William Irwin (1873-1948) was a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle[1], eventually becoming the paper’s Sunday editor. He gained national fame with his coverage of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires[2], but he continually wrote articles about the lawlessness within the Barbary Coast, a nine block area between Montgomery and Stockton with Pacific running down its center. Up until the 1906 earthquake it was a dangerous place to enter and off limits to any respectable citizen.
In 1847, two years before the Gold Rush, San Francisco’s population was 492. By the end of 1849 the population was over 25,000. Miners and sailers came to the City looking for female companionship and bawdy entertainment and, as a result, the majority of businesses were brothels, dance halls and gambling dens. By 1852 there were 100 brothels between Broadway, Clay, Kearny and Stockton. In 1866 there were 31 saloons for every church. The hub of these establishments were located on Pacific, known at the time as Sydney Town because they were run by a gang known as Sydney Ducks: immigrants from the Australian penal colonies. When harassed or threatened, the Sydney Ducks set the City on fire[4], always waiting for south-westerly winds so that Sydney Town would be spared. San Francisco suffered six catastrophic fires between 1849-1851. In 1851, finally fed up with the destruction and violence that the Sydney Ducks wielded, citizens formed the first Committee of Vigilance[5] and quickly tried and hung two Sydney Ducks members for arson and robbery. The Sydney Ducks quietly left town, leaving their businesses behind.
The Barbary Coast did not get its name, or its reputation, until the 1860s. The term “shanghaiing” originated when ship captains began paying Barbary Coast saloon owners to find bodies to man their ships as the majority of sailors arriving in San Francisco opted to stay. Shanghai Kelly was a notorious saloon owner who used prostitutes to lure patrons into his saloon for free drinks. The drinks would be spiked and, once unconscious, Kelly would have the men delivered on board a ship ready to set sail. By the time these shanghaiied men came to, the ship was well out to sea.
After the 1906 earthquake the Barbary Coast, like so much of the City, burned to the ground. Mayer James “Sunny Jim” Rolph[7], seeing an opportunity to clean up the area, outlawed prostitution and prohibited dancing in any establishment that served alcohol. This ordinance was relaxed as music venues along Pacific between Montgomery and Kerny, now known as Terrific Street, began attracting nationally famous musicians. Dance halls along Terrific Street invented such dance steps as the Texas Tommy and the Turkey Trot.
In 1920, when Prohibition came into effect, Terrific Street was forced to shutter, and the dance halls were replaced with offices, hotels and warehouses. But with the outbreak of World War II[8] and the influx of servicemen spending their furlow in the City, dance halls and bars reappeared on Terrific Street, which was renamed The International Settlement. Huge arched, lit signs crossed the street at both ends of the block. The International Settlement became renowned for its can-can and chorus girls and was featured in the 1957 movie Pal Joey, though the signs came down that same year as the music and dance scene slowly moved over to Broadway. By the early 1960s the International Settlement was redeveloped into offices and warehouses and the street name was once again changed back to Pacific.
The Old Hippodrome building on Pacific is the only remaining reminder of the Barbary Coast. When the original Hippodrome burned down in the 1906 earthquake, a replica of the original was built in its place and called The Red Mill, later changed to its French translation La Moulin Rouge. The exterior is covered with satyrs chasing naked nymphs, and it operated as a dance hall until the end of the International Settlement when it closed and the building itself was changed to a storefront. Today it housees an art supply store.
[1] San Francisco Chronicle: see story coming January 16th
[2] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849[4] The Great Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4810
[5] Committees of Vigilance: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3195
[7] James “Sunny Jim” Rolph: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5365
[8] World War II: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4222
