0:02

Happy Saturday. Coming up soon, we

0:04

have an episode on someone whose life took a big

0:06

turn thanks in part to the earthquake

0:09

and fires that struck San Francisco

0:11

in nineteen oh six, although

0:13

that happened before this person was born,

0:16

and he also was not born in the United

0:18

States. So we are bringing our episode

0:21

on this earthquake in fires out as

0:23

Today's Saturday Classic. This

0:25

originally came out November thirteenth, twenty

0:28

nineteen. Welcome

0:32

to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a

0:34

production of iHeartRadio.

0:42

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye

0:44

and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Tracy.

0:47

As you know, I recently took a couple

0:49

days off sort of. I still did some work, but I

0:51

went to one of my very favorite cities, San

0:54

Francisco. Uh huh.

0:56

I go to San Francisco with some regularity,

0:58

and this has not happened to me before, but I

1:00

noticed on this recent visit one

1:03

of the city's historical moments kept coming

1:05

up in conversation in a variety of different

1:07

places, like with our lift

1:10

drivers, or like someone would bring it up at dinner

1:12

and I was like, did somebody run an article and

1:15

it also came up at the bed and breakfast

1:17

where I like to stay when I'm in San Francisco,

1:20

which is the Monte Cristo, which I'm in love with,

1:22

and that BnB has its own really fun

1:25

history. It was a bordello and a saloon

1:27

and then a speakeasy before it started

1:29

its life as a hotel. But one of the interesting

1:31

things about it, and what had come up in conversation

1:34

with one of the staff while I was eating breakfast, was

1:36

that it had been built in the eighteen seventies

1:38

and it was one of the buildings that survived

1:40

the nineteen oh six earthquake and fires

1:43

that destroyed so much of the city, Like it came

1:45

very close to this building, but it remained

1:47

intact. And in two thousand

1:49

and one, previous host Sarah and Deblina did an

1:51

episode called History's Unforgettable Fires,

1:54

and on that episode they talked about a handful

1:56

of significant fire incidents, including

1:58

the fire that ravaged Sam Francisco in

2:01

nineteen oh six. But today I thought it might

2:03

be worth giving this particular incident a little

2:05

bit more attention, because whenever you're doing one of

2:07

those survey episodes, you can't get really in

2:09

depth on anything, the earthquake itself

2:11

remains geologically significant in terms

2:14

of resulting learnings, and we're going to talk a little bit

2:16

about that coming up and the

2:18

devastation that followed. It really

2:20

does serve as a terrifying example of

2:22

just how quickly a really well

2:24

established city and its infrastructure can

2:26

be completely leveled. And the city was so

2:28

damaged by this whole series

2:30

of events that Jack London wrote

2:32

after all of the events we're talking about today,

2:35

quote, surrender was complete, essentially,

2:37

like the city was just gone. And

2:39

there is also an important story

2:42

here about the city's immigrant

2:44

population, specifically the residents of

2:46

Chinatown, which had grown into a very

2:48

well established and very prosperous

2:50

community by nineteen oh six, And we are going to get

2:52

to all of that, but first, to set

2:54

the stage, we're going to talk just a little bit about

2:56

San Francisco's beginnings as

2:58

a city. Of nineteen

3:00

oh six, San Francisco had an estimated

3:03

population of about four hundred thousand people,

3:05

so it was a pretty bustling city, but like

3:08

a lot of cities, it

3:10

did not start with a lot of planning. Of

3:13

course, there were native people in the area long

3:15

before any Europeans got there, but

3:18

Lieutenant Jose Joaquin Moraga,

3:20

who Spanish, was working with Reverend

3:22

Francisco pau and they're credited

3:24

with establishing a military post

3:26

at the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula

3:28

in seventeen seventy six, and over time

3:31

that the outpost evolved

3:33

into the Presidio. William Anthony

3:36

Richardson, an Englishman, is cited

3:38

as putting the first dwelling in the area,

3:40

and that happened in eighteen thirty five, So sometime

3:42

after that initial military post,

3:45

that dwelling, as it's sometimes referred

3:47

to, was really just a simple tent, but

3:49

a settlement kind of grew around Richardson's

3:52

tent, and that settlement was known as Yureba Buena.

3:55

And the US government was already well aware

3:57

of the potential importance of California It's

4:00

the Bay area, because it is very

4:02

good place to do trade from

4:05

because that same year that Richardson started

4:07

his settlement, the US was trying to buy

4:09

that land from Mexico. The United

4:11

States gained control of northern California

4:13

eleven years later during the Mexican American

4:16

War. Here Ba Buena was renamed

4:18

San Francisco. In early eighteen forty

4:20

seven, and then, of course, two years later the coastal

4:22

town was gripped by the gold rush. That

4:25

led to a huge growth period as thousands

4:27

of people relocated to the city in

4:29

a very sort of amount of time, hoping

4:31

to strike it rich. Yeah, that's come up

4:34

on the show a number of times, just how quickly

4:36

there was this huge population influx

4:38

to San Francisco and the surrounding areas,

4:41

and that haphazard nature of the city's

4:43

growth meant that it was pretty organic in its

4:45

structure. More to the point, there just

4:47

really wasn't much in the way of city planning,

4:50

so things like utilities and neighborhood

4:52

layouts were developed over the years

4:54

on the fly, and this was something that people

4:56

recognized as risky. For example,

4:59

if you listened to our episode on Levi Strauss

5:01

a while back, who died several years before

5:03

the events that we're talking about today, you might

5:05

recall that he was already in his

5:08

lifetime advocating for building

5:10

regulations that would reduce the risk

5:12

of fire spreading in the city of a fire broke

5:14

out, because they already recognized were

5:16

kind of tightly packed and not really well

5:18

planned out. So this was an issue

5:21

that was being discussed among city and business

5:23

leaders long before the precarious

5:25

nature of the city's infrastructure was

5:28

so deeply challenged and ultimately collapsed

5:30

by the nineteen oh six quake. On the morning

5:32

of April eighteenth, nineteen oh six, an

5:34

event happened that lasted less than a minute

5:36

but changed the city really forever. At

5:39

five twelve am, the earthquake started

5:41

and it was over at five point thirteen. The

5:44

actual length of the quake is listed

5:46

as forty five seconds to a minute, depending

5:48

on the source and where the report was coming from.

5:51

The epicenter of the quake was offshore, and

5:53

shocks were felt as far north as the mid Oregon

5:56

coast all the way down to Los Angeles, and

5:58

it also traveled inland all the way in its

6:01

full length of the rupture. That's the area

6:03

of slip on the Earth's crust that's been

6:05

determined to have been two hundred

6:07

ninety six miles or four hundred and seventy seven

6:10

kilometers, and the magnitude has

6:12

been estimated at a number of different

6:14

numbers, from seven point seven to eight point

6:16

three on the Richter scale, and there

6:18

were immediate collapses of

6:20

buildings throughout the city. When this quake happened,

6:23

the California Theater and Hotel on Bush

6:25

Street lost structural integrity

6:27

and its dome fell into the nearby fire

6:29

station. It mortally wounded the

6:31

fire chief engineer, Dennis T. Sullivan.

6:34

He died several days later of his injuries.

6:36

Another fire station on Howard Street

6:38

also had part of a hotel collapse into it,

6:41

killing fireman James O'Neill, and

6:43

there were a lot of other fatalities as well

6:45

as buildings went down, but losing fire

6:47

personnel would prove to be a

6:49

particularly devastating problem. So

6:52

the quake caused structural damage all

6:54

through the city, but the situation became

6:56

exponentially more grave immediately

6:59

afterward. The city's gas lines

7:01

had been ruptured and that set off a series

7:03

of fires. To make matters

7:05

worse, San Francisco's water mains

7:07

had also been seriously damaged

7:09

in the quake, and that made the task of

7:11

fighting the fire just that much more difficult.

7:14

Plus, the city had lost a lot of firemen

7:16

in the earthquake. Initially, Yeah, we're going to

7:18

talk about it a little bit later, but Sullivan in particular

7:21

was a particularly hard loss. Two

7:24

fires started right after the quake, one

7:26

south of Market and the other north of Market

7:28

Street near the water. And the following

7:30

day two additional fires began, one

7:32

on Hayes Valley and another inner restaurant,

7:35

And when the conditions really helped, these various

7:37

fires spread to the west and then

7:39

from there they got a stronghold and they

7:42

just kept spreading. At six thirty

7:44

am on eighteenth, which was a little more than an

7:46

hour after the quake started, all

7:48

the troops from Fort Mason were requested

7:50

to report to the Mayor, Eugene Smith's

7:53

immediately. Within about thirty

7:55

minutes, army soldiers were arriving at

7:57

the Hall of Justice and were assigned patrol

7:59

duties around the city to assess damage

8:01

and to offer help. Just as the troops

8:03

were getting started with this effort, an aftershock

8:06

hit at eight fourteen am, and

8:08

a lot of buildings that had remained standing

8:10

after the main quake a few hours earlier

8:13

had sustained significant structural damage

8:15

and they collapsed in this aftershock. Then

8:18

at ten am, more troops arrived. These

8:20

were coming from Fort McDowell on Angel Island.

8:23

The US Navy cruiser the USS

8:25

Chicago received word around the same

8:27

time about the situation. That was unfolding in

8:29

San Francisco, it made its way

8:31

to the city. This was the first use

8:34

of a telegraph to communicate a natural

8:36

disaster. The USS Chicago

8:38

would become instrumental in the evacuation

8:40

of the city's residents, and then the USS

8:43

Prebble made its way to the city too to offer

8:45

medical assistance. Fires

8:47

continued to claim buildings throughout the city,

8:49

including government buildings, the financial

8:51

district, fire stations, and hospitals.

8:55

As the fire spread, crews worked frantically

8:57

to try to move people to safety and combat

9:00

blazes that were starting at this point all

9:02

over the city. Coming up, we are

9:04

going to talk about a really bad move

9:06

that was made in an effort to combat the fires,

9:08

and we'll get to that after we have a quick sponsor

9:11

break. In

9:21

the afternoon of April eighteenth, so at

9:23

this point several hours had passed since the quake

9:25

and the fires were beginning. A decision

9:28

was made which has come to be seen pretty clearly

9:30

as one of the worst possible moves.

9:33

The plan was to dynamite some buildings

9:35

in the city to create a fire break. So

9:37

the idea was that if some buildings were destroyed

9:40

before the fire got to them, They then

9:42

could not catch fire and continue to spread

9:44

the fire, and thus a barrier

9:46

around the blaze would be created. This was actually

9:49

an approach that the fire chief engineer, Dennis

9:51

T. Sullivan that we talked about earlier, had

9:53

been an advocate of. He had been talking about this

9:55

long before this incident happened as

9:57

a way to potentially fight big fires, and

10:00

he would have been the one to execute such

10:02

an idea, but because he was dying, he

10:04

could not, and there weren't other people

10:07

on hand with his level of expertise,

10:09

so proceeding without him and

10:11

without a real understanding and knowledge

10:13

of how to do this turned out to be disastrous.

10:16

Yeah, and this, like, this is not a technique that he

10:18

was just making up. This is something that had been used

10:20

in other historical fires, in some cases

10:22

successfully. Yeah, and he

10:25

had done a lot of research about it to figure

10:27

out how it would work in their city. Right,

10:30

So, like, the core idea

10:32

of it was not the issue. The Army

10:34

had provided the fire department with explosives,

10:37

but the type of explosive that was provided was

10:39

black gunpowder, and the novice

10:42

use of those explosives did not really

10:44

level the buildings as intended.

10:46

It was more like it blew them apart, and

10:48

it sent burning shrapnel through the air.

10:51

That was in a city that was already engulfed

10:53

in flame, with water nearly impossible

10:55

to come by. It's easy to see how

10:58

this really went wrong. And some cases

11:00

the soldiers who were tasked with facing

11:02

the blaze took out buildings using

11:04

artillery. These incorrect

11:07

methods just kept being used while

11:09

the city was burning, so as the firefighters

11:11

and the soldiers retreated from the spreading

11:14

flames, they kept trying to blow up

11:16

the areas they had just left, not

11:18

realizing that they were making the whole situation worse.

11:21

Yeah, it's one of those things where

11:24

it's a directive given to people who don't

11:26

have any training. So it's

11:28

not as though they understood right

11:30

why, like, oh, this is the wrong way to

11:32

do this, Like nobody really knew. They were

11:34

really grasping at straws, and the fire

11:36

made its way through knob Hill and Chinatown,

11:39

North Beach and the Mission District. As

11:41

residents fled, often with nothing

11:43

but the clothes that they wore. The

11:45

dead that could be collected

11:48

that were not trapped in buildings were brought to public

11:50

squares and parks. Some were buried

11:52

in those same spaces because there was just

11:55

nowhere else to take them. As the casualties

11:57

mounted. Charles B. Sedgwick, who

11:59

was editor of the periodical The British

12:01

Californian, wrote an account of his experience

12:04

in the earthquake and fire in the nineteen oh

12:06

six American Builder's Review, and his account

12:09

is really fascinating. He writes

12:11

candidly about the severity of the destruction

12:13

and his personal revelation that what

12:16

was happening was a historic level tragedy.

12:18

He mentions like other historical moments

12:21

where cities have been destroyed, and kind of being

12:23

very aware that this was happening where

12:25

he was. But he also writes this quote

12:28

that night I climbed to the summit of Russian

12:30

Hill to view the conflagration, and

12:32

never shall I forget the sight. It was weirdly

12:34

beautiful. A thousand banners

12:37

of flame were streaming in the cloudless sky

12:39

from spires and domes and lofty roofs,

12:42

the underseene being a sea of glowing

12:44

gold and tumultuous but brilliant,

12:46

beyond anything I had ever seen or

12:48

conceived of, and magnificent

12:51

in the irresistible power, its great

12:53

flaming waves, leaping upon or dashing

12:55

against the strongest creations

12:57

of man and obliterating them.

13:00

As of one hundred battles in progress with myriad

13:03

giant guns in play, told of the

13:05

fierce, relentless destruction as towering

13:07

buildings eaten loose, toppled

13:09

and fell, or were lifted skyward

13:12

by thundering dynamite to then scatter

13:14

and drop, throwing up huge fiery

13:16

splashes from the burning sea. But

13:19

he also writes in this account that during the fires

13:21

and even during the evacuation, most

13:23

people seemed pretty upbeat and cheerful.

13:26

They helped each other out as much as they could.

13:29

This was almost undoubtedly because they

13:31

were in shock and having to focus on the basic

13:33

tasks of rescue and survival, and

13:35

Sedgwick wrote quote, few of the

13:37

people who went through the San Francisco experience

13:39

will ever again know fear. I think. He

13:42

also wrote that in the aftermath, when the fires were

13:44

finally put out, then the emotional

13:47

crash came as people saw how much they really

13:49

had lost. But this is a different

13:51

take on the situation than most accounts

13:54

suggest. So other accounts describe

13:57

the scene in San Francisco as completely chaotic,

13:59

not this of oddly pleasant experience

14:01

that Sedgwick had, with looting

14:03

and other lawless behavior a primary

14:06

concern. This was so worrying

14:08

that the mayor issued the following proclamation

14:10

on day one of the disaster. Quote,

14:13

the federal troops, the members of the regular

14:15

police force, and all special police

14:17

officers have been authorized by

14:19

me to kill any and all persons

14:22

found engaged in looting or in the commission

14:24

of any other crime. I have

14:26

directed all the gas and electric lighting

14:29

companies not to turn on gas or electricity

14:31

until I order them to do so. You

14:33

may, therefore expect the city to remain in darkness

14:36

for an indefinite time. I

14:38

request all citizens to remain at

14:40

home from darkness until daylight every

14:42

night until order is restored. I

14:45

warn all citizens of the danger

14:47

of fire from damaged or destroyed chimneys,

14:50

broken or leaking gas pipes or fixtures,

14:53

or any like cause. Law

14:55

enforcement was so concerned that drunkenness

14:57

would lead to violence that many Si Zoon

15:00

owners found their supply seized and destroyed.

15:03

It's estimated that thirty thousand dollars worth

15:05

of liquor was destroyed. As this preemptive

15:07

move to try to keep the peace. Later

15:09

on, those saloon owners made claims for restitution

15:12

to the government, and by the time the fires

15:14

were put out, which only happened after

15:16

three days of the city burning, San

15:19

Francisco was obviously not the city that

15:21

it had been on April eighteenth. Before the earthquake,

15:24

five hundred and eight city blocks covering

15:26

four point seven square miles had burned.

15:29

More than twenty eight thousand of the city's buildings

15:32

had been destroyed by fire, more

15:34

than three thousand people had died, and

15:36

of that population of four hundred

15:38

thousand that we mentioned earlier, two

15:41

hundred fifty thousand were left homeless.

15:43

There was an estimated four hundred million dollars

15:46

worth of damage. You'll see various

15:48

different numbers, some a little higher than that, but

15:50

that is nineteen oh six value. That is not a

15:53

number adjusted for modern equivalents.

15:55

The ferry building had been saved by

15:57

the US Navy, so ferries were able

15:59

to get people out of the city, and the railroad

16:02

suspended fair collection while they took people

16:04

to other towns for refuge. A

16:06

lot of people stayed and started clean up as soon

16:08

as they could return to their property. While

16:11

this devastation led some to proclaim

16:13

that San Francisco was gone for good, that

16:15

was obviously not the case. We

16:17

mentioned San Francisco's founding an

16:19

explosive and organic growth at the beginning

16:22

of the episode. Because of its unplanned

16:24

nature. Of course, the city's infrastructure and layout

16:26

had not really had much foresought. In

16:29

the aftermath of the devastation, plans

16:31

were made to rebuild with a clearer

16:33

and grander vision for the city, but government

16:35

officials were feeling they need to prove their

16:38

city's resilience, and they rushed a lot

16:40

of this work. Also, things became

16:42

mired in bribes and underhanded

16:44

dealings during the process that

16:46

eventually led to a series of trials

16:49

known as the San Francisco Graft

16:51

Trials. I'm sure outside of the

16:53

scope of today's episode, but Holly

16:56

assures me it will be a

16:58

show in a future. There's no way

17:00

I can't do it. There's like shots fired

17:02

in a courtroom. There's like a crazy It's

17:05

a really good story, full

17:07

of high drama and illicit behavior.

17:10

But it is also because of the events of

17:12

nineteen oh six that the areas outside

17:14

of San Francisco grew significantly

17:17

Oakland, Fremont, San Jose, and other

17:19

areas all experienced population growth,

17:21

first as people moved there away from the fire,

17:24

although San Jose had damage of its own, and

17:26

then as the Bay area rebuilt, more

17:28

people moved there from outside that had

17:31

not been there in the first place, and it really

17:33

did have this large explosion of population again,

17:35

but this time with a little more planning. But

17:38

this growth came with its own problems. Racism

17:40

was pretty rampant. There were some areas that were

17:43

very clear that they were not going to be welcoming

17:45

to, for example, immigrants or people of

17:47

color. So it wasn't as

17:49

though everything was rebuilt in a utopia

17:53

where everybody was cool with each other. But

17:55

it was a huge time of growth for the Bay

17:57

area and the city surrounding San Francisco. The

18:00

other big thing to come out of this was a sudden

18:02

focus on the scientific community on

18:04

the San Andreas Fault system. The

18:07

United States first seismographs had been

18:09

in use for less than twenty years. Other

18:11

countries around the globe had been researching

18:13

the science of earthquakes, but outside of a

18:15

pretty small group of researchers, this wasn't

18:18

a significant area of study in the United

18:20

States. Yet the earthquake of nineteen

18:22

oh six changed that though, And to

18:24

be clear, some of the seeming slowness

18:26

in this space was because seismology, even

18:29

abroad, was still in its very early stages.

18:32

H German scientist Alfred Wegener, who

18:34

you are going to hear more about in coming

18:36

episodes, was still six years

18:39

away from introducing the idea of continental

18:41

drift, and the theory of plate tectonics

18:44

wasn't developed until the nineteen sixties.

18:46

So even though other countries were working

18:48

in earthquake study, everyone was still

18:50

really in the very beginnings of this science.

18:53

Yeah, by total coincidence,

18:56

researching an episode on Alfred

18:58

Beginer right now as we

19:01

speak, not literally

19:03

while we're in the studio, but as soon as we're done,

19:05

I'm getting back to it. So following

19:07

this earthquake, UC Berkeley Geology

19:09

Department head Andrew C. Lawson started

19:11

amassing data and he was named

19:14

chair of the State Earthquake Investigation

19:16

Commission was established by California

19:19

Governor George C. Pardy. That

19:21

commission published a full report after

19:23

two years of work, and that's generally referred

19:26

to as the laws In Report. The

19:28

report set the bar for scientific investigation

19:31

and included work from twenty different scientists.

19:33

It's a really thorough compilation

19:36

of data, including maps and photos

19:38

of the damage and measurements of the movement

19:40

of the earth around the San Andreas fault. Yeah,

19:43

as a complete science sidebar,

19:45

I will mention that where the epicenter

19:47

was determined by research has

19:49

shifted a few times over the years as

19:53

our scientific knowledge has gotten

19:55

a little bit more refined along the way. But

19:58

really with the loss and report, all of

20:00

these ideas started, and all of this research

20:02

really began, and the report

20:05

formed the basis of earthquake knowledge related

20:07

to California, and it also informed future

20:10

construction and scientific observational

20:12

guidelines. So that meant that earthquake

20:15

hazards were reduced because predictive

20:17

modeling was developed as a consequence to warn

20:19

people of impending quakes, and buildings

20:22

were made to better with stand shaking. And

20:24

it really all goes back to the scientific community

20:26

really rallying right after this event. Coming

20:29

up, we'll talk about a very different topic,

20:31

and that's how racist attitudes toward Chinatown

20:34

played out in the aftermath of the nineteen oh

20:36

six quake. But first we will pause

20:38

and have another quick word from one of our sponsors.

20:49

In the wake of the earthquake and fire, the displaced

20:52

population of Chinatown in particular

20:55

based a really harrowing situation. The whole

20:57

city was in a bad state. People were displaced,

20:59

more than half of the city had lost their homes. Water

21:02

was very difficult to get. But Chinatown

21:04

had a whole different problem. And we've

21:07

talked on the show before about the Page Act of

21:09

eighteen seventy five and the Chinese Exclusion

21:11

Act of eighteen eighty two, both of which

21:13

were intended to stop immigration from

21:15

China to the US, and as the

21:17

initial swell of the Gold Rush's prosperity

21:20

had ebbed, animosity toward immigrants

21:22

had swelled, particularly Chinese people

21:24

that were living in California and San Francisco's

21:27

Chinatown was viewed with suspicion

21:29

and outright hostility. This

21:31

neighborhood was destroyed in the earthquake

21:34

and estimated fifteen thousand

21:36

of its residents lost their homes in the

21:38

disaster. It offered city

21:40

officials this chance to try to push

21:42

the residents of Chinatown out permanently

21:45

and take over their neighborhood's real estate,

21:47

which was really lucrative. Most

21:49

of Chinatown's displaced population sought

21:52

refuge in nearby Oakland, that also

21:54

had its own well established Chinatown,

21:56

but the people that stayed behind were segregated

21:59

away from other refugees at the presidio.

22:02

Meanwhile, all the other residents were allowed

22:04

to return to their property immediately after

22:06

the fire was extinguished. Yeah, but

22:08

those Chinese residents were not. They

22:10

continued to be held. City officials

22:13

wanted to keep the displaced residents away

22:15

from their neighborhood to prevent rebuilding

22:17

efforts in Chinatown. The city

22:19

government established a General Committee

22:22

for the Chinese Relocation with

22:24

the intent to determine exactly what

22:26

to do with this entire community of people

22:29

that the city no longer wanted, and

22:31

one possibility was to establish a new

22:33

area for them outside the city

22:36

limits. But even early on, it was recognized

22:38

that this was not the best idea because there was

22:40

a lot of business done among the occupants

22:43

of Chinatown as well as tourism,

22:45

and that included taxes that the city desperately

22:47

wanted to keep collecting. It was going to

22:50

need that money as part of the rebuilding effort. And

22:52

while this isn't in any way suggesting

22:54

that racism was not an issue in all of

22:57

this. There is an interesting thing that happens

22:59

where there's a mentality shift that's noted.

23:02

It came up in a paper that I was reading, where

23:05

this is the first time on

23:07

record that people kind

23:09

of acknowledged that instead of thinking

23:12

that Chinese immigrants were hurting the economy,

23:14

they were recognizing that they were a significant

23:16

and important part of the city's financial

23:19

well being. That was something that Chinatown's

23:21

residents already knew, and they weren't

23:23

passively waiting to see what city

23:25

officials would do. They immediately spoke

23:27

out against what was happening. Through

23:29

their relationships with the Protestant and

23:32

Catholic churches, which offered spaces to

23:34

gather, the residents of Chinatown

23:36

got organized. Leaders from the Chinese

23:38

community gave statements to the press that made

23:40

it clear that they would fight efforts to relocate

23:43

them and that they were as a community

23:45

united in this stance. On May

23:47

first, nineteen oh six, the San Francisco

23:50

Call ran an article. This contained some very

23:52

outdated language in terms of how Chinese people

23:54

were referred to, but it reported quote,

23:56

Celestial landowners hold that they cannot

23:59

be deprived of their rights fifty

24:01

Chinese owners of property in Old Chinatown

24:04

have decided to rebuild on the sites

24:06

where their buildings were destroyed. Legal

24:08

advisors of the Chinese, the Chinese

24:10

Consul General and the Vice Consul King

24:13

Ao Yang, gave it as their opinion

24:15

that the owners or lessees of land in Chinatown

24:18

cannot be deprived of the right to rebuild

24:20

if they so desired. It has been

24:22

decided to resist any attempt of

24:24

the authorities to compel the Chinese to establish

24:27

themselves at Hunter's Point against

24:29

the wishes of those who owned property

24:31

in the old territory. So throughout

24:34

all this conflict, the Benevolent Six

24:36

Companies, which she might see, sided with a

24:38

number of slightly different names, including

24:40

the Chinese Six Companies, or by the name

24:43

that it's known by today, which is Chinese Consolidated

24:45

Benevolent Association. I was vital

24:47

to the organizational efforts. This group

24:50

has its own complex and nuanced history,

24:52

but by nineteen oh six it was working essentially

24:54

as an internal support and umbrella

24:57

organization for the people of Chinatown. We

24:59

should mention that the group had expanded outside

25:01

of California, but their headquarters were still

25:03

in San Francisco, and the Benevolent

25:05

Six Companies organization was able to

25:07

leverage its position to reach out to the

25:10

Chinese government, and as a result, a

25:12

delegation of Chinese officials made a public

25:14

statement and requested a meeting with Governor

25:16

Party, and their statement began.

25:19

This is said in the point of view

25:21

of the person giving the statement quote, I

25:23

have heard the report that the authorities intend

25:26

to remove Chinatown, but I cannot believe

25:28

it. America is a free country,

25:30

and every man has a right to occupy land

25:32

which he owns, provided that he makes no nuisance.

25:35

The Chinese government owns the lot on

25:37

which the Chinese Consulate of San Francisco

25:40

formerly stood, and this site on

25:42

Stockton Street will be used again. It

25:44

is the intention of our government to build a

25:46

new building on the property, paying strict attention

25:49

to the new building regulations which may be framed.

25:52

While that statement was specifically about

25:54

the consulate, the officials used their meeting

25:56

with the governor to make the convincing case

25:58

that Chinatown was i were of significant

26:01

tax revenue and trade. There

26:03

was also a request that Chinese officials

26:05

be allowed to enter the area of the presidio

26:07

while the city's Chinese refugees are being held

26:10

under guard so those officials could administer

26:12

aid. The city of San Francisco

26:15

also started seeing more and more

26:17

just how valuable the economic influence

26:19

of its Chinese residence was. Some

26:21

business owners just got tired

26:23

of this whole situation and opted to leave the Bay

26:26

Area and start over in new cities, often

26:28

at the invitation of those cities. Delegates

26:31

from Seattle and Portland had actually arrived

26:33

in San Francisco to reach out

26:35

to displace Chinese business owners and

26:38

offer them assistance if they wanted to move to

26:40

their cities. That was a little bit

26:42

scary for the leadership of San Francisco,

26:44

who realized they were clearly getting rid

26:46

of something that other people saw as an asset. And

26:49

though this caused a permanent dip in the Chinese

26:52

population of the city, one that actually took

26:54

decades to make up, the majority

26:56

of Chinatown's residents really wanted

26:58

more than anything to just continue you their lives

27:00

in San Francisco, which they considered

27:02

their home. At this point, after the

27:05

lobbying efforts, protests, and

27:07

statements that San Francisco's Chinese community

27:09

would not just accept relocation, as

27:12

well as a serious realization about the fiscal

27:14

value of keeping Chinatown inside

27:16

the city's municipality. City

27:18

officials finally relented and allowed the

27:20

residents of Chinatown to go back to their neighborhood

27:23

and start rebuilding the new

27:25

Chinatown. As most of the rebuilt San Francisco

27:27

was built with city planning at the forefront

27:30

to make it better than before, and nineteen

27:32

ten, right up with the San Francisco Call

27:34

described the newly rebuilt Chinatown

27:36

as quote barbarously gorgeous.

27:39

Again, we're super not saying that racism toward

27:41

the Chinese and other Asian communities was suddenly

27:44

abandoned. I mean, the fact the word barbarously

27:46

is right there before gorgeous nods

27:49

to that. Also, if you would

27:51

like to hear more about this rebuilding

27:53

process, there's a great episode of ninety nine

27:55

percent Invisible that's like specifically

27:57

about how they redesigned town.

28:00

Yeah, it's also interesting there

28:03

are that entire article that calls

28:05

it barbarously gorgeous. It's a weird series

28:08

of praise and backhanded compliments

28:11

where it's like it's so beautiful and amazing.

28:13

I hope it doesn't start to stink like it did before.

28:15

Like it's a really wow,

28:17

strange horrible. While they're like

28:19

acknowledging, how like what

28:22

an astonishing and absolutely

28:24

beautiful accomplishment it was in the

28:26

rebuild, like they couldn't resist

28:29

getting in some really grossed racist barbs

28:31

along the way. Yeah,

28:33

it's again fascinating.

28:36

Even while they acknowledge people's value, they

28:38

still had to like get in

28:40

insults, which is a very

28:43

strange and dismaying thing to read. There

28:46

is still information today that

28:49

is surfacing about the fire and

28:51

Chinatown. Specifically, in twenty

28:53

fifteen, while construction was being done on the

28:55

Uni light rail line from Chinatown to South

28:57

Market, in archaeological excavation

29:00

that was running concurrently discovered a number

29:03

of industrial showing machines that were manufactured

29:05

in the late nineteenth century. That

29:07

find was right in front of today's

29:09

Chinese American Citizens Alliance building

29:12

on Stockton Street, and it offered insight

29:14

into an area of the city that wasn't particularly

29:17

well documented in nineteen oh six.

29:19

Even things in Chinatown that were documented

29:22

have been pretty elusive from a historical

29:24

standpoint, because the documentation

29:26

of where things were was largely lost in

29:28

the earthquake and the fires that followed. City

29:31

Hall, for example, had burned to the ground, and

29:33

with it went the census records and citizenship

29:36

documentation. Yes, sorting

29:38

that whole citizenship status

29:40

situation out was

29:43

its own big mess. There

29:45

are certainly some

29:48

indications that some people took advantage of that

29:50

situation and could just say, like, no, I was a citizen,

29:53

but my records are burned. But also

29:55

people that were citizens had no proof

29:58

either. It was a very strange time.

30:01

But because this area was

30:03

more than eight feet below the street where they found

30:05

these sewing machines, that discovery

30:07

indicated that there was probably

30:09

a basement factory that existed on that site,

30:12

and this meant that researchers could use that information

30:15

to try to identify, from what records

30:17

still do exist, the garment factory

30:20

that had been there, and hopefully eventually

30:22

identify some of the workers that had been

30:24

there, and thus create a

30:26

little bit more robust historical record

30:29

of the neighborhood and its citizens. And

30:31

that's something that takes on considerable significance

30:33

when you consider the treatment of the displaced Chinese

30:36

population after the disaster, and

30:39

as the city continues construction projects

30:41

finds like these are more and more difficult, and

30:44

pre nineteen oh six discoveries are

30:46

becoming ever more rare, but for Chinatown

30:48

in particular, it's piecing together

30:50

a big, big gap in their record,

30:53

so it becomes more and more important. I

30:55

don't know what the status is on the research into

30:57

what building was there and finding

31:00

out who the people that worked in that factory

31:02

where I couldn't I did not manage to dig

31:04

up more info on it, So I'm not sure what status

31:06

that that research is at, but it's

31:10

fascinating. I sure do love San Francisco's

31:12

Chinatown. The

31:15

eating I have done in San Francisco's Chinatown.

31:19

That ninety nine percent Invisible episode

31:21

I think is called It's Chinatown. It's from

31:23

twenty eighteen, I think, and

31:25

it talks about how

31:28

they designed that

31:30

Chinatown neighborhood and then how that

31:32

influenced other cities Chinatown.

31:35

It's really interesting. Yeah,

31:38

yeah, I mean San Francisco's Chinatown is

31:40

often considered

31:42

like the original United

31:45

States Chinatown in a metro area,

31:48

and so it has been you said,

31:50

very influential throughout

31:53

our country and others. Frankly, and

31:56

again, oh the food I have eaten there

31:58

and I just love it. It's really beautiful

32:00

part of the city. It makes me so happy, just to walk around

32:02

there. Thanks

32:09

so much for joining us on this Saturday.

32:11

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32:13

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32:15

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