I’ve always kept this fascinating site in my Favorites… For the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the Bancroft Library launched a website that brings together historic photos and documents from the event. You can spend hours looking at the fascinating photos.
While there weren’t many residents in the Richmond District in 1906, the site contains many high-resolution photos of the damage that was sustained by the buildings in the “Outside Lands” at the time. A slanted house on 11th Avenue, a crumbling orphanage at 7th and Lake, a sagging building near the old chutes on Fulton Street, the refugee camp that spanned the length of Park Presidio Boulevard – all of them stunning reminders of the destruction that the city had to come back from.
I’ve included a few photos here in the post, but I recommend visiting the site’s interactive map to start your exploration. Click here to see more photos from the Richmond District. The site’s search also works very well, making it easy to look up photos by street, landmark or neighborhood. Be sure to check out their panoramic view of the city post-earthquake which they stitched together with a series of photos taken from the roof of the Fairmont Hotel.
The Western Neighborhoods Project also has a great history of the 1906 earthquake refugee shacks that were used to house earthquake refugees. Hundreds were erected in Camp 25 that was located on what is now Park Presidio Boulevard. After the camps begain closing in 1907, “refugees hauled cottages to private lots, and often cobbled together two or more to form larger residences.”
Sarah B.
So cool! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, this is an interesting post! On a related note, the bronze plate located outside the house at 15th & lake that commemorated the orphanage has recently gone missing. Hope it re-appears.