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diff --git a/11510-0.txt b/11510-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffdefb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/11510-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1325 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11510 *** + +Fascinating San Francisco + +"O Warder of Two Continents!"--Bret Harte + +San Francisco + + +1924 + + + +Foreword + +Enthroned on hills, San Francisco captivates the stranger who sees it +from the Bay by the vivacity of its landscape long before revealing any +of its intimate lures. Whether you approach in the early morning, when +gulls arc wheeling above the palette of tones of the Bay, or at night, +when illuminated ferryboats glide by like the yellow-bannered halls of +fable, the buoyancy of San Francisco is manifest. + +It increases as you pass through the Ferry Building, the turnstile +behind the Golden Gate, whose blithe tower of the four clock dials is +reminiscent of the Giralda in Seville. + +In another moment you are in the surge of Market street, the long bazaar +and highroad of this port of all flags. An invisible presence dances +before your footsteps as you sense the animation of the street. It is +the spirit of San Francisco, weaving its debonair spell. + +Here Tetrazzini turns street singer and Jan Kubelik is a wandering +minstrel enchanting crowds at Lotta's Fountain under Christmas eve +stars. + +From Dana to Stevenson, from Harte to Mencken, San Francisco has +captured the hearts of a train of illustrious admirers. Rudyard Kipling, +master of the terse, has tooled a brisk drypoint of the city in a few +strokes. "San Francisco has only one drawback," he writes. "'Tis hard to +leave." + +Cradled as a drowsy Spanish pueblo, reared as a child of the mines, and +fed on all the exhilarants of the gold-spangled days of the Argonauts, +San Francisco is like a dashing Western beauty with the eyes of an +exotic ancestry. + +Bristling with contradictions, the city presents the paradox of being +the most intensely American and yet the most cosmopolitan community on +the continent, with aspects as variable as the medley of alien tongues +heard on its streets. + +A festival of life is staged at this meeting place of the nations, +farthest outpost of Aryan civilization in its westward march. + +Inez Haynes Irwin in her Californiacs sounds a warning for the stranger +in San Francisco. + +"If you ever start for California with the intention of seeing anything +of the state," she admonishes, "do that before you enter San Francisco. +If you must land in San Francisco first, jump into a taxi, pull down the +curtain, drive through the city, breaking every speed law, to Third and +Townsend, sit in the station until a train--some train, any train-- +pulls out, and go with it. If in crossing Market street you raise that +curtain as much as an inch, believe me, stranger, it's all off; you're +lost. You'll never leave San Francisco." + +This booklet aims to keep the curtain up. + + + +Inside the Gate + +If you turn a map showing the basin of San Francisco Bay so that the +Pacific Ocean is nearest your eye, you see a peninsula thrust out from +the California coast like a great boot. + +San Francisco stretches for six or seven miles across the toe of the +boot. Dominated by hills, the city is flanked by the Pacific on the west +and by the Bay on the north and east. To the northwest, joining ocean +and bay, is the Golden Gate, the only gap in the coastal mountains. + +Constantinople and Rio de Janeiro have been called the only maritime +cities that approach the natural beauty of situation of San Francisco. +The basin of the Bay, into which the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers +pour after watering the central garden valley of the state, is an +amphitheatre rimmed with peaks and ridges. + +The Bay spreads out below San Francisco like an animated poster keyed in +blue and silver, with Yerba Buena, Alcatraz and Angel islands tinted +details in the foreground. Across the gleaming water the roofs of +Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda are shingled with sun crystals, and in the +distance Tamalpais and Mt. Diablo bulk against a curtain of azure. + +Suavities of outline accent the horizons of San Francisco, where the +skyscrapers take on fantasy as they pile up on hills and recede into +vales. Most visitors cross the Bay and arrive at the city by way of the +Ferry Building, the gala tower of which has a clock at each point of the +compass. Travelers also arrive at the Third and Townsend street railroad +station, or, if they come by sea through the Golden Gate, at the piers +along the waterfront. + +Market street stretches diagonally across the peninsula from the Ferry +Building to the base of Twin Peaks, the urban mountain which has been +tunneled to get rapid transit to residence parks. + +Twin Peaks is practically the geographical center of San Francisco. By +keeping this in mind visitors will avoid the mistake of thinking that +the end of Market street is the western boundary of the city. + +From the sweep of Market street radiate practically all of the city's +important arteries. A resplendent thoroughfare by day, 100 feet wide, +Market street takes on a sorcery all its own at night, when the +electroliers designed by D'Arcy Ryan, light wizard of the Panama-Pacific +Exposition, flood it with radiance. Market street is then the most +dazzling of boulevards, every aspect of it in motion--crowds, taxis, +cars and the colors of advertising displays. + +The junction formed by Market, Kearny, Geary and Third streets is the +heart of downtown San Francisco. It is the newspaper center, and close +by are big and little hotels, shops, restaurants and sidewalk flower +stalls. Here traffic eddies around Lotta's Fountain, presented to the +city by Lotta Crabtree, stage idol of the yesteryears. Beside it is one +of the bronze bells and iron standards that mark El Camino Real--the +King's Highway--which the padres trod in making their rounds of the +early California missions. Lotta's Fountain has two tablets. One has its +donor's name, and the other is inscribed to Luisa Tetrazzini, whose +soprano was first acclaimed to the world from San Francisco, and who +crossed the continent to sing Christmas carols to the people on this +street corner in 1910. One block east, Montgomery street leads into the +financial center of the Pacific. To the west are Union Square and its +shaft, commemorating Dewey's victory at Manila Bay, and Powell street, +with its cafe and theatre crowds. + +A short walk out Market street takes you to the Civic Center, with the +City Hall, Library, Auditorium and State Building grouped about a formal +garden. The War Memorial, with its Opera House and American Legion +Museum, will face the City Hall on Van Ness avenue. + +Fronting the Pacific, San Francisco, which covers a trifle over 42 +square miles of territory, has an ocean beach extending for three miles +on its western boundary and overlooked by automobile highways. Street +cars, starting at the Ferry Building, arrive at the beach after +traversing residence districts and scenic routes, unfolding views of +hills, forests, parks, forts, lighthouses and seals on rocks lashed by +surf. + +Between the Ferry Building and the ocean front--what a sweeping canvas +it would take to suggest all this even in broad outline! + +The "ships, towers, domes, theatres" which Wordsworth saw from +Westminster Bridge in London are here, and so are the added motifs of +San Francisco's own song of seduction. + + + +Sea Glamour + +Ever has the glamour of the sea enveloped San Francisco. From the sea +came Don Juan Manuel Ayala in the San Carlos in 1775, charting a course +through the fog and opening the Golden Gate. From the, sea also came the +Argonauts, transforming the somnolent Yerba Buena into the city, of San +Francisco. And from the sea, up to the time of the railroad, came +practically all of the goods with which the merchants of the city did +business. Today with the sea ebbs and flows the tide of wealth that +makes San Francisco the key port of the Pacific. The banks and exchanges +of California and Montgomery streets, the foreign trade and insurance +offices of Pine street, the downtown skyscrapers--all reflect in some +way San Francisco's debt to the sea. + +From the sea also comes health. The breezes that blow from it and the +fogs that drift down over the ridges combine to give San Francisco a +paradoxical climate--winters as warm as those in the south and summers +that are matchless for their exhilarating coolness. + +San Francisco shows a higher per capita industrial output than any other +American city of its class because of its ideal working conditions. + +A city conscious of its obligation to the sea, San Francisco has always +been interested in its waterfront, which perpetuates Spanish origins in +its expressive name of Embarcadero--the embarking place. + +The skyline of the city is no longer stenciled by the towering masts of +sailing ships discharging or loading cargo, or lying in the stream or in +Richardson's Bay awaiting charters, as in the days when wheat was king +of California's great central valley. The virility of the waterfront of +San Francisco, however, is as persistent as in the age that provided +Frank Norris with his epic themes. + +The masts and yards of older outline have given place to stubby cargo +booms of liners, freighters and tramps of multiple flags and +nationalities. Along the Embarcadero they disgorge upon massive concrete +piers silk, rice and tea from the Orient, coffee from Central America, +hemp and tobacco from the Philippines, and all manner of odds and ends +from everywhere. On the piers commodities are piled in apparent +confusion, yet each lot moves with precision in or out of yawning holds +at the shrill blast of the foreman's hoist whistle. + +Along the Embarcadero you may see craft of every rig under the sun from +a Chinese junk to a Transpacific passenger liner. Human types are even +more contrasting, knots of Chinese and Singalese strolling behind South +Sea Islanders, Portuguese or Cornishmen, whose speech recalls snatches +you may have heard on the East India Dock Road in London. + +Jack London heard and answered the call of the sea from the Embarcadero +of San Francisco, and Stevenson found the atmosphere of his Wreckers +there. + +Sailors--trade winds--ships--what lurking thoughts of adventure, +realized or denied, do they not summon in all of us? + + + +Historic Background + +In 1579, before Jamestown, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, or New +Amsterdam were settled, Sir Francis Drake, British explorer, careened +and repaired his ship, the Golden Hind, on the shore of what is now +Drake's Bay, an indentation on the California coast just north of the +Golden Gate. This was nearly two hundred years before Padre Junipero +Serra led his band of zealots and soldiers up out of New Spain into Alta +California. + +At Drake's Bay the chaplain of the Golden Hind held the first religious +service in the English language on the American continent--a service +that is commemorated by a Celtic cross set up on a hill in Golden Gate +Park, San Francisco. Though close by, Drake did not find the Bay and +site of San Francisco. + +It was not until October 31, 1769, that the peninsula and Bay of San +Francisco were discovered by an expedition headed by Don Gaspar de +Portola, Governor of Baja or Lower California. This expedition had set +out overland from San Diego for the purpose of locating Monterey Bay, +discovered in 1603 by Sebastian Vizcaino, Portuguese navigator in the +service of Spain. + +Six years after the Portola discovery, Don Juan Manuel Ayala sailed the +first vessel, the San Carlos, through the Golden Gate. The following +year the first permanent settlement by white men on the site of San +Francisco was made when Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza established a +military post at the Presidio beside the Golden Gate. In this same +month, July, 1776, the Liberty Bell was ringing in Philadelphia. But +there was no thought then that the embattled farmers of the Atlantic +coast should inherit before many years this potential Spanish settlement +on the Pacific. + +In October, 1776, Padre Junipero Serra founded the Mission Dolores, the +third of the chain of missions extending from San Diego. Subsequently a +settlement was made at Yerba Buena Cove, and there was established the +pueblo of Yerba Buena which has grown into the city of San Francisco. + +Things moved slowly in those days--so slowly that in 1784 the pueblo +had but fourteen houses and sixty inhabitants. + +Let us turn back the hands of the clock to the time when the pueblo +straggled over the sand hills which faced the water of the bay of Saint +Francis, under the shadow of Loma Alta. What do we see? Where today the +Merchants Exchange Building, central office of San Francisco's +commercial life, heaves its bulk into the air was the cabin of Jacob +Leese, trader. Houses were few and far between, and business was +something to be done when there was nothing else to do. + +From the Plaza, then but a block or so from the waterside, two main +roads trailed off through the sand dunes. One went to the southwest, +winding among the hills toward the Mission Dolores, and the other in a +generally northwesterly direction out past the lagoon of the washerwomen +to the Presidio of San Francisco, the seat of the military government. +Sleepy, content to bask in the sunshine that flooded its sand hills and +kept back the banks of fog that loomed above the higher eminence's +separating the cove from the ocean, Yerba Buena dreamed, not of the +future in store for it, but of the next fiesta, of the coming barbecue +at Miguel Noe's rancho, or of the projected cock fight on Sunday at the +Mission Dolores. + +To this port came occasionally a Yankee whale ship for fresh water, or +some enterprising trader with shawls and combs and trinkets for the +women, to barter for hides and tallow with the dons from the south and +the great interior ranchos. + +Up the coast some Russians had established a settlement, much to the +disquiet of the authorities, who looked upon this as an encroachment of +barbarians menacing Spanish power. Rezanov, plenipotentiary of the Czar, +was a man of charming personality, however, and was able to lull the +suspicions of the indolent Spanish officials and lay his plans for a +coup that never took place. From afar Britain looked with interest upon +this strip of coast with its matchless harbor, and regretted that Drake +had not discovered it when he wintered his ship close by in 1579. Thus +Yerba Buena sprawled and dreamed in the sunshine, unmindful of the web +of destiny being woven about it. + +Followed then the war with Mexico and the occupation by the officers and +men of the United States sloop-of-war Portsmouth under Commodore John +Montgomery, who broke the American flag to the breeze in the Plaza. + +In 1848 gold was discovered by James W. Marshall in the tail-race of +General Sutter's mill, El Dorado county, and almost overnight San +Francisco was transformed from a hamlet into a pulsing city, overcome +with the rush of newcomers, the population in two years growing almost +to twenty thousand. + +California became a state in 1850 without ever having gone through a +probationary period as a territory. In the late sixties the great +Comstock Lode, in Nevada, poured a flood of wealth into San Francisco, +and in 1869, one hundred years after the first white man looked upon San +Francisco Bay, came the railroad, bringing an increasing influx of +people from the East. The opening of the markets of China and Japan led +to the establishment of a trade that has made San Francisco the focal +port of the West. + +These were the beginnings of San Francisco. Burned to the ground three +times in the early years of its existence, the city displayed an +invincible fortitude and each time capitalized disaster to build anew +with larger faith in its destiny. When again, in 1906, earthquake and +fire devastated the city its phoenix spirit came to life. The Argonauts +lived once more, magnificent in their resolution. The renaissance was a +prodigy that made onlookers exclamatory. Jules Jusserand, Ambassador of +France to the United States, phrased the wonder of it in majestic prose: + +"The page written by the inhabitants of San Francisco on the moving +ashes of their city is not one that any wind will ever blow away." + + + +Survivals of the Past + +Stand at the Ferry Building, looking up Market street, and imagine the +beginning of the city that spreads before you. First of all you must +realize that this point of observation would, in those days, have been +offshore, on the shallow water of Yerba Buena Cove. To the right is the +scarp of Telegraph Hill, from which ships coming through the Golden Gate +were sighted, and to the left is the lesser Rincon Hill, which is being +cut away to provide a light manufacturing district. These marked the +headlands of the cove, and the waterfront curved inland as far as what +is now the site of the Donahue monument to mechanics at Market and +Battery streets. + +Seeking survivals of the past, you must realize that San Francisco is +one of the most modern of the comparatively old American cities. Most of +the area that saw its beginning and early history has been wiped clean +by fire. The San Francisco of today may be said to date from its +rebuilding following 1906, since which time something like a half +billion dollars' worth of new construction has been done. Yet something +of early San Francisco remains, either beyond the reach of the +devastation of eighteen years ago or in miraculous islands of safety in +that sea of fire. + +The Presidio, beside the Golden Gate, is several miles from the area +that burned. It is one of the largest military posts in the United +States, 1,500 acres of forested hills between the inner and the outer +harbor. The adobe building in which Rezanov, envoy of the Czar, wooed +Senorita Arguello, daughter of the commandante of the Presidio, is +preserved in the center of the reservation. You can read about this sad +romance in Bret Harte or in Gertrude Atherton. + +Over the hills southward from the Presidio, in a sheltered valley, where +it was spared from the fire, stands Mission Dolores, with its ancient +churchyard and headstones. The old mission, whose adobe walls are four +feet thick, stands beside a new church of Spanish architecture. Near the +entrance to Mission Dolores, set in red tiles on the floor, is a marble +slab marking the tomb of the Noe family, Spanish grandees. Interesting +relics are in evidence. Early mission bells hang in the facade of the +old building. The tomb of Don Luis Arguello, first governor of +California under the Mexican regime, is in the churchyard. Inscriptions +on many of the stones in this burial place are footnotes to San +Francisco's early history. + +Within the burned area of 1906, above the original waterfront of the +days when the water came up to Montgomery street, there are several +blocks of buildings which were spared by freaks of fate. These buildings +stand near the original Plaza now called Portsmouth Square. It was here +Commodore John Montgomery landed from the "Portsmouth" and raised the +Stars and Stripes on July 4, 1846, almost the seventieth anniversary of +the establishment of the Spanish Presidio. The site of his landing, at +what is now Clay and Montgomery streets, has been marked by one of the +bronze tablets on which the order of the Native Sons of the Golden West +has graven many of the historic episodes of California. Not far away, on +the south side of Sacramento street, between Davis and Front, there is a +brick building marked by a tablet as the site of Fort Gunnybags, +headquarters of the Vigilance Committee, which in 1856 hanged Casey and +Cora, two enemies of law and order, from its windows. In Portsmouth +Square itself, token of a gentler spirit, there stands a drinking +fountain in memory of Robert Louis Stevenson. That prince of idlers and +of prose spent many an hour on the sunny benches of this square. The +streets nearby, where stand the few buildings that escaped the fire, +echo the footsteps of Stevenson, of Mark Twain and Bret Harte. The Hall +of justice faces the square. + +The Parrott building, erected in 1853 by Chinese labor with stone +brought from China, remains standing at California and Montgomery +streets. + +Around the Plaza centered the life of the pueblo and of the early city +of San Francisco, but now on three sides of it is Chinatown, the +fashionable homes having long been gone from this section. + +In Golden Gate Park, beside a lake reflecting their outline, stand +marble columns that once flanked a doorway on Nob Hill, which rises +above the Oriental quarter. This relic has been named "Portal of the +Past." It symbolizes the old San Francisco that is gone save for a few +traces, for this is, after all, a new city. + +It is in the San Francisco of today, with a historic background that +survives in spirit instead of in material reminders, that interest is +dominant. + + + +Cafes and Bright Lights + +"There's a diabolical mystery to your San Francisco!" Enrico Caruso once +exclaimed. "Why isn't everyone fat in this city of such excellent +cafes?" + +The Argonauts who came to California in quest of the Golden Fleece were +hearty, eaters, and they laid the foundation for a tradition of abundant +table fare that has been handed down since the days of the bonanza +kings. + +Good things to eat have been provided by successive generations of chefs +who have achieved virtuosity. By and large, the moderation of prices has +been a matter of bewilderment to visitors. The cheapness of savory food +was one of the outstanding traits of San Francisco, in the opinion of +the army of newspaper correspondents attracted to the Democratic +national convention in 1920. Maurice Baring, the British author and +globetrotter, goes into raptures over the cooking he discovered in a +Pine street restaurant. Read his Round the World in Any Number of Days +and satisfy yourself that a sophisticated observer from London town can +become as ecstatic as a Gaul in the presence of soup a l'oignon. There's +a diversity to the restaurants of San Francisco that makes it difficult +to single out any one type. French and Italian restaurants appear to +predominate, but the number of other places, including Spanish, Greek, +Mexican, Hungarian and Slavonic--not to mention Chinese--makes the +array a long and polyglot one. In the vicinity of Broadway, Kearny and +Columbus avenue, streets that penetrate the heart of the Latin Quarter, +and along upper Montgomery street, there are sufficient individual cafes +to keep any explorer after atmospheric epicurism busy for many days. +Neither Soho nor Montmartre is plagiarized in these places. They are +foreign in tone, but they belong very much to San Francisco. What +affectation and posturing there may be in Greenwich Village are not in +evidence here. Joy was at times given boisterous expression in the days +before the great drought came upon the land. But the eighteenth +amendment and its restrictions have not deprived any of these places of +their inherent buoyancy, even though they may not be as noisy as Coffee +Dan's. + +Table d'hote courses are customary not only in the French restaurants +but in most of the Italian as well. Some of these places combine or +interchange the menus of French, Italian and Swiss chefs, a piquant +entree, or shellfish served bordelaise, being followed by a paste like +lasagne, spaghetti or tagliarini, or by those geometric ravioli whose +delights are in inverse ratio to their square. If you want fare of the +realm the dining rooms and grills of the hotels are at your service, as +are the restaurants along Market, Powell and other streets. The +cafeteria has come northward and the tea-room and the Southern inn +westward by way of New York. The typical San Francisco restaurant, +however, is an institution as firmly imbedded in the life of the people +as is Mile Rock in the current of the Golden Gate. + +The sea glamour is upon the dining places of San Francisco. Any +impression of them would be lacking without some reference to sea food. +Every variety of fish is sold fresh in the markets daily. A number of +so-called fish grottos specialize in fish caught the same morning, +keeping them swimming in illuminated window-tanks. Crabs, shrimps, +oysters, clams and other varieties of shell fish, including the abalone +with its rainbow-tinted shell, together with sanddabs, pompano and rex +sole, serve to remind one that San Francisco is washed on three sides by +tides of the Pacific. + +Perhaps when Bret Harte referred to San Francisco as "serene, +indifferent of Fate," he was thinking of Sidney Smith's declaration: + +"Fate cannot harm me--I have dined today!" + +When you think of eating in San Francisco you think of bright lights and +dancing. In addition to the hotels, you may dance at innumerable cafes. +Influences of Old Spain dowered San Francisco with an infatuation for +the fiesta. The city has always been dance-minded. Art Hickman, virtuoso +of jazz orchestration, was called to New York to have the Follies on The +Roof dance to the exuberant strains he had evolved in San Francisco. +Patterns of new dance forms were derived by Pavlowa from the wild +rhythms she found on the old Barbary Coast. + +The Palais Royal, Marquard's, Tait's-at-the-Beach, the Cliff House--but +where is one to stop when he starts to name the San Francisco cafes that +attract dance crowds? Let's leave it to the classified lists in the +telephone directories. + + + +Hotels + +Wives and daughters of the men who awoke to find themselves millionaires +in the days of the Argonauts came to San Francisco to explore the social +thrills of the newly rich. It is easy to understand why the hotels +became the scenes of elaborate gaiety unmatched even in New York, Boston +or the older communities. Haunts of the battling giants of the Comstock +mines and the railroad magnates, the old Palace, Occidental, Lick and +Baldwin hotels reflected their effulgent period. + +The Palace, built by William C. Ralston, has survived as a landmark of +San Francisco. Like Shepheard's in Cairo, the Palace is one of the +gathering places of the traveling world. The present hotel, at Market +and New Montgomery streets, occupies the site of the old Palace, whose +outer walls remained standing after the fire of 1906 and had to be +blasted with dynamite to make room for the new structure--a tribute to +the original builders. The Palace retains the outstanding aspects of the +old hotel, with added modern appointments. The Palm Court, which has +decorative columns and a glass-domed roof, is the social center of the +hotel. It is also the rendezvous of the political and business stalwarts +of the city, the Palace being a clearing-house for diversified +activities. The Rose Bowl, which has Maxfield Parrish's Pied Piper of +Hamelin, attracts the set that dances when it dines. + +Perched like a Parthenon on Nob Hill, the acropolis of San Francisco, is +the Fairmont Hotel commanding a view of the Bay and the Contra Costa +hills. Its Venetian Room, its Terrace and its Ball Room are among the +features of the Fairmont in keeping with its individual environment. +Expansive lawns frame the Renaissance architecture of the building, +which seen from the Bay looks like a citadel inside the Golden Gate. + +The Hotel St. Francis, fronting Union Square on Powell street, has a +thousand rooms and is one of the distinctive institutions of San +Francisco. The fire of 1906 damaged the building but left its steel +frame and granite sheath intact, and a banquet of business men was held +there to celebrate the beginning of reconstruction. When you think of +the St. Francis you think of beautiful wall arrangements. Its Garden +Court and Fable Room, where La Fontaine's diverting inventions serve as +the motifs for murals, attract the younger set for dancing and tea. The +Tapestry Room is a distinguished example of decorative treatment. + +San Francisco is the greatest hotel city in the world in proportion to +population. These pages necessarily skim only the surface of this aspect +of the city's life. There are some 2,000 hotels, records of the +Hospitality Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce show, each having rates +scaled to meet the guests to whom it caters. Representatives of the +Hospitality Bureau copy the names of arrivals at the hotels from the +registers. These names are classified according to interests and given +to a Hospitality Committee made up of business men who personally greet +arrivals, bring them to the clubs, and dispense other courtesies. + + + +Shops + +It was O. Henry, caliph of phrases, who called San Francisco the Bagdad +of the West. In doing so he must have had in mind its profusion of shops +which stretch through the city like an endless bazaar. + +Midweek shopping crowds in San Francisco are comparable to Saturday +afternoon crowds in other American cities. This fact has been commented +upon frequently by merchandising specialists, and it has significance. + +Street population spells buying power, and San Francisco has larger +shopping crowds every day of the year than any other city west of New +York. Every day but Sunday is a shopping day. + +Constant shopping by San Francisco women gives stimulus to the city's +retailers to comb world markets for the newest and most attractive +offerings. Buyers are sent by the larger establishments not only to +Paris and other style centers, but to all of the larger international +trade fairs. Stocks in the shops reflect the enterprise of the +retailers, who not only display the latest modes, but frequently create +them. + +The downtown shopping district spreads from Market to all the streets +that radiate from it, from Kearny westward, well above Powell. Market +street itself is a continuous stretch of display windows. Grant avenue, +Stockton, Powell, O'Farrell, Geary, Post and Sutter streets are lined +with department stores and intimate shops. + +The Richmond, Mission, Sunset and other out lying districts have their +own sub-centers, each crowded six days in the week with shoppers. +Otherwise the downtown streets would be congested. + +Flower stands splash the street corners with color in the downtown +shopping district, and the wares glow in the show windows like exotic +blooms under glass. + +San Francisco shows a market as complete and original in styles as any +city in the country. The excessive seasonal changes demanded in the East +are not needed here. San Francisco is essentially an out-of-door city, +with three hundred odd days of clement weather, made for the display of +light raiment, whether it be organdie dresses, sports togs or afternoon +frocks. Women of the city insist on being modish, however, so they wear +furs with the airiest of apparel on the warmest days, contradictory but +vivacious apparitions. Even the Chinese girls ape their Western sisters +and appear in brocaded mandarins with fur neck pieces. + +The dash of San Francisco women on the street, as well as in the hotels +and cafes, is not a legend. You may read about it in Hergesheimer's +iridescent detail, but seeing is believing. + +The art shops and the book shops of San Francisco evoke the admiration +of every visitor. The art shops, on Post, Sutter and adjacent streets, +close to Union Square, with their own galleries of paintings, bronzes +and marbles, have showrooms that are more like museums than commercial +establishments. The book shops are in this same neighborhood. They are +well worth visiting, several of the dealers being publishers of the +works of California authors. + + + +Chinatown and Foreign Colonies + +From its beginning as a Spanish trading post to the present time there +has always been something essentially foreign about San Francisco. +Always there have been foreign elements, with well-marked colonies, +districts or haunts. + +To visitors Chinatown appears to exercise the greatest appeal among the +foreign colonies. The Latin Quarter, the Spanish and Mexican districts +out toward the end of Powell street at the Bay, the Japanese streets +east of Fillmore, and the Greek settlement centering around Third and +Folsom are all, however, highly expressive of their habitants. + +With its pagoda-like roofs, its bazaars, its restaurants of amazing +orchestration and stranger East-West decoration, it is easy to. +understand why Chinatown sways the imagination of wayfarers in San +Francisco. Every street and alley in it is obviously exotic. Life +appears here like a festival, and both the eye and the ear are beguiled +by fantastic nuances. + +Silks, ivories, porcelains and bronzes peer from the shop windows at +hesitant purchasers like the articles of virtu flung before the +bewildered gaze of readers by Balzac in his Wild Ass's Skin. + +You are diverted by the bizarre on all sides, Grant avenue, the main +artery of Chinatown, stretching before you in a many-hued arabesque of +shop fronts, no two quite alike in tone or in the stuff they have to +sell. + +The shops of the jewelers, who perform miracles of craftsmanship in gold +fliagree and in jade, are especially interesting, the sensitive-fingered +artisans working at benches set in the windows in full view of +passersby. The meat and fish stalls, the apothecaries, the cobblers who +work on the sidewalks, the lily and the bird vendors, the telephone +exchange where Chinese girls operate the switchboard, the headquarters +of the Six Companies, the Joss House and the Chinese theatre, spilled +over into the Latin Quarter, are among the sights much written about by +globe-trotting notetakers in the quarter. Organized sightseeing tours +may be made through Chinatown with licensed guides, but visitors can +wander securely about at will. It is no longer the subterranean +Chinatown of opium-scented years, but it is still the most interesting +foreign quarter in America. Charles Dana Gibson called it a bit of +Hongkong and Canton caught in a Western frame. + +By continuing out Grant avenue to Columbus avenue the stroller visiting +Chinatown reaches the street that places him in the heart of the Latin +Quarter, its Italian and French restaurants, and its manners and customs +that make it an epitome of Naples and Rome. + +In the Greek settlement in the vicinity of Third and Folsom streets you +will see narghile water pipes displayed in the windows alongside Russian +brasses and Byzantine ware. If you crave the cooking of Attica and the +honey-sweets of the Grecian archipelago you can get them here. + + + +Hills and Vistas + +What city built on hills has not been exalted in song and legend? San +Francisco, like Athens, Jerusalem, Rome and Naples, has the spell that +comes from setting one's house on a high place. Those who can look out +over the world are those who dominate it. + +History shows that every three hundred years a great city arises at some +very necessary and strategic point on the international highway. Such an +inevitable world city is San Francisco. Whether it is the ragged slope +of Telegraph Hill, the heights of Twin Peaks, the rolling green-brown +softness of the Potrero bluffs, or the contours of any of the other high +places that confront the visitor approaching from the Bay, the hills of +San Francisco arrest the eye and intrigue the imagination. + +To the visitor who would comprehend almost at a glance the cycloramic +setting of San Francisco the way is easy of access to half a dozen +peaks. There are good automobile roads to all of them. + +Let him for a start go to Nob Hill, crossed by California street, where +the Fairmont Hotel, the Pacific Union Club, Grace Cathedral and many +distinctive residences and apartments will engage his attention when it +is not occupied with the shipping in the harbor, Goat and Alcatraz +islands, and the animated perspectives inside the Golden Gate. + +Russian Hill, of which Nob Hill is a southward shoulder, is the habitat +of many of the writer and painter folk of San Francisco. It affords +superb panoramas of the city and bay. So does Telegraph Hill, whose +sides have been scarred to provide rock for the sea wall along which the +modern argosies of commerce discharge their cargoes. Views northwesterly +from these hilltops suggest the Bay of Naples. + +The most comprehensive close-up of the city is probably obtained from +the crest of Buena Vista Park, which is not the highest of the fourteen +good-sized hills in San Francisco but the one from which the most +unobstructed views are to be obtained. Tourists and other visitors to +San Francisco who enjoy walking will find, rambling over this height +most interesting. + +Street cars, Nos. 6 or 7, will take you to Haight and Broderick streets, +from which point many paths lead to the top of the hill. At every turn +there is an effective view. Through a tunnel-like alley of shrubbery the +towers of St. Ignatius, with crosses pointing to the sky, loom like +spires from one of the cathedral towns of France. As you swing 'round +you obtain glimpses from different angles of the skyscrapers of San +Francisco, with every now and then a stretch of glistening water. From +the summit of Buena Vista you see, on three sides, expanses of ocean and +bay. To the left is the diamond of Lake Merced in its setting of +bluegreen eucalyptus and its surrounding waves of sand, ribboned with +roads extending to the ocean beach. Beyond is the emerald stretch of +Golden Gate Park, with buildings in demi-outline through the changing +tones of foliage. Above and beyond are the rolling hills of the +Presidio, and in the distance Tamalpais rears its friendly bulk, a dark +blue shadow against a cerulean mantle, crowned at times with filmy +gonfalons of cloud like a color print by Hokusai. Lone Mountain and its +cross, visible far out at sea, is here in conspicuous range. + +To see San Francisco in a series of highly colored pictures suggestive +of Maxfield Parrish or Dulac go to the scenic boulevard that winds over +Twin Peaks. You may motor there, walk or take a street car to the foot +of this city mountain, the ascent either way being easy. You may scale +Twin Peaks from the flank within view of Market street, climbing along +the side and over the shoulder by way of the boulevard. Or if you +prefer, you may climb up from Sloat Boulevard via Portola Drive through +one of the city's restricted residence sections. On the summit of Twin +Peaks you feel at the top of the world, and you see San Francisco spread +out below you as multicolored as a rug of Kermanshah. No other city in +the two Americas, not excepting Quebec or Rio de Janeiro, so overwhelms +the beholder with its vistas--with its luminous enchantments. At night +the lights of the city zigzag in patterns of distracting loveliness, and +Market street reaches from the foot of the mountain to the Embarcadero +like the tail of some flaming comet athwart a sea of stars. + + + +Parks and Open Spaces + +Surmounted by a freighted galleon, with streaming pennant and +wind-filled sails, a granite pedestal "remembers" Robert Louis Stevenson +in Portsmouth Square, cradle of San Francisco's civic history. This +square, the Plaza of the early city, was the forerunner of a chain of +parks, children's playgrounds and open spaces that checkers San +Francisco with refreshing green. + +Farther uptown is Union Square, in the center of the hotel and retail +district. Over on the other side toward North Beach, at the foot of +Telegraph Hill, is Washington Square, one of the recreation spots of the +Latin Quarter, with church spires outlined above its willows. A park +that will command the entire harbor is being built on top of Telegraph +Hill. + +In the Western Addition, Richmond, Sunset and Mission districts are many +parks that provide resting places for mothers, their infants in +go-carts, and romping children. + +Golden Gate Park is the aureole of San Francisco's recreational haunts. +It was saved to the city in the beginning by Frank McCoppin and C. R. +Dempster and made an area of living beauty by John McLaren, Scotch +landscape engineer, who is Superintendent of Parks. + +From the panhandle at Baker street to the Ocean Beach, the park +stretches like a massive gold-green buckler enameled with lustrous gems. +There are 1013 acres in the park, its Main Drive, including the +panhandle, being 4 1/2 miles long. + +Whether you loiter along tree-shaded alleys, or stroll through +rhododendron dells in the late Spring, when the landscape fairly quivers +with color, there is an ineffable loveliness about Golden Gate Park. Its +opulence is heightened by its contrasts, as are all well-considered +landscape designs. Treading the expanse of daisy-starred emerald lawns, +loitering under the elms in the Band Concourse, or wandering through the +dwarf trees patterned against humpback bridges in the Japanese Tea +Garden, you find new lures in Golden Gate Park with each successive +visit. + +The de Young Memorial Museum, the Academy of Sciences, the Steinhart +Aquarium, Stow Lake, the Dutch windmills, Huntington Falls, the aviary, +the buffalo paddock, the bear pit, the children's playground with its +goats and donkeys, the tennis courts, the harness racing in the Stadium, +the bowling on the green--almost every rod of the thousand odd acres in +the park unfolds unexpected allurements. + +On a hill in the park is the granite cross which commemorates the first +church service in the English language on the American continent, held +in 1579 by Sir Francis Drake's chaplain on the coast just north of the +Golden Gate. + +A copy of Rodin's bronze Thinker is here. The "Portal of the Past," +taken from a Nob Hill residence after the fire of 1906, is seen in +idyllic whiteness against a clump of Irish yews across the luminous +water of a lake that picks up their outline like a Renaissance picture. +Statuary, classic and modern, arrests interest at every turn in the +park. Among the figures and busts are those of Junipero Serra, General +Grant, Goethe, Schiller, Cervantes, General Pershing and President +Garfield. + +At the extreme westerly end of the park, fronting the sea whose perils +it braved, is the sloop Gjoa in which Captain Roald Amundsen cut one of +the Gordian knots of exploration and found and navigated the Northwest +Passage. + +Lincoln Park, with a municipal golf course on a headland overlooking the +Golden Gate, affords a distant but luring view of San Francisco. In +Lincoln Park is a replica of the Palace of the Legion of Honor in Paris, +gift of Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Spreckels as a memorial to San Francisco's +soldiers in the world war. In addition to its art treasures it was built +to house trophies from all the fronts on which the American +expeditionary forces fought, Marshal Foch and other commanders having +interested themselves in the collection. + +The Palace of Fine Arts on the Marina close to the Presidio, with its +masterpieces from the Phoebe A. Hearst and other collections, is a short +drive from Lincoln Park. The city's Aquatic Park is close by. + +Sutro Heights, with its gardens, classic marbles and outlook upon the +sea, is near the Cliff House above the Ocean Beach. The Seal Rocks and +the Sutro baths are in sight of these heights. + +San Francisco has established a new playground for children at the end +of Sloat Boulevard, with a second municipal golf course and the largest +outdoor swimming pool in the world among its attractions. + + + +Music and Drama + +Hasty reading of annals makes some people gather the mistaken impression +that San Francisco's dramatic and musical history had its genesis when +miners threw gold nuggets at the feet of Lotta Crabtree. But it has been +pointed out by one musical critic that the Franciscan padres were +chanting Gregorian measures in the Mission Dolores when the battles of +Lexington and Concord were being fought, and that the Indians were +intoning hymns and staging miracle-plays for their sun-god in +California before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. + +San Francisco not only discovered the gold in the soprano of Luisa +Tetrazzini at the old Tivoli Opera House, but it has figured in the +triumphs of many luminaries of the musical and dramatic stage--from +Adelina Patti and Tamagno to Mary Garden and Galli-Curci--from Edwin +Booth and Charles Kean to John Drew and Henry Miller. Celebrities braved +the discomforts of trips across the continent from the earliest days +because of the city's repute as a place where the people were not only +responsive but arrived at their own independent judgments. + +Ysaye, Kreisler and Mischa Elman have esteemed the acclaim of audiences +here as much as Ole Bull and Wieniawski did in earlier days. + +Since the conversion of the Tivoli into a motion picture theatre, and +pending the construction of the Memorial Opera House opposite the City +Hall, the city hears most of its opera in the Civic Auditorium. +Performances of the San Francisco Opera Company, with its local +orchestra and chorus supporting international stars, and of visiting +troupes from New York and Chicago in this auditorium provide two +spectacles one on the stage and the other in the assemblage itself. The +auditorium seats 10,000 persons. To be present when a prima donna awes +this audience into silence by her tones, and then to hear a triumphant +roar of approval rend the silence, is an unforgettable adventure of the +spirit. + +The Symphony Orchestra of San Francisco is one of the ranking musical +bodies of the United States. No better symphonic music is played +anywhere. The concerts of this orchestra fill the Civic Auditorium to +overflowing. Close to fifty per cent of the audiences are people +attracted from surrounding cities. + +The Chamber Music Society has toured the United States and added to the +musical prestige of the city. + +The Concerts of the Bohemian Club, the Pacific Musical Society, the San +Francisco Musical Society and the Loring Club have definite places in +the musical life of the community. + +Organ literature attracts many people to the recitals at the Civic +Auditorium. The pipe organ here was built for the Panama-Pacific +Exposition. It was subsequently rebuilt and presented to the city. + +The theatres of San Francisco that were famous in an earlier era are now +names packed away in the lavender of remembrance. Today the city has new +theatres of imposing appearance and large seating capacity. The old +stage personalities, however, troop through the writings of contemporary +theatrical critics like deified shades. + +The first managers of the old California theatre were Lawrence Barrett +and John McCullough. The foremost actors were drawn to the city, +including Charles Kean and Edwin Forrest. The Bush street theatre was +conducted for fifteen years by M. B. Leavitt. It is difficult to be +brief with the list of famous names. David Belasco, born in San +Francisco, was stage manager of the Baldwin before he made theatrical +history in New York. David Warfield made his first professional +appearance at the old Wigwam. William A. Brady began his theatrical +career in the city, and so did Al Hayman. Holbrook Blinn was a boy star +in amateur theatricals. + +At the Alcazar, San Francisco's stock house, many familiar players made +their debuts, including Blanche Bates, Frank Bacon, Frances Starr, Bert +Lytell and Evelyn Vaughn. + +The Orpheum theatre of San Francisco is the mother house of the +vaudeville circuit of that name, which supplies entertainment to cities +throughout the United States and has overseas affiliations. The Orpheum +developed from a music hall conducted by Gustav Walter and the first +building on the present site in O'Farrell street, off Powell, was +erected in 1887. + + + +Universities + +Like a tower of enlightenment the campanile of the University of +California, in Berkeley, is seen by visitors to San Francisco whether +they come through the Golden Gate from Asia or approach the city by +ferry from the terminals of the transcontinental railroads on the East +Bay shore. It is likewise visible from the hills of San Francisco. + +This white shaft is symbolic of the opportunity offered to the world to +educate its youth in San Francisco. Within short motor rides from the +city are three big universities. In addition to the University of +California at Berkeley, which has one of the largest enrollments of any +institution of its kind in the United States, there is Stanford +University at Palo Alto, a privately endowed seat of learning with +notably high standards of scholarship and a rigid limit on the number of +its students, and the University of Santa Clara, which has trained many +of California's public men and members of the bench and bar. California +and Stanford are co-educational. + +The University of California maintains in San Francisco the Hastings +College of Law, the Medical School, the California School of Fine Arts, +the George William Hooper Foundation for Medical Research, the +California College of Pharmacy and the Museum of Anthropology, the +latter being one of the buildings of the Affiliated Colleges, +overlooking Golden Gate Park. The Hearst Greek Theatre at Berkeley has +done much to make the name of the University familiar abroad. Sarah +Bernhardt, Maude Adams, Ben Greet and Margaret Anglin have been among +the notables to appear on its open air stage. + +Stanford University, which numbers Herbert Hoover and many other famous +men among its alumni, maintains in San Francisco the Medical School and +Stanford and Lane hospitals. The campus in the Santa Clara Valley is +well worth seeing. The sandstone quadrangles, arcades and red tile +roofs, which reproduce the feeling of the early Mission buildings, are +finely achieved examples of period motifs applied to collegiate +architecture. The Stanford Memorial Church is especially interesting for +its richly carved stone and colored Italian mosaics, on the exterior as +well as within. + +The University of Santa Clara, conducted by the Jesuits, is located on +the site of one of the Missions established by the Franciscans under +Junipero Serra, and its modern buildings incorporate the ancient +structure. + +In addition to these universities is Mills College in Oakland, an +institution for women of the type of Wellesley, Vassar and Bryn Mawr. +The list of private schools and academies offering specialized +instruction is a long one. + +Building bridges of understanding across the seas, students attending +the universities and other institutions in the San Francisco Bay region +are playing roles in international relations that are just beginning to +be realized. H. G. Wells should study them in drafting his outlines for +world amity. + + + +Cliffs and Beaches + +From Fort Scott west to Fort Miley and south to Fort Funston, a distance +of something over eight miles, there is a line of cliffs and beach that +is the ocean front of San Francisco. Driving up from the +eucalyptus-lined avenues of the Presidio along a road that reveals +perspectives of bay and hills, you come out upon the cliffs that form +the southern post of the Golden Gate and extend above the eastern and +southern shore of the outer harbor, with yellow beaches at their feet +and with homes, gardens and parks set along their edge. + +From these cliffs is spread a vista of coast line and ocean with a sweep +that extends as far north as Point Arena and as far west as the Farallon +Islands, rugged points of rock reaching out of the ocean depths +twenty-three miles off shore, and as far south as the azure thrust of +Point Pedro. + +Drifting along the cliff highway, which runs back of the fortifications +that defend the port of San Francisco, you drop down past the dirigible +hangar of the United States Army Flying Corps. You rise through Sea +Cliff, a residence section like a hanging garden over the ocean, and +come to Lincoln Park, where the flagstaff that marks the terminus of the +Lincoln Highway, the end of a transcontinental trail, is set. + +Following now a detour through city streets, instead of the highway that +will soon traverse the cliffs, to the Cliff House, a resort foremost in +the written and pictured annals of San Francisco, you glimpse three +miles of sandy beach stretching southward to the jutting headlands of +Point Pedro and you drop down to the boulevard that flanks the +Esplanade, which the city is building as part of its playground plan. + +Here is San Francisco's Little Coney Island, where the multitude comes +on Sundays by motor car and trolley, with lunch baskets and children, to +frolic or rest on the sands that front the sea. + +Gay booths and kiosks skirt the Esplanade, where vendors are kept busy +supplying their wares and where everyone appears as carefree as the +gulls wheeling above the white breakers. + +As you continue south along the beach you pass the chalet of the Olympic +Club, whose members sally forth on New Year's Day for their dip in the +surf. Presently you reach the Great Highway, which traverses the dykes +of sand raised by wind and water as barriers against the ocean. Ahead of +you are Sloat Boulevard and the Skyline Boulevard, which, skirting Lake +Merced, stretches south through the shore mountains, its objective Santa +Cruz, on the blue bay of Monterey. + +This expanse of three miles of glistening sandy beach is a playground +where the people may watch the ever-shifting panorama of sea and sky and +hills. Seals can be seen sunning themselves on the rocks. Beyond them, +riding the swells, are fishing boats, and still farther out cargo +carriers and passenger liners make for distant points or come seeking +haven in the Port of Adventure--San Francisco. + + + +Clubs + +Club life in San Francisco has won the admiration of many men of letters +and other visitors. Kipling says appreciative things about the Bohemian +Club in his American Notes that exceed anything written by its own +historians. Julian Street, in his Abroad at Home, says that with her +hills San Francisco is Rome; with her harbor she is Naples; with her +hotels she is New York. + +"But with her clubs and her people she is San Francisco, which to my +mind comes near being the apotheosis of praise," he adds. + +The Bohemian Club's devotion to music and drama finds expression beyond +the plays and concerts at its town clubhouse. In addition it owns a +grove of redwoods in Sonoma county, where "highjinks" are staged every +midsummer. A grove play, the book and music of which are written by +members, is the feature of the annual gathering which has spread the +name of the Bohemian Club to many distant places. This distinctive type +of country annex is likewise enjoyed by The Family, a club which has in +addition to its city quarters a redwood grove in San Mateo county known +as "the Farm," where original drama and music are produced. + +A bronze tablet in memory of Bret Harte is on the Post street facade of +the Bohemian Club, near Taylor. Characters from the prose and verse of +the author are shown in bas-relief, including Salomy Jane, Yuba Bill, +Tennessee's Partner, John Oakhurst and the Heathen Chinee. The Olympic +Club, the Pacific Union Club on Nob Hill, the University Club, the +Commonwealth, the Union League Club, the Commercial, the Transportation, +the Concordia, the Argonaut, the Engineers, the Army and Navy, the Old +Colony and the Press Clubs are among the other organizations with well +appointed quarters. The Knights of Columbus, Masons, Elks and other +fraternal orders have their own clubs. The Olympic Club also maintains +the Lakeside Country Club with a golf course and trapshooting +facilities. The Olympic is one of the oldest and largest athletic clubs +in the country, having over 5000 members. + +Women's organizations owning or now building their own club houses +include the Francisca, Woman's Athletic, the California, Sequoia, +Century, Sorosis, Town and Country, National League for Woman's Service, +City and County Federation of Women's Clubs and the Y. W. C. A. + +San Francisco is a paradise for golfers, and the courses of the various +clubs have settings of exceptional natural beauty. Among them are those +of the Presidio Golf Club, the California Golf Club, the San Francisco +Golf and the Lake Merced Golf and Country Club on the Rancho Laguna de +la Merced. The municipality maintains two golf courses, one at--Lincoln +Park and one at Lake Merced. + +Across the Bay, in Alameda and Marin counties, and down the peninsula +are any number of country clubs. The San Francisco Yacht Club and the +Corinthian Yacht Club have club houses on the Marin shore. + + + +Homes and Gardens + +Surface impressions of San Francisco assail the visitor like colors in a +gypsy's scarf lustrous and salient. There is so much vivacity in the +streets downtown, so much to see in the haunts talked about, that one is +apt to overlook in a brief sojourn an outstanding characteristic of the +city--its many distinctive homes. + +Hardly a month passes that is not marked by pages of appreciation in +national architectural journals about the creative originality shown in +the landscape gardening and in the structural conceptions achieved in +the residence parks of San Francisco. In versatility of treatment the +architects who have specialized in home building in the San Francisco +Bay region have had their designs of contoured streets, parterres, +terraces and plantings published more widely than those of their +professional brethren in any other section of the country. + +Tour leisurely by motor car or afoot through the city if you would +convince yourself how lovely the homes of San Francisco are. Leave the +traveled boulevards and journey out into the districts that lie along +the hills north of Washington street and west of Van Ness avenue as far +as the Presidio wall. Skirting that dividing line, wander through the +area between Geary street and the military reservation. + +Pacific avenue, Broadway, Vallejo and the cross streets leading into +them are built up with splendid homes, outlined against inviting lawns +and gardens. There are noteworthy residence tracts in this section-- +Presidio Terrace, West Clay Park and Sea Cliff, where homes that look +like villas and chateaux perch on heights that afford a sweeping range +of ocean, hills and harbor entrance. + +The district west of Twin Peaks, which may be reached either by the +Municipal street cars that go out Market street or by automobile, has +restricted residential areas that are reminiscent of the illustrations +on the satiny pages of de luxe architectural folios. + +Rapid transit has brought country life to city dwellers in San +Francisco, Third and Market streets being only twenty minutes away from +St. Francis Wood and its fountains and trees; Ingleside Terraces; +Westwood Park, lying along the lower slopes of Mt. Davidson; Forest Hill +and other verdant home areas, the tunnel through Twin Peaks making all +this possible. + +Coming back downtown over the shoulder of Twin Peaks your eyes are +bewildered in trying to chart the sea of roofs and gables that stretch +over the Mission district. Where once a few tiled adobes clustered +around Mission Dolores, founded by Padre Junipero Serra, now spread +homes flooding the level places and gradually climbing up toward the +tops of the hills that are like watchtowers over the Golden Gate. + + + +San Francisco Outlines and Insights + +Area: 42 square miles. + +Climate: Cool summers and mild winters. Average summer temperature, 59 +degrees. Average winter temperature, 51 degrees. + +Population: 687,000 in city; 1,200,000 in metropolitan area. + +Tax Rate: $3.47 per $100 assessed value, rate of assessment to market +value of property being 50 per cent. + +Per Capita Wealth: Based on actual value of property, the per capita +wealth of San Francisco, $3,115, is the highest of any large city in the +country. + +Foreign Trade: Trade with foreign countries passing through the Golden +Gate during the fiscal year 1922-1923 totaled $343,307,567, of which +exports amounted to $157,242,290 and imports $186,065,277. + +Industrial Activity: San Francisco leads the cities of the Pacific Coast +in the value of manufactured products, the total annual volume of which +is $500,000,000. + +Labor Efficiency: Owing to equable climate, labor efficiency is higher +than in any other large center in the country, the per capita output for +San Francisco being $6,804.75. + +Money Market of Pacific: San Francisco ranks fifth in bank clearings in +the United States. Total bank clearings for the year amount to +$7,274,000,000. Deposits total $935,119,374. Total resources of the five +national and thirty-one state banks were $1,311,368,502 in 1923. + +Real Estate and Construction: Realty sales for the past year totaled +$132,227,478. Building totaled $34,079,996. Since 1906 new construction +totals $500,000,000. + +Sightseeing Tours: Descriptive folders and other literature may be +obtained at the Chamber of Commerce and at the hotels and information +bureaus in San Francisco about trips supervised by licensed sightseeing +companies. Some of the outstanding attractions of the city are detailed +briefly here. + +Civic Center: One of the most impressive groups of public buildings to +be seen in this country or abroad. Lands and buildings for this +undertaking cost the people $20,000,000. The group includes the City +Hall, Public Library, State Building and Civic Auditorium, the latter +seating 10,000 persons and being in demand for national conventions. +[Easy walk from downtown, or by cars on Market and Polk streets, or +taxi, auto or sightseeing bus.] + +San Francisco Bay: Discovered first from the land side by Don Gaspar de +Portola in 1769. Ferryboats, river steamers and launches may be taken by +the visitor interested in becoming acquainted with the attractions of +the Bay, including Yerba Buena (Goat) Island, with its Naval Receiving +Station; Alcatraz Island, shaped like a massive battleship and used as a +military prison; Angel Island, United States immigration and quarantine +station; Sausalito, Belvedere and Tiburon, towns framed against the +brocade of hills; Oleum, Richmond, Martinez, Crockett and Pittsburg, +with their big industrial plants; the shipbuilding yards in San +Francisco, Oakland and Alameda. + +The Golden Gate: Don Juan Manuel Ayala piloted the San Carlos through +this portal in 1775. It was named the Golden Gate by General Fremont, +"The Pathfinder." Sir Francis Drake landed in 1579 in a sheltered cove +just outside the Golden Gate and his chaplain held the first religious +service in the English language on the American continent. This incident +is memorialized by a Celtic cross on a hill in Golden Gate Park. [By +ferryboats from Ferry depot, or via the Presidio, which see.] + +The Presidio: This is the largest military reservation within city +boundaries in the United States. Its 1,500 acres embrace many +tree-bordered walks and driveways for motor cars. Rezanov, +plenipotentiary of the Czar, here wooed Senorita Arguello, daughter of +the Spanish commandante of the Presidio, in an adobe building still +standing in the reservation. You may read about this tragic idyl in Bret +Harte and Gertrude Atherton. ["D" car on Geary street and Union street +car at Ferry Depot, or taxi, auto or sightseeing bus.] + +Portsmouth Square: Originally called the Plaza, this place figured +largely in the early history of San Francisco. Commodore John +Montgomery, after whom Montgomery street is named, raised the flag here +to herald American possession of California. The Vigilance Committee +used the Plaza for public gatherings in their struggle against +lawlessness. The Robert Louis Stevenson monument is here, with his +oft-quoted message carved on its face, beginning "To be honest, to be +kind, to earn a little, to spend a little less." Stevenson loved this +square greatly and loitered here much. [Easy walk from any place +downtown, or by Kearny street car, tax, auto or sightseeing bus.] + +Mission Dolores: This Mission was founded by Father Junipero Serra in +1776, and its adobe walls remain in a remarkable state of preservation. +A new church of Spanish architecture is beside it. Adjoining the old +building is a burial ground, the inscriptions on whose stones add to the +interest of the paintings, carvings and other relics in the Mission. +["J," "K" and No. 8 cars on Market street, or by taxi, auto or +sightseeing bus.] + +Telegraph Hill: From the top of this height flags and semaphores +signaled the approach of ships with the Argonauts in the early days. The +Park Commissioners are making it a recreation center. One of the best +views of the city, its skyscrapers and the Bay is obtained from the +hill. [By cars on Stockton and Kearny street, or by taxi, auto or +sightseeing bus.] + +Russian Hill: Many of the writers and painters of San Francisco have +their homes here. There are also fine apartments, terraced gardens and +compensating walks, unfolding views of the Bay and distant hills. [By +cars on Stockton and Union streets, or by taxi, auto or sightseeing +bus.] + +Fishermen's Wharf: Harbor of the Italian fishing fleet, this has the +aspect of a transplanted bit of the Neapolitan coast even though it has +been modernized with the employment of gasoline motor boats. [Kearny and +Beach car to end of line and walk along the waterfront, or by taxi or +auto.] + +California Palace of Legion of Honor: A memorial to the soldiers of the +world war, this replica of the Palace of the Legion of Honor of Paris +was built by Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Spreckels in Lincoln Park, overlooking +the Golden Gate, to house art treasures and war relics. [By cars marked +for Ocean Beach or Cliff House, or by taxi, auto or sightseeing bus.] + +Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum: One of the outstanding attractions of +the recreation center described elsewhere in this booklet. [By marked +Golden Gate Park cars on Market and Geary streets, or by taxi, auto or +sightseeing bus.] + +Palace of Fine Arts: On the Marina, close to the Presidio, this +handsomely proportioned building was preserved from the Panama-Pacific +Exposition. It houses an exhibition of painting, statuary and objects of +arts from the Phoebe A. Hearst and other collections. [By "D" cars on +Geary street and Union street car at Ferry depot, or by taxi, auto or +sightseeing bus.] + +Ocean Beach: This playground of San Francisco fronting the sea, with the +Cliff House, the Esplanade, Sutro Heights, the Sutro salt water baths +and the Seal Rocks with their barking sea lions, should be seen by every +visitor to San Francisco. [By marked cars on Market, Geary and Sutter +streets, or by taxi, auto or sightseeing bus.] + +Twin Peaks--Its Tunnel: This city mountain, nearly 1,000 feet high, is +at the end of Market street. A scenic boulevard, which may be traversed +by motor or afoot, winds over it, affording a sweeping panorama of the +city and Bay. Running beneath the mountain is a tunnel carrying a double +track street railway line. This tunnel is the longest and deepest +municipal bore in the world. It cost $4,000,000. The tunnel is two and +one-fourth miles in length and was built to get rapid transit to +residence districts. [By "K" tunnel car on Market street, or by taxi or +auto.] + +Golf--Sports: San Francisco has seven golf courses reached quickly by +motor cars and street railway lines. The region tributary to the city is +one huge fish and game preserve. Landing trout or bringing down ducks or +a buck can be accomplished within tramping distance of city homes. Three +polo fields are on the peninsula. Fly-casting on Stow lake in Golden +Gate Park, regattas off the Aquatic Park and the Marina, trap shooting, +hiking, mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada range, and a diversity of +other activities are directed by clubs and organized groups. Horse +racing has been revived at Tanforan and attracts big crowds. The motor +roads in and out of San Francisco are among the finest in the country. + +Out-of-Town Trips: Visitors to San Francisco should see Mount Tamalpais, +with its crookedest railroad in the world, Muir Woods, and the Ring +Around the Mountain drive to Stinson Beach; Oakland, Alameda and +Berkeley, the University of California being at the latter city; the +Santa Clara Valley, with its orchards, and Stanford University at Palo +Alto; the Spring Valley lakes; La Honda; Del Monte, Carmel and historic +Monterey; Santa Cruz and the Big Trees; Santa Rosa, home of Luther +Burbank; Saratoga in blossom time; the Petrified Forest; the Geysers; +Mare Island Navy Yard; the Lick Astronomical Observatory on Mt. +Hamilton; the great Sierra Nevada Range; Mount Whitney and snow-capped +Shasta; the Yosemite, Sequoia and General Grant National Parks; Lake +Tahoe; Mt. Lassen and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. +Information booths at the hotels will supply visitors with details about +trips to these and other places. + + + +For detailed information about San Francisco communicate with +San Francisco Chamber of Commerce +Merchants Exchange Building +or with +Californian's Inc. +140 Montgomery Street San Francisco + + + +This booklet written by Fred Brandt and Andrew Y. Wood and produced by +Horne and Livingston for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce + + + +Independent Pressroom San Francisco + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fascinating San Francisco +by Fred Brandt and Andrew Y. Wood + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11510 *** |