File:A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results (1906) (14580121807).jpg

Identifier: historyofearthqu00aitk (find matches)
Title: A history of the earthquake and fire in San Francisco; an account of the disaster of April 18, 1906 and its immediate results
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Aitken, Frank W Hilton, Edward
Subjects: Earthquakes -- California San Francisco
Publisher: San Francisco, The E. Hilton Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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: but as time went on it came to belooked on as a permanent change. The heavy ex-pense of drayage had been a great handicap in theold location north of Market street (which hadgrown up when everything came by steamer) andthis was entirely dispensed with in the new place.By July the wholesalers were shipping 250 carloadsof produce daily to interior and coast customers. Hayes Valley sprung into a little city almostover night. There were no hills to contend with,the streets were well paved, and it had two car lineswhich, however, did not resume operations for somemonths. Everything there invited business. Van Ness avenue, with its great width, bare ofall buildings on one side, and with those on theother blistered almost beyond recognition, offered asplendid opportunity to retail business. The beau-tiful avenue, which had been at one time the placeof fashionable residences, only to give way toequally fashionable boarding houses and apartments,had at last sunk (or risen) to the fashionable
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180 THE RESUMPTION shopping street. The Saturday afternoon paradeon Market and Kearny had its resurrection after th^efire on Van Ness, so thorough was the change bywhich this fashionable avenue had been given overto the vanities of life. In its entire length the onlylandmark that remained unchanged during themetamorphosis was St. Marys Cathedral, strangelyout of place in its new surroundings. Property values along all the favored streetstook a fabulous leap. Substantial fortunes weremade by the juggling of ground leases, and by theerection of stores to be leased at exorbitant rentalsto anxious retailers. Hardly a month had passed before there weretwenty-five thousand men employed in the buildingtrades alone. In less than two months nearly athousand building permits had been issued by theBoard of Public Works. And in addition over twothousand temporary structures had been erected.By the middle of June eight firms were employinga thousand clerks. Some firms had the courage toreturn to t

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