APRIL 18, 1906: A 7.9 earthquake struck off the San Francisco coast and my great-grandmother would remember looking into “the Gates of Hell”.

April 18, 2023

UPDATED 4/18/2023

Incorporated in 1850, by 1900 San Francisco had entered its Gilded Age. There was a park bigger than the one in New York City. City Hall’s dome was taller than the Capital Building in Washington DC. People who had made their fortunes in the Gold Rush, the Comstock Lode and the railroads built extravagant estates atop Nob Hill. Buildings made of glass could be found both in Golden Gate Park^[1] and at Lands End^[2]. My great-grandmother, Annie Keenan Matlock^[3], and her young son Blatchford lived with her parents and two sisters in the family home at the corner of Vallejo and Hyde on Russian Hill^[4] (Annie’s husband was a jazz coronet player who traveled the country looking for gigs).

At 5:12AM on April 18, 1906 a 7.9 earthquake struck off the coast of San Francisco and lasted 45 seconds. Large brick structures including City Hall^[5], the Hall of Justice in Portsmouth Square, The Alms House (which would later be renamed Laguna Honda Hospital), and the Maria Kipp Orphanage in the Richmond District were reduced to rubble. Everything built on landfill over the Mission Swamp was leveled. But the majority of residences and businesses, while sustaining some damage, remained intact. Ironically, the City’s two glass buildings: The Conservatory of Flowers^[6] and Sutro Baths^[7], were left unscathed with minimal damage. Like their neighbors, Annie and her family ate breakfast, got dressed and ventured out to survey the damage. Rumors were rampant: Annie remembers being told that a piece of pavement had opened up and swallowed a person alive. While shaken (no pun intended), the City on the whole believed the worst was behind them.

Displaced residents from the northeastern quadrant of the City carried what they could and made camp in Union Square^[8]. The few families who had homes along Ocean Beach^[9] moved to higher ground for fear of a tsunami that never came. Rescue efforts were underway when smoke could be seen coming from South of Market. A second fire was accidentally ignited in Hayes Valley and before long, the two fires merged to create a maelstrom that headed north towards the metropolis. Those that had made camp in Union Square were quickly evacuated and everyone living in North Beach, downtown, Nob Hill and Russian Hill were ordered to evacuate and start heading west. As Annie and her family quickly made their way home they passed Old St. Mary’s Church^[10] on California. While it remained standing, the front doors had been thrown open as flames engulfed its interior. “Like looking into the Gates of Hell,” Annie would say. The Keenan family packed what few belongings they had of value and were directed to make their way on foot to the Presidio^[11]. Three-year-old Blatchford dragged his rocking chair the entire way while the rockers slowly wore down to nothing.

Fire Chief Dennis Sullivan, who had been spending the night at his retreat house on Ocean Beach near Pacheco, had been killed during the quake by a falling chimney. With no leadership, and broken water mains, chaos quickly ensued. General Frederick Funston^[12], second in command at the Presidio Military Base but in charge that day as his superior Adolphus Greely was on the East Coast, took it upon himself (without any authority but with Mayor Eugene Schmidt’s^[13] blessing) to deploy 4,000 soldiers to patrol the streets, guard federal buildings, aid the fire department and provide food, shelter and clothing to displaced citizens. Looting became such a problem that Mayor Schmitz issued the following Proclamation: “The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to KILL any and all persons found engaged in Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime. I have directed all the Gas and Electric Lighting Co.’s [sic] not to turn on Gas or Electricity until I order them to do so. You may therefore expect the city to remain in darkness for an indefinite time.”

The fire lasted three days and destroyed everything from the Embarcadero to Van Ness (wide enough to create a fire break), and from Fisherman’s Wharf to 20th Street in the Mission. As the fire threatened to travel south, one fire hydrant at the corner of Church and 20th still supplied water. Citizens helped fire crews pull their wagons up Dolores Street to get to it, ultimately saving everything south of 20th. Today that fire hydrant is painted gold every year to commemorate its importance.

When the fires were ultimately contained, those who still had a habitable home took to doing all of their cooking in the street. Those who no longer had a home set up camp in neighborhood parks. Within weeks, however, the Army set up official Refugee Camps in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and Dolores Park^[14]. As a result of the recent war in the Philippines, Presidio warehouses were stocked with Army tents and supplies which were immediately issued to civilians. Multiple charitable organizations set up food distribution centers, and the Southern Pacific Railroad provided free transportation to anywhere in the country. Now homeless, Annie and her family obtained free tickets to New York City to live with a distant relative. It would be fourteen years before they returned to San Francisco.

In the summer of 1906, with the knowledge that the Army-issued tents would not be suitable for a wet winter, City officials enacted the Cottage Plan, paying multiple contractors to build a total of 5,610 cottages in Lobos Square near Fort Mason^[15], Precita Park in Bernal Heights^[16], Dolores Park and Potrero Hill. 1,600 cottages were also built along Park Presidio Blvd in the Richmond District between Lake and Clement. All cottages consisted of a single room with a redwood frame, fir floors, six-pane windows, and painted park-bench green. There was no plumbing and no heat: people lined their walls with newspaper, canvas or burlap for insulation. Tenants paid $2/month for a total of $50, after-which they were responsible for moving their cottage out of the encampment. Many moved their homes to property purchased in Bernal Heights, the Sunset District, the Richmond District and around Lake Merced: areas of the City that had up to that point not been developed. The tell-tale green paint was replaced with shingles and proper drywall. It is believed that there are 32 cottages that still remain today. Restored cottages can be found just off the Parade Grounds in the Presidio and at the San Francisco Zoo^[17]. A replica of an earthquake cottage is also at the Randall Museum in Corona Heights^[18]. The last Refugee Camp officially closed in 1908.

Lotta’s Fountain^[19], located at the junction of Market, Kearny and Geary Street, became the unofficial meeting place for quake and fire victims to get news. Thirteen years after the earthquake, the South of Market Boys^[20] placed a wreath on the fountain to commemorate the 1906 Earthquake and Fires, and an annual ceremony has taken place there ever since. The last two survivors to attend the ceremony both died in 2015. April 18th is the only day of the year that the fountain is turned on.

The 1906 earthquake was the greatest disaster in San Francisco history. It was the deadliest earthquake in the United States. 3,000 people died, eighty percent of the City (500 City blocks) burned to the ground (including 30 schools and 80 churches), and 20% of the City’s population (250,000 homes) were left homeless. It took nine years to rebuild the city. After only nine months, North Beach was the first neighborhood to show no scars. Debris was dumped into Mission Bay at King and Townsend and the rest was put on barges and taken out to the ocean. In 1915 the City hosted the Panama Pacific Exposition^[21] to show the world that San Francisco was back and better than its former glory. Articles regarding the Expo referred to San Francisco as the city that “rose from the ashes”, giving new meaning to the City Flag^[22] with its image of a phoenix. President William Howard Taft declared that San Francisco was “the city that knows how”.

An excellent exhibit of earthquake and fire artifacts can be found at the San Francisco Fire Department Museum^[23] and the San Francisco Historical Society^[24].

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[1] Golden Gate Park: story coming April 4th

[2] Lands End: story comoing March 20th

[3] Annie Keenan Matlock: story coming October 22nd

[4] Russian Hill: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3167

[5] City Hall: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4664

[6] Conservatory of Flowers: story coming August 25th

[7] Sutro Baths: story coming March 14th

[8] Union Square: story coming July 25th

[9] Ocean Beach: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5243

[10] Old St. Mary’s Church: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3506

[11] The Presidio: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5121