses, behind books and other trash.  It got very ripe, and one day the teacher followed her nose to Robert G.’s desk and made him excavate the smelly mess.  I will leave the rest to everyone’s imaginations.
4th grade for meDecatur Street elementary.  I think the building was probably built at the turn of the last century.  And probably the teachers. We had the well worn student desks that you find in the antique shops now for a pretty penny.  The one with the ink well and indentation for a pencil with the seat back and foldup seat on the front of your desk.  We had 12' ceilings, oiled wood floors that the janitor put sawdust down on daily to use his pushbroom on, kept the dust down.
Old School, New SchoolI started the first grade in 1954 in rural Kansas. We were in a building that had been built in 1911 and only housed six grades. The 7th and 8th grades were in the high school. The bathrooms, the lunchroom, and the art room were all in the basement, and we had music in a one-teacher school building that had been moved into town and put behind the school. The 1911 building was probably a horrible firetrap, although there was a metal fire escape on the back from the second floor down. The district built a new school in 1956, and we moved in in February 1957, when I was in the third grade. It looked much like the one in the photo, except that we had metal desks. No dress code--nearly all the boys wore jeans. That 1956 building is still in use, along with the 1923 high school. Of ocurse, they house far fewer kids than they did then.
Several years laterI was attending a Catholic school in a much older building further west on Long Island -- still vividly remember our "duck & cover" drills as I was the smart-alack who asked how a wooden desk would keep us from burning to a cinder.
As for the cafeteria, no hot lunch then; if you forgot your brown bag (no lunch money; you were not permitted to leave the premises) you might have been lucky enough to be escorted across the street to the convent for a PB&J sandwich.
The uniforms were ghastly -- white shirt, dark maroon tie with the school shield on it, and dark grey slacks with black piping down the outside seam. Girls wore a white blouse with a snap tie, grey plaid skirt (that was always rolled up at the waist after leaving the house, and a matching bolero. Once out of sixth grade boys wore a blue plaid tie & girls could wear a -- *gasp* -- blouse of color.
Reminds me of another picture here of young girls wearing skirts in the dead of winter; evil little Catholic boys that we were, we'd spend the lunch hour in the schoolyard assaulting the bare-legged victims by snapping rubber-bands on their frozen legs.
Not non-conformism. Safety!I've worked at a school for years and even though I'm not much of a rebel, I've always backed into the parking space. The logic is simple: you have to back up when you arrive or when you leave, and it's safer to back *in* to a space when there are few or no children around (an hour or two before school starts) than to back *out* of a space when children are running all around at the end of the school day (of course, one should triple-check either time). I often back into shopping center parking spaces using the same reasoning: if there's no one around when I arrive, it's safer to back up then than later when there might be a lot of people about. I knew a man many years ago who fatally backed over his 4-year-old daughter in their driveway and that tragedy changed my thinking on this permanently.
Reminds me of...Sutton Elementary School, southwest Houston, 1971 to 1973. The building was built in the late 50s and had those same big windows, but by that time we had the one piece metal desks with the big opening beneath for your books.
Few years laterI was in the first grade in a Catholic school in NYC. We had fire drills but no under the desk kiss your butt goodbye stuff. Nuns ruled the roost in those days. Midget Gestapo agents all in black with a yardstick bigger than them which was used to get you back in line if you misbehaved. I remember the first day of 2nd grade while us kids were waiting for school to open and my mom approached me to wipe my nose and the nun smacked her hand saying "he belongs to us now!" Ah memories...
Patty Duke, Ben Gazzara, Gene Hackman were some of the actors who lived in the area, Kips Bay, and might have even attended my school at one time.
"Snaggletooth"I can sympathize with jimmylee42. I broke a front tooth in much the same way at my school in the fourth grade. It was the winter of '63-'64.
When the weather was exceptionally cold, they would open the gym for the early kids to come inside before classes started. Although the details are vague now, someone said I was tripped by a bully while I was running around. In a family of four siblings my folks couldn't afford to get my missing tooth capped for years. So one of my nicknames throughout grade school was "Snaggletooth"... not one of my fonder memories. I finally got a white tooth cap just before I started senior high after we moved to Florida.
I wonder how my Alabama classmates would remember me now?
Yes, the Memories!I would have been right in this age range, near as I can tell from looking at the kids. That would have made it my first year out of parochial school, escaped from 4th grade under the rule(r)Sister Rita Jean, she who was Evil Incarnate.
Best memory was teacher telling me, "David! Stop moving your desk around. It makes me think we're having an earthqu... Everyone - outside!!"
DaveB
WonderfulGrade school in Alexandria, Louisiana.  Very familiar classrooms, with the good Nun up front to keep [or try to keep] us on the right path. 
Bayou View SchoolThis reminds me of Mrs Powell's 2nd grade class at Bayou View School in Gulfport, Ms, c.1955.
Fast ForwardTwenty years later I attended a school built in the early 1940s.  This reminds me of those old classrooms in some respects with the desks all lined up in rows, large windows and undoubtedly a large slate chalkboard just out of view.  I notice that the teacher's chair is a sturdy wooden straight back chair - no comfortable office chairs here!  Also, only a two drawer filing cabinet?  I don't think I've ever seen one that small in a classroom.  I teach school now and while this brings back memories (even the light fixtures), it's amazingly different today.  
Green ThumbThe teacher has quite a spartan setup, but I love the line of flowers along the windowsill! What a lovely touch that would be in a classroom.
This was a fun photo and I enjoyed the comments. My parents were born in 1954 and I really like seeing and reading about what that might have been like.
I grew up in that town!I didn't go to this school, but grew up in Smithtown--where this school actually was; not Hauppauge. I was in elementary from 1990-1995, when times were much different. As a teacher I love seeing how it was then.
Love this photo but makes me sadIf I could push a button and go back in time and be someone someplace in the past, I'd be on my way to being one of the kids in that classroom. This is public school education when it was about education.
(The Gallery, Education, Schools, Gottscho-Schleisner, Kids)

City Hall: 1906
San Francisco, April 1906. "Tower of City Hall after earthquake and fire." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Doubly Domed You can see ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:37pm -

San Francisco, April 1906. "Tower of City Hall after earthquake and fire." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Doubly DomedYou can see the old city dome under the structure of the new dome that was built to give city hall more height ...  and it looks amazingly intact.
What a MessIf this isn't an object lesson in bigger isn't necessarily better,
I don't know what is.
Nevertheless . . .San Francisco 11, Texas 7.
Before and AfterThe San Francisco City Hall before the earthquake, and after being rebuilt.
Down they cameGreat photo. I understand this and many other photos like it mostly displayed the result of shoddy construction and substandard materials done in that city under public works contracts.
New City HallThe new City Hall is an entirely new building constructed on a different site nearby; what was left of the old one was completely demolished.
This IsOne of those pictures.  No words required!
Go Giants!Is Shorpy a disgruntled Phillies fan?
I wonderif the statue on the top of the dome was saved.
You CAN fight City HallLooks like City Hall lost.
SuperdomeAmazing to me that the dome is still intact given all the damage underneath.
I don't think this damage is a result of "shoddy construction." You have to consider the technology of the era.
[I'd say that most of this damage could be attributed  to big earthquake + big fire. - Dave]
+101All that remains anyway: the head of the Goddess of Progress statue on the dome of the old City Hall, saved when the ruin itself was finally pulled down in 1909. It's now on display in the new City Hall, just off the rotunda. In fact, here I am with it in April 2007.
Note To SelfWhen rebuilding San Francisco after a bigass earthquake, do NOT make buildings from bricks.  Or on top of sand.  Or on top of "land" made from the rubble of previous earthquakes.
Not shoddyUnreinforced masonry doesn't stand a chance in an earthquake. This photo reveals in a unique way (at least I've never seen it before) what has been learned in the century since. The steel structure appears to be undamaged. For all I know there is some damage that is not readily apparent. Yet the surviving cross-section of the brick wall is quite thick, and has few structural ties to the steel. There are two separate structures here.
A modern building might have a single thickness of brick, with multiple ties to the steel. An old building in that era would have little or no steel to begin with, and even thicker brick. I would also say that this building seems to have escaped the fire. No steel members are sagging due to heat damage, and I don't see smoke stains.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

The Dawn of Botts Dots: 1969
... 1974 I was astounded. I was visiting my grandmother in San Francisco and we were driving late at night. On the highway I saw an amazing ... coming over the top of the Alto Hill when the Loma Prieta earthquake happened. I did not feel it because I was in my fourth VW bus, but ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 03/06/2023 - 7:00pm -

Three years after the first Botts dots were installed on a California highway, I took this Kodachrome going south on US 101 at the Alto interchange in Marin County, California. This was when it was still a full cloverleaf, with its hair-raisingly overlapping entry and exit lanes below the overpass. Off to the left, Belvedere and Tiburon; to the right, Mill Valley. Again, this is the era of Volkswagen Beetle ubiquity: there are at least three visible here, one in its favorite habitat, the fast lane. View full size.
Neat ideaThis first time I every saw those dots in 1974 I was astounded. I was visiting my grandmother in San Francisco and we were driving late at night. On the highway I saw an amazing sight, you could see all the lanes marked out with these green glowing dots just as well as if you were driving during the day. Right away, I wondered why didn't somebody think to do that back home. Why even in thick fog you would be able to see and stay in your lane without any trouble. If was obvious. Then somebody pointed out to me that with, back home in Canada, winter storms dropping a foot of  snow on the highway and then snow plows scraping everything off the roads after they might not work quite as well as in California. Back to the drawing board and you know what? Almost 40 years later, they still haven't put any on the highways here! Go figure.
[Here in the Northeastern U.S., they embed the reflectors in the pavement so that they're flush with the surface and can't be scraped off by plows. - Dave]
Before Better BottsThe first generation of Botts Dots, I learned, were nailed to the pavement.  After working free, they'd puncture tires.  Later they were glued to the roadbed.
Ahh, CaluhfourneyeayeWhat a gorgeous looking day. Photoshop out the highways, cars, roads, bridges, people, stoplights, and signs, and you have an Ansel Adams photograph.
Rule(s) of the BeetleOne of which was "the brighter the color, the more obnoxious the driver," which we see illustrated here. Is that a Fiat just behind it? It's hard to tell, but I think that's another VW in the northbound slow lane, just under the overpass from our point of view.
Otherwise a nice selection of Detroit iron: a Thunderbird, a Cougar, and a couple of Oldsmobiles in the southbound lane, plus something I can't make out. Northbound, another Beetle, a Dodge truck that may be an armored car, GMC pickup, and what looks like a '70 Ford but is probably a '69 unless this was quite late in the year, plus several others obscured by guardrail, other vehicles, or distance.
And you can actually see the pavement, instead of wall-to-wall sheet metal, in the daytime! Those were the days.
Reflections on a dotTo this day most Botts dots are non-reflective, so they don't show a whole lot better at night than painted lines.  You can see a standard recessed (and snow plow friendly) reflector in the space between every other grouping of Botts dots in the picture.  There are some technologies that give them reflectivity, but I'm surprised that they haven't standardized a technique that embeds glass beads into the surface for good reflectivity like with most road paint or thermoplastic striping.  
Am I the only one who keeps mistyping it as Botts dotts?  
re: Pre-BottsWow, Steve Stephens, nifty! That's when it was called the Alto Wye, which I hazily remember along with the Corte Madera Wye just to the north. The days when four-lane divided roads like this were called superhighways.
Pre-Botts Dots daysA circa 1955 photo, also looking south at the same spot, when the cloverleaf interchange in the main photo was in the process of being built to handle ever increasing Marin County traffic.  I moved here in Sept. 1957 to start high school and can attest there have been a lot of changes here since then, and not for the better.
Reflector dotsHere in the non-snowy parts of California, the reflectors placed between the groups of Botts dots are also raised. Even those become less and less reflective as they become scuffed, abraded, dirtied and chipped. A glass-beaded surface on the Botts dots would lose its reflectivity pretty quickly.
Lou JudsonHey, this was MY turnoff! I lived in Strawberry Point, over the hill on the left, from 1957 to 1971. All those hills except the top of the farthest one are now covered with houses! I nearly burst into tears when I came over the Alto hill and saw that they had chopped off the top of the hill on the right to build a development called Enchanted Knolls - with streets named after English poets (Yet I have never heard a poem as beautiful as a hill).
Personally I love cloverleaf interchanges. The skill it takes to negotiate them should be a driver test requirement! I feel they have been changed to stoplight intersections due to the stupidity of the common driver - and the offramp to the right now has four lanes and still backs up over the hill behind the pov.
At the time of this photo I was commuting to SF State College in my 58 VW bus from Strawberry. Twenty years later I was coming over the top of the Alto Hill when the Loma Prieta earthquake happened. I did not feel it because I was in my fourth VW bus, but saw the transformers on all the power poles in this picture explode in blue-white light as the grid went down and left us in the dark for a few days.
So many memories!
Sparse carsI imagine it's been many a day since that road has been that lightly traveled. 
Rolling HillsThanks for another Marin Memory, tterrace. I navigated  this turnoff daily when I lived in the Strawberry district of Mill Valley from 1969 to 1971. 
I'm also very familiar with the surge in development described by other posters that has taken place here over the last four decades. Both sides of the freeway beyond the overpass are now crowded by shopping centers, car dealerships, and gas stations.
But there's also good news to report.
The reason the hills in the distance have escaped development is that they were set aside in 1972 as part of a sprawling urban park called the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The area, now known as the Marin Headlands, is under stewardship of the National Park Service. 
TailgatingI drove a VW bug for 17 years and noticed an unfailing rule which is also evident in this picture: People always tailgate you when you drive a Volkswagen in the left (fast) lane, even if you're speeding yourself.
Botts update.I've been meaning to take this shot since seeing this image, but I just don't go in that direction as much as I used to. I had to use my iphone, as I forgot to bring my "real" camera. It gives an idea of how things have changed. The shot was taken well after the commute time, and seems not much different than the original shot. It was a gray day, so I decided to sample the original clouds to spruce things up. The Prius has replaced the Volkswagen in these parts as the people's car.
1930sThe Redwood Highway (southbound) swung hard right here and went west of the big hill on the right back in the 1930s.  I think about the time the bridges were being built (BB and GGB, 1935-37) the highway cut was made through here and connected with the then-new Richardson Bay Bridge, itself made of redwood and replaced in the late '50s when the freeway was built.  
1931 PicHere is a classic shot of almost the exact location of tterrace's 1969 picture. This is well before the Golden Gate Bridge was built.  All traffic at Alto Wye had to turn right and travel through Mill Valley to continue on towards Sausalito and then San Francisco via ferry.  
More detail:
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1v19q6ff/
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, On the Road, tterrapix)

Smoking Rubble: 1906
"Nob Hill from roof of Ferry Post Office." San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. Detroit Publishing glass negative. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:39pm -

"Nob Hill from roof of Ferry Post Office." San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.
GranddadMy grandfather (who died a year before I was born) claimed he was there for the earthquake, he was quite the wanderer in his early years. I wonder if he saw Caruso?
HighlanderThe Fairmont is still there. You can't see it from this distance but all of the windows broke from the heat. When the quake struck the hotel was still two weeks from opening; the furnishings had been delivered but not yet arranged, perhaps sparing the place from the fiery, utter destruction that the neighboring hotels met with.
She finally opened a year to the day after the quake.
Whittell BuildingAbout one quarter away from the left in the distance is the skeleton of a building with a low-peaked roof. It's not an earthquake victim, but the Whittell Building, under construction at the time. Local architects actually designed it to be seismically resistant; construction was completed and it stands to this day on Union Square. My Uncle Frank had his lapidary business in it from the 1920s until he retired. I remember riding up to it in the rickety cage elevator, and the gnarled old guy who operated it.
San FranciscoSan Francisco is such a fascinating city to me because as I rode the cable cars up and down its steep hilly streets, I wondered, "Who in the world thought this was a good place to build a city?"
I simply couldn't imagine being one of the first to enter this land and thinking it was a good idea to build a house and neighborhood on a street with a 60 degree incline.  Surely they could have gone out just a bit farther and found flatter land.
Add to it this earthquake, and I marvel that they didn't just throw up their hands and find flatter land to settle in.
Glad they didn't though; SF is a gem among gems.
[Like most coastal cities, SF is where it is because of maritime geography, not topography -- an anchorage at the mouth of a sheltered bay. - Dave]
Rubble rubble everywhereVast quantities of rubble were dumped along San Francisco's bay shore from Fisherman's Wharf to south of today's AT&T baseball park. The motive power? Mules, horses, and trains that ran on tracks laid temporarily atop city streets especially for the purpose. (According to the Library of Congress, nearly 17,000 horses were worked to death in the process. No stats for the poor mules.)
Historians agree, though, that little if any earthquake rubble was dumped in the modern Marina District. The reason? The undeveloped area (then called Harbor View) was too far from the destroyed downtown areas being cleared to be useful. Also, the intervening hills between downtown and Harbor View prohibiting laying railroad track.
Shaky FoundationsI have read that the Marina District which was heavily damaged in the last quake was built on fill from this quake.  Kind of ironic when you think about it.
Re: Too MuchIt is a good thing everyone did not feel such despair. They got up, dusted themselves off and went to work to rebuild the city.
Hotel Fairmont Looks like the hotel off in the distance. The outside of the building survived relatively unscathed, but the interior suffered fire damage.
 This is one of the most interesting images of the aftermath I've seen. I get a real sense of what it must have been like to see and be amongst the destruction. So much to clean up before the rebuilding begins.
Caruso's Last StandAnd after being awakened by the tremor, Caruso vowed never to return to San Francisco, a vow which he kept.  As for the Fairmont Hotel, it was nearly complete at the time of the earthquake and fire, and its opening was delayed until the next year.
At the far left is another landmark of the time, the Call-Spreckels Building, home of the San Francisco Call newspaper.
Awful DamageWith every one of these I see on Shorpy, all I can think of is Hiroshima or Berlin circa 1945. Did you know that Enrico Caruso was in town at the time?
Too muchWhere and how do you even begin to clean up the debris? It's all just so overwhelming. 
London on FriscoJack London on the quake:
Day was trying to dawn through the smoke-pall. A sickly light was creeping over the face of things. Once only the sun broke through the smoke-pall, blood-red, and showing quarter its usual size. The smoke-pall itself, viewed from beneath, was a rose color that pulsed and fluttered with lavender shades Then it turned to mauve and yellow and dun. There was no sun. And so dawned the second day on stricken San Francisco.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Metropolis in Ruins: 1906
"Panorama from roof of Ferry P.O., San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 1906 earthquake and fire. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Quake survivors Some relics ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/31/2013 - 11:46am -

"Panorama from roof of Ferry P.O., San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 1906 earthquake and fire. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Quake survivorsSome relics of the earthquake and fire survive to this day, thanks to them having sunk below the surface; see this story.
Enormous scaleThere are a few men and one horse cart visible on the dirt road in about the middle of the photo. We have no idea what massive destruction resulted from this earthquake.
Today, we'd have all types of cars and developed structures broken and twisted, but these are millions upon millions of bricks and blocks and simple wood pieces, throw around like toothpicks.
I've never thought the few SF earthquake photos I've seen have shown the intensity that resulted. Those tiny people amid all that mayhem prove that's true.
[The subsequent fire rather than the earthquake itself is by far the greater cause of the destruction seen here. -tterrace]
WowWhat is that monstrous piece of machinery behind the leftmost walking man?
Re: MachineryI see gears and what looks like a flat pulley for a belt possibly parts of an Elevator system? 
Inflammable NeighborhoodsThe Ferry Post Office was just south of the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero; the building was built in 1900-1901, and rebuilt at the same site in 1915; the 1915 building still exists. Based on that location, the photo is looking over the Embarcadero; the street is Steuart Street, with Spear behind.  Market Street would be just to the right of the photo, Mission Street to the left.
A 1898-era Sanborn map shows that the ruins with the steel columns on the facade was probably the Seaman's Institute; the near side of the building would have been a ship's chandlery.  The pipes across the street match the location of a pipe storage yard that would have been behind "lodgings"; the building to the left with the big gear/pulley would also have been a ship's chandler, suggesting the big machinery was a ship's windlass.  The four story building one street back that looks intact would have been the U.S. Commissary Department at Spear and Mission.
This area would have burned well thanks to all the industries catering to the shipping trade.  Spear was lined with Allen and Higgins Hardwood Lumber, California Mills Lumber House, and the California Planing Mill.  On the near side of Spear, there were multiple hay lofts and a lumber yard.
Along the street we can see, we would ave had a row of lodgings, and on the near side, ships chandleries, saloons, stores, etc.
Sanborn San Francisco 1899-1900, vol. 2, sheet 126.
Much more high-rent nowThe location of the photo (between Market and Mission, Steuart and Spear) got a lot more high-rent after the earthquake; this became the site of the Southern Pacific's headquarters building (now known as 1 Market St.).  SP had some grand plans to build a great train station behind the building and across the center of this photo, but never quite had the money to get the main line tracks over here.  A pair of high-rises eventually ended up behind 1 Market St.; now, it's the home of Salesforce.com.
What a difference six months makes!BTW, here's the scene a block to the right six months later. Note that the U.S. Commissary building is still standing, but the other blocks have already been cleared and replaced by new low-rise structures.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Bliss: 1901
... woman in her kimono looking at the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake. This was eliminated by the curator because of its "racist content". ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2011 - 2:59pm -

Circa 1901. The caption here is just like a watermelon, short and sweet: "Bliss." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
I've been a faithfulI've been a faithful follower of Shorpy for over a year, but the repeated selection of these images with anti-Black stereotypes is making me reconsider that decision.  I'm a trained archivist and researcher, and am fully aware of the history and meanings of such images. I'm also a Black American and each time I see one of these images on what used to be a favorite photo site, I feel slightly ill. Black people may have posed for these photographs and participated in the making of negative images, but there have always been people who opposed them (for example, organized protests in response to D. W. Griffiths' 'Birth of a Nation' and Oscar Micheaux' creation of a film in response). 
Censorship isn't what I'm advocating here, but I do wonder: what is the purpose? When such images are presented without context or additional historical information, the stereotypes are revived and the cycle starts all over again. 
It's hard not to feel a bit betrayed.  I've commented before on some of the more dignified images presented here, such as Black Americans participating in the war effort, or pictured in the daily life of towns and industries.  Even when the photos are painful to see (that image of French performer Polaire with her 'slave' servant, for example), we can learn from them.  However, these were/are vicious, persistent stereotypes: dice playing, watermelon. Surely the editors of Shorpy have seen the widely circulated Internet meme with an image depicting an 'Obama White House' with watermelons on the lawn? This type of racism isn't dead.
I used to recommend Shorpy to all sorts of people. I may take a break and just go straight to the LoC Prints & Photographs Division for my personal browsing instead of making my daily visit here -- at least there's a bit more context. 
I really would appreciate it if someone at Shorpy would address the question of why the dice and watermelon images were selected.  Yes, they are part of our history, but they are not at all benign.
[I thought they were interesting. This one in particular because we're having a heat wave. Below: More craps-shooting and watermelon-eating on Shorpy. - Dave]



Spittin' happyYou know, there's not much that cools you down quicker on a hot day than eating watermelon. I wonder what those kids would think of today's seedless watermelons? 
Why a duck?Maybe the barrel was the duck's evening quarters.  When I was a kid we had neighbors who kept a chicken in a bushel basket at night.
And the little duck too. Stereotypical or not, these boys are enjoying themselves. One eating the melon; the other runnning up to see what the other (brother?) is doing? Perhaps it was staged. But there seems no exploitation. These kids are average looking kids of the American South, and are happy. It is refreshing to see. I also like the little duck waddling up, as if he too wants to get a slice of that juicy melon. 
Please People: It’s 1901.Those fellows are not "stereotypes," they are REAL! (and enjoying reality too)
WatermelonYecch, hated it as a kid and I never did develop a taste for it. The seeds are a pain in the neck too.
Summertime joyWhat a beautiful, natural smile on the face of the standing boy, he looks like a young and beaming Michael Jackson.  As for the lad engrossed in his snack sitting on the crate, he reminds me of the commercial saying "Don't bother me, I'm eating."   When I saw the title "Bliss" I thought it was going to be the now-famous Bill Bliss of Shorpy fame, but he was not around in 1901. This photo takes us all back, I'm lovin' it.
Just a guessThis photo "op" was set up by the photographer.
I'm StumpedI've been puzzling over what the one dozen cast iron items that were in the crate that one of the boys is sitting on, might have been.  They began with the letter F.
[Feeders. - Dave]
StereotypicalWe saw in another picture black kids playing dice for money, and now we see them eating watermelon.  What is next? Dancing a jig? These pictures seem to show the stereotypes of the age in which they were taken.
Same day (or week), different boysI was hoping this was going to be of the same boys as the one from the other day, but these little boys are cute, too.  They are certainly much more ragged than the other boys, but I am happy to be able to share in a happy moment in their lives.   
P.S.
I believe the old adage,"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Pictures like this are a reminder of how far we've come, and evidence that we can continue to make progress. Those four little boys were photographed doing things that, granted, could be construed as perpetuating stereotypes, but have been taken part in and enjoyed by Americans everywhere. I don't deny that the photographer may have brought the watermelon to the boys and set up the photo, but I agree with Caseyshebascott, that it doesn't look like they were being exploited. 
Because of their race, we know that their lives were going to be hard. One of the main things I love about photographs is that it is an opportunity to remember people who lived before us. Looking at pictures of moments in their lives is, I think, a tribute to them. I think the boys in this and the other picture would be thrilled to know that there are people remembering and caring about them, 110 years later! The intent of the photographer for the pictures does not change the fact that those pictures are a gift to us, now.  
One last thing; this is not the picture that I expected this kind of discussion from. This https://www.shorpy.com/node/10653 was. I cried over that one, to see that man, whose life we know, for sure, was very hard, treated like that, and for that reason! It reminded me of the horrible lynchings that used to take place, as recently as 50 years ago, and how thankful I am that my two black sons, and my biracial grandson, are not in danger of such a thing.
Raggedy clothesI know people have commented on some of the raggedy clothes in this picture and others. 
As the mother of an active boy about the same age, I just have to say healthy boys play rough. Even in this day where buying new clothes is easy and cheaper, my son will come home filthy and have ripped his clothes. 
When I know he is going to play rough, I ask him to wear old stuff to spare the relatively useful outfits. 
Come to think of it, I was pretty rough and tumbled as a little girl too!
ThxI will admit I cringed a little when I first saw this picture. Thanks for posting those white pics and putting things into perspective.
Lighten upThese are archival photos. I seriously doubt the photog at the time was wondering thru his viewfinder, "Geez, I bet this is will somehow be construed as a negative stereotypical image that I'm creating and in 100 years I will be lambasted for such by overly sensitive types in USA."
Like Sgt. Hulka once said, "Lighten up"
Heat index is 115 right nowI would be delighted if someone would offer me a nice slice of watermelon right now.  And that would be equally true whatever my skin color happened to be.  Some people are much too quick to seek offense where none is intended.
JeezThank God someone asked about the "cast iron feeders." At least some people aren't ticked off about black folks enjoying watermelon.
Acquired by artLooks to me that the watermelon belongs to the boy that's seated, eating, and that the other boy is helping himself.  Made me think of lines from Twain's autobiography:
I know how a prize watermelon looks when it is sunning its fat rotundity among pumpkin vines and "simblins"; I know how to tell when it is ripe without "plugging" it; I know how inviting it looks when it is cooling itself in a tub of water under the bed, waiting; I know how it looks when it lies on the table in the sheltered great floor space between house and kitchen, and the children gathered for the sacrifice and their mouths watering; I know the crackling sound it makes when the carving knife enters its end, and I can see the split fly along in front if the blade as the knife cleaves its way to the other end; I can see its halves fall apart and display the rich red meat and the black seeds, and the heart standing up, a luxury fit for the elect; I know how a boy looks behind a yard-long slice of that melon, and I know how he feels; for I have been there. I know the taste of the watermelon which has been honestly come by, and I know the taste of the watermelon which has been acquired by art. Both taste good, but the experienced know which tastes best.
I Disagree With GumbogirlYes the image is stereotypic but it is also interesting, and as historically significant as any other image on this site.  We understand the context and the times of the image.  Thanks and keep'em coming.
StereotypesI've also enjoyed this website for a long time, but presenting this picture as if it is just any other picture is not right.  A picture of black people with watermelons is never an innocent picture.  Along with numerous other racist images, from at least the mid-nineteenth century to the present day it's signified that African Americans are inherently lazy, child-like, improvident, and ultimately morally deficient in order to dehumanize them so that they can be denied political rights. That image isn't somehow balanced by showing pictures of raggedy white boys playing dice or white farm families enjoying watermelon because white people have never been denied political rights because of their race.  Pictures of white boys eating watermelon aren't equivalent to pictures of black boys eating watermelon.   It also doesn't matter if someone claims to see this image in a "positive" way because that history is always present and has meaning in society, whether or not any one individual chooses to recognize it.  Presenting this kind of image without somehow dealing with its history just ends up perpetuating the stereotype and shoring up its purposes.  This website isn't set up to be critical or analytical--it's a place where people can look at miscellaneous pictures of buildings and people and whatever from the past, make the pictures big and look for interesting details.  To put that picture in this setting without discussion or comment  is erasing its history, which is a bad idea considering how widespread this kind of stereotyping of African Americans and other groups still is in our society.
Tempest in a TeapotI've been looking at this blog with great interest and affection for quite some time, but never felt the need to comment until now.
What I love about this blog is that it is a look at the American Century: it is a view of our past.  To look at a 1901 image and declaim racism with 2011 eyes is not only ridiculous sophistry, but flummery as well.  These images are part of the American experience and, in that context, these children certainly look very happy.  Certainly happier than many inner-city children of today look.
As for slavery-guilt, I feel none.  I am English, so my ancestors were enslaved by the Romans, denied the same rights in the political process as American blacks were here at home.  However, I have somehow managed forgive Italians, and quite enjoy myself whenever visiting Rome.  
Grow up, people.
[There's a bit of a difference between 2,000 years ago and one great-grandma ago. - Dave]
Should have enlarged it firstI concede.  It's a duck, not a chicken.  
Hang in there, GumbogirlIt's so subtle, I would bet that the photographer was oblivious to the stereotype, as most white people are today. I would argue that it is even more subtle now, since so much racist art has been systematically destroyed. It bothered me too, a little, and I'm white, for whatever that's worth. 
Check here and here for some shots of an integrated 1890s US Navy, before Klan sympathizer Woodrow Wilson segregated all branches of the service. Those are just the shots that come to my mind at the moment.
Shorpy gives us history unfiltered. It's up to the community to provide the context.
Don't perpetuate the stereotypes!Don't form your opinions from 110 year old photos.  Instead, form your opinions based on the condition of most of America's inner-cities.
Aw nuts...Here I was enjoying the memory of how my brother used to somehow manage to snatch up half of all my treats (watermelon, candy, cupcakes) when we were youn'uns. Then I started reading the comments and remembered there's supposed to be something inherently evil and racsist about 2 black kids eating watermelon on a hot summer day. 
Welp... so much for nostalgia. Back to the real world.
WahI would give a lot to be as happy and content as these fellows look. I believe it to be genuine. This photo struck me as life in a less complicated time. Stereotype? Possibly, but so what. I guess crybabies gonna cry.
Right on, LectrogeekI like the comment about Shorpy giving us "history unfiltered." Trying to ignore the subject matter of a particular photo, regardless of whether it offends our 21st century sensibilities, isn't going to change what happened back in the day. Let's hope, however, that we can all learn from that history and therefore ensure that it doesn't repeat itself.
As far as this being a part of our history we'd rather forget, how about the photos of dead Civil War soldiers in the trenches around Petersburg (also to be found here on Shorpy)? Is a photo of a dead Confederate soldier, lying in the mud with half his head blown off, any less disturbing? Even as an avid Civil War buff, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Americans killing Americans, even if it did happen 150 years ago. But it's history, and we move on, and learn as we go. 
StereotypesTo not show photos such as this and have reasoned discussions about them would be "erasing the history."
When I worked at a certain children's museum and we were preparing for the opening, I was asked to put together a range of stereoscopic photos so that the children could view them. I carefully eliminated the obviously racist ones - like series of views "Mrs. Newlywed's new French Cook" where the wife catches her husband messing with the French cook and replaces her with

Amongst the ones I selected was a photo of a Japanese woman in her kimono looking at the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake. This was eliminated by the curator because of its "racist content". Firstly, I felt that it wasn't "racist" it showed someone who lived in San Francisco wearing, as many Japanese people in San Francisco of the day did, her normal clothes. Secondly, I felt that it revealed to children that there were people other than white people in San Francisco at that time.
As it happened, in order to "not present ethnic stereotypes" NONE of the images in the children's museum depicted any but white people...
The powers that be decided that in order to prevent any inadvertent "racist depictions", they would completely eliminate images of people of colour entirely.
If Dave starts eliminating historical photos which accurately depict attitudes, even what people in the day didn't overtly see as "racist" or "stereotypical" we'd have photos which exclusively present white males, buildings, and landscapes. The fact is that many of the images of women seen here, especially in the 1920s and 1930s depict stereotypical images of scantily-clad women which were taken basically to titillate men. I would no more, as a woman, expect that they be removed because they might be seen as raising an "uncomfortable" discussion.
As it happens, the great number of collectors of artifacts and ephemera with "stereotypical" depictions of African Americans from bygone days is African Americans. In collecting these items, they are making a concerted effort to ensure that the attitudes of the past, as offensive as they may be, are not whitewashed over.
--- Later...
I would like to add that I understand that there are varying viewpoints on whether the image posted by Dave is "offensive". The point I would like to make is that, as has been shown by some of the comments, many people are unaware that depictions of African Americans eating watermelon might have stereotypical connotations. Seeing such images and understanding that, however subtle, such imagery was the result of more overt and widespread racial attitudes.
I should also point out that the image I posted above was one of a number of "alternative endings" for the "Mrs. Newlywed's new French Cook". The last image was photographed with at least two other characters in place of the "lazy black cook" image - A fat "ethnic (possibly Italian) woman, for instance - to cater to the buyer's taste (or prejudice).
I am in no way suggesting that someone who finds the images offensive is wrong. My view is that people who come to Shorpy do so because we want to see the past through the eyes of our parents and grandparents, even when that view makes us uncomfortable.
Chill outI think there's a lot of misplaced guilt on parade here. Until I read all the remarks, the old stereotypes never even occurred to me. I just thought it looked like two kids having fun.
[Different people will have different perspectives. If your ancestors were brought to this country against their will as slaves, and their descendants objectified as "cute" (mammies and "pickaninnies" lumped in the same category as puppies and kittens, in a sort of racist kitsch that's become "collectible" on eBay), you might understandably have some opinions about pictures like this. - Dave]
Regardless of the eraYou never wear the cap with the bill straight ahead!
Aw GeezSome people here need to get a life.
Just Sayin'.
Great discussionThere is a great dialog here and a good illustration of why it's so important to study history and understand context.
Thanks, Dave, for posting all the pictures you do, but mostly for also posting the comments--pro and con--about the content on this excellent site.
What is so racist about watermelon?I can't say I've ever seen a black person eating one.
Dave?What makes you think my ancestors weren't bought and sold as slaves?
[Nothing does. - Dave]
I get such a laugh from allI get such a laugh from all of this. Especially from all of you self righteous people who feel that this is a derogatory photo. First of all, do you know where stereotypes come from? ….well, they’re formed from observations.  And as far as the political repression of minorities…do you really think that this photo has anything to do with that? I mean really…..where does that even come from? I think that you look at this photo and you are feeling something that doesn’t really exist. “You” are making this into some crazy statement….and no-one else.
Do you feel that we should get rid of any photo that may be offensive to someone? Or only the ones that “you” feel are negative? If you erase or deny the past, you will loose the link to how we got to where we are today. There were an awful lot of white people who risked everything that they had, including their lives, to make sure that blacks would get an even shake in this world, and now 150 years later there are still people standing up for you. Somewhere along the line this fact seems to be forgotten. Every chance that you get…you call foul. Just knock it off already, it’s a photo, not a political statement.
[It might be instructive to scroll down and read Gumbogirl's comment first, then this one, and weigh them separately on the Reasonableness Scale. I am not getting a reading up here. Tap tap tap. - Dave]
Thank youThank you to Dave for a charming photo and to Mudhooks for your eloquent comment. Revisionist history is a dangerous thing. 
White Washing HistoryI've been reading the comments on this issue, and I can see both sides. The image does have racist overtones. You can bet that the photographer knew exactly what he was shooting when he took this picture of two Black kids and the watermelon, and I have no doubt that he might have used terms a lot more offensive than Black, Negro or even "colored." And it's not something that went away easily. I have a National Geographic from the 1930s that shows a raggedly dressed African American youth sitting on a wagon load of watermelons having a slice and wearing a big grin on his face. Eddie Anderson whose character of Rochester was, at the time, considered a major step forward in portrayal of Blacks in the media was regularly portrayed as shooting dice, partying non-stop on Central Avenue (in Los Angeles), stealing chickens and wanting to grown nothing but watermelon.
But the fact is that photos like these are a documentation of their times and those times were a prejudiced period. And not just towards African-Americans. Native Americans, Mexicans, Asians (usually defined generically as Chinese) and whatever the current wave of immigrants might have been were also subjected to a prejudiced portrayal. Look at some of Hine's tenement photos and the descriptions he provides for them and you will not get a very negative view of new Italian immigrants. 
My view is that you can't set aside pictures like these to see only the "comfortable" vision of history that shows only positive images. You need to approach it "warts and all" and part of that is seeing the warts. Most importantly you have to talk about it and put it into context. That's the only way that things advance.
Surprisingly thought provokingAlthough Dave's intent to simply post a light-hearted summer scene was clear, at first I was slightly uncomfortable with the stereotypes portrayed in the staging of this photo.  Fortunately, the way commenters brought up and discussed the racial context reminded me what a educational resource this site is, thanks to the engaged community Dave has attracted.
Years ago, seeing the simple minded racism of blackface and mammy figures etc. with descriptions of their historical context forever changed my views on race in America.  As awful as the racist ideas and caricatures of our grandparents' time were, doesn't pretending they never existed make it harder for modern people to put current racial problems into proper perspective?  
The Mark Twain quote was a perfect fit with both the scene as well as the problem of presenting America's racial history honestly and sensitively, given the recent debates over the dialects and characters in some of his books.  Would we be better off today if we banned Huckleberry Finn because we cringe at its period language and imagery?
We know African Americans of this time were subject to incredibly stupid racist ideas and behaviors.  That shouldn't make us erase people like these kids from our national memory.  The children in this picture lived in an unjust time, but they deserve to be remembered today as much as any white kids on Shorpy. The alternative - banning another period picture because racism was so prevalent - doesn't serve history or modernity well.
I think Dave and the community here did well by these kids and the issues this photo raised.
Shorpy UnfilteredI'm new to Shorpy but I'm now hooked, even going backwards in the archive from the first post to catch up!
I enjoy the unfiltered view of the past that we get on this site. We get to see photos taken through contemporary eyes of the day, like we're stepping through a time machine. 
Of course, those eyes may have been accustomed to things being a way that they aren't necessarily anymore, or are now deemed unacceptable by many. If someone is overly sensitive to these things, which Gumbogirl or bmore may be, then a site full of old photos may not be for them. 
You can count me in to the group that never thought of any racial stereotyping when I saw this photo. I can see how some might, but again... even IF the photo was composed with racism in mind (which we will never know), the era the photo was taken in must be considered. Myself, all I see is two kids enjoying watermelon on a hot day.
Finally, I fully agree with Dave that each picture is interpreted differently by each person... and that's what makes them special and causes them to invoke discussion. I get disgusted by things like racist WWII propaganda posters but hey, it is what it is.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigarAnd sometimes, when you've typed the subject line, you discover there isn't much more to say.
One of the things I really love about Shorpyis that although there are clearly 2 different schools of thought on this picture all the comments are clearly thought out, reasonable and respectful. Maybe a couple little pokes here and there, but no personal attacks or hatred. That's exceedingly rare for anything on this topic on the web.
[That's partly because we don't publish those comments. - Dave]
Maybe it's 'cause I'm Canadianbut I completely missed the stereotype that is so upsetting to some.  I had no idea that associating black people with watermelon could be offensive.
When I looked at the picture of boys and their snack, it was a picture of joy.  When my eye first caught mudhooks' picture of "the new French cook" (before reading the captions) it was a picture of a woman playing a mandolin.
Like I say, maybe it's because I'm not American and our experience around slavery is different, or maybe it's because the world has changed and is closer to a time when people are just people, but I just don't get what the problem is.
As someone has said, if you're looking for trouble, look at how things are in the inner-cities today and do something about it.
re: "One of the things I really love about Shorpy"Then that's one of the things I really love about YOU, Dave. I guess it was naive of me to assume no one submits such comments here. Thank you for culling those out; that's mighty refreshing. One of the many, MANY reasons I make time to visit this site at LEAST once a day. You are appreciated.
Slice of LifeI love these old photographs, thanks Dave for sharing them with us. I can see how a boy eating watermelon could push someone's buttons, but honestly, how much poorer would we all be if we could not see this photo, this brief window of this era and these two kids?
ReliefI haven't visited for a while and pictures like this and the seaside pics help take away some of the opressive heat that's all around.  Boy, do love watermelon! 
No bad intentI doubt if there was any bad intent from posting this photo. It just is what it is. It is a part of the culture at the time. Being a historian, no one should try to squelch any part of history, bad or good. It all teaches us. On top of that, this a a nice photo! Two kids just enjoying summer's bounty! For anyone to read any more into it is racist in itself. 
Watermelon daysWell this calls for a story. When I was a child in the District, we still had watermelon carts with horses.  It would come down our street once maybe twice a week.  My grandmother usually couldn't afford one, but every now and again she would surprise us.  If we saw her at the watermelon truck we would wait patiently, until we saw the watermelon man hand her the goods.  Then we would jump up and down, sing with glee and dance.  There would be all kinds of carryins on. We would follow Grandma to the back of the house, our camp ground in the alley, "Grandma can I have a big piece" please? When we were done, we would play until dark.  Then we would go to bed with sweet dreams of that beautiful fruit.  Our hearts would swell because we knew Grandma loved us more that anything in the world.  Just a simple watermelon story for y'all!       
PostcardPostcard version:
(The Gallery, DPC, Kids)

San Francisco: 1959
... First Unitarian Church at 1187 Franklin Street in San Francisco. Built in 1889, it seems to have survived the 1906 earthquake and fire nicely. Anscochrome taken by my father in August 1959. ... 
 
Posted by Rute Boye - 08/13/2012 - 10:08am -

First Unitarian Church at 1187 Franklin Street in San Francisco. Built in 1889, it seems to have survived the 1906 earthquake and fire nicely. Anscochrome taken by my father in August 1959. View full size.
Buick SpecialA nice 1954 Buick Special 2-door hardtop right in front, then a late '40s Chrysler product, a '57 Chevy station wagon, and the back end of a '59 Ford. Looks like a '51-'52 chevy 2-door post going by in the background.
Before all GM products looked alikeWhen looking at pictures of this vintage, one does not have to be an expert on automobiles to be able to instantly identify a Buick, for obvious reasons.
Thomas Starr KingBeyond the red car (Buick?) in the grassy spot is the burial place of the Reverend Thomas Starr King, Universalist minister of First Unitarian Church, and one of the most influential and significant personalities of the Civil War period. He has often given credit for keeping California in the Union; he raised huge sums for the Sanitary Commission (some Sanitary Commission photos somewhere on Shorpy)and died young.
Until recently his statue was in Statuary Hall of the US Capitol, along with Father Serra, representing California. His portrait can be seen in the California Capitol.
When I was in 3rd grade I attended Thomas Starr King Elementary School in Long Beach, California.
AnscochromeAnsco sold a 500 a.s.a. film that I tried out on R&R in Hong Kong in the late sixties. A bit grainy but it had a lovely pastel-like color. I quite liked it and somewhere I have a few slides, that survived many a move, to this day.
Still going strongHere's a view of the same building today. I bet it was a job to clean off all that ivy!
A Casualty, I'm Bettin'I think there was more to the steeple in 1905.
[And you'd win. Here it is shortly after the earthquake, courtesy the Detroit Publishing Co. - tterrace]
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Clock-Stopper: 1906
"Ferry Building, San Francisco, 1906." Aftermath of the earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Shave and a Haircut 3.2 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:34pm -

"Ferry Building, San Francisco, 1906." Aftermath of the earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Shave and a Haircut3.2 bits!
Beautiful BuildingLet's block everyone's view with a massive freeway and see if the next big earthquake can knock it down!
Fast-forwardView Larger Map
Look at the time!
HistoryNow if we could only figure out what time the earthquake struck!
+102Here is the same perspective of the Ferry Building taken in September of 2008 (unfortunately in order to get the identical perspective, the shot ended up with palm trees in the way).
It's also good to know that erectile dysfunction apparently is cured with age, as evidenced by the flagpole. 
Time fliesAccording to the University of California's Seismological Lab, the actual time of the Big One in 1906 was 5:12 AM. However, the Ferry Building hands stopped at 5:16 AM, as documented in the Shorpy view. 
I don't know if the Ferry clock was running fast that day, or if it stopped four minutes after the first jolt due to cumulative aftershocks, but the hands stayed in that position so long that they gave rise to a long-held local belief that 5:16 was the time the quake struck.
Coolness inside the Ferry BuildingAs a small boy and incipient modelaholic in the 1950s, one of my favorite stops on any visit to the City was the Ferry Building and the gigantic, 1924-vintage, 500-foot long relief map of California, complete with minature roads and buildings. It was removed in the early 1960s and its whereabouts are apparently unknown. It was incredibly cool.
My mother's family lived through the earthquake, but the only period photo in our archives is of my aunt Mary outside Mission Dolores on the day of her First Holy Communion on June 10, 1906, seven weeks afterwards. She's on the left. We have a copy of a post-quake letter my grandmother wrote to relatives in Switzerland that mentions enclosed photos, but none have turned up anywhere.
The "fast" Ferry Building clockWhen the "big one" struck on 18 April '06, the Ferry Building's clock was running normally and its four faces' hands were set at their usual 5-minutes fast positions. 
The ferry terminal was exceedingly busy on any given day and commuters thronging its halls and surging onto ferries were aided by the clock's "fast" setting; anyone looking up Market or East Street (what we now know as the Embarcadero) would see the clock and -- theoretically -- hurry to catch their boat. 
In all actuality, the earthquake's epicenter was near Pacifica and "struck" up and down the coast in oddly resonant waves; the first shock was powerfully felt by a coastwise steam schooner first mate (at the helm) en route from Mendocino County at 05:11 as registered on the ship's otherwise perfect chronometer, and thus written into its log.
Ferry Building mapThe latest news on the whereabouts of the Ferry Building's giant California relief map here.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Frisco Alfresco: 1906
San Francisco, April 1906, after the earthquake and fire that leveled much of the city. "Cooking in the street." Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Re: Radical, dude! ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:34pm -

San Francisco, April 1906, after the earthquake and fire that leveled much of the city. "Cooking in the street." Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.
Re: Radical, dude!Sure he will - right on top of the stove!!
Hey - "What's that guy with the camera lookin' at?!?"
Post no billsNor Freds or Jims or Kens either.
On the levelEvidently there's more of a hill on this street than meets the eye, judging by how the back legs of each kitchen range are shimmed.   
Virgo risingLooks like someone drew an astrology chart on the pavement.
Snail hopscotchThe "horoscope" on the road is a version of Snail Hopscotch. Instead of a T shape, you draw a spiral, then start at the outside on 1, hopping toward the centre, switch feet and hop out.
Played it endlessly as a kid, amongst other schoolyard games.
La Marelle Ronde (Round Hopscotch)Those "astrology charts" look very much like hopscotch spirals, similar to the French Escargot hopscotch -- La Marelle Ronde.
Am I Warm?They're cooking in the street for a Cinco de Mayo festival.
Myrtle StreetTook a bit of hunting but I found the location of this photo: Myrtle Street (or Alley) between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. View is to the west, with the spire of the old First Unitarian Church just visible over the buildings at right. The Unitarian Church is still there but hidden from view. About the only survivor from the 1906 photo is the granite newel post.
View Larger Map
Tiny PiratesThe lady swinging her fist is protecting the identity of the tiny pirate hiding behind her.
Street cookingBonus question: Who can guess why, in a part of town where the buildings are still intact, people are cooking on the street?
Radical, dude!That's a gnarly skateboard ramp man.  You're never gonna land that one.
KaboomThese people were afraid that cooking indoors with their coal or wood (or gas) stoves might ignite any gas leaking from broken supply lines. Which of course is why much of the city burned after the earthquake.
About street cookingYep. A number of first-hand narratives about the earthquake and fire aftermath are available online, for example this one and this one. Both mention the enforcement of no-indoor-flames rules.
Mystery BoxI wonder what Charlie Chaplin is carrying up the street?
Living on the EdgeJohn Martini's identification of the photo to this block of Myrtle Street reveals just how narrow an escape these residents had. In this neighborhood, the fire was halted along Van Ness, which was the next street directly behind the photographer when he took this view. The red area in this detail of a 1907 San Francisco map shows the portion of the city that was destroyed by the fire. The small bright green rectangle indicates the location of this block of Myrtle Street, adjacent to the fire zone.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Looking up California: 1906
San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. "Looking up California Street from ... the hill is the Fairmont Hotel, seen in yesterday's post. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Prelinger Archive Movies ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:33pm -

San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. "Looking up California Street from Sansome Street." At the top of the hill is the Fairmont Hotel, seen in yesterday's post. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Prelinger Archive MoviesThere's something heartening about the fact that people could, and did, rebuild after the quake and fires. They didn't hole up and defend their bunker or flee for the countryside. The built a beautiful city over the ruins. It wasn't easy or smooth; there was plenty of corruption and incompetence. But they *did* it. 
A number of years back I saw a bird's-eye view of down town post-quake San Francisco, snapped from a tethered balloon. The place looked . . . nuked. A sea of rubble around the ferry building.
The wonderful Prelinger Archive has a number of movies taken in San Francisco before and after the quake. They are wonderful, and eerie. 
About that Market Street trafficIf you watch carefully, you'll see that some of the cars that pass by and in front of the camera appear more than once. The one with license plate 4867 does so at least five times, for example. You'll see it and at least a couple others passing, making u-turns, then overtaking the trolley again several times. Another with a boy riding the back bumper appears at least twice. Rick Prelinger features a restored version of the film, without the frame jumping, in his periodic "Lost Landscapes of San Francisco" presentations. In one, Chapter 12 here he says it's his understanding that the photographer arranged with some of his friends to zip around like that to add extra excitement to the film.
Shock and AweWhat a stunning photograph. A still-worrying crack in the building on the left. 
SurvivorThis is the same view today looking west on California Street from Battery Street taken is September of 2009.  The large building on the left in the 1906 photograph (which looks like it has a little hut on the top) is the Merchants Exchange Building which still stands and can be seen in the current view as well.
A stark lesson...In the wisdom of a) not building with excessive ornamental masonry cantilevered over the street, and b) studying seismology.
Shake and bakeThis is an amazing picture of the tragic event that shook and burned San Francisco.  Makes me wonder how all of these dressed up folks lived and got around after all of the devastation.
Extra RailsGreat photo.  You can just make out the tower of Old Saint Mary's Cathedral on the right at Grant Avenue and the Fairmont Hotel on the right at the top of the hill.  They are the only buildings in this view that still survive.  Note that there are slots and narrow gauge rails for the California Street Cable Railroad, and an outer set of gantlet rails for a franchise-holding horsecar line that ran from Kearny to Drumm.  Michael Houlihan drove the single car.  Here is a 1906 article from the San Francisco Call, published in the building we were admiring yesterday, about that operation:
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/cchoulihan.html#top
A bit tidier todayView Larger Map
There's just been a major disaster!Where's my suit?
Exodus to OaklandWikipedia has a long description of the quake, fire and aftermath. Hundreds of thousands of people apparently lived in Oakland and Berkeley for a couple years until the city rebuilt. 
The building code was made stricter for a while, but was relaxed quite a bit after contractors complained that it was too much work to build earthquake-resistant buildings. They made the codes very lenient until the 1950s. 
Market Street 1905This film was shot less than a year before the quake. Look for the group of kids halfway through running alongside the trolley and grabbing onto passing cars. And speaking of cars, the controlled chaos of the road packed with horses, wagons, streetcars, and autos is fascinating to watch.
[It is indeed. The camera is filming from a streetcar as it travels toward the Ferry Building clock tower. I was surprised at the number of autos cutting in front of it. Mr. 4867 makes several appearances.- Dave]
Post-ApocalypticMost displaced City residents lived in tents provided by the Army in places like Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. 
How did they get around? Shoe leather. Took weeks to get public transit going again.
Looking down on CaliforniaThe panoramic view of San Francisco after the quake taken from a 'Captive Airship' by photographer George R. Lawrence can be found here.
It's worth downloading the giant size.
Ghosts of 1906When I find an image of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire I look for the site where the image was made and then go there to take a photograph of the site today.   I then composit the two images to create an image with both the damaged and rebuilt structures.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

REO Heroes: 1906
June 1906. "REO Mountaineer, New York to San Francisco and back." Percy Megargel and David Fassett at Huber's Hotel on 162nd ... were in San Francisco in November 1905, so they missed the earthquake by five months. The photo below was captioned: "Lost between ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/31/2021 - 1:05pm -

June 1906. "REO Mountaineer, New York to San Francisco and back." Percy Megargel and David Fassett at Huber's Hotel on 162nd Street in the Bronx at the end of their 10-month, 11,000-mile trip in a 16-horsepower REO (Ransom E. Olds) touring car. View full size.
Shades of the Old WestThe cowboys of the 19th century had a rifle in a scabbard secured under their saddle. Percy and David had the rifle in a scabbard secured under the fender. I wonder what its purpose was, hunting for food, defense or both?
ToolsThe Winchester rifle was only drawn once, for a bear:
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-reo-mountaineer-endurance-ru...
Not a very smooth tripNew York Tribune Thursday Jan 11, 1906

Modern AutomobileThis REO seems to have more basic systems in common with a 1980 car that the 1980 car has with a 2021 car (or crossover/SUV/Truck, since they hardly make cars anymore).
162nd and Jerome AveAcross the street from the (future) House That Ruth Built!  
Long and winding roadThis was aptly described at the time as an 'endurance run'. Percy and David originally estimated the round trip would take 112 days. One reason it took three times that: they routed through Detroit, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Portland, Los Angeles, Flagstaff, Gallup, Denver, and Omaha. They reported that the car was once stuck in quicksand for three weeks until a snow-melt flood washed it loose.
They were in San Francisco in November 1905, so they missed the earthquake by five months.
The photo below was captioned: "Lost between Williams and Flagstaff, Ariz." (They are less than 34 miles apart--but Arizona was still a territory.)
Clearly, a time-traveller.The passenger is checking his cellphone.
The Bronx?! The heck you say."How can this be the Bronx?" I asked myself. "It's not even paved." Then the light bulb went on. Curious as to what might be there today, I did a quick Google and found the approximate location. Suffice it to say, as a native New Englander, I wouldn't be caught dead there now outside of the AL East wild card playoffs...
Bowlers and boatersThere is a bit of a mix of hats there, though I would suppose that June was well into straw hat season. Wearing the wrong hat when the season changes could cause a riot, especially in NYC.
Unreadable scriptThe REO on the left has three letters on the front of the radiator.  These are someone's initials. These could be bought from aftermarket vendors who sold dusters etc. to personalize one's car.  
Ransom E. OldsHad given his name to the Oldsmobile brand back in 1897, but left the company in 1905.  He tried to continue under the name Olds, but legal action from Oldsmobile kept him from doing that so he settled on Reo.  Had one of the most descriptive and interesting names for its cars in the 20's, specifically the Reo Flying Cloud.  After the Depression settled into making large trucks and was absorbed by Volvo after bankruptcy in 1975.
Bottom sideI'm curious as to the purpose of the shroud of fabric underneath the vehicle. Is it to catch those falling parts along the way?
Riding ShotgunSo you wouldn't get relegated to the back seat. Unless a couple honeys come along then Riding Shotgun wasn't important. 
REO in the UKMany motor buses in Britain were REO. The story was 'Ruins Every Operator'... You may say that - I could not possibly comment!
Timing is everythingI figure they were somewhere in Ohio when the Big One hit San Francisco.
Re: Timing is everything (from the SF fire to the band in IL)To make it to San Francisco in time for "the big one", they might have used a REO Speed Wagon (the truck, not the band); but that vehicle wasn't to appear on the scene until 1915; and the band wasn't on the scene until 1966. On an interesting note, the band got its name (R.E.O. Speedwagon) from the vehicle, as founder and keyboardist Neal Doughty saw it written on the blackboard of his "History of Transportation" class at the University of Illinois (Champaign) in 1967. And if all of that wasn't enough coincidence, on his first keyboard, one of the first songs Neal Doughty learned was "Light My Fire" by The Doors. I can just hear those famous words by Robert L. Ripley ringing out, "Believe It or Not!"
It would have been 9 monthsIf they did not have to lace up those boots every morning.
Almost HomeCurrently, just west of third base at the (new) Yankee Stadium.
Not a speedy wagonIf I did the math right, that averages out to just over 1.5 mph. If they drove just 8 hours a day, it averages out to about 4.6 mph. They didn't try for a direct route, but seemed to try to drive through as many states as they could.
Today, with a direct route from NY to SF of 2906 miles, Google says you can make the round trip in 86 hours.
Much more info here.
Eye of the beholderIMO the tall, dark man standing behind the three gents on the far right, with his eyes cast downward, is also pretty handsome. The triple threat, as it were.
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, NYC)

Stop the Presses: 1906
San Francisco, 1906. "The Call newspaper building from Grant Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The Call ablaze The Call building on fire after the earthquake. Seen here on Shorpy. +103 The Call Building survived the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:33pm -

San Francisco, 1906. "The Call newspaper building from Grant Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The Call ablazeThe Call building on fire after the earthquake. Seen here on Shorpy.
+103The Call Building survived the earthquake and fire only to fall victim to an "upgrade" to its exterior.  It continues to stand on Market Street as the Central Tower underneath and is several stories higher than in 1906.  I've attached a shot of it taken in Sept. of 2009 from the identical perspective.
Worse was yet to come ...The famous modern architect Le Corbusier trashed this building in his seminal work of 1923, Vers une architecture (Towards an Architecture): "Let us listen to the counsels of American engineers. But let us beware of American architects. The proof -- followed by an arrow pointing to a badly retouched and unidentified photograph  of the Call Building.   
Moving DayI work down the street from the Call Building-Spreckels Building-Central Tower.  There is a persistent rumor that the building moved 6 inches to two feet east during the earthquake.  If you stand on the Third Street side, the edge of the building does not align with the building next door.  
DomectomyI've never been a fan of Le Corbusier,  but I have to admit that
there was something creepy and unsettling about the unreasonable
number of oculus dormers on the otherwise handsome dome of the
Call Building.  Still, it was far preferable to the neutered and utterly
soulless structure of today.
Re: DomectomyThis is a pretty hideous example of Early Skyscraper. The top looks like a cross between a salt shaker and a giant Easter egg. As for the makeover being "neutered and utterly soulless," what a lot of pretentious twaddle. The people who actually live in this neighborhood think it's rather handsome. Count me among them.
Point TakenYou're right, Anonymous Tipster. The "soulless" comment WAS pretentious twaddle. (I prefer "theatrical.")  I'll try to avoid such drivel in the future.  I see now that the building has great art deco/moderne appeal, especially at street level; I can see why you and your neighbors like it.
The sacrifice of the firefightersAccording to some stories I've read (and the very first "American Experience" documentary shown on PBS), several firefighters were trapped on the upper floors of the building, and incinerated.  In the book "Denial of Disaster" it says that the fire spread from a nearby SFG&E power plant, and went up the elevator shafts, burning the building from the top floors down.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Sutter Street: 1906
April 1906. San Francisco after the earthquake and fire. "Sutter Street up from Grant Avenue." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing. View full size. Fire escape. That's where I'll ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:37pm -

April 1906. San Francisco after the earthquake and fire. "Sutter Street up from Grant Avenue." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing. View full size.
Fire escape.That's where I'll be hanging out in the next big one. Seems like it helped out structurally. Even those farther up the street.
Nice standpipeUp there on the seventh floor. Pity the firefighters never got to use it.
Sutter Street SynagogueThe impressive twin towered building on the right side of the street is the ruined Sutter Street Synagogue, the home of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco's pioneer Jewish congregation. The vaguely Moorish Revival style building was built in 1866.
A chilling imageThe Fire Escapes with no building attached to them any more, how many people were in those rooms when they collapsed!?
[Fire destroyed most of these buildings. I would bet that most of them had emptied out by the time they started burning. - Dave]
Looking goodThe gents admiring the rubble a quite a bit more nattily dressed than you'd find these days. 
Back in the daywhen a facade was a facade! They could really build 'em. 
Fire hose connectionsI see at least two fire hose connection manifolds such as the one prominent atop the wall at upper left, apparently not of much use in this case! Fire department had been complaining about low water pressure for some time prior to the disaster. 
Nothing's the sameThis is the same view up Stockton Street today, taken 104 years after the earthquake and fire. Not surprisingly, there's not a single structure surviving  from the 1906 photograph. Most of these ruins were demolished and used for landfill along San Francisco's bay shore.
The spires of burnt-out Temple Emanu-El, rising above the ruins at center, have been replaced by a 1930's skyscraper named simply "450 Sutter." Its art deco bulk is the tallest feature on the right side of today's street view.
FantasticWhat a simply magnificent photograph when viewed at full resolution -- just fantastic. Thanks for posting the comparison shot as well, I love to see how the sites look today.
How far up?I wonder how far up on the fire escape on the left you could've climbed before the entire facade would've fallen down, carrying you with it?
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

The Athenaeum: 1907
... libraries is the Mechanics' Institute in downtown San Francisco, where I worked. This is not at all an "elitist" institution, as it ... class. Dating to the Gold Rush and surviving the 1906 earthquake and fire, Mechanics' is healthy and robust today with a general ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/25/2022 - 2:07pm -

Circa 1907. "Athenaeum -- Portsmouth, New Hampshire." Next door to Foye's and its 1,000 Palms. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
I tip my hat to you, PortsmouthAnd here is why.

Got your Athenaeum dues ready?The name originated in Rome, which considered Athens (from Athena goddess of wisdom) to be the fount of learning. In today's Athens, you will find the name on an Intercontinental hotel.
American Athenaeums (athenaea to the snooty) are private membership libraries, almost all of them predating the rapid growth of public libraries in the late 1800s. The Portsmouth Athenaeum was founded in 1817, ten years after the Boston Athenaeum. The Membership Libraries Group has sixteen full members.
These places were Elitist with a capital E, but can be accessible today if you prove you're serious.
"Our boots are worth dying for!"At Frank W. Knight's, even our former customers are paying us a visit.
I'm Hiring Corey.He is a man who knows exactly what he is ... A Lawyer. He states it twice with no unnecessary words.
On the other hand Simes seems to be confused. In one instance he is a Counsellor At Law then he transforms himself into an Atty At Law. I have no idea what an atty is and it's its connection to law and in actuality a Counsellor At Law is just a 50 cent way to say the simple nickel word lawyer,
Go for Corey, who seems to be a pragmatic man who will not overcharge you 45 cents for a 5 cent job.
War TrophiesA little Google searching turned up the history of the two cannon in front of the Athenaeum. Succinctly, they were cast in Scotland in 1793 and mounted aboard a British warship that was captured in the War of 1812. After being remounted on a U.S. Navy ship, and later on a private merchant ship, they finally ended up as decorations in Portsmouth in the mid-1800s.
There, the cannon were moved a couple of times (always as ornaments) before ending up in their present location in 1895.
Read the full story of the guns here.
One More Thing ...Here's a closeup of the plaque on one of the two cannon. It reads: "Taken From the British by Commodore Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie, Sept 10, 1813."
I'm SurprisedNo one has mentioned the two cannons standing sentry at either side of the door, muzzle down. Can anyone identify the type? Also the purpose of the shield emblem on them?
Elitist ReaderThanks to GlenJay for the Athenaeum explanation.  I'm sure this gent wouldn't be caught dead reading his Portsmouth Herald or Boston Globe for that matter at the Christian Science Reading Room next door above Frank W. Knight Boots.

Surprised to seeCannons are still at the doorway.
Widow's walkI am please to see Athenaeum's expansion retained the distinctive
fenced rooftop platform, a feature of many oceanfront residences
and public buildings.
One of the consortiums of private membership libraries is the
Mechanics' Institute in downtown San Francisco, where I worked.
This is not at all an "elitist" institution, as it was created and priced
to serve the working class.  Dating to the Gold Rush and surviving
the 1906 earthquake and fire, Mechanics' is healthy and robust today
with a general library and chess club. That man reading his
newspaper in the window could easily be one our "regulars" coming
in daily to catch up on the news.
(The Gallery, DPC, Stores & Markets)

There Goes the Neighborhood: 1906
... district, corner of Franklin and Sacramento Streets, San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/16/2014 - 11:54am -

"Edge of burned district, corner of Franklin and Sacramento Streets, San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Not a total  lossAt least The Munsters house was left intact.
How terrifyingHow terrifying to have lived in those houses and wonder if the fire was going to reach you. I wonder if they suffered survivors' guilt afterwards. 
Tant pis"At least our view of the Bay is now unobstructed."
Beautiful homesThe fire even reached the telephone pole right in front of the house. Amazing.
[Note roof damage and boarded-up windows. - Dave]
Note: Roof damage and window damage were most likely from the "Earthquake" not the fire.
Interesting ArchitectureOf course those houses did not ultimately withstand the test of time. They wouldn't meet todays building code either. But that's too bad because I find the style to be interesting. Does anyone know what the architectural style was called?
[They're various flavors of Victorians, here roughly Second Empire, Italianate and Queen Anne. Thousands of pre-earthquake Victorians survive, including a number of this size. -tterrace]
One LeftOne street over to the right (Clay St) reveals one home still remaining.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Carnaval Cabrillo: 1913
... armored cruisers were built at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco (the 1906 completion was delayed by the earthquake) and stayed on the west coast most of their early life. On an ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/14/2017 - 10:22pm -

San Diego, California, 1913. "San Diego and bay from U.S. Grant Hotel." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Can you tell meas a non-resident, and very astute perusal of this scene, what country is it located?
Those two warshipsI believe Those two warships in the background are Pennsylvania-class cruisers. They were all stationed on the west coast at that time. 
June 14th or July 4thLooks like it was either around Flag Day or Independence Day judging by all the patriotism on display and I will bet that all those flags were not made in China either!  Put that in your bong and smoke it!
[Look at the banner in the photo and you'll see that it's September. - Dave]
West Coast Armored CruisersThe two warships are the USS California and South Dakota (I can't tell which is which, though). These Pennsylvania class armored cruisers were built at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco (the 1906 completion was delayed by the earthquake) and stayed on the west coast most of their early life.
On an historical note, the California will have its named changed to San Diego a year after this image was taken. The ship will then be sunk off of Long Island on July 19, 1918. For the next 80 years historians will argue whether it was hit by a torpedo or a mine from a German submarine, but new evidence has emerged that a German spy planted a bomb onboard.
Not the FourthI thought this was a Fourth of July picture until I paid attention to the title. Here's some history on the actual event.
Cabrillo and San DiegoJuan Rodriguez Cabrillo's discovery of San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, inspired San Diegans to organize a festival and parade in 1892, a much larger pageant in 1911 as a fundraiser for the 1915 Panama California Exposition, and the four-day Carnaval in September 1913 that this photo commemorates. The 1913 event celebrated the dedication by President Woodrow Wilson of federal land at the tip of Point Loma as the Cabrillo National Monument, overlooking the entrance to the harbor in the upper left corner of the photo. The actual monument would not be built until 1939, but the medal seen here was struck in 1913 for the event. The 1911 celebration featured a lot less less history and a lot more fun, and included the fantasy arrival of "King Cabrillo" at the court of "Queen Ramona." The royal mascot's name is not recorded.
+87Below is the same view from July of 2000 (scanned from a slide - an art I'm still attempting to grasp).  The structure on the left that still stands is the Spreckels Building.  Interestingly, American naval power is also contrasted in the two shots.  I don't know what ships are in the distance in the 1913 shot, but they can be compared to the USS John C. Stennis which has its fantail visible in the distance in the 2000 view. 
Armored CruiserThe ship in the center of the picture appears to be an armored cruiser of the Pennsylvania class. It's quite possibly the USS West Virginia, which was stationed along the West Coast at the time the photo was taken. 
Ship IDI believe the ship in the background is the USS California (ACR-6), a Pennsylvania-class armored cruiser.  She was renamed USS San Diego in 1914 and was sunk by a suspected mine off Long Island in 1918.
TransitionAnother picture showing the transition from four legs to four wheels and it shows that the auto is winning.  BTW, check out that spiffy roadster in white; it stands out like a Rolls at a Yugo Convention.
1913 Auto Show Interesting contrast in those cars parked head on in front of the 2nd building. The one white topless car parked amid all the apparently black autos. 
Keystone State Taken to the CleanersSince those Pennsylvania-class cruisers spent most of their careers in the Pacific, I hope Pennsylvania got its money back!
The flag I loveThis is a great picture, if only for the presence of all those beautiful, wonderful, brand new 48-star flags! 
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, Streetcars)

Broken Heart: 1906
"The heart of Chinatown, San Francisco." After the earthquake and fire of 1906. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Double trouble A ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/23/2011 - 1:10pm -

"The heart of Chinatown, San Francisco." After the earthquake and fire of 1906. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Double troubleA lonesome figure walking with a purpose.  It is hard to tell what was damaged by the quake or what was taken down by the fire.  Of course the charred poles and timber are a dead giveaway.  
Purposeful StrideI see determination in the midst of the rubble.
Chinatown LivesRacist city fathers tried to take advantage of the destruction to force the San Francisco Chinese to relocate to far-off corners of the city, or even out of the city.  The Chinese community rebuilt as quickly as they could in their old neighborhood.  
Look on the bright sideThe price of used bricks just took a tumble!
FragmentationI don't think I ever seen a picture of so many loosened. fallen or fractured bricks in my life. One of my grandfather's sisters was living in SF then, and apparently survived. Her husband worked for Otis Elevator and I would guess that this tragedy created a lot of new business for them.
Fine ChinaShattered brick, twisted steel, and in the middle of the pile an unbroken vase; wonder what it was made of.
[Seems to be an earthenware pot. - Dave]
This says *something*...... just not sure what. A clue?
[DELIGHT. Part of a stove or heater? - Dave]
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Turk Street: 1906
San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 1906. "Turk Street, from the corner of Market and Mason." Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. First Impression Berlin: ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/23/2011 - 1:10pm -

San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of April 1906. "Turk Street, from the corner of Market and Mason." Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
First ImpressionBerlin: 1945.
Hamburger HavenI'm pretty sure Hamburger Haven on Clement Street in San Francisco has this photo framed in their back room.  Strange to now see it here.
Is there any way to review the photos of San Francisco you've already posted?
[Try our handy search box. - Dave]
Armchair archeologyI feel like I can sift through the rubble and piece things back together.  Can anyone identify the brushlike thing on some sort of stand in the lower right?
I'll just betchathat little fixer upper is worth a pretty penny now!
BurnoutSpeaking of sifting through the rubble, I think I see the metal frame of a tailor's sewing machine still standing at far right.
Buildings With CharacterIt always pains my heart to see nice detailed buildings being damaged or destroyed like the one barely standing in the picture. They don't make them like that anymore.
Photogenic treadle ironsThe treadle irons belonged to an earlier model Davis Vertical Feed, maybe 1880 or so.  It managed to get into other photos!  The irons found their way across the street to the Native Sons monument, where they posed for a couple shots in the SF Chronicle. (details below, full photos linked)
https://www.sfchronicle.com/thetake/article/1906-San-Francisco-earthquak...
https://www.sfchronicle.com/thetake/article/1906-San-Francisco-earthquak...
More amazing is the fire hydrant.  It is still there today, seen in the 2017 Google Street View of 1 Turk Street.  It was also there before the fire.  That photo is from the SF Public Library.  https://webbie1.sfpl.org/multimedia/sfphotos/AAA-9520.jpg (detail below, full photo at link)
The city directory for 1905 shows 1 Turk was owned by notorious Tenderloin crime boss Jerome Bassity.  It had a tamale cafe, liquor store, and a saloon, with the Sanborn fire map noting "lodgings above" and a photographer on the third floor.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Vacancy: 1906
1906. "Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, amid ruins of earthquake and fire." The hotel, near completion when disaster struck, opened the following year. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. And today The flagship ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 4:32pm -

1906. "Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, amid ruins of  earthquake and fire." The hotel, near completion when disaster struck, opened the following year. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
And todayThe flagship and namesake of the Fairmont chain of hotels. Although the company is now based in Canada.
View Larger Map
Great pictureI've seen lots of post-earthquake photos (even this one, I think), but I didn't realize that some were taken by DPC.  It's amazing how little smoke staining there is on the exterior.  Also, many of the windows on the lower floors are still intact.
Shaking the pastFantastic photograph! My jaw dropped! I take the #1 California bus in San Francisco several times a week, which drives right by the Fairmont. Wow. Photographs as time machines, definitely. Must have been solidly built.
+103Below is the same view from September of 2009.  Trees and buildings now obsure most of the Fairmont from this perspective.
The place to go after the Junior/Senior PromThe Fairmont had a cocktail lounge called The Tonga Room which was one on the few places in town where we teen aged kids could take our dates and listen to some music and enjoy a non-alcoholic "cocktail." This 1961 picture is of a "Senior Ball" double date during my senior year in high school. My sister and I are the inside couple, with our respective dates (on the outside). The Swig family were the owners of the hotel in those days. 
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Pennsylvania Avenue: 1902
... A while back Dave posted a video of a film taken in San Francisco right before the 1906 earthquake. It was filmed from the front of a trolley, just one near hit after ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 3:19pm -

"Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, 1902." Landmarks in this view from the Treasury steps at 15th Street include the Capitol and Old Post Office. On the bill at Chase's Polite Vaudeville: Capt. Woodward's trained seals. 8x10 inch glass negative by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
One AutomobileOnly one automobile - and already they can't park for diddly!
Horse Car TrailersBy the mid-1890s Washington ordered conversion of horse cars to electric power. The last horse car ran in April of 1900. This view shows new electric cars pulling smaller horse cars as trailers, a common feature in early days of conversion to electric streetcars. Of interest is the new Washington streetcar system will use overhead trolley lines, as opposed to the earlier conduit system (underground power supply). DC even had a brief fling with cable cars.
[The "new" D.C. streetcar system used an underground power supply. -Dave]
Amazing!It is a PERPETUAL wonder to me that in these old pictures everyone seems to be in the streets (horses, people, buggies, trams-you name it) and they (seemingly) don't collide with each other. Clearly there were no monitoring police or crosswalks-how the heck did they manage it? 
Willard's HotelVisible just down the street, on the left.  Site of decades of political intrigue.  Charles Templeton Strong famously said of Washington, "Beelzebub reigns there, and Willard's Hotel is his temple."
TankedWhat's the tank behind the horses on the left?
Dodge 'emkvenido mentioned all the street daredevils.  A while back Dave posted a video of a film taken in San Francisco right before the 1906 earthquake.  It was filmed from the front of a trolley, just one near hit after another.
We've seen pictures of the train that used to travel down Tenth Avenue in Manhattan.  There were over 400 people killed by that train during the time it ran.
Life was cheap, I reckon.
A PossibilityMy guess for the tank?  Either for road tar, or, probably more likely for that era, cesspool cleaning.
[Or water for street cleaning. - Dave]
That actually makes me think of another possibility (which I've learned from reading newspapers of that era), when some cities used water to get the dust to lay down during dry spells.  However, given that the streets were predominantly paved in the area, washing seems to be the correct answer.
A nifty and oft-reproduced viewA survey of historic postcard views from this same location can be found here.
Not a Horse CarI suggest that streetcar 35 is not an old horse car, but rather an old cable car being used as a trailer behind the new electric car.  The doorway in the dasher was to make it easier to change the grip.  Today's San Francisco cable cars have the same feature, but the door is usually closed.
A look at nearly the same view, today.The clock-tower is still there, luckily enough.
Little else however; progress, I suppose.
View Larger Map
(The Gallery, D.C., DPC, Streetcars, W.H. Jackson)

Tumblr: 1906
... Square with Naval Monument and St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/24/2014 - 1:24pm -

"Union Square with Naval Monument and St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco." Aftermath of the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
108 yearsWow.  Aside from the Dewey Monument, Union Square sure has changed quite a lot since this photo was taken!
All attempts at understatement comedic effect aside, this would make for a fabulous high-quality before and after photo.  Only problem is, there are trees in the way now that might make it difficult to pull off.
Fire damage to the (partially completed) Westin St Francis is clearly evident, and it's amazing to me that they just "cleaned her up" and she's still going strong today.
Stunning and timely photo.
[There wasn't any "Westin" back in 1906, although the marketing department for that particular lodging conglomerate is probably thrilled to see people referring to it that way! - Dave]
Scorch marks at every windowof the still-standing St. Francis Hotel.  The fire must have been horrible.  While across the street, the buildings have toppled.  The amazing column dead centre, standing.  The foreground a battlefield of bricks.  What an incredibly dramatic photo.  And so poignant, with today's quake in the region.
+103Below is the same perspective from September of 2009.  
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

City Hell: 1906
"Ruins of San Francisco City Hall following earthquake and fire of April 1906." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Salty sand One of the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/21/2018 - 6:36pm -

"Ruins of San Francisco City Hall following earthquake and fire of April 1906." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Salty sandOne of the reasons the building was so badly damaged was that though he was paid for inland sand the contractor used beach sand which was still quite salty. When the heat of the fire and the water from the firefighters' hoses combined the salt expanded and the mortar between the bricks exploded. The domed building behind it on the left was the Annex which contained all the building records and to this day it is impossible to figure an exact date of anything constructed before 1906.
[The Hall of Records is partly visible behind the rightmost edge of the City Hall ruins. The structure wasn't seriously damaged, but the interior was gutted by the fire. -tterrace]
Like Greek ruinsReally interesting that a thousands year old architectural design is one of the few things still standing, the Corinthian columns still supporting the beam and the cornice. 
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

Gone and Back: 1906
... "Russian and Telegraph hills from roof of Ferry P.O., San Francisco." Another view of the devastation wrought by the earthquake and fire of April 1906. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/02/2017 - 2:03pm -

"Russian and Telegraph hills from roof of Ferry P.O., San Francisco." Another view of the devastation wrought by the earthquake and fire of April 1906. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
TWO automobiles!!!!----the other one is almost hidden behind a wagon and team at the center-left
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)

The Naked City: 1906
... Montgomery streets, corner of Market." Another view of San Francisco after the devastating earthquake and fire of April 1906. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/25/2014 - 11:10am -

"Post and Montgomery streets, corner of Market." Another view of San Francisco after the devastating earthquake and fire of April 1906. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
(The Gallery, DPC, Fires, Floods etc., San Francisco)
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