March 2006 Archives

Send a comment to Marianne Babal

In an earlier post, the writer Gertrude Atherton wrote of the inconvenience of being cashless. She was luckier than most, as she had a New York banker to help her out of a desperate situation. Unfortunately, not everyone had her resources, not even someone as affluent as Eleanor Watkins Click here to learn about third-party website links, wife of prominent San Francisco physician James T. Watkins. She wrote a lengthy letter to relatives in Virginia a week after the quake:

Anglo California Bank Two telegrams came today – one from Aunt Virginia for $500 and one from the Bank of Marion telling me to draw on the Bank of California for $300. You are all very generous. We do not want to tax your generosity any more than we must, and we simply cannot say what we shall need. Neither of these telegrams is available in cash just now. In the first place, all the banks are burned, and the vaults may not be opened for weeks, lest their contents burst into a blaze. This happened to one vault which was opened today. In the second place, the Governor has declared legal holiday for a month, at least, and no California Bank can pay out any money. This is to prevent a run of the Banks, protesting of notes, and other legal complications, until a little order is brought out of our chaos. This lack of ready money is one of the people’s chief troubles. The others are lack of water, and lack of the necessities of life which cannot be bought here...

London-Paris American Bank at Sansome and Sutter The only way to transmit money, as yet, is to send currency by Wells Fargo, or to send post-office order, which the post-office authorities will pay. This, I believe is different from a postal note, which is limited to twenty dollars... This is an unprecedented situation, and there are no rules to go by. Each day has new developments, and no day is like the last.


tour-promo-graphic

There are probably not many banks that have an historical archive. We're fortunate to have one. Here are a few things you may want to know about ours.

Q: So what’s in the Archives?

A: The Archives is an amazing collection of records, books, journals, art, photographs and artifacts. Everything that you see in our historical exhibits and history museums comes from our vast collection.

Our collection of materials documents the origins, development, operations of Wells Fargo and all its subsidiaries, affiliates and merger partners since 1852, all of which are of enduring historical value. Our Special Collections include materials relating to the history of San Francisco, banking and express businesses, and stagecoach operations in the 19th century.

cap Q: Who uses the Archives? Is it open to the public?

A: The Archives is a central resource for those seeking information about Wells Fargo’s history. The Archives primarily serves internal business departments across the company, but we also assist those performing scholarly research.

Q: So what’s the connection between the quake and the Archives?

A: Obviously, Wells Fargo was in business during the time of the 1906 Earthquake. Not all of those records were destroyed in the fire. Some of them did survive and we carefully store them in the Archives. Right now, you can see original documents from the 1906 Earthquake on display in our History Museum.

Q: How old is the oldest document in the Archives?

fireman A: The Archives has the original records of Wells Fargo from when it was established in 1852.

Q: What’s the coolest thing about the place?

A: The Archives is cool—literally. We keep the records in a temperature and humidity controlled vault. The temperature never gets higher than 65 degrees.

Q: What's with the white gloves? Fashion accessory?

A: Archivists always wear gloves. We never really touch things in the archives with our bare hands. Everything we have here is fragile.

Q: What’s the coolest thing about your job?

A: I work with cool people, cool stuff, and for a cool company like Wells Fargo.

SF MOMAAs a working artist Click here to learn about third-party website links, I love art museums. The range of perspective, creativity and just daring innovation is inspirational. Yesterday I attended a show at our fair city's Museum of Modern Art Click here to learn about third-party website links (SF MOMA) where—like in most galleries at the museum—I heard comments like "amazing," "shocking," "incredible" and "unbelieveable" to describe the works hanging on the walls. Were these works the latest retrospective of a world-renowned artist? No. The "artist" was an event: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

When I heard SF MOMA was having a show highlighting photographs from the quake, I have to admit I was puzzled. Are these works of art? Some are, but most are snapshots by everyday people, such as insurance adjusters, who had just been introduced to home photography with the release of the first Kodak Brownie Click here to learn about third-party website links camera in 1900. These folks were early bloggers of a sort! "Citizen reporters," if you will. My bet is SF MOMA hosted this show because it generates the same awe, inspiration and discussion that any great collection would.

HC White Co. After the EarthquakeIt's certainly worth a visit. My only nit with the show is that the museum doesn't provide a means of enjoying the stereoviews Click here to learn about third-party website links, which when viewed through proper glasses make intriguing 3D images. To get some idea of what stereoviews look like, check out this one of Nob Hill Click here to learn about third-party website links, and the fires down Market Street Click here to learn about third-party website links—both promoting the book "Earthquake Days Click here to learn about third-party website links," by David Burkhart.

1906 Earthquake: A Disaster in Pictures runs through May 30, 2006. The exhibition was organized by Corey Keller, SF MOMA assistant curator of photography. Visit the SF MOMA website Click here to learn about third-party website links to learn more about this show Click here to learn about third-party website links.

Whittier EarthquakeKnowing that I’ve been on the lookout for accounts of disasters from Wells Fargo Team Members, historian Marianne Babal brought a copy of the Wells Fargo News from October 20, 1987 to my attention. The newsletter contains stories of Team Members who were at work when the Whittier earthquake Click here to learn about third-party website links struck at 7:42 a.m. Thursday, October 1.

Executive Vice President Ron Parker, who was on the 12th Floor of the Los Angeles headquarters, recalls:

We couldn’t get out of our chairs because the building was swaying so badly.

Whittier Main Office branch manager Cecilia Brenes was arriving at work.

The new teller signs were on the floor, the WEBS machine was smashed, ceiling tiles had fallen and the floor was flooded from a broken water pipe.

In addition, the office's safe deposit nest had been moved by the jolt and the cabinet housing the branch’s cash had shifted at least five inches.

More of the Whittier Earthquake Downey Office Manager David Cooley was at the office when the quake struck.

We had a lot of mechanical problems... All eleven of our tellers’ computers had been knocked to the floor. A window had crashed onto a new accounts desk. We had no telephone and no electricity until Friday morning at 9:30. It was a pretty wild scene... (building security) helped us get nine new computers by the next day. We were really lucky to be able to open on time on Friday.

Where were you when Loma Prieta struck? Or Northridge? Or Katrina? Share your stories with us. We’d love to hear from you.

Last Saturday was set aside for a trip to the Legion of Honor's Click here to learn about third-party website links exhibit entitled After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. It was a beautiful day. The sky and the bay were so clear, and the grounds of the museum were stunning. The Legion of Honor has got to be, hands down, one of my favorite museums in the city. I always start in the café with a bite to eat and Champagne.

Union Square(click for larger image)The exhibit is in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the SF earthquake. It consists of 46 lucent photographs and four panoramas that pair vintage images of the aftermath of the 1906 quake, photographed by Arnold Genthe Click here to learn about third-party website links, with modern renderings of the same sites by contemporary photographer Mark Klett.

The detail involved in these photographic pairings is amazing, and the setup that went into them painstakingly researched. Klett was able to rephotograph the original sites, determine the time of day the original photos were shot, and highlight whatever structures remain on the sites.

The Palace Hotel(click for larger image)What really brings the photographs together is the multimedia piece that goes with the exhibit. The piece contains an interactive map of the locations of the original photos, a section where Mark Klett discusses the complexities of rephotography and an interactive area that overlays the original image with the modern one. It’s wonderful how the user can experience the shift in time through the use of a slider. Unfortunately the piece isn’t for sale. I asked. It’d make a great souvenir to take home from the exhibit or a nice companion to the book. There are no immediate plans to reproduce it either.

Flood Building(click for larger image)I highly recommend that you go and see the show. There are only two stations and the show is busy, so there might be a line. But it’s worth the wait.


tour-promo-graphic

I live on the northeast side of the East Bay Hills. On October 20, 1991, a fire broke out on the Oakland side of the hills Click here to learn about third-party website links, and it was the worst fire that involved the loss of property and life since the quake of '06. Fortunately, my side of the hills was left unscathed, but I did witness most of the event from beginning to end.

Reading about the fires that leveled San Francisco in 1906 and having seen first hand what happened almost a century after makes me ask: Does history really repeat itself? The similarity between the reasons behind the mass destruction is startling.

In a previous post, Charles Riggs wrote about how a then-technologically advanced fire department failed to save San Francisco from destruction: "…one of the ironies of the disaster—a peninsula surrounded by an ocean and a bay, but no way to get all that water on the flames." One hundred years later, raging flames once again trounced the promise of technology. This report on the Oakland Hills fire Click here to learn about third-party website links has given me food for thought.

An account of the political situation Click here to learn about third-party website links in San Francisco in 1906 sheds interesting light on how the city responded in the quake's aftermath. I can't help but see parallels with New Orleans, as the city grapples with the aftermath of Katrina Click here to learn about third-party website links.

It was written by UC Berkeley Alum Kevin Starr Click here to learn about third-party website links, a professor at the University of Southern California and state librarian emeritus. Random House has just published his California, A History.

I received this email from a Wells Fargo Team Member the day before we launched our blog. Kathleen Kelley wrote: "After reading the cover story about the new web site regarding blogging, I thought my story would be an appropriate one to share. I relocated here in Minnesota after Hurricane Katrina and just got on board with Wells Fargo 3 weeks ago." Much like Lucy Miller from century ago, she considers herself one of the lucky ones.

cathy kelleyAugust 26th, 2005 was a Friday, the end of the work week. My trainees talked of the hurricane coming to New Orleans. They asked for my cell phone number in case work was cancelled on Monday. I nonchalantly gave it to them, along with the emergency hotline Click here to learn about third-party website links for the bank, and told them good-bye. My co-workers were engrossed in the hurricane news on T.V. I had seen them in such a state during past hurricane warnings. I told them goodnight.

The next day was absolutely beautiful, sunny, in the high 70’s. As my son napped, I enjoyed a few hours by the pool. I glanced at the news and officials were urging people to leave the city.

Early Sunday morning, my friend Miriam called saying it was really blowing in this time. She thought we ought to be together if we were staying through the storm. I panicked, not knowing quite how far away the storm was. I quickly packed a small bag for myself and my son Jorgie, assuming we’d be back within a day.

burning buildingThe fire of ’06 burned 28,000 buildings and left over 200,000 San Francisco residents homeless—half the city’s population. Another 70,000-90,000 were without shelter in surrounding communities. People took refuge in any open space, in parks and vacant lots. Episcopal Bishop William E. Nichols witnessed the destruction of Grace Church at California and Stockton Streets Click here to learn about third-party website links, then fled to Lafayette Park which was, in his words, "black with people."
We sat there hour after hour saying little, but awed by the almost incredible panorama before our eyes. . . Over there on the hill a cloud of flame would swoop down with cyclonic force upon a whole block of frame buildings and engulf them as in a furnace.”

Missionary Donaldina Cameron, whose Home for Chinese Girls housed orphans and former "slave girls" of Chinatown took shelter the first night with her charges at the First Presbyterian Church at Van Ness and Sacramento:

At break of day the little band were hurriedly preparing for another march, the shelter of the night being no longer secure. Fire menaced from three directions... Never shall we forget the busy preparations made that Thursday morning for the long march to the Ferry. Many things carried so far must be left behind; much must be carried. Which to take, what to leave, and how to carry what we could not abandon, these and many more were the problems to be solved. Sheets were torn up for ropes and broom handles served for bamboo poles. Laughing in spite of their distress, the girls tried the vegetable peddler’s scheme with their bundles, and it worked well, for two bundles could thus be carried by one person.

Jack London Click here to learn about third-party website links described the retreat for Colliers magazine:

Fleeing Market StreetAll night these tens of thousands fled before the flames. Many of them, the poor people from the labor ghetto, had fled all day as well. They had left their homes burdened with possessions. Now and again they lightened up, flinging out upon the street clothing and treasures they had dragged for miles. They held on longest to their trunks, and over these trunks many a strong man broke his heart that night. The hills of San Francisco are steep, and up these hills, mile after mile, were the trunks dragged.

The scraping sound of dragging trunks remained in the minds of many survivors for years afterward.

Tens of thousands found refuge across the Bay in Oakland, where camps were set up around Lake Merritt, with a separate camp for 20,000 "Chinese, Japanese and other exceptional peoples." The Southern Pacific Railroad and ferry system transported refugees free of charge to any destination.

tentsOfficial camps were constructed in short order in Golden Gate Park Click here to learn about third-party website links, the Presidio, Fort Mason Click here to learn about third-party website links and city squares and parks Click here to learn about third-party website links. Wood structures included barracks, tents on wood platforms Click here to learn about third-party website links, and small frame "earthquake cottages."

tour-promo-graphic
Thanks to our excellent designer/blogger—and "all things San Francisco"John Poyser, we have a great new events calendar in the right-hand side bar of our blog.

Simply mouse-over the calendar dates, and if there are events scheduled that day, the date will highlight. Click to see a list of events for that week, and ongoing events.  Each event is linked to the event organizer, so you can learn more. 

You'll find everything from cultural events like "Chanticleer: Earthquake Mass Click here to learn about third-party website links" to earthquake-related movies in 3-D Click here to learn about third-party website links. The 3D movies are interesting. They take 1906 stereo views and pan them like they're 3D.  BTW, if you have an event to list, let us know.

prepare exhibitOne could compare the creation and installation of an exhibit to many things: redecorating a house (lots of design work and runs to Home Depot), preparing a presentation for the big boss (lots of research and after-hours work)... maybe even giving birth (I’d have to ask some experts to verify this one). San Francisco Is In Ashes came together through the hard work, directly or indirectly, of the entire Historical Services Department. The installation process, lasting a few weeks, gave our Team the chance to find out how many coffee places are open on weekends in the San Francisco Financial District (few on Saturdays; even fewer on Sundays).

Now I am a big proponent of testing and evaluation. It's the only way to really explore and verify how visitors are responding to the exhibit Click here to learn about third-party website links, and the process never truly ends. No matter how much front-end or formative evaluation is undertaken in the design process, once the exhibit is unveiled and fully open, surprises will result (and that’s part of the fun!). Now that San Francisco Is In Ashes has been up a few weeks, I have learned a lot.

In our modern era, it seems people expect an experience to be automated and push-buttoned. The idea of  "making your own quake", as opposed to feeling a pre-choreographed and timed earthquake, was counterintuitive to most visitors at first—but is very engaging.

A floor decal duplicating a seismograph reading (in this case the 1906 earthquake as recorded in Germany) is obvious to most Californians, but looks like a curious, squiggly line to many others.

heavy metalA hefty mass of melted and misshapen “stuff," now cooled and fused together, is awfully fascinating: “What is it?” (coins and other metal objects in the Wells Fargo Express building); “How much would that have been worth?” (impossible to say accurately); “Where is it now?” (unknown, but surely melted down. People of 1906 had no idea how interesting it would be 100 years later).

In a few months, the Museum Click here to learn about third-party website links staff will welcome many international tourists taking in the beautiful, but surprisingly chilly, city of San Francisco on summer holiday. Along with their cameras, thoughtful questions about Wells Fargo, and fun stories to recount of their travels thus far, they will bring us many opportunities for new learning!

Working with the Wells Fargo Stagecoach Appearance Program and being a pet parent to three dogs, animals are often on my mind. The horses in the Stagecoach Program usually just work weekends and of course, my dogs only work, well, that would actually be never, unless you count occasionally barking at the squirrel in our backyard.

fallen horsesIn looking through our vast collections on the ’06 earthquake, I was surprised and horrified to see one statistic that stood out for me: Over 15,000 horses were estimated to have died in the catastrophe. In a time when horse power drove the economic strength of San Francisco, that was a huge impact on the city and its ability to respond to the emergency and rebuild later.

I wanted to investigate how animals fared back then, and my friend Casey found an enlightening reference Click here to learn about third-party website links:

It was the dogs, wild with fear, that gave me first the measure of our calamity... then came the dogs, couriers of the cataclysm—they had come far, for they ran slowly. Their jaws were dripping. They moaned and whined. All of them panted steadily up the steep hill… We were shaken but safe; below us were nameless horrors, the dogs knew, and knowing, ran to the high places.

My friend’s wise terrier, remote and safe from the shock or fire, began at once on the first day of the tragedy to forage and to conceal. She is still burying supplies in a back yard planted thick with her instinctive provision against the famine, that mankind, proceeding objectively, has averted.

San Francisco Chronicle
May 6, 1906

This was NOT a reference to inspire confidence. I began to recall some of the images from New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina Click here to learn about third-party website links. One image I will not soon forget was of a man, in water waist high, floating along a Tupperware container which held a small white dog who looked out over the lip.

All these images and references made me think of how I should prepare for my animals in case disaster strikes. If you have pets or animals for which you are responsible, check out the American Red Cross Click here to learn about third-party website links or The Humane Society Click here to learn about third-party website links. It's a great time to put together a plan.

Wagon SF 2An hour after the earthquake, Dr. Edward Topham, chief surgeon of St. Mary’s Hospital at First and Bryant Streets climbed to the hospital’s roof and observed a dozen fires burning all around the downtown. As injured citizens streamed into the hospital, he and another doctor walked north on Second Street to Mission to the headquarters of Wells Fargo & Co.’s Express. They had three hundred horses and nearly as many wagons housed in large stables on Folsom Street.

After observing desperate firefighters vainly trying to pump water from a sewer to fight the fires, Dr. Topham and his staff began a hurried evacuation of the hospital. They enlisted the help of Wells Fargo, who provided horses and large wagons for the evacuation of patients to the waterfront. He wrote:

My detail was to get the transportables to the boat. This was accomplished by contacting the Wells Fargo stables a few blocks down Second Street. The managers willingly dispatched several large horse-drawn trucks to our front door and our task of transferring our patients began and proceeded very smoothly.

Red Cross AmbulancePatients were carried downstairs and hefted on mattresses into the wagons. The Wells Fargo wagons hauled the injured to the foot of Brannan Street, where the captain of the old Sacramento River steamer Modoc had been persuaded to tie up at the Pacific Mail Dock. By 5 pm, about the time the overladen Modoc landed the refugees in Oakland, St. Mary’s Hospital and surrounding blocks had been obliterated by fire.

Wells Fargo’s stables burned after nightfall. All of the horses and wagons were saved.

I’m amazed by the relatedness of the 1906 survivors' faces to those of people today. Working on the incredible amount of vintage images for this blog and poring over them hour by hour has been a trip. The modernity of the expressions, the accessibility of the eyes—it’s like looking at one’s own teenage photo, taken at the local mall, in vintage costume with your current crush. ;-) I miss junior high.

It’s really easy for me to look at these images and imagine what the people in them were going through. Being descended from '06 survivors, I grew up looking at similar family photos and hearing first-hand stories from family members. However, I’m still struck by the expressions of intelligence and honesty found in these pictures.faces

Nerdy, I know, but I’ve really been spending a lot of quality time with these old characters which by now have become familiar to me. And as I walk to work down Montgomery Street every morning, I can’t help but think about them. I wonder about their lives before April 18th, 1906, the routine, and then I imagine, the total chaos and destruction they lived through after. The same busy Financial District street I’m walking down was destroyed. It was a ruin, all buildings lost to earthquake or fire. Survivors had no idea where to go or what to do, and as I study these images I see determined people ready to live through what was needed to move on. They had to continue residing in the refugee camps or strive to get out of them, rebuild homes, businesses, and their lives while at the same time helping the others around them who were trying to do the same thing.

All of these pictures were taken after the quake. Most of them were taken in the ruins and some of them were taken in refugee camps or hospitals. I’ve run across no pictures of suffering, though I’m sure most were, and none with tears.

While viewing the Bancroft Museum’s online exhibit on the Quake of ’06 Click here to learn about third-party website links, my eyes were drawn to a copy of The Refugees Cookbook Click here to learn about third-party website links, a slim volume of 18 pages compiled by "one of us," (later identified inside the book as Hattie Bowman). The entire cookbook is reproduced on the museum’s website. It’s an amusing read. It covered everything from soup to nuts—literally—and was "compiled for the benefit of those who have lost their cook books in our great disaster." There were dessert recipes, too, a few featuring prunes as an ingredient (prune pie, anyone?).

Did these recipes ever get realized in the minimal cooking facilities of the refugee camps? How did refugees deal with the lack of refrigeration? Food poisoning? Where did the fresh meats called for in these recipes come from? Inquiring cooks want to know.

cookingSharing a stove must have also been a problem for the refugee cook. Take, for example, a dish called Refugee Stew Click here to learn about third-party website links. The recipe calls for three pounds of beef to be cooked very slowly for three hours. I don’t know about you but I’d make my voice heard if someone commandeered the only stove in my camp just so he or she can make a boeuf bourguignon. What’s a recipe for Clam Cocktails Served in Green Pepper Cups Click here to learn about third-party website links doing in this collection? It’s got too many steps, too impractical. And Fricassee of Oysters Click here to learn about third-party website links? Would you actually have the sanity to shuck oysters, knowing that your old kitchen is now a pile of rubble? The cookbook does feature a practical tip on how to fashion a water filter out of a tomato can but really, why would you even need a cookbook in a refugee camp?

But then I thought, maybe the cookbook wasn’t really meant to be a gourmet guide for refugee living. After all, the camps were a temporary thing. Rather, the cookbook was a testament to survival, reminding the reader of good times past and ahead. In a few months the Green Pepper Cups would look lovely on the brand new dining table.

tour-promo-graphic

rebuilding the cityAn interesting but sometimes unexpected feature of the Wells Fargo Museum's Click here to learn about third-party website links San Francisco Is In Ashes exhibit focuses on the rebuilding of the destroyed city. This feature sits on the Mezzanine level. Most Museum visitors eventually do make their way upstairs as they explore the facility. So, after crawling in the reproduction stagecoach body to feel what a stagecoach trip would be like or—for our 100lbs and less guest—enjoying a restored stagecoach “kiddie ride” from the 1950’s (like you see out front of supermarkets), they come across the issue of rebuilding San Francisco.

Burhnam Telegraph HillNow that things have been settled for over 90 decades, thinking about what San Francisco could have been Click here to learn about third-party website links feels wistful and benign. Proposal drawings of a tiered and heavily landscaped Telegraph Hill, or a plaza of walkways and boulevards around City Hall, are musings to think about for a moment.

This harmless and pleasant Museum activity is in stark contrast to much the same process being applied now to New Orleans and the other areas hit by hurricanes last fall. A while ago, I read about the announcement of the rebuilding proposal for New Orleans Click here to learn about third-party website links, and could feel the anguish and heated emotions Click here to learn about third-party website links—understandably so—around the topic. There are no easy answers, and we are seeing the drama unfold day by day.

Despite drastic and dynamic changes proposed around the rebuilding of San Francisco, the priority was recovery and getting back to business Click here to learn about third-party website links, and therefore rebuilding to how things had been before. This portion of the Museum exhibit also highlights the 1909 Portola Festival Click here to learn about third-party website links and 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition Click here to learn about third-party website links as events that physically and mentally marked a city rising from the ashes. It makes me wonder if in a few years (decades?) we will see Mardi Gras Click here to learn about third-party website links or Jazzfest or the Essence Music Festival as the same touchstones marking the recovery of New Orleans.



tour-promo-graphic

No, this isn’t a tale about corporate corruption. Back in the day, Wells Fargo and other banks tracked accounts using large leatherbound books called Boston Ledgers. These books contained a bank customer’s daily transactions, with names and dates recorded at the foot of the page.

Frederick LipmanFor weeks after the quake, guards watched over the sealed cash and record vaults of Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank on Montgomery Street. Finally, when it was determined that the vaults were cool enough to handle, workers were brought in to open them and retrieve their contents. Frederick Lipman, the cashier, had been waiting anxiously for this. Previously, he was told by the bank’s vice-president that all the books were destroyed:

The vaults had been opened... it was the worst half-hour that I ever have lived. I pictured all my future being devoted to what could be done to restore the records in our books...

... I went downtown. It was the longest trip I ever took in my life. It happened that when we put the books away hastily into the vault on the 18th that some of them were just thrown in on the floor. And this book vault was built on the bank floor which was one story above the basement and it was built on [iron] framework.

As it turned out, luck was on Lipman’s side:

... It didn’t go down to the ground. So the fire in the basement had run along and it had just cooked the vault. What was on the floor was a floury ash. That was the worst part, but after that it began to be better... we found that only one ledger was destroyed. That was but one out of fifteen or sixteen. Then we found at the bottom of the vault the lower part of each book where it was found and that gave us the footing on each page. By that footing we had proof of what the limit was on that page. We felt better when we saw that. We had the footing of each page and the statements and we proved to within $100...

ledger.jpgLedgers that had been stacked tightly merely charred around the edges, their pages so dense and so heavy that the superheated air could not penetrate them. The books and about $3,000,000 in gold and silver were carried out of the vaults and transferred to the new operating quarters a few blocks down Montgomery in the Union Trust Building.

Ninety-five years later, a similar event would take place, this time in New York City. The Bank of Nova Scotia’s offices were destroyed during the attack on the World Trade Center. Read the account of Richard Garlock Click here to learn about third-party website links, a structural engineer who led construction workers during recovery efforts at the ruins, as he beheld the contents of the Bank of Nova Scotia’s vaults (from the PBS series America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero):

The vault was huge — two levels, 3,000 square feet each. When they opened the door, I realized why it was so big: there was a lot of gold and silver. The silver bars were like large loaves of bread, only they weighed about 70 pounds. The gold was smaller, but also very heavy, about 28 pounds each.

Cooked books? Loaves of bread? In Fred Lipman's words: "That was a dramatic affair. It saved us..."



tour-promo-graphic
In my previous post, I discovered how unprepared I am for a disaster, especially an earthquake. I recall when watching the terrible consequences of Katrina that I really should do something, but even that didn't get me moving. It somehow seemed remote—did it to you? I guess I'm a procrastinator to the core.  And I know I'm not alone, according to a recent report by ConsumerAffairs.com Click here to learn about third-party website links, "Though nearly half of Americans say they believe a major natural disaster or terrorist attack is likely to occur in their area in the next five years, a new survey shows more than three quarters admit they are ill-prepared should it occur."

ed and pet gracieBTW, I did try out that "aluminum foil" blanket I found in my "Disaster Shack" kit with my dog, Gracie. We sat in the garage for a bit—where it was about 40 degrees—and it really did keep me quite warm. I was surprised. Gracie didn't care for the crackling sound it made, and we looked like we were sitting in a Jiffy Pop Popcorn bag—but it worked! I have a feeling we'll learn there are some fairly innovative survival tools Click here to learn about third-party website links out there.

The American Red Cross' site includes a great tool for getting prepared Click here to learn about third-party website links. They have identified 9 categories of supplies. In the next couple of posts, I'm going to chronicle how long it takes to prepare and what my experience has been through it all. But first, I need to take stock and determine how far off the mark I am.

Recommendations
Shopping List
Water: Store one gallon of water per person per day, keep at least a three-day supply
I have 2 dozen 20 oz. bottles for two, but what about Gracie? I'll count her as 1/2 person (she's 30 pounds). So I need 960 ounces, and I only have 480. I need another 4 one-gallon jugs.
Food: Store at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food.
I had about half the food needed, and not a lot of variety! We're going to grow tired of chili and tuna by the second meal. I'll get two more days of food, with variety, including kibble for Gracie.
Medications: non-prescription meds for children, adults, and prescription drugs
My first aid kit has some aspirin, but looks like I'll need: an additional pair of eyeglasses (good idea!), and extra medications.
Tools and Supplies: This is a big category, everything from mess kits to needles and thread. Check their site for details Click here to learn about third-party website links.
I do have a radio, flashlight, and other supplies listed. I'm short of a lot of stuff here, including mess kits, cash/checks, fire extinguisher, compass, all kinds of things I wouldn't have thought about.
Sanitation: Soap, toilet paper, disinfectant's, etc.
From their detailed list, I'll need to buy: toilet paper, towelettes, soap, liquid detergent, plastic garbage bags and ties, a plastic bucket with tight lid, disinfectant and household chlorine bleach
Clothing and Bedding: "Include at least one complete change of clothing and footwear per person. We suggest long pants and long sleeves for additional protection after a disaster." I had no clothes at all in my kit, so will need all of it: one change of clothing, sturdy shoes, rain gear, gloves, thermal underwear, and sunglasses. I do have a blanket!
Emergency Car Kit: Battery powered radio, flashlight, blanket, booster cables, fire extinguisher (5 lb., A-B-C type), first aid kit, bottled water and non-perishable high energy foods, maps, shovel, tire repair kit and pump, flares
I hadn't thought of this, but they're right: you could be in your car when a disaster hits. I'll need: a portable radio, fire extinguisher, food, and a shovel... maybe I won't need the shovel, is that for SNOW???
Documents: Will, insurance policies, deeds, stocks/bonds, passports, social security cards, immunization records, bank account numbers, credit card account numbers and companies, inventory of valuable household goods, important telephone numbers, family records (birth, marriage, death certificates)
Hadn't thought of any of this either. Looks like I just need to copy some documents, but then leave them in my shed? Guess it will need a lock.
First Aid: Assemble a first aid kit for your home and one for each car. Hey, I did it! Each car has a first aid kit (standard), and I have one in the garden shed. Check!

Part of the larger story of the quake of '06 is how the water mains were wrecked and the firefighters had to stand by and watch the City burn. The San Francisco Fire Department Click here to learn about third-party website links has its own history of competence and innovation and fire fighting in general had made great strides in technique and technology by 1906. But call it one of the ironies of the disaster—a peninsula surrounded by an ocean and a bay, but no way to get all that water on the flames.

coit shoesBefore the Fire Department became pro in the 1860s, it was all volunteer. Despite overblown legends, there WERE a lot of fires Click here to learn about third-party website links and the volunteers attacked them with zeal and dash. Companies challenged each others' skills and had mascots. The mascot of Company No. 5 was their neighbor, Lilly Coit Click here to learn about third-party website links, who had cheered them on since she was a kid. She was a socialite, married a rich guy and loved to have fun: most historical accounts portray her as a real pistol. When she died in 1929, she left some money to the City, who built Coit Tower Click here to learn about third-party website links with the bequest, honoring her and Engine Company No. 5. We have a red pair of Lilly's shoes in the Wells Fargo Archives—size 6.

fireballsIn Lilly Coit’s time, as modern methods were in development, fire fighters used glass orbs called fire grenades. Firemen would come barreling into the structure armed with these grenades and lob them into the flames. The enclosed salt water solution would ostensibly smother the blaze. Or people bought them and kept them around the house as an antique version of the fire extinguisher—in a variety of colors and styles Click here to learn about third-party website links to match any décor.


tour-promo-graphic

I volunteer. There are many reasons why other people do it Click here to learn about third-party website links, and I have mine. And I've volunteered for so long and seen the difference it makes, especially during times of crisis, that I even co-founded a community organization Click here to learn about third-party website links and served on the boards of a few. I know the thought of "working for nothing" sounds ridiculous in this age of double incomes and rising interest payments, but think of 9/11 or Katrina: Would we have been able to move forward without many hands working together for "nothing?"

Have you ever considered volunteering? It really doesn't take much. I know that you're busy but if you can give up one happy hour a week or miss the evening news every now and then (ever hear of TiVO?), you're halfway there. Don't know where to begin? Here are a few places to check out.

Start with Volunteermatch Click here to learn about third-party website links, an online service that matches individuals wishing to volunteer with non-profit service organizations. Find an opportunity by location or area of interest. Volunteermatch offers volunteer recruitment services to community service organizations, too.

Red Cross The American Red Cross Click here to learn about third-party website links is one of the oldest disaster relief organizations in the country. It offers volunteer opportunities in disaster relief nationally and locally. The organization conducts preparedness training for community-based organizations, as well. Unwilling to give up that Seinfeld rerun at 6? Give to your local Red Cross chapter’s blood drive Click here to learn about third-party website links, instead. The Red Cross also welcomes tissue donations and donations in kind.

Food is one of the most valuable gifts you can give in times of disaster. America’s Second Harvest Click here to learn about third-party website links is a non-profit organization that provides emergency hunger-relief services in disaster affected communities. Volunteers are needed to help sort, box and repackage food for distribution. Donations of food are accepted.

During Hurricane Katrina, The Humane Society Click here to learn about third-party website links was responsible for the care and reunification of displaced animals. The organization provides rescue and shelter services to animals in disaster stricken areas. If you have skills in animal handling or are an animal care and control professional, the Humane Society needs you.

Another good resource for volunteer work is your company's human resources department. Your company may even award you with brownie points for your effort.

Volunteering is not a one-way street. Real people benefit from your gift of time and you get something back, too: a smaller beer gut, meet new friends, land a significant other, wean yourself from an episode of Dr. Phil, the returns are endless. Find a reason to do it. Volunteer.

make a quakeAs part of the Wells Fargo Museum's Click here to learn about third-party website links San Francisco Is In Ashes exhibit, visitors can take a "Walk Through the Ruins." Through an interactive, touch screen map of San Francisco, one can navigate through areas of the crumbled city and view them after the destruction of the earthquake. This aspect of the exhibit doesn’t get as much buzz as the Make-A-Quake interactive, but instead quietly draws interested visitors in. One could almost think of the two as siblings: the Walk Through the Ruins as the mature elder, satisfied with thoughtful conversations in the corner, and the Make-A-Quake as a young child, pulling on the sleeve for attention as one enters the door.

exhibit mediaThe Walk Through the Ruins has over 75 images, all from the Wells Fargo archives. The originals range in size from Brownie snapshots to professional 8”x10” photographs. Seeing these photographs blown up onto a large flat screen, scrolling by as you sit in front of them, feels amazingly different than having the small originals resting motionless on a table-top. I have noticed visitors sitting in front of the exhibit for more than an hour at a time, practically hypnotized. Visitors can really take in the whole scene: the smoke in the air, the debris on the ground, the neatly arranged tents that now take the place of home and hearth… and the people.

To me history is really, at its most basic and powerful, stories of people and of what they thought and felt and experienced. Looking for a personal connection to the photographs in front of me, as I think most of us naturally do, I wonder what my relations were doing at the time. None of my relatives were in California that year; my grandfather, the only family member alive in 1906 that I have personally known, would have been just a baby on an Iowa farm. I wonder how or when his family received news of the San Francisco earthquake.

Consider this: between 1838 and 1989, the Bay Area was hit by 6 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.5 or greater Click here to learn about third-party website links, each one causing injuries and deaths to thousands and the massive destruction of property. So it's not a question of if, but when. In my previous post I discovered I was not prepared. Are you?

Here are some resources to help you prepare.

Are you new to the Bay Area? The US Geological Survey features a handbook on its website called Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country Click here to learn about third-party website links. It covers everything from why an earthquake of catastrophic magnitude is inevitable in this part of the country, to how one can prepare for the different forms of danger that can arise from such an event.

Do you have special needs? The American Red Cross Click here to learn about third-party website links(ARC) provides an earthquake preparedness brochure which includes pointers on what to do after an earthquake hits. Do you need information for seniors or brochures in Chinese? ARC also runs a website, Prepare.org Click here to learn about third-party website links, which specifically addresses earthquake preparedness for vulnerable populations, such as people with disabilities and non-English speaking communities.

Earthquake DamageStructural deficiencies, from ruptured gas lines to falling pieces of furniture, are a major cause of injuries during earthquakes. To address this, Pacific Gas and Electric Click here to learn about third-party website links offers guidelines on how to secure your home for gas appliance and building safety. The Structural Engineers Association of Northern California Click here to learn about third-party website links features a guide on how to evaluate your home for structural soundness, including retrofitting your home for earthquakes. Earthquake preparedness tip sheets Click here to learn about third-party website links, including one on how to secure your furniture, may also be downloaded from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the California Seismic Safety Commission Click here to learn about third-party website links websites.

Organize your neighbors for earthquake preparedness. The Bay Area chapter of the American Red Cross Click here to learn about third-party website links and the San Francisco Fire Department's Neighborhood Emergency Response Team Click here to learn about third-party website links(NERT) conduct workshops on neighborhood earthquake preparedness. Bay Area ARC also offers preparedness training for youth while NERT offers special grants for trainees age 55 and over.

Another good website for earthquake disaster planning is 72Hours.org Click here to learn about third-party website links. It contains pointers for various disaster situations, including floods, power failure, and acts of terror.

Check out the blogroll for more resources on earthquake preparedness. I'll be using this list this week to create my own plan, and will update you on my "disaster shack" ;-).

showcaseAs with most days in the spring, around 10 AM, fourth grade students arrive ready for a guided tour of the Wells Fargo Museum Click here to learn about third-party website links. Before beginning the tour the class lines up along the wall where we have two monitors looping motion pictures. These videos of San Francisco Click here to learn about third-party website links before and after the 1906 earthquake, obtained through the Library of Congress, capture the movement and activity of the time.

In watching A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire, visitors see this wonderful convergence of old and new: motor cars, horse-drawn vehicles, electric streetcars…

MktWfrSecondI wonder how the people walking past the unnoticed camera in September 1905 would feel if they knew they would someday be "online." Maybe we’ll add a post-tour, creative writing option for the students. They could pick someone from the film and imagine what the day must have been like for these passersby from the past... maybe even pick up up seven months later to how they experienced the Great Quake.

How did banks respond to the need for quick cash the day after the quake, when there were no ATMs, and databases were not even a figment of anyone’s imagination?

Take Gertrude Atherton Click here to learn about third-party website links, a member of a prominent Bay Area family and writer of note at the time. She said (from the Argonaut):

... I had exactly $4.50 in my purse. Two days later I managed to get $25 from a country bank and today, in despair, I telegraphed to my New York bankers to send me money by registered mail. And I am far better off than many, who are wealthier but have their all out here.

Unfortunately, not everyone had a New York banker (do you?).

Bank records—remember passbooks?—were trapped in vaults and so was most of reserve currency. The vaults were buried under tons of debris or worse, untouchable due to the smoldering heat to which they were exposed during the fire.

US MintSix days after the quake, a consortium of banks known as the San Francisco Clearing House came up with a plan of action. In order to pay out depositors, member banks of the Clearing House had to unite with the U.S. Mint Click here to learn about third-party website links by sending the Mint currency to be used to back advance payouts. Banks, then, would issue checks to its clients that said, “good at the U.S. Mint.” In turn, clerks at the Mint would honor the advances. But here’s what makes it interesting: these transactions were honored without account records! Even better, Wells Fargo lost only about $200 in paying out thousands.

On October 17, 1989, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Bay Area. The Loma Prieta earthquake caused $5,900,000,000 in property damage and was the most costly natural disaster at the time.

There was massive structural damage everywhere. Phone lines were dead and electrical power was disrupted. Bill Wipprecht, Security Officer for Wells Fargo Bank, in California, described the situation Wells Fargo's Emergency Operations Center faced (from bankersonline.com):

Safe deposit boxes near the quake's epicenter had actually toppled over, many nests had shifted to the point of toppling, and virtually all were out of alignment... there could be immediate danger to employees... customers would not be able to open their boxes... Vault doors were reported to have swung so hard that they knocked themselves out of alignment. If one has not been through a major earthquake, it is probably quite difficult to imagine this. Imagine, a one-ton door swinging back and forth like a shutter in the wind!

After 48 hours, some bank branches were running out of money. Armored car companies were not making deliveries.

With the electrical power still out in most areas, the armored car companies could not raise their electrically driven security garage doors.

Since most of the armored vehicles were in the garage at during the earthquake two days previously, they were locked inside! (One can only speculate why the armored couriers do not have backup power to open the doors.)

Wells Fargo News

Yet, Wells Fargo customers lined up at ATMs and branches—many of whom did the day after the quake—were able to walk away with cash! Find out how Click here to learn about third-party website links. (Tip #1: Remove the backseat of a Lincoln limo when transporting $15 million.)

A day at the Wells Fargo History Museum Click here to learn about third-party website links these past few weeks starts with a roar, LITERALLY. As part of our opening procedures we turn on the Make-A-Quake interactive exhibit. This exhibit processes through the range of numbers of magnitude on the LCD read-out and brings the accompanying sound effect through to full volume. This buildup of low grumble to intense roar feels like an appropriate way to warm up the Museum space.

quakereaderObserving and interacting with visitors experiencing the Make-A-Quake (MAQ) is certainly the most playful and infectious part of the new San Francisco Is In Ashes exhibit for Museum staff and other visitors alike. We have visitors, frequently in groups, for which the MAQ becomes the basis for competitive games, and an opportunity to prove one’s strength. Some building passersby have built the MAQ into their daily routine, jumping on for a moment of play every time they walk through. Other visitors step onto the platform tentatively, trying to determine what it’s all about and steel themselves for whatever is to come. I really think a psychology undergrad could use the MAQ as a tool for personality assessment. quicktime_logo_sm.gif

The notion of spotlighting and openly discussing a topic many people are fearful of Click here to learn about third-party website links is somewhat liberating. We have many visitors from outside California, and outside the United States. Earthquakes are usually at the top of the "what people associate with the Bay Area" list. On guided tours with our out-of-state visitors, they usually ask towards the end, hesitantly, "Do you have many earthquakes? Click here to learn about third-party website links" When I answer that we have small ones all the time (likely since they have been in town) they appear shocked. They quickly follow up, asking have I been in one, what is it like, was there any damage…

A few days after the exhibit was unveiled to the public, there was indeed an earthquake in the East Bay which many residents felt. As Wells Fargo Team Members walked through the Museum it seemed relieving for them to comment on it, and acknowledge something we live with all the time.

The rumbling and shaking of the MAQ over and over during the day may be a little much sometimes. But if it opens the connection for visitors and residents to talk, and think about life on a fault line, it’s worth the departmental expenditure on a little Advil.

Despite the magnitude of the destruction that hit the city, one could not help but be in awe of the “can-do” spirit displayed by the city’s businesses at the time. If a disaster struck today, would banks be just as quick on their feet?

Hellerhouse In the midst of the devastation that followed the quake, Wells Fargo Cashier Frederick Lipman wired Wells Fargo’s New York correspondents and instructed them to send $3 million and have the money credited to the bank’s account with the Mint. The next day, he telegraphed the bank’s correspondents in New York, London and Paris: "Building destroyed—vaults intact—credit unaffected."

In just two days the bank was ready to resume its operations at 2020 Jackson, home of Emanuel Heller, a board member of the bank. (One can only imagine the reaction of the depositors, displaced and dispossessed, as they beheld its magnificent interior Click here to learn about third-party website links.)

Without the benefit of any kind of records, the bank moved on and did with what was on hand. Transactions were conducted based on personal recollections of bank cashiers:

... we opened our bank at Mr. Heller’s house, 2020 Jackson Street... We got around the dining room table and we dumped the mail that had been accumulating... We had to go to little stationery stores for children’s composition books and things of that sort to write on. All the stationery stores were destroyed...

We had no books. If people claimed they had accounts with us we had to do the best in remembering it. We had nothing to go by. We paid everybody and our losses were minimal. I don’t think we lost $200 in paying out thousands.

This certainly gives new meaning to the phrase "home banking."

A little background. NOT being a California native, I bought a home that would give me the feeling I HAD ARRIVED. My home sits in the middle of a eucalyptus grove five minutes away from the Gourmet Ghetto Click here to learn about third-party website links and fine dining, you know, stuff that makes living in the Bay Area the envy of anyone. Now the bad news: I live less than a mile away from the Hayward Fault. When the rains come, houses in my 'hood change their addresses to one street below, and when the high winds kick in, I am at the mercy of a eucalyptus tree's roots. Oh, yeah, firestorms.

Given that, I thought I'd do an earthquake readiness inventory Click here to learn about third-party website links.

  • House bolted: check!
  • Heater strapped: check!
  • Flashlight: got two big Maglites and a gas lamp, double checked!
  • Fire extinguisher: got that.
  • Radio with battery: so far, so good.
  • First aid kit: check (Neosporin expired).
  • One week supply of water: does a case of Pellegrino count?
  • Chlorine bleach: full gallon!
  • Candles and matches: lemon scented, matches from Boulevard.
  • Blankets: check.
  • Sturdy shoes: can we say Imelda Marcos?
  • Alternative source of cooking: sterno. Not bad, eh?

jane_fault.gifFinal item: "One week supply of non-perishable food and a manual can opener." Being a kitchen goddess wannabe, I said, "Come on!" Got the can opener. And I do have a well-stocked liquor cabinet. Vodka doesn't go bad.

Uh-oh, more bad news: My pantry yielded 8 boxes of DRY pasta, 5 cans of whole tomatoes, strange condiments, a quart of maple syrup, coconut milk, and 15 chocolate bars. Wow, I can subsist on Asian fusion tomato coulis with a hint of Vermont! For a WEEK! Then what?

Conclusion: When the BIG ONE hits, my house will probably be upright. My water heater will stay still. And I will most likely perish from starvation (or emerge alive with the figure of Nicole Kidman).

Many first hand accounts testify to both the uncertainty and fortitude of the survivors. This is from Antoine Borel Jr. a banker with Borel & Co., tenants at the Nevada Block, which housed Wells Fargo Bank at the time. The Borel family home at Washington and Franklin Streets did survive, the fire stopped just one block short at Van Ness.

April 20, 1906

Soldiers at Market and Montgomery Streets"A terrible thing has happened. San Francisco is no more. There was a frightful shock on Wednesday morning at 5:13 – buildings fell right and left... but worst of all was the fire. The whole city is destroyed – from the Ferry Building to the Presidio and from the Beach to the Potrero. Every street went up in flames... The Nevada Bank was blown up by the soldiers, who came from all parts of the state. There was “martial law” in town and when we went to the bank they denied us entrance... Thank God that we are still alive. Much love and kisses to you all,
Your loving Antoine.

Mayor's Proclamation.jpgBut there was no martial law. Because of the looting and chaos that followed, Mayor Eugene Schmitz issued a proclamation stating,

"The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Police Officers have been authorized by me to KILL any and all persons found engaged in Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime."

The deployment of military troops all over the city gave its residents the mistaken notion that martial law had, indeed, been declared. Truth was the mayor did not have the legal authority to order troops to shoot down people on command.

Read a detailed account of the military's role in law enforcement Click here to learn about third-party website links after the Great Earthquake.

Lucy Miller was one of the first female express agents for Wells Fargo. She and her sister, Julia Lois Jones, ran the Mariposa office for over 25 years. She also served as postmaster of Mariposa while her sister served three terms as Mariposa County's Superintendent of Schools. Miss Miller received this letter from a colleague in San Francisco three days after the earthquake.

San Fran.
Apr 21, 1906 Lucy MillerDear Lucy: I know you thought of us. We got out without a scratch but well shaken. It was horrible but we are so thankful not to be maimed. We are with Ina. She & Mr. Wells are so good to us. This part of the city stood the shake well & escaped the fire. We have all our best clothes here & are well fed. We were among the lucky ones. Lucy, you will never know how dreadful it was. We are all standing it well. Our house still stands but unsafe to live in. Guess we can save all our things. The lower flats worse off than us. Going to see Mats folks. Have heard from no one. Write us.

With Love, Maude

Blogs are wonderful organic creatures, aren't they? Every day, a little growth here and there. Fortunately, we know the DNA of this blog. Here are some things to come:

  • Interactive Tour. In creating this blog, we had so many photographs from our archives to choose from it was difficult to select only one or two pictures per post. There are also events that just make more sense when seen in animation, like the progress of the fire within the city. The tour will allow you to explore and learn more about posts that interest you. Or, you can start with the tour and find your way back into related blog posts. Should be fun. Watch for this the first week of April.
  • Children. Think kids are best seen and not heard? Guess again. Read recollections of grownups as child-survivors of the quake. There’s more than a bit of wisdom in their stories, as well as wonderful humor.
  • China Town. We’ll recapture the story of how a disaster-stricken community was almost dispossessed of their land. We’ll also take a sneak peek at the Chinese Historical Society of America’s upcoming exhibit on the earthquake.
  • Science. Watch the blog team take the Wells Fargo Museum’s earthquake simulator for a spin. Guest bloggers will talk about events at local science museums like the Exploratorium, and science topics such as the state of the art in earthquake prediction and seismic sciences.
  • Interactive Calendar. An amazing array of events are planned in the Bay Area, including local museums, earthquake walks, and preparedness expositions. A calendar will be available next week, and we'll provide first-hand coverage of select events.
Tailor Ad1906 started off with an economic bang. On January 12, the Dow closed above 100 for the first time, and with affluence came signs that the country was on the cusp of modernity. While a broad middle class had not yet emerged, urban professionals were already well compensated Click here to learn about third-party website links. A mechanical engineer made $5000 a year—compare that with the average annual income per family, which was about $486. For $2,400, one could buy a three-bedroom home Click here to learn about third-party website links. And the must-have luxury home upgrade of the day? Forget the extra bathroom, homemakers preferred a sewing room!

(Speaking of modernity, here's an interesting '06 contribution to our busy lifestyle: On February 19, WK Kellogg founded his Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. Call this the birth of the instant breakfast. Imagine: just where would we be today without Froot Loops?)

By this time in San Francisco, the industrial barons of the the city had already established Nob Hill Click here to learn about third-party website links as the premier address of residence. Of course, not everyone had the deep pockets of a Mark Hopkins Click here to learn about third-party website links or a James Flood so for the social-climbing, aspiring nabob Click here to learn about third-party website links (from which "nob" supposedly was taken) with an extremely limited budget, a furnished apartment in Nob Hill (gas range, sink & closets included) could be leased for $17.50 a month. Rent was cheaper than a custom made-suit.

The days that preceded the quake of 1906 were marked by the usual comings and goings of a rapidly modernizing city. Labor unrest, allegations of corruption at City Hall, debates on mass public transport, these were nothing out of the ordinary.

Opera ProgramThe social scene was far more vibrant. Prosperity was in the air. Opera and theater luminaries were performing in town. Matrons from high society upstaged each other. In prominent San Francisco columnist Herb Caen's words (from the San Francisco Chronicle), "The day before, in the memory of those who survive (sic), had been unforgettably brilliant. Spring was in the air and all San Francisco, poised unknowingly on the brink of destruction, was dizzy with pleasure."

On the 50th anniversary of the quake he wrote his column as though he were witness to the social events of the day:

IN ONE EAR: Young John Barrymore, appearing here in Richard Harding Davis’ new play “The Dicatator” (fair), is asking for trouble; or is his big romance with the fiancée of that Venetian glass collector just one of his tall tales?. . .

* * *

CAENFIDENTIALLY: Mrs. James Flood, Mrs. Herman Oelrichs and Mrs. Frederick Kohl seem to be staging a private contest—to see who can wear the most jewels to the opera. At last night’s performance of “Queen of Sheba,” Mrs. Flood won by three carats, but Mrs. Oelrichs has a 20 carat brooch she’s holding in reserve for tonight’s “Carmen,” starring Enrico Caruso. . . Incidentally, the party Caruso hosted at Zinkand’s last night didn’t break up until 4 a.m.

The opera season was in full swing, including a performance the night before of Don Jose in "Carmen" by Caruso Click here to learn about third-party website links himself. A conflagration was the farthest thing from people's thoughts that night, and the only concern among the denizens of the City was the low turnout at the San Francisco-Seattle baseball games.

tour-promo-graphic

The days that preceded the quake of 1906 were marked by the usual comings and goings of a rapidly modernizing city. Labor unrest, allegations of corruption at City Hall, debates on mass public transport, these were nothing out of the ordinary.

Opera ProgramThe social scene was far more vibrant. Prosperity was in the air. Opera and theater luminaries were performing in town. Matrons from high society upstaged each other. In prominent San Francisco columnist Herb Caen's words (from the San Francisco Chronicle), "The day before, in the memory of those who survive (sic), had been unforgettably brilliant. Spring was in the air and all San Francisco, poised unknowingly on the brink of destruction, was dizzy with pleasure."

On the 50th anniversary of the quake he wrote his column as though he were witness to the social events of the day:

IN ONE EAR: Young John Barrymore, appearing here in Richard Harding Davis’ new play “The Dicatator” (fair), is asking for trouble; or is his big romance with the fiancée of that Venetian glass collector just one of his tall tales?. . .

* * *

CAENFIDENTIALLY: Mrs. James Flood, Mrs. Herman Oelrichs and Mrs. Frederick Kohl seem to be staging a private contest—to see who can wear the most jewels to the opera. At last night’s performance of “Queen of Sheba,” Mrs. Flood won by three carats, but Mrs. Oelrichs has a 20 carat brooch she’s holding in reserve for tonight’s “Carmen,” starring Enrico Caruso. . . Incidentally, the party Caruso hosted at Zinkand’s last night didn’t break up until 4 a.m.

The opera season was in full swing, including a performance the night before of Don Jose in "Carmen" by Caruso Click here to learn about third-party website links himself. A conflagration was the farthest thing from people's thoughts that night, and the only concern among the denizens of the City was the low turnout at the San Francisco-Seattle baseball games.

tour-promo-graphic

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fires left half the city’s residents homeless and destroyed 490 city blocks. Wells Fargo’s main building downtown was a smoldering ruin. We had to do business out of an employee’s home for a few days while we waited for our intact vault to cool off. In the meantime, our wagons raced around the city carrying to safety patients from St. Mary’s Hospital and delivering relief supplies.

Then, just like our great city, Wells Fargo rose—quite literally—from the ashes and rebuilt itself. Wells Fargo now serves thousands of communities, and our home base of San Francisco quickly re-established itself as one of the world’s great cities.

April 18 marks the 100th anniversary of the earthquake. In tribute to the men and women who saved San Francisco, I’ve been asked to help share some stories about the experience from the archives of Wells Fargo, a company whose Bay Area roots run deep and wide. Their stories are epic, tragic and come straight from their hearts. They carry important lessons about the value of being ready for disaster, the importance of staying calm in crisis, the immeasurable worth of family and loved ones.

Thank you for joining me on this ride through history as we explore the artifacts and accounts collected by our Wells Fargo Corporate Archives over the years.

John Stumpf
President & Chief Operating Officer, Wells Fargo & Company

April 18, 1906

Dear Sister and Brother, We are all alive. Home not burned yet. Going to the hills as fire is coming this way fast. Clark.

Earthquake note delivered without a stampThis note, written on a scrap of paper the day of the earthquake, says more about the desperation of people in San Francisco in April 1906 than I could get from reading a dozen history books on the earthquake. It inspired my colleagues and me to tell the story of the average person caught up in a disaster of epic proportions as we designed and built our earthquake exhibit for Wells Fargo’s History Museum Click here to learn about third-party website links in San Francisco. To help our visitors get a real feel for the disaster, we included a do-it-yourself shake table, where people make a quake, hear the earth rumble, and then compare their experience to 1906. So far we’ve had bankers, kids, and grandmothers all try to make "The Big One" happen all over again… and again. AND again. :)

exhibit1.jpgIn planning our exhibit, it helped that Wells Fargo itself is an earthquake survivor. Although the building burned, Wells Fargo’s bank resumed business, and like the city of St. Francis, rose from the ruins. The exhibit title, “San Francisco is in Ashes—The Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906” comes from a letter written by Wells Fargo Bank President I.W. Hellman one day after the quake. “San Francisco is in Ashes - every building of consequence is demolished,” Hellman wrote.

As I carefully stacked fire-blackened ledger books for the exhibit, I opened the pages to April 17, 1906, and saw mundane transactions: deposits supposed to be available the following day, columns of dollars routinely added. As he locked the door and fled the fire that morning, could bank cashier Fred Lipman have imagined the magnitude of the disaster about to wipe out a great American city? Even more frightening, could we ourselves be witnesses to such an historic event in our lifetimes?

In the early morning of April 18, Frederick L. Lipman, who ran daily banking operations as Cashier of Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank, was awakened by the earthquake at his home in Berkeley.

April 18, 1906

Frederick LipmanMy family and I were awakened on the morning of April 18, 1906 at about six minutes past five by an earthquake. It was a pretty healthy affair. The most striking thing about it was its length. We heard our chimney break down and so we got up, dressed and went out in the street to look around at our neighbors’ chimneys... I started to go over to town [San Francisco] at my usual time. I took with me my dress suit for the opera that night. It never occurred to me that anything was happening to interfere with going to the opera...

There would be no opera. Instead he was greeted by a view of the city in flames.


San Francisco Ferry BuildingWhen we got on the boat we could see smoke rising in San Francisco, not in one place but in a number of places. The boat landed [at the Ferry Building foot of Market Street] I got off, carried my suitcase... and we could see that the fire was spreading. I came up California Street and you could see where the fire was burning in places, but there was nothing in the way to keep me from getting through, although there were fires not so very far away...

When it was all over, 200,000 residents were left homeless. 490 city blocks encompassing 2,831 acres and 28,000 buildings were destroyed and damage estimates totaled in excess of $350 million. The official tally of the dead was 674.

Garden ShedSince starting on this blog, I've been wondering: "Am I ready for a disaster?" Like many of you, I'm busy! I'm juggling consulting work, my art career Click here to learn about third-party website links, and family. It takes time to prepare, and my head just hasn't been there.  Until I started work with Wells Fargo's historians, and learned more about the quake and what the 200,000 refugees of the city had to do to survive. This is serious stuff. 

"Honey, where's our disaster kit?" (It's always the other person in the house that's supposed to prepare, not you, right?;-) Answer: "There're a couple of bags of stuff on the garage floor, but the main kit is in the garden shed." garageHere's what I found: 5 cans of tuna fish, 4 boxes of chili, a can opener (good!), and 2 empty tequila bottles (huh?). "Honey, why are there two empty tequila bottles in our supermarket-paper-bag disaster kits?" Answer (with annoyance): "To store water!" Interesting. Of course, from reading the historic accounts, I know now that the water mains into San Francisco burst during the quake—which is why they couldn't fight the fires... with water.  Sadly, in a disaster, those bottles will probably remain empty. But I remain hopeful.  The garden shed, safe harbor for our "main disaster kit", must be bursting with supplies!

inside garden shedDoes your garage or garden shed look like this? Let's see, old luggage; a bicycle with two flat tires (we won't be pedaling to the 7-Eleven for supplies ;-); golf clubs (who golfed while Rome was burning?); and other... you know... stuff you don't need, but are afraid to throw out.

See that box down in the lower right, under the leaf blower? It's huge, we'll feed the neighborhood for days! I was ready to crack it open and feel vindicated.

woefully incomplete emergency kitThat was not to be. It was a big box, yes, but 90% empty! The kit did have some sensible things: an unopened first aid kit; a can of votives marked "emergency candles"; another can opener; two matchbooks; a flashlight; and two "emergency blankets," which were just some kind of weird aluminum foil paper. Somehow this kit doesn't seem...complete.

In my next post, I'll compare what I have in my "Disaster Shack" kit with what The American Red Cross Click here to learn about third-party website links recommends. There may be just a few small gaps ;-)

About This Blog

Our great history allows our archivists and historians to provide a rich online experience that bridges events in the past with an outlook on the future.
Read more...

External Link IconWhat is this?

Ask the Expert

Got a question on your mind? Ask one of our experts! Submit your question by email using the button below--we'll try our best to answer it.

Ask the expert

Archives