The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
The Rupture, the Fire, and the Rebuilding
- 16 chapters
- 34m
- Earth Sciences
- Free · no sign-up
Survivor accounts reveal personal stories of loss and survival during the disaster. The book details how other cities responded to the emergency, while chapters on fires explain how dynamiting firebreaks became necessary to stop the spreading blaze. Response efforts included refugee camps and relief operations that helped thousands find shelter.
The audiobook continues with reconstruction efforts, housing solutions, insurance payments, and the lasting impact on seismology. The Lawson Report's scientific findings are covered alongside centennial commemorations and a gallery of photographs by Willard Worden. Anyone interested in natural disasters, urban history, or earthquake science will find this essential listening.
Listen
-
Read this chapter
The San Andreas Fault is a major geological feature, a continental transform fault that marks the boundary between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. This fault is a strike-slip fault, meaning the movement is mostly horizontal, with the western side moving northward relative to the eastern side. It stretches the entire length of California, from the Salton Sea in the south all the way to Cape Mendocino in the north, covering about 810 miles. The fault has produced surface displacements of up to twenty feet, and measurements show it can move as much as twenty-eight feet.
-
Read this chapter
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake began with a strong foreshock that struck about twenty-five seconds before the main event, and the main shaking lasted roughly forty-two seconds. Though the Richter scale hadn’t been developed yet, modern estimates place its magnitude at 7.9, with some suggesting it could have been as high as 8.3. The quake ruptured a 280-mile stretch of the San Andreas fault, with the break spreading northward and southward for a total of 296 miles. The ground movement was felt from Oregon down to Los Angeles, and even as far inland as central Nevada. The earthquake relieved built-up strain along the fault system, leaving widespread damage in its wake.
Before the 1906 earthquake, northern California experienced decades of smaller quakes that were once thought to signal the big one. Now scientists know those tremors had a strong seasonal pattern and were likely caused by sediment from coastal bays that sit on top of fault lines. The sediment comes from erosion left over from hydraulic mining during the gold rush. These findings changed how researchers understand the region’s seismic activity.
For many years, the location of the earthquake’s epicenter was thought to be close to the town of Olema in Marin County, based on ground movement data from that area. That view changed in the 1960s when a seismologist at UC Berkeley proposed the epicenter was actually farther offshore, to the northwest of the Golden Gate. Newer research supports this idea, although scientists still aren't certain. One clue comes from a small wave measured by a tide gauge at the San Francisco Presidio, which showed a height of about three inches and lasted around forty-five minutes.
The earthquake's rupture along the San Andreas Fault was about 310 miles long, based on triangulation data taken before and after the event. That length matches what scientists observed in how strongly the shaking was felt across the region. Some seismological data points to a shorter rupture, but that can be explained by allowing the fault to slip faster than the speed of S-waves—what’s called supershear propagation. This kind of fast-moving rupture has now been identified in many earthquakes linked to strike-slip faults.
In 2019, researchers used an old photograph and a recorded eyewitness account to narrow down where the earthquake began. They pinpointed the hypocenter offshore from San Francisco or near San Juan Bautista, confirming earlier guesses about its location.
-
Read this chapter
The shaking intensity reached XI (Extreme) on the Modified Mercalli scale in San Francisco, and even further north in places like Santa Rosa, where the damage was described as devastating. That level of intensity means the ground shook so violently that most buildings collapsed, objects flew through the air, and the earth itself seemed to rupture. People experienced the kind of violent movement that left entire neighborhoods in ruins, with fires soon breaking out and spreading rapidly. The force of the quake was felt across a wide area, but it was especially severe in those northern regions where destruction was overwhelming.
In Andrew Lawson’s 1908 report, the strongest shaking during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was linked directly to the ground conditions beneath each area. Sediment-filled valleys experienced more intense movement than nearby bedrock sites, and the hardest shaking was felt in places where the ground had once been part of a bay, especially where soil liquefaction occurred. These findings helped shape how we understand seismic risk today, showing that different geologic settings create different levels of danger during earthquakes.
-
Read this chapter
After the main earthquake, the area experienced numerous aftershocks, including some triggered from distant locations. Like the 1857 Fort Tejon quake, this one produced fewer aftershocks than typical for its size. Most were not along the main fault line of the 1906 rupture, instead clustering near the ends of the break or on other faults like the Hayward. The first strong aftershock, near Santa Cruz, struck at 14:28 PST on April 18 with a magnitude around 4.9 M. Then came the largest one at 01:10 PST on April 23, west of Eureka, estimated at about 6.7 MI. A second event of similar strength occurred more than three years later, at 22:45 PST on October 28 near Cape Mendocino.
The main quake set off a string of aftershocks across the area. One cluster struck the Imperial Valley, climaxing in a 6.1-magnitude tremor at 4:30 PM PST on April 18, 1906. A second event followed the next day, at 12:31 PM PST on April 19, 1906. That quake had an estimated magnitude of about 5.0 MI, and its epicenter lay beneath Santa Monica Bay.
-
Read this chapter
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake killed at least three thousand people, though the true number remains uncertain. Early death counts ranged from 375 to over 500, but hundreds of fatalities in Chinatown went unrecorded. Various reports gave a range of 700 to 3,000+, and in 2005, the city’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to recognize 3,000+ as the official total, thanks to a resolution written by novelist James Dalessandro and city historian Gladys Hansen. Most deaths occurred in San Francisco, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area, with nearby cities like Santa Rosa and San Jose also suffering severe damage.
More than two years after the earthquake, many of the refugee camps still operated, though between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000. Half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle, and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents.
The 1906 earthquake and fire shaped California’s future in lasting ways. At the time, San Francisco was the ninth-largest city in the country and the biggest on the West Coast. Over 60 years, it grew into the financial, trade, and cultural heart of the region, operating the busiest port on the Pacific coast. It acted as the “gateway to the Pacific,” through which U.S. economic and military influence spread into Asia. The disaster destroyed more than 80% of the city. Although San Francisco rebounded quickly, the event shifted trade, industry, and population south toward Los Angeles, which eventually became the largest and most important urban center in the West. Many of the city’s top poets and writers moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, where they formed an arts colony known as “The Barness,” a reputation that endures today.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was examined in a study known as the 1908 Lawson Report, which was headed by Professor Andrew Lawson from the University of California. That report revealed that the San Andreas Fault responsible for the disaster in San Francisco also passed near Los Angeles. This quake marked the first time such a large event was captured through photography and early film footage. It occurred at a moment when the field of seismology was developing rapidly.
-
Read this chapter
John W. Nourse wrote from San Francisco on April 23, five days after the earthquake, sharing his experience with family in Indiana. He said he woke at quarter past five to shaking that made the house "seem like it would break all to pieces." A large brick building collapsed in seconds, flames appearing simultaneously to the right, front, and left. He grabbed the baby's buggy and fled with his wife Lena to Market Street, which he called a terrible sight—whole blocks reduced to rubble, City Hall completely destroyed. Leaving his wife and child at a mission, he returned to salvage belongings but found the entire neighborhood burning. That night, he and his family took shelter in the hills, watching towering buildings burn and collapse, calling it "a sight no one can describe." Some streets had sunk several feet while others rose. Martial law was declared, and supplies arrived from nearby towns. "In traveling over the city it looks like there is not a building but what is more or less damaged," he wrote.
Mrs. C. C. Baughman of LeMars, Iowa, who visited San Francisco ten days after the earthquake, said that residents were forced to cook outside, with stoves set in front of every house. She noted that Market Street had sunk several feet in places, one spot four blocks from the Ferry five feet below the sidewalk, and the cable car rails were warped. Soldiers in blue coats were seen among the dirty crowds, and in the suburbs, groups of dazed men wandered aimlessly. Near Valencia Street, frame buildings had collapsed within a few blocks. “The sights of the ruins are awful,” she wrote, “and the scenes that transpired there during the terrible catastrophe are beyond the description of either tongue or pen.” She and her husband, who had planned to settle in California, left with no desire to stay.
Mathias Forestburg, a former journalist writing from Boulder Creek eighty miles south of San Francisco, said he was violently awakened by the shaking that night. His house rocked like a boat with timbers creaking, and everything was thrown to the floor. He spent the morning taking apart a chimney that had cracked but was still balanced on three bricks. He said one more aftershock would have brought it down and destroyed the whole house. Forestburg reported that the shaking continued every day and night since the earthquake, keeping the community on high alert. All business had stopped, and everyone who could afford to leave was heading east.
At 5:15 that morning, Lewis A. Spitzer of San Jose was thrown against the wall while cooking after the earthquake struck. He had spent the night at a mineral spring, waking before dawn. By the time he made his way home, electric cars were stopped and he had to hire a farmer to bring him back by buggy. His house stood but with cracked plaster; he described San Jose as "in ruins," with fine business buildings flat on the ground. He said San Francisco was nearly all in ruins and on fire. A son-in-law had arrived from the city, reporting that Spitzer's son, his wife, and baby were safe, though the family couldn't reach them. The streets overflowed with people—some in tents, others without shelter, too afraid to go indoors. "I have seen many heart rending scenes in my life," he wrote, "but never any such a terrible scene as this." He believed it would take fifty years for the state to recover from what had happened.
-
Read this chapter
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake devastated not just San Francisco—Santa Rosa suffered catastrophic damage too. C. A. Duffy, trapped for five hours at the St. Rose Hotel, signaled his location by poking a lath through a hole made by a falling steam pipe. Duffy said about 300 people died in the destruction of just the town's three hotels, with at least 500 perishing overall. He described how the business section collapsed in about five minutes, and how fires started at both ends of town simultaneously, racing toward the center. He saw two arms sticking out from the debris, waving frantically, before flames consumed them: "The sight sickened me and I turned away."
-
Read this chapter
The earthquake and its aftershocks were devastating, but the fires that followed were even worse. Within three days, more than thirty fires—ignited by broken gas mains—destroyed around 25,000 buildings across 490 city blocks. These fires caused at least 80%, and as much as 95%, of all the destruction. The cost was staggering, estimated at $350 million back then, which equals about $9.1 billion today.
The Ham and Eggs fire started on the morning of the 18th, at Hayes and Gough Streets in Hayes Valley. A woman lit her stove to make breakfast without knowing the chimney was badly damaged. The fire quickly spread, destroying a 30-block area. Among the buildings lost were a college, the Hall of Records, and City Hall.
The fires that followed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake burned for four days and nights. Some of the fires were started when firefighters, untrained in using dynamite, tried to tear down buildings to stop the blaze from spreading. The explosions often set the structures on fire. The city’s fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, had died from injuries in the initial quake, leaving no one to coordinate the firefighting efforts.
Most of the destruction in San Francisco came from fires, because insurance companies would pay out for fire damage but not earthquake damage. A resident from Boulder Creek wrote to friends in North Dakota five days after the quake, explaining that insurers "will insure against fire, will not insure against earthquakes." Some property owners even set fires on their own damaged buildings to collect insurance. Someone told Captain Leonard D. Wildman of the U.S. Army Signal Corps that people were deliberately setting their houses on fire, because they were told they wouldn’t get their insurance if the damage came from the earthquake alone.
The Palace Hotel, a landmark building consumed by the fire, was later rebuilt and had hosted many notable guests, including royalty and famous performers. It was built in 1875, largely funded by William Ralston, who was known as “the man who built San Francisco.” In April 1906, Enrico Caruso and members of the Metropolitan Opera Company were in San Francisco giving performances at the Grand Opera House. The night after Caruso’s performance in Carmen, he was awakened by a strong jolt in his Palace Hotel suite. Clutching an autographed photo of President Theodore Roosevelt, Caruso tried to leave the city first by boat and then by train, vowing never to return. The Metropolitan Opera Company lost all of its traveling sets and costumes.
The fires of 1906 destroyed more than just buildings—they claimed irreplaceable pieces of history and science. Among the greatest losses were scientific laboratories, including those at the California Academy of Sciences. Alice Eastwood, the curator of botany there, managed to save the entire plant type specimen collection before the rest of the largest botanical collection in the western United States was consumed by flames. Also lost were the laboratory and records of Benjamin R. Jacobs, a biochemist studying food nutrition. In addition, the original California flag from the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, stored in a San Francisco state building, was destroyed in the fire.
-
Read this chapter
The city’s fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, was gravely injured in the initial quake and died from his wounds. He and his wife were asleep in the engine house next to the California Hotel when the building's roof collapsed. The interim fire chief urgently requested dynamite from the Presidio. At the same time, General Frederick Funston had already determined that federal troops were necessary. He contacted a San Francisco Police Department officer to inform Mayor Eugene Schmitz of his decision to intervene, then ordered troops from Angel Island to enter the city. Explosives were transported across the bay from the California Powder Works, now known as Hercules.
In the days after the earthquake, soldiers helped keep order and protect important buildings like the U.S. Mint and post office. They worked with firefighters, dynamiting structures to stop the spread of fires. Over 4,000 federal troops, under Major General Adolphus Greely, who was in charge of the Pacific Division, took part in the emergency response. Army personnel also fed, housed, and clothed thousands of displaced residents. Police officers, firefighters, and soldiers regularly asked civilians to help with cleanup and rescue efforts. On July 1, 1906, non-military groups took over relief work, and the Army left the city.
On April 18, Mayor Schmitz responded to unrest among evacuees and looting by issuing a proclamation authorizing federal troops, regular police, and special officers to kill anyone caught stealing or committing other crimes. The situation was tense, with accusations surfacing that soldiers themselves were engaging in looting.
After the earthquake, Schmitz appointed Retired Captain Edward Ord of the 22nd Infantry Regiment as a special police officer to help coordinate relief work with Greely and other military units. Ord wrote a letter to his mother on April 20, 20, in which he mentioned Schmitz’s “Shoot-to-Kill” order and described some “despicable” actions by certain soldiers from the 22nd Infantry who were looting. He also made clear that most of the soldiers did serve the community well.
-
Read this chapter
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake caused massive property damage, with losses estimated at over $400 million in 1906 dollars. That same amount today would be worth $10.4 billion. Insurance companies tallied their own losses at $235 million, which equals $6.13 billion in modern money. These numbers reflect the scale of destruction across the city, as fires spread quickly after the initial shaking. The financial impact was staggering, and the cost of rebuilding would take years to fully address.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, political and business leaders minimized the disaster's impact, worried that negative reports would scare away the investments the city desperately needed for rebuilding. California Governor George Pardee made his first public statement emphasizing speed in reconstruction, saying, "This is not the first time that San Francisco has been destroyed by fire, I have not the slightest doubt that the City by the Golden Gate will be speedily rebuilt, and will, almost before we know it, resume her former great activity." Importantly, he didn’t mention the earthquake at all. He also downplayed both the number of deaths and the financial losses.
Almost immediately after the quake, people began planning how to rebuild the city. But funds were tied up because most of the major banks had burned down, and their fire-proof vaults wouldn’t be safe to open for another seven to ten days. The Bank of Italy—now known as Bank of America—had moved its money out and was able to provide cash right away. Its president also quickly organized two ships to travel to lumber mills in Washington and Oregon, bringing in the wood needed to start rebuilding.
In 1913, John C. Branner, who had begun studying the San Andreas fault as early as 1891, wrote about how the federal government had failed to take earthquakes on the west coast seriously. He said that public discussion was being blocked because people feared it would scare away business and investors. Branner claimed geologists were instructed not to collect or share data about the 1906 earthquake, and certainly not to publish anything about it. Some individuals went so far as to deny that an earthquake had occurred at all. Branner insisted that preparing for earthquakes was both possible and necessary.
The only method humanity has ever found to handle natural events is to learn everything we can about them, to understand their nature, and then to confront them directly on their own terms. That approach has worked so far, and it's reasonable to believe it will continue to be the sole path to success in dealing with such forces.
Eleven days after the quake, a Sunday baseball game took place in New York City to raise money for survivors, a rare event since regular Sunday games wouldn’t be allowed there until 1919. At the time, William James, the American psychologist, was teaching at Stanford and visited San Francisco to see the damage firsthand. He was struck by how quickly people adapted, improvising services and restoring order from chaos. This experience shaped a chapter in his book Memories and Studies titled “On some Mental Effects of the Earthquake.”
H. G. Wells was in New York for the first time when he heard about the San Francisco earthquake. He noticed how calm people were, saying "it does not seem to have affected any one with a sense of final destruction, with any foreboding of irreparable disaster." Everyone talked about it, but no one appeared truly frightened. In clubs and on the streets, he heard different concerns—some were happy that Chinatown might finally be cleared out; another was worried about Millet's Man with a Hoe, fearing they'd cut it out of the frame. "Sure," someone said reassuringly. Still, there was universal belief that San Francisco could be rebuilt, bigger and better than before. Wells imagined how people would feel if New York itself were in ruins—there'd be no doubt at all that it could be rebuilt too. He thought many would actually welcome such a situation.
-
Read this chapter
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake changed the University of California, San Francisco forever. Before the quake, the school’s faculty treated patients at the City-County Hospital, but they didn’t have their own hospital. After the disaster, more than 40,000 people were moved to a tent city in Golden Gate Park, and it was there that the faculty began providing care. This brought the school, which was located on the city’s edge, into close contact with a large population. The experience deepened their sense of civic duty and health care responsibility. In April 1907, a building was renovated for outpatient care with 75 beds. That need led to creating the UC Training School for Nurses, making it the fourth professional school within the Affiliated Colleges.
After the 1906 earthquake, rebuilding plans needed money from the East, so there was a focus on downplaying the disaster and pushing through strict new building codes. The city also tried to keep its reputation up by reporting a low death toll. One major plan came from urban planner Daniel Burnham. It included wide Haussmann-style avenues, boulevards leading out from the center, a large civic complex with classical buildings, and what would have been the biggest urban park ever built, stretching from Twin Peaks to Lake Merced with an atheneum at its peak. But this plan was rejected because landowners and real estate investors opposed it due to how much land the city would have had to buy.
The city rebuilt with some of Burnham’s original ideas finally coming to life. The street grid returned, but so did his vision for a grand civic center, wider roads, and a subway beneath Market Street. Fisherman’s Wharf was redesigned to be more welcoming to people, and a monument was built on Telegraph Hill—Coit Tower. Limestone for the new buildings came from the nearby Rockaway Quarry.
After the 1906 earthquake and fire, city leaders tried to push Chinese residents out of Chinatown and relocate them to the county's边缘, hoping to reduce their presence while still using their labor for taxes. The Chinese community resisted, and Chinatown was rebuilt in a modern Western style that remains today. The destruction of City Hall and the Hall of Records created a loophole that allowed thousands of Chinese immigrants to gain residency and citizenship, effectively bypassing the Chinese Exclusion Act and helping bring relatives from China into the country.
The earthquake helped shape the future of San Francisco by pushing wealthier residents to move west, where land was cheaper and the view better. Most of Nob Hill had been destroyed, leaving only the James C. Flood Mansion standing. Other homes were blown up by Army forces trying to stop the fires from spreading. As people rebuilt, they chose to build new mansions in these open areas instead of clearing rubble. This made it easier for them to find homes quickly during the long process of rebuilding the city.
The city rebuilt quickly, with most of the work finished by 1915, just in time for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. That celebration highlighted San Francisco’s recovery and its "rise from the ashes." Since then, the city has marked the disaster annually by bringing together survivors at Lotta's Fountain, a spot in the financial district where people gathered during the quake to search for loved ones and share news.
-
Read this chapter
The Army built 5,610 redwood and fir "relief houses" to house 20,000 people displaced by the earthquake. Designed by John McLaren, these homes were grouped into 11 camps that housed up to 16,448 people at their peak. Painted navy blue, partly to match the site and partly because the military had plenty of that paint, the camps rented for two dollars a month. The rent helped pay for the full purchase price of $50 per cottage, which cost an average of $100 to build. Most residents moved out by 1907, and the camps were later used as garages, storage spaces, or shops. The final refugee camp closed on June 30, 1908.
Most of the cottages were destroyed in the quake, but at least thirty survived. Among the remaining structures, there's a pair that has been historically restored in the Presidio. Some have been incorporated into private homes, especially around Bernal Heights. One of the small homes, measuring 720 square feet, was bought in 2006 for more than six hundred thousand dollars.
The 2017 study showed that after the fire, the amount of land used for nonresidential purposes increased, with residential shares dropping on burned blocks while nonresidential ones rose by 1931. It also revealed that before 1906, old residential buildings had prevented changes in the city's layout. During reconstruction, developers built fewer of these structures, especially single-family houses, leading to a shift toward more business and commercial use. The disaster sparked new economic activity in previously unused areas, forming business clusters that only appeared after the event. These changes have endured, proving that major disasters can permanently reshape how cities develop.
-
Read this chapter
In the days after news of the disaster reached the world, relief efforts poured in, totaling over $5 million—about $179 million in today’s money. London contributed hundreds of thousands. Individuals and companies gave generously: Standard Oil and Andrew Carnegie each donated $100,000; the Parliament of Canada set aside $100,000; even the Bank of Canada in Ottawa gave $25,000. The U.S. Congress quickly approved $2.5 million for supplies, which were sent immediately—food kitchens, thousands of tents for people who would live in them for years.
The relief efforts after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake couldn’t fully help families recover, so the responsibility fell on wealthier residents who were unwilling to rebuild homes they hadn’t caused the damage to. Still, all residents could get daily meals from communal soup kitchens, and people from places like Idaho and Utah sent bread as aid. The railroads coordinated these supplies, helping to distribute them across the city.
-
Read this chapter
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, insurance companies faced claims totaling $250 million. They ultimately paid out between $235 million and $265 million, often covering only fire damage since most policies excluded earthquake-related shake damage. At least 137 insurers were directly involved, with another 17 acting as reinsurers. Twenty of the companies collapsed. Lloyd's of London was notable in this crisis, reporting it had paid every claim in full—over $50 million—thanks to Cuthbert Heath’s leadership.
Insurance companies in Hartford, Connecticut, reported paying every claim in full after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Hartford Fire Insurance Company alone paid over $11 million, while Aetna Insurance Company issued nearly $3 million in settlements. These massive payouts had ripple effects across the global financial system. Gold flowed from European insurers to policyholders in San Francisco, which pushed up interest rates. That rise contributed to a shortage of available loans and eventually triggered the Knickerbocker Trust Company crisis in October 1907, leading to the broader Panic of 1907.
After the 1906 earthquake, there was a global debate about whether fire insurance policies should exclude earthquakes. Re-insurers pushed for a uniform rule that would prevent insurers from paying out when fires followed earthquakes. Some European countries adopted this approach by 1910, but in the U.S., the idea faced strong public resistance. In the second half of 1909, the California State Legislature passed the California Standard Form of Fire Insurance Policy, which did not include any earthquake clause. That decision meant insurers would have to pay again if another earthquake caused fires. Other countries with similar risks soon followed California’s lead.
-
Read this chapter
In 2006, to mark the centennial of the San Francisco earthquake, the 1906 Centennial Alliance organized events across the city. The group served as a central hub for commemorations that included award presentations, religious services, and lectures. A National Geographic TV movie was produced, and fire was projected onto Coit Tower. Memorials were erected, and the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program shared online documents. The tourism industry also embraced the anniversary, promoting it widely.
In 2006, eleven survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake gathered for centennial commemorations. Irma Mae Weule, born in 1899, was the oldest of them, dying in August 2008 at age 109. Vivian Illing, born in 1900, was believed to be the second-oldest, passing away in 2009 at 108. Herbert Hamrol, born in 1903, was the last known survivor until his death in 2009, aged 106. Another survivor, Libera Armstrong, attended the 2006 anniversary but died the following year, 2007, at age 105.
Shortly after Hamrol’s death, two more survivors were found: William Del Monte, who was 103, and Jeanette Scola Trapani, who lived to be 106. Both said they stopped going to earthquake commemorative events because they became too much trouble. In 2009, on the 103rd anniversary of the quake, Del Monte joined another survivor, Rose Cliver, who was also 106, at a reunion celebration.
Nancy Stoner Sage, who lived from 1905 to 2010, passed away in Colorado in 2010, just three days before the 104th anniversary of the earthquake on April 18. William Del Monte, born in 1906 and thought to be the last survivor, died in 2016, eleven days short of his 110th birthday. In 2010, Del Monte attended a commemorative event at Lotta's Fountain. George Quilici, who lived from 1905 to 2012, died in May 2012, and Ruth Newman, from 1901 to 2015, died in July 2015.
In 2005, the National Film Registry recognized a newsreel documentary titled San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, as one of America’s films deserving preservation. The film was made shortly after the disaster struck, capturing the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and the fires that followed. This historic footage serves as a vital record of the events that unfolded on that fateful day in 1906, preserving the visual memory of a city in crisis for future generations.
-
Read this chapter
Willard Worden was a photographer trying to build his career in San Francisco when the big earthquake and fire struck on April 18, 1906. He used both a handheld film camera and a large four-by-five-inch view camera with glass negatives to document the destruction, including scenes of the fire and its aftermath, as well as damage to Stanford University. His images captured the public's interest with their dramatic content, but they also attracted attention from scientists and city planners. Some of his work was included in The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission, published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC, in 1908. Later, gelatin silver prints from his coverage were collected by several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
After the 1906 earthquake, only six marble columns and a lintel remained of the Alban N. Towne mansion on Nob Hill. From a specific angle, the empty porch framed the ruins of the smoldering City Hall in a way that became a powerful image, widely recognized thanks to photographs taken by Willard Worden. In 1909, those columns and lintel were moved to Golden Gate Park, where they now stand as the Portals of the Past — a lasting tribute to the city’s loss and resilience.
Read
Free to download, keep and share. For general information only — not professional medical, legal or financial advice. Please consult a qualified professional.