Bancroft's Tourist's Guide Yosemite Part 13

On the south side of Twelfth street, stretching from Folsom to Harrison, and running half a block south. Entrance on the corner of Folsom and Twelfth. Reached most directly by the Folsom street cars.

Admission, 25 cts.

Menageries.

The finest in the city is that already described in the zoological department of Woodward's Gardens. The only other is a small collection of bears, monkeys and birds at North Beach.

Squares and Parks.

The oldest and best finished public square is Portsmouth Square, commonly called the Plaza, on the west side of Kearny street, extending from Clay street to Was.h.i.+ngton street, and directly fronting the old City Hall. Besides these are Was.h.i.+ngton, Union, Columbia, Lobos, Alcatraz, Lafayette, Jefferson, Alta, Hamilton and Alamo Squares, with Yerba Buena, Buena Vista and Golden Gate Parks. The last named covers nearly 1,200 acres, (of sand at present.) Of these, the Plaza and Was.h.i.+ngton Square are the princ.i.p.al ones which have been sufficiently improved to merit even pa.s.sing notice. To these one may add South Park, a small but elegant private inclosure occupying the centre of the block between Bryant and Brannan streets.

Promenades.

MONTGOMERY STREET.--This is the San Francis...o...b..oadway. Flanked on either side by many of the largest and finest retail business houses, as well as two of the leading hotels. During the forenoon business monopolizes it almost exclusively; afternoons fas.h.i.+on claims its sidewalks, and well-nigh crowds business, not exactly to the wall, but rather upon the curbstone, if not fairly into the gutter. From three to five P.M. the tide of mammon begins to ebb, and that of fas.h.i.+on swells in at full flood. Fair women and frail, beauty and ugliness--calicoes, silks, satins, velvets, broadcloths, beavers and cashmere, make up the motley throng, swaying and trailing up and down the crowded thoroughfare. The faces are very fair, "as far as we can see," and the forms equally graceful, with the same limitation.

Masculine faces, broad-browed, clear-eyed, bronze-cheeked, firm-mouthed or full-bearded, impress one with the dash, the drive and the nerve which have spanned the continent with rails and bridged the Pacific with s.h.i.+ps, ere yet the flush of full manhood has fairly settled upon them. Too many, it is true, show the full, uncertain lip, the flushed cheek and dewy eye that tell of excessive stimulus too frequently applied. Nowhere on earth is the temptation to drink stronger than here. Business is sharp, compet.i.tion brisk, and the climate the most stimulating anywhere to be found. So they _drive_ till nature falters or weakens and calls for rest. But rest they cannot or will not afford; the stimulus is _quicker_, it is everywhere close at hand--it seems to save time. Business men die suddenly; on the street to-day, at Laurel Hill to-morrow; heart disease, apoplexy, congestion of the lungs, or liver complaint, are among the causes most frequently a.s.signed to the inquiring public. The causes of these causes, few stop to ask, or dare to tell.

KEARNY STREET.--with Montgomery and but a single block above, that is, west of it, runs the rival, if not already the equal, business and pleasure avenue, Kearny street. Though some single buildings on Montgomery may be finer, the average of the business blocks along Kearny street already equals, if it does not surpa.s.s that of its rival. The street itself is broader, the sidewalks wider, while the press of vehicles and the throngs of fas.h.i.+on are fully equal.

CALIFORNIA STREET.--At right angles with both these streets, and intersecting them near their centre, California street, the Wall street of San Francisco, runs straight down from one of the highest summits within the city limits, to within two blocks of the water front, and there debouches into Market. Its upper portion lies between elegant private residences; half way down the slope stand two of the leading city churches; below, the _Alta_ office, and leading telegraph offices; thence from Montgomery down, the finest number of business blocks the city presents. On this street below Montgomery, the Bank of California, the Merchants' Exchange, the Pacific Insurance Company's Building, Hayward's, Duncan's, and Wormser's, with other blocks and buildings, present a continuous front of architectural beauty rarely equaled.

MARKET STREET.--This broad, dividing avenue which separates the older city from the newer, offers a rare architectural medley to the exploring tourist's eye. Some of the grandest business blocks on the Pacific slope tower up between or stand squarely opposite the frailest wooden sh.e.l.ls that yet survive the "early days." Running up from the water, one encounters such n.o.ble blocks as Treadwell's, not lofty but broad, deep and strong. Harpending's whole-block front. The Grand Hotel and Nucleus foretell the size and style of the blocks which are yet to form continuous fronts along this main artery of trade.

SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH STREETS.--South of Market, these streets come nearer to fas.h.i.+onable streets than any others; especially along the blocks nearer to Market. They present several single buildings of notable size and style.

THE BEST TIME.--For any walk or drive within the city limits, or on the entire San Francisco peninsular, the most comfortable hours of all the day, during the season in which the tourists commonly visit us, that is from May to September, are, unquestionably, the morning hours; the earlier the better. If you would see men and women go later; take the afternoon, face the wind and the dust, be lifted bodily off your feet, round "Cape Horn," as they call the southeast corner of Market and Third streets, until you have quite enough of that "free-soil"

which may be a very fine thing in politics, but is a "beastly disagreeable thing," as our English friends might say, on a promenade.

Drives.

THE CLIFF HOUSE ROAD.--Stretches westerly from the city limits, now the west end of Bush street, to the Pacific Ocean beach--originally a mere trail over s.h.i.+fting sand hills. It has become the broadest, hardest, smoothest and longest track in the State. If you want an idea of California horseflesh, and San Francisco turnouts, trot out this way almost any day. The track has a fine, hard surface wide enough, in places, for twenty teams abreast, and is often nearly filled from side to side with smooth-rolling or friendly racing teams, from the natty single buggy to the elegant coach, or the stately four-in-hand. A million dollars' worth of legs and wheels flash by a man in a very few hours on this fas.h.i.+onable drive, especially on a race-day. Along this road are one or two wayside inns, which, like the majority of California inns, are chiefly drinking-houses under another name. At the end stands the Cliff House, so named from its site, the solid top of a precipitous rocky bluff or cliff, overlooking the Seal Rocks, a few hundred feet west; then a thirty-mile horizon of the Pacific Ocean, broken only by the sharp rocky points of the Farallones low down under the western sky, visible only when fogs and mists and haze are wanting. Attached to the house are long horse sheds which shut off the wind from your horse while his driver goes in to interview _Foster_, mine host of the Cliff. South of the Cliff the road goes down to and out upon the Ocean House, which differs little from the popular eastern beach drives, except that it is not as wide even at the lowest of the tide, and that the ocean view thence is far more seldom diversified with sails. The beach and surf are good, however, and a brisk drive of two or three miles upon it, seldom fails to put the oxygen into the lungs--the iodine into the blood, and the exhilaration into the spirits. Some two or three miles south of the Cliff House, the road bends east, leaves the beach and starts back to the city by another way, known as the

OCEAN HOUSE ROAD, named, like the other, from the house standing near its seaward end. Approaching the city by this route, one reaches a greater height than by the Cliff House road, and when about two miles from the city, enjoys a beautiful view of the southern and western city, the s.h.i.+pping, the bay, the opposite sh.o.r.e, the trailing cities and towns, whose houses gleam between the trees of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, with their gra.s.sy foot-hills, the whole view backed and bounded by old Mt. Diablo beyond. Returning by this road, one enters the city suburbs upon the southwest by Seventeenth, or Corbett street, pa.s.ses directly by the Mission with the famous old church which named it, and pursues his way back to the centre by Market, Mission, Howard or Folsom streets. Between the Cliff House and Ocean House roads, and nearer the latter, private enterprise has recently constructed a third track, known as the Central Ocean Drive.

BAY VIEW ROAD.--Drive from Market street along Third to the Long Bridge, cross that to the Potrero, keep straight on through the deep cut, over the Islais bridge, thence through South San Francisco, up a little rise, from whose summit you look down into a little valley or green bay of vegetable gardens, between which and the water stands the Bay View House, on one side of the Bay View race track. From several points as you drive out, you will readily understand why they used the phrase "Bay View" so frequently in naming localities hereabout. If you wish to return by another way, drive half a mile beyond the track, where your way runs into the older road of early times. If you have time, drive on to the brow of the hill and look down into Visitacion Valley; if not, at the acute angle where the roads become one, you turn sharply back, and after two miles of slightly uneven road, enter the city between the eastern edge of the Mission flats and the western foot of the Potrero hills.

The best time for all these drives, as already said concerning the promenades, is morning, the earlier the better. Besides the greater purity and freshness of the air, everywhere accompanying the morning hours, one then escapes the wind and dust which, on nearly every afternoon, const.i.tute the chief drawback from the full enjoyment of outdoor pleasure during those hours.

Libraries.

In these windy and dusty afternoons, when nature seems to frown, art and literature invite you within, and proffer quiet retreats with the best of company--good books. For a city as young and as distinctively absorbed in business, San Francisco has amply provided for the gratification of scientific research or literary taste. The chief libraries are the Mercantile, the Mechanics' Inst.i.tute, the Odd Fellows', the Pioneers', and the Y. M. C. A., each of which is located in the building of the same name, presently to be noticed. Besides these, at the What Cheer House, and at Woodward's Gardens, one finds two or three thousand well selected standard volumes, free to guests and visitors.

Public Buildings.

FEDERAL.

POST-OFFICE.--The first of these to every tourist is, naturally, the Government building through which his letters come and go. This is a moderately-sized two-story building of stuccoed brick, running parallel with the west side of Battery street, between Was.h.i.+ngton and Jackson. One may enter from any street of the three. The ladies'

entrance, which is also common, is from Was.h.i.+ngton street. The princ.i.p.al business entrance is on the west front of the building, through a cross street entered at either end from Was.h.i.+ngton or Jackson. The office opens daily at 8 A.M., and closes at 6:30 P.M., except Sundays, when its only open hour is from 9 to 10 A.M. The great overland mail for New York, by the way of Salt Lake and Omaha, closes every week day at 7:30 A.M., and on Sat.u.r.days at 3 P.M., N. B. Stone, P. M.

THE CUSTOM HOUSE is simply the upper floor of the Post-office building. Entrance on Battery, near Was.h.i.+ngton. Timothy G. Phelps, Collector.

U. S. BRANCH MINT.--The old building still occupied, and likely to be for at least a year, stands on the north side of Commercial, near Montgomery. Office hours from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. Visitors received daily from 9 to 12. O. H. La Grange, Superintendent.

THE NEW MINT, or what is to be that building, stands on the northwest corner of Fifth and Mission streets. Its ground dimensions are 221 feet on Fifth, by 166 feet on Mission street. The bas.e.m.e.nt is already built of California granite. Above the bas.e.m.e.nt, which is 13 feet high, the walls are built of blue-gray freestone, from Newcastle Island in the Gulf of Georgia, between Vancouver's Island and the mainland of British Columbia. Thus, Uncle Sam is building his new Mint of British stone. Two stories of 18 feet each will surmount the high bas.e.m.e.nt. The lower of these is now nearly completed. From the pavement to the crown of the roof will be 70 feet. Two chimneys will tower to the height of 150 feet.

THE U. S. MARINE HOSPITAL stands at the northeast corner of Harrison and Main streets, upon the northeast slope of Rincon Hill. This is the old building. The hospital also occupies the former buildings of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, on the southeast corner of Mission and Fifteenth streets.

CITY AND COUNTY BUILDINGS.

OLD CITY HALL.--This famous old brick and stucco, two-story, earthquake-cracked, and iron-braced structure, with the adjoining Hall of Records, stretches along the east side of Kearny street from Merchant to Was.h.i.+ngton, and extends nearly a third of the block down each of those streets. The police-offices and lock-ups occupy the bas.e.m.e.nt, while the usual District Court rooms, with Judges' Chambers and munic.i.p.al offices, Supervisors' and Board of Education rooms, fill the upper floors, and clamor for more room.

THE NEW CITY HALL thus far exists only on paper. The Commissioners have chosen an elaborate plan for a costly edifice, which will far surpa.s.s anything on the coast in architectural beauty; but the execution of that plan has hardly yet completed the excavation for the foundation walls. Hence it is yet too early to tantalize the tourist with descriptions of a beautiful building not yet visible, except in the architect's drawing, or the lithographic copies. If any tourist is curious to see the _site_, he may find it by going out Market street till he reaches what was known as Yerba Buena Park, corner of Market and Seventh streets. The City Hall Commissioners adopted the plans and specifications of Mr. Augustus Laver, of New York, and elected him architect; but, at the present rate of progress, it is hardly probable that less than two or three years will witness the completion of the urgently-needed and magnificently-designed new City Hall.

JAIL.--On the north side of Broadway, between Dupont and Kearny, one desirous of inspecting our penal inst.i.tutions may find ample opportunity to study the physiognomy of that cla.s.s which inhabits them, and learn the crimes which preponderate in the Pacific metropolis. Sheriff, P. J. White.

ALMSHOUSE.--This asylum occupies one of the healthiest locations in the State, near the Ocean House, or San Miguel road, about four and one quarter miles southwest of the City Hall. M. J. Keating, Superintendent.

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.--This finely-constructed, conveniently-arranged and well-managed reform school, stands on the western slope of the peninsula hills, about seven miles southwest of the city. Like the Almshouse it has as healthful a location as can be found in the State.

It receives only boys, who are regularly taught by competent teachers, and employed in various indoor occupations or out-door work. Present number of inmates, two hundred and twelve. The order and discipline of this school well repay a visit. Jno. C. Pelton, Superintendent.

ENGINE HOUSES.--In early days, before the establishment of homes, the pioneer firemen seemed to love their machine very much as the sailor loves his s.h.i.+p. They built elegant and costly engine houses, which became to many of them the only homes they ever knew. Since the introduction of the improved steam fire engines, and the organization of the paid fire department, the glory of the old volunteer organizations has well nigh departed. But their houses yet remain, some of them converted to other uses, while others still retain much of their earlier attractiveness.

Eight first-cla.s.s steamers, of the Amoskeag make, weighing from three to four tons each, throwing four hundred gallons a minute, each costing from four to five thousand dollars in gold coin, and manned by twelve men, make up the present paid fire department. At a public trial a week since, New York and Philadelphia witnesses voluntarily and unanimously testified that they had never seen machines reach the spot as soon and get a stream upon the flames as quickly, as did the machines of our fire department. This fact may conduce to the sense of security with which the eastern tourist lies down to sleep in his strange bed. For the benefit of any extra nervous gentleman, we may add the universal rule of conduct in regard to midnight alarms of fire among us, is this: When waked by a fire-alarm, place your hand against the nearest wall. If it feels cold, lie still; if moderately warm, order a different room at once; if positively _hot_, leave for another hotel immediately.

CORPORATION AND SOCIETY BUILDINGS.

THE PIONEER'S BUILDING.--A finely proportioned building on the corner of Gold and Montgomery streets, above Jackson. This building is not as noteworthy as the society which built and chiefly occupies it. The famous "Society of California Pioneers" was formed in August, 1850.

Its const.i.tution declares its object to be:

"To cultivate the social virtues of its members;

"To collect and preserve information connected with the early settlement of the country; and

"To perpetuate the memory of those whose sagacity, energy and love of independence induced them to settle in the wilderness and become the germs of a new State."

It includes three cla.s.ses: 1st. Native Californians; foreigners living in California before the American conquest; and citizens of the United States who became actual residents here before January 1st, 1849--with the male descendants of these.

2d. Citizens of the United States who became actual residents of California before January 1st, 1850, and their male descendants.

3d. Honorary members admitted according to the by-laws. The society has enrolled over 1,300 members. Its historical library and museum well repay a visit. Charles D. Carter, President.